Welcome to the Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell.  What words come to mind when I say ‘church board?’   Some may say Waste of time. Church Fight! Never Ending. Nit picky. Other’s might say: uplifting, Unifying, Productive, Fun. How would you like to move your church board from the first group to the second? You’re in luck. Today’s title is 3 tips for Church Boards. I’ve gathered tips from experts and interspersed them with powerful tips that came when I asked Adventist Pastors in an online group to share.  and they really delivered.   Here’s the guests on this month’s show in order of appearance: Tip #1, Be Prepared Andre Goncalves of https://www.dallasfirstchurch.org/staff/ (Dallas First Church of Seventh-day Adventists) believes that having the right people on the church board makes all the difference. It starts with the organizing committee and the nominating committee.  Another person who is essential is someone who has the skills in keeping minutes. Why are minutes important? Karnik Doukmetizian, General Counsel for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists gives tips from a legal perspective for Church Boards on minutes, abiding the laws of the land, solid supporting documents, and secret ballots. These are https://s3.amazonaws.com/nadministerial/Karnik+Doukmetzian.MP3 (short excepts from his presentation) at the https://www.nadministerial.com/seminar-audio-recordings-pastors (2015 CALLED convention) for pastors.  South Atlantic pastor Everton Ennis, serving https://newjsda.org/pastoral-staff (New Jerusalem Seventh-day Adventist Praise & Worship Center) as well as Newnan first, shares his passion for relationships and preparation for church board.  Lowell Cooper, former vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is considered in Adventist circles to be one of the greatest experts in conducting productive meetings. In this podcast he gives powerful tips on room preparation, agendas, and organizational polity. His interview comes courtesy of the https://www.ministryinmotion.tv/episode/making-committees-and-church-boards-more-effective-part-1-lowell-cooper/ (Making Committees and Church Boards More Effective)episode of the https://www.ministryinmotion.tv/ (Ministry in Motion) weekly video series, hosted by https://www.ministryinmotion.tv/about/ (Anthony Kent and Ivan Williams).   A big part of preparation is getting out the agenda and supporting documents early enough for each board member to be prepared. David Salazar, https://www.washingtonconference.org/about/leaders (Youth Ministries Director of Washington Conference), shares his powerful tips.  

Tip #2, Make Quality Decisions Many board meetings grind on and on about trivial things. Does every tiny decision need to go through the board? David Hamstra, Pastor at https://edmontoncentraladventist.org/ (Edmonton Central Adventist Church), gives some great tips on why and how a church board should delegate some of its decision making.   Matthew Shallenberger, associate pastor at https://www.ooltewahchurch.org/our-pastors (Ooltewah Seventh-day Adventist Church), points out some of the unintended consequences of trying to preserve unity at all costs by requiring consensus or supermajorities.  On the other hand, Matthew and I also knew that if a consequential action carries only by a slim majority it can lead to a church split. The trick is to try to guess how consequential a vote really is, in advance. Hopefully we’ve done our homework and talked one on one with most of the influencers. But what if we guess wrong? We’ve unleashed a church war. So here’s an idea; what if  we let the board itself weigh in on how much unity is needed on the vote? I’m intrigued by a technique that Karen Lewis,...