Good intentions are not enough

Last week I was listening to a Dave Ramsey podcast when Dave began to interview John Maxwell.  Maxwell said something that continues to play over in my mind.  He said that many people have good intentions but they never do anything with intentionality that will make those good intentions happen.  I can't get those words out of my mind.

Think of all the New Year's resolutions that have already been forgotten.  People have good intentions to lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more, attend church more faithfully, read their Bible each day, etc., but unless they take some intentional steps to make these things happen, it is highly unlikely anything will change in their lives.

As I work with various churches I hear them talk about all the great things they want to accomplish.  They share with me their dreams for ministry and their desire to impact their communities through their ministries.  However, in most cases these things never occur.  They never do anything with intentionality that would enable those things to happen.

I frequently hear from church leaders that their churches need more leaders, but they never do anything to develop leaders.  Few churches, especially smaller ones, have anything in their budget for training.  Most of the churches I work with have no training program in their church except for Sunday school.  They don't send their lay leaders and potential leaders to workshops.  Nothing intentional is done, and yet we continually hear complaints that our churches need more leaders.

As I shared in last Friday's post, most churches say they want to grow.  What are they doing with intentionality that would produce that growth?  In that post I referred to the book What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church by Gary McIntosh and Charles Arn.  Here are just a few of the rules they recommend for attracting new people to your church.

• Offer at least nine entry events per year for effective community outreach.
• Provide a minimum of two side doors every year.
• Train at least 10 percent of your people in friendship evangelism each year.
• Each worshiper should have an average of nine or more unchurched friends or family members.

If you don't know what an entry event or side doors are, you should.  That alone may be enough for you to want to read this book.  The reality is that it is increasingly difficult to get unchurched people to come into the church through the front door (worship services).

Each of these rules, and most of the other 97 rules, will not happen accidentally in the church.  We must be intentional about doing each of them.  This does not mean that we have to start tomorrow doing all 101!  Your church may only be able to do 2-3 at first, and that's OK.  Determine which 2-3 will give you the best opportunity to accomplish your vision for ministry and start with them.  But, do something with intentionality!  Otherwise, we are left with only good intentions, and we all know where they lead us.

Change, conflict, growth

Several months ago a pastor search committee for a small, rural church told me they wanted a pastor who would grow the church.  I had never done this before, but when they said that I responded, "Are you sure about that?"  They looked at me a little stunned as if I should not be asking that question so I continued, "If you could grow this church by doing what you've been doing you would already be growing.  So, what you are telling me is that you want a pastor who will come in here and begin to change everything you have been doing.  Is that what you really want?"  They looked at one another and began to smile.  One of them spoke up and said, "Maybe we need to rethink this."

Another church contacted me five or six years ago asking me to meet with their newly formed Church Growth Committee and talk to them about how they could grow their church without making anybody mad.  I told the caller that I would save myself a trip and them a meeting by telling them right now that what they wanted to do was impossible.  Once again I explained that if they could grow by doing what they've been doing they would already be growing.  If they were serious about growing their church they would have to make some changes, and some of those changes were going to upset some people and create problems.

As Shannon O'Dell explains in his book Transforming Church in Rural America, "If we are to fulfill our vision, we have no other choice.  It's change, conflict, growth; change, conflict, growth; and you have to walk through that process...we must go through change and then conflict in order to see growth."  This is not easy for a small, rural church that puts so much emphasis on being a family church.  The assumption is that families avoid conflict so anything that creates conflict is avoided.

There are a couple of things wrong with that assumption.  One, is that families do not avoid conflict.  Some families are known for conflict.  (As are some churches!)  But, even in the healthiest families there are going to be conflicts because families are made up of people who do not always agree.

The second thing that is wrong with that assumption is the belief that all conflict is bad.  We want to avoid conflict because conflict is bad, but not all conflict is bad.  Conflict is needed if the church is to move forward.  The way conflict is sometimes handled is bad, but the conflict itself isn't necessarily bad.  Too many churches are stuck because they try so hard to avoid conflict that they won't do anything new if even one person is opposed, and there will usually be at least one that prefers the status quo.

Change, conflict, growth.  These are the steps that must be taken if growth is the desired end result.  Growth can have many facets so it's important to begin with the desired growth and work backwards.  In what ways does the church want to experience growth?  Does it want to see an increase in worship attendance?  Does it want to see larger numbers involved in discipleship programs?  Does it want to see increased financial giving?  Does it want to develop new ministries either for the existing congregation or the community?   There are countless additional areas in which a church can grow, but the point is that the desired area of growth must be identified.  Once that is done the leaders can begin to work backwards.

What would have to change in order to make it possible to experience growth in your desired areas?  For most smaller churches, when they talk about growth they are referring to numerical growth.  So what has to change in order to make that happen?  Do you need to adjust the times of your worship services that would make it possible for more people to attend?  Does the format of the worship need to change to better appeal to unchurched people in your community?  Does the church need training in hospitality to make a better impression on first-time guests?  Does the church need a better image in the community?  I've had some churches admit to me that they have a horrible reputation in their communities because of past events that occurred in their churches.  Those churches are unlikely to see any numerical growth until they overcome the poor images people have of them.  Does your pastor need different skills sets?  Again, the list goes on and on, but you must identify the issues that are preventing your church from growing and begin to address those issues.

However, be assured that when you address even some of the worst issues that may exist in your church there may well be some people who want to preserve those issues.  That is where the conflict will occur, but until you overcome the conflict and change the things that are preventing growth from occurring, your church will never grow.

Change, conflict, growth.  It is a pattern that will exist in any church serious about growing.  O'Dell's book is a good resource to help the smaller church enter into that pattern whether the church is in a rural area of not.

 

Let's live our lives now

**Before starting the post let me encourage you to "follow" this blog.  Many more people read it each day than follow it.  By following the blog you will be certain not to miss any post.  I would love to see the numbers of followers double in the next week or so, and that can easily happen if each of you who read it will "follow" it.  Thanks!**

Several years ago I read someone who wrote that too many people live on Someday Isle.  Any time they are asked what they want to do they begin their answer with "Someday I'll...."  The problem is that day never arrives and they approach the end of their lives having never enjoyed living out their dreams.

I just finished reading Live Ten: Jump-Start the Best Version of Your Life by Terry A. Smith who addresses the same thing in one chapter.  He writes, "Some of us are spending our lives preparing for life.  We're waiting for someday or for when this dream comes true...that business gets started...my kids graduate from college...I pay off my debts...I retire.  Someday.  When?  To be growing people, we can't forget that as we're working on better, best, and preferred things, we still must show up in the present and be thankful for this moment."  The truth is it is often in doing the mundane things in life that we are able to move into a more preferred future.  Smith writes, "Keep doing the fundamentally right things regardless of whether they immediately pay off.  There's a lot to be said about getting up every day and doing those things until at some point over time, we experience a victorious result.  Great dreams, ideas, and futures don't happen overnight; they manifest through perseverance."

So many people I know seem to be preparing for life rather than living it.  I want to always be growing and have dreams for the future, but I don't want to miss out on what God wants to do in my life now either.  I don't want to be one of those people who die with the music still in them.  Yes, we need to be looking towards the future, but we also need to live in the present and allow ourselves to be used right where we are today.

A lot of churches live on Someday Isle as well.  Ask such churches what they are doing to impact people's lives, and they will respond that they are looking for a pastor who can lead them in a new vision, or they are waiting for someone to come who can build a great youth ministry, or they are waiting until their denomination comes up with a new program that will jump-start their church, or they are waiting for something else to happen so they can begin to be used by God.  Unfortunately, none of those things are likely to ever happen, and if they are still open in fifty years they would probably still be waiting for the same things to occur.

God has a purpose for your church today, and it can be fulfilled by the people and the resources you have today.  If your church isn't willing to live into that purpose now it should not think that God will bring a greater vision for ministry later.  You've already demonstrated that you prefer making excuses than using the talents and resources you have now for ministry today.  Be faithful where you are today, and God will bring an increase in both resources and ministry opportunities.

The same is true for you as an individual.  God wants you to live your life today.  Don't wait until everything is perfect in your life to begin living life because things will never be perfect.  There will always be something that could be better.  The devil will give you plenty of excuses to keep you from living the life God has for you.  Always be looking to the future, but live your life now.  You'll be glad you did.

Developing teams in the bivocational church

Over the past few years I have officially coached several bivocational ministers and worked with dozens of others.  At some point in those coaching relationships the problem of time has always come up.  I have yet to meet a bivocational minister who doesn't struggle with finding the time to accomplish everything he or she needs to do.  I've tried to address this in several of my books, and especially in The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry.  I also talk about it in a couple of the workshops I lead for bivocational and small church ministers.  While there are several things that can be done to help ease the stress of time pressures, one of the best ways to address it is by developing teams in the church to handle some of the ministry tasks that too many of us in bivocational ministry try to do ourselves.

When I began my ministry I really believed that I had to touch everything that happened in the church.  I was young and a self-admitted workaholic so that wasn't a problem for the first few years, but it eventually caught up to me.  I was close to burning out.  I was diagnosed with clinical depression that was due in large part to pastoring a church, working a full time job in a factory, attending a Bible school, and trying to meet the needs of a wife and two children.  When I write or talk about the dangers of living an unbalanced life it comes from my own personal experience.

At an annual meeting of our region I sought out my judicatory leader and told him of my struggles.  He explained that much of my problem was that I was trying to be the church.  I was doing it all.  He went on to say that I was also depriving the congregation of the opportunity for them to be the church.  He helped me understand I was cheating them out of the privilege of doing ministry.  The next week I shared with our congregation what I was going through and my conversation with this leader.  I also announced some changes in how I would serve as their pastor.  One of my challenges at that point was that I didn't know how to do anything other than what I had been doing.  It was a learning curve for me as well as for the church.

A resource I wish I had back then is a great book written by someone who is as committed to bivocational ministry as I am.  Terry Dorsett has written a book called Developing Leadership Teams in the Bivocational Church.  Bivocational ministers do not have to do everything in the church, and we shouldn't.  Our biblical role as explained in Ephesians 4 is to equip the saints to do the work of ministry.  Terry's book is one of the best I have found to help the pastor identify and train the various teams that a particular church might need.  He provides worksheets for both the pastor and the students to use as their work on various ministry roles in the church.  Evaluation forms are also provided so it can be determined how helpful the training was in these various roles.  This is an excellent resource that should be in the library of every bivocational minister, but don't just put it on your library shelf.  This is a resource that is to be used over and over again to continuously be training people how they can use the gifts God has given them to serve both him and others around them.

John Maxwell has a saying that "Teamwork makes the dream work."  I think that's true.  Most of us went into bivocational ministry because we sensed God was calling us to do so.  We began our ministries with wonderful dreams of making a difference for God.  However, for too many of us those dreams turned into nightmares as we allowed ourselves to become over-extended.  If we want to see those original dreams accomplished we need to invest ourselves into developing and training teams in our churches that will allow us to enjoy far more ministerial success than if we try to do everything ourselves.

The death of dreams

I write another blog for small business owners that address leadership and business challenges they face.  You can find that blog here.  While writing a recent post I drifted over to talking about church leaders who have stopped dreaming.  They have become content to do through the motions and often provide solid pastoral care for their congregations, but they stopped dreaming and leading their churches forward to seize the new ministry opportunities that exist for them.  The question is why does that happen and how does one begin to dream again?

The why answer can be any number of reasons.  Most people go into ministry with dreams of changing the world or at least one of impacting the people in the communities in which they serve.  But, something begins to happen to those dreams.  Often, their dreams are shot down too often by small-minded people with big pocketbooks.  They finally get to the point that it's easier to stop dreaming than it is to see those dreams denied by the power brokers in the church.  The fear of failure is also a major deterrent to dreams.  I used to tell my congregation that if we don't try we've already failed, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy failure because I surely don't.  I have to admit there have been times in ministry that I've listened to the voices in my head telling me what a major failure this will be if it doesn't work, and there have been more than once I've felt like a failure myself because one of my plans didn't work.  Believe it or not, some people are not afraid of failure; they are afraid of success.  They know what is expected of them in the status quo; they don't know what might be expected of them if this thing works, and they fear not being able to live up to those higher expectations.

When we stop dreaming we stop leading, and that describes too many of the ministers I know today.  They have forfeited their roles as prophets and leaders and accepted the role of chaplain.  In some cases they have become hospice chaplains of the churches they serve.  One of the problems with that is that their churches are not always terminal but will be if they continue to provide hospice chaplain ministry.

So how does one begin to dream again?  How do we move beyond the status quo and once again begin doing ministry that matters?  We need to change the way we think and learn once again to dream big and take risks.  One resource that can help you with that is Jon Acuff's book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters.  Although it was not written specifically for ministers the recommendations he makes will certainly apply to ministers.  What I like about it is that it provides practical, real-world solutions for the fears that often hold us back.  What's more, the book identifies five stages of life that people who live awesome lives goes through, and he describes what each of these stages looks like and how to maneuver through them for maximum impact.  The five stages are learning, editing, mastering, harvesting, and guiding.

There will come a time in every life when we realize there were dreams we had that will never be accomplished.  Maybe they were dreams that were never meant for us to achieve.  Like many young boys I grew up dreaming of being a major league baseball player, but I didn't have the skills that could make that a reality.  That's OK.  What's not OK is reach a place in our lives when we recognize that some of the dreams that should have been realities in our lives were never realized because we simply never followed through on them.  We allowed fear or some other obstacle keep us from living up to our potential.  That damages not only our ministries but also that of the churches we serve.  If this is something you are struggling with right now in your life and/or ministry I would recommend you read Acuff's book.