Selasa, 27 Juni 2017

Are Christians and Disciples the Same?

Given that for decades the church has separated discipleship from salvation, we need to ask the question: Are Christians and disciples the same? At first, this question seems to be about the meaning of words, but it is really about expectations. A disciple is a learner, a student of someone. The term implies action and obedience. The term Christian, however, tends to refer to a status or position. So are Christians and disciples the same?

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Bill Hull
Co-founder, The Bonhoeffer Project

Why Worldview Matters

Nearly 1 in 3 practicing Christians agreed with the idea of karma.

A recent survey of practicing Christians was, to say the least, enlightening. By “practicing Christians,” the study included those who self-identify as Christians, attend church at least once every month and say their faith is very important in their lives.
They were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with various statements.
Nearly 1 in 3 practicing Christians agreed with the idea that “if you do good, you will receive good, and if you do bad, you will receive bad.” In other words, the idea of karma.
Twenty-eight percent believe that “all people pray to the same god or spirit, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being.” Welcome to New Age thinking.
Twenty-seven percent believe that “meaning and purpose come from becoming one with all that is.” Can you say Hinduism?
Wait…it gets worse.
One in 5 believe that “meaning and purpose come from working hard to earn as much as possible so you can make the most of life.” Can there be a clearer statement espousing raw materialism?
Twenty-three percent believe that “what is morally right or wrong depends on what an individual believes.” Yes, that is raw postmodern relativism.
Overall, the study conducted by Barna Group and Summit Ministries claims:

61 percent agree with ideas rooted in New Spirituality
54 percent resonate with postmodernist views
36 percent accept ideas associated with Marxism
29 percent believe ideas based on secularism

I do not believe these “practicing Christians” are purposefully jettisoning Christian ideology for another worldview. The better answer is simple ignorance. They do not have a firmly developed Christian worldview and, as a result, have ideas without an anchor. They simply sit on top of the cultural ocean, drifting with the tide.
So what is meant by worldview?
The term itself is from the German Weltanschauung (literally: “world perception”), but the definition goes beyond just a set of ideas by which you judge other ideas. Rather, it is, as Gene Edward Veith has written, “a way to engage constructively the whole range of human expression from a Christian perspective.” Or, as Jonathan Edwards—arguably the greatest intellect America has ever produced—once contended: The basic goal of any intellect is to work toward “the consistency and agreement of our ideas with the ideas of God.”
Consider the worldview questions posed by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey based on creation, the fall and redemption: Where did we come from and who are we? What has gone wrong with the world? What can we do to fix it? How now shall we live?
Reflect on the response to the first and most foundational of these questions: “Where did we come from?” There are a limited number of answers at our disposal: We came about by chance (the naturalist contention); we don’t really exist (the Hindu response); or, we were spoken into existence by God. Even if one makes more obscure suggestions, such as Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking who intimated that we were seeded here by another race of beings from another planet, one would then have to account for their existence.
So for the Christian, the answer to “Where did we come from and who are we?” gives a foundation for thinking that no other answer gives. Because we were created, there is value in each person. There is meaning and purpose to every life. There is Someone above and outside of our existence who stands over it as authority.
This is the power and force of a biblical worldview, and how it cuts through the cultural morass of clouded thinking. It is just such a worldview that allows prophetic voices to ring loud and clear, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s voice who penned these immortal words found in his jailhouse correspondence:
“…there are two types of law: just and unjust… A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out harmony with the moral law… Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.”
King’s argument was based on the worth of a human being bestowed by God regardless of what other humans might have to say. King laid claim to a law above man’s law. No other worldview would have given King the basis for such a claim.
And from such a worldview, the world was changed.
So rather than simply denounce those “practicing Christians” for embracing ideas in opposition to the faith they claim to embrace, consider another investment of energy:
…introducing them to the worldview that goes with their faith.

Sources
Morgan Lee, “Many Practicing Christians Agree with Marxism (and Other Competing Worldviews),” Christianity Today, May 10, 2017, read online.
Gene Edward Veith, “Reading and Writing Worldviews,” in The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing, ed. by Leland Ryken.
Jonathan Edwards, “Notes on the Mind,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Scientific and Philosophical Writings, edited by Wallace E. Anderson.
Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live?
Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).
This article originally appeared here.

By James Emery White

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His book, The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated, is available on Amazon. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church and Culture blog, visit ChurchAndCulture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on Twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.

Planter: There’s a Time NOT to Be Productive

How do you stop producing and rest?

Recently I heard an older pastor say that the most important thing to do on vacation and Sabbath is to not be productive. As a leader, this is not only hard, but also one of the most important things to keep in mind.

It isn’t decisions, meetings, counseling or preaching that tires me out (although that can do it sometimes), but it is the production of things. The pressure (real or imagined) that I feel to produce something, to prepare something.
To be productive.
How do you stop producing and rest? How can you take a weekend off? How do you turn your mind off from it? From the pressure, the deadlines?
I’ll be honest. On a weekly basis (when I’m trying to take my Sabbath day), this is my biggest struggle. I can survive without social media and email, but it is stopping myself from thinking about work. Being willing to not read a book for a sermon or for leadership and just stop producing.
I feel guilty about it.
But it is necessary and important to your health as a leader, to your family and to your church.
Here are five things I’ve learned that might be helpful for you this weekend and on your next vacation:
1. Decide ahead of time what unproductive will mean and entail. This might sound counterintuitive, but the first step to being unproductive is to be productive. Set yourself up to succeed.
If you are married, sit down with your spouse and ask them, “If I was unproductive for a weekend, a week, two weeks, a month, what would that mean? What would we do?” One reason leaders struggle to rest is the constant movement of ministry and leadership. It is addicting. As much as my heart, mind and body need a break from preaching, when I do take a break I get antsy and have a hard time functioning. That is not only a sign that I need it, but it’s also a sign that I have some heart work to do around that.

For me, here are some things that being unproductive means: no blogging or writing, no leadership or theology books (I read spy novels or historical books on vacation), sleeping in (or letting Katie sleep in), taking naps, extended game time with my kids, extended time with friends.
Answer this simple question: What would refresh me and recharge me? Are there certain people who will do that? Spend time with them.
Too many pastors work on vacation and prepare for upcoming things (you need to plan that for a different time). Your weekend or vacation is for refreshment, recharging and reconnecting with your family in a different way.
2. Set yourself up for success. If you don’t decide ahead of time, you’ll end up coming back for the fall exhausted.
One of the things we’ve done in years past is for me to take a one or two night retreat at a monastery before we go away. Leaders have a way of crashing at the start of vacation. I’d rather do this alone than crash on my family. It starts your time off on the right foot.
If you are tired of church or have a hard time going to church without thinking about your church (which happens more than you think), take a Sunday off and sleep in. Watch a podcast (but not for ministry purposes).
The bottom line is, if you know and have decided how to be unproductive, it makes it easier to reach it. It increases the likelihood of resting and recharging.
One of the best ways to set yourself up for success is to take social media and email off your phone. In fact, on vacation Katie changes my passwords so I can’t even get on them in a moment of weakness (which never happens).
At the end of your week, finish things up. Set up some kind of ritual at the end of the day or week that says, “I’m done. I’ve done all that I can, the rest is in God’s hands,” so that you can be done mentally and emotionally.
3. Give yourself grace. Because you are a leader and are trained to be productive and critical, you will struggle to not be productive and critical. When you think about work, a person, a situation, give yourself grace and then move on.
On your weekend, when you start to think about work, write it down and let it go. Give yourself a moment to reconnect to being off and be OK with that. Your weekend or vacation isn’t ruined in that moment. It can be if you let it, but it isn’t yet.
4. Get out of town. This isn’t always possible, but get out of town. There are so many retreat centers and housing for pastors and their families that you can do this inexpensively. In fact, we have stayed at the same place in San Diego four different years, and each time it was free. Just plan ahead (and Google pastor’s retreat) and start making calls. Our kids look forward every year to vacation because we’ve planned it. This also means we don’t do things during the year for this time to happen, but we got out of town when I was making less than $500 a week (and working four jobs) planting our church. So you can do it!
On your weekend, find fun things to do if that will recharge you. Go swimming, take a hike, go to a fair or a market. Get moving. You may stay in your town, but get out of your house. Changing the scenery is crucial to resting and recharging.
5. Your church will be fine. Many pastors fear leaving their church as if they are the glue that holds their church together. Now if you are a church planter, you are the glue for much of your church but not all of it. You can get away for a long weekend or a week and everything will be fine.
Too many pastors live with the pressure that if they take a week off, someone will be mad. They might, but you’ll live. They get vacation time, too.
Often pastors will ask me, “What do I do if I don’t have someone to preach?” Simple, show a video sermon of someone. Go download a Tim Keller, Matt Chandler or Craig Groeschel sermon and show that. Better yet, download four and take four Sundays off from preaching.
This Matters (A Lot)
Let me tell you why this matters. I’ve led my church since 2008, and being unproductive for a little bit of time is not only good for me and my family, but also for my church. A refreshed pastor leads a refreshed church.
A tired pastor leads a tired church.
This article originally appeared here.

By Joshua Reich

Joshua Reich is the Lead Pastor at Revolution Church in Tucson, AZ. Revolution is an Acts 29 church that dreams of saturating the city of Tucson with gospel-centered church planting churches. Josh has a B.S. in Pastoral Leadership from Lancaster Bible College and an M.Div. in Organizational/Missional Leadership from Biblical Seminary. In addition to writing here, some of his writing also appears at Church Leaders. Josh’s new book, Breathing Room, comes out September 2015.

Reaching Teens Must Be a Central Part of Your Outreach Plan

Start a fire in the youth room and the rest of the church will be set ablaze for Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon once said that if you want to set a house on fire you should start the fire in the basement…because fire burns upward. He was referring to the strategic nature of reaching the poor and broken of a city with the Good News of the Gospel. Spurgeon contended that as the poor of a city were reached that the fire of the Gospel would burn “upward” to the rest of the city.
This is one of the reasons why Spurgeon, while still in his early 20s, was pastoring the largest church in England in one of the worst parts of London. He reached the poor people of South London and the fire burned upward to the rest of the city.
While this principle stands true when it comes to preaching to the poor of a city, it also is true when it comes to reaching teenagers of a community. Start a fire in the youth room and the rest of the church will be set ablaze for Jesus. Reach the teenagers of a city for Christ and the adults will soon be reached as well. That’s one of the surprising reasons why focusing on reaching teenagers for Jesus is super strategic.
And this principle is proven true by my story.
I’ll never forget Ralph “Yankee” Arnold. He is the pastor who reached my entire inner-city family for Jesus. My family was full of rage and violence. My uncles made the Sons of Anarchy look like the Brady Bunch. My mom was like the woman at the well with a baseball bat. I never met my biological father who skipped town when he found out my mom was pregnant.
We were a broken, angry, ready-to-fight type family in a high crime rate area of our city. You could say we lived in the “basement” of Denver. But then a preacher nicknamed “Yankee,” who spoke with a southern accent (long story), came into our lives and set all of us on fire for Christ.
On a dare he led my Uncle Jack to Jesus. Jack had been in and out of jail and was always up for a fight. Although he was a bar-room brawler and arm-wrestled for cash, Jesus wrestled his pride to the ground and everything changed.
One by one my body-building uncles fell to the overwhelming power of the Gospel. And soon after we joined Yankee’s church.
Although Yankee challenged and equipped the entire church to share the Gospel, he looked at reaching teenagers as especially strategic. And, at one point, we had 800 teenagers in our youth ministry! As a result, our entire city was impacted by the Gospel, because these teens saturated it with Gospel conversations.
Yankee reached the poor and the young. He set the fire in the basement and it burned outward to the rest of the city.
That Gospel advancing DNA (especially when it comes to reaching teenagers) has been passed on to me.
As the leader of a ministry called Dare 2 Share, our vision is, “Every teen everywhere hearing the Gospel from a friend.” And our mission is, “Energizing the Church to Mobilize youth to Gospelize their world.”
The church is at the epicenter of making this mission work. So, whether you’re a youth leader, lead pastor, church elder or a member of the congregation, I want to give you five big reasons why reaching teenagers for Christ is super strategic.
1. Teenagers come to Christ faster than adults.
We’ve all heard statistics that remind us that the majority of people who come to Christ do so by the age of 18. So, if this is true, why aren’t we putting more strategy, budget and focus on reaching this demographic? Sometimes I wonder if it’s because (this is hard to type…) teenagers and children don’t tithe as much as adults. But if our real kingdom currency is disciples made and multiplied, shouldn’t our focus be on reaching the demographic that is most open to the message of the Gospel?
2. Teenagers can spread the Gospel farther than adults.
The average teenager has well over 400 online and face-to-face friends. In a Snap-Chat, Instagram or Facebook post, a teenager can trigger Gospel conversations with scores of other teenagers in an instant. And, if they are trained to navigate these conversations in a loving, intelligent way, then they can powerfully accelerate the spread of the Gospel with their peers.
Over the last 25 years I have had the honor of training a million-plus teenagers to share the Gospel through Dare 2 Share. At our events we have teenagers begin Gospel conversations with their friends through a call, text or social media post. This has led to countless new believers being added to the kingdom…all because we leverage the influence that teenagers have with their own peers for the sake of the Gospel!
3. Fully mobilized teenagers become fully mobilized adults.
There’s a great line in the classic movie The Untouchables where the character played by Kevin Costner is frustrated that he can’t find one good cop in the entire city (this movie is based in the mafia-saturated, Capone-dominated landscape of Chicago in the 1920s). The character played by Sean Connery says, “If you can’t find a good apple in the barrel, go to the tree.” So he and Costner go to the rookie training center for cops and get a young, idealistic rookie (who had yet to be corrupted by the system) to join them in their quest of taking down Capone.
Church leaders need to “go to the tree” when it comes to mobilizing the church for evangelism. Teenagers have yet to be inoculated to the mission of the Gospel. They are young enough and idealistic enough to think that God can actually use them to reach their classmates and teammates for Christ. The system of “corruption” in the typical church is not boot-legging but butt-sitting (more and more meetings and less and less mission!). Unlike 1920s type mafia members, a sin of the typical church-going adult is a sin of omission when it comes to The Great Commission.
So here’s where the upside of working with teenagers comes into full play. Once teenagers become fully inspired and equipped to share the Gospel, it’s going to be way more likely that they are carrying that on into adulthood. To use a baseball analogy, think of teenagers as a farm club for your church. If you want soul-saving, disciple-making, homerun-hitting adults then focus on building your farm club by focusing on mobilizing teenagers for The Cause of Christ!
4. Your adults will be inspired by the courage of your teenagers.
I love 1 Samuel 17 when a teenaged shepherd named David defeats a 9′ 6″ giant named Goliath with a sling, a stone and an unshakeable faith in God. What was the reaction of the Jewish soldiers? “When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron” (1 Samuel 17:51,52).
Inspired by David’s courage, the adult Israeli soldiers chased the Philistines down. In the same way when enough teenagers in our churches are defeating the giant of fear and boldly sharing the Good News, the adults will eventually catapult out of their pews and follow suit.
I saw this at Yankee’s church when I was a teenager. I saw this at the church I pastored for a decade in Denver. I am seeing this phenomenon happening all across the nation through Dare 2 Share trained churches right now!
5. Every spiritual awakening in American history has had teenagers on the leading edge.
Jonathan Edwards wrote these words about the First Great Awakening, “The revival has been chiefly amongst the youth.” Many of John Wesley’s circuit riders were teenagers. Many of the new believers were young people who had caught the fire of Edwards, Wesley and Whitefield.
It was true of D.L. Moody’s ministry as well. Moody Bible Institute stands as a modern testament to that fact. It was also true of the YMCA, which, at one point, was the largest missionary sending organization in the United States. The great movements of Youth for Christ, Cru, Young Life and countless others also stand to testify of the power and potential of unleashing young people with and for the Gospel.
But they also stand to testify of the failure of the church to do the same.
These ministries (including Dare 2 Share) would not have to exist if the church was doing its job. And a big part of its job should be to mobilize the most spiritually open demographic (those under the age of 18) to lead the way when it comes to making and multiplying disciples.
So rise up church and be the church! Go to the tree and mobilize your youth to Gospelize their world!
Let’s start the fire in the youth room and let the fire burn upward to the adults!
This article originally appeared here.

By Greg Stier

Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries, which is mobilizing teenagers across America to share their faith.

2 Things Every Planter MUST Know

I’m often asked what a church planter should know before taking the plunge.

I’m often asked what I would tell church planters or what a church planter should know before they take the plunge into church planting. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, here’s what I told them the other day:

1. Know that you (and your wife) are called. This seems obvious since the qualifications of a pastor and elder start with this in the New Testament, but it is amazing to me how many guys think church planting would be fun. Let’s define that. Fun is going to the beach, hiking with my wife, playing with my kids. As one author said, “Church planting can kill you.” It can certainly kill your marriage if you aren’t careful (or called). If you aren’t called, don’t even think about it. If your wife is not called, and she needs to be just as called you are, then don’t plant a church. You are now one, which means you must both be bought in. If she has doubts or hesitations, listen to her as the Holy Spirit may be using her to talk to you.
The reason calling is so important is because the Bible says it is important. There is a reason this is the first qualification in 1 Timothy 3. The other reason is that leadership is hard, and church planting can be brutal. There will be times when no one likes you, they are spewing venom at you, stabbing you in the back, leaving your church in droves, spreading rumors about you; core team members that bail, donors who forget to send a check, leaders who sin and then get mad because you hold them accountable. And those are just Christians. Wait until your church is fully on mission and reaching people who are far from God. The bottom line, on those days (and there are more of those days than any other days in church planting), your calling is the only thing that will keep you going. I can tell you from experience that the only reason Katie and I started Revolution and made it to where we are now is because God called us to it. It gives you the determination, the energy, the passion and the fortitude to fight.
2. Know what you will be, not just what you won’t be. Lots of people plant a church because they are too smart for the church where they are on staff. Every student pastor I have ever met (and I used to be one) is smarter than their lead pastor. Why else would they be the student pastor under the lead pastor? Makes sense. So many guys start a church simply to prove how smart they are, how innovative they are and how if only everyone who had stood in their way would have seen the light, revival would have happened.
Whenever I meet with a guy who wants to plant I ask him, “What will you do, and who will you try to reach?” This answer should take less than 30 seconds to give. Anything longer than this and it isn’t clear in your head. If it isn’t clear in your head, it won’t be clear for anyone else. How can you form a core team who will give up time, money and energy for something that doesn’t yet exist? How will you get churches to partner with you, support you and pray for you if you can’t tell them why they should?

By Joshua Reich

You Cannot Lead Effectively Without These 5 Keys

James Emery White

June 23, 2017

Every organization has a set of core values (at least, I hope they do). It is the leader’s job to uphold those values. To make sure they are followed, honored and embraced. If a core value is “excellence,” then that value is only as real and formative as a leader makes it by upholding it throughout the organization.
At Meck we have 10:

The Bible is true and the catalyst for life change.
Lost people matter to God, and, therefore, they should matter to us.
We aim to be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
It is normal to manifest authenticity and to grow spiritually.
We want to be a unified community of servants stewarding their spiritual gifts.
Loving relationships should permeate the life of the church.
Life change happens best through relationships.
Excellence honors God and inspires people.
We are to be led by leaders and structured biblically.
Full devotion to Christ is normal.

My job is to uphold all 10; celebrating when one is fleshed out, admonishing when one is not.
2. Cast Missional Vision
If there was one task almost universally affirmed for a leader, it is casting vision. But not just any vision—it must be the casting of missional vision. If we’re taking a hill, you need to define where the hill is and why it is worth taking.
Meaning: “Here’s the target on the wall. Here’s what we’re trying to do.”
On a more personal level, casting missional vision is helping individuals see how they are contributing to the vision in ways that expand their own vision about their investment.
It’s walking up to a person serving in the nursery and saying: “I’m so glad you’re serving. Thank you. Because of you, there’s a young couple in the service able to explore what Christ can mean for their lives. That’s what you’re doing.”
3. Create Unity
The Bible teaches that the number one requirement for becoming a pastor is leading your own personal family well. Why? Because the church is a family. Almost every organization would be served by being led as if it were a family. The question is whether it is a functional family or a dysfunctional family. The answer lies in whether the “parent” does the hard work of keeping everyone unified relationally.
A good leader works to bring parties together, work through conflict and create open lines of communication. I’ll never forget a time when my two daughters were at a relational impasse at the tender ages of 8 and 6. Susan sat them down, brought them together and helped them talk it through. It ended, if I recall, in a time of prayer.
My wife is a good leader. My daughters are close friends to this day.
That is the goal organizationally.
4. Give Permission
Only a leader can give permission. This isn’t about control, but the privilege of turning people loose. A leader enables people to develop their gifts, chase ministry dreams, take risks and explore new ventures. In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament letter of Ephesians that the job of a church leader is to equip people for ministry. A leader clears the way for people to follow paths of God’s design and leading.
Going further, a good leader sees things in people and encourages them to explore things they never dreamed of for themselves. So it’s not simply permission, but provocation. It’s putting your arm around someone’s shoulders and saying, “I see you doing this,” or “I think you could make a difference here.”
5. Develop Other Leaders
I don’t know if I have ever read this statement (I can’t believe it would be original to me), but I believe it to the core of my being: “Only a leader can develop another leader.”
Which means that developing other leaders is one of the indispensable things a leader must do. At Meck, we’ve developed an entire Leadership Development Program through which we take 100 burgeoning leaders annually. It’s a one-year program that requires reading six books, attending three seminars (on leadership, mission and values, and the personal life of the leader), attending a three-day retreat (covering a course on systematic theology), cohort gatherings, engaging the annual Church & Culture Conference, and more.
Sound robust? It is.
It’s also one of the most important things I do.
So there are five things a leader must do. There are many more, of course, but these five?
All are musts.
This article originally appeared here.

How to Start a Church Without a Dime

What if we never had to worry about growing or building a church?

For Jesus, the good news was not simply a handful of doctrines to be pedaled on a street corner. According to Matthew 16, the good news is about the kingdom of heaven coming to Earth, made understandable and accessible to and through every saint.
To Jesus it was the key to everything: “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:18-19).
What if we never had to worry about growing or building a church? What would change if we really lived out of the truth that God does the building and growing as we live in simple kingdom ways?
Well, that was our experiment. We had a small group of friends and we took a few months to study everything Jesus did and what he said about heaven. After we had an overview of kingdom reality, we decided to make it our reality. Although we made hundreds of observations, we noticed that almost everything had to do with three aspects of doable life.

First, we noticed that Jesus hung with outsiders—all the time.

So that’s what we did. We threw a ton of parties and made space for anyone to belong with us. We didn’t overthink it or worry about it. We just did it—all the time: weekly gatherings with old friends and new friends, great food, celebrations, fun, meaningful conversations and inquisitive questions about their lives.

Second, Jesus blessed people.

So we listened for needs, concerns or situations where we could be of practical help—and then we would try to meet those specific needs within 48 hours. We also tried to include as much of the community—including our kids—so that everyone could see this as a kingdom rhythm instead of a different kind of outreach event.
[The one church strategy that always works.]

Third, Jesus created space for people to just be with God.

For us, every two weeks was a nice pace, usually on a midweek evening. We would read Scripture, pray and sometimes do simple liturgy. It was always a beautiful time for us believers, but it also gave us a very easy invite to friends who were processing spiritual issues: “Danny, I don’t know if this would be of any interest, but a lot of the people you have gotten to know in our community gather about every other week to talk about life and God, and we pray for each other. You’re always welcome to join us.”
None of these keys to the kingdom are inaccessible or above anyone. Any person in any context can implement these rhythms with some success. All the keys are free. No money or structure is required to do them. This is why I always say, “You can start a church without a dime.” Or, even better, “God can build his church without a dime.”
The longer I go in life, the more I appreciate the genius of Jesus. He knew what the average Joe and Jolene are up against, so he gave simple, doable, replicable ways of life that can help make his kingdom tangible to the people around us. Jesus had the kingdom in mind when he gave the Great Commandment—telling us to love our neighbors. Since we are surrounded by neighbors—and we all have access to live out the rhythms of kingdom life—God should be able to build his church on knuckleheads like Peter or, yes, even you and me.
As you consider how to move people back into the neighborhoods, try not to bog everyone down with heavy teaching, curriculum or intense processes. Just come up with your own simple handholds of kingdom life and let them go. If you need help, check out my book The Tangible Kingdom.
Read more from Hugh Halter »
Hugh Halter is the U.S. director of Forge America, an apprenticing community committed to training men and women to live as missionaries where they already are. He is the author of a number of books, most recently Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth and Brimstone: The Art and Act of Holy Nonjudgment. For more information: HughHalter.com.
This article originally appeared here.

By Hugh Halter

Hugh Halter is the national director of Missio, serving as a mentor to a global network of missional leaders and church planters. He is lead architect of Adullam, a congregational network of missional communities in Denver, Colorado, and is the coauthor of The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community with Matt Smay.

6 Signs You’re Leading a Healthy Church

Healthy churches produce results, and you can know if your church is healthy by the results it’s producing.

Jesus is into results. I know I’m going to lose a lot of readers at those four little words. But I really believe it’s true. Read the scriptures and Jesus actually has a plan that He’s working to make everything new and fix what we broke. Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul talk about it in terms of producing “fruit.” That’s the biblical language ascribed to producing results.
Healthy churches produce results, and you can know if your church is healthy by the results it’s producing. And while I’d quickly admit that none of the items on this list guarantee a healthy church, you probably can’t lead a healthy church without these things.

1. Baptisms

The church isn’t a building that you come to, it’s a movement you choose to be a part of. The whole point of this thing called the church is to join God in His mission to reach everyone on the planet with the Good News of Jesus. Healthy churches aren’t simply growing churches, they help new people meet Jesus and follow Him. The lead indicator of that is post-conversion baptism.

2. Divorce Rate

Is the divorce rate of the people in your church lower than that of the community your church is located in? Jesus said His people would be known by the quality of their relationships (love for one another). This is a simple and tangible way to get to the everyday effectiveness of your church.

3. Financial Strength

This is not just a question about the amount of money you have in savings, although I’m a big fan of churches having reserves and margin (I think the book of Proverbs is a big fan of that too). An often-overlooked indicator of financial strength in a church is its capacity to respond to opportunities that Jesus provides. Essentially, healthy churches put themselves in a financial position to say yes to Jesus when He asks them to do something. The Scriptures clearly connect financial generosity to spiritual maturity.

4. Span of Care

It’s well documented that the best C-suite Executives of Fortune 500 Companies (i.e., some of the best leaders on the planet) manage around seven direct reports. What’s the span of care at your church? If your staff team is directly managing more volunteers than that, you’re probably just filling volunteer spots, not developing people. Your span of care is a lead indicator of how well you’re doing as a church at developing people, not just using people.

5. Staff Restructures

You may have never thought of this before, but staff promotions and restructures can be an indicator of a healthy church. Are the staff at your church growing in their roles and responsibility? Growing churches have to restructure their staff team to both respond to and catalyze healthy growth. Staff promotions are an indication of churches investing in, developing and recognizing the growth of their staff team members. Churches that are plateaued or dying restructure to accommodate layoffs and decline.

6. Numerical Growth

So, I saved this one for last. But I couldn’t leave it off the list. Healthy things grow. But so does cancer, and nobody wants that. Just because it’s growing doesn’t mean it’s healthy, but…if it’s healthy it will grow.
Interested in discovering how healthy your church is? Take the step and engage the Unstuck Group in a comprehensive Ministry Health Assessment of your church!
This article originally appeared here.

By Paul Alexander

Paul is a pastor, speaker, strategist, and ministry consultant at Tony Morgan Live. He has a passion for helping churches make vision real. For more than 11 years he has served on the senior leadership teams of some of the nation’s leading mega-churches. Currently, Paul serves as the Executive Pastor at Sun Valley Community Church, a large multi-site church located in the Phoenix area.

3 Signs You Are a Pirate, Not a Church Planter

By Mark Dance • June 25, 2017

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“The people who leave their church to help you plant your church should be called by God, not recruited by you.”

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If you’re planting a church, I assume that your heart is to plant a church without hurting other local churches. There are some inevitable mistakes every church planter will make, but some church-planting missteps have further-reaching implications.
I have planted a church as well as helped others plant churches. I hope to encourage well-intentioned planters like you to learn from both my touchdowns and turnovers.
Here are three questions to ask yourself to help discern whether you are being a church planter or a church pirate.

1. Am I recruiting church members privately?

You can assume that you will be seen as a pirate instead of a planter if you are meeting with prospective church members without their pastor’s knowledge. Half-heartedly telling members from other churches that you do not want them to leave their church to help you plant is manipulative. Ask the Lord to make clear your motives.
The people who leave their church to help you plant your church should be called by God, not recruited by you.
Be cautious about labeling members from other church families as “unchurched” just because they have been thinking about leaving their church. It is not unusual for members to consider leaving their church at some time or another, for one reason or another. Pirates bait moderately committed members away from their churches whether they intend to leave or not.

2. Am I avoiding other pastors?

A common mistake church planters make is avoiding other pastors in the area. Some of those pastors will have members who will visit and join your church—even if you have discouraged them to. Avoidance will only delay the awkwardness that inevitably comes with sheep-swapping or stealing.
You can practice “double honor” with other pastors by initiating coffee or lunch weeks or months before you launch. Our churches and communities benefit greatly from healthy friendships among pastors.
Some of the local pastors may become insecure and unsupportive, regardless of whether you are planting or pirating. Love and respect them anyway. God will bless that.

3. Is my church too close to a church I have served in?

Regardless of what you hope will happen, if you plant a church close to the campus of a church you have served in, several members from your old church will come to your new church for various reasons. Church-planting trainers from ARC (Association of Related Churches) encourage a 30-mile radius.
Some will come out of curiosity. Some will come out of love and loyalty. Some will come because they are mad at someone at their home church. Church members will invariably jump off of the mother ship whether you recruited them or not—simply because you baited them by planting too close to your home base. Additionally, they will come from other churches in the community you have been serving in partnership with. Not cool.
I don’t know of any church planter who intentionally seeks to grow at the expense of another church, but it happens way too often. My hope is that you will move forward with the humble discernment of a planter, instead of the swashbuckling swagger of a pirate.
Read more stories about church planting »
Mark Dance (@MarkDance) is a veteran church planter, pastor and director of LifeWay pastors at LifeWay Christian Resources. This article was originally published on LifeWay.com/pastors. For more: MarkDance.net

6 Attitudes That Kill Evangelism

By Thom Rainer • June 21, 2017

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“I have seen churches make dramatic turnarounds when just one person decided to be obedient to the Great Commission.”

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I won’t bore you with statistics about declining evangelism in our churches. You don’t need me to convince you that most churches are not reaching our communities with the gospel. You don’t need me to provide data that shows our churches are reaching fewer people today than just a few years ago.
But why are our churches less evangelistic today?
That question could be answered from a number of perspectives. But one of the key explanations is simply an attitude problem. There are several dangerous and debilitating attitudes in churches that are killing evangelism. Here are six of them:

1. “That’s what we pay our pastor to do.”

The hired-hand attitude toward the Great Commission is debilitating. It emanates from an attitude of comfort and entitlement among church members. And, above all, it is totally unbiblical.

2. “Our church members are just not evangelistic.”

This quote comes from pastors and other church leaders. It is the other side of the coin of the blame game noted above. Pastors who make those comments typically aren’t evangelistic themselves. And the No. 1 correlative factor of an evangelistic church is an evangelistic pastor. If pastors are serious about their churches becoming Great Commission instruments, they must begin by looking in the mirror.

3. “Our denomination does not help us.”

This attitude is a continuation of the blame and deflection issue. Evangelistic churches do not depend on denominations to lead them to share the gospel. They see the Great Commission as primarily an issue of local church responsibility.

4. “We emphasize evangelism once a year in our church.”

If evangelism is just another emphasis in the church, it is dead on arrival. It must be an ongoing priority of the church. The Great Commission is not just another event; it is living the priority of sharing the gospel.

5. “I don’t know anyone well who is not a Christian.”

This attitude is part of the greater issue of the holy huddle in many churches. If the church members are not intentionally developing relationships with people who are not Christians, evangelism just won’t happen. Here is a test to consider. How many of the groups or classes in your church are regularly seeking to connect with unbelievers?

6. “We don’t have the resources.”

The most effective evangelistic churches depend on two key resources: prayer and obedience.
The decline in evangelism in our churches comes down to just a few key issues. Too many believers see evangelism as the responsibility of someone else. Closely related to that issue is the matter of blame: It’s the pastor’s fault. It’s the church members’ fault. It’s the denomination’s fault.
I have seen churches make dramatic turnarounds when just one person decided to be radically obedient to the Great Commission.
The question should not be: “What about them?”
The question should be: “What about me?”
Read more from Thom Rainer »
Thom S. Rainer serves as president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Dr. Rainer can be found on Twitter (@ThomRainer) and at Facebook.com/Thom.S.Rainer. This article was originally published at ThomRainer.com on June 5, 2017.

7 Markers Of A Great Leader

Contributed by Ron Edmondson // RonEdmondson.com

There are some characteristics which set a great leader apart from mediocre leaders. Markers, if you will. Great leaders are multidimensional. While continuing to improve, great leaders have achieved certain characteristics which help them achieve success. If you see these qualities combined, you've probably found an amazing leader.

Here are 7 marks of a great leader:

How To Keep Your Brain Sharp

Contributed by Charles Stone // Brain-Savvy Leaders: The Science of Significant Ministry

Weighing a mere 2-3% of our body weight, yet requiring 20% of our body’s energy, the brain is a masterpiece of God’s creation. It grows rapidly from birth until the mid-twenties. Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there. Even though you can’t avoid getting older, you can take some simple steps to keep your brain sharp. In this post I suggest 6 simple ways to stay mentally sharp well past your twenties.

Neuroscientists have coined a phrase, cognitive reserve, to explain our brain’s resistance to its normal decline. It’s the way the brain builds resilience against the natural loss of cognitive abilities due to aging. When one neighborhood of our brain slows down, cognitive reserve helps another neighborhood take over to compensate for the loss. As we age, though, certain brain process inevitably occur.

5 Things Every Leader MUST Do

There are five things every leader must do for the organization they lead.

What does a leader do? The answers (and books) are endless. But there are five things every leader must do for the organization they lead, not least of which when it comes to the church.
1. Uphold Core Values
Every organization has a set of core values (at least, I hope they do). It is the leader’s job to uphold those values. To make sure they are followed, honored and embraced. If a core value is “excellence,” then that value is only as real and formative as a leader makes it by upholding it throughout the organization.
At Meck we have 10:

The Bible is true and the catalyst for life change.
Lost people matter to God and, therefore, they should matter to us.
We aim to be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
It is normal to manifest authenticity and to grow spiritually.
We want to be a unified community of servants stewarding their spiritual gifts.
Loving relationships should permeate the life of the church.
Life change happens best through relationships.
Excellence honors God and inspires people.
We are to be led by leaders and structured biblically.
Full devotion to Christ is normal.

By James Emery White