Helping Your Board Listen to God
David Goetz
An important test of God's leading is spiritual unity, a sense of peace after a prayerful and thorough discussion of a decision.
—David Goetz In Texas they call it "kickin' acorns"—when everybody adjourns to the church parking lot after the board meeting to release their frustrations about the previous two hours. "That's precisely what's wrong with the way many church boards are run," says Danny Morris, director of developing ministries for the United Methodist Church's Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee. "Most church boards employ Robert's Rules of Order to make decisions, which often creates animosity among board members. "RRO is an adversarial system that creates winners and losers," Morris says. "And when you deal in an adversarial way, you end up with adversaries." But not only does RRO throw up walls between people, it's often irrelevant. The making and seconding of motions is often done in a perfunctory manner, not reflecting the deeper mood of the board. One church board had voted to start a second Sunday morning service. Six months later, the board wrestled with hiring an additional music person to help with worship. Finances were tight. After some discussion, somebody piped up, "I move to drop the second service altogether," and the motion passed by over 60 percent. Not one person questioned it. As the meeting wore on, one of the board members said, "I feel uncomfortable about what we've just done. I think we should pray before we just eliminate the second service." The rest of the board nodded, and so the service was reinstated until further review. So much for the vote. Isn't there a better way to "do church"? God's fingerprint
The answer to the problems of RRO isn't to chuck it. RRO is effective for much of what church ...
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