After much prayer, many hours of work, and extensive discussion, the SCC Board now presents the Report and Recommendation from the Evaluation Team. It should be noted that this report does not represent final decisions. Opportunity will now be given for SCC Members and adherents to engage in a process of feedback, input, and interaction with church leadership. Specifically, please make note of the following upcoming events:
Open House Event with the SCC Board: Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the church building in Salmon Arm. This will be an opportunity to ask questions about the report and engage in discussion about how the SCC Board envisions moving forward.
Special Business Meeting: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the church building in Salmon Arm. All SCC Members are asked to attend in order to vote on a forthcoming resolution which would effectively allow the church to move forward in a new direction.
Of course, at any time, you are welcome to contact the SCC Board directly by emailing board@aplacetobelong.ca.
What follows is the Report and Recommendation of the Evaluation Team along with some additional comments in italics.
SCC EVALUATION TEAM REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
2023
BACKGROUND
After 16 years of fruitful ministry with Shuswap Community Church, Pastor Ben Hall concluded his time with us in December 2022. While evaluation should always be an ongoing component of any ministry strategy, Pastor Ben’s departure served as a catalyst for in-depth evaluation, particularly of the multi-site aspect of our church. To facilitate the evaluation process, the SCC Board appointed an Evaluation Team composed of members from all four SCC congregations.
PROCESS
In addition to informal conversation, the SCC Evaluation team engaged in an information-gathering process through the use of two primary tools: a congregational survey and campus-specific town hall meetings. In conjunction with the town hall meetings, the Evaluation Team also engaged in separate conversations with Campus Pastors and other church staff. The information-gathering phase is complete, the team has reflected on the information and now offers this report as a result of their work.
ISSUES IDENTIFIED AND STRENGTHS OBSERVED
One of the most important weaknesses of our multi-site strategy is the lack of a formalized leadership structure for individual locations. Essentially, the only official leadership position in a local congregation is the Campus Pastor. Campus Pastors report to the SCC Lead Pastor who provides support and accountability as well as connection to the SCC Board, albeit indirect connection. The absence of an SCC Lead Pastor has revealed the inherent weakness in this model in that too much power and responsibility rests on one person. In addition, while a given Campus Pastor does also serve as an Elder of the church, the other members of the Elder team are from various other SCC locations and ministries, not necessarily that Campus Pastor’s local membership. This has resulted in a sense of disconnection between campuses and between campuses and leadership, that is the Elders and Board.
However, it is not all bad news. Strengths and positive aspects of the current strategy have also been identified. One such strength is the sharing of various resources such as administration, financial management, and counselling. In addition, the multi-site structure has enabled support for smaller congregations that may not have survived otherwise, and the mission of reaching people with the gospel and making disciples has continued even in the face of great challenge and struggle. Furthermore, there are good relationships and camaraderie at leadership levels as well as at the congregational level through things such as joint services. In spite of the weaknesses of our multi-site strategy, we also recognize and have an experience of being better together.
With this in view, the Evaluation Team began to ask, “Is there a way to address the issues while working with what we have?” The following recommendation is intended to answer this question, recognizing that the proposed strategy would likely work best as a transitional approach.
RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that the current multi-site structure (one church in multiple locations) be adapted as a network structure (multiple churches in one network) with the ultimate goal of full autonomy for each church. What does this mean?
First, a network strategy would allow Shuswap Community Church to remain as one legal entity while each church works toward full autonomy as new legal entities including Constitution and Bylaws, securing charitable status with CRA, registration as a society with the provincial government, financial systems, etc. In the meantime, from an ecclesiological perspective, individual churches (currently called campuses) would be given functional autonomy as a member church of the SCC Network. This network structure would allow for support and minimal ministry disruption for the duration of the transitional period.
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Additional comment: The transitional period would last for as long as it takes each church to attain full autonomy and legal status. In the case of stronger campuses (i.e. Sicamous and Sorrento) this would probably be approximately 1-2 years or less; Chase, of course, will need more time. Specific plans will need to be put in place for each campus depending on the needs and readiness for autonomy.
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As functionally autonomous churches, the most important first step towards full autonomy would be the establishment of local church leadership bodies. The exact details of each group (type, titles, etc.) would be determined by each church. These local leadership bodies would provide direct support and accountability to each Lead Pastor (currently called Campus Pastor) rather than relying on the SCC Lead Pastor for that support, accountability and connection.
The SCC Network would be governed by a Board of Directors who would likely adopt a policy-governance style of leadership and would serve as the legal representatives of Shuswap Community Church Network. This Board of Directors would be populated by members from the leadership teams in each member church - ideally two members from each church - to serve as voting members as well as the Lead Pastors from each church to serve as non-voting members. Additionally, there could be a few members-at-large positions available in order to increase diversity. Due to the nature of the work and the reality of leaders also serving in local churches, the Board of Directors could meet less frequently, perhaps quarterly.
The Board of Directors should consider hiring an Executive Director on a contract basis to manage the network through support and resourcing. While this person would not function as an elder over the other pastors or churches, it should likely be someone who qualifies as an elder since he may carry out some functions of pastoral work.
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Additional comment: The formalized network structure described above is simply one idea for a strategy to help move each church towards full autonomy; as stated above, this does not represent a final decision. In fact, the SCC Board, Elders and Pastors have discussed and are favourable towards an alternate strategy of recognizing the church in Salmon Arm as the hub of a relational network. Such a strategy would simplify the structure and still allow for stability through the transitional period. In either case, the goal and end result remains the same which is church and leadership multiplication. The forthcoming resolution to be voted on at the business meeting in November would be reflective of the particular strategy that the SCC Board would prefer to pursue.
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In any case, the Evaluation Team agrees that there is indeed a pastoral vacancy in Salmon Arm. While the context in which that role operates will change (from a campus within multi-site, to a functionally autonomous church within a network, to a fully legal autonomous church) the nature of the role will essentially be the same and therefore we recommend that a pastoral search for Salmon Arm be started as soon as possible.
Redemption Counselling should continue. This new ministry has served many people over the last few years, and we recommend that Redemption Counselling should continue to employ qualified counsellors on a contract basis with administration and oversight provided either by the SCC Network or as a ministry of the Salmon Arm church.
CONCLUSION
The SCC Network concept, as a sort of ‘SCC Central 2.0’ would represent a clear move away from multi-site strategy and the idea of being one church in multiple locations, and towards the idea of multiple churches cooperating within one network and would more closely resemble a small denomination rather than a single church. As has been stated, this would best serve for a transitional period to be determined through close monitoring and careful evaluation.
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Additional comment: Again, a specific transitional strategy for planting SCC campuses as fully autonomous churches has yet to be determined and may not include a formalized network structure but rather function as a healthy relational network of local churches.
Please join us in prayer for God's continued leading, direction, and provision for his church and his people.