When Interruptions Become Disruptions

It’s evident that many leaders (especially in the church) see this moment in history as an interruption. A significant interruption, but an interruption nevertheless.

Interruptions are no doubt problematic. Interruptions are like pause buttons. Interruptions give us time to reflect and adjust. These moments can be constructive encouragement to look at things differently.

But, and this is critically important, interruptions mostly pause our way of executing our current model. We may look at something differently during an interruption, but looking isn’t behaving. When the interruption ends, and you press the play button again, we resume “business as usual.” Some things might look different, but these alterations are primarily surface changes, not strategic adjustments.

That’s the difference between an interruption and a disruption.

Disruptions aren’t simply more extensive interruptions. Disruptions are destructive. Disruptions force innovation and require leaders to look and behave differently. Disruptions challenge leaders to swallow their pride. Admitting a strategy and model you created and implemented no longer works is not easy. Disruption causes leaders to look and behave differently. Disruptions devastate the old way of doing things. That includes your tried and true ministry model of yesteryear.

If interruptions drive introspection, disruptions demand innovation.

In this NEW POST, I offer a shortlist of areas most likely in need of strategic innovation. And, I give you some core questions to consider.

Packed Stadiums and Empty Sanctuaries: Painful Questions We Must Answer

A pastor friend of mine recently attended a college football game. He barely got a ticket. The place was PACKED! Sold out.

It got us both thinking…

The juxtaposition of packed football stadiums and partially full sanctuaries creates a strategic crisis.

And it should.

Why Are Stadiums Sold Out?

Why are hundreds of thousands of church people jamming into football stadiums with rabid enthusiasm yet skipping church almost every Sunday?

What is the in-person football experience offering that the church is not?

What did people miss about football?

And the most painful question of them all: What did church people NOT miss when they missed church for a year?

I’ve come to believe most churches remain partially full because people missed it for a year and didn’t really miss it.

The time for excuses is over. It’s time to act. It is time to evolve our approach and create something worth not missing.

In this NEW POST, I try to engage our minds around the problem. Perhaps we collectively can work towards solutions.

7 Actions to Take When Leading Toward a Future You Can’t Predict

NEW POST: 7 Actions to Take When Leading Toward a Future You Can’t Predict

QUESTION ANSWERED IN THIS POST: As a leader, what should you do when you need to lead forward into a future you can’t predict?

Some context:
Anyone else exhausted by bold leaders and their convincing statements about a future they can’t actually predict?

Of course, I get it. A leader’s calling is to LEAD. Leaders consider present situations to inspire future direction.

We are not called, however, to pretend we know what the future holds.

We are leaders, not fortune tellers.

I refuse to be bold enough to prescribe a strategy. I will tell you what I believe great leaders do when looking at the future.

In this post, I give you 7 leadership actions to take when you are unsure about the future.

Your Entire Church is Basically Dechurched. Now What?

When we think about the dechurched people in our community, we don’t think about our current congregation. But the pandemic made virtually everyone dechurched. And they’re behaving as such.

That means we need to adjust our expectations and approach.

No longer should we assume that people will join a small group, invite a friend, volunteer, or provide financial support.

We are all church planting now.

In this NEW POST, I outline the 4 specific areas of engagement churches need to rethink in light of the pandemic.

And as always, I love helping leaders make things better and make better things. Go to my site today and to sign up for a 15-minute conversation to see if working together works for you.

3 Reasons I’m Grateful Churches Aren’t Full Again

I’m grateful all our churches aren’t full again. And I’ll tell you why.

All the empty seats are creating a crisis of:

1. Identity
2. Mission
3. Ministry Model

While I certainly don’t love the crisis, I love what it will potentially create in Kingdom growth. Of course, the pandemic was a disruption of epic proportions, but it doesn’t have to be catastrophic to our church or spirit.

In this NEW POST, I outline the details of each crisis and probably say some things that might raise an eyebrow or two.

As always, let me know how I can help. That’s why I created Transformation Solutions!

Two Scary Reasons Church People Aren’t Coming Back to Church

If you’re a pastor or church leader, I completely believe this is worth reading.

I’ve been watching our church attendance and engagement throughout the pandemic, paying special attention to the trends after we opened our building for in-person services in February.

And I’m terrified by one trend. It’s an alarm bell that we must address right now.

Some people are coming back. Some will come back in time. But there is a group, and it may be a significant group, who aren’t coming back — not to your church or any church. They are the churched people who are about to be fully de-churched.

Why? Possibly because they spend the better part of the last year not engaged with church and their life isn’t any worse.

THIS SHOULD BE A WAKE-UP CALL FOR US ALL.

Life inside the local church should be distinctly better than outside. I’m afraid that hasn’t been the case for too many.

In this NEW ARTICLE, I dig deeper into who these people are and what we need to do in our church to help ensure it never happens again.