Had lunch with my Dad today. That was nice. He told me about the reception they’ve gotten at two churches they’ve been attending. This is always comedic stuff. When Mom and Dad took a year off from the ministry in the early 1980s, after ten years at their first church, they visited a lot of different churches and were always amused by the timidity of churchgoers when it comes to greeting visitors. They would often be ignored. Once, if I remember right, they sat down in a pew and some other people filed into the pew, and stacked up hymnals and Bibles between them, to create a barrier between them and these unknown people who had crashed their pew.

They’ve been attending one church in Fort Wayne fairly regularly for months, but still, nobody talks to them. The pastor greeted someone on either side of them, but ignored them. Mom and Dad find this intensely amusing.

At another church, Dad kindly (I’m assuming) refused the offer of a visitor badge. I can’t believe any churches are still giving out visitor badges. That’s so old school. The second time they visited, when it came to signing the guest register, Dad signed it, “Mr. and Mrs. Invisible,” and gave their real address. He’s still waiting on a letter sent to Mr. and Mrs. Invisible.

I’ve seen some of this kind of behavior in United Brethren churches. I remember one church in Ohio where I was pretty much ignored by the 100+ people attending, even when I went to Sunday school. Some years ago, when I attended the largest church in our denomination, I obviously took somebody’s regular pew, because this older couple scooted in beside me and the lady shot me a highly disapproving look which told me I was trespassing. Inside, I guffawed.

I’ve been reading BusinessWeek for over 20 years, and enjoy finding things that apply to the church. The backpage column by Jack and Suzy Welch (he’s the renowned former pres of General Electric) is always engaging. They just answer questions people send. In the January 15 issue, someone said workers went on strike at their largest factory, demanding higher pay, even though they paid the same as at other factories.

The Welches responded that when labor issues erupt, the trouble can usually be traced to workplace leadership–usually, a plant boss or foreman who is abusive, insensitive, bullying, secretive, or all of the above. “In short,” they write, “bad management most likely caused your strike.”

Is that usually the problem when problems arise in churches? A pastor or “church boss” or elder board who are insensitive, bullying, secretive? Yes, I’ve seen shades of that time and again in our churches. (At my own church, though, we try to be highly transparent, and our pastor takes the lead in that.)

The Welches say the answer is to install plant leaders who are transparent, candid, fair, and respectful. Yes, we need church leaders like that, too.

A key principle, they say, is to give workers a voice and dignity. “All employees, not just the ones carrying briefcases, need to be heard. Factory workers in particular need to know they are more to the company than just a pair of hands at a machine. Their ideas count.” So how do you do this? You listen, you create forums where workers are encouraged to raise their ideas for doing things better. “Nothing builds resentment like a factory boss standing cross-armed in his glassed-in office, overseeing from on high.” We at the denominational headquarters (my day job) are often perceived this way, though it’s not fair.

And then they conclude with this, which I really like: “What you need are local plant leaders who are comfortable with dialogue. That builds trust….When managers operate transparently and fairly and workers know it, there is no need for a third party to broker the conversation between them. There is just one team, working together to win.”

A lot of good stuff there about dealing with people.