One thing I’ve learned from listening to and working with many church leaders across the country is that they all wish they had a better system for identifying and eliminating ministry silos. Believing that a particular place of service or role in ministry is dangerous for any church and could ultimately have severe repercussions.
A few weeks ago, Tony Morgan shared a killer post with 5 foundations for eliminating ministry silos. In the post, Tony explained that in order to establish a foundation for healthy relationships, churches must “unify” around 5 core areas. I loved each of the "unities" that Tony addressed in his post, but as I started thinking about it, there was one more “unity” that a healthy church should develop... a unity in systems.
Why should we develop a "Unity in Systems"?
If our church begins to drift towards ministry silos, it will ultimately affect the processes and systems of our church. Every ministry has their tool of choice. The issue develops when pastors don’t want to consider new processes or church management software systems that would unify information and produce better results.
When churches aren’t willing to unify around their processes and systems we’ll ultimately begin to experience:
- Lack of clarity — We don't know which data is truly accurate so therefore we don't have clarity.
- Lack of insight — Incomplete and disconnected data tells us nothing about how we can be better
- Lack of wisdom — Wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit working in concert with our experience and access to information. When the last ingredient is missing, we trust our "gut" too often and make uninformed, unwise decisions.
- Lack of value — People feel valued when you "know" them (what makes them unique). Disconnected data makes it hard to know people.
- Lack of community — How can we expect authentic community and care to happen in the absence of accurate information?
- Lack of retention — The ultimate affect of all the above is a lack of ability to retain a high percentage of the people God leads to our church.
What other ways can a lack of unity affect a church’s ministry? How have you created unity around your church’s systems or processes to increase your church’s impact?