Every church should be asking hard questions

By: Bishop Scott Jones On 9/24/2009

In his book on leadership entitled “Good to Great,” Jim Collins tells the story of Admiral Stockdale’s imprisonment in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Under the most brutal conditions, Stockdale was abused for years. He noted that the optimists claimed the war would end soon. When they were wrong, they lost hope and died in prison.

Stockdale said the key to survival was a paradox: facing the brutal facts of your situation while knowing that you would ultimately prevail. Collins then turns this “Stockdale paradox” into a leadership maxim that applies to all organizations.

I think church leaders need to use it as well. We need to look objectively at the hard facts of our situation and know the answers to basic questions such as these:

What are our membership trends for the last 10 years?
What are our worship attendance trends for the last 10 years?
What are our Sunday school and small group trends for the last 10 years?
What is our average age?
Does our ethnic group make-up match our community?
What are the population trends—age, numbers, changes—in our community, county or neighborhood?
How many people did we receive by profession of faith each year?
How many people have we sent out in risk-taking mission?
How many of our people are tithing or making progress toward tithing?
How many children and youth have we sent to camp?

Sometimes the answers to these questions will be exciting and encouraging. We all love to look at progress.

At other times, the information will be disturbing. Too often we don’t ask the right questions because we are afraid of how the answers will make us feel.

But the emotional component should be driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, numbers are important in the New Testament. Jesus counted the disciples, someone counted the number fed, and the disciples noted how many were saved on Pentecost. Numbers matter because people matter to God.

At the same time, scripture tells us that God is good, that God will prevail and that we are on the winning team. God’s goal of saving the world will be accomplished! I want to be part of what God is blessing in the world. What a privilege it is to participate in such a project.

So, I ask the hard questions and let my feelings be determined by the gospel of life, and that encourages me to make sacrifices and take risks.

In August, I went for a health check-up called “Life of Leaders” at Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. This was a follow-up two years after the first one. They had talked very bluntly about my bad health habits in 2007. I thought of this one as a final exam, and so I crammed for it. I found a small accountability group to meet with, an Emmaus reunion group. I started exercising regularly. And I lost 18 pounds. I am really proud of myself. I passed the test!

Since then, I have gained several pounds back, and the news on the scale this morning was not good. But I am determined to lead a healthier lifestyle because I want to be part of what God is blessing in the world for a long time.

How is your church doing?