Jan 13, 2020

The dangers of "representative" church leadership


It sounds like a good idea. The church has six or seven major ministries so why not have the leader of each of those ministries on the church leadership team - whether it is a council or board of elders or some other name. After all, we don't want any of these ministries not represented at the leadership level!

What sounds like a good idea can actually be a bad idea and in this case cause negative...
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Feb 13, 2019

Ten Lessons to be learned from the Harvest Bible Chapel Debacle



I am glad, I hope, I pray that the soap opera of church dysfunction being played out in public for years at Harvest Bible Chapel is finally over with the exit of James MacDonald. Of course, given the history of controversy and the poor governance of the church all we can do is hope and pray. I suspect there will be disclosures that may well lead to lawsuits - a habit at HBC against dissidents....
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Jan 15, 2019

Confusing, outdated, unclear and vague church governance systems


Many churches are long overdue to change their governance systems, but I am still surprised to read many church constitutions that make real leadership very difficult. Church leaders who would never structure their business the way their church structures leadership are seemingly OK with the fact that it is almost impossible to do any kind of leadership within their governance system.

Yes,...
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Sep 20, 2018

Six board lessons from the recent Willow Creek events


My objective here is not to revisit the specific controversies of Willow Creek but to draw some lessons for those of us who serve on church boards to consider. For my part, I am drawing on decades of working with church boards as well as having served for years on various boards. The recent issues at Willow Creek simply serve to illustrate my observations. I suspect that the good people who...
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Sep 06, 2018

The quick links and index to all of my blogs on church boards and governance has been updated


Updated quick links and index to all of my blogs on church boards and governance






TJ Addington (Addington Consulting) has a passion to help individuals and organizations maximize their impact and go to the next level of effectiveness. He can be reached at tjaddington@gmail.com.

"Creating cultures of organizational excellence."



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Aug 31, 2018

Policy governance in the church: An Overview


Policy governance, popularized by John Carver is getting increasing attention as a governance method in the church. I have helped many non-profits and larger churches move to a policy governance model. In this blog I will give an overview of policy governance and in subsequent blogs I will lay out the advantages and disadvantages of this governance approach when applied to the local church.

Boards...
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Aug 09, 2018

Willow Creek and governance lessons: A watershed moment

The inevitable resignation of the entire board of Willow Creek Community church today along with that of the two senior pastors is a watershed moment for church governance - and its failure. There are many lessons to be learned about what good and poor governance look like when it comes to the church. The leadership failures at Willow will become textbook fodder on governance for years to come.

One...
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