Our  Basic Structure - Meet the Teams

 A few years ago we responded to the fact that our church was growing and getting more diverse in its life and ministry by reflecting on possible frameworks to help us to manage it all. In particular we looked at the writings of Rick Warren, who developed his model of a Purpose Driven Church out of his own experience as a pastor in California. (www.purposedriven.co.uk)

Based on key New Testament passages about the church, he suggests that at its heart, any growing and vibrant Christian community will focus on five key areas :

• Worship
• Mission
• Fellowship
• Ministry
• Discipleship

We found Rick’s model very helpful, but as we reflected on it, we felt that we needed to modify it to meet our own concerns and vision.

So:

• we thought it was important to pull out prayer as a separate element of the church’s life. It is in many ways the secret heart of any true church.
• We wanted to give a stronger focus to our work with children and young people
• We wanted to emphasise mission and recognised its holistic nature. However, the reality was that it was more than any one person could lead or any one team could handle - so we created two areas, one focusing on our own witness into our local community - outreach  -   and another encouraging support for the worldwide mission of the church.
• Whilst we could see the clear theological distinction between ministry (mainly about developing the gifts of the Spirit) and discipleship (encouraging the growth of the fruits of the Spirit), it was less easy to distinguish between them in the life of the church - so we combined those two areas into one - discipleship.

The net outcome is that the “engine room” that keeps us moving forward has eight “cylinders” - teams of friends and members with a heart for a particular aspect of church life. These are:

• Worship
• Prayer
• Discipleship
• Outreach
• Missions
• Pastoral care
• Children’s work
• Youth work

Each team is headed by a Deacon, who has responsibility to offer leadership for that area of the church’s work and life to represent it within the Leadership Team.

Our hope is that every activity and ministry in the church  knows where it fits in and to whom it can turn for support.

The Back Up …

Like any human organisation, we need organising and resourcing. The two people mainly responsible for this are our Secretary and our Treasurer. They pull together their own teams and ad hoc groups as needed. And between them , they look after the fabric of our building, which provides the physical base for much of what we do.

The Leadership team

The Leadership Team consists of the Minister, the Elders and the Deacons responsible for the areas outlined above. It meets once a month and seeks to discern God’s vision for the fellowship, to offer mutual support, and to co-ordinate our work and life.

The Church Meeting

Our understanding of the local  “church”  is that it is not something done to passive attenders by a professionalised priesthood. Rather it is a gathered fellowship of believers who have a shared responsibility for seeking the mind of Christ and living out His mission and ministry in their local community. Thus all members enter into a covenant commitment to Christ and each other. One crucial expression of this belief is the monthly Church Meeting where church members come together to seek a common mind on issues needing to be addressed. Whilst “business” is done, we do not see the Church Meeting as simply a business meeting, but rather a place of discernment under the leadership of Christ our head. Much of the-day-to-day work is inevitably delegated to the teams, but the big issues will be discussed and worked out in this shared forum.