Team-to-Board Oversight Map — Draft April 2026

MAYFLOWER CHURCH

Team-to-Board Oversight Map

Streamline System 06 — Which Board Oversees Which Ministry Team

Draft April 2026

Governing Principle

Every team has a home.

When a ministry team leader has a question, a need, a candidate to recruit, or a problem to solve, they should know — without asking — which board they go to first. This document is that answer. It replaces the “Ministry Coach” role that was proposed but not approved, by naming the standing board that already has bylaw oversight of each team's work.

Purpose

This chapter maps each Mayflower ministry team to the board (Elders, Deacons, or Trustees) that oversees its work. It is the operational implementation of the principle that ministry teams work with the board that oversees their team or group, and it pairs with the Volunteers chapter and the Meeting System chapter inside System 06.

It draws first from the Mayflower Constitution and Bylaws, which name explicit areas of oversight for each board. Where the bylaws are explicit, the bylaws govern. Where the bylaws are silent, this document offers a recommendation grounded in the nature of the team's work and Mayflower's existing practice; those recommendations are flagged for elder approval.

What the Bylaws Say

The October 2024 bylaws (Article II, Section B) assign explicit areas of ministry oversight to each board. The relevant text is summarized here so this document can stand on its own.

Board of Elders (Article II, Section B, 1.c)

The Elders oversee the spiritual life of the church. The bylaws name as their explicit responsibility:

• The teaching, outreach, and worship ministries of the church.
• Adult and youth Christian Education, worship and music, Bible Fellowship Groups, missions, outreach, assimilation, baptism, and discipleship.
• The Audio/Visual Team — by direct, named bylaw reference (Article II, Section B, 1.c.4).
• Approval of the establishment and participants in all church-related Ministry Teams (Article II, Section B, 1.c.5).

The bylaws also state, broadly, that “all other Boards, Teams, and Officers will be under the oversight of, and be accountable to, the Board of Elders” (Article II, Section B, 1.a). The map below is therefore an operational distribution of that oversight, not a contradiction of it.

Board of Deacons (Article II, Section B, 2.c)

The Deacons oversee the service-related ministries of the church. The bylaws name as their explicit responsibility:

• Service-related ministries — explicitly including Sanctuary Preparation, Children's Nursery, and Hospitality.
• Compassionate member care — providing food, physical assistance, and other services to those in need.
• Receiving and distributing the Diaconate Fund and the Adams Benevolent Fund.

The Child Safety Policy (Policy Page viii of the bylaws) names the Board of Deacons as the oversight board for child protection across all Mayflower children's ministry — even when the discipling content of a children's program (e.g., DiscipleTown) sits with the Elders. This dual relationship is preserved below.

Board of Trustees (Article II, Section B, 3.c)

The Trustees are responsible for physical assets and operational facilities:

• Repairs and maintenance of buildings, grounds, and physical assets.
• Contracted services such as custodian, snow removal, and other contractors.
• Insurance and utilities of the church buildings.

The bylaws do not name a specific ministry team under trustee oversight. The Trustees' “teams” are de facto the contracted services and the building. The Building Use Policy (Policy Page vi) is shared between the Board of Elders and the Board of Trustees.

Senior Pastor — Lead Teaching Elder, Ex-Officio Across All Boards

Per Article II, Section A, 1.b.2, the Senior Pastor “is a voting Member of the Board of Elders and an ex-officio Member and advisor to all other Boards and Teams, at his discretion.” In practice, the Pastor is present in any board's work where pastoral wisdom is needed and is the day-to-day point person for staff-side ministry coordination. The Purchasing and Reimbursement Policy (Policy Page v) names the Pastor as the approval authority for Web Technology, Strategic Plan, Office Supplies, and Computer/Website/Technical expenses.

The Mayflower Team-to-Board Map

The table below shows, for each of Mayflower's seventeen ministry teams, which board carries its primary oversight. The rationale for each placement follows the table.

#	Ministry Team	Primary Oversight Board	Bylaw / Policy Basis
16	Director of Biblical Counseling	Elders	Pastoral / discipleship; falls under elder spiritual oversight. Counseling Resources budget: Lead Counselor (Purchasing Policy).
17	Bible Fellowship Group Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2 — BFGs explicitly under elder oversight.
18	Worship Team Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.1–2 — worship and music explicitly under elder oversight. Music budget: Elder Chair.
19	Audio-Visual Team Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.4 — direct named reference: “Oversee the Audio/Visual Team.”
20	Missions Team Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2 — missions explicitly under elder oversight. Outreach Fund: Elder Chair.
21	Prayer Team Leader	Elders	Recommendation. Bylaws are silent; corporate prayer is bound up with Word and worship ministries, both elder-overseen.
22	Hospitality Team Leader	Deacons	Bylaws Art. II §B 2.c.1 — Hospitality explicitly under deacon oversight. Hospitality and Coffee Hour budgets: Deacon Chair.
23	First Impressions Ministry Leader	Deacons	Recommendation. Bylaws are silent on the specific name; First Impressions is functionally Sunday hospitality (welcome, greeting, ushering), which the bylaws place under deacons.
24	DiscipleTown Leader	Elders (with Deacon child-safety oversight)	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2 — youth Christian Education and discipleship under elders. Child Safety Policy: Deacons. DiscipleTown Curriculum budget: Elder Chair.
25	Nursery Team Leader	Deacons	Bylaws Art. II §B 2.c.1 — Children's Nursery explicitly under deacon oversight. Nursery Fund: Deacon Chair. Child Safety Policy: Deacons.
26	Scripture Reading Team Leader	Elders	Recommendation. Word ministry within the Lord's Day Gathering — falls under the elders' explicit teaching and worship oversight.
27	EQUIP Discipleship Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2 — discipleship explicitly under elders. Discipleship & Evangelism supplies budget: Elder Chair.
28	Evangelism Team Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2 — outreach explicitly under elders. Discipleship & Evangelism supplies: Elder Chair.
29	Baptism Team Leader	Elders	Bylaws Art. II §B 1.c.2 — baptism explicitly under elders.
30	Shoebox Ministry Leader	Elders	Recommendation. Outreach/missions in form, even though hands-on logistics make it feel service-shaped. Outreach Fund: Elder Chair. Could equally be argued for deacons; recommend elders to preserve the bylaws' clear missions-under-elders pattern.
31	Senior Luncheon Coordinator	Deacons	Recommendation. Care of seniors through hospitality — service-related, fits the deacons' explicit hospitality/care portfolio. Hospitality Events Fund: Deacon Chair.
32	Women's Ministry Leadership Team Leader	Elders	Recommendation. Discipleship-shaped, fits explicitly under elder discipleship oversight (Art. II §B 1.c.2).

Summary by Board

The map produces this distribution of ministry teams across the three oversight boards:

Elders (13 teams)

Biblical Counseling, Bible Fellowship Groups, Worship, Audio-Visual, Missions, Prayer, DiscipleTown, Scripture Reading, EQUIP, Evangelism, Baptism, Shoebox, and Women's Ministry.

The elder portfolio is large because the bylaws give the elders responsibility for almost all teaching, worship, discipleship, and outreach work. This is intentional and reflects the biblical pattern of elder oversight of the spiritual life of the church (Acts 6, 1 Tim 3, Titus 1). In practice, the Senior Pastor carries much of the day-to-day interface with these team leaders on the elders' behalf.

Deacons (4 teams)

Hospitality, First Impressions, Nursery, and Senior Luncheon.

The deacon portfolio is focused but real — the service-shaped ministries that hold the Sunday gathering together and care for the practical needs of members. The Diaconate Fund and the Adams Benevolent Fund give the deacons direct resource authority for benevolence casework that does not flow through any team.

Trustees (no ministry teams; facilities + operations)

The Trustees do not directly oversee ministry team leaders. Their portfolio is the church buildings, grounds, contracted services, insurance, and utilities. They share with the Elders the oversight of the Building Use Policy. Ministry team leaders coordinate with the Trustees for facility-related needs (reserving rooms, requesting maintenance, working with vendors), but their primary oversight relationship lives with one of the other two boards.

Cross-Cutting and Edge Cases

Children's ministry has a dual relationship.

The DiscipleTown program (children's discipleship) is overseen by the Elders for content, curriculum, and theological direction. The Nursery is overseen by the Deacons for service and care. Both fall under the deacons for child safety (per the Child Safety Policy, Policy Page viii of the bylaws). This dual relationship is real and worth naming explicitly: the children's leaders work primarily with Elders for what they teach and primarily with Deacons for how they keep children safe. When in doubt, the elders and deacons should coordinate at the Elder-Deacon Roundtable.

Audio-Visual has a split funding pattern.

The bylaws name the Elders as the AV team's oversight board (Art. II §B 1.c.4). The Purchasing Policy lists the AV-related funds under both the Elder Chair (general A/V) and the Deacon Chair (the Audio/Visual fund — likely supplies and consumables). This is how the policy reads as written; the team itself is overseen by the elders.

Missions / outreach / mercy have natural overlap.

Missions, Evangelism, and Shoebox all sit with the Elders per the bylaws' explicit “missions and outreach” language. In Mayflower's recent doctrinal framing (see Five Priority Ministries We Guard, System 01), Missions and Outreach is named as “the church's outward calling that overflows from the five priorities” — not a separate priority. That theological framing supports the elder-oversight pattern: outreach is the overflow of Word, worship, prayer, discipleship, and shepherding, which the elders already lead.

Officers are not ministry teams.

The thirteen officer roles (Elder, Deacon, Trustee, Servants Council Member, Board of Finance Member, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Financial Secretary, Assistant Financial Secretary, Auditor, Moderator, Clerk, Nominating Team Member) are governed by their own bylaw provisions and are not included in the team-to-board map. Officer accountability runs through the bylaws and through the Servants Council.

What This Means in Practice

For the team leader.

When you have a question, a recruitment need, a problem, or a new idea, your first call is the chair of the board that oversees your team. They are your supervising leader for the purposes of the Leadership Handoff Guidelines, the Annual Goals process, and the Volunteer chapter recruitment guidance. The Senior Pastor is always available as well, but for non-pastoral matters the relevant board chair is the right starting point.

For the board chair.

You hold the development relationship with each team leader under your board. You set annual goals with them (System 11), conduct or coordinate their performance evaluation, advocate for their resource needs at the Servants Council and the Board of Finance, and keep an eye on their succession (Leadership Handoff Guidelines). When a question exceeds your board's authority, you escalate per the Decision-Making Framework (System 09).

For the Senior Pastor.

The Pastor remains ex-officio across all boards and teams. Pastoral matters, doctrinal questions, and matters that touch the spiritual life of the church flow to the Senior Pastor and the Elders. The Pastor coordinates with the relevant board chair when operational and pastoral concerns intersect.

For the elders.

The elders retain their bylaw responsibility for the church's overall spiritual oversight (Art. II §B 1.a). The team-to-board map distributes operational supervision across the three boards, but does not displace elder spiritual oversight. When the elders need to speak into any ministry — including those primarily overseen by deacons — they do so.

Open Items

• Recommendation placements (Prayer, First Impressions, Scripture Reading, Shoebox, Senior Luncheon, Women's Ministry) need elder approval to become final. The bylaws do not name them, so this map is a proposal for the elders to ratify.
• Children's ministry dual relationship needs a brief written protocol — when does a question go to elders, when to deacons? Recommend a one-page note inside this chapter once the elders and deacons agree on the boundary.
• The Servants Council should ratify this map as part of its standing approval of operations documentation, per its bylaw responsibility (Art. II §B 4.c.7) to receive and approve Ministry Team charters.
• The Audio/Visual fund being administered by the Deacon Chair while the AV Team itself is elder-overseen is a known oddity. Either rename the fund or align the oversight; not urgent.

Sources

• Mayflower Constitution and Bylaws — Article II, Sections A and B; Policies (Wedding, Diaconate Fund Financial Aid, Purchasing and Reimbursement, Building Use, Child Safety, Sunday Sales).
• Five Priority Ministries We Guard (BookStack, System 01) — for the framing of missions and outreach as the overflow of the five priorities.
• Mayflower Volunteer Chapter — Draft April 2026 (BookStack, System 06, Volunteers chapter) — for the principle that ministry teams work with the board that oversees them.
• Mayflower Leadership Handoff Guidelines — April 2026 (BookStack, System 12) — for how oversight relationships function during leader transitions.
• Mayflower Annual Goals — Draft April 2026 (BookStack, System 11) — for the annual goal-setting conversation between the team leader and the relevant board.
• Mayflower Decision-Making Framework — April 2026 (BookStack, System 09) — for which decisions go where when a matter exceeds the team or board's authority.