On Monday night, 33 elders and pastors from the Waikato region met at Hillcrest Chapel in Hamilton.
There were nine churches represented, including Agora Church, Chapel Hill Community Church, Hillcrest Chapel, Manawarū Bible Chapel, Matamata Bible Church, Northgate Community Church, Putaruru Gospel Chapel, Raleigh Street Christian Centre, and Whitiora Bible Church.
Kerry Rickard and Joel Birkin from Kingston Community Church (Palmerston North) led a discussion on developing and training people for leadership and eldership, looking particularly at what is required of elders to develop future leadership within the church.
The areas of discussion included identifying potential leaders, the process of discipling and developing, and how elders and pastors can support and encourage younger leaders.
The elders present gave encouraging feedback:
“Enjoyed meeting other elders, and to hear we have similar struggles and joys.”
“Good chance to learn and share ideas.”
“Good to get together with other elders, very encouraging.”
Grant Birks, CCCNZ Waikato and Bay of Plenty Regional Enabler comments,
“It was great to see so many elders coming together to encourage, share and learn from each other how they can help develop the next generation of church leadership, and to hear the stories of what they are already doing developing young people into leadership roles within the church.”If you’d like to know more about the framework Kingston Community Church Eldership has used to see new elders come into eldership, touch base with Kerry Rickard.
