10 Things Pastors Will Think About as They Preach This Weekend

By Chuck Lawless

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“I struggle with listening to preaching sometimes, so I assume others do, too.”

I’ve preached most Sundays since April of 1981. You’d assume by now that I could simply focus on nothing but the Word when I’m preaching, but I still think about other things at the same time. Here are some of those things that I—and, I suspect, many other pastors—think about:
1. I always need to pray more and live a more godly life. No matter how well my spiritual walk is going, standing before God’s people to proclaim His Word always magnifies my weaknesses. It’s humbling.
2. Am I really connecting? Even one distracted expression or one quizzical look will make me wonder. It’s funny how I’ll see that one person out of hundreds in attendance.
3. How much pain is sitting in these pews? I know some of the stories, but I’m sure many people are silently carrying heart-gripping burdens. That’s where I have to trust the Lord to connect the Word to their heart.
4. Who’s living in secret sin? Somebody is, I suspect, in most congregations. I’ve been around long enough to know that person might even be one of our leaders—including, sadly, the preacher.
5. Are they surfing the net rather than reading the Word on their phone? I struggle with listening to preaching sometimes, so I assume others do, too.
6. Why is that person sleeping? I’ve worked hard on this sermon, and I think its outline is decent—but still he (or she) is sleeping! I hope the fatigue isn’t related to my content and delivery, but I can’t help but wonder.
7. Will (name) finally turn to Jesus today? Most of us know somebody who hears us every Sunday, but who hasn’t yet turned from sin and believed. We preach expectantly, and too often we grieve as we wait through another Sunday.
8. I don’t see (name). I’m surprised how often I suddenly realize in the middle of a sermon that somebody’s not in his or her “regular” seat. We take mental attendance as we preach.
9. We need to fix that by next week. Whatever “that” is (e.g., a sound problem, a PowerPoint issue, a blank spot in the service), it’s not easy to just let it go if it disrupts the service.
10. I’m not sure that point (or that illustration) worked. What seems so perfect during sermon preparation doesn’t always come out well when the game’s on. To be honest, listeners don’t usually need to tell us when the sermon’s not working.
Here’s what you can do for us this weekend: Pray that we’ll stay focused on the task at hand. And, oh yeah, try to stay awake while we preach

Lessons From My Season of Discouragement in Ministry

By John Dickerson

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“The Christmas push for pastors can easily lead to a post-Christmas emotional let-down.”

[The Christmas push for pastors can easily lead to a post-Christmas emotional let-down, a sort of post-adrenaline low. Combine this with the challenges of a new year and, in some regions, seasonal depression with gray days, and January can be a tough month for ministers. If any of that describes you, take heart in this note of encouragement from another pastor who has felt the same things.]
As a pastor, I have had two seasons during which I nearly gave up. In the first, it was my physical health—the diagnosis of a rare medical condition—that nearly took me out of the race.
The more difficult patch of discouragement, however, followed my most productive year of ministry. November of that year started an emotional low that lasted into February of the following year.
Ironically, God had allowed me to hit a number of high goals. My relationship with God was right; my motives were right. My family was healthy. Fruit was exploding all over the place, and I was morally pure. So I was baffled and confused as to why I felt deeply depressed and discouraged, to the point of barely being able to get out of bed.
That patch did not end in a matter of days, but rather of months. I was a senior pastor at the time. I had healthy staff and elders with whom I could share anything. And yet, I felt like Asaph in Psalm 73, when he is so discouraged he writes, “If I had spoken thus, I would have betrayed your children.” Translation: My thoughts and feelings are so discouraging, I don’t want to bring anyone else down with me. So, as a leader, I won’t share them and drag the group down.
I did share my fatigue and emptiness with my wife. She watched me get on my knees, night after night, during that stretch. Here are two lessons I learned in that dark night. Lessons I believe have saved the longevity of my ministry. I pass them along in hopes that they inject life and longevity into you and your ministry, too.

1. The Need for Personal Domain

During my four-month depression, God brought a book into my life, titled Living the Life You Were Meant to Live. Turns out the book’s author, Tom Paterson, coached Rick Warren before Purpose Driven was even written.
I began reading Living the Life You Were Meant to Live with a bit of suspicion. But, what I found was a scripturally-robust argument that changed my view of self and ministry. Paterson describes five domains of life:
-Family
-Church
-Vocation
-Community
-Personal

Like the spokes on a wheel, a healthy life will have equal investment into each of these five domains. I assessed. My Family domain was healthy. Like many pastors, my Church domain intertwined with my Vocation and Community domains, and all three of those were healthy. My relationship with God was real, and I had authentic community in my church family.
That’s when I realized that my “Personal” domain had become non-existent. In my effort to love God and others, I had completely abandoned any personal time that wasn’t leveraged for productivity. I used to hike, but had given it up to become more productive. I used to read Car and Driver magazine and tinker on my Toyota Land Cruiser, but had given those up for more spiritual pursuits, also.
It sounded silly to me, but Paterson’s (biblical) argument is that if God loves me, then I should love me (see Ephesians 5:29 & Mark 12:31). I had no healthy sense of self-love. And in neglecting healthy sleep and the healthy interests God wired me to enjoy, I had run myself into the ground. I had forced myself to work in a nonstop manner that I would never force on any other employee.
In obedience to God’s love for me as an individual, I assessed my weekly schedule to find space for “Personal Domain” as one component in a balanced life. That led me to my second ministry-saving lesson.

2. The Pit of Emulation

Most of us pastors have ministry heroes. I personally had some national pastor-authors I wanted to be like. I think most of us have ministry role models. That can be a great source of inspiration and direction. But God showed me that I was trying to make my ministry look like someone else’s.
I had been running hard, attempting to do what some of these heroes of mine do. During my low time, I realized that some of the pastor-authors I emulated were manufactured brands, with entire teams who write their book content, manage their national exposure and, for some, teams who even write their sermons. I was trying to do all of this as one person, and bottom line, it was not feasible for me, nor was it my calling.
If I was going to regain healthy Personal Domain and run the ministry race as a marathon (rather than sprinting and burning out), I was going to have to acknowledge that my capacity is not the same as some of the people I was emulating.
I needed the humility to say to myself, “They may be able to do all that, but I cannot.”

To crawl out of “the pit of emulation,” I had to release my ambitions that my ministry would ever look like so-and-so’s. David refused to wear Saul’s armor before battling Goliath, and I needed to cast aside the armor of other warriors if I was going to last in battle.
I had to acknowledge the capacity God has given me—physically and in family dynamics. Then, I had to surrender to the capacity God has given me. This tied back into Lesson #1, adopting God’s love toward me. A person who doesn’t believe they are loved will never stop over-working to earn approval.
Positively stated, I can admit my limited capacity when I love myself as God loves me, because my value is no longer dependent on performance or achievement.
In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul writes, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” As I invited God into my weaknesses, discouragement, fatigue and limited capacity, He showed me that He will bear the fruit He has planned for my life. Even if it doesn’t look like the plan He may have for people I admire.
Paul the Apostle discovered that when he was weakest, God’s strength most worked through him. I am beginning to discover the same truth as I bring God my fatigue, inadequacy and limited capacity.
Will you join me in discovering the same truth in your own limitations?  
Download free chapters from John’s new book, I Am Strong: Finding God’s Peace and Strength in Life’s Darkest Moments. here or order the book, here.

God Does Not Need You to Be Strong

By Jon Bloom

Provided by

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“God wants to be our strength.”

God does not want us to be strong. God wants to be our strength.
Perhaps a better way to say it is this: God wants us to be really strong, which is different from the way we might typically desire to be strong. We often want to be strong in a way that reflects well on us. God wants us to be strong in a way that reflects well on him. In a fallen world, these two wants are often at odds.
Now, if we were sinless, our wants and God’s wants would be in perfect harmony. We would only want to be strong in the strength that God supplies (1 Peter 4:11). But since we are not sinless, there is often dissonance between the strength we desire to have and the strength God desires to give us.
As a result, we can find ourselves deeply discouraged by the very limitations and adversity that God has actually designed to cultivate in us strong, courageous and liberating faith.

Trapped in Weakness

In Exodus 12, the people of Israel had been miraculously released from slavery and led out of Egypt by Moses. And by Exodus 14, Israel was encamped by the Red Sea, in a vulnerable and probably puzzling position. God had purposefully instructed Moses to lead Israel there because he had determined to humiliate Pharaoh and the Egyptians one last dramatic time—one more dramatic exclamation point to place on the declaration to Egypt and the world that would reverberate for the remainder of human history: “I am the Lord” (Exodus 14:4).
But the Israelites didn’t understand God’s purposes. There was probably plenty of murmuring about what in the world they were doing camped at what looked like a dead end. This only grew to fever-pitched panic when Pharaoh’s army showed up and pinned them all against the sea. It had all the look of a worst-case scenario: death by sword or death by drowning.
And like most of us would feel, the people were scared and angry. They yelled to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11).
They were trapped in a weak place—a place designed for them by God.

Weakened to Learn Where Strength Really Is

Moses’ reply to the panicky people was, “Fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Exodus 14:13–14).
And fight for them he did. While holding off the Egyptian army with the pillar of fire, he opened for the Israelites a dry path through the Red Sea. Then he let the Egyptians loose and they chased Israel hell-bent into the sea, which swallowed them.
And on the other side of it all, Moses and the people erupted in a song we still sing today:
“The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him” (Exodus 15:2).
When the Egyptian army showed up, God could have made Israel a nation of Samsons. The Holy Spirit could have rushed upon them all, and they could have whipped Egypt with a bunch of donkey jaws. Why didn’t God do that?
Well, remember Samson? When God gave Samson power to overcome 1,000 Philistines on his own, what was the song Samson sung afterward?
“With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men” (Judges 15:16).
“I struck down.” There is no hymn to God by Samson after any of his exploits, and he didn’t survive the one that likely got him mentioned as a model of faith in Hebrews 11:32. God was Samson’s strength, but Samson didn’t really recognize it.
God wanted Israel to understand that he was their strength and their salvation so that he would become their song. That’s why he put them in the weak, helpless place.

The Lord Is Our Strength

The exodus was the greatest Old Testament foreshadowing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God delivers us all as helpless children, caught between the forces of evil and the sea of God’s wrath. Jesus is our deliverer, and his cross and resurrection our deliverance.
But the exodus, along with all the other biblical stories of redemption, is also a reminder that God purposefully designs our weak places and assigns us to them. When we feel ourselves trapped in them, we can be deeply discouraged, panicky and even angry. God’s purposes in such experiences are typically not clear to us at first. Things just look like he’s either made a huge mistake or he’s capricious. But he’s neither.
The truth is that as sinful people, we don’t really understand what it means for God to be our strength and our salvation until we are put in a weak enough place where he is our only option. At first this doesn’t feel like a great mercy, but later, sometimes much later, we discover it was a gift of measureless mercy. And then God really becomes our song.

5 Ways to Reach Those Tough-to-Reach Millennials

5 Ways to Reach Those Tough-to-Reach Millennials

By Ron Edmondson I have never met a church that didn’t want to reach young people. Every church sees the value in younger people becoming an active part of the church. They know the future life of the church depends upon it.
The problem is often the church doesn’t act like what they claim to value.
If a church is more interested in protecting traditions, for example, than it is in creating a future, then it will most likely fail to attract young people.
At least that’s been my experience.
If a church is interested in attracting young people, it must think strategically about doing so. And, let’s be honest—we are all figuring out this subject. I’m totally open to learning from you. These are just some things I’ve observed.

Here are five suggestions for attracting young people to church:

Value them and their ideas
Young people will want to do things differently. They see things differently. We must give them a voice and an access to authority. This doesn’t mean we have to change anything we believe or teach, but it does mean we have to listen to them and not dismiss what’s on their heart and minds. I’ve found I must make time in my schedule for the younger generation. I need to engage them regularly. They want to know me personally. But, when I do, it’s huge to them—and I have more credibility to speak into their life. (And, it fuels me personally.)
Give them a place to serve
Find ways to let young people assist others. It’s a huge value for them. For the newer generation, it appears service may be the new front door. They will care more about serving than they will about “membership.” They want to make a difference meeting real needs. I’ve discovered they like hands-on experiences. And they usually aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
Be genuine with them
Young people can spot phonies. Let them see you are real. Authentic and transparent have been admired cultural values all their life—so they will accept nothing else. Be honest with them—about your shortcomings, your flaws and your fears. Let them learn from your mistakes and the things you did right.
Love them
Young people want to sense they are loved—even when they mess up. In my experience, young people want a safe place to be transparent and they want you to love them even when they do things—and believe things—of which you wouldn’t approve. If you want an opportunity to speak into their life, they have to know you genuinely care for them.
Guide them
Young people want direction and they want to learn from your experience. If you talk about the concept of mentoring—they are into it. If a more experienced person is willing to invest in them—they’ll listen. This is a huge opportunity for the church in reaching a newer generation.
These are a few of my observations. Feel free to add your own. There are so many things drawing our young people’s attention these days. The opportunities before them are unlimited. And, frankly, church is only one small option for most of them. We must be intentional and strategic if we want to reach them.

Why We Need to Keep on Planting New Churches

By Brandon Cox “You won’t find a part of this county we don’t already have covered.”
A local pastor said that to me just a couple of months into the pre-launch phase of planting Grace Hills. The most common question I received back then from leaders was something like, Another church? In Northwest Arkansas? Why?
I get it. There have been plenty of fly-by-night, flash-in-the-pan efforts at church planting, especially in a growing community like ours. Often, it’s a church split led by a disgruntled yet eager leader determined to right all the wrongs of the previous church. Other times, it’s a halfhearted effort where few risks are taken so that if it doesn’t work out, it’s not quite as costly. Of course, the real cost is that the community has a harder time believing the next plant is a serious and legitimate thing.
The perception that Christians, and even pastors, have toward church planting isn’t entirely positive. We’re suspicious, jealous and threatened. I was once confronted over rumors that we had arrived with a plan to recruit members from nearby churches. For me, these rumors were entertaining and inspired an internal desire to shout something like, Believe me, that’s the LAST thing we want … but I’ve bitten my tongue.
If you’re skeptical of church planting or if you believe the widespread myth that new church plants just “steal sheep” from other flocks, be enlightened! New research tells a very different story …

The reality is that while 43 percent of people who start attending a new church plant were previously part of another church, a whopping 42 percent weren’t. They either have no church background, or haven’t been in years. On the whole, most established, traditional churches don’t engage nearly as many truly unchurched people. In fact, they are often designed to appeal to the already reached!
Ed Stetzer, leader of the study, says, “In winning new converts to Christ, church plants are light-years ahead of the average church because of their focus on reaching the unchurched.”
We need to stop propagating the myth that new churches merely compete with existing churches to reach the same pool of people. The reality is that planting new churches is the single greatest way to reach any culture far from God, even in a seemingly church-saturated America.
Do we need to revitalize existing churches? Absolutely! And I thank God for leaders like Ron Edmondson who are leading the charge. But, as Stetzer says elsewhere, “it’s easier to birth babies than to raise the dead.” Too many churches are resistant to the kind of change necessary to reach the unchurched, and too many pastors learn about this resistance the hard way.
Every time someone tells me “we already have a lot of churches here …” I respond with, “No, we have a lot of church buildings here.” But do we have thriving bodies of people who gather and scatter to very intentionally and assertively fulfill the Great Commission by engaging the unchurched and dechurched among us? And at the end of the day, don’t we WANT our communities to be saturated with Bible-believing, gospel-teaching, Jesus-exalting communities?
I believe Jesus loves the local church. That’s why I love the local church. Jesus died for the church. I love seeing new works spring up around us in our community. They aren’t “competition.” They are what my friend David Chrzan calls co-optition. New churches are here to help fulfill the Great Commission—that’s cooperation. And new churches challenge every established church to re-evaluate and ask if the lost, outside world is still the focus of our energy—that’s a positive kind of competition that tends to keep us sharp.
You can never go wrong supporting a new church plant, sending people to plant and giving to missions so that church planting can be accelerated around the world. New churches make a difference. They matter deeply to the Kingdom and to the culture.
It works! So let’s keep planting new churches!
Grace Hills was one of 817 new churches that participated in this LifeWay Research project.

 

Why We Need to Keep on Planting New Churches

By Brandon Cox “You won’t find a part of this county we don’t already have covered.”
A local pastor said that to me just a couple of months into the pre-launch phase of planting Grace Hills. The most common question I received back then from leaders was something like, Another church? In Northwest Arkansas? Why?
I get it. There have been plenty of fly-by-night, flash-in-the-pan efforts at church planting, especially in a growing community like ours. Often, it’s a church split led by a disgruntled yet eager leader determined to right all the wrongs of the previous church. Other times, it’s a halfhearted effort where few risks are taken so that if it doesn’t work out, it’s not quite as costly. Of course, the real cost is that the community has a harder time believing the next plant is a serious and legitimate thing.
The perception that Christians, and even pastors, have toward church planting isn’t entirely positive. We’re suspicious, jealous and threatened. I was once confronted over rumors that we had arrived with a plan to recruit members from nearby churches. For me, these rumors were entertaining and inspired an internal desire to shout something like, Believe me, that’s the LAST thing we want … but I’ve bitten my tongue.
If you’re skeptical of church planting or if you believe the widespread myth that new church plants just “steal sheep” from other flocks, be enlightened! New research tells a very different story …

The reality is that while 43 percent of people who start attending a new church plant were previously part of another church, a whopping 42 percent weren’t. They either have no church background, or haven’t been in years. On the whole, most established, traditional churches don’t engage nearly as many truly unchurched people. In fact, they are often designed to appeal to the already reached!
Ed Stetzer, leader of the study, says, “In winning new converts to Christ, church plants are light-years ahead of the average church because of their focus on reaching the unchurched.”
We need to stop propagating the myth that new churches merely compete with existing churches to reach the same pool of people. The reality is that planting new churches is the single greatest way to reach any culture far from God, even in a seemingly church-saturated America.
Do we need to revitalize existing churches? Absolutely! And I thank God for leaders like Ron Edmondson who are leading the charge. But, as Stetzer says elsewhere, “it’s easier to birth babies than to raise the dead.” Too many churches are resistant to the kind of change necessary to reach the unchurched, and too many pastors learn about this resistance the hard way.
Every time someone tells me “we already have a lot of churches here …” I respond with, “No, we have a lot of church buildings here.” But do we have thriving bodies of people who gather and scatter to very intentionally and assertively fulfill the Great Commission by engaging the unchurched and dechurched among us? And at the end of the day, don’t we WANT our communities to be saturated with Bible-believing, gospel-teaching, Jesus-exalting communities?
I believe Jesus loves the local church. That’s why I love the local church. Jesus died for the church. I love seeing new works spring up around us in our community. They aren’t “competition.” They are what my friend David Chrzan calls co-optition. New churches are here to help fulfill the Great Commission—that’s cooperation. And new churches challenge every established church to re-evaluate and ask if the lost, outside world is still the focus of our energy—that’s a positive kind of competition that tends to keep us sharp.
You can never go wrong supporting a new church plant, sending people to plant and giving to missions so that church planting can be accelerated around the world. New churches make a difference. They matter deeply to the Kingdom and to the culture.
It works! So let’s keep planting new churches!
Grace Hills was one of 817 new churches that participated in this LifeWay Research project.

Wise Leaders Know: Culture Trumps Strategy

Wise Leaders Know: Culture Trumps Strategy—Here’s How to Build Healthy Culture

By Paul Sohn Leaders define culture. It’s one of those truths that all of us have become more and more aware of.
Culture always trumps strategy under pressure. It doesn’t matter how good your mission statement is, or it doesn’t matter how amazing your spreadsheet is—everyone knows under pressure culture is the thing that wins.
If leaders define it, it’s really important to know how do we build it well ...
Studies from anthropology and sociology show that culture is created through language, and language is created by an intentional usage of vocabulary or words that come to mean specific things in specific places, in specific times, with specific people groups. The more you understand that, the more effective you’ll be in building healthy culture inside your world.
The trouble is, vocabulary means different things to different people. A number of us speak English, whether that be from Britain or from America, but we don’t always mean the same thing. You watch what happens when you start to use the word “pants.” You can often get yourself in trouble. In America, that means trousers, in England that means underwear. You always have to be careful how you use words.
Vocabulary creates language, which shapes culture. That’s the reason why so many organizations struggle with clashes of culture, because every leader uses their own words and their own vocabulary and language, often to mean different things.
So what we found is, where leaders commit as an organization to use the same words to mean the same things to define their culture, somehow things have become a lot simpler.
If you go back hundreds of years, everyone was very very good at memorizing information. They didn’t have books, they didn’t have Internet. What you’ll find is they were able to memorize vast tracks of information, and it was retold in what we call an oral tradition using story.
We don’t live any more in a word-based culture. We live in a visual culture. Every day, we are bombarded by visual icons, cues, logos. Companies spend huge amounts of money on branding because we connect a huge amount information to what we see.
So, if you want to build an intentional leadership culture inside your organization, the most effective way of doing that is to capture words in visual tools because everyone remembers those where people use those tools to create a leadership language.
If everyone is using the same language and the same visual tools, you create unified culture, which allows you to deal with the pressures and challenges when things go wrong.
**If you want to become a leader worth following and raise the capacity of those you lead, I have a few open spots available for leadership coaching. If you’re interested in working with me, read more about me here.

Leading People to Be Driven By God’s Purpose

By Rick Warren

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“The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.”

Every member of your congregation is driven by something, and you need to discover what those forces are in order to better disciple those under your care. Ultimately, you want to lead each member to be driven by God’s agenda—to live a purpose-driven life.
Most dictionaries define the verb drive as “to guide, to control or to direct.” In your congregation, there are some driven by a problem, a pressure or a deadline, and others driven by a painful memory, a haunting fear or an unconscious belief.
There are hundreds of circumstances, values and emotions that drive people’s lives, and understanding what’s driving them is a key to reaching them.
Here are five common “drives”:
Some people are driven by guilt—They spend their entire lives running from regrets or hiding their shame. Guilt-driven people are manipulated by memories. They allow their past to control their future, believing their past mistakes to be bigger than God. They often unconsciously punish themselves by sabotaging their own success. When Cain sinned, his guilt disconnected him from God’s presence, and God said, “You will be a restless wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:12, NIV). That describes most people today—wandering through life without a purpose.
Some people are driven by resentment—They hold on to their hurts and never get over them. Instead of releasing their pain through forgiveness, they rehearse it over and over in their minds. Some resentment-driven people “clam up” and internalize their anger while others “blow up” and explode. Both responses are unhealthy and unhelpful. Resentment always hurts you more than it does the person you resent. While your offender has probably forgotten the offense and gone on with life, you continue to stew in your pain, perpetuating the past.
Some people are driven by fear—These fears may be the result of a traumatic experience, unrealistic expectations, growing up in a high-control home or even genetic predisposition. Regardless of the cause, fear-driven people often miss great opportunities because they’re afraid to venture out. Instead they play it safe, avoiding risks and trying to maintain the status quo.
Some people are driven by materialism—Their desire to acquire becomes the whole goal of their lives. This drive to always want more is based on the misconceptions that having more will make me “more happy,” more important and more secure—but all three ideas are untrue. Possessions only provide temporary happiness. Because things do not change we eventually become bored with them and then want a newer, bigger, better version.
Some people are driven by the need for approval—hey allow the expectations of parents or spouses or children or teachers or friends to control their lives. Many adults are still trying to earn the approval of unpleasable parents. Others are driven by peer pressure, always worried by what others might think. Unfortunately, those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it. I don’t know all the keys to success, but one key to failure is to try to please everyone. Being controlled by the opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God’s purposes for your life. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24, NLT).
There are other forces that can drive people’s lives but all lead to the same dead end: unused potential, unnecessary stress and an unfulfilled life.
Understanding these forces will help you look beyond the actions that frustrate you to see the real need in these people’s lives. Many of the problems they face—and you will face as a church leader—are caused by people driven by the wrong things. We need to lovingly look past the problems and call each church member to reach the fullness for which God has shaped them.
As a pastor, one of the greatest gifts you can offer is showing people how to live lives guided, controlled and directed by God. Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them—not success, wealth, fame or pleasure.
Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction and events without reason. In the Bible, many different people expressed this hopelessness.
Isaiah complained, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing” (Isa. 49:4, NIV).
Job said, “My life drags by—day after hopeless day,” (Job 7:6, LB) and “I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone. My life makes no sense” (Job 7:16, TEV).
The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.

A Reason for the Lack of Discipleship in Church

A Reason for the Lack of Discipleship in Church
 

It seems like everyone is talking about discipleship today. Pastors are preaching about it, conferences are devoted to it, and church members are interested in it. What is my response to the recent interest in making disciples? Honestly, I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, the dialogue that is taking place thrills me. For the first time, people, particularly ministers, aren’t looking at me with a confused look on their faces as I speak of our mandate to make disciples. On the other hand, the dialogue taking place scares me. My concern is that discipleship will become a fad like the Z Cavaricci’s of the 80’s or the fanny packs of the 90’s (aren’t you glad those are gone). So what steps can be taken to hedge against discipleship becoming another 40-day study or the program du jour?
Click here to read more.

10 Dangerous Church Paradigms I’ve Observed

By Ron Edmondson

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“If the church is unhealthy, part of the reason could be because it has some wrong paradigms.”

I’ve been in church all my life. Along the way I’ve seen and observed a lot. Almost all the insight I have into church has come by experience.
I have observed, for example, paradigms can often shape a church’s culture. A paradigm, in simple terms, is a mindset—a way of thinking. In this case, a collective mindset of the church, often programmed into the church’s culture.
If the church is unhealthy, part of the reason could be because it has some wrong paradigms. In this case, it will almost always need a paradigm shift in order to be a healthier church again.
Recently, I’ve been thinking of some of the paradigms that impact a church. I’ll look at some of the negative in this post, and in another post some of the positive paradigms of the church.
Please understand. I love and believe in the local church. I believe in the ability to impact a community, to provide hope and, of course, in the promise Jesus made about His church. My goal of this post and this blog is to strengthen the local church. Sometimes we do this by exposing the parts that need to improve.

Here are 10 dangerous church paradigms:

This is more my church than yours.
Granted, no one would ever say this one, but a sense of ownership can set in the longer someone has been at a church. They have invested in the church personally and feel, often rightly so, a need to protect and care for it. The negative of this mindset, however, is when people don’t easily welcome new people. They “own” their seats. You better not sit there—no matter how much the church needs to grow. They control programs, committees and traditions. Obviously, the church is not your church or my church. God has not released the deed.
We’ve never done it this way before.
And, if this is the “go to” paradigm—they probably never will. People with this mindset resist all change. Even the most positive or needed change. Small change is big change to these people.
The pastor needs to do it.
Whatever “it” is—the pastor, or some paid staff, must be involved at some level. This paradigm keeps a church very small. (And doesn’t seem biblical to me.)
That’s for the big churches.
Don’t sell yourself short. Some of the greatest people in ministry come from small churches. Maybe your only role, for example, is to raise up the next generation of Kingdom-minded leaders. This would be a great purpose for a church.
That’s for the small churches.
I’ve seen a few big churches with an attitude. Bad attitudes. This mindset can keep a church from reaching those hurting most because their only focus is on growing. A strong, narrowly defined and driven vision is powerful. It builds churches. But a church with this paradigm never welcomes any interruptions in their plans. Jesus is our best example of this. He kept the vision before Him, but was never afraid to stop for the interruption yelling in the streets.
My comfort level for change is _____.
This paradigm says, “We will change until it impacts our individual personal desires.” Does it sound self-centered? It is.
My people would never support _____.
Well, pastor, maybe if they weren’t “your people” they’d be more willing to be “God’s people.” He has ways you can’t even imagine of leading His people to do His will.
I can’t!
Not with that attitude. The old saying, “If you think you can’t you’re halfway there.” But one quick question—Where is your faith?
This is the best we can do.
Are you sure? Is that your opinion or God’s? Sounds like a dangerous paradigm to me.
We have plateaued as a church.
Really? You may have quit growing, but plateaued? The word means “leveled out.” This indicates to me you’re stable. In my experience, you’re either going forward—or going backward. Standing still is usually not an option—and definitely not stability.
Those are just some of the dangerous church paradigms I’ve observed. You’ve seen far more, I’m sure.
Do you know of any other dangerous church paradigms?

Pride—The #1 Killer of Ministries

4 Foolproof Ways to Create a Culture of Serving

By Eric Bryant

• Print Version

Being a servant is fast becoming a lost art form. Eric Bryant presents four tips to bring it back to life.

Why should we create a culture of serving in our churches? There are a myriad of reasons, but the top three are: A) God is a servant (Philemon 2), B) Serving changes the perspective of others; we become known by our love, which is as it should be, C) Serving changes our perspective; it can help us think and live more like missionaries right where we live.
This is what the LORD Almighty says:

“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other” — Zechariah 7:9-10

How Can We Develop a Culture of Serving?

1. Communicate the message of Jesus as a call to change the world (because it is)!
Our cause equals moving people to become the person God created them to be. Jesus did not invite us to follow Him for what we could get, but what we could give. Fellowship isn’t just what we do for each other. Fellowship is what do together for the world.

“The church isn’t here to meet our needs. We are the church, here to meet the needs of the world.” — (Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force)

2. Meet the needs of those around us.
People weren’t repelled by the beliefs of the early church as much as they were intrigued by their character. The early Christ-followers were “praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people” (Acts 2:42-47). We need to seek to meet the physical, emotional, economic and spiritual needs of those around us. We should pursue changing the environment and changing the individual (social justice and evangelism).
3. Connect with those you do not know.
Xenos is the Greek word for “stranger, alien or foreigner.” Throughout the Scriptures, God’s love for the stranger becomes clearly evident. Hospitality means loving strangers. Our homes, our businesses and our churches should become safe places for strangers to experience kindness and love.
4. Deepen your relationships with those you know.
Oikos is the Greek word for household (family, neighbors, co-workers and friends). Are we loving, serving, investing and sharing with our family, neighbors, co-workers and friends? Parties give us natural environments to build relationships. Jesus was willing to ruin His reputation to reach out to others who were far from God. People are most open to God and discovering a relationship with Him in the midst of life’s major transitions — a wedding, a baby, a move, a loss.

Free Sermon Package: “First Things First”

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What will it take to stop being distracted by the urgent and start focusing on the meaningful?

Free Sermon Package

Help your church to start the new year on the right foot in their walk with God.
This sermon package includes:

• Bulletin outline
• Message video
• Preaching outline
• Transcript
• Talk it over PDF

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Resource provided by Open.Church

3 Leadership Assumptions that Destroy God’s Mission

It’s one thing to verbally affirm that in our postmodern, post-Christendom world we face adaptive challenges. It is entirely another to respond to these challenges adaptively. We naturally assume (at least I do) that we can formulate the strategies, organize the resources, and outline the steps for leading our people in participating in God’s mission. But if we are in a space between (see my related post), then such assumptions won’t get us where we need to go. What are these assumptions? I will suggest a few here.

The Right Program

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just implement the right program and strategy so that the church would get back on track and succeed?
With such a thought in mind, I (and other leaders I’ve known) have sought out and adopted models from various “successful” churches, expecting that doing so would make things right and lead us where God wanted us to go. However, if a renewed understanding of who God is and what God is up to resides in the space between, then models and programs, no matter how good they are perceived to be, will not produce the desired results.
The reason is that the challenge at hand is neither a problem to be solved, a need to be met, nor an issue to be addressed. Rather, it is a place to sit and listen to the other, the neighbour, and the neighbourhood wherein God lives. Missional leaders are called to reside in this unfamiliar and often uncomfortable space between, a space where leading is more about being attentive and vulnerable than planning and programming.

…leading is more about being attentive and vulnerable than planning and programming ~Karen Wilk

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This is both disorienting and disturbing.
When Moses encountered God in the burning bush, he realized with fear and trembling that he was being called out of the predictable, comfortable, safe environment of Midian and into the unknown future of the space between, a space where God was leading and already at work.
Moses had to trust, obey, and take the risk of letting go of all that he had known and been in order to embrace and become all that God had already called him and made him to be in this new reality. The strategies and skills of his role in his father-in-law’s household program were neither adequate nor appropriate to the new journey and world ahead of him. As Moses listened and followed, however, God provided, equipped, and empowered him (along with others) such that God’s will was done on earth as it is in heaven (Exodus 3).
In the same way, missional leadership exposes our illusions of being able to order church and society with the right programs and organization. As we find ourselves outside of such systems, we again learn to trust the Father and engage ministry without the familiarity and security of our predetermined schemes, agendas, models, and programs.

More is Better

Another assumption that arises out of previous leadership notions has to do with our understanding of the nature of church “success”. Many, including myself, believed that to succeed as a church meant having more and more people attending on Sunday mornings and participating in church programs, such as educational opportunities, service projects, and so on.
If, however, God is to be found in the space between, and if missional leadership is all about faithfully following the Incarnate One who “dwelt among”, loved unconditionally, and embodied the space between with grace and mercy, then success is not about church attendance as an end in itself.
In fact, the focus of the church moves from “onstage” to “offstage”, which releases and empowers us to cultivate lives in the space between rather than commit our time and effort to “onstage”, in-house activities.^[1] Therefore, missional leaders ask: How do we nurture those environments and contexts into which God moves us, those places in which we hear and speak the “offstage” language? After all, the One we claim to follow left heaven’s stage to walk the back rooms, caretakers’ closets, coffee shops, and parks at the end of the block. In so doing, he attracted others to a new way of living in the space between that changed the world!

the focus of the church moves from “onstage” to “offstage” ~Dr. Karen Wilk

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Hub and Spoke

Another presumption which works contrary to the nature and intent of missional leadership is the hub-and-spoke leadership structure. This approach supposes that those at the centre have the resources, expertise, knowledge, power, and authority to lead, provide for, and guide those at the other end of the spokes. This model diminishes the understanding that every believer is gifted, called, and made to be a priest in her/his neighbourhood.
It also creates a dependency on an outside source which neither inhabits nor relates to the context and, therefore, will never be sufficient for that people and place. It assumes “one size fits all”, and that that “size” can be managed, stimulated, and controlled by the systems, structures, and experts of the hub. In so doing, it implies that what those on the rim need does not reside within themselves or is insufficient (see Craig Van Gelder’s, The Ministry of the Missional Church).
It is this very insufficiency, however, that opens us up to the work of the Spirit in the space between. It is in this place that we can experience the wonder and joy of trusting the Spirit as we return from a foreign-yet-promised land, carrying a cluster of grapes on a pole between us. As missional leaders step out of the hub-and-spoke model, they leave “their baggage behind” and “enter into the life of [their] neighbourhood” as vulnerable ones. The Spirit teaches that “what God is doing has a lot more to do with the stranger and receiving hospitality than being in control of the resources and the answers” (quotes courtesy of Alan Roxburgh’s Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood).
According to Henry Nouwen, “the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love” (In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership).

God’s Mission and Us

Am I willing to be irrelevant and vulnerable? Is the church?
Can you relate to any of these default assumptions?
What have you done or are you doing to find and lead in the missional space between in such a way that you are countering or leaving behind these defaults?
What have you done or are you doing to live in leadership in the space between?

Am I willing to be irrelevant and vulnerable? Is the church?

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Avoid Assumptions Through Accountability–Work with V3 Coaches & Missional Church Planters

Footnotes

[1] Alan Roxburgh, DMin.7616, Missional Leadership (Chicago, Il: Northern Seminary, July 2013).

Why the Missional Movement Will DIE in 5 Years

Why the Missional Movement Will DIE in 5 Years

By Matt Adair The missional movement will die in the next five years.
Several years ago, Mike Breen predicted that the missional movement would fail because it is a mission devoid of discipleship. I wholeheartedly agree. We have disconnected our life for God from our life with God.

The People in Your Church Do Not Care

But there’s another reason why the missional movement will fail. The people in your church do not care about the missional movement. Look, I know you’ve preached on missional living and wired your small groups to reach your city. And my guess is that you have some pretty cool stories about ways your church has served the city. You very well might have seen a person here or there come to faith in Christ.
Walk with me through your church. Think about the men and women and families whom you preached to last Sunday. Write down the names of everyone on the launch team of your church plant. How many of them woke up on Monday morning thinking about missional living? Fair to say the number is somewhere south of 50 percent?
That’s frustrating, isn’t it? You have been banging the drum about missionary living and all you have to show for it are the same stories you told this time last year. You have swung the biggest homiletical sledgehammer you can find and all you have been able to do is to put a dent into the brick wall of our neighborhoods and cities. Your strategy for infiltrating your city with outward-facing missional communities looked great on paper but in reality is limping impotently into the summer.

What Your People Woke Up Caring About

What we have not been able to overcome is that our people have more pressing concerns than a new strategy to transform their neighborhood. When they wake up on Monday mornings, what occupies their attention are the schedules of their children and the looming deadline of that project at work. Their focus is on their job—in the home or in the marketplace.
Here’s a question. When is the last time you spent time helping people connect their faith to their work? Where in your discipleship plan do you teach that vocation (the various and holistic callings that God has placed upon our lives) is integral, not incidental, to the kingdom of God? Does your conception of the mission of God carry out the conviction that the primary venue for missional living is our jobs?

Ordinary Life for Everyday Christians

Forget the global church. Let’s talk about your church. The missional movement will be a distant memory five years from now if it is disconnected from the ordinary lives of everyday Christians. The average worker in your church will spend 100,000 hours of their life doing work. Over that same period of time, an active person in your church will spend around 10,000 hours in church environments (weekly gatherings and small groups).
You can do the math. But have you worked that piece of arithmetic into the discipleship plan of your church?
If you believe that ‘every member is a missionary,’ then help them integrate their life with God into a life for God through their work. Or you can ignore the most time-consuming part of people’s lives and miss the opportunity to see a movement of missionaries spread across your city and out into the world.

Do the Next Right Thing

Sometimes the next right thing is to listen and pray. One of God’s great gifts to us as pastors and planters is books. In our church’s leadership development program, we incorporate four books to help people integrate faith and work:

• Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller
• Kingdom Calling by Amy Sherman
• Visions of Vocation by Steve Garber
• Work Matters by Tom Nelson

If the centrality of vocation is a new idea to you, pick up a copy of Keller’s book and read it with at least one member of your leadership team. If you are looking for ideas on how to work this into your church’s discipleship plan, then start with Sherman and work through it with at least one member of your leadership team.

Question

Vocation is integral to the mission of God. Where does that disconnect from your theology and practice as a church?

The Top 10 Leadership Posts I Read The Week Of January 4th

I will write more about this in the future but the #1 issue I see pastors and church leaders dealing with is fear.  It is not character issues or incompetence.  It is fear.  And fear is delaying the hard and/or inconvenient decisions needed to executive mission and vision.
This week’s Top 10 list is very important because many of the posts deal with issues directly related to fear.  You will want to bookmark and revisit these posts often.
The following are The Top 10 Leadership Posts I Read The Week Of January 4th:

1. 52 Leadership Promises For Every Week Of The Year by Lolly Daskal
2. Some Thoughts On Ministering To The Sick And Dying by Kevin DeYoung
3. The Hardest Thing God Will Ever Have To Pry Your Fingers From In 2016 by Margaret Feinberg
4. 6 Social Media Trends For 2016 by Steve Fogg
5. 5 Things Leaders Put Too Much Emphasis On by Joseph Lalonde
6. 20 Politically Incorrect Thoughts On Church In America by Tony Morgan
7. What Is The Most Excellent Way To Lead by Perry Noble
8. 5 Ways To Lead During Times Of Fear by Thom Rainer
9. Here’s How Leaders Create Healthy Organizational Culture by Paul Sohn
10. You Are (Un)Invited by Lysa TerKeurst via (In)Courage

Well, that is my Top 10.  What other great posts did you read this week?

Nothing will help you grow your church faster than becoming a better preacher and communicator.  Preach Better Sermons is a free online event to help you learn sermon prep and delivery from some of the very best like Carey Nieuwhof himself.

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Do You Have A Desire To Make A Difference This Year?

4 Myths About Disciplemaking

Sometimes the issue is that we believe certain myths about the Great Commission to go and make disciples.
Myth #1: Disciplemaking will just take care of itself.
Do you sometimes think that we can make disciples without changing anything in our daily lives; that as we go about doing our own thing that new disciples will be made and multiplied?
Myth #2: Effective disciplemaking will come naturally.
Are your disciplemaking efforts really just dreams and aspirations, and not efforts backed by a well-engineered plan? Do you have a well-structured blueprint for effective disciplemaking?
Myth #3: Disciplemaking doesn't really require any training.
Maybe you’ve bought into the myth that effective disciplemaking will happen without any training or education.
Myth #4: I'm not capable.
Have you convinced yourself of the myth that you aren’t capable for some reason - lack of experience, lack of skill, etc.—of making and multiplying disciples?
I totally understand - I’ve been there.

Discipleship is not easy. Jesus didn't say it would be.
And trust me, I have my own long list of failed discipleship attempts - false starts, failed relationships... you name it, I've failed at it! 
Whether it’s barriers in your everyday life or a broken belief in what the Great Commission is, ineffective disciplemaking is a real problem.
It can cripple our ability to make a difference, derail the mission God has called us to, and offers nothing to help the survival and growth of the gospel in the world.
But here's one thing we've learned from training and equipping over 2 million leaders from 100+ different countries:

The cost of discipleship is great. To live with radical abandonment for His glory, faithful adherence to His person, urgent obedience to His ministry—this is costly...

But I submit to you that the cost of non-discipleship is far, far, far greater.

David Platt from Disciplemaking Blueprint

There’s a problem with how we're making disciples...

Really, the problem is that we’re not effectively multiplying disciples.
Perhaps it’s because we don’t understand why discipleship is so important. ...or we don't see the hidden, treacherous barriers that keep sabotaging our attempts at making disciples.
Or, it might be a misunderstanding of what it means to be a disciple. Maybe we just have unhealthy disciplemaking habits.
Not only that but ineffective disciplemaking may have you feeling tired, frustrated, afraid and timid, or worse - ready to quit.

But it doesn't have to be this way.
EFFECTIVE DISCIPLEMAKING IS POSSIBLE

The best ministry decision I have made this year...

     

That's what one of our Disciplemaking Blueprint alumni had to say...

 

So I know that Disciplemaking Blueprint is going to be a game-changer for you, and really set you on a path to making a difference this year. 

 

But don't just take my word for it. Listen to what some other alumni had to say about it:

 

“This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my Christian life. It has re-invigorated my heart and passion for ministry.  It’s made me more reliant on the work of the Holy Spirit to accomplish what God is calling us to. Thank You!” - Rod in New Jersey

 

"Joining the Disciplemaking Blueprint was the best ministry decision I have made this year. The material and the presenters have been phenomenal..." - Jen in Minnesota

 

"The Disciplemaking Blueprint is an awesome resource for believers! It has such a wide range of practical, inspirational topics, combined with very authentic testimonial stories from individuals and communities." - Richard in Texas

 

“The Disciplemaking Blueprint is practical, inspiring, challenging, and encouraging. It will renew your passion for making disciples, and give you the tools you need to do it more effectively!” - Matthew in Canada

 

Hundreds have already benefitted from the Disciplemaking Blueprint and have been set on a path to making a difference.

 

So go get it now (before enrollment closes):

http://www.vergenetwork.org/your-disciplemaking-blueprint/

 

Grace and peace, 

 

Stew 

Founding Director, Verge Network & Conferences

 

 

P.S. If you've been watching the videos in this series, you know the importance of getting training and resources like the Disciplemaking Blueprint. 

 

We won't open this course up again for another 6 months so get it while you can: 

http://www.vergenetwork.org/your-disciplemaking-blueprint/

 

 

Jumpstarting, Restarting or Resurrecting Your Missional Community

The pressure is off and you can begin again!

January 4, 2016 

 

 

There comes a time for all of us when we need to look at jumpstarting, re-starting or resurrecting our missional community.

Whether it’s the start of a new year, the end of the summer blues or things have just sort of fizzled out, there a few simple yet intentional rhythms you can dive into that can make all the difference and will get you and your community back on track.

Begin to Begin…Again

First of all, don’t beat yourself up. These things happen to all of us. Our best intentions don’t always stay that intentional, and the stuff of life can often derail even our most sincere efforts. Pick yourself up, remember that you are deeply loved by God and begin again. It’s okay. Every journey is a series of a thousand small but intentional steps.

The thing you want to get to, or get back to, are predictable patterns: Those few key rhythms in your community life that everyone knows you’ll for sure be doing together at the same time and in the same manner each week. You need to get into a rhythm of predictable patterns.

I want to suggest you go back to basics here. Think UP, IN and OUT. Jesus maintained balance and priority in his life by perfectly integrating these three relational dynamics:

➤ Time with his Father – his UPward relationship

➤ Time with those He was discipling in close community – his INward relationships

➤ Time with those out side of his close circle – his OUTward relationships

I want to suggest to jumpstart or restart your missional community you pick one new predictable pattern or rhythm you can begin to do together in community in each of these categories… UP, IN, OUT.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started in each category. And you can download my free UP/IN/OUT matrix that will give you a ton of other ideas.

➤ UP – A rhythm of connecting deeper to God and the gospel

• Grow in your “gospel-fluency” by going through the Gospel Primer together for 8 weeks. This will help you connect deeply with the Father’s heart in every area of life.
• Spend time listening to God; not asking him to do a bunch of stuff for you, but listening for His voice.
• Read and discuss one narrative from scripture together and ask: What did we learn about God? What might he be saying to us in this story? What will we do about that this week?

➤ IN – Living more like a family in your missional community

• Go through the Story of God or the Story-formed Way together. Take time to to really get to know each other’s stories in a deeper way. Look for unbelief in the gospel.
• Sharing the Lord’s Supper / Communion as a community.
• Family dinner night as a community. No big agenda other than to BE together.

➤ OUT – Building relationships with those outside your missional community

• Regularly frequent the same few restaurants, pubs, cafes or parks so as to build familiarity and new relationships. Pick a day/night of the week and go for it!
• Regularly serve needs as a community out in your neighborhood or city. Adopt a park or local school grounds.
• Host an Open Table night each week where anyone and everyone is invited to a meal. No big agenda. Build relationships and trust.

The life of a healthy missional community cannot happen in just one evening per week!Click To TweetPredictable Patterns

Remember, you’re looking to start doing these things in predictable patterns. And you may notice something here, you cannot do even these three simple rhythms all on one night of the week. Nope. A missional community is a family and you could never do healthy, meaningful family life together for a couple hours one night per week.

None of these suggestions are amazing…holy cow… rocket science… crazy things. These are simple ideas to get you started.

The next best time to add three simple rhythms to your community life is now. If you will get started, and stick with them, over time new rhythms and relationships with begin to form and you’ll find yourself in a whole new season.

Would you let me know other UP, IN, OUT rhythms you have found fun and effective in your community? Leave them in the comments below. And please subscribe to my Youtube channel before you go…ok?