Today, I want to show you a quadrant to assess the personality of your church. It’s important to understand your church’s personality because it reveals your culture, both internally and to those who may enter your church doors on any given Sunday. Let’s take a look.
Churches sometimes err on one of two extremes. Either they are too organic and relational or they are too organized and structured. If your church is neither one of those things? Well, you are just a social club. People come to your church because it’s what they think they should do, or it’s what everyone else around them does. Now, there will always be people in your church with this type of attitude, but if it’s prevalent among your members, you have to develop these people. It’s a culture issue. There may be a pseudo-community, but it lacks the depth and organization to help people grow.
If your church is very relational but not organized, it’s a family church. Relationships and caring for one another within the body are really important to everyone involved. But there’s not a structure in place to help people develop and grow, without it you cannot scale.
If your church is organized, but not relational, then you are in the business category. Your organization and structure make it seem more of a transactional thing than a transformational thing. Without relationships, people likely won’t stick around even if you have a proper structure in place for their growth.
Finally, where you want to be. If you are both relational and organized, we would say you are in the missional category. People serve and relate to one another in community, they are buying into the vision, and you have a framework in place–something like a pipeline, that helps people grow and make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. I would also add there is a unique third element here and that is drive. How driven are the people in your church?
So now that you understand these personality types, assess your church and decide what you are going to do about it.
