1. You hate to delegate.

No one should fly alone! And you will crash and burn if you don’t pull a team around you. Ministry and church work is a battlefield wrought with difficulties and a strong adversary. If you choose not to share the load, and allow others to carry out their “specialty” it will be to your own demise!  Do what ONLY YOU… can do, and delegate the rest with love and clear expectations. It will clear the mine field in your path!

2. You keep on making the same mistakes.

Listen closely. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. So when you measure something, and it doesn’t meet your expectations or goals… CHANGE IT! If failure scares you, put on your “big girl panties” and move on! Failure is the only teacher for many! So if you get hung up on changing something, because it looks like you failed, get over it, change it and pray about it harder next time!

3. You hate taking risks.

You will never know what is behind curtain #1 until you make a choice! God told Abram to “leave and go to a place I will show you.” God did not reveal all the details before He expected pure and uninterrupted obedience. I can never remember anything God has told me to do, where He also told me how it would turn out, and how it would be accomplished. God don’t roll like that! When you hear God move! Jump!

4. You’re on your first business.

This is hallow ground. I had (4) business failures before I had a successful one. I had (2) failed church plants before a successful one. The first is generally the most difficult. So if this is your first church, ministry or leadership role, make sure you listen to those who have traveled the road before you and network and I mean NETWORK! You will have questions and issues that others are more than glad to help with if you will only ask.

5. You can’t focus.

It is better to do 1-thing and do it well, rather than trying to do 3-things, and do none of them well. I can remember when our church began to grow, really grow! We had a staff retreat and established our ministry priorities. We also knew we could only focus on one per year! Yeah, we had people grumbling, “why don’t we have this, or why aren’t we doing that.?” The answer was simple, if we focused on building more than one principle at a time, we would suck at ALL of them. That is not an option!

These signs are adapted from a Blog by Michael Bowers. You can see the original blog here: http://michaelbowersonline.com/15-warning-signs-that-your-business-sucks

2 Responses to “5-Final signs your church might SUCK!”

1. Buddy Knight says:

   July 8, 2010 at 2:36 pm

   1a. The inability to delegate rises out of more than one thing:

   – Fear, since you are not 100% in controls (NEWS FLASH: You never are!)
   – Arrogance, since you think that YOUR WAY/IDEA is the only RIGHT WAY/IDEA.
   – Inability to train your staff. If you have a staff member you can't delegate to, either train/educate him or replace him.

   "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." General George S. Patton.

   2.a The old joke about insanity being the expectation of different results from doing the same thing over and over again applies, but I think a bigger root is PRIDE. You keep head-butting the wall because you just can believe that you might be wrong, incomplete, untrained, etc. Get over it and move out!

   3. a "He who does not risk, cannot win" Admiral John Paul Jones, Father of the U.S. Navy (Had to memorize that at the Academy…)

   "Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.” Von Clausewitz

   4a. Again, Satan uses pride and fear to prevent us from consulting with others and learning from their experiences, pro and con. We fear that someone is after our pulpit. We fear someone will remember our failure or problems and not hire us at some future date. HOGWASH. God called us. God is the one we must please. He didn't put us here to stand alone, but to stand together. Eccl 4:9-10 and Prov 15:22 are germane.

   5a. Delegation (#1) can allow you to focus on 2-3 things, but only if there is training of the "delegatees" and if the 2-3 additional things are coordinated and synergistic with the first thing. These are often "step goals/tasks" that support the overall mission objective. Think combined arms warfare. Infantry, Armor, Artillery, and air support (naval and air scouts <grin>) each focus on different objectives that support the over all battle plan. Each is FOCUSSED. The role of the leader (aka PASTOR) is to keep their focus on those things that support the operational objective that is being sought.

   Good series, Artie. I know you'll be glad when I'm back in battery and don't have so much time on my hands! <grin>

   Buddy

   Reply
2. ArtieDavis says:

   July 8, 2010 at 8:20 pm

   Now Way Buddy Bro! you keep firing the truth. We can handle the TRUTH!

   Reply