How Can We Improve the Church?

Earlier I wrote about the power of a local church and a group of churches. Now I want to say a few words about increasing our effectiveness as an organization.

I would say that the biggest single problem facing us is the confusion about the task of church. This leads to confusion about what leaders are to actually do and that causes confusion about how to train church leaders.

Because I was a school teacher and coach of softball, track and basketball I know a bit about preparing people to play a game. One must first know what game we are playing and it is here that the church is terribly confused. In fact, it seems to me that most seminary, Bible school and workshop leaders assume the church is supposed to be a combination of a pep rally and a study hall. A great deal of focus is placed on what kind of music the assembly is supposed to hear to jazz them up and the kind of costumes the cheer leaders are supposed to wear.

Thousands of articles are written and speeches given about whether we should still use old fashioned pom poms or do we need to simply show streamers on the closed circuit TV monitors. Now we are subjected to a huge debate about how many arenas we can gather in on Sunday to watch the pep rally beamed from one central site to other sites.

After the inspiring pep rally led by beautiful Dallas cheerleaders, a really handsome and slick talking motivational speaker gets up and spends twenty minutes in study hall firing the crowd up to adopt his BHAG (Big Harry Audacious Goal). At the end of the talk the crowd is sent out to implement the BHAG.

As a coach I know this. Those poor slobs will get killed on the court. They have completely confused the pep rally with coaching. Coaches train through detailed drills and repitive practices not "Chalk Talks" and "Cheerleaders" how to play their position and how to play as a team.

A coach must train the players differently for basketball and softball. Some drills like stretching and endurance are the same but all the skill positions are different. One does not need to learn how to "pick and roll" in baseball but it is an essential drill in basketball. I am appalled that small group leaders, elders and care givers are almost never drilled in the simple skills of their roles.

But here is the good news. The fact that the church has survived and still thrives despite terrible leadership and training indicates that it is really a supernatural organization. Only God could keep such a poorly led organization alive. It is alive and it is still touching lives. PTL!


Ps Just imagine how well a church could function if the coaches actually knew what game they were playing and how to prepare their players for that specific game.