The “5 Awakenings” To Help People Find Their Way Back To God

By Dave Ferguson

It’s now been 25 years since my wife and I along with my brother Jon and three friends from college started Community Christian Church. During that time I’ve had the privilege of journeying with thousands of people who describe their experience as “finding their way back to God.” Over the years we began to notice that certain events seemed to happen over and over again to almost everyone as they came to faith. We never took the time to label those events, but we would notice similarities in people’s spiritual journeys.
It wasn’t until Jon and I started working on our newest book, Finding Your Way Back To God did we try to identify these similar spiritual events. We chose a select and diverse group of 25 people and did in depth interviews with them. We listened closely to each of their stories and studied their individual experiences. In time, we were able to name the parallel events that everyone experienced on their journey to God. We call them the “5 Awakenings.”
At the same time, our study of scripture led us to the story of the prodigal son. I’m convinced this is the greatest short story in literature and Jesus told this story as a narrative for how to find your way back to God. So, out of twenty-five years of experience, intense interviews with a diverse focus group and the study of scripture we discovered “5 Awakenings” that we believe everyone experiences on their way back to God. Here is brief overview:
The Five Awakenings
Awakening to Longing. This is the feeling that “there’s got to be more.” We all feel the longing for love, purpose and meaning. And it is the quest to satisfy these basic longings that sends all of us on a journey. The common experience is that we don’t understand that God gave these longings to us, so we try to satisfy those longings by running away from God rather than toward Him.
Awakening to Regret. We pursue those primitive longings without God and when we do we find ourselves alone, directionless and confused. With regret we often will say, “I wish I could start over.” Many people get stuck repeating the first two awakenings over and over again. We call repeating the first two steps the “sorry cycle” – pursuing God-given longings outside of a relationship with God, which leads to decisions and actions that we regret. Many people get stuck in the “sorry cycle” for months, some for years and still others never escape it.
Awakening to Help. After repeating the “sorry cycle” of trying to fulfill these longings without God and ending up with regret over and over again we acknowledge something has to change. We come to the end of ourselves and say, “I can’t do this on my own.”   We hit bottom. We come to our senses. We need help. And that help is Jesus.
Awakening to Love. Jesus is the one who leads us back to God. As we come back to God we are ambushed by grace and we discover “God, loves me deeply after all.” However, there is a shadow of shame and guilt that follows us home and we struggle to believe we are loved just as we are.
Awakening to Life. It’s through following Jesus that we discover “life and have it to the full.” The New Testament uses two words for life: “bios” and “zoe.” Bios refers to chronological life as in days, months and years. But zoe has a deeper meaning and refers to life as it was meant to be lived. Zoe is eternal life. When Jesus offers to his followers, “life and have it to the full” he uses the word zoe. As we experience this final awakening we realize, “Now, this is living!”
How You Find God & How You Stay Close To God
One of the surprising discoveries in writing this book is how helpful the “5 Awakenings” have been for me. Like Alcoholic Anonymous says, “You work the 12-steps to get sober and to stay sober” I would say, “You work the ‘5 Awakenings’ to find God and stay close to God.” I now use them those awakenings on a weekly basis. Finding your way back to God is something you do the first time, but you also do again and again.
Inherited Faith to Investigative Faith
We live at a very important time in the spiritual trajectory of our country and world. According to Gallup 92% of people in the United States believe in God. When asked with whom do they affiliate, the majority responds, “none.” “None” is how the majority of Americans now identify their religious or spiritual affiliation. This group of “nones” is in transition, on a journey and searching. A generation ago people inherited faith from their parents. If mom and dad were Presbyterian then you were Presbyterian. But “nones” have left behind an inherited faith, while still believing in God and are now investigating faith on their own.
I wrote Finding Your Way Back To God as a guide to those who are investigating faith and searching for a God who feels distant or non-existent. But I also wrote Finding Your Way Back To God for me. I’m still a prodigal who finds myself far from home. I believe we all need to understand how to find our way back to God.

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For more information on Finding Your Way Back To God go to www.yourwayback.org. For more information on Dave Ferguson, visit his website: www.daveferguson.org

The Five Stages of Renewal In the Local Church

By Rick Warren

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I believe God is preparing the church for another reformation. The first reformation focused on what the church believed; this one will focus on what it does.
For too long we’ve separated the Word of God from the work of God. As the church, we’re called to be the body of Christ – the whole body. We’re not just called to be the mouth of Christ, but the feet and hands as well.
Every time a new reformation has come, five renewals have preceded it. The awakening and reformation of the global church will begin with churches like yours. The same five renewals will precede this movement in your church.

Personal Renewal

It starts with the heart. If God is going to renew your church, he’ll begin it with you – and then it has to continue with the rest of your church. You might call it rededicating your life, being filled with the Spirit, or the “deeper life.” I don’t care what you call it. Just get it! Pastor, the bottom line is this – you need to fall in love with Jesus again. Do that and all of a sudden it’s not about religion and rituals; it’s about a relationship with Jesus. You realize that Jesus doesn’t just love you, but he likes you.

Relational Renewal

After you get right with God, you’ve got to get right with others. Jesus told us this. He told us to love God with all of our heart and then love others as ourselves. When you have relational renewal in your church, the gossip goes down and the joy goes up.
How do you know when a church has been through relational renewal? People hang around longer after the service. They want to spend time together. If people don’t want to hang around after your services, you have a performance, not a church. The church is more than content; it’s a community.

Missional Renewal

This is when a church discovers what God wants it to do. We have a kingdom assignment. We’re not here just to bless one another. God wants to bless the world through us. Specifically, God has given the church five purposes – worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. Missional renewal happens when we focus our churches on these purposes. When your church gets personal, relational, and mission renewal, it can’t help but grow.

Cultural Renewal

In this stage, God renews the culture of the church. I’ve known pastors who have tried to change the culture of the church without going through the other three renewals. There’s a word for that – martyrdom. You cannot change the culture of the church. Only God can. But once the first three renewals have happened in the church, God will change the culture.

Structural Renewal

After your church has been through the first four renewals, it’s going to outgrow your current structure. No doubt about it. I’ve seen it happen at Saddleback. The structure that works for a church of 100 won’t work for a church of 250 and so on. There is no perfect structure in Scripture. Why? Every situation is different. We’ve got to structure our churches differently depending on our circumstances. We change structures just about every year at Saddleback. You can’t put new wine in old wineskins. As your church begins to get healthier and healthier, the structure has to change.
There’s a sixth renewal, but it doesn’t happen in the local church. Institutional renewal happens when Christianity’s institutions change. Institutions like seminaries and denominations are always the last ones to change; they never start the change process. Change always happens first in the local church. Institutions are there to preserve the change of the previous generation. Take a look at a tree. The growth of a tree is never on the trunk. It’s always on the new branches. Institutions are like trunks. They provide stability not innovation.
A great spiritual awakening is on the horizon. Will your church be a part of it? Be aware of these five stages of renewal. As a pastor, God has called you to be a catalyst in the renewal of your church. You can’t do that unless you know where your church is on its journey.
Exciting days are ahead of us!

What Do You Want Your Church to Be Known For?

By Mark Altrogge

 

“That’s what I would want our church to be known for—our glorious Savior.”

Sometimes churches get known for the wrong things. Often it’s a particular emphasis that some or many in the church have. So people in your community may describe your church as “the church that doesn’t vaccinate,” or “the right wing church,” “the homeschooling church,” “the pro-life church,” or “the organic, gluten-free, lactose free, all natural grass-fed free-range church.”
I’m not saying that any of these things are inherently good or bad. It’s just that we don’t want our church to be known primarily for these kinds of things. We don’t even want our churches to be known primarily for things like incredible worship or great preaching.
I heard a story of a group of people who visited London in the time of Charles Spurgeon. First they went to hear a famous preacher in another church. After they heard him, they said, “What a preacher!” Then they went to Spurgeon’s church and heard him preach. After listening to Spurgeon they exclaimed, “What a Savior!”
That’s what I would want our church to be known for—our glorious Savior. May it be said that we preach Jesus, love Jesus, worship Jesus and live for Jesus. Secondarily, flowing out of our relationship with Jesus, I would like our church to be known as a warm, welcoming, caring and loving church. I would hope that when people think of our church, they think of Jesus.
I definitely want to pursue excellence in our preaching of God’s word for the sake of strengthening God’s people and proclaiming the Gospel. And I want our worship to be as excellent as possible to encourage us to glorify Jesus with our singing. But I don’t want these things to be the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they talk about our church. I hope the first thing that comes to people’s minds is what came to mind in those who heard Charles Spurgeon: “What a Savior!”
That’s what I want our church to be known for.  

Mark Altrogge is the original triple threat: singer, songwriter, pastor. He has been the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, PA for over 25 years, and is the author of many well known worship songs such as “I Stand In Awe”, and “In The Presence”. When not pastoring or writing songs, Mark can be found consuming vast quantities of coffee. Unfortunately, Mark is not particularly gifted in the area of athletics. More from Mark Altrogge or visit Mark at http://www.theblazingcenter.com

10 Predictions About the Future Church and Shifting Attendance Patterns

By Carey Nieuwhof

 

Sometimes you sense you’re in the midst of truly radical change, the kind that happens only every few centuries.

Every generation experiences change.
But sometimes you sense you’re in the midst of truly radical change, the kind that happens only every few centuries. Increasingly, I think we’re in such a moment now.
Those of us in in Western culture who are over age 30 were born into a culture that could conceivably still be called Christian. Now, as David Kinnaman at the Barna Group have shown, even in America people who are churchless (having no church affiliation) will soon eclipse the churched.
In addition, 48 percent of Millennials (born between 1984 and 2002) can be called post-Christian in their beliefs, thinking and worldview.
This post is Part 4 of a five-part series on why people are attending church less often. Here are the other parts of the series (including two in-depth leadership podcast interviews):
Part 1: 10 Reasons Even Committed Church Attenders Are Attending Less Often
Part 2: CNLP Episode 23: Why People Are Attending Church Less Often—an Interview With Will Mancini.
Part 3: 5 Ways to Embrace Infrequent Church Attenders
Part 5: CNLP Episode 24: Churchless: Why and How America Is Learning to Live Without the Church—an Interview With David Kinnaman
If you want to access the podcast interviews easily on your phone or other device, the best way is to subscribe to my leadership podcast for free on iTunes or Stitcher.
I think the change we’re seeing around us might one day be viewed on the same level as what happened to the church after Constantine’s conversion or after the invention of the printing press. Whatever the change looks like when it’s done, it will register as a seismic shift from what we’ve known.
So what will the future church be like? And how should you and I respond?

Predictions … Really?

OK, before we get going, a few things.
I realize making predictions can be a dangerous thing. Maybe even a bit ridiculous. But I want to offer a few thoughts because I’m passionate about the mission of the church.
So, borne out of a love for the gathered church, I offer a few thoughts. Consider it thinking in pencil, not ink.
While no one’s really sure of what’s ahead, talking about it at least allows us to position our churches for impact in a changing world.

10 Predictions About the Future Church

So what’s likely for the future church? Here are 10 things I see.

1. The potential to gain is still greater than the potential to lose.

Every time there is a change in history, there’s potential to gain and potential to lose.
I believe the potential to gain is greater than the potential to lose. Why?
As despairing or as cynical as some might be (sometimes understandably) over the church’s future, we have to remind ourselves that the church was Jesus’ idea, not ours.
It will survive our missteps and whatever cultural trends happen around us. We certainly don’t always get things right, but Christ has an incredible history of pulling together Christians in every generation to share his love for a broken world.
As a result, the reports of the church’s death are greatly exaggerated.

The reports of the church’s death are greatly exaggerated.

2. Churches that love their model more than the mission will die.

That said, many individual congregations and some entire denominations won’t make it. The difference will be between those who cling to the mission and those who cling to the model.
When the car was invented, it quick took over for the horse and buggy. Horse and buggy manufacturers were relegated to boutique status and many went under, but human transportation actually exploded. Suddenly, average people could travel at a level they never could before.
The mission is travel. The model is a buggy, or car, or motorcycle, or jet.
Look at the changes in the publishing, music and even photography industry in the last few years.
See a trend? The mission is reading. It’s music. It’s photography. The model always shifts … moving from things like 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs, to MP3s, and now streaming audio and video.
Companies that show innovation around the mission (Apple, Samsung) will always beat companies that remain devoted to the method (Kodak).
Churches need to stay focused on the mission (leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus) and be exceptionally innovative in our model.

In the future, churches that love their model more than their mission will die.

3. The gathered church is here to stay.

Read the comments on this blog or any other church leader blog and you would think that some Christians believe the best thing to do is to give up on Christian gatherings of any kind.
This is naive.
While some will leave, it does not change the fact that the church has always gathered because the church is inherently communal. Additionally, what we can do gathered together far surpasses what we can do alone. Which is why there will always be an organized church of some form.
So while our gatherings might shift and look different than they do today, Christians will always gather together to do more than we ever could on our own.

The church will always gather. What Christians can do together far surpasses what we can do alone.

4. Consumer Christianity will die and a more selfless discipleship will emerge.

Consumer Christianity asks, What can I get from God? It asks, What’s in it for me?
That leads us to evaluate our church, our faith, our experience and each other according to our preferences and whims. In many respects, even many critics of the church who have left have done so under the pull of consumer Christianity because ‘nothing’ meets their needs.
All of this is antithetical to the Gospel, which calls us to die to ourselves—to lose ourselves for the sake of Christ.
As the church reformats and repents, a more authentic, more selfless church will emerge. Sure, we will still have to make decisions about music, gathering times and even some distinctions about what we believe, but the tone will be different.  When you’re no longer focused on yourself and your viewpoint, a new tone emerges.

As the church reformats and repents, a more authentic, more selfless church will emerge.

5. Sundays will become more about what we give than what we get.

The death of consumer Christianity will change our gatherings.
Our gatherings will become less about us and more about Jesus and the world he loves. Rather than a gathering of the already-convinced, the churches that remain will be decidedly outsider-focused. And word will be supplemented with deeds.
In the future church, being right will be less important than doing right. Sure, that involves social justice and meeting physical needs, but it also involves treating people with kindness and compassion in everyday life and attending to their spiritual well-being.
This is the kind of outward focus that drove the rapid expansion of the first-century church. 
That’s why I’m very excited to be part of a group of churches that has, at its heart, the desire to create churches unchurched people love to attend. While the expression of what that looks like may change, the intent will not.

In the future church, being right will be less important than doing right.

6. Attendance will no longer drive engagement; engagement will drive attendance.

Currently, many churches try to get people to attend, hoping it drives engagement.
In the future, that will flip. The engaged will attend, in large measure because only the engaged will remain.
If you really think about this … engagement driving attendance is exactly what has fuelled the church at its best moments throughout history. It’s an exciting shift.

In the future church, attendance won’t drive engagement; engagement will drive attendance.

7. Simplified ministries will complement people’s lives, not compete with people’s lives.

For years, the assumption has been that the more a church grew, the more activity it would offer.
The challenge, of course, is that church can easily end up burning people out. In some cases, people end up with no life except church life. Some churches offer so many programs for families that families don’t even have a chance to be families.

Some churches offer so many programs for families that families don’t have a chance to be families.

The church at its best has always equipped people to live out their faith in the world. But you have to be in the world to influence the world.
Churches that focus their energies on the few things the church can uniquely do best will emerge as the most effective churches moving forward. Simplified churches will complement people’s witness, not compete with people’s witness.

Simplified churches will complement people’s witness, not compete with people’s witness.

8. Online church will supplement the journey but not become the journey.

There’s a big discussion right now around online church. I think in certain niches, online church might become the church for some who simply have no other access to church.
But there is something about human relationship that requires presence. Because the church at its fullest will always gather, online church will supplement the journey. I believe that online relationships are real relationships, but they are not the greatest relationships people can have.
Think of it like meeting someone online. You can have a fantastic relationship. But if you fall in love, you ultimately want to meet and spend your life together.
So it is with Jesus, people and the church.

9. Online church will become more of a front door than a back door.

There’s no question that today online church has become a back door for Christians who are done with attending church.
While online church is an amazing supplement for people who can’t get to a service, it’s still an off ramp for Christians whose commitment to faith is perhaps less than it might have been at an earlier point.
Within a few years, the dust will settle and a new role for online church and online ministry will emerge. Online church has the potential to become a massive front door for the curious, the unconvinced and those who want to know what Christianity is all about.
In the same way you purchase almost nothing without reading online reviews, or rarely visit a restaurant without checking it out online first, a church’s online presence will be a first home for people, which for many will lead to a personal connection with Christ and ultimately the gathered church.

Online church has the potential to become a massive front door for the curious and the unconvinced.

10. Gatherings will be smaller and larger at the same time.

While many might think the megachurch is dead, it’s not. And while others think megachurches are awful, there’s nothing inherently bad about them. Size is somewhat irrelevant to a church’s effectiveness.
There are bad megachurches and bad small churches. And there are wonderfully effective megachurches and wonderfully effective small churches.
We will likely see large churches get larger. Multisite will continue to explode, as churches that are effective expand their mission.
At the same time, churches will also establish smaller, more intimate gatherings as Millennials and others seek tighter connections and groups. Paradoxically, future large churches will likely become large not because they necessarily gather thousands in one space, but because they gather thousands through dozens of smaller gatherings under some form of shared leadership. Some of those gatherings might be as simple as coffee shop and even home venues under a simple structure.
We will see the emergence of bigger churches and smaller churches at the same time as the gathered church continues to change.

The future church will become bigger and smaller at the same time.

What Do You See?

Ultimately, I have a lot of hope for the future church. I hope you do too. The mission is too important to feel otherwise.
If you want some even more specific changes I think will characterize the future church (including a few not covered here), check out this post.
In the meantime, what do you see?  

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

Is Legalism Killing Your Joy in Ministry?

Is Legalism Killing Your Joy in Ministry?

By Rick Warren

 

“Legalism is a subtle trap that takes the focus off of what God has done for you and slowly turns it to what you have done for God.”

Legalism is a ministry killjoy. It destroys the natural joy that comes from serving others in ministry like nothing else I’ve seen. I’ve seen more ministries ruined by legalism than anything else.
What is legalism? Legalism happens when we substitute our rules and rituals for our relationship with Christ. It’s a subtle trap that takes the focus off of what God has done for you and slowly turns it to what you have done for God.
In Philippians 3, Paul tells us flat out that he’s tried legalism. In the process, he points out five different ways he had been a legalist—ways that still haunt many of us today.
Legalism is putting your trust in rituals. Paul says, “I was circumcised eight days after I was born according to the Jewish law” (Phil. 3:5a). Today, a Christian might say, “I was baptized,” or “I joined the church,” or “I took communion.” All of those are good, but they don’t earn God’s approval.
Legalism is putting your trust in a race. Paul says, “Of the people of Israel, I was of the tribe of Benjamin” (Phil. 3:5b). I’ve got the royal pedigree here. It’s like people today who say they have a relationship with God because their uncle was a missionary or their mom was a believer. It doesn’t work that way. Everyone has to make his or her own decision to follow Jesus.
Legalism is putting your trust in a religion. Paul says, “I’m a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil. 3:5c). Some Christians today say the same thing. They point to their denomination when asked about their relationship with God. When we get to heaven, God won’t ask us what denomination we are—he’ll ask us how we responded to his Son, Jesus.
Legalism is putting your trust in rules. Paul also says, “In regard to the law, I was a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:6a). The Pharisees were the spiritually elite. They turned the 10 Commandments into 613! Ten just wasn’t enough for them. They would not eat an egg that had been laid on the Sabbath because the hen had to “work” by laying it. They would not scratch a mosquito bite on the Sabbath because that was considered work. By bringing attention to his background as a Pharisee, Paul is saying, “You want to talk about rules? I kept the rules!”
Legalism is putting your trust in reputation. Finally, Paul adds, “As for zeal, and as for legalistic righteousness, I was faultless” (Phil. 3:6b). In other words, Paul was saying he was a superstar legalist! Today we might brag on how many people attend our church, how long we pray or how many people we led to Christ last week. The end result is the same—they won’t make God any happier with us.
Nothing is wrong with any of these. The problem comes when we think they give us points with God—they don’t. He loves us unconditionally. If you start trusting in these things, you’re going to lose your joy and your ministry will crumble.
The antidote to legalism is grace. Grace means we don’t have to earn God’s love, and we don’t have to earn his smile. God is always smiling at us. Because I deserve it? Not a chance. Because I keep certain rules and regulations? Not a chance. It’s because I’m covered with the blood of Jesus Christ.
The problem for many of us in ministry is we subtly shift our perspective from what God has done for us to what we are doing for God in ministry. That’s dangerous—very dangerous. God won’t love you any more or any less no matter how you serve him. What you get out of service is joy. You don’t get approval. God approves of you, but it’s not because of what you do. He approves of you because of what Christ did for you already. That’s grace.
The Christian life is not a ritual and it’s not about rules—it’s a relationship. Religion is based upon performance, but Christianity is based on a person, Jesus Christ. Don’t ever forget that or your ministry is finished. And you’ll lose your joy. Nothing is sadder than a cynical person in ministry.  

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

15 Signs Your Church Is in Trouble

By Perry Noble

 

Perry Noble offers a list of warning signs that your church may need help.

1. When excuses are made about the way things are instead of embracing a willingness to roll up the sleeves and fix the problem.
2. When the church becomes content with merely receiving people who come rather than actually going out and finding them … in other words, they lose their passion for evangelism!
3. The focus of the church is to build a great church (complete with the pastor’s picture … and his wife’s … on everything) and not the Kingdom of God.
4. The leadership begins to settle for the natural rather than rely on the supernatural.
5. The church begins to view success/failure in regards to how they are viewed in the church world rather than whether or not they are actually fulfilling the Great Commission!
6. The leaders within the church cease to be coachable.
7. There is a loss of a sense of urgency! (Hell is no longer hot, sin is no longer wrong and the cross is no longer important!)
8. Scripture isn’t central in every decision that is made!
9. The church is reactive rather than proactive.
10. The people in the church lose sight of the next generation and refuse to fund ministry simply because they don’t understand “those young people.”
11. The goal of the church is to simply maintain the way things are … to not rock the boat and/or upset anyone … especially the big givers!
12. The church is no longer willing to take steps of faith because “there is just too much to lose.”
13. The church simply does not care about the obvious and immediate needs that exist in the community.
14. The people learn how to depend on one man to minister to everyone rather than everyone embracing their role in the body, thus allowing the body to care for itself.
15. When the leaders/staff refuse to go the extra mile in leading and serving because of how “inconvenient” doing so would be.  

Perry Noble is the founding and senior pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina. The church averages 26,000 people during weekend services at multiple campuses throughout the state. Perry is a gifted communicator and teacher, convicted about speaking the truth as plainly as possible. God has given him a vision and a passion for helping people meet Jesus, and each week he shares God’s word and its practical application in our daily lives. Perry, his wife Lucretia and their daughter Charisse live in Anderson, South Carolina. You can read all of Perry’s unfiltered thoughts about life and leadership at PerryNoble.com. Don’t worry, he holds nothing back. More from Perry Noble or visit Perry at http://www.perrynoble.com

6 Signs That Your Team Chemistry Is Crumbling

By Mark Riggins

 

Watch out for these warning signs your relationships may need some attention.

How healthy is your team … really?
I enjoyed an unusually close relationship with my pastor for 12 years. Unfortunately, it completely severed and we didn’t talk for several years despite being close friends.
My former pastor and I later reconciled. I’m so grateful because I love this man. In retrospect, we both agreed that there were warning signs we missed that indicated our chemistry was declining. (That broken relationship and my struggle to forgive led me to write STUCK When You Want to Forgive but Don’t Know How.)
As you evaluate your team, here are six warning signs that your team chemistry is crumbling.

Warning Sign #1: You stop dreaming together.

A vision is enlivening, it’s spirit giving, it’s the guiding force behind all great human endeavors. Vision is about shared energy, a sense of awe, a sense of possibility. —Benjamin Zander, Conductor, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra
During our first several years together, my former pastor and I dreamed of revitalizing a traditional church. Our dream came true and the church’s growth required us to move to a new location and increase staff and church services. That shared dream galvanized all of us!
My former pastor recently told me, “When a team agrees on the dream and the path to achieve that dream, chemistry is a natural byproduct.”
We never said, “Let’s stop dreaming together.” But as we focused more and more on our daily ministry, our galvanizing dreams faded into the background. When there’s not a mutual dream, the team lacks energy and is no longer fueled by a sense of awe, a sense of possibility.
Question: What mutual dream is your team pursuing together right now?

Warning Sign #2: You stop sharing your individual dreams.

You have professional dreams (pursue an advanced degree, improve your leadership, write a book, grow your ministry, etc.) and personal dreams (improve your marriage, run a marathon, learn to play the guitar, etc.).
Great team chemistry gives you the confidence to share your individual dreams!
Visions thrive in an environment of unity; they die in an environment of division. —Andy Stanley
When you stop sharing your individual dreams, it’s a warning sign that team chemistry needs attention.

Visions thrive in an environment of unity; they die in an environment of division. @AndyStanley

Question: Are you sharing your entire individual dream with your team? When was the last time a team member shared an individual dream with you?

Warning Sign #3: You stop doing life together.

My former pastor describes our chemistry when we were clicking: “In a real sense, it was merely existing friends seeing each other every day and getting paid for it.”
The team that plays together stays together. Team that don’t … don’t.
For years we went to countless sporting events, concerts, ministry conferences and ate way too much Mexican food together.
We never made a conscious decision to stop doing life together. Somewhere along the way, our schedules became too full.
Your team is made up of people who love to laugh, play and connect. Staff meetings are limited in their ability to allow people to laugh, play and connect.
Question: When was the last time you and your team had fun together?

The team that plays together stays together. Team that don’t … don’t. @markriggins

Warning Sign #4: You complain more than you celebrate.

We all bring life or death to every team meeting with our words. (Prov 18:21)
How do your staff conversations sound?
Does your team complain about the insufficient parking or celebrate the growing attendance? Do you complain about the need for more volunteers or celebrate the volunteers who are serving?
Shawn Achor says, “Happiness is a work ethic.”
In the same way, “Celebration is a work ethic.” You must intentionally look for the wins and stories you can celebrate.
However, when a team member feels the freedom to complain more than they celebrate, chemistry is crumbling.
Question: Do your meetings consist of more celebrating or complaining?

When a team member complains more than they celebrate, chemistry is crumbling. @markriggins

Warning Sign #5: You let others complain to you about a team member.

You know better than to criticize your team members. But when you let someone else complain to you about a team member, your chemistry crumbles, slowly eroding trust and unity.
Just as hypocritical parenting (do what I say, not what I do) produces children without convictions or a clear moral compass, creating a work environment that includes inconsistency and dishonesty results in a team that lacks confidence, is insecure and is divided. —Jack Monroe (my Executive Pastor)
Question: Does anyone feel comfortable complaining to you about a team member?

Warning Sign #6: You start complaining to others about them.

This may be the fastest way to destroy your team chemistry. After violating Warning Sign #5, it becomes easier to share your own criticism of a team member with others.
God tells us to use our words to build up (Eph. 4:29) and that one day we will be held accountable for every word we’ve spoken (Matt. 12:36-37).
Caution: Guard your words because “a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.” —James 3:5b
A quick filter before speaking is to ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to say necessary and helpful?”
Question: Are you finding it easier to criticize anyone on your team?

A great filter before you speak: Is what I’m about to say necessary and helpful? @markriggins

In the last moments of Jesus’ life, he was burdened for unity. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, “May they all be one, as You, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be one in us, so the world may believe you sent me” (John 17:21).
Are there any other warning signs that you would add?  

Mark is the Community Life Pastor at ENCOUNTER | Bible Fellowship Church in Ventura, CA. His new book STUCK When You Want to Forgive but Don’t Know How is available now on Amazon. More from Mark Riggins or visit Mark at http://www.markriggins.org