In my last couple of blogs, I have
been writing about how to make change happen. One of the essential elements of
organizational change is leadership. I am convinced that in order for a church
to thrive it requires leadership. But just like there are different types of
intelligence, leadership takes on different forms as well. Churches that want
to maximize their efforts need all forms of leadership.
For example, within a thriving
church there are probably one or more people who are spiritual leaders. These are people who are mature Christians who
are prayerful and can provide a discerning spirit to issues that might arise
within the congregation or staff. Spiritual leaders help move people towards
where God wants them to be. Then there are the ministry leaders. These are people with a true calling to help
others and can establish programs that reach out into the community to reach
souls for Christ.
Although both of these groups of individuals
play important roles during the implementation of a new church management
system, the thing that is so often missing is someone who can drive process
change and understands enough about how technology can be leveraged to make the
right decisions to encourage change within the organization. These administrative leaders are good
decision-makers when it comes to organizational issues, help prioritize
conflicting ministry objectives, can design business processes and establish
metrics to help track progress.
We have found that the best
Fellowship One implementations are by churches that are firing on all these
leadership cylinders. When a church attempts to change and grow by better caring
for its congregation, the evil one will attempt to throw the church into chaos because
he of course wants that effort to fail and for the church to continue like it
always has. As Paul says, we are in a spiritual battle. Spiritual leadership
will help guide the church through the onslaught of trials brought on to
discourage church improvement. Ministry leadership is required to create the
vision for how the new system can help address the needs of the congregation. Better
information about the congregation can help deepen the intimacy of the
relationships within the church and can help target more directed
communication. And finally, administrative leadership can establish the
framework for the change to occur and helps guide the project through the rough
waters of changing processes and technologies.
Grace
to you as you go out to lead,
Jhook