Bruce Powers: Organization Analysis

In the writing of Bruce Powers entitle dealing with, “Organizing Ministries and working with people. He insisted that organization in a church is a structure designed to enable a congregation to make disciples, help member grow and develop spiritual power in their lives. He points out that organization is a way to help people find a place and direction in their spiritual journey; its design for relating to one another effectively in order to do the work of the lord.

Powers tells us that Organization begins with the nature and mission of the church, for it is biblical foundational that should always determine the programs and ministries. There are five distinguishing characteristics of the New Testament church: worship. Proclamation, education, ministry, and fellowship. It is these traits that we define as the primary function

of a local church and around which all organizations develops.
To Support these five function he added a sixth that is implicit in Scripture and very much needed in today’s church—leadership. Administrative leadership is the glue, or support that enables the five primary functions to operate together as the body of Christ. He listed a following of basic church programs and their duties that are needed. They are; Bible Teaching, Discipleship training, music ministry, Men’s mission program, pastoral ministries. He goes on to say that an effective organizational structure includes a church council or other administrative groups that would be charged with planning, coordinating, and evaluating the church programs and ministries (Powers 38).
Figure 3.1 gives the basic church programs and the task that each program assumes in the life of the church.

The programs of the church are; Bible teaching, Discipline, Training, Music ministry, men’s Mission Program, Women’s Mission Program, Pastoral Ministries (Powers 39-40). Along with the basic program, every church needs an effective Coordination. The purpose of the Church Council is to guild planning, coordination, conducting, and evaluation of the total work of the church (Figure 3.2), (Powers 41). In larger churches an organization chart is needed to represent the various components, and age group coordination. It is set up to show the administrated staff or council who will guide the work of the program. The chart in figure 3.3 shows the Organization for Educational Administration and their work, and Organization for Church Program Administration and their worker (Powers 42). It is important that the larger church use age division to help coordinate and be more affected. There are three general approaches to dividing congregations into manageable groups for educational or other purposes: Age, Compatibility, and interest (Powers

44-45).
Elected church officers are; moderator, clerk, treasurer, financial secretary, and trustees and they serve in a legal capacity on behalf of the church (Power, p. 53). Every department or program needs a Goal planning worksheet as seen in Figure 3.9. Figure 3.11 and figure 3.12 provides an agenda outline for church council and church business meeting. Information and job description for church officers are in figures 3.13 through 3.17. Orientation material and guideline to train church committees are provided in figure 3.18 through 3.21.
The latter section deals with working with people: The Minister as team leader. The problem is ministers appears to love humanity but hate people. There is a four step sequence in managing the team; (1) sharing personal history in a group setting as an icebreaker and fellowship builder, (2) affirming group member’s gifts for contributing to the ministry (3) goal setting for ministry projects and programs, and (4) celebrating the developing sense of unity (figure 4.1) (Dale 76-78). Solving the problem involves the entire congregation and demand skilled management (Dale 78).