Church Revitalization Without Hurting Feelings.

Sometimes You Have to Hurt Their Feelings

By Mark Weible

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18)

Let’s face it, some people just don’t like change and they will resist it all the way. There can be a number of reasons for this – personality, temperament, behavioral style, values, traditionalism, sentimentality, a desire for power or family heritage. But, you can’t revitalize a church without change. Yes, we worship a God who never changes, but everything and everyone that He touches changes. Resisting change is resisting God – not a sign of spiritual maturity.

The church revitalizer should be patient and persuasive when dealing with people who are resistant to change. Most of the time, given the right information and inspiration, you can convince them to move forward for the good of the church and the sake of the Kingdom. But sometimes, you just have to hurt their feelings.

There is an unwritten rule in American culture that no one should ever be offended. One place where that is not written is in the Bible. Jesus offended people everywhere He went, especially religious people who resisted change. And, I am sure that He hurt some feelings along the way. Jesus simply told the Truth and often the message of the Truth is that, “You need to change!” One church that resisted revitalization was the church at Ephesus. In her heyday, this church was the darling of the New Testament. There is more information in the NT about Ephesus than any other church. Luke dedicated two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles to Ephesus. Paul spent 3 ½ years in Ephesus and wrote two epis-

tles to them. John may have written his gospel while in Ephesus and he wrote I, II, and III John to the Church at Ephesus and Ephesus is the first church mentioned in The Revelation.

However, In His instructions to the Church at Ephesus, Jesus threatened to shut the church down if she did not… “Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4). I am sure there were some hurt feelings in Ephesus when the members of the church got the news that Jesus was not pleased with them. But the message for the church was clear – change or get shut down. No one should take pleasure in hurting another person’s feelings, but If you find it necessary to do so, just remember that you are in good company. Karl Vaters has some advice for pastors who struggle with doing the right thing when it might hurt someone’s feelings:

Don’t let their feelings dictate your actions. If you do, you give them more power. Whether you’re doing what they want or pushing back against it, you’re in reactive

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mode and they’re calling the shots. Instead, ask yourself, “if I wasn’t aware of them and their feelings, what would I be doing in this situation?” Then do that. 1

The feelings that you have to hurt may belong to a church matriarch who has four generations of her family in that church. They have given tens of thousands of dollars over the years for the continual operation of the church. She can probably point out certain pieces of furniture, or perhaps entire buildings that were dedicated in memory of one of her relatives. This is one person whom the church has informally declared who cannot ever be offended. However, some choices may come down to obeying Jesus or defending the matriarch. Granted, she needs to be honored and respected, but that does not mean that her feelings trump obedience to scripture and the church’s very survival. So, if you have to – you must choose to hurt her feelings and possibly others who look up to her.

1 https://www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2018/ september/church-members-second-guessing-pastoral-decisions.html?paging=off

Can you imagine standing before Jesus some day and Him asking you to give an account of your time at that church. Jesus says, “I sent you on a mission to revitalize a church in a community that was dark and hopeless. They needed to see my light, but the church shut down under your watch, what happened?” They you would say, “Yes Lord I know, but at least we didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.” That is kind of like burying your one talent, don’t you think? Now, get out there and hurt some feelings in Jesus’ name!

Mark Weible serves as the Church Planting Director of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association and the strategic Director of the Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference. Mark has a wealth of experience as a church planter and local church coach. Mark is passionate about church multiplication, renewal, planting, and coaching.

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Teamwork: Essential For Revitalization

By William T. Chaney Jr.

Great pastoral leaders strive to equip their ministry teams to be successful. Defining the outcomes that signal success for each ministry team can be a challenge. Desired outcomes vary based on the ministry context, but the need for a ministry team to function effectively and consistently deliver ministry excellence is undeniable.

What is also undeniable is that collaborative leadership has many advantages to solo leadership. Jesus knew that to change the world he would need a team of disciples who were all clear about their function, their mission, and their ability to reproduce. As we observe the disciples we also learn that it takes most teams a while before they learn to function effectively as a team. Many pastors who are leading mission driven, highly effective, and highly engaged ministry teams will tell you that outside of preaching, the most time consuming task they have is developing leaders to build ministry teams; and working to keep the teams aligned with the mission and ministry of the church. With this in mind, clarifying what makes the team function best will increase your leadership capacity as the pastor.

In this article I will highlight a clear definition of a ministry, a set of expectations of a team and eight characteristics that encourage team leadership and effectiveness. Having spent twenty-five years in fulltime ministry, I have found that in addition to everyone on the team having a clear definition and expectation, it is essential that the ministry design is repeatable.

There are several good definitions of a team. Here are two that can guide our conversation for this article.

“A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.” -Simon Sinek

“Good things happen to a team when a player takes the place were he or she add the most value. Great things happen when all the players on the team take the role that maximizes their strengths – their talents, skill and experience. Having the right people in the right places is essential to team building” -John Maxwell

Although I have shared two good definitions of a team, I would like to share a set of expectations for a team that can be used in various ministry contexts. C Gene Wilkes in his book Jesus on Leadership, shares this helpful expectations of a team:

• Teams involve more people thus affording more resources, ideas, and energy than would an individual.

• Teams maximize a leader’s potential and minimize their weakness. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals.

• Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal. Thus devising several alternatives for each situation. Individual insight is seldom as broad and deep as a group’s when it takes a problem.

• Teams share the credit for victories and the blame for loses. This fosters genuine humility and authentic community. Individuals take credit and blame alone. This foster’s pride and sometimes a sense of failure.

• Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal. Individuals connected to no one can change the goal without accountability.

• Teams can simply do more than an individual.

As a leadership coach and pastor I have found these characteristics to be essential in building a healthy ministry team:

7 C’s of Team Building

Character – When People are genuinely growing in their discipleship it is easier to teach scriptural principles and coach them into applying the principles to their ministry

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The best way to communicate to the entire team about mission and expectations is to make sure that everyone is included in the communication. This can be a video chat, email, or team huddle. External communication that lets the congregation know the activities of the ministry team. Make good use of the church bulletin boards, Sunday worship bulletin, handouts, bathroom advertising space, and the churches social media feeds.

Caring Community – The difference between a team and a committee is the community that is developed. A committee has no expectations of the members to also build a caring community. Taking time weekly to pray for the team members, to have an accountability partner on the team, and responding to a team member in crisis, provides many opportunities to model the Beloved Community that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr describes as his vision for the people of God. The beloved community is a direct reflection of the ecclesia described throughout the New Testament.

Consistency – One of the paths to excellence is consistency of the systems that are necessary to make the ministry team effective. When the team can rely on several people to fill a position it changes the dynamic of the team in its ability to produce excellence in the absence of specific team members.

context. As we grow through discipleship our willingness to participate in the team covenant and commitment increase. This is also the foundation for developing good communication and being coachable as a team member.

Commitment – This is the covenant that is made with each new ministry team member. Commitment and covenant helps each team member to take ownership of the ministry and to develop in their role so that the whole team succeeds. In my experience this is often the most overlooked step in developing a highly effective ministry team.

Contagious Energy – The culmination of a group of committed people growing in their Christian character is contagious energy. This is internal motivation not to let the team members down and external motivation for the team to success at their assigned task. There is authentic enthusiasm and encouragement as the team moves forward.

Communication – Every great team has phenomenal communication. There is the internal communication that keeps all of the team members engaged and informed. Effective communication is formal and informal. Informal communication is acceptable for quick responses from individuals especially about tasks and responsibilities.

Coaching – The coach approach to building a ministry team starts from the perspective that each team member has the potential to be the best team member ever. Through the process of incremental growth, each team member can improve in their execution of certain tasks necessary to accomplish the team’s mission. Consistency builds the team’s systems that are necessary to succeed and coaching develops the individual team members’ skills.

William T. Chaney Jr. has been coaching senior pastors, pastoral staff, new church pastors, and lay leaders since 2005. William is an International Coach Federation Associate Certified Coach, a Clifton- Strengths Certified Coach, Clifton- Strengths Discovery Course Trainer, Employee Engagement Consultant and a DISC facilitator. Before serving in ministry William served as an Account Executive in an information systems company, area director for a national youth development organization and grant writer for health education nonprofit. William started an organizational development consulting firm, was co-founder of the Atlanta Divinity Center and founding pastor of two new churches. William has served in full time ministry for 25 years.

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