Model for church structure.

The inverted pyramid is our assumption. Jesus said the greatest in His kingdom is the least, and the one who wants to be great must be the servant of all. So we are not all about authority, but about service. However, we also need to consider who makes decisions and who has jurisdiction to be able to have it be “official” rather than a personal opinion that can be overrriden by another’s. We also need to have authority in our lives to watch over our souls.

Our chosen model looks like this:

Elders. A group of men, given to oversight of the ministry of the Word and prayer, which includes teaching. The role of the elders (or bishops) is to pray for and minister to and equip the people. They meet weekly for an hour of prayer and 15 minutes of decision-making. They make decisions for the church as a whole.

Small group pastors. A council of men (and women, or couples) who facilitate and organize and pastor their house churches. These people have jurisdiction over their small group, but report to the elders. They meet monthly to be equipped, and to celebrate and encourage one another in their ministry. They do not make decisions about the church as a whole.

Deacons. Spirit-filled men and women who have two main functions: serving and decision making. They serve in worship (readings, articles, communion, offering, ushering, etc.) and in carrying out practical ministry. There is little need for meetings to carry out this function, except to assign or clarify specific tasks. They make decisions about the business and financial and organizational and staff parts of the church. Deacons (servants) function as administrators. They will probably meet weekly, initially, and perhaps monthly after a while, to manage this thing we own called a building. They will be the group that manages the building and creates the master plan for its use.

In chart form:

Christ

(head, Chief Shepherd)

/\

/  \

Elders

(bishops, overseers)

/               \

/                  \

Small Group Pastors     Deacons
(shepherds, teachers)         (servants, administrators)

Terms and appointment. Elders are appointed by current elders and affirmed by the congregation. They are appointed for life, or until they are asked to step down. Because we are relational, we deal with people directly rather than setting up systems to keep from having imbalance of power or other problems.

Congregational votes. We don’t have them. When there is a vote, somebody wins and somebody loses. We work by consensus of the leaders.

Number of elders. We must have at least two, but there is no set limit to the number of elders, other than the requirement to have a plurality of them.

Staff relationships. Staff are not automatically considered elders, though some may be qualified and appointed as such. But perhaps all staff are considered double-honored small group pastors, or paid deacons. We will need to find out about this.