Ten Service Teams focus on various needs of the International Churches of Christ to accomplish God’s mission.

The ICOC Elders Service Team is devoted to several specific goals having been commissioned by the Delegates to:

1. Assist in appointment of Elders in our brotherhood of churches
2. Assist in development of “church building” Elderships
3. Assist in conflict resolution within and between ICOC churches and leaders
4. Engage in the effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace

We are committed to twice annual face-to-face meetings with each other and with the Evangelists and Teachers committees. The 2011 meetings were held in Los Angeles February 8-11. Our next Elder Committee meeting will be in Boston in October in conjunction with the American Leadership Conference.

Our February meetings were very productive in terms of relationship building, working agenda and connection with the Evangelist and Teacher committees! The Elder’s committee discussed the following agenda items in LA and some of these with the other two groups:

• Maintaining Unity by anticipating foreseeable areas of likely conflict and addressing them
• Initiating a process for addressing disputable vs doctrinal matters among us in a unifying and agreeable manner where there will be differences
• Healthy use of statistics and indicators of growth
• Influence vs Authority in Brotherhood Relations
• Compliance to cooperation agreements by Church leaderships
• Participation in Regional families of Churches based on Geography vs relationships
• Planned Mission Support becoming more comprehensive and coordinated
• Hiring Practices among us as a brotherhood
• Focus to produce breakout growth in smaller churches
• Eldership Models among us and how they might differ

The Committee continues to receive requests for conflict resolution around the world. We seek to prayerfully work within the family of churches first and then as needed and agreed upon become more directly involved! God has blessed these efforts with much progress and success in a number of locations.

Appointment of individual elders continues to grow with our total number now over 100 men! New elderships have been established over the past year bringing our total to nearly 50! I remember not that long ago when we had less than 20 elders among us!

The Hong Kong church recently appointed elders as we focus prayer and attention to increasing the number outside the US. Al Baird and Wyndham Shaw are now offering training efforts to assist the growth of this process internationally. Our committee has also been asked to plan the Married Ministry track for the 2012 World Discipleship Summit!

Elders Service Team

Wyndham Shaw, Chair — Boston
Al Baird — Los Angeles
Bill Hooper — Dallas
Israel Ereola — Lagos
Jeff Balsom — Chicago
John Brush — South Florida
Ron Brumley — Seattle
Sam Laing — Athens, Georgia
Walter Evans — Philadelphia