Leading Leaders

Aubrey Malphurs

Description

The key to effective leadership in the vast majority of today's churches lies as much with their governing boards as it does with their pastor. But many churches are lead by those who volunteer to chair committees because there is a need, yet they have no leadership training to speak of. How can well-meaning but sometimes ill-prepared lay people guide the path of a church body?The secret lies in offering effective, practical training. Leadership expert Aubrey Malphurs provides this in Leading Leaders. Filling a gaping hole in leadership literature, Malphurs offers workable strategies to train laypeople to successfully lead their churches.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441200730
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2005 by Aubrey Malphurs
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0073-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
C ONTENTS
Introduction
1. Who Is Leading the Churches?: Observations of Board Leadership
2. The Governing Board: A Definition of Board Leadership
3. Why Have a Governing Board?: Rationale for Board Leadership
4. Board Accountability
5. Board Composition
6. The Spiritually Healthy Board: Characteristics of Board Leadership
7. The Effective Board: Functions of Board Leadership
8. The Policies Approach to Governance: Operations of Board Leadership
9. Board Policies: Areas for Board Leadership
10. Board Meetings
11. Implementing a Policies Approach
12. Improving Board Effectiveness: Training Board Leadership
Appendix A: Governing Board Audit
Appendix B: The Role of a Board Member’s Spouse
Appendix C: Policies Governing the Board: The Board’s Function
Appendix D: Policies Governing the Senior Pastor: The Senior Pastor’s Function
Appendix E: Policies Governing the Board–Senior Pastor Relationship
Appendix F: Mission Statement: Ends Policies
Appendix G: Men’s Character Assessment for Leadership
Appendix H: Women’s Character Assessment for Leadership
Appendix I: Board Member Covenant
Appendix J: The Church and Power: Individual and Corporate Power
Appendix K: Skillman Bible Church Governance Policy
Appendix L: Lake Pointe Church Policies
Appendix M: Board Policies: Lancaster County Bible Church
Appendix N: Elder Board Policy Manual
Notes
Sources
Index
I NTRODUCTION
T here aren’t many books on board leadership from a Christian perspective. I know of few. However, leaders and researchers have written a number of books and articles on governance boards from a corporate or business perspective. What does this tell us? Does the business world know something that we don’t? Does it recognize the importance of good board governance to the life and productivity of a company more than Christians realize this need for the church? Those of us who have spent time on a church or parachurch board may wonder at such questions, and some of us might snicker a bit. But perhaps this is more a comment on the failure of Christian boards to function well than it is on their importance to ministry and leadership.
As we shall see, usually it is boards, rather than pastors, that lead churches. And if we believe along with Bill Hybels that the church is the hope of the world, and leadership is the hope of the church, then what are we doing to improve leadership at the board level? If the condition of our churches early in the twenty-first century is an indication, the answer is very little.
In North America and Europe we live in what now is generally acknowledged to be a post Judeo-Christian world that is drinking deeply from the fountain of postmodernism. There has been a growing attempt to train new pastors better and retool the veterans to face this challenge. However, little if any attention has been given to those who are actually leading the majority of churches in North America and Europe the governance boards, which may be called elder boards, deacon boards, trustee boards, and so on. If we’re to make a difference in this new century and if God is going to use us to turn things around in the next ten to twenty years, we must train leadership at the board level.
This book is an early step in that direction. As a consultant and trainer, I’ve spent much time with pastors, churches, and denominations, helping them plan and think strategically and then to incorporate leadership development into their ministry. In practically every situation it’s been evident that the board in concert with the pastor is the key to what happens to the church. I’ve said on numerous occasions, “As the lead pastor goes, so goes the church,” and that’s true. However, another statement is also true: “As board leadership goes, so goes the church.”
Leading Leaders presents a new paradigm for board leadership. I’ve discovered that there’s a much better way for boards to operate than has been the case traditionally, and it doesn’t depend on the size of the church. The information here applies to churches of every size whether small or a megachurch.
Some of the ideas in this book are based on the excellent work of John Carver in his two books Boards That Make a Difference and Reinventing Your Board , but, most important, this book is based on Scripture. In the chapters that follow I cite many portions of Scripture to support the new paradigm I recommend.
Carver’s books promote the policies approach to board governance I’ll say more about this approach later. Carver writes for and works primarily with nonprofit and public organizations not churches. However, I’ve had a number of boards comment on the value of Carver’s work, and they want help in implementing his policies approach in their churches.
This raises the question of whether it’s okay for Christians to use ideas developed by those who are not necessarily Christians. My response to this is that it depends. Even non-Christians often stumble on truth. God hasn’t revealed himself only to Christians in the Scriptures (special revelation), but because of his common grace, he’s revealed himself to non-Christians through general revelation. The entire Bible is true, but not all of God’s truth is found in the Bible. (If it were, it would be a huge book, too large to carry around.) Some truth is found in God’s creation. That’s why unbelievers are without excuse (Psalm 19). Thus I believe that we’re wise to research and study what non-Christians have discovered from God’s general revelation. But we must do this by running the information through a biblical, theological grid to make sure that it is actually God’s revelation and doesn’t contradict Scripture in any way.
Church board leadership is deeply theological and must be approached from a biblical as well as a practical perspective. I want you to feel confident about applying what you will read in this book, because it is theologically sound. I recall one governance board of a large church that interviewed me as a possible leadership trainer. They were most interested in Carver and his practical approach but felt they could supply the theological dimension on their own without my help. I hope they did, but I fear that they (like so many others) are so thirsty for the practical that they forget the importance of the theological.
Leading Leaders is my third book in a trilogy on leadership. The first, Being Leaders , defines biblical leadership. The second, Building Leaders (coauthored with Will Mancini), addresses the development of leaders at every level of the ministry.[ 1 ] Leading Leaders is for those who actually lead most churches church boards. The twelve chapters and fourteen appendices of this book say that I’m trying desperately to balance the theoretical with the practical. I want you to apply to your board what you absorb from these twelve chapters. And the appendices of this book are as instructive and helpful as the chapters, so be sure to read them when I refer you to them and as you develop your own board policies.
The questions at the end of the chapters will help you reflect on and discuss the content. I suggest that you read this book along with your governing board and that you use these questions for board discussion.
My deepest appreciation goes to the following fellow board members of my church (Lake Pointe Church), who contributed in so many ways to the writing of this book: Scott Edwards, Ken Hickman, Garen Horton, Steve Stroope, Robert Terry, Bob Walker, Jeff Watters, Dave Williams, and Sandra Stanley.
1 W HO I S L EADING THE C HURCHES ? Observations of Board Leadership
T he common answer to the question, Who is leading the church? is that it’s the pastor. After all, he’s the one that the typical, established church hires to do the work of the ministry, such as preaching, teaching, conducting funerals and weddings, administering the ordinances, visiting, and so on. Some congregants even believe that God hears his prayers more than he hears theirs. Another answer that is true in some limited situations is that talented, gifted laypeople, who lead various ministries within the church, actually lead the church. Thus it may come as a surprise that in many churches the pastors and gifted lay leaders aren’t the ones who are actually leading the church.
The Leadership of Lay Governing Boards
My experience in working with and researching churches across America is that most (90 percent) are small, established ministries that are lay board–led, whereas, some (likely 10 percent) are larger churches that are either board or senior pastor–led.
According to Faith Communities Today (the largest survey of churches ever conducted in the United States), at the turn of the century one-half of congregations have fewer than one hundred regularly attending adults and a full quarter of congregations have fewer than fifty regularly participating adults.[ 1 ] Probably much the same is true of Western and Eastern European churches, and some are even smaller there.
According to the same survey, less than 10 percent of churches have more than one thousand people, and many of the