PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

August 13, 2023

ACHIEVEMENT/AFFILIATE

For many years Doctor Robert Worley was on the facility of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.  He helped to start their Doctor of Ministry program.  When I was working on my D.M. from McCormick we used a book by Worley, A Gathering of Strangers: Understanding the Life of Your Church, as one of the foundational texts.  In the book Worley makes the distinction between members who are achievement oriented and those who are affiliate oriented.  After a meeting an achievement oriented person will ask “What did we get done?”  The affiliate oriented person will ask “How does everyone feel?  Did everyone get a chance to talk?”

Dr. Carl Dudley was also a member of the McCormick facility.  He was the author of Making the Small Church Effective.  For Dudley small churches have worship attendance of less than 100 and primarily affiliate in orientation.  I was reminded of the truth of Dudley’s second observation when I was helping out with two near-by small membership churches.  I was asked if I could attend a planning meeting for Bible school on a Saturday evening.  I should have guessed that something was up when the meeting was planned for Saturday evening.  When I showed up there were a number of people present.  The first thing on the agenda was dinner.  After about an hour someone said that we had better get to Bible school.  Those involved went in one room and everyone else in another.  A lady said they were going to do Bible school just like last year and asked if there were any questions.  It now became apparent the real agenda of the meeting was to just get together.  The Bible school part could have been done on the phone.

When one looks at the teachings of Jesus one can find some that are achievement oriented and others which are affiliate oriented.  The great commission in Matthew is of the former kind.  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching to observe everything that I have commanded you Matthew 28:19-20a).”  Jesus’s emphasis on the importance of loving the neighbor would fall into the latter category. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-25).”

In his book Robert Worley argued that there are two orientations – achievement and affiliate—and that power is not a separate orientation but can be a feature of both.  Others would argue that power is its own separate orientation.  People with a power perspective ask after a meeting, “Who won?” The state of present day political discourse would seem to be a testimony to this third orientation.

It has been my experience with the church, volunteer organizations, and the business world that both getting things done and having a good working environment are important for success.  Some individuals are much better at one than the other.  Others exhibit a blend of the two orientations.  The trick is to find the place where each person can blossom.  You do not want an achievement oriented person doing a job that primarily calls for affiliate skills.  I have never found the pursuit of power for its own sake to be helpful to an organization, group, or business with which I have been associated.

(This is the third in a series about the “Golden Ellipse.”)