Thursday, September 13, 2007
Guest post: Praise God from whom all economies of scale flow part 3
Over the last week this blog (here and here) has been probing whether the growth of supermarkets might parrallel the rise in large churches. On the way we have explored competition vs cooperation and asked why we go to church.
Here’s another guest post I’ve been sent that I think adds some thought to the debate.
Just some thoughts taken from a book called Sustainable Leadership by Hargreaves and Fink. Although a book based in the world of education, I believe it’s message is transferable, and relevant to this discussion.
“It is the part that calls us to serve the public good of all children [change to Christians?] within and beyond our community and not only the private interests of those subscribe to our own institution. Sustainable leadership means caring for all the people our actions and choices affect those whom we ca’t immediately see as well as those whom we can.” Hargreaves and Fink (2006)
Hargreaves and Fink state that few schools [change to churches] are islands. The fates of schools are almost always intertwined. Outstanding teachers, leaders and pupils are drawn toward the high performing schools, and at the same time, they are drained away from the rest. For the education system to be sustainable long term, school leaders need to think beyond their own school.
In other words: should we accept that some churches will be “outstanding” and will grow. As they do, they will inevitably attract the best and brightest. In doing so, what disciplines might they introduce that will help them think beyond their own school? Or, using the categories of my initial post, how might “supermarket” churches care for the “corner diary” churches?
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As someone who cares about education and who does not think that education provision should be reduced to a cut-throat market through the use of vouchers, I really think that the analogy used in the guest post is apt.
The difficulty, however, is that “helping” often becomes colonising.
Also, how might “corner dairy” churches care for “supermarket” churches?
Comment by Paul — September 13, 2007 @ 6:32 pm