As with so very many other things, Scum doesn’t fit neatly into any category.  We are a nondenominational church. We are self-governing; meaning we adhere to our governing documents (Bylaws, Processes and Procedures, Employee Handbook). In most other respects, Scum appears on the surface to follow the Congregationalist model. There is an elected Council that votes on important but often routine decisions that don’t necessarily need to be brought to the attention of the entire church—who will repair our roof, which contractor to use for waste management, and whether we format budget summaries as spreadsheets or charts (yes, these are all real things that Scum’s Council has handled). Since the average person coming to Scum does care that the roof doesn’t leak, that the trash is hauled away, and that the budget is accessible if he or she has a concern, but probably doesn’t feel the burning desire to pore over pages of bids from contractors or debate the pros and cons of Microsoft Excel, these necessary but routine tasks are handled behind the scenes by Council, without boring the congregation unduly. There is a line between having a voice and being rendered speechless by a profusion of mundane details; one of the Council’s functions is to keep from crossing that line.

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For day-to-day implementation of Scum’s mission and ministry, the responsibility lies largely with the Staff and, with their oversight, Lay Leaders within the congregation. The Senior Pastor holds the role of head of staff where they oversee all SOTEC employees along with the position of the elder where they hold the mission and vision of the church and gives them a seat at on the council. The council answers to themselves and the congregation at large.

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Lay Leaders include, but are definitely not limited to: worship team leaders, celebrants, Sunday school teachers, prayer team leaders, meal coordinators, potluck organizers, small group leaders, and that person who’s there for every event doing a little of everything that you may not always notice but you know things might just go to pieces without them (every church has at least one of these indispensable folks). Scum has always tried, with increasing success over time, to be a church run not by the pastoral Staff but by the Lay Leadership primarily.

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One component of Scum’s congregational mix that has kept us from having a purely Congregationalist model for making major decisions has been the fact that ours is a pretty transient congregation, historically. Over time this has become less true as the makeup of Scum has diversified to include families and adults with more settled lifestyles, rather than comprising largely students and young adults who might be gone for several months out of the year or who might have to move out of state in noticeable numbers. When this transience was more of a rule than an exception, Scum’s leadership needed to develop a workable model for some manner of congregational self-government while still keeping important decisions mainly in the hands and hearts of those who would be at Scum long-term.

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For a basic introductory summary, though, the Council is an elected body invested with a degree of policy- and decision-making power. There are six elected members who serve three-year terms; their election is staggered so that each year two members finish and two new members are elected to replace them.

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There is a seventh member of Council, who doesn’t have a designated term; this is the Elder, who acts as a voting representative of the Staff. The Elder is the only member of the pastoral Staff who sits on the Council in a voting capacity. Any other members of Staff or the congregation may attend Council meetings if they wish, but unless they are there to present something that has been placed ahead of time on the meeting agenda, they are there only in an observer’s capacity and may be asked to step out of the room when sensitive topics are discussed. (Don’t worry—unless there’s something really strange afoot, you’ll be able to hear the whole glorious discussion of who we should hire to repair the swamp cooler.)

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You can also expect that if you have any questions about it, you can talk with any of Scum’s Staff or Council, or even drop us a line at info@scumoftheearth.net (please note that a real-time conversation will probably get you answers more quickly, but if you have a question about something at 2 a.m., email is the best way to ensure that the person answering it is alert and on-game).