There have been many debates over the years about whether or not churches should examine business organizational charts for ideas about how congregations could be organized. This debate has been passionate and thought-provoking, and I certainly won't attempt to recap or solve it here.
One idea from the business world, however, which intrigues me is this: I heard a novel presentation about what makes a good CEO; the presenter said that a good CEO doesn't spend lots of time in his office, but rather meeting customers and meeting the press. A good CEO doesn't "hide" from the world in his office, and doesn't spend lots of time micro-managing various aspects of his business. He or she will appoint capable vice-presidents for various divisions of the business, delegate operations to them, and meet periodically with them, but not look over their shoulders during daily operations. The good CEO meets with ordinary customers, chatting with them, listening to them; the good CEO will meet with the press, and use various public occasions to highlight the good work of his organization.
This presentation was complete with concrete specific examples of CEO's who spent lots time in retail stores, conversing with ordinary customers. This correlated to measurable outcomes like stock prices and corporate income statements.
I hope that analogy between the good CEO and the good pastor is obvious. I won't belabor the point, but I'll point to one example: among the success "mega-churches", there are a number of senior pastors who spend time chatting with, not elders or church officers, but ordinary members, even those with low income or low education. They spend time in one-on-one counseling with simple lay people, spend time in hospitals visiting the sick and their families, spend time visiting "shut-ins", senior citizens, the lonely, the depressed, the physically or mentally disabled.
What kind of a CEO would Jesus be? What kind of a pastor would Jesus be?
