The Bible doesn’t say how often your elders should meet together. In fact, it doesn’t specifically say they should meet together at all. In essence, the elders’ meeting is a pragmatic way of getting together and figuring out what the elders think about anything for which they need some collective wisdom.

What that means is there is no right or wrong model here. Some go for monthly elders meetings. Others have weekly ones but rotate what they focus on each week. Others still have a set format. Some even choose to link their elders and trustees meetings and don’t meet that regularly at all. These are not questions of rights and wrongs. Just pragmatic means of fulfilling some of our eldership duties together. A lot is going to focus on the particular personalities of your particular elders, when they are free, the nature of your context and whatever you might need to discuss together.

At Oldham Bethel Church, we hold a weekly elders meeting. Ever since I started, we have had the luxury of not only being able to do this, but being able to do it in the midweek day time. I’ve either had retired men serving as elders alongside me, who are then able to make themselves available day time midweek, or those working in flexible jobs that allow them to arrange their schedule so we can meet this way. I cannot say how grateful I am NOT to hold them late into the evening or squeeze them into an already packed Sunday. I accept it is something of a luxury for us; but it is so helpful and I am particularly grateful for it.

It’s our practice to hold a weekly elders meeting that follows a standard format. Each meeting lasts somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. The format falls into two halves: (1) people; (2) practicalities.

Our first half runs begins by picking up anything that is still outstanding from the previous meeting and making sure it remains on the agenda until it is done. We then move into a time focused on the members, making sure we bring up and seek to address any issues or needs we are aware of amongst the membership. After this, we look at the regular non-members. Are there people we might want to be encouraging into membership? Are there people waiting to be brought into membership? Have we made any effort to encourage them in this direction? Following this, we have a section for new faces. We regularly see visitors coming in and we want to make sure they are welcomed. We also want to keep track of whether such visitors return and, in due time, become regular non-members who we hope to move into our membership category. Finally, we turn to ourselves and raise any issues we are facing as elders. We stop at this point and pray for one another.

The second half (for want of a better term) focuses on practicalities. It’s not all practicalities in reality, but more matters of direction, principle, organisation, etc. Basically, anything that isn’t a specific need, issue or concern that isn’t centred on a specific person. Most weeks, this is a pretty short list. Much of the time, these things are just practical matters and don’t require a lot of discussion, it just needs one of us to action the appropriate people (usually deacons) to get about making it happen. Otherwise, it is a discussion about ideas for outreach opportunities or different things we might do to serve our members better. It may be planning future sermon series together or discussing if we are lacking specific input and what we might do to ensure we meet these things or if we are even able to do so. To use the terminology of the well-known book, it’s all about trellis work and there usually isn’t a great deal of it week by week. Once we’ve discussed al these things, we go through the entire agenda and pray for and about every item/person/thing we’ve discussed.

As Monday is my day off, we usually have this meeting first thing on a Tuesday. This is my first opportunity to think with the elders about Sunday and whatever issues may have cropped up. It also helps me to structure the rest of my week. Tuesday afternoon is usually spent setting about organising, phoning or otherwise beginning to resolve whatever things I have been tasked with doing. I arrange necessary visits, meetings, phone calls, send emails and whatever else to set the ball rolling. This then allows me to start thinking about the rest of my week and where I’m going to do my sermon prep, write various bits I write (like this blog), write prayer letters, write theology breakfast content or whatever else.

Sometimes, of course, we might not meet because of holidays, being away at conferences or whatnot. Our plan is to meet weekly unless we are unable. When we’ve had more elders in the past, they could meet apart from my being there and if one of them was away we could still meet and keep things ticking over. Where we’ve only had two elders, there can obviously be no meeting. We simply accept this as part and parcel of meeting weekly – there will be times when we simply can’t.

What I do notice when we miss those weekly meetings is that – whilst things still happen and I still organise my week – we are more likely to let certain things drift. One or other of us usually has better involvement with particular people. This is natural. The problem comes when an elder who is closest to a person with needs is away and we don’t necessarily know about the matter. It can easily lead to certain things sliding. I find a weekly meeting is also a helpful prompt to me. There are various things that need doing, that I need to do, that it helps to be reminded of. There are things I might know about broadly, and think we may need to do something about, but I either don’t have all the details or I can’t necessarily do anything until we’ve had a conversation. I find a weekly elders meeting helps keep me organised, helps keep me on track and helps to keep things more broadly ticking over rather than letting issues slide.

I am not one for making meetings last longer than they need to. Often, our meetings are relatively short. This is particularly true when one or other of us has been away (so are unaware of specific issues) and the other doesn’t have anything significant to bring up. This can make our meetings relatively short and we see no value in unnecessarily dragging them out. I am also grateful for the opportunity to keep up weekly with what the other elders are doing and how they are. It is easy to let that relationship slide and assume all is well all the time. I value the regular opportunity to check in and I appreciate the regular opportunity to let them in on how I am doing too.

Again, this is not a model I think works for all. It may not suit every kind of person. It certainly isn’t a specifically biblical model that must be followed. But I find it works well for me and I am grateful that we have weekly elders meetings for these reasons. But I am perhaps most grateful that we have managed to keep them midweek, in the day, which makes the so much more manageable and helpful.