Choosing New Board members

Prince of Peace is almost one year in to the PBG journey now, so it's time to elect some new members to our Board of Directors.

We will have three vacancies come June 1st. The biggest question we've been wrestling with is, how many people do we put on the ballot? Three? Five? Ten? Everyone who gets nominated by the congregation?

It's a tough decision with no clear right or wrong answer.

On the one hand, putting only three names on the ballot doesn't feel quite right. A certain amount of choice does give the voting members of the church a more significant role to play. If we only give them three names for three positions, why even have an election at all?

On the other hand, too many names on the ballot brings challenges also. Too many choices on the ballot practically ensures that the congregation will not be well informed about who they're voting for. Who has time to get to know the qualifications of twenty candidates? It also means that some will be "winners" and others will be "losers" in the election. Hard to avoid hurt feelings in that scenario!

We decided to balance these concerns and go with a ballot of five, from which we'll elect three. We've published bios of all five candidates and produced a ten-minute video about the candidates that we're showing at the voters' meeting, right before the election takes place.

What does your congregation do?

Defining and Measuring "Success"

Adopting PBG forces your congregation to clearly answer two very important questions:

1. What does "success" look like for our church?

2. How can we tell whether we're making progress or not?

In my congregation, we've answered the first question with four "desired outcome" statements. Our "desired outcomes" center around evangelism, assimilation, discipleship and pastoral care. They define "success" for us like this:

• Evangelism - Non-believers and the unchurched are coming to faith in Christ and are being enfolded in the life of the church.
• Assimilation - Every person who joins the church is using his/her gifts to accomplish the work of the church.
• Discipleship - Church members are consistently encouraged, challenged and equipped to take “next steps” as a disciple of Jesus.
• Pastoral Care - Every person in the church is known, loved and cared for in a personal way.

In response to the second question, we've drafted "metrics" (i.e. ways of measuring success) for each of the four desired outcomes. Our current metrics are:

Evangelism metrics:

• Non-member baptisms
• Non-member adult "affirmations of faith"
• Non-member youth confirmations

Assimilation metrics:

• The number and percentage of members serving on a ministry team
• The number and percentage of members making financial contributions in the last year.

Discipleship metrics:

• Weekend worship attendance
• The percentage of members involved in a Bible class or small group.

Pastoral Care metrics:

• The number and percentage of members involved in a small group.
• The number and percentage of members who feel known, loved and cared for in a personal way.

We're well aware that these metrics don't, by any means, give us a complete picture of the success or failure of our desired outcomes. But it's a start.

How does your congregation define "success?"

How are you measuring it?