When a church lies to itself …
Because I was going to be in town for a while, a fellow pastor asked me if I would participate each week in reviewing the Sunday morning service and activities. I agreed I would.
A couple of weeks later, I was dropped from participating!
This church, led by a good friend of mine, has members from the worship team, greeters, and various other members write down their “honest” assessment of the quality of each service, critiquing all aspects of the service from being greeted at the door to the fellowship that follows the worship hour.
What I noticed in the feedback provided by others was a whitewashing about what was really happening in the services at that church. The critiques were not honest, they were a focused attempt to find something good about the services, and most of the time that was the only thing shared.
My feedback, on the other hand, went beyond noting the few strong points of the service to include detailing the weaknesses. Considering there were more weaknesses than strengths, it was easy to do.
But there was a primary reason why it was easy to detail the weaknesses: Until that church learns to be honest about what it is doing poorly, it will not improve.
If every service is always “alright,” and “alright” is always acceptable, it will remain mediocre. You cannot begin to purposely pursue improvement until you become discontent with your own level of mediocrity.
I give that church credit for having a system of reviewing what they were doing, whereas many churches do not. However, if you’re only going to be dishonest with yourself about the quality of what you’re doing, then you’re wasting your (and others’) time.
A church can benefit by routinely reviewing the quality of its work. But that effort needs to be an honest assessment so that you can identify and pursue areas that really do need to be improved.
Scotty
August 12, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I have found the "alright" viewpoint to be a huge problem in our church in the past. I spent years trying to teach the importance of excellence and consistency. Things would improve only to fall right back into old patterns. My desire to change things from the outside didn't work (change from the outside rarely does). It took a genuine move of the Holy Spirit in our leaders. They became inspired and took ownership. It came in God's timing, not mine. Now my teaching has become a road map for the God-given motivation they now have. Through it all I've learned to be more patient with people and do more praying than talking. However, my mandate from God is to be productive for the Kingdom, so from time to time I force our leaders to take an honest look at where we as as a church. It can be very good for a church if done with love and when the time is right. Some would argue, "the time is right now". They have never been the pastor of a church that has been stuck for years and needs to change it's course.
Great article
August 12, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Great insight, Mylon, and right on! My post was limited to simply stirring thought on the need for churches to be honest about themselves, but your insight on the process of that is right on. Thanks for sharing your experience bro!