Athletes often describe hitting a “wall” of performance. It is a barrier where no apparent amount of effort appears able to push through the pain of the moment. Athletes who hit such a barrier either surrender or they devise new understandings of the mind and disciplines of the body to help break through the barriers of their efforts.
Churches and church leaders face similar barriers. Often, it is a barrier that exists because of repeated patterns of behavior. Lyle Schaller calls this behavior, “path dependency”: once people/institutions travel down a certain path, it is difficult to choose a new road (Schaller, The Very Large Church, pg. 107).
Having gotten what we’ve always gotten, we continue to do what we have always done, because we don’t want anything new. New = scary. How many times have we given in to destructive patterns in the church that prevent our growth? God wants our churches to grow…to break out of the Pharisitical mindset ... to release the captive and to give sight to the blind. Each church size has a different DNA and size constraint. In my reading, I find there are at least 6 fundamentals that can help our church break through ministry growth barriers:
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Clarity of vision
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Certainty of leadership
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Unity of leadership
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Connection with Community
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Excellence in Presentation
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Faithfulness in Follow Through
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The long time members
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The music program
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Consumers of organ music
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United Methodist Women
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Protectors of the Facility
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Crusaders for the UM organization
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Youth Group
Are you aware of others?
“Churches that are effective in reaching people for Christ see the needs of the unchurched, establish ministries that allow the church to be present in the community, and have a process by which they are able to draw these unchurched people into the safety of Christ and a local church” (Mcintosh & Martin, Finding Them, Keeping Them, Page 22). Growing Churches know who they are, why they are, and where they are. They have learned to operate out of their strengths and to mitigate against their weaknesses. They know what their key role is and how to parlay that role into motivated ministry. Finally, leaders in growing churches know where they are going and where they are now. Leaders in growing churches build bridges to the future while they are walking there. Unity of Leadership Larry Osborne has written a great book entitled "The Unity Factor". While it is a small book, it has a powerful message: “Get the key influencers in your church to share a common vision. Sacrifice today for the promise of tomorrow in these peoples lives.” Without leadership unity, there will be no lasting ministry growth that breaks through barriers.Listen to this quote from a committed leader in a local church about the importance of leadership unity: "At our church my wife and I are giving time we don't have and tons of money because it's important. Do you think we are going to let sick people kill that work and investment? Heavens no! It's costing us way too much! For every sick, agenda laden, divisive, contentious, person in our church we aren't willing to confront (out of fear we say "oh that's just the way they are," "I don't think God wants us to treat people like that”), there are 10, 20, 100, 1000 people out there to be won to Christ that won't because they sniff out the contentiousness and will go somewhere else. Do we want to stand before God and say we did the math wrong, or that we didn't have the guts to make way for 100s more to come to Christ by not tackling these problems decisively?" (Don Nelson, personal conversation)Where are you and your church with these two fundamentals? Is the vision clear? Has God written the vision on your heart? How about unity of leadership? Is the leadership team in your ministry united in passion, purpose, and process?
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