So, what are you going to do about your problem?

As a judicatory leader I spend a lot of time listening to pastors and church lay leaders talk about the numerous challenges of doing ministry in the 21st century.  They talk about how difficult it is to attract new people to their churches, the apathy that exists within their own congregations, the declining resources, both financial and manpower in their churches, the lack of qualified leaders, both lay and clergy, the reduced numbers of people attending their discipleship ministries, and the list goes on.  Most of the time my question to these church leaders is, "So, what you are going to do about it?"  At that point most of them go into immediate stun mode.  They really haven't thought about what to do about their problems other than complain about them.

There is no question that church work is more difficult today than it was in previous years.  If that doesn't discourage you, I think it's safe to assume that it will only become even more difficult in the future.  We can either sit around complaining about it while we watch our churches close their doors one by one, or we can do something about the difficult challenges that we face.

Too many churches have spent the past thirty years complaining about their problems without doing anything intentional about addressing them.  We've drifted along waiting for God to send a revival or we've thought that people would eventually come to their senses and return to God and the church or, even worse, we've hoped we would eventually elect a political leader who would return our nation back to Christian values.

The key word here is intentional.  What are you going to DO about your problems?  What specific steps are you going to take to attempt to turn things around in your church?  Your church struggles to reach young people.  OK...what are you going to do about it?  Your church does not have the leadership it needs to provide more effective ministries?  OK...what are you going to do about it?  Your church hasn't baptized anyone in the past ten years.  Not OK...but what are you going to do about it?

I've heard the same churches complain about the same issues for years without ever doing anything to actually address the problem.  It's time we stop offering excuses and start seeking solutions, and if you can't do that then you need to step down from your leadership position because you are not a leader.

Start by identifying the problems you want to address, and then establish some SMART goals around that problem.  For instance, a problem in your church may be a low number of youth.  It is not a SMART goal to say we want to increase the number of youth in our church.  A SMART goal is one that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-defined, so a SMART goal might be we will increase the number of youth in our church by five people by the end of 2014.  (See if that doesn't fulfill all the requirements of a SMART goal.)  Notice I did not say "we want to increase...."  I said "we will...."  Want is a weasel word that you must always avoid in a SMART goal.  If you do not have a SMART goal, and one that is written down, all you have is a dream, and next year you'll be complaining about the same problems because you did nothing to address them.

Once you've identified a goal you can then begin to identify the steps you will take to achieve the goal.  If your goal is the one I've listed above then some possible steps might be to begin a new youth ministry, identify and train new leadership to lead that ministry, create social media sites for your church's youth ministry, reach out to a particular group of young people in your community, etc.  You have to identify the steps that will be appropriate for your setting.

With goals and an action plan you are now ready to do something intentional about the problem.  One other thing is needed.  You need to communicate to others about what you are doing and why.  Hopefully, a group of leaders in your church has worked with you in identifying these goals and action steps, and that work has already been communicated to others in the congregation so there is widespread buy-in.  But, with the buy-in, the goals, and the action steps you should see results which can be measured.  As you measure those results you will also look at what is most effective in what you are doing and begin to make adjustments so the results continue to improve.  When that happens you'll look back and be able to see the major improvements you've made in that particular area, and that is much better than sitting around complaining.