Every church organization exhibits a unique organizational personality. An organization’s personality type enables its leadership to effectively recruit and mobilize people with some ministry temperaments, while impeding the recruitment and mobilization of others.

At this point it may be helpful to distinguish between the big “C” universal Church, and the little “c” local church. Within Christ’s universal Church, you are a vital member with an essential ministry role. However, the local church is not always so inclusive. When people don’t know how to fit within their local church, it is important to discern between the responsibilities of the individual and the responsibilities of the organization for addressing this problem. The local expression of Christ’s Church may at times have difficulty including and mobilizing differing people into ministry. This may be the result of unique institutional dynamics that inadvertently prevent people from participating within the mission. When this occurs, people have difficulty knowing how to serve and support the ministry of their local church. Sadly, pastoral leaders often blame their congregation members for the lack of ministry participation, criticizing their membership as “uncommitted,” when in fact, the organization’s structures may be inhibiting committed people from knowing how serve. Not finding a place of effective ministry service within their church, these committed people will generally develop their own personalized and isolated ministry.

Christ never desired his followers to minister in isolation. He always sent his disciples out in teams consisting of two or more members (Luke 10:1 NIV). Similarly, the Apostles always had at least one or two support staff. Remember, we all need each other, and together we best represent the God who created all of us in his image. Our ministry temperament was designed to integrate with other ministry temperaments so that together, we can accomplish for Christ far more than we could ever accomplish individually.

It may surprise you to learn that even though the Bible is abundantly clear about the many parts of Christ’s body, when it comes to building ministry teams, many Christians and Christian leaders somehow forget that God created human diversity. It should be self-evident that not every Christ follower will look, sound, nor act like every other Christ follower. However, the Church often suffers from what I call “mission myopia.” The Oxford American Dictionary defines myopia as: “1) nearsightedness; 2) lack of imagination or intellectual insight.” Mission myopia occurs whenever we consolidate around ourselves people who possess a similar ministry temperament, or impose our ministry temperament...and its way of perceiving and serving...upon those closest to us.

Mission myopia is so common among churches, that the ministry temperaments of the dominant influencers within the ministry literally define the “personality” of the church organization. Yes, churches and ministries also have personalities. And just like each human personality exhibits strengths and weaknesses, church personalities also exhibit particular strengths and weaknesses. 

For example, the pastor of one church I was asked to consult with expressed that the biggest problem facing the church over its two decade history was that the church started many good programs, but had difficulty sustaining them. A simple assessment of the Senior Pastor and his board revealed that all the dominant leaders possessed entrepreneurial profiles…they were start-up people; this explained why they started many good ministries but were unable to sustain them. The church leadership needed to learn how to better identify the people within their congregation who excelled at establishing self-perpetuating ministry structures, as well as people who were gifted in managing ongoing ministry programs.

The personality of a ministry organization has a direct bearing on its ability to mobilize people for ministry and build effective ministry teams. In fact, the personality of a church often dictates who may serve within the ministry. In the case of the church just mentioned, people who possessed entrepreneurial temperaments easily found places of service within the church. However, people who did not possess such profiles had difficulty knowing how to support the ministry.  The principle of mission myopia, that people will naturally gather around themselves others who are like them, inhibits other people-types from participating effectively in ministry. Often, these disenfranchised Christ followers feel like there simply is no place of ministry for them within their church. They may have tried earnestly to find a place of ministry fit, but in the end, they have been made to feel rejected and devalued.

I am confident that no healthy church leadership team desires to communicate to people that they are devalued. However, this unintentional communication occurs none the less. For church leadership, the principle of mission myopia infers the following:

·        Most all church ministries suffer from some level of mission myopia.

·        Mission myopia impedes a local church’s ability to include and mobilize the maximum number of people within the ministry.

·        When people cannot find a place of ministry service within their church, they tend to feel devalued and unwanted, and ultimately leave the church.