Hoping things will get better at your church won’t help things actually get better at your church. In fact the opposite may actually be true. The Bible says this about hope in
Proverbs 13:12:
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
In other words when we place our hope in something that doesn’t come through it makes our hearts sick. Faith isn’t magic. It won’t automatically make your church everything you and Jesus want it to be.
But putting your faith and hope in a well-executed plan that will help your church take steps of obedience in becoming what Jesus wants His church to be, that’s a different story. That brings fulfillment to people's hearts and builds trust between church leaders and their congregations.
Plans Don’t Self-Execute
Nothing works until you do. It doesn’t matter how great your plan is, no plan self-executes. Every great ministry started as a great idea, but not every great idea turns into a great ministry. Some of the key reasons why things fall apart when it comes time to actually execute the strategy is a lack of simple good old fashioned work ethic, effort, follow through and accountability. Nothing works until you do.
You Get What You Tolerate
If you don’t like the way things are in your church today and you’ve been a part of the leadership team for more than three years (less than that and you can blame the prior administration) then most likely it’s because you’ve allowed it to be what it is. You’ve tolerated bad or sloppy behavior and it’s become institutionalized in the culture of the church.
The Best Predictor of Future Performance Is Past Behavior
If you really want to know what the future holds for your church, if things are really going to get better or not, then start looking at the current and past behaviors and decisions of the leadership team. If you are hoping to get different results with the same tactics and decisions you’ve made before, then your hope is probably misplaced. The best way to predict a better future is to create it with different strategies and actions than you’ve taken before.
Things Are Supposed to Get Worse
Don’t forget that Jesus Himself described that things would get worse before He came back to make everything right. Things don’t drift toward unity, completion, discipline, success, health, growth or whatever your picture of “better” is. Things naturally fall apart, grow old and die. It’s the nature of things post-fall. Left alone, things drift toward failure.
