Governing Board

Last night I met with our team for our first Governing Board meeting together. I thought it could not have gone better. I was very impressed at how prepared the team was for our meeting. I have been to way too many meetings where people just walk through the door not even have brought an ink pen with them. This group was way different.

One of the things that I like to do at the beginning of each meeting is to go around the table and talk about what is going on in their neck of the woods in life as well as in ministry. Everyone had a lot to say. It was obvious that each person present had a burden for each of their ministries.

This is so important in the rural church for individuals to have the opportunity to verbalize and talk about how they are feeling and what is happening with them. People not only want to talk but they also deeply want to know that people are not only listening to them but also caring about what they are saying.

Being that this was our first meeting together I had a lot on my agenda. We were spending a lot of money on different things. There were some issues where we had an unknown amount of money that was going to be spent. On those issues I just informed the group of what I was thinking and tabled the decision until next month when I was able to give a more firm number. I know that this would probably not be a huge problem, but what I was trying to achieve was building trust. By waiting for another month on these issues it showed the group that I wanted to be completely vulnerable and transparent with them.

I felt that this was a very good and extremely positive step in the right direction for my ministry here in Battle Lake.