Dear Wise Ones:

Our annual officer training day is this coming Saturday, and each year it gives me an opportunity to consider how the year ahead may be shaped by our great team of leaders. I write most of my Monday Musings with an eye towards general appeal, but this week, while my musings may apply to other churches, I’ve been thinking quite specifically about our church. After eight years with FPCLG, I have come to the conclusion that our committee system seems out of sync with our congregation’s goals. It’s not for lack of commitment or creativity among committee members, but if we consider the programs and events that have flourished, there seems to be little correspondence between our administrative structure and our best work.

Making a list of things that have ‘taken off’ over the past few years is risky—I know I may leave something out; but considering what we have accomplished in a very brief period, I find most ministries emerging independent from our defined committees:

• There’s the Garden Ministry that grows produce for area food pantries; from its inception it has bounced between the Property and Mission Committees, with support from Children’s and Youth Ministries.

• Our restored Museum and archives would sensibly be overseen by Adult Ministry, but like the reframing and restoration of our church’s fine art, it’s nestled with Worship, Music & Arts (WMA).

• There is our Commuter Concert Series also connected to WMA, but without much input or coordination.

• A new book club considering works at the intersection of culture and mission finds its home with the Mission Committee.

• While the Library isn’t new, our volunteers function as an adjunct to Adult Ministry, which has precious few members.

• We even have a Climate Change Study Group investigating how our church facility systems can be reengineered to directly or indirectly lower our net carbon emissions—is that Property, Mission or Education?

• Of course, our Living Waters for the World mission with communities in El Salvador is nested with Mission and Outreach, but the ministry functions with little oversight or communication with their assigned committee.

Even our Deacon neighborhoods, long designed for hyper-local geographic connection, are being resorted along the boundaries of interests and demographics. I say all this not with a sense of disappointment or even frustration, but with an eye towards creating an organizational structure that facilitates our most dynamic activity.   

I’ve often observed that burnout occurs when the work being performed does not create the results desired. Perhaps that’s why committee membership has become, for some, onerous. I get it. Volunteering to water the garden so our produce can flourish for the food insecure feels like ministry; gathering to discuss current trends in regional hunger policy—less so.

Over the next few months, I’ll be asking for input from active and potential volunteers. How can the Session best equip and inspire what you want to accomplish through the resources, passion and energy of your church? How can we efficiently move from concern to action without having to ‘onboard’ other members already stretched thin by other ongoing ministries? What is the best way to share and test proposed projects or programs with the broadest appeal for support?

I take comfort in the fact that church committees have always been a bit dysfunctional. In the earliest months of the Christian Church, the Apostles in Jerusalem complained that maintaining order at the food pantry was taking away time from their preaching. In Acts chapter 6, the church formed its first committee called the Deacons. Apostles were freed up to preach, and caring members distributed food and clothing. What’s amusing to me is that just a few days after the committee structure was revealed to the congregation, Stephen, the president of the Deacon Board, was stoned to death for preaching (Acts 7). Had Steve remained at the food pantry distribution center, he would have never been martyred; administrative lines have always been blurry.

Effective leadership works to affirm good ideas and viable projects, but it also quells unnecessary or under-resourced proposals. As a mentor of mine told me, “If you think you’re leading and nobody’s following, you’re just taking a walk.” All this musing about restructuring committees may be just that – a pastor’s thoughtful but lonely walk. But one never knows if an idea is a good one until it’s shared with dedicated, wise people.

Checking to see if this is an epiphany on this Epiphany, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor