by Eddie Pipkin

Like everybody else, I am susceptible to clicking on those listicle articles.  You know the ones.  It’s an article that’s structured as a list: “Five Keys to Financial Independence” or “Ten Clues That Your Boss Is Ready to Hand You a Pink Slip.”  They are the favored structural tool for organizing ideas in clickbait articles designed for our short-attention span world, filled with life hacks and distillations of otherwise complex concepts.  They can be padded with fluff and nonsense, but their strict format also means they sometimes cut to the chase, delivering a direct path to what should be obvious without all the handholding and message massaging.  We all need a little more of that.

For the ‘fun with words’ section of today’s blog, I’ll direct you to the Wikipedia entry for the delightful French term, lapalissade, which is their term (with a colorful history) for a truism so plain that it’s comical when told (the classic French example being “fifteen minutes before he was dead, he was still alive”).  The Spanish folklore character, Pedro Grullo, also has his perogrulladas.  But for us English speakers, it’s Captain Obvious.  The kind of statement that a fourteen-year-old would respond to with, “No duh.”

The listicle that triggered this train of thought was a piece published on The Discoverer website, titled “Packing Tips for the Minimalist Traveler.”  I travel; I’m an aspirational minimalist.  So, I clicked.  “Get the right luggage.”  Check!  “Try out packing cubes.”  Good idea!  “Use some solid personal hygiene products instead of liquids.”  What?  I did not even realize that was a thing!  Cool.

But tip #5 made me laugh out loud: “Pack Fewer Clothes.”

No duh!

After I finished laughing and cleaning up the coffee I had spewed all over my laptop, I actually read the paragraph, and it was really more about how to accomplish the minimalist dream of taking along fewer pieces of clothing as the foundation to packing lighter.  It’s one thing to have an aspiration to take fewer clothes on a trip, but it’s another thing altogether to achieve this difficult objective while still looking cool and feeling like you have everything you need.  Useful technical tips were imparted.

So, two takeaways here:

  • Sometimes the solution is staring us right in the face, and we refuse to acknowledge it.
  • Sometimes we see the obvious end goal, but we need some help figuring out how to get there.

For church leadership, there are plenty of reasons objective observers might assess us as delusional when it comes to our failure to define obvious answers to persistent problems.

Some examples are familiar recurring chapters in our local churches:

  • A budget that is routinely in the red.
  • A program (like youth or children) that is in noticeable decline because of an ill-matched leader.
  • Stagnated spiritual growth among members because there is no discernible path of discipleship.
  • A lack of community awareness about what your ministry offers because there is no marketing plan or social media presence.
  • No pattern of faithful giving because generosity and stewardship are only topics talked about for two weeks in the fall once a year.

In each of these cases, an obvious answer presents itself:

  • Cut costs or expand support.
  • Replace the leader.
  • Establish a clear path of discipleship training.
  • Create a dynamic social media presence and a sustainable marketing plan.
  • Make stewardship and generosity an integrated part of all worship events and ministry programming.

You may be reading that list and saying, “Duh,” but “How”?  You may be reading that list and saying, “You don’t understand the complicating factors in our context.”

The key insight in overcoming Captain Obvious Syndrome is to realize that in the church leadership zone, you are always – always – working a problem that others have dealt with before.  We spend so much time as leaders attempting to reinvent the wheel.  Someone somewhere has successfully dealt with the challenge we are facing.  If we can leverage their experience, consult their expertise, and learn from their wisdom, we can save ourselves frustration and heartache, and we can move beyond the stuck place into a hopeful future.  There is a great feeling of relief to be found in hearing about how someone else has navigated this difficult path.

The greatest reward we have in our work at Excellence in Ministry Coaching is helping people realize that the bullet-listed problems above are common to the point of being expected in the life of a local church ministry.  (We’ve helped churches with each of these problems, but our most intensive work continues to be in the development of effective discipleship models, which most local churches routinely struggle with.)  And we’re just one of thousands of options for finding resources that can help.

Yes, solutions are difficult.  Yes, they are often fraught with power plays and politics.  But there are resources out there to deal with each of those challenges.  Put them to use!

Replacing a poor leader is an excellent example.  The dynamics are complex, and emotions run high when tinkering with staffing and volunteer leadership.  The first step always, however, is to fearlessly acknowledge Captain Obvious’s.  Such decisiveness is an aspect of faithfulness!  Denying the problem (or the obvious but potentially painful solution the problem requires) leads us nowhere.  And almost always, the situation continues to deteriorate while we dally.

How do you and your team deal with naming and confronting obvious realities, however harrowing such acknowledgements may be?  Share your own stories below.