On November 10, we hosted our sixth annual Elders Q&A. Thank you for your thoughtful questions. Our church is marked by Christ’s love, gratitude to our God, and a relationship of trust between our congregaton and our elders. You are a joy to lead even on the hard days. That’s owing in part to your faithful submission to your elders as we lead you in the Word (Heb. 13:17). 

On this memorable evening we engaged questions from the the challanges of a large eldership, what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and whether we have a nursing mother’s room on Sunday. For more on our aims and process leading up to this event, read our invitation post.

Here’s a list of the questions we asked with the timestamps for the audio. We encourage you to listen to the entire Q&A for context and the spirit of the evening.

Download Audio Q&A

Welcome and Introductions (0:00)

Questions on Biblical Eldership (15:00)

• Our church has a very large elder team. That seems good. But also, could create challenges. What some challenges and opportunities to a large elder team? (16:13)
• Chad, Give us a little insight into the elder team you were a part of. It was a smaller elder team, so compare and contrast for us. (21:32)
• We used to have a different process for hiring pastoral staff that involved a congregational vote. For instance Abe Stratton went through a rigorous process culminating in a vote. Several hires in the years since then have not had that same process. Can you please explain the reason for this significant change? (25:11)

Questions on the Holy Spirit (33:00)

• What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? When was a time you felt full of the Holy Spirit? Does it feel different than the normal Christian day to day walk with Christ? (33:05)
• What do we make of the lack of attention, at times, in the New Testament to the Holy Spirit? (42:18)

Questions on Life Together in Membership (44:33)

• How should our church think about meeting physical needs for those both in and outside of our congregation, especially in sister congregations? What is the framework you use for deciding when to make needs known? I was eager to hear more communication (in pulpit or from elders generally) about this [in the aftermath of the hurricane], especially since the felt needs were/are overwhelming. Why didn’t we hear more? (45:20)
• I have been to churches that have “mother’s” rooms. It is a sound-proofed room with windows open to the auditorium so they can see the speaker and it has speakers so they can hear the sermon. Can we do something like that here at Heritage? I hear a question under that such as when should the kid be in the worship service and how is that going? (45:20)

Questions on Turning Fifty (55:10)

• In this brief segment we shared plans for celebrating our anniversary and updating our auditorium. As we’ve begun to talk about year 50 we recognized that this merges nicely with some plans we have four our future focused on our auditorium. A master planning process for the whole site conducted in the last year and a half. Our auditorium has served us well. But it’s time to reinvest in that space. Our church was planted in 1976. On March 3, of 2026, our 50th anniversary, we plan to move our worship service into this Fellowship Hall to begin work on our auditorium. Join us at the January 26 Family Meeting to learn more about this season of celebration and investment which we’ll call, “The Next 50.” More to come!

Open Mic (1:02:51)

• Is there an elder to church member ratio that you follow? How do you determine how many elders you need? (1:03:39)
• Do the elders review the message from a preacher who comes from outside the church or within the congregation or is there more of an honor system and trust that the elders know this individual so we can trust that their message is a faithful message of the Word? (1:05:21)
• Did you say that we’re currently looking to fill a staff position? (1:08:50)
• We used to have a pastor of counseling and a counseling team that from my understanding formally cared for some of the counseling needs of the congregation. We don’t have that anymore. Are there plans to have a pastor dedicated to counseling or a formal counseling team in the future? (1:09:19)
• Chris Gerber, tell us what we’re thanking God for as an elder team and what we are praying to God for as an elder team. (1:14:59)

As promised, if you submitted a question and we didn’t answer it at the Q&A, we’ll be in touch in the coming weeks to initiate a reply either over email or in person. Of course, as questions come to mind across the year, you can always just email us at elders@heritagegvl.com. This event is not the only venue for engaging our elders with a question. Rather, it is an especially public forum that we hope to set the tone and invite your engagement in more personal ways across the year.

For more Q&A engagement of this sort, review our recaps from previous years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.