Not long ago, the members of Lake Hills approved the following motion, presented by the deacons:
We move that the “Transition Team,” comprised of Pastor Jacob, Neal Ballah (deacon), Daniel Devine, Erica Ogden, and Ken Tanis, be affirmed by the members to work with the deacons to propose changes to relevant portions of the current constitution of Lake Hills Baptist Church that better reflect the Bible’s teaching of the qualifications, roles, and selection of pastor-elders and deacons.
This Sunday, the Transition Team (TT) will have our first meeting.
What follows is a breakdown of what the Transition Team will be doing, and, more importantly, how to pray for this team.
Work With the Deacons
First of all, the team will “work with the deacons.” The deacons are the ones who have the authority to present motions of this nature to the congregation, so the Transition Team is going to be filtering everything they do through the deacons. The deacons will then tweak or make changes to the proposal from the Transition Team before anything is presented to the members.
. . . to propose changes to relevant portions of the current constitution of lake hills baptist church . . .
The TT is only proposing changes. It is the members of LHBC that have the final say on whether or not you want to adopt any changes of the church’s constitution. The TT presents proposed changes to the deacons, who tweak, then present to the members. The members then have a chance to also make suggestions. Those suggestions go back to the TT, who make a final proposal and present them to the deacons, who again make any changes, then present the final proposal to the members for a vote. Only then will those changes become final. Like voting on a pastor or our yearly budget, it is the members who have the final authority for this kind of significant decision.
Notice also that the TT will only be proposing changes to “relevant portions” of the church’s constitution. The parts that the TT addresses will all be related to the topic of pastors and deacons. Anything outside of pastors and deacons is outside the scope of the task given to the TT and will not be included in the proposals made.
Copies of the current constitution are available upon request through email.
. . . That better reflect the bible’s teaching . . .
The TT’s main task is to look at God’s Word to determine the qualifications, duties, and responsibilities of pastor-elders and deacons. They will not be basing their decisions on their opinions or preferences. When members read the proposed changes, please consider whether or not you see the changes faithfully representing Scripture or not.
There are likely some parts of a church constitution that aren’t expressly stipulated in Scripture. The TT will prayerfully seek to use wisdom on these matters.
. . . of the qualifications, roles, and selection of pastor-elders and deacons
What does the Scripture say about who can be a pastor-elder? What does it say about who can be a deacon? What does God’s Word say about what pastor-elders and deacons should do? What about how they should be identified and implemented? How long should they serve? How should they be removed, if they should? These kinds of questions are what the TT will be seeking to answer.
Please Pray
Updating a church’s constitution is a very important task. It will have an impact on our church for generations, which will spill over into the lives of many others. So, please regularly pray for the Transition Team and deacons and church throughout this process.
Please pray:
- For the team to have clear understanding and agreement on God’s Word
- For the team to share their perspectives and understandings with freedom and for the team to understand one another
- For the team to be guarded from attacks of the evil one
- For the team to be able to articulate clearly what they propose
- For the deacons to have clear understanding and agreement on the proposed changes
- For the deacons to have wisdom about any potential tweaks they may have to the TT’s proposal
- For our church family to read the proposed changes and prayerfully consider what is being proposed
- For our church family to consider the proposed changes in accordance with God’s Word
- For our God to accomplish His purposes and be glorified in this entire process
Pastor Jacob’s Blog 