The other morning, I stopped off at a local 7-11 in order to get my morning shot of caffeine. As I shuffled toward the front door, I was stopped by a charter bus driver who was semipanicked. Asking me if I lived in the area, he proceeded to tell me that he was trying to find a local high school. He showed me the directions he printed off of mapquest, and then told me that his GPS was taking him another way. It was at this point that I recognized the true problem: an inability to commit to a strategy.
The bus driver’s printed directions and his GPS were both correct. They both were taking him to his destination … they were just using different methods to get to the same place. The problem was that he was unwilling to choose between the GPS and mapquest, and so he was mired in confusion. I told the bus driver that both directions were correct, that he just needed to choose one, to which he looked at me kind of funny, and headed back to the bus subtly shaking his head. I later passed him further down the street at a local fire house, again asking for directions.
As I work with churches, I commonly find myself in a similar situation: an unwillingness to commit to one strategy or another because they are unwilling to trust the strategy before they see the desired results. The problem with this line of thought is the same problem that my bus driver friend was having: His inability to trust the strategy prevented him from achieving his desired results.
Think about that for a minute.
The true secret to making your church’s strategy work is not choosing the “right” one, it is committing to it fully.
Yes, you need to make sure that the strategy fits your unique context.
Yes, you need to make sure that you are able to implement it.
But, unless you are willing to fully lean into it, and give it the time it needs to work, you are dooming yourself to failure.
What strategy is YOUR church fully committed to?
