Throughout the bible we see elders being appointed by apostles in churches. Whenever this happens it’s a sign of health and growth in a church and a great cause for celebration.
At the Worship night in July, Phil and I were delighted to propose Stuart Parker to the church to be received as an elder and we followed that evening up with a video outlining the key characteristics of eldership (You can watch that here).
Well, in conjunction with Mark Landreth-Smith who oversees our church within Commission, we asked you to give us feedback about his proposed appointment.
I’m pleased to say that over the past 2 months, we received your feedback and it was an overwhelming and resounding “Yes and Amen”
Stuart and Jean play an incredible part in the church overseeing all our pastoral care, inputting into our Life Groups, supporting the leadership team, running our Freedom in Christ courses and preaching the word faithfully. So, we’re delighted that Stuart will be joining the eldership team.
Meeting Together
From Moses’ appointment of Joshua in Numbers 27, through Acts 6 and into the epistles where Timothy was appointed (1 Timothy 4), we see new leaders in the bible being appointed through a public ceremony where the people of God gathered and ‘hands we’re laid’ on the new leader.
These moments are significant in the life of the church, for the congregation and for the individual being prayed for & their family. As you can imagine the current pandemic makes this a little more tricky to do in person, but I’m pleased to say not impossible.
On 5th July the government released guidance stating that “Places of worship play an important role in providing spiritual leadership for many individuals, and in bringing communities and generations together.” As such they made it legal for churches to gather together, with clear guidance of how to make the venues and meetings Covid-Secure.
Following the most recent Guidance on the “Rule of Six”, the government made some key areas of the community exempt, including schools, workplaces and places of Worship. You can read the latest info updated on Monday here.
This guidance still has plenty of restrictions including the wearing of facemasks throughout, no singing, remaining seated, no un-ceremonial food and drink, and so on. So our continued weekly plan will be to remain online, reviewing this regularly as guidance changes.
However, we would like to meet as a one off, to appoint Stuart as an Elder in the church.
We are currently working with all our key leaders and the school to make sure that we have an excellent and safe morning. We will send out over the coming weeks plenty of information about that, including how to book in (needed for track and trace purposes) and a full FAQ sheet.
But for now – I would like you all to pencil in
10am Sunday 18th October 2020
where we will aim to come together to celebrate all that God is doing amongst us. As an added bonus it will also be our first meeting at our new venue - The Royal Grammar School. The whole morning will be livestreamed so those not present will still be able to join in the celebration.
We can be confident that whilst this season might have come as a complete surprise to us, none of this is a surprise to God. His Church continues to grow and the Holy Spirit is at work revealing himself to many throughout our homes. Let’s not lose heart but fix our eyes on Jesus.
Blessings
Chris
(On behalf of the elders)
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