You have attended a frustrating meeting or two if you’ve been in ministry even a short amount of time. One of the most frustrating elements of meetings are good-idea-snipers. When someone floats a wild, new idea for a ministry – that’s so crazy it just might work – they raise the scope to their eye, and start firing off reasons why it won’t.
Of course, they wouldn’t say their mission is shoot down good ideas. Usually, in church contexts, good-idea-snipers have good intentions. But they tend to be reluctant to move new ministry initiatives forward because they are comfortable with the ministry where it is (snipers are usually lying down when they fire, right?).
Snipers, generally speaking, are dangerous because they hide. But their weakness is that they become exposed as soon as they fire a shot. So I’ve listed six objections, six criticisms that will expose the good-idea-snipers in your meeting. Knowing what you’re up against will equip you to prepare Kevlar-strength responses to their illogical objections.
1. “How do you plan to accomplish that?” This objection fails to distinguish the “what” from the “how.” Not having a detailed plan for a new ministry doesn’t mean the idea itself should be rejected. If the idea itself has merit, it shouldn’t matter whether or not the plans are in place. Moreover, developing the best steps to execute a good idea is often the product of group brainstorming, not individual reflection.
2. “What if…” “What if it rains?” “What if no one comes?” “What if no one volunteers to help?” Nothing derails the flow of a meeting like coming up with contingency plans for improbable problems. “What if it doesn’t work?” isn’t the scariest question. “What if it does work?” is even scarier, because then you will have to deal with a whole new set of obstacles of the unpredictable variety.
3. “That has never worked before.” This statement assumes two things: one, we gave our best crack at it the first time (doubtful), and, two, our circumstances right now closely correspond to the last time we tried it. That puts the onus on you to show what could have been done better last time, why now is the time to pull the trigger.
4. “Certain people won’t like it.” This objection fails to distinguish merit of your idea from the response it might receive from the congregation, as if the two were inextricably linked. Leading to please the minority invariably leads to the demise of any organization. If you are in the mood to answer a fool according to his folly, a stimulating response to this objection might be to ask, “What other people wouldn’tlike hearing that this idea was floated and immediately shot down with no discussion?” A church’s vocal minority tends to squash ministry initiatives that would excite the majority of people who don’t complain.
5. “I have an even better idea…” This is two bullets in one: first, it shoots down your idea without giving reasons for its insufficiency; second, it assumes the new idea offered is better without giving any reasons for its improvement. Make sure you ask the person with “the better idea” to provide those reasons.
6. Let’s wait for more info. This is the most dangerous bullet of all, because it sounds positive. “Hey, that’s a good idea. Why don’t you do a little research on that, and we’ll circle back in a month.” When you find that your idea isn’t on the agenda a month later, you know that you’ve been sniped.
But still…your idea might be lame
The goal of this post is not to show you how to gain momentum behind all your hair-brained schemes to make disciples and spread God’s kingdom. You, like everyone else, will come up with really bad ideas on how to move the ministries of your church forward. Good meetings burn through bad ideas faster than a newborn does diapers.
But when your good idea for building up the church and reaching the lost finally emerges, it should stand or fall on the merits of the idea, not on how tidily it fits “in the box” of how your church does ministry.
About The Author
Eric McKiddie serves as Pastor for Gospel Community at the Chapel Hill Bible Church He helps pastors grow as well-rounded ministers of the gospel at his blog, Pastoralized, and through sermon coaching. Follow him on Twitter: @ericmckiddie.
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