Shaving Ministry Bears
Seth Godin uses the wonderful line “shaving the bear.” It comes from a (presumably hypothetical–possibly inspired by this video) conversation about the problem of
global warming and its affect on all aspects of life–including the viability of some species (such as polar bears) geared for the cold. One wag suggested shaving the bears’ fur off. So any time someone is focusing on the wrong thing, you can accuse them of shaving a bear.
My question is, how often do we do that in ministry?
We need to get more kids in our youth group. Sorry, you’re shaving a bear. It’s easy to get more kids to show up: serve free beer and show porn. But that would be inappropriate! Why? You said your goal was to attract more kids. But we want to do it in a Christ-honoring way. Ah, we’re making progress… the goal is not to attract as many students as possible, so what is it?
We need more people in Sunday school. {bear alert} Why? Well that’s where they learn about the Bible. Ah, so the goal is not to get people into Sunday school but to get them to learn about the Bible. Is Sunday school (which they’re apparently not interested in for whatever reason) the only way to do that, or might there be another method that they would be more interested in?
It’s very easy to focus on peripheral things rather than the real issues. It’s even more likely when things have been in place for a long time and maintaining the institution (like a Sunday night service) is assumed to be the important thing. As we raise and address issues in our ministries, let’s make sure we’re focusing on what really matters…and not just creating a hairy mess that clogs the drain.
