These few items describe the biggest obstacles standing in the way of both on-campus and off-campus efforts:
- The misplaced priority given to on-campus strategies. The most influential people need to become location agnostic. Why? I’ve long believed that adults not currently in an on-campus experience are unlikely to add another 60 to 75 minutes and unchurched adults are extremely unlikely to embrace a three hour Sunday morning. I often note how common it is for most of us to watch a 60 minute program in 42 minutes (DVR).
- The insistence that the best leaders have résumés. As long as we pursue the notion that leading a group has anything to do with experience… we’re going to have a hard time overcoming this obstacle.
- The illusion of knowledge. The sense that we’ve figured out how to do it, that we know best, is a massive obstacle. The only way to break through is to admit that the very best ways to launch new groups hasn’t yet been discovered.
- The lure of the status quo. This is the way we do it here. This is how groups happen here. We are a Sunday school church. We are a small group church. Unless we can break free from the shackles of the status quo… we will not be able to beat this one.
What do you think?
[By Mark Howerton]