One In Jesus

Our church’s ministries were overseen by “ministries team” for over a decade, and the team’s list of accomplishments is quite long. The concept doesn’t work in a very large church, for reasons to be discussed. And the concept won’t work in a very small church. But I would think that the idea works in any other church that has several ministries that require considerable oversight.

Here’s the idea– Continue reading →

As you may have surmised, my own church, with attendance of around 700, has struggled with how to fit our traditional teachings on deacons into our ministry structure.

We went through a period where the church was run through monthly elders, deacons, and ministers meetings. We went through a period when we felt each ministry had to be headed by a deacon. And we’ve struggled with “deacons at large.” Continue reading →

We have taught for a century that a scripturally organized church has a plurality of both elders and deacons. However, we seem not to have noticed that the Bible nowhere says what it is that deacons are to do. As a result, we’ve fallen into the assumption that all ministry programs are required to be headed by a deacon, with very little thought or Biblical justification.

This thinking has created the very practical problem that a deacon is often not the best qualified person to run a ministry. The children’s Bible program may well be run by a deacon who never teaches children. Continue reading →

This series of posts is to suggest some ideas for how a church might be organized to do ministry. The fact is that as churches grow, they have to reorganize. Structures that work in a church of 200 likely won’t work in a church of 500.

Many churches have struggled to grow because they’ve failed to match their organizational structure to their size. As a result, members’ gifts have been under-utilized and needs haven’t been met. Members get frustrated and go somewhere else. Continue reading →