Read this on a blog earlier. Something to make us think.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Be that Couch Andy Stanley<\/p>\n
Your church has ministry and programs in place that, if you were starting over, you wouldn\u2019t do the same way\u2026
\nProgramming facilitates the mission\/vision
\n– it\u2019s always designed to address a specific need, answer a specific question, or solve a specific problem.
\nProgramming begins as answer to a question, but over time becomes part of organizational culture – makes it difficult to change. As culture changes the questions remain the same but the answers don\u2019t.
\nThe tendency is to institutionalize our answers. The longer people have been in the church, the less intuitive they are about the questions programming is answering. Leaders should lead people to see the world in a different way – in the way they need to see it.
\nIf we institutionalize an answer, the day will come when it\u2019s no longer an answer.
\nThe Couch illustration
\n– It was great when you bought it, stylish, attractive
\n– over time memories get attached to it, begin to love it, never get rid of it. The reason you bought it
\n– a place to sit
\n– is not the reason it gets carried around from house to house. Today, it\u2019s ugly, out of date, out of style, and uncomfortable\u2026 So why don;t we get rid of it?
\nWhen we fall in love with programming, the tendency is to keep it around too long\u2026 Get rid of the couch! We don\u2019t have time to carry them around. We must continue to be more committed to our mission than we are to our programming or our model\/way of doing things.
\nOver time sustaining the model can become the mission
\n– the real mission becomes keeping\/sustaining the programming that is ineffective.
\nOver time the model can actually work against the mission.
\n– As leaders we have to monitor and change that.
\nIn the business world, they don\u2019t keep old couches around
\n– if it\u2019s not profitable and doesn\u2019t work, they ditch it.<\/p>\n
Points of discussion:
\n\tWhat have we fallen in love with that\u2019s not as effective as it needs to be?
\n\tWhere are we manufacturing energy? If you have to fake the enthusiasm for a program or activity, it\u2019s time to let it go\u2026
\n\tIf we got kicked out and the board brought in a new pastor, what would he do? Need to walk out the door, come back in and see everything with new eyes.
\n\tProactive change – don\u2019t wait till the wheels fall off.
\nWhat are our organizational assumptions? \u201dLeaders must bring the underlying assumptions that drive strategy into line with changes in the world environment.\u201d
\nWrong assumptions lead to bad programming. The assumption the team has held the longest or the most deeply are likeliest to be its undoing\u2026 Because we continue to operate the way we think the world is rather than the way it really is. Whatever is off limits for discussion is primed to be our undoing.
\n\tWhat do assume about people and how to reach them?
\n\tWhat do we assume programmatically?
\n\tWhich of our assumptions are false?
\n\tWhich assumptions are true, but not fully leveraged?
\nThe challenge is to send a clear message publicly while holding with an open hand privately – anytime God wants to change something, Let Him.
\nRefuse to do the things that are not making a difference. Our mission is too important to hang on to the ineffective, out of date methods of ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read this on a blog earlier. Something to make us think. Don\u2019t Be that Couch Andy Stanley Your church has ministry and programs in place that, if you were starting over, you wouldn\u2019t do the same way\u2026 Programming facilitates the mission\/vision – it\u2019s always designed to address a specific need, answer a specific question, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1JaXV-4y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.operationbolivia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}