Transcription of Video #5

By Peter A.CM/FM 3410 12/01

1. Praise the Lord! Well, we're back again and have lots more to share with you, so let's have a word of prayer.

2. (Prays: ) Thank You Lord! Praise You, Jesus! We love You, Jesus! Hallelujah! We need You so much, Lord. We're so thankful that we can be together and that we can have this time of preparation before the boards actually start—a time of some training and being able to share our hearts and vision about the boards and about the board members with these who are going to be doing the job. Thank You for their willingness to come and the sacrifice that it is for them to be here, leaving their Homes and their loved ones. We do pray for their loved ones, Lord, and their Homes and the home fronts, that everything goes well in their absence and that they're not missed too much‚ and that You make up whatever lacks there are because of their not being there. Jesus, please‚ please help them.

3. Please bless the meeting now and anoint it. Please help me as I speak, Jesus. I really claim the power of Your keys, Your wonderful and precious keys that are such a blessing to us and work such marvelous miracles. That's what I need now, is a real miracle for delivering Your message. It has to be You, Jesus. So please do it. You have to use me, in this case, as a channel for the things that You want to share. I pray that You help me to be a good and open channel and that I can speak the words that You have, Jesus. Please, please do it, Lord. I really claim it and ask You in faith for that.

4. Help everyone as they listen to really get the point and get the spirit of it. If I say anything that isn't exactly right or is a little off, please help them to get it right as they translate it in their understanding, so that everyone goes away with the right things and there's no confusion or misunderstandings. Please do bless and help. Please anoint it. Anoint the equipment that's filming. We pray that You make this day and these meetings a real blessing for all‚ in Jesus' name. Thank You Lord! Praise You Jesus! Thank You so much.

5. Well‚ Mama and I really love you! We're very thankful that you're still there watching these videos, and that you have faith to be board members. Some of you will be chairmen, some of you will sit on national boards, some of you will sit on regional boards, some of you will sit on international boards‚ and you'll each have an important role to play. We're very thankful that you're willing to do it, because as we said yesterday‚ we really desperately need you and your counsel and your help and the work that you'll put into this, so thanks very much.

6. I'm going to go into some further aspects of being a board member, etc., like I did in the last tape. I'm really sorry if all of this sounds a little on the negative side. Like yesterday, I talked about if you're proud, or if you're shy, and don't push your ideas and all of these things, and it's kind of negative in a sense, and some of what I'm going to tell you today is along the same lines.

7. It's not that we're trying to be negative or we're trying to make you feel like you can't do the job or we don't think highly of you. We do. We think very highly of you‚ and we're very thankful that you're there. We know you're going to do a good job. We have faith for you in this. But we do have to bring up the things that we have some concerns about. Because when we discussed it with the COs at the summit, and as we've prayed about it over the years, these are the issues that will make or break the boards. It's the people on the boards. It's their interaction with each other, their interaction with their Home, with the other Homes, and all the rest. So we need to talk about those things in order to try to nip the problems in the bud, or to talk about them ahead of time so that you will be mindful of it when you're on the board.

8. Again, I apologize if it sounds kind of negative. It's not meant to be, but these are just the points that we feel are necessary to discuss so that you will have a good understanding of what's expected of you and how to operate on the boards. If it seems a little negative, sorry, but I just want you to know that we do have a lot of faith in you. These are leadership lessons and the things that you learn when you're in leadership, and we're just trying to convey them to you to hopefully make your job easier and more fruitful. Praise the Lord!

9. So let's move on! I want to bring up some more points about being a board member and about the board members themselves.

10. I want to talk first about the spiritual standard. What is the spiritual standard that is expected of you as a board member? Well‚ the first and most important one is that you're a CM disciple, a Charter member disciple, and that you do, and are‚ everything that it entails to be a Charter member disciple in light of the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series, the Charter, the new weapons‚ etc.

11. We don't expect you to be Continental Officers. We don't expect you to be perfect. You're not God, you're not the Lord; you're not going to be without fault and mistakes and NWOs and that sort of thing. But the main thing is that you are a CM disciple, that you are striving to do the job, to follow the Lord and obey His Words. That's important.

12. We tried to avoid making spirituality and people-handling skills and that sort of thing the criteria for being on a board. We felt at the time when we were discussing it—and this was pre-"Conviction vs. Compromise," of course—that if people were a little brusque, or a little proud‚ or they didn't have good people-handling skills‚ or they weren't super spiritual, we'd still be able to use their gifts and talents.

13. With our present CO structure‚ the COs have to have a really high standard. We expect a lot of them in their walk with the Lord and their prophecies and their interaction with others—to be loving, to be wise, to be prayerful, all of this—and their personal sample when they visit the Homes has to be very high. We expect quite a bit of the VSs as well. We felt at the time that if we expected that same standard for people who are on the boards, then we wouldn't have that many board members‚ because we have a hard enough time finding COs and VSs as it is. So if we had that same exact standard, we wouldn't be able to fill up the boards.

14. We tried to make it so that we could use people who are skilled and who have the gifts and the talents to be on those boards. They have that kind of training, or they're experienced in outreach, or childcare, or FED work, or public relations, etc. So what we decided was that we wouldn't make the spiritual side so important that it would knock people off the boards.

15. However, since then the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series came out, and the Lord made it very clear that there is a certain standard for discipleship. So that is the standard. You still don't have to have the CO standard, with their experience and their people-handling skills and all the rest, but you do have to be a disciple. You do have to be on board, and in prayer‚ and hearing from the Lord, and using the new weapons, and being in unity, and all the things that the GNs are saying that you need to be to be a disciple.

16. So that's the criteria—that you have to be a good disciple. You have to love the Lord. You have to follow and obey His Word and be in unity and all the rest. That's what we're asking. You wouldn't be sitting here watching this video if the COs didn't think that you met that criteria. But you have to keep it up. Once you become a board member, that is the criteria. Okay?

17. While we didn't say that spirituality and people-handling skills were the criteria to be on the boards, they are nevertheless going to play a part in how effective you are as a board member. If you don't walk the walk of a disciple‚ then people aren't going to pay attention to you. People aren't going to look up to the board. They're not going to feel that you should be the ones that are making decisions that affect their Homes. If they think, "Well, this guy is hardly even CM, and I know that he never hears from the Lord and he's not in the Word," they're going to feel a little apprehensive about you making decisions that affect them. I don't blame them. You would feel the same.

18. The love that you show people, the prayerfulness that you have—those things are going to make a difference. And though we didn't make that the prime prerequisite for being on a board, you are going to have to learn and grow in that if you want to be effective.

19. When we were first discussing it, some people felt that Fellow members should maybe be allowed to be on the boards. We talked about that a lot, both in our pre-summit meetings and at the summit. The basic conclusion we came to was that we felt that because Charter members have to follow the Charter and live the CM standard, that they would not consider it fair that people who don't have to live the CM standard should have a say in matters that affect their Homes. In other words‚ we felt that CM Family members might be uncomfortable having FM Family members on the board and praying about things that are affecting the CM Family.

20. The FM Family are very precious to us. Even though they are not sitting on the boards, they could from time to time be invited to sit in on a board meeting to share their knowledge and their point of view, but they would not have a vote. Again, it's because we felt that the CM Family has to live a really high standard, and that they would be most comfortable with other people who are living that same standard having an influence on their Homes.

21. But you see, it's a little bit like what I was saying before—if you are not a person who people think is being prayerful‚ or they feel that you're not really concerned about their Home, or you're not loving to them or to those in your own Home, they're going to wonder, "Well, why is this guy on the board?" Or, "Why is this woman on the board? I feel a little uncomfortable about this." So you do need to kind of walk the walk—the discipleship walk. Okay? That's very important if you want to be effective and if you want the boards to be effective.

22. Another point about you being on the boards is that you need to be prayerful, you need to have prayerfulness, and you need to hear from the Lord. That's how you're going to know, and how others are going to know that it's the Lord that's making the decisions and it's not just you. We're going to talk more about prayer and prophecy on the boards in a little bit. But it's very important that you're prayerful in this job and that you do take the time to hear from the Lord. Okay? And as I said, we'll discuss that further, so I'll let this go now and we'll talk a little more about that in a few minutes.

23. Another thing is humility and love—you need 'em both! Once you're in any kind of position in the Family, then people generally expect a bit more of you. A lot of people who are in leadership don't like that, and I don't really blame them for that, because you're just you. Just because you get a position or a title or something doesn't necessarily make you feel that you're anybody special—you're just you—but other people don't always look at it like that.

24. I don't really know how people are going to react to those that are on the boards, so I'm only talking in theory. But my experience is that once somebody is a part of the leadership within the Family, then others begin to look at them a little bit differently and they just expect more of you. They expect you to be more loving. They expect you to be more humble. They expect you to be more prayerful. And they look at you in your daily life to see how you are.

25. Well, that's a burden that leadership has to bear. People get critical of you if you're not upholding what they consider to be the standard—a standard of what they think you should be. So there is some responsibility here for you again to walk the discipleship walk.

26. We're not asking you to be perfect, and we know you're not—none of us are—we're just expecting you to be loving. Because if you're loving and you're thinking of others and you're humble‚ you'll do okay. Again‚ as a reminder, you're there to serve, and that's what being a board member is—being a servant to the Homes. So please have that attitude of servitude and of humility and love. It's important in your personal walk and your day–to-day life, but it's especially important if you're acting in any official duty as a board member. If you're visiting a Home as a board member and you're giving counsel as a board member, you really need to walk that walk.

27. I'll tell you from years of leadership experience, you can't fake it. You can't be one way at home, one way with your wife and kids and Home members, kind of grumpy and proud and unloving, and then go out to the Homes and try to put on this little veneer or fake mask of being humble and loving. It just doesn't work. You have to be that in your daily life; that's the best way. So if you have some areas in your daily life that are causing you to not be that way, or you're coming up a little short in that, well, it's something to pray about and ask the Lord to help you to change in so that you can be what you need to be as a board member. Please strive to really walk the discipleship walk.

28. I'd suggest that you study over some of the Letters on pride and humility and interaction with others, like, I'll just name a few of the GNs: "Stay Humble," "Do the Humble Thing‚" "Show Appreciation," "Changing Deeply Ingrained Habits and Mindsets," "Intimate Details of My Life," "New Era Humility," "The Remaking of a Man." Wow, I asked somebody to get me this list, it's a long one! "Prophecies on Pride and Humility," "Come Together in Love," "Loving Kindness‚" "Practical Tips for Unity, Parts 1 and 2," and I'm sure there are others. You can look them up. But please make an effort to read some of these Letters and to grow in those areas so that you can be effective. Okay? It's very, very important.

Letter Links

"Prophecies on Pride and Humility," ML #3043, Lifelines 23

"Come Together—In Love," ML #3100, Lifelines 24

"Stay Humble," ML #3235, GN 838

"Loving Kindness‚" ML #3237, GN 840

"Do the Humble Thing," ML #3251‚ GN 853

"Show Appreciation," ML #3254, GN 859

"Intimate Details of My Life," ML #3268‚ GN 870

"The Remaking of a Man," ML #3276, GN 879

"Self-Righteousness—The Great Barrier to Uniting the Generations: Practical Tips for Unity, Part 1," ML #3293, GN 897

"Communication Keys, Part 1-2: Practical Tips for Unity, Part 2," ML #3323‚ GN 927-28

"Changing Deeply Ingrained Habits and Mindsets," ML #3324, GN 929

"New Era Humility," ML #3344, GN 938

29. Another point that we want to really stress is that being on the board doesn't change your place in your Home. When you're in your Home, your board membership doesn't carry any extra weight. Presently you might not be on the teamwork of your Home‚ so being a board member does not mean that you are equal to or you're greater than your teamwork. When you're at home‚ you've taken off your board uniform and you've left it at the door. You're shepherded by your Home shepherds and your teamwork, and you have to conduct yourself according to your Home's rules and regulations. You just need to be you, just as you were before you came to these meetings or before you became a board member. You don't get any extra clout in the Home because you sit on the board, even if you're the chairman of the board. It just doesn't work that way.

30. It's something you really have to fight against, because if everybody that's on boards now starts acting like "Whoa‚ I'm a big board member! You can't tell me what to do, Home teamwork, because I sit on the board with so-and-so, and I talk with him, and that means I have this and that!"—If you have that attitude, people are going to say‚ "Board structure? Forget it! This doesn't work. We're not going to listen to these guys. This guy in our Home is a board member, but he's causing nothing but trouble because he thinks he's the big jefe [boss] in the Home now, and he's not!"

31. So it's really important that you are humble, and that you submit to the Home teamwork just as you did before, and just as you would if you weren't on the boards. Okay?

32. Another thing in regards to your Home: You're going to need to work out with your Home how much time you can give to your board duties. Okay? I can't honestly say how much time the board duties are going to take people. What we do know is that people who are board chairmen will probably have a bit more work to do on a daily basis. Those that are board members probably won't have as much. But again, it's all theory, like I was explaining before. We could only imagine what it's going to be like. But we can see that when you go to a meeting, you make decisions, and a lot of the carrying out of the decisions or the paperwork will probably be left with the chairman. So he's going to have to do some of that later.

33. But when you go home, unless you have specific assignments from the board, then you probably won't have too much more to do. Although, I don't know‚ because I'm not going to be in your board meetings and I don't know what you all are going to decide in your board meetings as to what projects you're taking on, or what you're supposed to be doing. But in any case, no matter how much work you have to do, you have to work it out with your teamwork and your Home as to how much time you can devote to this so that you can continue on with your other Home duties.

34. In other words, being board members is an extra added thing that you need to do. We're sorry about that, but it just kind of means more work‚ basically, and having to do more, because you can't just slough it off on the Home. For example, you can't go shirking your Home duties and saying‚ "Well, I'm too busy. I've got to do this and that. So I'm sorry, I can't do dishes. And, no, I can't take care of the kids. Outreach? I just don't have time for outreach. You guys are just going to have to take care of me because, man‚ I'm on the board!" Well, it doesn't work that way. You'll be off the board pretty soon, because your Home will vote not to let you be on the board!

35. You've got to really work to just be a regular Home member‚ do your job, work out the time that you can spend on the boards‚ and try to stick within that amount of time so that the Home is happy. Otherwise, if you cause problems within your Home‚ then there's going to be resentment and disunity, and it's not going to work well. People are going to have a really bad taste in their mouths about the boards, and we don't want that. We want the boards, as I said yesterday, to offer services, to be a help to the Homes.

36. As we stressed before‚ you are really the guys that are going to make the board structure work. We can have all the theory, we can make the plans, and it can be a terrific plan. But if the people on the ground don't implement the plan, or they don't live up to what they need to be, then the plan won't work. People will be unhappy about it and they won't cooperate, and then we're just kind of spinning our wheels.

37. But we do need the help. We do need the boards to work, for all the reasons I said that we need the boards—to lighten the load of the present leadership, to broaden our leadership base, to raise up new leaders, to pump people power‚ to be able to really move the Family forward, to really just activate the Family and get us going ahead and being proactive and making progress and that sort of thing. And that will be hindered if you are a drag in your Home, or if your being on the board changes you in a negative way. Please really pray that it won't. And please do all you can to be a benefit and a help to your Home.

38. Communicate with your Home! Ask them, "Am I getting out of line? How much time can I spend?" Be open with them. Be open to your shepherds in the Home for correction, please‚ because you need it to be the kind of board members we need you to be. OK? PTL!

39. That's you in the Home—and now I want to talk a minute about you on the board, and how things are shepherded on the boards. As I said, your personal life is shepherded by your Home teamwork as far as your being in the Home. In other words, you're under their shepherding and they're keeping an eye out for your spiritual life.

40. On the board there is no "shepherd of the board." Basically, you're your brother's keeper. When you're on the board, the first line of shepherding is the Lord shepherding you personally—you praying and seeking the Lord about how you're interacting on the board‚ how you're doing as a disciple, and letting the Lord speak to you about your life and the areas that you need to grow in. And when He does speak to you about it, take it seriously and do something about it. If He shows you to change, or He shows you to read this, or He shows you to apologize, or whatever He shows you, you should do it. Then you can be self–shepherded.

41. So on the board, as I said, you're your brother's keeper. But when you're having board meetings, if somebody on the board is out of line constantly, they're always being pushy, or proud, or not letting others speak‚ or butting in—that's a big problem a lot of us have when we're in these kind of meetings, cutting the other guy off—if they're pushing their program and it's obvious that it's personal, and you can't talk to the guy‚ and you can't disagree with them because it's so difficult, well, that's a problem, and you as the board need to talk about it. You need to mention it. You can take the guy aside and say, "You know, in the last couple of meetings it's been really hard to get points through because you've kept pushing, pushing‚ pushing, and not listening." You're going to have to talk about it.

42. Again, you're going to have to have some boldness on these boards. Of course, you need to do it in love, but on the other hand, you can't not do it. If somebody is causing a problem on the board, then it affects the ability of the board to do its job. As a board member, as a member of this entity, the board, you are responsible to make sure the board can do its job, so you need to discuss it, okay? You need to be open and honest, humble and prayerful about it.

43. It's really hard for most people to be able to correct or bring it up to somebody else when they're out of line; it's a very difficult thing to do, but you have to do it. And if you're on the receiving end‚ if somebody comes up to you, or the board talks to you about it and says, "Look, you know, you're really hard to work with on the board because of X, Y, Z," well, for goodness sake, listen. Okay? Apologize, change, and ask them to point it out to you in the meetings. Say, "Look, I don't mean to be that way‚" because usually you don't. Most people don't think, "Oh, yeah, I'm going to be pushy and intimidating. I'm going to try to intimidate the whole board; that's my goal for the day." People don't do that. They usually don't realize what they're doing, so if you point it out to them, or it's pointed out to you, then you should ask your board members, "Well, look, I don't really see it, so next time it happens, can you tell me? Scratch your earlobe or something so I'll know and I'll get the point."

44. But don't just let it go on and on and on and build up resentment, and then you're critical of the person‚ and you feel like you can't work with them, and then you don't want to be on the board anymore, and the board doesn't work because, "We're all just doing what ol' Johnny Bigmouth here has to say, and he doesn't let us get a word in edgewise, so I don't even want to do it anymore." Well, that's not the right attitude. Deal with the problem‚ okay?

45. Now if you've dealt with the problem, if you've talked to the person and he doesn't change, and if you've brought it up again and he doesn't change, well, if they're really out of line, then the next line of defense to repair this problem is that you as board members can contact the shepherding board. In other words, one of the VSs, and the VS can then try to talk to this person and explain what he's doing and try to help him out.

46. The first line of defense is the person; you yourself should try to be in tune with the Lord and be asking the Lord what your weaknesses are and trying to change in those things, reading the Word, getting prayer, whatever you need. The next line of defense is the board members talking to you. The third line of defense, if that doesn't do any good, is that the board members can go to the shepherding board, to the VSs, and they will talk with the person.

47. You can also get in touch with the regional board chairman, because as I said yesterday, he is going to be like the coach. He'll come around and he can try to help sort out some of these personnel-type problems on the boards. That's another way to go about it.

48. But the first line of defense‚ besides the person themselves, is that you, the board members need to try to take care of it, and not just wait and say‚ "Oh, well, I'll wait till the VS comes," or "I'll wait till the regional chairman comes," because you don't know when that's going to be. And you've got issues to deal with now in your meetings, and as I said yesterday, you need to have that free flow of exchange, and you need to not be intimidated. So you have to talk about those things and try to take care of them right away.

49. If you try these things and the person is just detrimental to the board‚ you've tried all these things and it still doesn't work, well, then there is a procedure to vote somebody off the board‚ and you can initiate that procedure to remove the person from the board, if you have the proper agreements according to the Board Handbook. So that's kind of the next line of defense, and hopefully not one that will ever have to be used. But it is there, and if you are having problems, well, if that's making the entity of the board not be able to do its job, then it's your responsibility to make sure that somebody is voted off and replaced. We hope it doesn't come to that‚ but we wanted that in there so that when there are problems, there is an actual procedure to deal with them.

50. But before voting the person off and starting that procedure, you should talk to him and pray for him, even a few times, to try to get him to change, and get your VS or your regional board shepherd to talk to him and see. If that doesn't do it, then you're responsible, for the sake of the Family, for the sake of the people in your area, to go ahead and start a procedure to remove him.

51. And remember that the whole board itself can also be dismissed and removed if they're not doing the job. If you've got somebody or somebodies that are causing the board to be ineffective and they're not doing anything because everybody's griping at each other and they can't get it together in unity‚ well, the whole board can be dismissed.

52. We don't want to do that. That's not a threat; it's just a fact that you need to be aware of so that you will understand that you have accountability in this, as well as responsibility and authority. You're accountable to do the job. As a board member, you're accountable to be the kind of person who can work together with your board. If you can't, and they talk to you about it, well, do something about it in your life—change. And if you don't, then you probably will eventually get voted off the board. It doesn't have to come to that, of course. You can get victories and move on and face those challenges and grow, but if you don't, then there's a means to remove you.

53. Like I said, this is all a little on the negative side, but I hope you understand that we need to talk about these things so that, for one, you have the courage to speak to others about it if they're being intimidating, or whatever they're being, or if they're not doing anything on the board. And secondly, so you're aware that you do have spiritual responsibilities to the Lord and to the Family and to the board to be a good board member and to be someone that others can work with. Okay? PTL!

54. Another point we'd like to cover is your interaction with the Homes. We've talked about your interaction in your Home—you're not a big cheese and it doesn't change things. But from time to time you're going to go to other Homes. You'll go to other Homes just for fellowship in a non-board capacity; at other times you may go to a Home in your board capacity.

55. As we said earlier, you have no authority over the Homes. You have authority to make decisions, and you have authority to say‚ "We want to implement this, and this is the program that we're presenting as a service," but you don't have any authority to come in and tell them "you have to do this, or you have to do that." That authority does not exist.

56. So when you go to a Home, just like in your daily life and in your board meetings, the key thing is to be loving. People are going to want to talk to you. If they know you're on a board‚ for example the childcare board, well, probably the mom or the teacher or somebody might want to come and talk to you about the kids. That's okay. You can listen and you can offer counsel as long as it's prayerful counsel, and especially if it's within your pillar. But you cannot offer counsel outside your pillar.

57. You are not a Visiting Servant. What I'm saying here now applies to people who are not on the VS board. If you're on the VS board, it's a little bit different. But if you're not, if you're just on any other board, when you come to the Home you can talk about your pillar or give counsel within your pillar, but you cannot step outside of your pillar.

58. If people start talking to you about things that are shepherding problems‚ that's not your business. Some Home member is going to want to come and pour out all their troubles and their woes and tell you all about their Home and "so and so is like this," and it's just going to happen. But you should not really let them do that. That's not your job. And if you let them do it and then you start offering them counsel, you're really stepping into a quagmire. Because it's not your ministry, the Lord therefore is not anointing you for that task, so you're going to give counsel that you shouldn't be giving‚ and it's probably not going to work, and you're going to get blamed‚ and the boards are going to get blamed, and the whole structure is going to be blamed, and it's just not going to be very good!

59. So it's not your responsibility to counsel people on things that don't pertain to your board. If somebody comes and wants to talk to you about that, you can just explain to them‚ "Look, I'm on the outreach board‚ and shepherding isn't my responsibility," or, "the teacher's problem over there is not my responsibility; you should get in touch with so-and-so." Or, "Get in touch with that board‚ that pillar, and talk to them or write them or call them. I'm not the one you should talk to about this." You're going to have to show restraint on this, because it will be, I believe, people's natural reaction to kind of feel like, "Well‚ you've got a position. You're in some sort of leadership. You can help me."

60. If that was what your ministry should be, you probably would have been chosen for the VS board. Your ministry is whatever board you're on, and you can offer counsel along the lines of that board, but please don't overstep that, because you will cause problems‚ and it will come back and bite you. People will start blaming you for things that they've followed your counsel on. So please be very careful and very prayerful about that, and most of all, just direct people to the appropriate board.

61. Now we said that you can offer counsel within your pillar. If you're on the childcare board and the mom or the teacher has some questions, like, "My kid is ready to start school, should I use CLE or Beka?" Well, you can offer them advice, "Well, CLE is like this, and Beka is like this. This is more expensive; this is more difficult," whatever. But you should not be telling them what to do.

62. We don't want you to micromanage Homes even within your pillar. You're offering counsel and you're giving a service, but you're not to micromanage or to be making decisions for them, as I explained before. Otherwise they're going to start looking to you for all kinds of things and you're going to become an absentee teamworker. You're going to be the absentee childcare teamworker if you're not careful. If they've got a problem in their Home they're going to ask you what to do. And if you answer them, "Oh, well, do this and have so-and–so do that," you're going to end up being the childcare teamworker of all kinds of Homes.

63. You're supposed to give general counsel within your pillar‚ but not really getting in and managing all the details of people's lives. That's their responsibility. That's their Home's responsibility. That's their teamwork's responsibility. Yours is to offer counsel, offer services, and just to be the help you can be, but not to get involved in all the little eensy-teensy tiny things, or you're going to be really sorry. And your job is going to just get too big‚ because people will be calling on you all the time. Okay? So please be really prayerful about that.

64. Just remember, you're a servant, and that's the attitude you should have. You're offering a service, you're trying to help, but you're not a manager, an overseer of their Home, or of that department within their Home, and you're not the Home shepherd or a VS. You're there to share your experience and to share your knowledge in your pillar. But you're not the problem solver. That's other people's jobs.

65. Okay, a few other board tips: Of course it's very important that you're in unity with your board members, and you're really going to have to fight to keep that unity. If there are conflicts within your board, you're going to have to resolve them through prayer and through communication. You can't let things fester.

66. Often what will happen‚ like I was explaining earlier, is somebody will have an attitude of some sort, either they're too strong or they never speak up, and you're kind of wondering‚ "What's the matter here? This is really bugging me." And if you don't discuss it and pray about it and solve it, it's going to cause disunity. And you have to have unity on the board. You have to feel free to speak your heart about the matter you're discussing without being critical, without criticism, and all these things. So please, work at that. Keep the unity! It's very, very important!

67. I could probably talk about that for a long time, but I think with the "Conviction vs. Compromise" GNs and all they had to say about unity, you can understand the importance of it.

68. Another thing, as a board you have to be careful that you aren't so afraid of making mistakes that it keeps you from doing anything. Sometimes people are that way. They're a little afraid of, "Well‚ if we make that decision, what if it doesn't work? What if it doesn't work out the way we thought it was going to be and then it's really bad?" Well, that might happen from time to time, but don't worry about it. Don't get immobilized to where you can't make decisions because you're afraid you're going to make a mistake.

69. We want you to be prayerful, yes; we want you to be cautious‚ and like I said, think globally. Think, "Is this going to work for the Homes? What are the downsides? Is it practical?" Really go through the decision-making process, pray and hear from the Lord. But when the decision is made and confirmed by the Lord, then go ahead and do it. Do something! Don't be afraid that you're going to make mistakes and therefore not do anything. Your job is to do some of these things. Your job is to pray about these problems and new initiatives and to try to find solutions. That's your job as a board member, so don't be afraid to do it.

70. Will you make mistakes? Yes, you will. Everybody does! Anybody in leadership makes mistakes from time to time. It just happens. So what do you do? Do you get all condemned about it and say, "Oh‚ man, I'm never going to vote on that kind of thing again! I don't want to be on the board anymore because I made a mistake or the decision wasn't so great"? If you make mistakes, admit it, okay? Apologize. Re-pray about the situation‚ re-discuss it, go back to the Lord and make a new decision and move forward.

71. In other words, don't just stop! Realize that it's going to happen, and it happens to everybody, and it'll happen to every board. That's just something you have to live with when you're in a position of having to make decisions. You make mistakes in your Home. I'm sure your Home Council makes some mistakes and your teamwork makes some mistakes. Well‚ you just forgive and do better next time. But please don't let it stop you from doing the job.

72. Another point about the boards, and about you on the boards, is please be patient. It's going to take time for the boards to function smoothly. It's going to take time for you to come up with initiatives or plans and to implement those plans. You'll have your board meetings whenever you have them—it depends on what level within the board structure you are—but some of you will have meetings every two or three months. But every time you have a meeting, you don't have to make milestone decisions and "let's change the world policy" at every meeting!

73. Probably the thing to do is to set some goals. Really pray initially and find out what are the main problems or the main things that have to be taken care of within the board, and try to set some goals, and make them a little bit long–term. Make them a year's goal, or a year-and-a-half's goal. "That's kind of what we're trying to reach, so let's do it a step at a time." You may say, for example, "We'd like to have camps for our young people. We'd like to have witnessing classes. We'd like to do all these things because it would inspire them!" And, yes‚ those are good ideas, good things to do. But initially maybe you don't have all the personnel to do it, or you don't know how the Homes are going to respond.

74. Well, take it a step at a time. Maybe the first thing is just to have a monthly witnessing adventure or a bi-monthly class or something. And then at the next meeting you can make a further step or further decisions and further things to do to reach your goals. But don't feel that it's all got to change right away, "We've got to change the world today!" Because if you do you'll be (a) disappointed, because these things take time‚ and (b) you'll be pushing too much on the Homes, and they won't respond so well.

75. Be patient. Trust the Lord and go at His pace. Be prayerful. That's the main thing. If you're prayerful and you're doing it how the Lord shows you to do it, it'll work. Maybe sometimes He will show you to go faster, but I'm just trying to say that patience is important‚ because otherwise you'll be a little bit frustrated in your work. Okay?

76. And also please be patient with your upper boards, because they're new at the job too. They're learning. Maybe you're asking them questions and they're not getting back to you quite as quickly as you'd hoped. Well, don't get critical of them; just pray for them and try to work with them. Again, be patient and be loving with them as well‚ because we're all new at this job and we're all having to sort of learn the ropes.

77. Another thing is that sometimes things will come up that decisions have to be made on, but you're not at a board meeting. If your board meetings are every three months or so, well‚ you'll make decisions at the board meeting and you'll start to try to implement those decisions, but as time goes on, before the next meeting, maybe some kind of big decision is going to come up that needs to be made. And maybe it can't wait, or you don't feel it can wait for two months or a month-and–a-half for the next board meeting.

78. So sometimes that's going to happen, and when it does‚ you can communicate via e-mail, and you can try to make these decisions. But if you do‚ it's very important that you follow the rules of your board meetings. In other words, everybody has to be informed, everybody has to hear what everybody else is saying about it, or writing about it in this case. You have to make sure that everybody has heard everything and is participating, just like they would be if they were in a meeting. Then a vote can be called. And you need to use the same voting procedures. The majority wins, and after the decision has been voted on‚ then people need to have prayer of confirmation.

79. You need to go through the whole procedure, because if you don't, what will happen is, people will slip up. The chairman thinks‚ "Oh, we've got to do this," and he gets in touch with so-and-so, because so-and-so is just in the next Home, but they forgot to get in touch with a few board members who are farther away. A decision is made, it's enacted, and the other two board members don't even have a say in it. They didn't speak their piece. They didn't have a vote. You can't do that. You've got to keep that procedure and understand, as I said earlier, that everybody has the right to speak their piece. You have to do it that way, and you've got to be very careful about that.

80. Lastly, along this line, please know your Handbook. There are a lot of procedures in there for what you can do and can't do and how to vote people off, how to get people on, how to do your minutes, who to send them to, what to pray about, all those things. Just be familiar with it‚ okay? It's part of your job. It's a little dry, I understand that, but it will become more alive to you as you start having board meetings and all the rest. It's important that you know what's in there so you know what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to do it to make it work. So please know it, and as well as knowing it, follow it. Do those things. Okay? Praise the Lord!

81. I want to talk a minute about board chairpersons and your responsibilities. Every board will have a chairman. There are going to be national chairmen, regional chairmen, and international chairmen.

82. The chairperson's job is varied. They conduct the meeting, they call it to order, they kind of run the meeting, they call on people to speak. It's their responsibility to make sure that the agenda is compiled before the meeting, and that according to the Handbook, that's the first order of business. After prayer, of course, and hearing from the Lord for your meeting, then you adopt the agenda. You should have had it out to everybody ahead of time so they could see the things they want to discuss or don't want to discuss. That's your job—to be on the ball with that, to be prepared for the meetings, to have that side of it going and to keep the meeting going.

83. But you're not "the boss." That's important to remember. Your opinion and your vote is equal to everybody else's. If you're conducting the meeting, especially if you have a strong opinion, you have to be very careful that everybody is getting their say and you're not just pushing your thing because you get to call on who you want to call on. You have the responsibility to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak. And all of you who are not chairmen have to understand that the board chairman is your equal when it comes to voting‚ when it comes to opinion, and all the rest. He does some extra work in preparing, and probably, as I'll discuss in a minute, following up on the decisions after they've been made; he's kind of a manager, but he's not the boss.

84. The chairman basically runs the meeting, and later on, after decisions are made, he is empowered by the board to put some of those decisions into effect. But he's not there to run the show. He's not to dominate the meetings. Chairpersons, you should be pumping people power. You should listen in the meetings.

85. What I do, when I'm at the summit and even in other meetings‚ is when we're having the discussion, kind of the debate, if you will, and there are different points of view, I often will just jot down little notes. Like, "Okay, there's kind of a trend. Some people are saying that we should do this because of X, Y, Z, and other people are saying we shouldn't do this because of A, B, C." I take a few notes to remind myself so that when everybody has basically said their piece, I try to summarize it. "The issue is this. So–and–so has said and has felt that X should happen, and this is why. And somebody over here feels that X should happen‚ and this is why. Here are all the various points of view, they're all out there on the table, and now we're going to have to vote on it."

86. You want to be able to give a little summation at the end‚ if you can, and you can do that if you take a few notes. Not that you have to jot down every word, but just so that you're keeping in focus, and at the end, when it's time to vote, everybody understands what you're voting on and what the issues were and what the arguments were, okay? That's important.

87. Now the regional chairperson, when he's sitting with his regional board, his job is the same as any other chairman's. He's not to dominate. His opinion is just the same as everybody else's. Everything I've said applies to him. However, we have given the regional chairman the authority to interact with and to visit the national boards. When he comes, he can't tell the board what to do. He can't tell 'em how to vote. He can't vote—but he can offer assistance and help and counsel and guidance. Like we said, he's a coach. Many‚ but not all, regional chairpersons will be Continental Officers, COs. They have a lot of wisdom and they have a lot of experience and they can be helpful.

88. So at that level, they do have a different role. They can come in and be the coach. When they're actually in the regional meetings, though, they're just like everybody else, and you don't have to vote the way the regional chairperson votes just because he's a CO. You have your vote. Your vote is yours. You should feel free to speak up just the same. So‚ please, regional chairmen, you need to really guard that, and you need to make sure it is that way on your board.

89. The chairperson, no matter what level he's on, is probably going to be the one to do the day-to-day follow-up work. In other words, the five of us on the board make this decision and we say‚ "Okay, we want to inform the Homes of this, and we'd like to talk to some Homes to see if we could have a special prayer day for this and that," etc. Well, then the chairperson—or maybe it's going to be somebody else, maybe it'll be the secretary, but most often it will be the chairperson—is going to then write the letter and do these things. Well, he has to have the authority from the board to do it. You'll say, "Okay‚ you, Mr. Board Chairman, can go ahead and write the Homes and work this out," and you've given him that authority to do so. His job is then to carry out the will of the board, but he cannot make decisions on his own.

90. He can make decisions on his own if they are decisions that fulfill what the board has already told him to do. In other words, if the board says to him, "Write the Homes and try to work out a good date for this particular prayer day." Fine. Then he can take action and make the decision. If they give him the authority to decide the date and time of the prayer day, he can do so without consulting the board further about it.

91. As long as his decisions are within the mandate given to him by the board to carry out, then that's fine. But he can't all of a sudden say, "Well, the Homes don't want to do it," or "three of the five Homes don't want to do it in that month, so we're not going to do it at all." He can't do that, because that's a decision that only the board should make. Can you see the difference?

92. The board chairman is responsible to carry out the will of the board‚ but he cannot impose his will on the board. He can't make decisions that the entire board should make. But he sometimes is going to have to make day-to-day decisions to carry out what the board has already told him to do.

93. As a board‚ you have to decide what decisions the chairperson can make without board approval. When you come to the end of your decisions and you see, "Okay, this has to be taken care of‚ that has to be taken care of," you can say, "Go ahead and take care of this‚ but on that one point, if there is some change, we all want to know about it." You have to make that clear to the board chairman, because otherwise he'll just try to carry out the will of the board to the best of his ability. And maybe there are some things that if it didn't go the way the board wanted it to go, you didn't want him to make a further decision; you wanted to be informed about that. But if you don't tell him, then he's not going to know. So you're going to have to work that out.

94. There will probably be a few bumps on that over a period of time, but when there are, just talk to him about it. Just say‚ "Well, you kind of overstepped it there," or "we really didn't want you to do this," or "we would have preferred to have been informed of that," and try to work it out. Again‚ it's going to take a little time and it's going to take patience. It's going to take prayer. It's going to take love. It's going to take humility. But that's all going to be part of being a member of the board and being a chairperson. And we really know you can do it and we're praying for you in it. Okay?

95. God bless you! Love you!

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