Prior to PBG, my congregation operated under a model of governance made popular by Don Abdon. We had the usual array of boards: Elders, Stewardship, Trustees, Fellowship, Evangelism, Missions and Discipleship. The Chairpersons of each board, along with a few officers and the pastor, met once/month as our church council. It worked really well for many years, especially because it involved lots of people in the work of the church. But as the church grew and ministries got more and more complicated, we started to see a number of problems with the Abdon model, including:
- Some ministries became large enough and complicated enough that they couldn't be effectively led by volunteers. Staff leadership was required. However, as staff took on a leadership role, lines of authority and responsibility between boards and staff became increasingly unclear.
- Because of this lack of clarity, even relatively minor decisions took way too long to be finalized. We seemed to spend more time "almost making decisions" than actually making them!
- We were suffering from "the silo effect." Each board and staff person cared deeply about their area of ministry, but no one was looking out for the church as a whole. Our ministries desperately needed alignment and real accountability.
- We spent way too much time managing our present and very little time creating a better future.
- The Senior Pastor could no longer function simply as the preacher, teacher and spiritual advisor to the Council. The size of the church required him to take on a more significant role as leader.
- Women were restricted from serving on our Board of Elders, because of our beliefs about the pastoral office. However, most of the work of our Elders were actually doing had nothing to do with the pastoral office.
Together, these struggles convinced us it was time to explore a new way of doing the work of the church. For us, that new way was PBG.
What issues caused your church to look at PBG?
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