The hard work for a medical doctor is making a good diagnosis. And making a good diagnosis requires asking good questions, running useful tests, chasing down leads even when they lead down blind alleys, and a healthy dose of curiosity. A good diagnosis also requires understanding the human body and knowing the patient. 

Good congregational leadership requires many of the same skills and dispositions. Asking good questions, probing and running experiments, chasing down leads and practicing curious questions are all useful. And it matters to have a good understanding of congregational life and to know the congregation. Yet, for congregational leaders, there is one significant difference that can easily distort the process of diagnosis. Doctors examine and care for patients; however, congregational leaders are not dealing merely with a human patient or even a community of humans alone. Congregational leaders certainly need to pay attention to their community of faith and to the larger contexts in which the community of faith resides. 

But the thing that is often ignored is the reality of God. Congregational leaders can study congregational life, the decline of Christianity, and the aging of their church… and in doing so, they miss the most important thing of all. When doctors or congregational leaders miss an important factor, a misdiagnosis occurs and malpractice (poor practice!) ensues.

So let me be very clear here. I see a lot of diagnostic work in churches every week. Congregational leaders are assessing their contexts and asking questions. Often what they are seeing and assessing is sobering and disappointing. And as church leaders reflect on what they are observing, they are drawing conclusions and forming a diagnosis. They are forming a diagnosis of the things that they are seeing—and ignoring the most important factor of all. The most important factor is the reality of God’s presence and of God’s relentless desire to see God’s purpose come to pass in our churches.

Although there are fruitful fields and opportunities ahead, we are not prepared for them. The future is scary. There are giants in the land. What lies ahead will be difficult. We are not up for such an uneven challenge. We respectfully submit that we need to step away and find another possibility for our future.

Of course, the majority report carried the day with the people. These folks could see the obvious wisdom of the majority report. First, it spoke the truth. There were giants in the land! It will be a challenge to overcome! Second, the report was offered with complete conviction by eye-witnesses who had done their homework. 

Yet the problem with the majority report was not in its accuracy or its conviction. The problem with the majority report was that it was incomplete. The report left out the one (and most important) factor that was and is present. The majority report failed because the diagnosticians did not take into account the reality of God. 

On the other hand, the minority report did take the reality of God into account. The minority report acknowledged all the things that the majority report declared. Yes, it is a fruitful land. Yes, there are giants. And yes, it will be hard. However, the minority report offered a fuller, and hence, more accurate, diagnosis. The minority report understood and declared the reality that God was at work, that faith in God mattered, and that practicing an obedient stance toward God’s action in the world will alter reality (see how the story unfolded in Numbers 13 and 14).

Diagnostic work is important work. Church leaders need to practice good assessment. Yet, the challenge in way too many congregations is that when leaders do diagnostic work, there is negligence in paying attention to the foundational reality of the gospel that shapes what it means to be a church in the first place. In short, the reality of the congregation you lead is grounded in God’s mission to be present in the world. Your church is a witness to the truth of God’s presence (not just of God’s truth). 

When church leaders diagnose decline, apathy, or age in their congregations, they are undoubtedly speaking the truth—yet it is not the most important truth. The most important truth is that even the smallest or frailest congregation is still God’s mission point. And when church leaders ignore this foundational reality, they inadvertently cut themselves off from the most important resource for the future. 

The reality of God’s presence means that things impossible for humans are actually quite possible for God. And when church leaders do their diagnostic work and include God’s action in their assessment—when malpractice gives way to good practice—then revival and renewal will not be far behind!

Blessings,
Carson