What are the challenges of a COVO Congregation?

In this four-part series, we have been talking about the posture and benefits of a covocational congregation.

Before we talk about specific tips for boards and for hiring covocational leaders, we want to take some time in this post to tackle four of the most common challenges that COVO congregations tend to encounter on their journey.

Leadership – who’s in charge?

A flatter, more distributed shared leadership model can be very empowering to absolutely everyone. In many cases, this results in a lot of initial enthusiasm until difficult decisions come up or until differences in vision and approach arise. This makes for a less efficient approach to running an organization when agenda alignment and passion differences need to be ironed out on a weekly basis. This leads to challenge #2 - communication.

Communication – how do we know what’s going on?

Without a full-time person who is constantly thinking about the overall direction and coordination of the congregation, it takes more intentional structures and practices to keep everyone on the same page. The more people you have around the leadership table, the more work it is to get everyone on the same page.

The flatter the leadership structure, the more negotiation is required to make joint decisions. The more distributed the leadership tasks, the more reporting is required to keep everyone informed.

 With everyone juggling multiple jobs, varying schedules can lead to distractions that cause a loss of focus, missed deadlines, and important conversations or details being overlooked.

Expectations – what can we expect?

Another difficulty can be the legacy of expectations that people have if they have experienced life and ministry under a more conventional church leadership structure. In such settings, pastors often carry the load of vision and communication and handle many of the most demanding or inconvenient ministry tasks.

Members of COVO need to change their perspective. They should move away from seeing themselves primarily as consumers or participants in church life and increasingly view themselves as contributors and emerging leaders. 

Continuity – where are we going?

One final difficulty to mention in this post is the fragility of vision and direction. Of course, there are many more challenges, as congregational life is as unique and complex in a COVO church family as it is in a more conventional church setting.

Sometimes, even though ministry is shared, the vision for the whole comes to depend on one person’s gifts or personality. If that person needs to step back for whatever reason and the overall burden has not been intentionally shared amongst the congregation, this can be a devastating blow that is hard to recover from.

To address all of these difficulties and many more, it is important to have some sort of coordinating group that can, together, trust the overall vision, values, and future of the congregation on behalf of all.

Stay tuned for our next post in this series that will provide some guidance for COVO Boards!

To learn more about the COVO Project at Briercrest, go to Co-Vocational Canada: Rethinking Sacred Work.

Reach out for free counselling for covocational leaders at CTMMCounselling@briercrest.ca.

To book a free consultation for your congregational leaders, contact Ellen Duffield, Coordinator for the Paul E. Magnus Centre for Leadership Studies at Briercrest Seminary.

Keep reading:

Part 1: What is a COVO Congregation?

Part 2: What are the Benefits of a COVO Congregation?