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Since our life as a church is based on responding to God's call as individuals and as a community, leadership comes from many sources. Key elements of our life together are coordinated and led by Seekers Church mission groups. All Seekers are encouraged to offer their gifts as they are led by the Holy Spirit. This creative diversity is guided by the Stewards and supported by the staff team (see below).
Formal decisions within Seekers Church are the responsibility of the Stewards. Considerable effort is made to involve all Seekers in formal and informal discussions that contribute to decisions by the Stewards. Issues are addressed from the pulpit; special meetings are held to seek out the views of all participants in the life of Seekers Church; discussions or classes are sponsored by the School of Christian Living; and conversations over coffee after worship often turn to the decisions facing the community. Our general traditions of openness and inclusion sometimes create the expectation that all who participate in the life of Seekers will be involved in all decisions, or at least the important decisions that shape the community. Two issues are at stake here. What gives Stewards the right to make the decisions? How should Stewards consult other Seekers before making decisions?
There are at least four ways to think about authority in Seekers Church:
The organization of Seekers Church, as adopted from the Church of the Saviour, flows from the Free Church tradition, where the leading of the Holy Spirit is crucial. We give priority attention to discerning and following God's call on us as individuals and as a community, and to developing and offering our gifts in service to others. Should conflict arise between individual Seekers or Seekers mission groups' understanding of their calls, it is the responsibility of the Stewards to prayerfully clarify the issues and discern the path toward a resolution.
Authority in Seekers Church also derives from the Biblical tradition. This is exemplified by preaching based on the common lectionary and daily attention to the inspiration and guidance of the Word as embodied in this community.
The authority of call is manifested by our mission groups, each with a particular call to nourish the life of the community or reach out to meet the deep needs around us. Mission group members share a corporate call, weekly disciplines and commitment to each other.
In Seekers Church, as in all faith communities that grew out of the Church of the Saviour, authority for the life of the community rests with Stewards. In the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, the commitment to membership as a Steward is an ordination to ministry that carries a commitment to support the faith journey of the community.
However, since the authority of the Holy Spirit, the Bible and God's call on our lives are God-given and subject to constant fresh understanding, we have not attempted a written description in this guide. The roles and responsibilities of our Stewards, and the path to making the commitment as a Steward of Seekers Church does warrant further description.
Stewards are those Seekers who have felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to commit themselves to discovering what it means to live out Gordon Cosby's vision of being "committed to Christ and one another in unlimited liability." The commitment and disciplines of our Stewards (previously known as Members or Core Members) are essentially unchanged from the description of "members" developed in the Church of the Saviour since it was founded in 1947. Stewards offer their service to the community in the form of support, guidance, and responsibility for Seekers Church as a legally incorporated organization. In Seekers Church, all Stewards are ministers of the church, and together serve as the board of directors of the church. They may seek licensing by governmental authorities to perform religious ceremonies such as weddings.
Anyone who attends Seekers Church may become a Steward, although the process usually takes several years of preparation, as described elsewhere in this publication. One of the reasons Seekers Church can welcome diversity and encourage informality within the community without losing the core of our identity and our sense of direction is the strength -- and length -- of the process for formally becoming a Steward.
High expectations of Stewards help to sustain continuity in the life of Seekers Church. We want to be responsive to the Holy Spirit, but we also want to test the validity of those who claim the Spirit's leading, whether the leading concerns an individual call or the direction of the community as a whole. The Stewards look for the marks of the Holy Spirit in decision making for the community, and expect each other to be prayerful and reflective about the information we offer. We hope that our emphasis on this deliberate, reflective process will protect us from the extremism that has often marked communities in the Free Church tradition. By placing the formal decision making in the hands of those who are fully committed to all elements of the life of the community, we hope to nurture both a dynamic reliance on the Holy Spirit, and a conservative reliance on reflection and accountability among the Stewards.
The explicit disciplines expected of Stewards may seem difficult, or peculiar to those whose reference point is the tradition of other churches or volunteer organizations. Yet, it is the authenticity of this intentional commitment to being Stewards that provides an important part of the foundation for authority in Seekers Church.
In the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, the commitment to membership as a Steward is an ordination to ministry that carries a commitment to support the faith journey of the community. Stewards are responsible for establishing policies for how Seekers Church uses its time, talent and financial resources. The Stewards serve many of the functions expected of trustees, elders, wardens or deacons in a more traditional Christian church. In addition to participating in the life of the community, Stewards meet monthly to address organizational issues and the spiritual health of the community. These extended evening meetings include worship, prayer, sharing and decision making. Most questions are resolved through discussion, prayer and consensus, although there is an occasional vote. Questions and matters of policy may be brought for decision by any Steward. The structure of each Stewards' meeting is developed by the Seekers staff team, working in cooperation with the moderator of the meeting.
Since Seekers Church functions on the basis of call rather than committee, many tasks normally expected of the "governing body" are performed by others who have a sense of leadership and growth in that particular area. Preaching, teaching of both adults and children, and organizing special community celebrations are often provided by Seekers who are not Stewards but who feel called to offer their gifts in a particular way for the health of the community. We welcome this diversity of gifts. Stewards are accountable to the entire congregation, and not merely to other Stewards.
Individual Seekers are called to becoming Stewards for different reasons. Some are primarily called to be servant leaders for the community and live out that call through membership as a Steward. For others, the call to serve as a Steward grows out of the search for a deeper sense of belonging to community and more accountability for the individual spiritual journey. Stewards often find that deeper level of belonging in relationships with other Stewards. For most, this deeper level of belonging is found in the mission group. For others, the larger size of the Stewards' group and the more explicit commitment to the ongoing life of the community are important to their sense of belonging.
Becoming a mature member of the Body of Christ grows from the practice of our love of Jesus Christ, of others, and of ourselves. Our Stewards embrace common disciplines which express that love and which are necessary for personal growth in Christ and for the building of the faith community. The common disciplines are:
- Adopted by Seekers Members in May 1987
- Revised by Seekers Stewards in June 2001
Seekers may take the commitment to membership as Stewards at any time during the year. All continuing Stewards recommit once each year, on the third Sunday in October. The recommitment process includes reflection on the call of Seekers Church, meditation, discussion in the mission group and with the spiritual director, and at least an hour in the sanctuary for reflection on the life of Seekers Church during the month before recommitment. Those who feel led to recommit read the Stewards' statement in unison during worship on Recommitment Sunday. Those who do not feel led to recommit are warmly encouraged to continue their participation in the life of Seekers Church. This annual recommitment helps each Steward be explicit and current in the level of their commitment to Seekers Church.
On some occasions, Stewards have requested a leave of absence from some or all of the disciplines of membership as a Steward. These requests are brought to the Stewards at a monthly meeting and discussed before the leave begins. Arrangements for continued accountability are developed based on each situation. These often include a continuing relationship with at least one Steward, occasional attendance at a Stewards' meeting during the period of absence, or some regular written or visual presence at the monthly meeting (brought by the linking Steward). A definite period for the leave of absence is established at the beginning, so that all Stewards will have a common expectation about the length and reasons for the absence. At the end of the scheduled time, the absent Steward returns to a Stewards' meeting to report on the absence, and to take whatever next steps are appropriate. Since individuals themselves choose to be Stewards and work with a process to claim that choice, it is appropriate that individual Stewards do the same for a leave of absence -- choose for themselves as part of a process that involves the other Stewards.
Any leave of absence ends before the next scheduled recommitment date, so that all Stewards are free to choose between recommitment and leaving the core group of the church.
Stewards may choose not to renew their commitment, choosing to return to a less formal relationship with Seekers Church, or to leave the community. While we mourn such a decision, it is accepted as part of the process of balancing the spiritual development of each individual with the spiritual development of the community as a whole.
Since our beginning as a separate congregation, Seekers Church has called forth from its membership individual Stewards who serve as coordinators and support staff for the community. These Stewards serve on a regular, part-time basis and are paid by Seekers Church. The role of the staff team is to encourage leadership from all Seekers, rather than to provide leadership for the life of the community.
The primary call to staff leadership in Seekers Church is focused in two areas:
The tasks of the staff team to support the life of Seekers Church in these two areas can be grouped into seven general categories: worship, encouragement/empowerment, mission group life, children's program, theology embodiment/spiritual growth, administration and special events. As a team committed to collective leadership of the whole, more than one member of the staff team is involved in many of the detailed tasks in each of these areas.
In September 2001, when this edition of the Members' Guide was published, the members of the Staff team were Peter Bankson and Kate Cudlipp.
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