AS YOU DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR GROWTH, one of the obstacles you may face is the current structure of your congregation. Unfortunately, structures perfectly suited for other times and other places, often persist beyond their usefulness. For structures to become catalysts for growth--rather than obstructions--they must flow from and serve the strategy. Organizational theorists call this "strategic alignment.."¹

By Dr. Scott A. Yorkovich, Dr. Gregory S. Waddell, and Dr. Robert K. Gerwig

Organizations use performance appraisals to assess task competence and to help employees develop their potential. The goal is to form professional development plans and achieve a synergy between goals of the organization and the employee. However, competency assessments are less than effective because they are too rigid to reflect individual potential and goals, they remain static in a rapidly changing environment, or are poorly designed lacking integration with other assessments. Competency assessment must contribute to organizational flexibility rather than hinder it. To overcome these challenges, assessment methods must identify strategic intersections of individual characteristics organizational objectives, the external environment, challenges of the future, and other factors. This allows the organization to respond creatively and effectively to everchanging challenges and opportunities. This paper explores reasons why competency-based assessment systems fail to achieve their intended purpose and describes a paradigm to identify strategic intersections of individual, organizational, environmental, and future factors.

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[This article was published in the August 1, 2004 issue of Christian Standard.]

Though the results may not be immediately evident, by sharpening your mentoring skills, you can significantly influence lives and prepare the way for lifelong ministry. undefined

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One of the responsibilities of boards of elders is to be deliberate about the future leadership needs of the congregations they serve. Too often, the process of finding a preacher turns into a rush to "fill the pulpit." . . . To avoid this scenario, churches need to have in place a plan for leadership succession that matches the current and future needs of the church with someone who has skills to meet those challenges. However, we must first overcome some common myths that work against the adoption of a succession planning approach.

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[Published in the June 2004 issue of Christian Management Report.]

Values are the heart and life of both individuals and organizations. For decades, researchers have studied values and their relationship to organizational development, and have concluded that values are fundamental to an organization's overall health and productivity. In today's increasingly multicultural environment, there’s great need for understanding the particular challenges Christian leaders face when trying to define and implement their organizational values.

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