Leadership

Greenville Oaks Church of Christ
Kingdom Leadership Model

 Background

In 2010 the Leadership Development Team (Greg Coffman, Shane Gower, Tim Olree, Rex Taylor, Matt Mazza, Keith Maloney, Galon Jones, Ian Fair and Harold Tidwell) evaluated how the Greenville Oaks Church body was being led. Through this process many strengths and a number of weaknesses were identified. A few key strengths included:

  • High level of congregational respect and trust in the elders and ministers
  • High level of unity, respect and trust between elders and ministers
  • Philosophy of collaborative teamwork between elders and ministers
  • Elders and ministers with humble hearts committed to serve
  • Many very dedicated and effective ministry leaders, small group leaders and teacher
  • The Admin Team function
  • Engage 1:8 and GO Serve teams
  • Experience of the elders’ teaching during the 2008 elder selection process
  • Going BEYOND vision provides foundation for substantial spiritual growth

This focus on leadership also revealed areas that needed improvement to more effectively help Greenville Oaks achieve its mission of seeking all who need Jesus and together become his fully devoted followers. Weaknesses in our leadership model included:

  • Expectation that elders provide direct shepherding care for all member families (too few elders and too many families to be effective)
  • Elder effectiveness compromised by engagement in too many ministries and meetings
  • Leadership’s lack of time and energy to study and address important biblical understanding and directional issues
  • Poor means of identifying and developing additional leaders
  • Unclear or non-existing lines of accountability
  • Not viewed as providing inspirational leadership

To leverage our leadership strengths and improve in our areas of weakness, the following multifaceted “Kingdom Leadership” model was adopted in early 2011.  

 “Kingdom Leadership” Model Overview

Our new leadership model is designed to enable and support a laser-like focus on our mission. This model is not about managing functions to simply do church more efficiently. Leaders of the Greenville Oaks church accept the responsibility to ensure the various functions and ministries of the church are executed with excellence and are well managed, but managing is not at the heart of our leadership model or responsibility. Leading people into ever deepening relationships within the Kingdom of God is the heart of our leadership model.

Greenville Oaks is about freeing lives from the traps of the fallen world to peaceful and secure lives in the Kingdom of God. Our leadership model must help turn the searching and uncommitted, as well as the nominally committed, into unashamedly committed, fully devoted followers of Jesus. Therefore, everything we do, including how we lead, must be measured by its usefulness, effectiveness and contribution toward fulfilling our mission. This focus on the mission and our role in the Kingdom is why we are calling this leadership model “Kingdom Leadership.”

Unlike when we were a group of two or three hundred, one small team of ministry leaders or elders cannot directly oversee every aspect of leading the church. Therefore, our church and its elders now call on several groups to effectively lead God’s family at Greenville Oaks. The elders care for (shepherd) and oversee the overall spiritual well-being of the church family. To effectively shepherd the whole church, the elders must make disciples who lead others to be disciples. Therefore, they are primarily leaders of other leaders.

To dramatically extend the elders’ leadership of the congregation, they delegate authority and responsibility to the ministry staff for directing the ministries of the church. Collectively the elders and ministers encourage, develop and hold others accountable for leading individual ministries and small groups and teaching Bible classes.

Leadership of Greenville Oaks is guided by the Holy Spirit, informed by the written Word of God and accomplished through the collaborative effort of many dedicated teams. Greenville Oaks is an autonomous body of Christ followers who voluntarily submit themselves to the form of leadership that we believe is in accordance with Scripture and effective for our time and place.

The shared and collective purpose of all who serve in leadership is to maintain the church’s focus on our mission: to seek all who need Jesus and together become his fully devoted followers. Kingdom Leadership at Greenville Oaks is not the sole responsibility of any one group. This model recognizes and harnesses the unique value of multiple key leadership groups (Elders, Ministers, Ministry Leaders, Small Group Leaders and Adult Bible Class Teachers).

The following chart and descriptions summarize high-level roles and responsibilities for each group.

 Leadership Model Graphic

Elders

Guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, the elders are responsible for the overall spiritual health and growth of the church family. As a group, the elders perform many roles or wear many hats (i.e. elder/shepherd/bishop/pastor/teacher/leader), but each individual elder is not required to wear every hat.

A primary role that every elder does perform is to shepherd the congregation by leading and developing other leaders. This is accomplished as each elder intentionally engages in spiritually-forming relationships with a few other leaders. This engagement occurs as he performs his individual shepherding role. For example, when an elder visits a member in the hospital, he intentionally takes someone else with him who has an ability to care for people. In the process of serving the one in need, the elder seeks to recognize God’s working and point it out to the one who is serving with him.

Delivering on the elders’ overall responsibility requires the collective wisdom, skill, talent and leadership of all those who are called to serve as elders. However, since all elders are not created equally and are blessed with different God-given gifts and passions, the Greenville Oaks elders are grouped into three teams that enable their personal strengths to be leveraged and minimize unproductive use of their time. The teams are Pastoral Care Shepherding, Ministry Shepherding and Administrative Shepherding.

Pastoral Care Shepherding Team                     (Target = initially 4 Elders, future 5+ Elders)

This team is comprised of elders who desire and are gifted in providing pastoral care and leadership development. These elders support the pastoral care (hospital visitation, benevolence, HOPE at Greenville Oaks, etc.) ministry leaders and Small Group leaders who provide direct shepherding care for members. As the elders serve, they intentionally build spiritually-forming relationships with potential leaders by involving them in the delivery of pastoral care. This team shepherds the congregation and develops future leaders in two ways:

1.    Assured Care: This is achieved primarily through spiritually healthy relationships that are developed in small group communities where members care for each other. Working with the Spiritual Formation Minister, this team of elders assures that spiritual care is being provided for those involved in small groups by engaging and coaching small group leaders. This coaching may be one-on-one or in groups. Each elder in this team will concentrate on building spiritually-forming relationships with only one to three small group leaders.

2.    Provided Care: Provided care is defined as personal care given by the shepherds whether provided individually or as a group. Whenever possible, the elders providing this care will bring someone else with them for the purpose of leadership development. Provided care is both responsive and proactive.

Examples of responsive care include the following:

  • Invitation response care/prayer
  • Spiritual counsel
  • Encouragement and exhortation
  • Hospital visits, death in a family, baptism, etc.
  • Response to needs of members who are not in a small group or an active part of a ministry team

Examples of proactive care include the following:

  • Encourage members to be in a small group that provides assured care
  • New member visits with elders
  • Organized activities of encouragement designed to strengthen the weak, neglected, or struggling members of our Greenville Oaks family.
  • Follow-up with people who consistently are not at worship services

This team of elders meets monthly for the purpose of prayer, biblical reflection and encouragement. The Congregational Care and Spiritual Formation ministers participate in these meetings. The group shares about the pastoral care/leadership development situations they are actively involved in and encourage each other.


Ministry Shepherding Team                                       (Target = initially 3 Elders, future 7 Elders) 

This team is comprised of elders who desire and are gifted in developing leaders who are passionate about specific areas of ministry. These elders are aligned with major areas of ministry (Connect, Grow, Serve, Share, Honor, Youth, Children). They support the ministers and key ministry leaders by providing spiritual support and guidance to the men and women who lead the various ministries. Their support includes:

  1. Helping to establish and communicate vision, direction and priorities that focus all ministries on fulfilling the mission.
  2. Partnering with the ministers to coach and intentionally build spiritually-forming relationships with key ministry leaders to support their spiritual maturing.
  3. Periodically meeting with ministry teams to affirm, encourage and hold accountable.

As a Ministry Shepherding Team, these elders meet at least once a quarter with all the ministry staff for the purpose of prayer, biblical reflection and encouragement. They share about the shepherding/leadership development situations they are actively involved in and encourage each other.

Administrative Shepherding Team                        (Target = initially 2 Elders, future 3 Elders) 

This team is comprised of elders who desire and are gifted in the areas of administration, planning and leadership development. The Administrative Shepherding Team also includes the Senior Minister and Administrative Minister. These elders will invite others who have specific skills or capabilities to participate in the team. As these elders serve, they intentionally build spiritually-forming relationships with a few potential leaders by involving them in the delivery of administrative shepherding. This team of elders shepherds the overall congregation by:

  1. Facilitating the overall body of elders’ study and decision making process regarding biblical understanding, teaching and direction. This team researches, collects and organizes resources that aid the entire group of elders in effectively discerning God’s will for the Greenville Oaks family.
  2.  Directing other leaders in the development of structures, policies and procedures that facilitate the smooth and effective operation of the church.
  3.  Overseeing various support functions, such as: Finance, Facilities, Communications, Human Resources, Administration and Staff Development
  4.  Handling all business activities that are required of a corporate entity. For example, arranging for the execution of deeds, notes, deeds of trust, releases and other instruments or contracts necessary to acquire, improve or sell real property.
  5.  Serving as a clearing house that directs issues to the best team or individual for resolution.

This team meets monthly for the purpose of prayer, biblical reflection, conducting business and encouraging each other. They share about their administrative leadership efforts and the leadership development situations they are actively involved in and encourage each other.  

All Elders

Each team of elders trusts and empowers the other teams to perform their unique roles. Each team regularly communicates any and all pertinent information to the entire eldership and ministry staff.

All three teams are open teams. While made up of specific elders and certain ministerial staff and other leaders, any elder or minister is welcome in each team’s regular meetings. 

The whole group of elders commissions the search for and approves the hiring of all ministerial staff members.

The elder teams and the ministry staff meet together at least once a quarter to address issues of congregational direction and leadership development.

Individual elders may serve on individual minister advisory teams.

As they choose and are able, any elder may participate in additional activities such as leading a small group, teaching a Bible class, and serving in or leading a specific ministry.

Ministers

As a team, our full-time ministry staff is primarily responsible for leading and managing the ministries of the church (Connect, Grow, Serve, Share, Honor, Youth, Children). This is accomplished through the ministers’ direct effort and equally by their coaching and collaborating with volunteer ministry leaders. Each minister is responsible for planning, recruiting and developing leaders, preparing appropriate budgets and managing the implementation of their area of ministry. Each minister also encourages their ministry leaders and holds them accountable for fulfilling their commitments. They provide resources and experts to challenge and help ministry leaders go beyond just getting a traditional job done. The ministers partner with Ministry Shepherding Team elders to help ministry leaders maintain a focus on how their ministry contributes to achieving our mission. In the process of serving, the ministers, in partnership with the elders, intentionally strive to build spiritually-forming relationships that draw others closer to Christ and strengthen the Kingdom of God.

Collectively the ministerial staff coordinates and manages the effective scheduling and integration of all ministry activities to optimize the church’s ability to fulfill its mission in the Kingdom.

Each minister is supported in his or her leadership and development by a Minister Advisory Team. Each team consists of at least one elder, one key ministry leader from within his or her area of ministry and one other person. Each team provides ongoing counsel, feedback and direction to aid the minister in the successful leadership of his or her area of ministry.  

Ministry Leaders

Ministry leaders are chosen for their spiritual maturity, heart, skill and passion to serve God and his people in a specific area of ministry. Ministry leaders are men and women who help others grow spiritually as they use their ability of leading others to accomplish a ministry. A ministry leader may lead one ministry or partner with a minister to oversee a related family of ministries (i.e. Connect, Grow, Serve, Share, Honor, Youth, Children).

Ministry leaders’ responsibilities include:

  1. Dream about how his/her ministry can involve and help team members develop spiritually
  2. Develop annual plans for ministry activities and services that contribute to achieving the Mission and Vision of Greenville Oaks
  3. Develop a proposed budget necessary to implement the plan
  4. Work with the appropriate minister to implement the approved plan and budget
  5. Recruit team members to serve in the ministry
  6. Mentor and help each team member grow closer to God as they effectively perform their service

Ministry leaders who partner with a minister to lead a family of related ministries meet with each other at least once a month for prayer, planning and evaluation.

Small Group Leaders

Small group leaders are critical to the effective discipleship of the Greenville Oaks family. They provide the church’s front line of care and spiritual growth. Small group leaders shepherd their groups to build rich authentic relationships, in which group members:

1. Care for One another

  • Invest and cultivate deep relationships
  • Know each other in real and authentic ways
  • Practice the “One Another’s”

2. Partner for Spiritual Growth

  • Challenge others to take next faith steps
  • Call others to obedience to God’s Word
  • Encourage intimacy with Jesus

3. Partner for Kingdom Impact 

  • Pray for the lost and share one’s faith
  • Serve others

Small group leaders commit to participate in regular meeting prep classes and to periodically meet with the Spiritual Formation Minister and/or another mentoring elder or minster.

Adult Bible Class Teachers

Adult Bible Class Teachers lead the congregation through the effective communication of key principles and biblical teachings that instruct, encourage and challenge members in their spiritual growth and development. This group of men and women commit to participate in regular teaching prep classes and to periodically meet with the Spiritual Formation Minister and/or another mentoring elder or minster.

Three ESSENTIAL components are required for this Kingdom Leadership model to work:   

  1. The first is TRUST. As leaders, we must trust or empower one another to handle the role and responsibilities that they are gifted in and that they have been called to do. We must trust each other to serve within this role as godly shepherds and we must maintain an understanding of the priority that each role has as it serves the flock at Greenville Oaks.  Empowerment is essential in moving away from the “large group” leadership model.
  2. The second is COMMUNICATION. As leaders, we must communicate with each other to the very best of our abilities. One of the most powerful weapons that Satan uses against godly trust is lack of communication. In addition to regularly communicating within your individual teams, it will be important that at least once a quarter the entire eldership comes together for a time of sharing with one another. Special leadership meetings can be called on an as needed basis.
  3. The third component is DELEGATION. As both an eldership and a ministerial staff, we must become more comfortable delegating to one another and depending upon one another as we lead this church. So often, we shy away from asking one another for help because of over-responsibility. We either don’t ask for help and we end up overwhelming ourselves even more or we allow a willing spirit, but not necessarily a gifted heart, to serve. That in and of itself can be detrimental to a leadership team trusting each other and working together.

Greenville Oaks Shepherds

As all the elders seek first to be shepherds, we must remember that within the kingdom leadership model the primary focus is seeing opportunities to develop spiritually-forming relationships and identifying future leaders of God’s church. Again, that means we must stop seeing lost or hurting sheep as time consuming responsibilities that we focus all our attention on, but rather we see shepherding lost and hurting sheep as opportunities to develop a future leader. We must bring the future leader into the situation and walk alongside them as the shepherding situation is cared for. We must see the opportunities that God places before us to develop leaders along the way by engaging them and sharing kingdom leadership principles with them as we “do” our various elder roles.

 Download a one-page summary of Kingdom Leaderhsip Roles.