Category: Leadership

Organizational Change Over Time

~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

How to handle organizational change, from families to churches to governments.

By Mark D. Harris

Introduction

The fundamental organization in every culture in history is the family. Consisting of one man (rarely more) and one woman (sometimes more), only the family is capable of reproducing itself and growing the human population. Romantic love is a fundamental, universal psychological phenomenon that plays a large role in family generation (de Munck et al., 2016). Families provide social systems, educational opportunities, economic security, and a common defense for their members. Families divide labor among participants to sustain themselves and ensure the achievement of joint goals, such as individual survival, reproduction, and social networking (Rözer et al., 2018). No other organization can exist without the family, and the family affects all organizations. Family firms, especially those with high religiosity, are associated with higher goal orientation, short and long term (Pieper et al., 2019).

Families are recognized by formal public ceremonies in almost all cultures because families fit into a larger structure, that of tribes (communities bound together by social, economic, religious, and/or blood ties, with a common culture, typically having a recognized leader) and clans (a group of close knit and interrelated families) (Mordecai & Religion, 1999). However, God, not man, joins man and wife together into a family, into “one flesh (Matthew 19:4-6).” The Church, the body of Christ, is the only other God-created organization in the world, and its members are God Himself in His three Persons, and the individual believer. God establishes all authorities (Romans 13:1), such as governments. But governments are secondary; they cannot reproduce as families can and do not have God as a party as the Church does. In their essentials, the family and the people of God, known now as the Church, both unique among organizations, resist change (Genesis 1:26-31). Their God-given model is as valid in 2026 as in 4026 BC.

Continue reading “Organizational Change Over Time” →

Best Business Practices for Churches and Small Religious Organizations

man in white t shirt and white pants standing beside white van
~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

A single-day seminar on how church and other small religious organizations can improve their strategies, operations, and fundraising.

By Mark D. Harris

Welcome! The team at the MD Harris Institute is glad that you have chosen to attend. We are thankful that President Khmyz and his team at the Kyiv Theological Seminary arranged this seminar to help Christian leaders throughout the region improve their business and fundraising practices. The information here will improve how these leaders acquire, use, and increase the resources that God provides.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:17-19). No nation, no matter how powerful, populous, or prosperous, can stand against the work of the preacher from Galilee. No religion, no matter how large or how violent, can quiet the still, small voice of the Almighty. Followers of Christ have the Spirit of the Living God dwelling within, have been set free from sin, and have a guarantee of eternity with the Creator. Of all men, Christians should be the most joyful in their lives and most effective in their labor.

Some Christians engage the world with optimism and faith, believing God to accomplish His will, though often believers do not see this victory. Christians perceive legions of enemies, a dearth of friends, a paucity of resources, persecution, and personal weakness (Marsden, 2020). There are more points of discouragement as well. Believers feel pressure from the government, the media, business, and academia (Barnes et al., 2020). Christ-followers look at needs within and without and faint before the task of making disciples. Simultaneously, forgetting that the Father owns the world and everything in it (Psalms 24:1) and believing the lies of a world that hates God, some Christians struggle to survive.

Continue reading “Best Business Practices for Churches and Small Religious Organizations” →

Paul, Leadership Under Fire

Leadership under fire in Corinth
~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

The Apostle Paul faced a tough task in writing to the wayward Corinthian church, bringing them back to the Lord while they assailed him. In a time when leadership is under fire across the globe, Paul can shed some light.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Corinth was a hotbed of scum and villainy in the first century Roman Empire. Located on a narrow strip of land between the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, Corinth grew rich and fat on the wares of merchantmen passing between the east and west of the Empire. In the AD 40s, God used Paul and his companions to plant a church in Corinth (Acts 18). Though it grew, the church stumbled from sin to sin and heresy to heresy. Writing from Ephesus in about AD 55, Paul confronted his wayward church in 1 Corinthians. The list of sins was long:

  1. The Corinthians abandoned Christian unity and were riven with internal strife (Acts 1).
  2. They were competing for status among themselves (Acts 1).
  3. They were abandoning godly wisdom in favor of worldly wisdom (Acts 1).
  4. They were denying the work of the Spirit (Acts 2).
  5. They were boasting in men (Acts 3)
  6. They were judging each other harshly at times and weakly at other times (Acts 4)
  7. They were tolerating blatant sexual sin (Acts 5).
  8. They were suing each other in secular courts (Acts 6).
  9. They were denying intimacy to their spouses, divorcing, committing adultery, and simultaneously emphasizing marriage over mission (Acts 7).
  10. They were using their Christian freedom without care for how their conduct harmed others (Acts 8).

Continue reading “Paul, Leadership Under Fire” →

Business Models for the First and the 21st Centuries

~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

Businesses and other organizations can be understood in three different types. Facilitated Networking, Value Added, and Solution Shop business models, and combinations thereof, have existed since before Rome ruled. Modern entrepreneurs will benefit as they think of their endeavors in these ways.  

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Several women at a baby shower share stories about giving birth, providing tips to an expectant mother on how to make delivery easier and less painful. One older woman provides a beautiful baby dress, while another shares the address of a bargain store.

A farmer plants acres of grain. He and his family labor over their fields for months, watering and weeding while the crop comes in. In due time, they harvest an abundance. They keep some grain for their own consumption and sell the rest.

Two colonels pore over a map on a battlefield, discussing how to defeat the enemy dug in on a ridgeline nearby. They are not sure of their opponent’s strength and disposition, but they are losing the initiative and need to act soon.

Continue reading “Business Models for the First and the 21st Centuries” →

ACES Framework of Organizational Development

~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

A useful organizational developmental framework derived from military sources and adapted to business needs. 

By Mark D. Harris

From being the Commander of a small US Army clinic in Schweinfurt, Germany, to being the Chief Medical Officer for all of military medicine in the National Capital Region at the JTF Cap Med, I have led organizations. To train my colleagues, I have developed the ACES Framework of Organizational Development. It is based on the military model.

I have posted it here because some have found it useful in the past and others find it useful in the future. Happy reading!

ACES Framework of Organizational Development