Here’s what I mean by “Organizational Wisdom.”
Wisdom is applied knowledge. It’s knowing how to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, for the right reason. God designed the world to work a certain way, according to certain principles that can be observed in nature, systems, organizations, and families. In Scripture, those who pay attention to these principles and learn how to apply them appropriately are considered wise. Those who don’t are called fools.
It is amazing how many churches ignore these principles of organizational and relational wisdom and make things much harder than they have to be. Churches do all kinds of theological and philosophical work on vision, mission, and strategy statements. They pray, fast, and commit their hopes and dreams to the Lord. Then they go out and shoot themselves in the foot by making foolish choices in the day to day operation of their organization. Why?
Because they believe God is with them. They believe that because God is with them they can get away with being foolish. God will bail them out of their poor personnel decisions. God will provide the money to pay down the debt they’ve foolishly acquired. God will mitigate the damage done by poor communication of an upcoming change.
Of course, both scripture and experience demonstrate that even when “God is with us,” he is not in the habit of jumping in and bailing us out of our foolish decisions. Where sin is involved, there can be forgiveness, but stupidity is not always a sin. Either way, we have to live with the consequences of both our sinful and/or foolish behavior.
Why is the book of Proverbs in the Bible? Because Israel needed to be trained to live wisely between the miracles. In between the parting of the Red Sea and the slaying of giants and floating axe heads; the principles of wisdom, woven by the hand of God into the DNA of creation, still applied.
Likewise, churches must be careful to make wise decisions in between the miracles. God may have moved mightily on Sunday resulting in the baptism of 55 people. It’s a miracle! On Monday the principles of wisdom still apply as the church figures out how to integrate, include, and disciple these new additions to the Body of Christ. God may have provided double what was anticipated on the Harvest Sunday of the latest stewardship campaign. It’s a miracle! On Monday, the principles of wisdom will still apply as the leadership makes decisions about what to do with all of that money. A church may have the best preacher in the world. God may speak through him every Sunday. It’s a miracle! On Monday the principles of wisdom still apply when the staff gets together to plan the next six months of programming.
Many churches struggle not because God is absent or unwilling to bless their work, but because they nullify the presence of God with their organizational foolishness.
Do you agree with my assessment? Do you have any experience with churches who have made foolish decisions because “God is with them”? What do you think would be the best way to help churches grow in organizational wisdom?
Please jump in and help me flesh this out.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Wade,
Church leaders need a combo of Dave Ramsey and George Muller. We need to plan well and work hard, and then pray hard for the results (well, really, pray first). We need to be fiscally responsible and faithfully responsible. We need to be careful what we think GOD is doing. Yes, of course, if it is God’s will it is God’s bill. But, sometimes, we write a check that God did not say He would cash. We need to trust Him by faith for great things, but we need to have wisdom!!!!
The current follishness of the church in general (lil c) I think is responsible for driving valuable participators/contributors away. Debt is a HUGE problem because pastors won’t teach biblical fundamentals regarding it. Ramsey is a great source of wisdom on the subject. Consistently, from church to church, I’ve also seen the inability to not let large donors “run” the place. This causes friction because leadership will not stand on biblical grounds against those trying to push their own agendas.
As my wife says: “don’t get him started!”
as I’ve said: “I could write volumes on the subject.” But honestly, so few will listen it’s hardly worth the effort. (Yeah, a bit of defeatism in there!) These kinds of discussions in a church will lead to hurt and heartache and general dispair…
Wondering if we need to be more attune to what God is doing and join him as opposed to making a bunch of plans and asking Him to bless us. That might help with the comparentalization that often takes place in our church famalies. Join the movement of God instead of creating our own!! Comments?
I’d be willing to bet that more hare-brained schemes have been launched toward the goal of “church growth” than any other goal. Because it does seem like God would be on the side of that, doesn’t it? But it’s putting the cart ahead of the horse.
You preach Christ, and live Christ, and let the church grow as it may. There aren’t any conclaves of apostles and shepherds in the New Testament, meeting to discuss and plan and pray for church growth. Christ was preached and lived, and the church grew.
You want to have 3,000 added? Preach Christ in such a way that they are convicted of sin and ask what they should do.
Okay, I’ll get off my upside-down bottle crate now and slink back into the subway.
Love the comment about “conclaves of apostles and shepherds” — in my younger days I asked a church “trustee” where in the bible the role of “trustee” was outlined… I thought he was going to punch me! (I was arguing that the large organ that had been unhooked for years should be sold or put in storage because it was an eyesore. The pastor had actually _asked_ me to move it out of the sanctuary. The trustee– essentially a legal position for the purposes of signing documents– said ‘over his dead body’ — and that he was one of two church trustees…)
I also asked one time where the biblical example of a “church business meeting” was at, where a bunch of people gather to follow Roberts Rules of Order and gripe at the pastor.
These are examples of things you might not want to try at home.
another foolish church decision on the lighter end- refusing to read/teach/study from any other than the King James. “If the King James Bible was good enough for the Apostle Paul, then it is good enough for ME!!!”
Oh yeah — “why” the bad decisions are made– #1 why is “we’ve always done it that way.”
Sorry I keep getting sidetracked on the *actual* bad decisions!!
I 100 percent agree with you, Wade. Thanks for having the courage to post this.
I think our churches live too much in Proverbs and not enough in Ecclesiastes. Proverbs assumes that the world operates according to generalities and under a sovereign providential system where there is definitely a precise way that is God’s, and a way that leads to death/life, wisdom/foolishness and riches/poverty. Add a little Calvin and Holy Spirit and you have a lethal combination if taken too literally.
Ecclesiastes corrects the sweeping wisdom of Proverbs and adds, “Not exactly!” Sometimes the wise become poor, and sometimes the righteous are subject to calamity.The only thing that is a distinction between those who survive and those who do not are those that take responsibility for their lives, live in the way of wisdom and finally trust God.
Churches that are so intent on following God’s leading … even when it means incurring a huge debt or making ill-informed decisions — often are praying intently but missing the wisdom God already has given us. In fact, Ecclesiastes says that things won’t always be the will of God. Sometimes it’s just our responsibility, and we better be responsible and wise.
Thanks for calling our attention to this.
I write regularly on my blog on these matters of organizational development, and I try to apply them to church life when appropriate. I’d love to have your comments. Keep up the good work.
Rick–thanks for jumping in. “if it is God’s will it is God’s bill.” That’s a great line. The struggle most have is knowing what God’s will is. Many times God’s will is revealed in hindsight after we’ve taken some sort of action. Going into debt on a project to see if God will pay the bill probably ain’t the way to go.
Viggo–that makes a lot of sense to me.
Jeremy–I think we got you started even though your wife warned us against it. 🙂
Keith–I’ve always had a hard time reconciling what happens in Acts with the modern church growth movement. In Acts, the church is always a step behind the spirit. I always seem to be one step ahead.
Todd–thanks for stopping by the blog and commenting. You are right about Ecclesiastes. “Time and chance happen to them all.” Eccl. 9:11 How do we factor that into our five year plans?