No more excuses

Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. Although there have been different interpretations of what Jesus meant when He spoke these words, most scholars are in agreement that regardless of any attacks or resistance from any quarter, the church will emerge victorious. If this is true, and I believe it is, then why are so many churches struggling today and why are church leaders offering so many excuses for these struggles?

The church has always faced challenges, and Jesus never said that it wouldn't; He said those challenges would not prevail. Historically, the church has faced many difficulties, and it emerged from every one of them. Why is it today that so many churches and church leaders are giving up? Instead of  boldly proclaiming the Gospel and reaching out to people, many churches have circled the wagons hoping to survive until Jesus comes. The church isn't called to try to survive. It's not called to try to hang on. It's called to be the Body of Christ, an army filled with the Holy Spirit, tearing down the strongholds that hold people captive.

We don't need excuses. We need men and women to preach the infallible Word of God and
willing to withstand every attack from the enemy that would silence them. I once recommended a person to serve a church as their interim pastor. This was a church with a history of conflict. Someone asked if I believed this individual could stand up to the pressure a group within the church would bring. I smiled at the questioner and said, "This person would charge hell with a water pistol." This is the kind of leader the church needs today.

We don't need a dozen reasons why something won't work. We need leaders who have captured God's vision for the church and are determined to make it happen. A certain percentage of pastors do not feel called to leadership. May I be bold enough to suggest that perhaps they shouldn't be pastors? Too many pastors are more concerned about the fellowship of the church than they are about the mission of the church. Yes, shepherding is part of a pastor's job, but so is leading, and without strong leadership the flock will wander aimlessly with no real purpose.

Instead of offering excuses for why the church is struggling it might be better to spend more time in prayer seeking God's power to overcome the struggles. The largest church in the world, located in South Korea, is well-known for its Prayer Mountain where hundreds of thousands of persons pray each year. The founding pastor and members of the church quickly point to the power of prayer for the church's amazing growth and ministries.

It's time the church quits offering excuses and starts offering solutions to the challenges it is facing. It's time we become determined to be the church Jesus envisioned when He said nothing could stand against it. In New Testament times the church became known as the people who turned the world upside-down. It's time to do it again.

The worst deception is self-deception

This past Thanksgiving week has been pretty exciting, especially around the dinner table. We enjoyed two different Thanksgiving meals as our son came in the week before Thanksgiving and we had another big meal the Sunday after Thanksgiving when our daughter and her family came. It's a good thing I had set the bathroom scales back ten pounds before the holiday or I would have really felt bad about the weight I gained!

OK, I didn't really set the scales back ten pounds, but it was tempting. Just like we're often tempted to try to deceive ourselves in other ways. Like when we excuse our sins by pointing to persons who commit worse sins (in our opinion) than we do thereby justifying our behavior as "not so bad." Or the times we convince ourselves that the problems in our church, or our family, or our business is the fault of everyone else.

I still remember the day I attended a John Maxwell conference when he was promoting his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You (10th Anniversary Edition). At the time I was frustrated with the way things were in our church and in our family-owned business. Neither was growing the way I wanted, and I was blaming our congregation and our business employees for that lack of growth. Then Maxwell starting talked about the Law of the Lid and how no organization could grow beyond the lid of its leadership. Suddenly, his words hit me. I was the leader of both organizations. Our problems were my responsibility and were a reflection of my poor leadership. It wasn't the fault of other people; I was the lid keeping our organizations down.

As long as I was content to blame others for our problems we were stuck. That's what makes self-deception so harmful. When we deceive ourselves we are unable to see new ways of doing things. How often do you hear someone (perhaps yourself) say, "I've tried everything there is. Nothing going to change this." The reality is that you haven't tried everything there is to try, but as long as you keep thinking that you'll never identify a new approach that might succeed. Actually, there are probably dozens of things you haven't tried. Winston Churchill once said, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." How does one do that? By knowing there are many other things yet left to try that will result in eventual success.

Self-deception will also prevent a person from growing. I've met people, including some in ministry, who believed they already knew everything they needed to know. Now, most of them would not say that, but you can tell by their attitudes that this is their belief. You can also tell it by their lack of attendance at training events. If they do attend some conference or workshop they seldom stay for the entire event. They have too much to do that's more important. People who already know everything will not be committed to life-long learning.

That's a shame because much of the knowledge and skills we've learned in the past is no longer useful today. Medicine has changed so much that doctors must work very hard to stay current on new treatments, available medicines, and the latest technology if they want to serve the patients well. This is no less true for those of us in ministry. If we are not growing as ministers we will be unable to lead our churches through the challenges of the 21st century.

What this means is that if we deceive ourselves in thinking that the problems in our church are always the fault of others and that our seminary diploma means that we've learned everything there is to know about ministry we will quickly forfeit our right to serve in ministry. We will be unable to lead our churches forward, and our self-deception will make us unable to understand why.

As we approach 2016 it may be a good time to take a hard look at ourselves. In what areas did we grow in 2015? What knowledge or new skills do we need to focus on developing in 2016? How will we develop them? Are there ways our leadership is actually hindering our church's ministry and, if so, what can we do about that?

Excellence, not excuses

In my small church workshops I challenge the attendees to focus the ministries of their churches on one or two things they can do with excellence. Many smaller churches are trying to do too many things. Often, they are still structured as they were when they were a larger congregation and trying to do all the ministries they did back then, or they are trying to compete with the larger churches in the area in an effort to attract people. Either reason will get a small church in trouble. They simply don't have the resources to offer a lot of ministries. Such churches offer all kinds of excuses why some programs or ministries are not effective, and fingers are pointed, but the bottom line is they just do not have the resources to do more than a few things.

When a church tries to do more than their resources allow they end up doing a lot of mediocre things. Great ministries are built around excellence, not mediocrity. Despite what many people believe, a small church can enjoy an excellent ministry, but only if they focus on doing those few things they can do with excellence.

Leaders in smaller churches need to take a hard look at their structure. How many of your committees and boards are really necessary? Committees and boards focus on making sure things are done right, but are they doing the right things? Does their work actually contribute to achieving the mission and vision of the church? Committees and boards do maintenance work; you need to free people up to do ministry. I would guess that most churches could eliminate 80 percent of their committees and boards, and no one would be able to tell the difference.

How effective are the ministries your church currently offers? Many of those ministries exist today because at one time they provided excellent ministry opportunities for your church, but have you evaluated their effectiveness today? Things change, and what was effective in the past may not be effective today.

When I was growing up the churches in our area offered two-week Vacation Bible School, and our small church was full of kids both weeks. Later, when I was a pastor, churches offered one-week VBS. Today, I see churches offering weekend VBS, one night a week for a month VBS, and other alternatives. Still, many complain that it's hard to get the kids to come because there are so many other things for them to do. Maybe it's time to consider if this is really a good use of our resources.

I'm not picking on Vacation Bible School. This is just one example of how things have changed over the years. I know many churches that still have vibrant Vacation Bible School programs, and it would be a mistake for those churches to eliminate that ministry. But, what about your church? Is this a vibrant ministry in your church or is this one that needs to be changed or even eliminated for something that might be more productive?

Many smaller churches will have much more effective ministries if they can focus on a few things they can do with excellence rather than trying to be all things for all people. For some churches, that may mean doing only one or two things, and that is alright if they can be done with excellence.