Decisions That Made a Difference

As we approach our 7-year anniversary at Rock Bridge, I was reflecting on some decisions that we've made that I think have made a big, long-term difference in the church we are today and the direction we are headed.

1)  The pastor needs to spend the vast majority of his time in the two areas of message preparation (studying, praying, etc.) AND vision (casting, clarifying, guarding, etc.).

It is so easy to get bogged down on urgent matters and the details that occur daily in the life of a church; however, the long term health of the church comes from a hot from God vision and passionate, Word-centered preaching.  From the beginning our church freed me to focus on these areas and challenged me to grow in them.  To this day, our elders will frequently ask me, "How is your study time?"  They hold me accountable and encourage me to spend my time in these two areas.

2) Tearing down the distinction of "clergy", avoiding the temptation to let the "staff run everything", and challenging people to serve, get involved, and take an "owners" interest in the church.

While there are certain matters that the staff has to oversee and be directly involved in, I can honestly say that we've made very few decisions where multiple members were not involved and we've NEVER done any ministry initiative that has not been highly dependent on volunteers and the support of the congregation.  Volunteers oversee our budget and run our core ministries.  Our elders are all members who give extra time to shepherd the church, help steward resources, and seek God's wisdom for major decisions.  The result is that I think the people of Rock Bridge have a stake in Rock Bridge.  They care more, give more, and serve more.

Even the questions and criticisms we receive on staff, most of the time are asked because the people of Rock Bridge care and want this church to be the best for Jesus in this community.

3)  We have laid aside personal preferences and egos to change the question from "What do I want from my church?" to "What does Jesus want from HIS church?"

In our core team meetings we had two sayings, "The Bible is our only tradition." and "Leave your ego at the door (because ego equals "edging God out")." This attitude allows us to have a lot of clarity when discussing issues because let's be honest most issues gets discussed from our personal perspectives and prejudices.  When the Bible is the backdrop and humility is the prevalent attitude, God can get a lot of traction from the church.

4)  We've never been afraid to fail or afraid to change.

By constantly trying to improve and continually evaluating for effectiveness, things tend to move in the right direction.

Additionally, the "risk" (if you can call it that) of failure is acceptable if it is made trying to reach more people for Christ and radically love people.

5)  We've sought to balance the corporate and personal aspects of the church.

As a church grows there are some natural challenges that occur.  You have to add staff.  You have to get more organized.  You have to have policies and procedures.  You have to get multiple phone lines.  You have to expand how you communicate.  In summary, you have to become more "corporate" or business-like in many of your functions.  If you don't things won't happen or they won't happen well.  Acts 6:1-7 is a great example of this dynamic at work.

However, at the same time you have to stay personal with people.  People still want to talk to a "real live" person.  People still need to be visited in the hospital, prayed for, and encouraged.   So as the church grows larger it still has to stay personal.  The church is not trying to be General Electric but a (growing) family of God.

At Rock Bridge, sometimes we've failed in this area but it wasn't for a lack of trying.  We have added some systems and policies that help us operate more efficiently and effectively, but we are always trying to keep things personal, to thank all our volunteers a lot, to care for people in crisis in personal ways, to communicate well, and to really be a spiritual "family" (vs. a business).

This is huge in small towns where some people are suspicious of "big" and worried that they will be forgotten or just a "number".  At Rock Bridge we did not start out big, we started with 25 adults.  But we started out loving people like Jesus, and as a result we started growing and getting big.  The key is to never quit loving and caring for people as you grow, but to find more effective ways to love and care for more people.  I think we're working hard to do that!!