Sep 5, 2007

Thermometer or Thermostat?

In any organization, and in any setting, any ol' fool can walk into a place and find things to complain about.
  • It's too hot
  • It's too cold
  • They're not friendly here
  • People are rude here
  • There's not enough love here
It doesn't take a genius to notice such things. Any ol' fool can do it.

This is what I call thermometer faith. If you're in a church that's full of thermometers, it's miserable for everyone around. Thermometer faith knows what's wrong with the church and they make sure that everyone around them knows it too. They are complaining about this and that, how the pastor needs to do this and stop doing that, and how the elder board really needs to pay more attention to this and make sure that they put a stop to that.

Just writing about this makes me tired. That's a church full of thermometers. It's exhausting. It's irritating. It makes you want to leave and never come back.

But there is a world of difference when you're around people with thermostat faiths. You see, not only do they know that it's too cold in here, but then they put their heart and mind to making sure that the temperature gets warmed up. They are ones who are able to impact the environment so that the environment reaches its desired temperature. That's a leader. And what a difference a thermostat can make.

All healthy churches and organizations have thermostat people. These are people who can correctly identify problems, and are creative and imaginative enough to come up with solutions to fix the problems. And when it comes to fixing problems, it's not like identifying problems - any ol' fool can't do that. It takes leaders. It takes people with thermostat faiths who can creatively and imaginatively come up with solutions to address the problems.

So which are you? A thermometer or a thermostat?

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