With oil going over $105.00 a barrel this week, I am reminded of a trend that is arising partly out of necessity and partly out of the new possibilities. That trend is the tendency for the brightest and best among us to opt out of a 9 to 5 job where you are locked up in one location far away from home. Real movers and shakers want freedom and trust, not bondage and time clocks.
Given the new world, there is just no need for big, bland, beige offices. This is true for churches as well. As I spend time consulting pastors and leaders, I hear more and more the frustration with being confined by work hours and small offices.
The solution is in having the courage and foresight to design and deploy R.O.W.S. or results only work systems.
Rather than measuring the effectiveness of a staff member by hours put in, why not switch to a results only expectation? It doesn’t matter where you work or how many hours you put in, just deliverer great results and you get to keep working here.
Before this can happen in the church world though, we will have to be brave enough to define what great results are. Unlike businesses, churches shy away from measuring results and outcomes labeling those things as unspiritual. But are they?