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Diffusing an Angry Volunteer

Sean Cronin — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Home > Blog > Diffusing an Angry Volunteer

June 16, 2021

Diffusing an Angry Volunteer

By New Churches Team

Maybe it’s happened to you. You are running through a regular weekend service, minding your own business, and things get tense. Cut it with a knife tense. Something doesn’t go as planned, systems begin to breakdown, communication lines begin to get blurred, and people begin to get riled up. What do you do when the angry people are a part of your volunteer team?

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. Here’s a process to follow when a team member gets upset.

Focus on the relationship. It may be that you aren’t the best one to talk to the volunteer who is involved. Perhaps you don’t have a strong relationship with them, but a fellow leader or team member does. Consider involving that person first so that you aren’t exacerbating the situation.
Isolate. Do your best to get the volunteer in question away from others. Especially in the heat of the moment, it does little good to let them continue to rant in a public setting. Invite them kindly and graciously to step outside or to a private room. Show them respect by lovingly confronting them in private.
Get the facts and find common ground. Figure out exactly what happened. Ask questions. Let them vent. And whenever you can, use a phrase similar to “I can understand why that makes you angry. It would make me angry too.” Of course, only use that phrase if you can do so truthfully.

To read the remainder of this article, and to listen to the entire video training with Danny Franks, click here for the full videos and post.

These videos are part of Plus Membership. To get full access to them, and much more, I encourage you to become a Plus Member. Click here to see all the benefits of becoming a Plus Member.

Source: Diffusing an Angry Volunteer

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How to Accommodate – and Engage – Kids in a Multisite or Portable Church Venue

Sean Cronin — Fri, 14 May 2021 09:00:00 +0000

By Portable Church Industries:

Creating an irresistible, welcoming environment for young families and their children is extremely important.

Launching a new church or campus in a rented facility offers many benefits that permanent locations don’t: lower cost, speed, flexibility, community partnership, and volunteer engagement. That said, creating an excellent and inviting children’s ministry in a rented venue requires different planning and preparation than a permanent campus. From our 25+ years assisting churches launch in rented spaces, here are some best practices & insights of churches that launch children’s ministry well.

Create A Great First Experience

The children’s environment sends a message. Think about the message I received from a church I visited with my children when I arrived ten minutes before service time and found many adults milling around and inside the classrooms. People were still organizing the room, and a back door to the classroom was open. I got the message that this church was disorganized and maybe didn’t think any visitors would show up today.

Contrast this with Cypress Church’s new campus launch in Ohio. They engaged Portable Church® to design their children’s area at the high school they rent so that new families had a curbside personal welcome, easy check-in experience, a volunteer escort to the classroom (past a security guard). The kids area was separate from the main worship area, and had special treatments in the classrooms that were bright, colorful, and engaging for the kids. Visiting Cypress Church, you get the message that the team expected visitors and were more than prepared for them. Meaning visitors will likely conclude that their church is organized and intentional with all aspects of their ministries.

Volunteers & System Design

Finding enough volunteers for children’s ministry is challenging in all churches. When you add the extra volunteers needed for setup and teardown, it is critical to take the extra time and expense to design setup/teardown solutions that are volunteer centric – designed to maximize BOTH the volunteer and participant experience. Churches that plan ahead and engage portability experts when designing their portable children’s ministry have better success and don’t wear out the volunteers as quickly as churches that do it on their own.

Relationship With Your Venue

As a church who will interface with the landlord and community, you will want to be treated professionally and have a professional relationship. But, if Sunday setup requires extreme early arrivals because you have hundreds of totes and equipment not designed for quick setup, in heavy cases built in the back garage that scratches floors, the church appears anything but professional to the school. We have witnessed over and over that when the church invests in a professional portability solution, the school/theater/community center treats them better, more professionally, and with more grace.

Theater Best Practices

Can you do children’s ministry well in a movie theater venue? Yes. It can be done well and is being done well by hundreds (maybe a thousand) of churches across the country weekly. Valley Christian Church in
Poughkeepsie, New York is one of those churches that does children’s ministry well. They partnered with Regal Entertainment Group and Portable Church to design an excellent and inviting church environment for young families. You can learn more about their story here.

School Best Practices

Two (of many) best practices for schools are utilizing treatments and partnering directly with the staff of the local school. Many school rentals are organized by the district office. But, it is the local teachers and custodians who are most impacted. Churches that serve the local school without strings attached create the most favor and best partnership experiences. A number of churches get teacher classroom supplies wish lists and make sure they are filled. Others flood the school with willing volunteers to read and serve. An interesting story about one church (Faithbridge Church) that launched strong in an elementary school is here.

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Source: How to Accommodate – and Engage – Kids in a Multisite or Portable Church Venue

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The False Debate Between Online and In-Person Church (How To Plan for An Uncertain Future)

Sean Cronin — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 09:00:00 +0000

By Carey Nieuwhof: So it’s been a year now since pretty much every church got online courtesy of the pandemic.

As the world moves slowly but surely into the post-pandemic era, there are a lot of questions about what will happen to future in-person church.

The return to church has been anything but easy for churches that are reopened, and hard even for churches that are located in areas that are almost wide open.

A Lifeway Research survey shows that in January 2021,

31% of churches are still reporting less than 50% of their January 2020 attendance

37% are hovering between 50%-70% and 30% are between 70%-100%

Only 2% report seeing more than 100% of their attendance a year ago.

It’s easy to imagine that all of this is going to reverse the moment society is ‘open’ again, but for a number of reasons that’s unlikely.

First, the reopening of society is by every account going to be gradual and staged.

Second, even when laws allow everything to be wide open (as in Texas), people often behave differently than the law allows them. While some people will run into the future unrestrained and with no limits, others will remain cautious for a while to come.

But even that doesn’t explain what’s about to happen next.

Perhaps the deepest threat to in-person attendance comes from a cultural possibility I’ll say more about below, that we might be entering into a relatively selfish me-centered behavior that might relegate churches even further to the sidelines than they were pre-pandemic. And yes, I know, we were already a selfish culture.

I’m not saying this is good. I am saying for the reasons below, it may be true.

Which leads us to the false debate.

The False Debate Part 1: Think About Online Dating

So what’s the false debate?

Well, search the comments on this site or almost any other church-related social feed and you’ll see many leaders arguing that people don’t want to just do church online.

Those who say that are in part wrong, and in part correct.

It’s nuanced. Let me explain.

The same surveys that show in-person attendance is likely to struggle in the future also show that only a sliver of the population wants to only access church online.

That makes sense.

Think about online dating. About 40% of couples who date these days meet online via a dating app or site. Not shocking.

But couples who meet online don’t stay online. You’ve never met a couple who said “We’ve been married for six years but we’ve never met in person…”

No, both dating and church online lead to in-real life.

So those who say church online can’t meet the needs of people long term are largely correct. We’re built for human connection.

So you would think, then, that the return to church would be automatic.

That’s where it breaks down.

Couples who meet online don’t stay online. You’ve never met a couple who said We’ve been married for six years but we’ve never met in person… No, both dating and church online lead to in-real life.

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The False Debate Part 2: In-Building v. In-Person

It’s true that real ministry happens best in-person. Theologically, relationally and experientially, people need people. The church is a community…in-person community.

But here’s the flawed assumption: in-person ministry shouldn’t be restricted to in-building ministry.

To date, too many church leaders have assumed that the only viable option for in-person gathering happens in a building owned (or leased) by the church.

If you define in-person ministry as experiences that have to happen in a building owned by the church, you set yourself up for diminished mission.

In fact, if the size of your vision shrinks to the size of a room you can fill, you’ve missed the church’s mission.

If the size of your vision shrinks to the size of a room you can fill, you’ve missed the church’s mission.

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Sure, there will always be people who gather in a central facility.

It was done that way for years because it was a highly practical, sensible option. Historically, you’ve needed a building so you can assemble at the same time in the same place for a common experience. For centuries, a building was a sensible way to deliver that. It was hard to gather dozens or hundreds of people for a service.

Then the internet happened.

Moving into the post-pandemic era, churches can now gather people in person in a wide variety of ways: micro-gatherings, micro-campuses, home gatherings…all uniting the distributed in-person gatherings through technology.

In my post on 2021 Disruptive Church Trends, many of the trends deal directly with this dynamic and you can learn more there (there’s also a free PDF Team Application Guide you can use as well).

In the future, don’t limit your understanding of in-person gatherings to in-facility gatherings; the majority of attenders and perhaps your most engaged people may not be in the auditorium.

If you expand your definition of gathering, it’s much easier to genuinely expand your mission.

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To drill down further on why this is so crucial, consider these three things.

1. The Culture Has Become More Post-Modern

Crisis is an accelerator, and as Barna has shown, 1 in 5 church-going adults stopped attending church altogether in 2020.

I’m guessing America and many part of the West became even more post-modern and post-Christian in the last year. Trends that may have taken a decade to cement got accelerated as people were decoupled from their habits.

Among the many characteristics of post-Christian, post-modern spirituality, three stand out when it comes to future attendance trends. Post-modern spirituality is:

self-directed
anti-institutional; and
selective

In other words, people will pick and choose what they want to do. That goes from choosing a favorite preacher to listen to, to deciding to watch from home or on the go, and even (you’ve already seen this) tenets of the faith they are inclined to embrace and tenets they’re inclined not to.

I am not arguing this is good. I’m just saying, as a Canadian who’s ministered in a post-Christian culture for decades, it’s very real.

None of this doesn’t mean it’s over for the church. Far from it. In fact, there’s more opportunity for authentic Christianity than ever.

But if you’re relying on old methods to renew your mission, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Churches that are ready to change their methods in the post-pandemic era will seize incredible opportunities to advance their mission.

And churches that won’t may (as we’ve said here a few times) end up being like malls in the age of Amazon, just waiting for people to return.

If you change, you’ll advance your mission. And if you don’t, you likely won’t.

If you want more on this, here are five characteristics of churches that will be in decline five years from now.

Churches that are ready to change their methods in the post-pandemic era will seize incredible opportunities to advance their mission.

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2. There May Be A Coiled-Spring of Self-Centered Behavior Ahead Of Us

We were already living a pretty self-centered life as a culture before COVID. As the HBO documentary Fake Famous so clearly points out, we’re really into ourselves and self-gratification.

I wonder if we’re heading into an even more self-centered few years ahead of us as people try to make up for whatever they missed in the last year and a bit: vacations, freedom, time away, and whatever else disappeared from their life.

One leader who leads a church in a pretty much fully open US state told me last week that the 20-30% of people who are not coming back to his re-opened church are still going to theaters, restaurants and other events. But for some reason, they’re just skipping church because “they’re not ready.”

My question was, are they just not ready or just too polite to say they’re no longer interested? Maybe there are many other intriguing things to do with their time…

There is a lot of pent up angst and longing in all of us.

And so much of the pandemic so far as been baffling. The economic and health impact of the pandemic have been so uneven and in many cases, unjust.

Despite the massive disruption, layoffs and decimated industries and cities, housing prices and the stock market have soared. People have been spending on home upgrades, bikes, boats, Peletons and many other things. Despite all the spending, in North America personal savings rates are at all-time highs.

If you look at history, rather than dealing with the inequities and problems we face, often after a period of deep pain, people often engage in escapism and pursue fun.

The Roaring 20s followed the First World War and Spanish flu. Jazz music, movie theaters, the automobile, flappers, and night clubs gave dominated the Great Gatsby era.

The 50s baby boom, suburban explosion, and prosperity followed the horrors of the Second World War and Great Depression.

Is something like that around the corner for us? It’s too early to tell, but it’s not too early to start preparing.

Doing the authentic work of the church, being active in the local communities that don’t have the economic freedom to escape and being online to mobilize people around the mission matter even more.

If the 2020s end up being like the 1920s, the church needs a better strategy than louder music, more haze and “don’t miss this series.”

If the 2020s end up being like the 1920s, the church needs a better strategy than louder music, more haze and don’t miss this series.

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The culture needs an alternative to itself, not an echo of itself.

You can’t reach a secular culture by being more secular. You can reach it by becoming more authentic.

So be more authentic.

You can’t reach a secular culture by being more secular. You can reach it by becoming more authentic.

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3. Hybrid Church Will Simply Match Reality: Life Is Already a SlipStream Between Digital and In Real Life

None of this is really new.

For years now before COVID, almost every human was living in a slipstream between digital and in-real-life interactions.

You text your friend one second, pivot to a YouTube video the next to get a recipe for dinner, and then meet your family in the kitchen to cut some vegetables for the meal.

For years now, you’ve moved seamlessly between the digital and the real.

Church will be that way in the future too, which is why the hybrid church—offering both digital and physical ministry—is here to stay.

People will be in the building one week, watching solo online the next, and the third gathering with some friends in a home or (better yet) serving in the community to be the church.

Standing in a building resenting everyone who didn’t show up is no way to reach people. So don’t be that leader.

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And if we are moving into some years where people are heading off to the woods, the mountains, the ocean, tropical islands or their back yard, digital will help you stay connected with them and call them back to a deeper level of sacrifice and commitment to others.

If you really do believe that the essence of Christianity is to be the church, not just go to church, then embracing a hybrid model of church only makes sense.

On the other hand, if you’re limit your digital investment in the hope you can fill a room, that’s a whole other, likely much harder, conversation.

If you really do believe that the essence of Christianity is to be the church, not just go to church, then embracing a hybrid model of church only makes sense.

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A Few Other Thoughts

Before we get to the comments (I would love to know what you think), a few other thoughts.

Having a robust in-person and digital ministry is going to be hard. And no one has really figured the model out yet.

But start here: resource your online presence with the same intensity and resources that you would if you were launching a physical location.

The surprise of course, is that effective digital ministry is much cheaper than launching a physical location, but still. Staff it like you mean it.

Staffing, of course, also involves volunteers.

And because no one has cracked the code yet on micro-gatherings, being a distributed church, or even figuring out what the format online versus for live services will be in the future, feel free to experiment (Mark Clark and I discuss some possibilities here).

Take some pressure off yourself and try some things. Some will connect, some won’t. That’s what innovation is all about.

When it comes to ministry that happens in the facility moving forward, its highest value will likely be for young families who want in-person connection for their kids, student ministry where gathering in person is of high value, people who prefer church in a facility, and of course, new people. You have a whole host of people who are now part of your church online but have never seen or experienced your church in person.

This may likely be the new core of regular attenders for the next few years. I could be wrong, but it seems plausible.

Finally, remember that being the local church is a great thing. 85% of you reading this lead a church of 200 attenders or less. Let that encourage you.

Preachers whose messages are viewed hundreds of thousands of times (sometimes by your people) don’t know your people or your city. But you do.

Along with your team, love them, serve them, reach them.

Nobody should be able to out-local the local church.

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How Are You Planning?

What are you expecting as you move into the future, and how are you planning for it?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post The False Debate Between Online and In-Person Church (How To Plan for An Uncertain Future) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: The False Debate Between Online and In-Person Church (How To Plan for An Uncertain Future)

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Millennials, Gen Z and Your Church with Benjamin Windle

Sean Cronin — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 10:00:33 +0000

By unSeminary: Thanks so much for joining us for another unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Benjamin Windle. A native Australian, Benjamin has worked as a youth and young adult pastor in the US and currently helps churches develop Generational Intelligence in reaching Millennials and Gen Z through an assortment of resources, coaching, and speaking.

According to Barna research, six out of every ten millennials who grew up in the church have dropped out. Americans 18-29 years of age who have no religious affiliation have nearly quadrupled in the last thirty years. By 2030 millennials will represent 75% of the global workforce—will they represent 75% of your church? Listen in as Benjamin shares how we can close the gap and reach younger generations in our churches.

Develop generational IQ. // Millennials, Gen Z and the generations coming behind then have only ever known a digital world. This means their worldview starts at a very different place than all other generations and that fundamentally changes the way we relate. Additionally because life expectancy has grown, up to five generations can be living at the same time and they are marked by very different things. Businesses, community groups, charities, families, and churches are needing greater generational IQ because we are relating to such a diverse range of cultures.Focus on leadership style and church culture. // We can’t close the gap in attracting younger generations just by having a “cool church” with sophisticated branding, cool music, and so on. Instead focusing on church culture and leadership style will direct you to new ways of talking and relating with younger generations, giving you a place to start. Benjamin has a book called “8 Innovations to Leading Millennials: How Millennials Can Grow Your Church and Change the World” which is available on Amazon and as a free PDF on his website. It goes over everything from the use of technology and social media to what to do with your organizational structure and how to have a relational leadership style.Focus on children’s ministry. // Another area that is key for connecting with millennials is investing in children’s ministry. Right now a lot of millennials are in their 30s and are raising their own children. Being family-focused ministers to the parents because of the importance you are placing on their children’s spiritual health and growth.Focus on truth. // We may put all our focus on giving younger generations entertainment as a way of attracting them to church, but we really need to focus on things of substance. The message of scripture shouldn’t change, but methodology and church culture need to. Have total clarity on what is the unchanging doctrine in your church and how you can be faster at changing the things that do need to be changed.Focus on depth. // In a culture that’s shallow, depth is attractive. Content-driven depth influences our preaching, programming, small groups and more. Equip generations coming up to read, study and understand the Bible for themselves because we’re talking largely about biblically-illiterate generations. Focus on depth in community because younger generations are craving these things. Focus on empowering young leaders. // We need to be putting 20-somethings in genuine leadership positions even before they have all of the qualifications and experiences. Take time to coach and mentor them. Ask how you can move younger people into leadership roles faster. Don’t keep them in the background because they don’t have all the competencies you may think are needed.Resources for reaching Millennials and Gen Z. // Benjamin has wrote a few white papers for churches including “The Promise of Pain: Seven best practices for pastoring Millennials and Gen Z.” and “8 Innovations to Leading Millennials: How Millennials Can Grow Your Church and Change the World”. These resources and more can be found on his website.

You can learn more about Benjamin and his resources at www.benjaminwindle.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

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Source: Millennials, Gen Z and Your Church with Benjamin Windle

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Lessons In Getting People Back to In-Person Services with Kyle Mercer

Sean Cronin — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 10:00:20 +0000

By unSeminary: Welcome to the unSeminary podcast! Today we have lead pastor Kyle Mercer with us from Two Cities Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Two Cities was originally planted out of The Summit Church with J.D. Greear in 2016 and grew to about 1300 people before covid, becoming one of the fastest growing churches in the country.

When churches were forced to move to all online services in the spring of 2020, at first it was a novelty. After a while though Two Cities Church felt that something was really missing. So around mid-May the staff began to intentionally and aggressively pursue how to get people back in person. Listen in as Kyle shares their transition back and their approach to everything from navigating the differing opinions about mask-wearing to starting up kids’ ministry again.

Online vs in-person. // Two Cities Church called an emergency meeting with the staff to talk about the governor’s order of shutdown back in the spring. After fifteen weeks of online services, they concluded that online is a great supplement, but it’s not a substitute for in-person gatherings. So at this point the church leaned heavily into the importance of getting people back to meeting in-person.Returning to in-person. // The decision to focus on in-person gatherings came from several principles they felt were important in the church, and they called a member gathering to explain this. Firstly, according to scripture, there is a theological conviction for the church to gather in person. Depression, anxiety and addictive behavior were also on the rise. It was clear that people weren’t doing well, finding it difficult to be isolated from the community during the pandemic, or being overwhelmed with changes in their everyday life. Additionally, online-only services cause us to miss out on the hundreds or thousands of conversations that happen on any given Sunday.Weighing the decision. // The leadership of the church weighed the pros and cons seriously. They thought about covid, the science around it, and how dangerous it could be, but they also focused on the truth of scripture. They knew all of this wasn’t going away soon, yet it was clear that their people were ready to come back to meeting in-person.Beginning the transition. // People at Two Cities Church were willing to come to a service without childcare in the middle of the week even after a day at work during this pandemic. During the summer they launched a Thursday night service at 6:30pm and after six weeks it felt like they were really thriving again. People expressed an interest in moving back to Sunday services with kids ministry at this point, so after eleven weeks of Thursday night gatherings, Two Cities transitioned back to three indoor services on Sundays beginning in the fall.The mask issue. // People feel differently about masks and the church approached this hot topic humbly and graciously, trying to listen and learn from what people had to say. Some people associate masks with pollution or totalitarianism. Others associate it with being loved and loving others. Some congregants wanted to wear a mask because the governor had a mask mandate, while others thought it hindered their worship and ability to minister to others. Two Cities wanted to be good citizens and they know masks do something, even if they don’t know how much. And they care about both freedom and the safety of others. All of this led to the church having their 9 and 11am services as “mask-expected” (particularly during singing), but the 5pm service was “mask-required” and the church underscored that they would enforce this at the evening service. After three weeks of Sunday services, attendance was between 900-1000 people, almost back to pre-covid numbers.Relaunching kids’ ministry. // Not having kids ministry operating during the Thursday night service was a big hindrance to families returning to church, so Two Cities felt that kids programming needed to start again on Sundays. In the kids ministry area masks are required for all adults, whether they are volunteers are parents. Kids can wear masks if their parents want them too, but it’s not required. There are, however, temperature checks for the kids when they come in on a Sunday for children’s church. The biggest challenge in this area was rebuilding the culture of service. Volunteers would be needed to serve every week, and then attend another service, because there was a shortage of people. The good news is this volunteer area is slowly being built up again as well.

You can learn more about Two Cities Church at their website www.twocitieschurch.net.

Thank You for Tuning In!

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Source: Lessons In Getting People Back to In-Person Services with Kyle Mercer

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3 Ideas For Increasing Your Influence With Gen Z

Sean Cronin — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 09:00:07 +0000

This post on influencing Gen Z is written by Shane Sanchez. Shane is The InsideOut Director for Gwinnett Church (a campus of North Point Ministries.) I recently interviewed Shane on ChurchPulse Weekly. You can listen to the interview here.

By Shane Sanchez

Does the idea of influencing the next generation (Gen-Z) ever overwhelm you?

Chances are for the last decade you’ve spent time learning how your church can increase influence with millennials. You’ve tried new methods, and done your best to refine a ministry approach that connects with Generation Y. And just as you started feeling like you’re gaining traction with millennials, here comes Generation Z!

Pew defines Gen Z as individuals born between 1997-2012. What’s quickly becoming clear is that they are very different from older generations. Just look at these extraordinary insights from Barna’s Gen Z research project:

Gen Z is…

Recession Marked – Born in the midst of the early 2000’s recession.
Wi-Fi Enabled – Common Sense Media found that teens spend 9 hours a day online.
Multiracial – Most diverse generation in American history.
Gender Fluid – 48% say gender is based on “sex a person was born as”.
Post-Christians – 78% believe in the existence of God but only 41% attend weekly religious services (and that was before the COVID disruption).

If we’re going to influence a generation marked by recession, the attention economy, unprecedented diversity, identity fluidity, post-Christianity, and now a global pandemic, we’re going to need to try things we’ve never tried before.

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Well, good luck with that…

I’m kidding. I’m right there with you! In fact, I might be an eternal optimist but what I’m already seeing in the emerging generation causes me to believe that the best days of the local church are still ahead of us.

It’s easy to take Gen Z at face value and simply dismiss them due to attributes we don’t understand. However, dismissiveness doesn’t build disciples. As a millennial, I’ve heard plenty of knocks and dismissive generalities about my generation from pastors, thought leaders, and older adults. So here’s what I will ask on our behalf: Please don’t do the same thing to Gen Z. It’s time that we seek to understand what makes younger generations so unique and look at their attributes as opportunities for the gospel to work in new ways.

Dismissiveness doesn’t build disciples. – @shanesanchez

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If you seek to understand someone and assume to believe the best about them, it’s amazing how much influence you can gain with them.

Jesus took this approach with tax collectors, zealots, and prostitutes…at very least; we can do this with kids and teenagers.

This means that if you and I want to go where God is leading the church of the future, we have to choose to open our hearts and minds to methods that are built for a generation unlike any before.

Here are 3 foundational ideas to jumpstart your approach to influencing Gen Z:

Jesus looked to understand tax collectors, zealots, and prostitutes…at very least; we can do this with kids and teenagers. – @shanesanchez

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1. Develop a strategy that outlasts your personality.

It’s time for you and I to confront an underlying issue that has existed in next generation ministry for decades: the personality driven model. You know what this is. It’s the kind of kids or student ministry that dissipates as soon as the key leader moves on to another opportunity. We can do better.

The next generation doesn’t need more big personalities, they need leaders who think strategically.

There are plenty of charismatic YouTube stars and social media Influencers that can entertain and draw a crowd of kids and students to their platform…Gen Z doesn’t need ministry leaders to try to do the same.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be the fullest of who you are or that good old-fashioned charisma isn’t important in next generation ministry, I’m just saying that these things cannot be the only things.

If you think the effective church of the future will be able to hang on the personality or speaking ability of a person, you’re missing the point. For older generations, the charisma of leaders and “cool” factor of the experience was often times more than enough to pique interest. Yet, Generation Z is growing up with unrivaled access to the greatest entertainers on the planet.

Personality can’t be our knockout punch anymore.

Instead, we need to be leaders who put as much emphasis on strategy as we do charisma. We should be inspiring but we should also be focused on playing the long game of building a sustainable ministry. One that continues helping kids and teenagers own their faith, far beyond our tenures.

Are you building a ministry that will last beyond your personality? Are you hiring leaders for how they think or simply how they speak? The local church needs more leaders who are willing to dive into the deep end of strategy and have thoughtful and nuanced dialogue about the best methods, means, and models of the local church for the next generation.

If you don’t have a strategy or have been banking solely on personality, it’s time to start thinking strategically. Charisma has a place in leadership but it’s only as powerful and effective as it is coupled with an effective strategy.

How much time do you spend strategizing methods for a new version of the local church (like digital reach, implementing daily faith practices, and vocational discipleship) rather than just an upgraded version of the current one?

Ok, now that you’re thinking strategically, it’s important to consider the people who are making your strategy possible, the volunteers.

We need to be leaders who put as much emphasis on strategy as we do charisma. – @shanesanchez

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2. Build a system that attracts adult leaders that are worth following.

My pastor, Andy Stanley, has said that one of the biggest steps for someone exploring faith is “trusting a Christian”. What does it look like to build a volunteer system that is focused on finding, training, and supporting the kinds of small group leaders (SGLs) you want kids and students to trust and model their lives after? (Note: Groups aren’t going anywhere. 81% of Gen Z say that community is part of their “ideal church”.)

Let me ask you something: Are your current adult volunteers the kind of adults you want students to become someday?

I know we always need more volunteers, but what if the truth is that you need the right volunteers rather than just more of the mediocre ones? This may sound a bit harsh, but the next generation deserves adults worth following.

I can tell you from personal experience that I’ve seen small group leaders take kids away from church, leave leadership vacuums that kids dissolve in when they leave unexpectedly, and create drama that rivals that of 7th graders.

On the other hand, I’ve seen adult volunteers who have engaged entire families in the local church, helped kids navigate extreme crisis, and breathed momentum into the vision of the ministry. This is why doing the hard work of identifying, recruiting and developing adults worth following is so worth the effort.

Are your current adult volunteers the kind of adults you want students to become someday? – @shanesanchez

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Here are a couple of tips for building a system that attracts the right people:

Set a high bar

I truly believe that volunteers will rise to the level of expectations you set for them.

It’s why years ago our small group leader roles shifted from a year-by-year commitment to a 4-year commitment for high school leaders. Additionally we asked all of our SGLs to commit to embodying the principles laid out in the book, Lead Small. Yes, over the course of implementing new expectations, we saw about 80% turnover of our team. However, within a couple of years we re-staffed our SGL roles with quality, consistent, and mission-oriented leaders.

As I said earlier, the truth is, leaders will rise to the level of the bar you set…no matter how low or high that is. Our adult volunteers will almost always respect what we as ministry leaders expect and inspect. Don’t expect extraordinary results when you set ordinary expectations for volunteers.

Don’t expect extraordinary results when you set ordinary expectations for volunteers. – @shanesanchez

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Develop them spiritually

One of the most important roles for next-gen ministries of the future is to create volunteer systems that help adult leaders grow spiritually.

Many of the volunteers we’re recruiting nowadays are millennial adults. Millennials are the most biblically skeptical people on earth today (even more so than Gen Z).

This means that we can’t millennials to be biblically founded spiritual mentors for Gen Z by default. Instead, what if we started taking the spiritual development of our volunteers just as seriously as that of our kids and students? What if we gave our volunteers spiritual mentors? What if we created environments where they could build their theological foundation? Or what if we wrestled with and studied the Bible alongside them instead just hoping it happens as a part of their daily routine?

We have an opportunity to help Gen Z build a faith of their own, but we also know that we cannot do this alone. We need incredible adult small group leaders that kids and students can trust. When we set a high bar and choose to believe that fostering the spiritual growth of our leaders is our responsibility, we’ll start heading in the right direction.

3. Change your perception of parents.

Ok, let me talk about the elephant in the room. Kids and student ministry leaders just wished parents would care about the spiritual development of their children a little more.

Not to pick on student pastors (I am one), but Barna’s research shows that:

68% of youth pastors say their biggest struggle is parents who don’t prioritize their teen’s spiritual growth.

Maybe you feel this deeply. Well, you’re not alone. However, if you stop here you may also be missing one of the greatest opportunities for building a next gen strategy that reaches Gen Z. Here is another fascinating insight from Barna’s research:

4 out of 5 Christian teens say they can “share honest questions, struggles, and doubts with their parents”. (79%)

This is a really big deal. Christian teenagers feel incredibly safe sharing some of their most personal and pivotal perspectives with their parents. This means that it would be foolish for us to discount the influence of a parent in the spiritual formation of a child or teenager. So, if we want to be strategic about reaching Gen Z, we have to be strategic about including their parents on the journey.

If we are going to strategically prioritize parents we have to genuinely change our perceptions.

We must choose to believe that parents care about the faith of their kids.

If we make this assumption, it means we will also take the time to build a strategy for resourcing, supporting, and encouraging parents of kids and teenagers. There are so many ways we can act out the assumption that parents care about their kid’s faith. From resources that help them navigate social media with their children, to gift cards for a hot coffee on a weary day of parenting.

If we want to be strategic about reaching Gen Z, we have to be strategic about including their parents on the journey. – @shanesanchez

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The Online Church Engagement Summitnn

So you’ve got people watching your church online. How do you turn them into engagers?nnnn

On October 8th, 2020, Carey Nieuwhof is hosting The Online Church Engagement Summit. It’s a free, 90-minute value-packed event where Levi Lusko, Nona Jones, and Bobby Gruenewald will give you their best practical strategies to turn viewers into engagers.nnnn

If you feel like you don’t even know where to begin, or if you’ve had success but want to reach and engage more people, this is for you and your team. nnnn

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The Online Church Engagement Summitnn

So you’ve got people watching your church online. How do you turn them into engagers?nnnn

If you feel like you don’t even know where to begin, or if you’ve had success but want to reach and engage more people, this is for you and your team. nnnn

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What matters to you?

These are 3 ideas to jumpstart your church’s influence with Gen Z but we could process 300 more. Continue the conversation by commenting with what you think matters most as we build ministries that will influence Gen Z.

The post 3 Ideas For Increasing Your Influence With Gen Z appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 3 Ideas For Increasing Your Influence With Gen Z

The post 3 Ideas For Increasing Your Influence With Gen Z appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Kids Ministry in the Reopening Phase: Roundtable with Christine Kreisher, Suzi Soares, Heather Celaya & Aanna Smalley

Esther Ritchey — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:00:00 +0000

By: unSeminary

Kids ministry has always cultivated some of the most innovative church leaders. And kids ministry is a growth engine behind the fastest growing churches today. To reopen your church without a kids ministry, I would contest, is not actually reopening the church.

Listen in today as I’ve gathered four kids ministry experts from across the country to gives us a peek into their reopening plans.

Heather Celaya, Executive Pastor of Ministries – NorthRock Church, Texas. // This season has allowed the staff to add new levels of creativity and parent engagement to the programming. Pre-school and elementary services are available online and KidzRock increased its engagement on social media. These changes have proved a great success and will continue as parents now see KidzRock as more of a ministry than a childcare option. Plus parents have become more active participants in their children’s faith journey. As NorthRock has reopened, initially kids sat with their parents during the services to help them feel comfortable attending church. The following weekend the kids ministry fully reopened. When entering, children’s temperatures are checked, and their parents are asked if their kids have experienced any COVID-19 symptoms in the last seven days. Traffic in the halls is limited by allowing only one parent at a time to check in their child with a QR code for a touchless experience. Classes are kept small and parents are required to reserve a spot for their children so staff know how much space is needed. Start by assessing your volunteers’ readiness to come back. Keep class ratios small at the beginning and establish plans for cleaning and safety.Christine Kreisher, Executive Director of Ministries – GT Church, Pennsylvania // At GT Church they are looking to do a soft-launch approach where attendees come back and get acclimated before reopening kids ministry environments. In the meantime the staff has worked hard to enable parents to have church at home by providing resources from Orange. Every couple of weeks the kids team is making phone calls to check in with every family, to pray with them, and to make sure they know how to access all the church’s resources. Families are engaged and the church has seen a shift where parents are recognizing that they are the number one influence in their kids’ spiritual lives. During this time parents are developing intentional rhythms at home and the church is looking to partner with them even more by making resources easily accessible online moving forward as well as engaging more on social media. It’s easy to get caught up in the logistics of reopening and forget about your staff and volunteers; take a step back and check on their emotional health. Create a solid mental health plan so that the staff and volunteers can talk with a counselor to help them care for their souls and the souls of the people around them. Prioritize people over programming.Aanna Smalley, NextGen Pastor – StoneBridge Church, Nebraska // Use this time to get creative about dealing with the COVID challenge. Although social media has been a great way for the team at StoneBridge to connect with parents, it needs to be done in moderation. This is already a really overwhelming time for parents and rather than being encouraged, parents can feel like they are being weighed down with a list of things they haven’t done. Ask parents what resources are most helpful and plan activities with easy-to-find and inexpensive supplies. Refine what is shared so it’s the very best and attainable for families. Have multiple contingency plans in place to move forward as things continue to change. Think about what has been successful as well as what has been failing so that you can polish or replace those systems. Keep in mind what serves families best.Suzi Soares, Kids and Special Needs Pastor – Liquid Church, New Jersey // At the start of quarantine, everything was moved online and the LiquidKids team began sending out a parent prompt each day. They broke up small group teachings to allow parents to do activities with their kids at home. Additionally they created midweek calls on Zoom so that kids could hang out for an hour at lunch time with each other and team members. Parents also needed a chance to talk, pray, and relax together so eventually a Zoom call was created for them too. In July and August LiquidKids is creating online small groups for all age groups, including toddlers as well as sending daily devotionals and boredom busters to parents via texts. Previously Liquid Church focused so much on getting families to come through their doors that the building had become a crutch. They never thought about how to reach families who might never walk through their doors. But now they are working on plans to maintain their digital presence so families can engage online and the building won’t be a barrier. Think carefully about what it communicates to your kids if your church reopens without including kids ministry options. What is the story that kids will one day be telling about these days we are living in? What message is it sending if they can’t be included in a gathering? Help parents and kids process this time through a lens of faith.

Thank you for tuning in!

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Source: Kids Ministry in the Reopening Phase: Roundtable with Christine Kreisher, Suzi Soares, Heather Celaya & Aanna Smalley

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7 Reasons Your Church Should Partner with A Christian Camp

Sean Cronin — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 09:00:07 +0000

by unSeminary: This summer millions of children and youth across the country will attend a Christian camp. While this subculture has its own robust ecosystem of conferences, books, and thought leaders, there seems to be a strange disconnect between local churches and Christian camping ministries. From my perspective, local churches miss out on significant benefits that come from working closely with the Christian camps in their communities (especially those connected to people affiliated with their church).

Now, I’m completely biased because I have a deep, decades-long connection with a Christian camp called Camp Mini-Yo-We, located in the heart of Muskoka. I’ve always encouraged church staff to become more engaged with Christian camps, directed families to get plugged into Christian camps that are the right fit for them, and worked to see youth become involved with these amazing ministries as young leaders. I firmly believe that Christian camps are ministries that churches should work with closely—and here’s why:

Camps reach unchurched families.

Unchurched families value what Christian camps are doing. Not only do they allow these camps to teach and host their kids, they even pay them to do it! Christian camps take different approaches to how they position themselves in the broader marketplace, but the vast majority of these camps see unchurched families come to their programs more readily than weekend church services do.

This is an incredibly rich resource for local church leaders to learn from. Having conversations with Christian camp leaders to understand how they’re engaging the community and impacting unchurched families will help church leaders to wrestle with and think about their own ministries. This is vital: If we’re going to continue to see people move closer to Jesus, we need to concern ourselves with how we’re helping young people make steps toward the church. We’ve all seen the statistics that the vast majority of people make the decision to follow Christ at an early age. Christian camps are a powerhouse for seeing young people take steps closer to Christ, regardless of their background. We all can learn from how these organizations relate to families in our communities.

Christian camps develop young leaders.

All Christian camps are a leadership development pipeline in motion. In fact, the only way these organizations are able to self-perpetuate is by turning young campers into cabin leaders and then staff who will push the ministry forward. When you take an up-close look at any Christian camp, you’ll see this robust leadership process in action.

Christian camps are particularly effective at developing next-generation leaders through life changing adventures in God’s creation. These ministries view leadership development holistically rather than as something that happens in a classroom or by reading books or watching videos. Christian camping leaders consistently develop the next generation of leaders through lifestyle-based ministries that target whole-person development of spiritual life, physical life, emotional life, and social life.

Camps provide compelling volunteer experiences.

Your church lives and dies on the back of its ability to attract, keep, and multiply volunteers. These folks are willing to show up for zero pay and make the ministry happen. In fact, this is one of the greatest things about the local church all over the world: it’s the world’s most prolific volunteer machine.

Christian camps provide volunteer experiences where adults and young leaders work tremendously hard in a compelling context that keeps them coming back for more. More than just handing out programs or greeting at the door, camps are full of a variety of roles on both the facility side and within the programs. As church leaders, we could learn from this mixture of meaningful work, connection to the mission, and good old-fashioned fun as the ingredients of compelling volunteer experiences.

Camps continue to stay relevant.

If you find a Christian camp within a few hours’ drive of your church—one that’s growing and reaching new people—it would be worth your time to ask, “What is it that God’s using to grow their organization?” Because of the constant need to feed these organizations with new campers and guests, camps work hard to stay relevant and current every single year. This includes adjusting their programs to meet the needs of the market. It involves freshening up or reinventing old programs, scrapping things that no longer work, and asking their people what it is that they would like to do in the future.

From a church leadership perspective, this would be a valuable habit for us to integrate into our churches. We need to keep our view on the horizon and dig into what it means to stay current with the communities we’re serving. Sure, camps have a financial need to stay current, but while churches may not have the same fiscal immediacy, churches will lose long-term effectiveness if they’re unable to connect with new audiences on a regular basis.

Camps provide holistic ministry.

Camps provide a view of the Christian life that goes beyond sitting in rows or watching videos.

Christian camps really do portray what it means to follow Christ in a 24/7 sort of way. I’ve often joked that “Jesus at church” is sometimes kind of boring and stale. He has weird mismatched colored rooms in the basement and might even use flannel graphs to try to communicate. On the other hand, “Jesus at camp” knows how to drive the latest wakeboarding boat or is ready to take you on a rock-climbing adventure. That portrayal of what it means to follow Jesus is an engaging and compelling one.

Beyond the fun experiences though, this idea of living out our faith in community with each other is a powerful teaching mechanism that drives people to a deeper faith experience. This type of community is an intrinsic and core characteristic of Christian camps, and it enables people to tap into that deeper faith life in different ways.

Camps scale relationships well.

If you visit a growing Christian camp this summer (which I strongly recommend you take the time to do), what you’ll find is an intricate balance of relationships in almost-perfect harmony seeking to fulfill the mission that God has called these organizations to achieve. Camps are relational ministries.

They’ve figured out that friendship is shared experience, so they develop a series of shared experiences with the people who come into their sphere of influence. Camps do this in order to build a bridge for presenting the gospel and help people get a clearer sense of what it means to follow Jesus. Look closely at how Christian camps do relationships at scale, and you’ll get a clearer picture of what your church should be doing to reach more people and get them plugged in.

Camp is fun!

Camps offer fun—it really is their product.

It’s the thing they sell to people to convince them that they should leave their kids in the camp’s hands on a regular basis. Camps at their core are fun factories, but they are also capable of producing a deeper joy during their day to day activities. The word “gospel” literally means “good news,” and camps have done an excellent job of portraying what that good news looks like on a daily basis. They’ve figured out how to manufacture an enjoyable day. Even if it’s raining and the sun hasn’t shone in three days, great camp leaders always figure out how to turn that around into the most amazing experience possible for their guests, all the while demonstrating the good news of Jesus through that fun!

Too many times the local church is seen as stale or disconnected from the community; fun is an amazing bridge to build incredible connections with people. It’s disarming, which makes fun a strategic tool that helps people who don’t normally attend our churches become willing to lean in and learn more.

What have you learned from Christian camps?

I’d love for you to leave a comment below on lessons that you’ve learned from Christian camps over the years. I’d also love for you to shout out to the Christian camp that you’ve been a part of or encouraged your people to be connected to!

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Source: 7 Reasons Your Church Should Partner with A Christian Camp

The post 7 Reasons Your Church Should Partner with A Christian Camp appeared first on Passion for Planting.

5 Lessons from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for Your Church

Sean Cronin — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 09:00:52 +0000

by unSeminary: This summer, both Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida are launching massive new “lands” based on the Star Wars franchise.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the largest investment the Disney corporation has made in its North American parks in long time. Not only that, but it’s the largest land expansion to any theme park ever made.

The Star Wars development is massive in size (encompassing over 14 acres) and colossal in price (rumored to have cost Disney more than one billion per park). This expansion is breaking new boundaries in themed entertainment and will play a major role in the anticipated record attendance bump for both parks.

Have you ever considered that Disney targets the same people we do? Clearly our churches aren’t a business or an entertainment enterprise. However, I think we can examine the Star Wars project and discover a few principles that we can apply in our churches. After all, we’re telling the greatest story of all time, and our story, unlike the one about making the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, has eternal consequences in people’s lives.

Here are a few lessons from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that we can apply to our churches:

Live Experiences Matter

It’s fascinating that in an increasingly digitalized world, Disney is making such a massive investment in real-life adventure. All of the coverage, in both professional and social media, seems to highlight the details of the live action adventure that Disney has developed for these new areas.

Disney is making a significant bet that the Star Wars parks will draw people not just for years but for decades to come. This should be a welcome cultural trend as we think about what we do at our churches. At the end of the day, churches offer live experiences that ask people to leave the virtual world of their phones and computers to interact with real people in real spaces.

As society becomes more obsessed with digitized activities, we have to continue to ask, “How do we draw people together in the real world?” The gathered body of Christ continues to be an important aspect of what it means to live and lead a church in our day.

As we look toward the future, one of our highest priorities should be creating opportunities that simply cannot be replicated through a web browser or a phone app.

Multi-Generational—For The Win!

A guiding principle of the Disney franchise is the idea that families can enjoy entertainment together. In fact, legend has it that Walt dreamt up Disneyland while sitting on a park bench with his own daughters, wishing for a place they could go to together and have fun as a family. The need for family togetherness appears to be even greater now than it was when Disneyland first opened in 1955.

Staying that course, the Star Wars attraction is also designed for multiple generations to enjoy. It’s not just for folks like me who loved the original Star Wars franchise in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, but also for Millennials who grew up watching the prequel trilogy of the late ‘90s and early 2000s and kids today whose first encounter with the Star Wars universe has only taken place within the last couple of years.

Rather than basing the land in a place and time from an existing Star Wars story (like the moon of Endor from Return Of The Jedi or Jakku from The Force Awakens), this land introduces guests to a brand-new Star Wars planet, Batuu, and a place called The Black Spire Outpost. This demonstrates a genius bit of storytelling because it draws people together from multiple generations, rather than ostracizing one fan base or another.

This is a critical lesson for us as we lead our churches because church should and is meant to be multi-generational.

A church’s investment in next-generation ministries—including both kids and student ministries— needs to be at the forefront of its efforts. We want families to come to our churches, but we also know that it’s imperative to pass the message of Jesus on to the next generation. In the same way that Disney is focused on getting a younger generation excited about this franchise, we need to be passionate about passing on the message of Jesus.

How can our churches be more multi-generational in our ministries? What is it we’re doing today that might be excluding the next generation? How can we build with other generations in mind?

High-Tech and High-Touch

One feature that is deeply intrinsic to the launch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the incredible weaving of both high-tech and high-touch experiences. The Disney Play App that accompanies the experience could be considered an attraction itself; the app allows guests to interact with a themed area in a way that theme parks have never done before. It draws guests in with a familiar technological device and drives them towards a high-touch experience.

Here’s how it works: using your phone as a guide, you can interact with various elements and people within the park environment. Choose to join the Resistance or become part of the First Order; you experience the land in a unique way because of that choice. It’s the choose-your-own-adventure kind of fun that allows for a custom visit unlike anyone else’s. The weaving of both technology and human experience will undoubtedly set the tone for park activities to come.

Our phones are the most sophisticated communication devices that have ever been developed by man. I often find it amusing that people are accustomed to pulling out their phones or laptops to take notes at conferences or workshops but not at church. Why? Well, it’s not considered “normal” (or sometimes even acceptable) within the church world.

What can your church do to integrate the technology people use on a regular basis?

Is there some aspect of technology that if introduced to your church would actually enhance people’s discipleship journeys? How can we leverage the technology we regularly use to move people closer together with face to face experiences? Rather than fighting technology, how do we integrate it with human experience to help people as they journey towards Jesus?

One Park, Two Locations

It’s fascinating that Disney decided to go bi-coastal and open Batuu in both U.S. parks. While in the coming months Star Wars fans will be able to ferret out the differences between these two parks (and I’m sure we’ll hear some examples of how Disney chose to roll it out in slightly different manners), the opportunity exists in both places. You don’t have to choose one or the other. It’s amazing to me that Disney chose to launch a core product in two different, distinct markets.

What’s the difference between Disneyland and Disney World? Here’s one: Disneyland is really a regional park that people from Southern California visit on a regular basis, and although it hosts many international guests, it pales in comparison to the number of international visitors who travel to Disney World. Somewhere north of 80% of all guests that visit Disney World arrive in the area via plane rather than by car; most guests at Disneyland drive themselves there. [ref] The two attract completely different markets.

By opening Galaxy’s Edge in both parks, Disney ensures maximum impact. This is the first time in the company’s history that a direct duplication of a core product took place at the same time in multiple parks. While certain aspects of the parks or individual rides have been replicated from time to time, the Star Wars attraction demonstrates an aggressive expansion and investment in the franchise.

For us, it underlines the importance of the multi-site church movement. I know it’s currently vogue for churches to consider getting out of multi-site. However, I would contend that many churches who got into it in the first place weren’t actually doing multi-site by replicating their services in multiple places; rather, they were launching different experiences in different locations. In the way that Disney has taken the core intellectual property of Star Wars and replicated it in two different markets, they’ve clearly asked the question “How do we do the same thing in two places?” rather than “How do we do different things in two places?”

It would appear that the churches leveraging the most out of multi-site long-term ask, “How do we take the lessons that we’ve learned in one place and apply them to multiple locations rather than learning new lessons every time we go to a new place?”

From my seat, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge pushes us to think about how we can expand what God is doing in our churches and how can we take the good things that are happening in one place and see them happen in another.

Everyone Wants to Fly the Millennium Falcon

I just have to say that when I think about the Star Wars park, the part I’m most fired up about is the chance to sit with my wife and two kids in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and “fly” this famous starship. As people share online about their experiences at Galaxy’s Edge, some have admitted to crying at the sight of that pile of space junk that made the famous Kessel Run all those years ago in a galaxy far, far away.

There’s something about this iconic ship that draws people in and makes you want to push down that lever to make the jump to hyperspace (and likely shout, “Punch it, Chewie!” while you’re at it). The Millennium Falcon appears to be a key piece of the Disney franchise going forward, even surviving the Skywalker family line (as we’ll no doubt see in The Rise of Skywalker).

Disney understands that the experience of flying in the Millennium Falcon is a core element of the Star Wars franchise. They’ve gone for the jugular here by offering their best technology in a ride in allowing people to actually fail (or almost fail, at least) within the ride, which adds an edge that we haven’t seen in a Disney ride in the past.

Similarly, we need to clarify the core experiences at our churches. What draws people to our churches? What is it that people want to be a part of? I would say that great teaching that connects timeless truths from thousands of years ago to life today should be at the core of what we do as a church.

In the same way that Disney has stayed focused on allowing people to engage in the stories that make the Star Wars franchise great, our churches need to stay focused on communicating the message of Jesus to our culture today in a way that connects people to this amazing story and motivates them to live a different life.

How can you apply these lessons from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to your church?

While this is just a land within a theme park in two parts of the country, it really does represent a larger cultural phenomenon. Watching how things are changing in the culture around us is an important part of being a church leader. I would love to hear what you’re seeing in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that you could apply to your church and what lessons you might put into practice in the coming year. Leave your comments below.

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Source: 5 Lessons from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for Your Church

The post 5 Lessons from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Learn about Disciple-Making “Cornerstones” by Meeting Lionshare

Sean Cronin — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 09:00:54 +0000

by Bobby Harrington: We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting some of our disciple-making partners. We want to help you find the best disciple-making guides, and that’s why we’re continuing to introduce these partners to you.

Meet Dave Buehring, leader of Lionshare.

Here’s what Dave said about his ministry in our interview with him:

Tell us about the name of your ministry “Lionshare.”

Because our mission is aimed at discipling lives and leaders throughout society, we chose a name that relates to a broad audience and references Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

What is your unique disciple-making emphasis?

Lionshare’s focus revolves around what we refer to as our Disciple-Making Cornerstones:

Foundational Disciple Making – Grounding new followers of Jesus who are rooted in his character, ways and mission.
Formational Disciple Making – Growing disciples of Jesus who reproduce God’s character, ways, and mission in others.
Vocational Disciple Making – Developing disciples who reflect God’s character, ways, and mission in and through their vocation.
Leadership Disciple Making – Shaping leaders who reference God’s character, ways, and mission in their lives and leadership.

Our target is reproducing disciple makers:

Generationally – those under the age of 40, including next generation leaders
Vocationally – those serving within the Dozen Domains of society: Family, Church, Government/Law/Nation Security, Education, Media, Arts/Entertainment/Sports, Business, Science & Technology, Health/Medicine/Wholeness, Environment/Agriculture/Zoology, Nonprofit & Service Organizations, Peoples (people groups linked by language and culture)
Internationally – various people groups, local and global

We practically engage in disciple making through relationships, our resources, and hosting various kinds of convening events (retreats, intensives, conferences, etc.).

Pick up from email . . .

How do you help everyday disciples who aspire to be disciple makers?

For the last fifteen years, we have effectively used a one-year disciple-making resource around the globe called A Discipleship Journey (ADJ). It covers 12 key disciple-making staples – one month at a time – via weekly 12-15 minute videos accessed on one’s phone, tablet or computer; an accompanying manual that takes truths from the Scriptures deeper; and participation in a small group that focuses on real life application. We equip ADJ group leaders via videos on our website (Lionshare.org) and through personal coaching.

We facilitate two-day gatherings, called d4, in regions throughout the country to ignite and equip individuals, churches and societal leaders in disciple making.

We also host, January to June, each year A Leadership Journey (ALJ). This provides us with the opportunity to more personally disciple church and societal leaders in the ways of God related to their own spiritual health, relationships, leadership and callings.

We are currently developing two new tools. The first is a kid’s version of A Discipleship Journey (ADJ) for families and churches to effectively disciple 6-12-year olds. The second are resources that will allow disciples of Jesus to develop other disciples to advance God’s Kingdom and benefit and bless people through their vocations.

Who are the key leaders in your network?

We have men and women, aged in their 20’s-70’s, representing various nationalities and expressions of vocational experience within the Dozen Domains that make up our network.

They include people like Darren and Sonya Bearson, (formerly in government and media, now providing day-to-day leadership of Lionshare), Kent Chevalier, Sean Holland, Heather Zempel (pastors) and George Kehoe (business).