Foundation · Module 2 of 9
M2 — Management
Build a healthy governance and operating structure with clear authority, accountable leadership, effective meetings, documented policies, and dependable execution.
Nine M curriculum version 1.0 · Nine M methodology, content, exercises and deliverables by Pastor Lee Jenkins.
Official outcome
Church Management and Accountability Plan
- Governance and Authority Map showing spiritual oversight, governance body, executive leadership, and daily management
- Organization chart with named roles and reporting lines
- Role and Decision Rights Matrix (recommend, decide, execute, approve, informed) for ten recurring church decisions
- Role scorecards defining expectations, boundaries, and success measures for key positions
- Leadership-team standards for conduct, communication, and conflict handling
- Documented meeting and reporting rhythm with cadence, agenda structure, and follow-through owners
- 30-60-90-day Accountability Dashboard tracking decisions through to completed work
- Policy register listing existing, missing, and outdated policies by ministry area
- Key-Person Dependency and Policy Gap Register identifying single points of failure
- 90-day improvement plan with owners, due dates, and review checkpoints for closing the highest-priority gaps
Suggested duration: 4 weeks · about 7 hours of leadership time · Owner: Church Administrator · Coach: Pastor Lee Jenkins · Approval: Awaiting leadership approval
Module health
At riskBaseline 55 · no follow-up yet
Module purpose
Suggested leadership time: About 7 hours of leadership time
Management is the M that turns a congregation's calling into a functioning organization. Many churches run for years on informal authority, a founding pastor's memory, and volunteers who quietly hold entire ministries together. That pattern works until it does not: a leader gets sick, a treasurer moves away, or two well-meaning ministries collide over the same decision because no one ever wrote down who owns it. This module gives leadership a shared map of governance, roles, decision rights, meeting rhythm, and policy so the church can operate with clarity rather than improvisation.
Across four weeks, leadership will distinguish spiritual oversight from day-to-day management, assign clear decision rights across ten recurring church decisions, build a meeting and reporting rhythm that actually finishes work, and expose the places where the church depends on one undocumented person. The principal deliverable, the Church Management and Accountability Plan, gathers a governance map, an organization chart, a role and decision-rights matrix, leadership-team standards, a meeting rhythm, a policy register, succession risks, and a 90-day improvement plan into one document the board and pastoral team can act on together.
Official outcome — Church Management and Accountability Plan
Leadership will have approved a documented governance structure, an organization chart with named roles, a decision-rights matrix covering ten recurring decisions, a meeting and reporting rhythm, a policy register with identified gaps, a key-person dependency register, and a 90-day improvement plan ready for implementation.
Deliverable component checklist
- 1. Governance and Authority Map showing spiritual oversight, governance body, executive leadership, and daily management
- 2. Organization chart with named roles and reporting lines
- 3. Role and Decision Rights Matrix (recommend, decide, execute, approve, informed) for ten recurring church decisions
- 4. Role scorecards defining expectations, boundaries, and success measures for key positions
- 5. Leadership-team standards for conduct, communication, and conflict handling
- 6. Documented meeting and reporting rhythm with cadence, agenda structure, and follow-through owners
- 7. 30-60-90-day Accountability Dashboard tracking decisions through to completed work
- 8. Policy register listing existing, missing, and outdated policies by ministry area
- 9. Key-Person Dependency and Policy Gap Register identifying single points of failure
- 10. 90-day improvement plan with owners, due dates, and review checkpoints for closing the highest-priority gaps
Learning objectives and completion requirements
Learning objectives
- • Distinguish spiritual oversight, governance, executive leadership and daily management
- • Define who recommends, decides, executes, approves and is informed
- • Establish a meeting and reporting rhythm that completes work
- • Reduce dependence on undocumented knowledge or one person
Completion requirements
- • All four lessons marked complete
- • All four exercises submitted
- • Required evidence uploaded
- • Named principal deliverable generated and approved
- • 90-day action plan created with owners and dates
- • Coach review recorded
Lessons
Four complete lessons. Each produces one named artifact for the official outcome.
Lesson 1 — Governance, Leadership, and Ministry Operations
Distinguish spiritual oversight, governance, executive leadership, and daily management so the church can name who holds each layer of authority. · 75 minutes · produces Governance and Authority Map
CompleteOpen full lessonLesson 2 — Roles, Responsibilities, and Decision Rights
Define who recommends, decides, executes, approves, and is informed for the church's most common recurring decisions. · 90 minutes · produces Decision Rights Matrix and Role Scorecards
Not completeOpen full lessonLesson 3 — Meetings, Accountability, and Execution
Establish a meeting and reporting rhythm that converts decisions into completed work rather than repeated conversation. · 75 minutes · produces Meeting Audit and 30-60-90-day Accountability Dashboard
Not completeOpen full lessonLesson 4 — Continuity, Policies, and Leadership Health
Reduce the organization's dependence on undocumented knowledge or any single person by identifying key-person risks and closing policy gaps. · 90 minutes · produces Key-Person Dependency and Policy Gap Register
Not completeOpen full lesson