There are many reasons one church grows and another does not.

Some of those reasons are within the control of a church and its leadership; some of those reasons are not.

Two things that are often overlooked by churches, church planters and pastors are context and timing. They are incredibly important to churches but things we often don’t talk about.

First, context. This is a mission question and one that I think a church should ask every few years. It is one that gets asked before a church is planted, but when a church is established these are hard questions to get back to and easy to forget.

Here are some questions to consider:

• Who are we best suited to reach as a church?
• Are we near those people?
• If we are, what are we doing to reach those people?
• If we aren’t, do we need to move to reach those people or change what we are doing to reach those around us?

Admittedly these are uncomfortable questions to ask as a pastor, but as a church planter you ask them easily. One of the ways a church grows is by keeping that entrepreneurial, risk-taking spirit.

Who are we best suited to reach as a church? Every church and every pastor are best suited to reach someone. The way you preach, the kind of music you have, how much emphasis you put on kids’ ministry, the times of your services and your location all determine many of the people you will reach. Oftentimes you simply have to look at who attends a church, and you will see who that church is best suited to reach, because they are reaching those people.

And who you are best suited to reach as a leader and pastor and where the church you lead should meet are often wrapped up in where you grew up and the kind of environment you grew up in. Not always, but many times.

If you are struggling to figure out the answer to this question, you may simply need to look at who shows up at your church to see who you are best suited to reach.

Are we near those people? Let’s say you are best suited to reach young adults and college students. Are you near those people? Let’s say it is white collar or blue collar. Are you near those people?

The church planter of one of the churches Revolution (the church I lead) helped plant had a heart for the poorest area of the city where he grew up. Many times pastors and churches are not near the people they care the most about, feel the call to reach or want to have an influence on. So they drive past those people to get to where their church meets. That isn’t good mission work.

If we are, what are we doing to reach those people? Let’s say you live and are located as a church near the people you are best suited to reach and have a passion to reach, because you can’t reach everyone. What are you doing to reach those people? Are you reaching out in a way that makes sense to them and is relevant to them?

If we aren’t, do we need to move to reach those people or change what we are doing to reach those around us? This is an easy question before you plant and a hard question after you plant, but I think it is a crucial one to vitality in a church.

The answer to this question does not always mean you move or abandon your vision, but I think a church needs to be willing to ask it. In our area, people do not travel more than 20 minutes for church. This is a reality of traffic patterns and timing with sports and other activities. And you know, the further people get from a church, the less involved they are, the less engaged in mission they are, the less likely they are to invite people and the less likely those people are to come.

Last thing about location: Do you meet in the best spot possible for who you are as a church and what you are trying to do? If you are portable, the school or place where you meet is connected to who you are as a church. We think long and hard about this when we plant, but it goes out the window after we get started.

It isn’t just context and location that matter, but timing.

Timing. This is having an understanding of when you plant, when you grow, and how that works in the life of the lead pastor, the church and the city you are in.

I always chuckle when I go to church planting conferences and a megachurch pastor stands on stage and says, “We started with no people and no money. We preached the gospel, and boom! People just showed up.” While they are trying to be inspiring, it isn’t helpful and usually not even close to accurate.

This overlooks how long a pastor has been in an area, if they’re known, if they were part of a larger church before they planted, if they were a traveling camp speaker or a well-known youth worker in an organization. Did they work in a large college ministry? All of these factors work into timing.

Many times a church will get planted and not grow, and within a few years it no longer exists. A year or two after that church was planted, a new church is planted nearby, and that church finds stability, grows and becomes self-sufficient. Some of that is timing. The timing of people being ready, the timing of the church. Those are all things out of our control but are important to remember. They are not to be excuses for a church or for a pastor to say, “I was faithful and nothing happened.” But it is a reality to the question of why a church grows or doesn’t grow.

When planting a church, it is not just the call of a pastor and having funding and people, but asking the question, “Is the timing right for this church? Have there been churches planted here before? Have they succeeded or failed?” Many times a church takes off after others have closed down. This is the work of a leader understanding the “soil” in which he is seeking to plant seeds.

This article originally appeared here.

Millennials are leaving the church. That’s the conclusion that is drawn from much of the recent readings. The statement is only partially true, however, and it presents a great opportunity for the evangelical church to reconsider how she approaches the Millennial generation, makes disciples and views diversity. Taking another look at this problem offers some promising solutions.

Millennials Are Leaving the Church

In a recent article titled “59 Percent of Millennials Raised in the Church Have Dropped Out—And They’re Trying to Tell Us Why” on Faith It, writer Sam Eaton reported that “only 4 percent of the Millennial generation are Bible-based believers. This means that 96 percent of Millennials likely don’t live out the teachings of the Bible, value the morals of Christianity and probably won’t be found in a church.”

Drawing on information from a 2014 Barna study concerning this group of 22- to 35-year-olds, the findings are consistent with reporting from the past decade or more. A simple Google search of “why are Millennials leaving the church” will only lead us to draw a dismal conclusion about the relationship between the church and her lost Millennials. In research for my book, Mentor for Life, however, I made a note to highlight that the Black Church is not experiencing the same decline among this coveted group.

But Black Millennials Aren’t

In his article titled “Why Aren’t Black Millennials Leaving the Church,” Bryan T. Calvin drew on the 2012 PEW Research Center to make the case that Black Millennials are not leaving the church, and there are specific reasons why they are staying. He writes, “In general, the numbers consistently show that blacks of all ages are more likely to maintain religious affiliation that whites.”

Why is this? He continues, “It seems that blacks are more invested in the practices and rituals associated with church life… Maybe the difference is that whites and blacks view the institution of the church differently. Historically, the Black Church has always played an important communal role.”

Calvin continues his piece with another observation, “Talking about Millennials leaving the church without specifying which Millennials is only half the conversation. And if the American church is willing to enter into conversation beyond the racial lines that has often been drawn up around it, they may realize that the solution to their ‘problem’ of Millennials leaving is closer than they thought.”

Solution One: Embrace Diversity

Diversity seems like a buzz word, and the lack of ethnic diversity in various arenas seems like an ever trending topic these days. I almost hesitated to use the wording here. Yet I persisted because I don’t know if the reality of the lack of ethnic diversity—including the lack of value of diverse voices, diverse experiences and diversity in leadership—has sunk in to the psyche of the evangelical church.

The Millennial generation values diversity while the evangelical church gives diversity lip service. The Millennials have observed this hypocrisy and they are voting with their feet. The writing is on the wall. White Millennials will not come back to the church unless there is authenticity and drastic change.

So the evangelical leaders who care about the church and the proclamation of the gospel across generations will have to either go where the Millennials are, or invite the Millennials into your home. Please know, however, that when you welcome them, you must also be willing to welcome their diverse group of friends.

Within the context of this diverse group, God might be inviting you to humble yourself before them, to listen and to learn. We must learn to cultivate safe spaces where diversity is truly valued, where every person and every voice matters, and where each of us is challenged to grow. In this sacred space, there is a compelling witness of the gospel and the equipping of individuals who go out to practically share good news with their diverse neighbors.

Solution Two: Be a Mentor

As part of his solutions, Sam Eaton gives voice to Millennials, “We want to be mentored, not preached at.” I highly value hearing the preached Word. Indeed, it is necessary. I also highly value a great Bible study. Having led diverse people groups and generations in Bible study or small groups, through mentoring or discipleship for nearly two decades, however, I have made a few observations.

One observation is force-feeding the preached Word, or more specifically, waiting for people to attend church on Sunday morning, does not cut it in a culture that is biblically illiterate.

People are lonely and lost, and a loving and compassionate Jesus will compel them. They can be changed by your love for Jesus, and by witnessing your personal relationship with him. For that change to happen, however, we must be willing to go where they are, or invite them into a less intimidating space than a sanctuary.

Mentoring is intimate. Relationships have the innate ability to impact people for good. Entering into a committed mentoring relationship allows Millennials to witness first-hand the relationship and presence you share with Christ.

Solution Three: Focus on the Group and Not the Individual

This year, Christianity Today published an article titled “How Black and White Christians Do Discipleship Differently.” In it, they focus on Barna’s recent study regarding “Racial Divides in Spiritual Practices.” Concerning the state of discipleship, Barna reports that “black Christian leaders are more likely to say that ‘deepening one’s faith through education and fellowship’ is a goal of discipleship,” and mentorship as part of a group is a crucial part of fellowship.

This education includes the study of the Bible in a group, memorizing and meditating on Scriptures. Furthermore, they conclude that “black communities tend toward communal rhythms of spiritual development” and that “one’s personal spiritual life had implication for social justice.” Finally, the report indicates that black Christians place a higher value on their friends.

In short, the Black Church tradition and African American culture in which I was groomed intentionally offer discipleship and mentorship within the context of groups or communities, instead of focusing on one-on-one mentoring or discipleship models.

Several of these articles are consistent when reporting that Millennials value relationships and authentic conversation. Because communal relationships are already a high value for communities of color, this is an area where Christian leaders from the majority group can learn from leaders of color.

This survey of the Black Church and their discipleship model reveals that discipleship can indeed take place within the context of groups. More specially, discipling and mentoring within groups offers a layered approach to discipleship that includes:

• Bible reading and study,
• Cultivation of spiritual disciplines like scripture memorization,
• Positive peer pressure, peer-to-peer mentoring and accountability,
• A holistic Christian ethic that includes the pursuit of biblical justice, and
• Grooming and training mentees for leadership.

Solution Four: Unleash the Generations

There was a time when Sunday afternoons and meals were reserved for extended family. Three or four generations would gather to break bread, share wisdom and enjoy each other’s company. Aside from the rushed and often stressful holidays, I don’t know if we are regularly seeing the same commitment to family, and intentionally cultivating relationships across generations. Even our churches are sometimes segregated by age.

We must not forget that our God is the God of generations. From the first book of the Bible, he refers to himself as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God works across generations. God’s glory goes forth when his message and mission is passed on from one generation to the next, and that is why we cannot afford to lose a generation of young people. Losing the Millennial generation robs God of his glory.

Millennials benefit from having the presence and wisdom of elders. Regardless of our age, we all need people who will point us in the right direction, and help us stay on track.

One of the greatest blessings of my life has been sharing time and space with older and wiser people of God—hearing their stories, their lessons of overcoming and preserving in the faith, of suffering well, helps my load feel lighter and makes me hopeful for the future. Young people need hope.

They need someone who is going to assure them again and again that God is present with them on their life’s journey. He will not leave or forsake them.

This is why I have led and trained leaders to cultivate mentoring groups that are not only ethnically diverse, but also crosses generational lines. Millennials have much to learn from the generations that have gone on before, and we have much to learn from them.

Want to get started mentoring Millennials? Check out these free practical tools.

This article originally appeared here.

Christian liberty has gotten a bad rap. These days, it’s almost inseparable from a discussion about alcohol. For that reason, some only consider the doctrine of Christian liberty to figure out how much they can get away with. That or it gets co-opted into efforts to prove how cool Christianity really is.

But before it is freedom to something, our freedom in Christ is an assertion of our freedom from something. Christ’s people are free to eat shrimp cocktail, pork rinds or chicken feet fundamentally because they are free from the Law. Our freedom in Christ is freedom from the commands or requirements of anyone other than our Lord, because he has fulfilled the Law on our behalf, having lived the perfect life we could not. No one can legitimately impose any requirements on us as Christians other than those Jesus Christ himself has for us as his people.

LIFE IN THE CHURCH

How does that relate to the church?

Pastor, do you require any particular behavior or lifestyle of your church members that Jesus does not? Are there things that someone must do in order to be a member in good standing of your church that they do not have to do in order to be a Christian in good standing?

Remember what Paul said to the Galatians: “For freedom Christ has set us free: Stand firm therefore and do no submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

Paul was addressing the false teaching that Christians should be circumcised. The Galatian believers seemed happy to adopt this standard (see Gal. 1:6). Paul, however, saw it as another gospel―not because it denied anything about Jesus’ person, but because it denied the sufficiency of the gospel. If circumcision was something Christians needed to be saved, then Christ’s atonement was in some sense deficient.

Certainly there are extra-biblical things you will require because it’s a necessary consequence of biblical fidelity. There are also things like affirming a statement of faith or taking a membership class that you should probably require for the sake of unity as a particular church, in order to teach what obedience to the biblical command to church membership looks like. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about requiring the many good things that can serve to mature or encourage a saint, but are not necessary in order to live faithfully as a Christian.

You probably don’t struggle with whether or not to re-impose the Levitical code on your people, but could there be more subtle ways you’re tempted to add things to the gospel? Maybe it’s requiring participation in small groups. Maybe it’s heavily pushing non-biblical means of devotion because of how it has served you in your own spiritual growth in such a way that it becomes an identity-marker of your church. Or maybe it’s just that book you feel like every Christian simply must read.

Pastor, guard your flock carefully. As you encourage useful tools, books or practices, work hard to ensure you only encourage and do not require. You may think that homeschooling is the most prudential way to instruct your children. But do not require that of your church members. Your entire theology may have been transformed by John Piper. But do not communicate to your people that they are second-class Christians for not having read him. You may be convinced a particular political party is the only one consistent with a Christian worldview. But don’t tell your congregation they must be Republicans to be faithful Christians.

Guard your corporate worship carefully so that it doesn’t become a breeding ground of Jesus-plus expectations. When our church gathers, we hear God’s Word read and preached, we pray, we sing biblically and doctrinally sound songs, and in their time we observe the ordinances. That sounds basic because it is. Biblically grounded simplicity is a wonderful way to defend the freedom in Christ that belongs to the sheep God has entrusted to your care.

There are times where we’re tempted to come up with new ways to help our people grow into maturity in the faith. But aside from problems of pragmatism, when we concede to that temptation, we’re subtly instructing people that the disciplines and freedoms Jesus has given through the New Testament are insufficient.

In so doing, we train our people to think they need to do more than Jesus asks of them in order to be saved.

I’m not saying non-biblical practices or books cannot be useful (that would be ironic in a non-biblical article!). I’ve been blessed, encouraged and strengthened in the faith by many things not explicitly required of me by the New Testament. But there is a world of difference between “helpful” and “necessary.” I’m certain you know that. Does your congregation know that you know that?

DEFEND THEIR LIBERTY

It’s good for you to be concerned about the health of the church God has entrusted to you. That’s what it means to be a shepherd. But always remember that you are an under-shepherd. Jesus is the one true Good Shepherd. You only work for him. So, as you lead his people through this life, use the means he has given you. In the first place, trusting that God Almighty knows better than you is just good wisdom. More significantly, though, recognize that your authority over the people the Lord has entrusted to you is always derivative of his authority over them.

In other words, be a faithful steward of what Jesus has given to you. Defend your people’s freedom in Christ with your life if necessary. But do not impinge on their freedom, even if you think it’s for their own good. That’s a sure way to break the backs of your sheep. Don’t weigh them down with a load far heavier than the easy yoke of Christ.

I don’t intend to make you feel guilty about how you lead your people. But I do hope you get just a glimpse of the treasure of our salvation through grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone, and resolve yourself to protect that precious treasure.

We trivialize the doctrine of Christian liberty when we focus on freedom to while neglecting the beauties of freedom from.

What does Christian liberty have to do with the life of the church? In short, virtually everything.

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