12/03/08 Best Practices

Some Good Year-End Advice
You now have SDA Church Manual permission to replace the traditional nominating committee - and you should!
by Best Practices editor Loren Seibold

I remember nominating committee in my first little church. The first call after the first meeting would be to the brother who had been head elder for the past 30 years. He'd tell me he wanted to pray about it, and could I call him back. But I also knew that if we selected anyone other than him, he would create so much trouble that my life would hardly be worth living. On the other hand, the children's Sabbath School people would resign each year, and mean it. We'd beg and plead. Sometimes they gave us another year, sometimes not. Too few seemed to take on church tasks gladly.

We pastors know the shortcomings of our traditional volunteer selection process: that it implies a political rather than a service motivation; that it suggests that volunteers only owe the church a grudging year, even if they are gifted for more; and though it uses an enormous amount of the church's energy, it really doesn't match talents with tasks very well.

Happily, nominating committee has officially been revisited. I first saw it addressed in the Connections curriculum released back in the 90's (updated and still available through AdventSource.) Connections had enough effect that in 2005 two pages were added to the English version of the SDA Church Manual sanctioning alternatives to nominating committee.

Since this still isn't known to many churches - even pastors - here are key points from pp. 66-67 of the Church Manual:

Volunteer ministry selection should be spiritual gift-based: "Everyone is a minister performing some ministry for which he or she has been specially gifted.... Every church member should be matched with an appropriate ministry as part of the congregation's overall mission strategy."
Make the process less political and more human-resource oriented: This is accomplished with a standing Ministries Development committee. "The nominating committee may need to function on a regular basis throughout the year, meeting monthly or weekly... to accomplish this assignment."
The length of the term of volunteer service is flexible: While this isn't explicit in the Church Manual, those churches that have been successful with a standing Ministry Development committee don't ask volunteers every year if they want to continue. They assume they will, until a replacement is wanted or needed.
Churches have flexibility to use other tools besides the church manual guidelines in volunteer selection: "Curriculum resources, based on a biblical understanding of spiritual gifts, are available to churches which seek to involve every member in ministry. These resources provide specific training and tools for the Ministry Development committee." (This is referring to the Connections curriculum.)
There must still be approval from the congregation: "If the Ministry Development committee is appointed as a standing committee, it must be with the endorsement of the congregation..."

My congregation switched over to a standing Ministry Development committee about ten years ago after studying Connections. The benefit: creating a congregational culture where volunteers regard their tasks as ongoing ministries for which they are God-gifted, rather than as defined terms of service. That translates into less turnover and more satisfaction.

It's not a cure-all for staffing problems, but if your church is struggling with volunteer selection and retention, I recommend the Connections material, along with pages 67-68 in the most recent Church Manual.

I'd like to share ideas from some of you who have innovated in this area. Write bestpractices@ameritech.net.