Structuring the Church for Change
The need for change is a common topic in church circles. It is also a hot topic in the business world. It isn’t easy for either sub-group of society, but the business world is more likely to succeed. The people who can be catalysts for change are rewarded in the business world but are barely tolerated in the Church.
The Church wants change. Leaders say so. Pastors say so. Congregations say so. But the structure they work within is medieval. It is set up to nurture longevity. Change in today’s world is not oriented toward longevity.
The business world recognizes the need for dramatic change and is undergoing major restructuring. Business leaders are rethinking the fundamentals of how they provide services, including the way they are charging for their services. They are looking for ways to provide recurring funding streams, so all of their business is not hinged on cyclical activity. They are communicating with their clientele differently. They are interacting with vendors and customers differently. They are consciously putting service before dollars — and they are seeing that it makes all the difference.
The Church can learn from this. The care and nurturing of an archaic infrastructure stands in the way. Before they can consider “change,” congregations are expected to do a litany of costly things the same way — call a pastor for unending term calls, maintain a building, and hold all the same services and events. Mission is secondary to all of these, something for a core group to work at as resources and energy allow. To grow within this structure, a congregation must find more like-minded people who relate to existing leadership. That’s a huge challenge.
The cost of the infrastructure is putting the Church out of business. A bare-bones active church budget with a full-time pastor and building to maintain requires the steady support of 100 families. Yet that size community or larger becomes unwieldy in providing the atmosphere many people look for in a church. The Church is asking for people to buy into a costly infrastructure over which they have little influence or control. Most people take one look and say, “No thanks!” The Church would do well to remember that participation in Church is voluntary.
The Church needs to think about the world today and the pace of change in society and in our individual lives. Few of us play out the easily defined traditional roles — bread winner or homemaker. Most people change jobs and careers frequently. Multitasking is the order of the day.
If the Church does not recognize this it will become an institution for the aging — the people who have a connection with what the Church was and not what it needs to become.
The Church must address the following issues in a new way:
- the way we train church leaders
- the way we call church leaders
- the expectations of church leaders
- the education of all church members
- the roles and expectations of the laity
- the purpose of property and assets and how they are maintained and used for mission