ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNANCE
Perhaps one of the strongest gifts that I brought into my ministerial formation was my talent for administration. I was a successful Program Director for several years before starting divinity school. Most of my professional administrative experience is with nonprofit workforce development programs, both in Texas and in Massachusetts. I was responsible for managing a staff of 6-8 who were specialized in specific areas of the program, meeting overlapping criteria of multiple funders, and providing documentation of success to internal and external stakeholders. I absolutely loved this work and the programs that I managed were consistently above performance expectations.
My training and experience in nonprofit management have given me a deep conviction that good management is the most important service an agency can provide to its clients. After all, an agency can't help anybody if they go out of business. Good governance goes hand in hand with good programs. As the saying goes: no money, no mission; but also, no mission, no money. The two must go hand-in-hand. These nonprofit management principles are particularly well suited for churches.
Divinity school and mentorship with several Senior Ministers have given me the opportunity to think about the difference between management of a nonprofit program and the management of a church. My passion for good business practices is obvious, but what, they have asked me, is theological about church administration?
First of all, churches are nonprofits organizations, but they also are not nonprofit organizations. A church is not a secular institution and it cannot be run like one. As I write about above, I believe it is the role of churches to be the Beloved Community. So when a church makes a decision, it has to ask itself how that decision will contribute to living into that high calling.
Secondly, churches cannot be measured using the same metrics as a nonprofit and they cannot be run in the same way. For example, the outcomes of the programs I ran were usually a demonstrated change in knowledge or opinion. A church's outcomes are a little harder to define and measure. Could you imagine taking a survey at the end of a worship service that asked you to rank your level of spiritual gratification before and after the service? It doesn't work like that, and so we can't run a church like a nonprofit.
What is theological about church administration is that decisions we make have to involve vision, aspiration, and heart. And don't forget God (however we understand that word). We have to invite God into the work of running the church just as much as we invite God into our worship services, religious education, and other programs. That doesn't mean we go "all soft" when it's time to make a tough decision; it just means we consult our convictions before we decide.
I believe deeply in partnership with lay leaders in all aspects of my ministry, but especially administration and governance. Not only is this the way that Unitarian Universalist churches are meant to be run, but it's important to me personally. I know that I can't possibly know or understand all aspects of a particular issue or a church's culture and history. I hope that lay leaders and I will be able to work together to amplify each other's understanding of the issues and find the best response as a team.
Photograph by David Elmes.