Best Christian Workplaces
March 28th 2008 08:21
I remember reading somewhere recently that much of the Christian Church acts more like a business than a group of people proclaiming Christ. Business models abound, performance management is the norm, programmes with outcomes, and so on. You have to wonder not What Jesus Would Do, but What He Would Think.
I know that business people like to look at the gospels and see business practices within them, but I don’t think the people who inhabited those events in the 1st century would in any way consider themselves as business people out for profit and the bottom line.
I guess there’s a place for something like the Best Christian Workplaces Institute, but in fact every Christian workplace should be good; it ought to go with the territory. Of course that isn’t the case; Christians inhabiting workplaces are human and wherever you get humans you get problems.
On the Best Christian Workplaces Institute’s site, there’s a link to an article entitled Strong people practices lead to healthy, growing churches . It makes for some strange reading.
United Methodist Church of the Resurrection came first in the Institute’s latest survey (2007) and ‘scored highest among churches in every dimension of the survey: Culture of Character, Capability and Competence, Commitment to Learning, Compensation and Climate for Action.’ Don’t all those letter Cs scare you off a bit?
Further down, it says, the church ‘also holds to a compensation philosophy that pays a competitive rate. However, they acknowledge that if they are going to be a learning culture and do what is best for the church, they shouldn’t always pay so much that it dissuades individuals from leaving if another ministry or working culture would better suit them.’ Hmmm, that seems just a little odd to me.
However, I may be the one who’s wrong here. I only know about what’s written in the article, and the intent of the article is to promote the excellence of the management in this church. It doesn’t say a great deal about the work of the Holy Spirit or discipleship (although that could be implied in their ‘constructively critical feedback’). And Resurrection isn’t the only church discussed. Check it out and see what you think.
I know that business people like to look at the gospels and see business practices within them, but I don’t think the people who inhabited those events in the 1st century would in any way consider themselves as business people out for profit and the bottom line.
I guess there’s a place for something like the Best Christian Workplaces Institute, but in fact every Christian workplace should be good; it ought to go with the territory. Of course that isn’t the case; Christians inhabiting workplaces are human and wherever you get humans you get problems.
On the Best Christian Workplaces Institute’s site, there’s a link to an article entitled Strong people practices lead to healthy, growing churches . It makes for some strange reading.
United Methodist Church of the Resurrection came first in the Institute’s latest survey (2007) and ‘scored highest among churches in every dimension of the survey: Culture of Character, Capability and Competence, Commitment to Learning, Compensation and Climate for Action.’ Don’t all those letter Cs scare you off a bit?
Further down, it says, the church ‘also holds to a compensation philosophy that pays a competitive rate. However, they acknowledge that if they are going to be a learning culture and do what is best for the church, they shouldn’t always pay so much that it dissuades individuals from leaving if another ministry or working culture would better suit them.’ Hmmm, that seems just a little odd to me.
However, I may be the one who’s wrong here. I only know about what’s written in the article, and the intent of the article is to promote the excellence of the management in this church. It doesn’t say a great deal about the work of the Holy Spirit or discipleship (although that could be implied in their ‘constructively critical feedback’). And Resurrection isn’t the only church discussed. Check it out and see what you think.
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