What if the biggest thing holding your church back wasn’t the lack of volunteers, or the lack of finances, or the lack of systems, or a variety of other things? What if what’s holding your church back is a mindset? A mindset that says, this is the way it’s always been, so it’s probably not going to get any better. What if you stopped looking at what is probable and started thinking about what is possible?

Probable – What’s likely to happen.

Possible – What could be done.

I think too many small town pastors operate with a probable mindset. Maybe it hasn’t always been there, but over the years and through the failures you’ve given up on possible.

And what’s possible could be greater than you can imagine. I know it has been for the church I serve.

If you’d looked at the church I serve in the first couple of years of the ministry, you would’ve said this church would be lucky to ever have more than 100 people attending.

The facility was awful to say the least. The location wasn’t much better. We had two small rooms where we tried to offer a basic kid’s ministry. Our worship music was on par with other churches in our area, but we rarely got started on time. And if you were preaching and looked straight ahead, you would be staring at the door to the women’s restroom. We were on track to probably be an average to slightly below average church in our community.

Then, my pastor picked up a book called The Creative Leader, and that book changed everything. After he read it, my pastor started seeing what was possible, instead of what was probable.

My hope is that this blog will do that for you.

Once our mindset changed, our church began to change, for the better. More and more people started attending. We were able to buy land and then build a facility. At one time over 700 people were attending our church in a town with a population of 2,000.

And just a couple of years ago, we launched a second location in a small town 20 minutes away that is currently growing like crazy.

In our twelve years as a church, we’ve seen close to 1,000 people baptized.

It would’ve never been possible, if we focused on the probable.

When you start thinking about what’s possible, you get active in making it happen.

When you focus on what’s probable, you stay passive.

Thinking about what’s possible creates excitement and passion.

Thinking about what’s probable creates boredom and apathy.

You dream about what’s possible.

You reminisce when you’re focused on the probable.

What’s possible drives you to change.

What’s probable drives you to stay the same.

When you think about what’s possible, you’re willing to take risks.

When you think about what’s probable, you play it safe.

Am I saying if you focus on what’s possible, your church will automatically grow? Absolutely not, there are a lot of other factors to consider.

But what I am saying is that if you keep that probable mindset, you don’t even give your church a chance.

Which mindset do you have? And, how do you think it’s made an impact on the church you serve? Let us know, by leaving a comment below, and don’t forget to subscribe or shoot me an email if I can ever serve you.