Sunday 24 January 2010

Business practices? No thanks we're authentic!

I've been having a discussion about the fact that when it comes to offerings, using larger pink envelopes brings about a greater yield in giving - so should we use them over the small white envelopes we use now? This question moved us onto wider questions about 'authentic' Church versus what I suppose I'll have to call 'unauthentic' churches!

Perhaps the first discussion needs to be about 'Authentic' church, which I guess means that everyone sits on the floor and sings spiritual songs in Greek, the children all having been baptised and admitted to communion (which of course will be called the 'agape' or 'eucharist') and the women will have their heads covered. On second thoughts, I think I'll leave that for another day - already making my head hurt!

I know I'm getting old but it wasn't that long ago that I was engaged in discussions about Church taking 'best practice' from the world. This was a source of heated discussion because surely "Church" was about being 'spiritual' and this was advocating being "Of the World!" Then again, take a look at Acts 6: 1 - 7:

"
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith
."

Here we have a sound management principle. Those who are 'doing the stuff' need to be freed from administration and other tasks to ensure that the 'core' business continues unabated. Division of labour and the use of 'specialists' is one of the important elements of sound management. Isn't this what we are seeing here? There is a need that has the potential to be unmet and by recruiting people the task is guaranteed to be done and those who would otherwise have been distracted can continue to do their main area of ministry unfettered and without distraction (note - pastoral work is not a distraction. I'm not saying this, but it can be a misuse of skills and present an additional time burden for those who could otherwise delegate.)

So I think that regardless of what you see 'Church' as being or looking like, there is room for good management models and practices. The problem is what happens when management goes mad, as has happened in some churches I've had experience of (I was only a member - honest!). In one, we'd raised a considerable sum (hundreds of thousands) to renovate and place a church plant in an old building. The Treasurer was threatening to close the project and return all the money we'd raised because we were £5,000 short of the target sum. He, "Wasn't prepared to burden those who came after us with a sum that they had to make up at a later date!" As I questioned him as to his reasoning he told me that this was sound accounting practice and was no different to the way he ran the church finances - after all, if he couldn't keep a year's operating surplus in another account outside the main accounts (in case giving just stopped) to ensure that the church could run he wasn't prepared to relent on the project.

This is where management and the 'world' are an encumbrance and a curse. If we are only to function as this man wanted us to, then there is no place for faith, only fiscal prudence, and I don't do that. Then again, neither do I spend and expect god to cover the shortfall either. So the question about the pink envelopes - would you use them if they helped people to give more?

Personally I think that this is more about the Bell AT&T works at Hawthorn (Have a google on Elton Mayo and hawthorn) where Mayo found that whether you changed things for the better or worse, change was a prime mover in people changing how they function (and often for the better!). This is no different for church because it's about people and the way they tick not the organisation or setting. So I guess, I'd probably have a go (but perhaps with green envelopes the first year and pink the year after) but I'd be more certain that sound teaching and not envelope colour was the real reason for change in giving patterns.

Over the next couple of we days will be looking at this question to help stimulate your thinking and as a part of this, why not have a look at 'Into the Future' you'll find it as a pdf download, here: 
http://elmertowns.com/index.cfm?action=bksonline

Mark Stevens has some interesting thoughts to add. read him here: 
http://revdmarkstevens.wordpress.com/category/emerging-church/

I hope this goes some way to starting a dialogue and raises some questions of your own (and some answers too). More to come - so get reading . . . 

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