Musings on Spiritual Matters

As we continue to look at helping a congregation grow after years of decline and stagnation, we will focus on the role of the stakeholders within the congregation.  A minister can cast vision in a positive manner, he can create urgency within the church to provide motivation to change and move forward, but none of this will mean anything unless the stakeholders or the majority of the stakeholders are on board with the initiative.  The reason this is the case is because a minister has no formal authority within the church.  He can be an influencer, but he holds no power in his hand.  If the movement forward creates huge controversy, which it will because change, even positive change is “always, always, always resisted.”  The people will rise up in the congregation to remove the minister even though he is bringing progress to the church.  A naive minister believes if he causes the church to grow, people will be happy.  Wrong, some will be very unhappy with the growth.  This is why the minister must develop strong relationships with the stakeholders.  Before you cast vision or do anything else, make friends with those who hold the power within the church.  Eat lunch with them, talk to them, be their friend.  Start to influence their hearts first.  As a minister, you must be able to identify the people who can have you fired in a week.  You can start a movement forward, but it will not last unless you have the stakeholders with you.  Also, learn what brings power to a person in a congregation.  You are not ready to lead growth until you understand this dynamic.

Related posts:

1. Dealing with My Pride
2. Dealing with Assimilation and Retention Issues
3. Dealing With The Poor
4. Make Elders Look Good
5. Review of “Power”

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 10:32 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.