Re: Tom Bandy Reflection Part 3 - Controllers

[aleggett]

Darren, I must say that I resonate with what Bandy is saying here, however, I don't think its always as simple as that. One congregation I ministered in was typical of the 80% controller situation and has been in continual decline. Another had about 3% controllers and it was darn hard work to get anyone to take responsibility for anything. Another one in our Presbytery had about 60% who were controllers who all left over resolution 84 and the remaining 40% are having a great time running their own church, something they couldn't do before. I have heard of other congregations where this has happened. Maybe this is an upside to the sex thing.   Allan   ----- Original Message ----- From: Darren Wright To: insights ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Com Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 9:32 PM Subject: Tom Bandy Reflection Part 3 - Controllers In the first two reflections I posed some questions about Palliative Care and Resourcing Mission, in this reflection I�ll be asking some question about change management.  <> Tom Bandy used a very simple understanding of the percentage of personality types within the congregational setting.  This understanding said, very simply that:   20% of each congregation/church is made up of people who are restless, who want to change. 60% of each congregation/church is made up of people who, overall are happy and content in the church. 20% of each congregation/church is made up of people who are controllers, controllers by large do not like change and wish to remain in control. <>Tom Bandy said that the minister�s role is to get the 20% of restless people and 60% of happy people together and block the controllers from the conversations resulting. Tom then said that this would not be easy, and infact those people who are controllers would revolt and try to regain control by a number of methods� including having the minister fired.  There would be repercussions for those who stand between the controllers and the rest of the conversation, and they wouldn�t include a lovely bunch of flowers on the doorstep in the morning. <>This may seem like a simple version of Callahan or other models, perhaps it is but it still raises some questions that I think could/should be discussed. The first is the question of who are our controllers.  I�ve been in conversation with some people who�d say that in many congregations the 20-60-20, however what seems to be happening in some congregations is that the 20% of restless people have left, along with many of the 60% so much that in some congregations the percentage has changed so that 80% of the congregation is now made up of controllers. The second question is about the membership of our Presbyteries and Synods.  If many controllers make it to the controlling parts of our congregations and committees, how many make it to our Presbyteries and Synods? From hearing Tom Bandy and others speak I�m now afraid that the Synods and Presbyteries might be seen as havens for controllers to gather�  If controllers are the ones that ministers are supposed to block, do we see Synods and Presbyteries as: <!--[if !supportLists]-->o      A safe place for controllers to keep them away from the life of the congregation?<!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportLists]-->o      A place in which we should be blocking controllers from participating in? <!--[endif]--> The fourth question to be raised is what does it mean to have a congregation of 80% controllers?  What are we supposed to �do with them?  When Presbyteries and Synods enter into discussion about supplying a minister or developing missional goals and find such a disproportionate number of controllers do we stay silent or do we act or do we refuse to call someone or�  A healthy reminder is that controllers won�t really care that people are from Synod and Presbytery� All that will matter is that they are having power taken from them and this won�t sit well with them.  <>A reminder that these are only questions that might be interesting to ask, so if you�re a controller in a Congregation, Presbytery or Synod please do not take this personally� Shalom -- Darren Wright Fool Youth and Family Worker UCA NSW Synod Presbytery of Canberra Region GPO Box 221. Canberra. ACT. 2601. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02 6248 9311 (office) "The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address, because the recipient is repeatedly changing place of residence." - Helmut Thielicke ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------