In church leadership, it is quite tempting to confuse personal preference for effective church strategy.
For example, I could come up with a different U2 song to go along with virtually every message I give. In fact, I would love doing that. It would suit me and my preferences just fine.
But after about the third Sunday of that, the rest of the congregation would begin to yawn. It would get stale and predictable and would get in the way of our strategy.
By the same token, many churches through the years have resisted any move towards more contemporary or modern forms of worship. Why? The preferences of the members. And with a few exceptions (such as here and here), churches that have adamantly stayed traditional in their worship have declined in attendance and impact.
So whether it’s worship style or ministry design, make sure you don’t mistake personal preference for kingdom strategy.
There are 3 comments
Talbot, you have a very interesting point. So how do you merge the two? There are many “constituents” to consider, and yet only One that matters.
How do you move the church from an entertainment venue (preference) to the strategy of a deeper relationship with Christ?
You can get people in the door with the “flash and glitter”, but how do you move from a casual “observer” who likes the music, to an active “doer”?
What about the other 6 days?
How do you keep one generation active and engaged, yet still be compelling to the next?
How do you move the 90/10 statistic?
How about taking the “preference” out of the equation altogether and move to a Spirit led worship experience? It seems to me like He is the only one that can please everyone.
Thanks for the questions. Not sure I can answer them all.
The whole “Walking Together” philosophy is about the movement you ask about. We hope that we move people from worship into Pathfinder for community, Passage for content, and First Serve for serving. It’s the most focused we’ve ever been on the process and on harnessing all our energy in a few places, and it’s working better than expected.
I don’t know the 90/10 statistic you ask about.
As far as your final paragraph, we hope and pray Without Limit and Without Limit 2.0 moves us towards doing exactly that.
I’d be fine with U2.