3. Try to keep everybody happy.
Trying to keep everyone happy is a recipe for misery. Yet so many churches serve dinner from that cookbook everyday.
You can’t keep everybody happy. You won’t keep everyone happy.
In fact, you will do the opposite: You will make everyone miserable. It doesn’t work in your family, so why would it work in your church?
Operating out of your convictions, with some empathy and sensitivity for those who see differently, is a far better approach.
Still not convinced?
I wrote more about why your church isn’t for everyone in this post.
I honestly wish more churches would just get on with trying to reach a certain group of people, realizing that in the process they will reach far more than that.
4. Squabble.
I really want to walk into a great church fight. Said no unchurched person ever.
Squabbling, faction and division in the church has killed our evangelism efforts as effectively as anything.
So stop it. Just stop it.
Confess. Repent.
What if our churches became places of humility, grace and forgiveness?
Could you imagine?
5. Make mediocrity your standard.
So solve a few problems and you’ll be more effective.
But as long as you’re mediocre, you’ll never reach your potential.
And for some strange reason, churches seem to love mediocrity.
Barely good enough seems to be good enough for many church leaders. Rather than try to do something well, churches have become famous for doing almost nothing well.
Why?
I think at the heart of it is a tension between inclusiveness and effectiveness.
This often comes up in places like a music team when someone who can’t sing wants to sing, and many church leaders cave to the pressure. (There’s a strategy around that, by the way.)
Last year, our church adopted six values. One of my personal favorites is “Battle Mediocrity: Am I allowing what’s good to stand in the way of what could be great?”
I could camp on that all day.
