1. Don’t crowd out preaching.
Unless it’s actually germane to what the church wants to accomplish that day. Preachers can tell if/when you feel they aren’t worth the time they’re “taking up” in the service.
Some preachers really are poor at their craft. If they are, people won’t stay—and neither will the preacher. Studies show preaching (and the preacher himself) continue to be the primary reason people choose a new church. This doesn’t minimize anything else. It just means crowding out preaching is unwise—unless the message is better facilitated through another means on a given day.
In a church that shares Communion every weekend, preaching should not take up more than half of an assembly, and should usually run around 40 percent of the time allotted. If your service is an hour and a half, the sermon should run no longer than 45 minutes. Forty is even better. I shoot for 35 (including the Communion prayer), in a service that generally lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes.
2. No surprises.
Don’t decide you are going to break new theological ground for the church unannounced. If you think the church needs to move forward on some issue—open the discussion and keep it open.
No passive-aggressivness.
No feigned ignorance of what the church has or hasn’t done before.
No, “I thought everyone did that … I had no idea our church was so neanderthalish.”
Keep it on the up and up. The odds are, the preacher is equally convicted the church needs to move forward. However, they (not you) will take the bulk of the bullets for the change. You are usually on the same team. Don’t ruin that with major surprises.
3. Don’t silo your ministry.
What I mean is, don’t act like worship is the only ministry in the church. It isn’t—though it’s vital. Don’t ask that everything orient around it—or operate as though nothing else needs money, time or attention.
