I talk with a lot of church leaders, and the conversations often wander into many varied directions. If you’re a church leader, take some time today to think about these random questions:
- Based on your church’s worship service, would I think that prayer matters to your congregation? Or would I see only prayers that seem perfunctory?
- If you were to leave your church today, would the ministry go on smoothly without you? If not, you may not be leading well.
- If I were to ask your spouse and children if they sometimes feel second to the church, what would they say? In many cases, their honesty should bring tears and repentance.
- Do you know the demographics of your community? If you don’t know this information, you probably haven’t done enough homework about your mission field.
- Would members of the early church in the book of Acts be pleased with your church’s worship service? I wonder sometimes if they would question whether we give enough emphasis to Jesus.
- If God called you tomorrow to go overseas as a missionary, would you go? Leaders who are willing to go tend to raise up and send out others.
- Do you, and does your church, genuinely welcome attenders from all races? I wish I didn’t wonder about this issue, but I do because I’ve still seen too many churches marked by implicit or explicit racism.
- What non-believer will you spend time with this week? If you don’t intentionally plan to do it, you’ll likely not develop evangelistic relationships.
- Who will love God better this week because of your relationship with him or her? Like evangelism, mentoring and discipleship don’t just happen.
- Would you be comfortable with your church members knowing how much you pray? You know my concern here . . . .
- If your ministry resources were limited to only the Bible you already have stored in your memory, how much ministry would you do? All of us need to drill God’s Word into our heart through reading and memorizing it.
- Are you thinking about quitting? Sadly, many church leaders I know are on the verge of leaving. Are you?
I have been at a #5 church. Jesus wasn’t even mentioned in the sermon the Sunday before Christmas, sad to say. He didn’t get much attention at Easter, either.
Thanks for your comment.
I am sick of worrying about the early church worship service. How about, would the earliest Jesus-believers be happy or appalled with your behavior? Now, the church I grew up in but no longer attend, that was the standard. Jesus was secondary to Paul. I didn’t learn about Christianity in detail until I went through real “holy week” and then realized what the faith was all about.
Thank you both.