At the beginning of this year our district, the Southern Hills District, started a two-year leadership training program. This program is for the pastors and leaders of churches that average over 150 in attendance. The training sessions are led by Doug Anderson; and, so far there have been two training sessions with him

At the last training session, in May, Doug spent some time talking about how decisions are made in the church. He boiled it down to this question, “will we make decisions based on our preferences or on the mission of the church?” Our preferences revolve around what we want for ourselves and normally manifest themselves in the church in questions like:

Human beings are creatures of habit. We know what we like and we like what we know. However, Doug made the point that when churches make decisions based on preferences it becomes very unlikely that the church will stay focused on the mission. Instead, churches need to ask, “What does God want?” realizing that God may want something different from our preferences.

Our mission as a church and a denomination is: to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ, for the transformation of the world. Moving forward in order to fulfill that mission will require us to sometimes do things that do not fit within our personal preferences. Fact is that our preferences many times do not line up with what God wants from us. This does not necessarily mean that we are bad people, but what it does mean is that God calls us to move beyond our comfort zones for the sake of the mission.

Like any other organization, churches make decisions all the time. Churches typically have teams that make decisions around education, worship, finances, buildings, staffing, etc. And like other organizations decisions are made based on an understanding of what that organization exists for. However, I trust that you understand that while churches are organizations, we are not just like any organization.

Most organizations make decisions based on the wants and desires of its members, because that is what the organization exists for. (Actually, I’m describing a club) While the church, obviously, needs to care for its members it is different from a club in that it does not exist solely to meet the wants of its members. The church exists to carry out God’s mission on earth. Therefore, as we make decisions may we remember that the mission, and not our preferences, need to rule the day.