Cherry Hills Change in Leadership Structure F.A.Q. We pray that as we pursue the proposed changes as a church family, the unity of the body of Christ will be our desired goal (Ephesians 4:2-3). To that end, we recognize that no issue being discussed has any influence on the salvation of any person. During this time of question-asking, we seek to practice the famous Christian quote: In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things charity. During the November 12 and December 3, 2017 Q&A sessions, several questions were asked multiple times. We want to provide you with the answer to those questions. 1. Does this proposal change how the church is led? Does this move us away from being a congregation led church to a leader led church? Due to our church growth, we have moved away from being a operationally day-to-day congregation-led church and placed more of the decision-making with key leaders, the elders and staff. This proposal simply names the reality of how the leadership of Cherry Hill has evolved over the last 10-15 years and particularly the last two years with the Senior Leadership Team. (see #3 below). Under this proposal, the issues that the congregation vote on remain unchanged: Hiring a Pastor Changing the Constitution and Bylaws Major expenditures Annual budget Electing the oversight board Tim Keller (a Pastor in New York City) wrote a seminal article on the leadership dynamics for churches based on attendance. In that article he wrote, On the one hand, the larger the church the more decision-making falls to the staff rather than to the whole membership or even the lay leaders. The Elders or board must increasingly deal with only top-level, big-picture issues. This means the larger the church, the more decision making is pushed up toward the staff and away from the congregation and lay leaders. Needless to say, many laypeople feel extremely uncomfortable with this Generally, in small churches policy is decided by many and ministry is done by a few, while in the large church ministry is done by many and policy is decided by a few In general, the larger the church, the fewer people should be in on each decision. Why? The larger the church, the more diversity of views. If the older processes are followed, decisions take longer and longer to be made, and they result in watered-down compromises. As a church 1
gets larger it must entrust decision making to fewer and fewer people just to maintain the same level of progress, decisiveness, and intentionality it had when it was smaller. 2. What does lay involvement look like as we move into this new leadership structure? Isn t this a dangerous change? Lay involvement is crucial for the body of Christ to be all that Jesus had in mind. We need each other and all of the spiritual gifts to ensure that Cherry Hills is healthy. The only change in lay involvement in this new structure is the removal of the Deacon board as a decision-making team. 3. What is the Senior Leadership Team? The Senior Leadership Team is a group of staff that meet weekly and work together, from our areas of giftedness to protect and nourish our church culture, supervise and develop our staff, manage church operations, and advance our vision. Currently, the team is made up of Pastors Jeff Nelsen, Steve Patzia, Brian Schwarberg and Church Administrator Jim Fay. This team has been meeting this way for 18 months, as directed to do by the elders, and has seen the benefit of collaborative leadership. 4. Does the SLT have any accountability? Absolutely. The SLT reports directly to the Elders, who oversee the SLT. In order to shepherd the church, the Elders will ask the appropriate questions, provide wisdom and guidance and ultimately make all the decisions that don t require a congregational vote. The SLT submits themselves to the leadership of the Elders. Moreover, in the proposal being offered, none of the SLT members who serve as Elders would have a vote in the decisions being made. The lay elders have the power necessary to hold the pastor-elders accountable and serve as the final decision-makers. 5. Role of Elders The role of Elders at Cherry Hills is to shepherd the Pastors, staff and church body, pray for individuals and for the church, discipline sin and address conflicts to restore individuals and relationships in the church, and provide wise counsel in developing the vision and overseeing the governance of the church. In the past, the word vision was used to describe the role of the Elders. However, after working together for ten years, the Elders have determined that vision is a shared, collaborative 2
responsibility of the Elders and SLT. The SLT works with the staff to propose vision and then the Elders provide wise counsel and course corrections if needed for said vision. 6. With only seven lay Elders, how will they be able to make informed decisions if there are issues outside of their skill-set? We recognize that there will be issues that fall outside of the skill-set of the Elders. In those cases, they will continue to gather information from existing teams (i.e. finance & stewardship, building & grounds, missions) or create a specialized team to address the issue and report on their findings (i.e. capital campaign, adding to the building). 7. How are Elders chosen? Elders have historically been chosen by the current Elder team. In the past, the nominating team has approached Pastor Jeff (Senior Pastor) and the current Elders about who could potentially serve as a new Elder. The nominating team would then take those names and present them to the congregation for a vote at the annual meeting. In every case the recommended elders were presented unanimously to the congregation by the nominating team and approved by the congregation. Under the proposed changes, the nominating team will not be responsible for presenting potential Elders to the congregation, the Elders will. However, the Elders would seek input from the congregation, including as needed, to appoint one or more teams to assist in the identification and selection of those who are called to serve as Elders. One of Pastor Jeff s responsibilities on the SLT is to identify and develop leaders. In this role, he will work with the Elders to determine potential future Elders and spend time with them. This will be a time of discipleship, but also a vetting of character. After this time of training and vetting, the proposed Elders will be presented to the congregation at the annual meeting in December. 8. Why will the Deacons no longer be a decision-making team? The responsibility of the Deacons has been in the areas of finances, property, non-pastoral personnel and implementation. As we have operated with this two-board system for ten years, we have discovered that many of the responsibilities of the Deacons are now handled by our staff, and within the constraints of a congregation approved budget, for example. We also discovered that having to get approval from the Deacon team (who meet just once a month) for small decisions is often ineffective and inefficient. 3
For example, Jim Fay, our Church Administrator would continue to be responsible, just as he now is, for day-to-day oversight of finance, personnel, and issues related to the buildings and grounds. The teams which help him do this will also remain in place to advise and assist. What would change is the avoidance of delay in the implementation of final decisions until the next monthly meeting of the Deacon board. 9. Didn t Deacons provide a level of accountability as representatives of the congregation? Who will represent the congregation now? The Elders represent the congregation, just as they have done for ten years. The Elders are elected at the annual business meeting and spiritually shepherd the church. The Elders are also responsible for oversight of the SLT and the SLT is fully accountable to the Elder board. Although there will be fewer persons elected by the congregation, the reduction in that number does not reduce the level of accountability since the Elder board is fully accountable to the congregation for all matters within the church. In addition, another layer of accountability is the SLT. No longer is the church practicing hierarchical leadership, but collaborative. This protects the church from one pastor making all decisions. Lastly, the current discussion has clarified the need for more opportunities for the congregation to learn about church operations and allow the persons in leadership positions to hear what issues are of concern to the congregation. As a result, there will now be regular Q & A sessions probably on Sunday mornings for people to learn and comment and for more/broader engagement. 10. What will happen to the men who have been serving as Deacons? These servants are all serving on other teams and ministries in the church. This change will allow them to continue to serve in their area of giftedness. 11. Will Cherry Hills still have a team called Deacons? No. The biblical term deacon literally means servant. To that end, we have many people serving like Deacons through their service in our church. There are many opportunities for people to serve on teams in our church and using the term Deacon contains too many historical definitions to be helpful. For those wondering if it is a biblical mandate to have Deacons the Apostle Paul instructed Titus (1:5) to appoint Elders in every town where churches were established. Appointing Elders in every church was also Paul s standing practice (Acts 14:23). To clarify, Deacons were not see 4
in the New Testament as a decision-making body, as much as people who carried out the decisions of the leaders through acts of service. 12. If the Deacons are being removed, what oversight and accountability remains for the church? The Elders represent the congregation, just as they have done for ten years. The Elders are elected at the annual business meeting and spiritually shepherd the church. The Elders are also responsible for oversight of the SLT and the SLT is fully accountable to the Elder board. As was mentioned previously, there will many more opportunities for congregation engagement and more open forums for information sharing. 13. What will happen to the teams that lay members serve on? At this time, there is no change to the teams. Teams that currently meet monthly include Finance & Stewardship, Missions, Building & Grounds, Benevolence. Other teams, like Personnel, meet less often but when needed. Over ten years ago, a Deacon served on each of these teams and would then report in to the entire Deacon board at the monthly meetings. That reporting has not happened (with the exception for Finance & Stewardship) for years. Under the proposal, teams that are administrative in nature like Finance & Stewardship, Personnel and Building & Grounds will be overseen by the church Administrator. They will offer advice and counsel to the Administrator and to the Elder Board. Teams that exist for a ministry purpose like Missions and Benevolence will be overseen by the appropriate pastor or ministry leader, who will report to the SLT and Elder Board. 14. Why are the Deaconesses being renamed Hospitality Team? The current Deaconesses are in favor of this move and appreciate expanding this serving role from a limited number of volunteers. Currently the Deaconesses oversee the serving roles of funeral lunches, baptisms, communion preparation, parent-child dedications, mission lunches and other events. Changing this team to a Hospitality Team will allow more women (along with men) to serve on these teams and provide a greater level of Hospitality to each area. This Hospitality team will have oversight provided by Pastor Lee Willis. Lee is in conversation with this team to discuss what needs to take place for a successful transiton. Teams that need to exist (more will need to be added) include: 5
Funeral lunches Baptisms Communion Preparation Communion Serving Parent-Child Dedications Mission Lunches Special Events 15. Why are you changing the name of the church? The proposal calls for changing the name of the church to Cherry Hills Church. Due to our leaving the American Baptist denomination, this change is in line with that decision. For over 35 years, we ve not highlighted being Baptists in our services or affiliations. In other words, we are not trying to make people Baptists, but followers of Jesus. Leaving Baptist in the church name is confusing and we have found it to be an impediment from people choosing to attend our church, and for many of those who are already part of Cherry Hills to invite. Some are asking the question, If we re not Baptist, what type of church are we? The answer is that we are a church that is Baptist in our heritage, but nondenominational in our approach. 16. Women in leadership This issue is not in this proposal, but the question of women in leadership has surfaced at both Q&A sessions, particularly the question, why does Cherry Hills not allow women in leadership? Under the proposed changes, the only leadership roles women do not hold at Cherry Hills are Elder and Pastor. Cherry Hills has historically functioned this way based on our biblical understanding of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. However, many women serve in many decision-making and leadership roles. This currently occurs in the areas of nursery, preschool, elementary, Jr. high, Sr. high, young adults, adult women s ministries, care, communication and worship arts. Many women also serve on leadership teams like Finance & Stewardship, Benevolence, Missions, and Personnel. In addition, many of our missionaries locally and globally are women who are making disciples by showing and telling the love of Christ. We recognize this is an issue that the Elders are going to study this again in the near future tin order to make a biblically-informed decision. 6
17. How can the congregation be better informed going forward? In addition to the annual business meeting held each December, the Elders and SLT are planning to hold quarterly Q&A sessions in order to be as transparent as possible with the church. In 2018, to help better communicate these changes, the following meetings are planned: Jan 7-9:30 at the Rock, 11:00 in 201-203 Feb 11-11:00 in 201-203 Mar 11-11:00 in 201-203 Mar 11 - Special Meeting to Vote on Proposed Leadership Changes at 6:00pm In all of these discussions and meetings, we want to practice a humble posture that strives for oneness and mutual respect, even if we may disagree. 7