Rev. Ron Brooks outlines three key questions for evaluating church governance and invites church leaders to a free Sept. 29 webinar on building healthier church structures.
REV. RON BROOKS
Coordinator for Simplified Accountable Structure (SAS), Michigan Conference
A recent Reddit post says it all: “We’ve got too many boards, the boundaries are fuzzy, some things have probably never actually worked as written and been ignored, and running an organization is a bigger deal than it used to be. As chair of the congregation, it falls to me to git ’er done!”
As a church consultant, I have heard one version of this story told across large and small churches that use the traditional governance model of boards and committees. As churches grow, they naturally become more complex, making alignment and mission drift major issues that must be addressed. But smaller churches trying to live out the wrong governance model can find themselves equally frustrated and ineffective.
I have found three questions helpful in deciding whether you should change or modify your current governance structure.
Question #1: Does It Advance the Mission?
The first question a church should consider when discerning a model of governance is: What does your church board’s governance need to achieve to advance the church’s mission?
I was recently working with a church to assess their readiness to change their governance model. Three elderly ladies sat directly in front of me as I presented to the congregational gathering. “Why should we change our model?” one vocal lady asked. “We like it the way it is, and it’s working just fine.” The other two ladies at her table nodded enthusiastically.
“Well,” I asked, “Your church has been declining numerically for the past several years. You’re struggling financially and want to do more in the community, but you don’t have the people or money to do it. So help me understand how it is working so well that if there were a better way to do things, you would not be interested.”
Needless to say, I did not make any friends at that table. This question is key because it forces you to decide what the congregation’s mission will be. If the goal is being comfortable, the church mentioned earlier should keep its current structure. If they don’t like how their mission is failing, they should consider changing their structure.
Question #2: Does the Structure Support the Values of the Congregation?
This may seem like a no-brainer . . . of course it supports our values. But you need to take a deeper dive into the congregation’s values. If you value being open, welcoming, and friendly to visitors, how does the structure help make that possible? Is anyone asking how you are doing on this value, or do you just take it for granted?
What about making disciples? If this is a value, how is your structure enabling this? The only thing that happens without planning and structure is entropy.
If a value of your church is being involved in the community as salt and light, how are you making that happen? Who is evaluating that, and when? How do you measure the effectiveness of your activities? Is effectiveness a value, or are you just keeping people busy?
Is your major value getting people on a committee, or is it identifying their gifts and placing them in a ministry?
These are all value questions that your structure should reinforce and develop further.
Question #3: What Drives Your Church, Leadership or Management?
The Reddit post mentioned earlier describes an organization struggling to keep its committees and teams aligned. The traditional church model is reasonably good at managing what you have done in the past, but it can become an octopus of arms moving in many directions without clear guidance or purpose. Administrative Board meetings become reports on past events instead of asking the hard strategic questions about effectiveness and purpose.
The single-board model, or Simplified Accountable Structure (SAS), is a way of doing church that integrates technical and adaptive changes so that church meetings are no longer just about reporting on what we have done, deciding on paint color, or the painstaking process of getting quotes for a new roof. By adopting a single-board model, board meetings focus on questions like: “How are we doing at making disciples? What new relationships have we made? How are we making progress on our goals?” Single-board governance enables a church to let the mission and vision, rather than buildings and budgets, drive everything it does.
What we often call leadership in churches is often simply management. We need managers, but we are sorely lacking leadership that provides direction, vision, mission, and purpose for congregations.
Is your church more focused on managing the current reality or on leading toward a preferred future for the congregation and community it is there to serve?
Maybe it’s time to give your church’s governance structure a check-up. As the year comes to a close, churches routinely review budgets, evaluate goals, and plan for the future. Why not evaluate how well your governance structure serves your ministry?
Register for a free webinar that I’ll lead on September 29, 2026, at 6:30 pm ET via Zoom, to learn best practices for church governance, explore proven practices from churches using different models, and identify simple improvements that can strengthen governance without adding unnecessary complexity.
Register now for the “How healthy is your church structure?” webinar on September 29.
Rev. Ron Brooks is a certified church consultant and personal and professional coach. He currently serves as the Michigan Conference’s SAS (Simplified Accountable Structure) Coordinator. You may want to check out his book, “The Turnaround Leader’s Playbook,” coming out in September, which focuses on church leadership in our changing environment. For early access, contact him at [email protected].
Last Updated on September 17, 2026