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.