It’s a long time since I wrote a blog and I am not sure if I will write many more, for there is a ‘real and present danger’ in the blogosphere of writing for the echo chamber, but I thought I would write one more piece on strategy. All in my echo chamber may be pleased to hear!
My trouble with strategy is this: I don’t know many, if any, good strategists. I know plenty of people, inside and outside the church, who have acquired the language and techniques of strategy but I don’t know of many good ‘strategists.’
I know, and know of, a lot of people who have had enjoyed considerable short term success, whose businesses have flown, whose churches have grown; only to then come crashing down. And, of course, I also know that down right good luck looks a little bit more rational, planned, and envisioned when subsequently written up, claimed, as strategy. It’s far better for the ego, personal or corporate, to be regarded as a strategic master than a lucky so and so (even if luck, in fact, turns out to be providence).
But, to repeat, I really, really, find it very difficult to identify the cadre of strategic gurus and leaders who we should aspire to emulate. I feel we need to be honest and accept that ‘success’ in business, politics, sport, and yes the church, is normatively short lived, fleeting, and of the here today gone tomorrow variety.
Actually (awful word I know) I want to push my argument further by stressing that I am a fully signed up member of the death by strategy movement (and yes this really is a thing!) which stresses that the more institutions and their leaders focus on strategy (whatever this word really means) the greater the likelihood of accelerating their decline. Crafting strategy frequently leads to opportunistic myopia.
Doing strategy is neither a guarantor of success, nor a palliative slowing down an inevitable decline. Broadly speaking it’s a waste of time. And yet, the myth of the strategic leader, (or do I mean idol) persists. I wonder why?
‘O dear’, you might say, ‘this is all horribly fatalistic’, and of course it may well be for the majority of businesses (by the way check out the average life of a quoted business, the majority of whom have been led by a leader appointed for their assumed strategic genius), but maybe its far less fatalistic for the church?
The reason for this is that the strategic pursuit is essentially, despite its claims, inward looking, self-centred even. What can we get out of it, and how can we measure what we get out of it, being the two key strategic questions.
Yes, strategists like to say that’s it all about the customer, but this is only true in the narrowest of terms. Customers, stakeholders, are cared about primarily on the basis of ‘contribution’ to the bottom line. No business is really interested in a loss-making, non contributing, client or customer.
But in the church we are not supposed to be like that! We are not supposed to favour the successful, the profitable, and the useful. We are not supposed to evaluate people on the basis of their ‘contributory potential.’
We are supposed, instead, to serve the poor, the hungry, the alienated, the down cast, the lonely, and so on, and so on…….What we need to rediscover is the ministry of service, social holiness in other words; a ministry that is vested in a sincerely held belief in the God given dignity of every single human being. Secular business strategy (almost by definition) is built on a different set of premises and values. It really can’t be escaped: however nicely it is dressed up secular strategy instrumentialises, and, perhaps, that is why it ultimately fails.
Part of our vocation is also to speak truth to power: the prophetic mandate. And, this at the very least implies accepting ridicule, rejection, and scorn. I know of no strategic model that capable of accommodating the prophetic mandate, with all that this implies.
And then there’s prayer, but let’s leave that one for now. Okay let’s not, for my strongly held belief is that the church should be ‘rooted in prayer, routed from prayer.’ It is through prayer that ‘strategic’ opportunities seem to providentially emerge and this simply can’t be fed into a strategic model.
My prayer for the church is simply this:
‘That we may be rooted in prayer and routed from prayer, that we may be bold in action (diaconal) and outspoken in concern (prophetic), and that we may be a community where all may flourish and none need fear.’
So my pleas to the church are that we learn to sit lightly to strategy, so that we are alive to opportunity, that all we do flows from prayer, and that we are energised through a commitment to diaconal and prophetic expressions of ministry.
Theore0 