Schizophrenia is no laughing matter. It’s serious business. Still…it’s a perfect way to think about ministry that needs therapy or medication.
Here are the top 10 signs your small group ministry is schizophrenic:
1. You do the same thing year after year and expect different results. You remember what Albert Einstein said. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again…and expecting different results.”
2. Your strategy changes every time you attend a conference or read a new book. Idea fatigue and shiny object syndrome are the names for this illness. Trust me. When you choose a system you need to commit to it for 3 years.
3. Your preferred future looks like the blackboard in A Beautiful Mind (or Dr. Gene Scott, depending on your theology). Simple almost always wins the day. Again, Albert Einstein said “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
4. You try to please everyone and become all things to all people at the same time. People pleasing only muddies the water. The most effective ministries narrow the focus and then think steps, not programs.
5. When you look at rows you see circles. Calling a row a row is the essence of truth-telling. Looking at a circle and seeing a long row that curves is wishful thinking.
6. You change your mind about who can host from week to week (or service to service). Watching Saddleback’s team gradually move from only members can host a group to their current arrangement has been a good lesson in reasoned approach. Understanding that there is no problem-free is essential. Wise leaders simply choose the set of problems they’d rather have.
7. You’ve implemented a 52-week leader training course and can’t find enough quality leaders. The idea that there is a correlation between the height of the leader bar and the quality of the candidate is a false premise. Although counter-intuitive, the reality is that accepting volunteers for leader training coupled with providing members more than occasionally sets up commissioning leaders who can’t fill their own group.
8. You’ve chosen David Platt’s Radical for a church-wide campaign and couldn’t understand why neighbors wouldn’t come. Let’s be clear. There’s nothing wrong with Radical. The problem is in choosing a study that calls for serious commitment and not addressing the fact that only those ready to come and die will get on board.
9. You became a church OF groups right after you began calling everything a group. If this happened in one church…it happened in 10,000 churches. Changing what you call them is delusional.
10. You call your staff meeting a group so your senior pastor can be in a group.
