Committed to.....?

Do you ever wonder why some of the people you thought would be with you forever split...take off and you're left wondering what happened? Through tears they will declare "I'm with you till the end" and a few months later they are no where to be found. Upon reflection and a few years under our ministry belts I'd like to throw up an idea. What do people commit to and what are you asking people to commit to in your church?

What people commit to and how you communicate that commitment has a great deal of influence on how long they'll be around. Here's my hypothesis "If people are committed to a vision there is a greater likelihood they will run the race." I'm talking about a white hot, never changing, clearly communicating, compelling, expectation driven vision...not a quite statement on a wall that doesn't relate to how ministry takes place.

Through tons of observation and countless conversations with other church leaders I've boiled it down to three things people commit to rather than the vision:

1. Position - As long as they are the ___ pastor or carry a certain title they are with you...the moment a shift has to take place is the moment they're out the door.
2. Program - What happens when their pet program is sacrificed for the vision...they're gone.
3. Person - If people are committed because of their relationship with the pastor, what happens when the pastor can't spend time with them because they've grown to the point that he can't meet with everyone...see ya, they're like a Josh Hamilton homerun...GONE!!

Communicating vision is hard work. It's galvanizing and it's divisive...not everyone will be attracted to it. Over the next 3 Friday's I'll take a closer look at the three things people commit to and the ramifications of committing to anything less than the vision. This Friday I'll examine how "position" commitment is destined to fail.