Help from the Alban Institute

The Alban Institute has published an article on their website that can be very helpful for churches exploring PBG. It's called, "Beyond 'Corporate': New Insights on Larger Churches" by Susan Beaumont.

In the article, Beaumont talks about three different congregation types:

• First, the "Multi-celled church": Congregations with annual operating budgets of between $400,000 and $1,000,000 and between 250 and 400 people in worship attendance.


• Second, the "Professional church": Congregations with an annual operating budget of between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 and/or weekly worship attendance of 400 to 800.


• Third, the "Strategic church": Congregations with a budget between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000 and/or an average weekly attendance of 800 to 1,200.

Her observations of the realities and challenges of each church size are truly insightful.

Here's an excerpt from her analysis of the governance needs of "Professional" churches:

"In the professional congregation, the governing board must learn a more distant approach to leadership, relinquishing the daily management of the church to the staff team. Working with the pastor on vision articulation, the governing board is instrumental in creating policy and systems for managing performance, maintaining accountability, and preventing vision drift. The board spends less time on the daily fiduciary work of the congregation and more time on strategic leadership."

Sounds like PBG to me!

You'll find the full article at this link: http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?q=printme&z=2&id=6370. I highly recommend it.

After you've read it, I'd love to have you post your comments.