Ministry Accountability Team Guidelines
It is impossible for us to provide as much of the “up close” personal support we believe an individual needs to sustain long term ministry either here in Canada or abroad. Therefore, we require each A.C.T. ministry department or project recruit to sustain an active Ministry Accountability Team (MAT).
A Ministry Accountability Team will
- Serve as a sounding board and check-and-balance team for you and your ministry department
- Keep ministry oversight close to the ministry, tailored to your unique needs
- Increase a broader grassroots involvement of local churches and friends
- Assist with some of the practical needs of your ministry
The Role of the Ministry Accountability Team
1. Ministry Mission & Vision Statement Development
- Affirming and assisting you in clarifying a specific ministry calling by helping to discern your ministry skills and gifts and to refine your ministry goals
- Helping to discover both what you are and are not gifted and called to do
- Helping develop an awareness of your potential ministry setting and how your gifts, calling, and personality will fit in that setting
- Helping culminate a clear, concise statement articulating your Mission and Vision
- Helping validate your gifts, calling, and ministry goals
2. Ministry Plan Development, Implementation, and Monitoring Will:
- Assisting you in constructing a ministry plan which has measurable goals and can be communicated easily to supporters and interested friends. It must be realistic in light of your ministry setting, gifts, and calling.
- Helping you to formulate a plan outlining the basic objectives and activities required to accomplish your Mission and Vision.
- Committing to regularly monitor and review your Ministry Plan to see that you are staying true to your Mission and Vision.
- Agreeing to assist in any way they may be able to carry out the Ministry Plan
3. Projected Spending Plan (budget) Development & Monitoring
- Helping you create a “Projected Spending Plan”
- Committing to regularly monitor and review your Projected Spending Plan to see that it is realistic for your Ministry Plan and that your personal and family needs are being met
- Holding you accountable to A.C.T.’s required financial policies and procedures
4. Support Raising And Donor Communication
- Helping you raise & monitor monthly support levels and helping to make critical decisions when your support falls below your desired minimum level
- Assisting you with communication to your prayer and financial supporters
5. Pastoral Care
- Assessing your spiritual, emotional, and physical health needs
- Providing or seeking the help needed to address the areas of need
- Communicating with the A.C.T. Home Office related to any areas of concern or need
- It assumes a deep trust relationship to confront and resolve any personal difficulties that arise in the ministry setting
The Members of the Ministry Accountability Team
- A.C.T. suggests starting with yourself and two others on your formal MAT
- Members should be donors to your ministry department.
- Members need not live in your geographical proximity. If the members don’t, they must be willing to be in regular contact with you
- A chairperson should be appointed for the Ministry Accountability Team. The chair of the MAT serves as key point person for the purpose of communicating to the rest of the MAT members and the A.C.T. Home Office (and therefore the A.C.T. Board) any of your special needs. At first, you should chair the MAT until someone else can take this role.
- A member of your family may be a member of the MAT, but probably would not best serve as chair
- You may choose to have other key individuals serve as non-voting Advisors who may bring specific areas of expertise or assistance to your ministry.
We suggest that you ask for an initial six-month term of service, at the end of which, you and the members can evaluate the benefits of a longer commitment.