Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Sweet spots...

I'm working my way through "Me to We" by Alan Nelson. The basic idea is that churches need to move away from pastor-centered ministries and work more on mobilizing people. Sure, it's something most of us have heard a thousand times, but we are terrible when it comes to follow through.

A pile of stuff is jumping out at me and getting my brain going. Here's a few:

"When pastors try to do things outside their sweet spot, everyone suffers." (37)

"If the body works right, everyone should be doing what they're best at three-fourths of the time--and that includes the pastor." (38)

In an attempt to get some lively conversation going, here's a few questions for you to consider:
  1. What are you currently doing that is outside your "sweet spot"?

  2. Is it possible (or even necessary) to make changes to what you are currently doing?

3 comments:

Tammy said...

This is non church related however God has really been working on our hearts to start a kids club here in our "village". It is scary because it would be with ages 9-11 not the normal "teen" age that we feel comfortable with. Is that out of our sweet spot? I do believe so.

Anonymous said...

On monday night at church a group of us watched a video from Leadership Summit 2007 called "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" by marcus buckingham. I think it follows the same train of thought you're into here - except it mostly focused on the individual. Track it down if you get a chance.
Personally, I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about this - and here's some random thoughts:
1) As a pastor, I have quite a bit of guilt about the things I'm bad at or I'm not doing at all... the funny thing is that I've begun to realize that 99% of the congregation, 99% of the time really doesn't care about my weaknesses.
2) I don't think I could ever be a "solo pastor" as it's traditionally been done - and I'm not alone in my generation. Small-ish rural churches are really going to need to rein-vision leadership if they're going to find pastors to come work with them. (I've been reading a bit about APEPT leadership - Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers - and it just makes a lot more sense then what I often see in the church).
3) What happens if you've think you've found your "sweet spot", but nobody else agrees?

Jon Coutts said...

i will spend the entirety of my day at work tomorrow outside my sweet spot.