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How and Why the Future Church Can Thrive

5. Make Your Mission THE Mission

So where does that leave you and me?

It probably leaves us changing our churches. Cutting through the junk of who we are. Tearing away the parts that don’t work and replacing them with an authenticity and power than do.

This is true whether your church is 50, 500 or 15,000. It’s true whether it’s growing, flat or declining.

Radical change outside the church demands radical change inside the church.

Just because you shouldn’t change the message or the mission doesn’t mean you shouldn’t change the methods.

If you don’t change, irrelevance is a hairbreadth away.

An unwillingness to change is what’s fueling the decline and stagnation of 90 percent of all churches in North America.

Here’s some hope for churches that are willing to have the tough conversations and undergo a radical transformation: The future of THE church is secured.

Because the church is Jesus’ idea, not ours, the future of THE church is guaranteed.

The mission belongs to Christ, not to us. And he has more invested in the future of his church than all of us put together.

If you make your mission THE mission you will always have a future as a church.

What Do You Think?

If you want practical help to broker the issues your church is facing in the future, my book Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow is designed to help.

If you want to walk your entire board or team through those issues, I’ve developed a video series that will broker the discussion for you. You can pick up Lasting Impact Team Edition for your team here.

In the meantime, what gives you hope for the future of the church?

Where do you see opportunities?

This article originally appeared here.