At the December business meeting, New Salem Baptist Church voted to create a transition team tasked with developing a plan to implement Strategic Initiative #4, which our membership approved as part of our Strategic Plan last August. Strategic Initiative #4 calls on New Salem to "Reinvent our ministry structure to be more flexible and responsive to the needs of our mission by transitioning from committee-led ministry to team-led ministry."
Between January 7-28, you will have the opportunity to nominate fellow New Salem members to serve on this five-member team. Look for the nomination forms and the submission box in the main lobby beginning Sunday, January 7. The top five nominees will be submitted for approval at New Salem's February business meeting.
The target for the transition team's recommendations is the April or May business meeting (with the option of giving them more time if necessary). Specifically, the transition team will look at:
- Which committees should be transitioned to the team concept, and which should continue to operate under the present system.
- How the new teams will work: their make-up, responsibilities, procedures and accountability structure.
- What changes would need to be made to New Salem's by-laws to accommodate this new system.
Why are we doing this? As our Strategic Planning Team concluded, our present committee system is too rigid, too unresponsive to change, and requires a lot of personnel to maintain. By transitioning key ministries away from committees towards smaller leadership teams, we hope to cut down on the number of people the Nominating Committee would need to recruit each year (and focus on people who have a passion for particular ministries), make it easier for leadership teams to adapt to changing conditions during the year, as well as making it easier to plug in new people to serve in areas of interest and giftedness.
Of the give strategic initiatives recommended by our Strategic Planning Team, this transition has the possibility of being one of the most consequential for our church, as well as one of the most complicated. Therefore, we are committed to making sure we do it right. Please pray for those who will be nominated, and for the work they will be engaging in.
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