Last week I wrote a post entitled, ‘Blind Spots for the Christian Leader‘. This simple matrix does a great job of defining the various areas of self awareness each of us possess. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend you jump over & check it out.
Today, I’d like to explore how the Johari Window applies to the local church (rather than just the pastor or a leader within the church). Here’s a review of how the Johari Window works.
In the above image you’ll note four quadrants. Each section represents knowledge or lack of knowledge regarding various character traits, weaknesses, etc. for the individual, or for today’s discussion, the local church. Because we are dealing with a group of people instead of just one person, each quadrant gets a little more complicated. With the exception of the ‘Unknown’ section, there end up being different groups of people for each area. So far as I can tell, here are the different groups of people we should keep in mind within the local church:
- Leaders: This includes the pastor, key staff, elders and any other leaders who are on the front lines in ministry at the church.
- Members/Attendees: This includes everyone else who attends regularly and are the recipients of most of the ministry at the church.
- Guests: This includes anyone who attends a service, activity, or event for the first time as well as those who come back to visit two or more times. A ‘guest’ is anyone who considers themselves a visitor at the church, regardless of how long they have been attending.
- Community: This includes anyone in your community who has never attended your church.
Let’s take a look at each quadrant in relation to the local church:
Open Self – Known To Everyone
Leaders, Members, Guests, Community. For the local church, this is the smallest quadrant of all. There is very little about a local church that everyone knows about, especially when you add in the community – some of whom may not even know the church exists. Depending on the community, the ‘Open Self’ quadrant may include things like the church name, website, location and/or pastor. Technically, anything the church posts on their website could potentially be considered knowledge available to everyone as well.
Hidden Self – Known Only To Us (leaders & members)
Leaders are aware of things that members, guests, and the community are unaware of. Examples might include sensitive information like giving records, a parishioners unique circumstances, people problems, etc. It may also include a clearer understanding of the bigger picture for the church. For instance, church leaders are most likely to know where the church has been and where it’s going.
On the down-side, leaders are often guilty of unintentionally holding their cards too closely to the chest. As a result, sometimes other leaders, volunteers, and/or members can be stuck serving without fully comprehending what they are doing, how they should do it, or why it’s important.
Members are usually ‘in the know’ in some areas, at least in comparison to guests and the community. Where church life can get messy is when members are aware of sensitive information that doesn’t include the whole story or bigger picture. This is a feeding frenzy for Satan to reek havoc in the church. Lack of communication or miscommunication will often lead to false conclusions, wrong expectations, and misguided assumptions.
To make matters more complex, many times members are privy to situations and needs in the church that leaders are unaware of, but don’t take responsibility to communicate what’s going on with them. Again, this disables whatever care those leaders may be able to exert in the situation.
Finally, leaders often fail to realize that members feedback/participation is exactly what they need to solve certain problems, lead certain ministries, or fund new initiatives. God has placed the right people in ‘the house’ for the ministry He wants to initiate. This means many members have the skills, experience or funds to fulfill those purposes, if leaders would just invite them to participate.
Blind Self – Known to Others, Unknown to Us
Leaders are often the ones in the dark in this quadrant. The old saying, “Ignorance is Bliss” may be true for church leaders & pastors. Many would rather not know what they don’t know, but ultimately ignorance isn’t healthy or helpful to the success of the church.
Blind Spots for leaders will include what people really think about the services, events, and activities in the church. For instance, the pastor may believe the weekly bible study is important, relevant and impacting to those who attend while the attendees may simply come because they believe they are supposed to, not because it is helpful to them. Other leadership Blind Spots might include genuine needs that members, guests and the community has, but which have never been communicated to them.
(Remember, we are focusing on the organization, not the individual – there are more blind spots that the pastor or a leader may have personally which I’ve discussed in the post ‘Johari Window for the Christian Leader‘.)
Members often have blind spots in their overall effectiveness or involvement in ministry in the church. Additionally, they may not reflect the values and culture the leadership is expecting or hoping for. This is usually due to a lack of communication, mentoring and regular leadership development. It’s vital for church leaders to create systems focusing on evaluation and feedback for members so they can remove their blind spots and be more effective in ministry.
Additionally, members know things that leaders don’t. They know what they really think of the building project, the Sunday service or the kid’s ministry. Many of a leader’s blind spot is simply the result of members who either have never been asked their opinion or are unwilling to give it.
Guests know what church is like to outsiders. Their perspective is one which most pastors and leaders will never have. They know what it’s like to find parking at five minutes before the service. They know what the bathroom and halls smell like (because you don’t notice that smell anymore). They know if the seats are hard, if the message is boring and if their kids really like the kids program. Conversely, they may perceive the church as a warm, friendly place at the start but discover later on that it’s very difficult to connect with people. Research says that 96% of people who have a bad experience never complain. This means your guests may know things about your church that you are completely clueless about; in particular, their first impressions and experiences.
The Community. Assuming they even know your church exists, your community knows what reputation your church has maintained. Unfortunately, this may contribute to their unwillingness to visit. For example, perhaps they ‘heard’ about a guest’s bad experience or that a member was rude or insensitive to someone they know. Perhaps that community event the church hosted ten years ago that didn’t go very well is still remembered by long-standing community residents. Individuals in the community will almost never share these thoughts with church leaders, unless they somehow find their way into the life of the church first and reflect back on their original perceptions.
UNKNOWN – Known to No One but God
There are things about your church that nobody knows, but God. Some of those things don’t really matter, like where the cool Christmas lights went that were bought two years ago. However, sometimes there are important aspects of ministry that, if revealed, would stimulate personal and numerical growth over time. This is why it is so critical that church leaders remain humble, are voracious learners and readers, and are willing to allow others outside their church (and often inside their church) provide coaching or feedback to them, both personally and organizationally.
As a ministry coach, I might be able to play a role in helping you unveil some of the ‘Unknown’ in your ministry. If you’re interested, please contact me and we’ll start a conversation about it.