Overcoming Turnover Troubles
Can you maintain consistent direction with changing boards?
It was the largest church project I'd ever worked on—a year-long outreach campaign that would include radio and television announcements, newspaper ads, and direct mail. The benefits for the church would be enormous. Implementation was at hand. Then the telephone rang. "I hate to say it," Bernie said, his voice sounding strained, "but I've been promoted by my company. I won't have as much free time, so I've got to resign the board. You do understand how sorry I am?" Of course I understood. As chairman of the board, I had no choice. I also knew what Bernie's resignation meant to our project. He was the key man. It had been his idea. He had written the plan, nursed it along, sold it to the pastor and our board. No one had the vision for that project like Bernie. Now, practically on the eve of its fruition, Bernie was leaving. "It's going to set us back," I told him. "But we'll get it done." I was wrong. The project died a slow and painful death. It was no one's fault really, but at the time I felt a sense of personal failure. Although Bernie's replacement was a great worker, he took a while to get up to speed. By that time, we were a lame-duck board. A new slate took over, and it was back to square one. Bernie's project remained on the agenda, but it was merely something left for them to "clean up." As a result, the project was allowed to fade away. It was too bad. Bernie's idea would have been good for the church. We had invested a great deal of our time and the church's money in pursuing it. In the end it was wasted because our direction could not be sustained through a change of volunteer personnel. The demise of a major project by an orderly replacement of board members may sound extreme, yet it's an all-too-common occurrence in churches. The Problem of TurnoverMy ministry takes me into a variety of churches. During my visit, a pastor or lay leader often will wax eloquent about a new idea the church is putting into action. I'm amazed how often I'll return to that church a few months later and find the very idea or program that was once so exciting has been abandoned. Sometimes I ask why. The pastor or leader will usually shrug his shoulders and mumble something like, "I don't actually know." Upon further exploration, it's often tied to a change of personnel in a decision-making body. There's no question about it—it's difficult to maintain a consistent direction when boards change. Elections and resignations take their toll. Key committee responsibilities have to be reassigned. New board members often hesitate to ask questions of those they have replaced. They don't want to appear stupid by asking dumb questions. Thus, people now called upon to make decisions don't know the background of past actions. Besides, they may have their own priorities, and these may directly oppose their predecessors'. As a result, a great deal of effort is lost and ministry stifled. The Challenge of ContinuityWhy is consistency within a church important? Isn't change a good thing? The answer is: Not necessarily. Often change is confused with progress. In practice, the two are different. If a board's goal to reach the lost is replaced by a goal to reach the hurting Christians, that is change. If procedures are altered so that visitation teams may more effectively increase the number of homes reached, that's progress. As Alfred North Whitehead put it many years ago, "The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." What might have happened to the future of Christianity if Paul's term as apostle had expired in the midst of the controversy with the leadership in Jerusalem over the issue of the Judaizers? I don't mean to discount the will of God or the power of the Holy Spirit. However, there are unquestionably consequences to the human decisions the Lord allows. That's why it's important to be consistent in carrying out his vision for a church once it is discerned through prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit. When my wife and I moved twelve years ago, we left the church in which I had served with Bernie. We joined Mission Hills, a church with a vision to reach the new neighborhood to which we had moved. In the years since, Mission Hills has undergone a change of senior pastors; the lay leadership has rotated almost completely; we've undergone three building projects and an equal number of capital funds drives; we rewrote our constitution. Forty percent of the people now attending Mission Hills have come in just the last three years. Yet through it all, the church has been remarkably consistent in its vision, in the way it presents itself to its community, and in its progress. Elements of ConsistencyWhy has this church been able to maintain its consistency through change? I posed that question to Charles Ver Straten, who was senior pastor for my first six years at Mission Hills. "I think it goes back to the weekend I was candidating at the church," he said. "A gifted layman, Bill Trollinger, said, 'Pastor, if you will come, I'll commit myself to be your partner in service.' His help has been crucial." Partnership is a key for assuring continuity during times of change. At our church, the relationship between pastoral staff and lay leadership is a partnership of equals. That balance helped maintain consistency when Ver Straten was called to another church and his position wasn't filled for nearly a year. The lay leaders, assisted by a supply pastor and our pastoral associates, began new programs, maintained existing ones, and brought in new members while the pastoral search task force looked to fill the vacant position. In addition to equality, accountability is required in a true partnership. Ver Straten established the strong tradition of the staff's holding the lay leaders accountable to use their talents to the best of their ability, while they, in turn, hold the staff accountable for the same. No one—pastor or lay person—has ever been established as God's sole spokesman for Mission Hills. Rather, a collaboration between staff and congregation has been carefully sustained. In professional sports, teams are expected to survive changes in player personnel. Good organizations thrive in the midst of change because they are a team and because of good coaching. Coaching is like good discipling in the church. That is what Pastor Ver Straten did, and it was continued and formalized when Clyde McDowell succeeded him. Organized for ContinuityMcDowell worked with lay leaders to develop a statement of purpose for Mission Hills. They also came up with a fourteen-point strategy and a new church constitution to help implement the statement. The statement of purpose reads: "Based on the Bible as the standard of truth, the purpose of Mission Hills Baptist Church is to honor God by bringing lives into harmony with him and one another through balanced emphasis on worship, fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism." The constitution reorganized the working structure along the lines of this purpose. Various boards are charged with shepherding, overseeing spiritual life, advancing missions, and other responsibilities. The board chairs form the church council, which is responsible for the programming and operational side of Mission Hills. One of the chief items on the council's monthly agenda is reviewing the minutes of each board's meeting to help every chairperson understand what the other boards are about and how each one fits with the whole. The constitution provides for staggered, three-year terms for the elected officers. Therefore, no board is faced with the prospect of having its entire membership replaced at the same time. Two-thirds of the individuals on all boards will have a minimum of one year's experience, and one third will have at least two years' experience when new members join the board. This in itself provides a great measure of continuity during change. Staffing for ContinuityAnother instrument of consistency at Mission Hills is our nominating committee. In several of the churches I've been a part of, the nominating committee comprised people who couldn't think fast enough of a reason to say no. I know—I was caught that way several times. Under those circumstances, a church winds up with a reluctant nominating committee hoping to find people who, like themselves, are slow in inventing excuses. Boards and committees are then staffed with a large percentage of reluctant volunteers. No wonder consistency is difficult to achieve! Another scenario is to grab new members and press them into service. "Get in. Get busy. Get active," a pastor once attempted to convince me as I joined the church. "We have a vacancy on our deacon board." I was an immature Christian suddenly thrust into a position I had no business filling. At Mission Hills, a new member cannot hold office for at least six months. Furthermore, our nominating committee has become the "ministry personnel committee," composed of the council and pastoral staff. Using Jesus' method of choosing his disciples, they fill the ballot with not just any warm body that offers minimum resistance, but individuals evaluated for their spiritual gifts, aptitudes, and interests that match board or committee needs. As Pastor McDowelI once explained, "Jesus didn't stand on a busy corner in Galilee and ask for volunteers. He sought out those he knew were best qualified to become fishers of men." Matching gifts and aptitudes to assignments makes it easier to bring new people up to speed. The worship board, which I chair, was in the process of forming a drama team when the board member spearheading the project resigned. It was relatively easy for me to locate an individual with the gifts and aptitudes needed to succeed her. I simply used the resources of the ministry personnel committee. The new board member they suggested was able to take over the drama project within a few days of assuming office, and we lost no ground. Ninety percent of the problem of consistency was solved because the successor already knew drama and had an idea of what it would take to complete the project. As an old farmer once said, "You don't get a hog to replace a horse in front of the plow. The hog may be qualified, but it ain't been broke to harness." Preparing for ContinuitySomebody described what Mission Hills does as "a proactive stance toward change." We plan how to handle it even when no change is imminent. Board members and chairs are encouraged to write their job descriptions. This helps them measure their responsibilities. But just as important, it provides a record for the ones who will follow and pick up the pieces. Further, Pastor McDowell has suggested that those holding office give thought to who might replace them when their terms are up. One of my old bosses called this "keeping a little black book." I hadn't worked for him long when he called me into his office. "Let me see your little black book," he said. "Please," I protested, "I'm a happily married man." "That's not the kind of book I meant," he said with a laugh. "I mean a book of people you might one day want to hire into this company. As you meet people in our industry with something going for them—competitors, salesmen, advisers—someone you have rapport with and who you think would fit this company, write down the person's name. List the reasons you believe he or she is right for us. You never know when you might have to hire someone, and you want to be ready." It works for a volunteer leader, too. Although my term as worship chairman has two years yet to run, I've already selected the person I intend to recommend to replace me. I haven't mentioned his name to anyone except the pastor. My proposed replacement doesn't even know I have chosen him. But quietly I'm training him in a dozen little ways. I've asked him to substitute at meetings for me occasionally. I try to spend time with him weekly on the telephone, volunteering my ideas and soliciting his, educating him on why certain things are done as they are. And if for some reason he doesn't work out, I've got another name in my little black book. This "little black book" exercise also can help prevent a person from becoming a one-man band. Some one-man bands march that way through the business of the church because they feel it protects their position. The theory is, I suppose, that keeping their business private shelters them from church politics. Other one-man bands limp along because they're convinced no one else knows the tune. Still others remain one-man bands because they don't know how to ask for help. Whatever the reason, one-man bands disrupt orderly continuity. While there may be one-man bands, there are seldom one-man boards. Consistency is facilitated when duties are spread. On an eight-person board, if one resigns, seven-eighths of the board remains intact. Seven-eighths of the tasks will still be continued. With a one-man band, on the other hand, when one resigns, eight-eighths of the music is silenced. How does a person break out of a one-man-band leadership style? One way is to learn other approaches. To help lay leaders develop such skills as delegation, administration, and communication, Pastor McDowell teaches an eleven-week leadership seminar. Participation is by invitation, and the mix is about half current leaders and half potential leaders. Those taking the seminar are expected to attend all eleven sessions, complete at least ninety minutes of homework per session, and speak up in the discussions. I'll admit that when first asked to participate, I was less than enthusiastic. It had been a long time since I had done homework. Homework is what I nag my teen-age daughter to do. However, the leadership seminar is but another step in what McDowell has convinced me is one of our most important obligations as lay leaders: to help train and equip others for ministry. A Vision for ConsistencyThe seminar brought into focus for me the one factor I now consider a lay leader's most important obligation. To have consistency despite turnover, we must be able to define and communicate the vision. As I wrote in my class notes, "The vision is the target that beckons. It motivates. It gives force and purpose to the organization. A vision of the long term will provide structural continuity to the organization's purpose." The Old Testament prophets understood this and communicated the vision to their followers. Christ certainly gave vision to his disciples and to us. The Holy Spirit inspires vision in believers daily. Pastor McDowell writes, "Communication [of the vision] creates meaning for people." It makes consistency important to those who follow. The difficult aspect is to keep the vision vivid as attrition does its work on the membership. Pastor Ver Straten addressed the problem early on. He and Bill Trollinger began a strategic-planning process they called "Seeking the Master's Plan." Every five years, or more often if conditions warrant, a strategic-planning task force is formed with representation from the broad spectrum of groups and interests within the body. About 10 percent of the church membership was involved in the last strategic plan. They formed five groups to study:
For several months these groups met to review the present situation, research trends, and develop recommendations. The recommendations were ranked by importance and presented to the executive committee of the task force. That committee reviewed all the priorities and developed a master report with recommendations concerning the opportunities facing Mission Hills, the choices, and the priorities. This process helped give both the leaders and the members a sense of ownership in the direction the church was taking. Pastor McDowell has refined the process further by initiating two leadership planning days a year. In the spring, staff and board members spend a Saturday reviewing the church's status and suggesting objectives for each area of its body life for the coming year. These objectives are referred to the appropriate board as guidelines. Using these suggestions, the worship board submitted twelve objectives for the coming year. One of these read, "Increase participation in the worship choir by 20 percent by October." We will not be boiled in hot soup if the objective is missed. We can carry it over until the following year or the year after that if we desire, but our board now has objectives such as this to work to accomplish. We then can budget according to our strategy. The congregation, after sufficient briefing, gives final approval to both the objectives and the budget. In the autumn, we hold a two-day planning retreat for board chairpersons and staff members at which the objectives and budget are reviewed and changed if the council feels they should be. The point is, by the time a board begins its activity for the year, its vision is broadly known and owned. When we have to replace a member, the new person isn't completely in the dark. By already knowing the objectives, he or she can become more productive more quickly. Dave Cox, moderator of Mission Hills, was speaking about how the church has been blessed with consistent direction over the years. "It is first God's grace," he said, "but it also involves work on the part of a great variety of people." Yes, it takes effort. Yes, the balance between planning and response to the leading of the Spirit must be guarded. But by being careful in how we pass the torch, each hand carries the light a little farther. And as we pass along our vision, knowledge, and experience, we help light the darkness of the world with Christ's brilliance, which cannot be extinguished. Bil Rodgers, a writer and actor, has chaired several boards and served as a teacher at Mission Hills Baptist Church in Littleton, Colorado. |              |
