What sort of internal organisation do churches have, according to the New Testament?
The bible is quite sparing in its answer to this question. It is strong on principles (e.g. love, service, respectfulness, selflessness), but fairly flexible on implementation.
It seems clear that within New Testament churches there were a variety of people serving in various ways:
- Every church member is part of the body of Christ – as expressed in that particular church – thus, every member has and is a gift of God with a part to play.
- It also seems clear that, as the New Testament era developed, the emphasis settled on the role of the Elders who lead and feed the flock through the word of God, and also …
- Deacons, who exemplify and focus serving the people of God.
In the previous post we mentioned our prayerful quest to add to the Eldership as the years go by, and currently we are carefully and prayerfully working through the appointment of Deacons.
We can report with thanks to God that the current phase of this process has come to a conclusion at the mini-members meeting 23/3/16, with the recognition and appointment of 7 deacons, as follows:
Lindsay Debach – Administration
Rachel Rayfield – Children’s ministry
Ray WIngate (for one year) – Treasurer (oversight, with assistance), and Secretary
Ben Alltimes – Evangelistic and Discipleship Opportunities
Ruth Muinde and Roger Kinross (till September 2016) – Care and Concern – including discipling and supporting both men and women
Steve Ellacott – no specific role, but undertaking a project to revamp the Constitution and church manual documents.
We thank God for these people, and for leading us together as a church
P.W. 23/3/16