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Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership
In Governance and Ministry, Dan Hotchkiss offers congregational leaders a roadmap and tools for changing the way boards and clergy work together to lead congregations. Hotchkiss demonstrates that the right governance model is the one that best enables a congregation to fulfill its mission—to achieve both the outward results and the inward quality of life to which it is called. Resources on governance for the nonprofit sector have burgeoned over the past decade, and this book translates some of what is most helpful from that world for clergy and lay leaders. it also recognizes that in some ways congregations are unique and need governance structures and processes different from those that work in other organizations. Leaders must continually balance the conserving function of an institution with the expectation of disruptive, change-inducting creativity that comes when individuals peek past the temple veil and catch fresh visions of the Holy. Governance in congregations is not the science of achieving optimal results through organizational re-engineering. Governance is an expressive art, like preaching. The forms of our congregations must reflect the values and perceptions of the sacred at their heart. Congregations need skills and methods for negotiating "our way" of governance and for passing the torch effectively to new leaders.
268 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2009
90 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
February 27, 2020
Superb. Nuts-and-bolts on how to function well as a leadership team, stay organized, delineate roles and get stuff done. Understand that this is not coming from one particular faith tradition but looking big picture on how communities of faith organize themselves (make the necessary corrections as needed).
The biggest take away for me is that committees report to the board for decision-making and then they get dissolved (with the notable exception of a nominating committee, and finance committee as “standing” committees). Ministry teams on the other hand engage in ongoing work but they do not craft polity. Too many churches blur those lines and expect every committee to do the work of ministry and every ministry team to craft their own goals, mandates etc.
The biggest take away for me is that committees report to the board for decision-making and then they get dissolved (with the notable exception of a nominating committee, and finance committee as “standing” committees). Ministry teams on the other hand engage in ongoing work but they do not craft polity. Too many churches blur those lines and expect every committee to do the work of ministry and every ministry team to craft their own goals, mandates etc.
May 6, 2019
For anyone with a leadership role in a church, this is a top 3 book about the role of pastors, staff and council. Written with expertise from experience, and written clearly and concisely. Weaved with minimal stories and straightforward guidance. I learned what it means to be led as leaders by the mission of the congregation, and how to organize to effectively to carry out the mission.
October 20, 2022
‘Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership’ by Dan Hotchkiss is a comprehensive guide for governance of congregations. It covers good practice for developing governance structures at all congregational sizes, and policies that will fit their unique cultures while also avoiding potential pitfalls. While the book is a great practical guide congregational boards, it has many lessons that could be applied to governance at other non-profits.
November 12, 2008
Thoughtful book worth reading if you have interest in the way church is governed.
October 23, 2019
I read this book in preparing for my role as Chair and President of the progressive Jewish congregation in Singapore. It helped define a lot of challenges and contextualized the hornet's nest I was carelessly, and willfully entering.
I have used it as a reference when orienting new board members, and for self-guidance on various matters.
While the concept of differentiating between Teams and Committees has not made itself part of the society's general culture, the independence to make decisions by order and guidance provided through the executive has led to a surge in volunteerism and innovation within the community. Volunteers and staff defer to the board, but are not afraid to move mountains if it's within the scope they've been allowed to operate.
I heartily recommend this book to all Congregational leaders, and to clergy and staff who are their partners.
I have used it as a reference when orienting new board members, and for self-guidance on various matters.
While the concept of differentiating between Teams and Committees has not made itself part of the society's general culture, the independence to make decisions by order and guidance provided through the executive has led to a surge in volunteerism and innovation within the community. Volunteers and staff defer to the board, but are not afraid to move mountains if it's within the scope they've been allowed to operate.
I heartily recommend this book to all Congregational leaders, and to clergy and staff who are their partners.
March 2, 2021
This is another book written for a particular audience. If you are not clergy, a staff member, a board member, or a very active member of you church, you have no reason to read or care about this book. But if you are in any way involved with the inner workings of your church, this is a great read. It breaks down various ways a church can function well and it includes all sizes and denominations of churches. It doesn't tell you how you should function, but gives examples and suggestions. It's really a great resource for anyone in a church leadership position.
December 30, 2022
Informative manual on the workings of church boards and staff, including the ministers. Fiduciary responsibility - important concept to understand. Discernment of mission, vision, and ministry - important process to undertake. Challenging to enact in the real world. Read as member of UUCQC board.
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April 16, 2025I was part of a task force which used this book as a reference for re-visioning wider church governance. This subject is not for the faint at heart, our discussion was fascinating. And we are pretty pleased with the results, next step is to see how it works in actual practice.
August 2, 2017
If your church is going through a restructuring of governance models, this is a helpful book in framing discussions. I recommend it.
November 4, 2022
very helpful
March 12, 2024
I read the first edition years ago and now the second. Sound advice for any congregation secular or religious on how to organize to "change the lives of people."
July 28, 2025
This was so useful!! Lots of really good advice and things to think about in here for church board leadership
September 26, 2013
Quotable:
There is no one right way to organize a congregation; each community of faith must choose a structure right for its own values and beliefs, and in harmony with the practice of its historic tradition and its larger family of congregations. What too many congregations choose, however, is a loose, ambiguous structure that creates a strong, unwanted bias against change. If the world were stable and the religious needs of people stayed the same from one generation to the next, that might be fine. But in the world as it is, congregations that persist at practices that worked in generations past find themselves in slow decline. Among those practices are the board-centered and committee-centered modes of governance that emerged in the 1900s. In their place, congregations are experimenting with alternatives. The most successful of these efforts focus strongly on the congregation’s mission – rather than on organizational life for its own sake. They also have in common clarity about the difference between governance and ministry, clarity about which buck stops where and how leaders will be held accountable. Equipped with a clear structure, such congregations can identify their mission clearly, choose a strategy, get out from under their own feet, and move ahead.
Often when boards think about their oversight responsibility, they remember their duty to protect the property and manage the money but forget that oversight has a positive aspect as well. Making sure that the congregation acts to fulfill its mission is a part of the board’s oversight role. A balanced budget is no virtue if no lives are changed. A budgetary surplus, in this light, may actually reflect a failure of board oversight if it means that people have entrusted it with money that it didn’t use for the intended purpose.
Boards’ fondness for micro-issues is so universal that public-administration theorist C. Northcote Parkinson formulated it into his famous Law of Triviality: “The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.”
Many lay and clergy leaders work together happily, disagree without explosion, and feel strong in their roles without needing to diminish one another.
Open, relaxed, flexible relationships, lubricated by some social time, are indispensable to board-staff partnership.
Research shows that in many workplaces, evaluation actually hurts employee productivity by annually lowering morale.
One of the hazards of reading a book or going to a seminar if that you can find yourself alone in your enthusiasm.
It is better to muddle awkwardly through your own conversation than to be force-marched expertly through someone else’s.
Congregations do not exist to make their members or their leaders happy; the important measure of success is whether governance helps to produce the results call for by the congregation’s mission.
It is important that leaders continue their non-leadership participation: singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, studying the Scriptures in a small group, caring for the poor, and challenging injustice. Even if scaled back to make the time leadership requires, direct service helps to keep us centered in the congregation’s higher purpose.
Every congregation needs people – many people, not just one – who know the boundaries of acceptable behavior and feel authorized to give them voice.
Who would support a congregation that does nothing but support itself? It is relatively easy to be mission centered in times of expansion. In times of decline – or even death – it is difficult, but more important than ever, to remember that the congregation’s mission is its owner.
There is no one right way to organize a congregation; each community of faith must choose a structure right for its own values and beliefs, and in harmony with the practice of its historic tradition and its larger family of congregations. What too many congregations choose, however, is a loose, ambiguous structure that creates a strong, unwanted bias against change. If the world were stable and the religious needs of people stayed the same from one generation to the next, that might be fine. But in the world as it is, congregations that persist at practices that worked in generations past find themselves in slow decline. Among those practices are the board-centered and committee-centered modes of governance that emerged in the 1900s. In their place, congregations are experimenting with alternatives. The most successful of these efforts focus strongly on the congregation’s mission – rather than on organizational life for its own sake. They also have in common clarity about the difference between governance and ministry, clarity about which buck stops where and how leaders will be held accountable. Equipped with a clear structure, such congregations can identify their mission clearly, choose a strategy, get out from under their own feet, and move ahead.
Often when boards think about their oversight responsibility, they remember their duty to protect the property and manage the money but forget that oversight has a positive aspect as well. Making sure that the congregation acts to fulfill its mission is a part of the board’s oversight role. A balanced budget is no virtue if no lives are changed. A budgetary surplus, in this light, may actually reflect a failure of board oversight if it means that people have entrusted it with money that it didn’t use for the intended purpose.
Boards’ fondness for micro-issues is so universal that public-administration theorist C. Northcote Parkinson formulated it into his famous Law of Triviality: “The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.”
Many lay and clergy leaders work together happily, disagree without explosion, and feel strong in their roles without needing to diminish one another.
Open, relaxed, flexible relationships, lubricated by some social time, are indispensable to board-staff partnership.
Research shows that in many workplaces, evaluation actually hurts employee productivity by annually lowering morale.
One of the hazards of reading a book or going to a seminar if that you can find yourself alone in your enthusiasm.
It is better to muddle awkwardly through your own conversation than to be force-marched expertly through someone else’s.
Congregations do not exist to make their members or their leaders happy; the important measure of success is whether governance helps to produce the results call for by the congregation’s mission.
It is important that leaders continue their non-leadership participation: singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, studying the Scriptures in a small group, caring for the poor, and challenging injustice. Even if scaled back to make the time leadership requires, direct service helps to keep us centered in the congregation’s higher purpose.
Every congregation needs people – many people, not just one – who know the boundaries of acceptable behavior and feel authorized to give them voice.
Who would support a congregation that does nothing but support itself? It is relatively easy to be mission centered in times of expansion. In times of decline – or even death – it is difficult, but more important than ever, to remember that the congregation’s mission is its owner.
August 15, 2012
As one who has worked in and for churches of various denominations for a quarter-century or so, I found the idealistic "bottom line" of Hotchkiss's premise familiar: a church board should be focused on, and help staff and laypeople to focus on, the congregation's mission statement.
The unfortunate "other shoe" to such idealism tends to be something along the lines of, "…but of course we need to keep an eye on unexpected expenditures." But Hotchkiss, explicitly and emphatically, eschews that kind of "grain of salt idealism," and insists upon clear boundaries between "governance"—identifying and upholding mission and values, which is the board's job—and "ministry"—making day-to-day "rubber-on-road" choices about what the church does from Monday to Sunday, which is the role of the staff.
It sounds simple, and perhaps threateningly so. But Hotchkiss shares a vision of collaborative, respectful, accountable ministry, in which every member of a congregation, from clergy leader to lay volunteer, is able to focus her efforts not on sitting through endless meetings or jumping through hoops of micromanagement, but on making a difference in people's lives.
Hotchkiss does not advocate "a model" for board leadership. He recommends a process for helping boards identify their best way of working—of creating a culture that honors each congregation's identity and empowers them to carry out their mission: here, now, and into the future.
The unfortunate "other shoe" to such idealism tends to be something along the lines of, "…but of course we need to keep an eye on unexpected expenditures." But Hotchkiss, explicitly and emphatically, eschews that kind of "grain of salt idealism," and insists upon clear boundaries between "governance"—identifying and upholding mission and values, which is the board's job—and "ministry"—making day-to-day "rubber-on-road" choices about what the church does from Monday to Sunday, which is the role of the staff.
It sounds simple, and perhaps threateningly so. But Hotchkiss shares a vision of collaborative, respectful, accountable ministry, in which every member of a congregation, from clergy leader to lay volunteer, is able to focus her efforts not on sitting through endless meetings or jumping through hoops of micromanagement, but on making a difference in people's lives.
Hotchkiss does not advocate "a model" for board leadership. He recommends a process for helping boards identify their best way of working—of creating a culture that honors each congregation's identity and empowers them to carry out their mission: here, now, and into the future.
February 24, 2015
Because of the inherent tensions within organized religion to both challenge the status quo and simultaneously maintain order, a church can be at odds within itself when weighting which inner inclination to give preference to. Thus, a structure which promotes healthy discussion, discernment, and leadership is critical to a church's vitiality. Many of our most hard fought battles in church are distractions from what the world needs and what Christ calls us to do. This book is a breath of fresh air in guiding church leadership back on course.
February 13, 2011
This is a great book for anyone who is in the process of helping a church through the growing pains of restructuring it's board, mission, vision and generally how things get done. Hotchkiss leads you through the philosophy and then gives you guidelines that are practical to help you reach your own conclusions. A great reference book, but it is not light reading.
January 11, 2014
Helpful overview of how a church could/should run. Like how he emphasizes, several times, how many structures can potentially work so long as there is the emotional intelligence to do so--good intentions, manners, and kindness go a long way. Very good on Productive Board Meetings. A great refresher for pastors, and a good book to share with lay leaders. I'm getting a few for my council's members.
June 22, 2014
Comprehensive in terms of the topics it covers that are of interest to those serving in church governance roles, especially on the governance board. Was probably closer to state of the art at the time I read it. Through meetings with those active in advising in the field, have learned that thinking has evolved and all parts of it may not be as relevant today.
July 28, 2013
Having just been elected to my church's board, this book is an excellent book about board leadership, My former church hired the author to help them through a governance change with great results, I highly recommend this book for those involved with church leadership.
January 14, 2015
A good introduction to the Carver model of policy governance. Much more readable than Carver. While focused on churches, other non-profits--especially religiously affiliated--will benefit from Hotchkiss' writings.
March 18, 2016
Read this as our church session is considering how to do business differently. Very detailed, sometimes gets mired in the specifics. Illustrations are sometimes more confusing in explaining processes. Offers an interesting perspective to governance in non- profits. The appendices are very helpful.
December 28, 2015
Learning how to be an effective member of a nonprofit board is one thing; sitting on the board of a religious institution adds another layer of complexity. This book highlights the salient differences as well as the similarities, and offers strategies for developing a high-performing board.
April 15, 2012
Read/skimmed it in preparation for a leadership retreat. I'm new to my Society, so I don't know enough about its current situation to have context.
August 9, 2012
An excellent book for any one involved in a non-profit board, especially on a board/council for any sort of church leadership.
June 8, 2012
Very wise book on congregational leadership and structure. The parts where I wasn't nodding my head in recognition, I was being enlightened with "aha" insights. I will be referring to this often.
August 22, 2014
Great guidance for thinking about how boards function, what they're supposed to do, and how they can play nicely with clergy. Highly recommended for church leadership of all stripes.
September 5, 2013
I keep coming back to this book, as our church delves into policy governance. A very useful guide.
November 9, 2015
Well written by an experienced consultant. We'll see how it goes as we try to implement some of his ideas.
March 2, 2016
good solid look at the pros and cons of various systems of church governance
December 29, 2016
Loved reading this as a part of my church board of trustees discussion group. Learned so much!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews