2025 Governance Process

Introduction

A season of collective discernment

At the annual meeting, the elders shared their intent to engage the congregation in a season of corporate learning and discernment around two aspects of our church governance. This page contains information and updates on this process.

Video Updates

Pastor Bobby shares an intro to this governance process.

Russ (Elder Chair) shares an update and introduction to the learning phase.

Governance Process Half-Day Forum

Dialogue Evening: Women & Men Serving Together as Elders

Timeline

Preparation

January-March 2025

We will prepare by identifying supporting team members, gathering learning resources, and conducting a survey to understand our congregation’s composition and experiences. This will help us develop Biblically rich learning resources and discussion forums that meet the discipleship needs of our church.

Learning and Discussion

April-June 2025

We will engage together in independent and group learning opportunities and discussion forums related to the these governance matters, such as frameworks for biblical interpretation, Church history, our church history and composition, and our vision, values, and practices.

Discernment & Drafting

Fall 2025

Our leaders will reflect on what was learned and may draft changes that are supported by biblical wisdom and broad congregational consensus. We will engage in proactive, personal, and regular communication well ahead of recommending changes.

Intro to Collective Discernment

A presentation created to introduce this process describing our context and how we will embark on this discernment together.

Upcoming Opportunities

Family Meetings

Family Meeting #1: Baptism & Membership - Nov 9th

Family Meeting #2: Men & Women Serving as Elders - Nov 23

The primary focus for the time together is allowing the congregation to speak. Prompts include:

How well did we do summarizing your input? What would you affirm or add?

Is there something else you think is critical for the body to hear?

For those who disagree with the change, we want to disagree without disconnecting. Are there practices [e.g. our process] or language [e.g. drafted constitution changes] that would support your continued connection and participation?

Summary of Insights

What is the congregation saying? You’re invited to hear from others in the body and to add to the conversation.

This is a Report of congregational input captured at the Sept 20th Governance Forum in breakout groups. Input will be added as it is shared via the Form or in Family Meetings in November. (Last update 10/10/25) For those interested in further reading, there is also a Report of the congregation’s baseline views and experiences, which was published in the Spring.

Letters to Congregation

February 2025 - Process Launch

Dear Church,

“As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

The community of Jesus is defined by self-giving love; his to us and ours to each other. His followers are comprised of men, women and children from every pocket of society across the entire global community. We are ordinary people united by an extraordinary hope, who witness to the new creation: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all. This is the good news that created the first churches of Jesus.

Organizing a local church to serve this vision raises many practical considerations such as how to set priorities, manage shared resources, and make decisions together. That is why we have church governance. It is part of the structure that helps support our life together.

At our annual meeting in January, the elders shared our intention to engage NSCBC in a season of collective discernment on two aspects of our church governance.

Membership and Baptism: Considering an exception to the believer’s baptism requirement, allowing those baptized as infants who later profess faith publicly to become members if they believe their original baptism was meaningful and sufficient. This would not change our practice of believer’s baptism.
Women as Elders: Exploring the possibility of both men and women serving as elders.

Our church includes people from a wide variety of denominational backgrounds as well as new believers. Notably, just one third of NSCBC’s regularly attending adults are members. Among the reasons we believe these governance matters are worthy of consideration is that they might remove barriers preventing believers who already belong to our church from entering more fully into its fellowship and responsibility for its care.

We are inviting the entire church into a period of learning, sharing, and discernment. We sincerely hope you will be involved, as our efforts are enriched by everyone’s participation.

What to expect:

Beginning March 9th, everyone will be invited to complete a survey. Similar to previous discipleship surveys, this aims to provide all of us with a clearer picture of our church composition, range of experiences, and questions. Your input will help us both care for you and develop biblically rich learning opportunities that meet your needs. Here is that survey. We will highlight our collective vision and spark your ideas and feedback.
In the spring, we will share a variety of resources for independent, group, and all-church learning and discussion tailored to your needs and interests.
In the fall, our pastor and elders will consider changes that are supported by both biblical wisdom and broad congregational input. If they recommend constitutional changes, members will vote on those changes at the next annual meeting.

As you can see, involvement will be tailored and periodic. We hope these interactions build up our community, challenge you to belong to Christ and to one another more fully, and engage with Scripture collectively. Along with this memo, we’ve provided a slide deck and FAQ to share more information, including the history of these discussions at NSCBC and how we think our existing set of values can guide us.

We recognize members of the congregation hold differing, biblically grounded convictions on matters of church governance. That is why we are grounding the topic of governance within the broader vision and purpose of the church described above. We can be a witness to that reality now, on the North Shore of Boston, even as we trust God to bring the vision about more fully in the future. Perhaps that’s one reason the biblical vision for the Church is remarkable; it remains available to the world by grace. We realize collective discernment is counter-cultural. Our wider culture is highly polarized and individualistic. Peacemaking skills are not commonly taught. Some have experienced pain regarding these matters. For these reasons, people may find it easier to walk away or disconnect. We hope you will consider how we can support your participation.

To increase our accessibility and capacity to care for you, we have formed an expanded team for this project. In addition to Pastors Bobby and Richard, that team includes Steve Crowe, Betsy Crowe, Jessi Rennekamp, and Sarah Bartley. They will involve others to facilitate or host conversations, organize resources, and more. If you have questions or want to help, you can speak with them or with an elder. Contact information is available in the church directory, or by contacting the church office at 978-927-2014 or office@nscbc.org.

In Christ,

Your NSCBC pastors, elders, and expanded team

Elders: Russ Tuck (Chair), Russ Bjork, Andrew Rennekamp, Antuan Weeks, Nate Sidmore, and Bobby Warrenburg (Senior Pastor)

Expanded team: Pastor Bobby, Pastor Richard, Betsy Crowe, Steve Crowe, Jessi Rennekamp, and Sarah Bartley

March 2025 - All Church Survey

What is happening

Earlier this year, the elders announced a season of collective discernment on two aspects of our church governance, namely, baptism requirements for membership and the role of women in leadership. You can learn more at nscbc.org/governance.

What we’re doing now

Preparation Phase (Winter)

The elders unanimously decided to engage the entire church in learning and helping us discern this together. Thanks to all who joined us on Sunday as we began the conversation. Now, we invite everyone – both new and long-time attenders — to take the survey.

Your participation will help us design fruitful learning and discussion opportunities. Our desire is to help us grow in attentiveness to Scripture, in love for one another, and in love for God’s gift, the Church.

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE

Survey open March 9 to 23
Estimated time: 20 to 30 minutes
Many questions are optional; focus on the areas that matter most to you
You can choose to share your contact information or remain anonymous
Raw data will remain confidential; aggregate data shared with the congregation
Team members listed below are available to answer questions

What comes next

Learning Phase (Spring)

Similar to previous discipleship surveys, this survey is designed to capture a snapshot of our church community, laying the foundation for better conversations and more meaningful learning opportunities in the next phase. You will notice it also asks you about your experiences. That will help us better care for one another. This spring, we will offer independent and group learning opportunities and discussion forums related to these governance matters, such as frameworks for biblical interpretation, Church history, our church history and composition, and our vision, values, and practices.

Discernment and Drafting (Fall)

We expect that in the fall, our pastor and elders will consider changes that are supported by both biblical wisdom and broad congregational input. If they recommend constitutional changes, members will vote on whether to adopt those changes at the next annual meeting.

On our website here you can find: a memo from our elders, a slide deck explaining the process, and a FAQ. You are also welcome to reach out to an elder or member of the team supporting the process (Pastor Bobby, Pastor Richard, Betsy and Steve Crowe, Jessi Rennekamp, and Sarah Bartley).

A few FAQs have been added, below

April 2025 - Learning Phase Updates

Coming soon…

October 2025 - Membership & Baptism Recommendation

Dear Church,

Thank you to everyone who has prayerfully engaged in our church-wide discernment process. Your thoughtful participation – in surveys, study groups, backyard gatherings, and forums – has been a gift to our community. This letter is about membership and baptism. We also want to acknowledge that many are prayerfully considering the topic of women serving as elders; we expect to communicate a recommendation on that in two weeks.

What the Elders Are Recommending

After prayerful study of the relevant Scripture and input from the church, the Elders recommend that the church extend the possibility of membership to otherwise qualified individuals who were baptized before being old enough to exercise personal faith and have later professed faith publicly and believe their original baptism was meaningful and sufficient. The church will discuss this in a family meeting on Nov. 9, and vote on amending our church constitution at our annual meeting on January 24th.

View the text of the amendments we’ll be voting on

Why the Elders Are Recommending This

Scripture affirms both the universal church – a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members – and local expressions of that body. The administrative process for church membership is not prescribed in Scripture, though the Bible has much to say about how Christians are to belong to one another – in love, in peace, in accountability, in shared mission, and much more (John 13:34-35, Romans 12:10, Ephesians 5:21, Colossians 3:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:18, Hebrews 10:24-25, etc.).

Throughout the year, we have had the opportunity to engage with you through our church-wide survey, group gatherings, and many 1:1 conversations. Based on these interactions, it has become clear that our current practice of requiring believer’s baptism for membership is hindering faithful, mature Christians – who were baptized as infants and who affirm their baptism’s significance – from entering fully into the life of our church.

For some, undergoing believer’s baptism after infant baptism feels like a repudiation of the faith tradition and family that first taught them to love Jesus. For others, it feels like a box-checking exercise rather than arising out of personal conviction. This can become a matter of conscience and spiritual distress.

We believe that removing distinctions in our congregation between Christians based on baptismal mode will produce the following fruit:

Improving our witness of Christian unity: It signals unity on a non-essential issue, allowing us to demonstrate through our communal life the reality to which baptism points: belonging to Christ.
Fostering gifts meant to build up the church: The Lord has brought to NSCBC brothers and sisters in Christ from a variety of denominational backgrounds. We want our organizational structure to support the flourishing of all God’s gifts, which are given for building up the church. Membership is a prerequisite for serving as elders and deacons and for voting on our budget, our leadership, and other important decisions.
Creating a representative membership: From our earliest conversations, you expressed that the church is at its best when membership is not a transaction, but a transformational relationship to one another. This change allows better alignment between active participants in our congregation and formal members, ensuring our membership is not an administrative category but rather a reflection of spiritual participation.
Inviting discipleship conversations: We intentionally chose the language for the constitution recognizing that some people who were baptized before exercising personal faith could later conclude that their original baptism was not meaningful and sufficient, opening conversations about being baptized as a believer. As elders, we will amend our process for interviewing member candidates – which already includes robust and fruitful discussions around candidates’ relationship with God – so that it becomes an opportunity for fulsome conversation about the place of baptism in the candidate’s journey of faith.

We believe that we have no warrant in Scripture to exclude members of the universal church from full participation in our church on the basis of an issue where traditions that love the same Lord and seek to obey the same Scripture understand baptismal practice differently.

What the Elders Are Not Recommending:

As the text of the proposed amendment says, “This exception does not alter our practice of believer’s baptism by immersion, which remains our regular expression of baptismal faith.” In no way are we recommending any change to our present practice of baptizing only upon a credible confession of faith.
We are not recommending that we cease to be a Baptist church or sever our relationship with Converge, the association of Baptist churches to which we belong. A distinctive characteristic of Baptist churches is a commitment to a membership exclusively of believers, which remains a requirement for membership in our Constitution. While the proposed approach may differ from that of many Baptist churches, it is not without precedent. Respected Baptist voices such as John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, and John Piper have articulated similar convictions. As observed by Jamie Sipsma, the Northeast President of Converge at our September 20 Forum, a Baptist congregation has autonomy to establish its own policies consistent with our affirmation of faith.
The proposed amendment also is not intended to give carte blanche to substituting infant baptism for believer’s baptism. It only applies to situations where an individual believes their original baptism was meaningful and sufficient and later professes faith publicly.

What If I Disagree?

After much prayer, study, and congregational engagement, we believe this change to be the right path forward for NSCBC at this time. We also understand that not everyone in the congregation will agree with this proposed change; please know that you are welcome here at NSCBC regardless. The driving impetus of our recommendation is submission to scripture and Christian unity – not uniformity. We have listened to wisdom and insights from varying perspectives within our church, and we value each of your contributions. Staff and Elders continue to welcome your feedback and ongoing discussion.

Family Meeting on November 9

We invite everyone in the NSCBC family – whether formal members or not – to join us for a Family Meeting (with lunch) on November 9th after 11am worship. We offer this slide deck and a summary of your feedback to help you prepare for that meeting and your important role in voting. At the meeting, we will offer a brief presentation and you will have ample time to share your perspectives, ask questions, and continue discerning together in love and unity. We invite you to consider:

How well did we do summarizing your input? What would you affirm or add?
Is there something else you think is critical for the body to hear?
Whenever possible, we want to disagree without disconnecting. For those who disagree or have concerns or reservations: If this change is adopted in January, are there steps we can take that would help you feel more comfortable, such as how we interview members, elect leaders, etc?

We look forward to a loving and fruitful discussion!

Please sign up to come, so we have enough food for lunch.

In Christ,

Your NSCBC elders

Russ Tuck (Chair), Russ Bjork, Antuan Weeks, Andrew Rennekamp, Nate Sidmore, and Bobby Warrenburg (Senior Pastor)

November 2025 - Eldership Recommendation

Dear NSCBC Church Family,

Thank you to everyone who has prayerfully engaged in our church-wide discernment process. Your thoughtful participation – in surveys, study groups, backyard gatherings, and forums – has been a gift to our community. This letter is about women and eldership, and follows our recommendation on membership and baptism sent on October 31.

What the Elder Board Is Recommending

After prayerful study of Scripture and input from the congregation, the Elder Board recommends that we extend the opportunity to women who fulfill the qualifications for office described in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9 to serve as Elders alongside men. The church will discuss this recommendation in a family meeting on November 23, and vote on amending our church constitution at our annual meeting on January 24.

Here is the change we’ll be voting on.

Why the Elder Board is Recommending This

The Elder Board believes our church will be greatly enriched when men and women serve together as Elders. As we consider the ways in which women are already contributing at NSCBC, we are excited to share more fully in prayer, decision-making, oversight, pastoral care, and casting vision. We believe our work will be strengthened and deepened as a result.

Scriptural Study

Our engagement with God’s Word throughout this year has been rich and life-giving. We sought to anchor ourselves in Scripture – individually, together as an Elder Board, and alongside all of you – and studied a broad range of doctrinally sound perspectives.

We’ve seen with fresh eyes that men and women by design are different, equal, and better together. God’s purposes advance when they partner in humble service. Together, they are the image of God and steward creation side by side (Gen. 1:26-28). They are different, and their unity in diversity reflects our trinitarian God (Gen. 2:18-24). As the story of the Bible unfolds, women are actively leading, prophesying, counseling, and offering theological insight – not as exceptions, but as part of God’s pattern. Jesus went out of his way to highlight women as exemplary models of discipleship and sent them as witnesses. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on both men and women, and the Spirit used them to build up the church.

The gospel frees everyone – including Gentiles, slaves, and women – to humbly offer themselves to the kingdom of God (Gal. 3:26-29). It is good news for healing every aspect of creation, through the full participation of God’s people. Unlike the world around them, the church emphasized the maturity and Christ-like character of its leaders (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5), rather than their ethnicity, gender, or social status. The list of qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 does not explicitly exclude women— there are actually no male pronouns in the Greek of this passage—any more than it excludes unmarried men. Rather, characteristics like “husband of one wife” are indicators of integrity and faithfulness. In the same way, drawing on these descriptions, we discern the character of those called to represent Christ as Elders.

We studied passages that appear to explicitly limit women’s roles (e.g., 1 Timothy 2:11–15; 1 Corinthians 14:34–35), aiming to hold them together with passages that openly celebrate women as apostles, prophets, house church leaders, teachers, and deacons (Acts 16:13-40, Acts 18:26, Romans 16,1 Corinthians 1:11, Colossians 4:15, Philippians 4:2-3). Notably, in the letters of 1 Timothy and 1 Corinthians, Paul is concerned with false teaching and false witness—leaders who flaunted wealth and status, lacked training, and misunderstood the gospel of Jesus Christ. To read these passages as limiting women’s leadership in the church for all time is, in our understanding, inconsistent with Paul’s practice and the biblical pattern outlined above.

Taken together, we believe Scripture affirms the full participation of women in the life and leadership of the body of Christ.

Movement of the Spirit at NSCBC

We are grateful for the generosity with which each of you has shared your experiences and convictions. You have leaned in with curiosity, love, and trust. What you shared helped us witness the movement of the Spirit in our congregation, and helped us see how our current leadership structure shapes our mission, our witness, and our life together.

We’ve been struck by the ways that women are already leading, teaching, shepherding, and building up the body of Christ at NSCBC. Their gifts have borne fruit in worship, in pastoral care, in biblical teaching, and in spiritual formation—and we’ve felt the absence of their voices and embodied presence on the Elder Board.

We sense God prompting us to better align our structures with the gifts He has given us. We expect that this will strengthen our church, more fully reflect the image of God, and set both men and women free to serve in the ways that they are called and gifted.

What We Stand to Gain

We believe we have much to gain from the partnership of male and female Elders. One of our values is communicating Jesus well—through both words and actions. Jesus surrendered his rights in humility and self-giving love. He descended—to assume our

humanity—and ascended again, to bring us to the Father. In a world where gains for women are often viewed as losses for men, and gains for men are construed as losses for women, the gospel preaches mutuality and self-giving love, or, “better together.” All of which are only possible through Christ.

We believe the partnership of male and female Elders will bear fruit in several key areas:

A stronger witness to Christ: When men and women humbly serve together, they more fully obey the command to mutual submission (Eph. 5:21) and self-giving love (Phil. 2:3-4). When leaders—male and female—adopt the posture of giving over grasping, they present a clearer witness to Christ. And by affirming that spiritual maturity—not gender—is the basis for leadership, we better model the way that all believers, including our children, are called to grow in wisdom, character, and service.
Better stewarding of gifts: Gifts are given for building up the church (Eph. 4:1-13) and they are not distributed based on gender. By removing this barrier, we gain the insights and embodied presence of women on the Elder Board as we pray, deliberate, set vision, and provide pastoral care. We give both men and women greater freedom to serve where they are called, which will allow for more collaboration in other areas of church life which are currently being filled primarily by women.
More representative leadership: Peace, or Shalom, is when nothing is missing or broken. We regularly pray for peace, or wholeness. We see this change as a way that our Elder Board can more fully reflect the whole image of God and meet the diverse needs of our local body. Based on our experience, this change will allow for more thoughtful, balanced decisions, and stronger, wiser shepherding of our congregation.

What If I Disagree?

We recognize that sincere Christians can come to different conclusions on this topic— we have seen this reflected even among members of our Elder Board. Our expectation and hope is that we can disagree without disconnecting, as we have for many years, honoring our shared commitment to Scripture and the unity we have in Christ. We look forward to continuing our open dialogue with the same graciousness, maturity, and mutual respect we have enjoyed this year.

Family Meeting on November 23

We invite everyone in the NSCBC family – whether formal members or not – to join us for a Family Meeting (with lunch) on November 23 after 11am worship. We offer this slide deck as an opportunity to dive more deeply into Scripture, resources we found helpful, and insights gleaned from NSCBC, such as this summary of your feedback. These materials are intended to help you prepare for your important role in voting at the annual meeting in January. At the Family Meeting, we will offer a brief presentation and you will have ample time to share your perspectives, ask questions, and continue discerning together in love and unity. We invite you to consider:

How well did we do summarizing your input? What would you affirm or add?
Is there something else you think is critical for the body to hear?
Whenever possible, we want to disagree without disconnecting. For those who feel strongly about this: If this change is adopted in January, or if it isn’t, are there steps we can take that would help you feel more comfortable, such as how we conduct our process of electing leaders?

We look forward to a loving and fruitful discussion!

Please sign up to come, so we have enough food for lunch.

In Christ,

Your NSCBC elders

Russ Tuck (Chair), Russ Bjork, Antuan Weeks, Andrew Rennekamp, Nate Sidmore, and Bobby Warrenburg (Senior Pastor)

FAQs

What are the two aspects of our church structure and governance under consideration?

Membership and Baptism: Considering an exception to the believer’s baptism requirement to allow those baptized as infants who later profess faith publicly to become members if they believe their original baptism was meaningful and sufficient.

- This would not change our practice of believer’s baptism at NSCBC.
- Membership is a requirement for voting and serving as a church officer, including the elder board, deacon board, and nominating committee.

Women as Elders: Exploring the possibility of both men and women serving as elders.

Who is calling for this, and why?

The elders began studying and discussing these aspects of church governance in 2024. At the annual meeting in January, they announced a season of learning and collective discernment. This is consistent with our framework for church governance in which the elders and senior pastor are responsible for church governance and the membership votes to approve or reject the elders’ recommendations.
We are a church with a high view of Scripture. Our leaders care deeply that we reflect the biblical vision for the Church – its mission and purpose in the world. The elders believe the time is right to consider how our existing governance model upholds that vision, and what impact our model has on our congregation and wider community.
One third of regularly attending adults are members of NSCBC. Our church is made up of people from a variety of denominational backgrounds and new believers. Among the reasons to consider these changes is that they might remove barriers preventing believers who already belong to our church from entering more fully into fellowship and responsibility for its care.
Recognizing members may hold differing, biblically grounded convictions on these matters, the elders believe it is important to invite the entire church into a period of corporate learning, sharing, and discernment that is rooted in the gospel and in our existing values.

How will a decision be made? Is the outcome already determined?

The outcome is not determined. Our existing constitution spells out how amendments can be made. The final vote on whether to amend the constitution rests with our members. Our senior pastor and elders are responsible for church governance, which is why the elders called for a season of learning and discussion and will be the ones to make potential recommendations for the members to affirm or deny.
Our elders, staff, and team members have individual perspectives on church governance – as do many of you. They are unified in their desire to see our governance model reflect God’s wisdom for the church and for it to support the church in serving its mission and fulfilling its God-given purpose. They are also unified in desiring that the process itself reflect our church values, including our high view of Scripture, focus on discipleship, and Jesus-centered community.
The elders unanimously decided to engage the entire church in learning and helping discern this together. In the fall, our senior pastor and elders will consider changes that are supported by both biblical wisdom and broad congregational input. If they recommend constitutional changes, members will vote on those changes at the next annual meeting.

Does my participation matter? Will it affect the outcome?

The answer is absolutely yes. Your participation in the survey now will be used to design learning and discussion opportunities in the next phase. Though we all come to this with different perspectives and convictions, we understand the Bible best when we read it together and our church will benefit from your participation.

We sincerely hope everyone will be involved! These efforts will be enriched by your participation, whether you are a voting member or regular attender. Here are a few ways to participate right now:

Pray for one another and for our church. Ask for God’s spirit of peace, unity, and humility to pervade our church. We value discipleship, both individually and collectively. Ask the Lord to grow us and show us how to love one another as He first loved us.
Beginning March 9th all NSCBC attendees will be invited to complete a survey. The survey will help all of us better understand our congregation’s composition and experiences. It will ask what you want to learn about these topics, what resources you find most helpful, and how we can care for you in the context of these discussions. To spark your ideas, the survey will launch with an all church lunch on March 9th.

Who do I contact if I have questions?

Our elders are responsible for overseeing our governance and have initiated this process. To contact the elders directly, you can do so here.
The elders are working with an expanded team to organize and implement this project. That team includes Pastor Bobby, Pastor Richard, Betsy Crowe, Steve Crowe, Jessi Rennekamp, and Sarah Bartley. You can find contact info in our directory on ChurchCenter. For privacy and safety reasons, a valid account is required. They will engage others to facilitate or host conversations, organize resources, and more.
If you have questions or want to help, you can speak with one of them or with an elder. Their phone numbers are available in the church directory on the Church Center app. If you are uncertain how to contact a member of the team, you can contact the church office at 978-927-2014.
Our staff is also available to listen and process with. You can contact any of them on the staff page.

How can I review our current constitution and beliefs of our denomination, especially relative to these matters?

Available on our church website, the current church governance model, or constitution, was adopted in 2014 and amended in 2017. It is built on a framework for governance that is “congregation-affirmed, pastor-led, elder-governed, deacon-served, policy-based.”
- Article V outlines the qualifications and responsibilities of members. Other relevant sections include our church polity, purpose, and covenant which appear first in the document.
- Article VI outlines the qualifications, selection, and responsibilities of elders.
- Article XIV outlines the process to amend the constitution.
- Article IV outlines our affirmation of faith, which aligns with our denominational affiliation, Converge.

These matters are deeply personal and have at times divided Christians and churches. How will we cultivate an environment of trust and unity?

Christians hold differing, biblically grounded convictions on matters of church governance. They have different personal experiences with these topics. Further, our wider culture is highly polarized and individualistic. For those reasons, discussing church governance may induce anxiety or remind people of past pain. This is why we are conducting a survey early in the process. With a clearer picture of the congregation’s composition and experiences, we hope to take better care of all participants and introduce biblically rich learning opportunities that fit our congregation.
NSCBC’s existing values can guide and support us and nurture our church’s witness.
- We value forming friendships, experiencing gospel renewal, and prayer. Many of us regularly engage in small groups and discipleship groups for these purposes.
- We operate with a high view of Scripture and as a “centered,” or “center-set community,” which allows us to uphold unity, not uniformity, while being clear, not fuzzy, about the gospel.
It can be difficult to share our perspectives and experiences, and to listen to others do the same. When we engage with love and humility, God’s Spirit can use such conversations for our growth and the building up of the church. That means trusting one another, giving grace to one another, receiving God’s grace, and seeking understanding. That is how we build each other up and be a witness to our children and neighbors (John 13:35).

What is the history of these governance matters at NSCBC?

As of the writing of this response, we are not aware of any prior formal process to consider the baptism exception described above, although the elders have discussed it for many years.
Women have served NSCBC for 200 years. The following summarizes the documented history of discussion on women’s representation in governance. Themes include a high view of Scripture, emphasis on remaining in tune with the congregation, seeing lay-people participate in the life of the church, and preventing division by honoring differing convictions.
- Historically, men served in governance roles in churches, civic, and business spheres. Pastor Rich Shoenert (1976-1988) began introducing biblical teaching on women’s equality, with no immediate changes made. In 1983, he presented a research paper as part of his Doctor of Ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary which outlined a biblical case for women’s equality as part of the image of God. Placing a high value on unity in the church and acknowledging differences of conviction among members, the paper recommended options for incrementally increasing women’s participation at NSCBC, and was later circulated among elders.
- In the late 1980s the groups Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Christians for Biblical Equality published papers summarizing their respective biblical interpretations. The Christians for Biblical Equality paper, Statement on Men, Women, and Biblical Equality, was signed by NSCBC leaders, including Mark Coleman and Roger Nicole, a biblical scholar who helped found the organization.
- In 1992 and 1996 the elders wrote statements acknowledging the theological and traditional position of NSCBC was for men to hold leadership roles, but that after reading Scripture, books, and articles, and engaging in discussion, the elder board “recommends that spiritual maturity and giftedness be the basis for service and leadership in all areas of our church life.” The elders surveyed the congregation in 1997 and found strongly held, differing views among members.
- In 2002 the elders engaged in a period of prayer and study and issued a summary statement affirming that, “women should share fully in all ministries and leadership roles in the life of North Shore Community Baptist Church, with the exception of elder (which includes pastor).” And, “our desire is that both men and women will use their gifts as they serve our Lord in the life of this congregation.” They also recommended, and the church affirmed, a new governance model which NSCBC operated under from 2002-2014. In this model the church was governed by a Leadership Council comprised of both men and women. A separate group of male elders focused on prayer and shepherding, and had representation on the Leadership Council.
- In 2014 the elders again studied the matter and surveyed the congregation, and again found differing convictions. They recommended and the church voted to accept a replacement constitution which made the elders the governing board of the church again, as they were prior to 2002. This change intended to streamline governance and operations; it was a better fit for a church our size. While it included a statement continuing to affirm women’s participation in teaching, preaching, serving as deacons, and in all other ministry roles, it eliminated the option for women to serve in a governance role, as they had been doing.

Is there unity among church leadership?

The elders are unified that we should study the topics together.
The elders are also unified that there is sufficient reason to question whether our current form of church governance most effectively aligns us to the will and mission of God.
As to the topics themselves, elders have differing backgrounds and convictions, and are all interested and eager to study the topics themselves in depth this year alongside the whole church.

*NEW* What are we hoping to gain from Phase 2 Learning & Discussion

Our Opportunities:

Discipleship: Engage broadly with as many members of the congregation as possible to grow in our love for Jesus, Scripture, each other, and inviting those who are not (yet) part of the church
Scripture: Grow in our love for and skills for how to read the Bible. Deepen our understanding of passages relating to the specific topics in question.
Community: Create opportunities to nurture deeper relationships by creating the conditions for people to share their stories and perspectives and have the opportunity to know others and be known.
Mission: Model how we can disagree without disconnecting and grow in love and respect for one another.

A full list of elders goals for the process is available in the report sent to the church in April 2025.