Relational Leadership

In the lesson, Pastor McVey introduces us to Aunt Edna. She is on the worship team, but doesn’t sing all that well. He uses this scenario to illustrate the difference between how larger city churches often think and how country churches think. The business mindset is concerned with the outcome – how does the worship team sound. The business mindset wants to put together a winning team. It wants “the right people on the bus and the right people in the right seats on the bus.”

A rural context will be more concerned about individual people’s feelings and relationships within the church and community. In a large church, the feelings of a single individual often have less impact on the church. On the one hand, this can mean that a larger church is less prone to have a “church boss,” a person with disproportionate influence who may not even hold any official position. But it may also mean that individuals are less seen and can fade into invisibility in a larger church.

In a smaller rural church, you have to live with each other for the long haul. It’s harder to hide from each other or find another church. This dynamic makes maintaining relationships more important. Protecting each other’s feelings and being loyal becomes more important than goals and outcomes. Rural leadership is relational leadership.

So the worship team is not just about a winning team. It is also about maintaining relationships in the church. McVey suggests it is more about loyalty versus betrayal. It may not be wise to try to redirect Aunt Adna to another function in the church without creating long-term difficulties and hurts. In a large church, you ask if a person is an asset or a liability. In a smaller church, who they are related to will have more impact.

A rural church will care less about where you went to school. They will be far less interested in what your professional credentials are. In fact, such things can create an unintended barrier between you and the congregation. Instead, they want to know your relationship to the community.