Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Welcoming people to leave?

I am reading Jim Collins' book "Good to Great" and am attempting to sort out what it has to say to the church. One thing that really sparked my interest was his idea of getting people both on and off the bus. In "Good to Great" Collins looks at different companies that manage to suceed over a long period of time while other companies in their industry did not. One of the things he found was that part of success was getting the right people together and if necessary getting some people out of the mix. Now, from a business sense this is understandable and easily doable. The goal of a company is to make money, serve the client, protect the shareholders interests, and so on. Under these conditions and expectations it is clear that at times the best move is to let someone go, or to push them towards the door. Collins even makes the point that in most cases it is better for the person to find new employment as well since they are not going to be onboard with what is happening at the company. It is better for their lives and happiness if they find a workplace that is a better match for them. All of this makes sense and I agree with, but I struggle with what that means for the church. One of the things that I love about The United Methodist Church is diversity in culture and thought amongst its members. At the same time, I woud say that not every church is right of every United Methodist. As a pastor is it my job to encourage some people to leave the church for their own good and development? How would one determine when it is a good time to make such a move? Certainly individual memebers do it all the time, as many are quite comfortable voting with their feet and finding a new place to worship that is a better fit for them. Should a pastor be the one to make the first suggestion?
People who are just struggling to find a church that is the right fit are one problem, but a larger one, at least for a pastor is the church member whose work in the church is hurting rather than helping the ministry of the church. In an corporation the answer is easy, after several conversations and attempts at improvement you ultimately fire the person. Fire people is something that is not really done in the church. This comes from the image of Jesus welcoming everyone. If Jesus open his arms to everyone, shouldn't the church do the same? Let us dissect that for a minute. On the surface Jesus was open to everyone, accepting people regardless of gender, age, ritual cleanliness, nationality, or sinfulness. At the same time Jesus did have expectations for discipleship. The rich young man, or ruler, was asked to give up everything he had before he could follow Jesus. Certainly it would be fair to expect certain things from church members as well. Welcoming everyone does not mean welcoming everything that they do. Jesus' welcoming of sinners was not an encouragement to continue their negative lifestyles, but instead an invitation to enter into a new life.
From what I have just said it would seem possible for a pastor to initiate a conversation about a persons role in the church and the church's expectations for them, but what should be the outcome? I think the role of church is to invite people into and enhance their relationship with God. If that is an accurate statement of mission than certainly individual churches will not be able to perform this service for everyone. I love Super Target, it has everything I could want in a shopping trip under one roof, my mother hates it because it is too large, crowdy, etc. The same is going to be true for the church. I think there is a place for pastors to be helpful in working with people to know what is happening and understanding that the church they are in now is not the only way to find God. This is not meant as a carte blanche to pastors to expell whomever they do not like, but it does seem to say we need to realize that just as church should be welcome to all to enter in, it is also ok to welcome people into leaving for somewhere better for them.

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