Category: Church Growth

Being a Missional Class

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Allen Taylor mentions that while our Sunday School classes are great places to catch up with friends each week, there is a greater purpose:

Sunday School leaders believe that Sunday School is about Bible study and fellowship. While this is true, it is shortsighted. Sunday School is a great place to visit friends and socialize with those who share a similar worldview that is Bible based. It is also a place where the saints of God are mobilized to carry out the commission of Christ.

You see, Sunday School is social and relational, but she is also missional! We must embrace evangelism if we are to be a Great Commission Sunday School, and we must accept the responsibility of ministering to people’s needs. We often relegate Sunday School to Bible study and fellowship because that is mostly what takes place in the classroom on Sunday morning. Evangelism and ministry are often overlooked because they function outside of the Sunday morning classroom.

We naturally gravitate toward that which is easier and more convenient. We naturally drift away from that which takes more effort and labor.

Let’s remember that we have a purpose in meeting together each week. So, just what is that purpose?

In my book The Six Core Values of Sunday School, I state,”My philosophy of a Sunday School class is: The class is a miniature congregation, and the teacher is a miniature pastor.” That being the case, a “miniature pastor” must meet criteria that exceed just having a pulse. We must have godly, committed people leading and shepherding our classes.

When you drive the success of Sunday School down to the lowest common denominator, you find it one class at a time. A Sunday School organization is only as good as the contribution of each individual class.

When we take that one step further, we find that the success of the class is the teacher. Therefore, we need teachers who will toe the leadership line if we are to have a healthy, growing Sunday School ministry.

Being a Bible Teacher

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One thing I have emphasized in our discipleship ministry is that we are not just to be teachers of the Bible in our classes; we are to be shepherds of people. Besides, we don’t really teach the Bible anyway, we teach people the Bible. Josh Hunt sent this article out this week (by Elmer Towns) and it captures what I have emphasized over the years:

A Sunday School teacher is not just an instructor, like a saved public school teacher who is teaching the Bible. A Sunday School teacher has a much broader task than just communicating biblical truth.

[ Here is a video series on Shepherding God’s People ]

A Teacher Teaches People
There are two expressions of the spiritual gift of teaching.

  1. The first is the gift of teaching where the person has a desire to study, to discover new truth, then communicate it in the instructing process. This is not the gift that best describes the Sunday School teacher, though many Sunday School teachers have this gift.
  2. The second gift is the “pastor-teacher” described in Ephesians 4:11, “And He Himself gave . . . some pastors and teachers.” The pastor-teacher uses instruction to nurture his pupils. Even though the King James Version separates the two words, “pastors, and teachers,” the Greek language joins them as one function. The pastor is a teacher.

That brings us to the next step.

A Teacher Shepherds People
A Sunday School teacher is a shepherd. A woman who has four small children around a table in a church basement should be doing a lot more than telling Bible stories about baby Moses in the bushes, or Noah’s ark. She should be giving spiritual care to her students, which involves telling Bible stories. Just as a pastor shepherds his flock in more ways than preaching, so a Sunday School teacher cares for the Sunday School flock in more ways than teaching.

Everything the pastor is to his flock, the teacher is to his Sunday School class. The same Greek word is used for pastor and shepherd, suggesting their work is similar.

A Teacher is the Pastor’s Extension
The Sunday School teacher is the extension of pastoral ministry into the life of the class. Just as an extension helps you get to hard-to-reach places, so a Sunday School teacher helps the pastor reach hard-to-reach people (at least hard for him to reach). A pastor can’t always reach down to a three-year-old boy, but a Sunday School teacher can. Classes need to be more than content centers, they need to be shepherding centers.

The Apostle Paul’s advice to the pastors of the church at Ephesus is also a challenge to Sunday School teachers today. “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing-the flock. . . . Therefore watch” (Acts 20:28-31). Notice the three words that are emphasized in these verses. These words contain the threefold job description of a pastor or Sunday School teacher.

  1. First, he is to oversee the flock, which is leading sheep.
  2. Second, he shepherds or feeds the flock, which is giving instruction.
  3. Third, he protects the flock by watching over them.

A Teacher is a Leader
How does the Sunday School teacher “shepherd” the flock in his care? He does so by fulfilling the three primary functions of the shepherd. First, a shepherd leads the flock. The greatest influence of many Sunday School teachers has been the result of their leading by example.

A Teacher is a Feeder
Second, a shepherd feeds the flock. While good Bible teaching will not guarantee your class will grow, poor teaching will hinder its growth

A Teacher is a Protector
Finally, a shepherd protects the flock. Jesus told Peter to ‘tend My sheep” (John 21:16). A Sunday School teacher visits the students who are absent to protect them from falling away. One of the best known and loved passages in all Scripture is the Twenty-third Psalm. In this passage, David describes the care he received at the hand of his Shepherd, the Lord. The example of the Lord who is our Shepherd is a constant challenge to the Sunday School teacher who is trying to be to his class what the Lord is to him.

Church Growth Strategies

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I don’t just post articles from someone else, but I read *Bill Wilson’s “Confessions of a Church Consultant”  today and had a flashback to the “Great Commission Consultation” that our church experienced in February 2010. Our church had a negative reaction, today I believe I know the reason why. Here are the highlights from the article and my comments:

Here is a secret: Congregational strategic planning is frequently a waste of time and can be counterproductive. Many congregations engage in strategic planning; some opt to conduct the process internally, while others hire an outsider to help.

Our local association provided what was billed as a church growth guru who was effective in many other areas of the country. Our church had been on a plateau for several years and sometimes it takes a fresh look at one’s situation, from the outside, to see what we often fail to see on our own. So we opted for the outsider to inspire, challenge and motive us toward being all that we can be for the kingdom in this place.

Consulting with congregations is all the rage. Most take some form of corporate planning and apply a thin veneer of spirituality to a secular model. Behind these plans is a paint-by-number approach to your future that, if followed, promises to produce a set of core values, a mission statement, SWOT analyses, strategic initiatives, SMART goals and the like.

This was the main focus of the consultation, there really was a “paint-by-number” approach. Other churches in whom I knew staff members had the same prescriptions for the same unhealthy diagnosis. If you don’t have retention of people who visit your church, you need an assimilation process. The same prescription included the Nelson Searcy assimilation model (from the Journey Church in NYC). It is a fine model, especially for churches who have no real strategy at all, but is not every church different? We have different styles, different communities, and different reactions to gathering information… the point is that if there is an assimilation hole, the consultation guy filled it with this assimilation product.

Some vary the theme and design a process that produces the same thing in every church that uses the plan. This sort of prescriptive planning is used by those who know what your future should be and have a not-so-subtle agenda of turning your church in a direction that they have predetermined. If you get hooked into one of those plans, expect unnecessary conflict and unhealthy upheaval.

The idea of a “predetermined direction” stands out for me. The guy came with an idea of what a healthy and growing church looks like, with stories and illustrations where he has turned other churches around using this same strategy. I think we have a tendency to be covetous of other churches when we see God moving over there more than over here. So we took the plan and presented it to the church and got all sorts of unanticipated “conflict and upheaval.” We talked as a body, shared the same feeling of being scolded; the founders of the church (who grew this congregation to what it is today) must of somehow failed because we have not kept the main thing the main thing (the Great Commission – If he only knew how mission-minded this church is). It is almost like this guy knew we could be a mega-church if we would only follow his plan, when all along our people simply chose to be faithful to God, follow his leadership and allow the Lord to cause the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

The truth is, far too many of these generic plans are a waste of time and energy because they give only lip service to the question of divine guidance. Oh, there is the obligatory prayer emphasis, but what is lacking is genuine spiritual discernment. Without this, the planning becomes an exercise in stating the obvious/inevitable, and wastes a valuable opportunity to deeply consider the future God has in mind for you.

I felt there was a lot of activity during this time, and we developed a few ideas for a new direction, but our people did not embrace the consultation, or respect the consultant since he came across as a know-it-all with a condescending attitude of who we are. We have a solidly strong church and he spoke to us as if we where dying and one day the doors would close if we did not make changes. Real and earnest spiritual discernment and seeking God’s guidance appeared to be lacking.

A spiritual discernment process is very different from a corporate strategic planning model or a biased approach to your future. Spiritual discernment begins by admitting we do not have the solutions. Spiritual discernment invites thinking, praying and reflecting at a level that most of us studiously avoid. Spiritual discernment is messy, often slow and extremely complicated. Most churches want neat, quick and simple. Sorry, but neat, quick and simple work in this area (like most of congregational life) will lead to shallow, predictable and counter-productive.

The article includes a time-tested pattern of spiritual discernment for individuals and organizations:

Spiritual discernment begins with disorientation: Something happens to knock us off our feet. Some event or series of events conspire to turn our world upside down. It may be an unpleasant experience such as a death, or a beloved pastor’s departure, or some crisis. Whatever it is, our life and world is shaken and we experience high anxiety. Throughout Scripture, disorientation is the portal God uses to break into ordinary lives and do extraordinary things. (remember Joseph, Moses, Esther, Mary, Paul, Peter, etc.) God’s people are constantly finding themselves thrown off balance and unable to manage things using old frames of reference.

The next phase of spiritual discernment is a time of reorientation: On the heels of our crisis, we look around for something or someone to hold on to that will help us make sense of our shaken world. We find that the promises made by culture, leaders, politics, money, possessions and an array of false gods are empty. We turn once again to the One who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. All of our self-made structures, programs and hollow leadership models collapse under the weight of the issue before us. In their place we rediscover our reason for being as a congregation. Our pride gives way to brokenness and humility as we reconnect to our mission and purpose. We lean into our future with a willingness to lay aside those things that have distracted us from our true calling.

Finally, a spiritual discernment process leads us to a new orientation to life and ministry: We reorder and re-prioritize our life as God’s people so that we are on his mission, not ours. We find a depth of meaning and fulfillment that has been missing. We sense passion and engagement rather than lethargy and apathy. Because we have taken seriously the voice and movement of the Holy Spirit, we no longer rely on others to prescribe our future, but we create that future as collaborators with God in an ongoing process of regeneration and renewal. Our time spent in re-visioning our future has produced a new spirit of openness to God’s leadership. We begin the hard work of aligning every part of our life with our new vision.

Bill Wilson* reminds us that we need to be a congregation who resists the temptation to cut corners and go for easy solutions to complex issues. Instead, let’s journey along the narrow and challenging way of spiritual discernment. That sort of spiritual journey leads us to become the people God intended us to be.

*Bill Wilson is president of the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C.

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Characteristics of a NT Church

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This is teaching from Rick Warren. As always, how do we see King’s Grant measuring up to this standard?

If you want your church to have the impact of the early church, the book of Acts shows us eight essential characteristics we need in our congregations:

Supernatural power (Acts 2:3-4): We don’t just talk about God; we experience Him. This is what makes the church different from every other organization on the planet. We have the Holy Spirit. God promised His Spirit to help His church.

Use everybody’s language (Acts 2:4): This passage isn’t about speaking in tongues. It’s about the gospel being communicated in real languages. People actually heard the early Christians speak in their own languages — whether that was Farsi, Swahili, German, Greek, or whatever. God says from the very first day of the church that the Good News is for everyone. It’s not just for Jews. It’s amazing grace for every race. But the power of Acts isn’t just about the language of your country of origin. It’s also about languages spoken only in particular subcultures — like mothers of preschoolers or people into hip-hop or accountants or truck drivers. God says in His church, everyone’s language gets used. Are you helping your people use their “language” to reach people with the Good News?

Use everyone’s gifts (Acts 2:14, 16, 19, 21): In New Testament times, there weren’t spectators in the Church. There were only contributors; 100 percent participation. Not everyone is called to be a pastor, but everyone is called to serve God. If you want your church to have the impact of the early Church, get everyone involved in the ministry of your church. Make it clear to everyone in the church that passivity isn’t an option. If they want to just sit around and soak up the service of others, let them find another church.

Offer life-changing truth (Acts 2:22-40): The early Church didn’t offer pop psychology, polite moralisms, or nice-sounding inspiration. We must always offer the truth of the gospel. God’s Word has the power to change lives. No other message changes lives like the Good News. No other message changes a guy from a wife-beater to being a loving, responsible husband. It’s when the truth of God’s Word gets into us that we change.

In Acts 2, Peter gives the very first Christian sermon, quoting the Old Testament book of Joel. Peter shares the Gospel in this message. Acts 2 says that the early church devoted itself to the “apostles’ teaching” – the Bible. God’s Word gave the early church power.

Provide loving support (Acts 2:42): The first church loved and cared for one another. The Bible says in Acts 2:42, “They took part in the fellowship, sharing in the fellowship meals and in praying together.” One translation says, “They were like family to each other.” The church isn’t a business. It’s not an organization. It’s not a social club. It’s a family. For our churches to experience the power of the early Church, we’ve got to become the family that they were.

Enjoy joyful worship (Acts 2:46): When the early Church gathered, they celebrated, “praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” We must understand and teach that worship is a celebration. It’s a festival, not a funeral. It’s the party for the kingdom of God. When worship is joyful, people want to be there because people are looking for joy. Do you think if our churches were full of glad hearts, joyful words, and hopeful lives, we’d attract other unbelievers? Sure they would.

Make generous sacrifices (Acts 2:44-45): The Bible teaches us to make generous sacrifices for the sake of the gospel. The Christians during the Roman Empire were the most generous people in the empire. In fact, they were famous for their generosity. They literally shared everything, with one another and the poor. The Bible says the early church “shared everything they had … .” That’s a church worth dying for; which is exactly what first-century Christians did. They’d rather die with gladiators and lions in the Coliseum than renounce their faith and their brothers and sisters in God’s family.

Create exponential growth (Acts 2:47): When our churches demonstrate the first seven characteristics of the early Church, growth is automatic. People may have looked at the first Christians as weird, but they liked what they were doing. They saw their love for one another, the miracles that took place in their midst, and the joy that was in their lives, and they wanted what the Christians had.

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Factors That Impact Worship

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I am a fan of Rick Warren and he writes that there are six factors that impact a worship experience. I put this into our context at the Well, so how does King’s Grant measure up?

Rick suggests we walk through our church facilities with a photographer and take pictures from the eyes of a visitor. We become so familiar with our surroundings that we become oblivious to the faded paint, the frayed carpet, the chipped pulpit, the stack of stuff on the piano, or the burned-out light bulbs overhead.

One way to combat this tendency is to do an Environmental Impact Report on your church. Take pictures throughout your facilities and show them to your leaders in order to figure out what needs to be changed.

Here are some environmental factors you need to pay close attention to:

1. Lighting: Lighting has a profound effect on people’s moods. Inadequate lighting dampens the spirit of a service. Shadows across a speaker’s face reduce the impact of any message.

Most churches are far too dark. I’ve noticed that even churches with plenty of windows often cover them up. Somehow, churches have gotten the idea, maybe from funeral parlors, that dimming the lights creates a more “spiritual” mood. I completely disagree.

I believe that church buildings should be bright and full of light. God’s character is expressed in light. 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” I believe churches should be the brightest public buildings. Light was the very first thing God created. God said, “Let there be light!” (Genesis 1:3) Today, I think God would like to say this to thousands of churches.

If you want to wake up your services, brighten up your environment. Take the curtains off your windows! Throw open the windows and doors! Turn on all the lights!

2. Sound: Invest in the best sound system you can afford. If you’re trying to cut costs, do it in some other area. Don’t skimp here.

It doesn’t matter how persuasive the message is if people can’t hear it in a pleasing manner. A tinny, fuzzy sound system can undermine the most gifted musician and incapacitate the most profound preacher. Nothing can destroy a holy moment faster than a loud blast of feedback!

3. Seating: Both the comfort and the arrangement of your seating dramatically affect the mood of any service. The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure! Uncomfortable seating is a distraction that the devil loves to use.

If you can get away replacing the pews, I’d advise it. In today’s culture the only places people are forced to sit on benches are in church and the cheap bleacher section at ball games. People expect to have their own, individual chairs.

Personal space is highly valued in our society. This is why box seats are prized at stadiums. If people are forced to sit too close to each other, they get very uncomfortable. There should be at least 18 inches between people if you’re using chairs and 21 inches between people if you’re using pews.

If you use moveable seats, set them up so people can see some of each other’s faces. It will dramatically improve how people respond to the service. If you are planting a new church always set up less chairs than you need. It’s encouraging to your people when additional chairs must be brought in as people arrive. On the other hand, it’s very discouraging to worship in a service when surrounded by empty chairs.

4. Temperature: As a pastor who has preached for years in un-air-conditioned gyms and unheated tents, I say this with the utmost conviction: The temperature can destroy the best-planned service in a matter of minutes! When people are too hot or too cold they simply stop participating in a service. They mentally checkout and start hoping for everything to end quickly.

The most common mistake churches make regarding temperature is to allow the building to become too warm. Some usher sets the thermostat at a reasonable setting before the service without realizing that when the building is actually filled with a crowd, the body heat of all those people will raise the temperature substantially. By the time the air conditioning has cooled everything down, the service is nearly over.

Always set the thermostat several degrees cooler than what is comfortable before the service begins. Cool it down before the crowd gets there. The temperature will rise quite quickly once the service starts. Keeping the temperature on the cool side will keep the crowd awake.

5. Clean, safe nurseries: If you want to reach young families, you’ve got to have sanitized and safe nurseries. There should be no mop-buckets in the corners and the toys should be cleaned each week.

6. Clean restrooms: Visitors may forget your sermon but the memory of a foul smelling restroom lingers on … and on … and on! You can tell a lot about a church by checking out the cleanliness of its restrooms.

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Why Teens Leave the Church

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There is a new Barna study on teens leaving the church (click here for the full study).

There is an accompanying book worth looking into, much like the book unChristian a couple years ago. The findings of this research are included in a new book titled You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Church.

Overall, the research uncovered six significant themes why nearly three out of every five young Christians (59%) disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15.

Reason #1 – Churches Seem Overprotective.
One of the defining characteristics of teens and young adults today is their unprecedented access to ideas, worldviews and their prodigious consumption of popular culture. As Christians, they express the desire for their faith in Christ to connect to the world they live in.

  1. However, much of their experience of Christianity feels stifling, fear-based and risk-averse.
  2. One-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds said “Christians demonize everything outside of the church.”
  3. Other perceptions in this category include “church ignoring the problems of the real world” (22%)
  4. And “my church is too concerned that movies, music, and video games are harmful” (18%).

Reason #2 – Their Experience of Christianity is Shallow.
A second reason that young people depart church as young adults is that something is lacking in their experience of church.

  1. One-third said “church is boring.”
  2. One-quarter of these young adults said that “faith is not relevant to my career or interests” or that “the Bible is not taught clearly or often enough.”
  3. Sadly, one-fifth of these young adults who attended a church as a teenager said that “God seems missing from my experience of church.”

Reason #3 – Churches Come Across as Antagonistic to Science.
One of the reasons young adults feel disconnected from church or from faith is the tension they feel between Christianity and science.

  1. The most common of the perceptions in this arena is “Christians are too confident they know all the answers” (35%).
  2. Three out of ten young adults with a Christian background feel that “churches are out of step with the scientific world we live in” (29%).
  3. Another one-quarter embrace the perception that “Christianity is anti-science” (25%).
  4. And nearly the same proportion (23%) said they have “been turned off by the creation-versus-evolution debate.”
  5. Furthermore, the research shows that many science-minded young Christians are struggling to find ways of staying faithful to their beliefs and to their professional calling in science-related industries.

Reason #4 – Church Experiences Related to Sexuality are Often Simplistic and Judgmental.
With unfettered access to digital pornography and immersed in a culture that values hyper-sexuality over wholeness, teen and twentysometing Christians are struggling with how to live meaningful lives in terms of sex and sexuality. One of the significant tensions for many young believers is how to live up to the church’s expectations of chastity and sexual purity in this culture, especially as the age of first marriage is now commonly delayed to the late twenties.

  1. Research indicates that most young Christians are as sexually active as their non-Christian peers, even though they are more conservative in their attitudes about sexuality.
  2. One-sixth of young Christians (17%) said they “have made mistakes and feel judged in church because of them.”
  3. The issue of sexuality is particularly salient among 18- to 29-year-old Catholics, among whom two out of five (40%) said the church’s “teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date.”

Reason #5 – They Wrestle with the Exclusive Nature of Christianity.
Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Today’s youth and young adults also are the most eclectic generation in American history in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, technological tools and sources of authority. Most young adults want to find areas of common ground with each other, sometimes even if that means glossing over real differences.

  1. Three out of ten young Christians (29%) said “churches are afraid of the beliefs of other faiths” and an identical proportion felt they are “forced to choose between my faith and my friends.”
  2. One-fifth of young adults with a Christian background said “church is like a country club, only for insiders” (22%).

Reason #6 – The Church Feels Unfriendly to Those Who Doubt.
Young adults with Christian experience say the church is not a place that allows them to express doubts. They do not feel safe admitting that sometimes Christianity does not make sense. In addition, many feel that the church’s response to doubt is trivial.

  1. Some of the perceptions in this regard include not being able “to ask my most pressing life questions in church” (36%) and having “significant intellectual doubts about my faith” (23%).
  2. In a related theme of how churches struggle to help young adults who feel marginalized, about one out of every six young adults with a Christian background said their faith “does not help with depression or other emotional problems” they experience (18%).

Turning Toward Connection
David Kinnaman, who is the coauthor of the book unChristian, explained that “the problem of young adults dropping out of church life is particularly urgent because most churches work best for ‘traditional’ young adults – those whose life journeys and life questions are normal and conventional. But most young adults no longer follow the typical path of leaving home, getting an education, finding a job, getting married and having kids—all before the age of 30. These life events are being delayed, reordered, and sometimes pushed completely off the radar among today’s young adults.

“Consequently, churches are not prepared to handle the ‘new normal.’ Instead, church leaders are most comfortable working with young, married adults, especially those with children. However, the world for young adults is changing in significant ways, such as their remarkable access to the world and worldviews via technology, their alienation from various institutions, and their skepticism toward external sources of authority, including Christianity and the Bible.”

The research points to two opposite, but equally dangerous responses by faith leaders and parents:

  1. Either catering to or minimizing the concerns of the next generation. The study suggests some leaders ignore the concerns and issues of teens and twentysomethings because they feel that the disconnection will end when young adults are older and have their own children. Yet, this response misses the dramatic technological, social and spiritual changes that have occurred over the last 25 years and ignores the significant present-day challenges these young adults are facing.
  2. Other churches seem to be taking the opposite corrective action by using all means possible to make their congregation appeal to teens and young adults. However, putting the focus squarely on youth and young adults causes the church to exclude older believers and “builds the church on the preferences of young people and not on the pursuit of God,” Kinnaman said.

Between these extremes, the book You Lost Me points to ways in which the various concerns being raised by young Christians (including church dropouts) could lead to revitalized ministry and deeper connections in families. Kinnaman observed that many churches approach generations in a hierarchical, top-down manner, rather than deploying a true team of believers of all ages. “Cultivating intergenerational relationships is one of the most important ways in which effective faith communities are developing flourishing faith in both young and old. In many churches, this means changing the metaphor from simply passing the baton to the next generation to a more functional, biblical picture of a body – that is, the entire community of faith, across the entire lifespan, working together to fulfill God’s purposes.”

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Great Reasons to Volunteer

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The church is an organization that is nothing without volunteers. While Jesus calls us to be good stewards of the talents and gifts he has giving to us, that alone does not get people out of the chair and into action.

As a staff member, I have a hard time recruiting volunteers, partly because people are busy enough with everyday life, and partly because I must ask whether their volunteering is in the best interest of THEM or the best interest of ME.

In the back of my mind, I think, “I know how busy people are! How can I expect them to add one more thing to their busy schedules?” I also understand that I am supposed to “equip the saints for the work of service” (Ephesians 4:12) but how can I do this when they are already maxed out?

The last thing I ever want to do is put pressure on someone or make them feel guilty because they don’t serve somewhere in the discipleship ministry. I wonder, though, if we all could look at service differently? What if instead of thinking we are putting a burden on someone, we are giving them the opportunity to enjoy their lives more?

Consider the following: According to a recent survey of people who volunteer *

  • 68% say it makes them feel physically healthier
  • 73% say it lowers their stress level
  • 92% say it enriches their sense of purpose in life

This gives me three great reasons people should volunteer; even with its frustrations and challenges, serving others is fulfilling! This is what we all need to remember. This is what will give us courage when it comes time for recruiting church volunteers, and it’s what gives us endurance when things get stressful.

Nearly all people who serve will feel “enriched in their sense of purpose in life.” That’s a great deal. When you add to that the spiritual rewards that come from serving, we are offering people an amazing opportunity.

*from Success Magazine, 9/10 [print_link] [email_link]

How to be an Above Average Leader

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I sometimes wonder what it takes to be a truly great leader, and how many people would I fit into that category. I’ll address leaders in a moment, but when it comes to teachers, Josh Hunt uses the word TIGER to make a point, and he tells us that there are the five steps to doubling a group every two years or less:

Teach a halfway decent lesson each and every week; nothing less will do: You do not have to be Chuck Swindoll to grow a class. However, you must produce reasonably good lessons every single week. The better the teaching, the easier it is to grow a class.

Invite every member and every visitor to every fellowship every month: If we love them, they will come. We invite every member because it is good inreach. We invite every visitor, because it is good outreach. We do it every month because it is effective ministry. If we get them to the party, we will not keep them from class. If we get them to the party, they will come to love us, love our church and love our Lord.

Give Friday nights to Jesus: Give Friday nights to Jesus for an informal time of fellowship, games and Diet Coke. People who are opposed to the gospel are not opposed to ice cream. The Bible commands, “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9) If we will simply be obedient to this one command, we can double our classes every two years or less and our churches every five years or less.

Encourage the group toward ministry: We do this by providing specific examples of ministry and personally enlisting people to join the team. I encourage people to pick from the following seven examples of ministry opportunities: Class teacher, Outreach leader, Inreach leader, Fellowship leader, Hospitality leader (gives Friday nights to Jesus), Prayer leader, and Class president.

Reproduce: Doubling a class every two years or less is not about going from 10 to 20. It is about going from one group to two. Reproduction is hard on any level. Still, The future of the church is the reproduction of groups. The key to creating a new group is leadership. The price of creating a new group is saying good-bye. We must be willing to say good-bye in order to be obedient to the great commission. Remember that only the mature can reproduce. Only mature disciples are willing to say good-bye. We must reproduce in order to insure the life of the next generation.

I included all this not just because it is a solid strategy for growing groups, but for the first point, teach a half-way decent lesson! We don’t have to be outstanding in order to teach or lead; can we shoot for above average? I recently discovered three tips to becoming above average:

  1. Do what others won’t: Have you ever heard someone say, “Oh I would never do that?” Often this is a sign that we are on the right track. To live and serve in an above average way means you are willing to do what others won’t. Don’t let this bother or intimidate you! Recognize that every leader faces the same challenge, starting with Jesus. He certainly could have settled for an average lifestyle, but He chose to lay down His life to fulfill His purpose.
  2. Create productive habits: Leaders choose what to do with their time, their health, their desires, their appetites, their words and their thoughts. Ephesians 5:15-16 tells us “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the time.” Our time and energy needs to be fruitful, not frivolous. We all have areas of life that are uncultivated and unfruitful. Often all it takes is for a seed to be planted and we can turn that around.
  3. Refuse to live an average lifestyle: Average leaders don’t stop to examine what they are doing. They live by their emotions and take the path of least resistance. To be above average, you may need to watch less TV, read more books, set goals, take care of your health, eat better, exercise more, forgive, encourage, and take more risks. Of course, this also means you get to see God do more in and through you than the “average” person might.

The reality is average, status-quo, ordinary living doesn’t inspire others to follow Christ more closely. Radical, above-average, extraordinary living does! This can be a challenge. Average seems so comfortable, appealing, safe. Not to mention, it’s what everyone else is doing, so it makes life easier (or so it seems).

Are you ready to be above average? I hope the answer is yes, because that means you will be able to reach more people with the love and encouragement of Christ, and lead them to grow and mature into His image. That is worth the inconvenience of letting go of the status quo.