Our Leadership Principles

The Reseda church is committed to the biblical order of church organization and servant leadership. The biblical pattern of church government calls for church autonomy, which means that each local church selects its own governing body of leaders. The authority of the selected officials extends no further than the local body of believers. There is no denominational hierarchy to which our leaders or members are subject.

The second guiding principle of the New Testament model is the pattern-principle of servant leadership. Our leaders see themselves as servants who have been given by the Lord of the church to His members. The role of servant leaders is to equip the members for their works of service, Ephesians 4:11-12. The biblical pattern of leadership divides leadership service into four categories:

Our Ministers (Administrative staff)

The Reseda church presently employs fulltime ministers who serve as the administrative staff. The administrators are servant leaders who are devoted fulltime to the ministry of the Word and prayer.

Our Eldership (Pastoral staff)

The church elders are servant leaders who have been selected from among the membership to provide pastoral guidance and oversight of the church. They are trained and equipped by the Ministers of the Word to be examples and overseers of the members.

Our Deacons (Ministry staff)

The church deacons are servant leaders who are selected on the basis of spiritual qualities (1 Timothy 3:8ff.) to lead the members in accomplishing the works of the ministry. They serve under the oversight and coaching of the elders. In our congregational strategy of ministry, deacons are strategic ministry leaders of small groups. They provide the pattern of leadership for our small group leaders to follow. Deacons represent the extended arms and legs of our church shepherds.

Our Trustees (Management staff)

The church Trustees are servant leaders who are selected on the basis of their spiritual maturity as indicated in Acts 6:1-7. These are members who are appointed to “serve tables”. They are biblically described as “Helps” who are assigned duties to manage services not directly related to the four functions of the Ministry. The Management Staff of helps enables the Ministers, Shepherds, and Ministry Leaders to tend to the equipping ministry of the saints.