When I help churches and ministries discern plans for the future, I often say, “The answer is in the room.” What I mean is that the people on the planning team – the ones who are “in the room” – know their church’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. They are highly committed leaders who have hopes and dreams for the ministry. So the “answer” should emerge from their conversations around these topics.

And yet, leadership teams sometimes struggle to develop plans that will truly move a church forward. I still believe that the answer should be in the room, but I also recognize several obstacles that get in the way:

• Not listening to the Spirit. God’s presence, which is promised when 2 or 3 are gathered (Matthew 18:20), is essential to discerning the best path forward. But teams must be intentional about listening for the Spirit’s guidance. Ministry planning that is indistinguishable from corporate planning will miss the answer.
• Inviting the wrong people. Discernment processes can easily be derailed by a few people. Individuals who are not spiritually mature, too tied to the past, or afraid of change can squelch a team’s dreaming. The best teams have a wide representation of perspectives and gifts. They don’t automatically include the person who has “always” been in leadership unless that person can make a genuine contribution.
• Deferring too much to the pastor. A pastor (or the leader of a ministry) has a unique role in discerning future direction for the church. Unique, but not exclusive. Important decisions on how to move forward require the collective wisdom of a leadership team that is prayerfully seeking God’s will. Allowing the pastor to unilaterally set priorities ignores the gifts and insights of others in the room.
• Lacking outside perspective. It’s wonderful to have highly engaged people on a discernment team, but they can also be a constraint. They often spend so much time inside the ministry that they’re unaware of the external context. The best teams include people with fresh eyes and engage in learning experiences that expand their understanding of their mission field.

Whether you are planning are for a specific event or for your entire church, today’s ministry context demands boldness, not minor tweaks to the status quo. None of these obstacles will prevent you from planning. But when the work only produces incremental changes, these factors are often to blame.

The four obstacles are not trivial, but the good news is that they are not insurmountable. You can create space in a discernment process to listen to God. You can be intentional about who is on the team and how they learn together. You can resist the temptation to offer an answer when someone asks, “Pastor, what do you think?” And as you do so, you may discover that the answer does emerge from within the room.