Nature tells us that fall is a bridge season; it’s a time when things are winding down from summer before a dormant winter. Leaves are falling from trees before those trees enter into winter dormancy. Birds are migrating to warmer climates as the weather begins to change. Those animals that don’t migrate start to store up food to keep them going during the colder weather to come. The days themselves are growing shorter with less and less daylight.
But in the church? Well, in the church fall is different. It’s not about winding things down; it’s about ramping things up.
New programs. Fresh initiatives. Renewed vision. Additional groups. Fall is the time for all these things because fall is the beginning—and often the most well-attended—season of the ministry year. But perhaps you’ve had the discouraging experience of that “thing” you were so excited to launch in the fall fell flat. Despite the seasonal momentum and higher traditional attendance and participation, your program or initiative just never got off the ground. Why might that be? Here are three potential reasons.
1. Vision was not shared.
You believed you had a good idea. An exciting opportunity to help people grow in their faith. But though you were personally excited about it, the vision did not adequately spread. This is one of the reasons the fall might fall flat.
When we think about sharing vision, we should think about it in two ways—“sharing” means communicating, but “sharing” also means other people taking hold of the vision. As leaders, we must do both. We must not only communicate with clarity, optimism, and excitement, but we must also equip others to share in the vision.
When it comes to the Rooted experience, the necessity of vision-sharing is one of the best reasons to run a pilot in the summer before launching in the fall. When you pilot Rooted with your key leaders in preparation for those leaders to lead their own group in the fall, you are not only helping them understand the vision for the 10-week experience; you are equipping them to carry that vision with you.
Whether Rooted is your initiative or not, you don’t want to be the only one talking about whatever you’re doing in the fall. You want as many voices as possible from within the congregation casting the vision for what is to come.
2. Commitment was divided.
A second reason why your fall initiative might fall flat is because of competing priorities. In any church, there will always be mutiple things on the calendar during a given week. But leaders can proactively decide how much oxygen each one of those opportunities receives.
When it comes time to recruit people to be involved, leaders need to clearly know which opportunities are most imperative for the overall good of the congregation. And the measurement for whether that clarity has been achieved is often the announcement time.
Do you typically announce five different opportunities for involvement, or is your leadership team so laser-focused on what’s most important that the single thing dominates the time given to promotion? One reason many fall initiatives fail is because they were just another opportunity in the sea of other things. As a result, people couldn’t commit to everything, and so they didn’t know what to commit to at all.
3. Follow-through wasn’t prioritized.
Sometimes there is great excitement around a fall launch, but despite that initial surge, the initiative still falls flat. That’s because all the energy was around the launch and none of it was around following through.
Back to the Rooted experience, as an example. This is a 10-week experience that includes intense times of prayer, repentance, and service. It is, no doubt, a serious commitment. That’s why Rooted participants are asked to sign a covenant during the first two weeks that locks them in for the whole thing. It’s also why we coach pastors and church leaders to make sure they are sending weekly messages to Rooted facilitators to encourage them, check on them, and make sure they are dealing with any issues.
It’s one thing to launch something; it’s another thing to keep it going. So make sure, in all the frenzy leading up to the beginning you are saving some of that energy to follow through.
Whatever your plans are for the fall, now is the time to get them moving. Take these three potential reasons for a fall failures into account during those plans and do what you can to counteract them.
