Why we must remain the same
Sometimes it’s vital to remain the same. Take for example a new bakery/cafe I came across whilst on holidays. It never seemed to be open the same hours each day and each time I went in it was trying out different lines of baked items which meant I could not get my favourite crispy croissant every day. The place has been opened for about three months but is still pretty empty. Across the road from this new bakery is a café that is always packed day in day out. The reason that the Café is so successful is because it opens early, shuts late and consistently delivers high-quality product and reliable menu for its customers every day.
What is your Christian ministry like? Is it like the café or the new bakery?
I asked myself the same question about my small business, Anton’s Antics. I want people out there to all always know that when they come to me they will get great service and a high quality product. I don’t want to give clients any doubt about how reliable I am. I try and make myself accessible and available as possible. I work hard so that I hopefully never do a bad show and always seek to improve and rework shows so that they remain vital and unique.
While churches have a captive audience they nonetheless grow and are ‘successful’ based on the consistency of those who ‘build’ the body. If we are one of those who teach and lead, we must aim to be consistent in our lives and in the quality of the teaching from the Bible that we offer. If you’re a paid minister of the gospel then you must remember you are paid to serve and your service must be of the highest standard because it is Jesus whom you are ultimately serving.
Why we must avoid sameness
Sometimes it even more vital to change. I’m not thinking about altering the message we are proclaiming. I’m thinking more about how to stretch ourselves, how to push out of the comfort zone that ministries and even small businesses, get locked into from time to time.
A friend who runs a church the other day said to me that he felt the congregation had consolidated and now was the time to stretch and work out where they are going from this point. Sound exciting? It does, but it will be meaningless without concrete goals. We all just meander and keep on keeping on unless we are committed to achieving specific time, bound and measurable goals.
So how you will avoid sameness this year? What goals can you set that will be concrete enough and realistic within that timeframe of the next 12 months?
If you’re trying to reach kids and families, how about a few of these for example:
- Create and trial a system of recognising new families and how you might welcome them to church and introduce them to other families so that they make connections quickly
- Obtain a budget from the church to commence a new holiday club or pupil free day club and start working out how to pull it off by July
- Decide to invest training in to young teenagers who are eager to help in the kid’s ministry on Sunday mornings
- Decide how you might connect the children’s ministry with the youth ministry better and come up with some strategies to try this year with your staff team.
My biggest challenge this year is to get some very specific help in the area of marketing that will help grow the volume of work I do. I need to set down some specifics on volume and time frames. I also want to finish the first album of songs for my rap character, Skito. But that’s just two. I need to detail out some more.
It’s easier just to set nice fluffy goals isn’t it? Like, I want all my leaders in the church to be better Christians. But we need to get specific and hold ourselves to it, if we are going to avoid another year of sameness.
Stephen Shearsby presents the gospel through two very different live shows.
Anton’s Antics is for kids and families, involving live theatre, artwork and rap music
Barista Banter is for adults and is all about coffee education and how to extract more from life.
