3. Refusal to Confront the Brutal Facts
When the auto industry first began to lose money on a daily basis something should have been done.
When the auto industry started losing money on every single car they were making something should have been done.
But rather confront the brutal facts, the leaders of the auto industry sat passively and incorrectly thought “if we simply ignore the problem it will go away.”
Unfortunately the same thing can happen in our churches. We refuse to confront the brutal facts. Maybe it is a staff member that isn’t performing up to par. Maybe it is a volunteer that simply needs to be moved to another location or coached through a difficult situation. Maybe it is the fact that people seem to be leaving in droves. Those situations need to be dealt with rather than ignored.
4. Placing the Blame on Externals Rather than Internals
The problem in the auto industry is not actually a problem in the auto industry but rather with a select group of car companies. Toyota does not need a bailout. Honda does not need a bailout. But Ford, Chevy, and GM would love to point their fingers at every other person rather than saying “we are fully to blame”.
One of the things the church loves to do unfortunately is to point our fingers at everything outside the world rather than looking internally. One of the things we must embrace is God is a sovereign God and he reigns. And because that is true we have no excuse when it comes to blaming external factors for decline and unexcellant ministry in our churches.
5. Comfortable Leadership
The CEOs and the Board of Directors in these auto companies that need a bailout got very comfortable with the way things were. They got greedy and began thinking “I’m okay because the money is in the bank.” They didn’t want to consider making a move because doing so would have caused them to go in uncomfortable places personally.
When the leadership in a church gets comfortable it’s over.
When the leadership becomes obsessed with the ways things are in the church its over.
One of the mistakes that the CEOs in the auto companies made was to forget that their job was to lead the into profitable areas and one of the things the church leaders must realize is that we are called and commissioned by God to lead his church and called and commissioned by God to reach people to Christ and we should always be uncomfortable with the fact that there are people outside of our walls dying and going to Hell. We can’t ever get comfortable with, “the church people are happy, I’m making a paycheck, and my 401K is going well” because there are far greater goals in life.
One of my consistent prayers is, “God, PLEASE don’t ever let me get satisfied UNTIL I get in Your presence!!!”
I’ve seen what He has done…but I am obsessed with what else He can do!