SUMMARY<\/u><\/p>\n
In Exit, Voice, and Loyalty<\/em>, Albert Hirschman argues that people respond to organizational\u00a0decay by leaving the organization\u00a0(exit) or by voicing their concerns (voice). The degree in which people engage with these two behaviors is directly determined by the levels of loyalty to the organization, cultural perceptions, and the nature of the organization. Consequently, the combination of these responses is more complex than what economists or political scientists like to admit.\u00a0 Nonetheless, it is important to understand these dynamics because they can function as recovering mechanisms that ensure organizational health.<\/p>\n Even though the book was written in 1970, the relationship between exit and voice as ingredients of organizational health have been subsequently\u00a0corroborated by other empirical studies. Jim Collins, for instance, points out that data shows that great organizations create an environment where truth is heard (encourage voice). They also create mechanisms that seek to expel people who are not compatible with the values and vision of the organization (encourage exit) as well as attract the most compatible ones (encourage loyalty).<\/p>\n For some church leaders, there seems to be a tension between these leadership concepts and the nature of church ministry. However, I believe that Hirschman has a valid point that relates directly to church ministry. After all, the Bible does encourage us to speak the truth in love, to set boundaries for koinonia and requirements for leadership.<\/p>\n REFLECTION<\/u><\/p>\n Leaders work as organizational architects, and pastoral ministry is no exception. The New Testament describes the role of pastors not only in terms of shepherds and teachers, but also as overseers. In other words, we are called to care for the sheep, but we are also called to safeguard the organizational health of the church. Thus, we must carefully ask, to what degree should voice and exit be intentional ingredients in our ministry framework<\/em>?<\/p>\n My ministry experience reveals that when a church does not have voice<\/em> and exit<\/em> carefully designed in her organizational mechanisms, it results in a diversity of dysfunctions, including tensions, divisions, and chaos. In order to prevent some of these dysfunctions, the church needs to have clear parameters that define the requirements and responsibilities of membership<\/em>.<\/p>\n In order to understand the importance of defined membership, we must differentiate between being saved,<\/em> on the one hand, and being a team player,<\/em> on the other.\u00a0Even though this is not a biblical distinction, it is an organizational distinction that facilitates organizational health. Anyone who is saved is part of the universal church, but in order to be a team player in a local church, a person must embrace accountability by agreeing to certain expectations and responsibilities. This is the line that separates a person who is saved from the person who is both saved and a member of the local church. If pastors fail to make this distinction, they may remain trapped in a cycle of organizational dysfunctions that characterize many churches of all sizes.<\/p>\n Based on my experience coaching pastors, I can summarize the organizational dysfunctions that I have observed in three categories:<\/p>\n Category 1<\/u>: No Membership Model<\/em>.<\/p>\n A church that has no defined membership tends to create confusion because it lacks the mechanisms that provide accountability.<\/p>\n Dysfunctions<\/u>:<\/p>\n (a) People are given authority to lead without selecting them with the proper filters.<\/p>\n (b) The church becomes driven by political interest. People with more financial power or more political connections become more influential.<\/p>\n Core issue<\/u>: Voice (how should we determine whose opinion should be more influential?).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Category 2<\/u>: Lifetime Membership Model<\/em>.<\/p>\n A church that has not designed a way of exit tends to increase chaos.<\/p>\n Dysfunctions<\/u>:<\/p>\n (a) If people no longer want to belong to the membership, they tend to leave in a dramatic way, creating chaos and division.<\/p>\n (b) Forsaking membership in a local church leads to damaged relationships because exiting is perceived as treason.<\/p>\n Core issue<\/u>: Exit (how can we facilitate a way for members to leave in a godly manner?)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Category 3<\/u>: Light Membership Model<\/em>.<\/p>\n A church that has simplistic parameters for membership tends to increase tensions.<\/p>\n Dysfunctions<\/u>:<\/p>\n (a) If anyone who attends the church or is baptized at the church automatically becomes a member, then the church ends up giving voice to people who are not spiritually mature.<\/p>\n (b) When spiritually immature people feel entitled to shape the ministry or treat it as democracy, they end up creating drama and political games.<\/p>\n Core issue<\/u>: Voice (how can we define who can have a voice in the matters of the church?)<\/p>\n In order to prevent some of these dysfunctions, we designed a membership system at Ethnos Bible Church that seeks to achieve our own balance between voice and exit. We believe that membership is defined by contribution, so we call it a Ministry Partnership. Thus, a member is not simply a person who attends the church or was baptized at the church; rather, a member is a team player committed to our ministry mission, vision, and values. Consequently, our loyalty is to the vision of the church. This commitment is reflected in our membership agreement, which includes specific requirements and expectations that seek to provide accountability. We value the opinions and views of these members and we have created ways in which people can share their ideas and concerns. Yet, we also believe that a person must feel free to exit whenever they no longer desire to be part of the team. For this reason, we designed membership to last only a year and can be renewed on an annual basis.<\/p>\n As Hirschman points out, there is no magic formula\u2014each organization must figure out what combination of voice and exit works best in their context. As for Ethnos, we hope that by including voice and exit in our ministry framework in this way, we will be able to maintain organizational health. After all, for a church to thrive, it must first be healthy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUMMARY In Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, Albert Hirschman argues that people respond to organizational\u00a0decay by leaving the organization\u00a0(exit) or by voicing their concerns (voice). The degree in which people engage with these two behaviors is directly determined by the levels of loyalty to the organization, cultural perceptions, and the nature of the organization. Consequently, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[689,251,688,702],"class_list":["post-9813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethnos-bible-church","tag-hirschman","tag-pablo-morales","tag-pastor-pablo-morales","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}