I don’t know about you, but I am always curious about what’s next?  It probably drives the teams I have led through the years, not to mention my family, a little crazy.  I’ve heard more than once, “Can’t we just focus on what we’re doing without looking around the corner to what’s next?”  I get it.  And I’ve also more than once said, “You’re right … this can wait.”  At the same time, I know that organizations that get too focused on what’s only in front of their nose, run the danger of looking up and realizing they’ve been left in the dust or at the very least, missed an opportunity.

That’s why I have chosen to call my new newsletter, LeadWell NEXT.  Once a month, I’ll be sharing with you an idea, posing a question, telling a story, or connecting you to a resource that will help you take a look up and around the corner to what may be next for you, your team, or your organization.

The brief content will have four sections:

1. What – The Big Idea
2. So What – The Implications
3. Now What – The Resources
4. Who Knew – Factoids and other Random Thoughts

I hope that you will be encouraged, challenged, and resourced as you continue to lead well.

First up …

WHAT

Are we asking the wrong question?

Everyone seems to be asking the same questions – “What is the new normal and when will we arrive there?” Perhaps we are focusing on the wrong thing.

Just having completed the Christmas holiday, I am sure that some of you spent some time “on the road to Grandma’s house.”  With adult children and having lost my dad recently, Grandma came to our house instead.  But I do remember the many trips we made around the holidays with our boys.  One especially memorable trip happened in the middle of an ice and snowstorm.  What was supposed to be a long six-hour trip for two active boys under five actually turned into a painfully long 10-hour journey. The length of the trip, the stress of staying between the ditches on icy roads, and the weariness of having packed “Santa’s gifts” alongside all the normal kid gear were enough.  But as we pulled around the first corner after leaving our driveway, the “put you over the top question” was uttered innocently, “How much longer until we get there?”  

The boys were just anxious to see Gran and Grandad.  We were just anxious to arrive safely and “share the boy’s attention” with my mom and dad.  Nothing wrong with those desires.  But our reality was that our trip was longer and more treacherous than anticipated.  There was nothing we could do about that except make the best of it … the proverbial, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  During that trip, we successfully strapped in a small TV with a DVD player with an odd mix of bungee cords and maybe even a little duct tape (these were the days before headrest screens). We creatively paced the videos so that when we were 60 minutes out and my wife asked her own, somewhat desperate version of, “How much longer until we get there?” we had a favorite 60-minute video rewound and ready to roll.  We created a few new games.  We counted police cars and cars in ditches and lots of other things to pass the time.  We finished off the gallon size container of goldfish.  Bottom line – we assessed the situation, figured out what we had, and did the best we could with it.  And we arrived exhausted but ready to celebrate Jesus with my family.  Mission accomplished. And memories made that we still talk about two decades later.

SO WHAT

So you may be asking, “Cute story Ligon, but what does that have to do with me, my church, and the opening line of this newsletter?” 

Good question.

Perhaps instead of focusing on when we are going to get to Grandma’s house, we should be assessing our current reality, dare I say looking for the blessings within it and making the most of the journey.

Instead of asking, “When will we arrive at a new normal?,” consider the proposition that this is it and ask a more helpful question – “What is our reality  and what are we going to do with it?”  Right now, not after the next CDC announcement or a look at what the other churches in your network are doing.  But right now – what do you have and what are you going to do with it as you seek to continue to journey toward your ultimate goal, making disciples that make disciples.

NOW WHAT

Ask these questions as you engage in moving forward:

• What’s really working now? How can we make it even better?
• What’s no longer working that needs to be respectfully abandoned? Hopefully, you already did some of this during the first year of the pandemic and have not backtracked by restarting some things.
• What might work in the future that we should start experimenting with now? What are the changes that have happened in the past 20 months in Society, Technology, Economics, Environment, Politics, and Religion? Take a guess at what might happen in these same areas in the next 12 months.  In view of these future possibilities, what experiments might you want to run?

So let’s keep asking questions, but let’s lean into what is. Not what was, or even focusing as much on what might be in six months or 12 months or two years from now. Let’s assess what we have, and ask God, how can you use this for your glory? I suspect He’ll have an answer for that question. 

WHO KNEW

• An analysis by the ABC data group showed that churches in the northeastern U.S. suffered the largest church attendance loss with 27% fewer people going to in-person services in October of this year compared to January of 2020 – before the pandemic hit. Compare that to the southern U.S., where churches saw a 20% drop.
• According to the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations study, 67% of pastors  thought at some point that 2020 was the most difficult ministry year they had ever experienced and 30% thought this fairly/very often.  Encouragingly, this report also noted that fairly/very often only 4% doubted their call, 6% wanted to leave their church, and 8% wanted to leave the ministry.  covidreligionresearch.org