For the last few months, John Cavallero (our Director of Religious Education) and I have been working on creating this congregation’s first Committee on Ministry.  The Board has approved our plan and we’re ready to get working!

This might leave a few of you scratching your heads wondering what a Committee on Ministry is and why John and I would have prioritized it the way we did.

Committees on Ministry first came into fashion about five years ago after Robert Latham published his book Moving On From Church Folly Lane.  He didn’t create the concept, but he clarified it in a way that hadn’t been done before, making it more accessible to congregations and ministers alike.  Since then, COMs have become the norm in many healthy congregations.

The most important task for a Committee on Ministry is the support and evaluation of the ministries of the congregation.  Ministry is the work we do to fulfill our mission.  One of the first things a COM will do is define the ministries of the congregation (i.e., worship, social action, membership, religious education, stewardship).  Once that’s done, and they have determined the segments of the congregation responsible for each ministry, they begin conversations with the folks engaged in that work to determine how well we are living into our mission.  A Committee on Ministry is not reactive; they calendarize their work so that each ministry is considered on a regular basis, generally when no problem has been identified.  These “evaluations” are not done from the point of view of an outsider; the COM engages the folks doing the work.  In other words, the evaluation is internal.  The Committee on Ministry is only the catalyst for the conversation.  In this way, the COM helps us all know if we are moving in the right direction and if not, what we need to help us get to where we want to go.

Of course, for the Committee on Ministry to be effective, our congregation needs clarity around our mission.  Therefore, the work of the COM for this first year will be less about our ministry and more about defining our mission.  We can’t improve the methods of reaching our goal if we don’t know what our goal is!

The Committee on Ministry has no formal authority.  They do not make policies, they will not make any official changes.  Their power lies in their ability to make recommendations.  But, they do have informal authority because of who they are.  This part is tricky.  For a Committee on Ministry to be effective, the members must be trusted.  We give them authority because we love them and want to hear what they have to say.  John and I believe we have created a very strong COM, having invited Sarita Roy, Lisa deMauro and Mark Davis to be our first members.

In most congregations, members of the COM are hand-picked by the minister.  This is not a model with which I am entirely comfortable.  First of all, John and I have already broken with tradition by working on this together.  More than that, though, I think that you all should have a vote.  Therefore, as positions open, John and I will discuss names and make invitations.  We will then give those names to the Leadership Development/Nominating Committee who will ultimately add those names to the slate and put them up for a vote during our Annual Meeting.

I’m very excited about this new development here at First Unitarian.  I believe that Committees on Ministry demonstrate a collective desire to create congregational health and am thrilled to be on this path with you all.