Proposal for New Structures at Glen Waverley Uniting Church

A proposal to be put to the congregational meeting on 1 Jul 2013. An Executive Summary is available at ChurchFutureScProposalExecutive.

Preamble

Recognizing that

the Future Directions Steering Committee now having concluded its deliberations, proposes that Glen Waverley Uniting Church adopt the following resolutions:

Guiding Philosophy

The Steering Committee took as its most critical brief the restoration of a harmonious congregation. This was in response to both CarolynKitto and GregCrowe identifying that many issues of "dissonance" within the congregation have caused the congregation to falter on its way, and along with them, the Ministry Team. While restructure of spiritual leadership and church governance has been a necessary part of this process, the committee felt that this alone was futile unless the dissonance issues were also addressed.

We have chosen to name this process "Building a Community of Love". Many groups already reach a deep level of fellowship, but what is required is more than fellowship. We need to establish deeper and greater levels of trust and kindness for each other, such as that explained in 1 Cor 13:4-7 and Eph 4:29-32. That cannot happen without a deeper sharing of the human hurts and hopes we all experience. We need to be honest and open with each other. Without sharing that vulnerability of each, we cannot possibly know or harmonise with each other. Most of all we hope to develop respect, empathy and tolerance with others' points of view so we can learn to support those who have different points of view than us and to participate in God's mission rather than be concerned about our personal preferences.

We therefore propose that all church groups set aside 20 minutes of their regular meeting time to explore firstly, their spirituality and understanding of our scriptural base, and secondly, their human emotions, hopes, visions and hurts so that a deeper level of trust and respect for each other is established.

To encourage development of our Community of Love, the Steering Committee therefore proposes that

The Church Council

One explicit recommendation arising from the ChurchLifeAndWitness consultation was that the size of the Church Council should be reduced. "The Church Council would have 10 elected members plus ministers in placement and up to 2 co-options. All elected members would be Elders. These members would be elected after a process of discernment and prayer for identifying and calling of them for their gifts of spritual oversight and leadership." She also urges us to elect more younger members to Church Council. Whilst it is clear that the current councillors have been doing their duties to the best of their abilities, Carolyn suggested a fundamental change of focus for the church council, away from being business driven to being faith formation and mission driven.

The new council will take on the spiritual leadership of the congregation more strongly than it has in the past and most of the business of the congregation will be given to the groups that are carrying out its mission. This will help overcome a number of issues within the congregation including permission giving, a move to a more strongly faith-based community, building on the relational community that already exists at GWUC. It will also refresh and focus the cooperation between the Ministry Team and the Church Council.

The Steering Committee has endeavoured to hold true to the brief that it was to find "a pastorally sensitive way" to implement the recommendations and "how they will be brought to the congregation for approval". This means addressing how we are to move from a Council of 23 elected members to 10 elected "Elders and Councillors", and in concluding the terms of the existing group of 35 Elders.

The fundamental difficulty has been that (as pointed out by several members of the congregation) the UCA Constitution and Regulations allow no mechanisms for concluding the terms of existing councillors and elders in toto (there are mechanisms to deal with transfers, resignations and discipline, but these are not applicable in this context).

The preferred mechanism identified by the Steering Committee is to ask all existing councillors and elders to accept these recommendations, and in that spirit, voluntarily resign from Church Council and the Eldership. We recognise that there are those who will not feel called to this action, and hence we need to suggest an alternative pathway for such people. The suggested pathway is that they serve out their terms, participating in the administrative and worship life of the church as they feel called, and that we move gradually to the situation of having one Church Council of 10 elected "councillors and elders", and no separate Elders' Council. The roles of existing elders would be taken over by a variety of new worship and pastoral support teams (see below), whose membership would be open to all church members.

The role of the new Church Council would be, as the Regulations state (3.1.2(a)): The Church Council shall give priority in its life to building up the Congregation in faith and love, sustaining members in hope, and leading the Congregation to a fuller participation in Christ’s mission in the world. This priority shall be reflected in the agenda of its ordinary meetings. The Regulations go on to state (3.1.2(b)) in more detail the specific duties, but the detail of these is not relevant here. An information session is proposed for July to provide such detail and to be an opportunity for discernment for prospective nominees and those wishing to nominate others.

The recommendation below addresses the need to adjust the number of elected councillors. It does not affect the other composition of council, which, according to the regulations, include "the Ministers, Interns, Youth Workers and Lay Pastors who are serving in approved placements in the Congregation" and "not more than two other members or members-in-association of the Congregation to membership of the Church Council for such term not exceeding two years [to be co=opted]". Note that to reduce the load on the ministry team (bearing in mind recommendation 8), it is suggested that not all members of the Ministry Team attend all council meetings.

The steering committee is not recommending a quota system to have 50% of the new council members under 55. There is no mechanism in the Uniting Church Regulations to allow this, and it is recognized that people will not naturally vote for councillors they do not know. However, the committee does recognise that it is imperative for a generational change in leadership at GWUC take place for its health and vitality. It should be noted that many of the younger people in the congregation have attempted to be a part of the governance of this and other churches, and have not found it life giving or inclusive. Consequently they are very wary about taking on such roles. The Steering Committee believes that the changes suggested in this report are imperative to assist with this process. If such a change does not take place in the next year or two, then the new council as a matter of great importance needs to address the reasons why. It needs to be recognised that there are many people under 55 with fantastic skills who have built their own businesses, run companies and are on company boards, so there is substantial leadership and governance experience amongst them.

A proposed timetable setting out the details of the dates involved is at SaltTimetable.

Eldership

Eldership is an important role within our Congregation, and in coming into line with the regulations, our understanding of it will alter. Within the proposed structure, the Church Councillors will be holders of the title Elder as well as Councillor. Understandably, a congregation with the breadth and depth of ours needs the loving support, nurturing and involvement of more than 10 individuals. Our congregation will still require pastoral care, people to welcome Church goers (new and existing), to visit, to serve Eucharist and to love and support members of our congregation and our community.

Those who currently undertake the formalised role of Elder will be asked to stand down - from the title, not the care, the love and support which goes along with it. And we will need more individuals to take on elements of the roles which were formally part of the Elder roles as defined by GWUC - caring for our members.

If you are a current member of the Council of Elders, you will be asked to resign this position if the proposed structure is approved. Your continued involvement with the duties of the Elders will be appreciated, and your enthusiasm in the transition to the proposed new groups structure will be valuable. If you do not wish to resign as an Elder, your wish will be respected, and you will remain an Elder until your term expires.

The Mission Groups

The Mission Groups take over responsibility for much of the day-to-day running of the church. While this is officially part of the council's responsibility (see Regulations 3.1.2(b)), the new Church Council will delegate such powers to the Mission Groups as is necessary to discharge these responsibilities, thereby freeing Council's time to focus upon spiritual leadership and vision. This has been a stumbling block to the current Council, and is the main motivation for Carolyn's recommendations to reduce the size of Council.

Carolyn recommended that each Mission Group have at least one councillor as a member of its coordinating committee, and this Steering Committee agrees with this proposition. The Mission Group Coordinating Committees will have oversight of all the programs and teams under their aegis (see below for examples) and will have budgetary power to allocate resources to these task groups. It is recommended that each Mission Group have a member of the Ministry Team attached to it, who will have primary responsibility for coordinating ministry engagement with the mission area and providing spiritual oversight and leadership, and will attend meetings of the Coordinating Committee. Note that other members of the Ministry Team will not be excluded from membership of any of the associated Mission Group activities (see below for Ministry Team resource allocation guidelines).

It is understood that as we link all existing GWUC groups to the Mission Groups, these Groups may expand and change in their operation. Mission Group convenors will be key lay leaders and will need significant mentoring and support as we transition into the new structure. It is suggested that training be provided to these lay leaders.

In some Mission Groups, there may be distinct task teams, such as:

The Mission Groups, their programs and task teams are as identified in a separate list of Church Groups (the list is not definitive).

Each Mission Group will delegate their responsibilities to these task teams, and each task team will call members of the congregation with relevant gifts to serve within the teams. Previous Elders will be urged to follow their calling into the Communion, Welcoming, Prayer and Pastoral Teams as per their preferences currently recorded in the EldersRosterPreferences wiki page.

All members of the congregation and especially retiring Elders and Church Councillors will be encouraged to volunteer for a range of church programs and task teams to enable the Mission Groups to achieve their Christ-centred goals.

The Support Groups

A church of Glen Waverley Uniting Church's size has a large investment in the assets needed to maintain its mission life, and it is appropriate to have dedicated groups to manage the church's property, finances, and communication processes. Each of these has its own legitimate call upon church resources, and must be resourced appropriately. The responsibilities of each of the Support Groups will remain much as it is at the moment, viz Property Committee, Finance Committee and Communications Committee, subject to any new direction from the Church Council.

The Ministry Team

Each Mission Group must have at least one ministry team member associated with it, and one member is to be identified as the primary ministry team support person for the group. The primary Ministry Team member would be normally expected to attend all meetings of that Mission Group and to have a spiritual leadership role in the group. Each Ministry Team member engaged with a Mission Group is to nominate the number of hours per week (total 40) allocated to each Mission Group, and the budgeted stipend will be allocated pro rata against each Mission Group.

The Ministry Team are all members of Church Council, but it would normally be the case that only one Ministry Team member need attend, unless there are special circumstances. This is identified as a mechanism to ease the meeting time load upon the Ministry Team. This nominated council member would be expected to actively liaise between Council and the Ministry Team, to ensure a consistent and cooperative approach to the mission and vision of the church.

(Author's note: The question has been asked as to whether all members of the Ministry Team should have access to Council agendas and minutes. While the liaison role mentioned above is intended to relieve other members of the MT from the routine involvement in Council matters, it is not intended to exclude them. They should have access to Council agendas and minutes, as they are indeed members of Council, by UCA Regulations.)

Procedural Comment

The Steering Committee has thought very deeply about the matters raised in this proposal. We do not feel that the church has the option of picking and choosing amongst the recommendations. If we are indeed to move forward, then all recommendations need to be adopted simultaneously. While this recommendation is not meant to exclude minor adjustments of words, we counsel strenuously that to detract from the intent of just one of these recommendations may prejudice the whole vision.

There is also a question of how these new structure transitions are to be managed. We feel that this is appropriately the responsibility of the new Church Council, and hence we recommend as a blanket provision that all future visioning, strategy planning and transition management be the responsibility of the new council. This Steering Committee will have a number of suggestions arising from our discussions that can be passed onto the council to assist them with their deliberations.

We therefore add this procedural recommendation:

Members of the Steering Committee

CategoryChurch

ChurchFutureScProposal (last edited 2013-09-05 04:31:20 by JohnHurst)