Four Sin-Dromes March 10, 2010
Posted by Dan R. Dick in Church growth, Church Leadership, The United Methodist Church, Vision.Tags: church, Church Leadership, The United Methodist Church
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The concept of “sin” actually means “to miss the mark.” It doesn’t matter if you miss by an inch or miss by a mile — a miss is a miss is a miss. And there are four “sins” — ways we are “missing the mark” — prevalent in our congregational systems today. You decide whether we are missing a little or missing a lot. The four “sin” dromes (syndromes) are: Founder Syndrome, Savior Syndrome, Scapegoat Syndrome, and the Quick-Fix Syndrome.
Founder Syndrome — when a church’s success is fundamentally dependent upon the charisma and vision of the founding pastor, you don’t have a healthy, vital church — you have a problem. Don’t make this church a model, don’t let it become a poster child for “successful” churches, and please, please don’t let the pastor publish a book. You don’t have a winning formula — you have dysfunction. This in no way disparages the fantastic results some founding pastors are able to produce in new starts — they deserve all the praise and accolades they receive. But they should not be lifted up as examples for others to follow. What they do can’t be replicated, no matter how many books they write that indicate otherwise. And it is in NO WAY healthy when the long-term success of the congregation is dependent on their leadership. Founders are great, but they are greatest when they make themselves irrelevant. Way too many of our congregations flourish under the leadership of the founder, then fail when leadership changes. This should be the true indication of a fantastic founder — that he or she creates a community that does better after they leave than it ever did when he or she was there!
