8/9/2019 Corporate Crisis

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Corporate Crisis

It's been said that the way to discover a person's true character, is to put themunder stress. I wonder if this applies to organizations also?

For most of the 20th Century, Adventism went to great lengths to protect and

promote our unique theology. Controversies were prevalent, internally andexternally. Churches split, great theologians were removed f rom positions of leadership, and debates raged across the press and the airwaves.

Though there are still remnants of those theological debates, and conservativesand liberals continue to involve themselves in polemic battles, for the most part,Adventism has settled on a fairly middle of the road dogma - at least in NorthAmerica. Sure, there are regional differences - and even within some churchespeople will try to  proof-text each other to death - but for the most part, we havecome to accept Adventism for what it is.

That isn't to say that everyone practices what we preach - but most of theopposition is passive. Those who don't agree with certain tenets, just ignorethem.

However, there is a new revolution afoot, and for the most part, churchleadership seems to be blind to what is occurring. Despite the myriad of booksthat document the brokenness of the Western Christian Church, very few churchleaders show a willingness to address the issues. The one conference presidentwho was trying to address it was not re-elected last year. Other church leadersdeny there are any problems with the Church.

As the denomination faces huge budget shortfalls, due to the worldwide economiccollapse, the Church is facing some huge decisions. More than a few conferencesare laying off employees in order to balance their budgets. What's interesting tonote is which group of employees are facing the largest percentage of layoffs.

There are primarily three groups of employees within our denominationalemploy. First, pastors and Bible workers. These front-line personnel are oftenheld to the highest standard and though to be key to local church leadership.Next, we have educators. Adventism has a long history in providing parochial

education and we take our schools, academies, and universities very seriously.Then we have administrative and support employees. Not only do conferenceemployees provide valuable coordination, but in a society dominated bypaperwork and bureaucracy, there is a great need for personnel to stay on top of the administrative tasks necessary to a world-class organization.

It is interesting to note however that pastors are often considered moredispensable then teachers or administrative staff. When schools are accredited,certain staffing formulas must be maintained. These standards mandate student-

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teacher ratios, and we often cannot make significant cuts here. In fact, ourschools are often dominating 50-60% of local church budgets and similaramounts within the local conference budget.

If a conference is facing a $2,000,000 annual budget shortfall, they would have tocut approximately 25 positions in order to balance the budget. Where should

they make those cuts? Should they cut half of their administrative and supportpersonnel, or should they cut 20% of their pastoral staff? Or should it be a mixof something in between? Should they eliminate campmeeting - and save thewhole amount? Or should they stop providing Summer camp, which is usually amoney drain, not a revenue center.

But wait, it gets more complicated than this. The Union Conference office hasadministrative and support staff, as does the Division and General Conference. Infact, approximately 40% of tithe dollars do not stay in the local conference - theyare passed up the ladder to higher levels of bureaucratic administration.

The Western Church of today isn't facing theological pressures, we are facingorganizational pressures. As these pressures grow more intense, we will beforced to decide our true values. Is the Seventh-day Adventist denomination achurch, or an educational system? If it is a church, why are 60% of our fundsgoing to education? Why are educators immune to budget-cutting layoffs?

Even more importantly, why do we have so many layers of hierarchicaladministration in North America? In this age of the Internet, do we really needstate-level conferences? Do we really need Union Conferences? Wouldn't it bewise to start merging administrative functions - like big business and local

governments have been doing for decades? Can't we better use electronic mediaand video teleconferencing to our advantage?

Is laying off pastors really the best option? How much money could be saved byeliminating 58 local conferences? How much could be saved by consolidatingmany of the nine Union Conferences in North America? Imagine the challenges of merging these administrative functions - now imagine the efficiencies and costsavings? Not just personnel costs, but building and operating costs also.

Some have already realized the inefficiencies of a top-heavy, Presbyterian system

of church governance, and have simply quit supporting the system with theirvoluntary tithes and offerings. Unless denominational administrators step up andtake real leadership, to manage the organizational challenges facing us, we arelikely to face a complete breakdown of the current system.

George Knight has said that the church has never undertaken seriousrestructuring, except in the face of bankruptcy. Do we have to let it get that bad,before real leadership steps up?