Constitution V (d)

So Brian walked us through the roles and responsibilities of the elders and deacons. That was really that and kind of seeing how those two committees or those two organizations, those two offices work together. That's a real important part of the Constitution. Where we look at tonight are really the technicalities of how we recognize, call those men and how they then serve in terms of their terms. So, Brian handled the real meat from Scripture. What Scripture teaches about elders and deacons. This, you're not going to see a lot of Scripture. That doesn't mean it's not biblical, but a lot of this is just us trying to think through what is prudent, what is wise. How do we apply principles from Scripture to make sure we are setting up how these men are called well. So, I'll begin in line 140. So you can either listen, I don't know if there's really a document that was written to be heard as much read, but, as needed, the elder shall evaluate and nominate candidates for the congregation's approval. Notice of the nomination of someone to be elected and called as an elder must be given at least one month prior to the vote at a member's meeting. Any member with reason to believe that a nominated candidate is unqualified for the office should ordinarily express such concern first to that candidate. If the reconciliation and understanding of both parties cannot be met, then the members should address the issues to the elders. Members intending to speak in opposition to a candidate must express their objection to the elders at least one week before the relevant members meeting. Each member shall cast a vote of yes or no by secret ballot for each candidate. Each candidate receiving at least a three-fourths majority of yes votes shall be deemed called and shall be set apart as an elder. At least annually, the congregation shall recommend potential elders. I lost my light, but I think I'll be all right. Let me just highlight what the essential parts of this. Elders will nominate elders. That's kind of the first most basic key here. Elders, the men who are in leadership, they will recognize other men who meet that qualification. And so elders will be nominating the elder candidates. The church body will vote on those elder candidates. And that church vote is a 75% vote. And we'll see later that to remove an elder is 51%, or just the simple majority. It's easier to get rid of an elder than it is to add an elder. That is very intentional. So the part of the body is the body will vote in their elders. So the final say really comes down to the church itself. You will not be voting in anyone who you do not deem to be qualified to be an elder. But the nominations would come from the elders. The church body will also be formally asked for recommendations once a year. There isn't going to be the same process, regular process, that there is now for deacons. So, well, in October, if this Constitution doesn't pass, then we'll begin the process that we do every year, and that is you have a regular time when you ask for deacons, when you vote in deacons, and so forth. This will not be a every October you ask for recommendations and every November you get new elders. This is when the elders see a need for more elders, or when the elders see an obvious person who is thriving in their giftings, eldering the church, but has not been yet recognized in the office, then they will recommend, or they will nominate, and the church, Lord willing, would vote in. And so it's not a something that has to happen every October. So that's something that's different. It really isn't that different in the sense that now deacons are the ones that present the other deacon candidates. But yeah, so those are the high, the real big points there. Elders nominate elders, the church body votes in elders, and the church body is asked for recommendations. The reason for that is we want to know who the church is being ministered by. Who is pastoring you? Who is really giving you care? We want to hear who you are recognizing and seeing as exercising those gifts. We're going to have, if the Constitution is voted in, we'll go through a longer section on qualification. But really the main thing we're looking for are men who are already doing the work of an elder. You don't call someone to an office with the hope that they'll actually then begin doing that work. You recognize elders by looking out and saying, look, they're doing the work of an elder. They're teaching, they're caring, they're loving, they're ministering. And so, it's not really rocket science. It's looking to see... You're welcome, Paul Poppy. It's looking to scripture and making sure they're meeting the spiritual qualification, and then looking and seeing, are they caring for other members? Are they truly pastoring and overseeing? There will be a one-month span between the nominee being announced and the vote. And you heard the language there. If you have an issue with a candidate, then you need to go to that candidate first. We're here following the biblical pattern of confrontation. So, you would go to that candidate first. If peace is not met, then you would then go to the elders. And if there still is not peace met, and you would have the opportunity to say something in the public meeting, the elders need to know that you're going to say that. If it's something that has caused you to have to go through this process, it will probably be something that will give the elders pause in presenting the candidate in the timeframe. Does that make sense? So there is a voice from the church also on the nominee in the sense that if there is a problem... Yes, Brian? Did I get something wrong? That's my fear with Brian sitting right there looking at me. No, you got it right. But I just wanted to emphasize that that's actually an additional way that the congregation is able to have input that's not present in our current system. Right now, when we have an election by the direct text of the Constitution, it's without discussion in the Sunday morning worship. And that's how it's elected. There is no discussion meeting on this vote. If this Constitution is passed, This would be business that would happen at a meeting. There would be an opportunity for discussion if people had issues. There would be an opportunity for them to share that. And so that's an extra opportunity that we don't currently have in the system for congregational input. So the section on election, and I'll go ahead and point out that we intentionally made the election and removal of elders and deacons very similar. So I'm not going to go through the detail with the deacons because it's the same details with the elders. So, if you have a question about the election, that would be a good time. I'll pause before we go to the next section. Yes. Yeah. We have not. Someone has asked, what about the initial elders, which is kind of the real difficult situation here because you only have one elder and how do you get to plurality? We'll be teaching through the transition plan, which will cover how we will, if this is voted in, then how we actually get it implemented. That'll be taught in three weeks? Two weeks, two weeks, that'll be taught in two weeks. Good question. Yeah. Any other questions about elections? Elders nominate, church body votes, church body is asked for recommendations. Yes? Could you just clarify? I know it's going to be different than it was with the deacons. Did you say that it would be once a year or it could just be any time during the year? It could be any time. The freedom is that you're not bound to do it every year at a certain time and then you have You know, everyone's rotating off at the same time. As needed, or as we see clear gifts that need to be recognized and put formally into the office. Okay, so it could be multiple times, depending on the situation. Yeah, you could have two different elder nominations happening within the same year. You could have none. You could have six. Maybe 12. No more than 12, though. All right. Yes, Doran. Yeah. No, there is no training at this point. That's something that we hope to develop and make better. There is a group of men who are meeting and talking about certain sermons here and there. The training at this point is just the same discipleship that's been going on, but we hope to make that better. Developing that, getting it in place has not been easy. Another good question. Anything else on the election? All right, on to the term. And somebody asked about term a couple weeks ago. Non-staff elders are elected to a three-year term and must be elected by the process described above before beginning any new term. Having served two consecutive three-year terms, they may only be elected to the office of the elder after at least a one-year sabbatical. Staff elders shall serve as continuous members of the elder body. Here, you are only electing a man for a three-year term. And then after that, they will have to be re-nominated and re-elected. And then after two terms, they must take a year off. So, within seven years, you have to take a year off. So, you could serve three, one, three, three, then one, one off. But we're looking to make it, well, yeah, the three-year terms, And they would have to be re-nominated and re-voted in. Fairly simple. Any questions about that? Again, there's nothing in the script that tells you you should do 3.3.1 other than, well, creation itself. Yeah, no pressure. The Jubilee, we could have done 49. I mean, yeah, there was all kinds of things we could have done. But giving someone a sabbatical on year 50, that's just wrong. Any questions on term? We could argue over how many years one should serve, but this is prudent. This is enough time to get involved, be active, especially if it's a six-year term, but then also making sure we're giving men breaks. The real qualifier there, staff elders shall serve as continuous members of the body. Yes, Chris. Not a year. There was talk of it, but there was never, no one saw a reason to say a staff elder has to take a certain sabbatical during a certain time. We didn't feel like that was a constitutional issue. We made a lot of decisions on what not to put in here. mainly to give the elders and deacons freedom to make those decisions without being bound already. The idea was that the elders would know when a staff elder would need a sabbatical and they would give that. Good question. Preaching elder. Preaching Elder, Qualifications and Responsibilities. The preaching elder shall be an elder, he shall have the same qualifications and perform the same duties of an elder described above, and he shall also be recognized by the church as particularly gifted and called to the full-time ministry of preaching and teaching. He shall preach on the Lord's Day, administer the ordinances of baptism in the Lord's Supper, and perform such other duties as usually pertain to that office or set forth in this Constitution. He shall not be subject to any term limit. In the absence or incapacity of the preaching elder, the elder shall assume responsibility for his duties, any of which may be delegated." Now, you're already defining you're going to be a certain kind of church. You're going to have a preaching elder that's set aside from the other elders. So, the first line is really making it clear that the preaching elder is an elder along with all the other elders. there's an equal authority, there's an equal share, there's an equal partnering in the ministry. The idea here is that they have the same qualification, but they're being set aside for the particular purpose of the regular preaching and teaching ministry of the church. They do not have a term limit because their financial well-being is actually built on that. Any questions about that? That's fairly straightforward. But it is defined that there is a certain kind of elder you're looking for. There's an elder with an additional qualification and responsibility. Any questions? I'm not going to ask for any complaints on that one. I don't know if anyone actually got that. So, all right, good. Staff elders and hiring. Now this actually tells you how you will find a preaching elder if, Lord willing, not anytime soon, or any other elder. But I just want to make sure the preaching elder, that's making it clear that we're setting aside a certain kind of elder. The preaching elder fits within the staff elders along with any other additional staff we might seek. The hiring of staff elders. The elder shall act as the search committee for a staff elder as needed. At their discretion, the elders may choose to add other members to the committee. To assist the committee, the congregation shall recommend potential staff elders. The elders shall then nominate a candidate for the congregation's approval. Notice of the nomination of someone to be elected and called as a staff elder, which shall include, if necessary, election to membership of him and, if he is married, his wife, must be given at least one month prior to the vote of a member's meeting. Any member with reason to believe that a nominee-to-commit candidate is unqualified for the office should ordinarily express such concern first to that candidate. If the reconciliation and understanding of both parties cannot be met, then that member should address the issue or issues to the elders. Members intending to speak in opposition to a candidate must express their objection to the elders at least one week before the relevant members meeting. Each member shall cast a vote of yes or no by secret ballot for the candidate A candidate receiving at least three-fourths majority of yes votes shall be deemed called and shall be set apart as an elder. Now that last section should sound very familiar because it was just cut and pasted as to how we call and recognize elders and how the church has an opportunity to confront and call out concerns they may have. The elders of the search committee, and they can add to themselves others if they deem it necessary to find another Seth elder. They are going to ask for church recommendations. That way it parallels the way we're looking for elders. This was something that was very helpful, I think, in the Constitution. There's a lot of parallels in how we're doing much of what we do. The church votes them in, and it's the same stipulation for elders, three-fourths vote. Any questions about that? Yes, Steve. The one week is just asking people, if you have something, make sure you tell us as soon as possible. Don't wait to the last minute. If something comes up last minute, then I would hope that you would talk to the elders and if it were something that was going to cause a clear problem in the candidate, then we would probably delay the vote. What we're doing here is trying to say that the normal role is to say, if you know something, don't put it off. Brian? Just procedurally speaking, a group can always withdraw their recommendation. They can show up and say, hey, we withdraw our recommendation if it comes to that. Obviously, the goal would be to know that ahead of time so that if they needed to withdraw that recommendation, they could do it. before the actual meeting, but there's always that option, and presumably anybody making such a recommendation would have to use prudence to know, I have to get three-fourths of the votes here, and if I'm not going to get that, that's going to be a problem. So at that point, I would hope that you would talk to the elders who would then pull the recommendation, if given whatever the circumstances. So that is just for if you're going to say something publicly about the person, We would want to know what that is to make sure that's done in an orderly manner and make sure Jesus' steps in Matthew have already been followed. Good question. Any other questions? We may be done by 8 o'clock tonight. If I keep making fun of the time, then maybe people won't be so bothered by how late we get out. An elder's tenure termination. An elder's tenure may be terminated by resignation or by dismissal. Any two members with reason to believe that an elder should be dismissed should express such concern to the elders and then, if need be, to the congregation. Any such action shall be done in accordance with the instructions of our Lord in Matthew 18 and 1 Timothy 5. Any elder may be dismissed by majority vote of the members at any members' meeting with two weeks' notice." Now here, the confrontation to actually seek out an elder has a slight addition to it in that they're asking for two to make that initial confrontation. And that is based upon 1 Timothy 5. Don't let anyone bring a charge against an elder unless there is a witness. There is the extra stipulation based upon 1 Timothy 5. And you're taking it to the elders. So, that's why that change takes place. So, you can look at 1 Timothy 5 and see how that, we've put that in with Matthew 18 concerning the elder. The thing I already mentioned before, an elder may be dismissed by a majority vote. Again, it's easy to remove an elder, harder to add an elder. Yeah, this would certainly be a quorum. If this were a members meeting and someone were being put forward to be removed and they refused to be removed, 50 point whatever of this group here would count. No. No. Correct. If 75% of the folks want to remove an elder and can't, we're not sure if that person should be serving as an elder. And so dropping it down and making it easier to remove an elder was just more prudent. Does that make sense? So to make it where if they're getting voted in at 75%, which I'm hoping that it would always be higher than that, if you need 75% to remove somebody, And you're just getting, you're barely getting that. It just seems like that's, we're not sure if that person should be an elder if they're not recommended and recognized by that many people. And making it easier to remove maybe a problematic elder who refuses to be removed. Elders or sinners. That should be in the Constitution, first thing. Let me stop there. This isn't going to solve all the problems of the church, because you still have sinners leading sinners. This is ordering it differently. Ordering it more biblically, but it's not actually removing sin from our context and keeping us from sinning against one another. That needs to be said a number of times, probably. Any other questions about termination? or anything else up to this point. If you had a question about election and you've just now kind of solidified it. All right. Organization. Say again. Yeah, let me read it and then just, that way we can say we did the whole section. The elder shall elect a non-staff elder as a chairman and any other positions as needed. The elder shall meet regularly at a time and place of their own choosing at other times and places as deemed necessary by the chairman. The majority of the number of active elders shall constitute a quorum." So here the big stipulation is that a non-staff elder cannot be a chairman. The reason is as the preaching elder I'm out front already a lot speaking so I already have a lot of sway and leadership. that the other elders would not have being out front regularly. And so this is a way of making sure I don't control the board and the pulpit. And so this is a healthy way of just making sure that all the elders are on somewhat of an equal footing. They'll meet regularly and, well, at their convenience and however they can get everyone together. Yeah, any questions about the organization? Yes, Dorian. Would meetings be open to the church at large? The elders have not gathered yet to decide that. I actually, you know, talking about training, something we did at my previous church when we had elders is we would invite certain folks in for certain sections to listen. Yeah, for listening. Sometimes even to hear what they might say. So I can't Again, in the Constitution, we're not saying they're open or closed. Yeah, I am open to them being open, partially, but the elders will have a say in that. It's actually very helpful to sit and watch and learn and hear how decisions are made. That's one of those things where we just said, We want the elders to have the freedom to make those decisions. I would say that would probably be a necessary part of calling someone to have them come to an elders meeting and listen at least before they actually committed to being an elder. But we'll see what the elders think. Yeah. One of the goals again was to try to give the elders as much freedom as possible in their decisions. Yeah, because we have deacon apprentices who get to come. I guess other people could come if we invited them. I wouldn't want to put anything in because the only way we would put it in is if you wanted to make them necessarily open, and that would necessarily bind bound the elders and what kind of conversations they can have. That's it for the elders and just kind of the technicalities, how they're elected, how staff elders are related to lay elders. Any questions about all that before we move on and tell you it's basically the same thing for deacons? Because if you get that system, you're going to get this system. All right. So for deacons, it's the same thing. Elders nominate deacons. The church recommends once a year at least, or as the elders are looking for a big group of deacons, they'll ask for recommendations as they will, at least annually, and then the church will vote in deacons. So you will approve of the men that you recognize as qualified and gifted and able to serve. Yes, Steve. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we would nominate no one, but it's always actually very helpful to hear from the church who they're seeing. That's always an interesting, insightful thing to see what the, who the body sees is serving those. Some people serve very quietly. And the elders may not see what they're doing because they're intentionally doing it as quietly as possible. Yes, ma'am. So when you have a regular time or a choice that the elders may not choose to recommend anybody, do you still have a set of five times that it's time to do it? So I asked that question again. Let me make sure I'm going to answer your question. We didn't put a specific time that it has to happen. The idea would be that they would have the freedom to ask for those recommendations if they're about to look for an elder, say March. And if we get to December and we haven't asked for recommendations, then we know that we need to ask for recommendations in December for the next year. So the elders need to be aware that they have to ask for those recommendations. We want to give them the freedom to ask when it would actually best serve them, rather than saying, you have to do it by this date, or every year on June the 1st, you have to ask for recommendations. Well, that's unhelpful if we're actually hoping to nominate somebody in April. But at least once a year. But at least once a year, yeah. And that's just us formally asking for recommendations. I would hope that, you know, Jim Fitzgerald's always going to his house to mow the yard. You know, he comes and tells us, you know, Jim's really served us well. Did Jim do that? No. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah, so I'm not going to read over the whole section on the deacons, mainly because it's exactly the same. The only real difference is the elders and the deacons will have a clear communication path, and that will either be a deacon being invited into the elders' meetings or an elder being sent as kind of the liaison to the deacons to make sure there's clear communication there because the elders are leading in and helping give vision and oversight to the deacons. So we will create a way of making sure communication is clear for those two groups. And the deacons will meet as a body, as a board. Any questions about that? Exactly the same, three years, sabbatical every six. Yes. Not necessarily. They could, for some reason, that would be an option for the elders to call all the deacons over, but what we at least will hope is that a regular person will be doing the intercommunication between the two. Because it is different. Okay. Page 7. Already there. 236. Organization. The deacons shall elect a chairman and any other position as needed. The deacons shall meet regularly at a time and a place of their own choosing and at other times and places as deemed necessary by the chairman. A majority of the number of active deacons shall constitute a quorum. There shall be regular communication and consultation between the elders and deacons, including reports, minutes, and attendance at each other's meetings as the elders deem appropriate. So that establishes the freedom of the elders to really make sure they're, it's the elder's responsibility to care for the deacons. Any questions? Seven o'clock. Just because I think, so what? Well, let me just read, I'll get to the trustee, that way it's, yeah, I'm thinking that maybe members meetings and budget and finance may actually bring more questions. So let me try to push ahead just to get a little bit farther for our next time. The administrative positions. We recognize the practical necessity of certain administrative positions. The elder shall designate a moderator to preside at the members' meetings. So this is them. It doesn't have to be an elder. Notice that didn't say an elder will designate an elder to be. The elders will designate an elder to be a moderator. It may be that there's someone who's very gifted at moderating that is not an elder that they want to moderate. Any questions about the moderator? Anyone want to throw their hat in, their name into the hat for being moderator? It's a fantastic service to the body. Trustees. Trustees shall hold and trust the title to all church properties and act as legal officers for the church. According to written instructions adopted by vote at a members meeting and in conformance with applicable law, the trustees shall have power to buy, sell, mortgage, lease, or transfer any part or all of such properties and sign any legal notarized documents pertaining to church business. There shall be three trustees who shall be nominated annually by the elders and approved by vote at a member's meeting to serve a renewable one-year term. A trustee may be removed from office upon the recommendation of the elders and the subsequent approval by vote at a member's meeting. Should one of the trustees be unable to perform the duties of office, the remaining two may act on behalf of the church." So the trustees, they Um, they have the legal rights to the property, uh, and the bigger purchasing power, uh, and bigger selling power. Uh, the main difference here that trustees are serving the exact same way. If I am, I just want to make sure I'm clear on that. Uh, they will only serve annually. Right now there's a rotation that's staggered. So it's a trustee will serve three years, another, another, you know, the staggering three years, another, the staggering three years, we're going to get rid of the staggering. and just say every year, three new trustees will be voted for a one-year term and then three more the next year and three more the next year. We'll figure out how to make it competitive again. But, yeah, it is somewhat of an awkward, because only one person can win and you have to put three up and then they, yeah, so. Yes. It does not say that they have to take a sabbatical. I would expect it would be wise to keep some folks in consistency. Yeah, they're renewable. So there is no required sabbatical. They're renewable. So it doesn't mean it has to be three different people every year. So I would hope there would be consistency. Any other questions? Yes, Frank. but just as with the current Constitution, the trustees cannot act of their own power. They can only act on behalf of the church who has approved something at a member's meeting. So it's an honorific role, it's a helpful role, but they don't have independent power. That's the same way it is- The trustees do not have independent power. They can ask for a vote from us to do these things, but they are the representatives. They are the legal representatives of the church. Let me get to the clerk and then next time we'll go into the treasurer, the members' meetings, and budget and finance and employees, and that'll be a nice united section. The clerk. It shall be the duty of the clerk to record the minutes of all members' meetings of the church, to preserve an accurate roll of the membership, to render reports as requested by the elders, the deacons, or the church, and to attest to official correspondence with other churches and organizations. The clerk shall be nominated annually by the deacons and approved by vote at a member's meeting to serve a renewable one-year term. In the absence or incapacity of the clerk, the deacons shall appoint a member to perform the duties of the clerk. The clerk may be removed from office by a decision of the deacons or by vote at a member's meeting. So notice here the clerk is actually under the oversight of the deacons. This task is commissioned by the deacons. They nominate that person and they are voted in by the church and they have a renewable one-year term as well. Same position we have now. Any questions about that? That's really no big change there at all. All right. So next week we'll be looking at treasurer. and members' meetings, and budget and finance. Any big questions before we dismiss? It's coming down to the end. This is exciting. We're finishing the walking through of the Constitution. We read everything but the deacon's words themselves, but we kind of read them anyway. So next week we'll deal with those technical parts. Brian will present the transitional plan. We will have an extra Sunday night of Q&A. And that, the goal, is to folks who can't come out on Wednesday night, hopefully you can come out on Sunday night, just to make sure that people have every opportunity to ask questions, have their questions answered, present any problems they have with the Constitution. September 9th. So, the Evangel had a tentative timeline. That timeline can be changed, but it's the one we're hoping to stick with for now. Yes, Doran? Yes, it should be on the website. If it's not, If you want a copy, just talk to me before we leave and I'll get you a copy of the current constitution. Present. The present empowered constitution. I believe it is, yeah. I have to look over to my Chief Justice Brian Davis for confirmation on that, but yes. All right, well thank you all for your patience. Please, again, we expect you have questions about the Constitution. Don't be hesitant to ask them. Yeah, as Brian said early on, no one got everything they wanted. We had the most basic, you know, what the Bible called on elders and deacons. But a lot of these things, in terms of the technicalities, Mike said he didn't get anything. So give them a hug on your way out. A lot of these things are prudence, right? This is, you know, the three-year terms and the percentages. We were just trying to Seek wisdom from other constitutions or other churches do. So, if you have questions, please ask. If you have questions about elders and deacons and how they're going to relate, that really is the real key to this constitution and the biblical precedent for that. Something that should be going out with an Evangel email, so those of you who ignore the Evangel email, I ask you to read this. And look at the New Evangel by Andrew Garland. Thank you, sir, for reshaping that. I wrote up a summary from the lesson for the introduction to church government, which really just deals with the three most essential relationships we have. The body to Jesus Christ, the head, the elders and deacons and his offices within, and then the church body who has the real authority, the earthly authority. I wrote something, it's kind of long, But hopefully that will answer or give you more questions. Let me close us in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word, that it guides us and directs us. We thank You for Your Spirit. Help us to see Your Word clearly through the illuminating power of Your Spirit. Help us, Lord, to always trust in You and what You're doing. Help us, Lord, to be united as a body. I pray that You will help us to think through this Constitution well, and that it will help us to function better. It will help us, Lord, to model ourselves after Your Word better. I pray that it will help us to go out and share the Gospel, the new organization. I hope that we will be faithful to what You have called us to do. Be glorified, Almighty God. Amen.