Regaining Focus

Written by Jeff Young

Have you ever noticed how easy it is for your staff to lose focus? It’s amazing how quickly that can happen. And, if staff members lose focus, it’s even easier for our volunteers who have other jobs to lose sight of your key objectives. With the onslaught of economic pressures, the everyday pace of life and keeping health and family in balance, mission drift will happen.

Over the period of a few months I began to notice several good things that were occurring in our ministry. Good intentions, good results…all good. But many of these events, efforts, and focuses were not helping us reach our objectives. As I talked to a few teammates about “why” these things were receiving publicity and their valuable attention, the answers were vague at best. “I wanted to meet this need.” Or, “Someone suggested we get involved in this area of service.” Regardless of what they answered, all gave vague answers that lacked clarity. None of the answers were specifically helping us reach our stated objectives.

Eventually I pulled our entire staff team (including assistants) into a room and gave them a pen and a stack of Post-it Notes. I asked them the following four questions and instructed them to use the Post-it Notes to write their answers:

1. Succinctly as possible, what is the chief purpose of our Sunday School?
2. Succinctly as possible, what is the secondary purpose of Sunday School?
3. What do you perceive our people feel is the chief purpose of Sunday School?
4. What is the greatest threat to our Sunday School reaching its potential?

Once they had a moment or two to jot a word or phrase down, I asked them to pass their notes to me. Then I shared what I had noticed in innocent conversations and observations about their focus, time utilization, and my perception of their passion. As I finished, I asked for help grouping the similar answers on the walls around our conference room.

After all the notes were hanging on the wall in various groupings, the room was extremely quiet. I didn’t have to say another word…the point had been made. It was obvious that in order for our Sunday School to reach its redemptive potential, we would need to focus a disproportionate amount of time on evangelism. We needed to focus on helping our teachers communicate life principles from God’s Word that can easily be applied so that change could occur…not just knowledge. And we needed to grow our leadership base by involving more people in ministry to others.

Out of that meeting came our mutually identified and agreed upon values of how we would lead and spend our time. We identified our chief focus. Our key words are reach, learn, and love. We want God to use us to reach people. We want people to be changed as they learn and apply God’s truth. And we desire to be known for the love we extend in moments of crisis or celebration.

It’s easy to lose focus because so many good things can innocently draw us away. Therefore, it’s necessary to have key values that will call us back to our foundations and ultimate objectives. As you lead, let me encourage you to involve your staff and/or key volunteers in identifying your key values. If you involve others, you will win greater support and gain greater accountability for implementation.

Jeff Young is the Minister of Spiritual Development at Prestonwood in the Plano, Texas area. Jeff is a passionate educator who attempts to continue to lead people to their primary focus in kingdom work.

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