Bigger is often not better

As one who works with ministries and ministry leaders I often hear rather dramatic plans for income expansion along with a tendency to believe that more ministry requires more people. I would offer some suggestions to think about coming out of many years of ministry leadership.

One: Bigger is not necessarily better. Bigger does not necessarily translate into greater ministry impact but what it does do is add a tremendous burden financially, administratively and in management. Because budgets and staff are things we can count, we often use them to define success - at least in the west. 

Success, however, is ministry impact and some ministries would be far better served to contract down to a core purpose, do that core purpose well and refuse to get sucked into ancillary things that are good but not core to who they are. A lean, nimble, "right sized" organization is better positioned for ministry impact than a bureaucratic, slow, undexterous large one. There are ministry organizations who have become so large that it is nearly impossible to change their direction and DNA. Don't assume larger is better.

Two: More money does not necessarily allow you to accomplish more ministry. I have a very good ministry friend whose plans always cost an amazing amount of money. I jokingly tell him that the right number is to divide his number by ten. He is never able to raise his large sums anyway. Resources are necessary for ministry. However, the thinking that "if I had more I could do more is often not true."

What is more important than how much money we have is how much we leverage the money we have for ministry impact. The issue is not the amount of money but the amount of leverage that the dollars we have can make. Often, there are ways of doing ministry that are far less expensive than we assume - if we are willing to rethink how we do what we do.

The positive thing about limited resources is that it forces us to prioritize those resources. Not everything we do has equal weight, importance or value. It is not a bad thing to evaluate and reallocate resources toward those things that will give us greatest ministry impact. Don't assume more money is the answer to your ministry's future.

Third: More ministries do not necessarily help you get where you want to go. Ministries often tend to add ancillary ministries in good times because they can. Ancillary ministries are things that are good but not central and core to who you are, what you have been called to do or where your expertise lies. Ministries can be like magnets picking up good things to do which actually detract from the central thing they do.

Every ministry needs to define what their core mission is and focus on being the very best they can be at that core calling. In fact, economic times like the one we are in right now force that conversation because good things many of us have been doing are no longer viable as donation income falters. It is very easy to stray from one's core calling. But it is in that calling, not ancillary callings, that you will have your greatest impact. So don't assume that more ministry is better ministry.
 

The economy is down so what do I do with my giving?

Whenever fear hits our economy, one of the first changes many people make is to cut back on their giving - whether or not the economy has affected them personally. It is the response of fear. I would take a different tack and suggest that even if the economy is impacting us personally, the last place we ought to cut back is in our giving. 

The priority we place on our giving is a direct reflection on the priority we place on being generous with the One who has been generous with us. It is a act of thanksgiving. It is also a direct reflection of our priority to be a part of spreading the Gospel that has been our salvation. It is an act of followership. When giving is the first to go among our priorities in hard times it simply indicates that it is not a real priority to us but an optional activity. Something nice when we have extra. 

Think about this: God does not abandon us no matter how tough things get. His faithfulness is the one thing we can count on at all times. Why, then would we easily cut back on our thanksgiving and followership by quickly abandoning our generosity in tough times. If anything it becomes an opportunity for us to be creative in our ways to give.

While the credit of the Federal government has been downgraded, God's faith and credit (and generosity to us) has not and will not be. So my goal is to do all I can to be as generous as I have been and trust Him for my daily provision, come what may. And you?

The American Dream and God's Dream

As one who travels the world and sees how most of the world lives, I can say with great thankfulness that I enjoy freedoms and opportunities that are absent in much of our world. The ability to make a living, to have a home, access to childcare, a judicial system that while flawed in many instances is better then most in the world and the list could go on. For many, the "American dream" is alive and well, if not a bit more complicated than it used to be. 

Whether we live in the United States or another developed country we have much to be thankful for. The alternatives are so much harder and more difficult.


But....


God's greatest goal for us is not that we are comfortable, have all we need and live a pain free life. His greatest goal is that we experience Him in all His fullness, live out His purpose and destiny for our lives and daily take up our cross and follow Him. The great irony is that all we have are blessings from His hand but those very blessings can easily sidetrack us from the very thing that will bring us our greatest pleasure and His: Living in the center of His will! It is the paradox He warned the Israelites of in Deuteronomy where He warned them of being seduced by their prosperity, allowing themselves to think it was from their own hand and divert their attention from full followership of Him.


If comfort was our goal, Robert Morrison would never have been the first missionary to China, leading to a Christian population today of over 100 million. If comfort was our goal, the translators of Wycliffe Bible Translators would not have gone to remote villages to spend their lives translating the Good News. Nor would Paul have put up with beatings, shipwrecks, death threats, poverty and hardship for the sake of the Gospel - among whom we are the recipients. If comfort was the goal, the men and women of Hebrews 11 would not have followed God to hard places and suffered hard things for His sake. 


Jim Elliott had it right. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." All God asks is that we follow him closely, respond when He speaks to us and live lives that are in alignment with His heart. Ironically, the very things He may ask us to do are the very keys to our own joy and legacy. 


No one will regret for one instant in "eternity" what they sacrificed for the sake of Christ in "time." Many will regret for all eternity that they didn't follow Him more closely in this life. Our comfort is always secondary to our followership but in that followership we find joy beyond belief.

The church as a redemptive community

Local congregations that desire to mirror the heart of Jesus willingly and intentionally embrace the role of being a redemptive community - embracing the broken and the hurting with the goal of moving them toward wholeness and healing.

Listen to the heart of Jesus: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." In the cosmic battle between the evil one and Christ, the evil one will do all he can to destroy people made in the image of God. Any way he can bring destruction he does and will. The pseudo satisfaction of sin is just that: the promise of joy and wholeness through the violation of righteousness and holiness. And with that destruction comes pain, guilt, sadness, addictions, relational brokenness and all the undoneness that characterizes our societies.

Jesus on the other hand, through the cross and the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit is in the business of redeeming what the evil one has destroyed and stolen in order to restore the image that He created us in - His image. Redemption is not just redeemed hearts (it starts there) but it is the bringing of life and life in all its fullness to people who have been damaged and victimized by the evil one. It is an ongoing process from brokenness to wholeness. 

If that is the desire, ministry and commitment of Jesus, it must also be that of the church. We are a community of the redeemed after all, who are together on a journey toward greater wholeness as we pursue His image. As such, we are looking for the broken and hurting, introducing them to Christ, and as a part of our discipleship, helping them move from their brokenness to wholeness.

Do we see ourselves that way and do we portray that "redemptive community" to those we seek to reach? Here is an interesting observation. Most advertising for local churches portrays happy, intact, prosperous families, vibrant worship, healthy people who seem to have it all together and are living the American dream. If you doubt me, check out the web sites of local churches. What does that say to the broken, discouraged, divorced, and addicted individual who is looking for hope? It probably says, there is no one here that is in my shoes. Now look at the ads for local counseling centers or drug rehab centers and you get the picture. And by the way, what does the American dream have to do with following Jesus?


How do we see ourselves in the local church? Do we see ourselves as a place for people who have it together or a place for people who don't but want to go there? Are we a community of the redeemed, moving toward His image (slow and difficult as that is) or do we already have it together? (an oxymoron until we get to heaven). Are we looking for the "nice" people or the "broken" people?


To put this into New Testament perspective, the nice and the together were the Pharisees who looked the part on the outside but were in Jesus words merely "white washed tombs." The redeemed who were moving toward wholeness from brokenness were the tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and generally the scum of the earth who understood brokenness and craved wholeness. 


I wonder if the modern day pharisees are those who pretend that they  have it together spiritually when inside there is a lot of hidden darkness and brokenness. I wonder if the modern day prostitutes and tax collectors are those who know how desperately broken they are and who genuinely crave the mercy, love and wholeness that Jesus brings. That is what a redemptive community looks like. Can whole congregations be characterized by one group or the other?

Four reasons people don't fully embrace their God designed gifting and destiny

Many people have not yet stepped completely into their destiny and embraced who God made them to be. They are holding back, and in doing so and living cautiously they live with the sense that God has something more for them, that they are not truly fulfilled and that they are not using all of the gifts and wiring that God created within them. 

Why would people not fully embrace and live out the real them that God created and settle for something less than they know to be who they are? I believe there are four key reasons that we choose caution over all out destiny producing lives.

One: all of us suffer the wounds of life. Many times those wounds cause us to pull into our shell and protect ourselves. The wife who has been told by her husband for years that she is "stupid" and "incompetent." The pastor who has suffered wounds from his leaders and chooses to back off and lead cautiously. The woman who had an abortion in her youth and secretly believes that because of that act she will never be used by God.

Life brings with it wounds and those wounds, even without us knowing it can cause us to pull back from all God made us to be. In doing that we short circuit who God made us to be.

Two: The lies of the evil one: He does not want us to claim our destiny or fully live in the lane God created for us. Lies like, "He will never use you because of what you have done," "you are not worthy," "you will make a fool of yourself," "you are not qualified," and the lies in our head go on and on and cause us to pull back, live in caution and even fear. 

The evil one absolutely does not want any of us to step completely into our destiny and who God made us to be because it is then we are a direct threat to him. He will do all he can to keep us living in fear and caution.

Three: The expectations of others. Many of us are doing what we do because someone else had a plan for our lives - parents, spouses, or other well meaning people who told us what we ought to be doing but which leaves us with a quiet sense that we are not doing the right thing that maximizes our gifting and impact. Many people have plans for our lives but God's plan trumps them all. When we are in a role that is incompatible with the real us we live with frustration, anxiety and that vague sense of incompleteness. And it prevents us from fully embracing God's plan for our lives.

Fourth: Fear. Fear of failure, fear of allowing out voice to be heard, fear that we might be wrong, fear that others will take offense. Fear is the killer of faith which is why the number one command in scripture is "Fear not." Here is the irony: God never asks us to step into who he made us to be without promising to go with us, empower us and protect us. After all we are simply living out His will for our lives. 

Let me ask a personal and direct question. Are you holding back in your life? Are you resisting God's whisper to step out and be who God made you to be - completely? Do you have a sense that God has more for you but that it is you who is holding back? If so, the antidote to these destiny killers is to courageously step out in faith, in followership and in close connection with God and just go for it, trusting that God will go with you.

Cautious living leads to diminished joy and diminished impact. When we fully embrace our God given gifts and destiny the adventure begins and our joy increases. 

What has your ministry learned in the past five to ten years?

I had a great conversation with a ministry this week. They are ten years old and the goal of the conversation was to figure out how they could accomplish in the next two years more than they had in the past ten years. 

Now that may sound like an audacious goal, but not necessarily - because, when one stops and thinks about it, lessons have been learned positive and negative that could change the nature of how the ministry approached its next run and from those lessons extrapolate ministry strategy that is far more successful.

The answers to "what have we learned in the first ten years" filled a huge whiteboard several times over. The dialogue around those lessons started to clarify in these leaders minds, how they needed to shape their strategy for the future.

Once we had done this we moved to a second question. What "game changers" could we think of that would dramatically increase the ministry's impact in the next two years. We put one other thing on the table: as we considered the next two years we wanted to totally ignore how we were currently configured and ask how we would organize the ministry today if we were starting all over - knowing what we know today.

Our goal was to erase from our minds our preconceived conceptions of how things should be done (because we have always done them that way) and ask how we would organize today if we were starting from scratch based on lessons learned. Again, we came up with some significant game changers along with robust dialogue around those potential changes. 

Based on those "game changers" this ministry is moving forward and taking some calculated risks about how they see a quantum leap in their ministry effectiveness - based on the positive and negative lessons learned in their past. 

If you have never tried this exercise I would strongly encourage you to do so. Your team actually has an amazing amount of information as to what has worked well and what has not worked well but until one puts that in black and white and asks one can leverage that valuable information for the future, we continue to do what we always did - out of sheer habit.

What boards and pastors need to know about one another

The relationship between senior pastors and their board is a critical factor in the success or failure of any pastor and it therefore impacts the health of the church. It is not always an easy relationship and takes time to build and nurture. Here are some things that pastors and boards need to know about one another.

Boards need to know that pastors see their role not as a job but as a calling. It is one of the reasons that many pastors are deeply sensitive to what they perceive to be criticism. This is their life, not just a job! Board members who are insensitive or critical are likely to get a defensive reaction from many pastors. Yes, pastors (I was one) can be insecure and sensitive. Much of that is that they care a lot about what they do.

Boards need to know that a pastor can weather almost any storm as long as the board is with him. But, if the board is not supportive publicly and privately the relationship is likely to go south. This does not mean that they always need to agree. It does mean that a pastor can count on the board to guard his back and take arrows for him. Boards that are not supportive are likely to lose their pastor as no pastor can effectively minister without the support of his board. Pastors are much more likely to listen carefully to board members who they know they can trust than whose support is tepid.

The job of a pastor is often a lonely one and it brings with it huge pressures. Someone is always unhappy and unlike the workplace you cannot fire your congregants! If a pastor can rely on his board for friendship and support it goes a long way for them.

Boards need to know that pastors resent being micromanaged. Pastors have lots of people who think they can and should tell them how to do what they do. What they don’t want is the board doing the same thing in terms of their day to day duties. Healthy boards don’t do management – they leave that to the pastoral staff (or volunteers). Instead they focus on vision and direction and policy.

Pastors on the other hand need to know that board members are used to having robust dialogue without people getting defensive over direct comments and opinions. That is the way it is in most workplaces. People express their opinions openly and candidly and it is expected that others can take it without it causing angst. Just because board members express differing opinions does not mean they are not in your corner. They are used to candid discussion.

Pastors need to know that board members have a tremendous amount of expertise from their experience and work which can be brought to bear on ministry. And they want to use their gifts in the ministry setting. But they often feel like this is not welcome because “this is a ministry not business.” Good leadership, good practices apply in the workplace and the church. Whenever we give the impression that “business and ministry” don’t match up we disemempower board members who come out of the non ministry world.

Pastors need to know that board members care about bottom line results and getting things done. They are often frustrated by the slow pace in ministry or staff members who don’t have a plan or cannot execute that plan. Return on investment (ROI) is something they value in their business – they want to stay in business. Return on mission (ROM) is something they value in the church. Lack of effective planning and execution on the plan will cause great frustration to good leaders.

Consider having a candid conversation as a board with your pastor on areas that each side sees that cause angst or frustration. You may not agree on everything but at least you will understand one another better and the needs that both have from the other. As this relationship goes, so goes the church.