We The Church..

Last night, our Plans and Policies Committee met to begin a revision of our constitution and by-laws. I am very excited about this. What we do in this committee will shape our Church for years to come. Here are some of the things that we are attempting to do.

1. Write a new Church Covenant.

We have a covenant now, but it is a generic one published by LifeWay. We are going to expand it, make it more "us", and we are going to require that one assent to it before one can join our membership.

2. We will change the requirements to join the Church.

This is related to number one. We will require that a person go through a "New Member" class before one can join. In this class, I will teach basic introductory theology and explain the Church Covenant. Currently, all one has to do is come to the front, give a profession of faith and admit to being credo-baptized. This is a terrible way to take in new members.

3. We will write a job description for the student pastor.

When the by-laws were written, the church had no student pastor. Last week, we had 37 students show up for an event. That is amazing considering we have 135 total attendance on Sunday morning. The student pastor will be an expository pastor. His job is not to entertain, do lock-ins, or act like an adult who does not wish to grow up. The first two he can do, the latter will get him fired. The goal of the student pastor is to teach young people to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, mind, soul and strength, and to teach them to be contributing Church members. We want to structure the ministry in such a way that there will be no dichotomy between what happens on Sunday mornings and on "Student Night".

4. We will be creating a Council of Elders.

It will be the job of the elders to oversee the church. They will help me with discipleship, discipline, and encouragment of the flock. They will further help the deacons be aware of what needs the church has and will have the responsibility to direct them to the work.

I am so very excited about this, and I pray that the Lord will bless us to make this these transitions smoothly, wisely, and without quarreling. I have now been at FBC Plaquemine for two years. I now feel like we are finally getting started. May God bless us in this endeavor.