Who’s Checking Your Blind Spots?

What a Church Consultant Can Help You See

By Allen Kleine Deters | KD Formation Group

Remember learning to drive?

The whole process can be unnerving, anxiety-ridden, even terrifying. There’s a lot to think about. Mirrors. Signals. Speed. Keeping between the lines while trying to look like you actually know what you’re doing.

Teaching my own children to drive was a lesson in patience—and trying not to clutch the armrest too hard or push my foot through the floorboard.

I taught the boys to drive a manual transmission car. If you can drive one of those, an automatic is a piece of cake. Personally, I think it makes you a better driver. Though my boys may have had a different opinion somewhere between stalling at an intersection and hearing Dad’s instructions for the hundredth time.

“Shoulder check. Mirrors. Ease the clutch. Watch your blind spots!”

There were some iffy moments and near misses.

My youngest waited a couple of years before getting behind the wheel. Despite his initial apprehension and fears, he became a confident and safe driver.

His only struggle was being directionally challenged.

One time he called to let me know the car had broken down. When I asked where he was, he wasn’t sure.

“I think I went the wrong way. I was heading home, but I think I turned the wrong way.”

Indeed. He was clear on the other side of the city.

He had learned how to drive. Knowing where he was going was another matter.

There’s a church leadership lesson in there somewhere.

We Can Get Comfortable

Once we’ve been driving awhile, we can slack off on safe habits. Shoulder checks may go out the window. Muscle memory kicks in, and somehow we arrive at a familiar destination without much recollection of the journey.

I can remember looking back on a drive and hoping I hadn’t missed a stop sign or run a red light. My imagination can quickly supply worse possibilities. Horrors!

Familiarity can make us less attentive.

Modern vehicles offer some wonderful assistance: backup cameras, parking sensors, and blind-spot alerts. I appreciate anything that helps me avoid backing into something expensive.

But helpful technology can also tempt us to pay less attention. We begin to rely on the screen or wait for the warning light. The shoulder check gets shorter—or disappears altogether.

It’s no different in ministry.

In my four decades of ministry, I’ve known times when I’ve operated on muscle memory. I’ve also been distracted by the “new thing”—the programme, strategy, or resource that promises to get everything moving again.

I’m grateful for mentors, coaches, assessments, and courses that have helped me pay attention to my own blind spots and those of the churches I’ve served.

Sometimes I needed someone to ask a question I had stopped asking.

Sometimes I needed someone to point out what I had become too comfortable to notice.

Every Church Has Blind Spots

A blind spot doesn’t mean you’re a terrible driver. It means there are things you cannot see from where you’re sitting.

The same is true of a church.

Pastors, board members, longtime members, newcomers, teenagers, and volunteers experience the congregation from different positions. Each perspective matters. None gives us the whole picture.

Leaders may believe the church has a clear discipleship pathway because they know which programmes are available. People in the congregation may still struggle to answer, “What’s my next step in following Jesus?”

A church may describe itself as welcoming because its members enjoy warm friendships. A newcomer may experience those same friendships as circles that are difficult to enter.

A faithful volunteer may appear dependable and enthusiastic while quietly wondering how much longer they can keep going.

We can love our church deeply and still miss what is happening within it.

Over time, we learn to navigate our church’s culture so well that we forget how confusing it can be for someone else. We know whom to ask, which unwritten rules matter, and which subjects are best avoided at a board meeting.

The confusing process becomes “just how we do things.”

And that’s usually a good time for a shoulder check.

We Can Lose Our Bearings

My son had learned to handle the car. He could change gears, watch his speed, and navigate traffic. But somewhere along the way, he had taken a wrong turn.

He was driving competently—in the wrong direction.

Churches can find themselves doing something similar.

We know how to organize the service, fill the calendar, run the programmes, and prepare the budget. There is genuine care and faithful work in all of that.

But we can become so occupied with keeping things moving that we rarely pause to ask where we’re going.

Are we helping people become more like Jesus? Are they learning to live their faith at home, at work, and in their neighbourhoods? Are we equipping people to help others follow him?

We may have a mission statement on the wall. Could our people describe what it means—and recognise how our ministries help us live it?

My son thought he was heading home. It took stopping and having a conversation to discover how far off course he had travelled.

Sometimes a church needs that same opportunity: to pause, name where it hoped to go, and take an honest look at where it actually is.

An outside perspective can help us check both our blind spots and our bearings. A consultant can listen to the church’s story, help leaders examine their assumptions, and work with them to discern a faithful next step.

Knowing how to keep things running matters. So does knowing where we’re headed.

The Dashboard Helps—But We Still Need to Look Around

Churches have their own dashboards.

Attendance figures. Giving reports. Programme registrations. Surveys. Strategic plans.

These can provide valuable information. But a dashboard cannot tell us everything.

Attendance may be steady while volunteers are wearing out. A programme may be full while people struggle to connect faith with everyday life. A board report may look encouraging while important concerns remain unspoken.

A helpful analysis by a consultant brings several areas into view, including mission, values, discipleship, vision, strategy, and leadership. It combines assessment results with interpretation and conversation.

That last part matters.

At KD Formation Group, the Discipleship Scan helps us notice patterns, compare leadership and congregational perspectives, and identify questions worth exploring.

The assessment informs the conversation. People’s experiences help us understand what the results mean and what next steps might serve the church.

The dashboard gives us information. We still need to look over our shoulder.

Someone in the Passenger Seat

A helpful consultant can be like an experienced person in the passenger seat.

They’re paying attention. They notice patterns, ask questions, and help you see what familiarity may have hidden.

“You’ve mentioned that concern several times. Could we explore it?”

“Your leaders see this one way, but your congregation seems to experience it differently.”

“You have a real strength here. How could you build on it?”

It’s a matter of “thinking strategically but acting relationally”.

That combination matters.

A consultant needs to understand the people, history, and circumstances of a congregation before offering guidance.

Sometimes the outside perspective reveals a concern. Sometimes it identifies gifts the church has almost stopped noticing: emerging leaders, meaningful community relationships, faithful people, or a ministry bearing quiet fruit.

Good consulting can help a church recognise what God has already entrusted to it and consider how to steward those gifts faithfully.

Sometimes We Need to Pull Over

There are moments when the most helpful thing someone can say is, “Could we pull over for a minute?”

Church leaders often need that pause.

We’re preparing services, caring for people, supporting volunteers, and responding to whatever landed in our text or inbox this morning.

There is always another Sunday coming.

A facilitated conversation creates space for questions that rarely fit into a crowded agenda:

• What are we assuming?

• Whose experience have we not heard?

• What concern keeps surfacing?

• What have we been avoiding?

• What might God be inviting us to reconsider?

  
  

An outside facilitator can help quieter voices be heard, clarify misunderstandings, and keep disagreement constructive. Pastors and board chairs can participate more fully when someone else carries responsibility for guiding the conversation.

For Christian leaders, this also means making room for Scripture, prayer, repentance, and discernment. Please read this again.

Susan Beaumont explores this in “From Decision Making to Discernment,” encouraging leaders to examine their biases and attend to the Holy Spirit when navigating uncertainty.

Sometimes we need to slow down enough to hear what our usual pace has drowned out.

When Leadership Changes

Pastoral transitions create a particularly important opportunity to pause and look around.

A congregation may understandably want to find its next pastor and get moving again.

But there may be work to do before the next leader arrives.

What needs to be celebrated? What needs to be grieved? Which relationships need attention? What expectations will the new pastor inherit?

Cam Taylor’s work with the Transitional Leadership Network encourages churches to see pastoral transitions as “opportunities for congregational transformation.” Its framework includes closure, relationship renewal, vision clarity, organisational health, and preparation for the pastoral search.

Taylor and Alan Simpson’s book, Between Pastors: Seizing the Opportunity, offers further reading for congregations navigating this season.

A new pastor will bring gifts, experience, and fresh perspective. The congregation can prepare well by examining its own patterns and expectations before handing over the keys.

Taking the Next Turn

Eventually, someone needs to ask, “So, what do we do next?”

Fair question.

Fresh insight needs to lead to practical action. That might mean clarifying a discipleship pathway, supporting volunteers more effectively, addressing strained relationships, or preparing for a leadership transition.

A consultant can help leaders identify priorities, agree on responsibilities, and choose steps the congregation has the capacity to take.

A few thoughtful changes carried through faithfully can accomplish a great deal.

After four decades of ministry, I know how deeply leaders can love a church. I also know how difficult it can be to see everything while carrying responsibility for it.

I’ve needed others to help me check my blind spots. I still do.

At KD Formation Group, we come alongside churches and Christian organisations as they strengthen their leadership, attend to their culture, and grow as disciple-making communities.

Sometimes that begins with an honest conversation:

Before we make our next move, could someone help us check our blind spots?

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If you would like to explore this further with us, take our Disciple-Making Quick Scan. We also have a deeper Discipleship Assessment your whole church can take. It helps to begin the important conversations.

If you’re a church leader and would like to explore how we can support you in developing a stronger focused disciple-making culture, contact us and we’ll have you fill out our more extensive intake form, and set up a time for a free initial consultation.

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Further reading: The Malphurs Group on church consulting; Church Ministry Analysis; Susan Beaumont on discernment; Transitional Leadership Network on pastoral transitions; and Cam Taylor and Alan Simpson, Between Pastors: Seizing the Opportunity. No direct quotation or page-specific claim is drawn from the book.

AI was used to help structure the flow of the original written content of the author*