Hello Village Church family and friends!
I pray this finds you well, resting in the grace and trusting in the promise of our Savior and Lord.
At The Village Church, we believe that the leadership and oversight of the church, as laid out by God in His Word, is given to elders. The term elder is synonymous in the New Testament with the word pastor and the job of shepherding; guiding and caring for the people of God gathered together in a specific locale. Moreover, we believe that God clearly shows in His Word that a plurality of elders is the most ideal and effective means of leading and overseeing the church.**
Elders are charged with the leadership and oversight of the church, but they are not rulers; they are servant leaders. Though tasked, by God with overseeing the spiritual care of God’s people and the management God’s property among them, an elders primary responsibility is to labor in the ministry of the Word and prayer; to “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9).
The Village Church began with a plurality of elders in 2017. However, as the church is the Lord’s and as he places its members as he chooses, he called two of our three elders away for His purposes elsewhere. For the past two years I have been serving as a lone elder in The Village Church. As a church, we began praying for the addition of capable and qualified men who desire to shepherd God’s people in October of 2020. In January 2021, I took recommendations from the members of men that they felt led to have considered as possible future elders in the church and began biblical, pastoral examination of those men. One of the men put forward was our brother, Jon Collins.
After a season of examination and prayer, both pastorally and by the members, on Sunday, June 26th, at the quarterly member’s meeting of The Village Church, the members who gathered came together seeking God’s will in a decision regarding our brother, Jon Collins, and his potential eldership at The Village Church.
After several years of prayer on my part and more than two years of prayer as a church, after nearly two years of having only one elder, after a season of examination and prayer, and with nearly unanimous decision of the 38 members present this past Sunday, Jon Collins has been called to serve as an elder at The Village Church.
In fear and reverence before God, we accept this decision as his will for our church.
We are praising God for bringing us back to the biblical design of leadership in the church–a plurality of elders.
As I reminded those gathered on Sunday evening, the addition of one elder is not the end goal. "Great! It was one, now it's two; we're done." By no means! Now we continue praying and working and trusting that God will add, in his time, the next capable and qualified man desiring to serve our church as an elder.
I hope that you will join us this Sunday, July 3rd at 10am, as we pray over the Collins family and commit Jon to service in The Village Church as a pastor among us.
May God be glorified in his church at The Village!
In His service for you,
Grace & Peace,
Pastor John
You can reach pastor John at any time by email at jwhite@thevillagemi.com
**For biblical reference on:
>plurality see Exodus 18:21; Proverbs 11:14, 15:22, 24:6; Acts 5:6, 20:17; Titus 1:5
>the use of elder and pastor, also overseer, see Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:12; 1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Peter 5:12
>If you have further questions on elders in plurality, I’d be happy to talk with you and refer you to additional resources.