{"id":695941,"date":"2020-01-13T02:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T08:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=695941"},"modified":"2020-05-19T13:04:08","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T17:04:08","slug":"dont-let-the-angry-ten-percent-control-the-direction-of-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-let-the-angry-ten-percent-control-the-direction-of-your-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Let the Angry Ten Percent Control the Direction of Your Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><i>By Thom S. Rainer<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In any organization of size, there are likely angry people.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They are unhappy with the organization. They don\u2019t like change. They don\u2019t like the leader.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But here\u2019s the catch: In most organizations, they are a distinct minority. I use the quantifier of ten percent more anecdotally than not, but I would conjecture most organizations, including churches, would have a number close to that.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In churches, I see pastors, again and again, yield to the pressures and criticisms of the ten percent. I get it. I\u2019ve been there and done that. May I suggest some perspectives on this issue? Perspectives are not solutions, but they can help us persevere when the ten percent get really loud.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Ten percent can seem like a lot of people. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, if your church has 200 active members, 20 loud critics can seem really loud. Brad Waggoner calls it \u201cthe power of negativity.\u201d He says the negative person has a tenfold voice in the organization compared to the neutral and positive people.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Realize that the ten percent will take advantage of any forum you give them. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They love to speak up in business meetings. They love to be the big voice in listening sessions and surveys. In fact, listening sessions can make the rest of the organization demoralized as the more positive members think the negative people are the norm.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The ten percent want you to think there are more of them. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They will use phrases like, \u201cEveryone says . . .\u201d or \u201cPeople are saying . . .\u201d They not only can be negative; they can be downright deceitful.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>While you want to have open communications, the ten percent will often dominate the rest of the voices in the church. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Such is the reason you need to be careful about giving them the platforms and opportunities to spread their negativity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The ten percent love social media. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They are often the most vicious when they are hiding behind a keyboard. If you wonder why you are getting sick of social media, it\u2019s because the ten percent live there. They love the megaphone that makes their voices seem louder than they really are.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The ten percent often are on church rotations. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If they can\u2019t get their way, they will move to another church where they can spread their negativity. Be cautious of people who want to transfer to your church if they have nothing but negative things to say about their current church.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The ten percent often lead church splits. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They will be happy at their new place\u00a0 . . . until they don\u2019t get their way completely. They will then be ready to spread their negativity at the new congregation. Such is the reason so few church splits do well.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This overview is just one of many perspectives rather than solutions. If you feel like most people are against you in your church, you are likely wrong. It\u2019s probably the ten percent. But they do have the loudest voices in your congregation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Thom S. Rainer In any organization of size, there are likely angry people.\u00a0 They are unhappy with the organization. They don\u2019t like change. They don\u2019t like the leader. But here\u2019s the catch: In most organizations, they are a distinct minority. I use the quantifier of ten percent more anecdotally than not, but I would&#8230;","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175,186,178,176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-grow","category-health-and-metrics","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-revitalize"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don\u2019t Let the Angry Ten Percent Control the Direction of Your Church - ThomRainer.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I see pastors yield to the pressures and criticisms of the angry ten percent. 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