Ever stop for a second and wonder where the time went? As I am sitting down to write this, I"m saying to myself, “Wow, is it March already? I can’t believe that we are already a quarter into 2011!” As you look back over the past couple of months, what have your successes been?
This is our third opportunity to share some of the "illusions" that leaders in churches and other non-profit organizations face every day. If you missed the intro and our first entries, please feel free to check it out at http://cmi-blog.blogspot.com/.
A few years ago, I participated in a webinar on Emotional Intelligence for the betterment of my own personal development and skill set as a leader. The content was fantastic! Many of the concepts I was introduced to then support the work we are now doing with leaders called LifeLines.
One of those concepts is the notion of “intention vs impact.” As soon as I saw the connection, a light came on that allowed me to see both the personal development and the leadership implications. It helped to drive home the point that emotion really does drive our behaviour.
Almost two years ago we were having lunch with a retired Presbyterian minister who had, over the course of several years, pastored very successful rural churches that had each experienced growth - spiritually, in attendance and financially. Since he retired, he has been called in to work on an interim basis with many churches that have gone through significant difficulties. He just has that ability to help people communicate better with each other and see the bigger picture - to remember the "cause". A comment he made during lunch really stuck with us. He said that he was surprised at how many churches there were now (including some that he had shepherded significant growth) where the pastor simply did not care about people! So, why is it then that people become pastors? I remember my father saying many times that unless you have a specific call, don’t bother pastoring.
The numbers of pastors that are leaving the ministry is staggering. Most statistics say that 60% to 80% of those who enter the ministry will not still be in it 10 years later, and only a fraction will stay in it as a lifetime career. Why is that? How do you go from being called to enter the ministry to leaving church altogether? Is it because they have "lost" their initial calling or is it something else?
I have also always believed that the reason anyone would want to become a pastor is because they care for people. However, as we look at how the organized church has evolved over the years, there has obviously been a growth in the number of people attending (from the original 12 disciples to the slightly less than 2 billion). But with growth comes a problem. How do we handle ministry to more and more people? How do we continue to reach more and disciple the people we have? The traditional response - and the response still today, is that we create programs. Children’s programs, youth programs, men’s & women's programs, couples' programs, small group programs, satellite sites for Sunday programs, etc, etc, etc. Not that any of these are wrong or bad. It's just that I wonder about whether our intention of having these programs care for an ever-increasing number of people is actually having the impact that we all so desperately want to see. Many churches struggle year in and year out trying to find people to staff all of the programs, yet many churches are seeing the number of people involved in their programs (on Sunday or at any other time during the week) decrease. What is the impact of our intention of truly discipling, reaching out and caring for people?
Considering the concept of “intention vs impact”, the leadership questions that need to be asked in every situation is, what is our impact - and is it matching our intention?
I believe that when you take good people, wanting to care for people, and put them in positions that now require them to be administrators (running or managing programs) you kill the part of them that is alive and will bear fruit. Am I saying that pastors shouldn’t be involved and running programs? Certainly not. What I am saying is that, with so many churches in maintenance or decline, with so many pastors leaving the church for many reasons that originally had a desire to care for people, the impact isn’t matching up with the calling on their lives. We constantly wonder how churches today continue to do the same things that they have always done and expect to get different results.
What do we need to do to change the pattern? What does a church need to look like in order to foster care for all people, including its senior leaders? How are denominational leaders wrestling down this complex problem? How are you managing your own intentions and impact?
These are the kind of fundamental questions that need to be addressed in order for the church to become healthy.
These are the kinds of questions Commitment Ministries is here to help you solve.
