Here at Crosspoint our congregation is growing through evangelism. Thank the Lord with us: at Crosspoint in the past 3 years, 15 people, who were recently far from God and faith, have publicly professed their faith. Five of them were baptized! Four or five other people attending worship services are planning to participate in new members' classes early in 2025. It's an exciting season of ministry at Crosspoint!
The next challenge we're facing is helping these new Christians - and others of our congregation - grow in faith. Over the past year, we've been discussing this need as a Council and thankfully, Crosspoint's elders and deacons are stepping up to help the new members take next steps in their journey of faith. We're preparing a plan to help members and attendees at Crosspoint grow in knowledge and practice of their faith.
My questions:
- Do you know of a congregation where the officebearers are taking the lead in faith formation so we can compare notes?
- Do you know where officebearers are shouldering the task of 1:1 mentoring or leading small groups?
It's a big project in our congregation and I'm in the process of writing about it for a Doctor of Ministry thesis. I would like to chat with someone whose congregation is finding answers to similar questions.
Comments
I appreciate the question, but i am curious why you focus specifically on office bearers for this task/responsibility. Can you clarify?
Sure!
My focus is on officebearers because when elders and deacon are ordained to office, the charge from God and the congregation gives officebearers primary responsibility for leading the congregation and overseeing "the doctrine and life of the congregation" (Church Order Art. 25b). More weighty is the list of elders' abilities God's Word gives in I Timothy 3, where "able to teach" is mentioned in verse 12. Of course the tasks can be delegated to others. For example: none of the elders or deacons are currently involved in teaching children in our Sunday School program. But they oversee the Sunday School ministry by visiting classes and communicating faithfully with the coordinator and teachers.
At Crosspoint, as we discussed the need to help new believers grow in knowledge and practice of the faith, Council members decided not to delegate this responsibility but to seek ways of taking the responsibility on themselves. Most of the officebearers at Crosspoint have been instrumental in welcoming new members to our Congregation and have a vested interest in seeing them mature in their faith. As a relatively small congregation, many of our members with the deepest personal investments in the work of the Church and strong gifts of leadership are given opportunity to serve on Council.
At Crosspoint, having the elders and deacons take the lead in making more disciples and better disciples seems a good fit for our abilities, investments, calling, and existing church polity. How are you doing it in your context?
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