The Process:  Officer nominations will run from January 29 through February 12.  Each nominee, if willing to be a candidate, will go through a period of training and then examination led by the current elders.  After this period, the elders will determine which men are qualified to stand for election.  Once elected by the congregation, each man will be ordained and installed into his office and begin serving.  Our goal is that sometime this coming Summer we will have 2 or 3 new deacons and 2 new elders.

The roles and responsibilities:  The elder’s role is primarily one of spiritual oversight of the congregation.  This leadership responsibility is, therefore, one not only of governing and decision making but more importantly spiritually shepherding.

In Acts 6, the first deacons were called to care for the physical needs of the church to enable the elders to focus on the spiritual needs of the Church.  Thus the deacons are primarily responsible for overseeing the mercy ministry, physical facilities, and finances of the Church.

The PCA Book of Church Order (BCO) on the roles of the two offices of the Church:

7-2. The ordinary and perpetual classes of office in the Church are elders and deacons. Within the class of elder are the two orders of teaching elders and ruling elders. The elders jointly have the government and spiritual oversight of the Church, including teaching. Only those elders who are specially gifted, called and trained by God to preach may serve as teaching elders. The office of deacon is not one of rule, but rather of service both to the physical and spiritual needs of the people. In accord with Scripture, these offices are open to men only.

Qualifications:  For a man to stand for election as an officer at Creekstone, he must fulfill the following qualifications.

1) He must be (or in the process of becoming) a member in good standing

2) He must meet the biblical qualifications described in 1Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
3) He must hold to the Reformed system of doctrine as described in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.

4) He must be a good fit with Creekstone (i.e. he must agree with the mission, vision, core values and philosophy of ministry of our church and be able to work well with the current officers).

5) He must be willing and able to fulfill the responsibilities of the office.

Guidelines for nominating and individual: 

1.  Only members of Creekstone can nominate officer candidates.

2.  After reading the qualifications and responsibilities for each office, and seeking wisdom and guidance from the Lord, if there is a man whom you believe should be considered as a candidate for the office of elder or deacon, please fill out the form and give it to Rich, Kenny or Eric (if a hardcopy of the form) or simply submit the form (if done online).

Thank you for your conscientious attention to this critical aspect of our church’s ministry,

The Session