Dealing with problematic behaviors

One of the things ministries are fairly deficient at is addressing problematic behaviors that cause havoc to the health of teams and organizations. Many problematic behaviors would be addressed in a business environment that are not addressed in a ministry setting.


Think about the following behaviors and their impact on a ministry. Overt or covert resistance to the missional agenda. Passive aggressive behavior that undermines leaders, teams and ministry direction. Add to the list, outright nasty attitudes, cynicism, criticism, or sniping that again undermine any sense of unity that is so critical to ministry success. Let's be honest: these kinds of behaviors are poison to teams and organizations.

I think the reason we put up with such behaviors in ministry is that with our emphasis on "grace" and our lack of training in dealing with personnel we often allow behaviors that undermine the very results that we want to see. I often talk to pastors about the person on their staff who causes havoc with the whole team. Knowing that these behaviors hurt the ministry but wanting to be redemptive in our leadership, how do we deal with behaviors that undermine ministry?


First, recognize that unhealthy behaviors hurt ministry! Think about the list of problematic behaviors that are listed in the book of Ephesians and Paul's emphatic insistence that we "get rid of such" behavior and put on the character of Christ. Certainly those in full time ministry need to exhibit healthy attitudes and behaviors. Those behaviors that undermine unity, create cynicism, divide people, or overtly or covertly undermine the missional agenda of the organization are destructive and should be declared illegal in any ministry. 


Second, we need to learn to honestly confront such behaviors, explain to those involved why the behaviors are problematic and how they impact others. The good news is that in many instances, those involved do not want to impact others in the ways they do but no one has ever been honest with them about their behaviors and the results of their behaviors. Thus in many cases, with coaching and ongoing feedback, people will understand the issues and seek to change the behaviors. Frankly, the most helpful thing we can do with those with problematic behaviors is simply to be honest.

People do not change quickly so redemptive strategy requires that we give people time to change, the coaching that is needed to help them change and some patience in the process. All with ongoing feedback.

But, if after honest feedback and coaching, attitudes or behaviors do not change, problematic behaviors must be dealt with if the ministry is going to be healthy. That may mean isolating someone where they will do the least damage. Or it may mean transitioning them out of your ministry. Remember that such behaviors are not just irritants, they actually negatively impact other staff, ministry effectiveness, team unity and the very culture of the organization. So, not dealing with these issues is a lack of grace to others who are impacted by the behaviors.


The bottom line is that we need to be redemptive to those with problematic behaviors but also for the organization. Ignoring the issue is the real threat.

Bringing change to your organization

The need for change and greater missional effectiveness is huge both for congregations and ministry organizations. Too many ministries are living in the dusty pages of the past with the illusion that all is well when they are actually one generation from extinction or irrelevance. The greatest gift in these situations is a leader who will take the risk to seriously rock the boat and bring about fundamental change to both the thinking and practices of the ministry. Let's talk about the steps that are necessary for that to happen.

Create a crisis.
Unless people see a compelling need for change they generally will not go there. A change agent's job is first to shake the confidence of the organization by creating a crisis and making the case that unless something changes, there is no compelling future for the ministry. This is often done by being honest about the lack of results, the health of the ministry and the trend lines. Bringing truth to the surface has a way of creating great discomfort if that truth reveals significant fault lines. Because a hallmark of unhealthy ministries is that they live with the illusion that all is well, that illusion must first be publicly punctured with truth.

Bring a new clarity
As the crisis is being created, change agents also start to articulate a new clarity that creates an alternative to the status quo. What is must be balanced by what can and should be so that the truth of today's reality is offset by a hopeful alternative for tomorrow. There is no better way to do this than face to face, in conversation and group dialogue. One is not seeking to change the minds of the change resistant but to win the support of early adopters and reasonable people. You will not convince everyone, nor does one need to. You do have to convince enough people, however, to gain a coalition of the willing to move in a new direction.

Replace leaders
Inevitably deep change will require a new set of leaders. The leaders you have got you to where you are and it is unlikely that most of them will get you to where you need to go. In fact, most ministries that need change do not even value a true leadership culture where leaders lead. Often they value a management culture where nice people manage the status quo. So the challenge is really twofold, replace current leaders with true leaders who are fully aligned with you and create a leadership culture where leadership is valued and encouraged. But remember. Those who got you to here will almost never get you to there if you are bringing significant change.

Build healthy teams
All healthy ministry organizations are made up of healthy teams. So the next step is to intentionally build teams of people who will work synthetically with one another under good leadership with accountability for results. The lack of such teams is one of the contributing factors to an unhealthy organization. This is not an easy transition because in unhealthy ministries, people are not used to actually working with each other and what passes as a team is usually not a team at all. A great deal of attention is needed to coach and mentor team leaders who have not had such coaching or training in the past.

Focus everyone on the missional agenda
A lack of missional focus is one of the reasons that ministries flounder. Lack of clarity about what they are about, lack of good leadership to keep people focused, lack of teams to harness different gifts are all part of the equation. Change agents constantly keep staff focused on what really matters with an honest evaluation of results. Again, this is not an easy transition for people who have valued faithfulness above actual ministry fruit. 

Stay the course
Organizational change only comes when there is a dogged conviction that things must change and a leader who will do whatever it takes to see that change happens. Look for some wins along the way and celebrate but know that real change takes years, not months and the larger the organization, the longer it will take. It is not unusual for the change process to take five to ten years and it is not complete until a new DNA is so secure that the leader can leave and the change remains.

It can be a lonely job to be a change agent and it takes great wisdom to rock the boat without sinking the ship. Those who do so, however, are great gifts to the organization they serve. 

Is your clarity a shared clarity?

A key feature of every successful organization, church, or ministry is absolute clarity about what they are about and how they do what they do. Here is an instructive exercise: Ask your key staff to describe what your ministry is about and see if there is clarity by all on that question. Ask secondly, what are the tangible results you are after that would spell success. And thirdly, what are the key strategies you use to achieve that success.

I find that these kinds of discussions are very helpful to come to greater clarity, ensure that everyone is on the same page and bringing to the surface issues that are not evident. If there is not great shared clarity the chances are that there is significant missional leakage taking place. The greater the clarity, the greater the focus and with focus the greater the chances you will see the results you are after.

Such dialogue surfaces misunderstandings or even disagreements around purpose, results and methods. Unless such differences are surfaced, talked about and clarified, what you think is missional clarity is not actually present. Words matter and even a common definition of those words is critical. Common understanding comes through dialogue and discussion.

Missional clarity and a passionate commitment to that mission is the greatest glue that a team or organization can have. Many teams think they are on the same page but in dialogue and clarification you discover you are not. That discovery gives you the opportunity to actually get on the same page. The greater the clarity and agreement around that clarity, the greater the glue for the team or organization. 

Often we spend staff time dealing with important issues but not the core issues such as purpose, results, and core methodologies. This is true for both teams and whole organizations. Whatever you decide on for clarity should be both understood and easily communicated by all staff members. 

Ask the question and see if there is the kind of clarity you believe there is.

Motivating Young Staff

There is no doubt that there are differences in the work ethics between generations. My father's generation had a work ethic informed by the great depression. 

My generation watched our parents and said, "we want more time to be with family and enjoy life." At the same time, we work hard, keep the rules (well I am bad at that) and do what it takes to get the task done.

My sons generation, twenty somethings, well they are complicated when it comes to work: schedules (I have to come at a certain time?), dress codes (what are those?), work (lets have fun while we're at it), feedback (you are actually going to criticize me?). As I say, it is complicated and books have been written on how to manage the twenty something generation.

At the same time, I have rarely seen a more committed, harder working, team oriented and creative group than the twenty something generation IF they have a cause worth giving their lives to. Given a clear focus, a cause worth giving one's life to and these folks will work all night, put in amazing hours and deliver the best.

The problem for many organizations is that they don't have a clear cause that motivates them. For this generation, small or no cause equals boredom and therefore diminished attention and they will find their cause outside of work.

They also want empowerment to test new ideas and be creative. Put them in a box of micromanagement or "this is the only way" and you have lost them. Give them some freedom and empowerment and you will win them. If you take it one step further and bring them to the table and allow them to participate in strategy and direction - giving them a voice, you get their loyalty!

Missional ministries who are focused, passionate and empowered will find that this generation will infuse it with amazing creativity and energy. Institutional ministries who major on organization to the detriment of mission and passion will not motivate this generation. They actually have something to teach the rest of us!  Missional focus and a cause worth giving one's life to matters.  

Third Culture Citizens: A New Worldview

I grew up in Hong Kong in the sixties and early seventies. It was a very different place then, full of refugees from China. When I came back to the United States at fifteen I realized that I didn't really fit. My worldview and experiences were light years different than my new high school classmates on the east side of St. Paul. I was in my country but I felt like a stranger. I feel most at home when in Asia but I have no home there. I still live between two worlds: my Asian home where my formative years were lived and my home in the United States which is in some ways my adopted home.

Many who have lived overseas or who have immigrated understand the phenomenon. There is actually a name for us: Third culture kids. When my wife read a book on the subject she said, "OK, now I understand why you think like you think and and do what you do." Third culture people often look at their own culture from the outside: after all, it was not their home culture. It is all about our world view and what shaped it.

Christ followers, are also third culture people. Our passports identify us as citizens of a particular country. But in coming to Jesus, we have become citizens of His Kingdom and the values, priorities and indeed, entire worldview of His Kingdom is light years from those of the world we were born into. We were born into one culture, have been adopted into God's family and culture but our Kingdom passport has not yet been stamped for entry so we live between two worlds. Third culture citizens.

This is why Peter's letter (1 Peter) is addressed to "God's elect, strangers in the world."  And again, "aliens and strangers in the world (1 Peter 2:11). He is clearly saying that we are now outsiders in our own world looking in from a very different perspective: His perspective. Our world view has changed. 

One of the great challenges for us is to learn to look at life, relationships, priorities, world events, justice, indeed the issues of life from His point of view because we are no longer citizens of the world but citizens of the Kingdom. Romans 12:2 nails this concept: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The key to living out God's good, pleasing and perfect will is allowing Him to transform our minds so that we no longer conform to the pattern of this world. Our citizenship has changed and therefore our perspective and worldview must change and when that happens, our lives start to conform to Kingdom culture rather than the patterns of this world. 

We are third culture citizens. As we think like third culture people, we will live in the tension between two worlds: the one we were born into and the one we are destined for. Our citizenship has changed. The question we must constantly ask ourselves is "How should I view this person, this issue or this situation from a Kingdom perspective, and then to conform to that perspective rather than to the perspective of the world.

Organizational and Influence Leaders

Leadership wiring is always unique which is why we can learn from the leadership of others but we can never become them. There are two categories of leaders, however, that are helpful to articulate. Many leaders fall into one of these two categories and some leaders negotiate both depending on the circumstances.

The first is organizational leaders. These are leaders who are wired to lead others through organizational structures and team.  In my primary leadership role as the senior leader of ReachGlobal I serve as an organizational leader. In that role my responsibility is to build a senior team, define organizational clarity, empower other leaders and ensure that the structures of the organization serve our staff and mission. 

There is another group of leaders that I would classify as influence leaders. They are often not wired for organizational leadership but they have enormous influence and use that influence to impact the direction of the organization in healthy ways. This is a powerful leadership role because it is not based on organizational position but on the ability to influence others in healthy directions. These leaders are not dependent on position but on their ability to help others move in a certain direction through relationship and influence.

Never underestimate the power of influence leadership. Anyone at any level of an organization can directly impact their team, circle of colleagues and even the entire organization if they lead from healthy influence. Within ReachGlobal we have a number of leaders who have enormous influence throughout the organization but who are not in an organizational leadership role. They are often relatively quiet servant leaders who through their service to others and clarity of thinking end up shaping the thinking of the organization as a whole. If you are a church leader you have these influence leaders in your congregation and you know the power they have to influence either for good or for ill.

In choosing people for leadership roles, one of the questions we need to ask is whether they are wired for organizational leadership or influence leadership. Influence leaders are especially powerful where one needs to influence the entire organization, across departmental lines through relationship rather than through line authority. The very fact that they do not have line authority is often an advantage because in leading from influence rather than authority, people do not feel they must respond but are influenced to respond.

Obviously, the best organizational leaders lead more from influence than from position. But don't underestimate the power of influence leadership which does not depend on position but on a desire to influence others and the organization through intentional, healthy servant leadership.

Syncretism and false altars

Missionaries fight it all the time. As the gospel comes to a new group, and some start accepting it, they often times keep some of the old practices and add in the new. This is called syncretism and an unhealthy practice as it embraces the new but wants to hang on the the pagan practices of the past at the same time. Missionaries, of course, would like to see all of the practices of past religion abandoned for Christianity but it often takes time for that to happen. Syncretism is really bowing to two altars and trying to have it both ways.


It struck me recently that the American evangelical church suffers from the same problem of syncretism in that our religious practices often reflect more of the society in which we live than the Gospel of the New Testament. When our definition of success is numbers rather than spiritual transformation and fruit, we are seeking to have it both ways, bowing to two altars. When our lives are driven more by the religion of America - materialism and pleasure rather than a followership that says I take up my cross daily to follow Him, we are bowing to two altars: one secular and one sacred.

In our personal lives, to the extent that we hang on to the values and practices of our world (those that we are told to "put off" in the New Testament) we live with syncretism.  In fact, the Christian life is process of sanctification and sanctification is all about putting off that which is displeasing to God and putting on that which is pleasing to Him and consistent with our followership of Him. It is the process of eliminating all alters at which we worship for the one true alter of Jesus Christ.


This is a life long process driven by the Holy Spirit who is our divine counselor and one who is always seeking to eliminate false altars from our lives so that our worship and followership is pure and true.


It is easy to see syncretistic practices among people outside our own culture. It is much harder to see its subtle presence in our own culture but for each of us eliminating false altars is an ongoing opportunity to follow Jesus more closely. Any false altars reflect syncretistic practices of our own.