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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A Covenant for Church Board Members

Here is a covenant that board members of the local church I most recently served were asked to sign. The goal of this covenant was to raise the bar of spiritual leadership for board members in the local church. I wanted to empower them to be more like biblical elders than micro administrators. I encourage you to modify this for your church board members. I believe that when the bar of Christian leadership is raised, lay people will rise to the occasion.

In consideration of the confidence placed in me by the local church for the leadership role I now fulfill, I hereby covenant to do the following:

-Character: I will model Christ-like love and leadership consistently by not gossiping, “speaking the truth in love,” and following through with my leadership commitments.  I realize that more important in ministry than giftedness is godliness. 

-Confidentiality:  I recognize that our board meetings will often include discussion about matters that should be kept confidential to protect the reputation of individuals and the church.   

-Unity: I will be a team player who realizes that my ministry is only one part of the big picture vision God has given the church to “help seekers become servants of Christ.”  I will do everything I can to throw water and not fuel on the fire of conflicts that may arise.

-Attendance: I will attend corporate worship services with my brothers and sisters every Sunday morning, unless sick, traveling, or emergency situations arise. I will also attend those events outside of the Sunday morning worship services that are important for board members (ie. Concerts of Prayer, All-Church Fellowship Events, Local Church Conference in May).

-Growth: I will attend to my own development in Christ as I lead others to a deeper walk with Christ through my ministry.  This means I will devote time alone with God on a regular basis through prayer, Bible Study and devotional reading.  I will also pursue growth through more communal means of discipleship suxh as growth groups and accountability relationships.

-Support: I will do whatever I can to support the vision God has given the church to “help seekers become servants of Christ.”  I realize this support includes prayer for my church and tithing to build God’s kingdom through my church (tithing is the biblical principle of setting aside 10% of one’s income to support the ministry of the local church).  I will also support the church by being involved in a hand’s on ministry outside of my service on the board.

-Reliability: I will be faithful to God through my leadership on the board by demonstrating the Five P’s: Punctuality (on time to serve), Preparedness (ready to serve), Passion (excited to serve), Persistence (finishing my turn to serve) and Perfect Devotion (committed to serve).

-Competence: I will pursue the skills needed for Christian leadership through ministry leader forums and retreats, as well as conferences, books, etc., so that I reach my leadership potential for Christ.

-Accountability: I understand and accept that I am accountable to the leadership of the church (Pastoral Staff and Board) if I consistently fail to abide by this covenant.

Signed: __________________________________________________ Date:_____________

3 comments:

Kirby said...

How long before you put something like this in place? How is/was it received? Did you do any training/ideas etc leading up to the signing of?

Lenny Luchetti said...

Good questions Kirby. I didn't implement this until I felt our leadership culture was ready for it. For me, that was about 2 years into my time at the church. By that time when had already raised the bar some in our leadership culture. Plus, when it came to electing new board members we became very strategic about nominating the kind of people who would see the value of such a covenant.

Anonymous said...

when i came to the church I now lead these standard were important, but over time some LBA members have slacked off in their commitment. How can I implement something like this and not give the impression that I'm throwing darts targeted at particular board members?