If you’re a Small Church pastor like me, you’ve spent a lot of years struggling to motivate people to do great things.
Good things.
OK… anything.
During my years of struggle, I used to say “I can’t wait for the day when I feel like I’m sitting on a runaway horse, trying to steer it in the right direction, instead of behind a mule, trying to kick it into action.”
Then, a few years ago, I discovered the #1 key to spark that kind of thoroughbred motivation.
If you want to increase your chances of working with innovators who need guidance, instead of heel-draggers who need motivation, this is the best piece of advice I can give you. I now consider it to be one of my main roles as a church leader.
Find a way to say Yes.
Yes to people. Yes to their crazy ideas. Yes to their passion. Yes to something God may be trying to do through them that I just can’t see yet.
This article was originally posted on January 8, 2013, when we had less than 10% of today’s readers. I think it’s worth a second (or first) look as one of the overlooked #BestOf2013.
Stop Being the Bottleneck
I know of too many pastors, especially in Small Churches, who seem to feel it’s their God-given duty to expose the faults of every idea, discourage innovation and snuff out any spark of creativity.
They claim it’s about respecting authority, maintaining doctrinal purity, or stemming the tide of whatever moral crisis they believe is at hand. But it’s almost never about any of those things.
But when everything has to be controlled, when every detail of each decision has to pass the pastor’s white-glove test, very little gets done. People stop offering great ideas because they know they’re unlikely to get a fair hearing. Then we wonder why we’re constantly in the company of whining, uncooperative mules? We’ve cross-bred their stallion with our donkey.
Innovation, but its very nature, means living with a certain lack of control. Why? Because the details under our control are, by definition, not innovative. Innovation means new, untested, unknown and uncertain.
Let’s find passionate people and discover how to say yes to their passion.
I can hear your objections already, so let me preempt them by saying of course that doesn’t mean saying yes to every stupid idea. But sometimes it does mean finding the non-stupid part of the idea and helping people shape that until you can say yes to it.
Sometimes that means encouraging them to re-draw their plans. At other times, it means sitting with them to tweak an almost-good-enough idea to make it doable. Occasionally it’s just about finding a way to pay for it.
I’ve learned that you get better ideas, and better people giving you those ideas, when they know their pastor will be their greatest encourager, supporter, promoter and fund-raiser, instead of the main hurdle they have to overcome.
Become a Yes Man/Woman
I don’t want to have Yes-Men working for me. But if I was a team member, I’d love to have a Yes-Man or -Woman leading the team.
Small Church pastors, we need to become those Yes-Men.
Having Yes-Men working for you is dangerous. It breeds false pride in the leader and dishonesty, status-seeking and mediocrity in the worker. Control freaks like Yes-Men.
Having a wise Yes-Man/Woman as your boss is awesome. It breeds freedom, creativity, sharing of ideas and great innovation.
Of course, when we say yes a lot, we’ll end up making some mistakes. But we’ll make mistakes when we say no a lot, too.
“Yes” mistakes are a lot more fun than “no” mistakes.
Saying yes can give you a reputation. A reputation that will draw positive, creative, passionate people who will want to work with and for you. And it will keep the mules away.
Saying yes a lot can mean a wild ride sometimes. But that’s what it feels like when you’re sitting in the saddle on top of a stallion.
So what do you think? Have you made the mistake of saying “no” too often? Are you ready to become a “Yes” Man or Woman?
We want to hear from you. Yes, you!
Enter your comment right below this post and get in on the conversation.
(Matches photo from Nina Matthews Photography • Flickr • Creative Commons license)
