What Makes for a Strong Partnership?
What makes the board-clergy partnership work well, and what causes it to break down. Key ingredients: clarity, trust, shared mission, and appropriate boundaries.
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Staffing When You Can’t Afford to Staff
Practical strategies for congregations that need more staff capacity but cannot afford to hire — using volunteers, part-time staff, and creative role structures.
Succeeding in a Paid Position
Practical advice for staff in congregational settings on how to succeed in paid ministry and administrative roles — navigating unique culture, working with volunteer boards.
What’s Good about That?
The planning question that helps congregations clarify their goals and values — drilling down to the underlying goods that any decision or plan is meant to achieve.
Principles for Sound Staff Evaluation
How to evaluate staff members fairly and effectively in congregational settings. Goal-focused criteria, regular feedback, and the role of the board versus the minister.
Goal-focused Evaluation
A goal-focused framework for evaluating congregational programs, staff, and ministries — asking whether goals were met rather than just whether people are satisfied.
Should a Church Staff Member Report to a Committee?
When board- and committee-centered congregations engage paid staff, they sometimes struggle to describe how staff members should relate to one another and to authority.
How to Measure Ministry
The challenge of evaluating ministry when outcomes are inherently qualitative or long-term. A goal-focused framework for measuring what matters in congregational ministry.
What Should I Do about the Elders?
How to handle established elder boards or legacy leadership bodies that may be out of step with current governance needs — work with, work around, or restructure.
Agenda Items for Your Board this Summer
Specific agenda items for congregational boards to address during the quieter summer months — governance reflection and long-range planning.