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Faith needs a “strong constitution!”
0 Comments | Posted by Pastor Lyle Kleman in Uncategorized
Okay, finally this blog is up and running – thanks to the expertise of Kala, our office manager, and Miranda, our communications person.
You’ll hear more about this soon from our Constitution Revision Committee Chair, Tom Penningroth, but this is to let you know that here at Faith we’ll have a marvelous opportunity to lay groundwork for the future through the adoption of a Revised Constitution.
A major change proposed will be to reduce slightly the size of the Congregation Council, but have it also focus on three specific areas: Visioning/Planning, Policies affecting the life of the congregation, and Fiduciary (financial) responsibility. Note that the council would not “represent” the various ministries at Faith that it does now, but rather focus on those three areas I just noted.
Two effects of this proposed change: Council would put more responsibility on staff for implementation of ministry programs, in fact would insist on accountability while becoming less “hands on”; second, the various advisory board and committee chairs would not have an “extra” (council) meeting to attend and could spend all or most of their time and efforts on advising the staff members to whom they relate.
There are other advantages to this type of reorganization, and you’ll hear more about them in Faith Weekly, Enews, three Congregation Forums on the topic and likely on Sundays in the form of brief announcements and/or handouts.
When Tom and his committee are ready to present this information to the congregation, I urge you to take time to read it, especially the “unstarred” provisions, formulate questions and bring them to the forums or email them to our vice-president, Ryan York, and/or committee chair, Tom Penningroth.
A congregation’s constitution belongs to the congregation – not the council or any council committee, not the pastor or pastors, not the synod. A constitution is the basic document under which we organize and function, in order to do ministry.
So look for, dare I say “anticipate,” the soon-to-be-unveiled Faith Lutheran Church Constitutional proposal. I find it exciting (okay, I’m in a definite minority by saying that, but I also like meetings!), and I hope you will, too.
