I was early for a lunch appointment last week and decided to take a walk through a new development between the old ShopKo building and Caterpillar in East Peoria. They’ve finished off a few of the surface streets, and the vision is starting to take form. For those of us that enjoy stuff like this, it’s pretty exciting!

To Average Joe, though, it’s boring, if not frustrating. Average Joe wants it to “be” – like magic. Until then, they want nothing to do with it. Even as our new Bass Pro Shops was being built, the popular excitement was about opening day, not about the creation of something new on land that was previously barren and void! The same will be true for this development, I’m sure.

But, oh so much work has to be done first. Planning, plotting, surveying, designing…and that’s just to make sure utilities get to precisely the right places and waste water flows downhill. Weeks, months, even years of meticulous, professional work had to be done before the first street could be paved – before Average Joe could even begin to take much interest.

We’re talking infrastructure. It’s not flashy or popular, but without it the future cannot be sustained; even the present is in jeopardy. It’s the bones on which everything else hangs and to which everything else attaches.

This is a reality for the church, too. As we grow and mature, our infrastructure must do the same. Where possible, it needs to be at least a little bit ahead of where we are to sustain healthy forward momentum. At Richwoods Christian Church (where I work), we believe it’s so important that our Executive Staff listed it among our five priority tasks these past six months.

As leaders, we need to raise our awareness of the importance of a consistent and reliable infrastructure (e.g. language, processes, systems, design, leadership development, etc…). Boring? Can be. Seemingly unimportant in the scheme of things? May seem that way.

Leaders know better.

Most don’t see all the hard work, sacrifice, prayer, and humility that goes into being a “successful” church or organization. All the majority sees are the growing crowds; the end result of all that effort.

Leaders know better.

Most expect things to just happen. The lights turn on by themselves, the band never needs to practice, getting plugged-in to service and/or GroupLife should be simple and w/out sacrifice, the coffee magically appears, and “look at all these new faces – our programmed outreach must be working well!”

Leaders know better.

To lead well in the environment God has placed us in, we must embrace the seemingly unimportant in our midst. That includes working hard to develop and implement an infrastructure that supports our vision and our mission. In our case, that’s helping people find and follow Christ.

God gets the glory. Without him we are nothing. He is the giver and sustainer of all things. But (amazingly) he has chosen to work in us and through us. It doesn’t “just happen”.

Leaders know better.