The Epic, Pt. 67

Pastor DeSilva began his statement to the executive committee by saying that Paul Borden had been invited by the business meeting of the Takoma Park Church to conduct an evaluation. He went on to explain the current governance structure as he saw it. Pastor DeSilva affirmed that the business meeting is the highest authority in the local church. There are four “branches” from the business meeting: the nominating committee, the standing nominating committee, the support and accountability board, and the church ministries board. The nominating committee nominates officers every two years. The standing nominating committee fills vacancies between elections. The accountability board is responsible for leadership development, holding the ministries board accountable for meeting its goals, and functions as a personnel committee for paid employees. The ministries board is supposed to do ministry and “monitor” finances. All four of these branches answer to the business meeting of the church.

After offering the disclaimer that charts are never 100% accurate, Pastor DeSilva proceeded to explain the organizational chart he had included in his handout. (It was the same chart he had issued to the church on June 29, 2008, which was included in the previous chapter of the Epic.) He asserted that the accountability board had no executive function, and that it existed only as an audit committee that took no part in planning ministry. Pastor DeSilva pointed out that the ministries board was below the business meeting and was composed of the pastors and all department heads. He went on to claim that the new governance structure was within the latitude of the Church Manual.

Pastor DeSilva next discussed the vote to approve the new governance structure and the events leading up to it. He observed that town hall meetings to discuss the Borden Report had been held on Sept. 8, Oct. 13, Oct. 17, and Nov. 12, 2007. He claimed that in the first of these meetings there had been a motion and a second to accept the Borden Report and that as part of the motion there was an additional stipulation regarding procedure for the vote. The stipulation was that the report would be discussed at three town hall meetings then voted up or down on a Sabbath morning by written ballot without discussion.

Pastor DeSilva justified his decision to override the expressed will of the business meeting on the matter of excluding the change in governance from the vote on the Borden Report by observing that the Borden Report itself says, “The church will vote on this report as a whole to accept of reject by Oct. 13, 2007.” He further asserted that he had made two verbal announcements that the report was being voted on as a whole.

Pastor DeSilva next spoke to what he described as “the problematic sentence” from the report. “It is understood that if this report is accepted the congregation will adopt a staff led structure.” He claimed that the problem was that the phrase “staff-led structure” had been misinterpreted to mean a congregational structure. He argued in favor of the new structure by quoting from the email Elder Miller had sent him on June 27, 2008. (For a full transcript of that email see the Epic, Pt. 26.) He also pointed out that the newly adopted mission, vision, core values, and strategic plan were included in the handout he had provided.

Pastor DeSilva closed his statement by reiterating his belief that the new governance structure is within the latitude of the Church Manual, but also said that he would gladly accept any resolution recommended by the executive committee.

There were so many inaccuracies and faulty arguments in this presentation that we could not do the corrections justice by simply placing them in parenthesis next to each statement. Had we tried they would have made the description of Pastor DeSilva’s presentation so disjointed as to not make any sense, so they will follow in a separate post.

Next: The Questions

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