Contemporary Church Leadership & Management: A Diagnostic Analysis

Background

There is a vast difference between the church today and the strong, united, sinner-focused church Jesus left behind two millenniums ago. The strength and authority of this first century church essentially reflected the tenacity, discipline and consecration of its leaders whose uncompromising character reinforced and consolidated their authority and image before the world. Indeed so tremendous was the impact of the church in this era that its leaders came to be referred to as ‘those who have turned the world upside down’. Strong, faithful leaders, through effective discipleship (2 Tim 2: 2) became the conduit through which the early church influenced lives and communities.

Sadly, the tenacity, unity and enthusiasm that propelled the early church have suffered a serious decay in our day, threatening the very existence, robustness and identity of the church in the face of the world especially in the UK and across Europe. Today, the church is left divided, weak, with considerable loss of sense of direction and focus, and can, with few exceptions, be described as at best a caricature, and at worst a distortion of what Jesus has left behind. While a number of factors could be blamed for this weakness, I reckon the leadership factor stands tall among the list, and it is this which has sparked the motivation to organise these Church Leadership and Management Development Seminars. I am sufficiently persuaded that leadership is cause, and everything else is effect, hence to fix the church, the need to fix its leadership must receive topmost priority.

The Nature and Extent of the Problem

The church is supposed to be the most resourced and resourceful organisation against the backdrop that it has members with natural, intellectual, academic but most importantly, spiritual endowments. Paradoxically, the church looks handicapped, is poorly managed, least organised, and makes the least, if any, use of its rich human resources. God brings people with great gifts, passion, drive and enthusiasm (human resources-HR) to help build his body for ministry (Eph 4: 11-14). The decision to equip and allow the saints to do the ministry work however, rests with us, not God. Noticeably, today resourcing the saints for ministry has come to be subsumed in a range of secondary, less important objectives, and in the process three scenarios have often emerged:

the church at best has little use of its HR, and at worst sees them as threats to the security of the already few superstars and hence elbows them out; (ii) where the church identifies and decides to utilise the HR the former is limited in its ability and capacity to effectively train and develop them, so they either end up messing up or produce substandard quality work; (iii) many of those who feel gifted fail to grab the purpose of their gifts, get puffed up, failing to submit to authority, and eventually break away to begin their ‘own ministries’. Because the gifts are meant to be used in unison to complement each other, and not in isolation in competition with each other, they fail to be effective, and tend eventually to specialise only in one or few areas, and remain generally ineffective.

This has left the church weak, fragmented, divided, and excessively denominationalized, each trying to protect its enclave and promote its selfish interest. The picture that emerges is a church that is prevented by denominational sentiments and objectives from pursuing kingdom aspirations. This raises legitimate questions about the extent to which most churches and their leaders understand Jesus’ message ‘seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,…(Matthew 6: 33)’; and his prayer, ‘that they may be one, even as we are one (John 17: 21-22)’.

Passion and Objective

As a human resource management expert, I am sufficiently informed, with practical evidence about the potential of an organisation’s human resources-often described as untapped reserves of human resourcefulness-to offer the organisation a competitive edge if properly utilized. As a pastor’s son and with over twenty years experience as a church planter, and church worker serving in various capacities internationally, I am startled by how much human resources the church either wastes or loses in various ways. I have seen churches boom with every calibre of gifted people, yet immediately crumbled into extinction. I have been eye-witness to the painful segregation and disintegration of powerful churches with great visions and visionaries. I have noticed with grave concern the abysmal extinction of the ministries of great servants of God. In almost all instances, this was simply because either their leaders have failed to effectively develop, motivate retain, and deploy their workers, or because the gifted members do not understand the rationale for the ministry gifts and thus used them for the wrong reasons.

So what?

The need to identify specific areas where church leaders require systematic and comprehensive resourcing becomes apparent. This will help church leaders to effectively resource and relate to their workers, while developing and preparing church workers to relate to their leaders and congregations in appropriate ways that would leave the church strengthened, edified and prepared for ministry. What follows then is identification and brief overview of specific areas [developed into modules] that I think, against the backdrop of the foregoing issues raised, deserve close attention in the training agenda of church leaders and church workers.

The uniqueness of church leadership and management…

Church management is uniquely different in several respects. Firstly, the product we market is different from what is marketed elsewhere; theirs are physical while ours are non-physical: the message of the kingdom. Additionally, whilst the patronage of their product is dependent principally on the degree of publicity accorded the products, the patronage rate of ours is in addition, significantly influenced by the conduct of those who publicise it. For leaders then, this calls for more than simply knowing the Bible; it calls for living out the Bible, and making our messages practically relevant, thus transforming our lives into living epistles of God! To be effective our preaching needs to be what we live; we must reflect what we preach. Unbelievers’ concept about God is influenced by our character, attitudes, and behaviour. Thus while thorough understanding of the Bible coupled with oratory skills are indeed basic requirement for church leadership, these are simply necessary but never sufficient. A sufficient condition is attained when the preacher begins to prove to others by their example that their message can be lived in our contemporary world of challenges. In this module, I attempt to establish the uniqueness of church leadership and management but also show how it is similar to managing other forms of organisation, suggesting practical steps to effective church management.

People, lives, relationships and destinies is what is at issue…

Our message is all about people, lives, relationships and destinies. Whether targeted at unbelievers, carnal Christians living daily under the control of their flesh and continual condemnation; or even at spirit-filled Christians expecting to maximise their potentials, our messages must be borne out of a genuine commitment to seeing people, lives, relationships and destinies changed for the better. We must be people-oriented, understanding how much people matter to God. As leaders we need to develop a value system that reflects belief in people and confidence in their ability, and treasures human life and relationships above material gain. We need to see in people what God sees in them although their present circumstances might present little hope. Accomplished in this module is an attempt to focus church leaders on the centrality of people and relationships to successful church work, and practical ways of dealing with people irrespective of their race, ethnicity, colour and socio-economic background.

Leadership and follow-ship

As leaders we have follow-ship; people’s lives and destinies are influenced by what we do and the decisions we take. As leaders, our actions and decisions have lasting consequences for our followers, necessitating the need to be exceptionally circumspect in our choices and actions. Because leaders are required to portray God to the world by their conduct, and since God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of what we do (Rom 2: 24), God cares much about leadership behaviour (Ezek 22: 25-31). We need to identify and respect the call of God on our lives that forbids us to do just anything that others might freely do:

‘For he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; for he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb….(Luke 2: 15-16). We should be able to say like Jesus…’for their sake, I have sanctified myself so they also may be sanctified (John 17: 19)’, and like Paul, ‘follow me as I follow Christ (1 Cor 11: 1)’. The central concern of this module is to present practical steps to making leaders, whose greatness is understood to consist in their service and humility, and whose impact on the lives of those they serve is tremendous.

Leaders, conflicts and organisational dynamics…

Working with human beings places a necessity on leaders to understand the dynamics of organisational behaviour and conflicts. Organisation theory suggests two perspectives on conflicts with respect to organisational development. Structural theorists believe in order as opposed to conflicts as a prerequisite to organisational development while conflict theorists believe conflicts are necessary [resource] for organisational development. The latter believe that societies and organisations develop through the processes of ‘thesis-anti-thesis-synthesis’. It is in the synthesising that a new, disparate product is formed. Churches are traditionally opposed to conflicting and opposing perspectives, and this disposition could be blamed for several church conflicts and break-ups, which have ruined many vibrant and powerful churches and ministries. If conflicts arose between Paul, Barnabas and Peter over the circumcision of new believers (Acts 15: 1-29); and between Paul and Barnabas over the choice for John-Mark (Acts 15: 36-41) then their presence in contemporary ministry should come as no surprise. But what is uniquely important here is that when they arose, the conflicts were resolved, resulting in unprecedented growth. This raises legitimate questions about the way and manner many churches respond to conflicts, and how conflicts are allowed to break churches and rob them of rich human resources. This module introduces participants to the realities and dynamics of modern organisations, demystifies organisational conflicts, dispels fallacies about organisational conflicts and interrogates some of the church’s traditional taken-for-granted perspectives on and response to conflicts. It suggests practical, step-by-step procedure for resolving church conflicts

Leadership action: potentials and devastating consequences… In times of conflicts leaders need to be entirely aware of the potential of the consequence of their actions on the members. In any conflict situation a leader’s action can either inflame the fire as a gallon of petrol or quench the fire as a gallon of water. Conflicts often arise in the operation of spiritual gifts which is actually expected to bring growth and edification to the body of Christ. This does not suggest we avoid spiritual gifts; what it does suggest is the need to become sufficiently prepared and resourced to handle the associated conflicts so the operation of the gifts can be directed at collaborating and complementing, not competing with each other. It is hoped that this module would challenge leaders about the potential of their action on the wider church community, projecting them as army officials whose decisions are always crucial and deterministic.

Leadership: how about honour…

Whereas as leaders we have automatic follow-ship, respect and honour must be earned through self-less service. Anytime we are found asking members to be submissive or respect our authority, this is an indication that we are not doing great on our service, for we reap what we sow. When we serve people’s need rather than lording ourselves over them, we come to be overwhelmed by an unprecedented level of honour we hardly anticipate (1 Tim 5: 17-18). The essence of leadership is service (John 13: 14-15) and greatness comes through servant-hood (Matthew 23: 11-12). Great leaders are great servants-this is absolutely nonsense, and opposed to the philosophy of the world. Sadly this virtue of servant-hood is decaying among Christians, as leaders are increasingly becoming obsessed with the privileges that go with their position rather than the accompanying responsibilities and services that define their position. What the church needs is a cadre of service-oriented and servant-hearted leaders whose fundamental obsession is with their responsibilities rather than privileges accompanying their position. This module is aimed at persuading leaders about the power of the rare values of servant-hood and humility that define excellence in ministry.

Leadership and authority: the law of authority…

Leadership implies delegation of authority, and a clear understanding of the dynamics of authority is a necessary first step to effective leadership. The exercise of authentic authority cannot be effective without a crystal understanding of what I call the law of authority, which states that:

For there to be effective exercise of authority, there must of necessity be a recognition of and respect for the authority of those by whom it is delegated by those to whom it is delegated; there can be no legitimate exercise of authority without a recognition of, and submission to a higher authority.

Against this backdrop, authority can be best understood as a chain of command, which, once broken, is rendered entirely ineffective. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ (1 Cor 11: 1). The centurion said, ‘for I also am a man under authority, I say to one, do this, and to another, do that, and t is done’ (Matthew 8: 8-9). ‘For he had put all things under his (Jesus’) feet, it is clear that he is exempted, who has put all things under his feet…then shall the Son also be subject to he who has put all things under his feet so that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15: 27-28). The fundamental factor distinguishing Jesus from Satan is submission to authority; Jesus was submissive (Phil 2: 6-9) while Satan was not (Isaiah 14: 12-15). There are indeed those that I describe as untamed and un-submitted authorities, many of them struggling to make it! This module seeks to dispel misconceptions about, and abuse of authority and present a Biblically-based concept of authority with the view to restoring order in the body of Christ.

Leadership, faithfulness and stewardship…

Faithful and effective leaders are distinguished by their deep sense of stewardship (1 Cor 4: 2). Faithful, honest, responsible and accountable stewardship is a must, not a choice for leaders. Stewardship is about being faithful in managing what one has been asked to do, and focusing on one’s (not another persons’) area of task and assignment; it is about how effectively we manage what we have been given rather than how much we have been able to manage. In the Matthew 25 account of the talents, all the third steward was required to make was 100% (one extra-not five or even two) talent. Relevant questions by which leaders must be exercised should include: what have I been brought here to do? Whose interest have I been brought to protect? The question ‘how best can I serve the people should always precede the question what privileges can I enjoy? Jesus prayed to the Father, ‘All that you have given to me, I have kept, except the son of perdition’. The parable of the lost coin, lost sheep, and the prodigal son are all about effective stewardship. The contemporary church of Christ seems to have lost the concept of stewardship; we act as if our gifts, the souls and church money and other resources are our personal/family property, carelessly oblivious of the fact that when the chief shepherd shall appear, we shall all appear before him to render account of our stewardship (1 Peter). This module aims to emphasise the centrality of stewardship to effective leadership development.

Leadership, self-discipline and self-denial…

Leadership calls for sacrifice. In trying to do our master’s will and serve the need of those we are leading, self-discipline and self-denial are crucial virtues we cannot substitute for anything (Luke 9: 23-24). Jesus becomes the role model for the leaders, who would find these two virtues as necessary in pursuing their highest aspiration of following and becoming like him (Matthew 5: 48; 10: 23-24; Phil 3: 9-12). The cost of God’s supernatural working power by which our position is authenticated is self-denial and a willingness to bear the cross of Jesus. The cross is essentially the consequences suffered as a result of one’s decision to trade their will and agenda for the Lord’s. By this module, I hope to bring back/draw attention to the abandoned rare values of self-discipline and self denial [which I call the insurance against leadership catastrophes]. It is these virtues that preserve leaders, keeping them from being cast away while they have prepared others for heaven.

Leadership, teamwork and team building…

Depending on the size of your church you would either be operating as part of a leadership team, or you would be managing a team of people. Whatever the circumstances, a reasonable understanding of the nature and potential of teamwork would be of immense help. Teams can accomplish together far more than what individual members working separately can ever accomplish; with teamwoking, 1 + 1 > 2. Teams help develop the members’ skills, capabilities and competencies. It is through teamwork that the untapped reserves of human resourcefulness deposited in an organisation’s HR are tapped, developed and packaged for organisational development. In teamwork, members should seek to complement each other, compliment each other’s achievement, complete what another has started, commend each other, contribute to team’s success by supporting each other, condescend to each other, and collaborate with each other for the attainment of team goals. Nothing else matters apart from team goals. This modules aims to prepare the leader to be an effective team-player, an aptitude fundamentally required for effective leadership development. Leadership and discipleship…

That discipleship offers the most effective way of ensuring a sustainable leadership (2 Tim 2: 2) is reflected in Jesus’ command ‘go and make disciples’…(Matthew 28: 19-20). It is easy for leaders to be trapped into doing everything either because they desire to carry all the glory; they do not trust in the ability of others or they simply wish to avoid inconveniencing anybody. Whatever the motive, doing it all alone does not reflect the precedence Jesus set by choosing the 12 to understudy him, and to be equipped and empowered for ministry (Mark 3: 14-15). There is need therefore for the church to grab Jesus’ philosophy that only a core group of systematically discipled Christians are able to carry on even when it gets truly tough (John 6: 66-69). Besides offering the rare opportunity for skills transfer, discipleship provides a strategic on-the-job training approach to producing sustainable, quality future leaders. While Joshua is respected as an outstanding leader, his failure to perpetuate the discipleship process initiated by Moses has greatly underlain Israel’s failure after he had left the scene. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua…And Joshua died…and also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD…and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, forsook the LORD God of their fathers, and followed other gods, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger…(Judges 2: 7-13 paraphrased) The rationale for this module is to make a strong case for discipleship as a way of life of leaders and to present a practical approach to effective discipleship and disciple making.

Leaders, motivation, reinforcement and rewards….

Every human action is underlain by a motive; to act or not to act is hardly accidental but motivated by a myriad of factors. Large, modern secular organisations’ understanding of the secret of rewards, motivation and reinforcement is reflected in their often end-of-year bonuses, souvenirs, training programmes, pension schemes, and information sharing and communication programmes collectively referred to as employee involvement activities. It is disappointing for leaders who find that despite their every attempt they can hardly get members to remain committed to the church’s goals. To address this challenge, many leaders, as I had often done, resort to intensive prayer alone as if ministry work is all-spiritual and none-physical/material. Often the prayer doesn’t seem to work; indeed, the situation sometimes grows worse thus increasing their frustration. I suggest that like all other human beings, our church workers and members need to be motivated to remain committed to our church. I suggest also that while church members need sermons such as the ‘rewards of commitment’, ‘giving as a condition for receiving’, the fact that ‘believers’ reward is in heaven’, and ‘seeking first the kingdom of God as a prerequisite for earthly abundance’, they doubtless need to be affirmed, praised, encouraged, complemented and occasionally, materially rewarded by church leadership. Peter knew of the promise of heaven but he asked Jesus to iterate what their reward would be for following Him. Surprisingly, Jesus did not over-spiritualize it; he promised, material emotional and spiritual rewards (Mark 10: 29-30). And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. Note the order: material, emotional and spiritual rewards, not the other way round, and this is deliberate, not accidental. We need a rethink of our commitment strategies; we need to be aware of the law of seed time and harvest…While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Gen 8: 22). It is impossible to expect a harvest unless we are prepared to motivate, reinforce and reward members by sowing materially, emotionally and spiritually into their lives. Addressed in this module is the need for motivation, reinforcement and rewards, as well as practical guidance for achieving these effectively.

Contac Information

Samuel Tengey is CEO of Strategic Resourcers, a Church Leadership & Management Development Organisation based in UK. He is a Human Resource Consultant with a special commitment to developing the human resource of the church for effective ministry. He is currently a PhD Researcher at the Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK, where he researches the outsourcing of public services and the role of middle managers in Ghana.

Email: samuel@strategicresourcers.co.uk; URL: www.strategicresourcers.com

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.