There is a silent killer of missional movement on the loose in many houses of worship today. It deftly lurks behind every good idea and ‘at my last church’ suggestion. It is the gradual, yet determined, gravitational pull of inward-focused, committee-structured complexity.

To be sure, this plague feels good initially, giving the false confidence of competence and progress. Soon though, systems that once solved problems now generate self-serving sideways energy. Teams and boards that once served the body now must be served to survive. The dreams of healthy leadership development devolve into an annual-spreadsheet-filling, ministry fair nightmare. The greatest tragedy of all lies in the prioritization of meeting attendance over attending to the mission.

As a result, the blazing bonfire of faith, once illuminating the sky with love for a lost community, dims into the warm campfire embers of contented member happiness.

1. Church members are faster to share their theology than their salvation.
2. Your kids reintroduce themselves every Friday afternoon, just in case you forgot their names.
3. The number of committees far exceeds the number of Bible study groups.
4. It requires three months to make any simple decision, and that’s only if there is a quorum.
5. Families trying to balance hectic schedules find it easier to just stop attending.
6. Healthy volunteers, who love Jesus, keep asking to take some time off.
7. Sitting in a meeting once a month appears as vital as serving in a kids classroom every week.
8. The simplicity of other growing churches in your area must be vilified so that your own complexity can be justified.
9. Your church membership class feels a lot more like a timeshare sign-on-the-dotted-line pitch meeting.

1. Establish individual measures of disciple-making success that re-orient the body toward people over programs. Remember, missional effectiveness is measured in making disciples, not making the budget.
2. Clarify your step-by-step process for enfolding people in Christ-like maturity. Remember, that simple church strategy takes more than three words on your website.
3. Install a systematic plan for advancing God’s better future for your church, at Auxano, we call this the Vision Proper Horizon Storyline. Remember, your church needs the right amount of vision, for the right people, at the right time.