Reverendmother has two great posts here and here where she asks how to do the business of the church by moving away from traditional committee structures and getting things done in more creative ways. The comments on both posts are interesting and enlightening.
Go over and join in the discussion!
Our church moved away from “committees” several years ago. Most of our programming is done through short term task forces. We gather people together to work on a particular project or ministry. We empower that task force to implement the project provided they follow the direction and budgetary guidelines set in our budget. We still have a finance committee due to the nature of their work.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have found through this restructuring:
1. People are more willing to commit to a specific project than to sign up to be on a committee.
2. We get a lot of people who are “newer” to the congregation to be a part of the task forces.
3. The task forces are motivated to get the project done.
4. We have a session member on each task force.
5. Long-time Presbyterians can feel disconnected since they would rather be on a committee than a task force. I believe this is because of the social nature of most committees.
6. Long-time committee members can feel a loss of power. Since very few people were willing to attend a monthly committee meeting these few people had LOTS of power. The task forces can break the strangle-hold these people have on the church.
7. Session had to trust people and give up micro-management of projects.
I’m still glad we made the change.
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