By Stan Rodda: In what is arguably the craziest year many people have experienced in their lifetimes, 2020 is finally coming to a close. We are days away from a new year! That said: Congrats! You made it!

Let’s look back on some of 4Gen’s most popular content in 2020 and look forward to what God has in store for 2021.

Looking Back | 2020

Most read blog posts:

A Simple Tool to Stop Reading the Bible like a Self-Help Book

Five Distinguishing Factors of a Kingdom Worker

Baptism and the Disciple Maker

The Core of a Disciple Maker

Disciple Making and the Person of Peace

Most popular Youtube videos:

Master Plan of Surrender

How to Tell Your Story

How to Share the Gospel

Disciple making:

15 disciples trained in reproducible tools

4 house churches started

Looking Forward | 2021

Disciple making cohorts:

Tuesdays, January 12-March 2 @ 2p EST

Thursdays, February 25-April 15 @ 2p EST

Tuesdays, May 4-June 22 @ 2p EST

Tuesdays, August 10-September 28 @ 2p EST

Tuesdays, October 5-November 23 @ 2p EST

Reserve your seat for FREE!

Reserve Your Seat

Three pastors retreats coming:

April 27-30 – Massanutten, VA (add name to waitlist)

August 4-8 – Jefferson City, MO

November 2-5 – Massanutten, VA (add name to wait list)

Learn More About Retreats

Thanks for being a part of the 4Gen family through 2020. While Christmas is over, there is one late gift you could get for me if you are in a giving mood. Share this blog and ministry with three people you know. That would be a HUGE gift to me.Thanks for helping spread the word about what God is up to at 4Gen.Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And I will see you in 2021!Stan Rodda4Gen Executive Director

ps. What disciple making content would support your disciple making efforts the most in 2021? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Source: Look Back. Look Forward.

The post Look Back. Look Forward. appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By Carey Nieuwhof: Your head likely hasn’t stopped spinning in 2020.

Same.

Maybe on one or more occasions you’ve done what I’ve been tempted to do as well: bury your head in the sand because it’s just so discouraging to see what’s actually happening.

As much as it’s healthy to unplug for a day (or a week) to catch your breath, refresh your soul and tap into hope, ignoring reality isn’t a great long term strategy.

Leaders who ignore the culture have a hard time influencing it because they no longer understand it.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll try to put 2020 into perspective and focus on priorities for 2021, all with a goal to cutting through the clutter to help you enter 2021 strong.

To help you with that, I’ve got a brand new free resource called The 2021 Church Leader Toolkit, a 5-part collection of brand new videos and fresh PDFs you can use personally or for team study. It’s free, and it’s designed to help us all get a head start on 2021. You can get immediate access here.

In the meantime, here are 7 things that disappeared in 2020 (temporarily or perhaps for a while anyway) that are making leadership in 2021 even more tricky.

And because the news has been largely depressing, I added three things that 2020 didn’t kill. We all need to stay encouraged.

So what disappeared in 2020, making leadership that much harder? Here are 7 things.

Ignoring reality isn’t a great long term strategy.

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1. Consensus

2020 ended any dreams of achieving consensus in leadership.

No one can seem to agree on anything anymore. The hate we seem to have for each other has reached crisis levels.

While I miss civility, leading by consensus was a tough goal at the best of times.

The problem with consensus is that consensus kills courage.

Very few good, innovative ideas gain consensus before a leader acts. Instead, consensus emerges after you act, provided the decision was a good one.

Regardless, if you’re hoping to find consensus on your ideas before you lead,  at this point you’ll wait forever.

Consensus kills courage.

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2. The Returns You Get From Incremental Change

Many churches and organizations relied on incremental change to get them from year to year.

In a good year, a few changes here and there might result in 2%-5% growth, or at least stave off decline or minimize it.

When the crisis disrupted everything, any returns on incremental progress went out the window because you had to change pretty much everything.

Heading into 2021, it will be tempting to try to find ‘normal’ and lock back in for incremental gains.

That might work, but there’s a far greater chance it won’t.

Crisis is an accelerator and many of the trends that were already making incremental growth difficult have accelerated even faster.

Which shouldn’t be such a great loss anyway.

The problem with incremental change is that it delivers incremental results. And that’s not what you were hoping for anyway.

The problem with incremental change is that it delivers incremental results.

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3. Control

Most of us in leadership struggle with control to one extent or another. I do.

And even though control is both an illusion and a bad leadership strategy, there has hardly been a season where control has been more elusive.

Moving forward, instead of trying to gain control, focus on looking for new opportunities and align your mission around them.

Control won’t bring you into the future nearly as beautifully as vision and momentum will.

Control won’t bring you into the future nearly as beautifully as vision and momentum will.

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4. Easy Answers

If easy answers were falling on hard times prior to COVID (and they were), 2020 demolished the utility of easy answers.

Leadership has always been complicated, but 2020 raised it to a whole new level.

As a result, many of the approaches that might of worked for you earlier suddenly stopped.

The point?

Leadership right now really is complex. If it feels hard, it’s only because it is hard.

Knowing that can make you dig deeper, consult more broadly and experiment more widely.

All of those are good approaches in normal times. In a crisis, they’re essential.

Leadership right now really is complex. If it feels hard, it’s only because it is hard.

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5. Public Events Everyone Is  Comfortable Attending

It’s shocking to see how quickly social behaviours can change.

Watching shows and movies filmed before the pandemic with people crowded into elevators, shouting at each other or leaning on each other in exhaustion just seems so…foreign now.

Public events will definitely come back in the future, but how long it will take not just to distribute a vaccine, but to get us all comfortable rubbing shoulder with strangers and breathing the same air…well, that’s a whole other story?

The point? If your future hinges on holding large (or densely populated) public gatherings, make plans now for a gradual reentry to that space. And better yet…make supplementary and alternative plans.

If everyone rushes back and things are back to normal in minutes, you’ve lost nothing and have some prep for any future pandemic or public health emergency.

If the culture embraces a gradual ease back into crowded public gatherings (which might be the more likely scenario), then you’re ready.

6. Community

Community may not have vanished entirely, but it really took a hit in 2020.

People are lonely, and no, Zoom, FaceTime, texting, streaming and social media do not replace face to face human contact.

The challenge here for churches is that, with many people cut off from church for months or not comfortable yet returning to in-person services, people are likely forming their own notions of future community.

The need for human connection is great, but that the connection would automatically be through the church the way it used to take shape might be a stretch.

The key?

Work at cultivating community as much as you work on cultivating content in 2021. Even if digital community is your only or main option (I know, it’s not the same), it’s still something the church is helping to shape.

Culture is already highly individualistic and has been drifting to anti-institutional for decades. If you ignore community, not only do you ignore some of the core of the mission, but people will form community without your help.

Of course, people are completely free to do that, but shaped community is part of the essence of church and any tribe.

Church leaders, work at cultivating community as much as you work on cultivating content in 2021.

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7. Unity

Of all the things we lost this year, this might be the most important and most painful.

Rarely have we seemed so divided. Although unity has been eroding for years due to politics, ideology, tribalism and a profound and concerning self-righteousness (I’m talking about the church here…not just culture), 2020 saw it sink to a new low.

Unity is both a theological prerequisite (Jesus talked about it a lot, and early church worked hard to achieve it) and a practical necessity. Division destroys. Unity builds. An organization divided against itself crumbles.

Moving forward, look past masks/no masks and partisan politics and opinions for common ground. You’ll find far more common ground than you imagine.

Focusing on what unites you, not on what divides you, is not just a great way to build unity. It’s a great way to make real progress.

I wrote more about this here.

Unity is both a theological prerequisite, and a practical necessity. Division destroys. Unity builds.

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And….3 Things 2020 Didn’t Kill

Hopefully knowing what shifted this year can help you gain a footing for what you can tackle in 2021.

Naturally, though, 2020 didn’t bring all bad news. Global crises can’t kill everything.

Here are three things that are very much alive and can help propel you into 2021.

1. The Mission

When the crisis hit, a lot of methods broke, but the mission didn’t. It’s stronger than ever.

And arguably, more necessary than ever as well as people look for hope.

So how do you move your mission forward? Rethink your methods to ensure they still support your mission.

As you move into planning for 2021, hold the mission tightly and the methods loosely. In that, you’ll find the greatest opportunity.

The same crisis that broke your methods can give new life to your mission.

The same crisis that broke your methods can give new life to your mission.

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2. Hope

Sure, hope isn’t a strategy. But it is essential to the human spirit.

Somehow the idea that things can get better and will get better is the central to leadership. While the crisis threatened hope deeply, it didn’t extinguish it.

And, of course, the Gospel itself gives hope that nothing can extinguish.

The more secular culture becomes, the more it loses its mooring around hope, which opens up an even greater opportunity for the church.

Focusing on hope while you take your next steps is a great way to help move people together into the future.

3. Innovation

Many leaders are desperately trying to find (or manufacture) a sense of normal.

That’s understandable, but a better focus is to keep innovating. Aftrer all, it’s hard to go back to normal when normal disappeared.

The ‘innovation’ that happened in the crisis so far, for the most part, wasn’t really innovation. It was adaptation.

The real innovation for most churches and organizations is ahead. So as you move into 2021, ask yourself “What does this make possible?”

That’s a great way to begin a dialogue around innovation.

The future belongs to the innovators. It always does.

The future belongs to the innovators. It always does.

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What Do You See?

What made leadership harder for you in 2021?

And what are you grateful hasn’t disappeared? Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 7 Things That Vanished in 2020 That Make Leadership That Much Harder appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 7 Things That Vanished in 2020 That Make Leadership That Much Harder

The post 7 Things That Vanished in 2020 That Make Leadership That Much Harder appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Carey Nieuwhof

As much as you wish things were getting easier in church leadership, they don’t appear to be heading in that direction.

If anything, things are more complicated than they were a month ago. And infinitely more complicated than they were a year ago.

My guess is you’ve had a thousand different thoughts rush through your mind (and heart) in 2020, not all of them, well, great.

This post was inspired by a clever and accurate post my friend Rich Birch wrote on his blog recently outlining some thoughts church staff had but wouldn’t tell their senior leaders.

I thought I’d pop into the senior leader’s head and see if anything resonates.

Please hear the tone behind this post. I’m with you as a leader.

I’ve cried actual tears for church leaders in this season and I empathize deeply with how challenging this moment is.

Yes, this is a hard time. But you will make it through. The capital C church will make it through, and it will thrive.

Sometimes naming what you’re feeling brings things to the surface you didn’t even realize were there. And yes, I’ve personally struggled with most—if not all–of these.

So what are you really thinking as a church leaders in 2020?

See if any of these ten things resonate.

1. I don’t know how much longer I can do this

Right now, most leaders are more tired than they’ve ever been.

I interviewed Levi and Jennie Lusko recently to talk about the coronavirus crisis, racial reconcillation and how they, their family and church were responding.

Levi gave me a great metaphor. He said we feel this exhaustion because we didn’t know we were running a triathalon. It’s like we got to the end of our run, we thought we were finished, and someone handed us a bicycle and then told us later we also had to swim.

Exactly.

If you’re thinking about alternative careers, other things you can do with your life, or just taking a long, extended sabbatical, hang in there.

Never quit on a bad day. If you’re going to quit on a good day. Hint: there aren’t a lot of good days right now. So hang in there.

Never quit on a bad day.Click To Tweet

In the meantime, please get the rest you need this summer (here are some simple ideas for better rest).

Taking a restorative break this summer is a great idea. A rested you is a much better you.

Leaders who never take a break end up breaking.

Leaders who never take a break end up breaking.Click To Tweet

2. I’m too tired to address the things I know I’m supposed to fix

So much is changing right now.

Long term disruptive trends that are causing decline and stagnation in the church are accelerating rapidly, and if you look at the list of issues to address and things to do, it’s arguably never been longer.

The longing you feel for everything to go back to normal is in part a natural reaction against the massive task ahead.

Denial is not a great strategy. But irrelevance and ineffectiveness are arguably worse.

So what can you do?

Get the rest you need, and lean into God and the team to give you the strength ahead to do what you need to do.

Denial is not a great strategy. But irrelevance and ineffectiveness are arguably worse. Click To Tweet

3. My thoughts and emotions are a total yoyo

Many leaders right now are feeling yoyo emotions: up one minute, down the next, and everything in between.

I get it.

One of the first casualties, when I’m stressed, are my emotions.

Sometimes they go numb, and I feel nothing. Other times, they end up being completely inappropriate or disproportionate.

Physical rest and spiritual health are key to me keeping my emotions healthy.

Your emotions impact you, your family and your team.

While this is a season, just remember that emotionally healthy leaders tend to lead emotionally healthy teams. The opposite is also true.

Emotionally healthy leaders tend to lead emotionally healthy teams. The opposite is also true. Click To Tweet

4. I’m angry at people for not coming back

Not only has the crisis accelerated long term trends of declining attendance, the possibility that many people aren’t coming back to church regularly even after coronavirus has lifted is also real.

And you’re angry at people who aren’t coming back.

If you’ve opened, you’re angry with healthy people who haven’t returned.

And if you haven’t even reopened yet,  you’re probably already mad at the people you think won’t return.

So what do you do?

Feel that emotion.

Pray through it.

Vent to a friend.

And then move on.

As you know, anger is a pretty ineffective evangelism strategy.

Anger is a pretty ineffective evangelism strategy. Click To Tweet

5. I feel best about myself when the room is full

Oh this one’s so ugly you can’t even say it out loud.

But the truth is you only really feel great about yourself when the room is full.

And as much as you said you’d never do it, you’ve tied your identity to your success.

It’s hard to post that shot to Instagram when the room is empty or 25% full because of social distancing, or half as full as it used to be pre-virus.  And screenshotting your online numbers doesn’t quite give you the rush a full room used to.

You wish you didn’t feel best about yourself when the room is full. But you do.

I’m not saying this is good. I’m just saying for many of us, it’s just a little too true.

And if you really want to drill down, the people who benefitted most from the old ways are the most motivated to try to bring them back.

So you’ll either spend a lot of energy trying to make things the way they were before, or you’ll spend more time on your knees and with a therapist trying to break the idolatry of a full room.

As much as I hate that option, it’s probably the best one.

Most pastors feel best about themselves when the room is full.Click To Tweet

6. I like the convenience of church online more than I want to admit

I needed to buy some shorts and sandals for our summer vacation. I could have gone to the mall, but that’s minimum 2 hours with the drive.

So before writing this post, I spend 15 minutes online and picked up the shorts and sandals I needed. They’ll be here this week.

That’s convenient, and it’s been life (retail-wise) for years.

All my life, church has been an almost full Sunday morning commitment…sometimes longer. It has been for most of you reading this too.

What’s shocked me most in 2020 is how what was a full morning or almost full morning (I’m Founding Pastor now and not as involved in the day to day as I was when I was a Lead Pastor), when I’m not teaching it’s now down to about an hour on a Sunday.

That’s a big change.

If you pre-record your messages, maybe Sunday feels different than it used to.

Even when I teach live now on a Sunday in an empty room, if we get a good take of the message during the first service, I can finish up. After all, there’s no one in the room to talk to anyway besides a minimal crew.

As much as most church leaders have railed against the challenges of online church, you probably enjoy the convenience more than you want to admit.

As much as most church leaders have railed against the challenges of online church, you probably enjoy the convenience more than you want to admit. Click To Tweet

7. I hate the prospect of church online for the future

And that said—and as much as you like online shopping personally— you hate the prospect of church online for the future.

No one has done this before, and you were good at church in the old model.

Besides, you’re a relational person. You love ministering to people you can see, touch and engage with personally.

When it comes to ministry, the internet feels like a vapor.

And you’re not sure you’re up to it.

8. I’m not sure more or my team has the skill set for the next chapter

If you drill down further, you’re a little frightened.

No one trained you for this. There wasn’t a single class in seminary in online ministry.

Other people are better at the camera than you are. Your church isn’t really staffed for this.

Maybe you just don’t have the skill set for the next era of ministry.

And perhaps your staff doesn’t either. You didn’t hire your team for this moment.

And now you’re into something you didn’t sign up for.

The truth is you can probably learn the skill set and so can your team. It just takes time and energy.  Which takes up straight back to points 1-3 of this post.

Most church leaders’ silent fear: I’m not sure me or my team has the skill set for the next chapter of ministry. Click To Tweet

9. I can’t handle any more change

2020 has been one thing stacked up on the other. You feel like everything is breaking – your routine, your systems, the economy, the culture…and you don’t know how to put it back together.

And as important as some of these things are, you just can’t take any more.

So please stop. Just stop.

Can we go back to normal? I know normal is dead. But I’d really like to go back.

Of course—and you know this too–change is unkind to the unprepared. But still….

Change is unkind to the unprepared.Click To Tweet

10. I haven’t taken any time to grieve

Everybody around you is grieving and craving a return to normal, and secretly so are you, but you know in your head you haven’t really processed much. You’ve been too busy.

And as a leader, what you do is cast vision and bury your grief because you’re afraid that if you stop, you’ll break.

And as a leader, what you do is cast vision and bury your grief because you’re afraid that if you stop, you’ll break.Click To Tweet

I can personally assure you that this is a little too true.

I spent a decade not grieving the losses that piled up, and it was a major factor in my burnout.

A mentor once told me that ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. He’s right. And now more than ever.

When you grieve your losses, you’re able to move through them to a new tomorrow.

So this summer, take time to rest…and grieve. You’ll come back with fresh energy.

The situation may not be any better, but you will be. And that’s what makes the difference.

This summer, take time to rest…and grieve. You’ll come back with fresh energy. The situation may not be any better, but you will be. And that’s what makes the difference. Click To Tweet

A Simpler Way to Navigate a Complex Future

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now. And it’s exhausting.

As complex as things are, having a simple framework to navigate the change will make the task ahead much easier.

If you want to position yourself for the future, my brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

A simple 3-step process your team can use to arrive at your next pivot in 90 minutes or less.
An approach that fosters team-generated innovation.
An implementation and evaluation framework that will help your team move quickly and accurately.

I’ve led teams through multiple pivots, and in the 30 Day Pivot, I show you the strategy and framework you need to make quick, accurate and responsive moves that can position your organization for growth, even in the midst of deep uncertainty and change.

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here.

What Are You Feeling?

I’m so glad we’re in this season together. Sometimes, just naming what you’re feeling or thinking can be the first step to addressing it.

What are you feeling?

Scroll down a leave a comment.

The post What Church Leaders Are (Really) Thinking in 2020 appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: What Church Leaders Are (Really) Thinking in 2020

The post What Church Leaders Are (Really) Thinking in 2020 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Carey Nieuwhof

The good news is it feels like we’re entering a new season of leadership and ministry.

Although the coronavirus is still with us, churches and businesses are reopening and things that weren’t possible a month or two ago are now possible again.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the new season is perhaps even more complicated than the season of crisis we just left. And it’s way more complicated than having a second wave of the virus (as serious as that might be).

I also realize you’re likely tempted to stop reading right here.

After all, you really can’t handle one more person saying more change is ahead.

I get it. Some days, neither can I.

We’re all more than a little fatigued, frazzled and irritated. And everybody (including me) is long for some semblance of normal.

Everything in you wants to go back to as much normal as you can possibly find. And that would be great, if it wasn’t also deadly.

The good news is we’re entering a new season. The bad news is that it’s likely more complicated than the season of crisis we just left.Click To Tweet

When change is as profound and disruptive as what we’re going through right now, this next season isn’t a finish line, it’s a start line.

Right now, every church is a startup and if you see it that way, you can advance your mission. There are so many people to reach, and an entire next generation in need of the Gospel.

And as hard as it is to hear, the next season will probably require more leadership from you, not less.

But, because of deep fatigue, a longing for normal and a hope that all the problems go away, too many church leaders will default into managing what was rather than leading into what will be— trying to bring the past back, to normalize ministry and to recreate what was lost rather than moving ahead into a new future.

But your work is too important to do that. You know it. I know it.

For all of those reasons and more, it’s just far too easy to blow it in this next season of ministry and leadership.

Here are 8 easy ways to do it.

When change is as profound and disruptive as what we’re going through right now, this next season isn’t a finish line, it’s a start line.Click To Tweet

1. Don’t Take Time off To Restore Yourself

I was going to put this last, but let’s lead with it instead and call an audible.

The reason you don’t want to read this post, let alone act on it, is because you’re tired. I get it. This has been a very tiring season.

And one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to not take time off to restore yourself.

While this isn’t a clinical definition, having burned out years ago, I’m sensing three levels of weariness in myself and amongst other leaders right now:

Tired

Fatigued

Exhausted

Tired responds quickly to cause and effect. You put in a long, hard day, you eat well, get some exercise and get some sleep, and soon you bounce back. If not the next day, then shortly thereafter.

Fatigued is a level of weariness beyond just tired. Fatigue will respond to stimulus (sleep, rest, diet, exercise, prayer) but it just takes longer. You’re not burning out, but there’s a slow drain going on that you really can’t ignore.

Exhausted is a place you find yourself in where you’re more than just tired or fatigued. The recovery is longer, harder and you need more time for restoration. It can easily lead to burnout if you let it (here are 11 signs you may be burning out).

Again, those aren’t clinical definitions, but I hope they’re helpful definitions.

The point is regardless of which stage you’re at, you need time to truly restore yourself this summer. The more tired you are, the more intentional your plan for recovery should be.

Leaders, the more tired you are, the more intentional your plan for recovery should be. Click To Tweet

So what’s your plan? If in fact you’re going into a prolonged season of uncertainty and dislocation, you need stamina for the long haul.

Maybe the best thing you can do as a response to this post and the challenges ahead is to book some downtime and then figure out a sustainable pace that will take you through the next few years.

I share the strategies I use to find a sustainable pace here.

If self-care is important in normal times, it’s 10x more important now.

And please hear me…the work you’re doing is so important, and you want to be well and stay well for the road ahead.

Because, as you know, the work is both important and challenging.

Which leads us to the second way to blow it in the next season of leadership.

If self-care is important in normal times, it’s 10x more important now. Click To Tweet

2. Let Your Fatigue Drive Your Decisions

Your level of fatigue as a leader impacts more than you and your family. It also impacts your organization.

Why? Well, it can be so easy to let your fatigue drive your decision making. You avoid the hard decisions, take the complicated things off the agenda and go into robot mode or stick with what you know because it’s just, well, easier.

Don’t let your fatigue drive your decision making.Click To Tweet

So how do you counter that?

The best way to gain energy for the decisions you know you need to make is to simply your model of ministry.

If you only do a few things and do them well, you’ll be able to put most of your energy into the things that need it most, rather than diffusing it across a dozen things.

Think about it this way: Doing the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing, ultimately energizes you.

Taking the path of least resistance ultimately drains you when you discover you’ve lost ground and grown irrelevant and ineffective.

Hint: in leadership, the right thing is almost always the hard thing.

So get some good rest, and then rally the team and do the things you know you need to do.

In leadership, the right thing is almost always the hard thing.Click To Tweet

3. Play The Short Game

Another easy way to blow it in leadership is to play the short game.

The short game right now probably looks like this: get back to normal as quickly as possible with in-person services and pick up where you left off or recreate what you lost.

What’s even more challenging is that for a meaningful percentage of churches, online attendance is up and so is giving, or at least it’s steady.

That kind of success or stability will keep your focus on the short game while you ignore the tectonic shifts happening in culture.

The long game is about preparing your church to reach unchurched people in the future. (For more on that, see this and this.)

And that’s as complex and challenging as it sounds.

So many of the methods the church has used broke long before COVID. Trying to resurrect them isn’t going to resurrect your church for the long term.

So many of the methods the church has used broke long before COVID. Trying to resurrect them isn’t going to resurrect your church for the long term.Click To Tweet

4. Ignore Volunteers

Because most churches were staffed and programmed for in-person ministry, one of the thing that went dormant almost instantly was the volunteer corp at most churches.

When church went online, what used to take dozens or hundreds of people to run suddenly only took a handful.

As a result, many churches have dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of volunteers who haven’t served in months.

Many early indications are that many volunteers, worried about the virus and having swapped a 5 hour Sunday commitment for a 1 hour Sunday commitment, like many others, might not return.

Connecting with your volunteers, encouraging them to serve in their community and remobilizing them even before you need them will prepare you for a strong future.

Many early indications are that many volunteers, worried about the virus and having swapped a 5 hour Sunday commitment for a 1 hour Sunday commitment, like many others, might not return. Click To Tweet

5. Assume Families are Just Fine

I realize it’s been a crisis, so it’s understandable that many leaders haven’t had the bandwidth to think about volunteers. But there’s another group that probably needs your attention: families.

Families will likely not be the first to return to in-person services because of a variety of factors, not the least of which is the lack of kids ministry upon re-opening in many cases.

Frank and Jessica Bealer, who have served at several mega-churches, including Elevation Church, have some very powerful and insightful ideas and strategies about how to come alongside families who attend in person and those who attend online in these unusual times.

You can listen to the conversation they had with David Kinnaman and me here.

Just know this: ignoring families tends to produce less effective ministry than serving them does.

Ignoring families tends to produce less effective ministry than serving them does.Click To Tweet

6. Don’t Reposition Your Staff

The staffing structure you had heading into the crisis is likely not the staffing structure you need heading into the future.

Why? Well, when things change, you need to change too.

Most churches are currently staffed for in-person ministry, and that’s about it. As complex as in-person ministry is right now, online church is probably a big part of the future.

And if that’s the case, how are you positioned for it?

Tagging it onto your creative team’s job description or handing it to a 19-year-old volunteer is probably not a great long term strategy.

Further, it’s probably going to require a skillset you may not have on your current team. So recruiting volunteers and staff around that is wise.

So is allocating some of your budget. Most churches spend 99% of their budget on in-person ministry.

If everyone you want to reach is online, you may want to rethink that.

Most churches spend 99% of their budget on in-person ministry. If everyone you want to reach is online, you may want to rethink that. Click To Tweet

7. Put Online on Autopilot

Most churches have made significant progress with their online ministry: either they’ve started one or seen the existing online outreach and ministry grow.

That’s incredible.

And right now, the big temptation is to leave all that on auto-pilot as assume it will grow automatically.  Which of course, as soon as you say it out loud, you realize won’t happen.

When you invest in digital ministry, you’re investing in the future and in reaching the world.

When you invest in digital ministry, you’re investing in the future and in reaching the world. Click To Tweet

8. Put All Your Focus On Sunday

In the early days of the crisis, churches were trying all kinds of things online.

Maybe you’ve noticed too. Almost everyone has pivoted back to focusing only on Sunday.

For all the reasons already listed in this post (especially fatigue), that’s understandable. It’s also a mistake.

For the first time in history, online ministry allows church leaders to come alongside people 7 days a week in an easy, accessible way.

I’ve written about this extensively elsewhere, but church-in-a-box was already past its expiry date.

Returning your focus to one day—Sunday—and taking your eye off of all the other opportunities positions your church for the past, not for the future.

Here are some ideas on the future church.

In the future, churches will shift their focus from Sunday to every day, because people need to find faith and live out their faith every day.

In the future, churches will shift their focus from Sunday to every day, because people need to find faith and live out their faith every day. Click To Tweet

If You Want a Simple Framework For Change, This Is It

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now.

Some organizations will survive, some will thrive, and others won’t make it.

I’d love for you to be one of the thrivers.

Who will thrive in the new normal? The future belongs to the pivoters.

How well-positioned are you for future pivots?

My brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

A simple 3-step process your team can use to arrive at your next pivot in 90 minutes or less.
An approach that fosters team-generated innovation.
An implementation and evaluation framework that will help your team move quickly and accurately.

I’ve led teams through multiple pivots, and in the 30 Day Pivot, I show you the strategy and framework you need to make quick, accurate and responsive moves that can position your organization for growth, even in the midst of deep uncertainty and change.

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here.

What Do You See?

I realize how tiring all the change ahead can be. So please, get some meaningful rest and find a sustainable pace.

I hear you. I’m with you.

But you know this, as leaders, truth is our friend.

And just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The future is unkind to the unprepared, so I’m grateful we get to think through this together.

What else are you seeing?

What other things can catch us off guard in this season?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

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Source: 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry

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