Is it biblical and or wise to leave final decisions to church boards who are neither elders nor full time staff regarding issues such as ministers' salaries, the spiritual direction of the congregation, and other decisions affecting the entire church? -- Robert Moore
I think this is neither biblical nor unbiblical. Presumably the Board has been selected by the church to represent them, so I would have no problem in principle with their handling the financial issues. Usually boards do not, however, establish the spiritual direction of a church--which is the job of the leadership team (unless, of course, board and leadership team are one and the same). Whether it is "wise" that the board has a high degree of authority depends on the spirituality of the board members, doesn't it? I have visited several churches where board members behaved not only with the highest integrity, but also with spiritual intensity. (This is, sadly, not always the case.)
My general advice to churches looking to build a leadership team is:
1. Keep it small, preferably an odd number of people.
2. Include staff and non-staff.
3. Realize that team leadership is probably more biblical than one-man leadership, unless the church has been planted recently. (I have written about this elsewhere at the website.)
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