Organizing for Mission

A little over a year ago at a workshop for leadership in the mid-size church as we discussed committee work in the church it struck me how many committee/councils my own church had.  Back in the room, I tried to list them all, and found it difficult to do because there were so many.  When I finally completed my list there were eighteen different ones.  At the next session we brainstormed about how to streamline the structure of the local church and we all began to see that without touching the committees whose function and role are defined in our Discipline that there is wide latitude in how to organize the local church.

My own experience in two plus years with this marvelous church has also shown me that there must be a better way to get the essential work and ministries of the church accomplished.  Too many people wore too many different hats.  Too frequently, the same project or idea was bandied about by multiple committees, none really knowing who should be doing it with the result being that it never got done.  Too much time was spent doing detailed work in meetings and not enough time spent thinking about what and why we do what we do.

This local church is blessed with remarkably capable people.  There are great natural leaders whose passion for God and wisdom command respect from others.  There are many energetic workers who are passionate about the future of our church.  The mere presence of such gifted and able servants of the Lord does not ensure that the work of the church gets done in the best way, however.  They need a structure that fosters creativity and communication so that we proceed as a unified whole to accomplish the mission and ministry of Christ's church.

In July the Church Council approved a significant restructuring of our committee/council structure.  Since then the Nominations/Lay Leadership committee has been working to implement this new structure.  What will this look like when it goes into effect in January?  First, Trustees, Church Council, Staff Parish Relations Committee, and Finance Committee by discipline remain unchanged in structure.  Second, the existing Child Development Center Board remains unchanged to provide leadership for the childcare facility. Third, the program committees will be consolidated into three large teams:  Caring Ministries, Sharing Ministries, and Discipling Ministries.  As the names imply they focus on three of the important missions of any local church to care for people both inside and outside the walls of the church, to spread the Gospel, and to make disciples of Christ.  Lastly, the important function of long-term vision and strategic thinking will be moved from a stand alone committee to Church Council because that is the body that ultimately must carry out and approve long-term visions and strategy.

Caring Ministries combines the functions of the Outreach and Nurture Councils.  Its mission will be to ensure that the sick or grieving within our church receive ministry.  Furthermore, it will oversee the missions of the church.  What missions outside of our church should we support, how should we support them?  Given the resources our church has both in terms of people, skills, and finances this group will determine the best way to use those resources to help the most people.

The church of Jesus Christ is inherently evangelical.  Spreading the Gospel is part of our DNA as Christians. The Communications and Evangelism Committees will be merged into one team called Sharing Ministries.  Everything that we do to publicize the church, welcome new visitors to our church, and share the Good News with others outside the church will be the task of this team.

Lastly, one of the important roles of any church is to invite non-believers to the life of faith, to lead nominal Christians into a deeper faith, and to make the devout even more passionate for their Lord.  This is a mission that is for all ages- children through older adults.  With our emphasis on sanctification and practice of infant baptism, this mission is particularly important in our Wesleyan heritage.  This mission is the task of the Discipling Team.  Instead of separate committees for youth, children, education, and adults, one large team will think long term and strategically about how we make disciples.

This being said, there is no guarantee that it will work.  I think it will, and I hope it will, but I don't know for sure.  What I do know is that the way we did work could be improved upon, and there is no reason to continue to do something that isn't particularly effective.  Part of growth is recognizing weaknesses and trying to address them.  Though no one can be sure of the outcome, I am excited about this new structure.  I truly believe it will allow them to all think more strategically, to do more visioning.  There is not as much overlap in the function of these new teams.  Most importantly, the new ministry teams are inherently missional.  Their very shape implies that the church does in fact exist to be in mission in the world.