Matt Waldock, co-pastor of City Church Manchester, Director of Gospel Coaching and Reach Ministries consultant asks the question:
Why can’t leaders stop doing everything?
Why don’t ministry leaders do less? On the surface it seems a facile question in the face of leaders feeling overwhelmed and overstretched. The comeback would typically be: ‘I’d love to do less, be more focused, do few things well, but if I don’t do it, it simply won’t get done!’ Such a leader could then throw in the reminder: ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up’ (Galatians 6:9). However, such a response, as compelling as it might sound, is not sufficient when considered a little more deeply. For there are two critical assumptions, firstly, that we are clear what ‘good’ is; and secondly, that if a good thing can be done, it therefore should be done, even if that means the ministry leader, nine times out of ten, is the one to do it. Let me suggest an alternative: stop personally doing all the good things that should be done and instead, personally focus on a selected few ‘best’ things that only you can do that move the needle most towards your vision.
In order to achieve such a counter-intuitive leadership revolution, one must become familiar with the dynamic known as over-functioning and under-functioning. Two warnings before we plough into this concept: firstly, this is not a silver bullet for every situation so must be applied with discernment. But secondly, it is very common and, once you see this dynamic at play within your relationship networks, you can’t un-see it!
The Problem
Under-functioning/Over-functioning refers to a pattern within relationships where one person makes decisions on behalf of someone who should be able to do it themselves. Avrum Nadigel defines it helpfully as: “If I do for you what you can do for yourself, we both feel good about it until one of us does not.”
The concept comes from Dr Murray Bowen who specialised in a specific type of family-oriented counselling, yet he observed this dynamic operates across almost all relationships including pastors and their congregations. Most Christian leaders find themselves in the over-functioning position, taking on decision making and even tasks that should be done by others within the church, be that staff, elders, deacons or members. The most obvious sign that this pattern is chronically at play within a church, is when the pastor is the bottleneck to all decisions big or small. Most families have someone who most naturally calls the shots and assumes that everyone else will be content or at least fall in line, whether organising the dates for a family gathering or having the first and strongest voice for the holiday itinerary.
One of the features of over-functioners is that they usually end up unhappy and incredibly frustrated that everything always lands on their shoulders. It is often said, ‘No one remembers the over-functioner’s birthday’, meaning that the one in an over-functioning role is often underappreciated by those in the under-functioning roles. The under-functioning person and/or congregation do not consider themselves to be being lazy or taking advantage of the work ethic or sense of duty of the leader, but they assume that the one who is over-functioning is fulfilling their job description and that they enjoy it.
I imagine that all of us remember an incident of rising frustration when something someone else should have been done on Friday in preparation for the Sunday service, wasn’t completed, and so with great annoyance you get up early on Sunday to get it done, vowing to yourself that in the future it would be easier if you just did it yourself. For the problem with the familiar call that we should delegate more responsibility is that it only works if others will actually do what they’re asked.
The Twist
So why don’t leaders resist the pattern of over-functioning, delegate more and focus their limited time and energy on a few crucial tasks? After all, many of us are leading in organisations where we have inherited a culture where over-functioning leadership is considered the norm, despite the detrimental consequences.
Bowen reveals the primary factor behind the often immovable status quo, and that is: most ministry leaders (despite their complaints) prefer the over-functioning role. Bowen observes: “An under-functioner cannot change until the over-functioner retracts, but the over-functioner often cannot retract because they have fused with the under-functioner.”
The over-functioning leader and the under-functioning congregation are deeply linked. Both groups believe that they can thrive when the other is playing their fixed role and both feel such a level of discomfort if either party attempts to change their role that there is often an unspoken agreement that nothing should change. The over-functioning church leader is exhausted but feels gratified that they are needed and the place would fall apart without them, and the congregation feel free to pursue their own interests because they are being provided for, like an adult child who has moved back home.
The heart of the issue
The uncomfortable reality that the over-functioning/under-functioning dynamic overlooks, however convenient the arrangement, is that the role of the church leader is to nurture Christ-like maturity as Paul describes:
“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” (Colossians 1:28-29)
To not challenge the over-functioning/under-functioning dynamic is to fail to love the congregation as we ought and to allow an immaturity – on all sides – to fester. Healthy church members should be growing in their ability to take church responsibilities seriously with diligence and excellence. Christian leaders should be willing to go through the pain of disrupting unhelpful cultural dynamics even when they are inherited from previous generations of leadership.
For many leaders, the heart of the failure to challenge this unhealthy dynamic is both a lack of pain threshold and patience. For example the most effective way to break the over-functioning/under-functioning dynamic is for the over-functioning leader to not fix problems that belong to another team or person, unless the consequences would be severe. Such a decision creates a degree of pain and discomfort within the organisation, but emphatically communicates that everyone must take responsibility for their own tasks. If a leader can endure short term pain in order to create a healthier culture for the long term, then the trade-off is both wise for the sustainability of the leader and spiritual maturity of the church.
An example: a leader discovers the church bulletin wasn’t printed prior to Sunday through an oversight by a member of staff and, although the leader could intervene, they don’t and no bulletin is available that week. Another example: a last-minute drop-out culture amongst volunteer leaders for the children’s work is consistently plugged by the pastor’s wife but a new decision is made to simply not run the children’s ministry this Sunday. In both these cases the goal is to not hide the pain of the under-functioning dynamic, so that it might change for the better. Leaders within church tend to consider part of their job to be the backstop or safety net for when gaps appear within the logistics of the church. To a degree, that may be an appropriate way to care the church, however when a leader or staff team become part of the regular pattern and expected solution to make things work, the leader’s servant-hearted intervention has become the enabler of a culture of underfunctioning that can quickly spread through the church like a virus.
John Kotter, in his seminal book on organisational change, helpfully notes that there can be no change without crisis. What he means is that hiding the cost of overfunctioning from those in the system will mean that the situation will not change, and the burden of the whole will continue to fall upon the shoulders of the over-functioner until they break.
Again let me underline that discernment is key both in selecting which problems of under-functioning not to fix (e.g. a low grade culture of last minute cancellations and drop-outs which can be allowed to run its course to demonstrate the problem in the system) and which are one-off challenges which need to be covered (e.g. someone is unexpectedly unwell for a critical responsibility).
Final Considerations
Challenging the over-functioning/under-functioning dynamic is particularly beneficial to a) pastors in small churches where the expectation is that the pastor will do everything, and b) to those who lead medium to large staff teams that easily create an assumption within the congregation that the paid staff will do everything.
Two suggestions for getting started on applying the concepts we’ve discussed: first, identify those things you would love to get done if you had extra hours in your week that you think would have the biggest impact. Second, list the tasks that you do that really could be done by others in the church.
The key to challenging an over-functioning/under-functioning culture is developing a higher leadership pain threshold that can endure short term disorientation for the win of the long-term health of the organisation.
