Using a Discernment model for church nominating committees

A nominating committee is looking for elders, deacons, or perhaps for persons to serve on a pastor nominating committee. How does it go about its work? If your church is like most, the committee meets, begins with a brief prayer, then starts to work their way through the church directory, figuring out who has served, is serving, or may be qualified and willing to serve in the future. In many ways, the model we use in our churches is a “board of directors” model. We look at a person’s time, talents, and resources – and nominate accordingly. If it weren’t for that prayer at the start and end of the meeting, you could transplant our process to almost any non-profit organization.

At a pre-presbytery event in September, we were introduced to another way of doing the business of the nominating committee: a discernment model. In this five-meeting-model prayer is central. And, often the committee is done with their work after only five meetings. Intrigued? We would love to introduce you and your nominating committee to this process. Just let us know!