The Long Haul, Part 2

On the Same Page

The Purpose Driven model of ministry helps get all of the church’s members and ministries “on the same page.” A shared vision for the church helps channel critical energy and emotion in a focus direction.

I lived in Alaska prior to coming to Evergreen. I took a class on Total Quality Management in Education. The instructor had a diagram of the typical dog sled used in the Iditarod. The dogs were harnessed in pairs in front of the sled. All of the dogs were facing the same direction and pulling in the same direction. Then the instructor showed us a drawing of a sled with the dogs all harnessed as individual dogs from a point at the front of the sled. If the front of the sled was facing north, one dog was pulling to the southwest, one to south east, one due west, one due east, one to the north west, one to the north east and one dog just sitting there. It was the picture of chaos.

Many churches are in chaos due to no shared vision or direction. Each individual church is faced with finite resources. There are only so many people, $$$ and hours in the week. One church cannot “do it all.” We have to be focused. Yet, most churches have no paradigm for accomplishing this.

In my basketball coaching days, I had a player (left handed) who would drive to the left corner of the court and shoot every time he touched the ball. He refused to run the plays. He sat on the bench until in decided to become a team player. Another player would shoot from the top of the key. He was a post player and was not a good shot from that distance. He sat on the bench until he decided to be a team player. I still see these guys. One still calls me “Coach.” The other waves every time I see him. We get along great. However, on the court I had to require that they consider the good of the team. They became better players and our team vastly improved.

Each church needs to have focus. People need to be heading in the same direction. The Purpose Driven model helps make this possible.