“Farm Gate” by Skakerman (Archive) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

There’s nothing more damaging to a church than an ineffective gatekeeper, especially during times of change. A gatekeeper is an organiser in a group who controls access to programs and people. They get stuff done or they block stuff from happening. Our efforts to help the church enter the 21^st century will be stymied by gatekeepers’ resistance, so how do we help them become invaluable allies?

Tips for working with church gatekeepers

1. The most important foundation for working with gatekeepers is to keep God in the picture. Pray a lot.
2. Identify your gatekeepers. They will make themselves known, probably with casseroles or gifts brought to you as you settle in to your new appointment.  They will take this introductory meeting to explain to you how things are to be done in their particular area of responsibility.  Don’t mistake this behaviour for an attempt to interfere (although sometimes this is clearly what is happening).  They usually just want you to know how things work so you don’t blunder about messing things up.  Listen carefully and respectfully to what they have to say.
3. It is vital that you make a determined effort to build a good relationship of trust, respect and appreciation, even with the powerful and rigid gatekeepers, however difficult this may be. Remember, without these people and the work they do, there would not be a church at all. So, make sure to tell them how much you appreciate their valuable work.
4. Always go through the gate into the gatekeeper’s group or area of responsibility. Don’t ever jump over the fence and disregard them.  This means that you don’t just turn up at band practice unannounced. Speak to the leader or music director first.  Go to fellowship meetings so you can make friends with the president and secretary, but let the leaders know you are coming.  In my social work study, I observed a new senior social worker consistently ignore the presence of the seemingly gentle “boss” of a children’s home. The social worker’s initiatives came to nothing even though she had some good ideas.  She was gone within a year.  This was a shame as all the senior social worker had to do was slow down and work with the long-term gatekeepers; not ignore them and try to ride over them.
5. Quietly and consistently keep repeating the way you think the culture should go and what benefits the changes would bring. This can happen at morning tea, staff meetings or any other formal or informal gathering that you can find. Over the ensuing months, these ideas will gradually infiltrate the culture of the church.  Taking your time will also give the gatekeepers time to work out ways of reordering their respective groups so that there is no chaos.
6. If the gatekeeper is agreeable to the changes, encourage and support them as they will receive some flak from some of the group members who are wedded to the old ways of doing things. Remember the gatekeeper is their representative and the members can replace the gatekeeper if they want to.
7. Timing is important. One minister said to me, “It is important to listen, to observe and to allow the Holy Spirit to do its work, before taking action”.  Another recommended waiting a year before taking any action at all so that trust is built up. The church members need to feel confident that you will not barge in and destroy their church.  Once they trust you, they will allow you more freedom to make changes.
8. Assist the gatekeeper to balance the competing demands of administration and mission. It is important that they understand that administration supports mission, not the other way around. Of course, the mission needs to take into account that adequate resources are there to support the new initiatives.
9. Improve the gatekeeper’s competence. The church provides various courses for church council chairpersons, secretaries and treasurers etc.   Some gatekeepers may be ineffective administrators and need help.

Even if you employ all of these techniques, there may be times when the relationship with your gatekeeper fails, sometimes spectacularly so. In an upcoming blog, I will explore techniques for dealing with this scenario.