Lessons From The Church Boardroom: 40 Insights For Exceptional Governance

by Dan Busby, John Pearson

Lessons From the Church Boardroom will feel like it's describing many of your own church board meetings. Disarming yet authoritative, enjoyable yet challenging, it quickly pinpoints an issue and then offers a better way to handle it. The bite-size chapters are certain to help anyone walk away with practical ideas that you can start using at your next board meeting. Dan Busby and John Pearson deeply love the church and share a passion for Christ-honoring ministry at the board level. They've served on boards good and bad, they've heard tales from others, and they've immersed themselves in the literature of what makes boards work well. Their lessons are both tested for theory and tried by first-hand experience. In Lessons From the Church Boardroom, we refer to the church governing board or simply the board. We are acutely aware that some churches have multiple boards, and that boards vary from church to church in both function and title. We honor these differences. We believe the 40 lessons that we share will have meaning across denominational lines and within various governance structures. We are prayerful that this book will serve as a catalyst for your church board to catch the vision for exceptional governance. We are hopeful that you'll help foster a ripple effect of enriching boardroom experiences that honor God. Like many, we believe that as the board goes, so goes the church.

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 26, 2019

Reviews

[John Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valuable tips for becoming a better board member

Lifelong learning is critical, especially for church leaders and board members who steward God’s work, according to Dan Busby and John Pearson in this book. Highly engaged board chairs and board members know that when they say yes to board service they must continually increase their knowledge and competencies to fulfil this sacred calling.

Rather than offering a systematic overview of the various aspects of church governance, the book provides 40 pithy lessons on topics such as:

• Guarding your pastor’s soul
• Preparing now for the possibility of future accusations and investigations
• Eliminating fuzziness between board and staff roles
• Ways of finding consensus on challenging issues
• The importance of advance preparation in fully addressing complex issues
• Ways to avoid a financial train wreck
• Investing the majority of board effort in future ministry opportunities, rather than rehashing the past

If you’re the sort of church board member who already knew all that was required of a board member before you were elected to the position, this book probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you’re the sort of board member who is continually searching for ways in which your church can be more effective in fulfilling its mission, then this book has a lot of valuable lessons for your to consider.

[David Fry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! After 20+ years of pastoral ministry, this book helped me put some past experiences into perspective. This should be required reading for every hopeful ministerial student.