Deacons Meetings - not a bashing thread!

In another thread, Brother rbell contributed the following:

Our monthly deacon's meetings are about...

5 minutes devotional;
15 minutes minister's reports;
5-15 minutes Lord's supper plan (depends on if it's coming up right away);
20 minutes Deacon ministry teams reports (ours choose from several ministries and serve there--from homebound to new member assimilation to several other things)
20 minutes visitation reports (our deacons visit all our church visitors that give us a record of attendance; plus they visit any person who joins. Between these two groups of folks, they saw over 350 folks last year)
20-40 minutes prayer for our church and its needs.

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As pastors, how do we guide deacons who are well-meaning, but somewhat "disfunctional" to have well organized and effective meetings?

I appreciate the input from rbell on the subject. How are the deacons meetings at your church broken down?

Our deacon's meetings usually go like this:

* devotional led by one of the deacons (5 mins)

* Review of the minutes from the previous meeting (5-10 mins)

* Pastor's report (5-10 mins)

* Youth Pastor's report (5-10 mins)

* Review of any old business (10 mins)

* Discussion of new business (10 mins)

* Disucussion of ministries--current status and direction needed for the next month (10 mins)

* Prayer requests & Prayer time (10-20 mins)

Been out of the "circle" for about two years now but may step in again next December, God willing.

Our deacons should probably be called elders.
...But I'm part of the 'gang of four' that's working through that as we update our old church constitution.

Our deacon meetings are lead either by the Senior pastor or the Chairmen of the deacon board.

A meeting agenda is e-mailed to the deacons a few days before the meeting.

One of the deacons is asked to open in prayer.

About twenty minutes to an hour is spent on action items. Things that need to be done or things that need a decision in a timely manner.

During the next part of the meeting we hear reports on various ministries and events.
Finances, Day-care, maintenence, missions, education/Sunday school and the such.
This includes a time of evaluation.
Did the event work?
Was it worth the cost?
Did we make an impact for Christ?
Should we do it again?
How can we do it better? etc.

We spend an hour of so on discussion items.
This time concerns future plans or brainstorming over problem areas that we need to work on.

Closing prayer

*********************

Over-all meeting time 2-3 hours (on a good day).

Deacons have scheduled meeting monthly but many times gather (or e-meet) for emergency items.

We have a deacons prayer meeting each Friday morning at 6am.
It is well worth time! Great fellowship!
Some of the men are able to go for breakfast with the pastor following the meeting.

Rob

Deacon: "Over-all meeting time 2-3 hours (on a good day)."

Our church used to have those length meetings, but we have since repented

Our meetings are much shorter, but I'm not saying that Deacon's way is the wrong way. Far from it...but I AM saying that my backside appreciates our shorter meeting times!

Seriously...there's a few reasons the deacon's meetings in our church went from 2-3 hours to 90 minutes (sometimes less)...

-We had a lot of meetings because our church had a serious lack of leadership for a while. No longer a problem. The areas that the deacons had to be "hands on" are now covered by responsible leadership (staff and congregation).

-Our church grew to the point that we are more staff-directed than we were before. 4 years ago, I had to get the constitution changed in order to change the makeup of my student ministry committee. Now...if I want to change the committee's structure, I change it. Less red tape, but in a healthy sense.

-Our deacon leadership and pastor are more organized. The meetings are planned out better. Far fewer rabbits are chased now.

-Our deacons focus much less on administrative duties and much more on ministry duties. Finances, maintenance, and event evaluations are rarely discussed here.

But that's just us. Deacon's plan may work like a charm for them.

Does anyone want to go here: A board of deacons who are also F&AMs--how is that for a polity problem?

Selah,

Bro. James

Originally posted by Bro. James:
Does anyone want to go here: A board of deacons who are also F&AMs--how is that for a polity problem?

Selah,

Bro. James

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I don't understand. F&AM?

Those who worship GAOTU.

Call up GAOTU on the www.

Free? and Accepted Masons(specializing in millstones).

Selah,

Bro. James

hmm...none at our church.

I'll have to check, though...we might have some
Enslaved and Unaccepted Masons. But I doubt that we have any of those either.

we have one Mason serving as a deacon...and he is actually the least of my worries since he is serving faithfully and not trying to run the church like another deacon.

Bro. James said:

Does anyone want to go here: A board of deacons who are also F&AMs--how is that for a polity problem?

Selah,

Bro. James

Click to expand...

Bro James,

In my former church about 10 years ago we had several in the deacons. We began to study the issue and came to the conclusion that the teachings of the lodge were in conflict with the Scripture. We asked them to leave the lodge or they would be removed as a deacon. Sadly, only one did. The rest tried to get the church to turn against me, it did not work. They left and we were better for it. Unfortunately, they went to another Baptist church to do their dirty work there. We did not send a letter of recommendation when asked we told the church that they left without repentance and we could not recommend them. The church accepted them anyway and in a few years had many problems from this group.

Bro Tony

Just a question.

Would it be better if churches got some elders to administrative, so deacons could do serving?

Just thinking.

I do agree with you on that, i do think baptist churches would be better off with both deacons and elders...especially since the deacons tend to not be doing ministry and are instead doing administrative work.

I wish i could tell you of a baptist church that is operating that way, but i really don't know of any. I do know that Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY does have both deacons and elders (and a few 1000 baptists worshipping with them each weekend), and has a pretty succesful ministry.

in HIS grip
bobbyd