Monday • Nov 14, 2011 • 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Integrity Community Church • Map
2420 Corporation Parkway
Burlington, NC 27215-6752
ICC November: The Signs of Miserable Church Volunteers and Staffers
In a fairly recent session with a client, I heard what they were saying, beating around the bush, trying to express their feelings of frustration about their jobs, without being too hard on their upper level management, who they personally liked.
As I listened to them talk among themselves, I began to try to think of a way to summarize what they were trying to say. All of a sudden it hit me – and so I blurted it out, without much thought. ‘ACCOUNTABILITY WITHOUT EMPOWERMENT EQUALS MISERY!’ They stopped in mid-conversation, and said to me, ‘Say that again….’ And so I did, and wrote it up on my trusty whiteboard: ‘ACCOUNTABILITY WITHOUT EMPOWERMENT EQUALS MISERY!’
“That’s it!” they said. I was able to capture what I heard them say in just five simple words. The framework formed, they were able to move forward into a productive conversation around the issues they were facing – an organizational culture that expects so much from them and their people, but one in which the ‘company’ (the leadership) doesn’t know how to give those employees what they need in return.
The fact is – it wasn’t like my statement was so revolutionary in nature (although the human ego in me would have liked to think it was…). It was simply a statement of fact, I believe, for humanity in general. I believe that just about all REASONABLE people would be negatively challenged in an organizational culture like this. As a matter of fact, I had heard this same thing from numerous clients, in varying sectors – churches included!
So – that’s what we will look at in the November 2011 session of the Innovative Church Community, on Monday, November 14 at Integrity Church in Burlington, NC. You see – these same points apply in churches to our volunteer leaders – and to professional staff. The major difference with volunteers especially is that they are more likely than company employees to bail out on healthy organizational situations, simply because they, unlike those employees, don’t receive a literal paycheck from the church. Often, they are gone long before leaders even have a clue about their unhappiness or unfulfilledness (or whatever other word you may want to make up to describe this).
So on November 14, join us as we will look at the meanings of each of these words – ‘ACCOUNTABILITY WITHOUT EMPOWERMENT EQUALS MISERY!’ – and the concepts behind them. We will work together to give you some really tangible takeaways that we guarantee will help you with communication with your church’s staff- professional and volunteers, and with knowing how to lead them to turn the statement around to something like ‘ACCOUNTABILTY PLUS EMPOWERMENT EQUALS FULFILLMENT!’
I look forward to seeing you on November 14!
Bud Wrenn
Director Innovative Church Community
