Steering Team Selection

At PCC, our church's leadership is headed by a team of people elected by the church called the Steering Team.  They are our only elected group, and each ST member serves for a three year term.  They have to be a member of the church (one of few positions this is required), and there can be as few as 5 and as many as 15.  We've never had less than 7 and never had more than 12.  There are currently 10.  The Senior Pastor is the only ST member who serves perpetually.

As I mentioned in one of last week's posts, our Steering Team concept at PCC has been extremely effective.  It's role and the way it operates has evolved as we've gotten bigger and figured out how to lead a larger church, but the ST has always been key to our church.

The Steering Team nominates new ST members to the church each year.  Before planting our church, I was not in favor of self-nominating boards.  However, we realized at our first day that this system would be effective at preserving unity.  What began as a theory has become a proven fact.

So, in August of each year, we begin a careful and prayerful process.  First, we have a list of all PCC members.  We consider a number of things, including: 

• They must be a sincere follower of Jesus Christ. 
• They have to really understand and buy into what we do and who we are at PCC.
• They must be a person of character and integrity. 
• Capacity to make difficult decisions. 
• We also need people who, after serious prayer and debate, will get behind the team’s decision. 
• They must be vested in PCC. 

If you were to ask a ST members how this process works (and I encourage you to do that), they would tell you that everyone on the team brings suggestions.   We then ask, "Who would make the best candidates from this list?" (we assume all of them would make a good ST member).  Sometimes this process happens quickly, sometimes it takes several weeks.  But it is always healthy.  

After the selections are made, I ask each person for some time and talk to them about joining the team.  If they say 'yes', we submit their name to the church for vote at the Annual Membership Meeting.

Sorry for the play-by-play here, but I thought it might be helpful to take some of the mystery out of the process.  Thanks jf, for asking the question!