From Counting Heads to Counting on Each Other

As a refresher, in November of 2024, Central’s Vision Team hosted a “Leadership Summit,” including members from the Diaconate, Pastor Search Team, Leadership Team, Church Council, and Vision Team. During their time together, they examined our church’s past, present, and future, and decided that changes needed to be made to our leadership and governance structures to better reflect the church we currently are, and not the church we used to be. From their time together, an ad-hoc “Rightsizing Workgroup” was created, including the vision chair, pastor, vision coach, and one member from each of the groups in attendance at the Leadership Summit. 

The Rightsizing Workgroup was tasked with creating a new system of leadership and governance to help us more easily and effectively make decisions and perform the necessary actions to live into the vision to which our congregation feels called. A large focus of their work was creating a new structure that could be more easily navigated by a congregation our size. 

Apologies for the length of this post, but as the RSW concludes their work in the coming months, they want to be sure all aspects of this new model are communicated and explained in depth so that the congregation feels informed of and empowered by the proposed changes.

Our current leadership structure was designed for a congregation much larger than ours, but the reality is we are a smaller congregation than we used to be and the guidelines and structures that used to effectively guide us have since become obstacles standing in the way of our progress. 

One of the largest examples of this incongruence is our current quorum size of 50. As a refresher, a quorum is the minimum number of members that are required to be present during a meeting to vote on official business. Quorums are set in place to help decisions be made by a larger group, and not simply a small faction that may not reflect the will of the whole. 

For example, many congregations without a quorum (and even some with) have been led astray by a small (usually unhappy) faction that showed up when others were absent to push through decisions that would usually be rejected. A quorum is supposed to protect an organization from such a faction to ensure that decisions are made with enough participation from the whole congregation that they be considered the true desire of the body and not an illegitimate attempt to circumvent the desires of the majority. The desire is that it be high enough for decisions to be truly representative, but low enough that they don’t hinder the decisions that need to be made. 

There’s no right or wrong number for a quorum amount. The number can vary depending on the organization and what is being decided. Many times, a quorum will be set at 50% to ensure a simple majority. Other times, for groups that are large or dispersed, one-third of the organization size will be decided. When the stakes are high and a large consensus is needed, you may find a two-thirds quorum (like some constitutional conventions or treaty ratification). 

For our current size, a quorum of 50 is far too big and has prevented us from holding votes to approve decisions. When this happens, we have to find another time to vote, which usually ends up being during Sunday worship. But we want Sundays to be focused on worship, and while voting on congregational matters is important to a church’s health, it can be distracting when combined with worship services. 

The RSW began brainstorming alternatives to our current quorum size. Maybe reducing the size to 40 would be enough, although some of our previous business meetings didn’t even have 40. Maybe we should have a quorum of 30. Was that too low? We debated over several meetings. 

Finally, someone asked, “Can we just get rid of the quorum?” While it may sound like a crazy idea, the RSW from the beginning has always refused to be limited by “the way things have always been.” So, they asked themselves that very question. What would it look like to get rid of the quorum?

What could we put into place that still allowed our church to be led by the discernment of the majority of the congregation, but didn’t require a set number of people to be in the room to approve or disapprove? After a few weeks of discussion, a plan was put into place. Note: This is just a proposal. It will go through the appropriate approval process before taking effect. 

To allow people the space to truly reflect on an idea, and not be rushed into a vote just because someone spontaneously brought it up at a meeting, all items to be voted on must first be presented to a Ministry Team or Church Council. Should the Team or Council agree, it will then be brought to Central Conversation or a special-called business meeting, if it can’t wait until the next Central Conversations. To be sure the idea is given proper consideration, there will also be a certain amount of time required after communicating the motion before it is able to be voted on. 

Previously, anyone could bring forth a motion, and the church was at the mercy of whoever was in attendance to vote on it. In contrast, this new method will ensure that proposals have first been considered by church leaders, but also that the larger congregation knows what is being discussed ahead of time.

The RSW thought that this was the best way to ensure that the calling of the greater congregation could be considered while not limiting ourselves to the number in attendance at a meeting. In addition, it will drastically reduce the uncertainty and anxiety that previous business meetings have created within the congregation and allow those times to be positive, productive, and life-giving. 

The RSW has a lot more to present, so be sure to check back here, and join us for Central Conversations, to learn more about these proposed changes to our structure.