Moving Forward or Fix'n?

Leaders often confuse being in charge with being in control. Being in charge has to do with vision casting, forward movement, and shepherding; being in control has to do with ones emotional attachment to what’s going on. When a minister (I prefer transformational architect to minister) is brought on board to lead a group of believers, very little in way of his responsibility toward God changes. What does change is his accountability and responsibility to a new group of believers. But his responsibility is to lead; not to “fix.” Unfortunately we often set ministers up to become “fixers.”

When a couple is near divorce, we call the minister to help fix the marriage; when tragedy takes the life of a child, the parents ask for the minister to help them mull-over the “why” questions; when the elders want a task accomplished or help in making a decision they call the minister for guidance. When the worship leader has a problem with another ministry leader he or she looks to--you’ve got it--the minister.

Have you ever noticed that just before God is about to bump your church to the next level, there seems to be an overload of fixing that’s needed? Could it be that the inability to let go is what keeps a group from being all God desires for it to be?