Creating Bureacracy and Carver

http://www.alban.org/MO_ShowArticle.asp?ID=275&Current=y

This link might not work for you unless you are a member of Alban Institute.  It is a link to an article called   

Leading from the Bottom Up BUREAUCRACY AND ADHOCRACY

By Howard Friend

I liked the article because I believe that grassroot groups initiated within beureaucracy bring vitality and growth to congribution. And being a Carver skeptic, I question how this fits with the Boards focus on on Policy Governance, John Carver Style. Boards spend too much time worrying about end statements and limitations, and giving the church away to staff.  The motivation and creativity seems secondary.

When I left my Church Board in annapolis a year ago, we were experiencing a vital growth of individual and group initiatives.  Friend would describe this as "

Developing an Effective and Efficient Bureaucracy…, and streamlined its bureaucracy in the positive and creative spirit of that word. Organizational units were typically eliminated or combined. Board, committee, and leader job descriptions were crafted to artfully combine autonomy and accountability. The congregational vision statement was regularly revisited and renewed; each ministry team created a mission statement to guide its work, projected goals for the year, and formulated an action plan to carry them out; and leaders were trained in the skills necessary for effective leadership—all in a spirit of sharing and celebration. Bureaucracy is not a bad word.

Welcoming the Brand New—Adhocracy
In the process of streamlining their bureaucracies, these churches found themselves reinventing governance. They shed the all too prevalent and pervasive view of leaders as people “elected to do the work,” adopting instead a partnership vision of a leader: “a person who works with people to accomplish a purpose,” redefining leaders as people who work with rather than for the membership. They moved away from the typical “producer-consumer relationship” between leadership and membership, where leaders offer “products” (programs, groups, events, etc.) and hope members will “buy.” Rather than polling members about their needs so they could offer appropriate programs and opportunities to serve, leaders encouraged and equipped groups of members large and small to create their own opportunities for service.

Friend  sees Three Leadership Functions
- Inspiration
How can congregational leaders create and nurture an environment of initiative and responsibility-taking by laity, an environment of inventiveness and creativity, of motivation and responsiveness among the membership? How can leaders “get the word out” that all can be co-creators of the ministry of the church? These questions begin to turn the soil in this region we are calling adhocracy. Inspired and inspiring leaders create and nurture a climate of expectancy, of responsibility-taking, of eager lay initiative. If you could read the congregational journal of that niche-market church, you’d see it unfold—slowly at first, haltingly, tentatively, almost imperceptibly. Indeed, let’s use them as a model. Here are some illustrations of how the adhocracy of that church developed—with inspiring results:

Consultation
People with fresh ideas and a readiness to carry them forward need assistance: guidance, encouragement, coaching, and access to resources, including budget. People leading a hands-on mission might seek out the Outreach Committee chair. Someone with an adult education idea might connect with the Christian Education Committee. These leaders know how to “get beside” the people who can best assist them while keeping the ball in their own hands. In the transformation of the

New England

congregation described earlier, the annual budget included “undesignated funds” for both education and mission outreach so that programs could birth anytime during the church year. Mini-courses or one-on-one consultations were available to teach the skills needed to birth a new ministry: convening and empowering a group, setting an agenda and leading a meeting, focusing vision and setting goals, and making appropriate contacts outside the church. Sometimes it was as simple as “Here are keys to the church. This is how you turn on the lights and adjust the heat, and there are the folding chairs and coffee supplies.”

St. Paul

would call it “equipping the saints.”

- Celebration
Leaders of empowered congregations are “liturgists of celebration.” People need, want, and have a right to recognition, affirmation, and celebration, so write newsletter articles about your church’s lay leaders, feature a ministry or program each Sunday, use them as sermon illustrations, or create a photo collage of church leaders and their ministries on the bulletin board. Create a climate of appreciation not just for the “successes” but also for devotion, commitment, and hard work, even for initiatives that didn’t work so well. Celebrate faithfulness; it is a way to remember that it is God who “works it all together for good.”

Sounds good to me.

Nancy