When the Board or Core Council members have a spiritual practice together business runs smoothly because that is the business we are in.
Here are a few ways to have a spiritual practice together:
- Meet before the Sunday Service for a centering.
- Have prayer buddies to check in with during the month, either in person or by phone.
- Use a common treatment or meditation at home.
- Hold semi-annual retreats. One for goals and directions, the other for spiritual practice.
A typical agenda for the Core Council/Board meeting might look like this:
- Everyone arrive 10 minutes before the meeting is to begin.
This allows everyone to settle in.
- Before the official start of the business everyone is asked to share what is happening in their lives and make any prayer requests they may desire. Social chit-chat is not recommended here, genuine sharing is encouraged. The time allotted should be no more that 20 minutes.
- This sharing time is followed by a 15-20 minute meditation or visioning time. The first order of business is to report on what good or wonderful things happened in the past month for the church. Once the consciousness of Oneness and success has been established the rest of the business will just flow. It might seem that this would add a lot of extra time to the meeting, but it seems to shorten the time needed to reach consensus.
- Begin each meeting with a review of the previous month speaking about the accomplishments and highlights of that month.
- If you’ve written a vision statement, take it out for review.
- At the end of the meeting, review how congruent the time you have spent is with your shared-values and vision.
At the beginning of each Board year have each member fill out the following form and share their statements with the rest of the team. Place these papers in the front of their Leadership notebooks to be read silently before each Board meeting.
My Spiritual Profile and Board Commitment:
Name: _________________________
My leadership qualities are:
I want to give:
I participate and communicate best by:
As a member of this Leadership Team I commit to:
If I cannot fulfill my gifts or commitment I will: