Why Your Church Is The Way It Is
April 13, 2011 by cloften
Filed under Bible, Church and Leadership, Family and Parenting
Every now and then I drop in a blog post that possibly is only interesting to me. I feel bad about that sometimes, then I remember “Oh yeah, it’s my name on the website. Wait, I guess that’s not my name, it’s a nickname. Wait, it’s not my nickname, it’s a fairly common user-id associated with work e-mails (1st letter of first name + last name) that humorously (to me) becomes a made up word that could function as a nickname if anyone were to ever call me that.” (This is what I mean by “only interesting to me”)
Anywho, I’m working on a theory. There is a theory out there that a church takes on the personality of its Senior Pastor/Leader/Direction Leader/Team Leader/Lead Teaching Pastor/Guru of Teaching and Inchargish One. I would like to modify that. I agree with it to a point. I think that, left unchecked, a church will take on the weaknesses of its leader.
On the other hand, I believe that the personality of a church comes from the relationships between the leaders/staff/elders of your church.
Do your leaders love each other and get along? You probably go to a fun, relational church.
Do your leaders fight? You probably go to a church with a lot of tension.
Do your leaders seem to not even know each other? You probably go to a corporate, cold church.
(BTW, this is one of those things that I think I said first. Then you will quote the book you read it from, and then I will get mad)
Way too often we try to change our church culture, by changing programs, curriculum, ministries, etc. We try to move staff around, fire one person, replace with another. However, what many churches that struggle need are leaders that love each other, and enjoy being around each other. From that flows love, community, and connection that seeps down to everyone else in the church. The leaders and their relationships set the tone for the relationships that people in the church have with each other.
Are you leader in your church? Do you love (AND LIKE) the other leaders? No? Start. Love is a choice (I know I didn’t say that first) and so is like. Definitely spend time with and get to know are choices.
Are you not a leader in your church? You can still help by setting the example from wherever you are, by modelling that you believe that loving one another is, you know, like important and stuff (Not the first to say that)
There are far too many of us out there in churches that have great ideas, solid theology, but unhealthy churches. We think we can plan and strategize our way out of the unhealth. We can’t, but that’s all we know. We don’t know any other way. However, the answer is often far more simple than we realize.
All we need is love (Pretty sure I didn’t say that first)
