How To Make Decisions

“The most eternally creative thing you can do is make a decision.” – Dave Miller

Here are a few principles to help you make decisions. Church is two or more gathered [Matthew 18:20] centered around Christ, to acknowledge His authority and presence, discerning and declaring the will of God, making decisions for the Kingdom, declaring those decisions and acting on them corporately.¹ Always start (and complete) the decision making process with our hearts – affections, our minds – attitudes, our souls – ambition, our strength – activity,² centered on Christ. Unless you just want to build your church, instead of His.

Remove fear.

Fear of what people will think, fear of what it will take to do what the decision implies, or fear of making the wrong decision are always bad motivators and will cloud your decision. Fear = Fog. Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real. It will mess you up. Go ahead, imagine what it feels like to make a decision without the weight of “what will they think?” attached to it. I couldn’t help but grin either.

Make sure you clarify what decision you’re making and which ones you are not making.

Decisions always impact other things, but it’s important to not try and make all the decisions that will be affected by a single decision at the same time. It will immobilize you. Just imagine shopping at the grocery store for the next 175 meals in a single shopping trip. Hope you like Spam.

Identify what’s making it a difficult decision

There’s something intoxicating about problem solving that is so detrimental to decision making. Don’t confuse decision making with problem solving.³ Sometimes when I am trying to make a decision, I’ll stop and back up from all the processing I’ve been doing and I’ll listen for the answer that I’ve kinda known God was giving me, but I was mentally debating because I didn’t understand, like, or know how it would work.  If you had to say (ignoring any implications of the decision) what you think God’s saying about the decision…what would it be if you had to make a call right now?

Decide how long of a time frame each decision should take to make. (5 minutes or 5 months?)

Some decisions take time. Some don’t. Some leaders can make decisions quickly. Some can’t. Neither is always right/wrong. Agreeing at the start how long a decision needs to take will help everyone. There’s a freedom in knowing that even though this decision will take 2 months to make, that end date gives hope and forward motion. Never delay a decision that should be made quickly. It’ll be like that email that you didn’t want to respond to right away, that somehow ended up way down in your inbox only to be discovered months later. Never rush a decision that needs time. You can nuke a steak, but it’ll get hard and you’ll feel discomfort in your stomach.

If it’s a complex decision, simplify it by breaking it into several decisions.

It’s the same principle of eating the elephant (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.)

Filter the decision through your core purpose, your WHY, the big picture.

Every decision. That’s not an overstatement. Every decision should support your WHY. Even if it seems insignificant, or the exception, or your really want it. If it doesn’t support what you’ve decided you’re about, don’t do it. On the contrary, if it does support your WHY, make sure you clearly share that when you communicate the decision.

Congratulations!

So how do you make decisions?

¹Concept from Keith Yoder, Teaching The Word Ministries, ²Verbiage from Myron Augsburger 1968, Faith for a Secular World ³Concept from Doug Fike

http://adlibmusic.com/

Filter Bubbles and "my" church

When was the last time you worshipped with other believers.  Wait, but I mean not at "your" church?  I mean when was the last time you joined believers outside of your congregation and fully engaged in worship in their Sunday morning worship gathering?"


Why does it matter?


Watch this 9 minute video, and then we'll talk.  http://on.ted.com/9Bfd

"As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us..."

The search engines that "tailor" [read: filter] what we see.

The effect of the "filter bubble" that homogenizes what we see.

How it should be, so that we see the full picture.

What if we would apply the idea of "filter bubbles" to our experience at "our" church. The [capital C] Church is much bigger than "your" church. But so often, we only see how we do church.  And I believe that if we only get to see and experience one tiny, tiny segment of the Church, we will neither see her full beauty nor have an accurate and appropriate perspective of who she really is.


I have a different experience and therefore perspective than most. I do have a home church, but I am in other congregations about twice a month on Sundays and partner  with over 25 distinct congregations each year, seeing not only their Sunday morning gatherings, but, with my ALL-ACCESS, behind the scenes pass, I get to see their inner workings and culture as I coach their leadership.


And I know, I know, "your" church is great and it has everything you've ever wanted, but...


When was the last time you experienced...

• the richness of a Presbyterian liturgy?
• the freedom of an informal house church?
• the artistry of a seeker church?
• the fire of a pentecostal church?
• the intellect of a United Methodist church?
• the simplicity of a Mennonite church?
• the passion of a "river" church?
• the funky, hand-shaking groove of a black church?
• the community of a...community church?
• the "Word power" of a Bible church?
• the open-invitation tribe at a Mosaic church?
• the diversity of a multi-cultural church?
• the flat out rock n' roll of a big church?
• the newness of a church plant?
• the history of a 250 year-old church?
• the calisthenics of a portable church?
• the familiarity of "your" church?
• the awkwardness of a traditional church doing contemporary music?  [sorry, I just had to throw that one in there!]

Does that make you want to get out there and experience something beyond the "filter bubble" that your current perspective gives you?  I'd love your comments with further descriptions of your experiences...


And if you're wondering why I keep putting references of "your" church in quotes, I'm trying to correct the perception that we have a church.  See we ARE the Church.  Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that "I will build my church."  I get that you want to call your local congregation "my church" and that's fine.  But what I see over and over as I coach churches is that far too often church goers act like it's their church, make decisions like it's their church, make demands like it's their church...and it's not.  :)  [does that smiley soften it?]


Oh, and if you're a church shopper taking this as a free pass to engage in uncommitted church dating, know this: there is huge joy in being a member one to another of a local congregation, there is great safety in being under Godly authority, and there is a clear command to live in community, be devoted one to another, and to genuinely love each other.  That will never happen if you keep up your fickle ways.  Plug in.


http://adlibmusic.com/