Jesus has long wanted His people to be the light of the world. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said to His followers, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. The goal of the Church to make the children of God stand out as light is very clear and must achieve no matter the obstacles therein.
Managing the church is not an easy task. It comes with lots of huddles, ten of which I will talk about in this article. Most of these problems come up when power changes hands. But until a new administration sits well, the church suffers some management problems. However, to every problem, there is a solution. Here are;
10 major church management problems and possible solutions
Poor finance management
Poor finance management is one of the problems the present church experiences. Though the Church is not profit-oriented, it needs money to do lots of good works. And for the kingdom of God to spread the good news, there is a need for formidable financial backup. As such, mismanaging the church’s funds will not be good and may cause some harm
- It may discourage the members from giving.
- It may cause members to change to another place of worship
- It may cause disunity amongst the church administrative board
- It may result in retarded church growth.
- It brings a bad reputation
Best approach
- Employ a trustworthy finance manager
- Let the church purse be managed by a body and not just a person.
- Strategize fundraising.
- Use money budgeted for its specific purpose
- Show the congregation the fruit of their labor.
- Consider tithe.ly another alternative to proper finance management.
Facility mismanagement
One’s inability to care for his possessions is a big problem. The church begins to fall when her facilities are not in good hands. Bad church equipment, untidy environment, unconducive place of worship, unkept restrooms, nonchalant attitude towards the church’s belongings are all aspects of facilities mismanagement.
- It makes the congregation lose faith in the church
- It makes the service less enticing because the environment is not conducive and the material to enhance media and music in the church is not in order.
- The church may decrease in the number
Best approach
- Employ a competent facilities manager and surround him with tireless assistants
- Take absolute care of workers and their welfare, but discipline incompetent ones.
- Support volunteers groups can help in caring for some church facilities.
- Encourage the youths to help too
Poor communication in the church
Communication is the key to successful teamwork. When workers do not respond to duties or report inappropriate issues to the authority, and the administrator does not communicate properly with departmental managers and church members, there will be a huge problem of inefficiency. Lack of communication is a heavy burden to the administrator as the efficiency and effectiveness of the church will be drastically reduced. Communication determines the level of success the church will experience. If communication is absent, the running of the church is compromised
Best approach
- Provide an opinion box for anonymous reports
- Hold regular meetings with co-administrators for the way forward
- Hold counselling meetings for church members going through troubles
- Avoid violence of all kinds
- Hold interpersonal or administrative matters confidential
Mal-administration
Mal-administration involves the inefficiency of the administrator. Sometimes, there may be flaws coming directly from the church administrator himself. Such flaws are not usually easy to handle because most admins may not admit to being at fault. This kind of problem emerges when
- The administrator is overstressed and is confused about virtually everything
- Burdened with lots of workload and schedules
- Have no competent people around to delegate tasks to
- Bases judgments on rules, not principles
- The admin is not disciplined or principled enough
Best approach
- Pray for correct guidance from God
- Advise the administrator through the board and chief special adviser
- Avoid any direct or indirect form of rebel and slander to him
Slow/ refusal to adopt technology
Information technology is essential as far as church in this present generation is concerned. Any church that refuses to embrace the value of technology in its media and publicity strategies will surely have some issues. If a church does not adopt it
- There will be poor media during church programs and services
- Information dissemination will lack efficiency and timeliness
- The church and its operations, in general, will not spread a far distance, and the winning of souls will be within a jurisdiction.
Best approach
- Include technology facilities in the church’s annual budget
- Employ capable hands to manage and care for the gadgets, services, and facilities
- Avoid mismanagement at all costs.
Poor record-keeping
For a church to stand and grow, it needs to hold up to accurate data collection and bookeeping. Most times, when these records such as number of employees, close range to the number of church members, number of equipment and facilities, dates of important events the church celebrates, names and numbers and leaders and so on, the church may be difficult to manage. The big problem begins when the church is managed on assumptions.
Best approach
- Delegate a competent fellow to the position of bookkeeping and records
- Create efficient platforms that will make the collection of data and reports easier
- Ensure to go through the records from time to time
Loss of purpose
The church of God is built to bring the children of God closer to their creator. A church built on this purpose will flourish because the grace of God is abundantly present in them. Asides from that, the church will experience lots of flaws and shortcomings. If the church does not build her foundation on Christ, the rock, then they are taking hold of greed and selfishness. It could spur the growth of immorality in the church, and the management becomes unstable and eventually fails. Many churches today had this as their problem and today are nowhere to be found.
Best approach
- God owns the church. It is not a business to extort people. Know that and know peace.
- Remove every spoilt egg amongst the management before others get affected
- Pray, preach, and live what you profess.
Lack of proper conflicts and risk management skills
One of the major problems faced by the church today is the inability to properly resolve misunderstandings and conflicts. In the church, for one reason or the other, conflict must come up between two staff, or a group, or even church members, and if the issue is not properly managed may escalate and at the worst stage, paint black the name of the church and affects its growth and progress.
Best approach
- Engage the parties in a dialogue
- Engage the parties to undertake corrective measures
- Eliminate if within your powers the remote cause of the chaos
- Manage wisely all risks and chaotic situations, including emergencies.
Neglect on members welfare
The church is a body caring for the soul of people and drawing them close to the church. Most times, the soul is not all that needs help; the body too. The administration needs to care about the welfare of the church members and provide basic needs as much as possible. It becomes a mighty problem when the church employs the help of her members but is not ready to help her members in difficult times or celebrate with them in happy moments.
Best approach
- The administration needs to;
- Bury dead church members and console the family
- Celebrate with families in times of success and happiness
- Visit the poor and needy people
- Support the volunteer groups.
Silos
Most times, departments or church branches do not circulate information and papers accurately. Silos are experienced when there is hoarding of information, paperwork, funds, and resources. Things do not move accordingly, and management is poor when there is untimely dissemination of information causing the different departments or branches to lose uniformity and coordination. Things get scattered and not in order.
Best approach
- Employ competent head of departments or head of a branch
- Employ every possible means to get information across easier and faster
- Employ disciplinary measures to all who delay services
- Hold regular meetings for all heads.
Conclusion
The church, like every other working firm is bound to experience setbacks and huddles in the cause of administration, but the approach taken to solve the problems determines the level of success attained.
With the approaches given above, all management problems will be conquered alas, Amen.