
Change: When It Helps and When It Hurts Your Church
At the close of every season, wise leaders pause to reflect. They celebrate what’s been accomplished, identify what worked well,
I fly a lot, and I pray before each flight that God would allow me to have an effective conversation with the person next to me. Effective? That means I’ll represent the Church in a good light and talk about Jesus or faith somehow.
Occasionally, the Holy Spirit prepares the stranger and, through questions and answers, I end up praying out loud with the person who agrees to it. As a Christian, I believe this is my role. Sometimes, however, the person will sit down and quickly put their earphones in, pull out a book, or quickly close their eyes and lean back in their chair. They are essentially saying, “leave me alone”. So I do. Obviously, God isn’t opening the doors for a conversation.
What about a church setting where you’re trying to communicate to them? Maybe they’ve unsubscribed from your email list, declined a bulletin, or unfollowed your social media feed — these are the kind ways. Then there’s the vocal person who sees you in the church foyer, sends you a long email, or comments on your feed: “I wish you’d stop pushing church information to me!”
What’s a church to do? Should you take it personally? Should you try to discover a way around their ultimatum? Here’s 3 essential things every church should do:
Once you’ve done these things and have tried to adapt for people (without upsetting everyone else), you must realize you can’t please everyone. So, as difficult as it is, you should be relieved to let them go from your communication since they’re not the type of person who wants to listen to what you have to offer. Our whole goal is to not waste anyone’s time!
At the close of every season, wise leaders pause to reflect. They celebrate what’s been accomplished, identify what worked well,
Every week families arrive at church. They walk through the main doors and head down familiar paths toward “their” seat.
When a legal expert asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” it followed the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
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