What Matters?
I always appreciate an increasingly common experience with my work with ministers and congregational elders. A repetitive question frequently occurs: “What matters? What really matters for our church?” Sometimes the question is prompted by curiosity as leaders seek to lean more deeply into their calling to offer care, preach well, foster spiritual growth or facilitate an outward, evangelistic posture for their congregations. They are intentionally committed to leading well!
At other times, the question gushes out of the chaos of conflict, the grinding pain of decline, or a long season of avoiding hard realities that are present. With this group of leaders, it is the shock of crisis or the debilitating crush of reality that surfaces the question. “What matters?” is now seen as an issue of survival or death.
Either way, the good news is that answers to the question of what matters are really the same. Leaders in local congregations—ministers, elders, deacons, small group leaders—need to attend to some foundational principles that emerge from the gospel and the witness of the people of God. From generation to generation these principles have been true. Sadly, for many in our day, these principles have been buried by contemporary values or assumptions about leadership. And Christian leaders may have lost their way!
I don’t think that the list that follows is exclusive. Other principles are in play. However, these seven principles create a strong foundation for leadership in congregational life.
The ministry in your context that needs to be done is God’s ministry, not your ministry. This may seem obvious and simple. I can also say that it is not the way that many churches behave. The point here is that God is really the leader in your congregation—and actually, it is not even your congregation! God is the One who is at work in the world, who is seeking and saving the lost, and who is healing and transforming people’s lives. The old bumper sticker that declared “God is my co-pilot” is clever; it is also heresy. God is nobody’s co-pilot. In the ancient words of Israel, “Hear O Israel, The LORD your God is One.” The reality of this foundational truth is that God is at work. We may need to stop our working and fussing and worrying and look to see what matters to God. Then, perhaps, we can serve as junior partners in God’s great work for the sake of the world. Our challenge may be that we have forgotten that God is actually working in the world by the power of the Spirit; or, perhaps, we simply are not comfortable with where God might take us if we handed the keys to Him!
God has a preferred future for the congregation you lead. Here is the deal. If the church is the body of Christ or the people of God, then it stands to reason that God has a will and purpose for the Church with a capital C, as well as for each local congregation. Such a claim offers hope. Your congregation began out of God’s goodness and agency; God will bring what He planted to fruition. So, we follow God’s lead with hope.
Naming the church’s mission and identifying the vision path toward that mission defines everything else. A common, almost inevitable challenge for congregations is that the missional energy to participate in God’s good work in the world that launches a congregation will dissipate. Multiple, and often good, interests emerge that diffuse the laser focus of a congregation’s early years. As a congregation ages, if it doesn’t continue to seek the Lord’s purpose and will in an outward-facing mission, a church will move toward inward attention and eventually will decline. Likewise, church leaders often find themselves in positions where they must decide between multiple paths forward. And in such situations, if a community really believes that God is the leader and that the gospel of Jesus Christ really matters, then the mission is what determines a congregation’s path—no matter what!
Once the mission and the vision path toward that mission are clear, questions of sustainability will find answers. Increasingly, many churches are faced with daunting challenges over financial life. For example, this past year countless congregations have faced immense price hikes on their property insurance rates. Underused buildings need maintenance. Finding and affording good ministry staff occupies leaders’ minds. Yet here is the thing: just as we pray “give us this day our daily bread,” mission-led congregations will have what is needed for today. Following God on mission also means that what is needed is already present and available to us. Church leaders spend too much time worrying about tomorrow and so little time embracing the gifts of God for today.
In established churches, the DNA of the congregation can both propel and prohibit movement in mission. A congregation’s history is like the head and tail of a coin. There are treasures of God-blessed seasons and there are also patterns of poor behavior or values floating around in the gene pool. Wise leaders, through prayer and discernment, will learn to amplify the stories of God’s action of the past while also intentionally dampening the old patterns of leadership or narratives that might have been lofty in 1992 but distort the present work of God for a mission-driven future. Another way to think about this truth is for leaders to seek “traditioned innovation.” This term, coined by L. Gregory Jones, is the work of appropriating the best of the past for creative engagement with the present.
Listening and prayer are the primary elements of good leadership. Since God is the real leader, and not us, paying attention to God is the best thing that leaders can do. Paying attention to God means that leaders engage Scripture, they practice prayer, they listen to their congregants, and they are keenly aware of people’s longings and losses. Such work then gives rise to discernment. Such discernment centers around what leaders are learning and experiencing as they listen and as they hold the mission in their gaze.
The work of pursuing God’s mission is adaptive work that requires multiple and diverse voices from the congregation. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit suggests something that can easily be neglected in established churches. The Spirit of God dwells and animates the life of people of God. When a small, select group of leaders within a congregation huddle up and begin deciding things from their own limited frame of reference, they tend to come up with the same ideas that didn’t really work before. However, when leaders, albeit faced with challenging choices, embrace the conviction that God is present within the whole community, then new processes are utilized that invite others into the meaningful work of listening for God’s prompting. Broader perspective on how to be faithful to the mission energizes congregations. And the identified mission of the church keeps the church focused on God’s preferred future. Good leadership teams empower and utilize others—because God’s Spirit is present in others.
How might these principles affirm the good that is happening in your leadership team? How might these principles prompt new practices for your leadership team? Here is the one thing that I know: these principles matter. Without such convictions shaping leadership, you will find elders worrying about their future, ministers frustrated about a lack of effectiveness, and congregations stuck.
So if you are simply curious about how to improve your leadership, or if you find yourself in some degree of stress about leadership, I encourage you to trust in the truth that God is actively being God. All seven of these principles point to the One that matters.
Blessings,
Carson
