The number of college basketball games that I have watched this season is directly proportional to the times that I’ve seen Sasquatch. But it’s March and the NCAA brackets are out so I’m going fill one out and pretend like I know what I’m doing.
Actually the above paragraph is only partially true. I did watch about 3 minutes of the Kentucky vs. Texas A&M SEC Title game on Sunday. Kentucky (UK) was the number two team in that tourney and A&M was the top seed. Kentucky beat them. But somehow UK is a #4 seed in the big dance and A&M is a #3 seed. If you don’t know what any of that means, it simply means that UK got messed over much like they have the last couple of years.
This morning I watched a video of the UK coach, John Calipari, expressing his frustration at their terrible seeding. At one point he said it feels like the committee keeps moving the target. One year it is road wins, the next year RPI, the year before its something else.
“They keep moving the target…”
As I thought about Calipari’s words I realized how much they apply to pastors and other church leaders. This is one reason why you cannot allow people to set the agenda of the church. If you take a poll and ask the people in your church what they want to accomplish you might get a consensus answer. But there is no guarantee that this consensus answer is what the people really need or that this will be their same answer two years down the road. Why? People keep moving the target.
Some leaders will read the above paragraph and completely misunderstand. They’ll read, “Don’t let the congregation set the agenda. Leader, you must set the agenda with the vision and mission statement that God has placed on your heart”. Of course, “God has placed on your heart” is often code for, “Great idea I had at three in the morning after eating way too much Taco Bell”.
It is not just the congregation who will keep moving the target. Leaders will keep moving the target. And that is just as unhelpful as
But there is one place where the target doesn’t move. God’s Word. It is eternal. There are principles that God has given us about who a church is supposed to be and what she is supposed to do that transcends culture and time. The target doesn’t change.
And so leaders who lead well must lead with the conviction that God’s Word is what sets the agenda. That is great for you as a leader and it is great for your people because God’s Word isn’t a waxed nose that keep shape-shifting. The target won’t keep moving. You as the pastor can keep plodding along, not having to worry about opinion polls or what the people think of what the church is doing. Because at the end of the day what really matters is that we are faithful to what God has called us to do. And that isn’t a moving target.
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Photo source: here
