The Difference between a “Can Do” Church and a “Can’t Do” Church

Every church has an organizational culture. Some churches have a culture of optimism. You can feel the energy in worship. Others are pessimistic. You can sense the deadness when you walk into the sanctuary. A dead sanctuary should be an oxymoron, but I’ve experienced “worship” in a few zombie churches. The walking spiritually dead show up to utter a few grunts, gaze around, and shuffle back home.

Every church also faces obstacles. What is the difference between churches that approach obstacles with a “can do” attitude over others that have a “can’t do” attitude? What makes a church have a lively optimism over a dead pessimism? Keep reading

Most people, when they were a child, heard or read a story that influenced their life. The story that stuck with me was The Little Engine That Could. It emphasized the importance of a positive “can-do” attitude and persistence. The little blue engine attempted what other larger engines refused to try and successfully hauled a stranded freight train up a very steep hill. One lesson I learned from the story is that some people see insurmountable obstacles. Others see challenges that can be met and overcome. What I have noticed about a number of churches is that they often have more resources available to them than they realize. They do not recognize the resources, they do not know how they can make even minimal use of them, or they have narrow ideas of how the resources may be used. A negative “can’t do” attitude and a lack of stick-to-itiveness is sometimes at the root of this problem.