Thanks for the kind words.

Twenty years or so ago, I thought it was very much the thing for the church to learn from management theory. However, while there will be some crossover, these days I am less convinced by the thought. There is a whole difference between the command structure of line management and leadership in a voluntary society. There is also the danger of importing consumerism to the church, something we have tragically done in disastrous quantities in recent decades.

Nevertheless, what is surely common is the category of ‘vision’, and maybe that is one reason why both religious organisations (including churches) and other entities such as PLCs and NHS trusts all talk the language of vision statements or mission statements today. It is important to be clear what our vision is – and what it isn’t. Your allusion to William Temple’s famous dictum falls squarely into that area, I think.

I note you also refer to appraisal. I fear that one is a danger for the church. Rightly we have realised the need for accountability, but some areas of the church look like they might uncritically take over secular notions of appraisal that are not necessarily easily translatable into the life of the gospel community. However, perhaps that is another post!

The potential appplication for the church seems to follow easily. I do sometimes jib at the amount of management speak and practice which is infecting the church. Partly because I do that sort of thing all day, and want to get away from it at home! That is not to deny we should be professional and high calibre in our approach to what we do. And my first 4 years as a Reader have been subject to a mercifully light touch level of supervision and appraisal. We should understand what we are trying to do, coming back to Temple’s point that we exist for those who are not currently our members!

Thanks for your comments. I think as I was typing the post (which was very ‘stream of consciousness’) it sounded like I was just using the business tragedies as examples of spiritual principles, rather like sermon illustrations (which is how I’ve used the ‘drill bits’ story for years). I hope I haven’t minimised the pain of the current situation for millions of people.

Peter Kirk in his Gentle Wisdom piece for which there is a pingback above makes the valuable observation that churches often fade away, in contrast to companies that implode.