How Do You Run a Session Meeting?
by J. J. Peterson
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 3, no. 3 (July 1994)
A very important part of the work of the ordained officer is the session meeting. The session is the elders of the local church, ruling and teaching, gathering to review and plan for the work of the church. You elders, have the responsibility of ruling the church. You are God’s appointed responsible servants of the Lord to exercise rule in the church.
It is extremely important that you realize your appointed place—under the Lord, the CEO if you will, servants appointed to rule. Under the Lord—you rule according to his rule-book, the Bible. His will over yours. We are an apostolic church, and the Word of the Lord given through his apostles is the standard that you rule by. Servants, you serve the Lord and his people. He is the most important, then the people of God, the congregation, the whole congregation, children, women and men—you serve them—I repeat: you serve them! And your ruling in the church is to serve the Lord and his church. Don’t be overlords (1 Peter 5:1–4).
The session must choose its own moderator. It is sometimes the case that a ruling elder can moderate a meeting far better than the teaching elder. Choose the one who moderates best—one who doesn’t have to talk all the time, one who is fair, one who is willing to listen, and one who will see to it that every elder says what he wants to.
It is important that everyone has his say. No elder should leave a meeting convinced that he was cut short or not allowed to speak. All of the elders should be sensitive to each other so that an atmosphere is created that says, “They want to know what I think about this issue”. So learn to listen. You don’t have to talk all of the time. Don’t interrupt! Let the man speak. I have begun a speech, only to be interrupted! Fifteen minutes later I will resume with these words: “If I may now continue what I was saying when I was interrupted...”—a teaching device to help those who love to interrupt.
And, a word to the teaching elder, you don’t have to set forth your position first so that the others know how to vote. In the session meeting you are just one among many—let the others speak. The deliberative process in which each elder has the freedom to say what he feels he must say, really works. It is far better to make decisions by consensus—coming to agreement through discussion—than to pass a motion with a one or two vote majority in which the minority feels short changed.
Should Robert’s Rules be followed? A lot depends on the men involved. Most of the sessions that I know do not need to use Robert except in extreme situations. The need to second a motion if there are only two on the session is obviously not practical. In our Session meetings with five elders, we do not require a second to a motion.
A Docket
The meeting works best when the moderator prepares a docket. That docket should reflect the ministry committed to the elders (a sample docket is found as an appendix to this article). Let me make a comment on several things that should be included.
1. EVENTS TO NOTE should include past and coming events. This is a chronicle of the history of your church. Fifty years from now, the session should be able to read your minutes and get a feel for the life of the congregation as you are living it from week to week. This includes everything from the dates of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper to when you had to cancel services because of a snow storm; from the ladies meetings to the fellowship dinners; from the baptism of a child of the congregation to the pulpit supplies when the teaching elder is on vacation or on assignment by the church.
2. SHEPHERDING is the work of the elder as a pastor, a shepherd of the flock under the great shepherd. He is to provide tender, loving care of the sheep. The members of our congregation are assigned to the individual elders. The elder is responsible in a particular way for the sheep under his care. He serves them. He talks with them on the Lord’s day and at other times. He notes when they are sick or in need of counsel or just need someone to care. If there are special needs that require special attention, he reports that to the session under the shepherding category.
This item also includes our shut–ins, those unable to attend services due to age or infirmity or both. It further included several who are not living locally and do not attend service with our body. Mostly, these are military members. We keep contact with them. Some receive tapes of our services and worship with us, albeit a week later. The congregation writes them. We are for them.
As moderator I supply each meeting with copies of the current roll, the shepherding list and the attendance record to date.
We also talk about our visitors and their needs. Elders are assigned to them to be sure they understand our message, to ascertain their commitment to Christ and his church, to discuss with them their need and invite them to unite with the body of Christ.
Under this heading we also cover our responsibility to our presbytery’s mission work in Corpus Christi (we are the closest congregation to them).
We also discuss candidates for office in the church.
3. INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY is special for our church. It is a ministry of at least 25 years to military personnel who come to San Antonio for language study at the Air Force base here.
4. WORSHIP is the most important work of the body of Christ. It is good to have a docket item dealing with the worship service and the preaching. This is not a time for ‘roast preacher’ but for helpful suggestions.
5. OUTREACH is part of the great commission. This item would include anything from an evangelistic outreach program to the telephone ad in the yellow pages.
6. REPORTS includes a monthly report from the Deacons including a financial statement for the month and a report on giving for year; reports from the Ladies of Grace, our ladies group, concerning their meetings; reports on the Sunday School and plans that need to be made; the Friday night Bible study.
7. CHRISTIAN SCHOOL includes our long range goal of a Christian day school. It also includes our home– schoolers and their needs.
8. CORRESPONDENCE includes everything that comes to the church for sessional information and/or action.
9. PRESBYTERY OF THE SOUTHWEST. The involvement of the church in the work of the presbytery and the general assembly are important. Some of our congregations function almost as independents. Get the elders involved in the work of the regional and national church. Report not only to the session but also to the congregation, orally and in print, of the work of the church at all levels—local, regional, national and international.
10. THE FALL CONFERENCE ON THE REFORMED FAITH, THE WINTER RETREAT and THE MARRIAGE SEMINAR are special events in the life of our church and require long range planning which is reviewed at each meeting.
11. MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS is self–explanatory. When the meeting of the session is over, edit the docket and insert into it the actions taken, print it up and give it to the elders on Sunday, with their individual assignments noted so that they can do what they were asked to do.
How long is a session meeting? It depends. Sometime weighty matters require much time. A shepherding report may lead to judicial discipline—and that is time consuming. The age of the elders may require a cut-off time.
Appendix: A Sample Docket
1. CALL TO ORDER—Scripture reading—Prayer
2. ROLL CALL
A. Present
B. Absent
3. MINUTES
A. of the regular meeting of
(or) of the special meeting of
(or) of the congregational meeting
4. EVENTS TO NOTE:
A. Past events
1) Lord’s Supper was celebrated...etc.
B. Coming events
1) Lord’s Supper is scheduled for...etc.
5. SHEPHERDING
A. Shepherding list
B. Attendance [these are current]
C. Roll
1. Shut–ins
2.
3.
4. Out of town members.
a. Military
b. Others
c. Anything else arising from shepherding? re: membership
E. Corpus Christi [a mission work]—worship: … [who is preaching there…etc.)
F. Candidates for office
6. INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY—Elder __________, Coordinator
7. WORSHIP
A. The worship service
B. The preaching
8. OUTREACH
A. Outreach Committee
B. LIFEWAY drug abuse program
9. REPORTS
A. Deacons
1) Financial statement for March and giving for year
B. LOGs met 5/8 [our ladies group]
C. Sunday School
D. Friday night Bible study
10 CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
11. CORRESPONDENCE
12. PRESBYTERY OF THE SOUTHWEST
13. FALL CONFERENCE ON THE REFORMED FAITH
14. WINTER RETREAT
15. MARRIAGE SEMINAR
16. MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS
17. ADJOURN after prayer by ______________