Drop Anchor and Fish

When you speak to a person about their ministry and their conversation is punctuated with quotes and references from people who are not in your city, not ministering in your context, not at your church and among your people, and most importantly, not you, then you know you have a problem.

While principles of ministry are useful, ministry is done in context. And at the end of the day, a pastor has to prayerfully decide what ministry will look like for them and then drop anchor and fish. Otherwise, valuable time will be lost puttering all over the lake looking for the best place to fish. And the truth is God blesses faithfulness and commitment more than he blesses the latest strategy.

I've always said that a quality in successful ministry is “sticktoitiveness.” Obviously, there’s a squiggly red line under that word in your editor, but I think you get the meaning. Choose the best ministry paradigm given the context you are in and then stick to it. Success is built over time, not overnight.

5 Church Change Killers

The very fact that we’re leaders means we have to chart the course and make bold steps toward the destiny God has designed for us.

The problem is … it doesn’t always work. Change is a scary proposition for most people, and so it’s not always received with the enthusiasm we envision.

Here are some reasons why change is so hard for churches, and a few things we can do to make it easier:

1. Unbridled Tradition.

Tradition is great—it’s one of the things all of us look forward to in our lives. Vacation traditions, family traditions, holiday traditions. No matter what your personality, you find comfort and meaning in the few things that don’t change in your life. Everybody does.

The problem with tradition in churches is when programs and practices become an end in themselves rather than a means to an end.

If the Great Commission and the Great Commandment are our marching orders, and our goal is to reach and grow people, then our focus has to be on the mission, not on the means.

Question: Are there traditions, programs, silos or sacred cows holding your church back from impact?  

If so, are you willing to shift the emphasis to the mission and off of the means?

2. Dysfunctional Structure.

Just like our physical bodies need a structure (skeleton), so our churches need structure. Structures are the people and processes you use and the way you organize them.

The best structures for creating positive change are the ones where decisions can be made quickly, trust is built through flowing communication and authority comes with responsibility.

Whenever there’s frustration on your team, it’s wise to ask whether the structure is creating problems. Fixing structural problems is one of the quickest ways to gain momentum and raise morale.

How’s your structure?

3. Unresolved Conflict.

Jesus made it clear that unity in the Body of Christ is a non-negotiable. It’s intended to be the hallmark of Christianity in the world.

The truth is, teams with unresolved conflict cannot make significant progress until the problems are addressed and the conflicts are dealt with in a healthy way.

4. Lack of Faith.  

Years ago, Rick Warren did a study on the 100 fastest growing churches in America. He was looking for the common leadership characteristics in the leaders of these effective churches.

What he discovered is each leader was a very unique, with the exception of one quality: great faith.

Both the task and the challenges of church leadership are outrageous, and they require a leader who has the faith to believe God will prevail.
What are you believing about yourself and your church?

5. Fuzzy Vision.

Nelson Searcy says, “people say no to what’s confusing.”

If the vision for our churches is foggy, the buy-in will be minimal. What people are looking for in life is a purpose, a clear and burning opportunity to connect their lives with something greater and more enduring. And when a leader clarifies a clear and compelling vision and asks people to sign on, they do.

Personally, this is the most difficult part of leadership for me, but it’s also where I see the greatest payoffs for the work I put in.

A good vision answers the question, “What will it be like when we get there?”

Real Discipleship

I get funny looks from some people when I tell them I believe God is calling us back to radical discipleship. Those in the over-50 crowd—people who lived through the charismatic movement of the 1970s—are likely to have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to the dreaded “D word.”

That’s because the so-called Discipleship Movement (also known as the Shepherding Movement) turned a vital biblical principle into a weapon and abused people with it. Churches that embraced the warped doctrines of shepherding required believers to get permission from their pastors before they bought cars, got pregnant or moved to a new city. Immature leaders became dictators, church members became their loyal minions, and the Holy Spirit’s fire was snuffed out because of a pervasive spirit of control.

"Reclaiming this process of discipleship is going to require a total overhaul of how we do church. Do we really want to produce mature disciples who have the character of Jesus and are able to do His works? Or are we content with shallow believers and shallow faith?”

I don’t ever want to live through that again. I know countless people who are still licking their wounds from the spiritual abuse they suffered while attending hyper-controlling churches in the 1970s and ‘80s. Some of them still cannot trust a pastor today; others walked away from God because leaders misused their authority—all in the name of “discipleship.”

Yet I’m still convinced that relational discipleship—a strategy Jesus and the apostle Paul modeled for us—is as vital as ever. If anything the pendulum has now swung dangerously in the opposite direction. In today’s free-wheeling, come-as-you-are, pick-what-you-want, whatever-floats-your-boat Christianity, we make no demands and enforce no standards. We’re just happy to get warm rumps in seats. As long as people file in and out of the pews and we do the Sunday drill, we think we’ve accomplished something.

But Jesus did not command us to go therefore and attract crowds. He called us to make disciples (see Matt. 28:19), and that cannot be done exclusively in once-a-week meetings, no matter how many times the preacher can get the people to shout or wave handkerchiefs. If we don’t take immature Christians through a discipleship process (which is best done in small groups or one-on-one gatherings), people will end up in a perpetual state of immaturity.

David Kinnaman, author of the excellent book unChristian, articulated the problem this way: “Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and the journey ends. They are not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ. Yet in many ways a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really seeking. Transformation is a process, a journey, not a one-time decision.”

Reclaiming this process of discipleship is going to require a total overhaul of how we do church. Do we really want to produce mature disciples who have the character of Jesus and are able to do His works? Or are we content with shallow believers and shallow faith?  We must not fall into the trap of entertaining our congregations with events and programs.

How can we make this paradigm shift in to discipleship? How can we add “the D word” back into our vocabulary?

·        *Churches must stop exclusively focusing on big events and get people involved in small groups, where personal ministry can take place.

·        *We must stop treating people like numbers and get back to valuing relationships.

·        *Leaders must reject the celebrity preacher model and start investing their lives in individuals.

When we stand before Christ and He evaluates our ministries, He will not be asking us how many people sat in our pews, came to our events or filled out response cards. He is not going to evaluate us based on how many people fell under the power of God or how many healings we counted in each service. He will ask how many faithful disciples we made. I pray we will make this our priority.

The Paradox of Patience

By Shawn McEvoy:

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
James 5:7-8

We all know that patience isn't easy, or fun. What it is, though, is the path of the wise. Or, perhaps it's better to say the "non-path," since it usually involves a decision to do nothing for a while, to be still and know that you are not God, to reflect, or to strategize.

I recently gained new insight into the value of patience and the reason it's prized so highly in the Bible, from verses about "those who wait on the Lord" to "letting endurance have its perfect result."

In the first half of 2010 I raced through a blog of the TV show LOST. The series is replete with Christo-religious metaphors and parallels. One such area it studies in detail is patience. Early on, one of the characters tells another that "Patience, which you lack, is the quality of a leader." It almost flew right by me, like it did the first time. Patience? The quality of a leader? Does that sound right? Not really, not to today's ears. Don't we usually think of leaders as people who make immediate, command decisions, rush into action, tell others what to do, and make people feel safe (which is to say, how they think they need to feel)?

That's part of it; however, those are the very flaws about the concept that plagued most of the characters on LOST. They were so driven to do, fix, run, save, correct, fight, and prove themselves that they often didn't take time to actually ponder the next step or, even better, to wait for the next step to present itself. Their lack of wisdom in making rush decisions and actions was obvious to the audience. We kept wondering why they couldn't remember the miracles they'd already seen, why they couldn't reflect on what they'd already come through, the amazing ways they'd been granted second chances, the redemption they'd been given despite not deserving it, the way they kept longing for home while failing to realize they were building a new one (if they could have just slowed down and seen it).

As I watched it all unfold, I was reminded of the children of Israel. Granted, 40 years in a desert would be a long time to wait for anything, particularly a promised new home. So they grumbled. They longed for the old ways, even though those meant bondage and servitude. They failed to stop and understand that the miracles of manna and the Red Sea meant more were on the way - at the right time. They nagged their leadership, sought unproductive solutions, and just like the characters on LOST, were plagued by always feeling they had to do something, to take control.

The paradox is that control is indeed involved, but it's self-control instead of situational control. Relax. Quiet yourself. Let's remember where we came from and the amazing ways we passed through peril for a while. Let's reflect on the present - the fact we're here - and how amazing the Lord is. Let's ponder our future steps before rushing up them and tripping.

Patience - the "strengthening of the heart" James refers to - then is directly related to another fruit of the Spirit, self-control. Self-control thus leads to maturity, which is completeness, which is wisdom, which is leadership, which is purpose, which is ministry, which is being used of God, which is where we see miracles again. Full-circle we come, eventually, when we patiently wait on the Lord, who is never late and perpetually victorious.

Situational control may provide temporary satisfaction, but it also often makes a situation worse. Patience is a willing temporary dissatisfaction, but it puts your emotions under control and God in control. It might make a situation feel like it's not getting better, but the solution can only be miraculous with it as part of the equation. Patience prevents rash judgment, and judgmentalism. It secures a plan. It is a beautiful paradox of being a non-action and yet a conscious exercise of free will. It is the basis for the merciful ways the Lord deals with us. Patience provides the path in proper time, and promises that faith will be rewarded.

Practice patience this week by seeking not to pursue control in one particularly vexing portion of your life, and ponder whether it's indeed your problem to solve in the first place. Start by remembering the miracle of how God got your attention and delivered you, and his promise that the great work he began in you will not remain incomplete, no matter how long it takes. What miracle will be next? Wait and see. "You will know that I am the LORD; Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame (Isaiah 49:23)."