Romancing the Congregation
Joel C. Hunter
Instead of mechanical procedures, my approach to leadership better resembles a courtly romance.
—Joel C. Hunter
In seminary I thought of the local church as a complex engine needing a mechanic. And that mechanic was me. My best move so far in ministry has been to toss that image away.
The local church is not a machine. It is more like a person with a complex personality. Christ pictured this person as his bride. Certainly she has different aspects to her personality, but when I get bogged down trying to analyze them, I lose passion for our life together.
Instead of mechanical procedures, my approach to leadership better resembles a courtly romance. I nourish the same attitude toward my congregation as a suitor would toward his sweetheart. The results have been outstanding in church growth and development. Following are a few personal examples of this approach.
From Court to Courting
In my first board meetings, I assumed the role of defense attorney arguing for various progressive issues. I would lay out the facts about and advantages of air conditioning, for example. Prior to the meeting, I would make a guess as to who would be for air conditioning and who would be against it, carefully arranging my arguments with those categories of voters in mind. Or I might plead the cause for a new missions emphasis, quoting scriptural precedent, chapter and verse. The juries were always sympathetic, but several problems became painfully, consistently evident.
First, decisions were largely negative because of counterissues: "We don't have enough money right now" or "If we support one project, we have to support the other." Not much was said about the needs of individuals.
Second, my relationships with "jury members" were strained after a few ...
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