In.Motion

This morning I’m looking at the second practice: Think Steps, Not Programs. Before I start working through this one, I think we need to make a distinction between our conversation here and the book. In the book, they are speaking of the church as a whole. Here, we are speaking primarily of worship and creative ministries within a church. They are advocating steps in place of starting brand new ministries/programs to meet needs, but most programs don’t come out of worship/creative ministries. So, maybe we need to change our focus within this context. Maybe we should say Think Steps, Not Programing Tricks.

What I mean by programming tricks is this thought process . . .

“People don’t seem to be connecting during worship.”
“People seems to not like our creative elements.”
“We should try something bigger.”
“We need to try what (enter great church here) did.”
“Lets blow their faces off with (enter incredibly over-the-top idea here).”
“Why are people still not responding to creative elements or during worship?”

If we want to encourage people to engage during worship, then we can’t just tell the worship leader to play the “hype man” and hope for the best. We can’t just go bigger, better, & shinier and expect it to work out because “it’s awesome”. Instead, we need to figure out where we want to be (people engaging with the creative elements and during worship) and try and work out steps for people between where they are and where we are headed. The book says that “every step should be Easy, Obvious, & Strategic”. The step should be easy so that people feel comfortable entering into the journey from “A” to “B”. The step should be obvious so that it will feel natural entering into it. Each step should be strategic so that the step leads them in the right direction.

Andy Stanley had a great illustration to help understand this idea. “He walked into his general staff meeting with a handful of construction paper. He place a blue piece on the floor and placed a green piece about thirty feel away on the floor. He then threw out the question, ‘If the blue paper represents groups and the green paper represents our worship service, then how are we going to get people to move from the green paper to the blue paper?’ Andy then selected one of the staff members and asked her to stand on the green paper. He then instructed her to step from the green piece of paper to the blue without touching the floor. She said it was impossible, and he asked her ‘Why’? She said, ‘It’s too big of a step.’” This is why steps are necessary, because to get people from where they are to where we want them to be takes more than one giant step.

In our context, it doesn’t only apply to the congregants, but also to volunteers and people within the ministries. Lets say that we are in a place where we are barely planning for the week at hand. It’s Saturday night and we’re just finishing a set design that we thought of Friday morning because we had been backed up because of the week before. How do we get out of this cycle? How can the people in the ministry maximize their efforts so that we can be planning two weeks out? Four weeks out? Two months out? This is where the steps come in and we begin to see how you can’t just make a giant leap to the end. I also think that the necessary first step for us is to determine the “A” and the “B”. Where are they and where to we want them to be? Only then can we begin to try and map out steps for them.

So, now I ask you,

What is “A” & “B” for your congregants/volunteers/staff?
What are some steps you know are essential to the process?

One.Love

cd