Over the years, we have worked with quite a few regional associations (Episcopal Dioceses, Conferences, Synods, Presbyteries, etc.) across the U.S. using our Landscape assessment, facilitating system-wide listening sessions, and assisting in transition or strategic planning. We have learned a lot in this work and wanted to share some of these findings.
In many of our regional associations, we are in a time of limited financial resources and smaller staffing models. Regional associations often find themselves stretched thin, overburdened and, as one leader at the end of his career shared recently, feeling like they are not making a difference. Many systems have reconfigured staffing with the idea that one person could serve in multiple roles or that splitting roles in different ways will make it more doable and cost effective. Committees are often expanded in the hopes that more hands make lighter work. If accountability is a concern the reaction is often to adjust the role’s definition with more oversight instead of finding the right person for the job. The result of all of this shifting is that very few leaders have taken the time to really assess the purpose of the regional association and how to get there effectively. Instead, decisions are made in reaction to scarcity and burn-out.
In the book Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How it Defines Our Lives, authors Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir address how scarcity can capture our mind. As we experience joint-scarcity, defined as scarcity of time and finances, we begin to make decisions in a different way. Researcher Daniel Kahneman found that our brain is essentially “of two minds” – a “fast-thinking” largely autonomous system that is responsible for our survival, and our quick reflexes and responses (and also our behavioral defaults that we rely on to make quick decisions that can also form behavioral biases), and a “slow-thinking” mind where conscious rational thinking and decision-making occurs. Over time, that scarcity mind-set begins to not just affect our fast-thinking but also our slow-thinking responses. We reduce our band-width and have tunnel vision.
The best example in regional associations is addressing the issues of the small congregations that are diminishing in attendance numbers and financial resources. Staff and committee members often find themselves addressing these issues with that list of churches in their system, which can be a large list. But this means that time is pulled from other areas that also need attention – clergy transitions, ministries/outreach, mentoring, leadership development. According to Mullainathan and Shafir, this is called a “bandwidth tax” where so much of the mental energy is devoted to the tunnel and scarcity that less capacity is available for other things. As this continues over time, we get tunnel-vision and find ourselves thinking that our biggest area that needs attention is small congregations. Staffing models are adjusted and committees reconfigured for this need. This work has diminishing returns because it is a continual cycle and a part of the systemic nature of our regional associations. The end result is we see church in decline at an alarming rate and this becomes our narrative, whether it is accurate or not.
As we shift focus the system is not available to provide aid in other places. Congregations with larger attendance and budgets might be in extreme conflict, which will eventually lead to less attenders, but the resources are not built into the system to help. Clergy transitions are happening at perhaps a higher rate but we have stretched the system to such an extent that the transition process is on auto-pilot. So, while the regional association has a plan for smaller congregations and the current fire is at least under control, other things that need attention are in a worse state.
What helps us move out of that scarcity mind-set into a better balance? According to experts in scarcity, it is a concept called “slack.” Slack occurs when a person recognizes that we really can choose a “yes and” approach. This comes from clarity of purpose and clear alignment with that purpose. In the example above, the thought process moves from “we have a lot of small congregations in crisis” to “what is our commitment for support for all of our congregations at all stages of their lives.” And then we ask “how is that commitment built in healthy and best practices for all of our congregations.”
Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing the three things that congregations need from their regional associations. They are what we call the three Cs: clarity, consistency, and connection. Clarity allows for congregations to understand what resources are available and how to access them. Consistency means the regional association has built the necessary trust to let congregations know they are there to help in all stages of a congregation’s life. Connection is the very reason that regional associations exist, to create a meaningful relationships and a supportive model between our congregations so that we are all serving Christ together.
These three areas allow regional association to move out of scarcity and tunnel vision and into slack mode. Not doing less, but doing it better.
