Structures That Work
By Bill Jacobs
An article is taken from a transcript date October 23, 2008.
Download the transcript or audio.
Church Health . We're on that series and we're calling this – which is the second one on Functional Structures – Structures That Work. The question is, “What do you mean work?” In the church, when a structure works, what is it supposed to do? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today.
We talked a little bit about this last time – a structure that helps the church function is a structure that works. And we said that the function of the church is to make disciples. Right? That's what we studied about last time. Then to understand what kind of structures those would be, we have to ask, “What does the church need to do to make disciples?” We learned that so far it needs to be healthy. A congregation that's healthy – just like a tree that's healthy – produces fruit. And a tree that is struggling to live, and just barely hanging on to life, generally doesn't produce much fruit. Plants that flower – if they're struggling, they don't flower very well. We learned that what causes the church to be healthy is ultimately going to cause it to produce fruit – or grow.
We also talked about the fact that Natural Church Development asked which spiritual attributes are the most important to make a congregation healthy. Then they surveyed people to find out. What a novel idea! Go to the people that go to church and find out what makes them feel good about going there – what makes it spiritually healthy. So they came up with eight things. The structures that cause these eight things to develop in a congregation would be functional structures. Right? That's how it works.
So, we're going to take the next two presentations after this one to look at those eight things and consider what kind of structures a group could create to make those eight qualities occur. But first, we're going to do something else. We're going to take a different look at the situation – more of a spiritual look – and talk about what would cause that to happen. It's all so simple and yet so profound.
There are four areas in the human brain – all lumped together – and they're learning that when they're activated, they cause people to be encouraged. The word encourage doesn't mean just to have a good feeling. It means to add courage. That's what the word, etymologically, means – encouragement – add courage. It means to add courage to do something. So when we use the word encouragement in this context, we're talking about motivation to do something good.
So they found these four areas. What are they? Well, the first one is inclusion . When people are included and made to feel a part, then they're encouraged to participate and become a part of the church. I want you to think with me about Paul's analogy of the church as a body. Inclusiveness is a very strong part of that, isn't it? Your thumb is definitely included in your body, isn't it? Especially when it gets hit with a hammer! You definitely know it's a part, and all the other parts of the body send blood to it, and all that kind of thing to take care of it. A more subtle example, I think, in the scriptures might be found in John 1:35. This is one of my favorite things in the Bible. It says:
Jn. 1:35 – The next day John was there again with two of his disciples – so they were, I guess, across Jordan – when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God.” And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. And turning around, Jesus saw them following, and asked, “What do you want?” And they said, “Rabbi,” (which means teacher) “Where are you staying?” And He said, “None of your business.” No, He didn't say that. I'm sorry. He said, “Come, and you will see.” So there's this inclusive, “Come on along. Let's walk together. I'll take you there.” So they went and saw where He was staying and spent the day with Him. And it says it was about the tenth hour. Spent the day with Him. So there's that inclusiveness there. That's how He started working with them right from the beginning.
The second one that they talk a lot about in brain research is competence . When people are provided skills so that they can participate, they're encouraged to be involved. What is a spiritual gift? I mean, there it is – right there. Right? It's a spiritual competency, isn't it? God has given us all something that makes us capable of being successful in the church. See, God knows how this works. He knows. He's always known, but we're just learning about people, because He designed all that into us. We're just finding out about what He has done.
Incidentally, I say – I'm taking a time out here – I saw a program last Thursday night on the history channel about the history of how man discovered what's happening in the universe. They started with Aristotle and went all the way to the present day. They went through Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton , and all of these geniuses – Einstein – and how they discovered the big bang. It shows that there was a beginning of the universe. There was a big discussion back in the 20s and 30s about whether that was really true or not. So they commissioned some guys to try to find the smoking gun of the big bang – some sort of residue in space. There were two other guys that didn't know anything about that that built this giant radio telescope, and everywhere they turned it, there was all this static that shouldn't have been there. That's when they realized, “Oh, that's the residue – the origin – of the universe.” What I like about it – one of the things – was a guy that I used to play soldiers with when I was eleven years old was one of the scientists they interviewed there. His name was Nikki Okaku (sp?). We used to go to school together. He had a lot of good stuff to say, too. He's been busy.
So, God knows what to do to get us involved. So there's competence built into the church through the giving of spiritual gifts. What did Jesus say to those two guys he invited to come along with Him? He said, “I will make you fishers of men. I'm going to show you what to do so that you can be good at something in the church.” He sent them out two by two to practice what He taught them.
And then the third one is responsibility . We've been talking a lot about the parable of the talents, where the lord went on a journey, and he left his assets with his disciples. He was going to hold them accountable, so he gave them the responsibility of doing what they could with what he'd given them. So, when we give people that, that encourages them.
When we were at camp this past week, we had to set up a schedule. Of course, this was the first time we'd ever done that kind of camp, so we were totally winging it. But we sat down with the campers, and we said, “Kids always have a hard time getting up in the morning and they have a hard time going to bed at night, because they're wired differently than adults.” You don't have to do anything about it. Eventually, they turn into adults and they go to bed early and get up early. But we had stuff we had to do, so started, and we said, “Okay, tomorrow we're going to have a work project, and we're going to be there at ten. So how long does it take us to get there, Dale?” “Uh, fifteen minutes.” “So how long is it going to take to eat breakfast and clean up from it?” “About an hour and a quarter.” Okay, so then we all figured out what time we all needed to get up in the morning. And it was earlier than most would like to get up in the morning in the summertime, but they all were happy to do that, because they understood why. And they got to participate in reasoning their way to the conclusion of when we all needed to get up. So it was a group decision and they were all included in that and given the responsibility to make the decision. We did have about a half hour leeway in there and they opted to go kind of in-between, so there you go.
I think about the apostles when Jesus ascended. You know, there He goes.... He's going up, up, up...out of sight. Oh, there's a cloud. And then the angel said, “What are you guys galking at?” Then it was up to them. They had had to go back and start making decisions, like who's going to replace Judas? What are we going to do now? Of course, Christ was right there to help them in Spirit, but it was still different than when He was actually walking around with them. So they were given a great responsibility.
The final of the four things is purpose or commitment. And that's all over the New Testament. Make disciples. There it is. That's our purpose. We're not told to pray, pay and obey. We're told to make disciples. We're not told to just pay somebody to do our work, but to actually get involved in doing the work ourselves – in producing a healthy congregation – creating an environment that's conducive to growth.
So the question is raised, then, “How can we build these four things into our congregation?” And the answer is through the structures that the congregation creates. That's what structures are for.
So how do we make people feel included? Well, I'm going to blow right by the obvious one, which is include people in the governing of the group. That makes you feel a part of things. I'm going to talk about our little group here.
We're getting a new meeting place. We hope to be in by October, which is probably about the time this is going to come out, isn't it? We're all excited about that, because it's in a lot better location. It will look a lot nicer on the outside, although probably no nicer than this inside. But this change has encouraged us to take a look at our Sabbath activities and see how we can change it so it will engage people. We're so small, to have a highly structured service would probably seem odd to people. So we think what we do already might be the best thing to do – which is study the Bible together. We sit around a table and we study, and everybody's to be included as much as they like, or as little as they like. We have food. And we talk about whatever comes up. If somebody has a question, we work on it. We think there are people who
want to study the Bible in town here, but they might not want to come to a church service – especially if it's a church service with seven people in it. It's a little unusual, isn't it? But a Bible study with seven people in it? No problem. So, for us, we think that that
structure that we've created is one that will cause new people to feel at home and included. So that's an example of how what you structure works.
So we're using the principle of
intentionality . We're reverse engineering things. We're starting with the result we want to get, and then working backward to figure out how to do that. We asked, “How will we make people feel included?” Well, we have food. And we go around the circle when we do our study – to include everybody. People know that they're free to talk about situations in everyday life, so that it isn't just a dry Bible study about a specific section of scripture, but we try to apply the principles there, or even the associations that come from studying, into the study so that we can talk about those things. Then we pray with and for each other. It's very informal, but it's helpful to people. So that's an example of how you apply the principle of intentionality.
I have another example, too. It's, perhaps, a little bit more subtle. We're talking about
including people now. A year or so ago I was invited to an independent congregation of fair size. The occasion was the baptism of one of the older teenagers. She was given the choice of the music, and the speaker, and what they were going to do that day. She got to pick all of those things, because it was
her day. She asked her grandfather to come from another area, and he got to be involved. Her dad – besides baptizing her, he sang. Another man in the congregation with her father – this other man had known her all her life – the two of those men baptized this young woman. I was thinking of how that must have made
her feel. Not only did it help her feel included, but it also, I think, sent a powerful message to all of the young people who hadn't yet been baptized – that something good was going to happen for them, too, when it was their turn. That good thing was the feeling of inclusion – that you're a part of this and we want to honor you for that – for taking the next step. They learned that the same kind of honor and love was going to be bestowed on them when they reached that spiritual milestone.
Another thing I think about is to include children in the weekly production of services. It's one thing to have special events for them. That's good. But most of the really important things are not learned at those one time deals. It's in the every day of life that we learn how we should be, so kids need to be included in the weekly effort to have church, I think.
So how could a group use the principle of intentionality to create an awareness of inclusion among the greatest evangelistic field that we have, which is our kids? Well, kids see adults setting up chairs, and bringing food for the potluck, and making the coffee, and cleaning up afterwards. Including them in those chores – in a developmentally appropriate way – helps them realize that they're a part of the church.
A congregation invited me to come to their church for a youth weekend. I asked the man who extended the invitation what kind of activities they would be doing that weekend. He said, “Oh, we haven't asked the kids what they want to do yet.” I thought, “Wow! They're actually going to ask their kids what they want to do. They're including them in the decision-making.” What a concept! Give young people input into the content of the weekend. That alone would be a good reason just to have that kind of activity, not to mention all the fun stuff they did. It was quite a good time. We had go-carts and miniature golf. What are those things...you get in a big cage and shoot at each other with those sponge balls or something? That was fun. They had a batting cage. All kinds of fun things. So this church had a tradition of including the kids in the organization. And when you see people cleaning up after church, you see kids involved in that, too. They know how to do that.
Another example: some years ago, when I was just learning to be a counselor, I volunteered to work as a group facilitator at the Children's Grief Center of New Mexico. I did it because I didn't think that I knew very much about that aspect of the profession, and I thought it would help me to be a better counselor – give me some experience. But I recall, as I went to the first training, feeling rather out of place – like I didn't know enough to do the job. When we finally got down to where we were doing it, I was assisting somebody, so I could watch and learn. But, at the end of the evening, I still remembered feeling pretty inept – like I didn't know what was going on. But every night after the groups left, all the facilitators got together with an excellent psychologist, and we talked about the events of the evening. We kind of debriefed it. That meeting helped pull us all together. We saw problems. We learned what to do. We learned from each other. We learned from the facilitator. What I learned was that I didn't feel much different than any of the others. We were
all learning. So it was a very inclusive meeting. But that meeting was designed from the get-go to
be that way. That didn't happen by accident. They
knew that we would need to feel included, because we were newcomers and beginners and volunteers. So they deliberately
structured the program to include us and take care of us, as well as the people that we were trying to take care of.
Just sitting around in a group, and asking, “What can we do to help people feel more included,” is itself an inclusive activity. It's so helpful to do that. Instead of just launching out to do things, without thinking about what really – underneath all that –
moves people to action. So when we think this way – when we think backwards – when we create our activities, when we spend our money, when we organize our congregation with the idea of getting as many people involved, and making them feel as included as possible, then we are building structures that build spiritual health right into the fabric of the congregation. And that's done with the structure. That's how you do it.
Let's move on to
competence . How can we recreate the structures in our congregations to acknowledge, use and enhance the skills of those in our group, including the kids? To
enhance the skills? It's about honing and enhancing the spiritual and physical gifts of the group.
Years ago, when I lived back east, I was in a little country church and we always went to the annual softball tournament in Toledo on Labor Day. We were in the B League. We were a small church that couldn't compete with those big city churches. I remember one year we were even more “B” than usual. We didn't have enough for a full team, so we drafted a twelve-year-old boy to play with us. He was a really shy, kind of withdrawn, little boy. You could tell that he didn't feel a part of things at church. He had an older brother who was nineteen or twenty and a really good athlete. You could tell he felt overshadowed by his brother. So we had him playing for us and we put him in right field. We figured that would be a spot where he would see the least action. I remember in this one afternoon game, I was playing rover, which is an outfielder who can move anywhere, depending on where you think the guy's going to hit the ball. So this lefthander came up. So I moved over onto the right field side of second base and pulled out deep, because I'd seen this guy hit a home run in a game that morning. And I told the little guy to move back out in right field. Well, this guy hit one dead over his head. And he was off at the crack of the bat. He reminded me of one our New Mexico jack rabbits. He just jumped up and zoom! He was gone! He was running straight away from home plate with his back directly away from home plate. And at the last second he laid out and caught this ball about six inches off the turf. I had a good view, because I was right beside him watching it all. I've seen pros miss catches like that. When he caught it, I turned back looked at the infield. And even the umpire was up in the air. It was such an awesome catch! That ended the inning and our whole team went out to right field, and we just had a little hand-slapping party right there. That was a pivotal moment for that kid. He was never the same again at church. He felt like he was a part of things. He got to use a talent that he had to make a contribution to our group. So even sports, when their
inclusive , and when the people playing them are skilled can be a spiritually beneficial activity. That's the only thing you can say about what happened as a result. It was a spiritual boost for him.
Now let me tell you another sports story. I didn't know about inclusiveness when I lived back east, but I learned about it as I saw what including kids did for their spiritual growth – like with that little guy. So when I moved out west, I knew more about how to use it. And the church I moved into was filled with young adults and teenagers. They were extremely competitive when it came to sports.
I was at church one day after services, and I overheard a woman ask one of the men if he would coach the women's softball team, and he declined. So after the woman left, I told him I heard the conversation and I was curious to know why he didn't want to coach the team. He said, “Well, I didn't have time.” But he said, “The women's team is an embarrassment to the congregation, because all the other women's teams in the area just hammer them year after year.” So I found the woman and volunteered to coach. Of course, when they all heard that the minister was going to coach their team, more joined up. So we had a pretty big team, but they didn't know anything about playing softball. They had questions like, “When do you tag a runner, and when don't you?” That was a big issue. They couldn't figure out when you needed to tag them, and when you didn't have to.
Three years later, in that very competitive sports environment, we had divided up into two teams, because the other teams wouldn't play us. And we still wound up playing each other for the league finals. So that team that began with all the women that got slaughtered every year by everybody, wound up playing each other for the championship.
A few weeks after that final tournament, I received a card from one of the players. She thanked me for making everybody feel included. Now, I was thinking, “This woman was a second-string player. She didn't really see as much playing time as the others. So how did she feel included?” It was all in the
structure of the team. I would take them to the batting cage, and I'd put a video camera on them while they took their cut at the ball. Then I'd make them watch them. And I'd show them what they needed to improve on. And I spent more time with the weaker players, instead of the stars. That makes sense, doesn't it? That's why we wound up with twenty-five
good players two years later. As they learned how to smack that ball.... Their husbands had all been telling them, “Just meet the ball.” Not in softball! Not in
women's slow-pitch softball! You've got to get up there and hit that thing with everything you've got! And it's pretty amazing what happens when they do! So they all learned how to smack the ball, and their skills increased, and they started to feel more competent. So they felt like they could make a contribution. That was part of it. They had to earn playing time, but they got plenty of attention from me in practice.
So the second thing I did, then, was also structural. Every practice I had everyone get in the position they were going to play. Then, one at a time, they would rotate up to bat. We did have a few things going for us before we started. We had a woman pitcher. That was the mother of five kids? three kids? She had three children. And if you said, “I want you to drop the ball 1/8 of an inch from the front corner of the home plate,” she could do it every time. We never walked anybody all season, except when we wanted to – and I don't think we ever
wanted to. But she had more control than anybody I've ever seen with a softball – man or woman. So we didn't have to worry about walks. The pitcher would be up there, and the catcher would be there, and then I'd say, “Okay, whoever is playing first base, go into bat.” And somebody would come take their place. Then the first baseman would come out. That gets to be a little tedious. It takes a long time to give everybody twenty pitches, or whatever. While that was going on, I walked around in the outfield and the infield, and I'd stand beside each player, and I'd talk to them. There's that structure. I had three things that I tried to do to every woman every week. One thing was to tell them something they did well in the last game or practice, one thing they needed to work on, and the other thing was, “How are things at home?” Boy, did I learn a lot about what was going on in that church! I really believe that effort on my part caused
all the women to feel included, and it caused more women to join up, by the way, which meant we had even more people.
I remember this one thing that was particularly encouraging – it has to do with competence. I got them all together before practice and told them I was going to have them all throwing like guys before the end of practice that day. And that happened. It's all just a matter of technique – how to do it, you can do it – because it's simple. So they were really thrilled about that. I remember I had them lined up in two lines and all the women on this side had the ball, and they were going to throw it to the woman across from them on the other side. I said, “One, two, three,” and they all threw at the same once, just like a guy, and they all squealed. Then the women on the other side threw it back, and they squealed. It didn't really sink into me what that meant to them until the next week at practice. I was busy making my rounds out there, and they were taking turns at bat, and somebody hit a ball to third base, and whoever was on third base made a weak throw to first. One of the infielders said in a rather low voice, “You threw that like a girl.” And they all started laughing. That kind of became a point of shared competence after that. They'd laugh and tease each other – “You threw that like a girl” – because none of them were throwing like a girl anymore. That was all so good for them. It helped them feel a part of things. And because they could throw like guys – really whistle the ball around the field – it made them feel really good.
So competence and inclusion. Now
responsibility . When we entrust people with responsibility, when we hand over some assets to them, and say, “Take this and go do something good,” that is encouraging to people.
So how do we do that in our congregations? A personal situation here – thinking about the Grief Center again. I told you about my experience with my second career and going to the Grief Center and feeling inept. That was like seven or eight years ago that that happened. But just recently I was at the psychologist's house who supervised that group facilitation – I'm good friends with her husband – and he and I were at his house doing something – I think drinking coffee, which is one of our favorite things – and she came into the kitchen where we were and talked awhile. She asked me if I would like to be on the board of the Grief Center . You could have knocked me over with a feather! I was so shocked I didn't know what to say. Me? On the board of the Grief Center ? They have some of the best people in town on that thing. So I was examining my own reaction later and I noticed that it did two things. One, that she valued my skills – and that goes back to competence, doesn't it? And that made me want to participate. And two, it was an offer of responsibility. That made me want to participate more. I've always thought it was a good thing. But to be offered a chance to participate in that and make a contribution to it? Wow!
So how can we engineer responsibility into our groups? Well, I think we need to pay more attention to what people are interested in and where their gifts are. Then, we need to plan to engage them in helping in those areas. We need to start thinking about – not just getting the job done – but enriching people as they
do the job.
When I was living on the west coast, one of the boys in the youth group called me up one Sunday morning and told me he had been elected by the group to call me. I could tell he was a little nervous. It turned out that he and some of his friends were worried about one of the younger girls in the group. I think she was fourteen at the time. She had been talking to several of them about suicide. It frightened them. She was a wonderful person, but very emotional. At fourteen, her feelings were really all over the place. So how was I to respond to that?
I could have said, “You kids back off. I'll take it from here.” Right? I could have done that. But what I did was, I asked if the group could get together to talk to me that afternoon. So we met together at a park. All those older teenagers told me what they had heard from her – kind of compared notes. I think that was the first time they all had been able to talk. After they told me everything that they had to say, I told them that I was really impressed that they were willing to take action on behalf of their little sister. And I explained that most of the time, when people talk about suicide, it's just kind of processing through things, but you never know for sure, so you
always have to play it safe. “That's what you guys are doing,” I said. I kind of went over the signs with them – that really she had no plan, no means – so far just emotional talk. But it's always good to enlist help when facing this kind of problem.
I didn't know it then, but later I took a class on crisis intervention, and the first day of class the instructor put a picture of the Lone Ranger up on the wall, and he said, “When you're dealing with crisis situation, there's never any such thing as a Lone Ranger. You
always have to get help. There
always has to be more than one person involved. Nobody can bear the full weight of dealing with somebody who might kill themself.” So it's always a team effort. I said, “You guys had the good instinct. We're all here together talking about this.” I pointed out, too, that even if she's not serious, her talk means that she's really unhappy, so what can we do to gather around her and support her through this rough time? So then we had a brainstorming session, where all these older teenagers made up a plan to spend more time with her, and talk to her, and be more expressive to her, pay more attention to her – all without her knowing anything about it. I told them that I'd try to spend more time with her, too, and that I would talk to her parents. They all looked alarmed when I said that, but I said, “But I'm not going to break any confidences. I need to get some feedback from them, too. They know her the best.”
Well, that's the last we ever talked about that. We never talked about it again. But I'd see them around in one's or two's with her at activities in the church. It was all very circumspect and low key. When I'd show up, the others would kind of melt out of the picture so I'd have time with her – be sitting up in the bleachers with her, having a heart-to-heart. Kids would walk by down on the floor and look up at us and smile and keep going. We were all doing our jobs.
So, together, we were kind of on a rescue mission. It wasn't too long before she pulled out of it. She responded to all of that gathering around. And I think those young people were shocked that I gave them a responsibility – a
serious one. They got to participate in that and something that was bad turned out really good because of it. All of those people felt really good about that. They felt a part of things. They felt responsible. Responsibility had been given to them. “What are you going to to with it? Here's somebody that needs help. What can we do?” That helped them a lot to participate in that.
I don't think most adults think about kids in that way, but that's the kind of thinking that we
can do in our churches. We
can include people. People can do a lot more than we think.
Purpose. I think one of the reasons that we lose so many of our kids is because of a huge problem that we have with this one. See, if adults don't know what they're supposed to be doing in the church, how can that be passed on to the children. Elaine and I were talking to our CPA last week, and she told us that she had gone on our Website and read some of our material. From there, we launched into a discussion about church and its impact on kids. I said that in our church we spend a lot of time fighting over unimportant things, like being right and being in charge. And she said at her church they argued about whether to sing three or four songs and got really upset about it. So I realized that it isn't just in our group, but in a lot of places, the adults' minds are totally off the trunk of the tree and what's important. And they're
way out on the twigs. We're never going to get the results we're looking for if our congregation is so unhealthy that that's important to us.
What is our purpose? Well, it's to make disciples of all nations, including our kids. How do we do that? We do that by working for a spiritually healthy group that draws people in. If it draws others in, our kids will come along, too.
Many of the structures that we need to create
don't need to be directly connected to outreach or evangelism, but they can
all be connected to these four things and the eight qualities that we need to build. Inclusion, competence, responsibility and purpose. They can be included in all eight of the other things. They can, if we know going in, that these four areas need to be engineered into everything we do.
I was thinking about my friend, Jim O'Brien. There's a man with a purpose! He wants to see all the independent churches of God
stay independent, but work
together to do more for God – to become more healthy, grow more fruit, make more disciples. He never lets go of that. He's always thinking about it. It's a good thing he's creative, because he always thinks about that one thing, but it comes out in a lot of different creative ways. And he is always working on it. Everything he does has that purpose behind it. He's been at it for four years now. And things were slow at first, but he's stayed the course, no matter what's happened. He kept working on it. Now its all starting to build some momentum. The congregation's growing. The activities they sponsor are growing. More people are seeing that we
can work together.
I was at Lexington last winter. You talk about a diverse group from a lot of different groups! I don't know how many there were, but there were a
lot of them. And we were all having a good time together. We
can work together. It can be the same way where you are, too, if we understand what our purpose is and single-mindedly cause everything we do to go back to that purpose. Then our structures are going to be
functional and our congregation is going to be healthier for it.
Next time we're going to look at the concept of functional structures through the NCD lens. We're going to apply the concept to the other seven qualities to see how we can structure a congregation to cause loving relationships, inspiring worship, etc.
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