Board Meeting Experience - 1/27

This past week, 1/19, I observed a board meeting at College Wesleyan. I observed this with Joel Liechty and we were only allowed to observe about half of the meeting, which lasted about an hour. This meeting was unique because it was the first week they started a new board system which is split up into two boards, an elder board and a deacon’s board. This meeting was with the deacon board, which is more of the administrative and building operations board.
This meeting had one major decision that was the biggest topic of discussion that night. This was the discussion on the ceiling tile in the building which they were having some problems with and what should be done in regards to that issue. This started with a recommendation from a subcommittee which is the committee that is formed to discuss and find a good solution. This recommendation then went to this board and they then had discussion about the decision. This took awhile to get everyone on the same page and to understand what the problem was and then there was a split decision on what to do. So they decided to table the decision to see if the problem could be fixed in the mean time. So this will be discussed again next month. In order to make the decision I believe that they would have to all agree and vote for the same resolution.
I have observed several board meetings in the past at other churches and I find that one thing is the same for them all; that is, there is always going to long discussion and disagreements. I think that is important because if there were no tension then it would be easy for one person to take control without accountability and a process of making the best decision.
One thing I appreciated was the spiritual awareness of the board as a whole. While we were there, a request came up to pray for someone related to the staff and one of the members suggested that they stop and pray right then for the family then which they did. This made me thankful for a board that isn’t just about the details but are concerned about the congregation and the people. I think that this is an important aspect to the board, that they are most of all wanting to serve and love those in the church.