Every congregation has a unique genetic code. It is a complex combination of how the church began, its history, philosophy of ministry, pastors and leaders who have served and are serving, make-up of the congregation ethnically, socially and economically, its record of conflict and results, and a host of other factors.
All of these factors combine to explain why a congregation is what it is and why it operates the way it does. Churches are immensely complex organisms and organizations. The better that leaders understand the genetic code of their church, the better they are able to capitalize on its strengths and deal with its weaknesses.
Here are a number of important questions to explore as you try to understand your congregation's genetic code:
-What do you know about the founding of your church? How do you think the motives and attitudes in the church's founding - positive or negative - affect the church today?
-What was the philosophy of those who started your congregation? Is it the same philosophy the church has today, or has there been a significant shift in mission, vision or ministry philosophy? How did this shift happen?
-When there is conflict between people in the church, how do they handle their disagreements? Would you give your congregation high marks or low marks in the handling of conflict? Do you see patterns here?
-Are you aware of any significant unresolved issues within your congregation that lie beneath the surface? What are these issues, and why do you think they have not been resolved?
-How would you evaluate the unity of your board? Does your leadership board have a history of unity and love, even when faced with differences, or is there a history of conflict and broken relationships?
-If your congregation has faced significant periods of conflict in its past, what do you know about these periods? Is it possible to see trends in either the causes of these conflicts or how the conflict was handled?
-When you consider leadership, now or historically, who in your congregation has the major influence? Does the church board allow any individual (elected leaders or non-elected persons of influence) veto power over decisions of the board or the congregation? How has the power and influence structure of the church changed over the years?
-Think about major changes the congregation has made, whether related to ministry philosophy, location, ministries or staff members. Does the congregation respond to suggested changes easily, with great resistance or somewhere in between?
-Are there any subjects, people or situations related to the ministry of your church that are "off limits" for discussion? If so, why do you think these "elephants in the room" cannot be named.
Healthy characteristics of your congregation should be celebrated and affirmed regularly. We cannot do enough to affirm God's people, as He would, where they are living in His will.
Leaders should specialize in understanding the strengths of their congregations, both so they can affirm them and so they can leverage areas of strength into even greater ministry strength.
1 comment:
TJ--
I've been in my current church for about 15 months in an Associate role. I was let go from a previous church that was VERY dysfunctional and I decided then that from that time forward I would do my part in confronting issues and engage in healthy conflict.
Over the past few months, I've spent time thinking about the DNA of the church, and have identified what I believe are 4 key issues, and I've even communicated them to our Lead Pastor. While we have had one conversation about this, I don't know how to move forward. Here's the email that I sent to him (prior to our conversation); I'd love to hear your insights:
"Here are some observations at a little more than a year. As I told you this morning, these things have been on my mind for a while and I’d like to talk about them with you.
Here are just some of the positives:
We have a strong commitment to investing in the programming for children and students
Our elders love Jesus and I believe that they want to see growth
We value prayer corporately on sunday mornings
We stay connected with our elderly members at local nursing homes
We have many people committed to getting children here on Sunday mornings
We desire to teach the truth of scripture
As I thought about some “warning lights”, I narrowed them down to 4 main topics:
Vision- we do a lot of things and sometimes I wonder how they fit. Our conversation about Bible Bowl was a good one. What exactly is our vision?
Territorialism- I’m seeing this more and more.
This is really evident when it comes to Sunday worship style- when XXXXX wants 10 songs, she’s going to play 10 songs. I also had a conversation with XXXXX last week- he was frustrated because he had no control over the volume of a few instruments- he’d turn them down, and they’d turn themselves back up on their personal amps.
I see it during prayer time when people wrap up their personal announcements in prayer requests.
I see it when a Sunday School teacher has to work in her theology of end times in every study that she does.
Also, someone walked up to my friend XXXXX yesterday after SS and asked (as literally the first thing) “Have you read the Blood Moon books?” To a visitor!
Communication- I really wish that we met more and planned things out to see how the things that we did fit our vision.
Accountability- Many of the above things fit into this category. Whether it’s people filling out camp forms the week of camp or people doing 10 songs no matter what, there’s just not much accountability. Several months ago, I overheard someone on the Transportation Committee complaining that they had no voice in the recent van purchase. If we have teams and are not empowering them to serve, why have them?
Please understand that I’m not coming at you with any of these as though these are your issues. These things are deeply rooted culturally here and it will take hard work to deal with them and I want to be a part of the solution."
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