3 Reasons Church Meetings Underwhelm
I finished my column for the November issue of The Inside Track this morning and once again thought my followers here should get a sneak excerpt. Those of you who are Church Volunteer Central members will receive the full article in the issue delivered to your inboxes on 11/1.
1. The leader discourages disagreement. Some leaders seem to act as if any disagreement is an attack—either on them or their authority. People get the message quickly, and realize that disagreeing is not something one does in those meetings. As a result, a whole lot of bad ideas get followed because nobody pointed out the problems.
If people are expressing their disagreement in unkind ways,that’s something that needs to be addressed. But cutting off disagreement altogether implies the leader thinks his or her every thought came straight from God and shouldn’t be challenged. Can we be honest here? You’re not perfect! Just sayin’.
2. The leader only brings people onto the team that agree with him or her. I don’t mean to step on toes, but this is one of the clearest signs of insecurity in a leader. Look, we all prefer to be around people who think the same way we do. But that gives us a very distorted perspective on the world.
A wise leader will deliberately invite people onto the team that have very different viewpoints. You already know what you think, so how does it help you to have a group of people around that always agree? What we need are people who will see the things we don’t see—and have the guts to point it out. Of course that only works if we’re mature enough to leave our defenses down and really listen to—and consider—what they’re saying.
3. People think disagreeing isn’t Christian. We’re all supposed to be peacemakers, right? But there will always be disagreements. Note that the early church in Acts had disagreements, and the Jerusalem Council confronted Peter directly in Acts 11 about his trip to the Gentile Cornelius and even eating with him. Again in Acts 15 we see them taking up a disagreement and resolving it.
Disagreeing is human, and even healthy! None of us has God’s perspective, so none of us sees the complete picture. A healthy debate about the other sides of the picture before making a decision just leads to better decisions…as long as we don’t let the debate turn into argument or stifle progress.
