The main purpose of this article is to announce a decision made by the governing board of Good News Church on October 21: We have asked Lance Powers to, again, serve on the governing board.
To give you a bit of history, Lance (pictured on the left with his two daughters: Emma and Madelyn) previously served as an elder on our board for the maximum number of years in a row permitted by our bylaws, which is six. He served from 2016 – 2022. In fact, here is the article we wrote back then about this.
According to our church’s governing documents, after six years of continuous service, an elder must rotate off the board for a period of one year. This “work for six, rest for one” principle is something we see implied in other situations in the Old Testament (examples include Gen. 2:2, Ex 23:10-12, and Lev 25:8-17) and is what gave rise to the word “sabbatical.” Lance’s sabbatical year ends this month, and he has been asked to come back onto the board beginning in December.
If you have any questions like, “What does it mean to be an elder at Good News Church?” or “What does the governing board do?” or “What if I have a concern about this?” all of those questions are covered in the original article when we first nominated Lance. So, feel free check that out.
Because all of that has been written about elsewhere (we’ve actually explained this process many times over the years), for this article I will just briefly say:
To give you a bit of history, Lance (pictured on the left with his two daughters: Emma and Madelyn) previously served as an elder on our board for the maximum number of years in a row permitted by our bylaws, which is six. He served from 2016 – 2022. In fact, here is the article we wrote back then about this.
According to our church’s governing documents, after six years of continuous service, an elder must rotate off the board for a period of one year. This “work for six, rest for one” principle is something we see implied in other situations in the Old Testament (examples include Gen. 2:2, Ex 23:10-12, and Lev 25:8-17) and is what gave rise to the word “sabbatical.” Lance’s sabbatical year ends this month, and he has been asked to come back onto the board beginning in December.
If you have any questions like, “What does it mean to be an elder at Good News Church?” or “What does the governing board do?” or “What if I have a concern about this?” all of those questions are covered in the original article when we first nominated Lance. So, feel free check that out.
Because all of that has been written about elsewhere (we’ve actually explained this process many times over the years), for this article I will just briefly say:
- In the Bible, elder is a word for church leader.
- At this church, it’s the word we use for the men who serve on the board that oversees Good News Church of Ocala, Inc. Additionally, these men are not merely to be a board of directors for a non-profit organization, but they are also to shepherd/pastor people in the congregation.
- Once we nominate someone to the board, we typically announce it to the entire congregation through the church newsletter. We then wait for about one month. This gives you all a chance to voice any concerns or character issues that you believe haven’t been dealt with and/or that you believe we aren’t aware of. If nothing is revealed to disqualify him, the plan is for Lance to rejoin the board at the December elder meeting.
