BoardServe Tour
North Florida and Central Florida Districts
Church of the Nazarene
Recently I completed a two-week tour with Dr. Orville Jenkins, Jr., and Dr. Larry Dennis on their districts focused on pastors and their local church boards. The sessions were well attended and growth producing for participants and presenters. There is, indeed, a hunger for board training and development.
Participants embraced the key thought in the sessions that:
“strong boards empower missional and visionary pastors;
strong pastors embrace passionate and engaged boards.”
I shared with these district leaders some of my initial conclusions to the tour.
1. Local church boards are eager to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
2. The boards want to move to a higher level of legal, financial and policy oversight, missional and strategic planning and discipleship training.
3. Board members expressed an interest in board orientation, accountability, evaluation and review.
4. Board members responded positively to the inevitable transitions in their local faith communities, reflected in the “Lifespan and Stages” graph.
5. The participants were appreciative of the practical hands-on tools and personal illustrations shared in the sessions, i.e., agenda development, board policy manual, board relationships, and the evaluation questions.
6. The passion for mission and vision development and decision-making focus was appreciated, and the insights (and freedom) regarding the importance of good questions was well received.
7. Interest was obvious in the brief discussion of the legal and program audit available through the NCMI APEX Project template.
8. I was impressed with the number of deeply committed young professionals who can and want to make a difference for Christ in their local churches.
I delighted in the openness of participants to being “stretched” in their thinking and practice. Some boards need more attention to the basics and fundamentals than others, yet some of the most eager pastors wanting additional conversation are leading larger churches on the districts.
I believe a significant contribution to local churches of the BoardServe tour was the “permission” granted to board members for an increased level of strategic conversation and intentionality regarding the nurturing of strong and effective boards. Since board development is an on-going, continued emphasis, multiple opportunities for continued training will be essential.
The district leadership and I concluded that a mid-morning to mid-afternoon Saturday schedule would fit our format better that the eight area, two hour, meetings held on the two districts. It was a learning experience for all of us.
Following the tour, we made the resources used on the tour available to the pastors and boards as they continue to discuss areas wherein they feel they should focus as they seek to improve their efficiency and effectiveness, including
the “Nurturing Strong and Effective Church Boards” Power Point presentation (click link below to view the presentation), the booklet used during the tour with answers provided, and links to the hour long DVD, “Building Better Boards” summary of the book, “Best Practices for Effective Boards.” The DVD is also available with the sub-titles of the video translated to the Spanish language.
I welcome the opportunity to continue a discussion regarding local church board development. I stand ready to assist pastors and district leaders in the months and years ahead as together we envision and growing number of transformed and transformative local church boards.
Click here for the Power Point presentation used in the seminars.
Click here for the booklet used in the seminar.
Edward LeBron Fairbanks
BoardServe LLC
mobile: 740.398.7184
lfairbanks@boardserve.org
www.BoardServe.org
