Policy vs Paper Clips

 

Issue No. 284 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Aug. 26, 2013) features a dialogue on how to move micromanaging board members into a new-and-improved paradigm, “The Corporate Model.” The author quotes William Bowen, former Princeton University president, “Finding the appropriate balance between executive authority and board oversight is more likely to require strengthening the hand of the CEO than building up the powers of the board.” Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Analysis Paralysis vs. Rubber-Stamping  Leaders and readers of this eNews fall into several categories: CEOs, senior team members and church leaders who work with board members Board members People who will serve on boards in the future (Listen up!) So let's be real here: much of what happens in the boardroom (nonprofit and corporate) is highly dysfunctional. In my opinion, most governance fuzziness emanates from unvoiced assumptions about the board's role and the CEO's role.   Role clarity should always prompt a discussion about governance models: the Hands-on model, John Carver's Policy Governance model, the Board Policies Manual tool, and so many other options.  Yet with all of these models and resources available with a simple Google search, why is there still so much dysfunction? (Maybe no one reads this stuff?) So here's a resource—with a very unique writing style—that will help clarify board roles and responsibilities. The author begins with the key question: what's Job #1 for a board?    According to Eugene H. Fram, the most important job of the board is “to find the best possible person to manage the organization, then stand back and let that person manage.”   That's just one of dozens of quotable one-liners and wisdom-filled paragraphs in Policy vs. Paper Clips: How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Efficient & Effective (3rd Edition).   “Volunteer directors who micromanage their agencies are, in blunt terms, cost centers for nonprofits, since they affect staff time so dramatically.” (Preach it!)   “Good governance helps eliminate the many hidden costs associated with pursuing activities that have nothing to do with the organization's purpose.” (Amen!)   “Your board should not be primarily focused on outcomes (e.g. success of specific programs) but concerned more about assessing the 'impacts' of those outcomes.” (High five!)   In putting flesh on the bones of the “generative mode” of governance (read my review of Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards), the author says boards must focus more on the “what if” and other long-term questions.     “Because directors' questions in this mode are different from the questions that they ask when day-to-day operations take up the agenda, they will find themselves focused on identifying available opportunities and vulnerabilities.   “This enables board members to tap their special expertise and professional experience in board discussions.  To draw upon this outside wealth of knowledge and perspectives, nonprofit executives should avoid acculturating board members to the 'conventional wisdom' of the organization.  “In practical terms that means, for example, that a director with marketing strategy experience should be asked to help uncover new markets to serve but not asked to write advertising copy.”   Then Fram adds, “Separating operational and policy issues is more complicated than it sounds.”    Oh! I haven't shared this bonus factor: The entire book (240 pages) is a series of short email conversations between a fictitious nonprofit CEO (an acknowledged expert and speaker on the “Corporate” board model) and a golfing buddy who just joined a nonprofit board.   Fram mentions two board sins, analysis paralysis and rubber-stamping.His solution? Use the “Corporate Model” to focus the board on policy, not operations.  The quick-reading email dialogue between two friends eliminates the typical boring governance rhetoric (yada, yada, yada) and replaces the blue sky stuff with in-the-trenches, to-the-point conversation and thoughtful next steps.     About every other chapter, I would inject, “Wait a minute. That wouldn't work!” And then in the next paragraph, the rookie board member would email my objection to his mentor—and the practical drill-down response would satisfy.  (I may steal this brilliant idea: an entire book of email conversations. It works.)   The emails are segmented into 12 chapters including:  The Corporate Model: A Board Alternative How the Model Is Structured: Intentional Simplicity Assessment and the Model: The CEO Cannot Be Insecure The Model and the Future: The Planning and Resource Committee The Model at Work: The Executive Committee and Its Responsibilities The Model Creates a New Culture: Trust Is the Critical Factor The Model and Commitment: Board Members Must Be Involved Practical charts are included like the five lists detailing the differences between the Corporate Model and the Traditional Model. The last chapter asks, “Is your organization ready for the Corporate Model?” and features 23 pages of very, very practical Q & A.   To order this book from Amazon, click on this title: Policy vs. Paper Clips: How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Efficient & Effective (3rd Edition), by Eugene H. Fram with Vicki Brown. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In one email, the rookie board member asks, “We also need more information about how to keep board members truly involved without the ego satisfaction that often comes from dealing with operational issues.”  Have you ever considered that a board member's temptation to micromanage might be related to ego satisfaction? 2) PowerPoint Rules? One email mentions this: “Directors hate [PowerPoint presentations] when they are far too long, the slides are overwhelmingly dense, or they touch on issues tangential to the case being made, or frankly are being used to stifle real dialogue).” The author prefers a limit  of 10 slides. Interesting! Do your board or staff PowerPoints encourage micromanagement and/or stifle dialogue?  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Meeting Before the Meeting Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit   If I could add another ball to my Meetings Bucket chapter (20), in Mastering the Management Buckets, it would be this wisdom from John Maxwell: “The secret to a good meeting is the meeting before the meeting.”   The “no surprises” rule is critical for the key people in each meeting—and typically, that means you must meet with them in advance.  Maxwell preaches:  If you can’t have the meeting before the meeting, don’t have the meeting.  If you do have the meeting before the meeting, but it doesn’t go well, don’t have the meeting.  If you have the meeting before the meeting and it goes as well as you hoped, then have the meeting! To read my review of Maxwell's chapter on meetings, click here: Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading. For more resources, plus book recommendations from the Meetings Bucket, click here.        MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "6 Board Dysfunctions" including when the board chair thinks he or she is the CEO's boss.

Call of the Chair - Leading the Board

 

Issue No. 363 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (June 28, 2017) warns CEOs and boards—don’t speed-vote an unsuspecting person into the board chair! David McKenna says the board chair “has responsibility for the speed, spacing, and sequence” of the governing process. (That will preach!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). 2026 Update: I was recently asked by a podcast host to recommend "the best book for a CEO and the best book for a board." As you know, it's impossible to name just one or two--but he wanted an answer. So in light of the podcast topic, here's the book I recommended for board chairs. Here's one for ministry CEOs. Before Electing Your Board Chair--STOP! If you’ve been around the nonprofit block for a few years, you’ve certainly experienced this scenario: “Quick! While Jane is out of the room—I move that she be elected the new chairperson of the board, effective immediately.” And presto! Without warning, Jane returns to the boardroom only to be handed the gavel—accompanied by the delightful dysfunctions of a nonprofit or church board of directors. Stop the madness, says David McKenna. His new book should be required reading for all nonprofit board chairs and CEOs. (Chairs of faith-based for-profit companies would also benefit.) Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, published in March by ECFAPress, is jam-packed with 119 pages of wisdom, insights, and practical help for the board and their board chairs. Example: McKenna writes that “The chair for a Christ-centered ministry must be called of God as well as elected by the board.” That would eliminate the speed-voting trick that landed Jane at the head of the board table. “When the time comes for a board to elect a new chair,” McKenna adds, “all business should stop while the members reflect in silence and ask that the Spirit of God might give them discernment in their selection.” Then this: “In the induction of the chair that follows, there should be the question, ‘Has God called you to this leadership position?’ “The prayer that follows should seal that call with the sacredness of the moment. If done in a consecration service for the board, its officers, and its members, the significance of the chair is communicated throughout the organization.” McKenna cautions: “Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit that comes with spiritual maturity. It may well be the gift that defines Christ-centered leadership.” That defining moment—and that powerful question—will eliminate speed-voting and will weed out chair candidates who aspire to resume-building versus Kingdom-building. By the way, that solemn moment suggested by McKenna reminded me of the drama/comedy film, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam). (View on Amazon Prime.) McKenna has more—and it’s convicting:     • 4 assessment questions for the board chair    • 5 deficient ways that boards elect chairs: Successor, Exemplar, Rotator, Politician, and Dissenter    • Commenting on the Rotator chair scenario, McKenna notes: “The idea is that the ministry can survive incompetence for a short period of time.”    • 1 priority: why being board chair must be that person’s number-one priority    • 9 board chair roles: Missionary, Model, Mentor, Manager, Moderator, Mediator, Monitor, Master, and Maestro    • 3 results when the board chair fails to focus on the clarity of the mission: “mushy, muddled, and almost meaningless”    • 60 words in 30 seconds: Jesus’ elevator speech! McKenna, retired president of two universities and one seminary, is author of numerous books, including Stewards of a Sacred Trust: CEO Selection, Transition and Development for Boards of Christ-centered Organizations. Read my review to learn how he helps boards segment CEOs into six descriptive categories (several are unsavory!). In Call of the Chair, McKenna defines an important fork-in-the-road for boards: “A major difference between Christ-centered ministries and for-profit or nonprofit organizations is in the question, ‘Who gets the credit?’” The Transcendent Moment Trust me—this book is very, very convicting. I am privileged to serve as board chair at Christian Community Credit Union (and so I run the ad in this eNews at no charge). But when I reached the last few pages of the book—ready to wrap it up and move on—I was blown away by “The Transcendent Moment” on pages 116-119. Whew! I won’t spoil the drama and impact for you—but recently I asked our board’s vice chair, Mike Pate (he has a great radio voice), to read those pages during our agenda segment, “10 Minutes for Governance” (a life-long learning feature at every board meeting). Here’s just one taste: “…if the board is to rise to its spiritual potential, it needs a chair who brings the personal experience of Pentecost to the leadership of the board.” Oh, my. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, by David L. McKenna. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) “Like a one-stringed banjo player, the chair will always sound the note reminding the members that the board’s role is policy, not execution.” How knowledgeable is our staff on the roles and responsibilities of the board—and the board chair? 2) On the policy governance term, “executive limitations,” McKenna illustrates: “In effect, God gave Adam and Eve a policy of executive limitation, saying, ‘Go until I say stop.’ He did not say, ‘Stop until I say go.’” Are the board’s executive limitations crystal clear to your CEO and all staff? News Flash: "Millennials Give in Traditional Ways" Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit The Donor Bucket in Mastering the Management Buckets notes Randy Alcorn’s Treasure Principle Key #1: “God owns everything. I’m his money manager.” So while your development team may be obsessing on the giving habits of Millennials, here are two reminders:    • 1. “When you spend your days in fundraising, you raise money. But when you invest your life in growing God-honoring stewards, He raises up extravagantly generous givers.” (What’s your approach to Millennials?)    • 2. According to the just-released report by ECFA, The Generosity Project: “While millennials are more likely to give online or on social media than older generations, they are as likely as or more likely to support ministries using traditional channels just like prior generations.” (Download a free executive summary from ECFA here.) For more resources on communicating your important mission and message to givers, visit the Donor Bucket webpage.   MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s 2017 series on Max De Pree's book, Called to Serve. Read the 19th blog, "The Phone-Book-Size Board Packet Syndrome."

A Board Prayer

 

Issue No. 672 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 13, 2026) urges you to buy Dan Bolin’s new book, A Board Prayer, for every person on your board. Really. You'll thank Dan for this powerful resource. Plus, click here for recent issues posted at the NEW site for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of If I Knew Then What I Know Now. Also, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and more book reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog. BONUS! View the 9-minute video summary of this review. Dan Bolin urges leaders and board members to pray, “Help me to tell the whole truth not just the parts that make me look good.” And, “Let me not bury bad news in mounds of data and detail…”   “When was the last time a mistake was owned before the board?” “Father, allow me to report honestly.” That’s one of the seven powerful prayers topics (with seven board best practices) in this new book I highly recommend:   A Board Prayer:  Explore Seven God-Honoring Board Practices by Dan Bolin (Feb. 2, 2026)   That prayer reminded me of the panel discussion I facilitated some years back with four ministry CEOs. The national conference workshop topic: “What I would do differently in my first five years as CEO.”  One well-known leader absolutely silenced the room: “I wouldn’t lie to my board!” (He shared the rest of the story. Oh, my.) Dan Bolin has been around the block (and the world). When leading Christian Camping International, his board was meeting in Bangalore, India, for their annual board meeting. As you’ll read in A Board Prayer, Dan was inspired that week to write this powerful prayer that boards worldwide are now reading together at every meeting. GOOD NEWS! Dan has generously shared this two-page prayer with leaders everywhere—and today the ripple effect is still rippling:    • The prayer is included in at least four books and a board governance toolbox. (See below.)    • I’ve facilitated this board prayer practice in dozens and dozens of board meetings with clients and clergy. Next week, I’m blessing board members again with this prayer.    • You can download the two-page prayer right here. (And LOL: read here why Dan had ample time to write this prayer in the hallway—while his board was conducting his annual performance review!) MORE GOOD NEWS! Wow. Dan Bolin has now blessed-the-socks-off of board members everywhere by adding his inspired color commentary to his original two-page prayer. His new book, A Board Prayer, features seven short chapters—exploring seven God-honoring board best practices. This is the perfect book to gift to every board member and senior team member. (If I were still a CEO or board chair, I would personally pay for the books. A praying board is very cost-effective! A no-brainer.) I know. I know. I recommend way too many “must-read” books—but please trust me on this one. This prayer has been pilot-tested around the world. I’ve read this remarkable prayer hundreds of times, yet each time the Holy Spirit faithfully elbows me about one or more lines in the prayer. (I’m a slow learner.) I’ve also seen board members respond to those holy jabs. What fun and what joy! Imagine…your board members praying these words together from Chapter 2: “Father, allow me to REPORT HONESTLY.    • Help me to tell the whole truth not just the parts that make me look good.    • Let me not bury bad news in mounds of data and detail, and don’t let me gloss over painful issues or personal failures.    • Help me to give credit to others and take responsibility for failure and lack of progress.    • Don’t let me trivialize serious issues or magnify minor successes.    • Let me tell stories and provide statistics that represent accurately.    • Help me remember that good information provides a smooth pathway to good decisions.” Each short chapter concludes with a “Personal Reflections” page and a “Board Discussion” page. Dan has done our work for us. (Thanks, Dan!) And yikes. Ask this discussion question from Chapter 2 at your next board meeting: “When was the last time a mistake was owned before the board? Has that been too long?” Note: If you’re a longtime reader of this eNews, you know I’m pretty good at mistake-making. See the awkward moment I experienced with a board member in Mistake #8, “Incessantly Whining About Being Too Busy,” in Mastering Mistake-Making. (Thanks to Jim Brown and Dick Daniels for helping me learn from Mistake #8.) Dan writes: “I have worked directly for boards for about 40 years. I have interacted with some of the best people on the planet—and a few curmudgeons.” (Can you relate?) As the new and very young CEO of Pine Cove Christian Camps in Texas, Dan was blessed to have Bob Buford (1939-2018) on his board. Buford simply asked him, “What can I do to help you be successful?” Wow. (Another must read: Drucker & Me, by Bob Buford.) CONTRARIAN! You’ll appreciate Dan’s wisdom, heart, and contrarian thinking. “Boards are badly mistaken when they think their work is about them. Boards exist to serve their organizations, consider the interest of the many stakeholders connected to the church or ministry, and ultimately to be good stewards of God’s resources." “The purpose of a board meeting is never about the board.” You’ll love his suggestion that maybe “these gatherings should be called beneficiary meetings.”  And this: “God loves the people served by the ministry, the campers, parishioners, students, patients, hungry, homeless, addicts, artists, scientists, athletes, clients of every stripe. And he loves the board members too. In fact, he loves the board enough to entrust the work of caring for his people to them, for better or for worse." “In a sense, they are not board meetings, or beneficiary meetings, they are God’s meetings.” I’m gonna borrow that line! Brilliant. When your board members read this book—their vision will be enlarged and enriched. I predict your board meetings will be less ho-hum and more hoopla! (in the best sense of the word). Dan writes, “Boards count inputs and outcomes: volunteer hours, meals served, beds filled, Sunday attendance, offering size, and any number of actions that tend to be measurable. We love to count, and that is not a bad thing, just not the only thing."    Then Dan asks, “What then, does honor God look like? (You’ll appreciate why “speaking with one voice” requires that “debate, opposing opinions, and candid deliberations stay in the room.”) And this: “Probably the least considered and yet most significant stakeholders are the people of the future. Someday, many years downstream, people’s lives will be influenced by the decisions made in the boardroom today.” (See Idea #5 below, "The Board and the Bachelor Farmer.") You don’t need any further commentary from me—so just bless your board and order one copy of A Board Prayer for every board member. (See below for creative ways to then leverage the learnings.) TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for A Board Prayer: Explore Seven God-Honoring Board Practices, by Dan Bolin. View the video summary here!    P.S. Dan Bolin and I go way back and in my review of the book, Succession, by Peter Greer and Doug Fagerstrom, I mentioned that years ago, over lunch in Dallas with Dan, we were discussing the possibility of his serving on the board of Christian Management Association (now CLA). We were good friends and I wanted an honest answer from him. If he were on the board and sensed that it was time for me to exit—would he have the guts to…? Dan interrupted before I finished my question. “You’re asking, John, could I fire you—if needed? No problem!” We both laughed—and I believed him! Gratefully, I was privileged to serve 11 years (without a pink slip) as the CEO of that national association now celebrating 50 years—but I’ll never forget that succession conversation with Dan!   10 IDEAS FOR ENRICHING FUTURE BOARD MEETINGS  HINT! Delegate your reading! Appoint a “Leaders Are Readers Champion” and begin each board meeting with “10 Minutes for Governance.”  [   ] IDEA #1. Download the two-page PDF, “A Board Prayer.” [   ] IDEA #2. Order the book, A Board Prayer, by Dan Bolin, for every board member and senior team member (and prospective board members). Order from Amazon. [   ] IDEA #3. Deputize a “Leaders Are Readers Champion,” per the book, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Read Chapter 38, “Great Boards Delegate Their Reading.” Read the blog by Kent Stroman. Order the book. [   ] IDEA #4. Begin the practice of investing “10 Minutes for Governance in Every Board Meeting” per the book, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Read Chapter 39. Read the blog by John Walling. Order the book. [   ] IDEA #5. Pray about planning for the next generation and read “The Board and the Bachelor Farmer,” per the book, More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! Read Chapter 1. Read the blog by Wayne Pederson. Order the book. [   ] IDEA #6. Pray about what to measure—and much more. Read the book, Effectiveness by the Numbers: Counting What Counts in the Church, by William R. Hoyt. Order the book. (Read my review.) [   ] IDEA #7. Read why a board chair insisted Jeff Lilley bring the two-page board prayer to every board meeting at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission! See “Prioritize Prayer Over Problems: Create space for prayer—serious supplications for a serious work.” From: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Read Chapter 10. Read the blog by Jeff Lilley. Order the book. [   ] IDEA #8. You’ll appreciate Dan Bolin’s writing style and heart for God. Visit his website to see other books by this gifted and prolific author, including:     • Blueprints: Biblical Designs for Christian Camping Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. (Read my review.)     • Jesus: Camp Director: 5,000 Campers, 12 Interns, 0 Kitchen Staff (Read my review.)     • Valentine’s Day Idea! Wives, here’s a gift suggestion for your husband: How to Be Your Wife's Best Friend: 365 Ways to Express Your Love, by Dan Bolin and John Trent. (Order from Amazon.)    And speaking of Christian camping, read my very personal—but poignant—story recently published on the God Reports website (a prayerful God moment!).   [   ] IDEA #9. The two-page board prayer is included in the following books and resources:    • Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2018) - Order from Amazon.    • *Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019) - Order from Amazon.    • TRUST: The Firm Foundation for Kingdom Fruitfulness, by Dan Busby (2015) – Order from Amazon. (Read my review.) Read more about Dan Busby (1941-2022).    • The 8 Big Mistakes to Avoid With Your Nonprofit Board: How Leaders Enrich Their Ministry Results Through God-Honoring Governance, by John Pearson (Oct. 14, 2025) – Order from Amazon.    • ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 3: Conflicts of Interest - Addressing Board and Organizational Conflicts of Interest—Avoiding Trouble, Trouble, Trouble with Related–Party Transactions. (Order from ECFA.)    *For more resources for church board members, see the three books/manuals I reviewed in 2023 on the Pails in Comparison Blog. [   ] IDEA #10. Now that you’ve already inspired a board member to be your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” (see Idea #3), check out the mini-reviews of “Best Board Books: Index to 18 Governance Stimulators” at ECFA's Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog. (And oops! Please add Book #19, The Board and the CEO. And another oops! Please add A Board Prayer as Book #20!) [   ] BONUS IDEA. Read sample pages. It was my privilege to write the foreword to A Board Prayer. I meant every word and ChatGPT did not write it! Visit Amazon here to read my foreword and Dan’s introductory chapter.       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #40 of 99: The Secret to a Good Meeting… For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #40 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring.   The Secret to a Good Meeting  Is the Meeting Before the Meeting  (Lesson 18 from Leadership Gold)  by John C. Maxwell  In just 16 quick-reading pages in Lesson 18 of Leadership Gold, the leadership guru John Maxwell builds the case for turning routine meetings into productive action-oriented gatherings. Following the counsel of Olan Hendrix, he writes that the meeting before the meeting: 1) helps you receive buy-in, 2) helps followers to gain perspective, 3) increases your influence, 4) helps you develop trust, and 5) avoids your being blindsided.     • Lesson 18 reviewed in Issue No. 367 (Aug. 30, 2017).    • Read my review on Amazon.    • Order the Kindle chapter on Amazon.    • Full book reviewed in Issue No. 84 (April 14, 2008).    • Read my review on Amazon.    • Order the full book on Amazon.    • Management Bucket #20 of 20: The Meetings Bucket  Maxwell preaches: “If you can’t have the meeting before the meeting, don’t have the meeting. If you do have the meeting before the meeting, but it doesn’t go well, don’t have the meeting. If you have the meeting before the meeting and it goes as well as you hoped, then have the meeting!”   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      Mistake #8 of 8: “Making Decisions vs. Discerning God’s Voice.” Read more in the new workbook, The 8 Big Mistakes to Avoid With Your Nonprofit Board——and leverage the action steps on page 97 about spiritual discernment and mission drift. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  •WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Note: This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Buckets Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 650+ blogs posted (between 2006 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month. "DEAR GOD ...about those stories and stats." More than 300 board governance blogs by John Pearson (and guest bloggers) are archived at ECFA’s Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog. Read Dan Bolin’s commentary on Lesson 40 from Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, “A Board Prayer,” which includes this: “Dear God…Let me tell stories and provide statistics that represent accurately.” "Lord...bring a what?" That was my initial response when I sensed the Lord asked me to bring a shepherd’s staff to my brother’s Celebration of Life service last month. I shared this story at our church’s weekly prayer gathering and a friend, Mark Ellis, posted the story on the God Reports website. (My Christian camping colleagues, especially, will appreciate this God moment.)