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Making Your Church Board Over
(Without Getting Thrown Over Board)
Dr. Gregory K. Tyree, D. Min
A Note from the Author
This book has been written primarily to help churches transition
from one board model to another. Readers seeking merely to
help their current board operate better will still greatly
benefit from this book. Most of the chapters can be adapted
for church boards in general, not just for those in transition.
Readers who are not embarking on board transition but rather
desiring board improvement will quickly recognize the few
chapters they may want to “skip over.” Keep in
mind, however, that your board may need transitioning in the
future, so don’t forget what you did with this book!
Those who take the time to read the entire book may discover
that church board transition may not be such a bad idea after
all.
From the Introduction
In these pages, you will learn how to transition your church
leadership team (assuming that you desire that), as well as
equip your church leadership team to actually “do”
ministry. I will show you step-by-step how to “peacefully”
make such a transition, and will offer tools and concepts
that will help your leaders have better meetings, do counseling,
and cast vision that will propel the church forward. Do not
neglect the appendices. In many cases, the charts and forms
there are necessary to understand certain ideas I set forth.
As with any ministry help book, application is the key to
success.
NOTE: The chapter summaries are actually excerpts from the
chapters themselves.
Ch. 1 - The Problems of the Church Board
This book assumes that most of my readers are attempting
or thinking of attempting transitioning their church leadership
from a two-board model to a one-board model. In all likelihood,
this means going from a deacon board- trustee board (or whatever
you call your boards) to a single elder board (or deacon board,
etc.). If you are indeed having problems with the two-board
paradigm, perhaps you have wondered why this model creates
so many difficulties. Allow me to offer just a few reasons
the two-board model is not the best model.
Ch. 2 - The Purpose of the Church Board
While it may sound strange, it is a fact that most church
members really do not know “why” their church
board exists. This fundamental question, however, must be
answered appropriately before any church can transition its
leadership to be more Biblical and effective. I would urge
church leaders and concerned members to wrestle with the basic
question, “Why do we have a church elder board (deacon
board, etc.)? Why does our church board exist in the first
place?” This chapter will help you answer these questions.
Ch. 3 - The Philosophy of the Church Board
This chapter arguable could be placed before the previous
one (purpose of the board), but the bottom line is an entity’s
philosophy must be based on that entity’s purpose. For
example, before I embrace a life-philosophy, I must have a
good idea as to why God has placed me here (purpose).
In the case of the church leadership team (elders, deacons,
etc.), that team must fulfill the purposes of the organization
for which it was created and which it serves. As you embark
on transitioning your church board, you need to know the overarching
ministry philosophy of your church.
Ch. 4 - The Potential of the Church Board
It has been said a million times of a million different situations:
no pain, no gain. Transitioning your board does not have to
be an all-out knock-down-drag-out, but even the smoothest
transitions will bring some level of discomfort, if not during
the process, surely sometime afterward.
There are many benefits to transitioning your church leadership
model to a more effective one. I call these “benefits”
the “potential of the church board.” What can
a new church board model potentially offer your church? This
chapter will answer that question.
Ch. 5 - A Process for the Church Board
I am going to “walk you through” the process
of transitioning your board. What follows is not a carved-in-stone
plan, but rather a “template” to help you with
your own board transition. While some churches will want to
use this “twelve step plan” verbatim, many will
want to tweak it for their particular circumstances. This
twelve-step transition plan will literally begin “at
the beginning” and end “at the end.” So
if you are at the point of seriously transitioning your current
church board paradigm to something different, read on!
Ch. 6 - The Pastor and the Church Board
As a Baptist, I believe that there are only two “offices”
in the New Testament church: pastor and deacon. I believe
that the terms “elder,” “bishop,”
and “overseer,” as well as metaphorical references,
such as “shepherd,” are synonyms for the term
“pastor.” “How then,” you might ask,
“does the pastor fit into the elder-deacon model?”
In other words, does the model I prefer contradict my conviction
of two offices?
On the surface, it would seem to. As you read this chapter,
however, you will see that, at least in the way I see the
church offices, the elder-model does not contradict the two
offices maintained in Baptist ecclesiology. This chapter deals
solely with the pastor’s role regarding his church’s
board.
Ch. 7 - The People on the Church Board
While I advocate a single-board leadership model, I realize
that many churches, either by choice or necessity, will end
up with a two-board model, even after transitioning. For example,
a church with a bipolar two-board model may transition to
a hierarchal two-board model, but they still have two boards.
As such, in this chapter I am going to present strategies
and descriptions of both elders and deacons. Some churches
may elect to use the terms “deacons and trustees,”
or some other terms. I have chosen the terms that are most
consistent with the approach I take in this book. This chapter
deals with a most practical topic: the people on (members
of) the church board(s).
Ch. 8 - The Paradigm of the Church Board
It is one thing for your elders or deacons to know what to
do, but it is quite another thing for them to know where the
church should go. In this brief but important chapter I will
present a “research paradigm” that can serve as
a ministry direction model for your church board.
Ch. 9 - The Procedures of the Church Board
Once a leadership team is “up and running,” how
do you “run” it? Years ago I wrote a booklet titled,
Deacons: Your Allies in Ministry, in which I answered that
question. What follows is an adaptation of a portion of that
booklet, updated to fit the one-board leadership model. It
is a “system” for helping Elders (Deacons) “do
ministry” (thus, their “procedures”). Many
of the charts referred to can be found in the appendices.
Ch. 10 - The Plan for the Church Board
Many pastors and church leaders overlook the value of “tracking”
or monitoring the progress of their ministries. They “don’t
plan to fail; they fail to plan.” You must have a mechanism
in place that helps you know whether or not what your church
is doing is working; that is, are you doing meaningful, life-changing,
and world-affecting ministry?
For some time I have used Aubrey Malphurs’ Advanced
Strategic Planning as my observation model. He lays out a
paradigm of ministry that I develop in this chapter.
Ch. 11 - The Protocol of the Church Board
I must admit that the topic of protocol issues is an area
of ministry that I absolutely despise. I am a “doer”-
a “go-get-er”- and the tedious drudging through
polices, procedures, polity and protocol is just a little
too monotonous for my taste. Nonetheless, it is of the utmost
importance that church leaders handle this part of ministry
well, as it affects everything else. Because the church is
an organization, and because churches “incorporate”
as non-profit entities in their respective States, and because
churches tend to operate with constitutions and bylaws, it
is imperative that all this minutiae enables real ministry,
not impedes it.
Ch. 12 - The Pastoral-Care of the Church Board
Board members who make the transition from Deacons to Elders
(usually those who go from the two-boards model to the single-board
model) often find it difficult to serve as “elders.”
In most cases this paradigm shift involves changing from a
“deacons who call the shots” mentality to an “elders
who do ministry” role. While difficult, the transition
can be made, and it can be done quite successfully.
One of the key “new” responsibilities after the
transition is “counseling.” This is because the
board has made a shift from being gate-keepers to being pastoral
servants. This chapter is a revision of a booklet I wrote
years ago that espouses and develops the Solution-Focused
Pastoral Counseling model for pastoral care. Elders (and deacons)
who will be the primary caregivers in a church, or assist
the primary caregivers (pastors) in a church must learn basic
lay-counseling and pastoral counseling skills.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
Any Pastor, church leader or church that desires to transition
its leadership board from one form to another, or who simply
wants to improve the structure and effectiveness of an existing
board. |
