A GUIDE TO LAY LEADERSHIP
What is a “Lay Leader”?
A “Lay Leader” is a member of Revolution’s governing “Leadership Team,” which is jointly responsible for:
Praying for God’s direction at Revolution
Developing actionable plans for pursuing the mission of this church (which is to give God glory by sharing the Gospel with others, discipling the members of this local body, and striving to share God’s love, grace, and hope with everyone in our city)
Providing pastoral care for the people of our church
Effectively stewarding the resources of the church
Ensuring that the teaching at Revolution is sound, responsible, and challenging
Providing accountability for the lead pastor in his/her responsibilities of implementing the vision of the church through the work of the church staff and adherence to an approved budget
These responsibilities are drawn from the counsel of Paul, Peter, and the other apostles to the churches of the first century, who emphasized the responsibilities of leadership as teaching, shepherding, and overseeing the health of separate church communities. Each Lay Leader at Revolution has a specific area of additional oversight, descriptions of which are in the next section.
What are the Roles of Lay Leaders at Revolution?
Each Lay Leader is responsible for investing intentionally in his/her area of oversight through prayer, serving as a “shepherd” to volunteers and team leaders under their care, and working with the Lead Pastor to ensure health.
The areas of oversight include (open roles are in bold):
Church Life: this area of oversight includes the encouragement of a healthy church culture that exists beyond Sunday gatherings and weekly groups and fosters real and meaningful friendships.
Community Engagement: this area of oversight includes the development and maintenance of meaningful relationships between the community of our church and the broader communities of Annapolis, including the communities of local churches, local non-profit organizations, commerce, government, and the vibrant and diverse neighborhoods of our city.
Discipleship: this area of oversight includes the development, implementation, and improvement of a system for encouraging spiritual growth in the lives of those in our community who are Christ followers, while also ensuring that there are safe spaces in our church community for people who have not made that commitment to Christian faith where they are able to safely ask questions and explore faith.
Finances: this area of oversight includes the development and implementation of an annual budget that rightly reflects the values of our church community, including a spirit of real generosity, a desire to have a meaningful and positive impact on our community, and a passion for introducing others to the hope that can be found in a relationship with Jesus.
Generosity: this area of oversight includes the maintenance of a fund for internal and external benevolence, as well as the pursuit of larger-scale events and initiatives that can allow Revolution to play a part in blessing the lives of everyone in our city.
Sunday Services: this area of oversight includes the creation, maintenance, and care of a welcoming environment where both Christians and non-Christians can gather to learn about Christian faith and experience corporate worship.
How Often (and When) Do Lay Leaders Meet?
The Leadership Team meets no less than once per quarter. It can meet more frequently, as church business demands. The purpose of quarterly meetings is to discuss and make decisions about any and all business of the church affecting multiple areas of oversight: so, items like the annual budget fall under the purview of such meetings, as well as issues of pastoral care and the Lead Pastor or staff’s performance. Meetings prioritize prayer, listening, cooperation, and unity.
How Long Do Lay Leaders Serve?
Lay Leaders serve for a term of three (3) years. Lay Leaders can choose to leave their term early, in which case a replacement Lay Leader will be selected by the leadership team to complete the current term.
The selection process begins each fall/winter in our annual Family Meeting when scheduled openings for the upcoming year are announced and the roles and responsibilities for those openings are reviewed. People interested in these roles are encouraged to speak with the leadership team, and a reasonable deadline for receiving completed applications is established. After all applications are received, the leadership team will begin interviews with candidates with the expectation that a final vote will be held prior to the first leadership team meeting in Quarter 1 of the following year.
Selected Lay Leaders will be announced to the church body prior to this first meeting of the leadership team, and a high value is placed on openness and transparency throughout this process.
What are the Requirements for Selection?
Lay Leadership positions will be open to any committed participants in our church community who express: 1) a desire to serve, 2) feel passionate about the specific area of oversight the position involves, 3) can demonstrate sufficient qualifications for expertise in this area, 4) and meet the requirements for leadership listed in the existing By-Laws, regardless of their sex. Lay Leadership positions are restricted to adults who both profess and model Christian faith.
Lay Leaders are intended to meet the same qualifications as those found among the members of the first Christian churches. These criteria are laid out by the apostle Paul in his letters to Timothy (1 Timothy 3:2-7) and Titus (TItus 1:6-9) and collected within the New Testament of the Bible. They can be summarized as follows:
Above reproach – Lay Leaders must lead by example and demonstrate a lifestyle free of patterns of sin.
Husband of one wife – if married, must be a devoted spouse.
Temperate – Lay Leaders must be self-controlled, enslaved to nothing, free from excesses.
Prudent – Lay Leaders must be sober, sensible, wise, balanced in judgment, not given to quick, superficial decisions based on immature thinking.
Respectable – Lay Leaders must demonstrate a well-ordered life and honorable behavior.
Hospitable – Lay Leaders must be unselfish with their personal resources. They must be willing to share blessing with others.
Able to Teach – Lay Leaders must be able to communicate truth and sound doctrine in a non-argumentative way. To teach means to control the material and relate it effectively. It applies to lifestyle, as well as verbal communication.
Not addicted to wine – Lay Leaders must be free from addictions and willing to limit their liberty for the sake of others.
Not pugnacious or quick tempered – Lay Leaders must be gentle, patient and approachable, with the ability to handle difficult situations with a steady spirit. Lay Leaders must be able to handle their own anger honestly and maturely.
Uncontentious – Lay Leaders must not be given to quarrelling or selfish arguing.
Free from the love of money – Lay Leaders must not be stingy, greedy, out for sordid gain, or preoccupied with amassing material things.
Manage own household – Lay Leaders must have a well-ordered household and a healthy family life. Management ability at home will predict excellence in church management.
Not a new convert – Lay Leaders must not be new believers. They must have been Christians long enough to demonstrate the reality of their conversion and depth of their spiritual maturity.
Good reputation with outsiders – Lay Leaders must be well respected by unbelievers and free from hypocrisy.
Not self-willed – Lay Leaders must not be stubborn, prone to force opinions on others, or abuse authority. They must be servants.
Loving what is good – Lay Leaders must desire the will of God in every decision. Their choices must reflect a heart that loves God and people.
Just – Lay Leaders must desire to be fair and impartial. Their judgments must be based on Scriptural principles and Godly thinking.
Devout – Lay Leaders must be devoted Christ-followers seeking to be conformed to His likeness. They must be committed to prayer, worship, study of Scripture, leading in personal ministry, and guarding their own relationship with God.
Holding fast to the faithful Word – Lay Leaders must be stable and well versed in the faith, obedient to the Bible, and continually seeking to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
We know this list can seem overwhelming. However, because we recognize that the work the Holy Spirit begins in us when we come into a saving faith in Jesus is both ongoing and its outcome is guaranteed (Philippians 1:6), we desire to have leaders in our church who are committed to Christian growth above all. We expect that the Lay Leaders of our church are prayerful, humble, faithful, and known by the kindness they extend to others. These qualities should lead our leaders to look even more like this list of criteria at the end of their terms than they do at the beginning!
How Is a Lay Leader Selected?
The first step of selection is the completion of a Lay Leader application. The purpose of this step is to better know the individual and understand their passion for the specific area of oversight for which they are applying. After the application is complete, an interview is scheduled with the existing Leadership Team. That interview is meant to initiate the process of discerning how well the applicant fits the role at Revolution. Follow-up interviews are possible, but the end result is a vote on the part of the Leadership Team. The goal is for all votes on new members to be unanimously approved, at which point the applicant would join the team at the next quarterly meeting.
Why the term “Lay Leader”?
We believe that this term communicates two important parts of the role: a Lay Leader is a layperson in the church, which is to say they are not ordained and set apart from the paid staff (over which the Lead Pastor has authority). However, they are also leaders of the church, in that they are co-equal in authority within the church with the Lead Pastor and play critical roles in the church’s governance and planning. Although the term “lay-” is not common in non-denominational traditions like Revolution’s, it is an ancient title in the broader church. Using the term “lay leader” helps to remind us that we are not inventing our model of governance out of thin air: we are adapting the long history of the church to our current context.
Why not the term “Elder”?
We have decided not to use the term “elder,” which is the most common title in non-denominational church governance models for positions of oversight, for two reasons: first, we believe that our calling is to be a church that explains, meaning that we want the words, practices, sacraments, and titles at Revolution to make sense on their surface whenever possible, and when that can’t be done, we want to prioritize explaining ourselves. We don’t want to obfuscate or confuse people, and our assessment is that the term “elder” is not immediately understandable in its connotations to a person who has no background in the church. Rather than conferring a sense of authority or a connection to the church of the first century, it comes across as a word referring either to a person’s age or to their status within a tribe. As the most accessible term for what people in this position of authority are doing is “leadership,” we wanted to use the term “leader” to refer to them. Second, we believe that the term “elder” is unnecessarily provocative for those who do have a background in non-denominational church governance models. At our present moment in history, many churches and denominations are wrestling with whether or not the letters of Paul permit “elder” roles to be held by women. If we were to use the term “elder,” it would be impossible to maintain an apolitical stance in this contemporary debate: whether we did or did not invite the women in our church community to serve in this role, we would be taking a side...and, consequently, causing those who disagree with us to feel condemned. Our understanding of the Restoration Movement (of which Revolution is a descendent) presses us to extend grace in matters of conviction and faith that do not immediately pertain to our beliefs about God, Scripture, Jesus, or the Resurrection. The “Egalitarian” vs. “Complementarian” debate is not such an issue, and although we have made a decision in our own church about the roles in which women are encouraged to serve, we do not want our decision to cause strife or consternation with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
To summarize: the word “elder” is not a precise description of the role we have identified; the word “elder” is unclear on its face in our current cultural context; and the word “elder” can foster division along the faultlines of contemporary church politics.