Every other Sunday I visit a new church plant and have appointments with
planting pastors most every week. Being "missional" is on every ones mind.
Everyone defines missional differently. Here is my
take:
The typical church seeks to
develop its ministries to reach and disciple people. Sounds good. And often
has impact. However this model is very centralized in its focus. Questions are
asked like: "What can the church do to reach people?" "How can we get our people
to use this event or ministry to reach people?"
The pastor sees his role is to get the people
involved in the latest programs. The people see their role is to help the pastor
fulfill his ministry.
But the missional church
seeks to equip the people to develop their own ministries. This model is
decentralized in its focus. Questions are asked like: "Who has God placed on
your heart to reach out to with a caring relationship and share your God story?"
"What people, need or cause has God put on your heart with a passion that you
can develop into a ministry?" "What spiritual gifts, talents and experience has
God given you that he can use to reach and impact
lives?"
The pastor sees his role is to envision
for the people how God wants them to be salt and light and have an impact for
Christ in others lives. His role is to equip the people to have a ministry.
Centralized: The people help the pastor have a
ministry.
Decentralized: The pastor helps the people have a
ministry.
An efficient centralized church says
"alignment" is getting everyone involved in a few things we do that fit our
mission. This can work and bring addition growth especially if the leader is a
great communicator.
A missional decentralized
church says "alignment" is to be passionate about our mission, then go do
whatever God puts on your heart. We will coach you. We will celebrate you. We
will help you build a team. We will help you apprentice leaders. Have
at it!
This is how we have
multiplication growth.
Go multiply!
Friday, October 25, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Seven Deadly Thoughts of Leaders
by Thom S. Rainer
By the time we hear of a leadership failure, any attempts at intervention to save the leader are usually futile. The damage has been done. The family or organization suffers as their leader has fallen or, at the very least, made a major mistake.
Most great leadership failures, however, don’t begin with some stupid action. The leader usually has thoughts about the action well before he or she actually makes them. Some of those thoughts can be warning signs to heed. They are like the bright, flashing red light that demands we stop. Failure to stop can result in great harm.
I’ve had the opportunity through the years to listen to leaders talk about their biggest victories and their greatest failures. When the latter takes place, these leaders reflect that, most of the time, the failure took place in a deadly thought pattern. They lament they didn’t recognize these deadly thoughts for the warnings that they were. Here are the seven most significant warning thoughts I’ve heard:
#8: “If I don’t do it no one will.” or “No one is going to do it as well as I.” We need to kill the fear of delegation. Know your people. Know their gifts. Put their gifts to work! In my experience, folks don’t walk up and volunteer. They aren’t lazy, they simply don’t know the need unless we reveal the need. In most cases (for whatever the reason) we would rather do it ourselves than to reach out.
#8 “I can’t do that! I’m a leader and people are watching.” – 1 Tim 3 teaches us that overseers should be “above reproach” but leaders must always remember that whether you are a leader or not, we are called to holiness. We must be serious about avoiding sin but a leader’s motivation must never be for self-image but always to glorify God. Guard your hearts!
#8 “I’m too important to step down. This ministry can’t survive without me.”
Any real Christian ministry belongs to the Lord Jesus, not the servants who work there. He can provide whatever it needs, including someone to replace you, or another ministry to replace “yours”.
#8 I would add “If I apologize or admit weakness, people will stop following me.” I have only once served under a leader who apologized for his mistakes and sought forgiveness on a personal level with those he had spoken harshly too or misjudged.
By the time we hear of a leadership failure, any attempts at intervention to save the leader are usually futile. The damage has been done. The family or organization suffers as their leader has fallen or, at the very least, made a major mistake.
Most great leadership failures, however, don’t begin with some stupid action. The leader usually has thoughts about the action well before he or she actually makes them. Some of those thoughts can be warning signs to heed. They are like the bright, flashing red light that demands we stop. Failure to stop can result in great harm.
I’ve had the opportunity through the years to listen to leaders talk about their biggest victories and their greatest failures. When the latter takes place, these leaders reflect that, most of the time, the failure took place in a deadly thought pattern. They lament they didn’t recognize these deadly thoughts for the warnings that they were. Here are the seven most significant warning thoughts I’ve heard:
- “It won’t hurt to compromise a little.” So the numbers get fudged a bit. Or the private meeting with someone of the opposite gender is deemed harmless. Or you take credit for something you didn’t do.
- “I can give my family time later in life when I’m more established.” You may not even have a family if you wait until later. Few leaders have ever died wishing they had put more hours into work. Many have died lamenting their failure to give their family time and attention.
- “No one really pays attention to what I do.” Wrong! If you are a leader, many people are watching you more closely than you think. In organizations, those under your leadership watch you closely. In families, the children watch the parents with an eye for detail that can be downright humbling. What are they seeing when they watch you?
- “I need to be careful not to rock the boat.” Granted, some people put their mouths in action before their minds are in gear. But too many leaders, to mix the metaphor from a boat to an athletic event, play defense and not offense. They are too risk averse. They are more worried about failure than proactive leadership. Thus their thought patterns are almost always about playing it safe.
- “I can put off that tough decision until later.” Leaders often think difficult decisions can be put on hold. They are involved in “analysis paralysis” thinking as an excuse to defer the decisions. Their thinking leads them to deadly procrastination.
- “That person messed up five years ago. He doesn’t deserve a second chance.” Many driven leaders shared with me that they failed to demonstrate forgiveness and grace in their leadership role. Their thought patterns focused on the failures of those in the organization or family. They thus “wrote off” these people. When a time came in the leader’s life where he needed an extra measure of grace or forgiveness shown, few people were willing to give him what he himself failed to give.
- “My main goal is money.” Money is not evil; the love of money is. If leaders’ thought patterns are consumed with money, problems are on the horizon. Money can be an instrument for good or evil. The goal is not to make money, but to make a difference with your money.
#8: “If I don’t do it no one will.” or “No one is going to do it as well as I.” We need to kill the fear of delegation. Know your people. Know their gifts. Put their gifts to work! In my experience, folks don’t walk up and volunteer. They aren’t lazy, they simply don’t know the need unless we reveal the need. In most cases (for whatever the reason) we would rather do it ourselves than to reach out.
#8 “I can’t do that! I’m a leader and people are watching.” – 1 Tim 3 teaches us that overseers should be “above reproach” but leaders must always remember that whether you are a leader or not, we are called to holiness. We must be serious about avoiding sin but a leader’s motivation must never be for self-image but always to glorify God. Guard your hearts!
#8 “I’m too important to step down. This ministry can’t survive without me.”
Any real Christian ministry belongs to the Lord Jesus, not the servants who work there. He can provide whatever it needs, including someone to replace you, or another ministry to replace “yours”.
#8 I would add “If I apologize or admit weakness, people will stop following me.” I have only once served under a leader who apologized for his mistakes and sought forgiveness on a personal level with those he had spoken harshly too or misjudged.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Preaching with Clarity to Change Lives
I visit new churches every other weekend so I hear new
pastors speak a lot. Here are some of the positives I hear/see.
1. They are passionate to communicate to their people.
2. They are close to the people so the relational connection comes out in their messages.
1. They are passionate to communicate to their people.
2. They are close to the people so the relational connection comes out in their messages.
And here are some of the areas for improvement I hear/see:
1. Many have not determined the key point to the passage so they ramble through many points with no clear target or application. Some think this is good and call it “preaching the passage.” (Verse one says… Verse two says….) A clear speaker doesn’t preach everything in a passage but just what leads to the main theme so he can “bring it home.”
2. Often speakers do not have a “hook” that draws people into the passage. In real estate they say you need to identify the pain people have and present the pleasure you can provide for them. i.e. the pain of not moving to the house they want in a timely fashion and the pleasure they would experience if you helped them sell quickly so they could move. In an evangelistic message, i.e. moving from the pain of loneliness and guilt to the pleasure of forgiveness and relationship with Christ.
3. I hear preachers struggling to find stories in life (or old stories of bearded Christians) to illustrate their points, when they could easily look to the Old Testament, Gospels and sometimes to Epistles to find real biblical stories that illustrate the point.
4. There are not a lot of pilots speaking. Many do not know when and how to “land the plane”. “If one good point is great, then three good points are better.” Not necessarily. The goal is application, not knowledge to forget.
5. One good memorable application in 20 minutes is better than five muddled points with little application in 50 minutes. I missed the last 20 minutes anyway even though my wife kept poking me.
6. Are people emotionally connecting with your message and application? If so then they will be more likely to remember and apply it. First of all, are you emotionally impacted by the passage so that it flows from your heart and passion?
7. Props are good memory joggers. I’ve seen Ed Young bring a car onto the stage, Bill Hybels bring a swinging door, Gary Smalley use a 4 foot size ear, Dave Ramsey smash a piggy bank, John McGowan used a Starbucks latte, etc.
8. Has this stuff we preach ever changed anyone’s life? Rick Warren often brings people up in the middle of his message to interview to illustrate what God can do.
9. Having people look/read the scripture during the message will help them see the value of looking at it Tuesday morning.
10. Having an outline/points to follow jogs memories and reinforces learning when they take notes. And helps keep me awake.
12. One pastor tells the story of a man who came up to him in the 80’s after a message and said, “We really do want to obey God.” Lon wasn’t sure where he was heading. The man went on, “We don’t need you to help us feel guilty very week. We know where we are wrong. We need you to teach us from the Bible how we can walk with God on Wednesday after lunch when a co-worker is giving us a hard time.” Now the pastor asks himself with each message, “What have I given the people to help them walk with Jesus on Wednesday after lunch?”
1. Many have not determined the key point to the passage so they ramble through many points with no clear target or application. Some think this is good and call it “preaching the passage.” (Verse one says… Verse two says….) A clear speaker doesn’t preach everything in a passage but just what leads to the main theme so he can “bring it home.”
2. Often speakers do not have a “hook” that draws people into the passage. In real estate they say you need to identify the pain people have and present the pleasure you can provide for them. i.e. the pain of not moving to the house they want in a timely fashion and the pleasure they would experience if you helped them sell quickly so they could move. In an evangelistic message, i.e. moving from the pain of loneliness and guilt to the pleasure of forgiveness and relationship with Christ.
3. I hear preachers struggling to find stories in life (or old stories of bearded Christians) to illustrate their points, when they could easily look to the Old Testament, Gospels and sometimes to Epistles to find real biblical stories that illustrate the point.
4. There are not a lot of pilots speaking. Many do not know when and how to “land the plane”. “If one good point is great, then three good points are better.” Not necessarily. The goal is application, not knowledge to forget.
5. One good memorable application in 20 minutes is better than five muddled points with little application in 50 minutes. I missed the last 20 minutes anyway even though my wife kept poking me.
6. Are people emotionally connecting with your message and application? If so then they will be more likely to remember and apply it. First of all, are you emotionally impacted by the passage so that it flows from your heart and passion?
7. Props are good memory joggers. I’ve seen Ed Young bring a car onto the stage, Bill Hybels bring a swinging door, Gary Smalley use a 4 foot size ear, Dave Ramsey smash a piggy bank, John McGowan used a Starbucks latte, etc.
8. Has this stuff we preach ever changed anyone’s life? Rick Warren often brings people up in the middle of his message to interview to illustrate what God can do.
9. Having people look/read the scripture during the message will help them see the value of looking at it Tuesday morning.
10. Having an outline/points to follow jogs memories and reinforces learning when they take notes. And helps keep me awake.
12. One pastor tells the story of a man who came up to him in the 80’s after a message and said, “We really do want to obey God.” Lon wasn’t sure where he was heading. The man went on, “We don’t need you to help us feel guilty very week. We know where we are wrong. We need you to teach us from the Bible how we can walk with God on Wednesday after lunch when a co-worker is giving us a hard time.” Now the pastor asks himself with each message, “What have I given the people to help them walk with Jesus on Wednesday after lunch?”
Saturday, January 19, 2013
13 questions to help pastors move a message from the head to the heart
Rick Duncan
Yes, it's all about God, not us. "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your
name give glory" (Psalm 115:1).
So, a preacher who makes much of himself in a message is a narcissistic
mess. "Him [Christ - the hope of glory] we proclaim" (Colossians 1:28).
So, it's all about God. Not the preacher.
But the 19th century preacher, Philips Brooks, said, "Preaching is truth
through personality." I believe he's right. I believe that's supported by
scripture. Paul once wrote, "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were
ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves,
because you had become very dear to us" (I Thessalonians 2:8).
Sometimes a message can be good, solid, and accurate. It can explain the
text well. It can impart strong information.
But the personality of the man can be missing. Preachers dare not forget
that even the introverts must be relational,
connecting, personable,and warm-hearted up front.
So, before you preach tomorrow, sit down for an hour an answer some
questions.
Why does this passage/truth/topic matter to YOU?
What is YOUR vision for the people regarding this?
Where do YOU struggle with this?
Why do YOU struggle with this?
How has God helped YOU grow in this area?
Who taught YOU most about this?
What are one or two things YOU have been prompted to do to grow in this
area?
How have YOU gained victories in this?
What is a story about this that has changed YOU, inspired YOU, convicted
YOU, challenged YOU, encouraged YOU?
Where are YOU wanting to take us because we live this way?
How do YOU see our lives being different if we live new in this way?
Again, why does this matter to YOU?
Give your people more of God... through YOU!!!
Answer some of these questions and weave them into your current message.
(You'll likely have to delete some current content to do it.)
Again, Philips Brooks said, "Preaching is truth through personality." Your
people likely need more of YOUR persona, YOUR personhood, YOUR
personality.
Impart the information well. But don't forget to give the people more
inspiration. More motivation. More vision. More reasons to change. More
understanding of what's at stake. More of how God's story has impacted
YOU.
I am not trying to give you more work to do on a Saturday. (Well, maybe I
am!) But I think deleting a little content and giving us more of YOUR passion
will move your message from good to great.
Question: How do you think preachers could connect more relationally with
their congregations in a message?
Thursday, January 17, 2013
5 Leadership Mistakes I’ve Made (That You Don’t Need To)
But there’s a part of me that likes it even more when leaders share their mistakes.
When someone shares their mistakes, I feel like I can relate to them. It reminds me I’m not alone. And it shows me we’re really all in this together.
The best part is once you’ve noticed the mistakes you naturally make, you can learn new skills to manoeuvre around them.
For all five mistakes listed below, I’ve had to adjust the sails and learn new behaviours that make me more effective at what I’m called to do.
Hopefully what’s taken me years won’t need to take you nearly as long.
Here are five leadership mistakes I’ve made:
What are you struggling with? How are you overcoming?
What are you stuck on?
About Carey Nieuwhof: Carey Nieuwhof is the lead pastor of Connexus Community Church. He is the author of the best selling book, Leading Change Without Losing It and co-author of Parenting Beyond Your Capacity. Carey speaks to North American and global church leaders about change, leadership, and parenting.
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But there’s a part of me that likes it even more when leaders share their mistakes.
When someone shares their mistakes, I feel like I can relate to them. It reminds me I’m not alone. And it shows me we’re really all in this together.
The best part is once you’ve noticed the mistakes you naturally make, you can learn new skills to manoeuvre around them.
For all five mistakes listed below, I’ve had to adjust the sails and learn new behaviours that make me more effective at what I’m called to do.
Hopefully what’s taken me years won’t need to take you nearly as long.
Here are five leadership mistakes I’ve made:
1. Pointing out what’s wrong – not what’s right. Many leaders share a trait: they immediately notice what’s right and wrong, and gravitate toward fixing what’s wrong. I’m king of this. And ironically, it motivates me to get better. But it can end up being de-motivating to the people around you. I’ve had to learn to celebrate the wins (there are a ton of them when you look), point out what’s right and high five the team. Only then should you move to what’s wrong. Otherwise you knock the wind out of people. Honestly, this is still a daily discipline with me.
2. Thinking a leader needs to have all the answers. As a young leader, I was afraid people would notice that I was young and didn’t know as much as I should. It took me a few years to become comfortable with saying “I don’t know”. Wish I’d learned that right off the bat. Ironically, people already know that you don’t know. And when you say you don’t know, it actually creates empathy and a better sense of team. Now more than ever, I fully realize how much I have left to learn.
3. Trying to be too original. This characterized my first 7 or 8 years of leadership. I didn’t know you could take what others have done and simply implement it (I’m not talking about plagiarizing sermons or stealing proprietary ideas here – but about ministry models and strategies that you’re free to use). I’d go to a conference and feel I’d need to change something enough to put ‘my spin’ or ‘our spin’ on it. Well, sometimes your spin makes it worse. If you really have an original idea that’s going to change things – use it. But there are smarter people who are further along than you who you can borrow from. And sometimes you just need to give yourself permission to borrow.
4. Using people to accomplish tasks. I’m a task guy. Early on, sometimes I saw people as a means to an end, not an end in themselves. It’s a goal of mine to do what great managers do – not use people to get tasks done, but to get ‘people done’ through tasks.
5. Depending too much on my own strength. Being an A-type personality has strengths and weaknesses. Looking back, I wish I had developed a better sense of team earlier and I wished I had sought out mentors earlier. I’m still also trying to figure out the balance between Jesus’ teaching that human effort accomplishes nothing and that we need to serve and lead with all diligence. I’ll get back to you on that one. Maybe in heaven.
Those are five leadership mistakes I’ve made. How about you?What are you struggling with? How are you overcoming?
What are you stuck on?
About Carey Nieuwhof: Carey Nieuwhof is the lead pastor of Connexus Community Church. He is the author of the best selling book, Leading Change Without Losing It and co-author of Parenting Beyond Your Capacity. Carey speaks to North American and global church leaders about change, leadership, and parenting.
When you feel like the world is ticked at you...
by Rick DuncanCuyahoga Valley Church
"Am I really and truly a Beloved Child?" Most of us wonder about that. We struggle with shame and guilt. We struggle with feelings of worth and value. We are sure that God is ticked at us.
Why is that?
Some of us go to work everyday and we wonder if the people in charge really want us there. Others of us grew up in homes where our parents said, “You’ll never amount to anything.” And just this last week, someone heard, “I don’t know why I ever married you.”
You need – you really need – to know what God thinks.
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17).
We are His Beloved Children. Jesus hasn’t just saved us. He’s actually delighting in us. Two words here: Rejoice (sus) means "exult" and gladness (simchah) means "mirth." It’s like God is at a party and He's dancing because of us.
Is that overstated? I don’t think so. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5).
Does God delight in you because you are so lovable? No. The Bible says that we hated God and were His enemies. Does He delight in us because we are so “together”? No. We’re sinful through and through.
In spite of all that, Jesus brings us before the throne of grace and is proud of us. God delights in us because of Christ and what He’s made us to be. It’s with the blood of Jesus that we’ve been washed and made new.
"I will rejoice… and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more" (Isaiah 65:19, NLT).
Too many of us believe that God is a “ticked off” God. Yes, He’s just. Yes, He’s holy. And yes, He disciplines his children. And we should never presume upon His grace.
But at the end of the day, you’ve got to know that through Christ Jesus, God delights in His people.
God not only loves you, He likes you. You are so loved that Jesus delights in you. And because He delights in you, you can delight in yourself... and someone else.
Question: How will you live new today because God rejoices over you?
Friday, September 21, 2012
Church Planter Spotlight: Marcus Toussaint on Lessons Learned in Church Planting
Church Planter Spotlight: Marcus Toussaint on Lessons Learned in Church Planting
Twelve months ago, Church Planter Marcus Toussaint moved from the heart of the Bible Belt in Dallas to the mountains of Northern Arizona to help start Flagstaff Community Church with a few friends. He serves as External Focus Pastor of the growing Flagstaff community that has moved from Lead Pastor Mike Mahon’s living room to an unused car garage to now Flagstaff High School. Recently, he blogged 20 lessons he’s learned about planting in what he calls a ‘postmodern, post-everything frontier,” including “All that stuff about ‘calling’ is true” and “A church plant is a lame idol.”
All that stuff about “calling” is true. A lot of guys smarter than me say that church planting is for those who truly feel called to it. They’re actually right. The first few months, particularly if you’re a parachute drop, can feel lonely and difficult. There are times when the only thing keeping you going is the reality that “God has called me to this thing.” If you have never had a clear sense of calling about starting a church, seriously, save yourself and others the trouble and do anything else.
Choke the church plant pride quick. There is often a not-so-subtle hubris deep in us church-planters, being the new, idealistic kids on the block. Kill that pride before, during and after every visit to another church in town or after hearing about another church in town. There really are faithful churches and ministries in your city that have been praying for it long before you even thought of being God’s gift to Gospel-contextualization. Be humbled to be a small part of the answer to their prayers and long-suffering in a tough place.
Learn how to apply the Gospel to rejection and criticism. Starting a church from scratch involves throwing yourself out there and facing a lot of rejection. It’s like high school all over again. Sometimes, you will have to preach the Gospel to yourself like 20 times a day, remembering that because you are fully accepted in Christ means that any kind of rejection you receive just isn’t that big a deal. Also, pass all criticism through the filter of your critics’ demonstrated Christian maturity.
Debunk the “superhero pastor” mindset in your people from day one. It’s true that [most of] your people can only rise to the level of your leadership—so it’s a good thing Jesus is the head pastor! Just because you’re “called” doesn’t mean you’re called to be Superman. Living in an authentic community is actually a core value at our church. Be strong, but own your (numerous) mistakes and share your daily need for Jesus with people. They’ll find you refreshingly real in an artificial culture, and you’ll foster a church culture that truly emphasizes the “priesthood of all believers.”
Failure is an option. The tried-and-true, canned church planting processes killing it in the Midwest and the Bible Belt flat out just don’t seem to work anymore in postmodern American contexts (that is, if you want to reach non-Christians and not just disgruntled church people), so just about everything is an experiment. We just try a bunch of stuff and see if anything sticks. Frankly, we fail a lot. We’re sort of learning as we go; it’s the ultimate on-the-job training. For us, failure is failure to try.
What you’re excited about is what your people really learn. I actually stole this from a D.A. Carson quote in an article at the Gospel Coalition. Genuine excitement about anything is contagious. Churches and church plants come and go, but Jesus will be the jam forever. Be excited about Him. Be excited about the Gospel.
Team dynamics are trickier than you think. I remember having a conversation with a seminary professor about how “church planting teams don’t work.” He said it was because the inevitable conflict within teams most often causes the mission to unravel. At the time, I believed he just didn’t understand how to build a solid team that could manage conflict well. The reality is that you can dive headfirst into a sea of personality inventories like StrengthsFinder or Myers-Briggs, but conflict is going to happen, period. Personalities are going to clash. Healthy, godly teams have conflict. But don’t let your commitment to biblical conflict resolution be detrimental to the mission God has you on together.
Leverage stories continuously. In my opinion, stories of life change are the key metric for success in ministry. When you’re a parachute drop church plant attempting to build momentum at ground zero, you don’t have a lot of stories yet. So you have to use the ones you’ve got, namely everyone in your launch/core team’s story of grace and stories/media from your amazing sending church or organization. At each of our worship “gatherings,” we tell the story of grace of someone in our community. Create a culture where you never shut up about God and what He’s doing.
People will bail. It’s one of those things you’ve heard about and prepare your heart for, but it still hurts when it happens. Because church planting is extremely personal; when people leave, they’re not just breaking up with the church, they’re breaking up with you, your leadership, vision and its implementation. The temptation is to harden your heart and not allow yourself to truly trust people. Don’t give in! There really are amazing people out there! The incredibly personal nature of planting a church is actually the premise of this book by Brian Bloye.
God will send you some “Barnabi.” In the midst of frequent rejections and difficulties, you’ll get a few “sons of encouragement” who truly love Jesus, buy into the vision of “our church” (love hearing that!) and who are faithfully servant-hearted for the long haul. Let yourself be pumped about it and apply 2 Tim. 2:2 to them as soon as they’re recognized.
Objective, outside coaching is essential. We get great coaching from some Yodas in Phoenix and Dallas. In addition to learning new face-melting leadership axioms, we get encouragement and wisdom from some guys who don’t suffer from the situational tunnel vision that church planters in the trenches inevitably develop.
Attractional strategies largely don’t seem to work in post-Christian contexts. At least they haven’t really for us. Why? I think it’s because they are like cultural mosquitoes to our context—they’re annoying. Everyone expects them and is inoculated against Christian evangelistic outreach. If the definition of “crazy” is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then most of us are crazy. Lots of Christian thinkers that have been saying “duh” to this for a long time.
All of us need to be explicitly taught “how to be missional.” It’s sexy to say you’re “missional.” But under the deluge of “missional” material out there, most of us Christians are better at going to Africa than across the street. People need not only to be continually invited to join what God is already doing in their communities, they also need clear, practical instructions on how. We have to recover the idea of “evangelism as a team sport,” and teach people that to be “missional” involves pursuing a big vision with small steps.
Some Christians may take your presence as an insult. Love them anyway. Prove them wrong. Before I even moved to Flagstaff, I met a Christian teacher who balked at the idea of another church in Flag. After all, “Flagstaff has sooo many churches already,” to which I arrogantly thought Yeah, too bad they’re not reaching anyone! The truth is some churches take the proliferation of new church plants in their community as an indictment on their ministry efforts instead of as a movement of God, and some church planters consider the very need for their plant as an indictment on other churches. That’s too bad. I like how one church planting friend in Flagstaff put it, “We’re here to complete, not compete.”
Commit to loving the hurting in your community and you’ll always have an audience (stolen from Jud Wilhite). It’s a good word. We live in a Christian leadership culture that still largely focuses on “influencing the influencers.” It’s explicitly one reason why church planters are flocking to the world’s city centers. That’s awesome, but I also believe that Jesus still chooses to use those of us who are foolish and weak in the world’s eyes to build His kingdom (1 Cor. 1:27). The county I live in has two times the national suicide rate and suffers from rampant alcoholism, yet has almost no Christ-centered recovery ministry! So we started one, and it has grown simply by word-of-mouth.
Define success for your church plant biblically. Whether consciously or unconsciously, what you count is what really counts in your church, and I’m convinced the church needs better metrics for success. If “making disciples” is truly the mission, then only counting butts in seats won’t cut it. What about the number of people in community groups as a percentage of your church body? Or the number of intentional relationships with non-Christians in the greater community? Just a couple of numerically oriented questions that might be more helpful (but maybe less immediately gratifying) than whether the crowd is growing. There are many more possibilities.
Ask non-Christians. To me, few things are sillier than a navel-gazing Christian culture sitting around guessing about how to “attract” non-Christians. Ask them. Get to know them, their hopes and dreams, what they think about spirituality, and why they may think Christianity sucks or is at least irrelevant.
Beware of babies in business suits. Often, churched people tend to position themselves as mature believers ready to lead. I would wait to make that call until you see it demonstrated in faithfulness. They may quote Keller and talk a big game, but when the rubber hits the road, they still want the church plant to become “First Vending Machine Fellowship Church.” You can tell a true servant by how he or she responds when they get treated like one.
The hardest person to lead in your church plant is you (stolen from Todd Wagner of Watermark). You are the biggest problem in your church plant. If you can tame the tiger within, everything else isn’t that big of a deal
A church plant is a lame idol. Seriously, even if the thing totally bombs, everyone bails, you run out of money and have to be tri-vocational, Jesus is still coming back and dropping His kingdom on this broken world. Success in the Christian life is faithful obedience to Jesus, not a list of stacked accomplishments. Some friends in Phoenix call church-planting “spanktification”; I connect with that. It’s tough, so are you consciously becoming more like Jesus? Do you love Him and people more as a result? If not, you’re missing it.
This post is the collection of a four-part series called “Lessons From My First Year of Church Planting” posted on Marcus Toussaint’s blog, Dark Sky City: Church Planting in Flagstaff, Arizona. Follow his adventures there and on Twitter @Marcustoussaint.
Lindy Lowry serves as Communications Director and Editor for Exponential.To submit articles for Exponential’s weekly enewsletter, Church Planter Weekly, contact her here.
All that stuff about “calling” is true. A lot of guys smarter than me say that church planting is for those who truly feel called to it. They’re actually right. The first few months, particularly if you’re a parachute drop, can feel lonely and difficult. There are times when the only thing keeping you going is the reality that “God has called me to this thing.” If you have never had a clear sense of calling about starting a church, seriously, save yourself and others the trouble and do anything else.
Choke the church plant pride quick. There is often a not-so-subtle hubris deep in us church-planters, being the new, idealistic kids on the block. Kill that pride before, during and after every visit to another church in town or after hearing about another church in town. There really are faithful churches and ministries in your city that have been praying for it long before you even thought of being God’s gift to Gospel-contextualization. Be humbled to be a small part of the answer to their prayers and long-suffering in a tough place.
Learn how to apply the Gospel to rejection and criticism. Starting a church from scratch involves throwing yourself out there and facing a lot of rejection. It’s like high school all over again. Sometimes, you will have to preach the Gospel to yourself like 20 times a day, remembering that because you are fully accepted in Christ means that any kind of rejection you receive just isn’t that big a deal. Also, pass all criticism through the filter of your critics’ demonstrated Christian maturity.
Debunk the “superhero pastor” mindset in your people from day one. It’s true that [most of] your people can only rise to the level of your leadership—so it’s a good thing Jesus is the head pastor! Just because you’re “called” doesn’t mean you’re called to be Superman. Living in an authentic community is actually a core value at our church. Be strong, but own your (numerous) mistakes and share your daily need for Jesus with people. They’ll find you refreshingly real in an artificial culture, and you’ll foster a church culture that truly emphasizes the “priesthood of all believers.”
Failure is an option. The tried-and-true, canned church planting processes killing it in the Midwest and the Bible Belt flat out just don’t seem to work anymore in postmodern American contexts (that is, if you want to reach non-Christians and not just disgruntled church people), so just about everything is an experiment. We just try a bunch of stuff and see if anything sticks. Frankly, we fail a lot. We’re sort of learning as we go; it’s the ultimate on-the-job training. For us, failure is failure to try.
What you’re excited about is what your people really learn. I actually stole this from a D.A. Carson quote in an article at the Gospel Coalition. Genuine excitement about anything is contagious. Churches and church plants come and go, but Jesus will be the jam forever. Be excited about Him. Be excited about the Gospel.
Team dynamics are trickier than you think. I remember having a conversation with a seminary professor about how “church planting teams don’t work.” He said it was because the inevitable conflict within teams most often causes the mission to unravel. At the time, I believed he just didn’t understand how to build a solid team that could manage conflict well. The reality is that you can dive headfirst into a sea of personality inventories like StrengthsFinder or Myers-Briggs, but conflict is going to happen, period. Personalities are going to clash. Healthy, godly teams have conflict. But don’t let your commitment to biblical conflict resolution be detrimental to the mission God has you on together.
Leverage stories continuously. In my opinion, stories of life change are the key metric for success in ministry. When you’re a parachute drop church plant attempting to build momentum at ground zero, you don’t have a lot of stories yet. So you have to use the ones you’ve got, namely everyone in your launch/core team’s story of grace and stories/media from your amazing sending church or organization. At each of our worship “gatherings,” we tell the story of grace of someone in our community. Create a culture where you never shut up about God and what He’s doing.
People will bail. It’s one of those things you’ve heard about and prepare your heart for, but it still hurts when it happens. Because church planting is extremely personal; when people leave, they’re not just breaking up with the church, they’re breaking up with you, your leadership, vision and its implementation. The temptation is to harden your heart and not allow yourself to truly trust people. Don’t give in! There really are amazing people out there! The incredibly personal nature of planting a church is actually the premise of this book by Brian Bloye.
God will send you some “Barnabi.” In the midst of frequent rejections and difficulties, you’ll get a few “sons of encouragement” who truly love Jesus, buy into the vision of “our church” (love hearing that!) and who are faithfully servant-hearted for the long haul. Let yourself be pumped about it and apply 2 Tim. 2:2 to them as soon as they’re recognized.
Objective, outside coaching is essential. We get great coaching from some Yodas in Phoenix and Dallas. In addition to learning new face-melting leadership axioms, we get encouragement and wisdom from some guys who don’t suffer from the situational tunnel vision that church planters in the trenches inevitably develop.
Attractional strategies largely don’t seem to work in post-Christian contexts. At least they haven’t really for us. Why? I think it’s because they are like cultural mosquitoes to our context—they’re annoying. Everyone expects them and is inoculated against Christian evangelistic outreach. If the definition of “crazy” is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then most of us are crazy. Lots of Christian thinkers that have been saying “duh” to this for a long time.
All of us need to be explicitly taught “how to be missional.” It’s sexy to say you’re “missional.” But under the deluge of “missional” material out there, most of us Christians are better at going to Africa than across the street. People need not only to be continually invited to join what God is already doing in their communities, they also need clear, practical instructions on how. We have to recover the idea of “evangelism as a team sport,” and teach people that to be “missional” involves pursuing a big vision with small steps.
Some Christians may take your presence as an insult. Love them anyway. Prove them wrong. Before I even moved to Flagstaff, I met a Christian teacher who balked at the idea of another church in Flag. After all, “Flagstaff has sooo many churches already,” to which I arrogantly thought Yeah, too bad they’re not reaching anyone! The truth is some churches take the proliferation of new church plants in their community as an indictment on their ministry efforts instead of as a movement of God, and some church planters consider the very need for their plant as an indictment on other churches. That’s too bad. I like how one church planting friend in Flagstaff put it, “We’re here to complete, not compete.”
Commit to loving the hurting in your community and you’ll always have an audience (stolen from Jud Wilhite). It’s a good word. We live in a Christian leadership culture that still largely focuses on “influencing the influencers.” It’s explicitly one reason why church planters are flocking to the world’s city centers. That’s awesome, but I also believe that Jesus still chooses to use those of us who are foolish and weak in the world’s eyes to build His kingdom (1 Cor. 1:27). The county I live in has two times the national suicide rate and suffers from rampant alcoholism, yet has almost no Christ-centered recovery ministry! So we started one, and it has grown simply by word-of-mouth.
Define success for your church plant biblically. Whether consciously or unconsciously, what you count is what really counts in your church, and I’m convinced the church needs better metrics for success. If “making disciples” is truly the mission, then only counting butts in seats won’t cut it. What about the number of people in community groups as a percentage of your church body? Or the number of intentional relationships with non-Christians in the greater community? Just a couple of numerically oriented questions that might be more helpful (but maybe less immediately gratifying) than whether the crowd is growing. There are many more possibilities.
Ask non-Christians. To me, few things are sillier than a navel-gazing Christian culture sitting around guessing about how to “attract” non-Christians. Ask them. Get to know them, their hopes and dreams, what they think about spirituality, and why they may think Christianity sucks or is at least irrelevant.
Beware of babies in business suits. Often, churched people tend to position themselves as mature believers ready to lead. I would wait to make that call until you see it demonstrated in faithfulness. They may quote Keller and talk a big game, but when the rubber hits the road, they still want the church plant to become “First Vending Machine Fellowship Church.” You can tell a true servant by how he or she responds when they get treated like one.
The hardest person to lead in your church plant is you (stolen from Todd Wagner of Watermark). You are the biggest problem in your church plant. If you can tame the tiger within, everything else isn’t that big of a deal
A church plant is a lame idol. Seriously, even if the thing totally bombs, everyone bails, you run out of money and have to be tri-vocational, Jesus is still coming back and dropping His kingdom on this broken world. Success in the Christian life is faithful obedience to Jesus, not a list of stacked accomplishments. Some friends in Phoenix call church-planting “spanktification”; I connect with that. It’s tough, so are you consciously becoming more like Jesus? Do you love Him and people more as a result? If not, you’re missing it.
This post is the collection of a four-part series called “Lessons From My First Year of Church Planting” posted on Marcus Toussaint’s blog, Dark Sky City: Church Planting in Flagstaff, Arizona. Follow his adventures there and on Twitter @Marcustoussaint.
Lindy Lowry serves as Communications Director and Editor for Exponential.To submit articles for Exponential’s weekly enewsletter, Church Planter Weekly, contact her here.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
SENT Network is planting churches in cities
Recently I met with Mark McGeever, the lead for SENT Network out of Annapolis, MD. They have planted four churches since they started 3 years ago. Downtown Hope in Annapolis illustrates there vision for new churches. Downtown Hope, led by Pastor Joey Tomassoni, has a culture of focusing on encouraging believers to develop relationships and take initiative to reach out to people in their neighborhood and their circle of influence.
They have seen many far from Christ begin to search and many make decisions to trust Christ with their lives. They have developed small discipleship groups to develop these new believers in their faith and impart to them the same vision for being "missional" in their sphere of influence.
Mark and I met with Tally Wilgis of Captivate Church in the Towson area of Baltimore and Scott Ancarrow who just moved to the Federal Hill area of Baltimore to plant a church. Most new churches start in the suburbs. But the most difficult areas to reach are the older established communities of the city. With Accelerate we want to bring together pastors to pray and brainstorm how to best reach their communities.
Pray for Mark who is training new planting pastors.
Pray for Tally who is seeking to reach people far from Christ.
Pray for Scott as he and his wife gather a core to start a church.
Pray for Joey who is discipling new believers.
Pray for me and Accelerate as I seek to be an encouragement and catalyst to planting pastors.
They have seen many far from Christ begin to search and many make decisions to trust Christ with their lives. They have developed small discipleship groups to develop these new believers in their faith and impart to them the same vision for being "missional" in their sphere of influence.
Mark and I met with Tally Wilgis of Captivate Church in the Towson area of Baltimore and Scott Ancarrow who just moved to the Federal Hill area of Baltimore to plant a church. Most new churches start in the suburbs. But the most difficult areas to reach are the older established communities of the city. With Accelerate we want to bring together pastors to pray and brainstorm how to best reach their communities.
Pray for Mark who is training new planting pastors.
Pray for Tally who is seeking to reach people far from Christ.
Pray for Scott as he and his wife gather a core to start a church.
Pray for Joey who is discipling new believers.
Pray for me and Accelerate as I seek to be an encouragement and catalyst to planting pastors.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Every month I highlight a new church plant and their ministry to reach people with the message of jesus Christ. One pastor friend is Sam Sadek of the Arabic Baptist Church in Manassas. Read this quote from his latest letter.
"A Muslim Moroccan lady came to know Christ after many months of questions and searching at a home Bible study over the last two years. She has been interested in Christianity for a long time, but had many struggles with Christian teaching, especially the doctrine of the Trinity. Since she was saved, she has been attending our worship service faithfully every Sunday, driving more than 50 miles one way despite the hardship and danger that her Muslim family could pose if they knew she was a follower of Christ. She has been growing in the Lord through the teaching of the word every Wednesday morning with a group of believers, some of whom are also former Muslims."
Pray for Sam and his church as they seek to reach Arabs for Christ. They also ask for prayer for the Christians in Egypt who suffer great persecution under the Muslim Brotherhood.
"A Muslim Moroccan lady came to know Christ after many months of questions and searching at a home Bible study over the last two years. She has been interested in Christianity for a long time, but had many struggles with Christian teaching, especially the doctrine of the Trinity. Since she was saved, she has been attending our worship service faithfully every Sunday, driving more than 50 miles one way despite the hardship and danger that her Muslim family could pose if they knew she was a follower of Christ. She has been growing in the Lord through the teaching of the word every Wednesday morning with a group of believers, some of whom are also former Muslims."
Pray for Sam and his church as they seek to reach Arabs for Christ. They also ask for prayer for the Christians in Egypt who suffer great persecution under the Muslim Brotherhood.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church Plant (or soul)
by Marty Schoenleber Jr
17Jul, 2012
Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church and You
Allow yourself to be impressed with this fact and impress this fact upon your core group for your church plant or your church. People all around us need the gospel. And they need us to love them enough to tell them about Jesus. Let this fact bend your knee to God for the boldness to proclaim the gospel unashamedly.
“The United States is now the third largest mission field in the world. Only India and China have more non-believers.” —Mission America Monthly
Companion Post: How to Fall in Love with Pagans
17Jul, 2012
Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church and You
- Does your church (and you) love pagans?
- Does your church know any pagans?
- Do the people in your church know how to meet pagans?
- Do the people of your church know how to talk to pagans?
- Do the people of your church know how to care for pagan?
Allow yourself to be impressed with this fact and impress this fact upon your core group for your church plant or your church. People all around us need the gospel. And they need us to love them enough to tell them about Jesus. Let this fact bend your knee to God for the boldness to proclaim the gospel unashamedly.
“The United States is now the third largest mission field in the world. Only India and China have more non-believers.” —Mission America Monthly
Learning to Care for Pagans
15Jul
Monday Discussion
Five foundational principles to transform your relationships with non-Christians.Cultivate the value of caring. Luke 10:25-37 —Many of us think that we care for others because we have no animosity toward others. But Jesus knows better. He knows that caring is only proved in the willingness to sacrifice for others. We are all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan but the pivotal interpretive clue for why Jesus told the parable is in verses 25-29, especially verse 29. Take a look. Real care is sacrificial and costly.
- Emphasize Obedience. Emphasize obedience in your own life and in the lives of those you equip. Basic, generous hospitality is not an issue of giftedness or talent, it is an issue of obedience. We are to consider others as more important than ourselves. Period. (Cf. Phil. 2:3)
- Be Real. Authenticity is a rare quality these days. Just be yourself. There is no need to be mushy or maudlin but there is a need to be genuinely concerned and caring. Neighbors respond with good favor when they are shown basic kindness. Retrieving a wind-tossed recycle bin, tomatoes from a garden, prayer offered for comfort when a loved one has died, shoveling a sidewalk or driveway, are all simple gestures but they open doors to greater things.
- Be Boldly and Humbly Confident. The two qualities are not mutually exclusive. We should be bold (and praying for boldness) all the time on the basis of the truth of the gospel. But we also should be saturated with humility. God saved us; we didn’t save ourselves. We have no claim to greatness. Humility is disarming. Care is disarming. Unashamed boldness coupled with humility is attractive.
- Know that You Will be Ripped Off. After having numerous homeless men stay in our home I can tell you that not every situation has a happy ending. Getting ripped off or taken advantage of will happen. It’s part of the price of living for Jesus. But you will be surprised too by the generosity and thankfulness of some of those you seek to care for and reach for the sake of Christ.
Companion Post: How to Fall in Love with Pagans
Friday, July 13, 2012
The Value of a Sabbatical
by Shawn Lovejoy
Many of you know that my family and I were away on a Ministry Sabbatical. Why did we need a Sabbatical? The word Sabbath, of course, means rest. That's what we needed this month. I actually do believe that Senior Pastors need MORE of it, because of the tireless schedules and demands on us. Every year, as soon as school is out, my entire family pulls back a good bit for a few weeks. We use this time to rest, replenish, and re-energize for the Fall!
What did I do on Sabbatical?
Shawn Lovejoy
Shawn Lovejoy is Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church; Directional Leader of churchplanters.com; and
author of The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors.
Many of you know that my family and I were away on a Ministry Sabbatical. Why did we need a Sabbatical? The word Sabbath, of course, means rest. That's what we needed this month. I actually do believe that Senior Pastors need MORE of it, because of the tireless schedules and demands on us. Every year, as soon as school is out, my entire family pulls back a good bit for a few weeks. We use this time to rest, replenish, and re-energize for the Fall!
What did I do on Sabbatical?
- I rested. Truly rested.
- I played with my kids.
- I hung out with my wife.
- I read. A lot. I read three books while I was away and started two more.
- I still did some work. It was just more of the Strategic and futuristic stuff. I worked ON IT, not IN IT. This kind of work inspires me, not drains me!
- I actually exercised some!
What made it
replenishing?
- I didn't teach for three weeks in a row. I finally miss it!
- I got away from home. When I'm at home, I can't relax like I want.
- I went to places where I wouldn't feel like we needed to "run" all the time (aka Disney World is not a great Sabbatical destination).
- I spent extended time with God each day. God and I had some great, unhurried, heart to heart'
What did I learn while on my
Sabbatical?
- Jesus can run His church without me. HE is bigger than ME!
- We have a dream team of leaders on our Staff these days who can lead well in my stead!
- God is louder in my life when I am away from the daily grind!
Shawn Lovejoy
Shawn Lovejoy is Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church; Directional Leader of churchplanters.com; and
author of The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors.
Friday, June 22, 2012
4 reasons why you'd better discover and deliver the one big idea as a communicator
Rick Duncan
Aside from receiving an anointing and filling from the Spirit of God, what is your biggest challenge in public speaking? Finding content? Overcoming nervousness? Maintaining interest? Staying passionate? Sharing illustrations?
These are all important factors. But not the most important.
When we are giving a presentation / message / talk it's important to establish and then relentlessly communicate one compelling big idea. All the other ideas we share should flow out of that one. When teaching a paragraph from the Bible, we have to study the passage so thoroughly that we discover what the one big idea was for the original audience. Then we are ready to teach the idea - the truth - to our people.
Why is this so important?
1. The big idea makes us relevant.
Once we discover the big idea we can communicate it in a compelling way that actually connects with our audience. We must seek to understand and care about the hurts, fears, and hopes of our listeners. Once that happens, them we can "marry" the big idea to the real needs of our people.
2. The big idea keeps us focused.
If we don't uncover and communicate the one big idea, then we will simply be stringing together a bunch of unrelated, rambling comments about the text. And we will doing a real injustice to the Spirit's inspiration through the author of the text. Scripture doesn't violate the principles of literary structure. Paragraphs in good literature have a subject and a complement - one big idea. There were not two or more big ideas in a paragraph for the original audience and there are not two or more big ideas in a paragraph now.
3. The big idea helps us study.
Once we know the big idea, we can find content, illustrations, applications, and supporting texts that truly support the one point we are seeking to make. Identifying the big idea will make it easier to eliminate the material we will inevitably find that won't help us make the point.
4. The big idea gives us passion.
Once we know the big idea and connect it to the needs (felt or unfelt) of the audience, our passion will grow. We will care. We will clearly see that what we are saying matters to the people in the room. Scattered, rambling communication lessens passion. Focused, pointed communication increases zeal.
We want to hit the hearts of people with a sniper-like rifle shot of truth, not the scattered buckshot approach of a running homily method of communicating.
Finding the big idea and connecting it to the people in relevant ways is sometimes easy but often tough for me. I need the prayers of God's people to communicate God's word in clear, practical, and relevant ways. Please pray for me and for anyone you know who seeks to communicate God's truth.
Question: Apart from gaining the anointing and filling of God's Spirit, what do you think is the most difficult task in communicating?
Aside from receiving an anointing and filling from the Spirit of God, what is your biggest challenge in public speaking? Finding content? Overcoming nervousness? Maintaining interest? Staying passionate? Sharing illustrations?
These are all important factors. But not the most important.
When we are giving a presentation / message / talk it's important to establish and then relentlessly communicate one compelling big idea. All the other ideas we share should flow out of that one. When teaching a paragraph from the Bible, we have to study the passage so thoroughly that we discover what the one big idea was for the original audience. Then we are ready to teach the idea - the truth - to our people.
Why is this so important?
1. The big idea makes us relevant.
Once we discover the big idea we can communicate it in a compelling way that actually connects with our audience. We must seek to understand and care about the hurts, fears, and hopes of our listeners. Once that happens, them we can "marry" the big idea to the real needs of our people.
2. The big idea keeps us focused.
If we don't uncover and communicate the one big idea, then we will simply be stringing together a bunch of unrelated, rambling comments about the text. And we will doing a real injustice to the Spirit's inspiration through the author of the text. Scripture doesn't violate the principles of literary structure. Paragraphs in good literature have a subject and a complement - one big idea. There were not two or more big ideas in a paragraph for the original audience and there are not two or more big ideas in a paragraph now.
3. The big idea helps us study.
Once we know the big idea, we can find content, illustrations, applications, and supporting texts that truly support the one point we are seeking to make. Identifying the big idea will make it easier to eliminate the material we will inevitably find that won't help us make the point.
4. The big idea gives us passion.
Once we know the big idea and connect it to the needs (felt or unfelt) of the audience, our passion will grow. We will care. We will clearly see that what we are saying matters to the people in the room. Scattered, rambling communication lessens passion. Focused, pointed communication increases zeal.
We want to hit the hearts of people with a sniper-like rifle shot of truth, not the scattered buckshot approach of a running homily method of communicating.
Finding the big idea and connecting it to the people in relevant ways is sometimes easy but often tough for me. I need the prayers of God's people to communicate God's word in clear, practical, and relevant ways. Please pray for me and for anyone you know who seeks to communicate God's truth.
Question: Apart from gaining the anointing and filling of God's Spirit, what do you think is the most difficult task in communicating?
How Does Accelerate Measure Success?
I was asked the other day, "How do you measure success with Accelerate?"
To determine this we must look at our mission, who we serve, what they need and our vision
We Serve: church planting pastors
Our Vision:
Healthy church planting pastors developing healthy reproducing churches resulting in
What Church Planters Need:
Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters
1. Assessment
2. Church planting training
3. Internship, residency, or church planting experience
4. Sponsoring churches involved in helping the plant
5. Administrative and strategic support
6. Coaching/mentoring relationship
7. Peer-to-peer relationships
8. Ongoing training opportunities
9. Exposure to available resources
Measuring success:
Our success will be through raising up the leaders and structures that make possible the equipping, encouragement and accountability new pastors and churches need. These are illustrated in the Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters. We provide some of these through coaching networks and some through creating collaborative efforts with other organizations.
We can measure:
1. Number of coaches raised up to lead coaching networks
2. Number of coaching networks
3. Planting pastors participating
4. Number of church planting churches and sponsoring churches
5. National network involvement in city
6. Survivability rate at 4 years of participants
7. Financial sustainability at 4 years of participating churches
8. Number of new churches that reproduce in 4 years
Anecdotal responses from pastors and leaders will illustrate life, church and community impact
To determine this we must look at our mission, who we serve, what they need and our vision
The Accelerate Mission is to:
Attract, inspire and equip Kingdom-minded leaders and
Connect them so they can
Collaborate with their time, talent and treasure so we
Accelerate the creation of healthy, reproducing faith communities resulting in
transformed lives and transformed communities
We Serve: church planting pastors
Our Vision:
Healthy church planting pastors developing healthy reproducing churches resulting in
transformed lives and transformed communities
What Church Planters Need:
Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters
1. Assessment
2. Church planting training
3. Internship, residency, or church planting experience
4. Sponsoring churches involved in helping the plant
5. Administrative and strategic support
6. Coaching/mentoring relationship
7. Peer-to-peer relationships
8. Ongoing training opportunities
9. Exposure to available resources
Measuring success:
Our success will be through raising up the leaders and structures that make possible the equipping, encouragement and accountability new pastors and churches need. These are illustrated in the Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters. We provide some of these through coaching networks and some through creating collaborative efforts with other organizations.
We can measure:
1. Number of coaches raised up to lead coaching networks
2. Number of coaching networks
3. Planting pastors participating
4. Number of church planting churches and sponsoring churches
5. National network involvement in city
6. Survivability rate at 4 years of participants
7. Financial sustainability at 4 years of participating churches
8. Number of new churches that reproduce in 4 years
Anecdotal responses from pastors and leaders will illustrate life, church and community impact
Monday, June 18, 2012
How worship smashes the idol of lust
Rick Duncan
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Recently, a friend trusted me enough to share with me his struggle to be free from lust. He hates the fact that he can't consistently overcome the temptation to linger long in looking at what he knows will bring momentary pleasure, but lasting shame. He knows it's hurting his marriage.
We talked about the normal approaches in the fight to overcome lustful thinking. Accountability? Check. Read Every Man's Battle? Check. Prayer? Check. Tell your spouse about your struggle to gain accountability and support? Check.
All these tools and techniques are good. They help my friend for awhile. Then he falls back into the sin that he wants desperately to overcome. His spiritually informed willpower to win isn't working.
I said, "What if your problem isn't really lust, but idolatry? Maybe what you really want is to be valued, prized, pursued, desired, and empowered. What if your fantasies run deeper than the simple rush from lust? What if what you really long for are things like being affirmed, respected, touched, received, and accepted? The lusting is rooted in the fantsy that some beautiful woman values you so much that she seeks intimacy with you. What if the problem isn't lust, but idolatry?"
An idol is something that we put in the place of God. It's something that we love, serve, and allow to dictate our behavior more than God. In the case of lust, it's not the picture that's the idol. It's the sense of vitality that comes from the fantasy accompanying the lust.
In the Old Testament, the saints of God were praised when they took down the high places of worship and smashed the idols. We have to do the same. We have to be idol smashers.
How? We repent and replace.
We receive the grace and mercy that comes from the gospel of Christ. We embrace the fact that Jesus already paid the price for our forgiveness when He died on the cross in our place for our sin. We refuse to live in shame. Past, present, and future lust has already been forgiven.
Then, we realize that that the most real, most powerful, most imporant Person, Jesus, truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, and empowers us. The King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of heaven and earth, the Sovereign God, the Beautiful One actually affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us.
We realize that we don't need the fantasy from a fake flickering image to feel vitalized. We are valued by God. Knowing that we have great worth to Christ makes lust become cheap and tawdry in our eyes. Why would we settle for a fantasy when we could have reality with God?
While reading books about freedom from lust might help, I suggested that my friend read books about Christ and the gospel. I suggested that he try The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller and Hunger for God by John Piper.
Ultimately, it's worship that sets us free from lust. It will be a lifelong battle to worship the way Jesus deserves and the way that sets us free. We will have advances and set backs. But as we prize Jesus more and more, we will be set free. We will be able to say, "Christ is my all in all" and "For me to live is Christ."
We can learn to meditate on how Jesus truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, empowers, affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us. We can learn to love Him more for all that. We can turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth, even lust, will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Question: What are other idols in your life that you have seen worship smash?
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Recently, a friend trusted me enough to share with me his struggle to be free from lust. He hates the fact that he can't consistently overcome the temptation to linger long in looking at what he knows will bring momentary pleasure, but lasting shame. He knows it's hurting his marriage.
We talked about the normal approaches in the fight to overcome lustful thinking. Accountability? Check. Read Every Man's Battle? Check. Prayer? Check. Tell your spouse about your struggle to gain accountability and support? Check.
All these tools and techniques are good. They help my friend for awhile. Then he falls back into the sin that he wants desperately to overcome. His spiritually informed willpower to win isn't working.
I said, "What if your problem isn't really lust, but idolatry? Maybe what you really want is to be valued, prized, pursued, desired, and empowered. What if your fantasies run deeper than the simple rush from lust? What if what you really long for are things like being affirmed, respected, touched, received, and accepted? The lusting is rooted in the fantsy that some beautiful woman values you so much that she seeks intimacy with you. What if the problem isn't lust, but idolatry?"
An idol is something that we put in the place of God. It's something that we love, serve, and allow to dictate our behavior more than God. In the case of lust, it's not the picture that's the idol. It's the sense of vitality that comes from the fantasy accompanying the lust.
In the Old Testament, the saints of God were praised when they took down the high places of worship and smashed the idols. We have to do the same. We have to be idol smashers.
How? We repent and replace.
We receive the grace and mercy that comes from the gospel of Christ. We embrace the fact that Jesus already paid the price for our forgiveness when He died on the cross in our place for our sin. We refuse to live in shame. Past, present, and future lust has already been forgiven.
Then, we realize that that the most real, most powerful, most imporant Person, Jesus, truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, and empowers us. The King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of heaven and earth, the Sovereign God, the Beautiful One actually affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us.
We realize that we don't need the fantasy from a fake flickering image to feel vitalized. We are valued by God. Knowing that we have great worth to Christ makes lust become cheap and tawdry in our eyes. Why would we settle for a fantasy when we could have reality with God?
While reading books about freedom from lust might help, I suggested that my friend read books about Christ and the gospel. I suggested that he try The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller and Hunger for God by John Piper.
Ultimately, it's worship that sets us free from lust. It will be a lifelong battle to worship the way Jesus deserves and the way that sets us free. We will have advances and set backs. But as we prize Jesus more and more, we will be set free. We will be able to say, "Christ is my all in all" and "For me to live is Christ."
We can learn to meditate on how Jesus truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, empowers, affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us. We can learn to love Him more for all that. We can turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth, even lust, will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Question: What are other idols in your life that you have seen worship smash?
Friday, June 8, 2012
The Church is Not the Hope of the World
from Shawn Lovejoy's blog
I believe I first heard Bill
Hybels say it: "The church is the hope of the world." I have actually repeated
it many times myself. However, in recent years, I've had a change of heart. I
simply no longer believe it's true. I don't believe the church is the hope of
the world. Yes, Jesus said, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will
not overcome it," but He also said, "On this rock I will build my church" (Matt.
16: 18 NIV, emphasis added). In other words, the church is not the hope of the
world. Jesus is the hope of the world. He has simply chosen to extend hope
through his people, the church. Without Jesus, the church has nothing to offer
anyone. Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the church. Without the cornerstone in
place, the house falls. For a church to be effective, Jesus must be at the
center of it.
Jesus said, "I am the vine; you
are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in
them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15: 5). Did you catch that? The church can do nothing apart from Jesus living through us. We might have crowds. We might have influence. We might make a lot of noise. We might have tons of religious activity going on. We might come together for services every few days. However, Jesus said that apart from him, no long-term spiritual fruit will be produced. Apart from Jesus, we've got nothing. That's what He said!
them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15: 5). Did you catch that? The church can do nothing apart from Jesus living through us. We might have crowds. We might have influence. We might make a lot of noise. We might have tons of religious activity going on. We might come together for services every few days. However, Jesus said that apart from him, no long-term spiritual fruit will be produced. Apart from Jesus, we've got nothing. That's what He said!
We don't really believe that
though, do we? If we really believed that Jesus was the hope of the world,
wouldn't our lives and ministries look much differently than they do? If we
really believed that Jesus was the hope of the world, wouldn't we spend more
time with Him?
Wouldn't the Gospels drive more of our lives and our teachings? Pastors, wouldn't we preach this Sunday with more urgency? Wouldn't more Christians be Going? Giving? Sharing their faith? Wouldn't we talk less about what's going on in our churches and more about what's going on in our relationships with Jesus?
The church is not the hope of the
world. In fact, the church is not even the church unless Jesus is living in and
through it! The church without Jesus is a cult. Period. Jesus is the hope of the
world. Jesus is the only Good News! Would you be willing to go out and live like
you believe that today?
Make sure you take a few minutes to check out Shawn's
interview about his new book with Ed Stetzer on his blog.
Shawn Lovejoy
Shawn is the Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church; Directional Leader of churchplanters.com; and author of The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
How to pray for the people you love
Rick Duncan
I'm guessing you're like me when it comes to praying for
others.
Sometimes, you feel led to pray for people but you just don't know how or what to pray.
I have found that it is helpful to pray the scriptures.
In Philippians 1:9-11, we learn how a great spiritual leader, Paul, prays for a church he planted. Why not try praying this prayer for someone in your circle of influence for the next week or so? Pray with expectancy. And watch what God does. Write down how God answers.
Here is the prayer put together from multiple versions. Simply pray one phrase as it's written and then, to keep this from becoming vain repetition, pray that phrase in your own words to God.
Here's a prayer we put together from several versions of the Bible. What if you prayed this for someone for the next 7 days?
***
Father in Heaven, I humbly come before You to pray for __________.
May his/her love flourish. May his/her love keep on growing more and more.
Give __________ an ability to love well with knowledge, understanding, discernment, and wisdom.
Help him/her make right choices, choose the best, and approve what is excellent.
I pray that __________ will grow in purity and blamelessness to be ready for the return of Christ.
Fill his/her life with good deeds – with the fruits of righteousness – that come through Jesus.
May __________ truly live a life that will bring much glory and praise to God.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
***
(A prayer based on Philippians 1:9-11 using phrases from the English Standard Version, the Message, the New Living Version, God’s Word Translation, Contemporary English Version, and the New Century Version.)
Question: How do you find the words to pray for someone when the words are hard to find?
Sometimes, you feel led to pray for people but you just don't know how or what to pray.
I have found that it is helpful to pray the scriptures.
In Philippians 1:9-11, we learn how a great spiritual leader, Paul, prays for a church he planted. Why not try praying this prayer for someone in your circle of influence for the next week or so? Pray with expectancy. And watch what God does. Write down how God answers.
Here is the prayer put together from multiple versions. Simply pray one phrase as it's written and then, to keep this from becoming vain repetition, pray that phrase in your own words to God.
Here's a prayer we put together from several versions of the Bible. What if you prayed this for someone for the next 7 days?
***
Father in Heaven, I humbly come before You to pray for __________.
May his/her love flourish. May his/her love keep on growing more and more.
Give __________ an ability to love well with knowledge, understanding, discernment, and wisdom.
Help him/her make right choices, choose the best, and approve what is excellent.
I pray that __________ will grow in purity and blamelessness to be ready for the return of Christ.
Fill his/her life with good deeds – with the fruits of righteousness – that come through Jesus.
May __________ truly live a life that will bring much glory and praise to God.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
***
(A prayer based on Philippians 1:9-11 using phrases from the English Standard Version, the Message, the New Living Version, God’s Word Translation, Contemporary English Version, and the New Century Version.)
Question: How do you find the words to pray for someone when the words are hard to find?
Monday, June 4, 2012
Thoughts on Worship and Worship Leaders
Over the past 3 years I've visited about 50 new churches around the Washington Baltimore area. These are observations I've had:
1. Across the board I've felt that the worship leaders and bands have done a good job with the music. They sound good which inspires the people. I have been encouraged.
2. I have felt that the A/V quality in most churches has been very good in spite of the challenges that many portable churches experience.
3. Most worship leaders have learned to lead the music well. Unfortunately they have not been trained to lead the people well. The result often means there is a good performance from the front and most of the people in the congregation just stand there and do not sing. At one church I had a hard time finding anyone singing.
4. When a worship leader does not express a personality from up front he/she does not draw the people into the worship or endear the people to the leader. In so many evangelical churches we have swung the pendulum so far that the worship leader does not connect with the people at all.
5. Most worship leaders are tenors or baritones. Most men are bass singers, especially on a Sunday morning when then are still draggy from sleeping in. The result is that most songs are sung in a higher key than I can sing. So I drop a register or keep skipping bank and forth between registers. Or I don't sing. One church was led by a lady who is a low alto. They had the opposite problem. The singing was so low that it created a hushed sound as apposed to a positive energetic sound. Then I visited a church with both. One song was sung in to high a key and the next song was sung in too low a key. LOL
You may think I am being too picky here. But paying attention to the key that a song is sung in does affect how well the people enter into the worship experience.
We have Accelerate coaching networks for senior leaders. Now several worship leaders are expressing an interest in starting a coaching network for them to connect with and encourage each other. I am praying and looking for an experienced worship leader to facilitate and coach a group.
If you are interested in an Accelerate coaching network for worship leaders let me know.
1. Across the board I've felt that the worship leaders and bands have done a good job with the music. They sound good which inspires the people. I have been encouraged.
2. I have felt that the A/V quality in most churches has been very good in spite of the challenges that many portable churches experience.
3. Most worship leaders have learned to lead the music well. Unfortunately they have not been trained to lead the people well. The result often means there is a good performance from the front and most of the people in the congregation just stand there and do not sing. At one church I had a hard time finding anyone singing.
4. When a worship leader does not express a personality from up front he/she does not draw the people into the worship or endear the people to the leader. In so many evangelical churches we have swung the pendulum so far that the worship leader does not connect with the people at all.
5. Most worship leaders are tenors or baritones. Most men are bass singers, especially on a Sunday morning when then are still draggy from sleeping in. The result is that most songs are sung in a higher key than I can sing. So I drop a register or keep skipping bank and forth between registers. Or I don't sing. One church was led by a lady who is a low alto. They had the opposite problem. The singing was so low that it created a hushed sound as apposed to a positive energetic sound. Then I visited a church with both. One song was sung in to high a key and the next song was sung in too low a key. LOL
You may think I am being too picky here. But paying attention to the key that a song is sung in does affect how well the people enter into the worship experience.
We have Accelerate coaching networks for senior leaders. Now several worship leaders are expressing an interest in starting a coaching network for them to connect with and encourage each other. I am praying and looking for an experienced worship leader to facilitate and coach a group.
If you are interested in an Accelerate coaching network for worship leaders let me know.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Mentoring a few for greater impact
Yesterday I met with a pastor of a new church that is reaching a particular language group. The church was started by a group who came from a mother church 30 miles away. Pastor (we will call him Joe) was asked to lead the group. He has had no training or experience in church planting.
Joe is now coming to one of our Accelerate Coaching Networks for pastors of new churches led by an experienced church planting pastor. We are also trying to hook him up with a national network for their local intensive training.
Joe is frustrated because most of the people are not "catching the vision or involved". I encouraged him to view the people as Jesus modeled. He spoke to the masses. He trained the twelve. And he spent focused time with Peter, James and John. In effect Jesus had three strategies. He gave each group what they needed to help move them to the next level. The majority of his time was not spent with the masses, but with the twelve and specifically with the three.
Who are the three in your church that you are spending time with? How can these people be mentored in their spiritual life and leadership? Did Jesus recruit them into a classroom to lecture them? No he took them with him and modeled life and ministry.
Try this: Line up times when you are meeting with people to: share your faith, follow-up a new believer, encourage a believer in his walk, disciple someone. Then call one of your three and ask them to go with you. They can come along to pray and "catch" ministry concepts and skills. Then you debrief and talk about it - what they saw, what they learned, what we could have done differently, etc. Gradually you have them take the lead in situations while you watch.
What you are doing is mentoring people in the Christian life and ministry and leadership. Instead of "recruiting" people into ministry you are "mentoring" people into ministry.
3 Steps
1. Pray for the right three
2. Pray for and take opportunities to minister to people
3. Invite one of your three to go with you
Joe is now coming to one of our Accelerate Coaching Networks for pastors of new churches led by an experienced church planting pastor. We are also trying to hook him up with a national network for their local intensive training.
Joe is frustrated because most of the people are not "catching the vision or involved". I encouraged him to view the people as Jesus modeled. He spoke to the masses. He trained the twelve. And he spent focused time with Peter, James and John. In effect Jesus had three strategies. He gave each group what they needed to help move them to the next level. The majority of his time was not spent with the masses, but with the twelve and specifically with the three.
Who are the three in your church that you are spending time with? How can these people be mentored in their spiritual life and leadership? Did Jesus recruit them into a classroom to lecture them? No he took them with him and modeled life and ministry.
Try this: Line up times when you are meeting with people to: share your faith, follow-up a new believer, encourage a believer in his walk, disciple someone. Then call one of your three and ask them to go with you. They can come along to pray and "catch" ministry concepts and skills. Then you debrief and talk about it - what they saw, what they learned, what we could have done differently, etc. Gradually you have them take the lead in situations while you watch.
What you are doing is mentoring people in the Christian life and ministry and leadership. Instead of "recruiting" people into ministry you are "mentoring" people into ministry.
3 Steps
1. Pray for the right three
2. Pray for and take opportunities to minister to people
3. Invite one of your three to go with you
5 ways for leaders to get out of a funk
5 ways for leaders to get out of a funk
Rick Duncan
Recently, I met with a young church planter who said he was in a funk. He has a wonderful family. He's gathering people, watching God change lives, and living out a dream. Yet, in spite of all the great things God is doing in his life, his introverted, melancholic, perfectionist tendencies are being leveraged by the enemy to steal his joy and peace. He's in a funk.
A funk is a dejected, disgusted, disinterested mood. When I am in a funk I am grumpy, disengaged, lethargic, and de-motivated. I am not fun to be around. I throw pity-parties. Not only does the to-do list not get done, it doesn't even get made!
I think funks are inevitable. They are part of fallen humanity. So, we shouldn't be surprised or guilt-ridden when we end up in a funk. But I know that at the root of my funk is my sin. Scripture tells us to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4). When my heart is not rejoicing, it's a telltale sign that I have placed someone or something other than Jesus on the throne of my life. Funks flow from idolatry. When I stay in a funk, I am telling a watching world that Jesus is not enough for me. Extended funks are not OK.
Remember that God still loves you when you are in a funk (Ephesians 3:18-19). But also remember that He loves you too much to let you stay there.
In the Bible, we see leaders who got into a funk. One was David. Leadership for David was often hard. "And David was greatly distressed... But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God" (I Samuel 30:6, ESV). The KJV says that he "encouraged himself" in the Lord. Evidently, David was able to de-funk-ify his life.
I want learn more and more how to encourage myself in the Lord - how to de-funk-ify my life. My wife, my family and my friends want me to learn that, too.
So, how do we encourage ourselves and get out of a funk? It helps me to think about a plan of attack in five ways - physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.
1. Move physically. Go for a walk, a run, or a bike ride. Get outside if you can. Do 10 minutes of push-ups, jumping jacks, and squats. Get to the gym. When you exercise, your brain will release endorphins that will elevate your mood. Or you might want to try something as simple as taking a shower or a bath. Or take a nap. Organize your desk and/or your office. Just change something physically.
2. Stretch mentally. Learn something new. How? Memorize a Bible verse. Learn an inspirational quote. Read a few pages in a book on theology, history, science, nature, technology, or leadership. Share a few things you learn with some friends via a note, a card, Twitter, or Facebook.
3. Grow emotionally. Put on some upbeat, happy music. Make a play list of upbeat music and play it loud. Music has a powerful way to connect us to the good times we're already experienced in the past. Even if you have no reason or don't feel like it, laugh! For 7 seconds. Your emotions will often follow your body’s lead. Smile at the people you see. And watch them smile back. Hang around people that love you or who can make you laugh. Avoid the VDPs in your life (the Very Draining People!). Instead, talk with an encouraging friend who knows how to listen and lift your spirits.
4. Serve relationally. Who (besides you!) is having a hard time? Stop feeling sorry for yourself and lift someone else's spirits. Write a note; send a card; make a call; go out with them for coffee; buy a gift card; or give a generous gift. Just do something to make someone else's day. Or volunteer to do some work with your church or your local charity. If you are married, write a love note to your spouse and mail it.
5. Soar spiritually. Read some inspiring sections or stories in the Bible that have a track record of lifting your heart. Make a list of 3-5 things (or more) you are grateful for and then thank God for them. Pour out your heart to God. Ask Him to help you get out of your funk. Remember, apart from Christ you can do nothing (John 15:5). Trying to de-funk-ify your life without Jesus is just empty/vain/futile self-help. Jesus can fill you with positive, uplifting thoughts. He can help you give thanks for what you have rather than what you don’t have. If you have Jesus, you have what money can't buy and death can't take away (Ephesians 1:3, II Peter 1:3). He can help you be joyful about what you get to do rather than what you have to do. He is the ultimate attitude-adjuster. Stay connected to Christ.
So, how do you de-funk-ify your life?
Sunday, May 20, 2012
9 Ways Leaders can Know if They are Filled with the Holy Spirit
How do leaders know when they are
filled with the Spirit?
Rick Duncan
In Acts 1 and
2, there’s a special supernatural power for ministry (particularly in missions
and evangelism) that is experienced. Leaders must long for that kind of evidence
and pray for supernatural power in ministry.
But I believe that leaders could and should long for evidence of the Spirit’s filling that is much more mundane and routine. Fruitfulness and excellence in daily living is evidence of the Spirit’s fulness in your life. Your family will be much more impressed if you focus on the Spirit’s filling in your daily life than they will be if you focus on the Spirit’s filling in your ministry life. After all, your family is your primary ministry.
Pastor Joe Propri has been at our church to train some of our leaders. Here’s one thing Joe shared that’s been helpful to many of us.
Let’s say that a container – a jar – represents you and what’s in you. We pretty much can handle life well when things are going the way we want them to go. But life isn’t always like that. Life is a series of problems one after another. Things come at us. Things go wrong. There is stress. And pressure. The pressures might be financial. The stress might be a relational struggle with a child or a parent or a friend. The problems might be physical.
Now, the things that go “wrong” tip us over. And what’s in us comes out.
Let’s be honest here. What comes out when your child has a nasty attitude toward you? Or some ministry leader challenges your authority? Or a volunteer gets angry with a decision and confronts you? When things go wrong, what comes out? Often it’s anger. Anxiety. Bitterness. Addictions. Depression. Abuse. And more.
Strange, isn’t it, that those kinds of things come out of us when heaven’s Helper is living in us? Consider what the Bible says that He actually desires to produce within us. Here are the 9 characteristics that the Spirit seeks to produce in leaders’ lives - all day, every day.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22, 23).
Are these the 9 things that are coming out of you? Whether or not we bear the fruit of the Spirit doesn’t depend on what is going on outside. “But you don’t know my kids, my spouse, my trouble.” Listen, things will go wrong… for everyone! What I must accept and remember is this: My peace and joy have nothing to do with what’s going on outside me! My peace and joy have everything thing to do with who’s filling me!
The Holy Spirit is in me. Pressure and stress and trouble come. I’m tipped over. What comes out when I’m filled with the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control come out! We simply have to begin taking responsibility for reactions and responses to the stresses of life.
Father, search me. (That's seeing our
sin.)
Jesus, wash me. (That's forsaking our
sin.)
Spirit, fill me. (That's seeking freedom from
sin.)
Will you pray those prayers today? The people who
are following you need you to be filled with the Spirit. They need to see the 9
proofs that you are filled with the Spirit. All day. Every day.
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