Every once in a while I read an author who says something that I have been saying for years. Whenever this happens I jokingly comment on the author’s intelligence. Actually it makes me feel good that someone thinks the same way that I do. It happened again a few weeks ago in a book entitled The Speed of Trust written by Stephen R.M. Covey. If his name sounds familiar it is probably because his father, Stephen R. Covey, wrote a very successful book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
At the heart of leadership in any church, whatever its size, must be trust. If there is trust between a pastor and the church or between the leadership team and the church that church is in a positive place to move ahead. If that trust is lacking, it is difficult for leadership to do anything.
I often talk about the importance of what I have called a trust account that exists within every church. Every time that leaders do something positive they make a deposit into that account. It may be walking through a time of loss with someone in the church. It may be recognizing the contribution of people at a Sunday morning service. It may be the time of quiet prayer when someone is going through difficulties. It can take many different forms but each one makes a deposit in that trust account.
The change is positive. Every idea that doesn’t work results in a withdrawal. Every disagreement over direction for the church constitutes another withdrawal. If the trust account is full to overflowing, leadership can make almost any change that they wish to make and the church will go with them. If the account is almost empty, they may have trouble making even the simplest of changes. It all comes down to trust. With this in mind there is no such thing as an insignificant action on the part of leadership. Even the simplest thing will either make a deposit into the account or a withdrawal from the account. When the withdrawals outnumber the deposits, the result is that there are insufficient funds to make a change.
What does all of this have to do with Stephen M.R. Covey’s book? Here is the quote that got me excited and made me think that the author was a pretty sharp person: As you work on behaving in ways that build trust, one helpful way to visualize and quantify your efforts is by thinking in terms of “Trust Accounts.” These are similar to the “emotional Bank Accounts” my father introduced in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. By behaving in ways that build trust, you make deposits. By behaving in ways that destroy trust, you make withdrawals. The “balance” in the account reflects the amount of trust in the relationship at any given time (p. 130).
Dr. Ron Johnston is the Executive Director of Small Church Connections.