Growth? Or Control? What’s Your Pleasure?
Sometimes the issues that seem the most complex are really very simple at their essence. For example, I learned a long time ago that when when faced with the choice between several possibilities, there are no problem free solutions and that wise leaders simply choose the set of problems they’d rather have. That simple understanding has made issues that seem complex much simpler to understand.
Then there are a string of great quotes that help me organize my thinking. For example:
- “Your organization is perfectly designed to produce the results you’re currently experiencing.” Andy Stanley
- “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein
- “What would have to be true for that approach to work?” Roger Martin
- “Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you’re on a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” Gary Hamel
- “Forget about what you believe may be true. Forget about what you hope may be true. Instead, just look at what’s actually happening.” Steven Levitt
I love a great line. Here’s one that ought to influence a lot of our thinking:
“You can either structure (your church) for growth or for control, but not both.” Rick Warren
That is a fabulous line. Many of our most challenging decisions, lots and lots of both stimulating and tiring debate, finds its epicenter is the mistaken belief that you can structure for both growth and control. You can try. You can give it your very best efforts. You can hope all you want. But at the end of the day, you will need to choose between structuring for growth or control.
I appreciate some of those quotes too. I feel like I have been in too many meetings where their words would be helpful reminders that we are not the first to experience these frustrations. (Maybe I should post them on the wall – too negative? Hmmm ….)
But to your point (or Rick’s), I’m not sure the contrast between growth and control are helpful. No one really admits to creating ministries for the sake of control – it’s a word that is loaded with baggage. I think most leaders are hoping they can generate/leverage their influence to lead/create a number of things, including growth.
So what happens when we change the line to “You can either structure (your church) for growth or for influence, but not both.”
Honestly, I think we need both.
Thanks for the thoughtful post Mark.
Thanks Tim! I can definitely see what you’re thinking. Influence is an important aspect. However, what Rick Warren is referring to is a very common growth blocker. For example, many churches concerned about control work very hard setting up thorough hoops for prospective small group leaders to jump through. (applications, interviews, prerequisite training courses, apprentice first, etc.) and then bemoan the fact that they can’t find enough leaders to handle the demand. On the other hand, there are churches structuring for growth that have lowered the bar in terms of who can begin to lead and seen far more potential leaders (with some messiness). You can either structure for growth or control but not both.
mark
“We fear that it [the spontaneous expansion of the church] is something that we cannot control. And it is true. We can neither induce nor control spontaneous expansion whether we look on it as the work of the individual or of the church. . .‘The wind blows where it will,’ said Christ.”
If we cannot control it, we ought to rejoice that we cannot control it. For if we cannot control it, it is because it is too great, not because it is too small for us. Therein lies the vast hope. Spontaneous expansion could fill the continents with the knowledge of Christ: our control cannot reach as far as that. We constantly bewail our limitations: open doors un-entered; doors closed to us as foreign missionaries; fields white to the harvest which we cannot reap.
Spontaneous expansion could enter open doors, force closed ones, and reap those white fields. Our control cannot: it can only appeal pitifully for more men to maintain control.
-Roland Allan
The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church
Joshhunthttp://mybiblestudylessons.com/
I love it! Thanks for jumping in here Josh!