What happens at our annual ABT Board and Advisor meetings?
Each year has been different! This year for the first time we met on Friday at noon and started the weekend out with two subcommittee meetings. The first committee wrestled with the question of how to continue providing adequate training and equipping for the sending churches we partner with. The second committee worked toward finishing up a review of ABT’s Policy Handbook. Both groups transitioned to meeting around 3:30 to continue methodically working our way together through ABT’s Translation Policy (presently in draft stage).
Then on Friday evening all the Board Members' and Advisors’ wives were invited to join us for supper followed by a time of worship and prayer. We prayed together over each field-region and team by name. After that we broke up into three smaller groups to pray for each member-in-training and sending church partnership.
Following this the Executive Team reported on what they, by the grace of God, accomplished in 2017. Aaron Crider presented a couple of graphs to portray the estimated percentages of time spent in various tasks (communication with members, strategic planning, training, prayer, team meetings, etc.)
What was the highlight of Friday evening? Two 15-20 minute speeches by ABT Advisor Paul Weaver (from Christian Aid Ministries) and Steve Sanford (a consultant from Ethnos360, formerly NTM) with each session followed by a time of Q&A.
- Paul Weaver lectured on the subject of “Effective Interaction Between a Board and Executive Committee.”
- Steve Sanford addressed the topic of “The Reason Behind the Big Picture Methodology of Ethnos360.”
Most of us stayed overnight at the cabin. The following morning began with prayer, worship (the men of the ABT board really like to sing), a devotional and eventually a formal meeting with reading of minutes with a typical agenda. This always includes a financial report, re-appointments for advisors, discussing various big-picture questions, etc.
And finally, it wouldn’t be permissible to forget to mention that in the middle of everything else that happened Saturday, we enjoyed an extremely generous brunch catered by Rebecca Sauder!
*ABT Board of Directors meets with the ABT Executive Committee twice quarterly (once in person and once via conference call). The ABT Advisory Council joins us annually each January.
