Lessons from Chipotle

3 Lessons the Church can Learn from the Chipotle Meltdown

Overly Focused on Expansion

Chipotle’s fast growth led them to neglect the training of employees with proper food handling to prevent violent gastrointestinal, kaleidoscope yawns of their customers. E. Coli, Salmonella and the norovirus are not good calling cards for a restaurant.Growing churches are tempted to lower of the bar of leadership. A willingness to host a group in the home, pushing play on a DVD player, asking four supplied questions and fogging a mirror becomes the low-bar for leadership.Lack of leadership qualifications and training leads to outbreaks of AIDS (acquired integrity deficiency syndrome), false teaching and all the sinful practices found in the early church of Corinth.Healthy churches grow. Focus on developing healthy leaders and that will lead to healthy small groups and a healthy church.

Supply Chain Failure

Chipotle depends on “locally sourced” products. This means that the food is fresh, but the local suppliers may not practice processes that prevent pathogens from entering the restaurant.Just because someone has led a Bible study at another church, does not mean that they have been trained effectively to lead a Bible study in your church. It is best to require new people to attend a small group before ever leading a small group.When someone from the French Foreign Legion wants to serve in the Marines, they still have to go through Marine Bootcamp. Be sure to vet new leaders who come from other churches. Have a Basic Leader Training Class and get feedback from their Small Group Leader who has been able to observe the person’s potential to lead in the future.

Training

Staying on top of training new leaders is an endless task, but it must be done. Putting customers at risk of food-borne illnesses is never good public relations or marketing.Initial, regular and ongoing leadership training in the church, is essential for preventing leaders and groups from going rogue, teaching false doctrine and fostering outbreaks of character-borne catastrophes. As the leaders go, so goes the ministry. Invest in leaders. You cannot have more healthy small groups without more healthy leaders.