Momentum and churches

Trying to help an ailing church is like push starting a car.

You have to create momentum enough for the car to turnover and move on its own. If the momentum is not continued the car will not start and left to its own devices it will ground to a halt again. You can enlist the help of a priest who can try to push as hard as they can and can encourage as many people to push as possible.

In our case, when we had some one organising momentum it was easy to decide not to help push - to stay on the periphery, because things look like the are going well. Only when the car has already started to slow do they try to help push, but its too late, the opportunity to start the engine has been missed.

One of the directors at BG told me that in military thinking, when their is a gradual downward spiral of resistence, the most effective way of countering it is to throw a massive amount of effort against it, as small increments of effort are rarely effective.

Never turn down offers of help. Always look to where you will find added momentum.