Women & leadership in the church

Many of you are aware that as a church we are going to be entering a time of study and discussion as we seek to discern the Lord’s leading with regard to having women serve as elders here at Avalon. As the Elders we want to give you an update on how we see this journey unfolding. Before we get into the details of the timeline, the board wants to emphasize the importance of how we as a church will approach this topic. We know there are differing views held within our fellowship and there is a potential for tension, but there is also a great opportunity for us to find a unifying clarity within the scriptures as we study them together. Our posture towards this topic is going to be of utmost importance.

First, we must have a posture of humility before the Lord. As a church we want to look to the Bible to see God’s design, his purposes, his will for us, and how he wants us to live this out in the practical aspects of our fellowship. Let’s approach the text humbly and prayerfully and let’s ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us through His word. This posture of humility before the Lord and his word is not the same thing as a posture of uncertainty. We believe that the Bible does have something to say about this, and we also believe that by God’s grace we are able to know it. But the way to come to that is to allow the text to speak to us. This means that we commit ourselves not to our pre-existing opinions, but rather to searching and drawing out the meaning of the text then allowing ourselves to sit under God’s authority and his word.

The second posture that is going to be very important is a posture of love toward one another. Our culture is big on making flimsy arguments with harsh and cruel words, but that’s not how it should be among us. In our church family we ought to speak and act kindly towards one another.  We ought to be able to put ourselves in each other’s shoes and treat each other the way that we would like to be treated. We ought to examine our own hearts regularly for selfishness and pride as we interact and read and study. We need a posture of love toward one another.
As a board we have been studying the book of Ephesians in our times together, and we think that Ephesians 4:2 ought to characterize our fellowship. It says: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

So with that as our foundation of how we want to approach this process, we the Elders have laid out 5 stages to this journey. This fall/winter we will start the journey off with a time called Foundation Laying where we will discuss what Eldership currently looks like for Avalon. As you heard last week, we have our Kitchen Table Conversations this Tuesday where you can come out to begin to engage with your church family. Here you’ll have the opportunity to discuss and help form the next few stages of our journey with the Elders. We want to hear from you on how you see this whole process will unfold.
We will then move into a time of what we’re calling Personal Learning where you can begin to dive into the scriptures and other resources we have laid out in our Church Library. This dedicated time will be as individual families and those close to you. In the spring we will have our District Superintendent Bernie Van De Walle will give a presentation that will kick us off into our formal process what we are calling the Corporate Learning & Discussion time. This stage will stretch through the summer until next winter where we will have multiple formal learning and discussion sessions as a church. Winter / Spring of 2023/24 we will have a dedicated time of Discernment, Reflection, and Prayer although this should be a constant theme throughout our journey. Finally, we will arrive at a Decision Making phase where we will have a membership vote around March 2024.

So as you can see some details are still being planned, but we have laid out the stages and timeline to the process. So we the Elders invite you to come join us as we walk along this journey together. Again if there are any concerns about this announcement or other topics concerning the church, please find an Elder and they will be more than willing to get the information you are looking for.

Avalon Alliance Elder Board November 27, 2022

As part of our journey, we have set aside some time for Corporate Learning & Discussion.  Kicked off with a presentation, our District Superintendent Rev Dr. Bernie Van de Walle guided us through a discussion on Women and Leadership in the Church.