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Committees People Want to Join
Secrets to helping people actually enjoy committee and board assignments.
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Charlie: If the church has grown, why are we struggling to keep its programs afloat? Why aren't we meeting our missions budget? Why the shortage of Sunday school teachers? Why are Sunday evening and midweek services so poorly attended? It seems your relational-ministry people don't really care about the church. Ron: But don't you see? We are the church! Charlie: Well then, maybe we should start passing the offering plate at these groups to support the missions program. Maybe you should cancel your home Bible study the week we have a revival scheduled. Maybe your people should take responsibility for the church by filling more positions. To be honest, I'm getting burned out from giving and giving and never getting my own needs met. Ron: But that's what our groups are all about-meeting needs! Charlie: Then why don't they start meeting some of the church's needs by relieving some of us who shoulder the administrative load for the rest of you? Why the Expectation Gap?To some extent these different perspectives reflect a generation gap. Often the younger church members (twenties and thirties) are more attracted to the relational approach. They prefer relationships defined more by quality than by formal titles. They come to a church and ask, "How can I use my gifts?" If the answer is, "Join a committee," they say, "That isn't what I asked." Relational people aren't motivated by tradition or denominational loyalty. They want to know, Will this activity give me a meaningful, authentic, significant experience? They want to feel they count as individuals. They want their personal concerns recognized. A task-oriented committee usually feels, to them, cold and impersonal. Program-oriented people, on the other hand, tend to hold an older view that sees talking about yourself and your problems as boorish and impolite. If you have tension in your family, telling people not related by blood or marriage violates a basic taboo: "We are loyal within our family; we do not tell outsiders what is wrong with us." The way to handle a bad day, they feel, is to put on a good face, do what has to be done, and move forward without griping about it. Anything else is bad form. The relational person reacts: "If we can't talk about real stuff and real life—if I have to sit here and play phony games—I don't have the time, energy, or interest. I'll add another involvement only if the situation enables me to satisfy those needs that go unmet in the world. Everywhere else, I have to pretend I'm competent, pretend I'm in control. I don't want to come to church to pretend." Institutionalists see themselves not as pretending but as selflessly getting things done. To them, the bottom line for a committee: What have we accomplished and how much did it cost? |             |
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