We Must Invert the Pastor Pyramid
From Harvard Business this month, Vineet Nayar wrote that it is time to invert the management pyramid. In this article he cites how management was developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, establishing command and control structures within organizations. Over the last century, cultural change drove new ways to innovate in organizations, most frequently through collaboration and teamwork. However, organizations still kept the classic management structures, which worked against innovative processes.
In our churches, similar changes have occurred. We’ve inherited management structures that were introduced to our tradition fifty or more years ago. In our day-to-day lives together as a church community, we assume a command/control structure is the way to get things done. However, the culture has moved on — one person cannot, within their person, have all the tools to direct an organization in an informed and intelligent manner. Likewise, our churches falter when it is the pastor who is assumed to do most of the ministry and leading. It does not need to be this way. Within most church traditions, appeals can be made to move towards a collective priesthood, one where a variety of gifts might lead and inspire the community at different levels. The pastor must shift his/her role towards one that creates space for the people to take center stage.
Nayar asks the hard questions, ones we must pose to the churches: “Do we have the humility to step out of our egos and hand over the mike to our subordinates? Do we possess the courage to unstructure an existing, rigid regime that we have known to work in the past?” Do churches possess the humility and courage Nayar talks about? I think many of our churches do, and now is the time to change.
For more thoughts on this topic, check out this post over at Subversive Influence…
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I remember hearing a while back that you proposed a team M.Div. has anything come of that? It seems right in line with what Nayar is talking about.
At the same time I also feel like it is time to stop looking at business models when running a ministry. Basing our ministries off of business models embeds them with a DNA which they have a tendency to revert to over time.
Comment by chris — October 27, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
I agree! I think this has interesting consequences for things like Sunday School where we teach children still in a mainly didactic “I’m the teacher, you’re the student” type of mentality. I think that discussion and collobaration between student and teacher need to be an important part of the process.
This is happening in education as well with more of an emphasis on collaborative learning styles.
Comment by Danny — October 27, 2008 @ 11:44 pm
Chris, no advance on the group MDiv, sad to say. I think it is okay to look at business models, but not base a ministry on them. Like any set of narratives and practices, for Christians to adopt these is to run them through a kingdom grid. So, borrow all you want, provided they work for forgiveness, they are generous, they overcome racial divisions, recognize giftedness in all members (against dehumanization) and they give everyone a voice. If this is the case, go into any culture, but be Christian when you do…
Danny, yes, collaboration is very congruent with a Pauline perspective of every-member giftedness. It is something we need to embrace at all levels.
Peace, R
Comment by Ryan Bolger — October 28, 2008 @ 7:54 pm
[...] says It’s Time to Invert the Management Pyramid, which Ryan Bolger follows up by saying We Must Invert the Pastor Pyramid. I’m not really very big on chasing down business strategies to apply to the church, but [...]
Pingback by Inverting the Leadership Pyramid : Subversive Influence — October 28, 2008 @ 9:38 pm
Amen. I too believe that the Pastor pyramid must be inverted. The inversion is called ’servant leadership’, and I believe that it was modeled best by Christ himself.
Comment by meredithgriffin — October 31, 2008 @ 2:15 pm