Jump directly to the Content

New Management Needed

People aren't horses to be trained. Tips for "managing" souls.

Years ago before anyone called me their pastor, I was assigned a ministry team of about 15 people to manage. I was excited, and diligently prepared for our weekly meetings. I wanted to manage them responsibly and with integrity. But after several months, something wasn't working.

A third of the group hated me and quit attending our meetings. A third of them loved me. The other third was undecided. Not an ideal ratio. I was blindsided because I felt like I had done a sterling job as a manager; but I felt that I had failed somewhere. So I began to study management again with a more sensitive spirit.

I found that the word "manage" originally referred to training horses The French word manège means a school for teaching horsemanship and training horses. Rather dehumanizing when it comes to people. I had an epiphany: Though I was prepared, organized, and communicated clearly, I treated my team more like horses than people. People aren't horses, or things, that we can simply "manage".

Whatever ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
Choosing Well
Choosing Well
Discernment comes from aligning memory, imagination, and will.
From the Magazine
The Evil Ideas Behind October 7
The Evil Ideas Behind October 7
The Hamas attacks in Israel have a grotesque ideological history and deserve unflinching moral judgment.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close