When Making Congregational Plans, Try This Bold Idea

Hopefully, your congregation is making plans for 2011. (To be honest, I hope they have been for some time!) At Lebanon Road, our elders, deacons, and preachers all met together for a weekend retreat to lay down some plans for 2011, and those plans are now being formulated into our goals for the coming year.

I want to make one suggestion as you consider future plans, whether they are for 2011 or whether they are just “general” plans for the organization of the work of the Church. It is a bold suggestion, and one that many will disagree with. What is it?

Do less.

That’s right. Do less! Far too often, our answer for any need or opportunity is to add another program, ministry, work, or position. That fine so far as it goes, but may I suggest that there is then something else that is rarely considered: members are already overworked! Far too many already serve on several committees or help in various ministries. They do this because they love the Lord and they love the congregation. They think that any new work could use their input and they want to be involved there, too.

However, we may need to reduce the number of programs and ministries we do for awhile. Yes, we need to work, but it may be time to focus resources (both members and money) into a few works that are extremely well done, instead of just adding another ministry because we think we “might be able to” do it.

Think about the life of Jesus. He did a lot of things, but He basically spent 3 years doing 3 things: (1) teaching, (2) helping the hurting, and (3) training/mentoring 12 men. And, by the way, the last two on that list are also teaching! He really did one thing, but did it perfectly.

So, as you make plans, it might be worth your time to consider the “delete button” instead of just typing more lines into the church’s organizational chart.

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What are your thoughts?