Background to the inaugural conference

The Newfrontiers family was born out of a time when many churches and leaders felt restricted by the system, structures and policies in place. There was a sense that the diaconate and trustees ruled - They were the old guards, and nothing could happen without their say so. In addition to this, there was a growing and legitimate awareness that the church is God’s family, not a business, and the Holy Spirit is at work in people's lives. This meant that we had a desire not to be shackled to box ticking & policies, instead we want to prioritise people over procedures. Of course, we still made every effort where possible to operate in accordance with regulations & best practice.

The Changing World of today

Fast forward 30-40 years and the landscape has changed significantly. Culture demands a lot of accountability, which can only really be provided where there are robust systems, and we find that we are now so used to doing things as friends and family that we either don’t always have these processes or, where we do, we don’t know what they are or follow them well. After countless news stories of leadership scandals and bad stewardship, we now live in a world that looks at the church suspiciously, almost waiting for or expecting us to slip up. The message they hear of the church isn’t the gospel of her perfect groom Jesus Christ, instead it’s that, ‘churches and Christian charities are the worst’ as a barber once said to me.

If we are to change the expression of Christianity across the globe and see thousands of lives transformed, then we need to ensure that those who come in contact with us, see that the church not only preaches the good news, but lives it out in our leadership.

What has this got to do with governance you say?

Our first conference focused on governance

On Saturday, 11 May, in sunny Bournemouth, we gathered about 100 of us from across our Commission family of churches to think about this a little. We invited Steve Blaber, from Grace Church, Chichester, and Stephen Mathews, from Grace Church, Salisbury (and the Christian charity Stewardship), to share about the responsibilities of elders and trustees in the church, what is expected of them by law and what the Bible calls them to do.

We were reminded amongst other things that:

Team is key. This is true both within the eldership and the trusteeship and that together, elders and trustees are on the same team.
It is important to ‘know your call’
Character can not be taught, humility and teachability are vital

And we were helped to see that:

The health (emotional and physical) of our leaders affects all areas of church life
There are legal responsibilities and expectations on us as charities
Our stewardship of the church as a charity has significant impact on the gospel being heard and believed

Elders and Trustees together

It was an excellent day together with times of questions and response, as well as an opportunity to meet other trustees and elders from other Commission churches. In addition to this, trustee and eldership teams had an opportunity to sit together to discuss some very helpful topics as one team.

Question and Response

During the day, we also had some time to respond to some very important questions. You can find some of those questions and the responses to them written up in a PDF for you to download here.

What next?

As a family of churches, we are keen that all we do and how we do it is for the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour. Therefore, I urge you, if you are an Elder or a Trustee of a church, or you work closely with them on matters regarding Leadership and Governance, take seriously the call and the responsibility you carry. Ensure that you understand your responsibilities and get equipped to fulfil them by:

Reflecting on these self assessment questions
Arrange a meeting with your teams to agree a plan together
Watch and listen back to the sessions from the day (links made available to delegates)
Consider what topics you need help with in your context
Reach out and connect to other Trustees and Elders who might be able to assist
Reach out to me with any follow up questions you have: pelumi@commission.global

Thank you for attending this conference and we look forward to seeing you again.

Blessings,

- Pelumi and the Leadership & Governance team

Leadership & Governance 2024