Three Things from the Elders Meeting

The Elders had their regularly scheduled meeting on Sunday September 27. Here are "The Three Things" you should know from that meeting:

1. Sharing BlessingsWe opened out meeting in a new way. I've been reading the Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer's terrific new book Beyond Resistance and in a section on leadership and vision he mentions that he likes to begin meetings with one simple question: "Since our last meeting, how have you been blessed by our church?"
   
   Isn't that a great question!
   
   So we opened the Elders Meeting that way and we shared some terrific stories -- from the Women's Retreat to the East Valley Lock-In, the Thank You! Event to the Work Day Crew. In fact, it was such a successful way to start our time together, that we are going to regularly use that question ("Since our last meeting, how have you been blessed by our church?") to open all of our Elders Meetings going forward!
   
2. Reflecting on the AZ Region's Elder Training Event
   On August 29 the Arizona Region hosted an Elder's Training Event in Casa Grande featuring the Rev. Dr. Dick Hamm (former General Minister and President of our Denomination) as our Keynote Speaker. It was a wonderful event with over 100 Elders from all over Arizona gathered together (note: we had six folks from our church in attendance). Learn more about the event by clicking here.
   
   Sandi put together an excellent recap of the event and we took the time at our Elders Meeting to not only catch everyone else up on the presentation, but to also reflect on some of the ideas and issues that were raised at the Training. So at the Elders Meeting this past Sunday we talked about the role of the Elders, best practices with our Shepherding Groups, Considering young people as Elders, how to appropriately address gossip, and what it means to have six generations alive and active in the church.
   
3. Recruiting New Elders
   The Nominating Process is starting back up at First Christian Church Scottsdale, and so we spent some intentional time lifting up those names that we would like to consider for the position of Elder in the future. We have so many wonderful members here at that church and so we brainstormed a list that will be shared with the Nominating Committee going forward.