When my son was small, he was watching a cartoon, and I was mildly paying attention as I worked on something else. It was a humorous take off on superheroes – silly, but lots of action. I was amused (and started paying more attention) when I heard the name of the main bad guy: it was Mr. Vague.
“Go do that thing,” he would tell his henchmen. “You know, the thing with the guy. Except with us winning.” I think sometimes that’s how church staff members feel when new initiatives are rolled out at church – or when they are going through their yearly performance reviews…
Vague goals don’t cut it, but churches are full of them. You know why? Because, in our perfect world, people just know what to do and do it. The problem is that our perfect world and the real world are two VERY different places. For our teams to be able to succeed, they need clear goals. They need to understand the desired outcomes.
I DO NOT mean micromanagement. That’s when you tell someone what to do and control how they do it, every step of the way. Newbies sometimes need that, but any experienced leader will chafe in that environment and won’t be around for long.
Instead, focus your energies on being a master clarifier. Paint a crystal clear vision of where you want to get. Then create a framework of essential information. Your goal might be to “grow the church” – admirable and necessary, because the growth (if tied to increasing discipleship), represents actual people whose lives are changing.
But “grow” isn’t enough… By how much? By when? With who driving the charge? Church-wide, or in a specific age range or demographic? Be as clear as possible, while doing your homework to make sure that the goals that you’ve set are actually feasible. More in the days to come…
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