Getting Specific

A short story about specifics…

Let’s imagine that the deacon board (or leadership team, etc…) of a church has done a yearly review and is assigning goals. The worship pastor in our story is given the task of improving the quality of worship.

On the surface, that makes sense. He’s the worship pastor – improving worship is part of his job. But the goal he’s been given is useless. In fact, I’d say beyond useless – actually damaging. You see, “improving the quality of worship” is an incredibly vague statement. Improve worship? The songs? The team? Something else? In what way? By when? And – most importantly – with what specific desired end result?

In our story, the deacon board talked to each other in generalities when putting the goal list together. They think they have a goal, but, in reality, each one has a different focus. Deacon A wants less talking between songs. Deacon B wants MORE talking between songs. Deacon C thinks there are too many new songs. Deacon D thinks the background vocalists need to be louder in the mix. And on and on…

Our poor worship pastor is left to guess what he’s actually supposed to do, and is in some ways set up in an impossible situation. The moral of the story? Be as specific (and realistic) as possible when handing out goals.