George Yates wrote a great little book on church
strengthening called Reaching the Summit.
I have had the privilege of meeting George a few times and corresponding with
him on the subject of church health. Yates
wrote about one situation, “Meeting with this group of leaders for about an
hour, it was apparent to me that this church had been making a series of
injurious decisions for several years. The detriment of decisions is not always
visible to those making the decisions. However, just as success comes from
making one good decision after another, a series of bad decisions will lead a
church through the phases of decline at an accelerated rate.” Yates is pointing
out a very powerful truth. Good decision making in churches is vitally
important and bad decision making is equally detrimental. Like toppling
dominoes, our corporate decision making can have far-reaching consequences for
our congregational vitality (or lack thereof). Especially given these
implications:
Critical mass – This
is a term I’ve heard Yates use to describe the condition that occurs “when the
attendance or membership decline reaches a point where replacing capable leadership
becomes difficult and ministries and programs begin to be compromised or condensed.”
If a church is already compromised through regular decline, every decision has
larger implications for its future. Unfortunately, it is not always immediately
obvious just how perilous the outcomes may be. Decisions related to hiring
pastors, for example, can be life or death in numerically declining churches.
And other congregational decisions can also tip the scales toward health and
recovery or irretrievable loss.
Subject to forces
or guiding a process? In the movie Forest Gump, the lead character ponders life and
fate: “I
don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around
accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is
happening at the same time.” Let’s be clear, in churches we are not “floating
around accidental-like.” We are not subject to forces over which we have no
control. Obviously God is at work and that is the most necessary aspect of
ministry (Mark 4:26-29), but we also have a stewardship in leading the church. Leaders
are accountable and responsible for good decision making.
Making good
decisions. What are the important components of good decision making?
1. First, follow Scripture.
Every good decision begins when we ask God; every poor decision evolves from
neglecting His wisdom. When we neglect prayer and scripture in crafting
responses to challenging congregational issues, we put ourselves at the disposal
of emotions, mere human opinions and the zeitgeist (spirit of the times). Why
would we do that? Sometimes it is because the issues we are involved with are
emotionally charged. Sometimes a matter takes on an inflated sense of urgency.
I say inflated, because nothing is so critical that we shouldn’t handle it
cautiously and deliberately and especially Biblically! Sometimes leaders have
not equipped themselves to think Biblically, and so they end up trying to behave
“practically,” with predictably poor outcomes (James 3:13-18).
2. Be hard on
problems, not people. Most of the time, the problems we face in leading
local churches are people problems. Any policies adopted ought to feature a baseline
assumption that behaving in a redemptive manner toward people is of great importance.
Watching the behavior of churches at times, it is not clear that we understand
this. What good is it to have policies, properties and facilities if we are not
Gospel-centered and living out the command to love others? Policies, whether
formal or informal, that do not keep in mind God’s purpose to save and rescue
lost people are deadly. Decisions that do not ask, “What are the implications
of this for the Gospel?” are crippling. And all churches should exercise care
in how they make decisions, but especially those who may be one or two bad
decisions from extinction.
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