5 Ideas For Blessing Your Pastor

By Scott Attebery

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Hebrews 13:17 declares, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.“ In other words, don’t take your church leaders for granted. Instead, bring joy to their life by the way you treat them.
In light of this, here are five quick ideas to bless your pastor(s) this week:

• Send him a handwritten note of appreciation. Be sure to mention specific ways he has influenced your life for Christ. Most pastors have no idea if they are making a difference and would be thrilled to receive such a note.
• Gather a small group of people to pray over him before a Sunday service. There is nothing more reassuring prior to preaching than to know that your congregation is praying for you. It reminds him that he is not preaching to adversaries, but rather to fellow believers wanting to join him in hearing the Word of the Lord.
• Talk positively behind his back. The temptation to gossip about church leadership is strong. One way to defeat it is to be proactive in speaking positively about the pastor. This can preclude gossip and encourage others to appreciate the leadership God has provided.
• Ask him questions about the sermon. Most pastors spend hours preparing a sermon. After they deliver it, they wonder whether people understood, learned, and responded. When people ask questions about the sermon (in love, of course) it lets the pastor know that his labor was not in vain and that he made a connection. To know that a sermon sparked conversation is high praise.
• Be active in your role. Pastors often feel alone. Many times, they are overworked because everything is left to them. However, when members use their gifts and skills to participate in the ministry of the church the pastor receives needed help and an emotional boost.

Pastors are constantly blessing the lives of their congregation. Don’t forget that the Bible expects the congregation to also be a blessing to the life of the pastor!

3 Secrets to Pastoral Longevity

By Ronnie Floyd

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Twenty-nine years ago this week, following God’s call to our lives, my very young family and I moved to Northwest Arkansas. I would have never imagined that one day I would be writing about my pastoral longevity here or anywhere else.
This past Sunday, I was preaching at the Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, honoring my dear friend, Dr. Ted Traylor for his twenty-five years of pastoral longevity there. Over dinner, he and Liz remarked to us how fast the years have gone.
Observing and Reflecting
While observing the Traylors this past weekend and hearing them reflect over their ministry, I was reminded of the power of reflection. Obviously, pastors who stay anywhere long enough will reflect on their own journey toward longevity.
Some pastors stay long effectively, while others stay enduringly. The former is much greater than the latter.

3 Secrets to Pastoral Longevity
In my own reflection upon life and ministry, I want to share three secrets to pastoral longevity:
1. Living with the conviction of God’s calling
Staying somewhere a long time can be extremely difficult for a pastor and his family. There are moments when leaving would be much easier than staying. There may be times when you beg God for somewhere to go.
Yet, one of the secrets to pastoral longevity is living with the conviction of God’s calling upon your life and location. This conviction must grip your life and the very essence of who you are. Without it, you will not be able to stay anywhere very long.
2. Learning to surf the seasons of ministry transition
Pastors must understand that ministry is filled with many seasons. Just like a team, there are winning seasons, mediocre seasons, and losing seasons. This is why you cherish the seasons overflowing with fruitfulness and faithfulness.
If you do not cherish the seasons, when the tough times hit, you move to the depth of despair. You get down on ministry as well as the church you are called to serve. This is why it is imperative to learn to surf the seasons of ministry transition. Otherwise, you feel you are drowning. Hang on. Give it time. Keep your head up and soon you will feel the Spirit of God carrying you.
3. Changing your life and ministry practices continually
Pastors promote change within their church, but at times, the greatest need for change is within the pastor himself. Pastors have to experience continual sanctification, becoming more like Jesus continually.
We do this willingly, or the Lord, at times, may do it with us purposefully. This is not always easy to go through for any of us. But if we have a genuine desire to be used of God powerfully, God knows what needs to happen to get us to the point of becoming surrendered and useable.
Therefore, we must be like new wineskins: flexible, filled with elasticity, and conforming to what God is doing within us, through us, and around us. This results in our ministry practices not being something we worship, but something that adjusts to what God is doing at the time.
Cling to 1 Corinthians 15:58
God does not call every pastor to stay somewhere a long time, but He does call every pastor to be faithful and fruitful. What does this mean? Perhaps the following verse will address this question. In fact, if you want pastor longevity, cling to 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Pastor, rise up in this hour. Be willing to give your life to a place God calls you and simultaneously, be willing to leave tomorrow if God so wills. I have and I will. Our allegiance is to God Himself and His calling in our lives.

How to Recognize Spiritually Receptive People In Your Community

By Rick Warren

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Pastor, you’re surrounded by dirt.

To be more precise, you’re surrounded by soil – all kinds of soil. In your community, you have people who are ready to respond to the Gospel and people who aren’t. Your job is to isolate the good soil and plant your seed there.

Jesus clearly taught this notion of spiritual receptivity in the Parable of the Sower and the Soils (Matt. 13:3-23). Like different kinds of soil, people respond differently to the Good News. Everyone is not equally ready to receive Christ. Some people are very open to hearing the Gospel and others are very closed. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explained that there are hard hearts, shallow hearts, distracted hearts, and receptive hearts.

If you want your ministry to maximize its evangelism effectiveness, you need to focus your energy on the right soil. That’s the soil that will produce a hundred-fold harvest. Take a cue from those who work with actual dirt. No farmer in his right mind would waste seed, a precious commodity, on infertile ground that won’t produce a crop. In the same way, I believe careless, unplanned broadcasting of the Gospel is poor stewardship. The message of Christ is too important to waste time, money, and energy on non-productive methods and soil. We need to be strategic in reaching the world. We should focus our efforts where they will make the greatest difference.

Spiritual receptivity comes and goes in people’s lives like an ocean tide. People are more open to spiritual truth at certain times than at others. Many factors determine spiritual receptivity. God uses a variety of tools to soften hearts and prepare people to be saved.

So who are the most receptive people? I believe there are two broad categories: people in transition and people under tension. That’s because God uses both change and pain to get people’s attention and make them receptive to the Gospel.

People in transition: Any time people experience major change, whether positive or negative, they develop a hunger for spiritual stability. This has occurred in America during the last several years. The massive changes in our world have left us frightened and unsettled and has produced an enormous interest in spiritual matters. Alvin Toffler says that people look for “islands of stability” when change becomes overwhelming. This is a wave the Church needs to ride.

People are also more receptive to the Gospel when they face changes like a new marriage, a new baby, a new home, a new job, or a new school. That’s why churches can generally grow faster in newer communities where new residents are continually moving in than in stable, older communities where people have lived for 40 years.

People under tension: God uses all kinds of emotional pain to get people’s attention: the pain of divorce, death of a loved one, unemployment, financial problems, marriage and family difficulties, loneliness, resentment, guilt, and other stresses. When people are fearful or anxious, they often look for something greater than themselves to ease the pain and fill the void they feel. I claim no immaculate perception on the list I want to share with you. This is not a scientific study. But based on my many years of pastoring, I offer the following list of what I believe have been the 10 most receptive groups of people that we’ve reached out to at Saddleback:

• Second-time visitors to your church (unbelievers who come, regardless of the reason)
• Close friends and relatives of new converts
• People going through a divorce
• Those who feel their need for a recovery program (any type: alcohol, drugs, sexual, etc.)
• First-time parents
• Terminal illness of self or family member
• Couples with major marriage problems
• Parents with problem children
• Recently unemployed/major financial problem
• New residents in the community

A great benefit of focusing on receptive people is that you don’t have to pressure them to receive Christ. I tell my staff: “If the fruit is ripe, you don’t have to yank it!”

I believe God has called pastors to catch fish and feed sheep – not corral goats! It usually takes about five times more energy to reactivate a disgruntled or carnal member than it does to win a receptive unbeliever. The truth is that some of your inactive members probably need to join somewhere else for a number of reasons. Growing churches focus on reaching receptive people. Non-growing churches focus on re-enlisting inactive people.

Once you know who your target is, who you are most likely to reach, and who are the most receptive people in your target group, then you’re ready to establish an evangelism strategy for your church. So my suggestion to you is this: start checking the soil.

The 6 Types of Small Groups in Youth Ministry

By Paul Sheneman

Harnessing the power of small groups in your student ministry.

I recently chatted with a youth pastor who said that small group ministry was the key to the flourishing of ministry to youth in their community. The fruit of our conversation was a typology of small groups in youth ministry. Here is what we came up with:

Accountability Groups

In an accountability group, there is an agreed upon set of rules or commitments that one is seeking to live out. There may or may not be a formal group leader. The folks that participate in these groups are bonded in their common desire to live by the rules of the group because of the hope that doing so will produce change or transformation in their life. I’ve heard these groups called Covenant Discipleship groups, Fight Clubs and Life groups (rare name) in youth ministry. Typically these groups don’t have an explicit purpose of raising up a leader nor of generating new groups.

Recovery or Therapeutic Groups

In a recovery or therapeutic group, the people gather around a common goal of recovering from a traumatic life event and/or addictions. The group typically has a formal group leader that has a unique set of skills to be able to help people gain the resources and skills to heal from the trauma or addiction. These groups don’t have an explicit purpose of generating new groups. Some of them do have an explicit purpose of nurturing and raising up leaders with the skills to help the members of the group. An example of a youth ministry group in this category is Celebrate Recovery groups like Hurts, Habits and Hang-Ups.

Bible Teaching Groups

These types of groups are by far the most popular small groups in youth ministry. The group gathers, typically around age and gender affinity, for the explicit purpose of “learning” about the Bible from a group leader who teaches them lessons. The group leader typically has a conversational teaching style but can incorporate many different teaching methods (storying, object lessons, group activities, self-directed exercises outside group, etc.). Some of these groups have an explicit purpose of raising up student leaders to teach the small group. Most of these types of groups are not explicitly working to multiply. However, multiplication tends to come from a large group gathering that attracts more teenagers and thus increases the number of participants in the small group, making it necessary for the group to split and multiply. I’ve heard youth ministry folks call these groups Bible Study groups, small groups, (Insert Youth Ministry Name) groups, WORD groups, Grow groups, etc.

Holy Reading Groups

These groups are a growing trend in youth ministry. What I mean by “holy reading” is a way of reading the Bible as a whole group that allows is to be authoritative and formative for the group. Others have called this a “communal hermeneutic.” Another way of saying it is that the group is trying to find a way of reading the Bible with, as Alan Jacobs says, the “hermeneutics of love.” A holy reading of the Bible is characterized by reading the text multiple times because one believes that they should not just consume the text. They read the text with humility and doing justice to the text by searching for the truth in it. The group typically has a leader who is modeling this way of reading the scripture for the whole group. The purpose of the group is to acquire the virtues of Christ as they read and practice the scripture together. These groups typically are seeking to multiply by inviting others into the groups in order to learn from the scripture with them. I’ve heard youth workers refer to these groups as Community groups, but most who practice it simply call them small groups.

Affinity Groups & Social (fellowship) Groups

These groups typically gather around common interests that may include wanting to build friendships, explore a particular activity (biking, art, softball, paint ball, etc.). These groups typically have a leader who is organizing the gatherings. The purpose of these groups is to attract folks to the youth ministry and/or build relationships with people in the group. These groups can have the goal of multiplying, but most of the time they don’t. Leaders are raised up in these groups to take over the organizing of the gatherings.

Activist Groups

These groups exist because of some social issue or community need. There may or may not be a leader for these groups. The purpose of the group is to work to bring funding, awareness and help to the social issue or community need that the group is seeking to remedy or alleviate. These groups can multiply within a youth ministry, but they typically build from small to large groups if they grow. I’ve heard youth workers refer to these groups as Justice groups, Freedom Fighters and Good Neighbor groups.

Questions to Consider:

How do you get your group on?
What type/s of small group/s do you subscribe to?
Is there a type of small group that you do with youth that isn’t represented here? Please describe it in the comments.  

Paul Sheneman is an author, speaker and youth pastor. He serves with the Macedonia Methodist Church in Ohio. He drinks way too much coffee for his own good. His main interest is exploring Christian formation. You can follow most of his ramblings on his blog at www.discipleshipremix.com or on Twitter @PaulSheneman. More from Paul Sheneman or visit Paul at http://www.discipleshipremix.com

6 Requirements for Cultivating Community in a Church

By Rick Warren

“When you look at the list of characteristics, isn’t it obvious why genuine fellowship is so rare?”

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind. … Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Luke 10:27 (NCV)
Cultivating community requires commitment.
If you’re tired of fake fellowship and you would like to cultivate real fellowship and a loving community in your small group, Sunday school class and church, you’ll need to make some tough choices and take some risks.
Cultivating community takes honesty.
Real fellowship depends on frankness. In fact, the tunnel of conflict is the passageway to intimacy in any relationship. Until you care enough to confront and resolve the underlying barriers, you will never grow close to each other.
Cultivating community takes humility.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don’t think of themselves.
Cultivating community takes courtesy.
The truth is, we all have quirks and annoying traits. But community has nothing to do with compatibility. The basis for our fellowship is our relationship to God: We are family.
Cultivating community takes confidentiality.
Only in the safe environment of warm acceptance and trusted confidentiality will people open up and share their deepest hurts, needs and mistakes.
Confidentiality does not mean keeping silent while your brother or sister sins. It means that what is shared in your group needs to stay in your group, and the group needs to deal with it, not gossip to others about it.
Cultivating community takes frequency.
You must have frequent, regular contact with your group in order to build genuine fellowship. Relationships take time.
When you look at the list of characteristics, isn’t it obvious why genuine fellowship is so rare?
But the benefits of sharing life together far outweigh the costs, and it prepares us for heaven. 

Dr. Rick Warren is passionate about attacking what he calls the five “Global Goliaths” – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy/poor education. His goal is a second Reformation by restoring responsibility in people, credibility in churches, and civility in culture. He is a pastor, global strategist, theologian, and philanthropist. He’s been often named "America's most influential spiritual leader" and “America’s Pastor. More from Rick Warren or visit Rick at http://www.rickwarren.com/

5 Surprising Characteristics of Churches That Are Actually Reaching the Next Generation

By Carey Nieuwhof

Everyone talks about reaching the next generation of young adults. But what really makes a church effective in reaching the next generation?

Everyone talks about reaching the next generation of young adults.
But what really makes a church effective in reaching the next generation?
I’ve visited a few churches this year that are doing a fantastic job at reaching 18-30 year olds—a vastly under-represented demographic in most churches.
I took notes at all the churches. They all shared surprising characteristics, even though they are incredibly diverse.
The surprise (at least for me)?
It wasn’t their model that made them effective. The churches I studied have different models.
It wasn’t their denomination. One was Roman Catholic and attracting tons of young families. Others were cutting edge conservative evangelical church plants.
It wasn’t their facility. Some were portable. Some were permanent.
In many ways, these churches are bending the rule book established by the megachurches of the ’90s and 2000s.
Here are five things I’ve seen in churches that are killing it with people in their 20s and 30s:
1. Passion over Polish
If you attend enough conferences, you can think that you need polish to pull off effective ministry. Another $50,000 in lights or sound and you’ll be good.
The effective churches I’ve visited and seen recently by no means had the best lights, stage or production. Some had almost no stage and no lights, while others had a pretty decent package, but not nearly the level you see at some churches.
What did they all have in common? Passion.
When it comes to reaching the next generation, passion beats polish.
It’s not that polish is bad, but I think it’s increasingly trumped by a raw authenticity that exudes from leaders who will do whatever it takes to reach people with the Gospel.
Smaller facilities and stage sets were more than compensated for by preachers, worship leaders and team members who exuded passion for the mission.
2. Jesus over God
This may seem either self-evident or trivial, but I believe it’s neither; the churches that were packed with young adults talk about Jesus more than they talk about God.
Of course, Jesus is God and God is Jesus.
But God can mean many things in our post-Christian culture. Jesus is far more specific.
I’ve noticed that churches that talk about Jesus and the Holy Spirit are having a greater impact on young adults than churches who talk about God.
3. Progress over Facilities
Several of the churches I’ve visited this year are multisite. And they don’t have massive facilities from which to launch new locations.
Next Level Church in New Hampshire is reaching almost 3,000 people over six locations. Their largest facility is a 14,000-square-foot campus that’s a converted auto repair shop. They’ve done a fantastic job remodelling it, but they’ve done it on a dime and it only seats 400 people. They’re reaching almost 3,000 people out of that space across six locations.
It’s not the 10 million-dollar facility you’d think you need to have to reach 3,000 people, but that’s not what Joshua Gagnon, their lead pastor, is focused on. (By the way, I was recently a guest on Josh’s leadership podcast. Perhaps my favourite interview I’ve given. Raw and so real.)
Josh’s passionate, can-do, no-excuses attitude is in part what’s led them to become one of the 10 fastest growing churches in America.
Ditto for National Community Church in D.C. They’re doing a superb job reaching young adults with very small permanent facilities. And they’re adding an eighth location without first building out the space they already have.
Impressive.
4. Risk over Certainty
All of the churches I know that are doing a great job with young adults take risks. Big risks.
They’re either at odds with their denomination (I’ve seen a few of these) or are launching locations where no one else would dare plant a church.
They’re figuring out how to accommodate parking and even children’s ministry after they’ve made the decision to open or move. They just want to see the kingdom advance.
And the young adults they’re reaching seem fine with the uncertainty. They just want more space and more locations to invite their friends to.
Lesson? If you’ve got growth and momentum but you’re waiting for certainty before you determine what’s next, you might be waiting too long.
Just act.
5. Mission over Money
The question for many churches is this: Does mission follow money, or does money follow mission?
Great question.
The churches I know that are doing a great job with young adults would say ‘money follows mission.’
Do the mission well, and money shows up.
In fact, if you lead with the mission first, everything else shows up: people, money and the resources you need.
Too many churches wait for the day when they have the money to realize their mission.
Realize your mission, and you’ll have the money you need.
What Do You See?
What do you see in churches that are reaching the next generation?
If you want more, listen to my interview with Geoff Surratt on his forthcoming book on churches that reach millennials. His findings (while in beta) are fascinating.  

Carey Nieuwhof is Lead Pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto, Canada, blogs at www.careynieuwhof.com and is host of The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast available for free on iTunes. More from Carey Nieuwhof or visit Carey at http://careynieuwhof.com

10 Things Effective Churches Do Well

By Chuck Lawless

“Churches with a clear master plan are usually thinking toward the future—and even beyond themselves.”

I’ve written posts for this site and my own that describe some of the negatives our church consulting teams and “spies” have found in churches. The goal of this post is to show some of the positives we’ve seen in different churches. The topics vary, but perhaps something will help you in your church.
1. Greeters at every door. It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally every one of our team members is greeted when each of us intentionally enters a different door. Those churches are ready for guests.
2. Strong security in the preschool/children’s areas. Sometimes our team members gain entrance to these areas much too easily, but we’ve been in churches that physically halted our team from going beyond the boundaries. I’m pleased to report to the church that their security system worked in those cases.
3. Name tags for everyone. Several folks disagreed with my suggestion about this topic in previous posts, but our team appreciates it when everyone can quickly learn names. Name tags simply make it easier for folks to have conversations with people they don’t know.
4. Assurances about visitor’s cards. Again, I’ve written about why I likely would not complete a visitor’s card at your church. On the other hand, some churches have made it very clear up front—by saying, “We won’t bombard you with visits, phone calls and emails, and we won’t embarrass you”—that they won’t put us on the spot. I’m willing to complete a card for those churches.
5. Knowledge of the community. We do a demographic study of the church’s ministry area, but we don’t give that information to the church at first. Instead, we now first ask church leaders what they think the demographics will show about their community. Most leaders don’t know their community that well—but occasionally we meet leaders who clearly have already focused externally.

6. General friendliness. Most churches, frankly, are not that friendly to our “spies.” They’re friendly, but primarily with people they already know. So, our team recognizes quickly when a church family has been trained to welcome everyone to their family gathering. Our team members are blessed when it does happen.
7. Clear direction in the worship service events. Most of our “spies” are believers, but even they appreciate when the leader gives them direction in the Word (e.g., “The book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament; it’s about 2/3 of the way through your Bible. If you find the book of Matthew, just back up a book.”), guidance for the offering and direction for the Lord’s Supper.
8. Biblical, applicational preaching. The best preaching, in our opinion, goes to the Word, expounds the Word and helps us know how to apply its teaching past Sunday. Our hope is that our spies can quickly answer the question, “What do you need to do as a result of the biblical truth you learned today?” Sometimes they can.
9. Intentional strategies for training teachers. The strongest churches recognize that God holds teachers accountable to high standards (James 3:1), and they prepare current and future teachers accordingly. These churches raise up their next generation of teachers and leaders.
10. Clear master plan for facilities. You’ve seen the churches that had no master plan; their buildings are so different that you can tell a different leader was in charge for each structure. Churches with a clear master plan are usually thinking toward the future—and even beyond themselves.
How well does your church do in these areas?  

Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary. You can connect with Dr. Lawless on Twitter @Clawlessjr and on at facebook.com/CLawless. More from Chuck Lawless or visit Chuck at http://www.chucklawless.com/

Don’t Let Meetings KILL Your Church’s Mission

Don’t Let Meetings KILL Your Church’s Mission

By Rich Birch “We’re now addicted to meetings that insulate us from the work we ought to be doing.”
—Al Pittampalli, Read This Before Our Next Meeting
Leaders who don’t like meetings are like dentists who don’t like teeth. Leaders who don’t think critically about their meeting cultures are like dentists who don’t know their tools.
Most church leaders find themselves in a wide variety of meetings on a regular basis. But are all these meetings helping push the mission of your church forward? My suspicion is that a bunch of these meetings actually hinder our churches from reaching their full potential. Here’s how I see meetings holding back so many of our churches:
• Your Meetings Are Making Decision-Making Fuzzy. Leaders make decisions … meetings don’t. Leaders use meetings to gain input, build consensus and move toward decisions. But ultimately, meetings where leaders don’t take a position and work through it slow down the mission with sideways energy. In an effort to build consensus, leaders can mistakenly look to “group think” to arrive at the best decision. This short circuits a leader’s gifting and responsibility to the group.
• Your Meetings Are Wasting People’s Time. Stop using meetings to update people with information. There are a million better ways to keep people up-to-date on what’s happening in the ministry: email, websites, blogs, podcasts, dashboards, text messages, voice mail, etc. If the meeting is primarily a one-way passage of information, you are wasting people’s time. The information could be expressed and consumed more efficiently in other formats.
• Your Meetings Are Built to Avoid Conflict. Church leaders hate conflict. We’re worried that people will abandon the mission if they see people in conflict. The reverse is actually true. Great leaders lean into conflict. They understand that anything worth doing is going to require leaders with different approaches. Rather than having healthy conflict in meetings, we often resort to “the meeting after the meeting” with complaints about somebody on the “other side.” This is a sure sign that your meeting culture is suppressing conflict, building unhealthy division and slowing down the mission.
• Your Meetings Aren’t Outsider Focused [ref]. One of the peculiarities of church leadership is that we should be obsessed with people who aren’t a part of the church yet … we do believe we have the greatest message in the world … however, we have no way to gain insight from the people we are attempting to reach and serve. We’ll spend a tremendous amount of time, effort, energy and money on working out how to serve people who are already here, but we barely invest in those who aren’t. Our meetings don’t pause to look at the trends outside our four walls. Instead, we debate what’s taking place inside of them. If we want to reach people who aren’t here yet, we need to find ways for them to be voices at the table.
• Your Meetings Don’t Harness People’s Best Thinking. Often people arrive at meetings ill prepared to contribute their best thinking. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to ensure they are ready to dive into the discussion with their unique insights to help us make the best decisions. Yes, a part of this is having a written agenda before the meeting, but it’s so much more than that. It’s connecting with the team to clarify any tension points. It’s providing auxiliary reading material to support the conversation. It’s planning the meeting at the right time of day so everyone has maximum energy. It’s ending the meeting before people are worn out. It’s having snacks ready and a great meeting space that encourages conversation.
• Your Meetings Aren’t Action Oriented. So the meeting comes to an end and you’ve debated the issue at hand. Now what? If the meeting doesn’t end with a clear sense of who is responsible to take action, any momentum will be lost. You called the meeting because it was needed to push the mission forward … so articulate what everyone needs to do next in light of the conversation. Document the next steps, make them publicly available and then hold everyone accountable. If there isn’t a sense of momentum coming out of your meetings, you are slowing down the mission.
• You Talk Too Much in Your Meetings. Can we have an honest moment? Leaders like to hear their own voices. They are often most interested in ensuring other people know what they are thinking. But the point of a meeting is for a leader to present a point of view and then have the people collected debate the decision at hand. You know what you think already. Take some time to frame the meeting so people will contribute much more than you do. Like your Mom always said, “God gave you two ears and one mouth; listen twice as much as you talk!”
• Your Meetings Aren’t Special Enough. Your mission is incredibly special. Do your meetings reflect that? Take time to craft meetings into something special rather than routine bores. If you don’t have time to invest in making your meetings a special gathering, cancel 50 percent of your meetings this week to use that time to make the other meetings more special. Watch what will happen! You spend time, effort and energy in crafting weekend services, kids’ environments and special events that push your mission forward. Your meetings need the same level of intensity.

Rich serves as Operations Pastor at Liquid Church in the Manhattan facing suburbs of New Jersey. He blogs at UnSeminary.com and is a sought after speaker and consultant on multisite, pastoral productivity and communications.
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The Secret of Fundraising

By Aaron Helman

One leader learned the best way to fundraise—thanks to a $1,500 mistake.

There is a very short list of things that I loathe more than fundraisers.
I’ve sold junk from catalogs, washed cars in the snow and raked more leaves than I want to remember.
Once, I even operated a pumpkin farm for an entire month.
All that so I could charge a little less for a retreat?
Subsidize 4 percent of the mission trip?
Buy hoodies instead of T-shirts?
Most fundraisers require too much hassle and provide too little funding.
Then there was the one fundraiser that was exactly the opposite …
But first, what drove me away from traditional fundraisers?
I sat down once to analyze a year’s worth of fundraising data, and because I was a business major in college, I kept exhaustive records.
The result?
For every hour we spent on planning and delivering fundraising, we made about $4.00.
Four dollars.
Less than minimum wage.
We weren’t raising enough money to impact our bottom line, but we were draining our students and their parents with silly, nitpicking projects.
What’s worse, if you’re engaging in direct sales to the community, what sort of reputation do you think your church has gained from that?
If our fundraisers are going to annoy everyone, they’d better generate a ton of money. They usually don’t.
That was when I made the conscious and measured decision to never, ever do a fundraiser again.
I thought parents would be upset, but I was wrong.
Parents were thrilled. Elated might be a better word. One guy told me that he would happily part with a few hundred dollars to never have to do another fundraiser again.
When I gave him the chance, he happily parted with a few hundred dollars and he never did another fundraiser again.
I wanted to punch myself for not thinking of this sooner.
But that was before I accidentally stumbled onto my best fundraiser ever.
My $1,500 mistake—in a good way
Our JrHi Overnighter had a long tradition of being a large, community event. That was great. Trouble was, dealing with 180 junior high students for 12 caffeine-aided hours was more than our team could handle.
We had to find some way to limit the number of students coming to the thing, at least until our leadership could handle all of those students.
Pre-registration had too many obstacles. Other strategies seemed unfair.
But I had an economics background, and I knew that the fastest way to limit an audience is to increase the price.
In this case, the price went from free to 10 dollars.
I thought for sure fewer students would show up.
I was wrong. Again.
The same number came as had come the year before. We had 180 students. It was a long night for our leaders, but by morning, it was over.
After deducting $300 worth of pizza, we walked away with $1,500 to further the cause of our ministry.
The Logical Conclusion
The math doesn’t actually add up here. We used 20 leaders for 12 hours. Our hourly rate was just north of $6.00, not too much more than the pitiful numbers I referenced earlier.
So what’s the difference?
We were able to generate $1,500 in fundraising from things we were already going to do anyway.
Instead of building programs and fundraisers, what if one of your programs could be a fundraiser?
Here’s another way to think about it. Would you rather ask your community to pay to enjoy your excellent event or to pay for chocolate covered pretzels from that catalog … again?
Which do you think your community would prefer?
Here’s what I want you to do.
Leave a comment and tell me about ONE of your programs that might be able to replace a fundraiser.
I want you to share your comment because I know you have an idea that will help someone else, and that someone else probably has an idea that will help you. Then after you’ve done that, share this post with a friend so we can continue to spread the youthmin love.  

Aaron Helman is on a mission to help end the epidemic of youth worker burnout. He writes at Smarter Youth Ministry to help youth workers with their biggest frustrations – things like leading volunteers, managing money, and communicating effectively. He is also the youth minister at Firehouse Youth Ministries in South Bend, Indiana. More from Aaron Helman or visit Aaron at http://www.smarterym.com/

A Word of Encouragement to Pastors During Pastor Appreciation Month

By Ron Edmondson

“You may need to share this post with some key leaders you trust in the church. You may want to have a hard conversation …”

I came into ministry later in life after over 20 years in the business world. Maybe this explains some of why I was surprised when I entered the ministry at how hard churches can be on a pastor.

I never knew.
My church leadership blog has given me access into the lives of hundreds of pastors. Many are in smaller churches where they are one of a few, if not the only, staff members. Others are in larger churches where there are more staff members to spread the workload. Regardless, however, of church size many times the pastor is drowning. His spouse is drowning. His family is suffering. They can’t keep up with the demands of the church.
Honestly, I never knew. At least not to the severity of what I’ve discovered.
Some churches expect the pastor to be at every hospital bed. They expect them to know and call when they are sick. They expect them to attend every Sunday school social and every picnic on the grounds. The pastor is to officiate their wedding and then be the counselor when their marriage is suffering. Someday preach their funeral, but for today visit their neighbor who isn’t going to church—instead, of course, of them building a relationship with the person and bringing them to church (which is way more effective.)
The pastor is supposed to recruit Sunday school teachers, manage a budget and be actively engaging the community through a healthy Tuesday night evangelism program. Then, they expect a well-researched, well-presented Sunday message—fully abreast and addressing all the current news events of the week—one in the morning and one at night, along with a passionate leading of the Wednesday night prayer meeting.
One pastor told me he is allowed one Sunday off per year. I hesitated to do the math on the number of messages he is doing in a given year.
And, in the midst of all those responsibilities, when I talk to many pastors, they hear far more negative feedback from people than they ever hear the positives.
Wow! I never knew.
And with different parameters, the same unreasonable expectations may exist for every staff member of a local church.
Now some of this is exaggeration, and no doubt most pastors reading this love their people and love their work, but in some churches it is exactly the expectation. And, in principle, the activities may be different, but the level of activity is normal for many pastors, again, especially in smaller churches.
And even in those churches where the expectations are totally unreasonable there is probably a pastor who is desperately trying to live out the call of God and love people.
But, to be honest, I’m burdened for those pastors.
I learned when my boys were young and I was running a business, serving on the city council and on dozens of committees, if I wanted to be successful as a husband, father and business owner, I had to be personally and privately healthy, so I could achieve more publicly.
It was then, for example, running switched from being a fun pastime to a necessary part of my week. I needed and craved the downtime and the exercise. It was then I had to get up early to make sure I had the day’s quiet time to fuel my soul. It was then I became diligent in scheduling my week, so I didn’t miss family activities.
If I could give one piece of advice to pastors, ALL PASTORS, especially during Pastor Appreciation Month, it would be that they take care of themselves personally. Take care of your family, your finances and your emotional health. It’s the only way you can meet the demands of your church.
You may need to share this post with some key leaders you trust in the church. You may want to have a hard conversation and establish some healthier boundaries within the church. Take some time and read Jethro’s advice to Moses. Read Acts 6.
I love you pastors.
I want you around for a while. We need you. You’re doing Kingdom work.
Take care of yourself. If needed, reach out to someone before you crash and burn. God called you to do His work, but the work He called you to do specifically won’t be done (at least by you) if you aren’t here to do it.
I’m pulling for you!  

Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's been helping churches grow vocationally for over 10 years. More from Ron Edmondson or visit Ron at http://www.ronedmondson.com/

Many Churches Are Living in the 1980s. Here’s Why.

By Thom Rainer

Why has this tragedy fallen on so many churches? Though I don’t want to oversimplify the issue, I see at least eight reasons for this crisis.

Nine out of 10 churches in America are either declining or they are growing so slowly they are not keeping up with the growth rate of the community in which they are located.
It’s a long sentence. Read it again carefully. Soak it in. Across America, 90 percent of the churches are losing ground in their respective communities. Most of them are declining. Many of them will close.
As I have worked with thousands of churches over the past three decades, I have noticed something fascinating, yet disturbing, about many of these churches. They are still acting like it’s the 1980s. The world has passed them by. They are deemed irrelevant by members of their communities. They are frozen in a time warp.
Why has this tragedy fallen on so many churches? Though I don’t want to oversimplify the issue, I see at least eight reasons for this crisis.
1. They are trying to shelter themselves from culture. In the 1980s, congregations were typically part of the mainstream culture. They were accepted in most places, and embraced in some. That is not the culture of today. Many church members use their churches as a getaway from the realities they don’t want to face.
2. Programs were easy answers. The vast majority of churches in the 1980s were program-driven. If there was a perceived need, they would order a resource that best solved that need. Many churches today still think they can get quick fixes from programs.
3. Churches largely catered to the needs of church members in the 1980s. We thus created a culture of membership that is me-driven. Many church members do not want to make the sacrifices necessary to reach our communities and culture today. They are demanding their own needs and preferences to be the priority of their churches.
4. Change was more incremental. If your church is stuck in the 1980s, it does not have to worry about the rapid pace of change today. Members can pretend like their church does not need to change despite the massive upheavals of change in the world.
5. Church growth was easier. In the 1980s, a number of people would visit our churches without much effort on the members’ part. One church member told me recently, “If lost people want to come to our church, they know where we are.” Sigh.
6. Denominations provided solutions. Not all churches in the 1980s belonged to a denomination, but many did. And many members expected the denominational organizations to guide them and resource them. Denominations work best today in partnership with churches, but too many church members want to return to the paradigm of the 1980s.
7. Others did evangelism for the members in the 1980s. Evangelism was the responsibility of the pastor or the denomination or a few people in a program. Church members paid others to do the work they were supposed to do. Some church members today are more concerned about their worship style preference than lost people who need to hear the gospel.
8. Some churches would rather die than to get out of the comfort of their 1980s paradigm. I feel certain they will do just that.
What do you think of these issues of time-warp churches? Let me hear from you.
P. S. Today is the last day to register for Church Answers Monthly subscription. I am so excited to hear from leaders who are telling me this ministry is having such an incredible impact on their churches. One leader told me he wasn’t sure his church could afford the subscription. Now he tells me his church can’t afford not to have this resource. His church is moving from the 1980s to 2015!  

Thom S. Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources (LifeWay.com). Among his greatest joys are his family: his wife Nellie Jo; three sons, Sam, Art, and Jess; and six grandchildren. He was founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His many books include Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, The Unexpected Journey, and Breakout Churches. More from Thom Rainer or visit Thom at http://www.thomrainer.com

How to Lead When You’re in Over Your Head

By Carey Nieuwhof

“I’m basically … new to all of this and feeling completely over my head.”

Here’s a leadership secret.
Almost anyone who has ever led anything significant has felt like they’re in over their head at one point or another.
You might be there right now.
I hear from young leaders all the time or leaders who have moved into new roles who tell me they’re overwhelmed by the responsibility of leadership. One young leader put it this way:
I’m basically … new to all of this and feeling completely over my head. Knowing I am called to be here and not knowing how any of this is going to work, [the] leadership issue for me is feeling so very, very insecure on so many levels.
I get that. I’ve felt like I’ve been in over my head many times.
From my teens right through my 30s, I was often the youngest leader around a lot of leadership tables and had to learn how to lead with people much older and often much wiser than me.
I was in law before ministry. First-year law school was overwhelming for a liberal arts major, but I found a way through.
I really never saw myself as a pastor, and had to figure out how to lead a church in real time when I got called into ministry.
I really had no idea how to write a book. I’ve now been able to publish three, including my latest, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow.
I had no idea how to launch a book (apparently books don’t launch themselves), but learned on the fly and saw my latest book become a #1 Amazon best-seller in multiple categories.
Whether you’re trying to launch something new, moving into a new and overwhelming role, or just being the young leader around a seasoned table, everyone gets overwhelmed.
So … how do you lead when you’re in over your head?
What follows are five guidelines that have helped me.
1. Stay humble.
Humility is a leader’s best friend.
It’s one thing to be in over your head but pretend you’ve got it all figured out. Your insecurity will drive you to pretend you know something. Don’t.
It’s such a bad strategy; the quickest way to alienate the people around you is to pretend you know what you’re doing when you don’t.
People will lose confidence in you quickly and begin to dismiss you as arrogant.
On the other hand, don’t repeatedly throw yourself under the bus either saying things like, “I’m no good at this,” or, “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
That’s not true humility. That’s a lack of confidence.
Instead, just be truthful and express a humble confidence in the long-term outcome. Say things like, “This is new to me, but I’m sure we can figure this out together.” Or, “The learning curve is steep right now, and I’m grateful for a good team around me. We’ll get this done somehow.”
Sometimes when you’re really shaky, any confidence you’re expressing is in God, not in yourself.
I realize that’s good theology in every season, but sometimes the only confidence you will have is in God. That’s more than OK.
2. Get a great team of people around you who are smarter than you.
You really can’t do this alone.
The more alone you are, the more difficult it will be.
So … get some mentors to build into you. If no one’s offering (they rarely do), just ask.
Recruit the next and brightest leaders you can find and mobilize them. Here are five tips on how to attract and lead leaders who are better than you.
3. Become an avid learner.
Just because you don’t know something now doesn’t mean you can’t ever know it.
Become an avid learner.
Get up early. Read everything you can. Take notes from everyone around you. Live and lead in active learning mode.
You need a steep growth curve in this stage.
Make sure you spend time every day learning and growing.
And don’t spend so many hours working in leadership that you can’t work on your leadership.
4. Grow comfortable saying “I don’t know.”
Insecurities run deep in most of us. And often our fear is that when people realize how little we know they will reject us.
But when you tell them you don’t know, two things happen.
First, they’re glad you realize what they already know—that you don’t know.
Second, they probably like you a little bit more because your admission you don’t know makes you more relatable, more human.
Don’t rest at “I don’t know” though. Tell them you’ll find out and report back. But at least admit it. Don’t bluff.
5. Trust God.
Yes, I know this sounds a little cliche. But it’s so true.
Many of us experienced a specific calling into ministry. If so, you need to trust God to get you through it.
In the absence of a clear calling (as I outline here, not everyone receives a ‘call to ministry’ in the transition sense), if you are serving in the area of your gifting and passion, long-term things almost always get better.
The tension in leadership is you will be tempted to trust the gifts more than you trust the Giver. You’ll so badly want the gifts that you don’t have or that are underdeveloped that you’ll grasp at them unwisely. Or when you develop a skill and become great at something, you’ll forget the Giver and place all your confidence in the gift. Both are mistakes.
Great leaders always trust the Giver more than they trust the gifts.
If the gifts you need aren’t developed yet to the point they need to be, just keep working. Be diligent. Don’t give up. Trust that the God who got you into this will get you through it.
Naturally, sometimes we’re in over our heads because we’re doing something we’re not gifted for, called to or equipped to handle. That’s a whole different subject.
But most of the time, we just need to persevere a little longer.
What Are You Learning?
What have you learned about leading when you’re in over your head?  

Carey Nieuwhof is Lead Pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto, Canada, blogs at www.careynieuwhof.com and is host of The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast available for free on iTunes. More from Carey Nieuwhof or visit Carey at http://careynieuwhof.com

8 Advantages of the Local Church

By Tom Holladay

“Most people have no idea how many Christians there are in the world: More than 2 billion people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.”

One of the things we continually emphasize at Saddleback is that the church is God’s instrument for ministry here on Earth, and that makes it the greatest force on the face of the Earth.
The church has survived persistent abuse, horrifying persecution and widespread neglect. Yet despite its faults (due to our sinfulness), it is still God’s chosen instrument of blessing and has been for 2,000 years.
As Rick Warren thought through our missions strategy, The PEACE Plan, he noted the church has eight distinct advantages over the efforts of business and government to help those in need:
1. The church provides for the largest participation.
Most people have no idea how many Christians there are in the world: More than 2 billion people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. That’s one third of the world’s population! The church has about a billion more people than the entire nation of China.
For example, about 100 million people in the United States went to church this past weekend. That’s more people than will attend sporting events in the U.S. throughout this year. The church is the largest force for good in the world. Nothing else even comes close.
2. The church provides for the widest distribution.
The church is everywhere in the world. There are villages that have little else, but they do have a church. You could visit millions of villages around the world that don’t have a school, a clinic, a hospital, a fire department or a post office. They don’t have any businesses. But they do have a church. The church is more widely spread—more widely distributed—than any business franchise in the world.
Consider this: The Red Cross noted that 90 percent of the meals they served to victims of Hurricane Katrina were actually cooked by Southern Baptist churches. Many churches were able to jump into action faster than the government agencies or the Red Cross.
Why? The church is literally everywhere, and Christians who could provide help to the Gulf Coast communicated with Christians in need of help so relief could be sent immediately.
3. The church provides the longest continuation.
The church has been around for 2,000 years. We’re not a fly-by-night operation. The church has a track record that spans centuries: Malicious leaders have tried to destroy it, hostile groups have persecuted it and skeptics have scoffed at it. Nevertheless, God’s church is bigger now than ever before in history.
Why? Because it’s the church that Jesus established, and it is indestructible. The Bible calls the church an unshakable kingdom. In Matthew 16, Jesus says, “I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” All the powers of Hell—in other words, no hurricane, no earthquake, no tsunami, no famine, no pandemic, no army will ever conquer the church established by Jesus Christ.
4. The church provides the fastest expansion.
Did you know that every day 60,000 new people come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? By the end of today, thousands of new churches will be started throughout the world, and that will happen tomorrow and the next day and the next.
In one country that is closed to traditional Christian missions, more than 60,000 house churches have been started in one province by the work of lay people, no different from the people who fill your church sanctuary every weekend.
Why is fast expansion important? If you’ve got a problem that’s growing at a rapid rate, then you need a solution that will grow even more rapidly. For instance, HIV/AIDS is growing at an incredibly fast rate in the world. Yet thank God the church is outgrowing the disease, so more and more believers can help minister to those with HIV/AIDS.
If we’re going to tackle global giants like poverty, disease or illiteracy, then we must be part of something that’s growing faster than the problem. The church is doing just that!
5. The church provides the highest motivation.
Why do any of us do what we do in ministry? It’s not to make money, not to make a name for ourselves and not for duty to our nation. We do it out of love. Jesus stated it as the Great Commandment: “Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.” We wouldn’t do the hard work required to tackle these global giants for money, for fame or for anything else. It just wouldn’t be worth it; we’d quit before the end.
We’re motivated to keep at the hard work of ministry because we love God, and our love for God compels us to love other people. It is love that never gives up; it is love that keeps moving forward despite the appearance of impossible odds; and it is love that outlasts any problem.
6. The church provides the strongest authorization.
God authorized the church to take on global giants, such as spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease and ignorance. With God’s authorization, the outcome is guaranteed to be successful.
When you know that God has authorized you to do something, you don’t worry about failure because God doesn’t sponsor flops. If God says we’re going to do it, it’s going to happen. It is inevitable. In fact, the Bible teaches that God will give us his power to complete the task. This is God’s way—ordinary people empowered by his Spirit.
7. The church provides the simplest administration.
The church is organized in such a way that we can network faster and with less bureaucracy than most governmental agencies or even well-meaning charities. For instance, the organizational structure at Saddleback, which is based on the New Testament model, holds that every member is a minister. Each person in our church family is encouraged to use his or her own S.H.A.P.E. (spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences) to do what God has called him or her to do. There is no bureaucracy or hierarchy. There isn’t a single committee, and the process doesn’t require a long list of approvals.
The old wineskin of command and control won’t work well in the 21st century. The organization of the future is the “network.” And there’s no better worldwide network than the church, where every member is a minister and empowered to do what God wants done.
Consider it this way: Tens of millions of Christians in millions of small groups that are part of churches around the world can take on the global giants with no other authority than that given from Jesus Christ. In other words, we have God’s permission and we have God’s command to do it. There is no need to seek permission from anyone else.
8. The church provides for God’s conclusion.
Since we believe the Bible is God’s Word, we already know the end of history. Jesus said in Matthew 24: “The good news about God’s Kingdom will be preached in all the world to every nation, and then the end will come.” It is inevitable and unavoidable.
When you consider these eight advantages, think about the exponential explosion of ministry when millions upon millions of small groups in millions upon millions of churches organize in such a way that each person can do their part in attacking the five global giants.
What do you think could happen if God’s people prayed against these global giants, prepared for action against these giants, and then moved through faith to tackle these giants?
We may look at these problems and think, “These are too big! How could we possibly solve them?”
But with God, nothing is impossible. And if we all work together as his church, we’ll see these giants fall, just as Goliath fell when faced with David’s obedience to God.
Pastor, it is a great privilege and an awesome responsibility to lead a local church. God wouldn’t have placed you where you are if he didn’t believe you could handle the task before you.  

Tom Holladay is a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church and author of The Relationship Principles of Jesus.Tom is also co-author of Foundations, a comprehensive study for teaching the essential truths of Christian faith in a simple and systematic way. Foundations explores 11 core doctrines: The Bible, God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, Creation, Salvation, Sanctification, Good and Evil, The Afterlife, The Church, and The Second Coming. More from Tom Holladay or visit Tom at http://pastors.com/

7 Holes that Can Swallow Ministry

by Charles Stone

I have four earned degrees and my toughest by far was an industrial engineering degree from Ga Tech. That degree taught me to think systematically. In addition, I’ve added to my competency tool box many books on church planning plus two churches where I’ve served have engaged in year-long visioning processes with church consultants. So, I’m well versed and trained in the church visioning/planning process. But  Will Mancini‘s seminal book on the subject, Church Unique-How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement has opened my eyes to vision clarity. From his book I learned 7 holes that can swallow any ministry.

In chapter one in a section called “Lost on the Way to Your Own DNA,” he lists subtle thinking patterns that can suffocate vibrant thinking. He coins these patterns or holes, ‘thinkholes.’
I’ve listed them here with brief definitions.

1. The ministry treadmill: busyness eliminates time for reflection…leads to just adding more programs.
2. The competency trap: presumption that past methods will continue to work decreases appetite for learning…leads to just working harder.
3. The needs based slippery slope: consumerism removes the need for discernment…leads to trying to make people happy.
4. The cultural whirlpool 1: BuzzChurch-innovation short circuits self-awareness…leads to just trying to be cutting edge.
5. The cultural whirlpool 2: StuckChurch-change outpaces the discipline for learning…leads to glorifying the past.
6. The conference maze: success increases the temptation to copycat…leads to just modeling best practices.
7. The denominational rut: resources disregard local uniqueness…leads to just protecting theology.

At times I’ve been caught up in these ‘thinkholes.’
How about you?
Do you agree that these issues can hinder effective ministry? What has helped you overcome them?
Related posts:

• Is This the Holy Grail for Effective Leadership?
• 11 Meeting Killers and How to Kill Them

How to Prevent Technology From Ruining Your Relationships

Missionaries Need Accountability, Too: 4 Best Practices for the Local Church

By Chris Surber

Without a penny to waste in most mission budgets, we need good practices and healthy relationships with our missionaries.

The Great Commission is the Lord’s calling for every follower of Jesus and each local church. It’s for everybody. Being foolish about the Great Commission isn’t part of that calling.
I’ve been a mission-minded pastor for a long time. Beyond mailing a check, I’ve always been careful to build relationships with missionaries. Churches need to be accountable to their missionaries. A late support check can mean no food for a missionary family.
Missionaries need accountability, too. They aren’t freelance ministers. They are covenantal partners with the local sending and supporting church. I’ve been living as a missionary this year in Haiti and have learned firsthand the other side of this story. Here are four ways local leaders can increase accountability and avoid some common related pitfalls.
1. Hold missionaries accountable. I’m amazed at how rogue some missionaries are. I know of a missionary that had sent out vague newsletters for years. The sending church became concerned. They sent a surprise delegation. They found the missionary lounging on the beach with no evidence of progress. This is uncommon but does happen sometimes—in fact, more than I’d like to think.
Since every church has limited resources, we should hold missionaries accountable. We should expect updates. We should check on the missionaries’ progress and on their well-being. Sometimes missionaries fall into unhealthy patterns of fundraising and financial accountability because of personal crisis or spiritual distress.
Even if they’ve struggled to bear fruit, missionaries should be able to produce some evidence of their labor. Churches should know of successes and failures, and pray specifically for their missionaries. The missionary covenant is a two-way street. When a church fails to care for and check on their missionary, the church gives them tacit permission to fall into a lack of spiritual health. Our care for missionaries should extend beyond mere financial support and include accountability.
2. Be discerning. Charisma and charm are commonplace among missionary and other church leaders. Good leaders are persuasive. Local churches should make sure there is substance behind the charm. Some local church leaders are simply too gullible, or unwilling to ask about inconsistencies in a missionary’s testimony. Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s not good stewardship.
I’m not saying you have to be cynical or untrusting. I am saying that discerning people don’t settle for the facts too easily. In Haiti, for example, things like prices, dates, deadlines, political circumstances and much more can change rapidly. However, if a missionary’s story is always changing (and it always involves money) you may be dealing with a missionary who has fallen into worldly patterns of financial abuse.
“Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart” (Proverbs 26:23 ESV). Be kind—but be wise. Be discerning for the spiritual health of your church and the missionary and for the reputation of the Gospel.
3. Don’t underestimate the deceit of the human heart. You think, “Come on, my missionary feeds hungry people, she would never take advantage of starving people.” Guess again. There are a lot of people getting rich by keeping people poor. Sadly, a few of them are Christian missionaries. Don’t underestimate how easily some people fall victim to temptation. Even missionaries are prone to temptation to worldly patterns of fundraising and using funds.
4. Don’t assume that all missionaries are spiritual rock stars. This is the real kicker for me. Not all missionaries are experienced church leaders or even long-time Christians. Some of them are sincere but immature. It’s not uncommon to see a brand new Christian go on a short term trip, have an emotional experience, then move to a place like Haiti to keep that high going. Still others have been on the mission field a long time without much spiritual formation. Missionaries have the same need to grow in Christ as local leaders.
Often we hear of missionary exploits and allow our emotions to take over. We want to help. We appreciate their efforts. We engage our wallets and not our brains.
In summary, we need a shift in our thinking about missionaries. We need more covenantal relationships with sending and supporting churches and less check-mailing without covenant. Be discerning. Be wise. Hold missionaries accountable through regular contact and praying for them. Enter into covenantal relationships. Don’t just mail checks. It will be healthier for them, for the churches that support them and the indigenous people to whom they seek to minister.  

Chris Surber is the Pastor of Cypress Chapel Christian Church in Suffolk, VA. He is also a religion columnist for the Suffolk News Herald. More from Chris Surber or visit Chris at http://www.chrissurber.com