Planning and serving
21/09/14 05:21
There was a time in my life when I was pretty goal-driven. Somewhere, early in life, I learned that it was a positive value to set a goal and work toward it. Really big goals were encouraged. And I have had many phases of my life when there were specific goals - some very challenging - and I worked until they were accomplished. I still use goals as part of my planning process.
I am not, however, a big fan of complex formulas for strategic planning for organizations. I’ve been though the formal process of setting goals, dividing the goals into objectives, specifying the ways we will measure progress and leaving the meeting with our assignments. A good strategic planning session within an organization will involve no small amount of disagreement and negotiation about the wording of the various goals and objectives. There will be a lot of effort put into writing up the documents which then will be filed. Strategic plans provide a snapshot of a moment in the life of an organization. They rarely are flexible enough to adapt to the constantly changing nature of the organization.
In the world of the church, I’ve participated in plan after plan after plan. However, I can’t really think of a time when the organization had the energy and focus to see a plan through. We get part of the way through the plan and the people who are in leadership change, the focus shifts, and new directions are set. A church is a complex set of relationships. Even in churches with stable leadership, the demands of day to day living require a high degree of flexibility.
A few years ago, it became popular to speak of “best practices” when talking about church organization and structure. Many denominations were undergoing another round of restructuring forced by changes in demographics, shifts in financial priorities and a general decline in the role of mainline denominations. Our church was no exception. In meeting after meeting, people would speak of best practices. They often made vague references to the business world, but most of those references were anecdotal. The truth is that a church doesn’t really run very much like a business.
We don’t have a product to sell. We don’t set prices in a marketplace. Using those terms to talk about the lives and faith of people always leads to a distorted and skewed image of the nature of the church.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t need planning. Big projects like disaster relief, international partnerships, and new congregations don’t just happen. They require careful analysis of the situation and teamwork that follows a predictable pattern. A local congregation has to have a certain amount of structure to be capable of taking care of the mundane realities of building maintenance, utilities, salaries and the like.
People rarely join churches out of a love of meetings and a desire to spend more time in negotiations. They join for the joy of worship and the desire to raise their children surrounded by a community of faith. They join for support in times of crisis and fellowship of other believers. They have enough bills and meetings and chores in other areas of their lives.
Still, it is true that many people feel a call to use their gifts and talents to serve. One of the things that congregations of all sizes share is the need for carefully matching the gifts, talents and skills of members with appropriate avenues of service. Sometimes those matches are a surprise. A person may be very good at some necessary job that is very different from what they do to earn their living. Sometimes people who are supervisors enjoy just being workers. Sometimes people who have very little authority don’t mind assuming authority in the church. And sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes a person is just wrong for the job that we have recruited that person to do.
The bottom line is that what might be a best practice for a law practice or a retail store may not be the best practice for a church.
I’ve read a lot of books about leadership, change, organizational structure, and similar topics. I try to keep up with the general trends. And I have come to the conclusion that the best leadership for a church doesn’t come from a book. It comes from a commitment to the people. That doesn’t mean that one should be random in the ways that one spends one’s time. But it does mean that a pastor needs to let go of that list of objectives and spend time listening to the people who are served.
It means that pastors need to daily take seriously the call to serve. We do not lead from the top of a hierarchy. We serve alongside the people of God. Our organization may be less than perfect. Our goals may be constantly changing. We may not develop the most efficient structures. We are called to serve others.
I sometimes joke with members of our church that one thing that pastors don’t learn in theological seminary is that their job is mostly janitor work. It seems that I am constantly moving furniture around the church. A board meeting needs long tables, a fellowship group needs round tables, the piano is best in this location for this event and another location for another. Our church is full of folding chairs. They are constantly in the wrong room or the wrong configuration. I don’t mind moving furniture. We have good carts and racks that make it easy to do the job without too much lifting and strain. And a person who is often sitting while working needs the physical activity of moving things around.
Form one perspective, it probably isn’t the most efficient for the most expensive employee in the organization to be moving tables from room to room. But the church doesn’t excel in efficiency. I believe it is a very good example for a pastor to be willing to do what needs to be done and then be willing to do it again and again. I prefer to lead from the midst of the people rather than from the head of the crowd.
We have a file of notes on strategic plans in our file cabinet. I haven’t gotten out that file for a long time. But if you need the cabinet moved to another location - I’m your guy!
I am not, however, a big fan of complex formulas for strategic planning for organizations. I’ve been though the formal process of setting goals, dividing the goals into objectives, specifying the ways we will measure progress and leaving the meeting with our assignments. A good strategic planning session within an organization will involve no small amount of disagreement and negotiation about the wording of the various goals and objectives. There will be a lot of effort put into writing up the documents which then will be filed. Strategic plans provide a snapshot of a moment in the life of an organization. They rarely are flexible enough to adapt to the constantly changing nature of the organization.
In the world of the church, I’ve participated in plan after plan after plan. However, I can’t really think of a time when the organization had the energy and focus to see a plan through. We get part of the way through the plan and the people who are in leadership change, the focus shifts, and new directions are set. A church is a complex set of relationships. Even in churches with stable leadership, the demands of day to day living require a high degree of flexibility.
A few years ago, it became popular to speak of “best practices” when talking about church organization and structure. Many denominations were undergoing another round of restructuring forced by changes in demographics, shifts in financial priorities and a general decline in the role of mainline denominations. Our church was no exception. In meeting after meeting, people would speak of best practices. They often made vague references to the business world, but most of those references were anecdotal. The truth is that a church doesn’t really run very much like a business.
We don’t have a product to sell. We don’t set prices in a marketplace. Using those terms to talk about the lives and faith of people always leads to a distorted and skewed image of the nature of the church.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t need planning. Big projects like disaster relief, international partnerships, and new congregations don’t just happen. They require careful analysis of the situation and teamwork that follows a predictable pattern. A local congregation has to have a certain amount of structure to be capable of taking care of the mundane realities of building maintenance, utilities, salaries and the like.
People rarely join churches out of a love of meetings and a desire to spend more time in negotiations. They join for the joy of worship and the desire to raise their children surrounded by a community of faith. They join for support in times of crisis and fellowship of other believers. They have enough bills and meetings and chores in other areas of their lives.
Still, it is true that many people feel a call to use their gifts and talents to serve. One of the things that congregations of all sizes share is the need for carefully matching the gifts, talents and skills of members with appropriate avenues of service. Sometimes those matches are a surprise. A person may be very good at some necessary job that is very different from what they do to earn their living. Sometimes people who are supervisors enjoy just being workers. Sometimes people who have very little authority don’t mind assuming authority in the church. And sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes a person is just wrong for the job that we have recruited that person to do.
The bottom line is that what might be a best practice for a law practice or a retail store may not be the best practice for a church.
I’ve read a lot of books about leadership, change, organizational structure, and similar topics. I try to keep up with the general trends. And I have come to the conclusion that the best leadership for a church doesn’t come from a book. It comes from a commitment to the people. That doesn’t mean that one should be random in the ways that one spends one’s time. But it does mean that a pastor needs to let go of that list of objectives and spend time listening to the people who are served.
It means that pastors need to daily take seriously the call to serve. We do not lead from the top of a hierarchy. We serve alongside the people of God. Our organization may be less than perfect. Our goals may be constantly changing. We may not develop the most efficient structures. We are called to serve others.
I sometimes joke with members of our church that one thing that pastors don’t learn in theological seminary is that their job is mostly janitor work. It seems that I am constantly moving furniture around the church. A board meeting needs long tables, a fellowship group needs round tables, the piano is best in this location for this event and another location for another. Our church is full of folding chairs. They are constantly in the wrong room or the wrong configuration. I don’t mind moving furniture. We have good carts and racks that make it easy to do the job without too much lifting and strain. And a person who is often sitting while working needs the physical activity of moving things around.
Form one perspective, it probably isn’t the most efficient for the most expensive employee in the organization to be moving tables from room to room. But the church doesn’t excel in efficiency. I believe it is a very good example for a pastor to be willing to do what needs to be done and then be willing to do it again and again. I prefer to lead from the midst of the people rather than from the head of the crowd.
We have a file of notes on strategic plans in our file cabinet. I haven’t gotten out that file for a long time. But if you need the cabinet moved to another location - I’m your guy!