Fairfax Church of Christ

Paul’s writings to both Timothy and Titus as well as Peter’s admonition to elders provide fairly specific guidance concerning elder qualifications. The ministry coordination team (MCT) facilitators will use this guidance in conversation with the men who desire to be elders to help determine if they are the men that God is calling for this role.

There are also a few characteristics of our congregation that lead us to believe that the following should also be considered when making this decision.

1. Candidates should be active members of FXCC for at least three years when the workshop begins. In this case, the word active simply describes someone who attends Sunday mornings regularly and has worked with one or more of our ministries to carry out the things God has called us as a body to do. Due to the level of transition that is common to our church, it is difficult to understand the nature and culture of our congregation in a short amount of time. This guideline is intended to ensure that men selected as elders both understand who we are and are bought into the direction we are moving.
2. Candidates should have a realistic understanding of the time commitment required to effectively shepherd a congregation as large as ours. While this is clearly subjective and difficult to determine, we feel it is important to have this conversation with the potential candidates to help them decide if this is the right time for them to commit to becoming an elder at FXCC.
3. Candidates should have completed the entire workshop including optional homework assignments. Our intent is to ensure that candidates truly understand what the role entails.
4. Candidates should be willing and able to abide by and help enforce decisions made by the elders as a group while being willing to challenge group-think. Elders should not be “yes men” who are afraid of clearly expressing where the Spirit is leading them or where he believes the Spirit is leading our church. And yet, once decisions are made by the group, he must be willing to support them.
5. Candidates must have a clean background check. It is standard policy to run a background check on all elders and staff. This is a critical component of our responsibility to ensure the physical and financial safety of the congregation. We contract with a private firm to run background checks and we protect the privacy of each individual by restricting access to the results.

This brief overview of the elder qualifications may not have answered all of your questions about the FXCC elder selection model. For more information, please look through the rest of the Elder Selection links at left and read through the Frequently Asked Questions.