'Management' is not a concept that sits well within the Church. After all, church leaders are called to be priests, pastors, and preachers, not CEOs of mini-corporations. But over the past 20 years, in attending, working for and with many churches and Christian organisations, I have consistently seen the bitter cost of poor staff management.… Continue reading Grace, truth and the tricky task of people management
Tag: Managing people
Love without structures: learning from the collapse of Kid’s Company
This week the BBC screened a fascinating documentary, Camila’s Kid’s Company: the Inside Story, on the demise of the famous children’s charity. What made the programme so compelling was its intimate portrayal of the Chief Executive, Camila Batmanghelidjh. We see her close-up, as she lived through the collapse of the charity she had founded, in the full… Continue reading Love without structures: learning from the collapse of Kid’s Company
Speak the truth about staffing problems
This is an expanded version of a previous R&R post Why churches manage people badly which was published in The Church Times last week: Managing people decently is an essential part of Christian work - not a bureaucratic luxury, argues Jon Kuhrt The organisational dysfunction exposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury's commissaries' interim report on… Continue reading Speak the truth about staffing problems
Why churches manage their staff badly
The other day I was talking with four friends, all of whom are committed to their local churches and also work for Christian organisations. As we chatted, someone shared a situation in their work where a blatantly unjust situation was not being tackled. She outlined the grief it was causing and her frustration about how… Continue reading Why churches manage their staff badly
The 7 Deadly Sins of Managing People Badly…
Another letter from a senior to a junior devil… (with apologies to C.S. Lewis) My dear Wormwood, I write to you today on the subject of managing people – the art of supporting and encouraging people to do their job well. As you know, churches and Christian organisations are employing an increasing numbers of paid staff.… Continue reading The 7 Deadly Sins of Managing People Badly…