Churchwide Updates: A Different Approach to Deacon Selection
| Churchwide Updates | Dr. Wayne Splawn
Deacons have been an important part of the ministry of Mountain Brook Baptist Church from its inception. As is the case with all Baptist churches, we believe deacons have an important role to play in providing service and leadership in our church. During my time on staff at our church, I have been grateful for the faithful men and women God has called to serve as deacons. I am especially grateful to everyone who has answered the call to serve as a deacon during my time as your Senior Minister. I regularly leave our monthly Deacon meetings thanking God that such faithful and capable men and women surround other staff members and me.
In thinking about the structure of our deacon ministry, I have reached out to several colleagues in ministry to learn how others approach selecting deacons in peer congregations. In my research I discovered two things. First, our active Deacon Board is larger than most congregations. Second, our deacon selection process is shorter than many other churches.
The large number of people working on our active Deacon Board can lead to at least two challenges. One, when too many people are serving in this role, it is easy to assume someone else will fulfill an important service role. This can make a person feel as if their contributions are not essential. Second, the size of our current active Deacon Board can make it difficult to have engaging and meaningful conversations related to important matters in our church.
In addition, for many years we have completed the nomination, discernment, and selection process during three months in the fall. This timeline can make it difficult for our Nominating Committee to carry out their work faithfully while allowing prospective candidates the necessary time to prayerfully consider if they are called and able to serve a three-year term as a deacon. We are going to tweak our deacon nomination, discernment, and selection process in the following ways as we look to select deacon leadership for 2027.
First, the window for nominating deacons begins today and will run through the end of March. I encourage you to read carefully the guidelines for deacon selection, pray about who you feel led to nominate, and make your nominations by Tuesday, March 31. (You may also make your nominations online here.) Our Nominating Committee will then consider the list of nominations and propose a group of candidates by May. I will seek to meet with each person recommended by the Nominating Committee to clearly outline expectations for service as a deacon and invite them to prayerfully consider if they are willing and able to fulfill these expectations.
Second, the Nominating Committee will present a list of Deacons and Life Deacons for approval this fall. The slate of deacons will consist of a total of 12 people who will begin a three-year term of service on our active Deacon Board in 2027. The entire active Deacon Board will total 36 people by 2028.
I believe this new approach will enable us to have a manageable number of people serving on our active Deacon Board. These men and women will then be called upon to provide faithful leadership for three years before rolling off the active Deacon Board for a minimum of 1 year.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns regarding this new deacon selection process.
I am grateful for the opportunity to serve Jesus Christ in our congregation alongside such faithful lay leaders.