Streamlining Church Structure
Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader
Burdensome, unwieldy, energy-drainer….these are the words we hear when we ask church leaders about their polity, about the structure of their organization as a church. We started hearing these kinds of words, along with concerns in the early 2000s, but wondered if these were isolated incidents versus a trend. Now, here in 2019, struggling with outdated and overly-complex church structure is commonplace in existing (not new) churches. How do we know? Here’s how pastors and church leaders describe the challenges:
Indicators:
Nobody wants to serve on the nominating committee (unless they are working a particular agenda, then we don’t want them on this committee)
Nominating committees receive more “no” answers than “yes” answers
Three year terms drive people away from serving
Many committee seats go unfilled
Committees are filled with names, yet they never or rarely actually meet or function
Pastors and staff spend large portions of their workweek in meetings, with minimal outcomes
Lay leaders resist serving a second term in the same or similar positions when their terms are completed
Disciples serving in particular positions and committees go AWOL when their terms end
These indicators are holding up a large sign in front of our faces which reads, “Help. Please. Do something!”
So what can we do? Two specific suggestions come to mind. The first is an excellent option for churches who are at a critical point, needing their energy for more urgent concerns, rather than being drained by unhelpful organizational requirements. Specifically, these churches suspend their By-Laws for a period of time, often one year. During this period they liberate themselves from the pressure to find people to serve the structure, while enjoying Sabbath-rest, while also assessing their organizational needs. Often these churches learn they don’t need most of the structure they were trying to run. Through this holy experiment, they position themselves for streamlining and simplifying their organizational structure. Surprisingly, some of the most organizationally detailed denominations are those giving their churches the green light for this intervention.
A second approach is to proactively address the structural and organizational concerns. There are churches who are going to a bi-lateral system, so to speak, simplifying their organization into two ministry teams. During a recent Clergy Collective gathering, a pastor described how their church went to this model. Rev. Susan Maddox of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Saluda, SC gladly gives us permission to share their organizational framework (see pdf visual and description). Now this historic church uses two leadership teams, Ministry and Administration, to guide its life and ministry. I wish you could be in the room while this pastor described the outcomes so far. Her relief and heightened energy for ministry was palpable and encouraging. We encourage you to read over the description in the attachment, along with this description of the outcome from Rev. Maddox herself:
“This new structure has cut down on the number of meetings needed to make decisions and has enabled us to spend more time and energy on planning and doing ministry. Each leader is encouraged to incorporate as many people as possible in their area of ministry through the use of short-term “task groups”. These groups are formed for a specific event/process/length of time and then disbanded. We have found people are much more willing to commit to a specific project for a certain length of time than to commit to a 3-year term on a committee. All of our leaders have commented that they prefer this structure and do not want to return to the traditional structure that was used prior to this year.”
Streamlining, clarifying, simplifying….churches on this side of the Postmodern shift require agility, adaptability, and nimbleness far more than heavy, sophisticated, complex structures. Remember the old saying “Form follows function?” There’s really no need for the tail to wag the dog. The Lord Jesus was not constrained by the overly complex religious structures of his day, nor should his church be in our day. So let’s give ourselves permission to find the fitting structure which supports the mission, freeing us to put our energy into loving God, neighbor, and ourselves.