This webinar is designed to help congregational boards understand the nature of their work--what is it, and what is it not! It is designed as orientation and thought piece.

1. Webinar on
Board Responsibilities
will begin soon!

2. BOARD RESPONSIBILITIES:
WHAT IS A BOARD TO DO?
Lisa Presley,
District Executive, Heartland District, MidAmerica
Region

3. BROUGHT TO YOU BY
MIDAMERICA REGION
Central MidWest, Heartland and Prairie Star
Districts

4. WELCOME!
 Welcome
 Introductions
 Technical Issues

5. THIS WEBINAR IS BEING
RECORDED

6. BOARD RESPONSIBILITIES:
WHAT IS A BOARD TO DO?
Lisa Presley,
District Executive, Heartland District, MidAmerica
Region

7. WHAT IS A BOARD?
 Body of people committed to the well-being
of the congregation
 Legal entity responsible for the
congregation
 First among equals
 Granted powers of decision making by:
 State/Commonwealth by law
 Congregation through bylaws
 Tradition and history

8. JOBS OF BOARD
 Fiduciary
 Duty of care, loyalty to mission, and obedience
to foundational documents
 Govern by Policy
 Create the policies that will guide all four aspects
of congregational life
 Create policies that will articulate the ―separation
of duties‖ and delegate responsibility and
authority appropriately
 Spend time on ―open questions‖
 Who are we, where are we going, what is next

9. WHAT IS IT RESPONSIBLE FOR?
 Three separate (but related) obligations:
 Fiduciary – duty of care
 Strategic – duty of planning
 Generative – duty of forward thinking
Governance as Leadership

10. FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITIES
 Duty
of loyalty and care for the
congregation through:
 Financial oversight to protect against waste,
theft or misuse and ensure resources used
effectively and efficiently
 Mission oversight to make sure that
congregation does not unintentionally drift or
intentionally shift from its main mission/goals
 Oversight to protect from foreseeable harm

11. FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITIES
 Not only legal imperatives but also moral and
practical imperatives
 Set the tone and tenor of how the congregation
is, should be and could be
 ―Trustee‖ holds assets for the benefit of
another—Board members hold the congregation
as a trust for future generations and for its
mission
 ―Technical‖ work, not adaptive—finding the best
way to do what we know needs to be done, and
has been done before by others

12. FIDUCIARY QUESTIONS
Do our systems and procedures protect:
 The congregation from financial loss or
downturn?
 The people from physical, psychological or
spiritual harm?
 Our children and other vulnerable adults from
abuse?
 Our buildings/campus from loss and destruction?
 Us from being sued for things over which we
should have control?

13. STRATEGIC RESPONSIBILITIES
 Shiftfrom internal review and oversight to looking at
possibilities ―out there‖
 How to get from Point A to Point B
 Big picture of congregation’s future: look to internal
strengths and weaknesses and align with external
opportunities and threats
 Look for where going, and what could be doing
 Focusing on the next 3-5 years
 Moving from ―technical‖ to ―adaptive‖ challenges,
where there are no real concrete answers, but
ambiguity and learning both exist

14. STRATEGIC QUESTIONS
 Who should we be 3-5 years from now?
 What is our mission, and how do we
achieve it?
 What is our trajectory for the next 3-5
years?
 What strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats exist outside of us?
 How can we build for the future?
 What is the Board’s role in moving the
congregation forward?

15. GENERATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
 Fiduciary & Strategic could be called management
 Generative is ―leadership‖
 What could we be, what else is possible?
 Thinking outside of the box
 Looking to meaning and enhancing the
congregation’s value
 Longer term vision—min. 5-10 years, and looking at
the changing frame of society and religion
 Pure ―adaptive‖ work—it exists in ambiguity and
possibility and there’s no clear answer to any of the
questions; a wide open field

16. GENERATIVE QUESTIONS
 What will be most strikingly different about
our congregation five years from now?
 What do we hope will be most strikingly
different about our congregation five years
from now?
 Five years from now, what will be
considered this current Board’s most
important legacy?

17. GENERATIVE QUESTIONS
 What is possible for us?
 Who sees the situation differently?
 What are we missing?
 What is the biggest gap between what we
claim and what we do?
 What headline would we most like to see
about us? What least like to see?

18. RISKS IN CONGREGATIONAL
GOVERNANCE
 Some ways congregations get trapped:
 Trying to secure support by ―pandering‖ to
people’s fears and prejudices
 Need to ask people to step beyond their fears
 Succeeding so well at organization that it
loses its religious mission
 Forget the true purpose of the congregation: to
transform people and the world
 Livingfor the policy development, building,
rather than mission

19. WHAT MAKES GOVERNANCE
WORK?
 No one right way for carrying out
 You are looking for:
 Unified structure for making governance
decisions
 Mission, Vision, Evaluation
 Unified structure for making operational
decisions
 Program, Staff, Volunteer Accountability
 Creative, open atmosphere for ministry and
governance
 Transformation of people, the world

20. WHAT MAKES GOVERNANCE
WORK?
 Clarityabout job and job description
 Recruitment part of ongoing leadership
development program
 Orientation of new members
 To the life of church, including physical plant
 To the Board and its operations (including
history, policy, covenant, expectations)
 Regular evaluation of Board’s performance,
including Board Member’s self-evaluation

21. ORIENTATION
 Orientation to the position
 What are the expectations?
 What are the existing documents?
 What scope or limitations?
 Confidentiality conversation
 Orientation to the congregation
 History, including relevant secrets
 Mission
 Tour of premises

22. EVALUATION
 Evaluation of:
 Programs, practices, policies: are they
the right ones for us now?
 Board performance: Are we doing our jobs,
or someone else’s? Are we following our
covenant of how we are working?
 Board members: How am I contributing? Am
I showing up? Doing my part? Remaining
open to the whole? Holding on to the past?

23. BECAUSE YOU ASK: WHAT KINDS OF
GOVERNANCE POLICIES?
There are four kinds of policy that Boards need:
 Discernment: all about mission, and how that’s
determined
 Strategy: all about what things at what time; what
are the major projects and when will they happen
 Management: ensuring that things run, and they run
right, by delegating power and authority
appropriately
 Oversight: ensuring that the resources of the
congregation are properly safeguarded, managed,
handled

24. RESOURCES
 Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of
Nonprofit Boards, Richard P. Chait, William P. Ryan and
Barbara E. Taylor; Wiley
 Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership,
Dan Hotchkiss; Alban Institute
 Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being
Calm and Courageous No Matter What, Peter L. Steinke,
Alban Institute
 Leadership Without Easy Answers, Ronald A. Heifetz,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press