Bringing the Big Picture Home

by Bill Zelazny, District Executive

Ronald Heiffitz, in Leadership without Easy Answers, says one of the important roles of a leader is to get “out on the balcony.” The daily life of a congregation often places pressure on its leadership to respond immediately to whatever human or institutional need that is most pressing.

But to be effective over the long run and to keep a congregation poised to deal with its environment, leaders need to step above the everyday work that can eat up time and get a broader perspective about the organization and the environment in which it is operating. This is the difference between leadership and management.

How can a leader get this “out on the balcony” view about the environment in which the church operates? There are several ways this can be done:

People in the congregation who, because of their roles outside the congregation, know about relevant trends can be asked. People such as social workers, school administrators, town officials, real estate agents have access to a wealth of information.

People from outside the congregation in the community such as city or regional planning officials, school superintendents, sociology, urban geography or urban planning professors from local colleges can be invited to come to talk.

Groups within the congregation that may have perspectives and information to offer such as the youth, the elderly or new parents. These groups could provide insight on needs and conditions in the community.

Meetings with these resource people could be set up with the board, membership committee, and religious education committee to gather the information.

But it must also be remembered that knowing which way the water is going does not mean you automatically get to your destination. The information needs to be integrated into planning. This may entail changing ways things have been done or being willing to spend resources to experiment.

But if a church is to be relevant in a community it must be willing to adjust as the environment changes. A leader’s role is to understand the changes and then bring the big picture information into the everyday life of the congregation.