From the book by Kennon L. Callahan, Effective Church Leadership comes the following related to structure...some more food for thought.

Five classic symptoms of an institutional organizational structure:

1. The majority of the local church's committees are structured to focus on matters inside the local church.

2. The majority of volunteers recruited by the local church are asked to do work inside the local church.

3. The nominating committee spends the majority of the time filling organization positions focusing inside the local church.

4. The best leaders are asked to serve in posts focusing inside the local church, primarily in relation to the functional, organizational, institutional characteristics.

5. The majority of the committees invest most of their meeting time discussing inside-the-church issues.

Mission Outpost Organizational Structure:

1. The majority of the local church's committees are structured to focus on matters outside the local church, that is, in the world.

2. The majority of volunteers recruited by the local church are asked to do work outside the local church.

3. The nominating committee spends the majority of its time filling missional positions focusing outside the local church.

4. The best leaders are asked to serve in posts focusing in mission outside the local church.

5. The majority of the committees invest most of their meeting time deciding mission strategies for their work in the world.

Thoughts:  Principles of Organization

• Have just enough people on just enough committees to achieve wise decisions and accomplish significant results.

• The more complex the organizational structure and the more energy put into the maintenance of the institutional organizational structure, the less energy available for wise decisions and significant results.

• Simplicity, not complexity, is the principle on a mission field.

• The more committees, the less mission.

• The fewer committees, the more mission.

• It is a myth that every cause needs a committee.

• A cause needs a leader, not a committee.

• A leader can gather a committee.  A committee cannot easily gather a leader.  The best way to kill a cause is to give it to a committee.

• On a pioneering mission field we would do best to develop an abundance of mission teams and just a few committees to take care of the institutional organization.