I spent years as a Musician and then as an Audio Engineer – and I hate NOISE.

We all know people whom the slightest little “noise” irritates them – something squeaking or someone smacking their lips, or gum, or pecking on the table. AND we could list many other things. The list would be long.

The point – People dislike noise. It’s distracting. They’d do anything to get rid of the noise.

In the Business of Ministry world:
Senior Leaders hate another kind of NOISE – information overload. Reports from ministry areas, finance areas, people issues, organizational growth issues, staff issues, life and death issues, email, social media, meetings, phone calls, visits, and so on. Not to mention world news and what’s going on in their families and in their circle of friends. Pastors and Lay Leaders have a lot of things vying for their time and attention.

Let’s zero in on just one area – Financial and Management Reporting in the church. We issue reports and various analysis on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis. It can be quiet a lot to digest. A lot of noise if you will.

The last thing Leadership needs is for us to issue a bunch of reports only to have them sift thru them all to figure everything out. Granted – some like to, most do not. Some have expertise, most do not. All are very busy, (particularly in a growing church), and have little time to devote to such activities.

One major role of the CBA/XP/CFO is to Eliminate the NOISE:
Senior Leaders appreciate and benefit from getting to the bottom line quickly.
That gives them more time to make decisions and for ministry.

Eliminate the NOISE with Tailored Reports and Attention Directing:
Simply stated – based on the reports, direct the attention of the Senior Leader and/or Team to the things that need their attention.

Now, Attention Directing in and of itself doesn’t solve problems, but it does answer what’s working and what’s not in your church:
* What’s moving forward, what’s stagnated, what’s slipping
* What’s moving towards ministry plan, what’s not, what’s slipping

It’s been said facts are our friends. And it’s true. We get into trouble by not paying attention to or denying facts. Anyway, that’s another post for another day. Maybe.

The Bottom Line:
One way the CBA/XP/CFO earns their keep is to boil all the NOISE down to what matters. So while the right reports are important, the most important part/role is to summarize and assess, to dig into causes, and then focus the organization’s attention on what needs improvement.

We can then help by offering possible solutions to the Leadership Team.

Eliminating the NOISE facilitates decision making. Eliminating the NOISE is a HUGE part of Decision Support.

What do you think?