Many have asked about Renew’s leadership accountability.
It’s a very important question, one we don’t mind answering, especially since we are a non-denominational faith community.
First, legally, because we are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the state of Pennsylvania we are required to have a Board of Directors. (And we have some great board members, by the way). These people are my boss. They have the right to hire, fire me, set my salary, etc. They hold me accountable.
Secondly, spiritually, we are in the process of thinking, planning and praying through what biblical eldership looks like. We will be selecting and commission leaders and shepherds to fulfill a biblical role and function as elder. We are excited about this.
Thirdly, relationally, though Renew is a non-denominational church we felt the need to have outside accountability. We believed it would be important to voluntarily submit ourselves to a gospel-minded, missional church planting leadership network to speak honestly into our lives. During that time, we were approached by Chris Backert, the director of the Ecclesia Network, a small but terrific missional church planting network based out of Richmond, VA. He asked if I would consider Renew being involved with Ecclesia. In May I headed to Richmond to participate in a personal assessment process as well as a week-long church planter’s boot camp training week. I (J.R.) and we (Renew) received a “thumbs up” after that week and were officially invited to join Ecclesia as an officially participating church.
Ecclesia does not function as a denomination, but as a network. While everyone in the network is evangelical in its theology, Ecclesia does not intend to be a doctrinal network, but a philosophically missional network in orientation.
Renew’s involvement as an Ecclesia Network church includes the following areas of accountability:
-Officially, every few years we agree to have a complete audit done of Renew (in areas such as finances, relationships, health, mission, leadership etc)
-Financially, we commit to giving at least 10% of the Renew annual budget towards kingdom-minded missional expressions locally, regionally, nationally and/or globally.
-Relationally, as a Ecclesia network church planting pastor I am required to connect face-to-face or voice-to-voice with at least one other Ecclesia pastor once a week. (This can be for mutual encouragement, prayer, talk about best practices, ask about advice, etc. The purpose is to make sure that no church planter in the network feels isolated or alone and feels the support of other like-minded missional church planters around the country.
We are excited about this healthy grace-filled level of accountability and support.
The author of Hebrews writes that we are to “spur one another one toward love and good deeds” and to “encourage one another, as long as it is called Today.” I’m grateful for this spurring on, encouraging accountability and find it be extremely healthy for us as we move forward.