In Jim Collins classic book, Good-to-Great, he talks about using councils to help guide the organization. Councils should be made up of a group of the right people to discuss debate and make decisions about the operation of the organization. People selected to serve on councils should be those with knowledge, experience and a passion for the topic. These knowledge experts should be steered by the board and used to facilitate a decision making process that benefits the church.
Church councils should be chartered by the board and have someone assigned to facilitate the process. This facilitator should help the council identify a team, create a team charter, ground rules and team goals. By going through this process the team has some accountability and a set direction. Councils should meet on a regular basis and report back to the church board.
Six Councils Your Church Doesn’t Have and Definitely Needs
Church Council Examples:
1. Budget Review
The budget review council should be assigned to review monthly budget numbers, analyze budget variances and approve non-budget expenditures. This group is also responsible for meeting with church managers and creating the annual budget. The budgeting process forecasts annual revenues, fixed and flexible spending, and anticipates and budgets for large capital expenses. This group is the financial think-tank and has an identified representative that reports to the church board-of-directors.
Six Councils Your Church Probably Doesn't Have and Definitely Needs Click To Tweet
2. Human Resource Council
The human resource council helps to ensure policies, procedures and processes are in place to support staff and volunteers and that the ministry operates and is compliant with state and federal laws. An HR council might also have responsibility to review job applications and approve applicants for the first round of interviews.
The HR Council should also help to establish employee pay grades, make decisions on employee benefits, employee policies, training, tuition reimbursement, leadership development, job classifications, employee assistance programs, vacation approval process, reward and recognition and performance management.
3. Facility Review Council
The facility review council should meet on a regular basis and discuss strategy for maintaining the current facility, identifying facility update needs and plan for future expansions or remodels.
This group also facilitates the process to ensure staff work areas meet employee job requirements as well as gives direction on standard furniture, décor colors, campus way finding as well as mechanical equipment needs. This council meets with the budget review committee to ensure large capital expenditures are budgeted and resources are available when needed.
4. Information Technology
The information technology council is responsible for ensuring the church has the necessary technology to run its operations. This may include audio visual equipment for church services, computer software to operate children’s ministry or ensuring employees have the necessary computer equipment and software to perform job responsibilities.
This council also researches new technologies and ensures the church is using all available technologies that would facilitate streamlined work processes. For example, investing in electronic scanning systems for children’s ministry and adult classes can eliminate the need to manually input attendance information into the church database.
This council is also responsible for establishing ministry guidelines for replacing computers, internet usage, email etiquette, policies on employee personal use of church equipment and any other information technology considerations.
5. Safety Council
A safety council is responsible for ensuring the church provides a safe environment for visitors and employees. This is done by reviewing safety procedures for potentially dangerous activities by employees and volunteers. This group should make routine campus rounds and proactively look for hazards that need to be corrected. This could be anything within buildings or outside grounds. Things like electrical systems, walking surfaces, air quality, fire extinguishers, clutter in hallways, etc. Making a point of looking for things that could pose a threat of harm to employees or visitors can potentially avoid an unnecessary incident or injury.
6. Customer Experience Council
A customer experience council is responsible for seeking feedback from all customer groups – members, volunteers and employees – and identifying ways to improve the experience. This council may be responsible for facilitating a formal feedback process, reviewing feedback data and developing improvement plans based on that data. For example, this group may find that volunteers are asking for a more structured training process because they don’t feel adequately trained to perform their job duties.