The news this weekend concerned Starbucks, America’s favorite coffee shop over the last decade, the darling of investors, the standard of every startup business. They’re closing a hundred shops across the country due to declining sales.

An industry expert analyzed the problem as Starbucks’ forgetting their main line of business. He said, “You enter the store for a cup of coffee and you have to walk through the display of music CDs and then negotiate the displays of food. Eventually you get to the counter.” Meanwhile, he pointed out, the coffee shop down the street run by some locals does nothing but what Starbucks started out doing and which made them successful. Their following the model which Starbucks established is making the competition successful.

Year ago, I read where someone saw this sign in a store window in Dothan, Alabama: “Going out of business because we forgot what we were in business for.”

It’s a common problem of churches too.

Even though Paul used the expression as his goal for himself, your church cannot be “all things to all people,” no matter how hard it tries. And as its leader, neither can you.

You and your church would do well to analyze the community where the Father has assigned you, along with the special gifts and calling of yourself and your leaders, and out of that come up with the special focus of your ministry and your church.

I sat across the table from a group of senior adults at a local church which was declining in numbers, causing them a great deal of concern. My opinion is that the causes for this were many and their downturn was decades in the making. They wanted my advice and I gave it to them.

I don’t think they cared for it.

I said, “I sat in your fellowship hall one Wednesday night recently when your interim pastor led a Bible study. About 25 or 30 were present. You had enjoyed a good supper and it appeared to me that you have a good relationship with one another.” They agreed.

I said, “All over this neighborhood, there are people your ages who would love to be a part of a fellowship like this.” They weren’t quite sure of that. After all, hadn’t they had signs out front inviting the community to church, invitations which no one ever accepted?

I went on, “What if you billed your church as a ‘grandparents’ church? Do you have any idea how many young families live around here with little children, but they are long distances away from their parents’ homes? If you were to get the word out, some of them would come here for no other reason than to see if your church might supply something missing in their lives: surrogate grandparents. When they come, they’ll hear the gospel.”

No one bought it. I might as well have encouraged them to become a church for Martians or midgets. Their concept of a well-functioning church was one with a great Sunday School program, a thriving discipleship program, mission organizations for all ages, choirs, that sort of thing. Because most were my generation–I was born in 1940–I knew exactly what they wanted in a church, because it’s the 1960 model. That was a great year for full-service churches.

Thankfully, some of those churches are still with us and many are thriving. But the little congregation I was meeting with could never recapture that model. They needed to find out who they were, then offer what they had to the community in Jesus’ name.

I’ve not talked to Pastor Ed Young or anyone on his staff about this, but someone told me that years ago, the leadership of Houston’s Second Baptist Church did a study of the churches of their city and their own demographics and came to a decision. They would focus on reaching what we used to call “yuppies” for the Lord. By this was meant young couples on their way up in the business world, people with small children, marital issues, and similar needs. If that is indeed what they decided, and if numbers are a clue to gauging success, I’d say they did well.

What do you do well? What has God called you to do? One thing for sure, He did not call you to do tasks for which you are not gifted and for which you feel no call.

When Frank Pollard came to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi, to begin what became a 25 year ministry of admirable success, he told the pastor search committee that administration was not his calling. The church would have to hire an administrator who would run the day-to-day operations of the church. Throughout his ministry there–and I observed it primarily as an outsider who had served on that church staff for the three years prior to his arrival–he met weekly with that administrator and several other key leaders. Then, each would return to his area of church ministry, assemble his workers and have his own meetings and carry out what the pastor and the leadership team had decided.

Not every church would work like that; it worked well for that church. When Frank retired, and Stan Buckley arrived as pastor, I’m confident that he added his own directions to the work of the church based on his strengths and talents. That’s how it works.

I had a letter one day from a seminary classmate, one I had not seen in 25 years. He told how he had been pastoring churches and had come to a conclusion about his ministry. “What I do best,” he said, “is teach the Bible.” And that’s what led him to a career decision. He decided he wanted to join the staff of a large church in the capacity of “Minister of Bible Teaching.” He would not be an administrator, not do any pastoral counseling or visitation, and not deal with the headaches of committees and boards. He would do nothing but teach the Word.

I wrote him back and said, “My friend, every pastor I know wants that job.”

In our system, the pastor of the smaller church is not given the privilege of being a specialist. He has to be a generalist, functioning in sermon building and preaching, of course, but also in counseling, visitation, administration, youth work, and perhaps a little carpentry on the side. However, if he is wise, he will enlist and train other people to take charge of the areas where he feels less qualified.

As the young pastor grows and matures, he will discover those areas of ministry where he is most effective and most qualified. That is his focus. He may have to do all those other things, or many of them, but he must always keep the major part of his strength and creativity directed toward what God has uniquely called him to do.

If a young pastor stays in a church for many years and sees it grow numerically, there will be times when he will sit down with the leadership and make decisions to bring in additional staff members to take responsibility for part of his workload, thus freeing him to do what he does best. When that happens, assuming he is able to turn loose and the congregation is supportive, in a short time he will think he has died and gone to heaven.