Love Bond

A successful organization of people will always have some element of love that binds its members together. Without this bond, the organization will cease to exist. It may take months or it may take years, but it will cease to exist if this bond is broken, unless, someone can intervene and heal the broken bond.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at an organization that is widely known and respected around the world --the Church. The Church members are bound by the love they have for their Lord and savior. Their worship of God draws them closer to one another and makes the bond between them stronger and stronger. If something were to upset this harmony, such as a pastor leaving the Church, this bond could be strengthened or weakened depending upon the Church member’s perspective of why the pastor left.

I’ve experienced first hand what can happen when a Church loses a pastor. The people were shocked and grieved when the news was relayed to the congregation. The reason for the pastor’s resignation was unbelievable especially when this person was so highly esteemed and regarded as one of the best pastors within that community. A search for a new pastor was put into motion. As the weeks turned into months and the months dragged on into years, people began to lose hope that the Church would survive. Their service & devotion to the Church waned along with their giving. This forced more and more folks to consider the question, “Why aren’t we moving forward?” The answer lies in the members they lost.

Folks will only give a certain amount of their time until they feel they must move on and invest their talents in a different organization. How long that “certain amount of time” is depends upon how much reaching out they receive from the other organizational members. If these “other members” reach out to those members contemplating moving on, they may recant their decision to not stick it out until things improve or a new pastor is hired. During this time, however, everyone is hypersensitive about anything that comes up. The congregation has lost faith in their leadership and they begin to rebel by refusing to volunteer, withholding their donations to the organization, and, as a last resort, they move their membership elsewhere. Love, God’s love, is the only thing that can heal this brokenness.

Love is like a precious plant. It needs to be cultivated, nourished, watered and guarded closely. If little effort is put into “growing” the love-bond between folks in an organization, the rest of the membership feels, “disconnected.” A window of opportunity will exist for a period of time before that member will move on. This is the “second chance” phase of a lost member. If that member is not “loved” by another member of that organization during this second chance phase, the organization will lose this member.

So, are you a healer? Can you love those in your organization that are discouraged and are considering leaving? You may be the glue that will hold your organization together if you are willing to take that step of faith to love your fellow organizational members.