4. “Certain people won’t like it.”
This objection fails to distinguish merit of your idea from the response it might receive from the congregation, as if the two were inextricably linked.
Leading to please the minority invariably leads to the demise of any organization. If you are in the mood to answer a fool according to his folly, a stimulating response to this objection might be to ask, “What other people wouldn’t like hearing that this idea was floated and immediately shot down with no discussion?”
A church’s vocal minority tends to squash ministry initiatives that would excite the majority of people who don’t complain.
5. “I have an even better idea …”
This is two bullets in one: First, it shoots down your idea without giving any reasons for its insufficiency; second, it assumes the new idea offered is better without giving any reasons for its improvement.
Make sure you ask the person with “the better idea” to provide those reasons.
6. “Let’s wait for more info.”
This is the most dangerous bullet of all, because it sounds positive. “Hey, that’s a good idea. Why don’t you do a little research on that, and we’ll circle back in a month.”
When you find your idea isn’t on the agenda a month later, you know you’ve been sniped (for more on that, see Seth Godin’s post about waiting for all the facts).
But still … your idea might be lame.
The goal of this post is not to show you how to gain momentum behind all your hairbrained schemes to make disciples and spread God’s kingdom. You, like everyone else, will come up with really bad ideas on how to move the ministries of your church forward. Good meetings burn through bad ideas faster than a newborn does diapers.
But when your good idea for building up the church and reaching the lost finally emerges, it should stand or fall on the merits of the idea, not on how tidily it fits “in the box” of how your church does ministry.
