Respect Your Elders!

It's official, so I'll officially blog about it:
I'm going to be an Elder at my church!

For more information, try looking HERE.
Or Wiki HERE.

(Wow, NOTHING on the actual PC(USA) website about what an elder is or does....)

Anyway, the long and short is that in the Presbyterian Church, Elders are the leaders of the church. Our church has a good, strong group of elders as decision makers, which is really important. I know of churches that just throw people there because they're willing to volunteer. I have attended two meetings so far, so that I can hit the ground running in May, and the people on our Session are committed to the mission and ministry of our church.

I'm honored that I was asked, and humbled too. The role comes with responsibility, and I think I'm ready for that responsibility.

The spot became open when someone resigned from the session about halfway through his three year term. I will not comment as to why, except to say that he did not share the same vision for the church as 99% of the congregation. My term, then, will end in December of 2008. I have the option to be re-nominated for a full term after that.

With my history, we joked that I would end up on the Education Committee. I have done Sunday School and youth ministry at other churches, and am wrapping up Confirmation Class at this church in two weeks. Education seemed to be the easy fit.

But it's the middle of the year, and changing things around would not make sense. I was prepared to join any of the committee's. I like the idea of expanding my knowledge to other aspects of the church. The man who left his position was the chair of...... Education. I found out yesterday that I'm going to chair the committee! I've always enjoyed the spectator role in committees. In my work life I have always been in charge of taking notes, which means I could interject when I want to, and use the note taking as an excuse to not participate.

Now I will chair a committee. I'm excited, to be honest. I acknowledge openly that I have confidence issues. To name it: I have no confidence in almost any decision that I make. Now I will have no choice but to at least fake confidence, which will hopefully lead to change in my mindset.

Also - when I thought that the other Elder on the committee was going to be chair, I gave her advice that I don't know that I want to follow. She was nervous about being chair since she had no direction to follow. I told her that with no template, she could run the committee structure how she saw best. Now that I'm in that situation, I find myself grasping for a rule book of some sort!

I'll come up with something. I'm sure I'll write about it, too!