Educating Christians

Structures that Equip and Empower
1 Corinthians 12:11-30

“Are we there yet?” Even if it’s been decades since you’ve travelled long distances with children in the car, you will never forget the urgency and insistency of those words. And they’re key words for churches to ask themselves too, along with:

“Who are we?” – questions that explore our history, culture and identity
“Where do we live?” – identifying the opportunities, issues & needs of our context
“What are we here for?” – owning our basic biblical purpose as church
“What matters to us?” – agreeing on our core values and basic beliefs
“Where are we going?” – discerning God’s vision for our future life and witness
“How are we going to get there?” – developing the organisational systems, structures and strategies to fulfil our vision
All these questions – specially the last one – are questions concerning structures. Just as the human body could not function without a skeletal structure, cardio-vascular system, nervous system, etc neither can local churches operate without some kind of organisational structure. Effective, functional structures are vital for church health just as they are for a healthy human body. Congregations need just the right amount of structure (“not too heavy and not too light”) to get the job done. Structure and life are not opposites as many people believe.

Biological research teaches us that “dead matter and living organisms are not distinguished by their substance, as some people might think, but by the specific structure of the relationship of the individual parts to each other. In other words in God’s creation the living and nonliving … are formed from identical material substances and are distinguished only by their structure” (Christian A Schwarz, Natural Church Development, p. 29).

So then what is the right kind of structure that churches need to be healthy? Nowadays we know there is no simple “one size fits all” answer to that question. Specific structures will differ according to culture, context, size and style of each particular congregation. Nevertheless there are some basic principles that do apply across the board. Church structures that are truly functional will include these dimensions:

T ransmitting & Receiving – they will provide for optimal communication
E xecuting – they will empower the church to achieve its goals
A ffirming – they will provide encouragement, support and affirmation to all involved
M entoring – they will include a training and empowering dimension that generates
new and emerging leaders

As you can see all these elements of structures that equip and empower people for ministry and mission together make up ‘TEAM’. The structures that help churches grow, connect with their communities and enable hope, help and transformation to occur will operate like a flexible, relational team. And it’s teams that score tries and kick goals!

Graham Beattie