2011 has been a busy and productive year for our team. Larry Craig and Frank Kim added diverse experience and links to large portions of our worldwide fellowship through their home churches and mission work fields. This year an elder from the Hong Kong church will be invited to join our group and increase our international participation as more elders and elderships are beginning to be trained and appointed worldwide. Training is currently being pursued by churches in Europe, Mexico, Asia and the Ukraine in hopes of appointments within the next year. We solicit reports of new elder appointments and eldership establishment so we can be aware of how the Spirit is working! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our committee designated five sub-committees and chairpersons to divide the labor and focus among us in the following areas. Marriage and Family \u2013 Sam Laing chair; Elder Training and Appointments \u2013 Al Baird; Eldership Development \u2013 Wyndham Shaw; Conflict Resolution \u2013 Walter Evans; Maintaining the Unity of the Spirit \u2013 John Brush; Elder\u2019s Wives Committee – Jeanie Shaw\/Gloria Baird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Elders committee was asked to plan the Married Ministry Track at the World Discipleship Summit in San Antonio. The theme \u201cThe Heart of The Mountain\u201d was chosen to emphasize \u201cthe heart connections\u201d needed to build faithful and fruitful families! Major speeches for age appropriate parenting, being Godly spouses and parents are planned along with multiple classes on the \u201cHow to\u201d of both roles. Also classes on effective outreach and ministry to married couples are planned. All of these topics will be addressed by some of our best speakers in these areas from around the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In seeking to \u201cMaintain the Unity of the Spirit,\u201d the group has worked with the Teachers team to develop principles and process for keeping unity around controversial Bible topics. While these need to be addressed within and among our churches we want to be wise in how it is done to avoid unnecessary conflict. Our hope is to see a proposal from the Teachers discussed by them, the Elders and Evangelists committees in March of next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with training being done by local Evangelists in Families of Churches the Bairds and Shaws continue to offer training workshops for churches with less experienced elders available to them. Six or more churches are pursuing elder appointment processes in Europe alone! Elder\u2019s wives are asked to participate in this training to enable unified couples to be developed in fulfilling the roles of elders and their wives in the local church!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally we are developing a rationale and template for requesting outside mediation in a congregation! We have been invited into a number of congregations for help with various conflicts and from these experiences and the Scriptures want to develop a pattern of engagement that respects all involved but seeks to prevent Satan from dividing disciples at any relational level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wyndham Shaw, Chair — Boston<\/b>
Al Baird — Los Angeles
Bill Hooper — Dallas
Israel Ereola — Lagos
Jeff Balsom — Chicago
John Brush — South Florida
Ron Brumley — Seattle
Sam Laing — Athens, Georgia
Walter Evans \u2013 Philadelphia
Frank Kim \u2013 Denver
Larry Craig \u2013 New York
Dan Liu \u2013 Hong Kong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2011 has been a busy and productive year for our team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":23040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[387],"tags":[399],"post_folder":[357],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","tag-service-team-reports"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/pexels-photo-1029141.jpeg?fit=1600%2C1066&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Sunday Awolowo","author_link":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/author\/sawolowo\/"},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phsvEw-2V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/2012-icoc-elders-service-team-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":0},"title":"2012 ICOC Elders Service Team Report","author":"Sunday Awolowo","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"2012 has been a year of good progress in terms of the objectives of the Elders Service Team for the International Churches of Christ.\u00a0 We seek to pursue elder appointments, eldership development, conflict resolution and unity among our churches and to strengthen marriage and families in our fellowship! 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In the last few years, there have been elderships appointed in several families of churches outside of the United States. This trend is continuing as three new elders were appointed in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/church-buildingelderships.jpg?fit=300%2C461&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":142,"url":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/shepherds-building-unity\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":3},"title":"Shepherds Building Unity","author":"Sunday Awolowo","date":"March 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed:\u00a02Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers\u2014not because you must, but because you are willing, as God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":210,"url":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/elders-service-team-update-june-2012\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":4},"title":"Elders Service Team Update June 2012","author":"Sunday Awolowo","date":"June 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Elders Service Team seeks to continue fulfilling our role to bring focus and expertise in Elder and Eldership development to the International Churches of Christ. We are encouraged by the number of churches outside the US who are actively involved in training elder candidates for the role. 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