The document provides 12 ideas about effective Committees on Ministry (COMs) in congregations. It suggests that COMs should act as agents for the entire congregation, be comprised of respected members focused on the congregation's mission and covenant, and engage in ongoing communication, education, evaluation, and conflict management. The document also notes that COMs should distinguish their work from the Board, model shared ministry, and safeguard against becoming complaint bureaus, instead focusing on the overall health and well-being of the congregation's ministry.

1. A DOZEN GOOD IDEAS ABOUT
COMMITTEES ON MINISTRY
Rev. Barbara Child, Accredited Interim Minister
And host Lisa Presley, District Executive, Heartland
District,
MidAmerica Region

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

3. CHALICE LIGHTING

4. IDEA 1: AGENT OF THE ENTIRE
CONGREGATION
 Allows professional clergy, lay leaders
and congregation at large to work
toward fulfillment of mission and
covenant
 Bylaws should support COM made up
of well respected persons
 Regular rotation and term limits
 Should not have adversarial approach!

5. IDEA 2: IDEAL MEMBERS
 Members of COM are:
 Active members familiar with
congregation’s history and culture
 Generally respected by lay and clergy
 Do not bring personal agenda
 Able to focus on big picture of
mission, covenant and ministry
 Skilled at communication
 Commitment to well-being of whole

6. IDEA 3: COM IN THE
CONGREGATIONAL SYSTEM
 Should be no overlap between Board
and COM
 Engages more congregants in
significant leadership roles
 Leadership training ground
 Recipient of trained leaders

7. IDEA 4: COMMUNICATION
 Good COM communicates constantly
 Through every means
 Regarding the state of the mission and
covenant
 Keeps people from going to
sleep, becoming complacent, or
forgetting the church’s mission

8. IDEA 5: EDUCATE ABOUT COM
 History of Ministerial Relations
Committees (MRCs) and COMs
 Shift from support group to
congregational check-up
 “Our COM,” not “Minister’s COM”
 Which is yours?

9. IDEA 6: EVALUATION
 Evaluation of ministry:
 Everything done by professional
clergy, other paid staff, and congregants
involved in the ministry
 Not just about the professional clergy
 Agent
to monitor everyone’s
accountability over time

10. IDEA 7: TRUE FOCUS
 COM helps congregation focus on true
reason for evaluation:
 How are we doing on our mission
achievement?
 Are we living within our covenants with
each other?
 Helpcongregation know the mission
and covenant

11. IDEA 8:
POLICY AND MONITORING
 Cleardistinction between work of
Board (policy-makers) and COM
(congregation monitors)
 Board’s authority to make decisions
 COM’s authority is power of
persuasion
 COM invites people to mission- and
covenant-focused perspective

12. IDEA 9: CONSULTANTS
 COM consults regularly with
professional clergy and other
staff, Board, task
forces, teams, committees involved in
ministry
 Will share impressions on how ministry
going
 May make recommendations
 Others decide what to do

13. IDEA 10:
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
 Engages in on-going conflict
management
 Sponsoring workshops on
understanding systems and healthy
practices
 Not arbiter or judge but encourages
responsible resolution
 Never takes sides

14. IDEA 11:
MODELS SHARED MINISTRY
 Model and teach value of shared
ministry
 Educate about ministry in general, and
congregation’s ministry in particular
 Help people understand short- and
long-term goals for congregation

15. IDEA 12:
TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY
 Model and teach mutual trust and
accountability
 Working with Board and professional
clergy
 Fostering right relationship in accord
with congregation’s covenant

16. AND ONE CAVEAT:
 Safeguard against COM being MRC
 Should not be “palace guard” or
complaint bureau
 Larger congregation may not need a
COM to be healthy
 May not be for everyone but . . .
 Well conceived and managed can
serve healthy shared ministry of
professional clergy and congregants

17. MAJOR RESOURCES
 Robert T. Latham, Moving On from Church
Folly Lane: The Pastoral to Program Shift
(Tuscon: Wheatmark, 2006)
 Addendum VI: The Committee on Ministry (an
Original and Workable Model), p 244-72
 Can be ordered through www.mythinglink.com or
the UUA Bookstore www.uuabookstore.org
 Dan Hotchkiss, Governance and Ministry
(Alban Institute)
 Can be ordered through the UUA Bookstore

18. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS?

19. THANK YOU!
 This
Webinar, and others, can be
found at:
www.midwestuuleadership.org