Aunty, why does our church have such poor leadership?
9 September 2024 |
Dear Aunt Sevvy,
An older church worker that I admired once told me that the church promotes people to their level of incompetence. I was new to church work at the time, and thought maybe he was just jaded.
But over the last few decades I’ve seen it to be true. Why do mediocre workers so often get promoted?
Signed, Disappointed
Dear Disappointed,
What you describe isn’t unique to church work. It happens in many—probably most—organizations.
Churches, but also companies, political parties, and almost any other organized group of people, start out with high ideals and intrinsic motivation. But the years pass, and the more everyone has invested in the organization, the more difficult it becomes to be idealistic. The organization begins to reward not creativity and hard work, but loyalty and stability. Creativity and innovation, which were the reason for the organization’s success, come to feel threatening.
At that point, the people who rise to the top aren’t necessarily the best, but the safest leaders. They tend to lean heavily on the organization’s early history for their authority. They don’t like to make changes that would threaten their position, even if necessary.
And such leaders can, in the end, spell the organization’s downfall.
The top executive in our denomination is an effective politician, but he holds on to the Adventism of a century ago, and surrounds himself with people who think the same way. Changes that he had the opportunity to adopt, such as letting women be ordained to ministry, he opposes as righteous crusades.
Meanwhile he says nothing to the church leaders in Africa who have advocated the death penalty for LGBTQ people. He says nothing about the church leaders in India and Latin America who enrich themselves at the expense of donors and church members. All he talks about is the end times—and the apostasy of church members who he hopes will soon be shaken out and leave his church in peace!
I think we can safely conclude that our church has proven the very maxim your friend gave you.
Aunt Sevvy
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