By Ken Adams: Good leaders understand a necessary part of their job is leading change. They understand the need for change and they have the desire to lead it, but often they face major obstacles in bringing it about. Barriers to change can cause even the best leader a great deal of frustration and discouragement. It’s imperative that every leader be able to identify barriers to change.

The Church can be one of the most difficult places to lead change. The “we’ve never done it that way before” mindset is enough to drive any church leader crazy. Let’s take a quick look at some of the most common barriers that affect leading change in the local church.

1. Failing to understand the mission. When people understand the mission and are passionate about seeing the mission accomplished, it makes change more acceptable. Misunderstanding the mission keeps people stuck in what they are comfortable with and resistant to change.

2. Leaders who don’t trust the Pastor. Let’s face it, leading change begins with the pastor, and key leaders can make it hard for for that person to lead. If a core group of leaders are pushing back against the pastor’s leadership, it will be almost impossible to bring change without hurting the church.

3. A Pastor who cannot be trusted. There are times when pastors have their own agendas in mind and can’t be trusted to lead the right way. When a church has a pastor who cannot be trusted to lead selflessly, positive sustainable change probably will not happen.

4. Comfort means more than the cause. I know a leader who says, “If you are comfortable, it is cause for concern.” I agree with him. Growing churches need to change to grow, and if leaders of the congregation care more about their own comfort than leading change, it probably won’t take place.

5. A lack of resources needed for change. Often times change requires financial and/or “people” resources. There will always be times when change is needed and wanted, but the lack of resources keeps it from happening.

6. Fear of losing people. Let’s face it, sometimes local churches do not change because of the fear that people will be unhappy and leave. Here is a real truth. You will likely lose people if you change and you will likely lose people if you don’t. Make the change even if it means some people will not like it.

Leading change is a challenge in every organization, and especially in the local church. People get caught up in traditions and power struggles that prevent change from happening. It takes real courage to lead a church to change.

 A good leader with the right heart and the patience to bring others along with the mission can successfully navigate change when and where it is needed.

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By Ken Adams. Used with permission.

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By Ken Adams:

Several times this past week I did something that I really didn’t feel like doing. I was on my way to run and I didn’t really feel like running. I ran anyway, and I’m glad I did. On another occasion I was supposed to work out at 6:00 AM. I didn’t feel like getting out of bed, but I did it anyway. In both cases, I did what I didn’t really want to do in the moment but felt a sense of victory once I had finished. I believe this is called “discipline.”

One of the things I have read about successful people is that they all have a commitment to do the things they don’t feel like doing. They are very disciplined. They know how to delay gratification now for a better result later. As Nathan Whitley put it, “The pain of regret is far worse than the pain of discipline.” Well said.

The pain associated with my running today is less than the pain of heart surgery later. The struggle to workout today is less than the effects not working out will have on my body in years to come. This principle of staying disciplined is not just in the area of physical disciplines. It is also true for spiritual, relational, financial, emotional, and intellectual disciplines.

If I get up early to have a quiet time with God, I will be thankful later. If I live by a budget today, I will be glad I did in the future. If I plan a date night with my spouse today it will make a difference in our relationship down the road. If I stay emotionally energized today, I will have greater emotional health later. Doing the things I don’t really feel like doing today will be worth it in the future. This is a principle that does not fail.

Today we recognize that successful people live by the principle of discipline, and the Bible spoke about this concept many years before our time. The Bible says in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not get tired of doing  good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.” A more popular way of saying it is, “You reap what you sow.”

Farmers know that the work they do in the field today will not be noticeable until later. If they work hard to keep their fields fertile now, they will see fruit at the time of harvest. Wise farmers do not let themselves get tired of doing the right thing at the right time. We can all learn from farmers and keeps doing the right things at the right time in order to see good fruit at a later time.

Being a successful disciple and disciple maker sometimes means doing what you don’t feel like doing. It is not always easy to stay inspired and motivated to make disciples. I want to encourage you to stay faithful in your commitment to being a disciple and building more disciples. You will never regret making sacrifices now so that will reap such an amazing harvest later.

If you need encouragement on your disciple making journey, contact us. We are here to support you in any way that we can.

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By Ken Adams. Used with permission.

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By Impact Discipleship Ministries: I have been the senior pastor of a local church for over thirty years. Many times in the last thirty years, I have had to “reset” my life and ministry. When I am in need of a reset, I always ask myself two questions. First, what am I called to do? Second, how well am I doing at accomplishing what I’m called to do? These two questions help me to recalibrate my life and help me get back to what I really need to be doing.

Seminary helped prepare me for ministry in several important ways. It increased my theological understanding, it helped me in my preaching, and it better prepared me to provide pastoral care. It did not do a very good job of teaching me how to lead the church to be a disciple making church. That is a major problem, especially when the mission of the Church is to help Christians make disciples of all nations.

The job of every pastor is to preach and provide pastoral care, but it is also the pastor’s job to lead the church to accomplish Jesus’ mission. If I preach outstanding messages and provide great pastoral care but fail to lead my church to be a disciple making church, I have not done my job.

Some would say seminary does not do a good job of teaching pastors leadership. I would take that a step farther and say that seminaries don’t do a very good job of teaching pastors disciple making leadership.

Three decades of ministry have taught me some things seminary never did. It has taught me the six priorities of a disciple making pastor. These six things are not automatic, they must be learned. All six of them are found in the life of Christ and therefore should be found in every pastor. Let’s take a look at the six things every pastor ought to be able to do.

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Lead the church toward mission!

The number one leadership tsk of the pastor is to point the church toward the mission of making disciples of all nations. By doing so, the pastor’s job is to get everyone going in the right direction and the same direction.

Lead themselves first!

Before a pastor every leads anyone else to multiply disciples, that pastor must first be modeling being and building disciples. That pastor must be doing exactly what is asked of everyone else in the congregation.

Lead the church to execute the mission!

Knowing and pointing toward mission is not enough. The pastor must know how to execute the strategy that accomplishes the mission. The pastor must be able to lead the church to help untrained seekers become fully trained disciples.

Lead leaders!

A church cannot become a movement of multiplying disciples unless the pastor can become a leader of leaders. If the pastor cannot lead leader the church will remain a movement of edition and never become a movement of multiplication.

Lead with a plan!

If pastors do not tell their lives where to go, someone else will. Many pastors are not making disciples because they do not have a plan for how to live their lives. Making disciples will not happen by accident. You must have a plan for how to lead the church and you must work your plan.

Lead well!

Leading well is not the same thing as finishing well, although it includes it. Leading well brings with it the idea of thriving and flourishing until the end. It means leaving behind a legacy of disciples who are making more disciples. Leading well means having a “much fruit” life.

Impact Discipleship Ministries provides equipping groups for pastors who want to become disciple making pastors. In seven online sessions, you will learn the priorities of what it means to be a disciple making pastor.

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By Impact Discipleship Ministries: I am always amazed at how many people (including Christ-followers) don’t know what the mission of Christ was while He was here on earth. I find it amazing that Christians would follow someone if they don’t understand where He was “going.” If you are going to follow someone, you need to know where they are headed.

The Mission of Jesus Was Two-fold.

The first part of Jesus’ mission was to make redemption possible for every person, in every nation, in every generation. Jesus made redemption possible for every person by living a perfect and sinless life, dying on a cross, and rising from the dead.

Only Jesus could fulfill this part of His mission. Jesus is the only one who could make redemption possible for humanity. Jesus is the only one who could live a sinless life, atone for sin, and have victory over death, hell, and the grave. When Jesus was being crucified, He said these words, “It is finished.” He was referring to His work of redemption. Jesus was professing that He had accomplished one of the two things He came to earth to do.

We should all be eternally grateful that Jesus was faithful to finish the work of redemption. We would be spending the rest of eternity separated from God if Jesus had not made redemption possible and if we had not received His work in our lives.

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Part two of Jesus’ mission was to start a movement of messengers of redemption. This movement of messengers are called “disciples.” Jesus began a movement of disciple making that would ensure that the message of redemption would be passed down from generation to generation so that every person in every nation and every generation could hear the message of redemption.

 Jesus is the one who started this movement of redemption messengers, but all of us are now responsible to see that it continues. Jesus left the task of making disciples in the hands of every generation of disciples. In John 17:4, Jesus prayed, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.” The work Jesus is referring to here is the work of starting a movement of disciple making.

I am so thankful that Jesus started a movement of disciple makers that made it possible for us to have the opportunity to receive redemption. If Jesus had not completed the work of starting a movement, we would never have heard about His work of redemption and we would be spending the rest of eternity separated from God.

Understanding the Two-fold Mission of Jesus Should Change the Way We Live.

It should change the way we live because as a Christ follower, Christ’s mission should be your mission. In other words, you can be a part of keeping the movement of redemption messengers going. That is one of the main reasons you are alive today: to accomplish the mission of Jesus on earth.

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By Ken Adams: I remember many years ago learning my multiplication tables. You probably do as well. I started with 1 x 1 and then continued to recite them all the way to 12 x 12. The repetition drove those tables into my mind in such a way that I still know them decades later.

Learning how to make and multiply disciples is also something we need to learn, it doesn’t happen automatically. The best way to learn how to make and multiply disciples is from the Master Disciple Maker. Jesus is the perfect model of what it means to make and multiply disciples. He took twelve unschooled and ordinary men and turned them into world-changers. Jesus led these men to be disciple makers in three years. Let’s identify some of the key steps in Jesus’ approach to disciple making that we need to follow today.

Recruit a group of people to train

There are lots of different ways to state this first step, but at the end of the day, Jesus made and multiplied a movement of disciples because He selected twelve men to come and learn from Him. Jesus spent a majority of His time with the twelve and He used that time to teach and model for them what He wanted them to be and do. In its most basic form, disciple making means identifying a handful of hungry people who are willing to commit to being trained and taught how to be more like Jesus.

Train that group of people to be like Jesus

Jesus calls us to make and multiply disciples who look and act like Him. During the time you commit to training your disciples, be sure you are training them in the character and conduct of Christ. The end goal of disciple making is that those you recruit will become more like Jesus and know how to help others become more like Jesus. Keep it simple. Train your disciples to be like Jesus the same way Jesus did. Spend time with them. Model for them. Teach them. Give them experiences, and then send them out to do the same with others.

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Challenge them to reproduce more disciples

People are slow. They need help understanding what the true outcome of disciple making really is. I know this to be true because of how many Christians have actually ever made another disciple. Very few have! Christians are very good at sitting in small groups, filling in blanks, and placing our notebooks on the shelf before finding another small group to join. We are very good at consuming. We are not so good at reproducing. We need to be challenged to make more disciples and held accountable to do so. When you make disciples, don’t stop at the training phase and assume they will reproduce. Go the extra mile and hold them accountable until they repeat the process you did with them with someone else.

Making and multiplying disciples is not complicated. It is more a matter of obedience than anything else. If you study the life of Christ and are willing to make disciples who make disciples, you already have the plan and power to accomplish the task. All you need is the willingness to go and do it.

By Ken Adams

Used by permission. Originally posted here:

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By Ken Adams: For most of us, if we don’t have a good reason for why we need to do something that will be challenging, we probably won’t do it. Knowing why is essential in most any endeavor, but especially when it comes to multiplying disciples. If we knew and understood why multiplication is so important, we would be committed to making it happen. With that in mind, let me share with you a few of the reasons why multiplication is essential in carrying out the mission of Jesus.

Multiplication is the fastest way to reach the nations

Jesus called us to make disciples of all nations, and that can be done one of two ways. We can make disciples by addition, or we can make disciples by multiplication. Multiplying disciples is by far the fastest way to accomplish the mission Jesus gave us to do. If we make disciples by addition we will never reach all nations simply because addition can never keep up with the exponential growth of the world’s population. Multiplication starts slowly but it picks up steam quickly, so quickly that the world’s population of nearly eight billion people can be reached in a lifetime if every disciple multiplied more disciples.

Multiplication is the smartest way to reach the nations

If you wanted to provide your child with the best education possible, would you choose a classroom with a teacher student ratio of 1 to 100 or 1 to 10? No one would intentionally choose the larger teacher student ratio if that person wanted to give his or her child a quality classroom experience. This is another reason why multiplication is so much smarter than addition. In movements of addition, groups or classes tend to get larger and larger. In movements of multiplication, the goal is to keep multiplying groups of people so that the church is getting larger and smaller at the same time. In Acts 2, the Church in Jerusalem was over three thousand members strong, but those members stayed small by meeting from house to house. That was a very smart way for the Jerusalem Church to grow.

Multiplication is the easiest way to reach the nations: Maybe you have heard someone say, “Work smarter, not harder.” The smarter way to make disciples is also the easiest way to make disciples. Think about your money for a moment. Would simple interest or compound interest be an easier path to building personal wealth? Compound interest is allowing your money to work for you by multiplying it. The same is true for disciple making. Trying to reach the nations by addition is so much harder than reaching the nations by multiplying disciples. For example: if I gave you a penny a day and doubled it every day for thirty days, you would have over $10 million dollars in thirty days. That’s easy money.

I’ve given you three good logical arguments for why you need to multiply disciples, but the real reason we need to multiply disciples is because Jesus told us to. Multiplying disciples is ultimately a matter of obedience to Christ’s commission. You are either making disciples who make more disciples, or you are not.

By Ken Adams

Used by permission. Originally posted here:

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By Ken Adams: My ministry friend, Brian Dodd, says that, “Success is a daily agenda.” I agree with Brian, but I’ve found that my life revolves around a weekly agenda more than a daily agenda. Granted, days make weeks and weeks make months and years, so ultimately the idea is to stick with things until they become true of your entire life.

Progress Requires Consistent Efforts

The point behind the concept is that if you want to be successful at something, you keep on doing it with great regularity. For example, if your goal is to be an effective messenger or witness, then look for an opportunity to share Christ every week of your life. Over time, that will give you success as a messenger. If you want success in spiritual growth and maturity, then stick with a growth plan consistently for years and you will be surprised how much progress you make.

Whether you do an activity every day, every week, or every month, the consistency factor is what you are aiming for. Maybe you have heard the phrase, “We are what we repeatedly do…” (Will Durant) There is a great deal of truth to that statement. If I consistently workout, it will pay big dividends for my physical fitness. I will become a good steward of my body if I exercise daily or several times a week. Yes, success really is a daily (or weekly) agenda.

I think the first think you need to do to achieve success is to figure out what you want to be successful in. You can’t make an agenda out of something that you have not identified as a priority, discipline, or habit. If your agenda is constantly changing, you will not likely be successful at much of anything.

Let Christ Set the Agenda

Personally, I like to let Christ set my agenda. I want to be successful in walking the way Jesus walked. I want the same things that were true of Jesus to be true for my life. Jesus made a daily agenda of withdrawing to spend time with the Father. I want that, too. Jesus made a weekly agenda of worshipping in the synagogue. I want public worship to be a part of my weekly agenda, too. Jesus looked for opportunities to serve people on a daily basis. I want to be a servant, too. Jesus spent years developing a handful of disciples that He would mobilize to reach the world. I want to invest my life in making fully trained disciples, too.

My goal is to make the character and conduct of Christ my weekly agenda. I want to focus on becoming more like Christ in “who” He was and in “what” He did week in and week out. I like to refer to the conduct of Christ as the M-7 Lifestyle. It means being a member, magnifier, maturing, ministering, managing, a messenger, and a multiplier. If I develop these outward marks of a disciple in my life, I will become more like Christ, and that helps me become a fully trained disciple.

If you need help identifying the weekly agenda Christ has for your life, let me encourage you to check out our latest resources, the Impact Series, in our online store. Impact Two and Impact Three are both uniquely designed to help you grow into the image of Christ. You can learn more at impactdisciples.com.

Originally posted here.  Used by permission.

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by Ken Adams: What would you think if I led a discipleship group and encouraged group members to memorize Scripture, but I never memorized Scripture myself? How would you feel if I told group members to read and study their Bibles but didn’t even crack my Bible open week after week? I’m guessing it would not sit very well with you if you had a group leader who kept giving you advice that leader didn’t live by him or herself.

If there was one thing that was true about Jesus, it was that He lived the life He was asking His disciples to live. Jesus was being what He was seeking to help others to become. Jesus modeled the character and conduct He was expecting His disciples to demonstrate. Paul was also living the life He was expecting Timothy and other leaders to live. Paul was living the life Jesus lived and had no problem asking his disciples to live that life.

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Being a great Disciple Making Leader means being the mission yourself. It means living out the life Jesus lived and being what you expect your disciples to be. It means being authentic. It does not mean being perfect or having it all together. It means being a leader who seeks to be an imitator of Christ. Paul was not perfect, but he was authentic. Timothy was not perfect, but he sought to be more like Jesus. Timothy wanted to be like Jesus because Paul  encouraged him to be like Jesus. That is exactly what you would call being the mission.

Be Like Christ

I’ve experienced many leaders who were not living out the mission. They were inauthentic. Some have talked about being committed to the mission of Jesus but were not committed to their local churches. Some have said worship was important but skipped public worship services quite often. Others have talked about servant hood but never served. Many speak of sharing their faith and have never even done so. Plenty of leaders talk about disciple making but have never reproduced a single disciple. I’ve known lots of leaders who lack love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Lacking the fruit of the Spirit is the exact opposite of what it means to be like Christ.

We need leaders in the Church today who live and lead the same way Jesus did. We need leaders who are walking as Jesus walked and living the way He lived. The Church will struggle to accomplish her mission unless we have authentic leaders who are living out the mission.

By Ken Adams

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By Ken Adams: I recently spent a week of vacation just outside of Bradenton, Florida in Ana Maria Island. Sunshine, ocean, sand, golf, seafood: it was a great week to relax. It was everything you could ask for in a beach vacation. However, I did have one unexpected highlight—I was able to watch disciples multiply right there on vacation!

My trip to Bradenton was not random. My wife and I have friends who live on Ana Maria Island who invited us to come down and spend some time with them. These friends used to attend the church where I pastor and have been very faithful leaders in our church for years. Trust me when I say they have gotten a very good dose of discipleship training over the last twenty + years.

The really cool thing about this story is that my buddy, Jerry, took what he learned about disciple making in the church and carried it with him to Florida. He wasn’t just making disciples because his former church was committed to it; he continued to make disciples out of obedience to Jesus. He understands the mission of Jesus is to make disciples of all nations.

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One night during our vacation, Jerry invited me to visit his discipleship group. He and six other men meet once a week to grow and challenge each other to become the disciples Jesus called them to be. My time with Jerry’s group was awesome. This is a group of ordinary men who are seeking to become more like Christ. Hearing them share their stories and talk about growing as men of God was worth the trip by itself.

The Mission of Jesus

I sat in this meeting thinking to myself, “What an awesome sight.” Seeing Jerry take disciple making to a location I would probably never go and multiply the mission. Bradenton isn’t necessarily a different nation, but it is another location in the world that needs a movement of multiplication to break out that I don’t have the opportunity myself to reach. But thanks to Jerry’s faithfulness, a movement of multiplication could happen starting with this small group.

As I shared a few thoughts with the group, I challenged them to take what they were learning (and becoming) and share it with others. I challenged them to multiply more disciples and reproduce the life of Christ in others. My challenge to them was to not simply work through the Impact curriculum, but to commit themselves to being disciples and building more disciples. The challenge was to do what Jesus did.

I’m expecting big things to come out of this group, and I am praying for multiple generations of disciples to be the result of a seed that was planted in Jerry. That seed is bearing fruit, and I believe over time it can bear much fruit. I can’t wait to see how God honors one man’s obedience. Keep making disciples, Jerry. It is the mission of Jesus.

By Ken Adams

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By Ken Adams: I am a man who lives by a plan. The truth is, I plan out just about everything. I have an annual life plan. I make a monthly plan, and I try to consistently execute a weekly plan. I know a thing or two about having a plan. I think having a plan is good, but one thing the Lord has taught me is that I need to write my plans in dry erase maker, not permanent marker.

Proverbs 19:21 says,

“Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

Plans and Purpose

The Lord is not against planning. In fact, I believe it is good stewardship and good life management to live by a plan. The point however, is that the Lord’s purpose for your life always trumps your planning. Your plan might need to change in order for the Lord’s purpose to be accomplished. God’s purpose for your life, no matter what it might be, is always better than whatever plan you originally concocted.

I often share with people that when the Lord made it clear to me that I was to further my biblical training by going to seminary, I made a few things clear to Him. I made sure the Lord knew that I did not plan to be a senior pastor. I did not plan to be in a Baptist church, and I did not plan to minister in the South. Guess what happens when you tell the Lord your plans?

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For the last thirty one years, I have been a senior pastor in a Baptist church in the South. “Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that stands.”

I can’t tell you how thankful I am that the Lord’s purpose trumped my plans. The last thirty one years have been the ride of a lifetime and I am so glad that the Lord’s purpose superseded my plans. Going to seminary was a good plan, but the Lord knew I needed to be a pastor in the denomination I grew up in near the town in which I was raised. God knew what I didn’t know and His purpose for me was so much better than my plan.

His Purpose

As you think about your life, I hope you have a plan. I believe the only thing worse than not fulling your plan is never having a plan to start with. I do hope, however, that your plan is not written in permanent marker. Don’t you just hate looking at a dry erase board that has been written on with a permanent marker? A dry erase board with permanent marker never is a mess.

Write out a plan, but write it in a way that the Lord can use it to bring about His purposes about in your life. He is the one you want making things permanent. He is the one you want making the final calls in your life. Write your plans with a dry erase marker so that the Lord can change them and rewrite them with His purpose in mind.

By Ken Adams

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