Your Preferences May Be the Problem

I have a friend who is a Chick-fil-A owner / operator (actually, I have several friends who are CFA owners / operators … I think that goes with the territory of being on a church staff and being on a first-name basis with multiple drive through teams across our region. Pray for me.).

Years ago, one of those operators told me that he’s actually – ahem – not a fan of the Chick-Fil-A original sandwich formula. He said when he’s in the store, he likes his sandwich to be a bit more on the crispy side, then sit out for a while until it’s cool to the touch…and the taste.

While I would argue that there’s no such thing as a bad Chick-fil-A sandwich, here’s the catch: he recognizes that his tastes don’t match that of the general populous. He knows that the majority of his customers don’t want a room temperature sandwich. The chicken chain has spent decades refining their process so the final product is carefully calibrated and delivered to hordes of satisfied customers. He realizes that his personal rogue recipe would never pass muster with corporate, because his tastes don’t necessarily match that of the paying public.

If you’re in vocational ministry, you face the same thing every day. For better or worse, your church is the product of someone’s preference. Choir robes or casual? That’s a preference. ESV or KJV? Preference. Hymns or choruses, Sunday school or small groups, padded pews or auditorium chairs? It’s all preference.

Preferences aren’t right or wrong, they just are. As long as you’re not violating scripture or common courtesy, you can shape a service or a congregation just about any way you’d like. And it’s natural that the longer a pastor is at a church, the more that church will look similar to his personal bent. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but the question is: do your preferences represent the majority?

Sometimes great changes come when a trailblazer pursues his preference. And sometimes we leaders realize too late that our preferences weren’t preferred by the people.

I shudder to think of what things would have looked like over the years in the churches and ministries I’ve led, had I gotten what my preferences dictated. I’d hate to say what our church would look like now if I’d won every argument I’d engaged. Thankfully God has placed me in a church and on a staff where my “norm” is constantly challenged, evaluated, and sometimes left wanting. I’ve been stretched to understand new paradigms and embrace new ideas that aren’t biblically incorrect, they’re just different methodologies. And differences aren’t deficiencies.

So how do you determine which preferences will be your pitfall? Listen. Learn. Have the courage to spill your heart to an array of people within the church. Find wisdom in a multitude of counselors.

And eat that chicken sandwich. It’s getting cold.