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One of the terms that describes the role of an elder is an overseer.  The term in the original language is associated with that of being a city administrator or finance manager.  Its usage was further expanded to include spiritual leadership and care with its association in Jewish literature. One of the roles of elders is to manage the overall health and progress of the church.

How does your church measure its effectiveness and health?  

Bob Logan, the founder of Coachnet International, introduced me to this concept of a church health team.  Here is his description:

Church Health Team - The church health team is a task force made up of trusted and gifted individuals from your larger leadership community that will help the church move through the NCD process to address the minimum factor, thereby increasing the health of the church. The church health team will be responsible for developing qualitative goals, setting a strategic plan with a time line, charting the progress, dealing with the blockages and providing regular updates to the leadership community and the church. 

Here are the kinds of people you need on the team:

• People who are spiritually mature.
• People who are strategic thinkers.
• People who can see the big picture.
• People who are committed to seeing the church become healthy.

Here are the different roles on the team:

• Team leader: Senior leader who makes sure that progress is being made and the team is functioning in a healthy manner.
• Strategic thinker: Someone who understands systems thinking, sees the big picture and asks the right questions throughout the process.
• Researcher: Someone who loves working with data by collecting, processing and analyzing relevant information to guide the group.
• Intercessor: Someone who can mobilize a prayer team and fosters a spirit of humble dependence throughout the church.
• Communicator: Someone who can maintain healthy communication within the team, the larger leadership community and throughout the church.
• Members of the ministry teams who represent the particular minimum factor you will be addressing. If your minimum factor was “Inspiring Worship” those key leaders need to be part of this team.

A church health team is one of the tools a pastor needs in his tool chest to empower leaders in the right direction in making a healthy and significant impact on the church.   I encourage pastors and planters to annually develop this team, some of the members will be elders and others will be people with specific gifts and out of specific ministry.  This experience will not only impact the church but it will also impact those on the team.

Reflective Questions:

• Does your church have annual ministry goals?
• Does your church have a 3-5 year strategic plan?
• What does the conversation of church health look like in your leadership meetings?
• What are the quantitative numbers you are tracking right now in your ministry?
• How are you measuring the qualitative health of your ministry?

We at Converge MidAmerica would love to assist your church on this journey to health and missional fruitfulness