Solving Problems

Back in 1978, I was assigned to a small parish in Memphis. Like all United Methodists, I arrived in the summer. Toward the end of the summer I was asked if we were going to resume Sunday evening worship services when fall arrived. Since it was the first I'd heard about it, I needed more info.

I learned that the service was about two years old and typically broke for the summer months. Attendance was maybe 20 people as compared to perhaps 150 on Sunday morning. Plus, these 20 would almost always have been present at the morning service. My initial reaction wasn't very positive since it seemed to me it was a lot of expense for little return--to put it in business terms. After all, it meant paying utilities to open the building again, paying the organist for a second service, and the extra time for me to prepare a second service with sermon. I kept that thought to myself and instead asked this question: What need are we trying to meet by adding a second service?

One of the things I experienced over and over in couple counseling and in business consulting is an interesting phenomenon. People often "prescribe" before they "diagnose," that is, without fully understanding the nature of a given problem, people launch into a solution. One school of therapy even posits that when couples do that, the problem they come to see the therapist about is the solution they had imposed on themselves. The therapist is advised to "get them to stop doing that" in the hope they will stumble upon a more effective solution.

An example in couple therapy which I encountered frequently was lots of arguments between spouses, often very heated. I might ask a husband or wife, "what do you hope to accomplish by yelling at your spouse?" The answer isn't as straightforward as you might expect. It typically took some probing and in almost every case, the goal was to "get my spouse to love me." Needless to say, the solution of yelling wasn't accomplishing that.

With that in mind, I asked my parishioners this question: "what are the reasons behind adding a second worship service?" When all was said and done, this was the answer: "some of us don't thing we're getting enough out of the morning service." I asked, "Will doing more of the same solve the problem? After all, attendance is pretty low at the second service."

I suggested there might be two alternatives open to us. One would be to reexamine the morning service and see if there were some way to have it meet the still unspecified need. Another would be to offer a series of small classes on Sunday night all about Christian living. We opted for the second solution.

For our first series we had three small groups; one led by me and two led by visiting leaders. Our average attendance over the six weeks of the experiment was 70. I'd say we had found a solution to whatever was missing on Sunday morning.

The question: "What problem am I trying to solve?" is a very important one. And typically it requires some "onion peeling," that is, some investigation that probes the easy answers. My experience tells me it almost always pays off. I've been thinking about this when I see institutions at work. Quick answers, such as, "more cops on the streets," or "a second worship service," probably aren't going to make any real difference. But quick answers are tantalizing because they give us quick relief. But quick relief rarely solves underlying problems or addresses underlying needs.

Peace,

Jerry+