Takes a brave pastor mind NOT to be in on every decision and good summarising techniques required of the committee itself when the pastor did pop in for the 10-15 mins- but what encouraged me was that it DID work for the church and they provided child care which is one of the main reasons in our church that married women are on so few committees (plus the fact that most of them like getting things done and many of the committees don’t seem to actually DO anything except meet)

oops

I’ve found a good way to encourage and identify new teachers is by asking people to take a turn leading a small group they already participate in for one session or to encourage a small group leader to share leadership with one or two others. That’s much less of a commitment than agreeing to lead an entire class series. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of the people who turned out to have a teaching gift –when they had success leading one class session they were willing to step out and lead more.

Thanks for raising these questions. Everyone’s comments are enlightening.

Grace, I see your point re: evaluation and have experienced that somewhat myself. I do think open-ended evaluations can be very frustrating because the respondents ask for things for which there are no resources. Then they get irritated that their suggestions were not followed. And as you suggest, the Presbyterian church is not a straight democracy. We are elected to provide discerning leadership.

What I have in mind is an evaluation of the course they just completed–what did they feel was worthwhile, what would they appreciate more of. We do this rather half-hearted at the moment. Then the team, or the elder and I, or whoever, would make that an element of the discernment. It also puts attendance numbers in perspective. A small class on a specialized topic may not bring in hordes of people, and thus be seen as a “failure” by people on the outside looking in, but if the 8-10 who were there absolutely raved about it, that’s something to consider.

Another piece of the puzzle is how to identify people who might have the gifts for teaching. Right now our little committee draws on the same old folks to teach. Broadening the search might yield nothing, but on the other hand, maybe we’d get one person saying, “You know, [random class member] always had interesting things to say, and seems to be pretty well grounded, you might have a calling conversation with her.”

This is all very helpful though.

I like what you are outlining here. Sounds promising to me.

Although I may not be very good at designing the evaluation forms, I finally decided that leadership isn’t about responding to what people say they want but about creating opportunities for faith development that are designed to address what we think are the needs of the congregation. The CE committee knows what we have recently done and what our teacher and curriculum resources are and the class members don’t. That seems to work better for our church. And saves us a lot of aggravation, too!

I do use “ministry teams” (but don’t use that nomenclature). For example, the VBS planning team meets on their own just for that purpose and the chair reports to the CE committee. Also the Dinner Team for our Midweek adult education event meets on its own schedule and reports to me. I think that is an excellent way to use the talents of many folks who find attending a CE committee meeting burdensome.

And, no, I don’t mean that task forces and such are tricks or gimmicks. I think that phrasing was aimed at thoughts in my head as far as giving advice rather than aimed at answering the question you asked. My apologies. I deal with politics so much that I sometimes slip into bad habits.

So, I’ll try and redirect my comments. If I understand things, you are feeling like others around you are over-burdened with official duties to the point where nothing is getting done. Things have lost focus.

One thing I would suggest about that, and I think you mentioned something about it in either this post or the last. Get peer reviews. People are very often surprised at how they are perceived and those perceptions can sometimes help re-direct a person to a more rewarding and fruitful endeavor.

For example, the last session of the UMC’s Disciple class has participants write down what spiritual gifts they see in their classmates. I know that the gifts I saw in my self were no where matching what my peers saw. It was sobering and humbling to me to see what esteem they held for me.

Perhaps such an activity, which I don’t think is a trick or gimmick at all, would help people identify where their gifts are better spent. It might help move people around to where they feel more energized. In conjunction with breaking things up into goal-oriented groups, that might breathe some new life into the committees.

XT

XT: Are you suggesting that task groups and more focused “jobs” are gimmicks to try to get more out of people? If so, I don’t see it that way. If anything those structures allow people to go where their gifts and interests lead them. Are you passionate about retreat ministry but couldn’t care less about Sunday School? Then why should you have to sit around while those decisions are made? Follow your bliss!

I may have misunderstood you though.

I love Exodus 17 dearly, but I actually feel like *I* am the one who is feeling energized, and my people who are either not attending the committee meetings or who are there and going through the motions are the ones who are in need of some lifting up. Or maybe just some direction. They care, otherwise they wouldn’t be there, but their gifts are not being utilized.

Yes, life is extremely full, but I’m not weary about that, I’m energized. (Most of the time.) This is very interesting, because I am somehow giving the impression lately that I am in dire straits. Not just here. I shared with some people recently on a message board my recent weird thoughts on abundance and what I have come to call “gracious scarcity,” to coin a bizarre phrase, and people instantly responded with sympathy and hugs. When in reality, the thought that there really isn’t enough, and that’s OK, we just do what we do, has made me feel lighter than I have in years.