Tough ministry choices about the right thing to do. Winter 2003 Pastor's Role The Pastor

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Ken Fong
Evergreen
Baptist Church
Rosemead, California

In spite of having spent half my life as a pastor, I still feel like I have so much to learn to enable this church to go from "good to great," as Jim Collins puts it.

Since reading his book, I have wrestled with becoming a great church that will make a lasting impact for God's kingdom. This isn't about how large our church is, but about the quality of our life together and our ability to bring God glory.

To do this, I need to lead more effectively. So I took the SIMA (System for Identifying Motivated Abilities) inventory to determine if my God-designed "motivated abilities" are a good fit for our church now. Having determined that, I engaged a Christian "executive coach" to focus my energies on some of the emerging macro tasks.

Recently I've spearheaded an effort to improve our organizational structure and culture, and focused on increasing the excitement and investment of our members and supporters. Without writing out these goals and getting coached regularly, the tyranny of my normal workload would have crowded out these priorities.

Erwin McManus
Mosaic
Los Angeles, California

I must admit I struggle with the demands of ministry, and saying yes too often. When I was new in ministry, my boundaries were simply saying no the bad things and yes to the good things. But as my opportunities grow, the challenge is choosing between good things and things that are better for my ministry and family. I use several filters for choosing:

1. Can someone else do this as well? Or am I the only person who can do this well and passionately?
   
   
2. Does this give me the opportunity to build ongoing relationships?
   
   
3. Does this adversely affect my time with my wife and family?
   
   

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