The vision of the ecclesia is to build "One Kingdom of
God" or "One Ekklesia" and the main theme is expressed in John
17:21 "that they may all be one". This phrase has two purposes of the
Church: "gathered," serving the body, and "scattered,"
serving the world. The first concerns believers, i.e. the church must serve the
gospel to believers, and the second concerns unbelievers, i.e. the church must
serve unbelievers. It follows that "one church" as the vision of the
church implies the vision of the church to fulfill the Lord's prayer for the
establishment of the kingdom of God here on earth, and this kingdom must not be
divided along denominational lines, but one - unity in Christ. In the light of
this vision of the Ekklesia, the following terms can be imagined/reframed as
follows:
1.
Organization: Organization is the rational coordination of the activities
of a number of people to achieve some common explicit purpose or goal through
division of labor and functions and through a hierarchy of authority and
responsibility. The church as a human organization must be organized, and there
is abundant evidence in the Bible to show that God saw fit to organize Israel
into tribes, groups, and families with their respective heads and commanders.
For example, Moses delegated authority to his representatives. In the New
Testament, Jesus and his disciples were organized with Peter as spokesman,
Judas as treasurer, and James and John as members of the inner circle.
Organization is therefore a necessity and the church must be organized. It may
have its own distinctive organizational structures based on denominational
preferences, but it cannot have a different vision. So we can reframe church
organization as organismic, "delegating the responsibility of a group of
believers to parts to achieve the goal of the gospel." It means that the
church as the body of Christ can have an organizational structure to fulfill
its goal - to build "one ekklesia". Its organogram may be
hierarchical, but it should not necessarily be associated with a power
structure such as superior and subordinate, but should be coordinated to
achieve the church's goal.
2.
Administration: Church administration is a purposeful administrative
activity carried out in the church to achieve common goals. Church
administration can be broadly understood as people-centered ministry: both
pastoral and administrative. It is a ministry in the sense that while the
administration of the sacraments and the Word of God constitute the spiritual
aspects of administration, the administration of human resources as well as
financial and other material resources constitute the administrative or
physical aspects of pastoral/ecclesiastical ministry. In other words, church
administration involves the effective management of human resources, material
resources, and spiritual resources to fulfill the purpose of the church's
existence.
Church
administration is a religious and moral process not irreligious and immoral
administrative policy. Therefore, it is transparent management not a
manipulation. Government in the church "must set goals
according to God's goals for the future and communicate these goals to others
to motivate them to work together to achieve them.”
3.
Polity: Polity is a governmental organization having a form of
institutionalized hierarchy for running a society. Church polity is a subset of
class of authority patterns. This model of law is understood as "a set of
relationships between members of the social organization pertaining to the
running of that unit …The direction of a social unit involves the definition of
its goals, the regulation of conduct of its members, and the allocation and
coordination of roles within it” (Eckstein and Gurr). Church Polity is
the operational and governance structure of ecclesial church. It is the ministerial and administrative structure of
a church and the authority relationships between the member churches which
seeks to unite its members into the body of Christ.
4.
Management: Peter Drucker, in his book The
Principles of Management gives an apt definition of management thus:
“Management is a multi-purpose organ that manages business and manages managers
and manages workers and work.” Managers administer and coordinate
resources effectively and efficiently to achieve the goals of an organization. Essentially,
managers are employed by other people. Robert C. Anderson writes, “The mark of
a good manager is his[her] ability to share the work, to equip others to take
over certain duties, and to function as the inspirational part of the team
effort.” “The pastor who is able to survive a long and successful ministry is
one who is able to manage his time and talents appropriately. He schedules his
day so that his time is spent reasonably, and he equips his people in the
exercise of their ministry rather working as a lone ranger.”
Some
employees have a hard time describing exactly what their managers (Pastor,
Executive Secretary) do on a typical day. Because managers always have to write
computer programs, edit books, etc. They don't do real work like that.
Sometimes employees feel like they're doing nothing but sitting around and
waiting for problems to happen. However, that misconception is just one of
several myths that are very different from the many realities of management. It
evokes reimagining
the realities of management by pointing some myths
and realities. The examples below discuss not only the leaders' worst
thoughts, but also the truth.
Myth:
Management/manager as power or opportunity.
Reality:
Management is a responsibility.
Myths:
Managers are self-starters, self-directed and autonomous.
Reality
Good managers are self-directed: They accept autonomy and seek input from
supervisors/supervisors and subordinates.(talents and Josef)
5.
Constitution:
Merriam-Webster
defines the constitution as "the fundamental principles and laws of a
nation, state, or community that determine the powers and functions of the
government and guarantee certain rights of the people within it" and
"a written instrument embodying rules." political or social
organizations."
A
church constitution can be thought of as a written document that is a
declaration of our faith and understanding of the Holy Scriptures, as well as
other doctrinal beliefs, form of church polity/government, organizational
structure and intentions as the body of Christ. A church constitution is
important and necessary for its members to reach a common consensus on doctrine,
organizational structure, and goals (1 Corinthians 1:10; Eph 4:3, 13). A church
constitution is an authoritative document that governs the entire church; yet
this constitution cannot be treated either as having a higher authority than
the Word of God/the Bible, or as having a higher authority than the authority
that God himself has placed in those believers whom he has appointed to lead
the local church (Heb. 13:17) . A church constitution is necessary to the
fulfillment of God's purpose and is subject to change in part or in whole as
the context requires.
6.
Leadership
Leadership
as an influence process: Leadership can be defined as
"the ability to influence others to achieve some goal". Jeff Jernigan
defines leadership as follows: “A leader is someone who, through strength of
character, influences others to follow a decision or course of action.
Leadership is closely related to motivating and influencing others -
"getting others to do things". To lead is to set a direction and
influence others to follow that direction. This definition is not as simple as
it sounds because leadership has many variations and different areas of
emphasis. All definitions of leadership have in common the idea that leaders
are individuals who, through their actions, facilitate the movement of a group
of people towards a common or shared goal. This definition implies that
leadership is a process of influence. It has biblical support from John
13:13-16, especially in verse 14 it says, “…if I have washed your feet, you ought
to wash one another's feet” and in verse 15 He said: "...I gave an
example...you should do what I did to you". Here Jesus influences them to
do what he did. Thus, leadership does not gain popularity; rather it affects
others. A faulty understanding of leadership leads people to become overly
conscious of status and power; however, good influence earns respect. An
influential leader does produce followers. As Max DePree rightly captures in
his definition of leadership, "the marks of excellent leadership can be
found among followers."
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