Deacons

State of the Church and Leadership Changes 

  • Where is the church now? 
    • Our church as a whole, in spite of Covid, has done very well and God has blessed us immensely through it all. However, since 2019, we have noticed that our church growth and discipleship of new and current believers has become stagnant. After much discussion between the pastoral and leadership boards at the time, we determined that changes in our leadership model could help us better meet our vision of helping people Know Jesus, Grow in their relationship with Jesus, and Show Jesus off more. Currently, our model of Leadership is what is called Pastoral Lead model. This model has served the church well over the years but if our church wants to keep moving towards our vision of know, grow, and show, we must adapt. The problem with this model is that for the most part, the pastor or pastors were expected to disciple and equip the congregants of the church and the two boards we have, trustees and deacon, were there to help with day to day decisions as well as meet some needs of our members as well as community.

       The problem with this model is that the 1-3 pastors on staff are not able to disciple everyone in our church as well as there families at home. When I say disciple that means we are to live life alongside one another and help each other become better followers of Jesus. In order to solve this we want to start equipping and empowering our leaders and members of the church to be better disciple makers. We want to help our people to be doers of Gods Word (James 1:22-25), and one of the biggest commandments we receive from Jesus is the commandment, 

“go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”Matthew 28:18-20 NLT

So where do we go from here? 

Leadership Changes

  • Move to a more team driven model of leadership and discipleship 
      • If we want our church to explode with Disciplemakers we need the leaders of the church taking the first step and working together in the ways God has gifted each of us. So for starters, there will no longer be a head pastor role. Rather, we will have multiple pastors each with the title that portrays the role in which they serve the church. So we may for example have a family ministries pastor, a teaching pastor, a worship pastor, or a pastor of small groups. The reason for this change is so that no one person or pastor can claim the church as their own. We want the members and community to know that it’s not pastor Tim’s, Travis’s, or Jake’s church it is each person’s who attends church. It allows for more ownership for the body that makes up NEBO. 
      • This also means that our boards needed to change because both boards were functioning as biblical deacons. This term deacon means to assist the Pastors to serve and meet the needs of those within our church and also community. Because of this, we thought it would be best to combine the boards then break them down into teams filled with devoted followers of Jesus who are committed to seeing Jesus transform their own lives and others around them. Each team will then have a leader who will help develop and equip their team to do three main things. 1. Serve, 2. Disciple, 3. Grow 

        You can see the teams, expectations, and responsibilities of the deacons later in the report. 

We believe that in doing this it will help us empower the movers and shakers to grow in their relationship with God, show Jesus to our community, and help others come to know about Jesus. 

 

Deacon Expectations

  • Committed to attending training seminars
  • Committed to attending leadership council meetings
  • Committed to unity in the church and on your team
  • Committed to Discipling 1 individual throughout the year
  • Committed to being a follower of Jesus
  • Member of Nebo Baptist Church
  • Committed to our Church Vision of helping people know Jesus, grow in Jesus, and show Jesus off to others
  • Committed to authority of the Bible over every area of life
  • Committed to daily time with God
  • Committed to attending worship regularly in person or online
  • Committed to supporting the church

 

Team Leader Role

  • Attend monthly team leader meetings with the pastoral team
  • Check in with team members at least on a monthly basis
  • Disciple the team members of their group
  • All team members go to the team leaders with any concerns they have.
  • All Church members can also go to team leaders for any concerns they have

 

Team Responsibilities

*These lists are not all inclusive and are subject to change as needed

Finance Team

  • Meeting monthly to discuss
  • Monthly financial reports
  • Deacon Fund
  • Investments and expenditures
  • Disciple 1 person

Facilities Team

  • Maintaining all church properties
  • Scheduling repairs if needed or volunteers to help repair work
  • Schedule church Work Days
  • Disciple 1 person

Service Team

  • Supervising the hospitality team
  • Food Giveaway
  • Events such as Trunk or Treat, Mother’s Day Brunch, and Father’s Day Brunch (which could include recruiting volunteers with Pastoral Team help)
  • Working closely with Careportal ministries
  • Disciple 1 person

Prayer Team

  • Participating in Prayer Time Live
  • Scheduling/ facilitating Prayer Walks
  • Helping with Healing Services
  • Overseeing prayer card ministry
  • Aiding in Encouragement Card writing when needed
  • Disciple 1 person

Visitation Team

  • Phone calls/visits to shut-ins and inactive members
  • Give communion to shut-ins when possible
  • Help to give rides to church when needed
  • Disciple 1 person

 

Current Team Members  

Finance Team

  • Cliff Muench – Lead
  • Ron May – Secretary
  • Shelby Munson
  • Patty Dinelli
  • Sandy Wheeler
  • Bob Bray

 

Facilities Team

  • Bob Donahue – Lead
  • Dave Golobek

 

Service Team

  • Brianna Avery – Lead
  • Lynda Hannis
  • Kevin Gibson
  • Jacci Mosley
  • Patti Smith

 

Prayer Team

  • Debbie Muench – Lead
  • Sallie Suchar – Lead
  • Luanne Evans
  • Florian Suchar
  • Paul Fuller

 

Visitation Team

  • Fran Stauffer – Lead
  • Lisa Hanley
  • Bob Harding
  • Steve Moleski
  • Bob Sincavage