Few things in life cause the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as bad as a traffic jam.  Living on Long Island, traffic is a way of life… it is something that is planned around and it is something that impacts your life on a daily basis.  I have learned that getting from my home to the George Washington Bridge takes thirty minutes at 5:30 am or two hours if I leave at 6:15 am.  I have learned the impact that one vehicle going 50 in the left lane can have on traffic for quite a distance.  The slowing that occurs because of  the uncoordinated choreography that allows people to maneuver around a slow car can cause slow downs, accidents, and back ups for miles.  While these situations cause my knuckles to turn white as my fingers grip the steering wheel traffic has taught me some great lessons on the value of flow.

I am a fan of flow.

I am a fan of watching things move the way that they were designed to.  I remember when I was growing up how I would love to find puddles and trickles of water and create intricate lakes and ponds and canals for the water to flow through (no wonder people thought I was odd).  I love watching the flow of a system, seeing how each part affects another.  This is why I love leadership and team building so much.  I love being part of the process that shapes and develops the culture and flow of an organization…  And I love being able to help an organization flow more freely.

As I look around it never fails to blow my mind how many organizations operate without any kind of flow.  A great many churches operate in a disjointed manner where one person driving 50 in the left lane is throwing everything out of whack, and causing the entire organization to be disjointed, ineffective, and futureless.

So who is this left lane driver?  This person tends to be in a key position in the church.  They can be an elder, a staff member, or a pastor… someone who has the ability to influence decision making.  They may have been on the team for years, or they could be new to the church.  Often this person is godly and enjoyable to be around, but they are not quite on board with the vision, values, or culture of the church.

The power that the left lane driver has is enormous.  They have the ability all of the traffic behind him to swerve and slow, causing others to swerve and slow, and on and on.  In the church context this person has the ability to slow down the decision making process and destroy momentum since they never seem to be on the same page as the rest of the church.  So, the question becomes how do you lead through this?

So far as I can tell there are a few possibilities:

First, you can ram the guy from behind. This can be very effective in getting your point across, but not so effective in allowing there to be any kind of flow afterwards (plus the insurance bills involved are monstrous after this).  We have all heard stories of what happens when one person enters into a situation with guns a blazing trying to force change…  and we have all heard the stories of the aftermath.  Not only does it fail, it generally leaves the organization in worse shape than before (and more entrenched in their ways).

Second, you can continue to swerve and pass.  While this is the most comfortable solution (it avoids awkward conversations), it still leaves the problem intact.  Many times an organization will swerve around an issue in an attempt to keep the peace.  Basically they semi-ignore the problem… swerving around it when they have to deal with it, and leaving it behind them at the first opportunity.  This tends to be the path of least resistance, because it does not involve people having to leave their comfort zones to tell another to speed up and get with the program.  Unfortunately the problem is allowed to persist and fester for years causing bitterness, resentment, and a sense of frustration while chasing away people who have genuinely bought into the vision of the church.

Lastly, you can deal with the issue.  This is where my metaphor breaks down (unless you are a policeman and have the authority to pull someone over and tell them to get with the program).  Dealing with the issue requires that you have a difficult conversation about the church’s vision, culture, and values and their place on the team.  This is your opportunity to help them get on the same page as the rest of your team while at the same time ensuring that they are interested in being on that page.

In the life of a church these conversations need to happen on a regular basis.  Vision has a tendency to leak over time without a regular topping off.  It is incumbent upon those of us in church leadership to be constantly refilling our key leaders vision and maintaining our ability to flow.