Several significant decisions touch multiple bodies and proceed in sequence. The framework expects each body to play its part in turn — the Eldership discerns, the Five-Fold contribute, the Committee handles the legal and operational form, the Saints commit by their vote and their participation. The table below sets out the typical sequence for the most common hybrid decisions.
| # | Decision | Sequence — who does what, in order |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calling a paid Pastor | Eldership discerns and selects the person the Lord is calling (with apostolic and prophetic Five-Fold input), as it recognises an Elder (Doc 6) → Committee prepares the lawful engagement (credentials, terms, compliance) → the body affirms the calling according to the church’s chosen model (see the note below) → Committee executes the employment contract under the jurisdiction’s employment law. |
| 2 | Annual budget | Eldership leads the Doc 5 Five-Stage Discernment Process, and orders the work into a published priority ladder — each work with its minimum, ideal and stretch — balancing gospel and community outputs → Five-Fold contribute (evangelist on outreach, teacher on training, pastor on care) → Budget committee reviews the ranges independently → Saints vote at AGM to approve the plan (the Prospectus), not a fixed line-item budget → the Saints pledge their giving for the year, undesignated to the body, so the scope can be tested against a real figure → the Eldership allocates the pledged total down the published ladder and releases it (provisional, then final — this does not return to a vote) → Committee crafts the legal and financial form and operates within the settled allocation. |
| 3 | Constitutional amendment | Eldership discerns the need (what is the Lord saying about how the body operates?) → Committee drafts the legal form with the church’s lawyer → Eldership confirms the draft preserves the framework spirit → Saints vote by Special Resolution (typically 75% supermajority) → Committee lodges with the regulator. |
| 4 | Major property purchase | Eldership discerns the calling (is the Lord leading us into this?) → Apostolic and prophetic Five-Fold may speak → Committee conducts due diligence, negotiates terms, secures finance → Saints vote at General Meeting to authorise the purchase → Committee executes the purchase and ongoing stewardship. |
| 5 | Member discipline | Stage 1: The two Saints speak directly with one another, privately and in love (Matthew 18:15) → Stage 2: If unresolved, one or two trusted Saints or Elders sit in (Matthew 18:16) → Stage 3: If still unresolved, the matter goes to the Eldership for prayer and discernment (Matthew 18:17 first sense) → Stage 4: Where the Eldership determines necessary, the matter is brought before the body (Matthew 18:17 second sense) → Stage 5: Only where these spiritual steps have been exhausted, or where the matter involves abuse, safety, or legally required reporting, does the formal procedure under the Constitution and the law come into play (Committee involvement, possibly legal process). |
| 6 | Starting a new ministry | Eldership discerns the calling and scopes the work (its three figures and its place on the priority ladder) → Relevant Five-Fold contribute (e.g., evangelist on outreach ministry, teacher on training ministry, pastor on care ministry) → Committee handles the legal and operational scaffolding (Working-with-Children compliance, child-safety policy, ministry leader engagement, financial controls) → Saints support through giving and volunteering. Funding follows the ordinary process: the work is placed on the ladder and funded from the general offering in its priority order, not by a separate appeal. |
| 7 | Recognition of new Elders | Eldership discerns through the Doc 6 Part Four ten-stage process (Stages A through G internal to the Eldership and the candidate) → Public Announcement to the body (Stage H) → Saints stand with the Eldership in confirmation and prayer at the Public Installation (Stage I) → Committee handles any legal implications (e.g., if the new Elder is also being elected to the Committee, the formal election process at the next AGM). |
| 8 | Recognition of new Five-Fold ministers | Eldership discerns through the Doc 8 six-stage process → Saints stand with the Eldership at the Commissioning (Stage 5) → The Five-Fold minister begins operating in their gift under the Eldership’s ongoing accountability (Stage 6). |
| 9 | Major denominational decision (join, remain, withdraw) | Eldership discerns the spiritual posture of the body toward the denominational covering → Apostolic Five-Fold may speak on broader Kingdom relationships → Committee handles the legal implications and consultation with denominational counterparts → Saints vote at Special General Meeting (typically 75% supermajority). |
| 10 | Crisis decision (e.g., abuse allegation, public scandal, response to natural disaster) | Immediate pastoral and safeguarding response by the Eldership and Committee jointly → Notification to the body at the appropriate level of generality → External professional advice engaged where required (legal, safeguarding, counselling) → Body engagement and decision-making as the crisis stabilises and longer-term decisions become possible. |
The pattern across all hybrid decisions. The Eldership leads the spiritual discernment. The Five-Fold contribute through their gift. The Committee handles the legal and operational form. The Saints commit by their vote and their participation. Each body plays its part in turn. None usurps the role of another. The integration of the four is what walking the framework looks like in practice.
Calling and releasing paid pastoral staff
A paid Pastor is, in the framework’s terms, an Elder who labours in preaching and teaching and is supported by the body for it (1 Timothy 5:17–18). So calling a paid Pastor follows the pattern for recognising an Elder (Doc 6), with one layer added: the legal reality of employment. Three roles must be kept distinct.
- The selection of the person is the Eldership’s. Discerning whom the Lord is calling to shepherd and teach is spiritual work, and the Eldership is closest to it. This is not a popularity contest decided by ballot; it is discernment in prayer, weighed against the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
- The employment is the Committee’s. Every legal requirement of engaging — and, where it comes to it, releasing — a paid worker is the Committee’s responsibility: the contract, the terms, compliance, and the employment law of the jurisdiction the church operates under. The Committee does not decide who; it makes lawful the decision the Eldership has discerned. Churches should take their own local legal and employment advice; this framework is not a substitute for it.
- The body’s role is the one thing that varies, and each church settles it in its Constitution. The framework offers three models and leans to one, but leaves the choice to the church before the Lord.
Model A — the Eldership appoints; the body affirms without a formal vote (the framework’s suggested default). The Eldership presents the person it has discerned; the body meets them, prays, and stands with the calling. This is the plainest New Testament pattern for setting elders in place. Of Paul and Barnabas: “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:23). And Paul to Titus: “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5). In both, the appointing is the leadership’s, done in prayer; the body receives and stands with those set over them. No congregational ballot is described.
Model B — the Eldership presents one person; the body affirms by a formal vote. The Eldership discerns and presents a single person — not a slate to choose between — and the body affirms the calling by vote. The warrant for giving the body a formal, participatory voice is Acts 6, where the apostles had the congregation share in the choosing before the leadership appointed: “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty” … “And what they said pleased the whole gathering” (Acts 6:3, 5). That passage concerns the seven rather than elders, so it stands as a supporting principle rather than a direct command; but it shows real congregational participation under the leadership’s appointing hand, and a formal affirming vote is a fitting modern expression of it. This model also sits easily with the common legal reality that the Members are the Pastor’s employer and must approve the engagement.
Model C — the Eldership shortlists; the body chooses among candidates by vote. The Eldership vets two or three and the body votes to choose between them. This is the most common practice in Australian churches and is sometimes required by a Constitution, but it has the least direct biblical support. Scripture shows the body participating in and consenting to appointment — “and what they said pleased the whole gathering” (Acts 6:5) — and the leadership appointing — “they appointed elders… with prayer and fasting” (Acts 14:23) — but nowhere shows a congregation choosing its leader by majority among competitors. A church may adopt it, especially where its Constitution or law requires a Members’ selection vote.
Why the framework leans to Model A. The clearest texts on setting elders in place show the leadership appointing them, in prayer, with the body receiving rather than balloting: “they appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting” (Acts 14:23); “appoint elders in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5). A paid Pastor is an Elder who labours in the word — “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17) — so his calling should follow the same pattern: discerned and appointed by the Eldership, received and affirmed by the body. Where a church’s Constitution or its jurisdiction’s law requires a Members’ vote, Model B keeps that same discernment while adding a formal affirmation, and is the natural next choice. This is a matter on which faithful churches differ; the framework commends Model A but binds no one’s conscience — adopt the model your Constitution and your law require, and walk it with integrity.
Releasing a paid Pastor. Dismissal is, first and always, an employment-law matter, and it is the Committee’s responsibility to handle it lawfully under the jurisdiction the church operates in — including where the law itself compels a particular process. Where the cause is spiritual — doctrinal drift, moral failure, a shepherd who will not shepherd — the Eldership discerns that the person should no longer serve, and the Committee then effects the release in compliance with the law. It is never a congregational popularity vote. A Constitution may reserve a confirming Members’ vote to release a Pastor; where it does, that vote confirms the Eldership’s discernment and follows the Committee’s lawful process — it does not replace them.
Other paid staff — operational managers, administrators, bookkeepers, ministry coordinators, and the like — are engaged and released by the Eldership (for fit and oversight) and the Committee (for the employment law), with the same separation and without a Members’ vote. The body has elected the Committee and set the Eldership over the work precisely so that it need not vote on every appointment.