The prevailing theme within the videos and audio clip this week was creativity, autonomy and the rules that we either self impose or have imposed on us. While the I fully believe in the philosophy, I believe there is a fine line between lack of rules and regulation and chaos. From my limited exposure my consulting client, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Milwaukee (ELCA), is suffering from some of the chaos of not enough oversight and systematic guidelines. Edward Schein, an organizational development expert who taught at MIT, defined an organization’s culture as its “artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and basic underlying assumptions.” Aubrey Malphurs adapted this definition for the purpose of understanding church culture and said that
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It is easily observable and forms the outer layer of culture. A church’s values are the beliefs that the church actually live out. In the cultural apple analogy, values form the meat. Malphurs says, “a belief is a conviction or opinion that a person holds to be true about the church and its world as based on limited proof.” The church may not always act on its beliefs, but they all have beliefs. Beliefs form the deepest layer of culture. The church’s beliefs are the core of the cultural apple. According to Malphurs, any organizational change in values and behaviors must occur at the level of a church’s beliefs or assumptions, which is the most difficult level to …show more content…
They believe acceptance; their congregations and clergy are among the most diverse in the world. But once in the organization you start to see the fear, chaos and frustration. Frustration stemming from the lack of uniform rules that govern the management of each individual church that is a member of the synod as a collective. Fear from the body of believers at anyone who comes in to look at what they have been doing and examine if change is needed. Chaos as the interim pastors and their congregation wade through finances and policies before bringing a new pastor on
It is easily observable and forms the outer layer of culture. A church’s values are the beliefs that the church actually live out. In the cultural apple analogy, values form the meat. Malphurs says, “a belief is a conviction or opinion that a person holds to be true about the church and its world as based on limited proof.” The church may not always act on its beliefs, but they all have beliefs. Beliefs form the deepest layer of culture. The church’s beliefs are the core of the cultural apple. According to Malphurs, any organizational change in values and behaviors must occur at the level of a church’s beliefs or assumptions, which is the most difficult level to …show more content…
They believe acceptance; their congregations and clergy are among the most diverse in the world. But once in the organization you start to see the fear, chaos and frustration. Frustration stemming from the lack of uniform rules that govern the management of each individual church that is a member of the synod as a collective. Fear from the body of believers at anyone who comes in to look at what they have been doing and examine if change is needed. Chaos as the interim pastors and their congregation wade through finances and policies before bringing a new pastor on