Every church has problems. EVERY church. There will never be a time in the future history of any given church when that is not true. So, the question is: “What are you going to do about it?” The most obvious answer would be to solve what can be solved and to “manage the tension” around everything else. If your goal is the complete elimination of tension and conflict, you will only cause yourself and your teams a tremendous amount of undue stress and anxiety. A bit of tension [and even conflict] is good – it helps to drive us out of our ruts.
HOW you handle church problems is often as important as what you do. A domineering, control-freak style of micromanagement will eventually drive away any leaders you have. Conversely, a weak “hoping it will all just go away” style will undermine your team’s faith in you. The attitude that I have found to be most effective is “Trust With Expectations.” It can be hard to offer that trust freely when others have burned you, but punishing a team member for what someone else did in the past is not learning from experience – it projecting your hurt on others. Similarly, it can be difficult to give team members open, honest feedback, but leaders must have that level of courage – it’s essential for their growth, if you really do have their best interests in mind. Some of my most trusted mentors were tough on me – tough, but fair and caring.
There’s really no way to build these attitudes into your life other than to simply put them into action. Let’s get busy…
“Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thoughts – and habits can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an attitude realized.” – Paul Myer
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