One of the things I've been telling those who attend my workshops and conferences is that the smaller church will often accomplish more by doing less. Sometimes a smaller church feels it must compete with the larger churches in the community to attract people. This is always a mistake because the smaller church simply does not have the resources to offer the same ministries as a larger church. Such a shotgun approach to ministry also misses another fact: God has a unique vision for your church. Our churches are not called to duplicate the ministries of other churches but to discern the vision God has for each church and begin to fulfill that vision.
Several years ago a leader of a smaller church called saying their church was going to launch a youth ministry and wanted my advice on how best to do that. My advice was to not do it. The reason was that in that community there were several much larger churches with youth ministries that attracted hundreds of young people every week. As I said to the caller, "Your church has three kids. How will you compete with what the other churches are doing?" He understood and clarified my comments by asking, "So you are saying we should look for another ministry to offer the community?" Yes.
There is certainly nothing wrong with a church having a youth ministry, but in many cases the reason smaller churches want a youth ministry is they see it as the way to preserve the future of their church. Trying to start a youth ministry is a problem if the church has no youth for a base group and no one in the church is gifted and passionate about doing youth ministry. It is much better to build a ministry in your church by identifying and using the gifts of your members, helping them find what ministries they are passionate about doing, and seeing if that will meet a need in the community.
This takes us back to the vision discernment comment. God will not give your church a vision for ministry if there is no one in your church with the spiritual gifts to make that happen; he will not give your church a vision for ministry if no one in the church is passionate about doing that ministry; and he will not give your church a vision for ministry if it does not meet needs in your community. Where these three things come together is where you will find your God-given vision.
In most churches there is usually a lot of activity, but at the end of the year what advancements have actually been made? I think back to my own pastoral ministry. There were some years we could look back over the preceding months and see positive things that had been accomplished. Other years we were just as busy but had no real results at the end of the year. We had done a lot in those years but accomplished very little of lasting value to the Kingdom of God. Just staying busy is no guarantee of a successful ministry. We need to focus on the things that will really make a difference in people's lives and on fulfilling what we believe to be God's vision for our church.
I often say to church leaders that if their churches stopped doing 80 percent of what they are now doing, no one would ever know the difference. That percentage may vary between churches, but the fact is that much of what we do really matters very little. Let's begin to focus our resources and efforts on the things that really will make a difference to the people in our communities, and in December, when we look back over the year, I think you'll see a big difference in what you accomplished.
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