The Unity Factor

One of the goals of the "PBG church" blog is to share resources that help church boards grow in effectiveness. Today, while searching my bookshelves, I re-discovered this gem: The Unity Factor by Pastor Larry W. Osborne. It really is a "must-read" for every church board.

Pastor Osborne offers a wealth of insights and practical suggestions on a wide range of subjects pertinent to boards, including:

• Nominating, electing & training new board members
• Helping board members work together effectively
• Evaluating the pastor's performance & determining salaries
• Leading change in the congregation
• Structuring board meetings to ensure time given to pray & long-range planning.

For those still exploring PBG, the closing paragraphs of chapter nine may be especially helpful:

"As a church grows, it loses much of its close-knit family feel. There is no way a group of 500 can experience the same community that a church of 150 enjoys. A larger church will also have less tolerance for shoddy programs and performance. In a church of 800, Aunt Martha's renditions aren't quaint; they're painful. It's not that people suddenly have become less loving. It's that the majority don't know her personally. So instead of appreciating her sincerity and effort, they're embarrassed by her mistakes.

Church government also goes through significant changes each time a church reaches a new plateau. In smaller churches a highly participatory form of congregational government usually works fine, but in a larger church it quickly becomes unwieldy. In most cases, the larger the church, the harder it is to get a quorum for a special business meeting. And contrary to what many people think, the problem is not apathy; it's changing sociological expectations. The larger the group, the more people look to their designated leaders for direction and decision making, and the less interest they have in the nuts and bolts of running the church."

Governance in "The Very Large Church"

The Very Large Church by Lyle Schaller is a classic in understanding the dynamics of larger congregations. Schaller defines "the very large church" as a congregation with an average weekend worship attendance between 750 and 1,800.

Among many other important insights, Schaller says,

"A crucial barrier to becoming a very large congregation often is in the system of governance." (p. 113)

He goes on to describe those congregations that have broken through this "crucial barrier." It's one of the best summaries I've found about why many of us have embraced PBG in our congregations.

Schaller writes,

"...most very large congregations, in some cases counter to their own constitution or denominational polity, operate on the assumption that:

1. Leaders are called to lead;

2. not every opinion deserves the same weight as other opinions;

3. informed opinions are more valuable than uninformed opinions;

4. most people naturally will prefer efforts to perpetuate yesterday over challenges to create a new tomorrow;

5. congregations are worshiping communities of people called to follow Christ, not political democracies;

6. the number one criterion in making decisions in ministry is not, 'What do our people here prefer?' but rather "What would Jesus advocate if he were speaking to us in this room today?";

7. the larger the number of people actively involved in making a particular decision, the more likely that process will result in a watered-down compromise rather than a bold step into the unknown; and

8. God's call to the vast majority of the members of that very large church is to be engaged in doing ministry, not in attending committee meetings." ( p. 114-115).

How do Schaller's words challenge you and your church?

Benefits of PBG--First Year Reflections

Recently my congregation passed the one-year mark of living under PBG. Here's some of the benefits I've observed in just the first year:

1. Every meeting matters---Before we adopted PBG, we had a LOT of meetings--many that weren't very effective. Some could have been covered with just an email or a memo. Others just didn't need to happen at all. Since adopting PBG last year, I've found that every meeting I've attended has been both necessary and productive.

2. Focusing on the future--Under our old system of governance, we spent a lot of time reporting on the last 30-60 days and looking ahead to the next 30-60 days. But, no one was thinking long-term. No one was dreaming about the kind of church we wanted to be years down the road. Now, under PBG, that's all we talk about!

3. Ministry alignment--Even under the old governance, we had lots of great things happening in our congregation. But, it was very difficult, if not impossible, to align ministries around any common objectives. Now, all our ministries are talking about and working toward the same four desired outcomes.

What benefits has PBG brought to your congregation?

Are you REALLY a PBG church?

One of the things I've noticed over the last couple years since my congregation adopted PBG is that many churches out there mistakenly think they're doing PBG already. However, simply having a group called a "Board of Directors" and reading Carver books from time to time doesn't automatically make you a PBG church.

Here's a couple mistakes I've observed:

1. You are probably not a PBG church if you have a Board of Directors AND a Board of Elders. This is, in my opinion, a big mistake many churches make as they try to move to PBG. Their thinking seems to be that spiritual issues will be brought to the Elders and administrative issues will go before the BOD. Sounds clear, right? The problem is that in a church, everything is spiritual. (At least it should be!) And once a ministry involves more than a couple people, there will also be administrative issues that need addressing. Once that happens, then what? Does the pastor bring the given issue to the BOD or the Elders? Or both? It sounds clear on paper, but in reality, it's a mess. Essentially, you've created the very problem you were trying to solve by adopting PBG in the first place! One of the greatest strengths of PBG is the clarity it brings to both authority and accountability. Everyone is accountable to one, and only one, person or group. If that's not true in your congregation, you're not really a PBG church.

2. You are definitely not a PBG church if your governing board "leads" simply by responding to staff initiatives. In PBG, the Board, not the staff, should be setting the strategic direction of the congregation. The focus of the Board is not to approve staff initiatives, but to monitor the results of those initiatives against the Board's predetermined "desired outcomes." If your Board has never developed "desired outcomes", or isn't monitoring the congregation's progress toward the desired outcomes, you're not really a PBG church.