Let me begin by confessing that, as far as tire technology goes, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Things I do know:

• when your car is out of alignment it can damage your tires
• check the tread whenever I fill up to see if there are signs of wear or banding
• potholes are not your friend
• if the front end is badly out of alignment, you can often tell by the “pull” the tires have on the steering
• vibration on a smooth road (see potholes above) can also be an indicator

That’s about it.

Let me also confess that, since I’ve worked from home beginning 6 years before the pandemic, it’s hard to put enough miles on the car to damage the tires – except for those occasional, friendless potholes.

I take my car to the dealer for service every three months for a regular once over: oil change, fluid check, tire pressure, and tire rotation on occasion. I have needed to replace air filters, and wiper blades, but nothing much else. We drive barely 10,000 miles a year; less than 1,000 miles a month, less than 35 miles a day, on average. And, we hit very few potholes, though here in Indianapolis, that can be like an off-road adventure at times. In over three years, there was never a suggestion that my alignment was out. There was never any banding, wear bars, or vibration concerns.

But the day did come when I needed to replace the tires. I did my research and found a place nearby that offered good prices. I found I could research the tire size I needed on their site – just enter the year, make, and model. So that’s what I did. I then purchased some Goodyear® tires and scheduled a time for them to balance and mount the new tires. I was happy for the easy and thorough process their technology provided.

Several hours later, I arrived on time, handed over my keys, and found a semi-comfortable chair in which to wait. Fifteen minutes later, a managerial looking gentleman came over, very personable and accommodating. He kindly told me that I ordered the wrong size tires. I found this odd since it was not the wrong make, model and year. He also explained that they did not have the tires I ordered in stock, so they went to the trouble of sending one of his guys to a sister location to pick up the four I ordered. I explained to him that those were the tires the website identified. To that, he replied that you can’t really count on the website being right. My first surprise of the day – not that technology can be wrong, but they knowingly promote the use of their faulty technology, costing them time and labor. But I digress.

“OK,” I said. “Other than refunding my money, what options do we have?”

Apparently refunding my money was the worst-case scenario for the manager. I would imagine that keeping customers – especially new customers – was one of his key performance indicators. He pulled up some options on his computer. There were three to choose from, all more expensive than the ones I had picked out. He surely noticed me balking at the higher prices, and said something like, “let me see what I can do here.”

He then began running some numbers, keying into the computer, and soon came up with, “Here’s what I can do.” I can sell you these Michelin® tires (be still my beating heart), but I’ll add in a discount that will make them the same price that you’ve already paid (beating heart speeds up).  I didn’t have time to think about it before “OK” had found its way out of my mouth. (The manager had successfully salvaged his KPI.)

I’ve never owned Michelin® tires before. Just too pricey for me. This was surprise number two-a very nice surprise indeed.

About 45 minutes later, the manager and a service technician came up to my growing less comfortable seat. I assumed they were bringing my keys, but they also had some bad news for me. I’m guessing it takes two to convince a customer that the news really is bad. They had documented proof and everything. My car was badly out of alignment… especially the right rear, as evidenced by the bright red stripe indicating the degree of seriousness on the report they had brought with them. They told me that If I didn’t let them do an alignment, the new tires would begin to experience damage due to the issue. (I would imagine recovering money lost in discounts salvaging KPIs is another KPI.)

Now, I may be alignment-stupid, but not generally stupid in most other ways. When I explained to them about the above quarterly service checks I have done at the dealership, and that alignment issues had never occurred before, these two men turned to look at each other with an unusual, shared look. I say unusual, because the last time I had seen that look was in a Scooby Doo cartoon when Scooby uttered his famous, “Ruh Roh” warning.

I left without their alignment services and went by my dealership, which was about 20 minutes away. I pulled into the service bay and was glad to see that Austin was on duty. Austin was there most of the time when I came in, and we have a friendly sort of relationship. I can say that I trust him to do what’s right for me every time.

I told him the story and asked if they could check my alignment. He said they already had. He turned me to look at the steel plate I had driven over to enter the service area – that device automatically checks the alignment on every car that drives in (surprise number 3).

We went inside to take a look at the report that had been generated. He confirmed that there was a minor alignment issue, but nothing in need of attention right now. And he also explained that it is not unusual for new tires to manifest with an alignment issue. “We’ll check it again and take care of it if needed at your next service visit,” he said.

I drove away happy on my new Michelins, finding that now I at least live in the alignment sharp knife drawer.

What about you? Do you recognize the signs and causes of misalignment before the damage is done, or do you wait for the effect, simply waiting for the damage to be done as your only clue? Have you found yourself looking into the eyes of another leader at your church, sharing the silent “Ruh Roh” as you face the same consequence as before?

Years ago, I was on staff at a midsize church (nameless here, but the story is true). In that particular denomination, when the need for a new staff member arises, the church selects a group of people for the task, calling them the Search Committee. I’ve been called to churches from Search Committees and have seen them run in churches for other staff positions.

This time, something odd occurred (from my experience). This Pastor Search Committee went silent regarding keeping the staff updated. That had never happened before in any church I had served. We knew nothing at all, and they were committed to keeping it that way throughout the entire process. This was very odd. At some point, some of us learned the city that their prospective choice would be coming from, should the church call him. At that time, I was in a network of youth ministers from around the country. One of the key leaders in this group, coincidentally, lived in the same city.

I reached out to my colleague with the story and information I had and asked him if he might be able to tap our shared denominational network for more information. He did. And he found out and shared with me what our church needed to know.

It seems that the prospective pastor had requested that our search committee keep silent. His reasoning must have seemed sound. Perhaps it was something like, he did not want word to get back to his current church that he was considering a move. Our search committee was only acting on the promise they had made him.

This kind of anti-transparent silence screams alignment issue to me. There is too much that can go wrong, too much at stake, especially when it is the candidate that is asking for, and hoping for, silence.

What I found out, and shared with the search committee, was that this man’s family was in trouble, in part, due to his behavior with women to whom he was not married.

Needless to say, the committee took this information, challenged the candidate with it, and as a result, two things occurred.

1. The search committee moved on to another candidate
2. One of the leaders involved in the search read me the riot act, for “violating” the request for silence, for getting involved in something that was none of my business.

Read that second bullet again. This also screams alignment issue to me. “No good deed goes unpunished” should scream to you as well.

But alignment issues don’t have to be this serious to be the source of damage that is so slow moving, so invisible as to be ignored until the damage done is irreparable, necessitating replacement of the damaged part. Churches do this all the time. They replace damaged “tires” without fixing the cause of the misalignment. Tires are not the cause of misalignment. They are rather, the victims, damaged by forces beyond their control.

Has your church replaced “tired” pastors in the past? “Tired “ leaders? “Tired” volunteers? Have you left potholes unrepaired, or simply patched them, leaving them to cause damage in the near future?

Can you see the damage coming in these scenarios?

The pastor and church leadership have spent six months carefully and prayerfully creating a functional statement of purpose for the church. The time they have spent together in conversation, prayer, debate, research and study has had the added benefit of knitting their hearts together, not only on the content of the statement, but also in a shared sense of vision as to where serving toward and within this Purpose would take the church over the next five to ten years. With great fanfare, the new Purpose is presented to the church. A large display is mounted in the foyer to always remind those present as to their purpose. It is added to their website and included on appropriate materials and bulletins produced by the church.

After one year of such exposure, the average member in the church is immune to the presence of this statement. Most members cannot clearly elaborate on the concepts in the Purpose, much less quote it for memory. Their small groups continue to meet in order to “do life together”. Their bible studies continue to answer the questions at the back of their study guides. Greeters continue to smile and greet. But none of these groups own the Purpose that the Pastor and leaders became so invested in.

It is important to point out that the following analysis is not about blame. Misalignment does not mean that anyone – leader or non-leader – are doing anything proactive or malicious to undermine pastor, people, or the Purpose of the church. This is about identifying the effects of misalignment. Good people are misaligned all the time.

What are the implications for:

The Pastor: What do you think will become of his hope, enthusiasm, and vision for accomplishing the Purpose?  What choices does he have? Will blame become part of his thinking?

The Leaders: What about the church leadership that met with the pastor for those 6 months? What will become of their hope, enthusiasm, and vision for accomplishing the Purpose? Will blame become part of their thinking?

The Members: Rember, in this scenario, the members don’t own this Purpose, yet they’ve heard the promise and vision of the purpose. Will they simply continue on as if nothing is happening? Will they grow disillusioned with leadership saying things that are not coming true? Will they seek out opportunities to better understand and buy in to the Purpose? Will they grow disillusioned or “tired” with the pastor, church leaders, or their ministry service?

Guests and Prospects: These folks are not immune to the purpose. They see these statements with fresh eyes when they visit the church; on the wall in the foyer, on the website and other places. Do they care? Does having this purpose make a difference to them about where they will eventually join and serve? If it doesn’t, then they are much like the members, where the purpose doesn’t make a difference to how and where they attend or serve. If it does matter, then they will be looking with fresh eyes at the ministries of the church, looking for how the Purpose is being fulfilled. Fresh eyes of the concerned are always looking for alignment and misalignment. Will these guests move toward membership or to the next church?

How about this scenario

(again, a true story from another church I served).

The pastor, staff, and various church leaders all agreed that a strong children’s ministry was vital in the quest of reaching families for Christ.  Children’s ministry was more than Sunday childcare; volunteers were recruited to help families know and grow in Christ. Their service was called out as sacrificial, to the benefit of others. Childrens volunteers were regularly celebrated for their service.

While there was certainly more than one family occasionally guilty of this, there was one regularly, unreasonably guilty of this. The mom (a member) would bring her 3 kids to church and then leave. This happened several times a month. She rarely-if-ever served. The kids would be there for Sunday School and church services. While we never called her out on this behavior, it is apparent to all who are reading this that there was misalignment present, that at least one person saw our childcare ministry as free babysitting.

At some point, this mother wanted to expand her benefit to an affordable weekly childcare opportunity. She rallied her friends with the idea that since the church has the space, that the church should offer a 3-day per week childcare “ministry”, staffed in part with paid staff, but also with scheduled, volunteer parents who were using the daycare. Her idea was that there would be a small fee per child, as the parents “service” would replace the need for higher fees.

As the staff member responsible for such proposals, I evaluated the proposal against the realities her suggestion created and discussed my concerns with the full staff. Nothing in the church budget would allow for the required cleaning of the toys, tables, facilities and carpet cleaning. Nothing in this mom’s proposed budget would come close to addressing those costs, much less the cost of dependable paid childcare staff. And, with reason, we believed she would not be dependable to serve in her scheduled times.

With alignment on the part of the church staff, I explained to her why we could not start such a ministry as she had it laid out. (I did not address our expectations of her personal involvment.)

She told the friends she had rallied about how mean I was to her. Her friends came to see me, insisting I apologize to her and support this new ministry. They added the word “outreach” as if that spiritual band-aid would add weight to the argument.

This loss of time and effort, growth of conflict and hurt feelings, and taking of sides in the body of Christ all occurred because of (1) the lack of alignment and (2) the absence of a process for discovering and managing misalignment before damage is done; no regular service checks, so to speak.

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If you see your church in these stories, Solomon’s Quest can help. We can help you create your own strategies that strike at the heart of misalignment early in its existence. We can also help bring a misaligned congregation into alignment without blame and finger-pointing. And if you’re interested in establishing purpose and vision beyond statements on the wall, it would be our joy to engage in those conversations with you. You can reach out for an exploratory conversation at solomonsquest.org.