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Organizational Behaviour 101. A simple explanation of why congregations can feel the pressure to change. The Principle: . Every new church… organizes itself internally to fulfill its goals
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Organizational Behaviour 101 A simple explanation of why congregations can feel the pressure to change.
The Principle: Every new church… • organizes itself internally to fulfill its goals • and organizes itself relative to its external environment (the surrounding community) in a way to promote the church’s survival.
Surviving in the Environment… A new church wants to attract new people and grow! To create some attractiveness, Sunday morning has to be designed in a way that people find it meets their needs and feels meaningful. So the style of worship is chosen that feels “right”, a nice nursery is created, a Sunday school system put in place, and so on. When the church has things set up in a way people find attractive and meets their needs, they come.
The idea as a picture… • In the beginning the church (the green circle) is organized to fulfill the congregation’s goals (the crossed arrows) ….
The idea as a picture… • … and it is organized relative to the surrounding community in a way that the church not only survives, but thrives.
The idea as a picture… • People are content that they have things just right. They focus on maintaining the system.
However, things don’t just remain the same… • The environment of the church (the surrounding community, and the culture of our society) is always shifting and changing…
However, things don’t just remain the same… • … and a congregation can find itself growing more and more out of step with the needs of people and what they find meaningful. • This is called “growing irrelevance”. It threatens a church’s survival.
Growing Irrelevance… • Think about our worship example. More and more people are looking for contemporary music, a down to earth preaching style that speaks to daily realities, a less formal approach…
Growing Irrelevance… • The congregation has been so focused on maintaining the worship service as it is that they have failed to notice the slow shift in our culture…
Growing Irrelevance… • … and when they do notice, the gap has grown large enough that church members don’t want to make the changes – they now appear too radical.
But shifts can happen inside the church too… • Initially the church organized its life internally to fulfill its goals well. Then, assuming the system would always fulfill the goals, the focus of people shifted away from the goal to maintenance.
But shifts can happen inside the church too… • This can produce “goal drift”, which is also common to all organizations. The intense focus on what a church is doing shifts attention away from the purpose for what they are doing.
Goal Drift… • Again, think about our worship example. Over time people can find the repetitive nature of the worship becoming more stale, and the constant need to maintain it can become more and more tedious…
Goal Drift… • The goal of “meaningful worship” can be eroded by a congregational focus on maintaining what once was thought to be meaningful.
Growing Irrelevance and Goal Drift… • These two things can happen to any organization, including a church. • They happen when people forget that….
Growing Irrelevance and Goal Drift… • Churches organize internally to fulfill its goals • and organize itself relative to its external environment (the surrounding community) in a way to promote the church’s survival.
The Role of Leadership… • Leaders help their churches by reminding people that it is the fulfillment of the goals which is more important than maintaining established systems…
The Role of Leadership… • … and that continued relevance helps a church to maintain a ministry to its wider community.
The Questions: • How has your congregation experienced ‘goal drift’? • How has your congregation experienced ‘growing irrelevance’? • What original value remains upon which to build positive and lasting change?
