The Church Encouragement Services Seminar goes into some depth on the subject of “Problem Solving” in the church. This is an important subject to church leaders because satan can use problems to sidetrack us from God’s priorities for His church.
One of the basic concepts in church problem solving is identifying the differance between “surface problems” and “root problems.” The first thing to do when any problem pops up in the congregation is to see what root problem needs to be addressed.
In the CES Seminar we provide lists to help learn to identify each of these two areas of problems. I will consider entering those complete lists into the LEADERS Category in the future. But for now I will give just a few examples.
Surface Problems like: (1) people who seem to be against everything, (2) people who seem cold and lifeless in their Christian walk, (3) those who hold a grudge & (4) those who are stingy & tight with money.
In these examples I am NOT suggesting that this particular sample of surface problems directly relates to this example of root problems.
Root Problems like: (1) lack of faith, (2) lack of knowledge of the Word, (3) no vision (4) weak in Christian love, & ((5) those who havn’t learned to seek first the Kingdom
See how this works? We often unwittingly only address the surface problems, neglecting the root problems and wonder why we make little progress.
