What is a Session Meeting?
August 15, 2023
Dear CPC Family,
If you’ve read previous letters, you know that CPC, as a Presbyterian church, is led by elders who together form our session.
Of course you see CPC’s elders at worship services and other church events. All CPC members met with our elders before being received into membership. But there’s another important and often overlooked dimension of the session’s government of the church: the session meeting. In this letter, I want to share an “anatomy of the session meeting” to give you a better idea of how your elders care for you and lead the church as “under-shepherds” of the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:1-4).
Regular session meetings are held once a month and, ever since I’ve been at CPC, almost always on Zoom.
Who leads a session meeting?
A church’s session is a deliberative assembly. This means that the meeting is run not by an individual but by the assembled body as a whole. We use parliamentary procedure to ensure that every voice is heard and that decisions are made after thorough deliberation and by at least a majority of voting members. You can probably imagine that parliamentary procedure looks different in CPC’s session of three (where we keep things informal) compared to larger bodies like our Presbytery or General Assembly (which can get much more formal). As our session’s moderator, I propose an agenda and keep things on track during the meeting.
What does the session discuss?
According to our Form of Government (13.7), “The session is charged with maintaining the government of the congregation. It shall oversee all matters concerning the conduct of public worship; it shall concert the best measures for promoting the spiritual growth and evangelistic witness of the congregation.” Because these areas constitute the mission of the church, these are the areas we prioritize as a session. We spend time discussing pastoral care, new or existing areas of ministry, and the progress of the ministry of the Word at CPC.
We also have some formal tasks like receiving or dismissing members and some logistical tasks like monitoring church finances. I give a regular pastor’s report where your session expresses their care for me and my family and shares wisdom for my ministry. We also open and close every meeting with prayer for CPC, for all of you, and for the glory of Christ to advance in our church.
What records does a session keep?
Okay, you’ve probably never thought about this! But it’s worth knowing that our clerk of session (Ruling Elder Brent Murphy) takes the minutes of our meetings. These minutes record the pertinent details and major decisions of any meeting (for example, we record guest preachers, our administration of the sacraments, membership, and anything having to do with church finances). Brent annually submits our minutes to our Presbytery’s Visitation Committee. This committee reviews our work to make sure that we’re doing everything “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).
How can we pray for the session?
Please do pray for us! Our next meeting is, providentially, tomorrow. In line with 1 Peter 5:2-3, pray that we might “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” Your session [me, Brent Murphy, and Chris Hartshorn] know how much we need the grace of God in Christ to serve CPC well. Pray that he might give us an abundance of that grace, along with wisdom and love, in our joyful task of leadership and pastoral care. Also, pray that the Lord would add new elders to CPC’s session. As we move on from particularization, we are praying for the Spirit’s work of calling and equipping men from CPC to serve Jesus Christ in ordained office.
As you can imagine, session meetings are not everyone’s idea of a good time. I can testify, however, that CPC session meetings have always been a great blessing to me and times to which I look forward. No doubt this is because of the amazing elders God placed on our session and your prayers for our work!
I hope that gives an inside look at an important part of the life of the church. What questions do you have about session meetings or the ways that Jesus runs the church through the government of elders? Let me know!
In the Father’s Love,
Pastor Andrew