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Excellent Article on Small Church vs. Large Church Dynamics

25 Feb

I recently completed a research project at Fuller examining the difference between small church and large church ministry. Honestly, before engaging in that project this had never been something I’d given a ton of thought.

An article by Tim Keller dealing with this subject caught my eye today, and I found it quite insightful.

Here’s an excerpt:

One of the most common reasons for pastoral leadership mistakes is blindness to the significance of church size. Size has an enormous impact on how a church functions. There is a “size culture” that profoundly affects how decisions are made, how relationships flow, how effectiveness is evaluated, and what ministers, staff, and lay leaders do.

We tend to think of the chief differences between churches mainly in denominational or theological terms, but that underestimates the impact of size on how a church operates. The difference between how churches of 100 and 1,000 function may be much greater than the difference between a Presbyterian and a Baptist church of the same size. The staff person who goes from a church of 400 to a church of 2,000 is in many ways making a far greater change than if he or she moved from one denomination to another.

A large church is not simply a bigger version of a small church. The difference in communication, community formation, and decision-making processes are so great that the leadership skills required in each are of almost completely different orders.

And …

Every church has a culture that goes with its size and which must be accepted. Most people tend to prefer a certain size culture, and unfortunately, many give their favorite size culture a moral status and treat other size categories as spiritually and morally inferior. They may insist that the only biblical way to do church is to practice a certain size culture despite the fact that the congregation they attend is much too big or too small to fit that culture.

For example, if some members of a church of 2,000 feel they should be able to get the senior pastor personally on the phone without much difficulty, they are insisting on getting a kind of pastoral care that a church of under 200 provides. Of course the pastor would soon be overwhelmed. Yet the members may insist that if he can’t be reached he is failing his biblical duty to be their shepherd.
Another example: the new senior pastor of a church of 1,500 may insist that virtually all decisions be made by consensus among the whole board and staff. Soon the board is meeting every week for six hours each time! Still the pastor may insist that for staff members to be making their own decisions would mean they are acting unaccountably or failing to build community. To impose a size-culture practice on a church that does not have that size will wreak havoc on it and eventually force the church back into the size with which the practices are compatible.

A further example: New members who have just joined a smaller church after years of attending a much larger one may begin complaining about the lack of professional quality in the church’s ministries and insisting that this shows a lack of spiritual excellence. The real problem, however, is that in the smaller church volunteers do things that in the larger church are done by full-time staff. Similarly, new members of the smaller church might complain that the pastor’s sermons are not as polished and well-researched as they had come to expect in the larger church. While a large-church pastor with multiple staff can afford to put twenty hours a week into sermon preparation, the solo pastor of a smaller church can devote less than half of that time each week.

This means a wise pastor may have to sympathetically confront people who are just not able to handle the church’s size culture—just like many people cannot adapt to life in geographic cultures different from the one they were used to. Some people are organizationally suspicious, often for valid reasons from their experience. Others can’t handle not having the preacher as their pastor. We must suggest to them they are asking for the impossible in a church that size. We must not imply that it would be immaturity on their part to seek a different church, though we should not actively encourage anyone to leave, either.

There’s a lot more to this article as it is 15 pages long, but worth reading. To access the entire thing in a .pdf, click here.

An important question a church leader should think about: which church culture – small or large – would you fit best in as God has gifted you? The dynamics of each are drastically different, and require very different approaches as it pertains to leadership.

Brian Mashburn: Change How You Do Church Or Watch Your Church Die

25 Aug

I just read this provocatively titled post by Brian Mashburn … access it here.

From Brian’s post:

  • 65% of the Builder generation attends church
  • 35% of the Boomer generation attends
  • 15% of Generation X (my generation) attends
  • 4% of the Millennials attend

The vote is in. At an exponential rate, the way we do church is not working as a wineskin for delivering the greatest message the world has ever known.

So my question is, what needs to change?

Could it be that churches in the era of the builders and busters were simply more evangelistic than most churches nowadays?

Notes From the Pepperdine Lectures – Tim Spivey pt. 3

20 May

Notes from the Pepperdine Bible Lectures – part three of Tim Spivey’s class on church revitalization/renewal.

Visitors

  • Don’t highlight visitors. Don’t ask them to stand up, don’t ask them to wave, don’t call attention to them at all. They don’t want the attention!
  • Don’t make filling out a card the goal for visitors. Make bringing them back, maturing them, growing them spiritually your goal.

Excellence

  • Excellence is a sign of maturity and health.
  • Excellence happens at the intersection of service and vision.
  • Church leaders must ask themselves, “Do we have a reputation of making sausage out of volunteers?” In churches, consistent excellence largely comes from taking care of volunteers.
  • “More is not better. Better is better.”
  • Don’t strive to do more things – strive to do the things you do decide to do excellently.

Importance of Media

  • Tim walks through several terrible PowerPoint presentations and contrasts them with good looking ones.
  • Poor looking media matters when it comes to reaching young families! Many church leaders reduce the importance of this, but that’s a mistake.
  • “If I’m in my 30s, I’m checking out your website before I visit your church. 40% of people who come to church today check you out on the web or another source before stepping foot through your door.”
  • If your website is terrible, they’ll likely not bother coming. It must “pop” visually.
  • Tim recommends signing up at PowerPointSermons.com – it’s $199.00 per year for a membership, and you get access to loads of professional quality media to use for PowerPoint presentations, print media (like your church bulletins), and your website.
  • The initial transition to making your media excellent will cost money (website, bulletin, stage design, etc.), but it’s well worth it!
  • Jim Collins: “Good is the enemy of great …” – we don’t have many “great” churches because too many are satisfied with “good” churches!

Emotional Triangle

  • Emotional triangle – when two people or parts of a system are uncomfortable with each other, they will seek a third party to stabilize their relationship.
  • Three people making up the triangle: 1) Offender (persecutor), 2) Offended (victim), 3) Rescuer (person the victim gossips with about the persecutor).
  • Rather than the victim speaking with the persecutor and resolving the problem, the victim runs to the rescuer and spills their guts.
  • The persecutor becomes a new victim, and the triangle multiplies as this new victim runs to another rescuer to talk about the other person (instead of talking to the other person).
  • Emotional Triangles are a mess and cause churches to divide!
  • Church leaders must be rigid about getting people to talk to one another, and not about one another.

Good Questions to Ask During the Hiring Process

  • Three C’s & One F: 1) Character, 2) Competency, 3) Chemistry, 4) Fit.
  • Character: Are they spiritually mature/healthy/growing?
  • Competency: Are they capable? Can they get the job done?
  • Chemistry: Do they play well in the sandbox with others? Will they get along with other staff members?
  • Fit: Does this person fit our church?

After They’re Hired

  • Treat them well. Expect the best from them, but treat them well!
  • The apostles weren’t persecuted by the church, they were persecuted by the pagans! Churches of Christ are a species that seem to like to eat their own young!
  • Treat them well and you have every right to ask them to perform their best.

Tips for Building Healthy Leadership Teams

  • Leadership dysfunction is the #1 affliction of Churches of Christ! Here are a few tips:
  • Clarify Roles – each staff member should know what their job is and what’s expected.
  • Guard the Gate – never bring in an elder who’s “good enough” – never bring in a staff member who’s “good enough.”
  • Ministers shouldn’t ask elders to treat them well while treating the elders poorly, and vice-versa.
  • Talk to, not about each other – if there’s a problem, say it to the person you have the problem with. Don’t gossip, don’t create emotional triangles.
  • Meet together regularly.
  • Review staff performance annually – this is not a review the staff person being evaluated should be present for. Elders honestly evaluate staff performance on an annual basis.
  • Be ruthlessly committed to one another’s success.
  • Set rules for what you will and won’t argue about.
  • Write things down that are said in meetings – this will keep everyone on the same page.
  • Develop a process for exiting dysfunctional members.

Concluding Miscellaneous Tips

  • Eliminate this phrase: “my church.” Get people to eliminate that sort of language/attitude.
  • Eliminate this phrase as it pertains to assemblies: “private devotion to the Lord” (as in during the Lord’s Supper). We don’t meet corporately to have “private” devotion time with the Lord. If people want private time with God, tell them to do it in their homes. Assemblies are about coming together with the body … not quiet time.
  • Church bylaws need to be rewritten every few years. Do not allow them to become outdated.
  • Rotate volunteers to avoid burnout.
  • Staff should be involved in the hiring process – do not form a committee of non-ministers to hire new staff when you have trained professionals at your disposal.
  • Be CAREFUL hiring – all it takes is one bad apple to tank a church.
  • Making the five guys who get the most votes elders is a TERRIBLE/RECKLESS process for elder selection.

Phew, that was a lot. Great class, Tim!

For more like this, visit Tim’s blog here or listen to his preaching here.

If you’re interested in ordering audio or video recordings from the 2010 Pepperdine Bible Lectures, go here.

More notes from the 2011 Pepperdine Bible Lectures coming soon … stay tuned to this website, or subscribe to westcoastwitness.com to get the latest updates in your inbox or favorite reader.

Notes From the Pepperdine Lectures – Tim Spivey pt. 2

11 May

Notes from the Pepperdine Bible Lectures – part two of Tim Spivey’s class on church revitalization/renewal.

“All We Are Meant to Be: Reviving and Sustaining Growing and Healthy Churches” pt. 2 by Tim Spivey

  • Begins by reviewing the principles from the first class.
  • Key to remember: “Decisions must be made from principle, not pain!” Too many church leaders base decisions on an avoidance of pain instead of solid principles.
  • “Do not structure your church to be the same size it is.” Churches should be structured as if they’re three times the size they are.
  • Idea for churches whose facilities are currently at 60-70% capacity on Sunday morning: switch to two services – one at 9am and another at 10:30am with Bible classes running simultaneously during each. Get members to serve in a class at one time and attend the worship service at the other.

Simplify!

  • Simplify your church’s schedule! Focus on making your Sunday morning assembly the best it can be, have excellent small groups that meet Sunday evenings, and excellent mid-week meetings on Wednesday nights. Simplifying makes you leaner and meaner. Focus on doing just a few things, but do them very well. Shoot for excellence, not “good enough.”
  • Sunday mornings must be consistently vibrant and meaningful. If you’re not consistent – if your meetings are only meaningful every once and a while – members will not bring their friends.
  • What’s really going on in the minds of your members: “I want to bring my friends, but I don’t want the assembly to embarrass me.” Church leaders must organize assemblies members can be proud of – not embarrassed by.

Practical steps to having consistently vibrant/meaningful assemblies:

  • 1) Plan! Put the time in on the front end. Do not throw assemblies together at the last minute. Know what songs you’re going to sing ahead of time, practice them.
  • 2) Be on time! Create a culture of expectation that says, “What we’re doing here matters.” On time for staff = well before the assemblies are scheduled to begin (like an hour or two). Get the janitor to turn every light in the building on early.
  • No staff shows up later than a volunteer. If you want your volunteers to give it their best, leadership must go the extra mile and serve as models for everyone else.
  • Tim shows up at 5:30AM on Sunday mornings at his church. The first assembly isn’t until several hours later. Sunday is the longest work day of the week for him, and the most important.
  • You’ve heard the old saying, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” In church leadership as it pertains to Sunday assemblies, “Earliness is next to godliness.”
  • 3) Take care of your volunteers! Create a culture of encouragement. Tim writes at least one thank you card per week to someone serving the church. He makes it a point to go from classroom to classroom thanking all the volunteers.
  • Principle to remember: “Volunteers are more important than the people they serve!” If you treat volunteers poorly, everyone else suffers. Take care of your volunteers – they make up the backbone of your church!

Sideways Energy

  • Sideways energy describes what’s created when some church programs/assemblies work against others. For instance, at Tim’s church, the youth group met on Sundays, Tuesday nights, and Wednesday nights. The Tuesday night meeting was student led and just for the youth group, while the Wednesday night meeting was the normal youth group class that met while the rest of the church was together for mid-week assembly. They found that the Tuesday night meeting was working against the Wednesday night meeting because families didn’t have the time to do both. Tuesdays were valuable because they were student led, and Wednesdays were valuable because the youth were together with the rest of the church. Solution: eliminate the Tuesday meeting, and make the Wednesday meeting student-led. This eliminated the sideways energy.
  • If there’s a program or assembly that causes sideways energy to occur, look for a way to make that go away. The solution likely involves eliminating something or combining it with something else.

Big Idea Teaching Method

  • Most churches send too many messages at once. There’s a topic for Bible class, another topic for the sermon, another for small groups, and another for Wednesday nights. It would be better if teaching were focused on a single lesson presented in different ways so people can really internalize it.
  • Tim’s church did a series on the topic of rest. All the kids that morning showed up in their pajamas. All the Bible classes, small groups, sermon – everything was on the topic of rest during that series. The kids all got little plants in their classes with instructions on caring for it (give it sunlight, water, care) to illustrate the principle everything else centered around. Entire families got the lesson together – this is “Big Idea” teaching.
  • Tim did another series called, “Old School: Messages from God.” They designed a set for the stage that had lots of memorabilia from school, Tim told stories about his schooling experience as a child. Topics on things like, lunch money (what the Bible has to say about finances), dealing with bullies, etc. Everything from the childrens’ classes to the church bulletin was built around this theme.
  • With Big Idea teaching, all the messages a church is sending/lessons they’re teaching center around the Sunday morning sermon. This is a great way to help people learn effectively.
  • Big Idea = everyone works together.
  • Books to check out on this subject: The Big Idea: Aligning the Ministries of Your Church through Creative Collaboration by Dave Furgeson along with Sticky Church and Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership and Church Staff on the Same Page by Larry Osbourne.

For more like this, visit Tim’s blog here and listen to his preaching here.

If you’re interested in ordering audio or video recordings from the 2010 Pepperdine Bible Lectures, go here.

You might also be interested in checking out Tim’s reflection on his time at the 2010 Pepperdine Bible Lectures here.

Notes From the Pepperdine Lectures – Tim Spivey pt. 1

9 May

I attended many great classes at Pepperdine this year. Tim Spivey’s three were among the most relevant to the work with The Lake Merced Church of Christ in San Francisco.

Here are the notes from part 1 of Tim’s class:

“All We Are Meant to Be: Reviving and Sustaining Growing and Healthy Churches” pt. 1 by Tim Spivey

  • Introduces the concept of “wholism” – in churches everything is connected. The children’s ministry affects the adult ministry – the college ministry affects the worship service – the preaching style affects outreach. Just like the whole body is affected when a finger is broken, so also the entire church is affected when one ministry is weak or sick. This class is designed to be like a physical for your church. Take this information and give your church a checkup.
  • “I believe God has a bias toward the church flourishing … the command to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ applies to the church … when God creates something He wants it to flourish!”
  • Jesus constantly uses fruit/farming metaphors. The New Testament counts the number of people involved. Numbers matter because numbers are people, and people matter.
  • Simple principle: “Healthy things grow.”

Principle to Remember: Everything is Connected

  • In the church world everything is connected.
  • Illustration: a guy with a knee problem has bad posture which causes him to experience back pain. If he treats only the back pain but never the knee, the problem will never go away. Everything is connected.
  • Want a good youth ministry? You have to do a lot more than simply hire a youth minister – you have to ask what you’re willing to change about your worship service. Teens love music. Are you willing to let the youth minister do what needs to be done to reach teens?
  • The church is like a body – it can be very healthy, or it can be very sick. The church has an immune system. If you get a sore throat, you may think you have throat problems, but in reality you may have a virus. You must attack viruses!
  • Leadership = the gatekeeper of the immune system. Dysfunctional leadership = no hope.

Tolerance of Pain in Leadership

  • Effective leaders must be able to tolerate pain – pain in themselves, and pain in others.
  • Low-Low Leaders: this is the type of leader who can’t tolerate pain themselves, and they can’t tolerate others hurting either. This type of leader will go nowhere because change includes pain. The status quo will be held no matter what. Illustration: a child-centered family.
  • Low-High Leaders: this type of leader cannot tolerate pain themselves, but doesn’t mind a bit when others suffer. This type of person is a church terrorist. If they don’t get their way they make life very difficult for everyone else – they don’t mind splitting a church as long as they get their way. They put their own wants and needs in front of everything else.
  • High-Low Leaders: can tolerate a lot of pain in themselves, but cannot stand to see pain in others. This type of leader will take abuse from people without responding. If a church is led by this type of person, members will remain immature because they are allowed to do whatever they want, abuse whoever they want, behave however they want and this leader will say nothing because they don’t want to cause the other person pain. Many who serve as elders are this type of leader.
  • High-High Leaders: this type of leadership is characterized by Jesus. Can tolerate lots of pain themselves, and can tolerate pain in others. God suffers through Christ – decisions are not shaped by an avoidance of pain. The best decisions are made for the church even if it means someone isn’t going to get their way or someone will be unsatisfied.
  • Tim went on to tell a story about a 6’9 farmer that confronted him after he preached a sermon telling him he was an instrument of Satan. This was done in front of several people attending the assembly. Tim instructed the man he needed to meet with he and the elders of the church at a later time and they did. The elders plainly told this man if he ever did something like that again he would not be welcome back at their church. They realized their church was going to be sick if they let this behavior go. They did not, and the man decided to take his family and leave their church. They never saw him again.
  • “It’s popular for people to say ‘the church is a hospital for the sick.’ If the only people in your church are sick ones you will end up with a morgue!” Church is about finding health – not continuing in sickness. Sickness must be dealt with, and sometimes this will cause pain.
  • Dysfunctional people are allowed to stay because the leadership decides to tolerate pain. Many times leadership allows the unhealthy people to run off the healthy people. You must decide what you’re doing is too important to tolerate bullies in the church!

Steps to Revitalization

  • Begins with Spiritual Renewal. Seek this above all else for your church.
  • Is there a vibrancy to your assemblies that will cause someone who is seeking God to enter in and realize He’s there?
  • Preaching, Worship, and Prayer should be your top three priorities if you want to revitalize your church. Underprepared preaching, lifeless worship, and rote prayer is a recipe for failure in a church revitalization effort. “Many assemblies are like a church business meeting with a sermon chaser.”
  • When considering what the church should do, God is both the means and the end. Preaching, prayer, and worship center us on God.
  • Refine Church Structure. Church structure is spiritual for a whole lot of reasons. Most important is that it affects how well we can reach people.
  • Advice: structure yourselves as a church that’s three times the size you already are. What happens if you plant an oak tree in a flower pot?
  • When your facility  reaches 60-70% capacity in an assembly, start another assembly. People don’t like full buildings (the people who’ve been with your church a long time do, but not new people).
  • Most churches are structured to be the size they are, and they stay that size. The reason they don’t grow is because they’re not structured to handle it.
  • Expanding your church’s structure does not mean an expansion of activities. Your church should not have the number of activities/ministries of a church three times its size – this will kill you. In fact, you should probably have about half of the activities of a church your size. Churches book themselves solid because they think it looks virtuous, but oftentimes programs that are started are more of a hindrance than a help. Only do what you can do  very well – don’t overexert.
  • Don’t look at your weaknesses first to see what needs to change – look at your strengths to see what you can build on. Fellowship is usually a great strength is smaller churches. Hold on to this and build on it somehow. Fellowship doesn’t mean ‘everybody knows everybody’ – it does mean ‘everybody knows somebody.’ Illustration: small town fellowship. Not everyone in the town knows one another, but everyone knows somebody and feels part of the community. Don’t strive to be a big church where everyone knows everyone else – strive to be like a small town where everyone knows someone.

Concluding Thoughts

  • You will lose people. Expect it. Name a church that doesn’t lose people. Ask yourself, “Is God going to run this ship, or is fear of losing some people going to run this ship?”
  • The question should never be, “Are people leaving?” The question should be, “Who is leaving and why? Are they leaving because we’re sticking to our vision and mission in the world/community that they’ve decided they don’t like, or are they leaving for another reason?” Do not let fear and manipulative people run your church – let God’s mission run your church.

Great stuff!

For more like this, visit Tim’s blog here or listen to his preaching here.

If you’re interested in ordering audio or video recordings from the 2010 Pepperdine Bible Lectures, go here.

Top 10 Reasons Small Churches Tend to Stay Small

15 Feb

I read a good article on sermoncentral.com this morning written by a seasoned pastor named Joe McKeever entitled 10 Reasons Small Churches Tend to Stay Small.

I really appreciate Mr. McKeever’s take on church growth. Here’s his explanation:

By using the word “grow,” I do not mean in numbers for numbers’ sake. I do not subscribe to the fallacy that bigness is good and small churches are failures. What I mean by “grow” is reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ … any church—large or small—that does not place a high value on evangelism and outreach to the unchurched can’t expect to grow…period.

Growth is not getting members of other congregations to switch to yours. Growth is reaching the lost, and to that I say Amen.

The article goes on to highlight the top ten reasons small churches tend to stay small. Here’s each point with a brief explanation:

1. Wanting to Stay Small

According to McKeever, no one ever verbally says, “We want to stay small,” but actions speak for themselves. If new ideas are constantly rejected and new people are frozen out of the inner fellowship, it could be because church members simply don’t want their church to get bigger. Growing larger would mean things would change, and familiarity is comfortable. Personal comfort is more important than mission in churches that want to stay small.

2. A Quick Turnover of Ministers

If a church is turning over ministers every couple of years, that’s a problem. It takes a while for a new minister to build trust with the church members. If trust isn’t built, ministers are ineffective.

3. Domination by a Few Strong Members

If a minister leaves a church and a leadership vacuum develops, a strong member or two will often step in to help out without the intent taking over the church. But Joe says “taking over” is often what inadvertently happens. This strong individual or small group “takes care of things” while the church searches for a new minister. If the newly hired minister leaves after a short time, the same people step in to “take care of things” again, and now there’s a veiled authority structure in the church every new minister coming in will have to deal with. Instead of being able to lead, McKeever says new ministers are told “that’s not the way we do things around here” by the behind-the-scenes authorities derailing plans.

4. Not Trusting the Leaders

McKeever says:

I’ve seen this phenomenon occur in small churches (and never in large ones) at the monthly business meetings. In the small-and-determined-to-stay-small church, discussion centers on why 35 cents was spent on call-forwarding and $2.00 on paper for the office. Leaders and pastors alike are always frustrated that the congregation doesn’t trust them with $20.00, let alone $200.00.

The determined-to-stay-small church is far more concerned about the dollars and cents in the offering plate than about the lost souls in the community. This church would never step out in faith and do something bold to reach the lost and unchurched, and if they did, unless their mindset changed, they would then harass their leaders into the grave demanding an accounting of every dime spent.

If money is more important than mission, that’s a problem.

5. Inferiority Complex

This is that attitude that says, “We can’t do anything because we’re small.” As a result, no dreaming takes place. A preacher I look up to once said, “You ought to set God-sized goals for your life. A God-sized goal is a goal that’s so big, so huge, so massive, that it will only be accomplished if God is involved! Set it, take action to achieve it, and pray for God to get involved!” The same principle applies to churches.

If a church group never dreams, if a church group never develops a desire to be part of something bigger than themselves, it could be because they’re suffering from an inferiority complex that says, “We’re not good enough, talented enough, wealthy enough, whatever enough,” and they never try. Or they compare themselves to other churches: “We’re not X church with Y resources, so we can’t do Z.” Not only does this attitude show the people making up the church group don’t believe in themselves, they’re also displaying a lack of faith in God. After all, He can do the impossible!

6. No Plan

Going along with #5, small churches that stay small usually have no solid plans for the future. If you ask church members what the vision for their church is, they’ll often give you blank stares in return. With no vision and plan for achieving it, there’s no forward momentum – only stagnation.

7. Bad Spiritual Health

As McKeever puts it, if a church group is more well-known for a list of things they do and don’t do instead of the characteristics and attributes of Christ, then that group is sick. Churches should mirror Jesus. Just because a church is small doesn’t mean it’s sick, but more often than not if a church is sick it’ll be small (and will tend to stay that way).

8. Lousy Fellowship (Inwardly Focused Instead of Outwardly Focused)

This describes a church group that may be friendly to outsiders, but they aren’t real friends to outsiders. In other words, they may say “hi,” but they won’t go out of their way to develop real relationships. It’s nearly impossible for a guest to plug in to the inner circle of a church where this type of fellowship exists no matter how hard they try, so instead of sticking around they leave.

9. A State of Neglect Permeates the Church Building

McKeever says a building in shabby shape is often a sign of something deeper: “a dying church that doesn’t tend to its business.” The attitude prevalent here is one of apathy. When you get down to it, the church members don’t really care that much, and it shows in the facilities. Believe it or not, environment communicates a whole lot to outsiders before anyone says a word to them.

10. No Prayer

McKeever says this is simply a choice – “pray or quit.” If a church is reaching the lost, God is involved. Want Him to get involved? Ask. Don’t want Him involved? Don’t ask. Simple, yet oft overlooked.

—-

There’s a lot more to McKeever’s article than the brief synopsis I’ve given you here. If you’re interested, I encourage you to read the whole thing for yourself. I’m adding it to my list of church revitalization resources.

I do, however, see a flaw in McKeever’s reasoning. Namely, his focus is almost solely on “the church members” – he doesn’t say much at all about church leaders other than his portrayal of us as victims. In my estimation churches tend to stay small more often because of bad leadership than because of “bad membership.” That being said, there’s still plenty of good stuff in this article that’s worth thinking about.

Scott Thomas on Replanting a Church

17 Sep

As I mentioned before, I’d like to use westcoastwitness.com to archive resources dealing with the topic of church revitalization.

I ran across a good series of blog posts over at TheResurgence.com from Scott Thomas, director of Acts 29 Church Planting Network.

Here’s a tidbit from Scott’s second post, Replanting: The Story:

I dreamed of a body that loved the Lord, loved his word, loved the church, and loved the calling from God to be instruments of righteousness in their community. I dreamed of a people who practiced spiritual holiness, rather than judging others for their lack of adherence to man-made rules. I dreamed of marriages that visibly demonstrated the relationship of Christ and the church. I dreamed of homes that were led by the Holy Spirit, by godly heads of households and by the Scriptures.

I dreamed of a church that had influence in its community: spiritually, morally, evangelistically, and socially. I dreamed of a church that served willingly and enthusiastically according to their spiritual gifts, passions, and God-given abilities.

I dreamed of a church body that had a burning passion to share the gospel in their city, their state, their nation, and their world and to be a vital link for the establishment of churches all across the world. I dreamed of a body that had an insatiable thirst to encounter God in a real, personal, and intimate way.

But was it just a dream? Could it be realized?

No, it wasn’t, and yes, it could (and can)!

Here are the links to all of the posts in this series:

  1. Replanting: Living by Dying
  2. Replanting: The Story
  3. Envisioning a Replant
  4. Envisioning a Replant: Leadership, Mission, Values
  5. Envisioning a Replant: Practical Issues

Here are a couple of other posts Scott made that are related, but not formally included in the five part series:

 For more westcoastwitness.com content on the topic of church revitalization, go here and here.

Turn It Around, or Put One Between Its Eyes – Tim Spivey on Turnaround Churches

3 Aug

As I mentioned here, I’ll be archiving resources to help with church revitalization efforts on westcoastwitness.com.

Tim Spivey has been writing a series on Turnaround Churches, and so far he’s made five entries.

I’m not sure if more are coming or not (since he hasn’t answered my question about that :p), but here are those that have been posted so far:

  1. Turnaround Churches - Intro
  2. Turnaround Churches pt. 1 – Diagnosis and Humility
  3. Turnaround Churches pt. 2 – Spiritual Renewal
  4. Turnaround Churches pt. 3 - Mission
  5. Turnaround Churches pt. 4 – Structure
  6. Turnaround Churches pt. 5 – Fresh Air
  7. Turnaround Churches pt. 6 – Leadership

I could only locate parts 1-4 of this series, but they’re numbered through five. It appears that either #3 is missing, or Tim made a mistake in the numbering.

Anyway, I encourage you to read these entries - good stuff.

Church Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church around the Gospel

6 Jun

Ran across an interesting lesson from the Advance Conference being held in North Carolina this weekend.

I’ve been doing a fair amount of research on successful church revitalization efforts recently. There are some interesting stories out there; J.D. Greear’s is among them.

According to him, in order for a church revitalization to be successful the members must get away from pharisaical religiosity and embrace Jesus above all else. The lesson I’m posting today unpacks that.

Check it out:

As J.D. says on his blog, this lesson doesn’t present a step by step process to church revitalization, but does speak against attitudes that will kill one (I’ll post more on the process as I see it later).

I’d like to begin archiving resources like this one – there is huge interest in the topic of church revitalization right now. If any of you have additional resources to point me to, please do. Our team in San Francisco can use them, and I know we’re not alone.

For Church Leaders: Helping your local congregation become evangelistically focused

14 Dec

You’re a church leader and have a heart for the lost in your community, but your church members don’t seem to share your passion. You desperately want your congregation to become more focused on reaching the lost, but you’re not sure where to start. How do you help a church that’s traditionally been inwardly focused change? How do you help the church members you’re serving develop a passion for reaching the lost?

For the last couple of years I’ve received a steady stream of questions in the form of phone calls and emails from people around the country about this issue (and let me tell you – we’re ALL in trouble when people start coming to me for answers!).

My dad and I were talking about this on the way to the deer woods the other day, and I jotted down some thoughts on a legal pad while I was sitting on my stand. He requested a copy of them, and I just finished typing them up.

Since this is a hot topic, I thought I’d share the notes here.

Here you go (note: these are rough, but they’re just notes!):

Helping the Local Church Become Evangelistic

 

  • Begins with Leadership

Leadership and teaching determines direction. Church leadership must determine that evangelism is going to be a priority, and the vision for and high priority of reaching the lost for Christ must be clearly articulated. Evangelism should be brought up regularly in teaching. The goal is to get church members to internalize the message “my mission as a follower of Christ is to bring Jesus to a lost world!” Once a congregation internalizes that message, they’ll make it part of their everyday thinking and conversation – it becomes contagious!

  • Leaders must model evangelistic priority

In addition to talking about evangelism, leaders must model what it means to be evangelistic. Church members should see leaders sharing Jesus with others themselves – this is the only way to give your call to be evangelistic credibility. All talk + no action = zero credibility and zero change in your congregation.

  • Evangelists and new converts should be recognized and encouraged

Time should be set aside during corporate assemblies (like Sunday morning) for the people who studied with a new convert to introduce them to the rest of the church. Baptisms should never simply be a bullet point in the bulletin – or, even worse – not recognized at all! Special attention and an extra helping of encouragement should be given to new Christians, and evangelists should be given plenty of pats on the back too.

  • o NOTE: Evangelists should be warned about impure motivations. It’s ok to feel good after being recognized for bringing someone to the Lord, but those pats on the back should neverbecome the primary motivator for being evangelistic! Serving God should, seeing someone’s life change for the better should, and carrying out Jesus’ command to reach a lost world in His name should. All glory goes to God, and evangelists must check their motives. Satan will do whatever he can to puff someone up – evangelists must remain humble.

 

  • Individual members should be equipped to perform personal Bible studies

If you want your church to truly be evangelistic at its core, intentional steps should be taken to equip members to perform personal, evangelistic Bible studies. The #1 reason most people say they don’t share their faith is because they’re afraid to, and the #1 reason they’re afraid to is because they don’t know where to start. Evangelistic Bible studies give a novice evangelist a starting point. Over time and with additional study, most who regularly practice sharing their faith will come to a point where it’s very comfortable for them, but they’ll never get there without starting somewhere. Ideally, we should all know Scripture well enough to study with someone without a study guide, but most people aren’t there. Thus, church members should be equipped with an effective evangelistic study to serve as a starting point for further skill development.

  • o NOTE: In the past, churches making the transition from being inwardly focused to being outwardly focused have set aside class time on Sunday mornings to take the entire congregation through equipping sessions by training them in evangelistic study. Churches I’m familiar with that have done this have had great success.

 

  • Identify your church’s evangelists, and get them to train other members

Get your evangelists to reproduce themselves by bringing other church members along when they’re studying with someone. This is the best way to help evangelists-in-training overcome the jitters. When going through a study, the person being trained should be required to take notes over it to hand to the person being studied with at the end. In addition to being useful to the person being studied with, this practice will help the trainee internalize the message of the evangelistic study. The note taker should write legibly, and the person being studied with should be instructed to go home, look over the notes, and write down any questions they might have to be dealt with next time.

  • In addition to Bible studies, each member should learn to use their own story to share Jesus with others

Everyone has a story, and stories are meant to be shared. No two stories are alike – all are unique. Some people’s conversion stories are very dramatic (like Paul’s story leading up to seeing Jesus on the Damascus Road) – others are less dramatic, but still very powerful (like the disciples who recognized Jesus on the Emmaus Road). Time should regularly be set aside (once a month or every six weeks) for testimonies to be shared in the assembly – especially those of new convert’s. Unless someone is an experienced public speaker, it would probably be a good idea for those sharing to meet with a leader ahead of time to structure their testimony in the form of an outline (or to simply write the whole thing down to read it), and it would also be a good idea to encourage them to go over it a couple of times in advance.  Those too shy to share in a large assembly could do it on video (editing video is very easy with Windows Movie Maker – a free program that comes with XP and Vista), and if that’s still too much they could do it in a small group. Testimonies should be shared with as many people as possible (like on Sunday mornings). This serves three main purposes: 1) It keeps the congregation focused on its evangelistic mission because they’re constantly hearing about lives being transformed around them. 2) Its good practice for believers in articulating how Jesus saved them. Their story will be a very powerful tool in their own personal evangelism. 3) People sharing their faith in Jesus publicly are making a profound declaration in front of a lot of people – they’re saying that they’re living their lives according to God’s will, and God will bless that confession and encourage others through it. In addition to that, they’ll be expected to walk what they talk giving them needed accountability. Because of this, it’s a good idea for new converts should share their testimony in front of as many people as possible as soon as possible.

  • Outwardly focused small groups should be part of your evangelistic strategy

Often, small groups will be your initial contact point with outsiders, but only if church members involved are actively befriending outsiders and regularly inviting new people. When a relationship exists, outsiders will often be more likely to attend an informal Bible study in someone’s home before they’ll attend a Sunday service or before they’ll agree to a personal study.

  • Effective evangelism involves more than simply passion – it involves skill

In his book The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren points out the fact that effective ministry takes more than passion or want to – it takes skill. The same is true of effective personal evangelism. Yes, some of your church members have a gift for evangelism and will be very comfortable exercising it freely, but all of your church members should be evangelistic regardless of their giftedness. That being said, effective evangelism takes a certain amount of skill, and skill must be developed. Skill development takes dedication, time, and, most of all, practice! Most of your church members will be incredibly uncomfortable when initially engaging in personal evangelism, but the more they do it the easier it will become. Familiarity brings comfort, and when you consider the fact that Jesus Christ is the only avenue for a lost world to come into contact with the Living God thereby being saved, we as God’s people should be very familiar and comfortable with sharing the Good News with others, and if we’re not we have a responsibility to remedy that! The more experience in personal evangelism a person has the more skill they will develop, and experience only comes with practice. Fear is overcome by allowing the message of Jesus to overflow – share it!

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