Aspirational, Not Operational: Elevating Board Roles Beyond Day-to-Day Operations 

Synopsis: 
Governing boards are necessary and legally required for any nonprofit organization. While the law dictates that boards exist, it doesn’t tell boards how to operate. This leaves boards and those who populate them to cast about for a sense of purpose and meaning. Absent of a coherent governing model, boards are usually guessing at why they are important and what they must do to exercise this importance. And, since the most visible parts of a ministry are its operations, boards tend to interfere in operations to the detriment of overall ministry success. This article explains what boards are meant to accomplish and how to move in that direction.  

Swim lanes of ministry 
There are three “swim lanes” in any ministry. They are owners, governance and operations. At the start of any ministry, there is a group of people interested in starting something to accomplish a purpose. This group and their successors down through time occupy the ownership lane. Once incorporated, the ministry is obligated by law to identify officers. In most cases, the minimum number is three. These officers are the seeds of a board. The board sits in the middle lane of governance. Finally, there is the work the owners intend the ministry to accomplish. This is the operations lane.   

Governance in the middle lane isn’t a random choice. It’s very strategic to think of the governing board sitting between owners and operations. A healthy board operating with a coherent model of governance understands its role as champion for the owners’ interests. Representing the owners’ interests, the governing body (council, board, trustees or whatever title is given) articulates why the ministry exists in the world, what audience it seeks to serve and what the cost or relative benefit will be to that audience. The governing body then delegates operational authority to an individual. This could be a pastor, an executive director, a principal or other leader depending on the type and nature of the ministry.  

This central position in the ministry, reaching back to owners for direction and authority and extending forward authority to one individual responsibility for operational excellence, gives a governing board a unique reason for its existence. And the reason a governing board exists is wholly aspirational not operational. What does this mean?  

Within a coherent governing model like Principles Based Governance, a governing body finds that it exists to focus on the future and position the ministry for ongoing success as times change along with the culture and neighborhood within which the ministry exists. By delegating operational authority to an expert and holding that person accountable for operational success, that is accomplishing the mission of the ministry for the audience it means to serve at an acceptable cost or relative benefit, and the governing board is now free to be aspirational. In other words, the governing board is free to guide the ministry into the future.  

Far too often governing bodies occupy themselves with operational details. Meeting time is cluttered with what I call historical review and operational nit-picking. Evaluating past operational decisions of the executive leader that can’t be changed by such review (criticism) and discussing ad nauseum the minutiae of running day-to-day details leads to interminable board meetings, senseless arguments, parking lot meetings after the meetings and many other dysfunctional markers of boards with which we are all too familiar. Ultimately, gifted leaders avoid board service, and those who do serve on boards are often there out of guilt, obligation or inertia.   

When a board rightly understands the role of governance, it occupies itself with eagerly seeking the opinions and input of the owners regarding the future of the ministry. It seeks the voices of experts in the future of ministry. It is attentive to trends in culture, faith and other macro-influences the ministry is dealing with and will most likely deal with in the future. It spends some time each meeting monitoring the operational performance of the executive, which is considered the operational performance of the entire ministry. This doesn’t consume much board time unless corrective action is necessary. Corrective action, in a healthy ministry, is rare and usually has a clear path to resolution.  

If the governing board of your church, school or other ministry struggles to understand why it exists, ask: 

• How much of our time is spent on historical review and operational nit-picking?  
• When was the last time we looked forward to the future in a significant way?  
• Do we know what our owners expect this ministry to accomplish, and when was the last time we asked them?   

It is not a foregone conclusion that a board must struggle and regularly be in conflict with operational leadership. There is a better way that any ministry of any type, age or size can employ and enjoy. Aspire to be better!  

Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) can help your governing board think more deeply about its role in the ministry and how it can sharpen its focus for the benefit of ministry success. Email Tim.Kurth@lcef.org or call 314-885-6623.