I often say, “You limit what you control.” There are limitations pastors unknowingly set for their church. It’s often a matter of control, yet I believe most of the time we do it without realizing they are.
Many of these are natural occurrences from doing things a certain way over time. Yet, when these are in place the church will often fail to reach its full potential.
Four limitations pastors unknowingly set for their church:
1) Defining success in making disciples.
Whatever you script will be limited to the script. The discipleship process looks different for different people.
Set the goal of making disciples and allow other people to weigh in on how this is accomplished.
2) Limiting the number of leaders.
When all your leaders fit in the current structure, you are leaving out some leaders who simply need permission to step outside the norm.
Empower people to lead in their passions, not only in your current and structured programs.
3) Determining where evangelism takes place.
If evangelism is a Tuesday night outreach event, then its scope will be very limited.
Train people and release them to live out their faith in the workplace, schools, grocery stores, or wherever they happen to be.
4) Confining people to established programs.
After the last three, this one probably speaks for itself. Programs are fine. They have worked and will continue to work. But no church has every program for every person.
Effective church leaders think bigger than a program/process-based approach.
I have been accused of approaching ministry from an organizational or business mindset. That could be the curse of most of my career being in the marketplace. However, I do believe strategy works in ministry settings as well.
Let me know if I can help you or your church think more strategically. Check out my new website design and my 5T Leadership offerings.
