What Would John (Maxwell) Do.

I don’t know if you find John Maxwell to be much of a help or not, but he is quoted on a piece I ran into and had some interesting things to say about pastoring.  It is from an interview with REV Magazine.

"Rev!: What would you do differently if you were starting over today?

Maxwell: I’d have a lot less church; I’d have less programs; I’d have less services. I’d have a lot less of everything.

Rev!: Why?

Maxwell: As a pastor I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but one of my major mistakes was thinking that life revolved around the local church and what we were doing. For example, if you were a member of the church, you had to have a ministry in the church. That was a huge mistake. I had high-capacity people in my church doing things that were pretty mundane for business people. If I had it to do over again, I’d have people doing a lot more ministry outside the church, in their workplace or in their community or in their volunteer organizations. I’d find out where they had the greatest influence and make their ministry where their greatest influence was, not confine it to a church. Huge mistake I made. And I didn’t see it until I was out, but I was too inward. I had a lot of high-capacity people who were probably never "salt and light" like they could have been. I’d change that immediately if I went back to the local church. I’d be much more into how we influenced the community and a lot less into "How can I get everybody onboard with my church and with my program?"

I found this at: http://www.whatischurch.com/mustardseed/2006/08/five-years.html