How Decisions Are Made - November 16, 2022
In my former congregation, I encouraged an intern to assess the culture of the congregation around the question, “How are decisions actually made?” In every community, there are official rules like by-laws, handbooks and policies. There are also informal means like conversations over coffee or by email. It is useful and important to watch how this works in any group or community. Today, I am going to try to share how I see decisions are made at Mountainview.
The council at Mountainview is the official decision-making body. God-ordained leaders are chosen according to our denomination’s Church Order and local by-laws to be the board, the council and the directors of the legal entity known as Mountainview Christian Reformed Church. The final decision lies with the elders and deacons.
From that simple base, it gets more complicated. The council, like Moses in Exodus 14, recognizes that there are far too many decisions to be all made by one group. It is also recognized that the number of elders and deacons makes for an unwieldy decision-making body.
Therefore, we divide into:
- the board which makes most leadership decisions
- the pastoral elders who make membership and worship decisions
- and the deacons who make decisions around stewardship, support and generosity
In our context, to foster mutual accountability, the minutes and decisions of each of the three groups are shared with the others so that questions can be raised and discussed. This seems to be working quite well here.
The next complicating factor in understanding the decision-making process is our staff of nine. The staff are not council members and only a few of us ever attend any council meetings and none of us ever attend deacon meetings, which has always baffled me, but that is a conversation for another day.
The staff oversee and enact many of the ministries of the church. We are accountable to the council, but that accountability is not on a day-to-day, decision-by-decision, basis. Each staff member writes a ministry plan which I compile and share with the board. These plans lay out what we hope to accomplish this year. Beyond that, the staff team meets weekly to discuss what is going on, but makes very few decisions in those meetings. Most ministry decisions are made either by the staff member responsible for a particular area of ministry or by a few of us when we are unsure or when the decision seems like it might be controversial. Whenever we as staff make a decision that we suspect will raise questions, we bring it to the board and therefore to the council as they read the minutes of the board. On occasion, of course, we make decisions that we think are straightforward, but someone else thinks are misguided.
This brings me to the key to this system – and any leadership/decision-making system. The key is trust and communication. The congregation is happiest when it trusts that the council has good people on it. The council is happiest when it trusts the staff. The staff is happiest when it trusts the ministry leaders in each ministry. And trust is built and maintained by ongoing conversations about, “What are you doing?” and “Why did you decide that?” Trust doesn’t mean everyone always agrees, but it does mean that we respect the views of others even when we disagree.
So why am I writing about this? I am writing to recognize with you that the way decisions are made in a community this size is inevitably complicated. I am writing to let you know that I am aware that I have an influence on many of these decisions by virtue of being in a lot of the conversations. However, I am also writing to reassure you that I appreciate and respect all the conversation partners along the way. I don’t even send out these blogs without having some of the staff or board look them over. In my mind, it is in the best interest of all of us to not make uninformed or rash decisions.
Finally, because decisions are being made and every decision to do one thing means not to do a different thing, it is inevitable that even the best decision-making process will not make everyone happy. So please keep communicating with us (and feel free to start with me) so that we can keep building the trust required to move forward together. And pray for all Mountainview leaders so that all decisions, whether small or significant, will be guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit toward peace and unity.
Pastor Erick