BLOG 5/6/13: MAYBE A WORD FROM JEFF BEZOS TO CHURCH LEADERSHIP
It may be a weird place to find some profound wisdom for the church leadership who live frustrated with the impotence of so much of the church scene, but, oddly enough, I have found just such wisdom in a recent book about Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com. The book is entitled simply Jeff Bezos’ Secrets of Success by Gerardo Giannoni.Maybe its because I have spent a good half century working on the seemingly intractable task of trying to figure out how to resuscitate church institutions that embody (to quote from Revelation 3:1): “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” Think of all those congregations of every stripe that have all the accouterments of acceptable churches, and yet seem never to stop and ask what they are supposed to be, and are supposed to be accomplishing.
I can’t answer for the motivation of those church founders of a century ago, but in my own career I have watched my own tradition planting their denominational franchises by finding a location, purchasing land, putting up a building, employing church professionals with the hope of attracting members, and then working to make the whole thing survive and even be ‘successful’ without ever asking what it is that Christ has called his church to be and to do … never asking the questions: what is the church? And, why is the church? Much less are most of that myriad of prestigious church institutions willing to periodically be analyzed as to how they are fulfilling Christ’s call, and how the leadership is fulfilling its presence.
So here comes Bezos. He realized early on that he could not implement his business vision in an existing corporate structure. Most old corporate traditions and structures don’t easily embrace such radically new concepts. This is not to mention that there are cultural changes that radically alter the landscape in which businesses operate.
His basic premise? Amazon would be a customer-focused business, i.e., his focus was not on the merchandise they would be selling but rather primarily on the customer, and the customer’s satisfaction. And what are his three principles which he ‘dings’ into his leadership team? 1) Listen, 2) Invent, and 3) Personalize. Customers want reliable information, products, and delivery. So Amazon listens to criticism and even minor dissatisfactions—even encourages such. Then they invent ways to make their services more satisfactory to their customers, and they keep the engagement with the customers. (That’s a far-too-brief, even truncated version, but you get the idea.)
The Christian communities that understand that they are called by Jesus to make disciples who are equipped to live as mature ministers of the message of Jesus Christ in the realities of their daily ‘briar-patches’ and who are continually listening to the needs of the individual believers, refining their communal life to make this happen, and being accountable for such are the ones bringing forth the “much fruit” that the gospel is promised to bring. Just to focus, in this particular blog, on the first of these: Listen! Church leadership cannot be an in absentia and depersonalized body of overseers who miss the point of the church! Church leaders are those who know the names of the church community’s participants, and are continually refining the church’s ministry of enabling those participants to have the word of Christ dwelling richly in them, so that they are able to be maturely thinking and behaving as Kingdom of God folk. If such is not happening … then Re-invent the church’s design (or maybe get new leadership!).Will such leadership disrupt a lot of the entrenched interests? Absolutely. Jeff Bezos makes just such a point, but the end result justifies it. Have I opened a can of worms, or what? I’d like your comments. Peace!
