http://www.toddhiestand.com/why-some-church-programs-dont-work/11/ Missional Living in Suburban America Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:20:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.toddhiestand.com/why-some-church-programs-dont-work/11/comment-page-1/#comment-35204 Maria Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:44:16 +0000 http://www.toddhiestand.com/why-some-church-programs-dont-work/11/#comment-35204 One of the things I've seen happen in this kind of rush to implement the next great idea is that levels of leadership don't develop. There is a leader (or a pastor and a few lay leaders) who gets excited, but they don't let the idea percolate long enough for a bigger group of people to get committed to the idea and to the prospect of taking up a piece of it. Programs always require teams, and if you have to recruit your team all over again every season, it becomes exhausting. It can also become systemic -- the last church we were involved in had what I call "many Indians, but few chiefs" (if you'll pardon the politically incorrect analogy). A few visionary, entrepreneurial leaders were encouraged, but then left to work on their own, while the majority of the church remained deeply reluctant to take on any responsibility. It was very frustrating, but I recognize I was willing to let my excitement about the program (in this case, Alpha) run me past the process of really bringing others along. One of the things I’ve seen happen in this kind of rush to implement the next great idea is that levels of leadership don’t develop. There is a leader (or a pastor and a few lay leaders) who gets excited, but they don’t let the idea percolate long enough for a bigger group of people to get committed to the idea and to the prospect of taking up a piece of it. Programs always require teams, and if you have to recruit your team all over again every season, it becomes exhausting. It can also become systemic — the last church we were involved in had what I call “many Indians, but few chiefs” (if you’ll pardon the politically incorrect analogy). A few visionary, entrepreneurial leaders were encouraged, but then left to work on their own, while the majority of the church remained deeply reluctant to take on any responsibility. It was very frustrating, but I recognize I was willing to let my excitement about the program (in this case, Alpha) run me past the process of really bringing others along.

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