The other day I had an inquiry from a pastor I am coaching. Her question was “You said we need to move our 8:30 contemporary service to 9:45 because it is too early to reach young adults. But we have one family who refuses to move. What should we do?”

The Rule of One answers her question – “Never allow one person or family to stand in the way of making a necessary change.”

Not following the Rule of One is one of the primary reasons to bad things happen to churches:

• First, it allows bullies to emerge. Allowing one person or family to dictate policy usually results in that person or family having far too much influence or power over the entire church. This result leads to the second problem:
• Churches almost always fail to reach new people and thus remain small, weak, and eventually die.

Churches wanting to reach large numbers of people never allow the needs of one family to dictate policy. Doing so just keeps a church small. In bowing to the needs of the one person or family you ensure that you will not reach many families.