Building the Perfect Church:  The Relationship Between the Senior Pastor and Other Elders (Part 2)

Orginally published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 at 8:43 AM
by Todd Rhoades

This week, the questions become, “how can church leadership be set-up that both allows those who lead to do so without undue encumbrance and yet be sufficiently accountability for their actions?  What arrangement minimizes unnecessary conflict?

When Leadership and Accountability are “Out of Whack�

Consider the following true description of one church [with minor editing to keep the description as anonymous as possible]. “Members and board members alike have had problems with the pastor who has major control issues. The pastor does not want strong personalities in the church who disagree with him, including men on the board. They and others in the congregation feel this pastor's attitude is "my way or the highway" even though he was doing things for "the good of the church" that were unconstitutional. Board members went to the pastor and asked for his resignation. He refused the package they offered. They consulted denominational headquarters and were advised to bring it to a church vote.

“Several new members joined the church two weeks before the vote. Also, many members who had not attended the church in months showed up to vote. There was a landslide vote in the Pastor's favor. The next day, he had all the locks changed (without anyone's permission). There used to be 36 church keys. Now there are 6 that read "do not duplicate". He then met with the board and asked them to resign from their positions or they would be voted out. Two resigned. One refused. Then the pastor held a special business meeting (you are supposed to give 2 weeks notice). He put it in the church bulletin the morning of the meeting. At that meeting, he had the church vote to pull out of the denomination. And, he voted to change the constitution to not use the board anymore but, to have a "pastoral advisory committee" appointed by the pastor. He is talking of further restructuring….�

Over the years, I have heard my fair share of such senior pastor stories. I bring this example to our attention to make it clear that when I assert the leadership role of the senior pastor among elders (as I outlined last week), it is not meant to give him license to rule as a despot. Such an outcome can only occur if the elders fail to live up to their oversight responsibilities (hopefully as delineated in the church’s bylaws).

That said, let’s now return to W.J.M.’s “question, “is the church board in place to ‘come along side’ to help fulfill the vision of the pastor or are they there to ‘hold him accountable’ to the people?� For me, the answer is both, and here is how such play out in the real world.

The Inner Workings of the Senior Pastor – Board Relationship

Foundational to the success of any elder board are two things: (1) a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, beginning with the senior pastor in relationship to the rest of the board, and (2) open and ongoing communication. Given his leadership role (see last week’s posting), the elders should “come along side� to help the senior pastor lead the charge in fulfilling the mission of the church. The inner workings of this structure would look as follows. The board and senior pastor agree on the parameters of his authority in terms of the kinds of decisions the senior pastor can make on his own during the course of the week without prior board approval. In other words, the senior pastor should be accorded trust to make those day-to-day decisions that keep the work of the church effectively moving forward. The senior pastor should report back to the elders during the meetings any significant decisions he made that the elders need to be aware of. Conversely, an elder may be informed of a decision the pastor made by a complaining member. In such a case, that elder would bring up that point for discussion. Either way, the ensuing conversation should help clarify not merely the wisdom of the decision, but much more importantly, the appropriateness of the pastor to make it. That’s where elder accountability comes in. Happily, as this pattern unfolds over time, the parameters of the pastor’s domain should become clear to all. (Note: When members rotate off the board, new members need to be fully informed of the arrangement and established boundaries to avoid unnecessary problems with the changing of the guard).

The Underlying Assumption

The underlying assumption here (which parallels what is found in the pastoral epistles regarding Timothy and Titus) is that the pastor is a man who can be trusted in the exercise of his office and should be accorded the corresponding trust, respect, and freedom to do so. By contrast, I am reminded of one pastor I met with who unhappily noted that his church was regulated by so many rules and policies that he almost needed permission to go to the bathroom. In building the perfect church, such a bureaucratic scenario can choke the joy and vitality out of ministry. From my perspective, the way elder support and accountability can be happily married is to assume the pastor has sound judgment to make decisions in areas that have been agreed upon by the elders and to restrict or expand those boundaries as needed upon further discussion.

Your conflict resolution and church development consultant,

Ken Newberger

FOR DISCUSSION: What do you think? How is your church doing in this area? Do you have any thoughts or ideas that can further our discussion in this area?

--

© 2005 Kenneth C. Newberger Ken Newberger, an experienced church conflict resolution specialist, earned his Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, has ten years senior pastoral experience, and is in the dissertation phase for his Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Nova Southeastern University, one of only two accredited doctoral programs of its kind in the United States. If your church needs help resolving conflict, if you need individual coaching, or if you would like to introduce a proactive conflict management system into your church, please visit Ken's website at http://www.ResolveChurchConflict.com or call 301-253-8877.

This post has been viewed 393 times so far.


 TRACKBACKS: (0) There are 5 Comments:

Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

MondayMorningInsight.com | PO Box 446 | Bryan, OH 43506 |