Senin, 11 Desember 2017

Rick Warren: Go Where the Fish Are Biting

Rick Warren: Go Where the Fish Are Biting

Why waste seed, time, energy, effort and money?
Exponential
In 32 years of planting and leading Saddleback Church, I’ve learned some key lessons about evangelism and outreach. One of the most important is that it’s a waste of time to fish in a spot where the fish aren’t biting. Wise fishermen move on. They know that fish eat at different times of the day in different places.
How does this apply to evangelism and ministry? Simple. Just like wise fishermen, as leaders we have to focus on the most receptive people in our area and move on when we sense a dead end.
This is not a marketing principle but rather a basic New Testament principle. Jesus illustrated it in His parable of the sower (to add another metaphor). When you sow seed, some of it falls on rocky ground, some on stony ground, some on hard ground and some on good soil. Wouldn’t it be great if we knew where the good soil was and could sow all our seed there? Why waste seed, time, effort, energy and money?
Remember that it’s God’s job to prepare the soil and our job as the church to sow the seed. God uses all kinds of sovereign things like divorce, crises, death, economic problems, government shutdowns, losing a job, a new baby or a new job to prepare the soil. But God uses His church to sow the seed.
The fact is, receptiveness to the gospel varies widely at different times in people’s lives. Sometimes people are very open to the gospel. Sometimes they’re very closed. And receptivity doesn’t last forever.
Jesus knew this truth very well. That’s why He said, “Go to the people who will listen.” When He sent the disciples out to evangelize, He told them, “If a home or town refuses to welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet” (Matthew 10:14, NCV).
That statement is significant. Jesus instructed His disciples to leave the unresponsive place and move on to other soil. Far more people in the world are ready to receive Christ than the number of people who are ready to share it. As leaders, we should constantly ask God, “Who are You preparing right now for me to talk to?”
Has someone ever said to you, “Pastor, I think before we go after any new people we ought to go back and round up all the old people who’ve left the church”? This is a guaranteed strategy for church decline because often the people who have left have resolved to be unreceptive to your church’s mission and message.
Reclaiming someone who’s gotten upset and cantankerous takes 10 times more energy than to go out and win someone who hasn’t yet trusted in Jesus. God has called us to feed sheep—not corral goats.
Growing churches focus on reaching receptive people while non-growing churches focus on re-enlisting inactive people.
How do you know who’s ready to be reached and people in your community who might be receptive to the gospel? I’ve found that people experiencing change or transition and people under some sort of tension are generally more open. Someone coping with transition (a new job, home, baby, marriage, school) or under tension (physical, emotional, financial or relational) is usually searching for answers, for hope and for truth.
Who in your sphere of influence do you know that needs to hear the gospel? Where is God already working in your community? This fall, take some time to think through how your church plant can engage people in transition or under tension and go where the fish are biting.

MAXIMUM IMPACT: HOW EVANGELISM GROWS DISCIPLESHIP

MAXIMUM IMPACT: HOW EVANGELISM GROWS DISCIPLESHIP

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Deepen Discipleship and Develop New Leaders in Your Church Community.

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For more than five years, the Billy Graham Center has gathered senior pastors into cohorts that meet monthly to receive encouragement and accountability in their personal witness and to be equipped to lead their churches in evangelism. Terry Erickson, pastor of outreach development at Lakeland Church in Gurnee, Illinois, is one of about 60 pastors currently engaged with an evangelism cohort.
Last night was bittersweet. I hosted a farewell party for a couple that had been an integral part of our outreach leadership team, but now they were moving on, and South Carolina would be blessed by their hospitality. Although it’s hard to see such dear friends go, it was a precious time to celebrate their contribution over the years, as well as to remember all that God has done in our church through that time.
Our church has been running the same evangelistic program for the last 10 years. Initially, it was hard to get momentum for it, since it was viewed simply as an evangelism tool. With that perspective, the majority of our church members didn’t feel the need to engage with it, since they were already following Christ.
Over the last three years, however, this program has become so much more than just a way to reach people—it has become deeply engrained in the fabric of our community and has shifted our whole church culture toward evangelism in undeniable ways.
As we’ve shared testimonies and baptized new believers, evangelism began to have an impact on our broader church body and to cultivate renewed momentum around reaching others for Christ. As the excitement spread, I was asked to use this evangelism tool in one of the adult Bible communities. Since many of the participants were already established in their faith, their interest in participating in this evangelistic program clearly demonstrated the value of this tool as a means for discipleship as well.
Looking around the table last night, I saw the faces of people who had committed themselves to Christ through this evangelism program and were now serving on our outreach leadership team. It was a beautiful sight to see, because that’s what the kingdom of God is all about: one life being transformed by the gospel and then turning around and facilitating that transformation for someone else.
I never expected this tool to have such a powerful impact on the broader life of our church, but as it turns out, evangelism tools can be used for much more than evangelism. If they’re used well, they can deepen the discipleship of those already following Christ and develop new leaders in your church community. May you be inspired to maximize the impact of the evangelism tools you’re already using and mobilize your church members to engage in evangelism.

How to Check Your Blind Spots

How to Check Your Blind Spots

Planters need to adapt quickly—identifying and correcting blind spots promptly is vital.
How to Check Your Blind Spots
It beeps. It lights up. It creates awareness that your casual over-the-shoulder can’t achieve. Vehicles have come a long way in blind spot technology.
It use to require a head turn of some 75 degrees. Then manufactures made the mini-mirrors to be added to your side view mirror. And now, automated blind spot checkers.
I doubt most of us have kept progressing in our leadership blind spot technology as vehicle manufactures have for their cars. In fact, as we’ve gone further in our leadership, our blind spots may have been ignored and probably even gotten larger.
Because we’re the “leader,” the person riding shotgun with us may feel less freedom to warn us of our blind spots. And because we’re the “boss,” our ego may prohibit us from asking said shotgun rider for their input.
We feel like we have so much experience, we can just sense our blind spots. “Surely I’m self-aware enough, right?” Yep, the more longevity and leadership success means we may have just broadened the width of our blind spots.
For these reasons, we need more sophisticated blind spot checking.
Blind Spot Automation
Awareness
It begins with admitting you have a problem. “Hi, my name is Brian, and I know I have leadership blind spots.” If you struggle to say that, well, you’ve definitely got blind spots. They could be significant blind spots like character or competency. Usually though, they’re areas that didn’t use to be a problem, but over time without intentionality, the blind spot has become a reality. Are you aware you have blind spots? Can your self-awareness skills identify them?
Ask
No matter how self-aware you may be, you’ll still need a second opinion. And that means you’ll have to ask others. And when you do, ask with assumption that these blind spots do in fact exist. Your inquiry shouldn’t be, “Do I have any blind spots?” But should be more like, “I realize I get into my own world, habits and passionate about my work, and I know that means I have some leadership blind spots. What are a couple areas you’ve seen where I’m most likely to be susceptible?”
Just assuming they exist and framing in a way that gives the person permission to answer candidly without feeling like they’re attacking you will go a long way in getting useful feedback.
Assessments
While I do think personality assessments should always be considered 10 percent accurate, nor do I see their results as something that should hold a person hostage to behaviors that are “hard wired in.” I do feel like the results can be a tool. A tool that’s printed that can tell you in black and white how your actions and personality may be perceived by others.
In the most recent personality assessment I took, its results reminded me of some areas that are square in my blind spot. But there were some results that were new to me. For example, when it mentioned, “[Brian] may rely too much on past experience.” I’d never considered this before, but because I became aware of this possibility, I was able to investigate. If you haven’t used a personality assessment, I encourage you to find a free or affordable one and see if it will create awareness for you.
Accountability
Who, without you asking for it, can make you aware of your leadership blind spots? Who have you given permission to be a “back seat driver” and let you know when you’re merging into an area that could cause a wreck?
You’re a leader. You get things done. You care about others. But a leader who cares about those they lead will make sure at least one of the things you get done is identifying and eliminating your leadership blind spots.
This article originally appeared here.

Jesus Did not Say Wait for Pastors to Plant Churches

Jesus Did not Say Wait for Pastors to Plant Churches

But where will the pastors for those people come from?
Jesus Did not Say Wait for Pastors to Plant Churches
The United States is not only one of the world’s largest countries (thirrd), it also home to the third largest number of unreached people groups (a story few have heard). Over the past several years, I have noticed a very common church planting strategy that is on the minds of most churches, agencies and networks:
“Wait for the Lord on high to send a pastor to you—one from among that people, be he Anglo/European-descendant, Chinese, Russian, etc.—to reach those people with the gospel and plant a church among them.”
Granted, near culture evangelistic work is often more effective than cross-cultural work (but not always). However, the problem with this thinking is that we run into a problem if we want to reach the unreached, among whom few believers and no pastors exist.
When was the last time you had a conversation with a Somali pastor? Saudi pastor? Wolof pastor? Or, what about a pastor representing the other 540 unreached people groups living in the United States and Canada?
The Lord only told the early believers to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of His Spirit (Acts 1). Even when He told them to pray for laborers for the harvest, it was in the context of them going to make disciples (Luke 10:2). He has told us to go, to cross the cultural gaps, to make disciples of all nations.
He has not told us to wait.
He has not told us to look for pastors to go and plant churches among those people.
But where will the pastors for those people come from?
From the same location where He has provided all of the pastors in the world today—out of the harvest.
Cross cultures in your neighborhood. Do evangelism. Make disciples from the harvest. Baptize them. Gather those new believers together in a small group. Teach them to obey. Lead them to covenant together as a local church. Raise up pastors from among them to shepherd that new congregation (see Acts 13-14).
Jesus said to go and make disciples, not wait for pastors to plant churches.
This article originally appeared here.

Three Common Idols in Churches

Three Common Idols in Churches

Three Common Idols in Churches
Here are three common idols in churches that every church leader needs to know and turn away from.
Hezekiah is affirmed in Scripture as doing “what was right in the Lord’s sight” (2 Kings 18:3). The next verse details what Hezekiah did: “He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for the Israelites burned incense to it up to that time” (2 Kings 18:4).
Surely people understood a strong, spiritual leader removing the idols (the high places and the Asherah poles) that grabbed the hearts of the people and stole worship from the Lord. They would expect their spiritual leader to insist they stop worshiping other gods. But what Hezekiah did next must have been really unexpected and really controversial. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses made—intentionally. Not by accident. Not “I was carrying it and it fell.” To break bronze takes some effort.
Eliminating pagan idols is one thing, but “that was the snake Moses made!” It was the bronze snake God told Moses to make, the one people looked at to be delivered from their snakebites (Numbers 21).
Hezekiah broke the snake because the people were burning incense to it. They were worshiping a bronze snake. Tools for transformation can become objects of worship. In our sinfulness, we can make an idol of just about anything. In our sinfulness, we tend to make idols of things that are important to us. Thus, a bronze snake that God used to bring healing, held by the leader of God’s people during their liberation from slavery, became an object of worship.
Today is not altogether different. God’s people still struggle with taking tools for transformation and making them objects of worship. Here are three common idols in churches:

1. The Idols of Place

Because the Lord does a great work in the hearts of His people when they gather, the places of gathering can move from a tool for transformation to an object of worship. Thus, if a leader mentions “relocation,” the leader is essentially threatening to cut a bronze snake into pieces. We must remind people that the building is not the church, that His people are the church. God does not live in the place where we gather; He lives in the hearts of His people.

2. The Idols of the Past

Because the Lord worked in amazing ways in the past, the past can become an idol where people long for the past more than they long for the Lord. Being grateful for the past is one thing, and worshiping it is quite another. If “former days” were great, they were only great because of the Lord.

3. The Idols of Programs

Because God changed lives through a program or event, people can elevate a program to an unhealthy place. Programs can become ends in themselves and not tools used in a church’s discipleship process. When this happens, they exist as modern-day bronze snakes.
How can leaders be like Hezekiah? How can modern-day bronze snakes be removed?
Leaders must constantly point people to the person of Jesus. Only He is worthy of our worship and only He can transform hearts. When we help people see the greatness of Jesus, idols look less attractive. As we turn our eyes on Jesus and look full in His wonderful face, the things of this world (place, past and programs included) grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Leaders must also continually remind people of the purpose of the church. (Yes, I know it is another “p,” but it fits.) A church exists to make disciples. When a church embraces the mission of making disciples, programs are viewed as tools and not as ends in themselves. When making disciples is what a church is all about, the place is rightly seen as merely a place to help make disciples.
Though the Lord instructed the snake to be made, the Lord affirmed its destruction. And of Hezekiah, the Scripture says:
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him (2 Kings 18:5).