Living Hope Fellowship: Lay Leadership 1/17/98

The purpose of lay leadership is to assist the church in fulfilling its purposes which are, in sum: spiritual discipleship, worshipping God, outreach, and community.

Leadership Team

A. Membership

There shall be a Leadership Team composed of four members, each of which will focus on specific area of congregational life as follows.

  1. Worship and teaching: This person will provide leadership for corporate worship and teaching and may serve on the Worship Committee. S/he will assume oversight for general worship and teaching (the Worship Committee, worship calendar, specific worship leaders, music/creative expression leaders, children’s christian education, and any future youth group leaders). S/he will relate to these individuals or committees as needed to give overall leadership to this area.
  2. Small group life/Pastoral care: This person will provide leadership for the congregation’s pastoral care and small group life and will serve as small group coordinator. S/he will meet periodically with representatives of the small groups, individually or jointly. S/he will be a resource to small groups, providing information and suggestions to nurture their group life. This person will also help new persons to join a small group when they are ready and will also invite attendees to become members. S/he will also facilitate the hospitality program and will carry a pastoral concern for the entire fellowship, including issues of mediation and reconciliation, by initiating any other appropriate activities.
  3. Administrator: This person will see that the various administrative functions involving the clerk, treasurer, newsletter, facilities and trustees are being fulfilled. S/he will relate to persons responsible for these functions and will work to move routine details along in a timely fashion.
  4. Convenor/Moderator: This person will convene and moderate all Leadership Team and congregational meetings. S/he will facilitate the agenda development process for meetings including long and short range issues relevant to our purposes, beliefs and core values and overall life together.

B. Duties of the team as a whole

  1. They are accountable to each other and to the congregation.
  2. They share responsibility for general oversight for the entire fellowship.
  3. They will conduct the process for the selection of officers and committees.
  4. They may appoint special committees to deal with particular needs that may arise (i.e. Retreat, Service, Outreach).
  5. They communicate with all committees to see that they are functioning as intended.
  6. They choose one of their members to keep notes of all decisions or recommendations made at Team meetings.
  7. They are sensitive to possible outreach activities and will encourage individual outreach efforts.

C. Election

The Leadership Team shall be selected at a special meeting of the congregation convened for this purpose in January. All members of the Leadership Team shall be covenanting members of LHF. The term of office will be one year. Members may be reelected for additional terms.

D. Vacancies

Vacancies may be filled by a consensus of the church at a duly convened meeting. The appointee shall serve until the next usual time to select team members at which time the unexpired term shall be filled by the regular selection process.

Treasurer

The treasurer is chosen by the congregation for a one year term. The duties of the office are to a) deposit church funds, b) disburse them in accordance with the church budget and c) maintain records of all the church's financial accounts.

Clerk

The clerk is chosen by the congregation for a one year term. The duties of the office are to a) keep an accurate and permanent record of all of the business meetings of the church, b) maintain a membership register in which shall be noted such changes as occur, c) record minutes of all business meetings.

Committees

Members with appropriate gifts will be selected to form the following Committees:

  1. Worship
  2. Missions
  3. Children's Education
  4. Fellowship Fund
  5. Other committees as necessary

Each committee is accountable to the Leadership Team and to the congregation.

The term of office will be one year. Members may be reelected for additional terms.

Comments

  1. Living Hope Fellowship relies completely on everyone involved to participate in our fellowship through using our gifts, supporting each other, asking for support, and developing our gifts corporately for we are all servants of each other.
  2. We should strive to undertake our tasks in the church with humility, openess, wisdom, sensitivity, flexibility, discernment, and with seriousness about obeying fundamental principles in the scriptures.
  3. Consideration should also be given to our need for accountability to the larger body of Christians.
  4. This document is designed to be revised to reflect the organizational structure of the Fellowship. Our structures should be viewed as tools to achieve the goals of the fellowship and are expected to evolve as our fellowship changes.

Approved as amended at the congregational meeting January 17, 1998