I love pastors and evangelists, but sometimes someone needs to say. “That’s enough.” Here are five of those situations:
1. Stop saying, “Turn to your neighbor and say ____”.
Your church members love you and won’t tell you this, so that’s why I’m here. It feels forced, awkward and very cheesy. Trust me, your church members hate it.
2. Stop being confusing.
We forget that a significant part of your congregation didn’t grow up in church. I know churches where 50% of the congregation doesn’t have a church background. And new visitors? Forget it.
So, when did you last talk from the pulpit about why we value and read the Bible? When was the last time you explained why we sing? Never forget that in a typical service, many people in your congregation don’t get things we take for granted.
And that includes posted signs, directions and helpful information. It’s more important than you think. Which means, do you know what else is essential? Your church communication team.
3. Stop ignoring your live-stream audience.
Remember how much work we put into producing live-streamed services during the pandemic, when churches were closed? Now, most churches broadcast their services online but don’t make much effort to connect with that audience.
My recommendations:
– Make them feel welcome. During praise and worship, I’d turn to a camera and welcome them in person.
– Place the camera at eye level while preaching. It’s hard to engage in an online service through a camera hanging off the balcony rail.
– Look at the camera during your message and acknowledge the online audience. In fact, I’d consider preaching to the camera almost as much as you preach to the people in the room.
If we’re serious about reaching the world with the gospel in today’s digital universe, we’ll have to use media.
4. Stop using “fill in” words – Amen?
It’s my theory that because of our noisy, distracted culture, we often feel that we need to fill in the quiet moments in conversations or preaching. So we use nonsense words —“like,” “you know,” “so,” “amen?” etc.
If you study great speakers, you’ll discover they know how to use silence in a way that makes people think. It can make people sit on the edge of their seats with anticipation. So don’t undermine that moment by using a fill-in word that has no meaning.
You should get comfortable with silence and make sure every word you say in the pulpit matters – because it does.
5. Finally, stop ignoring red flags. I use the term to describe seeing things that could blow up into a major crisis if you don’t deal with them now. In my book “Church on Trial: How to Protect Your Congregation, Mission, and Reputation During a Crisis,” I use examples like a youth director who’s spending a little too much time with a minor in the youth group, an executive pastor that comes in looking strangely like he has a hangover, or a couple on staff who seem to work late – a lot.
I’m not talking about being a behavior cop because false accusations can destroy lives. But I wonder how many significant crises we’ve seen reported at churches lately could have been avoided had someone not ignored something that didn’t feel right or dared to ask a senior leader about it.
Red flags are the early warning system for churches in crisis, so it’s time we stopped ignoring them.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was originally published by philcooke.com.
