People Spots Online
Produced by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries

Reasonable Expectations

by James W. Moss, Sr.

For many years I served as a parish pastor. I loved conducting weddings. The couple would tell me they were going to so many people at their wedding. Most of the time I would have to counsel them to expect less. I did many weddings. Only two had more than the couple expected. Most had many less.

Harry Smythe is about to begin a new church. Harry says, “I have no doubt that it will average more than 200 in six month’s time.” The reality is that very few new churches reach an average of 200 in their first six months. Oh, it happens once in a while under very unique circumstances. It occurs just enough to tease us. I have been working with church planters for many years. I have yet to talk with one who in the beginning was planning to start a small church. But the fact is many do start small churches.

James Nash has gone to pastor a renewal project. The church has been in decline for more than a decade. After 18 months of hard work, Jim is discouraged that the church is only slightly ahead of where it was when he began. The reality is that a church that is a true renewal project can take as much as five years to begin a significant turn around. It can take a decade to have the church back on really solid footing. It is true that there are a few exceptions to this observation. There are just enough exceptions to tease us.

A pastor called me. He had faithfully followed my instructions on a promotion project. He complained that he had only gotten four new families. I asked, “Only four new families under the age of 30 with children?” I thought he had been quite successful. What would you be willing to do to get four new families for your church?

A recent article was entitled “Farming a Community.” The following is a quote from that article: “This is intensive farming. The 400 letters times 12 is 4,800 touches. Add to that the 400 servant evangelism contacts, and the 400 invitations to vacation Bible school, and the total has risen to 5,600. My hope is that it would generate three to five new families for the church.” I recently described this project to a church. A leader asked, “You mean you want us to do all that work for three to five new families?” My simple answer was, “Yes!” The fact is that three to five new families would make a significant impact on the life of many congregations.

One of my biggest jobs over the years is to help people understand what they might reasonably expect to achieve given energy expected. This role is a challenge. I am occasionally perceived to be a wet blanket. But, on many occasions, I have had to pull someone out of a dark hole when they actually overachieved on a project. They had really succeeded magnificently but their personal perception was they had failed.

Their expectations were unreasonable.

A goal should be a challenge. Some people have all their goals met because they never set them very high. However, a goal should be achievable. A person or organization will never take a step to achieve a goal that they believe is unachievable.

What might you reasonably expect if you pursue a project? Why is this important? Because there will be a sense of defeat and depression when in reality you may even have overachieved in the effort. It is much easier emotionally and psychologically to deal with overachievement. May God bless in your efforts.

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October 13, 2005. Volume 8, Issue 16. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way with proper credit. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.

Reasonable Expectations

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