The past weekend was just another weekend in a long string of weekends when I have presented church vitality training. I flew into Memphis, TN, on Friday and then drove across the Mississippi border to a hotel near the training site. Once again I was going to present my G.O.1 Training, sub-titled “Building Your Church’s Great Commission Matrix”.
About six months earlier I had presented a short workshop on vitalization to the regional group to which these pastors belong. Following the presentation, a unanimous vote was recorded to bring me back for the full seminar. Why? Because these pastors and leaders are leading churches that are mostly in plateau or decline. They need to be vitalized, not just for their own well being, but for the sake of reaching lost people in the neighborhoods that their churches call home. And they know it.
However, only about forty signed up for the seminar and only thirty of them showed up. Why is it that pastors and leaders will recognize the ineffectiveness of their ministries in terms of reaching lost people, vote to bring training to them, some even sign up for the training, and then so few actually show up for time tested training that could make an almost immediate difference in the vitality of their churches?
Before I attempt to answer that question let me cite a disclaimer. It’s not that I think my training is the greatest training on earth or that I think people owe me the courtesy of attending. I do, however, have a proven approach to gaining church vitality that is both spiritual and strategic. If leaders choose not to use my training, fine, as long as they use someone’s training. There are many options out there. But that’s not the case. The vast majority are choosing to use NO training, yet they hope for things to change, to get better.
Perhaps pastors and leaders don’t want to admit that their particular church is struggling. Perhaps it’s too much trouble. Perhaps it threatens approaches to ministry with which they are comfortable. Or perhaps it’s deeper than that. During the seminar’s lunch break one of the leaders in attendance came over to me to chat. He confessed that during the training he had realized something. He had realized that over the years of being in the church and spending most of his time with Christians, that he did not “love the lost” as he had years before when he was active in evangelistic ministry. He wants to change. He wants to get that love back. That’s vitalization!
