THE MINISTRY MBA

10 Practical Courses to Lead a Thriving Church

4 Steps for Dealing with Disgruntled Attendees

I’ve been in ministry for quite a while. Church people can be amazingly supportive and encouraging. They can also be frustrating.

Over my 15 years of ministry leadership, I’ve experienced my fair share of disgruntled church people, but the pandemic brought “disgruntledness” to a new level.

So what should we do when the vocal disgruntled feels like the vast majority?

In this NEW ARTICLE, I outline four steps to deal with the vocal minority of disgruntled attenders.

You may especially appreciate the fourth step: Just let them leave!

Let me know what else you’ve done to best deal with those loud and proud detractors in your church or organization.

And as always, I’m here to help. That’s why I created Transformation Solutions.

4 Steps to Not Overreact to the Disgruntled Attendee

As a leader you are forced to make decisions, and if your church or company is bigger than you, these decisions will inevitably be upsetting to someone. Decisions have a way of upsetting the status quo. In many cases, the lack of success or progress with the status quo is why decisions are necessary.

Not to oversimplify it, but when decisions are made, the response seems to come from two separate categories of people:

1. The vocal disgruntled
2. The quiet supporters

The first category causes us to question our decision. The response (at leas the vocal response) seems disproportionately in one direction. And this disproportionate response can be unnerving.

The second category really does bring balance to the conversation, but their quiet support doesn’t ring as loudly as the disgruntled.

Facing this seemingly unbalanced response, leaders begin to either question their decisions, or worse, seek to make decisions that are more “vocally” supported.

But vocal support can feel like an organizational oxymoron. You’ve never called your local pizza delivery chain to thank them for your delivery, but you might have called to complain when your pie is late. People never call our church to tell us we’re doing a great job, but they do call (or post on FaceBook, which is so much worse and socially unaware) to complain about a decision that creates an inconvenience.

So what should we do when the vocal disgruntled feels like the vast majority?

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