Slack-biding

I have a friend. Try not to linger too long on this idea- the fact that I have a friend shouldn't come as such a surprise to you. But anyways, I have a friend. No, see, you're still fixating on this bizarre concept that shouldn't be so bizarre. I mean, lots of people have friends, right? Why shouldn't I have a friend? I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me. In the interest of full disclosure (and self-credibility), I have at least 380 friends.

So my friend goes to a church. He used to be very involved in the worship program at that church. Over the last year, he hasn't been involved. He's been very busy with school and work.

When the schedule of worship teams came out for the semester, his name wasn't on any of the teams. His name wasn't in one of the reserve spots. It was almost like he was forgotten.

Evidently, when your past gets erased, so does the top half of your face.

Here is the kicker, and the reason that this blip on the radar became the inspiration for a blog post on organizational theory-he wasn't informed of the decision. He talked to the leader a month ago or so, and was told that they would try to find a spot for him. And so my friend waited...waited...still waiting...

So he talked to another friend about the situation. That person contacted the leader. The leader then talked to my friend, and told him that he wasn't going to be on any of the teams. The reason? Ultimately it boiled down to that 20th century brand of leprosy- backsliding.

Now what constitutes his backsliding? Is it the lack of church attendance (which has been sporadically infrequent over the past year)? Or some other behavior that is more egregious? I only have third hand information, but for the sake of where I want to take this blog, we're going to assume that it's the former.

How does this tie into organizational theory? It does, you have to trust me. This blog will be talking about the church specifically (and when I say 'the church', I mean the church as a whole and not this specific church. And if your head isn't spinning just a little bit, then go find a meri-go-round, use it, and then come back and read this paragraph), but the concepts can be generalized to many types of organizations.

First of all, what is an organization? The answer, in all it's glorious truth, is right here. Churches are organizations. As organizational entities, I want to focus on the 'social arrangement' and 'pursues collective goals' of churches.

Obviously the church is a social arrangement- I honestly don't know what I can really say to expand on this point. You go there, it's social- and it's arranged. So we're moving on to the next point.

The church pursues collective goals. Each individual church has its own mission statement, but generally the idea of the church is to see other people saved/converted to the faith of that church, and then to see the faith of the people involved developed along a certain doctrinal line of thinking. Those are what we would call manifest (or explicit) goals- but there are latent goals as well. Latent goals are goals that are not explicitly stated, but nonetheless are very much present.

There are multiple latent goals, but one that I want to focus on is church attendance. Because the church, as an organization, needs people to fulfill its mission. People are needed to (among other things) provide financial support and to bring other people into the congregation. So when there are less people attending, there are less people to fulfill these functions. And the church as an organization will suffer.

(Here I will point out that there are an infinite number of tributaries that I am consciously aware are pulling me away from what I want to focus on. Religion and organized religion lend themselves pretty well to all sorts of discussion. Really, that is not my goal here. My goal is to look at a specific behavior (in this case, church attendance) and how that behavior relates to an organizational structure (in this case, the church), and how people play a role in the functioning of an organization. Are we on the same page? Obviously a silly question- on the internet, if we were on different pages, then you wouldn't be reading this blog, you'd be on a different website.)

Organizations impose behavioral expectations upon their constituents. Sometimes those expectations are explicit- for example, a school has policies about what you can and can't do. There are consequences if you don't abide by the rules of the school. If you're an athlete who gets caught with a controlled substance- it's going to mess up your season.

There are also the unspoken expectations- and church attendance is a great example of that. There is (I suppose this is an assumption on my part) nothing written that says you have to be in church every time the doors are open- it's an expectation that becomes socialized. People assume it to be true because the latent mandate from the organization.

(The study of organizational behavior is fascinating- to see how people behave in the context of an organization versus their normal patterns of behavior. Again, I'm trying really hard to stay on task, because there are just so many places I could follow this line of thinking.)

People in leadership positions (usually) abide by the spoken and unspoken rules of the organization- because they have a purpose in that organization, and if the structure of the organization is not adhered to, then the organization will die. I don't think many leaders are consciously aware of this- it's largely an unconscious process that is driven by the need of the organization to stay alive.

So let's get back to this idea of lack of church attendance=backsliding. What's the real story?

I don't think you should assume that irregular church attendance is equivalent to backsliding, and I also feel that people shouldn't feel like they have to be in church every Sunday.

WHAT?!?!?!

Now let me kind of explain- as I mentioned before, churches need attendance so that the church as an organization will continue to survive. And I'm not advocating for churches to die. I think that regular church attendance can be a good thing.

What I am saying is that you have to be able and willing to look outside of what you perceive is to be 'the way things are supposed to be'. Because is my friend a backslider because he doesn't go to church? What about his life away from the organization? Would it be possible for a person to have 100% church attendance and be more of a backslider than my friend (answer: yes)?

I believe that faith is an important dimension of our human experience. And I even believe that there is room for faith to enter into other dimensions. I do not, however, believe that any one dimension should choke off any other. Balance is important. And if you are just going to church because you think it's the right thing to do, or out of obligation...I don't want to tell you what to do, I just think that you should evaluate things a little bit.

It's true that, overall, I have used a very simple scenario as the framework for these thoughts. However, I think that the ideas are just as relevant.

I also want to tie into another thought that I've had chewed on for awhile. I often wonder, if I was to completely turn my back on my faith- everything about it, and just start living this completely off-the-mark lifestyle...how many of my friends in the church would continue to be friends with me?

I'm not talking 'maintain the relationship in order to bring the lost sheep back into the fold' friendship- I'm talking an actual 'love and accept me for who I am' friendship. And in my mind, I don't think that this would happen.

It's probably a cynical thought- but think about it. People have a finite amount of time, resources, and energy. When you are actively a part in an organization (like a church), you are expected to donate a certain amount of those to the organization. Whether it be doing nursery, or playing music on a worship team, or greeting- there are tasks that need to be done, and people required to do those tasks.

So you have to then begin to prioritize. You have to cut things out, and sacrifice certain things (or people- and I don't mean actually sacrificing. Because that would be gory) in order to give your best to other things (and people).

I'm not explicitly against organized religion- because I believe that it does some great things. I've been a part of various churches for the past 10+ years, and I don't plan on quitting anytime soon.

But I do feel that church as we know it is not how the church was intended to function. I think that, because of the organizational nature of the church as we know it, there is a tendency for the importance of human intimacy to get lost in meeting the needs of the organization. Again, remember that this isn't just a church thing- this is an organization thing.

I'll leave with this last tidbit of thought... if we use church attendance as a means to determine a level of spirituality, then Jesus...well, Jesus probably would have been considered a backslider.

PIC- http://www.impawards.com/2004/posters/forgotten.jpg

Some more reading for your enjoyment. I read all of these articles before writing this blog. While I didn't quote any of them specifically, I did use them to refresh my memory. So I should probably cite them.