By Sam Rainer
Not every church leader will face a vision-crushing blow. But they exist. They hurt like a heavy-weight sucker punch. You didn’t see it coming, and it was hard like an Acme anvil. Church leaders (especially us pastors) can overreact. We can cry wolf when it’s just sheep around. There are cases, however, when one event jars everything loose, when something unforeseen grinds the church to a halt. The vision stops. No one moves.
How do you respond when your church experiences collective blackout? How do you lead when you’re shell shocked with everyone else? When it’s impossible to think about a new vision, what are the immediate next steps?
For any leader shepherding followers through a major crisis, the first step is to care for people. When a bomb hits, most of your people will not know what to feel. When people are numb, they’re not thinking about the future. No one wants to see a beautiful vision painted when the canvas has vomit on it. This caring process is a cleaning process. Forget about grand plans and get on your knees and scrub. Sometimes it’s all you can do to shepherd people.
Once the air clears, the next step is to describe reality. People don’t stay numb forever. They become angry. And confusion only exacerbates anger. It’s a mess. Don’t deny it. You’ve got to wake up people to present reality. Be real. Be honest. Explain what happened. Even if confidentiality prevents full disclosure, be clear in what you can describe. Clarity helps people realize the present can lead to the future. Don’t leave people stuck in the mud of ambiguity.
After people understand what happened, most likely they are still not ready for long-term goals. A vision-crushing blow does just that—it obliterates culture, expectations, and hopes. Church leaders should create reasonable short-term goals to bridge the gap. Many people will be ready for the next step. Few will be ready for the last mile. As a leader, you must rebuild, if not build a new vision. Following a major crisis, short-term goals help frame a new vision.
Lastly, pastors should shepherd people towards little victories. These small wins help people move again. A vision-crushing blow freezes everyone, but time thaws. It’s the leader’s responsibility to create a pathway—or process—to get disciple-makers moving together in the right direction. Tangible, visible victories motivate followers to move together. There is something attainable just in front of them. Little victories (as opposed to giant goals) help people realize a new vision is possible.
Sometimes the vision stops. A big, nasty bomb goes off. Everyone is blinded. Everyone freezes. Your reaction as a leader in the crucial moments (sometimes it’s mere hours) following the vision-crushing blow may determine if a new vision will form. But in that moment, it’s not time to form this new vision. You should care for people. Describe what happened. Create short-term goals. And look for little victories to get everyone moving again.
Great article. I believe one of assumption that we as pastors make too often is believing the church is ready to bounce back after a crisis. Many times we see what the future needs to look like and we are ready to get people moving again, only to realize they are not ready to move. Patience and perseverance come into play here and it is important to remember its a process. At the same time I believe we must acknowledge these are turning points, either to steer the church in a healthier direction, or to pass to baton of leadership while recognizing these natural transitions.
There are a few times when something blew up that no one saw coming. However, I think most crises were predicted by someone. Now, those who may have tried to warn of a crisis may have been ignored because you did not want to hear what they had to say or they were the wrong person to say it. (Yes, concerns and ideas are sometimes liked more and given more consideration when the right person says them.) Alternatively, there may have been no opportunity for voicing the brewing crisis. The leaders start panicking only after the fire is raging, not when the fuse just started burning. You have to pay attention to what is occurring and not just listen to a few special people.
One deacon told me once, “When a crisis occurs, it is not a time to point fingers; it is a time to rally together and do something about it.”
That is good advice.
While the “source” of a problem cannot always be ignored because discovering it is often a part of the “solution”, depending on what the source is (a person, persons, or an event), crises are a time to grow and move forward.
This is true personally and in our churches.
Our churches will likely never be the same; the “new normal” is not the “old way” any more.
And, maybe for good. Some of the stagnant ways of ministering that produced poor results need to change or risk death. Sometimes people and churches won’t change until they hit “rock bottom.”
It is interesting that a crisis really puts the spotlight on what is really important.
If over a period of years there are mini-crises over and over again and you do not investigate the causes, where does that leave you? The problem with churches in general is there is no accountability, so you repeat the same thing over and over again expecting different results…the definition of insanity.
@Bill – I understand if a church is having the same crisis over and over again there obviously is a problem. I didn’t follow the accountability statement. Accountability to whom? What would this look like to prevent or forestall future crisis? Thanks – just trying to understand.
@don jones – It is possible that Bill is referring to an outside body. For the “non-denominational” denomination and baptists (at least generally), this can be difficult as autonomy is highly valued. Many cannot see the distinction between “autonomy” and “authority” and thus any form of outside accountability is viewed as creating conflict with with their autonomy.
All that said, I could be way off base…
We’re more than a decade removed from our bombshell. It still marks our church and my life. It was brutal and utterly demoralizing. A couple of friends in the ministry helped me walk through that valley of despair. Though I desperately wanted to leave, I could never get God’s peace about it. Those that stayed have endured and we’ve continued to do ministry. The big vision remains elusive, probably because I don’t want to take the risk. We continue to look forward, striving to be faithful where we are, aiming at more modest goals, while walking with a limp. God is still good and He and His people are worth the effort.
My view: (1) think of the congregation in your community seeming to have the best potential in its setting for sustained biblical growth this year, and what its numbers will look like after it achieves that potential; (2) change the year on that image from 2020 to 2022; (3) write your church’s name on that 2022 image; and, (4) then go prayerfully with God to make that image become reality, using a ministry plan as specific and strategic as Andy Anderson’s Growth Spiral resources.
In your town, your congregation has the same potential as every other Gospel-preaching church there, though your church might take a couple of years more to achieve it. Not every large, spiritual congregation in our towns is a “First Church”—think of the megachurches you know of that do not have “First” in their names; isn’t it most of them?
Your congregation has a terrific future!
So we had an individual manipulate his way to the top pastor spot at our church and forced me out. This has caused some problems within the congregation. The congregation is hurting and confused, my ministry workload has increased because more people are feeling lost and confused. The new pastor is not well liked and does not care for the congregation. Is it wrong for me to keep caring for the congregation because I have relationship with them and the new pastor is not trusted/liked? I want him to succeed even if he got the position in an underhanded way, but I also care for the flock and just because I don’t have the position any more don’t want to stop caring for them.
As some of the comments have demonstrated, crises also tend to bring out the “Monday morning quarterbacks”. Anyone can second-guess after the fact. People tell us to “trust the experts”, but that’s difficult to do when the experts are constantly changing their opinions, as they did in this pandemic.
None of this is aimed at Sam Rainer. I appreciate his words of encouragement.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the short-term goals should be? Our pastoral staff is doing a great job of vision casting and believing God will turn this uncertain situation for good. I would love to hear some feedback of some next steps.
Great article and very timely too! In the midst of a “bomb” that has destroyed our vision (my vision) I have continued to stand waiting for God to deliver. That was over 18 months ago, and now this pandemic. I continue – not sure what tomorrow will be like but my faith in God is renewed everyday! God bless!
🙂 Even on a really great day, the first resource most organizations run out of is: creativity (cannot think of a single other good idea!).
Vision-casting is essential for change–changing to or back to whatever. And it’s actually what distinguishes a leader from a not-leader (basically, managers diagnose, leaders prescribe, administrators treat; all are critical to change, and one has priority over the other two only in his/her time to act–not in terms of value, despite leadership’s getting most of the air-time during this decade).
Hanging out with the people will help a preaching pastor know what to preach next; hanging out with their pastor/s will help a congregation remember God is, He can, He do, and He will (the alternatives are God ain’t, He cain’t, He don’t, and He won’t–none of which we believe!)
Today is the now-normal, but not the new-normal. With the Lord, our difficulties “came to pass,” not to stay.
Be joyful 🙂