Leadership

Here at Grace, our leadership is broadly divided into two areas: the Church Board represents our administrative and policy-making wing of leadership while the Diaconate represents what is called ‘spiritual watchcare’. Each month the Diaconate meets to pray over the membership, and assess spiritual needs within the church family.

DIACONATE

The word “deacon” comes from the Greek word “diaconos” which literally means “servant”. As the early church grew, we find both men and women serving together in this role. In Romans 16:1, Paul commends Phoebe, “a servant [diaconos] of the church” and tells the Roman believers to “receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people.” Elsewhere, we find women fulfilling apostolic duties (Romans 16:7), prophetic duties (Acts 21:8-9), and teaching duties (Acts 18:26). For these reasons, we believe that both men and women can and should serve as spiritual leaders on our Diaconate, and be duly and fully recognized as such by the wider church family.

The Bible makes it clear that serving as a deacon or deaconess is a high and holy responsibility. Because of the nature of this position, a deacon or deaconess is not elected on the basis of church votes, but rather selected on the basis of recognizable qualities and maturity. Here at Grace, the pastor and Diaconate work together with Board oversight to select members for the committee.

CHURCH BOARD

Our Church Board is made up of the chairpersons of each of our ministry committees along with a few at-large members. Our ministry teams include the following:

• Christian Education: Grace will only be as healthy as our CE ministry. Having healthy, growing Sunday School classes and youth groups is a must. This ministry focuses on training, recruiting and staffing for our programs.

• Christian Nursery School: Grace’s nursery school has been a fixture in our community for two decades now. We’re very proud of this outreach, and countless families in Bristol have been touched by this ministry.

• Diaconate: This is our team of men and women who oversee the spiritual health of the church.

• Finance Committee: We’d be sunk without good people on this committee, helping us keep our financial house in order. Keeping our bills paid, our budget on line, and laying the groundwork for future growth is part of what this team does.

• HUGS: HUGS stands for Hospitality, Ushers, Greeters, and Security. This ministry is something we cannot take for granted. First impressions count, and our HUGS volunteers are on the front lines.

• Missions: Our passion for missions must grow as Grace grows. In addition to connecting us to the missionaries we support, this committee looks to raise up missionaries right here through short term projects.

• Outreach Committee: A team with the privilege of planning events geared toward being a visible presence in our community and touching them with the love of Christ.

• Trustees: Anything touching our property touches our trustees: fire alarms, gym heat, parking lots. These are the Tim Allen’s of Grace (grunt-grunt)

• Worship Arts: This team plans the use of the arts for worship services and other church events. More than just music, this team looks to incorporate drama, paintings, photographs, dance, etc. into our services.

• Members At Large: These individuals serve as an independent voice on the board, help with special projects that come up throughout the year, and also serve as a liaison between the congregation and the pastors/leaders