What do COM members need to do good ministry? – February 2025 Featured COMma Article

What do COM members need to do good ministry?

A brand-new Committee on Ministry member attends their first meeting and the first thing on the agenda is an Ordination Interview with an MID.

At the Annual Meeting for the Association all members of the Committees, new and returning, are publicly posted. A minister with a question about the upcoming boundary training for ministers makes a beeline for someone she knows well who happens to be one of the new members on the COM.

A Fitness Review Team is scheduled to present their findings and recommendations. ¾ of the COM members have never participated in a Fitness Review process before.

The vision of the MESA Team is that all ministry settings have gifted, supported and accountable ministerial leadership. The ministry of COMs is essential to this vision and to the well-being of the Church. In all of the above scenarios, COMs and their members are tasked with being present and accountable to the ministers who are accountable to them. What equips COM members to do effective and faithful ministry? There are many good and important answers to this question and always training is at the top of the list. For that reason, a primary focus of the MESA Team is providing on-going training opportunities for COMs and the staff who support them. There is a lot to know when serving on a COM! Policies, procedures, practices, a deep understanding of UCC polity, and qualities like the ability to participate effectively in faithful collective discernment and the capacity to understand the ways that our biases shape our thinking and decision-making.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that COM members are equipped with the information, training, and support they need to be effective and faithful. Whether you are planning for on-going development or orienting new members, a good reference point is the core competencies and essential functions of a Committee on Ministry, found on pp. 16-17 of the Manual on Ministry. Based on the Marks for Faithful and Effective Ministers, these competencies are an excellent guide as you construct on plan for training and on-going development of your COM. Initial orientation is, of course, essential for COM members, including providing each member with a copy of the Manual on Ministry and encouragement to read it and reference it in all aspects of the work. Make sure that everyone on your COM is signed up for and reading the monthly COMma Newsletter and signing up for trainings offered. MESA offers periodic orientation trainings meant as a complement to the orientation provided by your COM. A video of that training is available here and you are welcome to use and share it with your members. An effective COM will make on-going training and development of members available in a variety of formats. Some COMs make sure that every joint meeting focuses on educating on one aspect of the work as well as providing yearly retreats or periodic intensive trainings. Whatever way your COM promotes the development of your ministry, know that the MESA Team is here to support and equip your members.

Questions for further reflection:

1. How does your COM orient and train new members? Is this approach effective? How do you know?
2. In what ways does your COM prioritize on-going development and training? Do your COM members feel equipped to do this ministry effective and faithfully?
3. What are the resources and resource people who support your on-going training? Are there resources that you haven’t explored?
4. Using the competencies and essential functions of a Committee on Ministry, what might be some areas for deeper learning in 2025?