Telling Our Story: Leadership Committees
Way back in 2019 (remember those simpler days?) I began to tell the story of City Church through infographics representing different aspects of our church life (our finances, our physical space). We had plans to continue telling the story of City Church in this way but then COVID happened. We want to resume telling the story of City Church, this time by describing our leadership structure.
About a year ago, we launched a new organizational structure for City Church using five Leadership Committees to oversee the primary areas of church life and ministry. They are: Administrative Committee, Diaconal Ministry Committee, Mission & Outreach Committee, Shepherding Committee, and Spiritual Formation Committee. We view these as Committees of the Session of City Church (in our denomination, the Session is composed of the teaching elders and ruling elders who have been elected by the congregation). It was important for us to find a non-hierarchical way to graphically represent the Committees. We feel like the image of gears captures the collaborative approach we intend for these Committees.
The Leadership Committees meet together quarterly (typically the last Monday of February, May, August, and November). These meetings allow the Committees to share information across various areas of the church and help us to coordinate ministry. Each Committee is responsible for meeting on its own as necessary and at the discretion of the chairperson, who leads and directs its work. Most of the Committees are themselves composed of several Ministry Teams that more directly carry out the work of the church (for example, the Administrative Committee is composed of the Personnel Team, the Finance Team, and the Communications Team).
I realize that this may sound like the most boring story ever. (What can I say? The Presbyterian Church is great at forming committees.) But as City Church has grown in size and complexity, structures like this have become necessary in order to work more effectively to engage church members more representatively.
Just 12 months in, already we’ve seen great benefit to this new Leadership Committee structure. We have a wider perspective of opinions helping to guide and lead the church. Because the work is shared more broadly it’s being carried out more efficiently. While we’re still learning how best to facilitate the work of the Leadership Committees, we’re excited about the new structure. Here’s a description of each of the five Committees, along with the people currently serving on each one (* indicates the Committee chair):
Administrative Committee
Purpose: The Administrative Committee carries out the necessary business of the church, communicates clearly with the church, and keeps accurate records of all of our work and ministry.
Current Members: Andrew Bleckley*, Val Catrow, Erik Bonkovsky, Eric Morgan, Frank Allen, Ryan Jenvey, Chris and Colleen James, Susie Austin, Tom Nicholas, and Barrett Clark
Diaconal Ministry Committee
Purpose: The Diaconal Ministry Committee attends to the tangible needs of the church and community, and cultivates a spirit of generosity and welcome.
Current Members: David Boyce*, Carter Neal, Stephen Day, Seth Huffman, Julie Pence, and Sarah Johnson
Mission & Outreach Committee
Purpose: The Mission & Outreach Committee guides City Church’s involvement with God’s global mission through partnership with ministries/missionaries and fosters relationally-driven outreach to our own community.
Current Members: Alex Brito*, James Murphy, George Davis, Jamie Mock, Harrison Ford, and Marjorie Blanton
Shepherding Committee
Purpose: The Shepherding Team exercises care of the people of City Church by proactively tending to people as spiritual caretakers and by providing particular care in times of opportunity, transition, need, doubt, and crisis.
Current Members: Erik Bonkovsky*, Mack and Rebecca Hendrix, JB Burtch, Meg Haden, and Ellie Sibiga
Spiritual Formation Committee
Purpose: The Spiritual Formation Committee envisions, implements, and supports City Church programming to foster growth in Christ-likeness that we would love God and others with head, heart, and body.
Current Members: Meg Haden*, Stefan Kling, Harrison Ford, Jim Pulizzi, Jennifer Murphy, Adam Bailey, Brianne Pryor, Anne Stewart Freeman, Liz Thomson, and Andrew Hall
In October of this year, we will hold a congregational meeting during which we will formalize the composition of our Leadership Committees for another year. Moving forward, we will provide annual opportunities for others to start and end their terms of service on these Committees.
Additionally, in the coming months we’ll share blog posts digging deeper into the purpose and work of each Committee. Keep an eye on this website and your email for those.