Administration

Captain Kirk’s San Francisco Sailing

Papers were stacked on the desk. The freshest on the top and the stale ones on the bottom, hoping benign neglect will eventually mean they can be trashed. There are workers needing directions about the work they are doing. A budget has to be prepare for the council to review. Both the computer and the copier quit working on Thursday afternoon, and there is little chance of getting them working before Monday. The worship bulletin is not yet finished. The organist/choir director just called to say she was not well and would not be able to be at church on Sunday. A substitute will have to be found. Millie called to complain because the Women’s Birthday Luncheon isn’t on the church’s website. The florist wants to know when they can get in Saturday morning to place the flowers for the wedding Saturday afternoon. The annual statistical report needs to be completed and submitted, but the computer is down and that is how it has to be submitted. The sermon isn’t even started. It will have to be another Saturday night special.

Such is the life of a pastor for a smaller membership congregation. Details, details, details. What is it they say, “The devil is in the details?” Many pastors know the frustration of being the one designated as the person who is to handle the details. Although some pastors do like to hide in the weeds of the details to avoid doing other activities, most proclaim their disdain for administration. Get a group of pastors together and one of the chief complaints will be about the time and effort it takes to handle the administrative details of the congregation. “I didn’t go to seminary to become the congregation’s CEO,” can often be heard. Most seminaries barely provide instruction in the area of church administration. Among many, administration might as well be a four letter word.

It is no wonder so many pastors have an allergic reaction to administration when it is taken to mean handling a plethora of details which have not been delegated to some other person, or which have been dropped by others like children’s toys strewn on the floor for the parents to pick up. The Apostle must have been using some bad dope when listing administration as a spiritual gift. (I Cor. 12:27-28). Is there another way of understanding what is meant by administration?

Martyn Burt, Treasurer for the Anglican Diocese of Rochester, writes, The spiritual ‘gift of administration’ is the ability to turn God-given vision into reality. The word administration comes from the Latin and literally means ‘to’ (ad) ‘minister’. To administer is to do ministry. Paul lists it as one of the crucial gifts for building up the church so it must have been thought of as being quite crucial. The Spirit equips us with the ability to make things happen and to help church-life flourish. http://www.rochester.anglican.org/content/pages/documents/1425900820.pdf

When we look more closely at I Corinthians 12:27-28, we see that various roles (gifts) in the community are listed. Jeff Carver writes, The Greek word for the spiritual gift of administration is Kubernesis (Κυβερνησεις). This is a unique term that refers to a shipmaster or captain. The literal meaning is "to steer," or "to rule or govern."  It carries the idea of someone who guides and directs a group of people toward a goal or destination. http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gift-of-administration

Without a person, or group of people, with the gift of administration the church, be it a congregation or a denomination, is like a boat which merely drifts from one sport in the ocean to another without ever reaching any particular destination. An administrator organizes people and resources to fulfill the “Great Ends of the Church.” {Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Order F-1.0304}. Administration is a crucial role within any organization. Administration is not about picking up dirty laundry dropped on the floor by others. Administration is the gift of guiding the church to fulfill its God given purposes.

RESILIENCE

As I look out the window I am watching the window blow against and through my favorite tree in the yard. It is a glorious maple. I have plenty of room to sit under its expansive canopy. Earlier today the wind was more gentle causing the thinner limbs to sway lazily as the wind was caught by the leaves and then relaxing back in place as the wind eased. Now, the wind has increased its force and the limb now bend more and dance more vigorously. The increasing wind portends the approach of the possibility of a storm. Thankfully the limbs are supple and maintain enough ability to bend and come back into place without breaking.

Over the year of gentle and strong winds the limbs of the tree have developed resilience. If they never had the wind gently and strongly blowing them about there would be no resilience. Without resilience the limbs were to suddenly encounter a strong wind the limbs would most likely snap. Over time with mild and gusty winds the fibers of the limbs have developed the strength whipping back and forth of more robust winds.

Organizations and people build resilience as we encounter the gentle and strong winds which blow against us. As we are pushed out of our comfort zones and then regain our position. Small challenges, disruptions to our stability, and overcoming them strengthens us to endure the next more resistant challenges. The unexpected flat tire or leak in the roof challenges us to figure out how to deal with the non-budgeted expense. Each small challenge which comes our way strengthens us in problem solving skills. Building resilience enables us to deal with larger problems without breaking.

Drawing on our experience of handling the disorientating events of the past gives us clues in handling the troublesome events of the present day. “What did you do the last time your car broke down?” “How did that work out?” “Not so good.” “What would you have done differently then?” “Oh, you would have called AAA instead of hitch-hiking twenty miles.” “So, you would have called for help instead of trying to resolve it yourself?” “Wasn’t walking along the road with you thumb sticking out a way of asking for help?” “Facing this issue, what from the time your car broke down can you apply to this situation?” “Well, I guess I could ask for help.” “Who would you call?” “I could call that company called TECH GUYS ARE US.” “How important is it to get your computer up and running sooner rather than later?” “I do have that report to finish by next Thursday.” How long will it take you to finish the report?” “This is Thursday of this week. When do you plan to call the Tech Guys?” “I think I better call them know. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait for them to get here.” “Good, will you let me know when the report is finished so I can celebrate with you?” “That would be fun. I’ll call you.”

The winds blow against us. Sometimes the winds are gentle and we sway from our place of comfort to a new position and then back to where we were. The swaying strengthens us for the time when the winds blow with greater intensity. Resilience is what keeps us from breaking.

Devolving or Evolving?

(Magic Optical Illusion by Robert Gonsalves)

Is it devolution or evolution? There are many sectors of life which are undergoing massive change. Retail, manufacturing, entertainment, economies, technology, everything is changing. Because I have only limited knowledge about the changes being face by humankind, I limit my reflections, today, to the church in the United States, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in Pennsylvania, in western PA. I do think what is happening here gives a glimpse of what is happening across the Church in the United States.

What are some of the observable realities?

1. Church membership is declining.
2. Worship attendance patterns have changed.
3.  Fewer congregations can afford a full-time pastor.
4.  More is spent on facility upkeep than mission.
5. The number of congregations being served by non-seminary trained pastoral staff is increasing.
6. The governing structure is being restructured again and again.
7. Mid-level (presbytery and synod) administrative staff positions are disappearing.
8. Financial support of the more inclusive structures is decreasing.

These are but a few of the changes occurring in the contemporary church.

This past week the Bishop of the Pittsburgh Roman Catholic Diocese announced the imminent closing of 15 congregations, and by 2018 many more could be merged or closed (http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/10371846-74/parishes-diocese-pittsburgh). Historically, the Roman Catholic and the Presbyterian presences in the Greater Pittsburgh Area have been very strong. The Presbyterian presence has splintered into three primary divisions. Add that to the aging and declining membership, and the PC(U.S.A.) is a mere shadow of its former self.

I have been saying, for many years, "full-time, uninterrupted, congregational service as a pastor from ordination to retirement is a thing of the past." I have urged that those being considered for ordination must be able to demonstrate a second set of salable skills by which to earn a living. This article from the Presbyterian Outlook in March, 2013 lifts up a picture of the issues for ministers and congregations (http://pres-outlook.org/2013/03/full-time-called-pastor-as-an-endangered-species/).

One possibility for the future is to under-gird the pastors who are serving full-time in congregations, and to have them serve as “teachers” for some of the Ruling Elders commissioned to particular pastoral service (CREs) who are serving very part-time in surrounding congregations. I can see the time coming when many presbyteries will have more CREs than Teaching Elders (seminary trained, and ordained ministers). The full-time pastors need to be supported in their role as Teaching Elders. They need to be released from day to day management of the congregation leaving that to the Ruling Elders. They need to be released from the day to day pastoral care of their congregations leaving that to the deacons in the congregation. They need to be released from multiple responsibilities in the more inclusive councils of the church. They need to be provided with a coach to help them chart a path to greater life and vocational fulfillment. Full-time teaching elders could then have some time to dedicate to under-girding the CREs serving nearby congregations.

There is much wringing of hands and despairing conversation about the state of our congregations, and the decline in the number of fulltime pastoral positions. In very few presbyteries, or across the denomination, are we developing comprehensive strategies which might lead us into a different and new future. Even though things are not the way they were 43 years ago when I was ordained, I have to believe the church in this part of the Church is evolving, not devolving. I believe there is a new role developing for teaching elders (ministers). The parish and presbytery will become the seat of development of schooled leaders, particularly for the congregations with fewer than 200 members. We will still need seminaries, though fewer of them, to provide the in depth preparation of teaching elders who then will serve as those who serve a congregation and providing greater training for Ruling Elders commissioned to particular pastoral service.

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Discrimination

             http://www.employees-lawyer.com/practice-areas/discrimination/

The other day I posted a comment on Facebook saying, “I find it interesting to watch the lineup of corporations and other entities saying they will not do more business with North Carolina. Twenty years, maybe even ten years, ago this would not have been the response.” This was in response to “Religious Freedom” law passed by the North Carolina state legislature. The “religious freedom” laws being passed in various states allow for discrimination on the basis of one’s religious beliefs. It has been said that “religious freedom” is code language for being able to discriminate on the basis of sexual identification.

If one owns a store and a same gender couple comes in to make a purchase, the store owner, on the basis of their religious conviction, may refuse to sell to the couple. The real sticking point is the requirement that a person use the restroom for the anatomical designation on one’s birth certificate. Therefore, a person who has gone through anatomical reorientation cannot use the restroom of their present sexual identity. A man who has gone through sexual reorientation, emotionally and physically, to become a woman could not use the women’s restroom, but would have to use the men’s room. What would one have to do, carry their birth certificate around and show it to the restroom police?

Some significant business and organizations have either decided not to expand their business operations in North Carolina, or not to open an operation there. Some media production companies have decided not to make films in North Carolina. These decisions are being made on the basis of supporting non-discrimination. Where were these companies during the civil rights days? Where were/are they when it comes to equal pay for equal work?

Let’s face it discrimination still is alive and flourishing in this country on the basis of religion, sex, race and any other factor which makes you different from me. There are those who would close our borders to the south with huge walls. Some want to ban the immigration of those who come from predominantly Muslim countries. In the past, Africans, Italians, Irish, Chinese and Japanese were the targets of our nationality discrimination. It still exists and we cannot close our eyes to it, and pretend we are all happy together in the melting pot.

Even though I know there are some discrimination tendencies in my own life, I find it ironic that we who worship the God who because one of us and pitched tent among us use our scriptures and religious beliefs to say that God did not include you. Either God is for all of us, or God is for none of us. There is not a white god and a black god. There is not a male god and a female god. There is not a straight god and a gay/lesbian god. There is not a Jewish god, and a Muslim god, and a Christian god. Until we can wrap our hearts and minds around that, we are guilty of making God in our own image rather than we being the imago dei. Whatever we use to discriminate and to separate us from one another keeps us from seeing the image of God in the other.

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Assigned & Ascribed Leadership

In college I was a sociology major. One of the first distinctions we learned was between assigned and ascribed leadership. Strictly speaking they are distinct, at times they intertwine. Assigned leadership is often first experienced as a child when you are put in the position of line leader to guide the rest of the students out for recess. Ascribed leadership may happen because all the other classmates have seen you excel in a skill and choose you as team captain.

Assigned leadership may depend on one’s status. Bill inherited the position of president of the company. Because of his status in the family hierarchy Bill is assigned his position. Assigned leadership does not require any particular knowledge, skills or experience. How many times have we heard derisive comments about people in assigned leadership positions?

Ascribed leadership depends on one’s knowledge, skills, experience, and achievements. Sue began working in the sales department of the company. She frequently took classes to improve her knowledge. On a regular basis she achieved top ranking in sales. She took on tough sales regions and gained a wealth of experience. It was not long before she was promoted to a regional sales manager. Her next step was to be appointed a vice-president for sales, based on the success of her regional sales team. After a few years as VP, the board of directors of the company elected Sue as the new Chief Executive Officer.

As Sue moved up in the company she was in both an assigned and ascribed leadership position. As regional sales manager, as VP and as CEO she had positional/assigned leadership authority and responsibility. Her increased knowledge, skills, experiences and achievements gave her ascribed leadership authority and responsibility. Sue proved she had what it would take to move into greater positions of authority and responsibility.

When a crisis hit the company, as CEO, Sue was in the assigned leadership position to lead through the crisis. More importantly, Sue had “earned her stripes” to be trusted by the board of directors and employees to follow her lead. Within a couple of years, the company was again flourishing. Imagine what might have happened if Sue had only been in the assigned leadership position without the knowledge, skills, experience and achievement to lead through the crisis with the trust of the board and employees.

www.brainyquote.com

When one is elected as a pastor, immediately out of seminary, about all one has to offer is a passable academic career, and maybe some commendations from field work in a congregation. Yet, being pastor carries with it a level of assigned, or positional, leadership. In the assigned leadership role of pastor there are, and will be, expectations among the members of the congregation, among the regional denominational leaders, the community at large and from future congregations. What are the lessons from Sue’s story which apply to being a pastor, and leading through a crisis?

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TOO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE

I just read a very disturbing story from the New York Times entitled “The World Has Too Many Young People,” by Somini Sengupta. (http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-world-has-a-problem-too-many-young-people/ar-BBqnY8m?li=BBnb7Kz) One would never guess that is the case by looking at a typical Christian congregation in either Europe or the United States where gray hair, arthritic knees and hips, and declining membership is the norm.

Sengupta focuses much of her article on India. Here are a few eye-opening statements in the article.

-Every month, some one million young Indians turn 18 — coming of age, looking for work, registering to vote and making India home to the largest number of young, working-age people anywhere in the world.

- Already, the number of Indians between the ages of 15 and 34 — 422 million — is roughly the same as the combined populations of the United States, Canada and Britain.

- This is just part of India’s staggering challenge. Every year, the country must create an estimated 12 million to 17 million jobs.

These figures do not include China, Africa, Central and South America. One of the points Sengupta makes is that unemployed and unemployable youth are the fertile ground for frustration, anger and revolt. What do we say, “Let them eat naan?” Sengupta gives an ominous warning, Mind your young, or they will trouble you in your old age.

Sengupta states, In the United States, nearly 17 percent of those between the ages of 16 and 29 are neither in school nor working. (I do not think that includes the vast number of people, especially African-America, in that age grouping who are incarcerated.) We wonder why our inner city populations and the rural poor are enticed into illicit, and often violent, activities. If that is so here, can we really be surprised by uprisings in other parts of the world?

During this political campaign season, we hear some of the candidates proclaiming they will bring jobs back to the United States. Sure, we still have an official unemployed rate of someplace between 4.5% and 5.5% of the population. The unofficial rate may be a percentage point of two higher. Would some of our unemployed take the menial jobs which have been exported? Sure, some would. If we were to reclaim all the jobs which have gone off shore, we would only be making matters worse in those countries to which the jobs were transferred. If the economic situation in countries, such as Indian, were exacerbated by “bringing home those jobs,” would we not be contributing the horrid conditions there?

If the Syrian Refugee immigration into Europe has created problems, what would it look like if the youthful unemployed of India were to engage in a massive immigration not only into Europe but into the United States? What would it look like if one million young people were to immigrate each month into Europe and the United States?

There are a myriad of ethical and economic questions and variables which are not easily answered. I do not have the answers. I do know Sengupta’s article raises many points of concern for me. We are told the U.S. population is confused and frightened as we see our lives as they used to be no longer being that way now nor into the future. We live in a world sheltered from the realities with which much of the global population must cope daily. It is almost as if we were on The Truman Show. Articles like Sengupta’s give us a squinting view of the real world. Once viewing it, what are we to do?

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Right Size

braedennip10.wikispaces.com

imur.com

What is the right size for a congregation? Some would say it is one which can support a building, have a full-time minister, and which can offer programs that meet the needs of the members. Others might say it is one in which I can know everybody by face and first name. Still others might say one which is big and powerful enough to address issues in the community and world with measurable outcomes. There are many definitions of what is the right size for a congregation. When it comes to making a judgement about that, we are all like Goldilocks. Some might be too small, some too big, and some “just right.” When I was a general presbyter (one with administrative, pastoral and leadership responsibilities for the mission, ministry and maintenance of the presbytery), I could tell you from year to year how many members it would take for a congregation to be “just right” by the first definition. I do know that there is no “one size” which fits all.

According to Facebook, I have 267 friends. In reality, I have a few friends, some acquaintances, some people who interest me, and some who happen to be friends of friends. When I look at the vast numbers of "friends" some of my friends have it makes me feel unfriendly. As I reflect on my social connections, over the years, they have always been rather small circles. My nuclear family was just four of us. My extended family, particularly on my father’s side included several aunts, uncles and cousins. Among the cousins, there was a relatively small group of us who were close, and a larger group I barely knew because they were significantly older or lived further away. The neighborhood in which we lived was relatively small and there were few people my age. The elementary school I attended was small, and I can only recall about ten people I would have called friends. High school was much the same. There were eighty-two people in my graduating class. I knew a lot of people, but I would have called about twenty people as my friends. When I went to college, beginning at The Ohio State University, my freshmen class had fifteen thousand students. That was a quantum jump from my high school graduation class. OSU was too large and offered too many distractions for me. I didn’t make it to my sophomore year. I flourished in a college of about two thousand students.

A dear friend of mine grew up in a smaller to small mid-sized congregation in a relatively small town. She and her family were totally involved in the life of the congregation. After she was married and moved to a big city, she said she wanted a big church where she could become lost in the crowd. After a while, the bigness did not fit. So she and her family moved to a congregation of around two hundred fifty members where they could be more involved in the life of the congregation. It fit “just right.”

In large congregations, more than five hundred members, they usually become a conglomeration of smaller groups. Sunday school classes, the choir, fellowship groups, Stephen ministers, and a host of other smaller groups become the focal point for relational exchanges. I have known pastors of larger and huge congregations who have admitted there was no way they could know the names and faces of all of the members. Specialized staff tended to the smaller relational grouping.

In an excellent NPR article titled “Don't Believe Facebook; You Only Have 150 Friends,” we are pointed toward some serious considerations about what is a right sized congregation. The NPR staff writers drew upon the research of Robin Dunbar in writing the article/program script. Dunbar proposes that the number of people we can really “know” ripples out from five to the one hundred fifty ripple. Much beyond that we may know of somebody, but we probably do not really know them.

This might suggest that the ideal sized church, or subsection of a large church, might be in the neighborhood of one hundred fifty people. While it is true that we can gather for concerts or worship with thousands, we cannot build or maintain meaningful relationships with that many people. We have heard it jokingly said, “Last night, I was with two-thousand of my closest friends at an Adele concert.” We know that is a hyperbolic statement of the relationship of the speaker to the others at the concert.

If a congregation is to be a community, not only for corporate worship, but for mutual development as disciples of Christ Jesus, then the “right sized” congregation might be one hundred fifty people (give or take a few people). If we are to be of mutual encouragement and discipline, we need to be in a significant relationship with one another. To use a colloquial phrase, “If I do not know you from Adam” will I value your encouragement or discipline? In a congregation of one hundred fifty people we can know and be known; we can care for and be cared for; we can trust and be trusted. Maybe we are spending too much time, effort and resources trying to grow congregations beyond the 200 plateau. Maybe we need to look to stable, meaningful relationships which are more possible, according to Dunbar, in those congregations of around one hundred fifty souls.

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