Doing Church as a Team

When a pastor of a small church goes to his Governing Board and asks them to step out in faith and invest $8,000 from their annual budget to fund an outreach event it can be expected that he would see a few eyebrows raised. Most Governing Boards of smaller congregations in America are more concerned about keeping the lights turned on than they are about attracting new people.

Investing money from the budget is a huge step of faith. In his book, Doing Church as a Team, Wayne Cordeiro says, “Leaders develop their gifts by taking risks for God. If everything were a guaranteed success, then why would we ever need faith? We do need it, however, for the Bible tells us, ‘Without faith, it is impossible to please [God]’ (Heb 11:6). We cannot please God by playing it safe.”

It is up to the pastor of the church to convince both the Governing Board and the congregation that existing is not enough. There are many instances in the Bible that explains this fully. The example of Peter walking on water in Matthew 14 is a great example of this. Peter was safe in his seat located on the boat. He had the faith that if Jesus would allow it that he could walk on the water with Jesus. This was a huge step of faith for Peter. None of the other disciples were willing to take the risk and get a little wet. Peter left his comfort zone to accompany Jesus.

Jesus wants leaders to continue to accompany Him. There are many people who sit at home on Sunday morning that do not know that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with them. If more pastors and Governing Boards would be more willing to leave their comfort zones, there would be more people coming to Jesus. The time for playing it safe is over. It is time to take risks for the Kingdom.