Organisation has always been a tool used by mankind to gather the strength of a group of people to accomplish a task that cannot be done by an individual. If we rely on the strength of individuals without an organisation, the results will be very small and inefficient.
However, when a group of people is gathered into an Organisation, it has to be managed optimally, otherwise there will be mistakes, inefficiency, laziness, wastage, corruption, chaos and so on and so forth, which will lead to organisational decline, bankruptcy and so on.
Therefore, how an Organisation is managed becomes the most critical factor for its success. If you look at the CEO of an Organisation, the annual salary can be several million, plus various allowances, benefits, etc., the number can even be tens of millions. Why would the board of directors (or the boss) of an Organisation be willing to pay such a high salary (high cost) to hire a CEO? Apart from the fact that they are the boss’s children, surely the CEO can bring in more revenue for the Organisation. The logic is simple, if I pay $10 million, but this payment can bring in $100 million in revenue, then why wouldn’t I do it?
Of course, it is not uncommon for organisations to have incompetent executives who leave the organisation in shambles. This is the reason why many organisations fall or go bankrupt.
In an organisation, the CEO’s main responsibility is to gather the most current information about the company in order to make the best trade-offs and to make the best decisions. The CEO has to communicate with his subordinates in order to understand the problems faced by the operation and to coordinate with each department to make improvements so that the problems can be solved as quickly as possible. Since all the departments have to take orders from him, he is the best person to coordinate all the departments and deal with the problems so that the organisation can be more efficient. Therefore the CEO has various meetings almost every day to listen to reports, gather information, understand the current situation of the whole organisation and make the best decisions.
The Diocese is also an organisation and the CEO of this organisation is the Bishop. The church under the Diocese is also an organisation, and the CEO of this organisation is the priest. In the current organisational structure of the Anglican Church, the priest is the Chairman of the church appointed by the bishop, that is, the decision-maker of the church. In short, in the Anglican structure, the priest is the CEO of the church.
Do we agree that the priest is the CEO of the church (church is an organisation)? If we all agree on this point, based on the discussion above, then we have to ask this question: Is the priest the key reason for the growth and decline of the church? If so, then why do we give them theologically training only? Why is it that we didn’t train the priests in administration? Are priests capable of managing churches after graduating from seminaries?
The Diocese current criteria for ordaining a priest are a theological degree, a recommendation from the church and the approval of the bishop, and the passing of the MICPE course and the Spiritual Formation Course, after which the pastor can be ordained. We never evaluate his/her capability in managing a church.
It seems like we have assumed that spiritual life is sufficient for the priest to manage a church. Is this assumption correct?
It seems like we have assumed a good spiritual life leads to good management skills. Is this assumption correct?
Are we sure these assumptions are correct? Are we 100% sure? If we are not so sure, then why don’t we ever review them? Why do we let this issue continue without any evaluation?
What does Discipleship Training have to do with organisational management? Let me share with you. In fact, discipleship training is a management system. Discipleship training is not just about teaching and training in the Bible. Discipleship Training is an effective church management system. Through this system, the pastor can have a clear pastoral direction, pastoral philosophy, pastoral methodology, and pastoral skills.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much about discipleship training and we always think that discipleship is all about Bible study. This is a big mistake with much regret.