11. There’s no reason for any church, of any size, to have more than one board or committee.
Every other person in “leadership” should be using that leadership gift to engage ministry and carry out God’s mission rather than sitting in meetings
12. People have stopped inviting their friends to church because your services are boring and the teaching is irrelevant to their lives.
Attempting to create an “invite culture” won’t fix that. Evangelism training won’t fix that. Better marketing won’t fix that. When you fix the real problem, people will start inviting their friends again
13. Worship leaders are rarely leaders.
They usually sing well and love worship music, but that doesn’t mean they have leadership gifting. Which means they should lead worship, but they probably shouldn’t lead the creative arts ministry teams and the creative process that drives your series and service planning. Find a leader who can’t sing to do that.
14. We should be designing Sundays for both believers and unbelievers.
That should impact how we worship, how we welcome people and how we teach. And, yes, that’s God’s design…unless you think Paul was a heretic. Read 1 Corinthians 14 as an example.
15. You should avoid multisite or church planting unless you have an effective strategy for developing leaders in your ministry now.
Many churches have failed because they had vision, locations and resources to multiply, but they thought they could hire leaders away from other churches.
16. Churches systematically leave some of their strongest leaders on the sidelines.
Women are still being ignored when it comes to leadership in the church. There’s nothing in the Bible that suggests women can have all the spiritual gifts except leadership. Most women won’t fight you for an opportunity. They’ll just use their gift to lead in the marketplace. And you’ll keep complaining you can’t find enough leaders.
17. People should attend a service and serve a service on Sundays, instead of sitting in a Sunday School classroom.
There are a lot of Christians sitting in classrooms on Sundays who could be using their gifts to reach people for Jesus.
18. Coffee, fog machines and drums don’t make churches “relevant.”
Addressing real issues people are facing and answering real questions they’re asking make churches relevant.
19. Church leaders are getting old.
Pastors should be commended for their long-term tenures at one church. That makes for healthier churches. However, pastors usually don’t retire until the church has started to decline. That’s a problem.
20. You can’t make changes and expect no one will leave your church.
You can’t get unstuck if you don’t change. Make the changes that will help you reach people for Jesus. If people don’t want that type of change, it’s better that they leave.
This article originally appeared here.
