8 Reasons Your Church Isn’t Reaching People

September 28, 2017

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Go into all the world and make disciples.

That’s the mission God gave His church.

And even though we have creative purpose statements and fancy website slogans, that’s still the heart of the mission of the church you’re leading.

Our job is to reach people and help them follow Jesus. That’s business.

So let me ask you a simple question.

How’s business? How is your church doing at accomplishing this God-given mission? Are you truly reaching people?

It’s easy for a church to be about maintaining the status quo, keeping the saints comfortable, or staying busy doing good things. But we must never forget that our job is to reach people.

Here are eight reasons your church might be struggling to reach people who need to hear, know, and live out the Gospel.

#1 – You have too many ministries.

In a way, “reaching people” is a pretty generic option. With a little bit of creativity, you can make just about anything fit into that bucket.

That’s one reason churches end up with too many ministries.

It’s true that God can use anything. But effective churches understand they live in a unique community with unique resources guided by a unique calling. Instead of trying to do everything, they focus on what they can do best, because that’s what stewardship looks like.

In our workshop, we dive deeper into how to identify your keystone ministries and align your ministry strategy with your church-wide mission. We spend time working hard on this because we know the key to growth might not be something you start but something you stop.

The most effective churches carefully evaluate everything and make sure each ministry aligns with the mission of the church and has an effective strategy. Without this type of focus, it’s likely the ministry menu gets bloated.

If you’re struggling to reach people, get some people together and answer this question. If we could only do three things to reach our community, what would they be?

#2 – You’re not actually equipping people to invite.

Pastors often do a great job encouraging their people to invite their friends, neighbors and co-workers. But encouragement and equipping are two different things.

People don’t just need encouragement to invite, they need the tools. You need to do more than ask them to bring people to church, you need to give them resources that make it easy to follow through.

Are you asking people to invite their neighbors, friends and co-workers, or are you giving them the actual tools to do it. After all, if you want someone to do something, make sure they have the tools to do the job.

Here are two examples:

Instead of saying, “Invite your friends using social media,” say something like, “If you go to ourchurch.com/invite you will find sample images you can share and even Facebook posts that you can cut, paste and share in your feed. If you can copy and paste, you can invite people to church next week.”
Instead of saying, “Don’t forget to invite your friends next week,” say something like, “On the way out, our greeters are going to give you three small business cards. I’d like to ask you to personally give them to three people this week. It could be someone you work with or it could be a server at a restaurant.”

Looking for more ideas? Here are 19 ways you can equip your church to invite.

Continue

7 Ways to Care for Your Ministry That Require Zero Talent

John Tyler Black

September 28, 2017

Each Small Group Semester brings a different set off challenges and goals I look to strive for. I will always set a new numerical goal for groups, next steps emphasis and I always look for a few areas that need improvement within my role. It seemed that almost every semester I circled “better care” for my leaders and those I serve with. For a while I thought it was a talent or ability I needed to work on, but before long I saw that most of my team’s care was founded on effort. It doesn’t take a special talent, ability or even experience obtained over years to properly care for your team. The following are seven ways to care for your ministry team that require zero talent.

COMMUNICATE CONSISTENTLY
Block out 30 minutes each week or bi-weekly (whichever fits your ministry flow best) to write an email to all of your Small Group Leaders. Some weeks you will need to communicate vital information, while others you may simply share a helpful blogpost, celebrate a particular group’s big “win” or thank your leaders for their heart to serve! The point isn’t always to communicate information, it is to consistently remind them that you are thinking of them and praying for them.

RESPECT PEOPLE’S TIME
Honor the time of those who serve with you. As a ministry leader, it is important to start and end informational meetings on time. Show up early, stay late.

BE PREPARED
Sweat the small details while preparing for a meeting, email or training event. As ministry leaders, we know that we will often return a smaller percentage of what we invest. Maximize your investment in your preparation, as you ready for each moment with your team. Even if your efforts feel unnoticed, know they will create memorable moments.

BE ACCESSIBLE
Your team will quickly disband if they are unable to feel a personal connection with you. Make a point to be present before and after church, make your phone number available and/or give out your personal email. Being available is half the battle of establishing a level of care.

RESPOND IN A TIMELY MANNER

We all have that friend that lets an email or text message sit for days without responding. Life can be busy, but don’t let that get in the way of properly caring for someone. If someone took the time to email you, it means the subject is important to them. If it’s important to them, it should be to you. Let them know your level of care by responding on time.

WRITE HANDWRITTEN NOTES
I can send personal emails for the rest of my life and I will not get the same response for the handwritten notes that I have already mailed. Personal touches are few and far between for many within our churches and it’s important to show we care about what they are doing for Christ’s kingdom.

DO MORE THAN WHAT’S EXPECTED
Breathtaking moments occur when they are unexpected. Think of ways to go beyond what is expected and what has become predictable. How can you care for your church and its leaders in a way that neither would expect?

I know these steps of action can help you better care for your team and help you achieve a healthier Small Group culture.

This article originally appeared here.

God’s Glorious Name Drives Our Prayers

Steve Gaines

September 28, 2017

Jesus taught that as His followers pray, our priority should be the recognition and reverence of God’s name in the whole earth. Although we might grow in our commitment to this aim even as we pray for it, we can also be assured that God Himself is committed to the glory of His own name throughout the world.

The pages of Scripture are replete with acknowledgments of the glory of God and exhortations to glorify Him. That’s the theme of the second half of the seraphim’s song in Isaiah 6:

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Armies;
his glory fills the whole earth.
ISAIAH 6:3

The writings of prophets like Habakkuk reveal a longing for the world to be filled with the glory of the Lord (see Hab. 2:14). God refused to share His glory or praise with idols in passages like Isaiah 42:8. In fact, the glory of the Lord was a tangible reality in certain sections of the Old Testament.

God’s glory was like a white-hot, “consuming fire” on top of the mountain when the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Ex. 24:17). Moses was hidden in a crevice of a rock as the glory of the Lord passed by Him (see 33:22). And the glory of the Lord consumed the sacrifice and filled the tabernacle when it was completed (see 40:34-35).

The prophet Isaiah reflected God’s desire for His own glory:

Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
I will act for my own sake, indeed, my own,
for how can I be defiled?
I will not give my glory to another.
ISAIAH 48:10-11

God does many things, but behind them all is a commitment to His own glory. He saves for His own glory. He delivers for His own glory. He judges for His own glory. God always acts for His own glory, and this pursuit is not only good and right but also loving.

While any human being who acts in a self-glorifying way is rightly seen as egotistical, boastful, arrogant and selfish, it’s entirely appropriate for God to seek His own glory. That’s because of all the beings in the universe, God is the only One who actually deserves the glory. So whenever we hold something higher than God in our hearts, we call that thing an idol. If God desired something other than His own glory, He would by definition become an idolater.

God’s glorious name should be the driving force behind our prayers, just as it’s the driving force behind all His actions. For that reason when we pray, we must ask God to bend our hearts to His ways, to create in us a greater love for His glory and His name so that we truly desire what He desires.

This article originally appeared here.

Why We Need Reformation Anglicanism

Ashley Null

September 28, 2017

Why Should We Care About the English Reformation?

The two greatest issues facing Christianity in the West are (1) the Bible’s growing lack of authority in the church, and (2) the lack of transformed lives among those who attend. The same two issues confronted English Christians in the early 16th century.

The medieval catholic church had rejected the Gospel’s offer of free pardon, teaching instead its own system of rules so that a person, in effect, had to earn forgiveness, even if a person very much needed God’s help to accomplish that task. Yet, at the same time, so many people were failing to lead the holy lives necessary for salvation, especially the clergy and those in religious orders, that the Christian faith itself was being brought into disrepute daily.

The English Reformers confronted both issues head-on, because they realized that both were intrinsically linked. The unbiblical teaching of the medieval church had led Christians to lead inauthentic human lives. Only loving God more would give people the power to say no to sin, but only the preaching of God’s unconditional love made known in salvation could birth in people that kind of transforming love. By teaching people that they had to earn God’s love by first being good enough, the medieval catholic church had actually cut people off from the only source that could change them from the inside out.

The Reformers, however, recovered Paul’s teaching on justification, that God justified the wicked (Rom. 4:5) through faith in the promise of unconditional pardon because of the cross of Christ. The English reformers taught justification by faith because only gratitude for the free gift of salvation would birth in Christians a love for God and a godly life.

Today, the message of Western Christianity can often sound very similar to medieval catholic teaching, that people have to work very hard to prove that they are good enough for God to love them. It is true that liberals and conservatives disagree about what “being good enough” looks like. Conservatives tend to stress personal morality like the importance of sexual purity as well as evangelistic activity, whereas progressives like to emphasize the importance of working for social justice and living an environmentally aware lifestyle. The prosperity preachers take a third tack. They simply tell people that being “positive enough” is what is required for God’s blessing.

Yet, despite all their differences, these groups of Christians still normally use Sunday worship services to fuss at people how they need to better be like God expects them to be. Since so much of Western Christian preaching has ended up sounding a whole lot like the medieval catholic church, the biblical insights from the English Reformation are just what we Christians in the West need to hear afresh today.

Who Was Thomas Cranmer?

Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) was the chief English Reformer. As the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, he was responsible for applying the insights of the Continental reformers to the situation in his own country. He first worked with Henry VIII to bring biblical authority to the Church of England. During Cranmer’s time under Henry, the English Church rejected the pope’s authority in England (1534), monasteries—where religious people tried to earn their salvation through good works—were closed down (1536–1540), Bibles translated into English were set up in every parish church for the public to be able to read, even though bibles in English had been banned in the country for over one hundred years (1538), and confession to a priest was no longer taught as necessary for salvation (1539).

Despite these biblical advances, Henry never accepted the key protestant teaching that salvation was a free gift. Cranmer had to wait until Henry died in 1547 and his nine-year-old son came to the throne before he could implement a thorough theological Reformation of the Church of England.

In six and a half years, Cranmer developed a blueprint for a protestant English church. He wrote a series of required sermons that taught the Reformation’s grace and gratitude approach to Christian faith (1547). He then devised a scheme of praying the Bible in worship through two more progressively reformed prayer books (1549 and 1552). Finally, he wrote up the biblical insights of the Reformation in a series of Articles of Religion so that future generations would know the spiritual DNA of the Protestant Church of England.

What Do the English Reformation and Thomas Cranmer Have to Do With Reformation Anglicanism?

Cranmer and his fellow English Reformers created a biblical church in continuity with the universal truths of the early Christians but which was also relevant to the specific spiritual needs of their generation. Reformation Anglicans are the heirs to this great tradition of proclaiming the unconditional love of God for sinners so that they can begin to learn to love God and others as they have been loved unconditionally in the cross of Christ.

If you want to know more about the great spiritual DNA of Reformation Anglicanism, check out a new collection of essays which explains its origins, teachings and relevance for the church today.

Blog originally published on Crossway.org; Material adapted from Reformation Anglicanism by Ashely Null, © 2017. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

To Be an Effective Leader, Stop Wasting Your Time

Ben Reed

September 28, 2017

This is a flea market. Notice all of the junk. Randomly priced, randomly placed, randomly assorted junk. The highest priced item here: $7.50. (It’s also a picture of my son’s handiwork. “Hey dad…*snicker*…see what I did to that little wooden…*snicker*…mannequin…*snicker*?”)

Below is a picture from the next table over. Seriously, within just a few feet I saw a “Royal Albert China Dinner and Tea Set” for $850. I’m not saying it’s not worth that price tag…I honestly have no idea what, if anything, it’s worth.

Someone kept these for a long time. They spent a lot of money on them. Probably moved with them a time or two. Took extra time and care to store them. And probably rarely (if ever) used them. Now they’re sitting at a flea market, not selling. Because you can’t sell $850 dishes beside a $.28 button.

It’s sad, really. I feel bad for the person that bought them, the one that stored them, the one that didn’t use them, the one that transported them across town to the flea market, and the one that’s (not) selling them now.

Individual leadership

I bet there’s something you’re doing right now that, when you look back on your life in 20 years, is really a waste of time. You’re moving boxes of expensive dishes (your most valuable resource is your time) that you’re going to try to sell later, that nobody wants to buy.

There’s a book you’re reading that isn’t helping you. Put it down.
There’s a habit you’ve got that leaves you more irritable and less patient with people. Stop it.
There’s a relationship you have that is moving you further from who God made you to be. Change it.
There’s a side hustle you’re juggling that sucks the life out of you. Time to cut the cord.
Your “relaxing” time doesn’t leave you recharged. You can do better.

Life’s too short to protect expensive dishes you don’t want.

Organizational leadership

Church leaders, make sure the “programs” and initiatives you’re starting don’t just appease people’s itching ears, but actually lead them somewhere. Just because people ask for it doesn’t mean you have to do it. And on the flip side, be careful putting your time and energy towards what you think is nice without seeing if people want it.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. – Paul, 2 Timothy 4:3

Know where you’re taking people, understand WHO you’re trying to produce, and relentlessly pursue that. Stop having people do things that simply keep them, and you, busy with activity but don’t actually help them become the Jesus follower you’re trying to lead them to become.

Good pastors don’t just exegete the Scriptures, they exegete their people. In other words, good pastors don’t just spend time trying to know, understand, love, and unpack the truths found in the Bible. They work equally hard to know, understand, love, and unpack the people God’s called them to lead, and the unique vision God’s called their local congregation to. One without the other short-changes both. To love the Scriptures but not people makes you into a Bible-thumper. It also means you’ve not obeyed the most important command in Scripture: love others as yourself.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Jesus, Mark 12:30-31

It’s hard to know when you’re doing this, though, and whether the programs and processes you have in place are working. Maybe try asking a couple of questions of those you’re leading:

Because of ____ (program, event, etc.), are you closer to Jesus?
Are you growing more patient or more irritable with people, as a result of ___?
Are you finding yourself more or less courageous with your faith?
Do you find yourself more available emotionally, spiritually, and physically for your family, and those closest to you, because of ___?

People will be honest, especially when it comes to how they spend their time and resources. It may just be that that recreation ministry makes you happy, but isn’t helping your church become more faithful followers of Jesus.

Can we all agree to not become, or continue practices that produce, expensive dishes that nobody wants to buy?

This article originally appeared here.

Hugh Hefner Did Not Live the Good Life

Russell Moore

September 28, 2017

Overnight, we learned of the death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Hefner is the iconic figure who not only made pornography socially respectable (and even more lucrative), but also spent a life constructing a “playboy philosophy” of sexual freedom that would supposedly undo the “Puritan sexual repression he saw in American life.”

The death of any person is a tragedy. Hugh Hefner is no exception to that. We can’t, though, with his obituaries, call his life “success” or “a dream.”

Hefner did not create, but marketed ingeniously, the idea that a man’s life consists in the abundance of his possessions and of his orgasms. To women, he marketed frenetically the idea that a woman’s value consists in her sexual availability and attractiveness to men.

The “bunny” logo was well-chosen because, in the end, Mr. Hefner saw both men and women as essentially rabbits. This path was portrayed vividly by John Updike in his Rabbit Angstrom series. It is not a happy life.

And yet we are not actually rabbits. We can see our deaths coming, and we outlive those deaths to give an account of our lives. If you want to see “success,” look instead to the man faithful to the wife of his youth, caring for her through dementia.

In the short-run Hefner’s philosophy has won, on both the Right and the Left. The Playboy Mansion is every house now. Many church leaders implicitly or explicitly say, “This is fine.” In many cases, those who hold to what the church has always taught on sexual morality and the value of women are the dissidents now, regardless of how “conservative” a movement proclaims itself to be. Thou hast conquered, O grotto.

The long-run, though, is quite different. Jesus will reign.

In the meantime, the Good Shepherd searches the thickets for his lost sheep. And sometimes for a lost rabbit, too. The sign of the good life is not hedonism but crucifixion. The sign of the good life is not a bunny but a cross.

This article originally appeared here.

3 Keys to Reaching Millennial Moms

Dale Hudson

September 27, 2017

The birth of a child is a key time in a family’s life. Marketing companies know this and go all out to capture a new mother’s attention. It starts even before they leave the hospital with their newborn. From diapers to formula to wet wipes, companies pay to have their products put in the hands of new mothers.

The new mothers they are marketing to are the Millennials. The Millennials turn ages 20 to 36 this year. Consider these findings.

83 percent of the babies born this year will call a Millennial “mom” or “dad.”

There are over 16.2 million Millennial moms in America.

The average age for new moms is 26.

Globally, there are over 2.5 million babies born to Millennial moms each week.

If we are going to reach the next generation, then we must reach their parents. More specifically, let’s zoom in on how we can reach Millennial moms. Here are five keys to connecting with them.

Key #1 – Represent today’s moms. Today’s families come in all shapes and sizes and ethnicities. Sixty-seven percent of Millennial moms are multicultural. If your family portrayal only showcases families who look like it’s still 1950, with mom at the stove with an apron on and two smiling kids sitting at the table and dad coming in the door from work with a briefcase in his hand, Millennial moms will tune you out. The “happy housewife” who is a one-dimensional caretaker is not an accurate reflection of Millennial moms. Forty percent of Millennial moms are the sole or primary breadwinner in their family. Millennial parents run their household jointly, with both parents sharing in the decision-making and tasks.

In a recent survey, 51 percent of Millennial moms say advertisers have an outdated view of moms and don’t understand them. With 2 billion moms on the planet, that means that approximately 1 billion moms feel marketers are not connecting with them in authentic ways.

It’s so important that the church leads the way in understanding today’s moms and genuinely reflects who they are. As we engage them and add value to their lives in the many roles they undertake, we will be able to better connect with them. This includes their roles as a caretaker who provides for their family’s needs, an elder who provides cultural wisdom, a coach who guides children on how to behave, a hero who serves as a role model for their children, and a fan who encourages and believes in their children.

Key #2 – Provide spiritual parenting tips. Millennial moms are seeking out parenting tips. Especially online. Here’s an example. A company called Blossom posted a video on Facebook that featured seven hacks for organizing your clothes. The video has racked up over 382 million views and 12 millions shares. Millennial moms seek out online communities and will share content that they deem valuable.

With hundreds of online options and platforms about raising children available to Millennial moms, you will have a hard time making an inroad if you only provide physical parenting tips. But here is where you can make a major difference. By providing spiritual parenting tips.

Consider creating short videos that will give Millennial moms tips on how to help their children spiritually. It might be how to pray for your child or how to sing Bible songs with motions with your child or how to answer a preschooler’s big questions about God. Or perhaps it’s how to use their child’s toys as a tool to teach a Bible story or truth. Another idea is give mothers ideas for how to prepare their child for the nursery at church. You can also ask mothers in your ministry what topics they are interested in hearing about.

One of the best places to place the videos and promote them is on Facebook. You can create a Facebook page for the young mothers in your church for free. No need creating a separate website. Go where Millennial moms are already at. Ninety percent of Millennial moms say Facebook is helpful to their parenting.

Key #3 – Provide shared experiences. Millennial moms are moving away from being “Helicopter Parents” (parents who hover over their children closely and make decisions for them) to being “Passenger-Plane Parents.” Passenger-Plane parents are parents who believe everyone in their family should be accommodated. In a nut shell, they are looking for ways to bring their family together for a shared experience. They highly value opportunities to bring their family together.

With mobile viewing, families have moved to “separate togetherness.” This occurs when families are in the same room, but are experiencing different content. An example would be, dad watching ESPN on TV, while mom is watching Netflix on an iPad, while the son is playing a video game on his laptop, while the daughter is watching YouTube on her phone. Stats show that 52 percent of Millennial moms engage in “separate togetherness.”

While Millennial moms engage in “separate togetherness,” they are also looking for opportunities to create memories and build family bonds away from a screen. Companies and nonprofits that provide opportunities for this will connect with these moms. Here’s an example. Chick-Fil-A ran a promotion last year that encouraged families to put their phones in the “coop” while dining in the restaurant and encouraged families to engage in more conversation and connection while eating. Millennial moms connected well with this.

As a church, there are so many ways you can tap into this. Think of ways you can provide shared experiences for Millennial moms and their families. Perhaps it’s a shared worship experience, a family event, a special family night at church, a family camp out, etc.

As you read through these three keys, here are some questions to think through and discuss as a ministry.

Is our advertising (print pieces, web pics, pictures on screen at church, etc.) an accurate depiction of today’s moms?

Do we understand and reach out to moms in all their dimensions and roles such as caretaker, elder, coach, hero, etc.?

How can we provide spiritual parenting tips for moms? What platform should we use? What content should we focus on?

How can we create an online community for moms?

How can we provide shared experiences for moms and their families?

This article originally appeared here.

It Costs to Reach Your Community, and It’s Worth It

Rick Warren

September 27, 2017

There are tens of thousands of churches in America that haven’t baptized anyone in at least a year. Even though The Great Commission and The Great Commandments are core to who we are as the church, we’re struggling to engage our culture with the Gospel.

One of the reasons so few churches effectively engage in outreach is because they ask the wrong question. Too often, the first question asked is, “How much will it cost?”

The right question is, “Who will it reach?”

How much is a soul worth? If you spend $500 on a social media ad that reaches one unbeliever for Christ, is it worth it?

If your church gets serious about developing a comprehensive evangelism strategy, it will cost money! With this in mind, let me share some insights about financing your strategy, based upon my experience as Saddleback has grown over the years.

First, money spent on evangelism is never an “expense,” it’s always an investment.

The people you reach will more than repay the cost you invested to reach them. Before we held the first service at Saddleback Church, the people in our small home Bible study went about $6,500 in debt preparing for that service. Where did we get the money? We used our personal credit cards! We believed the offerings of the people we reached for Christ would eventually enable everyone to be paid back.

One of the “miracles” of our dress rehearsal service was that a man who had not attended our home Bible study came to that first service gave a check for a thousand dollars when we took the offering. After it was over, the woman in charge of counting the offering came up and showed me the check. I said, “This is going to work!”

Sure enough, we paid everyone back within four months. Please note: I’m not advocating that your church use credit cards to finance it. I’m just trying to illustrate how willing we were to pay the cost of reaching people for Christ.

Often when finances get tight in a church the first thing cut is the evangelism and advertising budget. That is the last thing you should cut. It is the source of new health and life for your church.

Second, people give to vision, not to need.

If “need” motivated people to give, every church would have plenty of money. It is not the neediest institutions that attract contributions but those with the greatest vision.

Churches that are making the most of what they have attract more gifts. That’s why Jesus said, “It is always true that those who have, get more, and those who have little, soon lose even that” (Luke 19:26 TLB).

If your church is constantly short on cash, check out your vision. Is it clear? Is it being communicated effectively? Money flows to God-given, Holy Spirit-inspired ideas. Churches with money problems usually have a vision problem.

Third, when you spend nickels and dimes on evangelism, you get nickel and dime results.

Do you remember the story about the time Jesus told Peter to go find money in a fish’s mouth in order to pay the Roman taxes? In Matthew 17:27 Jesus told Peter, ”Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin.”

I believe there is an important lesson in that story: The coins are always in the mouths of the fish! If you’ll focus on fishing (evangelism), God will pay your bills. That doesn’t mean we reach people so that they will give. We reach people because Jesus loves them and wants to save them. But one of the supernatural fruits of discipleship is generosity toward the cause of reaching others.

Fourth, remember that “God’s work done God’s way will not lack God’s support.”

This was the famous motto of the great missionary strategist Hudson Taylor. And I think it’s a timeless truth.

This article originally appeared here.

5 Reasons Ministry-Specific Facebook Pages Are a Good Idea

Kem Meyer

September 27, 2017

QUESTION FROM PHOENIX, AZ: Do you endorse different Facebook pages for the different departments? I’m looking for a way ministry leaders can get pertinent info out to those interested without clogging up main communication channels in the church. It seems there would be challenges ensuring those pages reflect our values and don’t get us into any sticky situations.

I wholeheartedly endorse this approach. When it comes to corporate communications, there is a balance between institutional control and individual empowerment. It looks a little different depending on each environment, but here are some simple thoughts around the concept.

You’re eliminating a content bottleneck. Help ministry stakeholders set up a profile with a standard church framework but let them run their own content.
You’re developing a team. Make sure someone with a global perspective of your church communications does regular, organic spot checks of the different pages you may have for your church. They should be looking for opportunities to celebrate good examples and help equip people who might need a little coaching.
You’re demonstrating human diversity. Remember, your ultimate all-church values are not defined by social media sameness. They are lived out in varying expressions across the life of the church. The overarching goal of this approach is to allow key leaders to contextualize dialogue for their specific audience. The last thing you want is a bunch of over-corporatized, sterilized Facebook pages across different ministries. Variety is part of what makes every family great. And, your church is a family of personalities.
You’re being honest. The definition of “excellence” is different based on size, scope and channel. People expect a little imperfection and actually appreciate rare authenticity from an institution. Shoot for overall “cohesiveness” not perfect “consistency.”
You’re working smart. Centralize the “wayfinding” and eliminate redundancy across pages by coaching individual FB admins to stick to their sphere; only post what’s relevant and related to their niche and next steps. Make it clear they’re not taking on all of social media for the whole church, just next steps for their team or department.

This article originally appeared here.

How to Be More Disciplined

Alvin Reid

September 27, 2017

Do you ever have conversations in your head with yourself? We all do. Imagine for a minute you are having that conversation: the one where you failed at discipline and you are scolding yourself for once again not keeping that commitment/avoiding that temptation/meeting that challenge/whatever the topic is at the moment. It’s OK, we all have those at times, don’t we?

Discipline matters. In fact, discipline and disciple come from the same root. A person can be extremely disciplined—like an Olympic athlete—and yet not be a disciple of Jesus. But can one really be a disciple of Jesus and not embrace discipline? I’m not talking about guilt-ridden, legalistic discipline, nor am I talking about discipline motivated by comparison with others. Discipline for the believer flows out of grace, not guilt. Our motivation for grace comes from the wonder, the gratitude and the joy of living for our Lord with all our hearts because of the gospel. It was Paul, who teaches us so much about grace, who set the example of disciplining himself like an athlete (I Corinthians 9:27). Dallas Willard sets this up well when he reminds us that “grace is opposed to earning; it is not opposed to effort.”

This discipline applies first and foremost to our spiritual lives, as Paul reminded Timothy to discipline himself for the purpose of godliness (I Tim. 4:7). But even as the gospel applies to all our life—spiritual, emotional, vocational, relational, financial and physical—it’s hard to be disciplined in our spiritual lives and let ourselves go totally in other areas. Is there not a fundamental problem when a person seems disciplined in his daily devotions and yet is wildly irresponsible with spending money?

A question for me all my life regards growing in discipline. In recent days I’ve found a very helpful way of thinking about discipline from a different perspective. I came across a book by a Pulitzer Prize winning author named Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit. Then I watched a TED talk on the book from a new habit I’ve started—riding my exercise bike 10-20 minutes when I finish my daily devotions while watching a TED talk or other video.

Duhigg talks about the HABIT LOOP:

It seems researchers have found a consistent pattern in people who practice both good and bad habits. Something cues us to a particular routine, followed by some kind of reward. One researcher found about 40 percent of our daily lives are controlled by habits. It’s why you can get in your car and drive to work, arrive and ask yourself whether you closed the garage door, or can’t seem to remember much about the drive. It’s such a habit you don’t track every second.

What if you replaced one bad habit with a good one? What if instead of treating yourself to a cookie or other unhealthy snack in the afternoon, which you probably only eat out of habit, you began to bring to work your most favorite piece of fruit to enjoy then? Let’s say you are a young man who as a habit comes home and plays video games for an hour. First, WHY? OK, sorry, it could be watching Sports Center or the Weather Channel, or wasting an hour on social media, or grabbing a bag of chips. What if you put a cue that reminded you first to do something productive, like homework, or going for a jog, or reading for 30 minutes. Then, reward yourself with a focused, shortened time watching a screen, and eating something that’s not processed to the nines.

Continue

Is Your Discipleship Model for Everyone?

Andrew Mason

September 27, 2017

When my wife, Camille, was younger she had a mentor in a discipleship program that she was a part of. His name was Richard Moore. At the time I am writing this, he is the president and CEO of the nonprofit organization Shoulder-to-Shoulder. At the time my wife was in his discipleship program he went by the abbreviation “PR” for Pastor Richard. One of PR’s most memorable lines that she shared with me is, “Have a plan that doesn’t suck.”

He shared this blunt maxim with his students to teach them not to tolerate low expectations for themselves. Given enough time, complacency will ultimately lead to dead ends in life. To have a plan for your life that doesn’t suck, however, would guide you to live according to a vision that created the potential for growth and success.

When it comes to the discipleship model in your church I would like to borrow PR’s wisdom and say the following to you, Pastor, “Have a plan that doesn’t suck.” When I apply this filter to my thinking, it guides me to the following conclusion: I must have a Discipleship Model that is practical and creates the potential for everyone in my church to be discipled.

Being “practical” is important to me because any strategy can work perfectly on paper. Even a complicated plan can build amazing results in theory, but it’s usually incredibly difficult to put into practice. Typically, it’s the simplified ideas that can be effectively implemented and mastered for optimum impact.

Potential is critical as well if we are going to have a chance at success. I have seen many churches with the goal of discipling every person in their church, but their ministry model doesn’t even given them a chance to take a swing at their goal.

Here are 10 Thoughts on Practical Discipleship Models With Potential for Everyone…

1. If your goal is to disciple every single person in your church, you have to build a ministry model that creates enough room for everyone to be discipled. How many people attend your church on Sunday morning or your weekend services? Does your discipleship model have enough room for all of them? If the answer to the second question is no, you might have a discipleship plan that sucks.

You should have a discipleship model that gives you a chance to disciple every single person in your church in the next three to six months (not in three to six years). Now, I realize that a model that has room for everyone does not guarantee that everyone will be discipled, but the point is that you’ve created the conditions for that goal to be a legitimate possibility.

2. If you have more than one Sunday service, you do not have the ability to disciple everyone in a single mid-week gathering.

Think about it like this: If your sanctuary holds 400 people, and 800 people attend your two weekend services, you will only have the potential to disciple half the church with a single mid-week gathering. If you use round tables in the sanctuary for the mid-week gathering, you just shrank your space down to a lower than half capacity.

3. If you do not have enough classroom space for every single person in your church, you do not have the ability to disciple everyone in a Sunday school system. If your goal is to plug everyone into a Sunday school class “one day” but you don’t have enough facility space to accommodate that outcome, you might have a discipleship plan that sucks (note: having enough Sunday school space for everyone in your church would include the variable of multiple slots for people to attend classes at different times).

4. If you have enough classroom space for every person in your church, but do not have enough parking for both the Sunday service and Sunday school, you do not have the ability to disciple everyone in a Sunday school system. If you have 400 people in a Sunday service and an additional 400 people in Sunday school classes at the same time, you must have a parking lot big enough for 800 people. If you’re parking lot isn’t big enough for everyone, it won’t matter how much classroom space you have.

5. If everyone in your church cannot give you two to three hours in a single slot, you do not have the ability to disciple everyone in a Sunday school system. Different parts of the country have different social norms. In some cities, not everyone in the church may be able to offer two to three hours at a time. If that’s the case, attending a service and a class in one block of time won’t disciple every person in the church.

6. If you do not have enough ministries for everyone in your church, you cannot disciple everyone through task-oriented ministries. Discipling people as you work together on a kingdom activity (worship, outreach, admin projects, etc.) is a great vehicle for life transformation. If you don’t create enough ministry settings for every single person, you can’t make this your single magic bullet to cross the finish line.

7. If your discipleship model includes Off-Site Groups AND On-Dite Groups, they should both take everyone to the same discipleship destination. A facility/space problem can be remedied with a both/and approach to having on-site discipleship settings and off-site discipleship settings.

With that in mind, there needs to be a unified aim with the strategies or it can create an unintentional competition (see Killing the Competition That’s Killing Your Small Groups by Dean Deguara). People might be confused as to which one they should join or they might think they need to join both.

It’s difficult to travel together with people who are going a different direction. Connection and momentum will be severely diminished unless everyone ends up at the same objective.

8. An on-site and off-site model must have shared values and similar practices to achieve synergy and avoid silos. The way of Jesus is just as important as the what (truth and life; see John 14:6). Parallel discipleship models may have subtle differences, but they should have a large amount of common ground that develops people in a similar (and biblical) way.

This makes a ministry environment easier for people to learn and grow in because they are surrounded by consistent examples that guide them along their journey. This type of positive reinforcement is what I call synergy.

When parallel discipleship models are different, almost to the point of contradiction, it becomes difficult for everyone to work together as a body. Over time, territorial silos, defensiveness and a survival mentality begin to creep in.

9. A church’s discipleship model must be digest-able. Most people have time to be involved in church programming two (in some cases three) times a week. Of course, there are people who will be involved more than that, but that is typically the exception, not the rule. We must offer a discipleship strategy that is digest-able for everyone in the church. If the weekly expectation is attending a Sunday morning service, a small group, a mid-week, an outreach and a men’s or women’s ministry, you will not have the ability to empower each ministry to thrive and grow. People need their church to help them focus on their spiritual growth. Unfortunately, many times a church will offer a myriad of freely-associated options that simply provide another opportunity for A.D.D. to operate in people’s lives. Promotion, leadership gatherings, evaluating effectiveness and celebration will be spread too thin across too many fronts if the discipleship plan isn’t digest-able.

10. The fewer leadership structures a church has, the greater conditions for excellence will there be. Infrastructure and equipping paths are critical processes that must be effective. When there is a shared and practical discipleship plan, everyone can identify and solve the systemic issues together. Everyone’s best ideas and efforts get invested into one harvest field (not three). The outcome results in a greater number of healthier leaders being cultivated, raised up and released.

I believe taking the time to work on a discipleship strategy that is practical and has the potential for everyone to participate in is a discipleship plan that doesn’t suck.

This article originally appeared here.

Four Kinds of Churches on the Attractional Spectrum (Where Does Yours Land?)

Eric McKiddie

September 27, 2017

You may have noticed that there has been a bit of conversation around the web about “attractional” churches. The question is often posed as to whether your church is attractional or missional in regard to its approach to reaching the lost.

Rather than discuss that polarization, I’d like to take a moment to look at the four places churches land with respect to attractionalism. Most articles ask, “Are you attractional, or not?” I’d like to ask, “Since every church is attracting someone, do you know who you’re attracting and why?” I suspect that most churches (in the U.S. at least), fall into one of the following four categories.

Four churches on the attractional spectrum

1. At one end of the spectrum, you have anti-attractional churches. They are explicitly against anything that would smack of production. These churches avoid excellence on principle, arguing that worship is more authentic when there is a homespun feel to it. The irony is that this attracts other anti-attractionally minded people (also known as “grumpy legalists”) to their church.

2. There are two kinds of churches toward the middle. One is the non-attractional church. This could feel like the anti-attractional church if you visited on a Sunday, just without the vitriol behind the scenes. They are not non-attractional on principle, like the first group. It’s unintentional for them.

Small churches that lack resources—budget, musicians, current technology—can fall into this category. But big churches that have lots of resources, but get stuck in a certain decade stylistically, can end up in this category, too.

3. The other church in the middle is the attractive church. This church brings an intentional thought process to its service—sermon, music, production, print materials—with an effort for the service itself to be appealing to believer and unbeliever alike. The production of the service is not the main draw for an unbeliever, but thought goes into making sure the service doesn’t unnecessarily repel an unbeliever.

4. At the other end of the spectrum are attractional churches. In this case, the service itself is the draw, so a lot of energy, time, money and talent go into making Sunday morning as exciting as possible.

The temptations that each of these churches face

It’s probably clear enough that I recommend the third option above. But each of these churches, even those that seek to be attractive while preaching a foolish, stumbling block of a gospel, face temptations.

Anti-attractional churches need to repent of pride and Phariseeism. Indeed, it is legalism that lands them in the anti-attractional camp in the first place.

Non-attractional churches need to beware of contentment with mediocrity. The status quo is working for them for now. But if they are stuck in a certain decade stylistically, the pool of people they are likely to reach is ever shrinking, since most of the world is moving on. Also, perhaps they wish they could be more attractive, but they just don’t have the resources. In this case they need to watch out for envy.

Attractive churches, because of their appreciation for aesthetics and ability to pursue them, can be drawn toward becoming attractional. They have to watch out that they don’t slip down the attractional slope. They also need to watch out for pride (“We’re the balanced ones!”).

Attractional churches—and this not a new insight—are tempted to marginalize the gospel and define success with standards that are according to the flesh.

So what?

Are you self-aware enough to know which category you are in? Have you chosen to be in that category, or have you drifted into it? Are you succumbing to the temptations unique to where you land on the spectrum, or are you fighting against them in order to be as thoroughly biblical a minister of the gospel as you can, for God’s glory?

This article originally appeared here.

Carl Lentz: You Not Liking the Truth Doesn’t Change the Truth

Brian Orme

September 27, 2017

Justin Bieber may be known the world over, but not as many people know about the pastor who has had a significant influence on him. That person is Carl Lentz, who is the leader of Hillsong Church in New York. In the following video, Pastor Lentz exhorts Christians to trust God’s commitment to His people, even when they don’t feel like it.

Lentz acknowledges that we may not always like the truth, but that doesn’t change the truth. Whether you believe it or not, there are a few non-negotiables in God’s kingdom:

God is with you

God is good

God is for you

We need a Shepherd

“Have you ever walked into church and someone has said the right thing to you but it’s at the wrong time and it’s just really annoying?” Lentz asks. It’s hard to hear the truth of God sometimes, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.

As much as we think we can do life on our own and that we can operate by our own wisdom, the truth remains that all of us need a shepherd. The world will try to convince us that we can be our own god and do our own thing, Lentz warns. But the fact remains that we need a shepherd in a world that is at odds with God’s glory. We need a shepherd as we engage in war with the enemy. “Psalm 23 only matters if God is your shepherd,” Lentz says.

Thankfully, we have an ever-present, good, and committed shepherd. Watch the video and be encouraged as you remember the truth that God is a good Shepherd who cares about his people. No matter what we are going through or the battles we face, God has promised to walk with us through those trials and battles. He is a good Shepherd.

Louie Giglio on Taking Risks: If the Church Doesn’t Take Risks, Goliath Will Never Fall

Jason Daye

September 27, 2017

Louie Giglio knows something about taking risks. He founded the Passion Conferences with his wife, Shelley, in 1997. The motivation behind the Passion Movement is to help young people experience an encounter with Jesus that will create a “180” change in life direction. In 2009, the Giglios planted Passion City in Atlanta. Louie and Shelley have a desire to see their neighborhood and the world come to know the grace we have found in Jesus.

Key Questions for Louie Giglio on Taking Risks:

How can we help people move beyond a consumer-oriented mentality of Jesus?

Most pastors will tell you don’t struggle with addiction, but how might a giant like that appear in other ways?

[SUBSCRIBE] For more ChurchLeaders podcasts click here!

Key Quotes from Louie Giglio on Taking Risks:

“Our freedom and God’s glory are woven together. They’re inextricably linked together.”

“The Bible isn’t about me. The Bible is the story of God from beginning to end; it’s the story of God.”

“What are you bringing into worship—not just what do you get out of it.”

“I think that the change agent that really blew everything apart for me was when I came to realize that life is not about me. Life is about Jesus.”

“Life is short. God is big.”

“We celebrate a gospel which required a man to give everything he had and the utmost sacrifice while we sit in the comfort of our own decisions to lead good, happy, and safe and normal lives and those two things do not resonate ultimately.”

“God puts us in uncertainties so that he can lead us into his purposes and plans sometimes.”

“God is in charge of stewardship; we are in charge of faithfulness.”

“In the body of Christ, you don’t have to agree with every single thing about everybody, but if your brothers and sisters are following Jesus and trying to make an impact in the world, celebrate them. Encourage them. Write them a note.”

“Addiction is really when our heart needs something other than Jesus.”

“A lot of pastors are leading churches like General Patton roaring through the desert. They’ve got this addiction to….the power they’ve got.”

Mentioned in the Show:

Goliath Must Fall: Winning the Battle Against Your Giants
Goliath Must Fall Study Guide

What to Do if You’re Chronically Frustrated at Church

Brett McCracken

September 26, 2017

Stopping the Cycle of Discontent

We live in an age of constant dissatisfaction. Because of our digital connectedness and access to everything all the time, we have never been more aware of the “other options” at our disposal and how what we have stacks up against what we want (or what Instagram or Facebook reveals that others have). Furthermore, the deeply ingrained nature of consumerism tells us to never settle for what we have but always to strive for more and better. And so we live in a constant state of glass-half-empty unsettledness, hyperaware of what could be a better fit for us, what might make us happier and more comfortable.

This attitude is everywhere, including in our churches. Most of us can relate to feeling unsettled and a bit disgruntled in our churches. The reasons are manifold. The pastors never seem to speak to the current-event topics that occupy your mind and stir your heart. The worship band always adds annoying contemporary additions to perfectly good old hymns. Your suggestions for social justice initiatives or small-group curriculum never gain momentum. Everything about the church is just so predictable. Week after week it’s the same thing. It doesn’t feel relevant to what’s happening in the world, at least as you see it.

These feelings of frustration are aggravated by the constancy of media, which bombards us with images and ideas and other stimuli that are dynamic and always changing. Any church would feel stifling and boring by comparison! Furthermore, the nature of social media is predominantly negative, conditioning us to view the world through the lenses of grievance and complaint. We naturally bring these lenses to bear in how we see our church. We have eyes to see what’s wrong, but no patience to dwell in the goodness of what’s right. What starts as small nitpicky things grow in our minds over time, snowballing to become larger grievances that eventually become deal breakers. We slowly disengage from the church, from a place of bitterness and anger, or we just leave.

How can we stop this cycle? Rather than letting dissatisfaction fester to the point that we leave the church or become embittered, what can we do to deal with our frustrations?

1. Search your own heart.

The pervasive “culture of complaint” in today’s Internet age has led us to focus our anger and frustration externally, blaming this person or that institution for the things that are wrong. But what about us? What role is our own sin playing in our disgruntled state? Could it be that our own self-centered approach to church is the problem? Perhaps we should start where G.K. Chesterton starts when he answered the question, “What is wrong with the world?” with two simple words: “I am.”

2. Focus on God.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the nitpicky particularities of church that we forget what it is all about. We are there not to be comfortable, nor to be affirmed in our preferences. We are there to worship God; to hear from him; to proclaim his glory and to rest in his goodness. Choosing this posture can go a long way in softening our edginess about church. Don’t look inward in worship, rehashing bitterness in your heart. Don’t look around you either, finding fault in what your fellow churchgoers or leaders are doing. Look upward to God. Focus your gaze on him. That’s why you’re there.

3. Talk to your leaders.

Another unfortunate way social media is changing us is that it frames our complaints in a distant, anonymous, decontextualized way. We air grievances with the ease of a tweet, with the protective buffer of screens and distance, but we rarely do the harder work of hashing things out in person, in longer, more nuanced and more civil conversations. But this is crucial in a church community.

If you have problems or grievances about the church, talk to your leaders in person. Emails aren’t the best. Texts are worse. Ask them for a meeting, one where you do as much listening as talking. Frame your issues not as demands or critiques but as observations and suggestions. And approach it all in a spirit of love and edification. This is not about you and your comfort; it’s about you as one member seeking to strengthen the whole body.

Blog originally published on Crossway.org; Material adapted from Uncomfortable by Brett McCracken, © 2017. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

How to Move From Song Leading to Worship Leading

Mark Cole

September 26, 2017

Leaders, how do you go from just song leading to leading worship? How do you get a congregation to get past just singing songs to actually worshiping God? Let me suggest some insights to help you grow as a worship leader.

From Song Leading to Worship Leading

Song Leading:

You pick nice songs to sing but the congregation never arrives at worshipping God.
You are not sure about what to do when the introductions and endings of songs are being played.
You don’t have a worship destination in mind when choosing the flow of your worship set.
You mostly just sing the notes on the page.
You don’t encourage the congregation to engage in the attitudes and actions of worship.
You are not sure what the attitudes and actions of worship are.
You just sing the songs and hope everyone sings along.

See: Attitude Is Everything (The Attitudes of Worship) & Actions Speak So Loud (The Actions of Worship)

Signs that you are a Worship Leader:

You love to worship God at home when nobody is watching.
You worship God during rehearsals.
You understand what the attitudes and actions of worship are.
You engage in the attitudes and actions of worship in private and in public.
You memorize the music so you can focus on God.
You have a worship goal in mind when you plan your church worship set.
You encourage the band and congregation to engage in the attitudes and actions of worship.

Years ago I attended a conference with an internationally known worship leader. It was inspiring. It was evident that this leader had memorized all the music and was intent on doing the two main jobs of a worship leader:

They were worshipping God personally.
They were leading and encouraging the congregation and band to worship God.

How to Move From Song Leading to Worship Leading

1. They had a worship destination in mind.

They were intentionally picking worship songs that helped people focus on singing directly to God. By the end of the set they weren’t singing songs that just talked about God. They were singing songs that caused people to sing directly to God. They picked songs that helped people worship God, not just sing about Him.

Different songs have a different focus. Some songs are about God, some songs are about the theology of God, some songs teach us. Some are fast, some are slow. Some songs challenge us and some help us express our feelings. And some songs are personal prayers directly to God. Understanding the purpose of the songs you are choosing is so important.

It was evident that this worship leader’s goal was to get people to move people from general corporate singing to encountering God personally and singing directly to Him.

2. They had done the necessary rehearsal to move past the music to worshiping God.

It is so important to know the music so well that you rarely have to think about it. And it is important to have great rehearsals with your band and singers so they can do the same. If all the people on the stage haven’t done their ‘due diligence’ in learning the music then the congregation gets the sense that were just going through the routine of singing songs.

3. They flowed well from one song to another.

When they planned their worship set they also were also intentional about how to transition from one song to another. They didn’t allow changing songs to break their focus on worshiping God. They had worked out the logistics of what player started the next song so they could keep their heart focused on worshiping God and leading the congregation to do the same.

4. They kept their focus on God and leading people through the whole worship time.

There can be a lot of distractions when you are in front of a congregation: people coming in late, media problems and a myriad of other small details. But a strong worship leader keeps their focus on worshiping God and leading the congregation to do the same. A strong worship leader knows the main thing is keeping their heart, mind and worship set on God and helping the congregation to do the same.

What other suggestions do you have to help leaders move from just singing songs to worshiping and leading the congregation to worship God?

This article on moving from song leading to worship leading originally appeared here.

Broadcasting Bad Theology

Daniel Henderson

September 26, 2017

In today’s world, entertainment rules the day. As author Neil Postman wrote in his book, we are “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” Whether it is video gaming, television, Netflix, Internet or sports—Americans love mindless escape, as we hang out in various worlds of non-reality, as often as possible.

Ratings, views, tweets and sales are the barometer of success in our media-crazed culture. Advertising dollars and high-value sponsorships flow toward enterprises that attract the largest audience and demonstrate an upward trend in ratings. Sadly, these influences can also affect how we conduct “business” in the spiritual arena. I am certainly not against the appropriate use of high-tech tools to advance the work of the Gospel and the church. God can use various means of delivery via television, radio and Internet when these are properly managed and biblically motivated. But we also must be honest in admitting that in many ways the culture has influenced the message more than our message has changed the culture.

Caught by Surprise

A few weeks ago, I was in a distant city with some downtime. I found a Christian music station and tuned in as I burned off some leisure moments. One of the station’s tag lines caught my attention. They advertised, “We are not about judgement but compassion.” This hit me a little funny, for reasons that I will explain in a moment.

Minutes later the on-air personality began to tell a personal story about someone blessing her with an act of kindness. She declared, “Here’s a story to prove that all people are inherently good.” By now, my theological antennae were at high alert.

As I listened to the songs to follow, some were solid and doctrinally sound. Others were nice, emotional and inspiring. Yet, they reflected a twist that probably did more to cheer the listener than to communicate solid biblical truth.

Caveat and Concern

Let me quickly stipulate that Christian music stations have their place. I have good friends in Christian broadcasting and have provided devotional content and live interviews for many stations over the years. Certainly these outlets are a wholesome alternative for families. They provide inspiration and connection throughout the day, in a world that constantly bombards us with lies and worldly messaging. Yet, the only life-changing and lasting good news in our world today is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We must take care to broadcast the unchanging New Testament hope of the gospel and guard ourselves from communicating popular notions that feel good but ultimately fail to clarify the truth that sets us free.

Yet, the danger is that ratings can sometimes eclipse the right message. It is safe to say that Christian radio personalities are not always hired because of their theological acumen but rather their spontaneous, on-air charisma. While very sincere in their desire to minister to listeners, the truth is, we must evaluate our messaging to be sure we are regularly featuring the biblical content that brings earthly and eternal hope to weary souls.

The Good News of the Gospel

So, what’s the big deal? In truth, a gospel without judgement and only compassion is not the gospel. Rather, it is feel-good religion.

The real news that delivers us into true good news is that we are all under God’s divine judgment because of our sin, rebellion and depravity. God’s solution through the finished work of Jesus on our behalf is ultimate good news. Jesus stated, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:39). His bold and consistent message of repentance was rooted in the truth of man’s lost condition and condemnation of sin (Matthew, 4:17, Luke 13:5, Luke 24:46-47). The message of the early church was repent and believe, an essential message for those under judgment of sin and in need of the mercy of a holy, loving and forgiving God (Mark 6:12, Act 2:38, 8:22, 20:21, 11:18, 17:30).

This is the true encouragement and real good news to broadcast to the world. Colossians 1:23 describes the “hope of the gospel.” John Piper writes, “There is no sweeter message of hope in all the world than to hear God announce that when you get up in the morning miserable and depressed with a sense of guilt and estrangement before a holy God, you can go to bed that very night—this very night—with a quiet and peaceful heart knowing that every sin you have ever committed and ever will commit is forgiven and you are reconciled to the Almighty by the death of his Son. That’s the free offer of the gospel!¹

So our message is truly about judgement AND compassion. This is the gospel!

Inherently Good?

Mankind was created in the image of God and, as a result, is capable of doing good. But our nature is depraved and fallen. Because of Adam’s sin, the divine image has been corrupted. Romans 5:12 says, “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned.” Psalm 51:5 affirms that we are sinners from conception. Paul affirmed that there is NONE righteous and all have sinned (Romans 3:10,23). The penalty of our sin is eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23).

The truth of our sin and separation from a holy God is what makes the work of Christ essential, powerful and sufficient. That sinful man can be cleansed, forgiven and transformed is true, Christ-honoring and God-glorifying GOOD news. To declare that we are all “basically good” undermines the wonder of the true gospel.

Ultimate Hope, Lasting Encouragement

So, in a world of confusing media and watered-down messaging, may the Holy Spirit give us discernment to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and cling to the sound doctrine of the gospel. In this, God is rightly glorified and we are truly edified.

Quoting John Piper again, “The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God’s glory and the removal of every obstacle to our seeing it and savoring it as our highest treasure. ‘Behold Your God!’ is the most gracious command and the best gift of the gospel. If we do not see Him and savor Him as our greatest fortune, we have not obeyed or believed the gospel.” ²

In knowing, believing, obeying and defending the gospel, we find true hope and lasting encouragement. Anything less will be superficial and short-lived. Surely, our broken world and our difficult lives require nothing less, nothing else and nothing more than the living and clear gospel of Jesus Christ.

This article originally appeared here.

Learning From Growing Churches Without Copying Them

Church Fuel

September 26, 2017

Back in 2008, our church was stuck. Even though we grew fast, I felt like we had stalled out. We were really having a tough time encouraging people to give, so resources were tight. There were a few weeks I was nervous we wouldn’t make payroll.

We struggled to get people into groups, having tried a couple of different times but not getting any traction. People would come to the church service, but wouldn’t go beyond that. Honestly, we had more of a crowd than a congregation.

I didn’t have any ideas and I was unsure what I should do next in leadership. Should we hire this person? Should we spend money here instead of there? I was a deer in the headlights leader and it wasn’t good. On the outside, the church was growing and people were asking me to speak. But on the inside, we were stuck.

So I reached out to a few pastor friends who were leading churches larger than ours. If I were to say their names, you would know who they are. We started asking questions and taking notes. I found a few churches that matched our cultures and spent way more time on the phone with them than they probably wanted. I joined a paid coaching group so I could ask questions. I hired a couple of different consultants to come and work with us. It was like pastor college!

For about six or seven months, we just learned and learned. Everything we could. We learned what was working and what God was doing. We made changes in our church based on solid advice and good coaching. We even restructured our staff and leadership roles during this time. We created some systems and strategies, and wrote down some processes to help our church. We finally felt organized and positioned in such a way where we could listen to God again.

Andy Stanley said this:

“You can be better than everyone else in your field without coaching. But you’ll never be as good as you can possibly be.” -Andy Stanley

I hope you join us at Church Fuel One, but even if you don’t…I want you become a life-long learner. Here are three important things about learning from others without just copying what they do.

#1 – You can’t import vision.

You can learn about strategies and ministries and outreach. You can even learn about how to communicate the vision more clearly. We are huge believers in learning and coaching and that’s why we do what we do.

But you absolutely cannot take the vision God has given another pastor or another church and pass it off in your church.

Vision is not a cut and paste kind of thing. It’s way more personal than that.

Moses had a burning bush experience.
Samuel heard the voice of the Lord.
Paul experienced a risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.

And even though your calling might be different, it’s still necessary for you to receive a vision from God and God’s Word. You can’t import it or download it…it’s got to come from God. Listen…we are a coaching and resource company so clearly we understand the value of learning and resources. But you can’t buy a PDF and get a vision. You can’t take an online course and end up with a calling.

#2 – You can’t have the success without the struggles.

When you look at successful churches or fast growing churches, it’s easy to get sideways. You see the success stories. You see the lists they have made. You see the cool videos they put online and everyone shares.

But you don’t see the struggles that happened behind the scenes. We’ve been able to work with some really large churches and some fast growing churches. And you know what’s interesting about them?

Sometimes, they are surprisingly disorganized!

They have things that don’t work. They have projects that failed.

I’m not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, I just want to remind you that these churches aren’t perfect.

You see the shiny exterior and think everything must be super-smooth, but in reality, they aren’t that much different than you.

Everybody wants to copy North Point Community Church now, but they forget about where they started. You’re looking at North Point today, with their buildings, the staff and the quality, but forget where they started. You’re looking at the result of 20 years of vision and focus and ministry. It’s not a fair comparison. Of course you can learn, but you really can’t compare.

When you focus on the results and skip the process, you gloss over all the struggles.

Everybody wants the results, but very few people want the struggle. Talk to pastors of growing churches about their real struggles, and you’ll find some wish they could go back to when their church was smaller. Before they let it take a toll on their health, their family or their relationships. Some of your heroes in ministry have scars. And you wouldn’t want to go through what caused them.

Continue

Mark Howell: 10 Checks to Evaluate Your Small Group Ministry

Mark Howell

September 26, 2017

Use My Signature 10-Point Checklist to Evaluate Your Small Group Ministry

Everyone knows that before you take your car on a road trip…you really should do more than fill up the gas tank. You might check the tire pressure and take it in for an oil change. You might decide it’s time for new windshield wipers or even a new set of tires.

Getting ready for the next leg in your small group ministry adventure? Maybe it’s time you took your ministry through my signature 10-point checklist!

Review your small group ministry’s present state. There are a number of ways you can think about the way things are right now. An accurate understanding of where you are right now is essential no matter where you want to go. See also, Diagnosing a Small Group Ministry and The Four Helpful Lists by Tom Paterson.
Review (or create) your end in mind for your ideal small group. What kinds of groups do you want for every member of a group? Are there certain activities and habits? Are there certain experiences? What do you want it to feel like to be part of a small group in your system? See also, The End in Mind for My Ideal Small Group.
Review (or create) your preferred future for the kind of small group leader you dream of producing. Spend some time thinking about the kind of leaders you will need to have in order to create the micro-environments that actually encourage life-change. See also, From Here to There: The Preferred Future for Small Group Leaders.
Review (or create) your annual grouplife calendar. Have you planned to take advantage of the best opportunities to connect unconnected people? Have you built in the steps that will allow you to maximize impact? Or have you compromised and compressed timelines in a way that will lessen impact? See also, How to Build an Annual GroupLife Calendar.
Evaluate your current coaching team. Do you have high-capacity, 100- and 60-fold players on the team? Or have you compromised and added 30-fold players who struggle to accomplish their mission? Have you settled for warm-and-willing when hot-and-qualified is needed? See also, Diagnosis: The Coaches in Your System.
Evaluate your current plan to develop the coaches on your team. Remember, whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups must happen first in the lives of your small group leaders. If that’s true, then whatever you want to happen in the lives of your leaders must happen first in the lives of your coaches. Can you see where this is going? Assuming that your coaches will develop themselves is short sighted and compromises the integrity of your system. See also, 7 Practices for Developing and Discipling Coaches.
Evaluate (or create) your plan to develop your existing small group leaders. I am a fan of a very low entry bar of leadership…but the word “entry” is a very important word. I also know that lowering the bar and recruiting HOSTs won’t often put shepherds into the system. It will usually put people who are willing to open up their home. If you want to make it easy to begin as a host, you’ve got to make it nearly automatic that new hosts step onto a leader development conveyor belt that moves them in the direction you want them to go. Don’t have the conveyor belt? Now’s the time to build it! See also, Steve Gladen on Saddleback’s Leadership Pathway.
Evaluate your existing leaders in search of potential coaches. Look over your list for high capacity leaders who may be able to put their toe in the water of caring for another new leader or two. Your best coaching candidates are almost always leading their own group and doing a great job. Inviting them to test-drive the coaching role by helping mentor a new leader or two is a great way to let them put a toe in the water. See also, What if Your Coaching Structure Looked Like This?
Take a careful look at the next connecting event you’ve got planned. Will you take advantage of the next optimum time to connect people? Do you have several weeks of promotion built in? Have you designed the event to appeal to unconnected people? Have you chosen a study that will peak the interest of unconnected people? Have you already chosen a great follow-up study? See also, 6 Essential Components of a Small Group Launch and How to Launch New Groups Using a Small Group Connection.
Evaluate (or create) your recommended study list. One of the most helpful tools you can provide for small group leaders is a recommended study list. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can begin as simply as a top 10 list. It can exist as a page on your website or a simple handout that you keep updated. See also, Here’s a Sample Recommended Study List.

This article originally appeared here.

5 Very Real Tensions Every Small to Mid-Sized Church Leader Feels

Carey Nieuwhof

September 26, 2017

If you lead a small to mid-sized church, you face struggles leaders of large churches don’t.

I can totally relate to the dynamics of leading a smaller church.

When I began in ministry, I spent about three years leading a small congregation (under 100) that grew into a mid-sized church (under 500) and then grew into a larger church of 1,200 I’m part of today. You learn a LOT about leadership (and yourself) at every stage.

I remember the emotions that swirl around small and mid-sized churches. I also have lived through the struggles those congregations face.

It’s critical that as church leaders we both understand and address the tensions we’re facing. In the same way that diagnosing that pain under your kneecap when you’re trying to run a race is helpful, diagnosing what you sense in the congregation can be critical to taking your next step forward.

Overcome these tensions and you’re closer to progress. Avoid them or fail to deal with them and you can stay stuck a long time.

That’s why I’m so excited about the release of my new Breaking 200 Without Breaking You online course that releases next Tuesday. It can help you scale the barrier that 85 percent of church leaders never break—the 200 attendance barrier.

You can join the waitlist here!

Here are five tensions every small to mid-sized church leader feels.

1. The Desire to Keep the Church One Big Family

This pressure is huge.

Many people believe that the church functions best as one big family.

The reality is, even when our church was 40 people, those 40 people didn’t know each other—really. Some were left out, others weren’t.

Even at 100 or 300, enough people will still believe they know ‘everyone.’ But they don’t.

When people told me they knew everyone, I would challenge people (nicely) and say, “Really, you know everyone? Because as much as I wish I did, I don’t.”

They would then admit they didn’t know everyone. They just knew the people they knew and liked and often felt that growing the church would threaten that.

The truth is, at 100-300, many people are unknown. And even if ‘we all wear name-tags,” many of the people in your church don’t really have anyone to talk to about what matters. The one big family idea is, in almost every case, a myth.

Once you get beyond a dozen people, start organizing in groups.

Everyone will have a home. Everyone who wants to be known and have meaningful relationships will have them. And a healthy groups model is scalable to hundred, thousands and even beyond that.

The goal is not to create a church where everyone knows everyone. Create a church where everyone is known.

2. The People Who Hold Positions Don’t Always Hold the Power

In many small churches, your board may be your board, but often there are people—and even families—whose opinion carries tremendous weight.

If one of those people sits on the board, they end up with a de facto veto because no one wants to make a move without their buy-in. If they are not on the board, decisions the board makes or a leader makes can get ‘undone’ if the person or family disapproves.

This misuse of power is unhealthy and needs to be stopped.

In the churches where I began, I took the power away from these people by going head to head with them, then handed it back to the people who are supposed to have the power.

In two out of three cases, the person left the church after it was clear I would not allow them to run it anymore.

It’s a tough call, but the church was far better off for it. When the people who are gifted to lead get to lead, the church becomes healthy. When we got healthy, we grew.

Continue

#1 – You have too many ministries.

#2 – You’re not actually equipping people to invite.

Why Should We Care About the English Reformation?

Who Was Thomas Cranmer?

What Do the English Reformation and Thomas Cranmer Have to Do With Reformation Anglicanism?

Individual leadership

Organizational leadership

First, money spent on evangelism is never an “expense,” it’s always an investment.

Second, people give to vision, not to need.

Third, when you spend nickels and dimes on evangelism, you get nickel and dime results.

Fourth, remember that “God’s work done God’s way will not lack God’s support.”

Four churches on the attractional spectrum

The temptations that each of these churches face

So what?

Key Questions for Louie Giglio on Taking Risks:

Key Quotes from Louie Giglio on Taking Risks:

Mentioned in the Show:

Stopping the Cycle of Discontent

1. Search your own heart.

2. Focus on God.

3. Talk to your leaders.

From Song Leading to Worship Leading

Song Leading:

Signs that you are a Worship Leader:

How to Move From Song Leading to Worship Leading

1. They had a worship destination in mind.

2. They had done the necessary rehearsal to move past the music to worshiping God.

3. They flowed well from one song to another.

4. They kept their focus on God and leading people through the whole worship time.

#1 – You can’t import vision.

#2 – You can’t have the success without the struggles.

Use My Signature 10-Point Checklist to Evaluate Your Small Group Ministry

1. The Desire to Keep the Church One Big Family

2. The People Who Hold Positions Don’t Always Hold the Power

New Articles

New Podcasts