Spiritual Life Ministry – whats it all about?
The Board of Elders in the spirit of Natural Church
Development has completed the task of redesigning the Board of Elders. It was
adopted by the Voters Assembly and the word Ministry more truly reflects our Vision
Statement, and should be incorporated within our organization and “functional
structures”. The Elders have undertaken the task and are now prepared to
implement what we are calling Spiritual Life Ministry.
Spiritual Life Ministry provides an “umbrella” organization
to give function, guidance and direction to many of the services formally
reserved for the Board of Elders. The problem has been that fewer and fewer
members have been willing to join the Board to fill these very necessary needs
of our Congregation. Over the past several years the Congregation has been
served by only four Elders. In our opinion, the main reasons this is so;
1
Many who might be willing to serve would rather
not participate or be part of the “traditional” Elder functions. Mostly this is
Worship related.
2
Because
of the Worship element, women have not be allowed to participate in the Boards
responsibilities because of the biblical foundation of Elders being reserved as
a duty of men.
Spiritual Life Ministry will divide up many of these
services into ministry teams that will allow all of Redeemer's membership the
opportunity to serve within the Spiritual Life Ministry, while reserving the
traditional roles of Elders, to Elders. Soon a organizational chart will be
made available for all to review with brief descriptions of these new ministry
teams within the Spiritual Life Ministry. The Board of Elders will continue to
oversee all these ministries.
These new ministry teams will fall under three major
ministry categories; Worship Support, Faith Support and Member Support .
Underneath each of these categories will be defined ministries. For example,
under Membership Support would be a Member Visitation Ministry Team. This team
would be responsible to identify, coordinate, implement and follow up on
membership visitation needs. This team might through visitation discover other
member needs and report these to the proper ministry team for review and
filling those needs.
So, a person could serve in a Worship Support Ministry of
Member Support Ministry or a Faith Support Ministry, but not have the
responsibility to serve as an Elder. Any member could serve in these
ministries, but not be restricted by the definition of Elder.
We are hoping this new Ministry will provide new
opportunities for all to serve and strengthen our Whole Life Ministry here at
Redeemer. If you are interested, are looking for more information, or are
willing to serve, please contact one of the Elders or Pastor Joel. As mention
previously, a chart is soon to be published to outline these new ministry
teams. We are confident the Lord will speak to many and our ministry teams will
form to help many. We are all blessed to be a blessing.
We are excited about the new opportunities this Spiritual
Life Ministry will offer our membership to serve our Lord.
