Staring reality in the eye...

BY REV. JIM OZIER
New Church Development Officer

You remember “The Stockdale Paradox” cited in Jim Collin’s “must-read” book, Good to Great?

It refers to Admiral Jim Stockdale, held as a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton” for more than eight years. He suffered brutal torture and bouts of hopelessness – but through his ordeal he learned vital lessons.

First of all, “you have to be realistic and honest about your situation,” he explains. You can’t gloss over the reality of your situation; pretend it doesn’t exist or that it isn’t as bad as it seems, or that it’s just a phase: its real – deal with it!

But the paradox is that while we must deal with the reality of our situation, “we must never lose hope that we will prevail in the end.” So there you have the Stockdale Paradox: To survive and thrive you must stare reality in the eye – openly, honestly, with no pretense or excuses. And you must never lose hope that you will prevail in the end.

Collins goes on to say that one of the things that keeps good organizations (even churches or denominations) from becoming great ones is the refusal to look its current situation in the eye, openly, honestly, and with no pretense or self-deceit: it is what it is – deal with it!

That’s why we were pretty discouraged at Annual Conference when the statistician’s report was made: the numbers weren’t good in terms of membership, average attendance, professions of faith. We can’t or shouldn’t even pretend otherwise. But we do have to deal with it!

And, we have some other numbers to build upon:

• 19,799 baptisms have occurred in New Churches started since 1968. Last year, 2,498 infants, children, and adults were baptized in these new churches
• 21,504 Professions of Faith have come in New Church starts since 1968. Last year 1,029 new believers came to the Lord in our new churches.
• 38,683 new members came into our Conference in New Churches since 1968
• 16,756 worshippers are in our new church starts each week

The Statistician’s Report forces us look reality in the eye: we are declining – Deal with it!

We believe we will prevail in The End – and one of the best ways to deal with it is planting new churches to bring new people, more people, more diverse people, and younger people to a faith relationship with Jesus Christ!

Bishop Alfred L. Norris leaves many legacies as our Bishop. One is that on his brief two year watch we have planted four churches!

• The Woods – a merger between Inglewood and Trailwood UMCs, is a new church with a new name in a new location in Grand Prairie pastored by Revs. Jill Jackson Sears andTerry Ann Hanig!
• St. Luke South – an extension ‘satellite campus’ of St. Luke “Community” reaching into the Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Lancaster areas pastored by Rev. Derek Jacobs!
• First UMC, Rockwall, is birthing a daughter church, pastored by Frank Rahm!
• The Dallas South District is birthing a new African American Church in Grand Prairie, pastored by Rev. Perry Crenshaw!

Recently the Bishop hosted a luncheon of our larger church pastors and more than 12 of them reported they would seriously consider birthing a new church in the coming quadrennium!

Don’t blink! God is causing great things to happen in the midst of our reality and you don’t want to miss it!