For my independent study on leadership, I am reading Good to Great by Jim Collins. It is really interesting to read about businesses that have done incredibly well due to some great leaders. What is even more fun is trying to figure out which attributes I need to take and incorporate into my leadership.
Overall, I think that it is a great book as I consider leadership within a church. It makes me ask the questions, “Why are we doing this? What’s the point? What’s the goal?” Should church be about striving to be the best? What would we be best at?
Collins makes the case that to be the best doesn’t take any more energy than just being “good” or “successful”. This is an interesting point. And after reading through the whole study, I find myself wanting to figure out how to be the best church – whatever niche that falls in for my community. The best at making disciples of Christ or the best at helping people develop their relationship with God. My fear for the Episcopal Church is that we will just continue our steady decline into oblivion.
Those things that make companies great can be used in church – how to get people on board that have energy and desire to build up something great and then how to develop the plan for what that great thing will be. Getting people on board to form a team is always difficult. The leader has to define that it’s about “us” and not about “me”. It’s going to be “our church”, not “my church”. (Yes, for those of you familiar with the phrase “it’s all about me” – it’s really not – and I really want to be part of a team that works together. It’s always more fun that way.)
Some of the business aspects bothered me. It was about building monetarily – and this is not where I’m at at all. Then, Walgreens (for which I have much more respect after this book) would move locations if they found a better one – even if it was only 1/2 a block down. This explains what I have seen in some communities. But, the lost resources bother me. What happens to the building that is now vacant? Is the company studying to find out environmental impact of this? I know that they’re not concerned – but I am.
The better story comes with Merck (194). “Merck does not view its ultimate reason for being as making money. ‘We try to remember that medicine is for the patient…It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been,’ George Merck 2d.” This comment came after the explanation that they had developed a drug that cured river blindness. The only market is in Amazon – where no one has money to pay for it. They give it away.
As they know that it’s not about the money, so the church needs to remember that it’s not about the numbers. Developing a community where people are welcome and can explore deepening their faith while reaching out to others will naturally bring people in. The church needs to decide its core values, build on them, and preserve them over time (195).
Posted by Heather Voss at February 8, 2004 01:28 PMI think one of our problems is that we keep trying to measure what is "good" or "best." I agree that some of what is taught in business can be helpful, but I think that we get too caught up in results -- pledge results, membership results, program results.
You asked why we are doing this. We are doing this because God asked us too. We have been asked to preach the Gospel. How much money we raise, how many people we get in the pews, how successful are programs are, ultimately none of that is under our control. We are called to do our job to the best of our ability, the rest will follow.
Maybe every preacher's/priest's patron saint should be Anskar. We do it because God asked. Period.
Posted by: Todd at February 9, 2004 12:53 PMsure - that's fine. but, what are we doing? i'mhappy to go out and preach the Gospel because God said to, but if I'm not connecting with people and helping them grow spiritually, then I can't believe that I'm really doing all that God says.
And yes - I'm totally about growth in other areas than numbers ($ or "butts in the pews"), but it's hard work...and how do we stay motivated to DO whatever it is that God says to do? This is back to another disucssion - the goals that we set. If someone isn't working on goals, well, that's fine...but I will have to. Otherwise, what's my motivation? Why do I get out of bed in the morning? "God tells you to" might be the answer.
but what is "the best of my ability"? How do I figure that out? How do I know when I'm not doing it? To whom do I stay accountable?
Posted by: heather at February 10, 2004 10:39 AMHow do you figure out what the best of your ability is? How do you know when you aren't doing it? To whom do you stay accountable? All good questions. Maybe this is where your networking skills come in. Some of us have spouses that can tell us whether or not we are doing well or doing poorly. Some of us develop close friends or confidants that tell us. It is important to have some other person in our lives who will be brutally honest when necessary.
Posted by: Todd at February 10, 2004 04:55 PMThis is such important stuff. My parish is going through a massive identity crisis right now, having lost our rector and now not knowing what we need in a leader. And I think it's because we got caught up in the numbers game, and lost our sense of why we were doing what we were doing -- the core values you write about.
The other weekend I found myself in the same boat at a young adults workshop (with Bishop Ed, btw!) -- I found myself arguing that parishes needed to be more supportive as an investment in the ECUSA's future if we wanted the church to survive. I was put in my place by another attendee, a campus minister, who said, "It's not about survival, it's about being moved by Christ to spread the word." We all kept talking about it, and eventually came to a realization that if the passion is there, the rest will follow according to God's will.
It reminded me of some of my most deep spiritual experiences, most of which had nothing to do about the number of people that were there at the time (remember those small EMMSU gatherings?), but with the connections I made with those few who were there -- and often just between me and God alone. It's about Quality, right?