Jacksonville Church Tries New Ministry Staff Model

I am writing this in response to interest shown in the ministry staff model we are using in the Jacksonville (Florida) Church of Christ. I believe a brief description of the church will be helpful as well. The Jacksonville church is a congregation of about 300 disciples in a community of 1 million people spread out over the largest geographical city in the US. It is a diverse group, both racially and financially, with thriving youth, pre-teen and teen ministries, and a campus ministry reaching out to the University of North Florida, Florida Community College, Jacksonville, Edward Waters College, Jacksonville University and several smaller schools. The JCOC helps to support churches in Brazil and Paraguay, by providing financially through annual missions offerings, and by sponsoring member mission trips in which disciples from Jacksonville visit the South American churches, delivering clothes and supplies and teaching bible classes. We also sponsor visits by the South American disciples to Jacksonville, generally at the same time as the Florida churches have a state-wide conference each summer.

My family and I moved to Jacksonville in June of 2005, so my perspective on the history of the church is limited, but I will share the relevant facts as I understand them. The Jacksonville Church went two years without full-time leadership. During this time the church dealt with issues relating to “the letter” and what I would describe as fellowship-wide growing pains. They relied on brothers in the congregation and guest preachers to provide Sunday Sermons. I was here for the last few months of this period, and I can tell you that the congregation was joyful, and the services were dynamic, marked by wonderful congregational singing and deep biblical teaching. The congregation in general and the brothers on the Interim Leadership Committee especially worked hard to glorify God during a challenging time.

 

The JCOC conducted a search for a full-time Evangelist during this period, that was carefully conducted and prayerful, and which resulted in their hiring Guy Berndt, who moved to Jacksonville in May of 2006 with his wife Loretta. The JCOC now has Elders (Randy Henderson and Doug Pullen) as well as Deacons. Guy is the only full-time minister for this congregation of 300 members. After much prayer, Guy suggested that the JCOC interview potential part-time ministers to help with the work of the ministry. This was inspired partly by the fact that there were several men with years of full-time ministry experience in the JCOC, who were now pursuing other careers.

The Elders and Guy asked for any interested former ministers to submit proposals of what they would like to focus on in the ministry, and offered them a monthly stipend. The men who stepped into these positions were Randy Tinnin (me), Mark Harris, and Derek Wooten. We had served in different ministries (RT in New York, MH in Texas and Louisiana, and DW in the mid-west) but had come to very similar convictions based on our years as disciples and as a result of lessons learned in the past several years. We also shared the challenges of starting new careers after having served in the full-time ministry for many years, including financial challenges. The stipend was intended to allow us to invest time in the work of the ministry, rather than have to take on 2^nd (or 3^rd)!) jobs. We set it up as a 6 month trial, which was extended another 6 months. We have completed just over a year with this model, and will continue it for another 6 months and perhaps longer.

 

Our responsibilities include Singles Ministry (DW), facilitation of one of the regions (MH), Music Ministry (RT), and the organization of services in a monthly rotation, and preaching and teaching. We have put several six week courses together which have been taught to various sub-sets of the church in midweek classes. We (The Elders and ministry staff) also provide a service for our Children’s Ministry teachers on Sunday mornings in which we have taught six month classes on the entire books of Romans, I Corinthians, and Galatians. This has been a very effective way to teach nearly the entire church, as most of the members serve in the Children’s Ministry at some point during each year. I was able to teach a 6 week class on Galatians to the Teen Ministry during our Sunday services. It was an intellectually challenging class, offered in the hope that it would introduce our teens to a deeper level of bible study, and give them prolonged exposure to crucial biblical themes, while equipping them with tools for there own bible study.

 

Guy generally preaches twice per month, with one of the part-time ministers preaching once, and a guest preaching once. This makes for a nice variety, while allowing Guy more time to reflect on the needs of the church in his own preparation. Guy also offers a “welcome” class Sunday morning before church for guests and people who have recently moved in from other congregations. This has helped people to get tied in to the congregation and to get to know Guy as well. Our assistance in organizing services allows Guy to spend more time making calls to people, praying for people, visiting and serving the people, and takes a bit of the organizational pressure off of him.

 

This model allows individual ministries (teens, married, singles, music, etc.) to be better served, and we have seen growth in all areas of the church. The response from the congregation has been very supportive, and it has been gratifying to be able to use our gifts and experience in the ministry to serve the church.

Randy Tinnin