Every football fan has seen it. The starting quarterback is unable to move the ball or score points in several games. The coach faces a dilemma. Does he stick with “his guy” no matter what happens or does he put in a new quarterback in hopes of winning?
The coach may be known for developing character in his players, teaching them to overcome adversity and learning how to win through hard work and perseverance. He may have even recruited the starting quarterback and can call every member of the young man’s family by their first names. Believing in the young man is important to the coach. He doesn’t want to convey any negative feelings. After all, people matter.
At the same time the coach has promised to do what is best for the team. He has promised to win for the school. The coach faces pressure because some argue the whole is more important than the individual parts. The ultimate goal is winning for the school and all the people who invest in the team. Obviously, the task matters too.
What should the coach do? Should he prioritize the person or the task?
The dilemma between prioritizing a person or a task is not unique to football. It is a question faced in many places including the church.
Selfless service
Consider the saint who has cared for three generations of babies in the church nursery. She is a fixture there. More than that, she epitomizes selfless service to others through her years in the church nursery. Grandparents tell their grandchildren about how Miss Smith cared for them.
But now Miss Smith doesn’t move as fast as she once did. Her hearing and sight are not quite as sharp. Her step is not as sure; her hands not as steady. No one in the church wants to do anything that would hurt Miss Smith. At the same time, members fear a child being hurt or parents choosing another church because of concerns about nursery care.
Does the church prioritize Miss Smith (the person) or the quality of nursery care (the task)? Illustrations of this dilemma from church life can go on and on.
There may not be a single right answer to such problems. Like some football coaches, we often pray things will work out for the best and do nothing. The coach may keep working with the quarterback hoping the next series of downs will be the one that produces the miracle victory. Churches keep hoping the person in question will make the “right” decision but no one says what the “right” decision is, and certainly no one says a thing to the legendary nursery worker.
A coach may act like the task does not matter. The relationship with the quarterback is the priority. They win together. They lose together. The team, the institution, everything else take a back seat to the relationship between the coach and the quarterback. For this coach, “his guy” — people — is the priority over task every time.
Churches reflect this priority when people continue in functions which for whatever reason they can no longer do satisfactorily.
Technology may have changed. Methods may have changed. Resources and capabilities may have changed. Even needs may have changed. But because the church prioritizes people, the church opts to do nothing, fearing that to make a change would hurt someone’s feelings.
The message is clear. People matter.
Other churches are like the coach who pulls the quarterback the first time the player fails to live up to the coach’s expectations. In some churches every teacher must first complete a series of training programs before ever entering a Bible class. Explicit job descriptions exist for every volunteer position and every greeter, usher or committee member must participate in a training session before being placed in service.
“If God’s work is worth doing, it is worth doing well,” one hears in these churches. The task is the first priority and the emphasis is on effective and efficient service.
Dependent on volunteers
Churches, however, are not football teams. They are not even businesses. Churches depend on volunteers, not paid employees, to do the work of the church. That makes the dynamics of a church far different from other organizations.
And, too, the gospel of Jesus Christ begins with a person-centered relationship. The initial call of the gospel is to a personal relationship with God and to grow individually in God’s grace. Obviously, the church is person-centered.
The gospel also is task-oriented. Christians are instructed to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We are encouraged to learn God’s Word, to reflect His glory into all the world as instruments of His peace. Those are tasks and they are important.
Ultimately, the choice between “person or task” is a false dilemma which the church has too often embraced. The priority for the church is “person and task.” The church should neither allow problems to fester nor carelessly push faithful servants aside. The church must always care for the individual, and the church must be equally diligent in carrying out its God-given tasks. The church must be faithful to fellow believers and faithful to God who commissioned both the church and believers for service.
When problems arise, and they arise in every church, the goal should be what is best for the people involved and what is best for the ministry of the church. Certainly it is a resolution that is consistent with the gospel emphasis of “person and task.”
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