I am spending the next two days with a church consultant. Here's why.
One of the great challenges we face as leaders is something called inattentional blindness. The way it works is this: if you see something all the time it begins to disappear until you don't see it at all. That's how you lose perspective. And that's how you lose your leadership edge.
What are the implications?
For starters, most pastors totally forget what it's like for someone who is unchurched to walk through the doors of the church for the first time. So our environment isn't as hospitable as it could be or should be. For example, we do a disclaimer before our offering each week. If you are a guest, please don't feel obligated to give. This is just one way we, as regular attenders, worship God. You've got to let them off the hook because they have no idea what is happening when an offering bucket is coming their way. Is this mandatory? Are these weekly dues? How much do I put in? I think another example is that we turn a blind eye to the chipped paint on the wall or the unevenly folded bulletin or the lack of directional signs. Essentially, we lose our excellence.
How do you fight it?
I have two recommendations. One way is by doing reconaissance at other churches. I need to get outside my environment and see what others are doing. It keeps me from becoming a closed-system. Another way is via consultation. You invite someone into your environment to give you fresh perspective.
One way or the other, good leaders master the art of reevaluation. They are constantly reevaluating everything they do. Otherwise we start doing ministry out of memory.
Here's what I know for sure. We can have better systems. I can preach better messages. We can create better videos. We can become more hospitable. We can do a better job of evangelizing and discipling.
I think there has to be a degree of holy discontent if we are going to move toward excellence and overcome our inattentional blindness.
One of the great challenges we face as leaders is something called inattentional blindness. The way it works is this: if you see something all the time it begins to disappear until you don't see it at all. That's how you lose perspective. And that's how you lose your leadership edge.
What are the implications?
For starters, most pastors totally forget what it's like for someone who is unchurched to walk through the doors of the church for the first time. So our environment isn't as hospitable as it could be or should be. For example, we do a disclaimer before our offering each week. If you are a guest, please don't feel obligated to give. This is just one way we, as regular attenders, worship God. You've got to let them off the hook because they have no idea what is happening when an offering bucket is coming their way. Is this mandatory? Are these weekly dues? How much do I put in? I think another example is that we turn a blind eye to the chipped paint on the wall or the unevenly folded bulletin or the lack of directional signs. Essentially, we lose our excellence.
How do you fight it?
I have two recommendations. One way is by doing reconaissance at other churches. I need to get outside my environment and see what others are doing. It keeps me from becoming a closed-system. Another way is via consultation. You invite someone into your environment to give you fresh perspective.
One way or the other, good leaders master the art of reevaluation. They are constantly reevaluating everything they do. Otherwise we start doing ministry out of memory.
Here's what I know for sure. We can have better systems. I can preach better messages. We can create better videos. We can become more hospitable. We can do a better job of evangelizing and discipling.
I think there has to be a degree of holy discontent if we are going to move toward excellence and overcome our inattentional blindness.
9 Comments:
mark, this is why I read your blog-to get ideas of how to stay fresh doing ministry. Out of curiosity-what do you do to implement what the consultant says? Didn't you have a consultant come to your church in 11/06? I searched and didn't see any follow up to what changes you did or didn't make.
The goal is actual implementation after the evaluation. So it's ideal if the consultant comes up with observations and action points. I think you generally pick and choose--not everything will hit the mark. But you come up with "action steps" and "time lines" to implement.
We implemented quite a few things from our last consultation but I'm not sure I blogged about them specifically.
Mark
Mark,
Would you be willing to make available who this resource is and what the financial investment is? Maybe through email if not on the blog? I'm sure I could find a consultant on my own, but I always like a reputable name.
Thanks,
Rusty
Mark, I love this. It is right on the Mark. I agree that to be an effective we must try to reevaluate things and to get fresh perspective however we can.
I also admire you for seeing this and knowing that you need a fresh view through a church consultant?
Keep up the great posts! I will continue to read daily!
Mark,
Thank you for being unapologetically relevant and practical. In my ministry I couldn't go a day without evaluating every process of our ministry effectiveness. I handed out an evaluation form to one member every week and sent a 'what did you think' evaluation form to every guest. When these guests' brought back these forms they received a free drink from our cafe.
Mark,
I applaud you as a leader. If you aren't getting better, you are moving backwards. As an aside, have you read The Simple Church? There is a lot of meat and truth in that book.
David
David,
I loved Simple Church--great stuff! I think we need to strive toward simplicity!
Mark
I love this post. I was just thinking last night, Churches should have mystery shoppers!
I know it sounds so commercial and pandering, but it's not really. What small things are churches doing that turn off those who really need to be in church? How will they know unless they set into motion a process to find out?
When Greg & I were looking for a church, one thing that would cause us to leave before the message even started was the music level: so loud, you couldn't hear the person next to you unless you screamed. Yes, the music should be loud, but why so loud? Really loud music can trigger my migraines, so we had to dismiss out of hand many churches. We brought our unchurched neighbor to a local church's meet & greet. She is partially deaf in one ear. The music was so loud, she could not hear what anyone was saying. She became very embarrassed and wanted to leave. We asked them to turn the music down and they said no. So we left and since then, our neighbor has been very hesitant to go to church function with us. I know we're not the only ones who think the music is way too loud - my sister brings ear plugs to her church.
OK, off my soapbox :-) -- but it did make me think, how many people leave a church and never come back due to small things that are easily adjusted? That's where mystery shoppers could help shed light!
Mark,
Our church has been going through a strategic planning process using a church consultant. It's been a blast and I believe is going to lead to God doing even greater things in our church.
We used a Vienna, VA based group called TAG co-founded by Kevin Ford. http://transformingchurch.net/
I highly recommend them.
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