A new way of looking at leadership…

Central Church has several leaders who come together to make decisions for the church. This Administrative Council has 18 core members, including a council chairperson and the pastor. Finances, building maintenance, staff and congregational needs, worship, education and several other elements of the church are present around the table. They are intended to be the core group for all church decisions according to our Book of Discipline.

In practice, we have found this core group of people feel burned out and feel a lack of inspiration and energy. Our Discernment team, comprised of several Ad. Council leaders, noted how decisions will sometimes take months to make. Ministry and administrative decisions are muddled in meetings that take a long time to host. The conversations focus on maintaining the church, rather than creating new opportunities or learning where God is leading us as a congregation. It is also notable that new leaders are hard to find, much and much harder to cultivate and to develop in the way we currently do things.

Central Church recently decided on a new vision statement that captures the call we are experiencing from God. This vision is to keep Christ central by striving to be a vibrant beacon in the community and beyond, we pray to be a joyful and welcoming center of faith, to be a resource and partner for all in need, to be a safe place to gather, to grow in God’s word, and to further Christ’s mission. A new vision for leadership at Central Church is something we believe can make this more possible.

With the help of a coach provided to us through the Michigan Conference, we have been exploring a new way of organizing leaders that is flexible, empowering, and efficient, while also maintaining our necessary standards in the Book of Discipline. The new idea is called Simple Accountability Structure or SAS for short.

There are many elements of the SAS style of leadership that the Discernment team like. The reduction of leaders needed at the core of church decisions is reduced and is focused primarily on governing the church. Reports that would normally take a majority of the meeting time to discuss are approached differently to make them easier to understand and maintain. Decisions for new ministry are entrusted elsewhere to other leaders who focus primarily on ministry, more fully separating ministry and governing decisions.

The pastor focuses on developing new leaders and supporting ministries along with new teams that helps them do so. These leaders could be people who have never been involved in the leadership of the church before or who are people who have been attracted to the ministries the church offers. They are no longer required to be the main visionary for the life of the church.

Ministry teams focus on the call God has given them and the spiritual gifts they’ve been given. Living out of their passions, they reach out to the community beyond the walls of the church. Groundskeeping, communications, staffing, and the like are also managed by the pastor who takes on the role of directing and managing day-to-day activity in the church.

We need your questions, your hopes, your dreams, your curiosities, and your concerns. We need your voices. To make any permanent change in the way we operate leaders requires your voice of support. We cannot and will not move forward without you.

We are hosting Town Hall sessions to help introduce more details, our hopes and fears, and other information to help involve you in this discussion. The Discernment team is open to hearing your comments as we explore this new SAS system with you. If you have a question or comment, please ask Von Goodemoot, Penny Thelen, Shelly Reiser, Del Kostanko, or Paul Reissmann. Alternatively, please ask your question or leave your comment below.