Churches call them elder boards, church boards, deacons, trustees, or the board of directors. Whatever your plurality of senior leaders is called, Acts 6 gives essentials for effective governance. 

Effective boards pray

“We will… give our attention to prayer…” (Acts 6:3).  The apostles guided the church toward the priority of prayer and the Word of God. The senior leaders of the local church must lead in prayer. If we do not do it, who will?  We will consider examples and commit to one. 

Effective boards protect

“Keep watch…savage wolves will come in among you…” (Acts 20:28-31a)

Elders discern the difference between:

catfish

dragons

,lions

wolves.

Effective boards process

“The Twelve gathered all the disciples together... “ (Acts 6:2)

We will discover three common detours that take a church in the wrong direction away from a healthy process when we come to an Acts 6 type of crossroads of complaints.

Effective boards empower

“We will turn this responsibility over to them…” (Acts 6:3).  It was he [Christ] who gave… to prepare [equip] God’s people for works of service” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

 The organizing principle of churches under 200 is relational. The church is like a family. The church of 200-400 is “The Managerial Church” with growing ministries.  The church of 400-800 is “The Organizational Church.” (Gary McIntosh). We will look at the skills necessary for each church size and what it takes to grow to the next level. 

Effective boards propose and set policies

“This proposal pleased the whole group” (Acts 6:5a)

Effective elders agree on proposals that can be called “s-curve changes.”  “S-curve” changes are Spirit-led changes that bring a scary downturn first but the climb the growth curve.  Consider Moses and the Exodus-from bricks and straw to the Red Sea!  We will learn how to identify the “s-curve” and work toward implementation and good policy. 

The opportunity

I am available to meet on Zoom to cover these five essentials. with a pastor, an executive team, or the entire governing board. After you secure my book effective empowering elders from Next Step Resources, dozens of churches needed only a single meeting at a cost of $100 or Rick is available for continuing consultation at the same charge.

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elders

The plurality of senior leaders in a church can be called elders, deacons, or other names. Acts 6 gives valuable insights for board governance.

If efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things, our focus is on 5 essentials from Acts 6 for effective elders.

Here are 3 of the 5 essentials we will study.

Elder boards pray

“..and we will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).

Elder boards protect

“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews” (Acts 6:1),

Rick gives insights on how to discern the difference between and deal biblically with:

Catfish

Dragons

Wolves

Lions

Elder boards propose

“This proposal pleased the whole group” (Acts 6:5).

Learn how to identify “s” curve proposals like this one that changed the direction of the entire church and resulted in an increasing number of disciples.