Churches and the problem of committees

 In yesterday's post I addressed why new churches can often grow while many existing churches around them struggle to remain open. I looked at how the structure of the two churches affect making decisions that can lead to growth. Today I want to compare how committees impact church growth and compare that to a church structure that has teams.

Have you ever seem a basketball team hold meetings to discuss plays they might run and after months of discussing these plays bring their thoughts to a gathering of people to vote on it? Teams might discuss how to best run a play, but then they go out and run it. The first scenario I mentioned wasn't a team; it was a committee. That's what committees do. They discuss things, often forever, and then bring their thoughts back to a group of people (congregation) who has not been privy to all the discussions so they can vote on whether or not to proceed. This is a structure doomed to fail. It is also a structure that demonstrates a lack of trust in the church.

Committees discuss things; teams do things. Doing is always more productive than discussing. Our society is changing at incredible speed. No organization can afford to sit around and discuss their options for extended periods of time. That includes churches. We lose valuable time and miss opportunities for ministry because of the committee structure many of our churches depend upon.

Many growing churches have eliminated most of their committees and replaced them with teams. These teams are often short term that end when they have completed their assigned tasks. Some are on-going because of the nature of their work, but they have been given a lot of authority to fulfill that task. Churches should never give teams responsibilities without also giving them the authority to fulfill them.

I mentioned above that the committee structure in many churches is the result of a lack of trust in the church. In low-trust churches everything has to be voted on by the congregation and only after it has come to the congregation through a committee or board. Such churches will seldom grow because visitors to the church can sense the distrust that exists in these churches.

It's not easy for existing churches to change from a committee structure to a team-driven one, but it is possible. I've seen some very traditional churches make the change. Admittedly, this change was often resisted by some within the church, and I'm sure churches have lost members after making this change. I can also say that in the churches I've seen this change occur, it has led to healthier ministry and growth in the church.

Those churches that successfully made the change often did so as a trial. They identified the new format they wanted to adopt and said they would try it for 2-3 years. At the end of the trial if it wasn't working out they would return to their old structure. I haven't seen one yet return to the former ways of doing things.

If your church is overloaded with committees and boards you may want to look at moving to a team structure. This is especially true if these committees and boards are hindering the growth of your church.

Tomorrow I will address the importance of welcoming guests to your church.