Picking a team, building a culture
Level 5 leaders can be slow to get started. They realize that they can’t be successful unless they’re surrounded by like-minded people. In church, this is much harder to do than in business. After all, the preacher can hardly lay off the elders! And if the preacher finds that the other ministers don’t share his values, in most churches, he can’t fire them either.
Therefore, it’s critical that the elders and preacher be on the same page — at least as to principles. The elders have to hire men and women who share their and the preacher’s values. Differing values among the staff and elders leads to frustration and failure.
This means the end of the old search committee. After all, 12 members of the church sitting on a committee may well not have the same values as the elders and ministers. And so, at least for a while, new hires have to be made by the elders and ministers, working hand in hand.
It’s not immediately obvious to many elders why the various ministers have to share values and get along. After all, they have a job. They should do their jobs and just get along!
But it’s about much more than doing a job. This is not manufacturing or fast food! Rather, the elders and ministers are required to develop within the congregation a certain way of thinking, a certain set of values. If the youth minister is pushing one agenda while the preacher is pushing another, you have a serious problem.
Therefore, for a church to move from good to great, the leadership may need to terminate some good employees — ministers who would work very well somewhere else, but not here. You see, the best vision and best preaching in the world won’t get it done if you don’t have the right people in the right places.
Bill Hybels says the most difficult leadership struggle he ever had was getting all his ministers and programs on the same page with a single, common growth effort. The various age group ministers wanted to grow but wanted to grow their own way. They weren’t used to having to work within a congregation-wide vision. And he had to fire some ministers just to get a single growth plan in effect! He was miserable having to do it, but realized the necessity of having everyone share a common vision. And it worked. His church enjoyed great success from the effort.
Now, no matter how smart and experienced you are, you’re going to make some hiring mistakes. It’s just really hard to hire based on a couple of interviews and a try out sermon. And so as discussed in the previous series on how to fire a minister, it’s critically important that a church know how to properly fire someone — with grace and love — because it’s the right thing to do and because, if you don’t act that way, those who remain won’t respect the elders and won’t want to work for them.
With the right leadership team in place, the elders and ministers can work hand in hand to change the church’s culture — its expectations and attitudes.
Confronting the brutal facts
Great leadership creates a climate where the truth is heard. Moreover, they take the time to gather hard data, rather than acting on rumor. And great leaders refuse to hold out false hope that everything will be okay, while nonetheless remaining optimistic that, in the long run, everything will be okay.
The elders and preacher are meeting in their weekly conference. An elder says, “I’ve had several members complain about the hymn books. They want them back! They have trouble seeing the screens and reading the notes. We really need to reconsider our decision to use overheads.” A couple of other elders nod in agreement.
The preacher has a choice. He can —
* Sit quietly and submissively while the elders bring back the hymnals.
* Announce an ultimatum: “Either the hymnals stay in the closet or I’m out of here!”
* Manipulate the elders with questionable facts: “99% of all growing churches have given up their hymnals!”
* Urge the elders to check the facts. “Just who has complained? And has anyone heard any favorable comments?”
* Remind the elders of their shared values: “Do you remember why we made this decision? Didn’t we anticipate complaints?”
The last two options are the right ones, of course. The leadership properly anticipated the hard-edged fact that the change would bring about complaints. They didn’t pretend otherwise. As a result, they can be called to account to stick with their original decision. The complaints are no surprise. There’s no need for panic.
Moreover, when the first elder is questioned — respectfully — it turns out that only two people complained. The other elders heard dozens of compliments.
Knowing that change is hard and brings complaints hardly is ground for pessimism. They know that, in the long run, it’ll work out. They made their decision aware of the unpleasantness that would follow but confident in the ultimate good.
Notice that the elders have to give each other — and the ministers — permission to express their views. When the first elder speaks, the issue isn’t foreclosed. It’s okay to disagree. It’s okay to ask him to back up his point. Manifestly, this must be respectful and loving, but the elder cannot extort his victory by wearing his feelings on his sleeve and getting his feelings hurt when he doesn’t get his way. That would be manipulation, not leadership.
Being hedgehogs
Collins compares two types of organizations — foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes are smart and wily. They elude their pursuers in countless, clever ways. Hedgehogs just know one thing: when attacked, curl up in a ball. And it works.
He urges organizations to know “one big thing” that they repeatedly apply to their problems. The church should have a simple, coherent strategy that it pursues with relentless consistency.
In the business world, great organizations look for the path in the convergence of three circles —
1) what we can be passionate about,
2) what we can be the best in world at, and
3) what best drives our economic or resource engine
In church, it’s a bit different. After all, we aren’t trying to be the best church in town. We are trying to be the church Jesus died for. Hence, for churches, it’s being at the intersection of —
1) our members’ God-given talents and passions
2) our leaders’ God-given talents and passions
3) the needs of our community
— all within God’s mission (I borrowed this from Breakout Churches). Someone may want to add “what makes us grow,” but I think that would be a mistake. God may be calling you to plant churches in town or send missionaries or do some very controversial things. Growth may not be God’s plan for you right now.
Moreover, the “needs of the community” refers to two communities — the lost world that surrounds the congregation and the rest of God’s kingdom in which you dwell. Certainly, the first goal is to serve a lost and hurting world. But many churches fail to realize the need to serve the Kingdom, by sharing ideas and talents, cooperating with other congregations, and such.
Manifestly, a church cannot go far without passion, and so the wise church makes a point not to get distracted from its Godly passions. There are more ideas and needs than any one church can meet. The wise church focuses on what it does well.
Finally, the wise church understands what makes it attractive. Is it friendliness? Social awareness? Great sermons? Bible classes? If the church knows what makes it attractive, it knows how changes will help or hurt. This doesn’t mean the attractors are sacrosanct. The church may well need to change what makes it grow. Indeed, growing for the right reason is more important than growing. But the church needs to be self-aware enough to know the price of doing so.
