11.1 — The structural requirement
A short Part to close the loop on a question implicit throughout this Document: must an Elder or Deacon be a voting Member of the body? The framework’s answer is yes. Every Elder and every Deacon recognised by the Eldership must be a voting Member of the body. This is not an optional preference; the framework treats it as structurally required.
11.2 — The three reasons
First — the office is a formal commitment that presupposes Membership. The office of Elder or Deacon is a formal commitment to serve and oversee the body. A Saint who has not made the formal commitment of Membership cannot reasonably make the deeper formal commitment of office. The lesser commitment is the foundation of the greater.
Second — those carrying spiritual office must walk under the body’s authority. An Elder or Deacon leads the body in matters that the body has constitutional authority over. They must therefore walk under that constitutional authority themselves. Membership establishes the walking-under-authority relationship; office presupposes it.
Third — those carrying spiritual office must carry voice on the body’s legal decisions. An Elder or Deacon who is not a Member cannot vote on the Constitution under which they serve, on the Committee they may be drawn from, on the budget for the ministries they oversee, on the calling of pastoral staff they will work alongside. The framework treats this as structurally incoherent.
11.3 — Practical consequence for the Identification Process
The ten-stage identification process set out in Part Four presupposes a Saint who is already a Member. Where a Saint who would otherwise be ready for office has not yet taken the step of Membership, the body invites them — gently, in conversation — to take that step first. The office cannot be carried until Membership is.
Where a Saint is walking with the body and the Eldership begins to discern, through the observation stage of Part Four, that the Lord may be raising them for Elder or Deacon office in due course, an early conversation about Membership is natural. The conversation surfaces what Membership means and invites the Saint to consider whether the moment has come. Without pressure. Without obligation to office. Membership is its own commitment, valuable in its own right; office is a later step, possible only after Membership is taken.
11.4 — Closing the loop with Document 11 (Example Constitution)
The structural requirement set out in this Part is reflected in Document 11 (Example Constitution) Approach B as a constitutional clause. Any constitution drafted on the framework’s templates should preserve it. The clause makes clear that every Elder and Deacon must be a Member at the time of nomination, at the time of installation, and throughout their service.
11.5 — A complementary note on Five-Fold ministers
The same requirement applies to Five-Fold ministers recognised by the Eldership for service within the local body. Document 8 (Five-Fold Ministry) Part Eleven sets this out in parallel terms. Where a Five-Fold minister is itinerant (serving multiple bodies, with no single local Eldership in primary spiritual oversight), Membership of any particular body is not required — but where they are recognised for ongoing service within a particular body’s Eldership, Membership of that body is required for the same three reasons set out in 11.2 above.