Sometimes the "Broken Window" is the broken window

08/12/08 10:13 PM
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In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the principle of broken windows. This is how it goes. Typically, in a community wreaked with crime, you'll see a lot of homes or businesses with broken windows. Studies have shown that when the people in those communities take back their neighborhood and fix the windows, crime goes down. Gladwell uses the illustration of the N.Y. subway system. A new administrator took over and instead of going after the violent criminals, he went after turnstyle jumpers. As it turned out - these were the people who were committing many of the crimes.

In other words, there are little, visible things that, once fixed, can lead to success in a much bigger area.  As leaders, we often have to work on the big picture - vision, systems.  But at other times, we have to fix the very visible and very broken window.  This symbolic gesture actually helps address the root problem.

We are constantly working behind the scenes, thinking about the vision God has given our church and implementing systems to carry out that vision. However, those are things that many people don't see - at least not initially. People see the playground. People see the new Welcome Center. People see better signage. People also see broken nursery windows and an uncompleted fence.

Like I said, sometimes the "broken window" is the broken windows. Recently another window in our Nursery was broken. We've already known that these windows needed to be replaced. The new broken window just heightened the need. Janet has been working behind the scenes making changes in Promiseland - better systems, training, recruiting, etc. Those are things that not everyone sees initially. People (in our church and outside our church) notice the Nursery - especially the windows. Replacing them will create an immediate "wow" factor and improve an already growing ministry.

We always need to work on the behind the scenes, big picture, systems, vision stuff; but we can't forget to fix those "broken windows." What are some small, visible things that you can work on in your area of ministry that would make a larger impact?

Back to the windows - bottom line - to replace them and wrap the wood with metal costs approximately $300 per window (9 windows on the back of our Nursery & building - $2700). Let's get this done.
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