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Better Church Elders Episode 3: Models of Eldership
Big, medium or small – does one eldership model fit all churches? What are some of the options? Where does the pastor fit in to all this?
WATCH
A 20-minute conversation online with Charles Hewlett, Reti Ah-Voa and Grant Harris.
DISCUSS
As an eldership or board, discuss the following question together after watching the video:
- Identify a couple of unique things in your church’s wider context that has an impact on the eldership or board group.
- Has your church changed over the last decade? Has your eldership changed over the last decade?
- Grant talked about the engagement, transparency, and honesty of the elders. Talk about how your own eldership or board could be measured against these three words.
DO (ACTION)
Here is one activity for your eldership team to complete:
If someone in your church is considering becoming an elder or board member for the first time, or you are encouraging somebody to do so, what resources do you have to help outline expectations and “onboard” or orientate them to the role? If these resources haven’t been revised for a while, set someone the task to do so. If no resources exist, discus the need for them, which may lead to a plan to create them.
EXTRA (READING)
If you would like to go a little wider with this topic, we have put together a document containing information from various public sources, showing firstly the guidance about leadership and governance from one particular expression of churches: the Baptist Union of New Zealand, and then examples from three New Zealand Baptist churches showing how they publicly define their eldership or governance groups (from their websites). This reading is a 25-page PDF that can be downloaded by clicking on the link below:
Models of Eldership (reading for Better Church Elders online video series Episode 3)