On Church Governance
Here is a short article about the reorganization of the Wollaston Congregational Church, which I led.
In 2008, the leadership of Wollaston
Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in
Quincy, Massachusetts, was frustrated. According to
the church’s by-laws, the board and committee
structure of the church called for a total of 201 elected
or appointed positions, ranging from Deacons to flower
committee members, to the Christian Education
Committee to the Missions and Music Committees.
Most of these committees had been set up when
Wollaston had 900 members, and those committees
which still existed needed some revitalization. It was
not uncommon to have one member serve on several
committees at one time. The Executive Board had an
unwieldy twenty-nine members.
A series of leadership retreats was held. At one of these retreats, members were asked a series of questions, the answers to which were written down on post-it notes. Some represented what we did well and what we needed to improve, others asked about dreams for the future.
At the end of the process, members were asked
to sift through the responses and to begin categorizing them by their affinity. Members grouped these notes and stuck them to the walls around the room. After a couple of rounds of organizing and reorganizing thepost-it notes, the members ranked (by number of responses) them and divided them into three primary areas of ministry: Worship and Education, Mission and Outreach and Building and Resources.
The visual triangle was created by Peter
Johnston to represent the areas of ministry, and to
assist in restructuring the boards and committees.
Each Steward is responsible for recruiting and supporting work teams, like the Christian EducationTeam, the Deacons, and the Finance Team. Each ministry area also has a staff liaison (Pastor = Worship& Education, Mission & Outreach = Pastoral Resident,Building & Resources = Administrator.)
The Stewards’role is to support the ministries, not to run events or do the work of the groups. Fundraising, which might naturally go under the category of Resources was moved to the Mission and Outreach area to help balance the workload.Additionally, each of the small working groups may exist or may need to be assembled for a distinct task.The Stewards meet monthly as a group of six, plus the moderator, staff, and clerk.
The Stewards act as a board of directors, reporting in on the progress of their teams and making global decisions on behalf of the congregation.Each Steward checks in or meet with their ministry groups, and offers support to the ministry teams as they go about their work Once this was in place, the leadership decided to elect two Stewards who would be responsible for overseeing and helping to carry out the three focus areas. Additionally, the officers (Moderator, ViceModerator, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Clerk, Assistant Clerk.) The plan did not say whether or not an officer could be a Steward so that we could effectively balance the triangle.
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