Fairfax Church of Christ

There is no task more important for a church than to choose her elders wisely. Both the Apostles Peter and Paul charge our elders solemnly with the responsibility of oversight and care of FXCC (Acts 20:28 and I Peter 5:2). And yet, there is no clear New Testament model for how to choose elders. We have developed a selection model that we believe will:

• Identify and call those men that God is preparing to serve as spiritual shepherds
• Create a common understanding of the role of elder at FXCC
• Work towards resizing the eldership to better enable the pastoral care and oversight responsibilities of church leadership.
• Provide an appointment / re-appointment mechanism that will facilitate sabbaticals (periods of rest), retirements, and the membership of FXCC to show ongoing support for existing elders.

In developing this new selection model, we benchmarked the models currently used by several churches of Christ near our size and compared them to the last two elder selection models used here at FXCC. To read more about this benchmarking exercise, see Benchmarking of Selection Models.

Our selection model is broken up into the four parts.

1. Education – this part began with a three week series of combined adult classes that included a discussion about servant leadership and our ministry model. We also spent time with the ministry leaders during the budget planning process to make sure everyone understood roles and responsibilities. Finally, we will continue the education part with a four-part elder training workshop. Men who would like to serve as elders must complete all portions of this workshop. For more information about the elder training workshop, click here.
2. Qualification – male members who complete the workshop and express a desire to serve as an elder will be vetted by the ministry coordination team (MCT) facilitators to verify Biblical qualifications. The current elders and MCT will then choose the best qualified men from this qualified list to become elder candidates. For more information about qualifications for FXCC elders check out Elder Qualifications. For more information about the MCT check out the Ministry Coordination Team link in MemberNet.
3. Job Sharing – Men who have been selected to become candidates will serve shoulder to shoulder with our current shepherds for 60 to 90 days. During this time the congregation will be asked to get to know the candidates well enough to vote either “yes” or “no” during confirmation. To learn more about job sharing go to Elder Mentoring.
4. Congregational Confirmation – each baptized member of FXCC will be given a ballot card that lists each candidate. Members will then be asked to indicate either “yes”, “no”, or “don’t know” for each candidate. Those candidates with 70% “yes” votes will become FXCC elders. To learn more about how to vote and what each of the three vote options mean go to Congregational Confirmation.

We acknowledge that it may be necessary to refine this new model as we move forward. Consequently, this website will be updated each time we begin the process. As we begin selecting elders, please join us in regular prayer and fasting for our current elders, the ministry coordination team, the staff, and our congregation.  We ask that God make His will apparent to us all, and that in a spirit of love and unity we identify those men God intends to serve as the shepherds of His flock at Fairfax.