Spirit of Organization

In my discussions with church leaders about the importance of a mission statement, I have occasionally come across some who feel that the church does not need a mission statement because it already has one in the Great Commission. The Great Commission is the central New Testament mandate from the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples to “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19, NLT). Concerning this mandate, Willmington (1997) writes: “This final instruction from the Lord . . . has been the marching order of the church down through the ages” (p. 547).

This mandate is the core mission of the Church. Any church that ignores it–or replaces it with what it considers to be a more politically correct purpose–is no longer functioning as the Body of Jesus Christ on earth. Every structure that the church designs, every process that it puts into place, every effort to motivate others and every human resource policy that it adopts must be judged by how effective it is at helping the church to accomplish the great commission. When it comes to the Church, we have no right to replace that central purpose with something else, no matter how unpopular or inconvenient it may seem.

On the other hand, it is also true that a church has specific capabilities and works within a particular community. Just like an individual, a congregation also has a unique calling within and consistent with the general calling of the Great Commission. What the apostle Paul wrote about individual Christians in I Corinthians, chapter 12:4-6, can also be said of churches: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone” (ESV). Within the unity of the one Great Commission, there is great variety in terms of how that mission is accomplished. This means that every church will have a particular focus that gives its mission statement a quality of uniqueness, just as every individual has a unique personality.

The following questions may help a congregation’s top leadership team to discover their unique mission.

1. Which sector of the population have you been called to go to and make disciples?*
2. What are the basic felt needs of this group?
3. Does your church have the capabilities and resources to meet any of these needs?
4. What are the constraints under which your particular church must work?

By discussing these questions with your leadership team, your church can begin to develop a feel for the unique mission statement that describes the calling of God for this particular congregation.

*Note: Christians will often immediately answer this question by saying: “the whole world!” You need to point out that no one congregation can take on such a huge task. It’s like answering the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time. God has uniquely equipped individual congregations to bite off one chunk of the elephant and to specialize in that chunk. No one congregation is expected to eat the whole elephant (Read more…)

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Works Cited

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Cor 12:4-6.

Holy Bible : New Living Translation. “Text Edition”–Spine., 2nd ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), Ex 13:11-13.

H. L. Willmington, Willmington’s Bible Handbook (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1997), 547.

One of the functions of the human brain is to filter the data input that it receives so we can make sense of our environment. If we had to decide on the meaning of sensory input every time it came, all action would cease and we would be paralyzed by a constant process of trying to interpret the flood of information coming in. What happens instead is that, as we grow from childhood to adulthood, we develop a system of categories that help us to rapidly interpret data and this allows us to function normally.

Sometimes, however, our categories are too simplistic to encompass the reality that we are experiencing. Yet, we insist on forcing reality into these categories because that feels more comfortable than going through the painful process of developing new or hybrid categories.

This kind of oversimplification happens in every field of human activity. Scientists too often cling to a theory they have developed, in spite of a growing body of evidence that contradicts that theory, because, it’s simply less painful to stick with one’s current categories than it is to allow new input to change them.

Pastors and other church leaders are not exempt from this natural tendency to see things more simply than they really are. In the church, the tendency is to see all problems as having a “spiritual” source. I call this the one-dimensional view of the church.

Of course, from the believer’s point of view, the church does have a spiritual dimension and that’s what makes the church different from any other institution or organization in human history. In the words of the Apostle Paul, God, the Father, gave Christ “as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22-23, NSAB). The direct presence of Christ, in His Spirit, links the church to the spiritual realm in a way that no other organization can claim.

But the church is not just a spiritual entity. If one views the church through this singular lens, he will tend to interpret all data as having a spiritual origin and cause. But, in addition to having a spiritual nature, the church also has a corporate nature and, in that corporate nature, the church shares many of the same dimensions as any other human organization. To effectively identify, interpret, and resolve church problems it is essential that pastors learn how adjust their own perceptions and view the church through multiple categories. As Reginald Revans (1980) once said it, “Managers who cannot change their own perceptions of their problems cannot change the conditions that create those problems” (p. 137).

This is where Jay Galbraith’s Star model for organizational design can help pastors create for themselves additional categories that might help them to more accurately and more flexibly diagnose the problems that may be disturbing their churches. Not all problems have a spiritual source and nor can they all be attributed to a lack of prayer or commitment on the part of the people.

Galbraith’s model adds five additional dimensions all of which might be contributing to a given problem and might serve as a starting place for developing a solution. Below is a diagram of Galbraith’s model.

Source: Galbraith, 2002, p. 9.

Even more important than recognizing that these other dimensions exist is to understand also that they interact with one another as a systemic whole. If you change any of the five points of the star, you must be aware of subsequent changes that will likely be required in all the other dimensions. Like a delicate spider web, if you pluck on a strand of the web, the entire web vibrates from that single pluck. These points on the star become leverage points that the church leadership can use to make adjustments and help the church move forward toward the call that God has given her.

The star model is not meant to replace or minimize the importance of spirituality, but merely to point out that the church is multi-dimensional and that these multiple dimensions are interrelated and that change must take into account all of these dimensions (Read More…).

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Sources Cited

Galbraith, Jay R. 2002. Designing Organizations: An Executive Guide to Strategy, Structure and Process. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 0-7879-5745-3

Revans, Reginald. 1980. Action Learning: New Techniques for Management. London: Blond & Bridges.

Faith and Organization, at first sight, appear to be contradictory to one another, but upon closer observation we find them to be inseparably linked. Some people who claim to have faith are notorious for their lack of action. They may even blame their inaction on their faith or they think that their faith can serve as a replacement for their lack of action. The human psyche is notorious for its ability to rationalize human behavior. We often fail to muster the courage to act and rationalize this inaction by referring to our faith. I have often heard my Christian brothers express a sense of superiority over the materialistic corporate world because they have faith and the business world doesn’t. They ignore the tremendous faith that it takes to step out and invest one’s life savings to launch a new business endeavor. They ignore the faith that it takes to lead an organization into the turbulent waters of a changing world.

There are also those who believe that action alone, devoid of any unifying or energizing interior source, can bring about change. These people tend to cover their own inner emptiness with busyness. Corporate leaders may run their businesses as though this physical world were the entire sum of existence. This too is wrong and dangerous. Many CEOs have plummeted into despair and burnout because they have not availed themselves of the spiritual source of life. Thomas Merton referred to this type of individual when he wrote:

The loss of faith has involved at the same time a complete loss of all sense of reality. Being means nothing to those who hate and fear what they themselves are. Therefore they cannot have peace in their own reality (which reflects the reality of God). They must struggle to escape their true being, and verify a false existence by constantly viewing what they themselves do. They have to keep looking in the mirror for reassurance. What do they expect to see? Not themselves! They are hoping for some sign that they have become the god they hope to become by means of their own frantic activity-invulnerable, all powerful, infinitely wise, unbearably beautiful, unable to die!”

James the brother of Christ recognized this close link between inward values and outward action that together bring about change. He wrote: “What profit is it if a man says he has faith and does not have works? Can faith save him? … Someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith from my works” (Jas 2:14, 18, MKJV). The Christian faith and good organizational principles are not enemies but go hand in hand.

Generally, the Christian faith and sound organizational theory should be viewed as having a synergistic compatibility and not as antagonistic. The church has many things in common with the world of business.

• We have a mission statement (Mr 16:15).
• We need to develop a strategy (Act 1:8).
• We will be held accountable for the quality of our product (1Co 3:12-15).
• We must understand and work with people (Php 4:2).
• We must pay attention to our client (1Co 9:19-22).
• We have core values (Mt 13:46).
• We are called to produce results (Mtt 28:19).

The Church is the Body of Christ; as such, it has a spiritual head and an earthly body. Sound organizational principles and theory can serve the church to accomplish its mission in the world (Read More …)

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