“You never drift into alignment.” I read that statement in a book entitled Replenish: Leading From A Healthy Soul by Lance Witt. It makes sense. Has your car ever drifted “into alignment”? Never! But it has drifted out of alignment, thanks to pot holes, worn parts, and other factors. To bring it back into alignment requires proper knowledge, tools, and understanding.

The point the author is making is that organizational alignment does not just happen; it requires intentionality, knowledge, and understanding. But when aligned, the organization is more efficient, there is less emotional wear and tear, and the organization operates more smoothly.

The same is true in our homes, our churches, and any of our social groups. Alignment can be accomplished through positional authority and using that authority to force people to fall in line. However, alignment through that means often breaks down quickly, leaving in its wake a path of brokenness and destruction. Perhaps, that is one reason there is so much brokenness today. People are trying to lead with positional authority, imposing their will and their ways on others to bring them into alignment.

Thankfully, there is something greater than alignment, and that is attunement. Alignment focuses on the plans and the goals. Attunement focuses on the people and the process. Alignment is about the cause; attunement is about the community. Alignment is a matter of the head, how we think; attunement is about the heart, who we are. Alignment is organizational; attunement is relational.

It cannot be denied that Jesus built the greatest organization: the church. But He built it through attunement, through relationships. He spent three years traveling with His disciples. They did ministry together, they ate together, they went from town to town together. He explained His parables to them in private. He was very intentional and very relational. In John 15:15, He called them “friends,” not servants. He was relational, as well as organizational. As the “only begotten Son” of God, Jesus had positional authority (John 3:16). But He chose relational authority. He chose attunement over alignment.

The Apostle Paul continued that pattern in the churches he founded. In I Thessalonians 2:8, he told the church, “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too” (NLT). In other words, they shared not just what was in their heads but that which was in their hearts as well.

In I Timothy 1:2, Paul referred to Timothy as “my true son in the faith.” It doesn’t get much more intimate than that. Paul could have referred to Timothy as his mentee, his protégé, his student, his disciple, but no, he referred to him as his “true son in the faith.”

Relationships are at the heart of everything we do as Christ followers. Whether in our homes, our churches, our classrooms, or our communities, life is much better through relationships.

Take a look at your relationships today. Are they based on alignment or attunement? Are they positional or relational? Are you focusing on the head or the heart? Are you forcing your will or sharing your heart?

Remember the words of Jesus spoken to His disciples: “I no longer call you servants…Instead, I have called you friends.”

Rev. James R. Pentz, Presbyter, North Central Section, Penn/Del Ministry Network