Jesus called out twelve people whom He entrusted His church with, a plurality in leadership. Of the many times church leadership is mentioned after Christ’s ascension, they all speak of the plurality in church leadership. From the birth of the church in Acts and throughout its growth, church leadership is placed in the hands of a group “of a team”. They are a group called out by God:
The leadership team desires to fulfill the same tasks given to the early church leaders. In praying about our church leadership model, we leaned on a scripture from Ephesians 4:11-16, which addresses unity and maturity in the church:
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
There are no scriptures suggesting one senior shepherd has been given everything necessary to equip and perfect a particular congregation. It was never God’s design for a single pastor to equip and build up the body alone.
Leaders are meant to collaborate and co-labor together in their special ministry gifts, and together serve, guide, gather, ground and guard God’s people. The early church is an amazing example of how we accomplish this. Accordingly, Heritage has structured a team of elders and leadership team members who join together to make up the fulness of the fivefold ministry - Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.
Our intent is to make sure these five ministry gifts are balanced on our leadership team as well as in our group of elders. Since people often have strengths in more than one area, leadership roles can be fluid, according to what God calls the group to do. Therefore, rather than having a “lead pastor” who is somehow expected to be good at and supervise everything, our collective teams lead our church instead.
Together, we all shoulder the vision and mission of Heritage. Together, we all pursue the Holy Spirit's direction in raising up others to be Christ followers.
- To know and be in relationship with the people of the church.
- To lead the church with grace and truth.
- To feed the church through Spirit-filled, Biblical teaching.
- To protect the church from false teaching.
- To be "lead" missionaries in their city.
The leadership team desires to fulfill the same tasks given to the early church leaders. In praying about our church leadership model, we leaned on a scripture from Ephesians 4:11-16, which addresses unity and maturity in the church:
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
There are no scriptures suggesting one senior shepherd has been given everything necessary to equip and perfect a particular congregation. It was never God’s design for a single pastor to equip and build up the body alone.
Leaders are meant to collaborate and co-labor together in their special ministry gifts, and together serve, guide, gather, ground and guard God’s people. The early church is an amazing example of how we accomplish this. Accordingly, Heritage has structured a team of elders and leadership team members who join together to make up the fulness of the fivefold ministry - Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.
Our intent is to make sure these five ministry gifts are balanced on our leadership team as well as in our group of elders. Since people often have strengths in more than one area, leadership roles can be fluid, according to what God calls the group to do. Therefore, rather than having a “lead pastor” who is somehow expected to be good at and supervise everything, our collective teams lead our church instead.
Together, we all shoulder the vision and mission of Heritage. Together, we all pursue the Holy Spirit's direction in raising up others to be Christ followers.