Is Your Ministry Where You Want It to Be?

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” —THE APOSTLE PAUL (PHILIPPIANS 2:13)

Despite our best intentions, once the prospect of the New Year wears off, most of us struggle to fulfill our new resolutions. The Journal of Clinical Psychology reported that only 46% of people who make New Year’s resolutions are successful. (Based on my own experience, that number actually seemed pretty high!)

I don’t know what your resolutions for this year might be, personally or professionally, but the driving force behind them all is that unsettling sense of underachievement.

So, let’s cut to the chase.

Is the church you lead where you had hoped it would be by now? Or, even if you’re not a pastor, is the church you attend firing on all cylinders? And, if not, why not?

Maybe most everything seems to be in a good place. Leaders are leading. Volunteers are volunteering. Teachers are teaching. But the church isn’t growing. Virtually all of the newer attenders are migrating from other churches. I mean, leadership gifts and deep pockets might postpone a day of reckoning for a while, but Jesus’ purpose for His Church eventually catches up with all of us.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Well, here is some good news. You may not be missing much. Most churches don’t need to invest in an overhaul.

Like the electricity in a building, everything may be in place. The wiring is sound. The connection to the power grid is intact, providing enough power for every machine you’ve got. You stand there, flipping the switch on and off, back and forth, thinking something’s bound to happen sooner or later.

You know, if there’s a blown fuse in the electrical panel, the lights simply won’t work. In fact, if that’s the case, they can’t work.

The good news is, you probably don’t have to do anything too drastic. You just need the missing component. It’s certainly not rocket science. In fact, when presented with the oikos principle, most pastors have the same serendipitous response. “Of course!”

You can spend an awful lot of money bringing in a structural engineer, or rewiring your team, or connecting with slick new programs that overpromise and underdeliver. Yet the simple component that brings new dynamic to every ministry system has been sitting right in front of us all for thousands of years.

When you fire up the solution, by definition, I guess you’ve got yourself a re-solution.

So, if you’re tired of watching month after month click by, wondering what’s missing, and would like to learn more about the oikos principle or how we can help you implement it in the church you lead, please let us know.