The Necessary Things

Exploring the Organizational Belly: Middle Management

"Middle management is a layer of management in an organization whose primary job responsibility is to monitor activities of subordinates while reporting to upper management"

I've seen how significant a challenge an organization such as Campus Crusade for Christ has in managing the tension between the top and the bottom.

I'm wondering what quotes resonate with you or your organizational experience:

"All the pressure today is on the midlevel leaders, and employers need to breathe new life into middle-management jobs."--from a USA Today article

"However, this position did allow me to increase my salary and benefits while still maintaining a level of control and input over my team direction while not having the additional stress of upper management."--a commenter from the article above

"They're what I call craft workers: they're very loyal to the tasks they do, they get a lot of enjoyment out of it, and they're loyal to their work group, but what they have lost is loyalty to their larger employer, and there are a set of reasons for that."--from a Money.CNN article

Here are the two questions I'm thinking through:

1. What are some roles and responsibilities of a middle manager that could be EMPOWERED more by an organization to increase effectiveness?
2. What are some roles and responsibilities of a middle manager that could be DELEGATED to increase effectiveness?

Curious to listen to more thoughts on middle management? Check out this series of podcasts titled "Middle Management Lobotomy Podcast."

The Parachurch? Or the Parachurch!

Thanks to Daniel Curran for passing this along. You can read it here, download it for later, or print and share with your friends.

Here's some of the interesting quotes I found:

Thus, on the one hand, the structure we call the New Testament church is a prototype of all subsequent Christian fellowships where old and young, male and female are gathered together as normal biological families in aggregate. On the other hand, Paul’s missionary band can be considered a prototype of all subsequent missionary endeavors organized out of workers who affiliated themselves as a second decision beyond membership in the first structure.

Many of the mission agencies founded after World War II, out of extreme deference to existing church movements already established in foreign lands, have not even tried to set up churches, and have worked for many years merely as auxiliary agencies in various service
capacities helping the churches that were already there.

If you take the time to read it I'd love for you to share any quotes that you enjoyed/pondered/strongly agreed or disagreed.

Wiki Wiki Wiki Can't You See...

Bob Fuhs shared some great thoughts about Campus Crusade for Christ's Wiki, our national online resource for sharing and archiving resources. 

Here's what Kai shared:

I have been thinking about the wiki bust phenomena for a while and then the ocean city staff meeting yesterday made me really see a need for an improved way of communicating.

the most glaring missuse of the CCC wiki is that we upload documents rather than edit content.

the second is that most staff start from the homepage of the wiki wiki.uscm.org which leads them on a rabbit trail to find where to go. Instead we need bookmarks or shortened urls (i just made http://tinyurl.com/ocspwiki )

right now to edit a resource, you have to download it, open it in word, edit it (unless its a pdf then you are out of luck), and then repost it.

the beauty of the wiki lies in its ability to be tinkered with easily by anyone. pages evolve and emmerge. the regions of the campus minsitry actually have really well set up pages wiki.uscm.org/display/GLR from there we need content based pages not trees of attachements. you can see what i did with the Ocean City weekly meetings director page for an example. http://wiki.uscm.org/display/GLR/Weekly+Meeting+Director

I think the wiki is effective and we are in growing pains as we transition. But i think if we begin to edit pages (like wikipedia) rather than upload and make small urls to make it easier to find things, we will see better use.

Bob added to Kai's thoughts:

Thanks for thinking about this Kai...I am guilty of creating more trees myself, and the forest does indeed need to be cut down. For me, it's about taking the extra few minutes to actually edit what already there instead of simply taking the easy way out and posting something already created.
Let's start some new wiki protocols!

Bob is on twitter and has a new blog! Check them out!

Insight From a Church Planter

Just received this comment from Chris Knutzen, who has experience in CCC and church-planting. I wanted to share his comments as they provide great insight into this area:

Just wanted to chime in as one of those elders you talked about. I was part of the Mars Hill church plant. And I am currently working with my 2nd church plant in Russia. I want to share some thoughts on how it has been for me as CCC staff to be in these roles as founding elder/church planter and being full time staff.

In 1995, when we planted Mars Hill, I found it the ideal position to be in to help plant a church as I would be interacting with a host of potential church members on the campus of the UW. I was also able to help steer the direction of the church by being on the elder board and, through prayer and counseling, able to contribute to the spiritual growth. However, I constantly was stressed with the fact that there was so much more I wanted to do for the church but just didn't have time. I saw that Mark was max'd out so much of the time, but I could do very little to lighten his load. I remember asking him one time how I could be of greater help and, knowing my commitment to CCC, he told me, "Just bring more people to church, that's all". So I did. But there was always that tension in me.

Fast forward to Russia. When I left Seattle/Mars Hill in 1999 to do college ministry in Russia I knew there would opportunities to plant churches there. In fact I have been able to take part in 2 church plants, both from scratch with almost no official ties from the west. This has been a challenge but also a blessing as I've seen local people step up and lead. But again, the tension is still there, always wanting to do more for the local church. But every time I go to church and see the college students there I realize that, as long as I am here, my main contribution will be to bring people into the church. Of course I also sit in on elders meetings and counsel the younger leaders. But I take more of a back seat role in things. It is humbling, but it is where I know I need to be for now.

Who knows, maybe someday we might go full time into church planting. But for now and for the last 10 years, I dont regret being in that tension of taking part in something great (church planting) but also wanting to do more, realizing that God places others around me who step up.

Striving, Thinking, Impacting, or Relating?

Our Ocean City Summer Project staff team went through a Strengthsfinder training last week.

I enjoyed exploring the four domains under which all strengths fall.

I enjoyed thinking about how our organization functions with respect to these domains.

Based on my experience here's how I ranked the domains:

1. Striving
2. Impacting
3. Relating
4. Thinking

I'm very curious as to how you would rank our organizational strengths. I discovered that my personal strengths line up in this manner:

1. Thinking
2. Striving
3. Impacting
4. Relating

The fact that my number 1 is actually CCC's number 4 actually encouraged me! It provides a helpful grid to understand that not only are my strengths valued the least, but that it's not personal. As long as I choose to remain in the organization, I can expect frustration, resistance, and misunderstanding.

As I think about being a part of seeing redemptive organizational change, these challenges motivate more than discourage me. That's new for me, and definitely a work of the Lord!

How would you rank CCC or yourself in light of this grid?

Church Partnership Tweets

These tweets are from Paul Nunez, CCC staff member heading to San Jose State to lead the movement there. He is quoting Holly Sheldon, one of our National Directors (who is not on Facebook or Twitter--yikes!)

I'm hoping Paul can weigh in and clarify/expand on some of these quotes, as they are extremely pertinent to the recent discussions that happened here a week ago.

The CORE of Campus Crusade for Christ

"I think that title is appropriate for what I think CCC needs to get back too.  The key to the future is not old techniques but old characteristics of a movement that was on the frontier of ministry.  When both staff members who were on the front lines with Bill Bright in the beginning reflect on the past, they said there were 3 distinguising characteristics.

1.Intiative

2.Innovative

3. Spirit Filled"

Dan Birch interned at Chico State last year and now attends Campus Crusade's New Staff training in Fort Collins, Colorado. He shared this with me yesterday and I wanted to pass it on to you.

If you're on staff, how do you see these characteristics playing out? What do you think our culture is strongest/weakest?

In my experience we excel at initiative, battle to stay spirit-filled, and suck at innovation.

What say you?

The Role of Skills and Training

"I say I disagree because I think CCC has dominated at skills and training - a particular approach to discipleship driven by the movement's mission and vision."--Brian Virture

I would say that CCC has dominated at skills and training BECAUSE we are a apostolic leadership enterprise--at our heart we are called to give leaders what they need to accomplish the mission.

In the modern era, that was skill-based training. In the postmodern era, I believe it's going to be capacity-driven training.

An expectation that I have rarely seen realized is that I will be 'discipled' or that I will be able to 'disciple others' This may happen on occasion, but has not been part of the CCC culture.

When I think of my 'discipleship' as leadership training, and discipling others as 'training leaders,' all of a sudden everything falls into place. I no longer expect pastoral-type experiences from my leaders and seek those from pastorally-gifted people (some in CCC, most outside), and no longer try to function pastorally with those I lead, and encourage them to pursue other people in the body for shepherding.

It's not a cop-out for me at all or justifying my experience; it's more of a coming to grips with the reality of one part of our organization.

I agree that pragmatism proves to be a continual internal hindrance to CCC ministering out of the Spirit. I'm sure Brian Virtue could flush this out much better than me, but I can see how pragmatism negatively impacts our effectiveness. Brian said this:

"A lot of the discipleship and spiritual leadership I've seen in CCC has been pragmatism and programs "in the power of the Spirit."

Brian is a great friend and has been the most influential spiritual leader in my life; he 'discipled' me during my freshmen year at UCLA, and then worked hard to get me on a summer project that he was staffing where I ended up meeting my wife! Read his blog or follow him on Twitter!

Disciples or Leaders?

 "We all know what our weekly campus schedules looks and how we prioritize our time. Why the disparity?

If higher % of CCC staff were truly "making disciples" in the ways and styles Jesus and Paul modeled --- and were teaching them to obey the commands & disciplines Jesus and Paul taught their disciples --- we'd be having a totally different conversation here today"--Daniel Curran

Are we in the business of disciples or leaders? Before you quickly answer 'disciples' let me share some observations:

• Historically we have yet to ever master the art of making disciples. If we took our best and brightest from the beginning of CCC until now, would they have received more spiritual leadership or discipleship when we 'sent' them into the world? I would answer spiritual leadership.
• Historically we have trained our staff in spiritual leadership much more than discipleship. If we looked at the cumulative 'content' we have produced/taught to our staff, again it would lean HEAVILY towards spiritual leadership over discipleship.
  
• Historically we have DOMINATED at producing Christ-centered LEADERS. Who is left standing at the end of their college career in CCC? From my experience it has been the type A, socially capable, spiritually teachable, leadership-minded student.
  

"...teaching them to do ALL THINGS whatsoever I have commanded you"--Matthew 28:20

How can we realistically accomplish this when...

• students do not buy in to CCC's mission, vision, and values until the end of their sophomore year or junior year on average?
• staff must spend time planning, mobilizing believers, and personally engaging lost students? these are all 'resource drains' on 'making disciples.'
• staff are less equipped/capable to impart the pastoral elements of disciple making? the pastors in Chico that our staff team connects with are EXPONENTIALLY better than us at this.

Let's be best at what we are best at: apostolic spiritual leadership, and delegate/empower all the rest as much as we can. What do you think?

Is There An Organizational Difference?

Putting aside the denominational and theological questions, do you think there is anything different between high school (pre-college) and church planting geared towards recent college grads?

This question haunts me as I think about what it would look like to retain and develop students who graduate from our movements. When I think of 'Christ-centered laborers,' the second most strategic category of people to reach are recent college grads.

As great as other church planting networks and church plants are they do not have our VISION or VALUES. Just because they share our MISSION does not mean that we should partner with them.

Does anyone else see the organizational parallel? Or am I just talking crazy here? Not that this is THE reason why we HAVE to do it. I do not believe that at all. I'm stunned that we would invest SIGNIFICANT resources in reaching high-school students and NOTHING on reaching recent college grads who do not join staff or intern.

Thanks again to those who have been actively commenting and adding TREMENDOUS value to this conversation!