Two Healths in Church
Over the years I have had the privilege of coaching professional athletes. These athletes are experts in understanding their own bodies and maintaining their physical fitness so they are ready to perform at their peak. One lady I worked with changed sports over the course of her career. In one of our sessions she said that it would take up to 12 months to get her body ready for her new sport. I was amazed! I did not think that the two sports were so different to require such a dramatic change. She was already a professional athlete who had every aspect of her fitness under her control. Every work out session, every item of food, every ice bath and rest session carefully planned to get her to be able to play the game at the peak level. But to be ready for a new sport, her preparation had to be adapted.
She explained that there are two healths she needs to manage. The first is a healthy lifestyle which means her body is resistant to, and quickly recovers from, disease and injury. The second is a different health or fitness which is specific to the game she wishes to master. The training regimen for different codes of sports can be very different.
I saw almost immediately the parallels for health in churches (and other organisations as well!) There are two healths that need to be managed in any church. Getting them both right means being positioned for righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and for fruitfulness that is pleasing to God and man. Getting either of them wrong leads to stagnation, frustration and avoidably high turnover of people.
So what are these two healths in a ministry setting?
The first is what I call cultural health. The cultural health can be measured by the quality of the relationships between the members of the leadership team. Whether it is formally recognised as the diaconate, the presbytery, board of elders, executive leadership team or other designation, the relationships between these members is the absolute heartbeat of a local church. Even where the church is smaller and there is no formal leadership structure, there is inevitably a smaller influential group which have formed around the senior minister. These relationships can be vibrant, loving, holy and healthy, or they can be dysfunctional, injured and at times outright abusive. But make no mistake, the health of this group will directly effect the health of the church overall.
The second is what I call performance health. The performance health is the church’s ability to identify and achieve the right results. Using the framework developed by Patrick Lencioni’s The Table Group this is where the church can answer quickly and clearly the 6 critical questions;
(1) Why do we exist?
(2) How do we behave?
(3) What do we do?
(4) How are we going to succeed?
(5) What’s most important right now?
(6) Who is going to do what?
A healthy, high performing team is aware at all times what game they are playing (if you will pardon the sporting metaphor) and how well they are playing the game. Or in other words they know instinctually the answer the most critical questions a church needs to be asking constantly; (1) Who are we here to serve? (2) How well are we serving them?
How is the cultural and performance health going in your church or ministry? Our experience suggests that churches fall into one of four categories when it comes to team health and peformance.
If you would like to know how to assess and improve the cultural and performance health of your church, Co-lab Consulting is here to help. Check out the overview of how we work, or book in a time to discuss how Co-lab Consulting can assist you.
