Pastor's Unrealistic Expectations of Board Members

[Jerome]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3627869.ece

[Peter King] is the chair of the board of deacons at his local Baptist church in Dulwich, in south London

dictionary

board — a group of persons having managerial, supervisory, investigatory, or advisory powers

 

[David Lamb]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3627869.ece


dictionary

Thanks Jerome! It seems the term is used by at least one church here. But I don't think it's common. I just tried a Google search for "board of deacons" and got about 144,000 results. But when I limited the search to "Pages from the UK", it gave just 1,260 results, and most of those seem to refer to churches in America.

By the way, I did know the meaning of the word "board". :laugh: I did specify that "I haven't come across that term (in relation to a church)." Thanks anyway!

 

[glfredrick]

Thanks Jerome! It seems the term is used by at least one church here. But I don't think it's common. I just tried a Google search for "board of deacons" and got about 144,000 results. But when I limited the search to "Pages from the UK", it gave just 1,260 results, and most of those seem to refer to churches in America.

By the way, I did know the meaning of the word "board". :laugh: I did specify that "I haven't come across that term (in relation to a church)." Thanks anyway!

I'd say that a "deacon board" is a very common entity in American Baptist churches of all types. They seem to be doing the work biblically attributed to "elders" instead of the work attributed to "deacons" though there is some blurring of the lines of demarcation.

There is no reason that a deacon cannot also be an elder, but that would include a large ministry workload for sure. But, that is commonly what is expected of the pastor in churches where the deacons oversee the rule of the church via a board. He does all the ministry work that deacons should be doing, and he is also expected to do the leading -- unless or until the deacons decide to override his leadership for some reason. Shouldn't work that way, but it is happening almost everywhere.

 

[drfuss]

Another personal experience on this issue.

My deceased Father-in-law was a pastor for many years. He was a stickler for the deacons attending every service unless they notified him ahead of time. If a deacon was not there without prior notification, he would call them before the next service and ask why they were not there. I might add that there were few men active in the church possibly due to his policy.

After being there about 10 years, he went to pastor another church where the previous pastor later came back and started a work across town and practically emptied his church resulting in him getting out of the ministry. I tell you this so you know that he did not leave the ministry because of something he did.

Anyway, he got a regular 40 hour/week job. I can still remember on Wednesday evenings after getting home from work, he would say that he had to give credit to the deacons all those years for faithfully attending the Wednesday evening services. He said that he would not attend the Wednesday evening services after working all day. The shoe was on the other foot.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

There is a thread entitled Unrealistic expectations of pastors. I thought it maght be interesting to consider if Pastors have unrealistic expectations of Board Members (Deacons) and members. Let's limit this thread to churches with less the 350 in regular attendance. We should exclude larger churches because many times they are organized differently, have more staff, have more activities, etc. than the smaller churches.

Do Pastors expect:

1. Board members to be at every function that includes men unless they have given prior notice to the Pastor?

2. Board members to actively support every church program even if they do not think it is a good program? Of course, board members should not actively detract from any ongoing program.

3. Board members to actively support the music program even if the type of music has been changed to something that is irritating to them?

Let's try these for starters.

What do you think?

All I ask is that the act and think Biblically.

 

[thegospelgeek]

I think the options were random attendance and no bickering vs. required attendance with some bickering.

I think the reasons for the two differences are:

1. Required attendance with some bickering - The deacons have been made to feel they and the pastor are the management team that is responsible for the church. Since they are a part of the team, they feel the shared leadership responsibility and committment. However, due to thier effortrs and committment, they get upset when they believe things are not going the best way, i.e. the bickering.

2. Random attendance and no bickering - The deacons do not feel as much responsibility and committment for the church. If things are not going well, they feel it is not really their responsibility, so they only come when they feel like it. They don't bicker, they just don't show up very often. They let the pastor run things by himself, the way he wants to.

The above has been my impression from the types of arrangements in the two churches we attended. Does this make sense?

Makes perfect sense. My statement was in jest. I guess I just didn't get the humor across.

 

[thegospelgeek]

My question is did they grow stagnant or have they always been that way. Another words why were they elected as a deacon - simply because there was a vacancy? Maybe the Pastor wanted that individual for whatever reason?....

Good question. I really do not know the answer. From what i have read between the lines, the flock hasn't had much sheparding for many years. One Pastor would line em up and order em about while a couple of other just didn't care.