Dan Hotchkiss, author and congregational consultant
Posted in Board governance, Congregations, Staff on Jul 21st, 2010
When board- and committee-centered congregations engage paid staff, they sometimes struggle to find language to describe how staff members should relate to one another and to the rest of the organization. Especially if the staff person leads a program area like education, music, or youth work, which is “owned” by a committee, it seems natural [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations on Apr 1st, 2010
“How is your model different from the Carver model?” Since Governance and Ministry came out, I hear this question now and then, especially from people in the United Church of Canada, the Mennonite Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association, where John Carver’s Policy Governance is widely known. I have benefited from John Carver’s writings and agree [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations on Mar 10th, 2010
One of the interesting things about Governance and Ministry is the interest it has generated across the religious spectrum–I’ve heard from Southern Baptists, Catholics, and Orthodox Jews as well as Unitarians, Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ. Most recently, I enjoyed reading a recent post by Art Scherer of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations, Finance, Synagogues on May 27th, 2009
Congregational budget-makers frequently divide into two camps that approach the task in different ways. The first camp is likely to include children of the Great Depression, experts in finance, elementary school teachers, and persons anxious about their own money situation. Their first priority is to make sure that the budget balances and that the congregation [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations on Apr 20th, 2009
The Alban Institute has published an excerpt of my new book, Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership in this week’s issue of the Alban Weekly e-newsletter (click here to subscribe): Religion transforms people; no one touches holy ground and stays the same. Religious leaders stir the pot by pointing to the contrast between life as [...]
Posted in Board governance, Clergy on Nov 20th, 2008
By law, board members are supposed to put the best interest of the church above all personal considerations — but how is that even possible? Board members in most churches play many other roles throughout the church, and many board decisions affect them and those they love. Potential conflicts of interest arise whenever a board [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations on Apr 21st, 2008
Comparisons are useful but tricky. New Testament writers compare the church to a human body, a herd of sheep, a bride, and a vineyard. Synagogues are often likened to a house, a tent, or an extended family. None of these analogies is meant to be exact or literal—a church may act in some ways like [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations, Finance on Nov 22nd, 2007
“Conflict of interest” is an ugly phrase, but it’s time to say it, lay it on the table, and deal with it as a normal part of life. Everybody who is not a hermit manages conflicting interests all the time. Congregations’ awkwardness and silence on the subject only makes us vulnerable. Many congregations accept practices [...]
Posted in Board governance, Congregations on Aug 2nd, 2007
Here’s a list of some of the books and other resources I have found most helpful and provocative as I have thought about how congregations can best organize their boards, clergy, staff, and volunteers to envision and carry out powerful ministries: BoardSource. Many resources available at www.boardsource.org. Carver, John, and Miriam Mayhew Carver, Reinventing Your [...]
Posted in Board governance, Clergy, Planning on Jul 19th, 2007
Around the board table, each leader brings a point of view rooted in subcultures he or she belongs to. Subcultures of sex, race, age, and nationality are often recognized. The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator can help a group to acknowledge and “normalize” such differences. We have barely yet begun to see how powerful our occupational subcultures [...]
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