Monday, July 14, 2008

preseciption passed

third concern: need for diversity in worship. The Pastor will establish a worship task force by September 15th that includes at least two members from the present worship committee, one elder and two members at large. The Pastor and task force will present a recommendation to the congregation that will provide opportunities for both traditional and praise styles of worship, which maintain the core elements of Lutheran worship by January 15, 2009. The voters will approve the recommendation and the services will be evaluated at the end of six months. Until this recommendation is implemented the congregation will continue to offer the "new song" service at least once per month.

fourth concern: lack of communication. By August 15th, the Executive Director will appoint a Communications Task Force including the Pastor, the paid secretary and three members at large. As a part of their work, they will contact three congregations having successful communications programs. By September 15th, the Task Force will make recommendations regarding the use of eletronic, written and oral communications to the lay leaders. The lay leaders will approve the process and all members will be notified of the communications process by October 1, 2008.

fifth concern: structure. The pastor and leaders will lead the congregation in suspending those particular bylaws that describe how the congregation functions in its boards. These bylaws by vote of the congregation will be put into abeyance for two years. At the end of the two years the congregation will vote either to return to the current bylaws or adopt new ones that are written to reflect how ministry is being done at that time. The vote to suspend the bylaws will be held by November 1, 2008.
Once the bylaws are suspended, the congregation will adopt an accountable leader model of governance. In this new model there will be a Board of Directors of five people; fdour members elected by the voters and the pastor. These five will represent an outward focused mission and the new vision when it is adopted. Their role will be to goven the church. The pastor's role will be to lead the church. The role of staff members will be to manage the church. The role of the members will be tdo conduct the ministry of the church. The accountable leader model including goals for the pastor and staff will go into effect November 2, 2008.
The pastor will engage a coach by August 1, 2008 who will be able to help him learn what is needed to lead the congregation to its next level of effectiveness.

1 comment:

Christopher D. Hall said...

Paul,

You have got to be kidding me! You wrote that these "prescriptions" were part of a district "revitalization" program, but I'm wondering how you got "signed up" for it. Did you or your congregation want it? Was it handed to you? And now you are mandated to do "new songs" once a month?

I'm reading all this for the first time today and feeling queasy for you.

Peace.