CHURCH RESPONSE TEAMS

Friends helping Friends to restore and rebuild hurting churches

Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends
200 N Meridian
Newberg, OR 97132
Telephone: 503-538-9419
E-mail: nwym@nwfriends.org
Web Site: www.nwfriends.org

Sometimes during the natural course of organizational development, a local congregation faces issues and situations that grow beyond their normal ability to handle. To address this need the Board of Elders of Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends has a assembled a group of spiritually mature and gifted individuals with skills in counseling, organizational effectiveness, conflict resolution, mediation, and arbitration. When an issue is brought to this group, an individual or a team is selected with expertise appropriate to the situation. The team is then available to co-labor with the local congregation and any other parties that might be involved. The response team does represent the Board of Elders but operates independently from the Board maintaining confidentiality and impartiality. With the Lord’s help the team will negotiate and define expectations, assess the situation seeking input from all parties, and then provide recommendations for resolving the issue.

Purpose

Church Response Teams exist to facilitate communities of faith through a process of transforming relationships with God and with each other so that:

• God’s love can be channeled to one another and to the world
• Communities will be healthy and equipped to make disciples
• Friends core values will be rediscovered and lived out
• Communities will practice a lifestyle of peacemaking
• A sense of hope will be restored

The Church Response Team program is facilitated by a volunteer who can be contacted through the Yearly Meeting office at (503) 538-9419. The facilitator will work with the contact to get an initial understanding of the issue and assemble a team appropriate to the situation.

Generally team members are volunteering their time, but may incur travel expenses. It is expected that the local congregation will reimburse the team for their incidental expenses. If a congregation cannot afford to pay team expenses, the contact from the congregation should bring this to the facilitator’s attention for special consideration. If extended support is required or should a congregation choose to engage professional services, fees will be negotiated, and the congregation will be responsible for those fees.

Other Resources

The Church Response Teams may not fit your situation. The program facilitator can be contacted through the Yearly Meeting office and can provide references for professional services, information on educational opportunities and suggested reading material.

You Need Help If…

• your congregation has gone through a painful pastoral transition and some of the people just can’t get over it
• half the people in your congregation don’t like choruses
• when your church sounds like it came right out of 1 Corinthians
• the pacifists are killing each other or are fighting over the meaning peace
• your church has had a dramatic drop in giving or a lot people are leaving
• your church is sued because all the kids in the daycare get sick from food poisoning
• your church business meetings seem to last forever, and then when they finally do end, nobody knows what happened
• there’s conflict between your church leaders and your pastor
• you feel like your church is stuck and everybody’s tired and burned out.

* * * * * *

When one of us hurts, we all hurt.

Christ died for the church. We are obligated to do all we can to preserve her and help her thrive.

Christ called us to unity and love, so we have a mandate to sustain and nurture that spirit among us.

In the Old Testament of our Bible, when misfortune struck, family relationships were preserved by family helping family in a concept called “kinship redemption.” As “kin” we have a responsibility to “redeem” our sister churches when difficulties come.