Covenants for Church Leaders

St. David’s, San Diego – Clairemont has recently adopted the following covenants for church leaders, and they offer them to congregations of the diocese that would also like to use them. If you have questions, please contact Interim Rector, the Rev. Michael Tinnon.

A Covenant of Leadership

Our Promises to God

• We promise to pray, alone and together, to thank God and to ask for God’s help in our lives and in our work for our church, and we promise to listen to God’s answer to us.

Our Promises to Our Church Family

• We promise to demonstrate our leadership and commitment to our church by our example.
• We promise to support our church pastors and staff so that their efforts can be most productive.
• We promise to try to discover what is best for our church as a whole, not what may be best for us or for some small group in the church.

Our Promises to Each Other (as Vestry Members)

• We promise to respect and care for each other.
• We promise to treat our time on the vestry as an opportunity to make an important gift to our church.
• We promise to listen with an open, nonjudgmental mind to the words and ideas of others in our church and on the vestry.
• We promise to discuss, debate, and disagree openly in vestry meetings, expressing ourselves as clearly and honestly as possible, so we are certain that the vestry understands our point of view.
• We promise to support the final decision of the vestry, whether it reflects our view or not.

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Signature and Date

(Reprinted from Behavioral Covenants in Congregations: A Handbook for Honoring Differences by Gilbert R. Rendle, with permission from the Alban Institute. Copyright ©1999 by The Alban Institute, Inc., Herndon, VA. All rights reserved.)

A Covenant for Members and Leaders

1. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will always strive to be above reproach, to be a living example of Christ so that others might follow (Philippians 3:17).
   __ Yes __ No
2. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will place my life under the Lordship of Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture, for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).
   __ Yes __ No
3. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will dedicate myself to worship the Lord my God and to serve only him and always in the name of Christ (Luke 4:8).
   __ Yes __ No
4. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will always dedicate myself to fulfill the great commandment: to love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind; and to love my neighbor as myself (Luke 10:27).
   __ Yes __ No
5. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will always seek to use my gifts in service so that I might promote the mission, vision, purposes, goals and statement of faith of St. ________ Episcopal Church building the body up in love (Ephesians 4:16).
   __ Yes __ No
6. As a church leader in this congregation: I understand that my position to serve is under the leadership and supervision of the priest-in-charge and I will submit to that leadership (Hebrews 13:17).
   __ Yes __ No
7. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will strive to promote the manifold grace of God; serving others with whatever gift I have received from the Lord. Like a good steward, I will always give of my time, talent and treasure (1 Peter 4:10).
   __ Yes __ No
8. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I will seek to be a unifying force in the church by refusing to gossip, promote dissention, and by actively promoting unity in the church body (Ephesians 4:1-3).
   __ Yes __ No
9. As a church member/leader in this congregation: I pledge to faithfully support the mission and vision for this parish. In this effort, I also pledge my faithful support to the vestry.
   __ Yes __ No

I understand all aspects of this covenant and will seek to fulfill all of them, knowing that in my human strength, I may falter and fail, but by God’s grace, I am more than a conqueror through God who loves me.

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Signature and Date