Accomplish more by doing less

A common problem among many smaller churches is that they are over-structured.  Often, their structure reflects a time when they were a larger church, but as they have declined over the years nothing ever changed about their structure.  They have the same number of committees, many of which are really no longer needed.  They have the same number of leadership and teaching positions, many of which are no longer needed.  They are over-programmed for the number of people who participate.  As a result, many of the people are exhausted from all the activities going on in the church, most of which are really not very productive.

Church leaders should spend some time at the end of the year looking at all the activity that has occurred during the previous year and then see how those activities changed the church and impacted the community.  Many churches will find that their church looks much the same on December 31 as it did on January 1 despite all the activities that occurred in the church in the months in between.  Activity for the sake of activity is not a productive use of the resources of a small church.  Trying to compete with the larger churches in the community is also not wise.  I know every church believes it must have a youth ministry, but it is really foolish to try to build a youth ministry with the three young people in your church when two other churches in the community have youth groups that exceed 100 kids each week.  You are not likely to grow your church through your youth group.  So what should a smaller church do?

Find one or two things that your church can do with excellence and pour your resources (people, time, and money) into those one or two things.  If these are ministries that other churches in your community are not doing that is even better.  Eliminate as many of the maintenance tasks you've asked your members to do as possible, eliminate the activities that are not productive, and streamline your approach to ministry.  Identify the vision God has for your church and stop trying to copy what other churches are doing.  Focus your attention on that vision and allow everything else to fall away.  Challenge your people to work in the areas of their spiritual giftedness and passion, and if there are tasks that do not match those things in your church membership accept that as a sign that those tasks no longer need to be done in your church.

This will not be easy for many smaller churches because it will mean the loss of some sacred cows that have almost risen to the status of idols, but we've got to stop doing things that no longer matter in the 21st century.  Ministry is a stewardship item for which we will one day give an account to the One who called us to the task.  We must be wise in how we use the resources He has provided us for the ministries to which He has called us.  Our congregations need to hear this message and be challenged to put aside those tasks that no longer help us achieve our purpose as a church and recognize that for most of our smaller churches our greatest effectiveness will be found in doing fewer things but doing them well.  When a church can find a niche ministry it can do with excellence it will find greater enjoyment in ministry and will see real results at the end of the year.