As we nurture our children, we gradually give them new opportunities
for responsibility and independence. We
encourage them to dress themselves and pick out their own clothes. We provide food options (all healthy, of
course) that they can choose. We provide
books and games that will stretch them mentally. We start acting “as if” they were older and
encourage them to move to the next level.
A church that desires to grow must start acting in the same
way. I often say to pastors, “If your
church wants to move to the next level, you must start acting as if you were
already at that level.” This means
providing adequate staffing, sufficient worship opportunities, differentiated
educational groupings, and challenging ministries. For example, if your church wants to have a
quality children’s program that will attract and retain children, you need to
develop one. Perhaps you only have two
or three children attending now, but you can start staffing and planning as if
you had a dozen children. When a parent
brings a child to your children’s ministry, he or she will see that you are
providing more than the minimum; you are expecting children and prepared for
them.
This acting “as if” applies to the pastor as well. Perhaps you have been the chaplain of a
family sized congregation. In order for
the congregation to move to the next level, you may have to become more of a
coordinator and administrator. Rather
than serving as a “sounding board” for the church’s matriarch or patriarch, you
may have to lead through personal relationships by delegating, assigning
responsibility, and recognizing achievements of others.
If we act “as if” with diligence and commitment, we soon
find that we have arrived at our goal. Someone
has said, “Fake it until you make it,” but we are talking about more than just “faking”
it. We are talking about providing the
structure, resources, and leadership that will accommodate the next level of
growth. If you don’t do this, you
probably won’t grow.
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