This Week in Mission – Oct 13, 2008

 

I received a great affirmation at the close of my consultation with a church in Nashville. The recommendations were pretty challenging, but at the end of the night one of the patriarchs and his wife told me “they had been skeptical about hiring an outside consultant, but now they were sold!” She was nearly in tears with enthusiasm, and he was asking for more resources.

 

My reflection is that this happy conversion of controllers did not happen by accident … or overnight. It wasn’t even my doing (at least, not directly). This church had a visioning team, and some pretty aggressive lay leaders who were determined to change the church. For 6 months we traded email and gave coaching … the widely read Kicking Habits and Moving Off the Map. Along the way, they let go a staff person who was clearly not on board … and supported the senior pastor whose give for mercy was hindering change.

 

Meanwhile, the team did tremendous research gathering data and perspective for the “Congregational Mission Assessment”. We relied on the great demographics and lifestyle segment research from www.missioninsite.com. Staff, council, and core leaders were well prepared and ready with questions. A spirit of openness pervaded the church before I even got there. Finally, the District Superintendent was totally aware, on board, and conveying urgency.

 

Now this was (and is) a pretty “stuck” church. And it still took a lot of listening, diplomacy, and planning to develop the package of recommendations. Some of the recommendations are pretty challenging … a few are rather expensive. Nevertheless, the outcome was especially positive. The lesson to learn is that a consultation can leverage big change (without splitting a church), but it requires the pre-work of some persistent volunteers.

 

 

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