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Assembly Times

 Sunday

   Bible Classes (10:00 am)

   AM Worship (11:00 am)

   PM Worship (3:00 pm)

 Wednesday

   Bible Classes (7:35 pm)

Location

180 Townwood Drive

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Elders Communicating With the Congregation

by John T. Burch

Essential to every eldership is communication with the members. All Christians are to "know them which labor among you" (1 Thess 5:12). To facilitate that, elders should be accessible to all and go out of their way to be open and warmly friendly to every Christian, getting to know them and their needs. Each elder should so conduct himself with members that he would be the first one the member would turn to in time of need (James 5:14). As shepherds of the flock, each elder needs to know well the strengths, weaknesses and needs of each one under his charge. 

Each elder needs to learn to listen . . . a lot. 

The elders always need to remember that, while they are charged with leading the flock, their actions and decisions are not those of the congregation until they have made them a part of the action and decision. It was clear in Acts 15:22 that the congregation was fully involved in sending men with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. When we sent Tommy Poarch to China in May 1990 to work with Jeff Kingry and others, we first told the congregation of the great need and opportunity in China. We expressed our desire to send Tommy and asked them to express their thoughts about the matter. When we received a warm response, we then asked for their support in prayer and through their own gifts to help with his travel expenses. We wanted them to be fully involved in this great effort to evangelize China.

At the beginning of each calendar year, as the elders have laid out for the year what we feel the congregation should be doing and the areas we plan for growth, we then present the plans to the congregation. This is not done in the spirit of "Here is what we will do", but "Here are the areas we feel are important for this next year: please give us your ideas before we finalize our plans."

 We try to explain each line item in our end‑of‑year financial statements and to connect expenditures with activities that all were involved in. We try to measure the effectiveness of the means we are using to spread the gospel. We show successes of the congregation in terms of meetings held, preachers supported, Bible classes held, people baptized and those restored. We also go over those areas where we missed expectations and what actions are needed for improvement. We talk about where we have come from, where we are now, and where we want to go — both as a group and individually. We want every member to feel a part of this.

 As we plan for future gospel meetings, we encourage members of the congregation to give us names of those men they would Like to have speak for us. This has always given us name that we might not have thought of on our own and has enriched our meetings in many ways.

 As we prepare for each meeting we encourage all members to invite neighbors and friends. Now, that is done most everywhere, but we go on step beyond that—we hand out letter to all members with room on the back side to list the names and addresses a those whom they will invite. These are returned to the elders and personal letters from the elders are written to each, in addition to the personal invitation given by the member. No only do we build a nice mailing list for later use, but we have many more visitors from the community for each gospel meeting for which we have done this.

 To further build communication within the congregation, we have each deacon charged with monitoring the needs of ten or so families. The attendance of each family is recorded and unexplained absences are brought to the attention of the elders. An illness that requires assistance in any way is communicated to all members and that deacon organizes any needed sitters, etc.

 We believe that good communication in a congregation is essential to growth and to being "at peace among yourselves" (1 Thess 5:13). As "ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3), elders must pray often to God, communicate well to the members and facilitate members' feedback to the elders.

 Other Articles
An Open Letter to Those Among Us Who Believe that Churches of Christ are All Wrong
May the Church Provide Fellowship Meals
The False Dilemma