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Roles of the Leadership Team (LT), Pastor, and Staff/Ministry Teams    

Leadership Team’s Role

  • Accountable to Jesus Christ for the Great Commission
  • Fiduciary Responsibility
  • Generative Work & Strategic Work
  • Church governance – not management
  • Hold pastor accountable to vision and goals in partnership with the DS
  • Create & update policies, procedures, and guiding principles
  • Final say on hiring and firing staff and generating assessment criteria for pastor’s use for assessments.
  • Align resources to the mission, vision, goals, and strategies
  • Examples of mature spiritual leaders
  • Adhere to the Leadership Covenant
  • Annual Strategic Planning Retreat
  • Understand shift in role & responsibility from congregant to leader
  • Bless the vision cast with the pastor
  • Work with the DS to hold the pastor accountable
  • Communicate with the congregation    

Pastor’s Role

  • Spiritual leader/shepherd
  • Keeper of mission & cast the congregationally discerned vision
  • Main recruiter & chief fundraiser
  • Develop new leaders
  • Recommend hiring and firing of paid staff to the LT and help the LT supervise and assess both paid and ministry directors according to the Guiding Principles
  • Hold paid staff and directors accountable for leading their ministry areas and fulfilling the mission and vision of the church through goals and strategies
  • Monitor the accomplishment of church goals and make adjustments in associated strategies and staff as required to ensure the achievement of those goals

Staff/Ministry Team Leader’s Role

  • In coordination with the pastor, create strategies to fulfill the Leadership Team’s goals
  • Connect congregation to the church’s discipleship pathway through all ministries and help them take their next step
  • Identify, recruit, equip, and deploy ministry team members
  • Coordinate ministry
  • Create & update ministry team members' job descriptions 
  • Follow Guiding Principles Hold ministry team members accountable
  • Help ministry team members connect their ministry to the strategies, goals, vision, mission, and core values
  • Evaluate all ministries under their care (i.e., purpose, outcome, missional effectiveness & alignment, resource consumption)        

Requirements Under the Book of Discipline

  • The new board, the Leadership Team (LT), takes on the responsibilities of the Ministry Council, Trustees, SPRC, and Finance committees. All requirements of the Book of Discipline are still in effect.
  • Meetings are open to all. Only members of the LT can vote. Matters of personnel are private (when discussing and deciding in SPRC related issues), and matters of legal negotiations are private.
  • Paid staff cannot be members of the LT but can attend and give voice. This is already a rule for Councils according to the BOD in the committee structure.
  • The Leadership Team will have nine members and have three classes that serve three-year terms as is the current practice for all committees.
  • Family of paid staff cannot serve on the board.
  • Family members cannot serve on the board together. (EXCEPTION) If unavoidable, they must excuse themselves for any conflict of interest.
  • Minutes or notes of meetings can be recorded by a LT member, or someone recruited by the LT. If the person is not a board member, they must be excluded from any SPRC related issues.
  • Members of the LT must be members of the church.
  • One-third minimum of LT members must be women. One-third minimum of LT members must be men.
  • Must have at least one young adult and one person over the age of 65.
  • Chair of the Leadership Team serves as liaison to the DS.
  • Nominations Committee is still required - the Leadership Team cannot self-nominate.
  • The Leadership Team can create new director positions, ministry teams (short or long-term).  

Recommendations by the Restructuring Team

  • LT Member Expectations (Bare minimums): Be an active church member, Attend church regularly, Regularly attend Leadership Team meetings, Adhere to Book of Discipline requirements.
  • The Chair of the LT is also the Lay Leader
  • One member of the LT must serve as Lay Member to the Annual Conference.
  • Although BOD accepts those in attendance as constituting a quorum, the Restructure Team recommends that ⅔ majority be the practice of the LT to constitute a quorum.
  • No changes to the church’s relationship with the Foundation are required or needed.