News Archive
Roles of deacons and elders
It is worth establishing, that in the last three years at HBC, the leadership (elders and deacons) have been on a journey to increase the effectiveness of these teams. To that end, a fair amount of work has been done that recognises our heritage and prior experiences, biblical models of church leadership, other models on the contemporary and Baptist church scene, as well as a recognition that leadership structures need to be flexible and responsive to the ongoing vision of the church.Much progress is being made; for instance, in the last two years the deacons have been established as a completely independent team, who meet tri-monthly with the elders, and monthly as a team. The elders meet fortnightly for prayer and fortnightly for discussion. I’ve been keen to introduce more worship and ministry into the joint leadership forums, so that they’re not exclusively agenda-driven, though in a busy church like ours, there is always much to discuss. Another area of progress is in the area of communication – now both teams receive one another’s minutes (unless, of course, there are pastoral issues that remain confidential). It is often the case that issues raised at our church meetings are pondered, discussed and prayed about within these teams. Often, the whole leadership bring recommendations to the church.
Eldership and diaconal roles
So, to the nitty-gritty. In our set-up, with both an eldership and diaconate, what should these teams be responsible for? The following gives some definition to this:
a) Eldership responsibilities
• Direction, vision, strategy and values
• Pastoral oversight
• Leadership and ministry development
• Mission and evangelism – home and overseas
• Polity and initiation – baptism, membership, church discipline
• Devotional – worship, prayer, discipleship, preaching
• Lifegroups
• Oversight of children, youth, students and seniors.
b) Diaconal responsibilities
• Buildings and fabric
• Finance
• Administration – including office function
• Personnel – staffing, appraisals, training, recruitment etc
• Organisation – rotas, communion, welcome team etc
• Technical – PA, lighting etc
• General support – ensuring the smooth running and resourcing of church ministries.
There is some overlap in these roles, sometimes issues and areas of ministry are discussed in sub-groups containing an elder or deacon, and it’s often the case that significant matters are aired in both forums. Recent examples of this are the B12, the building project, and the new constitution.
And, of course, elders and deacons regularly interface with "ministry co-ordinators", in ways such as discussing budgets, supporting overseas missions or pastoral care. Much of the leadership task is facilitative rather than directional, but I hope, always with recourse to our generous God.