I sat across the table from a systems engineer at dinner Friday night. Craig works for a company that builds the chassis for the Jeep Wrangler. His company was a spin-off that focuses on only one thing - and on doing that one thing well. They make the chassis for the off-road vehicle, then their work literally disappears through a hole in the wall to a painting company. The painting company applies the paint that is ordered, then their work literally disappears through the wall to a transmission company. The transmission company installs the transmission and sets the tires on the chassis. Then their work literally disappears through the wall to Daimer/Chrystler... who finishes the car and puts their name on it.
Four separate companies. Four separate specialties. One unified plan. One final product.
I got to thinking about how disjunct and truncated the ministries and programs are in most churches. There is no "beginning with the end in mind" when it comes to youth, family, or adult ministry. There is no unified plan. There is little to no thought about intentionality, integration of programming, or what a "finished product" should look like.
Heck, most departments in most larger churches don't even talk to one another.
Children's ministry rarely talks to youth education. Evangelism rarely plans anything with worship. Music rarely considers it's role in family ministry. Stewardship rarely talks about the arts.
One church I met with this week doesn't even have regular staff meetings.
Imagine this for a moment:
My systems engineer across the table is in charge of one important piece of the car. His work is foundational to everything that happens. If he doesn't have a plan - or if he doesn't do his part according to the plan - the end result will be a real mess.
Now, my engineer friend knows he is supposed to build a chassis for a Jeep Wrangler, but he thinks Wranglers are too dangerous, so he decides that he wants to build a Volvo instead. He takes it upon himself to vere from the plan... for the good of all concerned, of course.
So he starts building Volvo chassis and sends them through the wall... one after another.
The paint company on the other side of the wall is supposed to paint the chassis with a silver rust resistant paint. Those are the specifications. The manager has never lived in a cold climate with salt on the roads, and so he thinks rust-resistant additives are a waste of money. He decides to cut corners and apply something less expensive.
The non-rust proofed chassis are placed on the belt one-after-another and away they go. Once they are out of sight, they are not the paint company's problem.
The transmission company has a bunch of unsold Ford Pinto transmissions recalled from the 1986-88 models - which they bought on Ebay. They don't exactly fit into a Wrangler body or onto a Volvo chassis, but that's not their problem. They're cheap! And since word came down from management that they had to cut costs this year, they jerry-rig the trannies onto the chassis and hook up the tires, before sending them happily on their way.
On the other side of the wall the mother company is supposed to put everything else together, but they are finding gaps and flaws all over the place. The seats don't bolt in in the right places. The hood won't close on the alien transmission. And, top it off, once they put the finished product on the truck to send it out into the world, no one is going to want to buy it. It's shoddy. It's ill-conceived. It's got a major design flaw. And it will rust.
If they only had been working on a unified plan! If they only would have thought about the outcome on the other side of the walls and had talked about how their part fit with the others! If they only knew that they were on the same team!
But no, each owned their own turf and went about their own business as if they didn't need to know what was happening on the other side of the wall.
So, what does this have to do with anything?
I'll tell you tomorrow.
Comments