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In
a recent study as part of a project to revitalize church
boards/committees, more than 600 board members were polled.
Nearly 1/3 of those polled left service because they felt tired, weary, and burned out. Another 1/3 were hanging on because there
was no one else to serve. They
had come asking for bread and were given a stone. What
frustrated them about serving on a church board or committee?
Here are some comments showing deep frustration: How
burned out I feel. My last
year was my most unproductive one. How
secular it is. We spend
more time discussing leaky toilets than why our church is slowly dying
due to no growth or vision. The
lack of interest in pursuing God together.
Prayer is a formality, not a way to seek His purpose and plan. The
lack of concern for seeking Christ's guidance versus following our own personal agendas. Can
serving on a church board/committee truly be life-giving instead of
life-draining? Can board
meetings actually become worshipful
work? The
author of the article is Rev. Charles M. Olsen, director of Apart Lay
Leaders in Kansas City, MO. He
has also written a book published by Alban Institute titled Transforming
Church Boards into Communities of Spiritual Leaders. Olsen
has identified four practices that enrich a board. 1. Story telling. Stories
bring a process of bonding into play...they bring life and energy.
Stories draw out commitment, form community, illuminate personal
characteristics and gifts. Often
story telling at a board meeting can clear the air and aid listening,
speeding up discussion on issues. What
type of stories are told...stories of life...stories related to the
history of the congregation...special stories that relate the
experiences of people. 2. Biblical and theological reflection. Theological and Biblical reflection trains board members in
the basic beliefs, purpose, and mission of the church. It might be taking a real life happening and tying it to a
Bible section...it's intentionally taking time at meetings to seek out
God's will in His Word. 3. Prayerful discernment.
It's
making prayer an intentional part of the meeting...it's pausing to pray before any decision...it's
laying out a challenge and asking people to go home and pray about it
before making the decision at the next meeting.
For key decisions, prayerful discernment can turn the board into
a center of worshipful work. Pray
before, during, after, and between meetings. 4. Visioning the future.
Vision can be a commitment to a direction with mid-course
corrections dictated by the opportunities God provides.
It's studying God's
Word and seeking His vision for us.
It's
including that process as part of any meeting.
It's
spending time seeking God's
will for the future of the congregation. Some
of you might say that there won't be time for any business if we do all this stuff. I have good news for you, we spend as much time on the day-to-day
business of the operating of the church as we allot for...allot 3 hours
and you'll spend
it ALL...allot 90 minutes, and you will get it done. I
would encourage you to get the book...has a lot of valuable information
that can be helpful as you look at conducting ministry
boards and committees. Here's
another little story I found: Lee
Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took
to make a winning team. The
book Iacocca
records Lombardi's
answer: There
are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and
have plenty of discipline but still don't win the game.
Then you come to the third ingredient: if you're
going to play together as a team, you've got to care for one another.
You've
got to love each other. Each
player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: If I
don't block that
man, Paul is going to get his legs broken.
I have to do my job well in order that he can do his.' The
difference between mediocrity and greatness. Lombardi said that night, is
the feeling these guys have for each other.
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