Christian leadership a...

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How to deal with your non-perfect church

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How to deal with your non-perfect church

People get disgruntled. I’ve had a number of conversations in the last few weeks with people from different churches. All of them appreciated their church, but all were struggling with deficiencies. Some of the folk were in leadership positions and others weren’t.

At one level, dealing with this kind of thing is a no-brainer. As the old saying goes, if you ever find a perfect church, you’ll ruin it as soon as you join it.

But we need to start asking ourselves a number of questions when doubts arise as to whether we’re in the right place.

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Why do we lose vision?

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Why do we lose vision?

Most leaders start off as visionaries but wind up as managers. Or worse, as drop-outs.

I realize that’s a sweeping statement. And maybe one made to catch your attention. But I believe there is truth in it.

As a young man, I had an enormous vision for God. It propelled me to do all sorts of things that were way beyond my comfort zone and my ability. Some of those things were more successful than others, but at least I got out of the boat and headed out onto the water.

And then the waves hit, just like they did with Peter. We criticize Peter for getting his eyes off the Lord and beginning to sink, but at least he got out of the boat! The others sat in their seats and watched.

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Seven quick steps to deal with conflict

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Seven quick steps to deal with conflict

Most of us dislike conflict, and run from confrontation as fast as we can.

And in one sense we should. My spiritual father, Duane Harder, used to say that anyone who loves confrontation is a dangerous person. And yet in all my life I never met anyone who handled conflict and confrontation better than he did.

He did it by modelling the ideal: someone who is fearless in confrontation without actually enjoying it.

It is so critical that we learn to deal with conflict rightly. If we can come without fear when we sit down at the table, then we can come in principle and not in emotion.

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Get your vision back!

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Get your vision back!

“Without a vision the people perish.” So says the well known verse from Proverbs.

 

We will die without vision. Churches all over the western world are dying and closing daily for that very reason.

 

But what, you ask, is vision?

 

A few years ago, I got so tired of hearing about the need for vision statements, I collected a variety of those statements from a number of large churches across the United States.  Most of them had without doubt spent a small fortune on consultants to develop them. And not surprisingly, they were all virtually the same. Maybe the same consultants had done the rounds!

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Letting go

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Letting go

It’s hard to let go.

The conversation I was having was with a young pastor in a large church in another country. He had been disappointed in a discipling relationship and was struggling with how to emerge from it in a positive way.

Leaders make lots of mistakes. None of us is perfect. And people only fall off pedestals we have put them on. And yet the discipling of leaders is so important we have to do better than most of us have done.