It’s almost inevitable.

Sit a sour couple in a room and read through Ephesians 5:21-33. Go over the God-given roles for men and women. And almost every time what will result is that the husband will put his focus on the first couple of verses (the wife’s role) and the wife will put her focus on the husband’s role.

Our sinful hearts are always inclined to lay blame in the lap of another person.

—

I’ve been reading through Bruce Wilkinson’s 7 Laws of the Learner. I’m not terribly familiar with Wilkinson except to know that I don’t agree with his Prayer of Jabez. But I’ve heard this was a decent book on teaching and I got it for a couple bucks at a used book sale, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Wilkinson’s first maxim is that “teachers are responsible to cause students to learn.”

My first instinct was to reject this as man-centered hogwash. We can’t cause students to learn—that is something the Spirit of God does. I tripped over the word “cause” and the word “responsible.” It’s been a long-held belief for me that you cannot make a student learn. You teach the material and it is up to him/her to pick it up.

But as I got to reading a bit more and thinking through this, I think Wilkinson might be on to something. For one, I noticed that he is isn’t saying teachers are solely responsible to cause students to learn. If a student refuses to learn there is nothing you can do to make him. Yet, I believe there is some truth in what Wilkinson is saying that we need to heed.

Can I let you in on a little secret? We pastors can sometimes be terrible grumblers and complainers. We’ll bemoan the fact that we just preached our hearts out last Sunday and the people responded with the vigor of a block of wood. Seldom have I heard preachers blame this experience on the fact that they preached a really sloppy and scattered sermon. For us preachers, we perish the thought that our people fell asleep because we were boring. We usually lay the blame at the feet of the congregant.

It’s so easy to hide behind right-sounding theology. I’ve heard myself say before, “I just preach God’s Word as faithfully as I can, if they respond well that’s up to them and the Lord.” I suppose I still agree with that theologically, but I wonder if it really reflects the heart of a shepherd. Paul sure didn’t seem to talk this way in his letters to the churches. A faithful shepherd doesn’t just throw a bucket of sheep slop out in the pasture and hope they eat it. No, he takes a bit more responsibility, even going so far as to bottle feed little lambs if it is necessary.

I’m not trying to encourage us pastors to have even worse Mondays. We do need to take comfort in the fact that God uses His Word and is faithful to feed his sheep even when we under-shepherds didn’t do our best on Sunday morning. Nor should we get big heads when learning does take place. But what I am saying is that we should work and labor as if we are responsible for our sheep being fed.

When reading Ephesians 5, the husband should focus on his role and his task and not whether or not his wife is doing her part. The same goes for the preacher. He should be focused on his responsibility to faithfully exposit and make the word of God clear. When learning doesn’t happen he should be very slow to blame the sheep and quick to consider how he might have been able to communicate better.

This article originally appeared here.

Shepherding single Christians who desire marriage and battle discontentment is not always easy, but it is a privilege. And it is a stewardship entrusted to every pastor.

Here are nine things to teach and emphasize to discontented singles in your church.

1. “Contentment is demanded of all Christians, not just single Christians.”

It’s vital to remember, and to communicate, that single Christians aren’t some special class of humans who really need to work on contentment. We all do.

Discontentment, after all, isn’t a feature of single hearts; it’s a feature of human hearts. It’s “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13), polluting every life stage since Adam and Eve weren’t content to trust the word of God over the whisper of the snake (Gen. 3:1–7).

If we’re honest, discontentment can feel rather small compared to other sins. But it’s not small. It’s serious, because it tells a lie about God: that he is insufficient to meet our needs.

Single or married, no one has to be taught discontentment. We all have PhDs in the subject already. Even the apostle’s discovery of the “secret of contentment” didn’t come naturally; he had to learn it (Phil. 4:11). He enrolled in the school of contentment, and so must we.

Cultivating contentment, then, is less like medicine and more like a healthy diet. It happens over the course of months and years, not hours and days.

So, tell single Christians in your church what you tell every Christian in your church: God’s ultimate aim is not to change your circumstances, though he might. It’s to change you.

2. “Contentment doesn’t mean you can’t desire or pursue marriage.”

I hope this goes without saying, but I’ll say it just in case: To the degree that “God is sovereign; be content” is code for “God is sovereign; stop desiring or pursuing marriage,” it is lousy advice.

The human heart is complex. It can both long for marriage and long for God’s will—even if that will doesn’t include marriage. Jesus himself experienced an unfulfilled longing while bowing to his Father’s plan (Matt. 26:39).

In fact, it’s a mark of spiritual maturity for a believer to bring their longing for marriage to heaven’s throne, pouring out their heart before the God who hears and cares. Resignation is a feature of Stoicism, not Christianity.

3. “You are not a human-in-waiting.”

Being single isn’t an obstacle to being fully human; it’s an expression of it. A woman’s life, for example, doesn’t “really” begin when she becomes a wife or a mom, but when she becomes a royal image-bearer of God.

Pastor, gently remind the discontented single person that their marital status is not their defining characteristic. Words like “single” and “married” are fine, but they make far better adjectives than nouns.

Many well-meaning people have a tendency, I think, to make singleness either everything or nothing. Someone who’s made it everything will always lead with some variation of “Are you seeing anyone?” Someone who’s made it nothing will prescribe contentment like medicine—the “God is sovereign; be content” misstep mentioned above. As pastors, we must affirm both the discontented single’s desire while at the same time not act like it’s the only thing going on in their life.

Of course, no observation bears greater significance than that history’s most complete person never had sex and never got married. If singleness is deficient, then so was Jesus Christ.

4. “You can uniquely picture the gospel.”

Along these lines, Scripture is clear that marriage is a gospel mirror, reflecting the union between Jesus and his bride, the church (Eph. 5:32).

But does this mean the single Christian fails to mirror the gospel? Not at all. Godly singleness reflects the church in this age as we wait, with expectant hope, for our Savior’s return. In fact, I think single people can enjoy a special kind of solidarity with Jesus that married people cannot. He is, after all, awaiting his wedding day (Rev. 19:6–10).

Sam Allberry puts it like this: “Both marriage and singleness point to the gospel. The former reflects its shape, the latter its sufficiency.” Pastor, help single Christians in your church to see how they can uniquely reflect the sufficiency of the gospel as they await the ultimate wedding.

Speaking of the chaste single woman, Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) went so far as to write:

When she gives herself willingly to [Christ] in love, she has no need to justify herself to the world or to Christians who plague her with questions and suggestions. In a way not open to the married woman her daily “living sacrifice” is a powerful and humble witness, radiating love. I believe she may enter into the “mystery” more deeply than the rest of us.

5. “Your singleness is a gift and a calling.”

We live in an erotic age in which human beings are routinely reduced to their sexuality. The insistence, then, that chastity is a gift to embrace and not a cross to bear is as countercultural as it is biblical.

Paul could not have been clearer that singleness is a good gift from God:

I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am… So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better. (1 Cor. 7:7–8, 38; cf. Matt. 19:10–12)

Now, simply informing someone that singleness is a gift is not always helpful. There’s such a thing as an unwanted gift, after all. Labor to show them why the gift is beautiful in heaven’s sight. Help them see the possibilities that lie beneath the wrapping.

Singleness isn’t the kind of gift you unwrap and put on the mantle; it’s the kind you put to use. And the gift isn’t addressed to the single person only, but to their entire community. Everyone benefits from the life of an unmarried person who has embraced this calling—this deployment—from the King himself.

In his book When the Church Was a Family, Joseph Hellerman makes a striking observation:

Paul’s concern in 1 Corinthians 7 was not to ask how singleness fits into God’s kingdom plan. Paul was addressing the issue of how marriage fits into his kingdom plan. Single people are already with the program. They are “concerned about the things of the Lord” (v. 32). Married people are the ones who need help sorting out their priorities.

Single Christians aren’t in a holding pattern, awaiting their job responsibilities in God’s kingdom. Let’s not communicate otherwise in our churches.

6. “It’s likely you’re strategically positioned for gospel good.”

This one is tricky, since there’s a fine line between telling singles they’re likely able to extend themselves more freely for the gospel and implying they’re expected to. The former is encouraging; the latter is not. The former puts wind in the sails; the latter adds weight to the boat.

The world champions the single life because of all you can do for yourself. The Bible champions the single life because of all you can do for others. Where does the beauty of singleness shine brightest? Not in exotic trips or Netflix binges or waking up on Saturday at the crack of noon, though those things can be nice. Singleness shines brightest in the ability to serve, to rise to the occasion, to drop everything at a moment’s notice and—as one single friend was able to do—make travel and funeral arrangements for a family who’d suddenly lost their child.

So encourage singles in your church to embrace their relative freedom and flexibility as the strategic deployment it is. This doesn’t just have implications for their ministry (e.g., 1 Cor. 7:32–34), but for their friendships, too. As Allberry observes:

For those of us who remain single, we might not experience the unique depth of intimacy with one person that a married friend might, but we can enjoy a unique breadth of intimacy with a number of close friends that comes from having greater opportunity and capacity than married people typically have to invest in close friendships.

 7. “God is with and for you now.”

One of the best ways you can love someone desiring marriage is to help them see that God is always sovereign and wise and good to his children—and he’s not about to stop with them. He knows what’s best for them (wise), he wants what’s best for them (good), and he will bring about what’s best for them (sovereign). Charles Spurgeon put it beautifully: “Remember this: Had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there.”

This is not a flippant or flimsy platitude. It’s rock-solid truth on which the Christian stands.

It’s difficult to improve on Paige Brown’s words in her remarkable essay “Singled Out for Good”:

Accepting singleness, whether temporary or permanent, does not hinge on speculation about answers God has not given to our list of whys, but rather on celebration of the life he has given. I am not single because I am too spiritually unstable to possibly deserve a husband, nor because I am too spiritually mature to possibly need one. I am single because God is so abundantly good to me, because this is his best for me. It is a cosmic impossibility that anything could be better for me right now than being single. The psalmists confirm that I should not want, I shall not want, because no good thing will God withhold from me.

8. “You are part of the ultimate family already.”

Late-modern Western culture conflates sex and intimacy, but Scripture does not. God’s people, gathered in kingdom outposts called local churches, are meant to be the most intimate communities on earth.

For a man or woman in Christ, nothing ultimate about them is single. They are a child in the Father’s house (1 Tim. 3:15), a member of the Son’s body (1 Cor. 12:12–27), a stone in the Spirit’s temple (Eph. 2:21–22).

And, unlike their marital status, these realities will endure forever.

In his book God, Marriage and Family, Andreas Köstenberger makes the interesting observation that Scripture unfolds, if anything, in a pro-singleness direction:

• Singleness in creation: nonexistent
• Singleness in the Old Testament: uncommon and generally undesirable
• Singleness in the New Testament: advantageous for kingdom ministry
• Singleness in the final state: universal

To be sure, you’re called to lead your church in honoring marriage (Heb. 13:4). But take care not to do so at the expense of singleness—a stewardship entrusted to some of us now that will characterize all of us forever.

9. “Jesus is enough. Really.”

The local church is indispensable to the Christian life, and the ultimate reason is because of its all-sufficient cornerstone and head, Jesus Christ.

I once heard my friend Bethany Jenkins remark that if Jesus isn’t sufficient for her when she’s single, he won’t be sufficient for her when she’s married.

Don’t you love that?

Pastor, remind the singles in your church that they already have access to the deepest and most meaningful love relationship there is. Period. If they get married, that’s great, but it will only add a dollar of approval and love to the billion-dollar net worth they already possess.

Again, contentment in singleness doesn’t show up as a muted desire for marriage. The most beautiful thing, in fact, is when single Christians acknowledge their longing for a spouse—and yet testify to the sufficiency of Jesus in the midst of the struggle. The world has a category for a single who acts like marriage isn’t a big deal. But what it doesn’t have a category for—what the world can neither understand nor explain—is a single who longs for marriage while declaring, “His grace is sufficient for me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

As Allberry puts it, “The key to contentment as a single person isn’t being content in singleness; it’s being content in Christ, as a single person.”

SHEPHERD THEIR GAZE

Far from being a second-class calling, godly singleness is a vital stewardship entrusted to many of our brothers and sisters—some for a season, others for life.

As you shepherd those longing for a spouse, don’t miss the opportunity to listen, to comfort and to speak truth in love. And the best way you can love them is to direct their gaze not ultimately to their circumstances, but to the greatest single person who ever lived.

This article originally published at 9marks.org. Reprinted by permission.

An old friend, Richard, recently called me. He used to live in town and attend my church. For the past seven years or so, he’s been a member of a large church in Phoenix.

We were catching up and reminiscing about old friends when he said to me, “I had coffee with my current men’s pastor yesterday, and he told me some honest things about his marriage and about something stupid he said to his wife.”

I chimed in, “That’s cool!”

He awkwardly paused, and then said with a confused tone, “How is that cool?”

“It’s cool that your pastor owned his stuff and that he’s being real with you. It’s the people who try to hide and deny their sins that worry me.”

Bob said, “I guess I expected the guy pastoring men to be…well…to be more spiritually mature.”

Without hesitation, I reminded Bob of the many times he heard me tell stories of my idiocy. I also told him we all walk with a limp, and none of us is without a soul blemish or two (or 20).

On this side of eternity, the reality we don’t like to admit, but must, is that we all fall short of perfection.

We say things that hurt.

We do things that offend.

We think things we don’t want to think.

We go places in our hearts that are dark and terribly inconsistent with who we are in Christ.

If you can relate, then welcome to the human race.

Yes, we are being transformed into the image of Christ. Of course, we should be growing. The plan is for us to mature in our faith and to sin less.

But most of us miss the marks of purity and perfection on a fairly regular basis—pastors included.

I’ve been in ministry for nearly 40 years. I’ve pastored small churches and a big church. I’ve been on large church staffs. I’ve also been close to quite a few megachurch pastors over the years.

I can assure you of this: Every pastor is fractured, and some more than you might imagine.

But as someone once pointed out, it is our fractures that allow God’s light in and out of our souls.

Because I am broken, I am humbled, and God delights to work with the humble (James 4:6).

Because I am fractured, I am relatable, and people want to connect with a person who is authentic and true.

By the way, Paul, the great missionary and author of most of the New Testament, boasted about his weaknesses.

In another recent blog, I mentioned my new favorite book, People of the Second Chance. If I could afford it, I would buy a copy of this encouraging book for all of my family and friends. It’s that good!

In the book, Mike Foster says, “We don’t need to hide our flaws. We need to own them. We need to ditch perfectionism and own our imperfections. The simple truth is this: Perfection is impossible. It’s not attainable. You will never, ever be perfect. Our imperfections are what make us human, and they help us relate to each other. Don’t seek perfection. Seek goodness. Wonderful, messy, love-saturated goodness.”

Foster goes on to write, “Nobody feels more pressure to be perfect than the person in the pulpit.”

Wow. When I grow up, I want to write like Mike!

Let me be clear; not for a second am I suggesting we just wallow in our weaknesses. Of course, holiness matters. I never want to use my human condition of imperfection as an excuse to keep sinning.

However…

I will sin.

I will fail.

I am broken.

But…

I am growing.

I am free from shame.

I am loved.

When we come to this place of peace despite our imperfections, we find it much easier to love ourselves, to live free of fear and to love others as we are loved. Grace is grown here.

Yes, your pastor is broken, and it’s OK; you are too.

Welcome to the fellowship of the fractured.

“We now have this light shining in our hearts,

but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars

containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our

great power is from God,

not from ourselves.”

2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)

This article originally appeared here.

I wrote an article on preaching the other day. After finishing the last sentence I did what most of us bloggers do—I went searching for a picture to attach to the article. I went to my Google machine and searched the images for preaching. Though I’ve done this search numerous times, I noticed something on this I’d never noticed before. Most of the pictures were headless. Just a few arms holding a book and gesturing with their hands.

I thought to myself, “Wow, Google gets something that we preachers often fail to recognize—preaching isn’t about the preacher, it’s about the book he is holding in his hands.” But then I paused for a moment and wondered whether or not this is actually a biblical concept. Is preaching headless?

Is Preaching Headless?

My mind immediately went to Paul’s discussion of his ministry in his various letters. He didn’t seem to be headless. On more than one occasion he encouraged his readers to imitate him. To the Thessalonians he said, “We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves…” That certainly isn’t without a face. Furthermore, Paul told his young protégés Timothy and Titus to not only watch out for their doctrine but also their lifestyle. If the preacher is just a headless entity expositing a book then his lifestyle doesn’t matter. The preacher is more than a mouthpiece.

There is also something to be said about personality and giftedness. There is a reason why in the qualifications for elders we read “able to teach.” Some aren’t gifted for standing in front of a congregation and expositing God’s Word. You need to be called by God and gifted for that work. There really is a personality to preaching. When I go to Together for the Gospel, most of the guys on the stage believe about the same exact thing about the text—but their delivery is wildly different. Piper isn’t MacArthur. In one sense it is absolutely impossible for preaching to be faceless.

But…

I’m convinced James Denney was also correct when he said, “No man can give at one and the same time the impression that he himself is clever and that Jesus Christ is mighty to save.” We don’t need more personality and celebrity in the pulpit, we need less. The best ministries are the ones in which the word of God is the only celebrity. Pastors are mere men, disciples like the rest of the congregation. The sooner we realize this the better.

I say something every Sunday as a reminder to myself and to the congregation. I spend a bit of time introducing the scripture passage and then I encourage the congregation to stand. As they stand I explain the reason. And I end by saying something like, “Because we believe this is God’s infallible word spoken to us, these will be the most important words you hear out of my mouth this morning.” My job is to exposit that word and to say, “Thus says the Lord…” That is where every ounce of my authority comes from. So in that regard preaching is indeed headless.

We do best when we follow in the footsteps of those like Robert Murray McCheyne who said, “Perish my honor.” Or to heed the counsel of Martin Lloyd-Jones:

‘What is the rule then? It is: Be natural; forget yourself; be so absorbed in what you are doing and in the realisation of the presence of God…that you forget yourself completely. That is the right condition. That is the only place of safety. That is the only way in which you can honour God. Self is the greatest enemy of the preacher, more so than in the case of any other man in society. And the only way to deal with self is to be so taken up with, and so enraptured by, the glory of what you are doing, that you forget yourself altogether.’  (Preaching and Preachers, 264)

I realize the irony in quoting men to make the point that preaching is headless. That really shows the difficulty of this whole thing. In one sense we’re absolute fools to not pursue being headless preachers, but in another sense we’re foolish if we think that we can and should be headless. So what’s my answer?

Conclusion:

We should be mostly headless preachers but not headless pastors. The pastor steps into the pulpit and somewhere along the way there is a moment when he exponentially decreases while the Word increases. It’s those sweet moments when not only the preacher forgets himself but so does the congregation. In those moments the headless pastor gets replaced by the church’s true Head.

This isn’t perfect, because the Word is always the celebrity whether in the pulpit or not. But it serves as a reminder to me that the most public moment of my ministry is meant to be headless, the whole time I’m meant to be pointing to another. And it also serves to remind me that even though my task is still the same (pointing to another) our people don’t need an unknown preacher-dude theologizing over their dead family member. They need a face.

It’s maybe a bit overly simplistic, but for the most part preaching should be headless but pastoring shouldn’t. (And if you do a google image search for pastor I think you’ll see that Google agrees).

This article originally appeared here.

Dear Self,

You’re much weaker than you think. Remember that Scripture says, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). It’s easy to look at men who have fallen in ministry with a hint of disgust and harsh judgment when they don’t simply disappear. But, let’s be honest; you know how much you would struggle to fade away from public life if the same thing happened to you. Pernicious pride is always lingering within. God-forbid that this letter ever becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; but if it should, pursue humility, accountability and godliness. By God’s grace, diligently pursue repentance and holiness. If you should sin in such a way that you are no longer qualified to serve in pastoral ministry, please put the following counsel in practice:

1. Remember that you only have yourself to blame.

Ever since the garden, man instinctively seeks to shift blame on others for his sin. You’re like your father, Adam. Remember the way in which he sought to blame even God for giving him Eve; and, remember how he blamed Eve for giving him the fruit (Genesis 3:12)? Guard against the temptation to blame others for your own sin. As a Christian, you are not obligated to sin; and, when you do sin, it is a willful transgression against the Law of God. No one else made you sin. Now you must own it. You’re not helping anything by scandalously blaming others, publicly exposing them and ensuring they take a fall with you. If someone else was involved in your sin, there are appropriate means that God has appointed for dealing with them, and you are not part of it now. Repent! Begin working through a process of spiritual restoration. Trust the Lord and His church to rightly handle others.

2. Stay off of public platforms.

Your repentance should be as public as your sin (not in the sense of parading it, but in the sense of making it evident); and, if at some point you have a public platform of which people outside your local church are aware and talking about your sin, it may need to be addressed in an open forum. Otherwise, shut down your social media accounts, don’t write posts for ex-pastor blogs, and don’t try to find ways to turn your fall into a method of gaining fans and followers. Your friends and counselors may not be willing to tell you this, so I will. You have brought shame to the name of Christ and His church. You have violated the third commandment (Exodus 20:7). The grace of God is so profound and rich that you’re not beyond forgiveness and restoration, but that doesn’t negate the fact that your sin has consequences. Whatever public ministry you had before has been lost at present…and rightfully so! The world doesn’t need you; and, it certainly doesn’t need you to start a new blog detailing your recovery process or to write a book about the sordid details of your fall. They surely don’t need daily tweets of your glimpses of hope in the midst of the darkness of your rebellion. From the dust you came, and to the dust you shall return. You are far from being as great and necessary as you think. Know that truth about yourself and act on it appropriately.

3. Be honest and get pastoral help.

It’s going to be tough to admit to another pastor that you need his counseling because you’ve spent so much of your life counseling others. Remember, it’s the same pride that got you into this mess that will keep you from getting the help you need. You’ve never been surprised by the sin of other Christians, so why do you think one of your friends will be surprised by yours? Find a man you respect and love, sit with him and let him pour into your life. You need his counsel, so be honest. What led to your fall? What changes have you made? What’s going on in your heart? If you can’t be honest and receive counsel, you still haven’t reached the end of yourself—you’re still living upon your own self-righteousness. Give it up now and trust God’s appointed ministers to help you. You’ll be exceedingly thankful that you did so, in the end.

4. Rediscover the power of the ordinary means of grace.

Up until this point in your life, you’ve never met a man who fell in ministry who was making good use of the means of grace. They’re simple means. You talk about them all the time. You know from your own experiences how wonderfully transformative and powerful they can be. But, you allowed yourself to get too busy with ministry over the years. You got distracted, off track and started using the Bible as a preaching manual, first and foremost, instead of the truth that you are to always love, behold and apply. Prayer became nonexistent for you; worshipping with the saints became a chore; and, partaking of the Lord’s Supper has of recent years been merely a ritual. Now it’s time to transform your schedule and your habits to make use of the means of grace. You know what to do, so do it. God promises to be there when you arrive; and, while your salvation was all of God, your communion with Him depends in large part upon your willingness to engage in the relationship.

5. Use the gifts God has given you to serve in another vocation.

Don’t spend your time trying to find ways to plant a new church or take on a de facto pastoral ministry in another city. As far as pastoral ministry is concerned, you’re done for now. That doesn’t mean that God is done with you; and, it doesn’t mean that your gifts are useless to the rest of the world. You’ve spent much time learning how to organize and inspire people to work hard and work together; you’ve learned how to lead a team to make great progress. You’ve learned how to become a problem solver, a motivator—as well as how to network and skillfully use resources. You’ve preached sermons in the past about the gift of work and how God’s people don’t have to be pastors to glorify Him. Now it’s time to take your own advice, find work so you can provide for your family, and be the best man you can be on the job. It will take time to get used to, but God has uniquely gifted you to serve others. Don’t let those gifts go to waste.

6. Remember the Gospel that you have preached.

Don’t forget what you have preached to others. You’re far worse than you think. God’s grace is far greater than you can imagine. You didn’t come into the Christian life as a perfect man, and you won’t leave this earth as one. You’re going to sin—as you always have—but thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ there is grace upon grace for pardon and restoration. If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Jesus died that you might live. While the consequences of your sin are going to be very difficult to live with for some time, you have been redeemed and are, therefore, secure in Christ. Don’t forget these precious truths. Your sin is great, but your Savior is greater. Remember the word of the Apostle, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Those are just as true for you today as they were the first day you believed. Fight to believe the truths of the Gospel for your own soul.

Sincerely,

Me

This article originally appeared on Reformation21.org.

Did you know that 94 percent of churches are losing ground against the growth of the communities they serve? Only 6 percent of churches are growing at a faster rate than the communities they are a part of. It’s a truth that motivated us to pursue putting together The Growing Church Series, which we’ll continue next week. What’s the biggest reason for the lack of growth? After hearing story after story of how many churches operate, I’m convinced that the majority of churches that are losing ground in their communities have a lack of courageous leadership. And I’m not the only one who believes this.

Last month, I was blessed to join the launch team for Rich Birch’s new book, Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged…And Saw More Impact Because of It! It has been a refreshing read because he is tackling the same issues that we are in our Growing Church Series. But he’s done something better—Rich has collected 10 stories of churches that are defying the one-size-fits-all ministry model. Instead of buying into the next pre-packaged ministry program, these churches are doing things that many are deeming as unreasonable (in a good way). More about the book in a minute.

Why Your Church Should Become Unreasonable (in a good way)

In May of this year, I wrote an article titled “This Baffles Me About the Church.” Here’s an excerpt from it that I believe is especially relevant to our conversation here:

Jesus’ church is utterly and completely UNSTOPPABLE! If you don’t believe it, you’re not believing Jesus. Nothing in this realm or in any other realm will stop the church from advancing, from evangelizing, from conquering sinful hearts with the love of our leader. The church of Jesus is not, will not and cannot be stopped. The enemy wants to stop it, but he shall not prevail. He shall fail.

The church should be the most innovative, caring, culturally aware, socially engaged, loving group of people the world will ever know. Too often, rather, we are the group of people who let politicians manipulate our fear, who innovate 20 years late, who argue about petty matters of no significance, who are happy with participation awards, who are last to speak hard truths, who are last to give grace to someone who screwed up, who don’t call people to a life beyond themselves (that’s the whole point, yeah?), who avoid the mess of ministry, and so much more.

I Understand

I get pretty passionate about the purpose and power of God’s church—especially when we, her humble leaders—don’t operate from that purpose and power. I don’t know your specific context. I don’t know your specific challenges. I don’t know who your board members are. I don’t know the history of your church. I don’t know any of that.

But what I do know is that you are there. You have been given the opportunity and privilege to have your voice heard, to have your vision for the local church be manifest into a strategy of ministry. You are where you’re at because God has desired to have you there, doing what you can by His power to live out His mission.

I know the challenges you face probably keep you up at night. I know that you wrestle with doubt of whether or not you can lead your church to where it needs to go. I know that you are juggling multiple hats just to keep things from falling off the rails. I know that you deeply desire to see God’s church grow and flourish in health, but you often feel as though you don’t know what to do next.

Don’t Lose Heart

The feelings you experience on a weekly basis are not uncommon. You are in good company. Ministers of old and ministers today have all wrestled with and continue to wrestle with the same feelings and doubts.

But here’s the thing: Despite the doubts of yourself, of those who have gone before you and those who are beside you, God has and will continue to use anyone He wants to fulfill His mission here on earth. And He has chosen you, today, where you are.

So don’t doubt. Instead, take a step back from the challenge you are facing and begin to see with eyes of faith. Take the shades of fear off and see clearly.

Unreasonable Churches Require Unreasonable Leaders

In a world that is pushing back against God’s church, we must become even more unreasonable. Instead of grabbing the wave of every cultural change, we must begin to consider doing things that are unconventional.

One leader desired to see the Gospel be preached in Disney World and Disney Land, specifically to the workers of these uber popular theme parks. Out of that, Cast Member Church was born. And they are anything but your conventional church. And while your community may not be made up of people dressing up like Mickey Mouse and Elsa, there is so much to learn from what they are doing.

If you want to move your church forward, begin dreaming again about what the local church could be in your community. What needs do you see in your community that could be met by your church? What convictions has God given you that you are keeping to yourself? In order for your church to be unreasonable, and make a big impact because of it, you must be willing to get out of your comfort zone and watch what God will do.

A Tool to Spur You and Your Team on—Unreasonable Churches

You know the church is plan A. I know you do. That’s why you’re reading an article on a site that is dedicated to helping you preach and lead better in God’s local church. But, like most of us, you may be struggling with seeing where God is calling your church to become unreasonable. You may need something to spur your thoughts on to see beyond the ministry models you’ve been taught.

Well, I’ve got just the thing for you: Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged and Saw More Impact Because of It (Affiliate link—to help me save for my daughters to go to college).

In this book, your whole team will be challenged to think outside the box. I really encourage you to go through this book with your staff, your volunteers or both.

Here’s what Carey Nieuwhof said about this new book:

“One thing I’ve learned in two decades of church leadership is that many leaders would rather make excuses than make progress. The truth is, you can make excuses or you can make progress, but you can’t make both.

If you want to keep making excuses, don’t read this book.

If you want to make progress, prepare to become unreasonable.”

– Carey Nieuwhof, Founding and Teaching Pastor, Connexus Church, www.careynieuwhof.com

Will you become unreasonable?

This article originally appeared here.