Thoughts on Church Systems Improvement

Every good blog post begins with a story, right? So I was heading down to Washington, DC a decade or so ago. The trains out of NYC were delayed. I fell into conversation with a fellow on the platform who had a highly unusual job. He worked for a consortium of Home Insurance Companies, and his job was to facilitate week long visits between recovery contractors.

Now recovery contractors are very special folks. They are the ones who bring in the big fans when the water pipe bursts, or who replace the bottom foot of drywall, or get the smoke smell out of a hallway after a fire. They are mostly small companies. Insurance companies like to call in small companies because they do the job as if their future depended on it-- and it does. A bad reputation ruins the business and also hurts the Insurance Company. So they are tied together in a network of mutuality.

The facilitation brings together about five companies who do not compete with each other. The fellow on the train platform had done a meeting of firms from Rhode Island to Maryland, all similar size and with similar problems: How to do finances? How to get residual smoke smell out without perfumes? How to encourage middle management? None of them was an expert, nor was any of them the leader. They met as equals, twice a year in a continuing relationship. Each meeting was at one of the companies, and they rotated through in 2.5 years.

The meeting included presidents, CFO's and maybe a particular underling-- scheduler, maintenance, HR director. So, 15 people together for a week, comparing notes. The hosts would present about their business to the visiting 12, and the subgroups would pick areas of study, as groups of 5 CFO's, etc. The visiting managers could spend time asking employees about how they did things, what problems they were encountering, etc. The bookkeeper might show the CFO's how they did their tax accounting, for example. The visitors don't instruct the host workers, but as a group talk honestly with the CFO who can take or leave the advice.

The results: Five CEOs who get advice and validation for what they are doing. Improved financial, management, processes, product. The Insurance consortium wins because the product is more consistent. This is worth funding the facilitator's time! The Company has to host 12 people once every 2.5 years, and loses use of their top managers every 6 months for a week.

OK, I'm not in insurance or remediation. But I can see the value in this model. What if we apply it, almost verbatim on congregations? Groups of 3-5 congregations of similar size and format covenant to send president and treasurer and pledge chair (or some other combination) away for one weekend every six months, and agree to host others every 1.5 to 2.5 years, with an “all hands on deck Saturday” and maybe some extra meetings on Sunday afternoon. (This could also work with Minister-DRE-Music Director as the group, perhaps, though each of these roles have professional associations for sharing ideas.)

The group's covenant includes “no fixing behavior” – Visiting pledge chairs do not lecture on “good” pledge drives/stewardship when observing a Saturday Stewardship planning meeting. Appreciative inquiry is the order of the day as Presidents talk to host board members, social justice team, etc.

Oh, and the facilitator says nothing about the business! Facilitator's job is to make sure the visitors are cared for and congregation is ready to present real information. They show up earlier in the week and double check that host families can house the visitors, that rides are planned, that meeting rooms are ready, snacks, dietary requirements... everything to make sure the meetings are a success. And then after the weekend they meet with the tired hosts and ask how it went. How was the facilitation? What can I do better next time? (What can I share with other facilitators to improve the process?)

The fact of the matter is, our churches are small companies and often act in isolation. Our Facebook groups are full of questions about “How do you do X?” or “We did Y and now we have a problem.” We need ways to improve our processes. This is a very different model from “go listen to the expert” or a seagull consultant. It is much more hands-on and complements the abilities of resources at the District/Region level. The hope is that these congregations will develop a lasting relationship of MUTUALITY, and all benefit from innovations in individual congregations. There is no homework, the experience is the deliverable!
(adapted slightly from original)