Running The Program or Developing People

This is part of the Beyond The Starting 5 project. A writing safari where I explore the idea of what people-development looks like in the local church. I have no idea what I’m doing, mileage may vary.

It’s possible to run a great program and never make a disciple.

This is a subject I have first-hand experience with. Unfortunately. Danny Payne was the first person I remember asking me this question circa 1997. “So…what happens to your students once they graduate?” It was in that instance that I realized how much I hated Danny Payne. Not really. (His wife – Beth – reads my blog and I have to be nice.)

Never has one question caused so much chaos in my life. Because our program was growing and we had a lot of students coming and the calendar was full and no one was complaining – I don’t think it ever dawned on anyone to ask this question. We just assumed that because we were doing religious, Christian things – like studying scripture – that in and of itself was developing disciples.

When we started looking at the results, what we found was heartbreaking. Students left our safe cocoon of student ministry and weren’t serving in church. Most of them weren’t even going to church anymore. The idea of being a missionary or serving for a year somewhere was non-existent. Furthermore, it’s debatable if they were any more in love with Jesus when they graduated than when they started high school. It would be hard to pick out how their life was all that much different because they were “Christ-followers.”

It was like we were producing these massive consumers of the Christian sub-culture. And when that sub-culture didn’t deliver what they liked or wanted, it was very easy for them to punt it all and find it somewhere else. Guess what is happening in adult ministries now days? Sound familiar?

So what happened? How did we get there? I’m not sure I have the definitive answer but here are the highlights for me, 13 years later looking back.

I confused religious activity with people development.
Is study the Bible good? Yes. Is scripture memory good? Yes. Is being in a Bible Study/Sunday School Class/Life Group good? Again – yes. Are those activities developing people? Depends.

Does a wrench turn a nut? Only when it’s not being used for a hammer. Or a doorstop. Or a vise grip. In other words, I use the right tool the wrong way all the time (or the wrong tool the right way?). And it sort of works but not really.

I mean, at the end of the project it sort looks like its supposed to but not really because that nail didn’t quite go in straight. It would have if I had used a hammer but I didn’t. I used a wrench as a hammer. The nail didn’t quite go in right but good enough to hold it together for awhile. And the reason I used the wrench instead of the hammer was because it was too much work to find the hammer. Or I was too lazy to get up and get the hammer when the wrench was laying right next to me. Which leads me to this observation…

I chose convenience over messy.
What’s easier? To plan a calendar of events, to map out a year’s worth of lessons or discipling someone one on one, one on two?

All of those activities (programs) aren’t bad in and of themselves but the bigger question is HOW are they being used? If we never stop and ask other questions, chances are we better at running the program than we are developing people.

These are the messy questions – what is God doing in this person that I can join in and be a part of? Where is God taking this individual? For what character issues, hurt issues, skill issues is God working on in this person (that they may not even KNOW about) that He’s intersected my life with theirs for the purpose to help? What character, hurt, skill issues are going on in my life that God has intersected my life with this person for that same reason? Is what we are doing really helping? Is it developing this person to look more like Jesus?

I identified myself with the program instead of seeing the program as an expendable tool.
If the goal is people development and getting them further down the road God has them on, then it SHOULD be easier to see programs and systems as tools to that end, not the end itself. SHOULD.

Unfortunately, identity theft is common in ministry. We begin to define ourselves by what we do and how well it apparently is doing. I remember walking through changing our Wednesday night youth program with my senior pastor, then my volunteers, then the students and parents.

“We’ve got more kids coming to Wednesday night than we have ever had.” I know. But is it developing people?

“We’ve got more buzz in the community because of what we do.” I know. Is it developing students to look more like Jesus?

“Grant, you started this, it’s working, why change it?” I did start it. It’s hard to kill it and do something different especially when convenience says don’t change, the numbers say don’t change. But God is asking – “Are you happy and pleased with the kind of Christ followers you are producing?” Or more pointed, is He pleased with what we are producing? Are we challenging and making students look more like Jesus – humble, gentle, servant hearts, loving, generous? Or are they great critics of Christian entertainment that know a lot of verses but uses them for their own ends and justifications?

I drank the poison.
Programs are designed to be user-friendly. That’s how they ‘sell’ in the local church – “anyone can do this.” And therein lies the subtle distraction that most of us have believed.

The focus then becomes on running the program – ‘anyone can do this.’ “Let me train you how to do this” and we confuse this training with people development. On some small scale it MAY be developing them but in reality it’s singular focus isn’t on DEVELOPING that person, it’s on SUSTAINING the ease of the program. It’s really about making sure the program perpetuates itself.

It’s a subtle difference but one that proves deadly in the long run. Training youth leaders how to teach a great lesson on Sunday morning didn’t necessarily make them better dads, moms, husbands, wives, students, siblings, or just a regular person in general. It only made them a better communicator on Sunday morning. And the chilling reality that hit me was that could be done without ever getting closer to Jesus or me looking more like Jesus.

So what’s the answer? What does people development look like? Still processing…more to come.