Committees

You’ll find in no park or city
A monument to a committee.
(Victoria Pasternak)

The ambivalence of some people with regard to committees can be summed up in the cartoon that shows a minister reading a story to his child, with his paraphrase going like this: “And when the pastor cut down the beanstalk, the giant committee came tumbling down, and the church lived happily ever after.” This sentiment was echoed by another pastor who described committees as one thing the devil really loves. Of course the church is only one context in which committees exist. They are present in every sphere of life, for example, workplaces, community organizations, voluntary associations and so on. Committees intersect with two social phenomena: leadership and group or meeting dynamics. Christian hesitations about the appropriateness of committees arise from both spheres.

Leadership often appears to happen in the absence of or in spite of committee work. It is true that the biblical record is weak on the role of the committee in leadership. Leadership is overwhelmingly an individual affair in the Old Testament, being regularly mediated through three types of individuals: prophets, priests or princes. This reality reaches a climax when all three roles are summed up in Jesus. We hardly think of Jesus as setting his plans by committee. In fact, he sometimes had to resist the will of the potential committee represented by his disciples (Matthew 16:21-23). Likewise, when Paul received wisdom from the majority in an ad hoc committee, he chose to ignore it (Acts 21:10-14), though this is an exceptional example. As we will see, the Bible does support the idea of setting and accomplishing goals through groups. In the New Testament especially we see people working in teams: plural eldership, Paul’s normal practice of team ministry and shared ministry in local churches.

The other hesitation comes from the actual functioning of committees, especially committee meetings. Because of sin or ignorance, meetings sometimes are very unprofitable and frustrating: time is wasted, conflict goes unresolved, decisions are not reached or implemented, people are not heard, or people are heard too much. Better, it seems, to forget committees (and especially committee meetings) and just let someone get on with the job at hand.

The Value of Committees

In the end, the deep theological rationale for committees comes less from proof texts in the Bible and more from an overall sense of the biblical plan for salvation. The plan is simply to form a people for God, a body made up of cells, individual people who have all received the Spirit. Spiritual gifts, including any gifts of leadership, are not concentrated comprehensively in individuals, whether prophets, priests or princes. Instead, the metaphor of the body suggests connection, one gift reinforcing and supplementing another, so that the whole body “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephes. 4:16).

This idea is the basis for using committees: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, whether in making decisions or dividing up the tasks of a project. The latter notion is probably generally accepted: using teamwork to conquer an obstacle or exploit an opportunity makes sense. However, we are more comfortable with the model of a coach deploying the players than with the model of the players deploying themselves according to an agreed-upon strategy. Thus, we are back to the idea of a singular leader. For example, we might think of Moses dividing up the job of judging the children of Israel or Nehemiah parceling out the job of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. In the end, however, this does not represent committee work. Committees represent a commitment to forming policies, plans or strategies within a group. In other words, leadership is shaped and directed by a group process, in the belief that ten heads are better than one.

There are dangers in committees: an individual’s hiding behind the group to avoid personal responsibility or the group lapsing into such complex processes that decisions are never made. As a wit once observed, a committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done. On the other hand, committees can also be very effective in avoiding dangers: manipulative leaders and foolish plans. The output and impact of a good committee are threefold: good decisions, good relationships and good leadership. The only way to make sure that these results happen is to make sure that good decisions, relationships and leadership are also the basis of every committee.

The Effective Committee

A committee is a species of small group. Like every small group, an effective committee must be based on a strong sense of what it is trying to accomplish. How will the committee know when it is doing (or has finished) its job? To what precise external end is the committee committed? The clearer the sense of purpose, and the more it shapes every meeting agenda, the more satisfying and successful the committee will be. Every committee should give more time to clarifying purpose and procedures than is usually set aside.

The purpose may be set by the group, as in the case of the “nominating committee” in Acts 1:15-26, or it may be mandated by a higher authority, as in the appointment of the Seven to manage charity toward widows in Acts 6:1-6. The latter is instructive in two other ways. First, it shows that the members of the first committee in the church, the apostles, knew they had to protect their agenda from distractions. Every group of elders in a local church today needs to take this to heart. Second, it shows a group moving beyond an advisory or animating role to actually accomplishing the plan that it formulated. A committee may be constituted to advise some external leader or animate some of its members toward action, but the most effective committee is probably the one that seeks to implement its plan together as a group. A plan worked by the owners of the planning is usually worked best.

Setting and accomplishing a purpose require a process of communicating ideas and coming to a consensus about the idea that will prevail. This requires a good base of positive relationships. Committee members need to be committed to one another as much as to their purpose. This bond is strengthened by good group dynamics: honoring the gift of each member, listening to every contribution, submitting to one another and fighting fairly. See Em Griffin’s book Getting Together (pp. 134-56) for help with conflict resolution. Good dynamics during committee meetings help to forge the sorts of relationships that produce good teamwork when the committee moves into action mode. The story of the “committee of Jerusalem” in Acts 15 provides a healthy model for a group process; note especially the careful listening.

Finally, committees need good leadership if they are to be effective. Leaders must focus on maintaining purpose and maintaining relationships. If one person cannot handle both these functions, then there should be two official leaders: one to manage the agenda and one to facilitate communication. Emphasizing one or the other aspect of committee work leads to imbalance. Most commonly, task supplants relationships. Roberta Hestenes has written a good corrective for this in Turning Committees into Communities. Good, balanced leadership during a committee meeting will release good leadership after the meeting. This is what Paul hoped for in Acts 20: he not only reminded the Ephesian elders of their purpose but also took part as they prayed, wept and embraced him.

Even though they sometimes seems to keep minutes and waste hours, committees are here to stay, both in the church and in the wider world. Christians have an excellent opportunity to help them be a true expression of the body of Christ and a positive force for kingdom purposes.

» See also: Community

» See also: Conflict Resolution

» See also: Leadership

» See also: Organization

» See also: Small Groups

References and Resources

E. Griffin, Getting Together (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1982); R. Hestenes, Turning Committees into Communities (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1991).

—Dan Williams