Unlike human ministry temperaments, which can mature but cannot be altered, organizational personalities may be intentionally modified. This is accomplished by positioning the appropriate people, who possess the necessary ministry temperaments, into key positions of influence. The goal in this culture-modification process is to broaden and deepen a church organization’s ministry impact by intentionally including more of the various parts of the body of Christ within its mission.

A healthy and mature ministry culture seeks to include every willing servant of Christ associated with their church organization into an appropriate ministry position. Broad-based inclusion of many differing people, possessing many differing ministry temperaments, will likely challenge the organization’s established ministry culture. So, how can an established ministry organization position itself to be more inclusive of all ministry temperaments?

First, culture modification is always a top-down process. Organizational leadership will want to evaluate the ministry temperaments of each person of influence, at each functional layer within the organization. For example, it is common in many churches to have three distinct leadership layers:

·      Layer 1 - Executive Leadership Team

·        Layer #2 – Support staff

·        Layer #3 – Lay leadership

When you assess each leader for ministry-fit, and evaluate the cumulative results, you will discover that your organization displays a “temperament theme”. A temperament theme is defined in terms of “shared-quadrant-values” (e.g., Independent vs. Social) and not by the dominance of a specific ministry temperament (e.g., Protagonist) represented throughout the organization. Please refer to the four assessment quadrants PDF document. Each assessment quadrant (i.e., Relational Style, Information Style, Decision-Making Style, and Environmental Style) contains two opposing values. For example, the Relational Style category scores individuals (or organizations) along a continuum that ranges from Independent to Social.

Temperament themes define the culture of a church as it matures through the various phases of its development. The simplest church model emphasizes a single quadrant-value; typically the “Social” value from the Relational Style quadrant. As the church grows and its ministry requirements become more complex, church leaders will incorporate additional quadrant-values at each stage. Although growth patterns will vary from church to church, this principle can be illustrated by walking through one common church growth scenario.

The Family-Feel Church

Churches typically develop in stages, according to their ability to incorporate and emphasize additional quadrant-values. A small church, at or below the 150-member barrier, will generally emphasize the Relational Style quadrant, and uphold “Social” as their defining cultural value. At this stage in the ministry’s development, the church functions much like a family with members who know and care for one another. There is little need for structure or programs.

Mission myopia is quite apparent in the Family-Feel church. Relational people are highly valued and are attracted to the ministry, while systems-oriented people will generally wait out this phase of the church’s development, hoping to influence its ministry impact as the church grows and matures. However, if the church stagnates at the Family-Feel stage, people possessing ministry temperaments that value “Independence” may likely leave the ministry in frustration.

I recently visited with a family friend who pastors a family-feel church outside of the Detroit area. This pastor is a good man. He is godly, sincere, and earnest about his pastoral ministry. For over the past ten years, his church has never been able to grow beyond 125 people. This pastor is completely convinced that the only legitimate ministry style is one that is highly relationally intensive. He openly admits that he is incapable of creating organizational systems and structures, but expressed to me his bias that these were “unnecessary” for ministry. This pastor suffers from Mission-Myopia. His church will likely never grow until he can learn to appreciate and value the entire spectrum of personality types that God has created. However, once he does learn this valuable ministry lesson, his ministry organization would probably enter the Warm-Hearted stage of organizational development.

The Warm-Hearted Church

If the leadership of the Family-Feel church believes God is calling the ministry to grow beyond the family phase of development, the church will then need to adopt an additional quadrant-value that will compliment and expand upon their established social-relational value. Often, the church leadership, without knowing it, will implement the Decision-Making Style quadrant and seek to position people who have a high “Heart” value into positions of leadership. This new value readily compliments their established social-relational value. Since the current structures and programs are small and simple to manage at this stage, these relational leaders will excel until their ministry responsibilities grow in size and complexity. The church is now positioned to grow beyond the 150 barrier, and will likely stagnate at around 600 people.

Mission myopia is now characterized by a high regard for people who are relational and make decisions based upon how they will impact others. People who relate differently or make decisions differently are often frustrated as they try to find a place of fit within the ministry organization.

The Structured Church

The 600-person barrier represents the most significant cultural adjustment the church will have to make. At this stage, the church organization will need to define program systems led by leaders who possess administrative and team building skills. It is not uncommon that these administrative leaders are imported from outside the ministry. This is because the highly relational values which have dominated the church to this point may have alienated task-oriented people. Without realizing it, the church leadership will adopt an additional cultural value found in the Environmental Style quadrant, and seek to introduce into the established church culture a “Systematic” value. It is at this point that many relational people within the church begin to fear that the church is losing its “family-feel.” Relationships are no longer defined in terms of the entire church body, but in the context of service and common interest sub-cultures, as well as shepherding small groups. The relational leaders they have known and loved are now being re-positioned or replaced by people who possess strong administrative and team building abilities.

I recently observed a 450-member church struggling with the difficult adjustment from Warm-Hearted to Structured. Its children’s ministry was led by a director who possessed a Protagonist ministry temperament. The Protagonist is charismatic when in front of people and thrives in a non-structured environment. The Protagonist is not skilled as an administrator or team builder. While this ministry temperament likely served the children’s ministry well in the early stages of its development, the non-structured culture was now impeding the children’s ministry from growing into excellence. The people who valued “winging it” rather than planning and preparation were able to function within the various roles required by the children’s ministry. However, people with ministry temperaments that valued administration, team building, planning and preparation could not find a place of ministry fit within the “wing-it” culture defined by the Protagonist leader. If the children’s ministry was to reach the next level of development, the Protagonist culture would need to be replaced or modified.  The ministry temperaments that will be required to take the children’s ministries program to the next level are the very people that the established culture had until now been alienating. (Side note: A Protagonist’s ‘wing-it” values can always find a place of ministry service within a structured team-based culture. However, a structured team-based person can rarely find a place of ministry service within a “wing-it” culture.)

When a Warm-Hearted church is able to transition to a Structured church, and include people who identify with and can implement the new “Systematic” cultural value within the church, they will find that a new army of systems-oriented people can finally be unleashed to serve within the church. These people have not known how to fit and serve effectively in the Family-Feel or Warm-Hearted church. But now, a new team-based synergy liberates strategic planners, administrators and managers to find places of ministry service, and to serve effectively. The Structured church will thrive until it reaches approximately 1,500 people.

Mission myopia at this stage of development occurs on two distinct and divisive fronts: The old guard values relational people and resists the inclusion of other ministry temperaments. Similarly, the new guard relates best to people most like themselves. The unfortunate consequence is often the creation of a culture-gap that may take many years for the church to overcome. Often, the adjustment is made by sacrificing a significant number of relational people to other smaller churches, and replacing them with new systems people. Sacrificing people is never God’s ideal. No one ministry temperament is superior to another. We all need each other. However, our roles will inevitably change as the organizational dynamics change.

The Hierarchical Church

The Structured church transitions into a Hierarchical church when it consolidates top-tier authority structures, while at the same time integrating a new quadrant value…the “Concrete” value found within the Information Assimilation style quadrant. The ministry now focuses upon providing many concrete and practical ministry services. Generally, there is a unifying thematic value that binds these many services together. Common unifying themes include: Outreach, Seeker Targeted, Seeker Sensitive, Life Purpose, Global Impact, etc. Because of the complex network of team-based ministries, literally thousands of people, of all ministry temperaments, can find a place of ministry service and rise up in status and influence within the ranks.

Relationships are nurtured in the context of serving within a ministry team, joining with others around a common interest, or through participation in a small shepherding group. In recent years, the trend has been to break the Hierarchical church down into small functional and relational units. This process has given rise to regional satellite churches…one church meeting concurrently in various locations, via internet streaming from the mother church.

Mission myopia occurs when the ministry tends to value and promote the elite leaders. These leaders-of-leaders excel at team building, administration, and team motivation. People who do not possess the same level of administrative skill as the elite leaders may feel inferior or devalued. Often, the level of excellence demanded by the Hierarchical church permits only the “experts” to serve in visible roles.

With the new millennium, a post-modern reaction to the modernist Hierarchical church has given birth to the House Church and Emergent Church movements. These movements aspire to recapture the relational intimacy and spiritual experientialism that many people feel have been lost within the Hierarchical church. However, these movements in essence are simply starting the church-growth cycle over again by forming post-modern “Family-Feel” churches.