Overview of new governance structure (September 2012) 1
Key Features of
Proposed Governance Streamlining
· Clearer definition of governance accountability
o Governance Board is accountable to the congregation
o Senior Pastor is accountable to the Governance Board
o Staff are accountable to the Senior Pastor
o Ministries are accountable to Senior Ministry Staff
o Support Staff are accountable to the Office Manager
· A purposeful Strategic Planning of Trinity’s ministries
o Every year there is a “Strategic Ministry Plan” presented for the church
o Strategic Ministry Planning is a collaborative process involving the Governance Board, Senior Ministry Staff and led by the Senior Pastor
· Streamlined management and decision making
o Staff is responsible for day to day management/administration
o Governance Board monitors compliance to church policies and achievement of the Strategic Ministry Plan
o Ministry Teams continue and are now directly overseen by staff replacing the role of the Clusters. (This removes 8 of 17 people currently filling roles in elected leadership)
· Strengthen Congregational Input
o If a member of the congregation has an unresolved issue with a ministry they can address the Senior Ministry Staff
o If a member of the congregation has an unresolved issue with Senior Ministry Staff they can address the Senior Pastor
o If a member of the congregation has an unresolved issue with Senior Pastor they can address the Governance Board
· Budget process
o Finance Team leads the process and collects information from Senior Pastor and Facilities Team
o Finance Team recommends budget to Governance Board
o Governance Board evaluates and approves annual budget and then recommends it to the congregation for final approval.
· Personnel authority
o Senior Pastor and Senior Ministry Staff are called by congregation
o Governance Board supports and oversees the Senior Pastor but can recommend dismissal of Senior Pastor to the congregation
o After discussion with the Governance Board, the Senior Pastor can dismiss Senior Ministry Staff
o Staff can appoint/dismiss Associate Ministry Staff with permission of Senior Pastor
· What stays the same
o Pastoral care
o Ministries continue to happen through ministry teams
o How the Diaconate functions (membership process)
o Nominations Team and election process
o Congregational meeting process
o Roles of officers
Overview of new governance structure (September 2012) 1
Organizational Chart
Overview of new governance structure (September 2012) 1
FAQ
Governance Model
1. Why are we streamlining our Governance Style?
o Because you told us: The Vitality Report, the town hall meetings, the surveys all indicated that we need to change.
o Confusion: Even after having the current structure for seven years, many people found it confusing and have a hard time finding out where to go to address ministry opportunities and issues.
o Lack of Efficiency: Many staff and cluster members have often found decision making in our current cluster structure takes an unreasonably long time. This ineffectiveness has led to creating difficulty filling cluster positions and has caused tremendous turnover.
o Lack of accountability: Lack of accountability leaves the staff in a vulnerable position if problems arise and makes it difficult to measure their performance.
o Lack of Collaboration: The current structure has created too many silos of responsibilities and has impeded collaboration among the staff.
o Note - As we consider streamlining our governance mode, it is good to recognize that the character of those who govern is more important than the form of governance. It is not to say that the form of governance is not important, but it is also good to honor those govern by providing a structure that allows them to govern effectively and to honor those who are governed by providing an accountable government.
2. What is the streamlined governance changes based on?
The new governance changes include ideas from the Accountable Leadership Model, which is a variation of what is commonly called a staff-led church. This model is designed to maximize leadership roles, by increasing the effectiveness of its leaders, while providing accountability measures to safeguard the operation of the church. The primary roles of the staff will not change but instead of interacting with clusters to carry out their functions, the staff will now be charged with overseeing, and in some cases, managing the ministries.
The new structure was put together after reading several books on governance, consulting with many others: various other churches, the East Coast Conference superintendent, past Trinity chairs, Phil Hakanson’s mentor, the staff, the Ministry Direction Team and the Ministry Support Team. We borrowed lessons from prior organizational structures that we had and from the realities of how we are now operating. We are already, in many ways already operating somewhat like a staff-led type of church and the model we are moving to will allow us to use our existing resources and experiences more effectively.
3. Is the Accountable Leadership Model a Biblical model?
There are Biblical instructions for various functions of church government– but the forms of those functions have not been clear. In the history of church governance, several competing views have emerged. As we tried to examine ways to make our structure more effective and taken care to maintain a biblical way of doing governance, a few conclusions have emerged.
o All of the governance models run into difficulties when congregations reach a larger size, an event that has occurred more frequently in the last fifty years than ever before.
o A common solution is to move to a “governance” board model, a model that has variations that can be suited to the particular styles of church polity.
4. Could we tweak our current structure to make it work without changing the By-Laws?
. If we realigned our clusters with the staff, which we could possibly do without changing a single bylaw, we would gain in a couple of ways: our clusters would now be better defined, eliminating some of the confusion the clusters have had in the past, and each staff member would be able to work his/her own clusters more efficiently. The problems that would still remain would be 1) any items that have to be handled across ministries would still have to go through an extra layer of part-time bureaucracy which is currently hampering decision making 2) the staff would still be working in their silos of responsibilities which hampers collaboration and accountability.
5. Is the new model a congregational model?
Moving to a governance form of polity, does not in fact make us less a congregational church than before, but will cause us to exercise our roles in a slightly different format. Congregational meetings will still run in very much the same style as before. There will still be a team of congregational leaders who oversee the church. What will be different will be form of interaction that the congregational leaders will have with the staff. The congregational leaders, who are only able to meet for a couple of hours a month, will now be able to focus on just governance issues; a focused task that is better suited for the time available for those leaders. The staff will now be more focused on the management of the ministries, a job that they are already tasked with, but now will not have the encumbrances of an extra layer of bureaucracy.
6. Is lay leadership being eliminated?
No - Lay leadership is just being reallocated. The Leadership Team is being reduced from seventeen people to nine people, freeing up several people to do ministry instead of governance.
Governance Board
7. What is the function of the Governance Board?
The Governance Board is entrusted with the overall well being and spiritual health of the church and prayerfully works to ensure the Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Ministry Plan are in harmony with each other and implemented.
8. Who are the church officers?
There are two categories of officers: some sit on the Governance Board and some do not.
o The Chair, Vice-chair, Secretary and Administrative Chair are on the Governance Board.
o The Treasurer, Financial Secretary and the Facilities Chair are not on the board but report to the Administrative Chair.
9. If the members of theGovernance Boardare in disagreement with a particular course of action of the Senior Pastor, what is their course of action?
For the Senior Pastor to be held responsible for his management performance, the Governance Board should not micromanage – that is, to override management decisions made by the Senior Pastor. The Senior Pastor, however will be encouraged to consult with the Governance Board on major decisions so the Senior Pastor may be assured those decisions fit within the bounds of the approved Strategic Ministry Plan and the policies of the church. The Senior Pastor will also be constrained by undergoing an annual review.
The Governance Board’s Role
Ongoing Tasks
While the Governance Board won’t be directly involved in the management of the church ministries it will exert it’s authority in two ways:
· By acting in an advisory role to the Senior Pastor and
· By monitoring ministry activity as reported primarily through the Senior Pastor.
Through the bulk of the year the two major concerns of the Governing Board will be:
· How well are the staff fulfilling the Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Ministry Plan
· Are the staff following appropriate policies and procedures that have developed to safeguard the church
The Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Ministry Plan are now in place and will be reviewed on a yearly basis. Many policies and procedures have been constructed through the years as can be seen in the list at the bottom of the page. An ongoing task of the Governing Board will be to make sure that we have sufficient policies in all pertinent areas of the church’s operations. A couple of areas we already know that need to be addressed are in staff relations and evaluations.
In addition to the ongoing tasks listed above, a couple of other ongoing tasks that will emphasize the spiritual aspect of the board’s work will be:
· Corporate prayer
· Bible study
Occasional Tasks
Other tasks that the Governance Board will be engaged in on a more occasional basis through the year are:
· Leadership development
· Strategic Ministry Planning
· Support and Encouragement of Senior Ministry Staff
List of current policies/procedures/forms
Overview of new governance structure (September 2012) 1
Anti-Harassment Policy
Application for Employment
Approval of Yearly Housing Allowances
Budget Process
Church Usage Policy
Discipline Policy
Employee Written Notice
Exceeding the Approved Annual Budget
Form – Access to Financial Accounts
Form – Approval of Payment Standard Procedures
Form – Background Checks Caregiver Volunteers
Form – Benefit Options for Pastoral Staff
Form – Fronting Mission Trip Expenses
Form – Handling of Restricted Gifts
Form – Long Term Use Contract
Form – Ministry Proposal Form
Form – Sexton Overtime
Form – Vacation Holiday Policy
Missions Policy
Performance Evaluation
Problem Resolution
Problem Resolution Request Form
Record of Verbal Discipline
Sexual Misconduct Procedures
Overview of new governance structure (September 2012) 1
Overview of new governance structure (September 2012) 1
Senior Pastor
10. Why does a large church need a pastor/administrator as compared to “traditional” structure”?
In fact, the current structure requires the pastor and all the staff to be involved in administration. However, there is not much authority actually granted in the current structure for carrying out the church’s mission on a timely basis. Currently the Senior Pastor and staff go through various cluster committees to get approval to carry out many of their tasks. In regards to administration of staff, the letters of call state that the staff report to the Senior Pastor, but the Senior Pastor is not given any authority to effectively manage the staff. The new structure will give the Senior Pastor the actual authority to efficiently carry out duties and manage the staff. As congregations get larger, the administrative tasks become much more complex and will become unmanageable if the proper authority is not granted to the full time staff.
11. Does this new structure put too much power in Senior Pastor?
The Senior Pastor is empowered to do more, but the added authority is balanced by added accountability.
12. Does this new structure put too many responsibilities on the Senior Pastor?
There is some additional administrative load but that will be mitigated by more efficiency in carrying out the current responsibilities managed by the Senior Pastor. Until TCC grows large enough to afford an Administrative Pastor, future search teams for Senior Pastor will need to look for a pastor with both pastoral and administrative gifts. But we can also keep in mind that just as Phil has been able to benefit from an assigned mentor as part of the Vitality process, we should also make this assistance available to our other future Senior Pastors.
13. How would job descriptions change?
Although the Senior Pastor has the authority to adjust staff job descriptions, the essential duties of the staff won’t significantly change now. Instead of the staff working with clusters to oversee the ministries they will either communicate directly with ministry teams or communicate through assistants they can appoint. The Senior Ministry Staff also has the option of creating teams to carry out specific ministry tasks.