Recruiting and Sustaining Effective Lay Leadership

General Assembly 2006 Event 2027

Sponsor: Clara Barton District

Presenters: Lynn Thomas and Deborah Levering

Almost every congregation has a Nominating Committee—at least some of the time. But how many congregations have a Leadership Development Committee that operates all year? If the congregation did have such a committee, what would it do? How would it be different from a Nominating Committee? What would it contribute to the congregation that it doesn't already have, or that it doesn't have as fully as we might like?

How about:

• Working with members to help them identify and grow in roles which serve their needs and the congregation's
   
• Working with the Board and with existing committees to help identify which organizational tasks are needed, which are more or less critical, which are more or less urgent, and which should be done by which committee or task force
   
• Working with the Board and existing committees to define the role of each committee, the boundaries between committee functions, and job descriptions for committees and their members
   
• Working with the Board, existing committees, and members to identify, recruit, train and support members to effectively take on and carry out the responsibilities of operating the church
   
• Working with all parties to identify organizational improvements such as term limits and staggered terms, as appropriate, to facilitate more effective and less burdensome work
   
• Working with all parties to facilitate ongoing, caring self-assessment to evaluate those areas in which the members are doing well and those where they (we) could use some help
   
• Researching, and helping to provide, resources, training, facilitators, mediators, etc. as mutually agreed upon

...to name a few.

Reported by Bill Lewis; edited by Jone Johnson Lewis.