Dan Smith & Mary K. Hucyke: CourageousSpace Newsletter

Three Pitfalls for Churches

Congregations will always face external challenges. Neighborhoods change. Culture shifts. Their ability to meet those external challenges depends on whether or not they address some of the biggest internal challenges facing churches today. Jane Creswell in Christ-Centered Coaching names them aptly:

• Unworthy Goals
• Unrealistic Expectations
• Lack of Leadership & Untapped Potential

Churches are often oblivious that they have fallen into these traps. Or, believing that nothing can be done to change things, do nothing. Let's take a look at each so they can inform your planning as you head towards fall.

Unworthy Goals

Churches are called to participate in God's saving, redeeming and creating work in the world. Lofty work indeed! So big, in fact, that many churches are either timid about claiming their call or ignore it all together. They choose goals that seem understandable and achievable - replacing the carpet in the parlor, redoing the nursery, hosting a rummage-sale. Those activities can surely be strategies for a church achieving bigger goals such as creating safe and hospitable space for people to encounter each other and God or making available clean and affordable clothing and household goods to their low-income neighborhood. Often though, we find that churches have lost sight of the bigger goal these activities were originally designed to serve.

  Unworthy goals can be the result of losing touch with the very mission and purpose of the church. The answer for these churches is not first of all on the level of adjusting their goals. The beginning point is revisiting and re-anchoring in the basic "why" of their church's existence. From that basic foundation, they begin to sense God's call to them in their community TODAY. The "lofty work" begins to be an "of course!" Their own life that they feared losing is found.

Unworthy goals can also be the result of always playing safe. Churches that need to do things "perfectly" and "successfully" resist setting goals for themselves that seem too big or audacious. They look to themselves to see how big their vision should be, instead of allowing themselves to dream God-sized goals.

  Questions for reflection

• What is the impact your congregation is called to make in its community?
• If God wrote a letter to your church (as to the seven churches in Revelations) what would God say?
• What are the God-size goals your church is called to be a part of?
• If your congregation has lost touch with its mission and purpose, how will you address this during the next 6 months?

Unrealistic Expectations

It may seem strange to name unrealistic expectations as an internal challenge directly on the heels of encouraging congregations to set lofty goals for themselves! Unrealistic expectations isn't about setting a goal that is too high, but about thinking you can achieve that goal without setting priorities and making choices.

  Smaller churches often fall into this trap, but larger churches are also vulnerable. Realizing the many things that need attention and the many opportunities open to them, the congregation seeks to address them all: add a worship service, improve Christian Education, sharpen youth ministry, and develop lay leaders. Unrealistic expectations of what they can accomplish leads them to spread limited resources too thinly and they end up achieving none of their goals. Congregations come away from these pushes feeling frustrated and increasingly hopeless that there's anything they can do that will make a difference.

Particularly devastating is a cycle some churches fall into of reconnecting with their purpose and setting lofty goals. Then, trying to do it all, they fail at accomplishing anything. This cycle very quickly leads congregations to feel hopeless and cynical.

Congregations must choose where to focus their efforts and resources. While they may identify 4-6 areas that need attention, they must discipline themselves to address those areas one at a time, choosing which one is the strategic doorway to the others. Having said "yes" to one, they must say "not now" to the other, also important areas. They must also say "no" to areas which may receive considerable time and/or money but do not further the mission and purpose of the church.

Individuals who are passionate about one of the "set aside for now" focuses must be helped to understand that addressing one area at a time is the way to finally see the results in the area they care so deeply about.

Questions for reflection

• List the areas that your church has been giving time, energy, and money to.
• Now, for each area, note concrete, kin-dom results that have been made across the last year
• Which one, if real results were seen in it, would provoke movement in the others?
• Which one, if work was stopped in it for now, would be a relief to everyone?
• Where and with whom must you begin the conversation regarding setting priorities and making choices?

Lack of Leadership and Untapped Potential

Without worthy goals, leadership in a congregation is a mute issue. The expectation of the pastor in those settings is that he or she is there simply to serve the people in the church. And many congregations, although they offer different words, desire a pastor who focuses on serving their needs. Even when panicking over decline in their congregation, it is still "their" needs that drive them – their need to see their church gain strength and survive as their place of gathering and support. Leadership among the laity is also a mute issue. All that is needed are people to mow the grass, repair the roof, and keep the financial records.

However, when a church is operating with unworthy goals and/or unrealistic expectations, what they need most are leaders (lay and clergy) who will help them discover a sense of mission and purpose and keep them focused and aligned as they live them out. The challenge for a pastor is that he or she may have been "hired" with one set of expectations on the part of the congregation – maintenance and improvement. What the congregation really needs, however, might be transformation – stepping out of the mindset they are in into a missional mindset. Lack of leadership from the pastor creates collusion between the pastor and congregation and leads to the same results the congregation has been experiencing.

The leadership called for from the pastor is not only leadership into a renewed sense of mission and vision. Leadership also means developing and supporting laity as they step into their own leadership. The church cannot travel the path from current reality into the future God envisions without developing and unleashing the leadership potential of the laity. A pastor cannot lead by taking on all the roles and tasks that rightfully belong to others. Though it may appear to be a giving of self in incredible ways, this fosters dependency and is not servng as Christ served. Leadership, servant leadership, strives for others to become "healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants." (Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership)

  Questions for reflection

• What are the roles of lay leaders and clergy leaders in your congregation?
• If you are the pastor, what percentage of your time goes to developing leaders?
• If you give minimal time to this, where do you put your time instead? What results is that giving you?
• Think of yourself and your leaders. To what extent are you managers, helping life as it is run more smoothly? To what extent are you leaders, leading people into God's vision of new life?
• What must you do during the next 6 months to step more fully into your role as leader AND develop others as leaders?

External challenges will always be present…and they CAN be addressed. Addressing them, however, requires addressing the internal challenges. The work is not for the faint of heart - transformation never is! However, giving yourself to the work yields "Godly" results in you, your congregation, and the people and communities God has sent your congregation to serve.

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