Who's On Your Board?

Dear Pastors

Who’s on your Board?

More than ever I believe local churches need to look closely as to WHO is on the church Board. In a day when all organisations face many challenging issues along with sadly, increasing ‘poor performance’ stories of ministry leaders it is incumbent on local churches to be a whole lot more attentive as to who is on the board and WHY did they join the Board.

When I talk about ‘the Board’ of a local church, I am talking about the group that is tasked and entrusted with final decision making in the local church. This group that has ‘Governance’ responsibility and thereby ultimate responsibility. It’s the group if you like, ‘where the buck stops’. Churches have different names for this group. For example – leadership team, church council, vestry, trustees but probably most common is the term Elders or Elder Board. The point being is that it is the group where the big decisions are made in the church.

Governance in the local church is very unique. In fact to my knowledge there is no other organisation on the planet like it. Unlike any other organisation, the local church is required to draw it’s Governance Board from within – from current members. All other Christian organisations (and for that matter companies, Government organisations etc) can draw Board members from outside there own organisation and in fact best practise encourages them to do exactly that. In other words you can ‘shoulder tap’ the best people you know. Further, Good Governance encourages the majority of the Board to be ‘independent’. In other words they have no other role in that organisation.

Not so with the local Church. The New Testament teaching is quite clear that Elders are appointed from within. Acts 20, 1 Timothy 3. Therefore they are not independent by virtue of the biblical understanding of Elders. This in my opinion is a risk especially in our modern era with all the regulatory requirements we now have to interact with.

Let me explain. It’s very easy to stack the Board in a local church. That is less a risk if the church constitution requires a ‘democratic’ process to select Elders. In other words an election process. But even then elections can be heavily influenced.

Over the years I have seen far to many local church Boards made up largely of the pastors mates and sometimes those ‘mates’ are family members. I do get it…….in small – medium churches that may be all you’ve got, I do understand that and it maybe it’s all good but honestly it isn’t ideal. The primary reason for this viewpoint is ‘conflict of interest(s)’. Further, one of the key themes that comes from all the scandals we have witnessed in the last 5 years or so is that it turns out that in many cases but not all - no one…..that’s right no one on the Board raised a red flag when there were troubling warning signs. Why? Because we are mates and mates look after each other. You know how that goes.

So in an ideal world I would encourage four broad categories of persons (in no particular order) to sit at the Governance table of a local church. I am assuming here that all Elders fulfil the 1 Timothy 3 criteria in terms of personal maturity and integrity and people who love the local church.

1. A person who is or recently has had a leadership role in a not-for-profit organisation in the charitable sector. This person will bring deep understanding of the unique challenges facing volunteer run organisations in our sector.
2. A person from the world of management. This person will usually have a background in finance, budgeting, legal and compliance issues and know about the importance of good process and systems.
3. A person with a strong background and interest in theology and the Bible. In a day when there are many and varied winds of doctrine blowing around this Elder could be a ‘go to’ person for the pastor and someone who may pick up on strange ‘winds’.
4. A person from the caring professions. As the local Church is a part of the ‘caring professions’, a person with this background and experience would add considerable value when it comes to the pastoral care policies, procedures and work of the church.

I offer you these four categories as a lens through which you may wish to look more closely when selecting Board members. Your Board is likely to get both better and stronger as a result.

Before I go. I am pleased to be partnering with Family Life NZ in bringing Ron and Nan Deal to Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton in September. More information will be on family Life’s website very soon and I will be referencing their visit in this blog going forward as well.

Blessings
Alan