I've found that churches, staffs, companies...actually a lot of entities begin to atrophy when there becomes a stagnation of new ideas and implementation. Maybe we sometimes feel as though we have reached our pinnacle, or there is a bottleneck near the top preventing growth, or, we simple have lost our vision of what we are doing and why. Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre Hotels found the company on the verge of failure, embarked on a new endeavor to involve everyone at all levels during a series of specially designed retreats to get ideas and buy in of how things could be turned around. After a renewed 250 million in new sales Conley said, "The more you give people a voice, the more they step up".
Its simply amazing how we in the church can stick with the same ways, when its abundantly clear we are not growing, reaching, discipling and winning...wining people passionately to be passionate followers of Christ. If a hotel fails, so what. If the Church does not reach her potential and continue to grow...people fail to hear the message Christ died for and commissioned us to deliver.
I heard someone say once, that God has given each church what it needs to be successful. Maybe...vision isn't up to just one person...maybe God has placed dreams, passions, new ministries, giftings, callings into a lot of people...maybe we just haven't listened. So I say, Give the Church A Voice. Let Pastors, leaders, staff, pre-leaders all have the opportunity to seek the leading of the Holy Spirit to see the Church be exactly what it should be in the community it has been placed. To be Light...in a dark world...bringing and proclaiming freedom for those in captivity and sight to the blind.
