Getting to Know Your elders
On behalf of your Elders, let me say that we are excited to see how God is leading in this new season and we want to make sure we share that with our body on a timely basis. To that end, we will be providing a monthly update, with a different elder sharing each month.
A short update on myself: I am still working part-time for my employer, an insurance agency in Raleigh, managing large claims and doing contract review. I play in the Durham Community Concert Band and Durham Bullhorns, which some have said is my relaxation. Janet and I have a son and a daughter, both are married and have six grandkids between them. They are all in the Triangle area so that is a blessing. I like to cook, and Janet and I, in our spare time, like to play golf and travel.
I am grateful for this season in our church as we are blessed with many new folks coming to worship with us, seeing people take the step of becoming members, and watching as Life Groups and the Parish model reach into the lives of one another through CHBC.
Please pray for us as we have our two scheduled monthly meetings in October. On Monday, October 2, we will have our monthly business meeting and on Wednesday, October 25 we will have our monthly meeting to pray and study the Word.
Updates
Beginning in August, we prayerfully settled on a rhythm of having one of our monthly meetings dedicated to business and one meeting solely dedicated to the study of the Word and to prayer. While there is much business to attend to, we believe that the business of spending meaningful time getting to know our Lord through His Word and prayer together is essential. In fact, without it, our efforts at handling the business of CHBC would only be in our flesh and doomed to fall short of God’s best for our church. Our time of prayer is for individual needs of our membership, our leaders, our community and our world, as well as for wisdom and guidance as we make decisions for CHBC.
Please hold us accountable to stay to this rhythm as we believe it is Biblically-based and honoring to our Father and to you as part of the body of Christ.
Prayer Requests from the Elders
Practically, we have begun to track prayer requests of our membership, helping us be ever mindful of the needs of our church. Additionally this helps us make sure that needs that are communicated as we roll out the Parish model, are brought to our attention for prayer and care.
For this next month we have much business to attend to including potential recommended bylaw changes, the continued rollout of the Parish model, the movement of implementing and practicing accountability through Policy Governance, and alignment of our ministries and resources with our key focuses of EQUIPPING the Body, developing COMMUNITY, and REACHING those around us with the Gospel.
Is there something that your Elders can pray for you about? If so, please submit a prayer request to elder-chair@biblechurch.org by Monday, October 23. That will give us time to have in advance of our next Elder prayer meeting on October 25th.
In Him,
Jay Baas
Elder Chair
Jay, thank you. As a former pastor I know in a very personal way HOW IMPORTANT it is that a local church’s “lay” leaders, elders in this case, be aligned with and in emotional/spiritual support of the senior pastor. Not to mention how vital this is for the life and progress of a local church.
I personally applaud the parish model our leadership is working out. I’m a “small” church guy in a “big” church context for the first time since seminary graduation in 1978. I hope and plan to assist the elder/deacon team in our parish because, as a pastor I know preached a long time ago: “the life of the large group is nurtured in the small group.” Oh wait, that was me.
BLESSINGS TO YOU AND ALL OUR ELDERS…
Mac Bare
We thank God for how He is leading the CHBC Elders in this new season! We are especially glad to see the intentional focus on prayer in addition to the work of equipping the body!
May God guide and bless your deliberations both before and during your meeting tomorrow evening.