What I Would Tell My 2011 Self: Stop Chasing the Big Moment
by Brian Rutherford
In 2011, I was five years into being the Lead Pastor at a church in Guilderland, New York. The dynamic growth I had anticipated when I took on the role had not come. But every year around this time, I convinced myself that “this fall” was going to be different.
In upstate New York, the fall ministry season starts the week after Labor Day.
That was my window. And I went after it. We bought road signs (the kind that look like campaign signs) and put them everywhere. We planned a kickoff weekend called "Sizzle on the Blacktop" with pony rides and games. New programming. New sermon series. The idea behind all of it was simple: get enough people excited to show up, give them a great experience, and they will come back.
It did not work. Not the way I wanted it to.
It is embarrassing how many falls I ran that play before I would admit it wasn’t working.
I did not realize how it looked from the outside until one of my neighbors told me that before I worked at the church, his family had attended a service there. His kids called it "the karaoke church" because the band played a song from the radio.
We thought we were being relevant. They thought we were doing karaoke.
That stung.
And it was telling me something I was not ready to hear.
A big launch weekend fills the room and the energy feels real. It feels like progress, but when the next Sunday looks the same as the one before, you start to realize that excitement is not the same thing as change.
If I could go back and talk to 2011 Brian, I would say this: teach the people who call your church home how to love and support their neighbors. It may not lead to church attendance immediately, but it will lead to kingdom expansion. (And that is what you really want.)
But I am not sure 2011 Brian had enough faith to believe that the ways and means of Jesus could carry the day. I was still looking for something louder and faster.
Something I could point to and say, "See? It is working."
Equipping people is slower and harder to celebrate than a big launch weekend. But it compounds in ways the big moment never does.
I wish I had understood that sooner.
One of the best things about working with Intentional Churches is that we get to gather with leaders in person every year. The IC Conference is May 5 and 6, 2027, in Chicago, IL. If that sounds like your kind of room, we hope to see you there. Learn more at intentionalchurchesconference.com.
