Church leaders could learn a lot from Home Depot. Every year top HD executives leave their comfortable corporate offices, put on the orange apron, and walk the aisles helping customers find BBQ grills, toilet seats, and paintbrushes. By personally experiencing their policies in the trenches (isles, warehouses, cash registers) the HD suits see which policies are good and which are bad. Often what seems like a really smart idea from the corner office or the board room, turns out to be really dumb in the real world.
Two Sundays ago, I borrowed a play from the HD exec playbook: I visited our newest congregation, Victory Makati. I did not preach. I did not lead the service. I did not get near the mic. I simply went to church, not as a pastor, but as a civilian/member/visitor.
Deborah and I sat toward the back and worshipped God and took notes (and tweeted) while LA Mumar preached. I’ve known LA since he was in our kid’s church. I’ve enjoyed watching him grow up, and I enjoyed watching him lead and preach in his new congregation.
I learned a lot from the back row. Not just from LA’s sermon, but from observing the stage, the ushers, the lighting, the sound, the screen. . . Things sure look different from the back.
Every pastor and church planter should try the view from the back from time to time. It’s like going to an entirely different church than the front row church we are used to.
