Hate your job? Finding it more and more difficult to go to church?
These two may have more in common than what you might first think.
In "The Three Signs of a Miserable Job" (Jossey-Bass, 2007), Patrick Lencioni names three factors that contribute to a sense of my current employment being or becoming 'miserable.' These three are:
1. Anonymity - do my boss, my peers, those I serve, know who I am?
2. Irrelevance - is doing my job making a difference to anyone?
3. Immeasurability - Lencioni acknowledges that no such word exists but there was "no real synonym to describe the lack of a clear means of assessing progress and success of doing my job."
Lencioni admits that these are no-brainers, but no-brainers about which we need to be constantly reminded. To overcome these generators of misery both manager and employee have work to do alone and with each other. Without this work, the job - whatever it's compensation and perks - will return misery for our efforts.
As I was reading this book, I thought of my own job, my boss, and my peers, those I serve, and my perceptions of this service. I also started to reflect on those who become dissatisfied with 'going to church.' Church becomes a 'miserable experience' for many every week. Think this through with me with the following questions and Bible passages which I will cite, but not quote.
Do we practice anonymity? As people arrive at church, what happens? Is there a greeting, an engagement with each one, a connection? "Does anyone here know who I am?" During your coffee fellowship after or before service, are there persons who are standing alone looking around with no one approaching them and no one available to talk with them (everybody engaged in their own circles)? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John described how Jesus went to the 'people of the land' known by some as the 'unclean.' These were not people that the 'religious' wanted to know or cared to know. But Jesus did. Jesus invited being 'bothered' so that persons would know they mattered.
Relevance or irrelevance? Do we help those who attend church to participate as church? Do we help them discover who they are - as God has called them and gifted them (Ephesians 4) - so they may learn who they can serve and how? Or, do we practice alchemy - assuming that when more come and give more, each person coming and giving will automatically grow in faith and joy.
Are we helping each person learn how to assess their growth in Christ? This 'immeasureability' is a tough one. Yet, God's Word teaches us that we are to grow in Christ (Romans 12:1 - 2; Philippians 2; John 13:12 - 16 are a few of many). There are more than subjective mileposts for gauging that growth - and they exist more than faithful attendance and tithe. John sent his disciples to Jesus to make sure that Jesus was 'the One.' How did Jesus answer them (Matthew 11:2 - 6)? Were they not measurements of what had been done? Our journey with Christ becomes miserable if it is only a 'treadmill' experience that really leads nowhere.
Are you as pastor helping persons have a joyful experience? Are you helping lay leaders have greater joy? Know each. Help them learn who they serve and how they make a difference. Help them learn what to look for as progress in making a difference.
Are you as a church leader helping others and your pastor to overcome fears of being anonymous, irrelevant? Are you helping your pastor and members of the congregation discern God's mileposts and progress made toward those mileposts?
Have you yet thought of how Jesus described this process?
In one word: Discipleship (Matthew 28:19 - 20). Yes, it's a no-brainer. But, the brain stressed with so many daily responsibilities often forgets and needs to be reminded.
