We all know that ministry moves in seasons. Growth. Recession. Outreach. Rest.

Usually those seasons have well-defined beginning and end points. And you can see the end of it, most of the time, even if it’s buried in layers and layers of work, heartache, and pain.

Take a step back from the season we’re current in, however. We’ve seen great things happening in churches, changes that we all knew should be happening.

Changes to the way we do ministerial work in Church Online.

Changes to the way people perceive the mission and vision of the church as a whole.

It’s been encouraging to see so many people looking to the online medium as not just a “mission field” (not just sending “digital missionaries” into the “brave new world” of digital-ness), but as a legitimate entity for full funding and staffing in our churches.

But how much of that is ACTUAL change? How much of it is our own busy-ness trying to fill the gaps?

And when does this season actually end?

As church leaders, we’re all acutely aware of the saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.” It’s why so many of us ruthlessly eliminate things like free time, family time, and rest time. We innately know (or think we know) that we’re supposed to always be creating, always be striving, always be pushing, always be BEING. Always pushing buttons to make sure that God is glorified.

And the more we work, the more we’re supposed to see Jesus. The more we’re supposed to watch the Spirit at work.

But if you’re like me (and chances are good that you are), you may have reached a plateau in terms of your “seeing.” Jesus, it seems, has left you alone for a little bit. And the Holy Spirit seems to have left you a bit in the dark.

You’ve been pushing buttons and feeling like you’re dying, slowly but surely.

Church leader, I ask you:

Does it feel like Jesus has just NOT shown up in this season of ministry?

Does it feel like you’re just pushing buttons over and over, watching numbers go down (in many cases), feeling helpless?

Does it feel like this season is just bringing despair?

—–

Let me point you to one of my favorite passages in the Bible: John 11.

Yes, the famous John 11.  The one where Jesus weeps.

If you read the story, in context, a friend of Jesus dies, Lazarus. And when He hears of it, He states that, “It is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it,” in verse 4.

And, of course, He goes running off to the village to heal Lazarus, right? He shows up immediately to save the day with a big S on His chest?

No. He stays away. For 2 more days.

Wait. What? It says right there in the text that Jesus “loves” Lazarus and his crew.

But…He stays for 2 more days?! And only THEN does He come and raise Lazarus back to life?

That’s not love!

—–

This passage is used often in pastor-dom, as an illustration on how much He hates sin and death, to how He was truly trying to show His mastery over death by letting Lazarus lay dead for 4 days instead of 3, and on and on.

The point I’m drawing from this one?

Jesus knows our season. He knows that it feels like we’re wrapped in a season that’s never going to end.

And maybe He’s staying away, allowing you to push buttons and become more and more tired, because He’s waiting to say the same thing He said to Lazarus:

“Come out.”

Come out of the old, cold, and dead.

Come out of the grave of where you were living before.

Come out of the tomb full of old ideas, old constructs…old life.

Come into new life.

—–

Maybe God is using this time of renewed church engagement to break apart social media algorithms and flood the Internet with messages of hope, Christ, and love.

Maybe Jesus is waiting for the grave clothes to truly be wrapped around us so that we better appreciate the churches we are a part of now…and so that we can truly appreciate the next steps we will take as Gospel carriers with that church.

Maybe the Holy Spirit is going to show up in a mighty way and empower our efforts as ministers of His Gospel with renewed vigor and vision.

Maybe our loving and gracious Father is spending an extra 2 days away from us in this season so that, when He says, “Come out,” our new ministries look radically different.

This season you’re in right now may seem interminable, but trust me (and trust Lazarus), Jesus will call time on this at some point, and we’ll be able to look back at the old linen strips we were wrapped in and realize that we were truly trapped in an old season.

I’m praying for you and your ministry today, church leader. This season will end, eventually, and we’ll be better for it.

In the meantime?

Keep on pushing those buttons.

Source: John 11: Lazarus & Enduring this COVID Season

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By: The Church.Digital

One of the greatest pushbacks against church online is that an online church cannot provide authentic discipleship because it is not authentic community. Though I will save the authentic community argument for another post, I want to make the case here that you can provide authentic discipleship in an online environment. In fact, the same components that create healthy discipleship in person are the same components to create healthy disciples online. If you are struggling with the concept of discipleship in an online community or how to make disciples in your meeting time online, here are six components to help you establish a discipleship culture.

Shepherding

Shepherding is too often reserved for pastors and not lay people. Yet, the concept of shepherding is simply to care for other believers, often those you have been entrusted to lead. Though you may not be able to hug someone online, you can still shepherd them effectively. Caring for other believers does not require to be with them in person. If someone is having financial troubles, send them some cash via Paypal or Venmo. If someone is having a difficult week, encourage them through prayer and scripture in text or messaging. If someone is facing big life decisions, provide wise counsel and fast and pray with them. 

Accountability

After focusing on shepherding, transition to accountability. Accountability consists of holding each other to obedience in our walk with Christ. Of course, this can mean asking someone who struggles with sexual sin how they have been doing, or utilizing online tools like Accountable2You to help. This also includes setting goals together (see number four) and holding each other to those goals that are being set. Use this time to ask about each other’s prayer life, their time in the word, and sin issues that can be holding someone back from an abundant life in Christ.

Worship

This one may be the trickiest. Of course, you can play a song on youtube and sing together. If you are musically inclined, feel free to play and sing together. However, this could also be something as simple as asking a question like: “What is your favorite attribute of God and why?” or “Tell me something that God did in your life this past week that you are grateful for?” Any act that draws our gaze and attention toward God is worship, so be creative. Note that this comes after accountability. If someone has had a hard week with accountability, it is important to immediately draw their eyes to Jesus for hope and to prevent shame and guilt that surfaces from sin.

Study the Word

Too often, we only study the word in our discipleship meetings, foregoing all the other things I mention in this post. However, time in the word should still be at the center of discipleship. The key to disicpling in the word is to come to the Bible with an obedience-based approach rather than a knowledge-based approach. In other words, we read the Bible to know God and to obey him through what we read, not to learn new things alone without concern for obedience. For Bible study, I highly recommend the Discovery Bible Study. It is the most adaptable approach to studying the Bible I know of, is obedience-driven, and is centered around a community approach rather than an individualistic approach.

Set Goals

After reading the Bible, the most important step is to take what has been understood and apply it to our lives in specific ways. Often, we use application in abstract ways by saying, “I just want to love God more.” That’s a great desire, but that is not a goal. A goal would be to spend thirty minutes in prayer every day for the next week, or to read 1 John once a day for the next week. In my groups, I use the acronym C.O.S.T to guide us in goal setting.

C – How will I Connect to God this week?

O – How will I Obey God this week?

S – Who will I Share the Gospel with this week?

T – What other Christian can I Train this week?

It is important that the leader provide a way for these goals to be made public to the group as these goals serve as a prayer guide for each other throughout the week and a chance to see how things are going as we seek to meet our spiritual goals. It is also important that the leader set goals as well and invite the group to hold him/her accountable.

Commission the Group

After setting goals and recording them, the leader ought to cast vision and commission them out into their communities. At the end of every group, we consider the Great Commission and remind each other that there is a real mission with high stakes that Jesus gave us to complete, and that is what we are being sent out to.

Disclaimer:

You may notice that prayer is not one of the six components. That is on purpose. Rather than making prayer a section during the time a group has together, I recommend making prayer center to every section. How can you shepherd each other without prayer? How can you determine what goals God would have you set without prayer? How can we understand the Word without prayer? Prayer ought to be in the ebb and flow of the group meeting rather than just one section.

These six components of a small group will create disciples online or in-person. For more resources like these, please visit http://t4tonline.org/ and https://noplaceleft.net/four-fields/.

Source: 6 Components of Authentic Discipleship that Work Online

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By: The Church.Digital

I’ve been gardening for 9 years, and every year our garden grows bigger. This pandemic year meant we spent even more time in our garden, and my wife harvested a child’s wagon full of vegetables just this evening. My wife and I host a podcast where we talk about our garden week-by-week this year. That podcast and COVID-19 have given me the chance to think hard about lessons from my garden and how that applies to ministry in our current context. Here are 3 things I’m thinking about regarding gardening and ministry:

1. Pay Close Attention to the Soil.

My best gardening happens in our raised beds where we control most of what happens in the soil and can track changes.

This is our fourth summer in this house, our previous houses we only lived and gardened in them for two and three years. This year I’m learning that gardening depends on the soil. You can manage your way around the need to develop your soil by starting with raised beds, but eventually, you have to start working on your soil.

This year I noticed two side-by-side beds where one is producing bountifully, the other is limping along. When we took some time to think about it, we realized that the one doing really well has manure from a local dairy farm that has aged in a pile next to our shed, the other box has “compost and manure” bought in a bag from a big box store. The soil is what made the difference.

Working on the soil is a long process that you have to start long in advance, you might start with making your own compost, finding a farmer friend to give you manure that you can let age in a pile, etc. It takes work, planning, and patience, there is no easy route to developing your soil. If you don’t prepare and develop the soil, then you will struggle to grow anything.

How does this apply to ministry?

Some things in ministry are a slow process. They take preparation long in advance. “Sunday’s always coming” tends to be my attitude, but some things need more time to marinate. It is really easy in this current season to be rushing from one thing to the next and just try to get through the week or through the next milestone, but we should stop to think about what the “soil” of our ministry is that will help us grow.

For me, personal growth is some of the “soil” that needs work now. I’m coming off a hard year. People, conflict, and leadership challenges combined with a breakneck pace left me destroyed. Something that alarmed me was when I realized that I stopped learning and developing because I was so busy with hard and urgent matters. Learning and developing is the “soil” of my leadership. We have to put in the work in advance to prepare for future growth.

2. Keep Planting Seeds.

In years past, I farmed like an industrial farmer. I planted once, and then hoped that the success of the garden would last me all year. This year, I plan to plant more seeds every week. I ask every weekend, ”What can I plant?” I have to plan to plant or I can easily ignore it and think that this isn’t the time. I’ve learned that what doesn’t get planted doesn’t grow. So I focus on how and when to plant more.

One of my priorities this year has been to use whatever space and time that I have to grow more things. Whenever I have an open space, it is easy to plant more fast growing vegetables like lettuce, arugula, peas, or beans. Right now, I’m preparing to plant Brussels Sprouts and spinach because they prefer summer-to-fall weather.

The reality is that every seed doesn’t grow. I often plant two seeds in one hole just in case. With things like carrots and mesclun mix, I cannot predict which seeds will grow and which will never germinate. So to make up for that, I keep planting.

Jesus talked about planting seeds in the parable of the sower in Luke 8. The reality of our job in ministry is that we don’t know which seeds will grow. We don’t know who and when someone will take their next step of growth with Jesus. Our job is not to figure out how to engineer growth in a few people. Our job is to sow seeds and watch to see the results.

What does this mean for us in phygital ministry?

We need to be sowing the seeds that we want to see grow. We probably don’t plant enough seeds in our ministry.

In a phygital church world, I want to apply this to digital ad campaigns. For me, digital ad campaigns are like a modern day sowing of seed. We don’t know who is out there that needs to hear our message of hope and freedom, so we’re going to spread it far and wide. It is too easy for me to get bogged down into getting the ad campaign right and targeting correctly, but maybe targeting incorrectly is the seed that needs to be sown. Instead of targeting a few people perfectly, maybe we want to target all of the people around us imperfectly because we don’t know who is ready to hear the good news of Jesus.

A woman in our community came to Christ recently beginning with our church’s digital presence. One of her family members, living out of state, looked to find a church in our area. He connected with us digitally and then connected us with her physically, giving me the chance to share the gospel with her, and walk with her as she responded. That story is the result of us digitally sowing seed over a period of years. We didn’t know which seeds would pay off. So we kept scattering.

3. Gardening is Always Solar-Work.

This year, I’m marveling at the work of the sun to grow plants.

A couple of years ago, I taught my kids some science for their school and felt like I saw with new eyes the energy systems that turn sunlight into stored energy in the plants. When I walk through our garden now, I marvel at how they are turning beams from a distant star into structures that we can use and eat. I pay attention to when each part of my yard gets sun in the morning and when the they are in the shade in the afternoon or evening. When we have too many overcast days, I begin to worry about the health of the plants because they need sunlight to grow and develop. I think about how too much sun can cause some plants to grow too fast and turn bitter so maybe we need to set up shade cloth.

There is much to do in gardening like developing soil, weeding, watering, fertilizing, watching for pests, etc. All that work is for nothing, though, if there is no sun to shine on them. All our gardening work does not grow plants. The sun grows plants.

I’m writing this for ministry leaders, but we easily forget that ministry is a spiritual work. We easily have plans and methods and systems and strategies, but all growth is from God. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 blatantly says this same thing, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (ESV).

Just as the sun is the big deal in plant growth, the Spirit’s work is the big deal in our church growth. Do we do phygital church like it is a spiritual work? Do we do all the important work that needs to be done while keeping in mind that we desperately need the face of God to shine on us and our communities?

I want to be aware in my own ministry that I need the face and work of God in my life and ministry, just like my garden needs the sun.

Source: Gardening and the Phygital Church

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The Church.Digital: Due to COVID-19 churches have been looking for ways to move their online church experience from streaming to a more engaging and relevant worship experience. During this pandemic, the church was confronted with the fact that the overall church experience would not be able to rely on the creative delivery methods of the past. On-stage special elements, enhanced sound, intentional transitions on stage from music to message…you get the idea. These things, which are great things by the way, allow people to experience the message in a very different way. They provide a REAL experience, not only by listening or watching through a screen but also through appealing to three of our basic senses: sight, sound and touch. They are simply ALL GONE. Today, we are challenged to provide this overall experience through the screen of TVs, computers and mobile devices.

There is one thing that remains from our pre-Covid-19 worship experience. Content. The same content that we used to deliver every Sunday that appealed to all those senses, is the same content that we are using today. I believe we are finding new ways to engage with our audience and through engagement, we are leading people to commit to God and His Kingdom more than ever.

Online engagement is necessary, but should not be our final goal. Our goal is to lead people to a point of commitment to God. Here are the top 3 commitments we can already see happening through the online church experience:

1. Commitment to God

People are focused on the message. It is now available to them 24/7. They do not have to wait for Sunday, and can choose a time where they are able to devote their time to the message. People have access to daily Godly content more than ever before, and we need to continue to invite people into a relationship with Him during every opportunity we have. There are always people seeking Him for the first time, or even after reconciliation. Either way, we need to make it easy for people to feel connected. We do this by making ourselves available through different channels to talk, pray and receive confession.

2. Commitment to Discipleship

I see more and more people asking for resources to grow closer to God, and becoming more like a disciple of Christ that we are called to be. By engaging with your audience through relational discipleship on online platforms, you allow attendees to experience God and each other, through community in a more meaningful way.

3. Commitment to Make Disciples

The next natural step for a disciple of Christ is to make disciples. We need to increase the commitment in our churches to drive disciples to GO and MAKE.

When it comes to the online church experience we have one thing we can count on to drive people from watching to engaging, and from engaging to committed followers of Christ. That is content, and content alone. I do not think this principle is exclusive to the online church experience. As we start to consider going back to holding worship experiences in our buildings, we need a fresh look at how we can turn the great content we are currently creating, and apply our creativity to be more intentional on how we make our experience with God more relevant to everyone who may come to both physical and digital churches. Again, our goal is to guide people to see Him through everything we do, not us. By seeing Him we will be part of a plan that will multiply disciples of Christ like never before.

Source: From Engagement to Commitment

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Let’s offer ourselves up to be pruned and be amazed at the fruit the Vine produces.

by The Church.Digital: For as long as I can remember, I have had very vivid dreams. Some are so out there that when I wake up, it’s easy to remember they weren’t real (case in point: the recurring dream I used to have about hair, where one bunch of hair had kidnapped another bunch of hair). But there are others that take me a few minutes to shake out of when I awaken, that stick with me for hours or a full day and make me eye Trevor or other loved ones with a touch of suspicion.

Tonight as I was putting the older boys to bed, I started to drift off while laying next to Branch. I must have started dreaming because when I jolted awake I felt disoriented, and for a few moments, I wondered if this whole pandemic had been a dream. There was a split second where I thought about trying to describe it to Trevor (“It was crazy! Everything was shut down including schools, and we started buying fashion face masks on Etsy and having drive by birthday parties. So weird.”)

But of course, it hasn’t been a dream. We are starting week ten of this reality and I find that the further and further along we go, the more and more rebellious I get to the whole idea. Not the idea of doing our duty by loving other people well – but the idea that life is different now. I’m terrified that Branch’s first experience of pre-k and Abbott’s of 1st grade will be online. That somehow Trevor and I will be expected to keep living in 1,000 square feet with our three children, using our limited space to eat, play, rest, learn, work, grow.

This weekend, I got the chance to speak at church on the idea of abiding in Jesus – of just being with Him. This includes things like reading the Bible and praying – all the Christian practices that have become cliches because there is truth in how valuable they are in drawing close to Jesus. But one of the parts of the passage was, “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Right now feels like a time of pruning. Maybe that’s short-sighted in light of the terrible truth of starvation and economic collapse and loss of life. I’m not saying that what we’ve suffered compares to any of that. But that it’s still a suffering, still a challenge – still a time of pruning. And if we’re being pruned, it’s to grow. It’s because the farmer looks at the branches and goes, “There’s more that branch can produce, but only if I cut it back first.”

I don’t know how much extra fruit I’ve produced these last few weeks. I don’t know if it’s any, to be honest. But the fact is, this isn’t over yet. No matter how many restrictions are lifted, this is still not over. The shears are still at the twigs, cutting, slicing, tearing apart in an effort to free up room for better, purer, real-er things to grow.

There is still time. Of course, there is always time – every day of our lives is a new day to grow and change, etc. etc. etc. I know. But this pandemic has given us an unasked for, indefinite swath of time to offer our branches up to the Farmer and say, “Go for it.”

So I’m glad this has not been a dream. I’m not glad it’s real – but I am glad that the harvest hasn’t been collected, the pruning is not done, the fruit is not counted. Two months ago, I wrote, “What a waste of an imposed pause, to be exactly the same when the button is released as I was when it was pushed.” That was on Day Two. We’re now on Day 62, and I find myself back in that place, echoing that same sentiment. I don’t want to leave this, two weeks, two months, or two years from now the same as when I started.

But the best part of John 15, where God tells us we are being pruned to grow, is the promise – that He abides in us. We are not alone. We are not asked (or expected) to do any of this of our own strength. The vine is our source, and we are the branches. Our only task is to stay firmly connected to it so our lives can show the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, and goodness.

So, as ever, onward. Let’s offer ourselves up to be pruned and be amazed at the fruit the Vine produces.

Source: Pruned to Grow During This Season

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by Rich Birch: Questions have a curious function in the life of a leader. A good question can often propel us forward more than a great answer. Our roles in leading our churches requires us to not only work in our ministry but to also take a step back and work on our ministry. That means that from time to time we need to step back and ask questions that we don’t normally ask about our ministry.

I know this can be hard to do during the weekly crunch of getting our services organized, caring for our community, and completing all the various tasks that we are called to do in our churches. To help you start conversations with your leadership team around the development of your church, I’ve put together this list of ten questions that I hope will help guide you to a deeper conversation, even if they’re just a jump-off point to new questions that might stir in you.

What’s happening this weekend at your church that’s compelling enough for people to drive to it?

We’re living in an increasingly isolated age. More than ever, people are experiencing the world from a virtual point of view. There was a time when you needed to actually get in a car and come over to a church if you wanted to hear great teaching or experience incredible worship music. These days, anyone who wants to learn and worship can simply download podcasts or connect via Facebook Live.

What is it that we’re doing that would invite people to walk away from their screens and actually interact face-to-face? I’m still a firm believer in the gathered body of Christ. I do think that there is something powerful about people getting together and worshiping and learning together. Not only are we living in an age where people are increasingly connected digitally, but for the first time since the advent of the car we are seeing an annual decline of people’s willingness to drive in their vehicles. [ref]

This presents a challenge since most of our ministries are based on the notion that people will drive across town to come to our churches this weekend. Your church needs to do things that transcend both the screen and are powerful enough to encourage people to get in their cars and come visit you.

Would you attend your church if you weren’t a paid staff member?

This is a convicting question for me. I can say there are weekends here and there that, if I’m honest, I’m not sure I’d attend church if I wasn’t being paid. Those days are usually in the middle of the summer when it’s super nice out, and I look out and think, “Wow, it would be great to go to the beach today.” However, over the long arc of my ministry I’ve been proud to serve in the churches that I have. I feel bad for people who serve in churches that they’re not excited to be a part of.

This question is as probing as it is a bit disturbing as it could reveal a betrayal in our hearts. If you’re in a place where you wouldn’t attend your church if you weren’t being paid to be there, I’d encourage you to reach out to friends for help and see if there’s a way to restore your passion for the mission to which God has called your church.

What is your succession plan?

Recently I was talking to an elderly church leader about the future of their church. While I found his energy and desire to keep reaching out and impacting the community inspiring, I was concerned because this leader didn’t seem to understand that his days in ministry were numbered. Many church leaders continue to work far beyond a date they maybe should in order to push the ministry forward. But the success of your church relies on you not only having a successor but the people who report to you having successors. Are the people on your team the kind of people who could end up replacing you (even with a short or long-term development plan)? What about the people that report to them? Succession plans need to not only cover an immediate, tragic situation but they need to work for the long term in order to move your leadership on to the next generation.

How is your church systematically increasing people’s generosity?

Finding ways to encourage your people to give generously to the mission is an important function of senior leadership in every church. In fact, in some circles it would be considered a normal part of your role to spend between 20-30% of your week thinking through how you’re encouraging people to be good stewards of what God has given them. The reality is that your ministry will function more effectively when your people’s generosity is increasing. Build the future of your church by finding ways to increase generosity such as:

Offering talks
Holding year-end campaigns
Launching major capital initiatives

A good long-term goal would be to grow your generosity at a faster rate than the growth of your church. This will create a flywheel effect that will ultimately help your church reach more people.

If your church closed its doors today, would anyone in town notice?

I recall a conversation I had years ago with a friend in the ministry. We had announced that we were launching a new campus for our multisite church in a new location. My friend said that his dream for our church was to see home values increase in that community simply because the value of our church was so widely recognized that our new campus would reflect in the financial value of those homes.

How is your church making a difference? How are you getting people out of their seats and into the streets? Prevailing churches are not just drawing people in to their big buildings, but they are also moving people out of those buildings and into the streets to serve the last, least, and lost of their communities.

Who are the young leaders that you are irrationally trusting to lead parts of the ministry?

Chances are, if you’re reading this and you’re reflecting on your own leadership, that there were leaders with seniority who irrationally trusted you with a portion of the ministry early on in your development. In fact, you know that they had no business passing on what they did to you. However, because they did your leadership developed, and you were able to make a difference and grow as a leader. Now it’s your turn to find young leaders to hand whole portions of the ministry over to; this is how we pass the ministry on to the next generation. If you want to move up, you’re going to have to give up. There are things that you’re doing that you frankly need to pass on to other people.

What reasons do your people give their friends about why they should attend your church?

Understanding what is unique about your church can be a difficult thing. I often think that we have a certain amount of nose blindness when it comes to our own churches; we see our church in the way we want to see it, rather than how our community sees it. One way to find an honest perspective on what sets your group apart is to learn what your people say when they invite their friends to come to your church.

Whatever it is that people are talking about is what your church should double down on and invest in more. What your people tell their friends about is most likely a unique aspect of your ministry that God is using! Understanding this uniqueness is vitally important as we look to make a difference in our community.

What is it you do that only you can do?

You’re probably doing too much. In fact, there’s probably a large portion of your to-do list this week that you simply should not be working on. You need to delegate. Chances are there’s about 20% of what you do that returns 80% of your results. My friend Carey Nieuwhof encourages people to focus 80% of their time on that 20% thing that brings 80% of the results.

Stop trying to do everything. Pick your best piece and run with that. Hand everything else off, delegate, or just let stuff fall off the plate. As you find what you’re called to do, improve at that, and exercise those gifts, you’d be amazed to what God will do in your church.

How can your church increase its evaluation culture?

Churches that make a difference don’t shy away from asking, “What are we doing well? And where do we need to grow?” Learning cultures within churches are at the very core of how God is driving those churches to be more effective.

It all starts by asking. Survey your team regularly and ask for feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. Encouraging every team member—whether they’re staff or volunteer—not to shy away from giving, receiving, or seeking feedback will develop the kind of culture that will help your church take steps forward. Our churches are simply not going to be more effective if we’re not able or willing to look at what we’re doing squarely in the face. Understand it and evaluate what’s working and what’s not.

Another part of an evaluation culture includes seeing metrics for what they are. Rather than just investigating how we feel about things we need to ask, “What numbers are telling us what is working effectively?”

Where is your church investing in research and development?

All of our churches need to have an R&D department or an area where we’re trying new things—things that we’re not sure are going to work. Maybe you’ll try:

An innovative new way to do announcements
New ways of inviting people in your community
A new social media platform
Experimenting with getting more people connected into groups

As we’re learning to take steps and try out things that may potentially fail, we’ll learn how to become more flexible as an organization. It has the potential to lead us to innovations that could change the world. When we look around at other church leaders who have gone before us, we see that we were able to benefit from their innovations. They were willing to try new things and make mistakes along the way of the trying process.

Bonus: Where are we looking for new inspiration?

Finally, being the kind of leader that’s open to questions is important for you as we go into the future. 94% of all churches in our country are losing ground against the growth of the communities they’re in. We need to stop looking at the models in front of us and instead look around for the new things that are happening.

It all comes down to putting yourself in contact with people who maybe aren’t from your immediate tribe or denomination. Look at the various approaches that God seems to be using; ask yourself what is it that is working there and how you could apply those lessons.

That’s a part of the reason why we do our weekly podcasts at unSeminary because we want to expose you to leaders in prevailing ministries. In so doing, we’re hoping it will provoke you to think differently about what you do and to take actions in a new direction.

Finally, bringing in an outside coach or outside voices to help your team get some perspective on ministry can be a vitally important function in painting a clearer picture of what’s happening within your church. Taking time to listen to people who are a bit farther down the road can give you clarity. Finding places and people who are willing to ask you questions that no one else is asking will ultimately help you and your church be stronger. What questions are you asking these days?

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Source: 10 Questions Church Leaders Should Be Asking (But Probably Aren’t) – unSeminary

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