Principle

1. Trust in the Board. Board members act on behalf of the congregation. The Board is a small subset of the congregation, so the Board must make a concerted effort to ensure that the church achieves what the congregation as a whole wants it to achieve. This requires the Board to communicate closely and often with the congregation.

2. The Board Speaks with One Voice or Not at All. The decisions of the Board (determined through input, discussion, and voting) must be unambiguous. The decisions are recorded in policy and upheld by all of the Board members. No member may speak for the Board unless specifically authorized by the Board. The Board policies are the Board’s voice.

3. Board Decisions Are Policy Decisions. Because the Board’s voice is expressed in its policies, Board decision-making is always an amendment of, or addition to, existing policy.

4. The Board Forms Policy by Determining the Broadest Values before Progressing to Narrower Ones. By “nesting” policies, the Board delegates details and concentrates on why those details matter. Instead of setting the number of staff vacation days each year, for instance, the Board decides that fair and competitive staff treatment is a congregational value. The Board then leaves it to the staff to interpret its words. Only when it feels it is necessary should the Board go to the next level of policy specificity.

5. The Board Defines and Delegates Rather than Reacts and Ratifies. A Board that truly chooses to govern is not led by staff members or by its own members. The Board works continually and obsessively to reflect the congregation’s desires by stating what outcomes the church should produce and to define the “acceptable boundaries” (Staff Limitations) within which the staff and volunteers are to achieve them. The Board does not react to or ratify staff or Ministry Team ideas.

6. Outcome Determination Is the Duty of Governance. On behalf of the congregation, the Board paints the target toward which the Lead Minister, staff and volunteers must shoot—the benefits to be produced, people to be served and outcomes to be achieved. There is no greater governance job than this. It cannot be delegated. The Board must make clear where the church is going.

7. The Board Best Controls by Limiting, Not Prescribing. The Board tells the Lead Minister what to achieve on behalf of the congregation and allows the Lead Minister to determine how best to get there within the limits of law, prudence, and ethics (Staff Limitations).

8. The Board Designs Its Own Products and Processes. Because the Board’s governance function is distinct from the staff’s management function, the Board defines its own governance processes and decides how it will govern. In making these decisions, the Board members must understand why the Board exists—not to oversee staff or manage the church but to define the future on behalf of the congregation and to ensure that future is achieved in a legal, ethical, and prudent manner.

9. The Board Forms an Empowering and Safe Linkage with Management. Role clarity means that the Board knows its own role as distinguished from the staff’s role. The staff must have a similar understanding. If both understand each other’s role, if the roles do not overlap, and if both agree to adhere to these roles, then the staff can function freely as it is fully aware of its limitations. Board members essentially tell the Lead Minister, “We will not interfere if you can achieve the desired outcomes without violating these limitations.”

10. The Board Monitors the Lead Minister’s Performance Rigorously, But Only Against Policy Criteria. In a fair contest the contestants are judged only by the stated rules. With our Empowered Organization the Board judges the Lead Minister only by the rules the Board creates. The Lead Minister knows the rules because they are clearly stated in the Board’s policies.