By: Carey Nieuwhof

You’ve probably learned a lot about yourself in the last year.

Crisis does that to you. Crisis isn’t just an accelerator, it’s a revealer, showing you some surprising things about yourself—some good, some not so good.

Since COVID struck, church leaders have seen more than a few addictions, wants and preferences revealed.

At this point, with only half of churches re-opened, and with most re-opened churches experiencing low attendance numbers compared to pre-COVID, it may be wise to take stock of what we’ve learned so far.

You never know how much you love something until it’s taken away. And for church leaders, some of our most dearly held ways of doing church were snatched away overnight.

Despite the fact that church leaders claim that the church never closed, many behaved like it did, bemoaning what was lost and racing to get back.

Despite the fact that church leaders claim that the church never closed, many behaved like it did, bemoaning what was lost and racing to get back.

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As the culture becomes more and more digital, mobile and home-centered (think work, school, shopping and more), the church needs to respond to keep reaching people.

If the people you’re trying to reach change, your strategy needs to change with them. Otherwise, you lose touch and become irrelevant. And while the Gospel is never irrelevant in a fast-moving culture, outdated models of church get old, fast.

If the church is going to thrive in the future, here are 5 addictions church leaders need to overcome.

While the Gospel is never irrelevant in a fast-moving culture, outdated models of church get old, fast.

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1. Buildings

Probably the first dependency to be revealed by the crisis is how facility-centric most approaches to ministry have been.

For a lot of pastors, losing access to a building felt like losing access to their ministry.

If you look at the filter through which almost all ministry has been run for decades (or centuries) it’s this: ministry happens in a central facility where people gather.

A very good question to ask is ‘why’?

For a lot of pastors, losing access to a building felt like losing access to their ministry. You have to ask why.

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While I completely agree the church needs to gather in person as well as online, gathering can happen in homes, smaller venues and a whole variety of places. The emerging idea that a church can be a church with hundreds or thousands of locations (i.e. peoples’ homes) is a really liberating idea.

While we’ll need facilities in the future, the idea that for ministry to happen it needs to take place in a public building officiated by church staff feels increasingly restrictive and anachronistic.

I’m not suggesting we should move to the house church movement as it’s existed in North American, which are disproportionately filled with insider-focused, disgruntled Christians who actively resist affiliating with others, but I do think it’s worth rethinking a more distributed and released church that can be more effective at reaching friends, neighbors, co-workers and communities.

In 2020, if coming to Christ means coming to your church in a set location and a set hour, you need a new strategy.

In 2020, if coming to Christ means coming to your church in a set location and a set hour, you need a new strategy.

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2. Packed Rooms

Look, I’ll lead with a confession here. I love packed rooms. Packed rooms at church. Packed rooms when I’m speaking somewhere.

I’ve spoken to empty rooms and to full rooms, and I’ll take a full room any time.

There’s a bit of a thrill when you run out of seats and people are standing at the back or sitting on the floor.

And, yes, those of us who love that kind of thing know exactly where you need to take the picture (from the back of the room) to make the room look even fuller than it is in real life.

And you know what the ugly underbelly of that is? Ego. (See point 3 below).

Look, I get it. Communicating without a crowd is a different art and science than communicating in front of a crowd. And there’s something about a sermon that gets richer when you’re interacting with real people. Sermons are more than just content drops.

But packed rooms don’t always mean full impact.

What if God’s plan for your church is bigger than the size of your room? What if the number of people you’re called to reach don’t fit in a room, no matter what size room you build?

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

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

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3. Our Own Egos

Okay so I guess this is turning into a confession post.

Ego is a real struggle for most of us in leadership.

Some leader’s pride springs from narcissism. Far more leaders grow proud because of insecurity than by narcissism.

I know…you’re thinking…but I’m insecure. I feel bad about myself.

How can that be pride?

Well, if pride is an obsession with self, then (surprisingly) insecure people qualify as proud. After all, insecurity makes you think about you all the time.

So let’s play that into this moment. The future is so uncertain, and so foreign. And you’re asking yourself

Do I have what it takes to lead into tomorrow?

All my gifts and skills have been honed to work for what was, not for the future that’s emerging.

If I can get us back to where we were, I’ll feel good about myself again. 

You know what that is, right? Sure. It’s your ego. That’s all about you, not the mission.

As a Christian leader, you know that self is something you need to die to.

I have to die to self daily, hourly. Minute by minute.

But on the other side is a trust that is the only thing that can supplant the fear of the deep unknown.

When you die to yourself, something greater rises.

When you die to yourself, something greater rises.

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4. Budgets and Staffing Centered in the Last Era

If you want to see someone’s idols, just look at their bank account and calendar. Regardless of what you say publicly, your bank account and calendar reveal what you really value (and what you don’t).

The same is true for churches.

Look at most church budgets though, and try to find some line items related to digital ministry. You’ll come up empty-handed.

The vast majority of churches spend 99% of their staffing dollars on in-person gatherings.

Outreach and ministry online is usually tagged onto someone’s job description as an afterthought (if it’s listed at all), and the budget for digital ministry usually has to be scrounged from other line items.

The point here is that’s probably not a wise 21st-century strategy.

Increasingly, this will be the year many churches realize you can’t have a massive impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing resources on it.

The internet is the venue in which the entire community you are trying to reach lives. If you want to reach them there, spending 1% of your resources on it is likely not the smartest strategy.

Do you know of any church near you that’s spending 30% of its resources to reach people online?

Didn’t think so.

And we wonder why we don’t see more direct results from online outreach.

Mystery solved.

It’s hard to have a massive impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing and budget on it.

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5. Creating Your Own Truth

So many leaders have started spinning their own truth.

As a former President of the United States once said, “In my presidency, people were entitled to their own opinion. They were not entitled to their own facts.”

It seems pastors are increasingly falling for creating their own facts in this post-truth era. It’s so strange that church leaders who profess adherence to truth try to create their own truth when they don’t like the facts they’re facing.

It’s so strange that church leaders who profess adherence to truth try to create their own truth when they don’t like the facts they’re facing.

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You can’t make up truth, but we try.

I’ve had so many pastors tell me “Well, the coronavirus just isn’t an issue here” when thousands of people in their state are hospitalized.

I’ve had others tell me that people will return to church in droves, when the evidence points in the other direction. (Look, I hope they’re correct. I’m just not holding my breath. Here’s why.)

Truth is hard.

But wise leaders don’t deny the truth. The smartest leaders realize their approach isn’t working and adapt.

The more you deny reality, the crueler reality is to you.

Just ask anyone who went bankrupt or whose spouse walked on them because she just couldn’t handle being treated that way anymore.

The truth is your friend. Even the truth you don’t like. Especially the truth you don’t like.

The truth is your friend. Even the truth you don’t like. Especially the truth you don’t like.

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You Don’t Go As Far As Your Dream. You Go As Far As Your Team.

It’s never been more important for your organization to hit your goals. It’s also never been more difficult.

As Dharius Daniels says, you don’t go as far as your dream, you go as far as your team.

Lead a Better Team is my brand new, online, on-demand course that gives you a step-by-step strategy to:

Get far better results with the same team
Create a system of accountability so you can actually achieve the goals you set; and
Boost the performance of your staff so you can stop micromanaging

All the while freeing up time for you to do what you do best.

The best part? You’ll learn how you can do this even if you’re leading a virtual team.

Get instant access to Lead a Better Team here, and take your team to the next level.

Any Other Addictions? 

As hard as all this is, there’s a brighter future ahead if we embrace it.

What do you see?

Any other addictions you see or you’re weaning yourself off?

The post 5 Addictions Pastors Need To Overcome (To Grow Their Church In the Future) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Addictions Pastors Need To Overcome (To Grow Their Church In the Future)

The post 5 Addictions Pastors Need To Overcome (To Grow Their Church In the Future) appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: UnSeminary

In this season, many churches have been stalled by their plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations are thriving and making an impact. 94% of all churches in the country are losing ground against the communities they serve. That means that if this trend continues, the message of Jesus will in turn lose ground in cities across the country. Is there a way for churches to combine forces and draw on each other’s strengths to increase the impact of the message of Jesus? 

While 2020 has presented challenges for some churches, it has offered unique opportunities for others. This might be the perfect year for your church to consider a church merger to drive the message of Jesus forward! 

In some ways, the pressure of coronavirus and the resulting economic fallout is simply accelerating changes that already existed before this crisis came into play. While it’s still too early to gain a statistical analysis on exactly what’s happening, it does seem like churches that were struggling before coronavirus continue to struggle now at an even deeper level because of debt and leadership issues. On the other hand, churches that are thriving are using this season to reach new people, expand their influence and ultimately see more people get connected with the message of Jesus. 

I believe there’s no better time than today for your church to consider being a part of a merger.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of churches involved in mergers. Joining churches are those looking to combine their ministry with a stronger church to further their mission. Lead churches are churches with more momentum that are looking to potentially adopt or rebirth another church. 

I’ve been a part of multiple church mergers. In my experience, something incredible happens in the heart of a leader when they connect with the bigger vision of what God is doing and ultimately work together with other believers to see the mission of Jesus grow. It’s humbling to see what takes place in a church as it turns around to pursue that mission. 

3 Reasons this is a Great Season to be a Joining Church

Your Mission is Bigger Than the Troubles COVID-19 Brought 

Why did God start your church? 

What was the original vision behind why the church started? 

What is it that has animated your church for all these years? 

That mission is so much bigger than any troubles brought on by this current crisis. The missional drive to connect with people and to care for your community is bigger than the problems that your church is facing. 

If you and your leaders are not sure what step to take next because of the pressure that COVID has put on your church, then this is a perfect season to consider becoming a joining church. 

Now is the time for you and your leadership to ask the question, “What other churches have a similar heart as us and have a similar mission that we could potentially join with?”

This could be the time for your church to consider joining a lead church in order to pursue the mission that God has given you.

If it’s just financial resources and leadership that’s holding you back, then maybe the answer for you is to join with a lead church. Before you consider closing or any other drastic measures, consider joining with another church in this season.

Pastoring People Means Making Tough Calls

You know that you started leading in the local church to make a difference. Over the years, you’ve had to make a lot of tough calls. 

The pastoral leaders in joining churches are some of the bravest leaders I’ve ever seen. It takes a lot of internal drive and gumption to lead your church through the experience of dying in order to be reborn and rebirthed, to be a part of a resurrection of the church.

You’ve been caring for and loving these people. Now is the time to create the kind of structure that will ensure that the ministry will continue on, albeit in a different form, for years to come. This will be a tough call, but you’re used to caring for people in tough ways.

Others Have Gone Before You

If you’re considering becoming a joining church in this season, you should reach out to other leaders in churches that have been a part of a merge to learn about their experience.

(If you’re looking for some personal references, reach out to me. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.)

The reality is that church mergers are becoming increasingly normalized across the country as joining churches like yours consider how to continue the mission in a new form in their communities. We’ve seen time and again how these mergers, when done right with thoughtful, caring leaders like yourself, can ultimately produce more fruit and help churches reach even more people. 

You can be confident that if you walk through this in a measured and caring way with the right lead church, you will see an acceleration of your mission, not a deceleration.

4 Reasons Lead Churches Should Accelerate Merger Plans

The Big-C Church is Bigger than Your Church

Your church is a great outpost of the kingdom of God and maybe over the last few years, you’ve seen increased effectiveness. You’ve been reaching people and seeing them get connected to your church. You’ve found a way to communicate that seems to resonate within your culture. That’s great, but the Church is bigger than your individual local church. 

God is already at work in the communities around you and there are churches that could use your help. Although your church might have a lot to offer as a lead church, joining churches have much to bring to the table as well. They bring length of service in a community. They bring deep relationships. They bring the ability to localize the ministry in a way that you may not be able to if you just launched another campus in that location. 

The Church is bigger than yours.

God is Already at Work There 

The amazing thing that I’ve seen time and again in these merger scenarios is that God has been laying the foundation for them long before the lead churches get engaged.

Oftentimes we see joining churches who have tried multiple things over many years to reach their community. For whatever reason, those efforts are not bearing the fruit that the team in the joining church was finding satisfactory. Maybe God was leading them through that process so they would come to the decision to join your church. 

We know that many joining churches have been trying different things in an effort to reach out to people, but those things may not be working or resonating. Today would be an incredible time for you to begin connecting with churches that could potentially want to join you. But remember, God has already done an amazing thing in that community. He’s been at work there for a long time. 

The work of God doesn’t begin when you open a church. You get the opportunity to join with him and partner with what he’s already doing.

Don’t Let False Humility Slow Your Church Down

Can we be honest for a minute?

I think the best church leaders to lead these merger scenarios are the ones who have a real sense of humility. The ones that aren’t sure why another church would want to join them in the endeavor. However, that can sometimes bleed over into a false humility that ultimately limits your church’s ability to reach more people. 

If your church is growing and making a difference, I believe God may be calling you to be a lead church in this season. What you’re experiencing at your church is different than what is happening in other churches across the country. You have something different to offer to the body of Christ, and this could be your next step.

However, if you pull back and hesitate to lead out of a sense of false humility, you may actually limit the work that God wants to do through you. He could be calling you to be a part of what he’s doing to make a difference in this new community.

Let’s be honest, it’s God that’s at work in your church, not you. It’s his work. So why not try to see your role in the spread of his work into new communities?

Your Community and Their Community Need Thriving Churches

The good, hard work that will have to be done in your heart, leadership, systems and approaches in order to merge will honor the Lord and ultimately help grow his plans for your community and beyond! 

Taking time to actually love the joining church leadership and their community will have a profound impact on you as a lead church. Take time to think through what it would look like to translate your church into a different community and think through the systems that will be needed to move the mission forward.

We know that a minority of churches are in the same position as yours. Your community, and the community of the joining church, need more thriving churches.

2020 is a perfect year to think about merging. 

Do you want to dive deep and get more information on church mergers? 

Thousands of churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces and draw on each other’s strengths in ways that also increase their missional impact?

Join us for a free webinar designed to help your church: 

Wednesday, August 12th, 2020, 1:00 – 1:45pm (EDT)

We will be joined by two leading experts in church mergers: 

Warren Bird // Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Vice President of Research and Equipping at ECFA.org (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Previously, he held the position of Research Director at Leadership Network. He is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading researchers of megachurches, multisite churches, large church compensation and high-visibility pastoral succession.Jim Tomberlin // Over four decades of diverse ministry, Jim has pastored churches in New Mexico and Germany, grown a megachurch in Colorado and pioneered the multisite strategy for Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. In addition to being a multisite and merger specialist at The Unstuck Group, Jim currently serves as the Chief of Staff at Christ Fellowship in Miami.

[Click here to learn more and register.]

Download PDF Article

Source: 7 Reasons Your Church Should Merge With Another Church in 2020

The post 7 Reasons Your Church Should Merge With Another Church in 2020 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by NewChurches.com: In cities today, people are dividing more often than uniting and coming together.

In Episode 255 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, we wanted to share snippets of Tim Keller’s talk at our last Church Planting Fellowship Network in November 2017 where he shared 5 trends in urban cities. In this episode, Tim talks specifically about the trends of the vanishing neighbor & polarization.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Three levels of human connectivity, and how they are vastly changing in cities today.
Why people are increasingly polarizing themselves within in cities.

Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“Neighbors once greeted each other with cookies when they moved into an area. More recently, individuals tend to avoid eye contact with neighbors and don’t even know their names. This is a day and age of next-door-strangers.”–@timkellernyc
“People used to know each other within cities, and cities felt more like villages. In the urban life today, the village is going away.”–@timkellernyc
“There is an increase in loneliness in cities.”–@timkellernyc
“Polarization occurs when an issue divides people and results in resistance and hostility because of differences.”–@timkellernyc
“People are dividing more often than uniting and coming together.”–@timkellernyc
“When you become a healthy, one another’s, alternate-Kingdom community, the more the gospel you are preaching will come to life and be compelling to those who are far from God.”–@danielsangi

Additional Resources:

Listen to Episode 253: Gentrification & Metropolitanization
Read this post about Cities and Multiculturalism: Two Trends in Church Planting Today
Learn How to Transform a Community
Become a Plus Member and listen to the entire Q&A Webinar with Tim Keller on 5 Trends in Cities and Urban Ministry

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

The post Episode 255: Tim Keller on The Vanishing Neighbor & Polarization appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 255: Tim Keller on The Vanishing Neighbor & Polarization

The post Episode 255: Tim Keller on The Vanishing Neighbor & Polarization appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Jaime Owens: The walls of our church’s nursery needed painting. So there I was, on my regular day off with a brush in my hand. A country song I’d never heard before—“The Dollar,” by Jamey Johnson—filled the room as I splashed the first coat of something called Polar Bear over the entrance door.

You may be wondering at this strange confession of a native New Englander: painting to country music. I’m not sure how it happened either. But God will use almost anything to get our attention. The song is about a little boy whose father always seems too busy working to spend time with his son. So the boy saves his pennies and by the end of the song, makes an offer to his daddy:

Mama how much time will this buy me
Is it enough for just an afternoon a day or a whole week
If I’m a little short then how much more does daddy need
To spend some time with me?

Standing there, mid-stroke, I froze. What am I doing here? Have I stolen time from my wife and girls, to spend it in this empty room? And suddenly, the bitter irony of my crusade to serve my church at the expense of my family showed through, as that old ugly blue showed through my first coat of white.

Among young pastors and church planters, there’s no less than a deluge of pressure to give every waking moment to our churches, to the neglect of our families. But brothers, it should never be so.

Below I want to offer four lies that can cause young pastors to neglect their families:

1. I can poorly lead my family and powerfully lead the church.

As pastors, our leadership of the local church is never more important than our leadership at home. Consider some familiar verses: “He must manage his household well…for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? (1 Tim. 3:4–5).”

At the front door of pastoral ministry, we find that if a pastor isn’t a family man, he’s not a churchman. Notice that for those who have families, caring for them well is a prerequisite to the ministry. Elders must, before accepting the office, be exemplary in investing in and leading their families well.

Pastors, especially church planters and those coming into a new church, are strongly tempted to bend these family qualifications for the sake of their new flock. But if God would approve and bless our shepherding, we must shepherd those closest to us: our families.

2. My family will admire my work-a-holism because it’s for Jesus.

If we give all our time to the church at the expense of our families, it won’t translate as devotion to Christ. Instead, our families will rightly see it for what it is: an unhealthy obsession with ministry. It smacks not of devotion, but selfish ambition.

On the other hand, we can be sure that the ultimate proof of devotion is presence. We can tell our families we love them, but wherever our highest commitment is, there we will be. Even a 5-year-old understands this. We cannot baptize neglect. We are either present and engaging our loved ones—or we aren’t. And if our love for Jesus means we cannot love our families, then we’re tempting our families eventually to resent us, the local church, and even Jesus.

3. After I put the church in order, then I’ll invest more at home.

If you’re at the front end of a church plant or revitalization, chances are there are some large pieces that need to be put in order. But the truth is, your church will never really be “in order.” There’s always another mountain to climb or fire to put out.

We would do well to borrow that old slogan, Semper Reformanda Our local churches are always reforming. Some churches are healthier than others. But if we delay fully engaging at home to put our churches in order, we’ll never get around to giving our families the time and attention they deserve.

4. If I don’t give the church everything, it will die. 

This is not only a rookie mistake; it’s a theological one. Christ is the head of his church—not us. And when we run ourselves ragged, when we neglect our families, we aim to stand in the place of the risen Lord Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega in Revelation 1, the one whose eyes are like fire.

As pastors, we must concern ourselves with simply being faithful because it’s God who brings growth to his bride. Yes, we should work hard, and we should work wisely. But we also need to trust God with our efforts among the body as we give first priority to our families. Christ is the head of the church, not us. And that’s a good thing.

As we struggle to apply all of this, we will fail. But God, in answer to prayer, will pour out his great grace. Ask God for the faith to entrust your local church to him.

Let’s not resemble the man in Song of Solomon: “They made me the keeper of the vineyards;  but mine own vineyard have I not kept” (1:6).

Our families are the closest people to us, and so our responsibility to disciple them and wash them in the Word is greatest.

Pastors, let’s trust God, and keep our own vineyards.

Source: 4 Lies that Cause Pastors to Neglect their Families

The post 4 Lies that Cause Pastors to Neglect their Families appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Aaron Menikoff: Ambition is intoxicating. A few years ago I came close—a couple times—to having a book picked up by a premier, academic publisher. I’m not sure what bothered me more: the fact that both publishers ultimately turned me down, or the fact that I cared so much.

Even now, I hate thinking about this. What a petty concern! I know an Afghan brother laboring to help the underground church in Kabul. I’m praying for a sister battling cancer. My personal tremor doesn’t register on the Richter scale. But I can’t change the fact that rejection hurts. Ambition is intoxicating. Unfulfilled ambitions seem devastating.

I tried to baptize my discontent, to make it seem godly. After all, being published by a high-profile press would have meant greater respect. Greater respect would have meant a wider platform. A wider platform would have meant a larger audience. A larger audience would have meant more gospel impact, and so on. Nice try. The fact of the matter is I cared more about my fame than God’s.

Renowned author David Foster Wallace didn’t try to hide his ambition. An interviewer once told him, “Respect means a lot to you.”

“Show me somebody who doesn’t like to be respected,” Wallace responded, “I don’t think I’m more hungry for respect than the average person.” Maybe he’s right. But by God’s grace, Christians ought to be different. We must hunger for God’s glory, not ours. I know my own heart, and for a season I wanted to be successful more than faithful.

Looking back, God was kind to kill the book deal. He taught me the importance of longing for faithfulness—a precious piece of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

CAN YOU RELATE? 

Wallace and I aren’t alone here. There’s a reason so many books are filled with frustrated characters. Michael Henchard of The Mayor of Casterbridge lost his money and his office. Willy Loman of Death of a Salesman longed to be more than he was. Even the virtuous Lucy of Narnia convinced herself life would be better if she had the looks of her older sister, Susan.

Perhaps you can relate. Have you ever battled for wealth, prominence, or beauty—worldly metrics of success—only to come up short? How many kids, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, answer, “I want to be faithful”? I fear not many.

GODLY AMBITION

There’s such a thing as godly ambition. Dave Harvey warns us not to kill that God-given desire to achieve. He calls it “the instinctual motivation to aspire to things, to make something happen, to have an impact, to count for something in life.” Christians ought not squelch the craving to accomplish something big. Harvey is spot-on: “Humility, rightly understood, shouldn’t be a fabric softener on our aspirations.”

The last thing I want to do is de-motivate you from the kind of visionary action that marks a true believer. After all, there’s such a thing as false humility. It says with a sly grin, “Look at me now. I’m not trying to do anything great because I don’t want the attention. Don’t you wish you were as humble as I am?”

Instead of hiding your talents, take a page out of Jim Eliot’s life: “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” There’s plenty of room in the Christian life for godly ambition.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to say you’re attempting great things for God when you’re really attempting great things for yourself. Before you know it, a hunger for personal fame elbows out a zeal for God’s glory.

How can you know if your ambition is godly or sinful? Our motives will never be pure this side of heaven. Indwelling sin makes sure of that. Nonetheless, we can and must pursue faithfulness, leaving the results to God.

WHAT IS FAITHFULNESS?

Fundamentally, the faithful are simply those “full of faith.” The Greek behind “faithful” in the New Testament usually refers to trust in the crucified, risen, and reigning King Jesus. In fact, God’s people have always put their confidence in the Lord. When Paul said Abraham “believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations,” he meant Abraham was faithful—clinging to the promises of God despite evidence to the contrary. Simply put, the faithful rely on God; they believe his Word.

However, faithfulness has another, related meaning. Those full of faith are reliable and trustworthy. The faithful have a proven track record of obedience to God.

The esteemed members of Hebrews 11 exemplified faithfulness in a variety of ways, not least by refusing to recant under fire (Heb. 11:26–38). When Paul explained how he “fought the good fight” and “kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7), he described faithfulness to the Lord. In the Parable of the Tenants, the one who wisely stewards his master’s property is called a “faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23). Likewise, the Christian who wisely stewards the gospel is called faithful, too.

Faithfulness shows up in a ton of different, practical, and beautiful ways:

Making time to meditate on Scripture in the midst of a busy schedule (Ps. 1:2)
Getting up early and working hard all day to provide for your family (1 Tim. 5:8)
Commending Christ in an office that makes fun of him (Matt. 10:33)
Showing up at the widow’s doorstep to mend her fence (James 1:27)
Teaching the Bible every week to a small crowd (2 Tim. 4:2)
Holding fast to the gospel when those around you are watering it down (Gal. 1:8)
Gently correcting your kids when inside you want to scream (Eph. 6:4)
Getting to the service early so you have a chance to encourage the saints (Heb. 10:25)
Submitting to your husband when you think he’s wrong (Eph. 5:22)
Leading your wife humbly and sacrificially (Eph. 5:25)
Giving money and time to a neighbor in need (Luke 10:37)

These are just some of the marks of a Spirit-filled life of faithfulness. The world cares about plaques and popularity, real estate and revenue, glamour and glitz. God cares about faithfulness—the steadfast commitment to honor the Lord in a thousand simple ways.

How can you be sure God cares about this? Because Jesus Christ, God incarnate, gave up heaven for a life of faithful obedience culminating in a cross. Faithfulness is nothing more—or less—than Christlikeness.

MY HEART TURNED

There’s nothing wrong with being disappointed, but when the publisher gave me bad news the sting was sharper than it should have been. I clearly cared more about being noticed than being helpful. It didn’t happen overnight, but somewhere along the way my heart turned. I took my eyes off of the faithfulness of my Savior and put them on myself.

At least I’m in good company. Solomon prayed and received wisdom from God. With this wisdom he settled disputes, managed a kingdom, and oversaw the construction of the very house of God. Solomon asked for wisdom that he might rule justly. God, as he often does, gave him so much more: “King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom” (1 Kgs. 10:23–24). He had it all: wisdom, wealth, and prestige.

But somewhere along the way, his heart turned. Solomon started believing his own press. Though he once elevated the name of the LORD above his own fame (see 1 Kgs. 10:1), he eventually neglected God’s Word, disobeyed God’s commands, and allowed the kingdom to reflect his glory and not God’s. By accumulating wealth and weapons and wives—all in defiance of God (Deut. 17:14–20)—Solomon proved he loved success more than faithfulness.

THANKFUL FOR FAILURE

Solomon lost his kingdom; I just lost my pride. Looking back, I’m thankful my book was rejected. God splashed a cold glass of water on my face, reminding me he’s important, and I’m not. In the big scheme of things, it was a tiny trial. But it was my trial, and God used it to pry my fingers off a brittle ego.

More than that, God pressed into my soul what every Christian ought to know. In his divine economy, the metrics of success aren’t the amount of followers, likes, retweets, or mentions you get on social media. It’s not the number of letters behind your name, books on your shelf, or how fast you can run a mile (at my age, not very fast at all). Christians, above all others, ought to understand this. Our value isn’t found in what we do, but the perfect love of a Savior condemned in our place. And the fruit of the Spirit isn’t success; it’s faithfulness.

“WHAT ONE CHASES”

Wallace, that great American writer, committed suicide in 2008 at the age of 46. He struggled with depression for years and couldn’t find a way out. He achieved worldly success early on in life (everyone wanted to publish his books) but it wasn’t enough to appease his ambition. In the interview where he admitted he wanted respect, he also confessed he didn’t know where to find it. “A lot of my problem,” he said, “is I don’t really have a brass ring, and I’m kind of open to suggestions about what one chases.”

Wallace, like Solomon, had the world in the palm of his hand, but it couldn’t chase away the despair in his head. Worldly ambition, the carnal desire for success, is a bus with just two stops. One stop is failure—you get out knowing you didn’t achieve what you wanted. The other stop is success, but it doesn’t satisfy—you debark only to look for another brass ring that won’t leave you fulfilled. Either way you look at it, worldly ambition is a bus to nowhere.

What you chase matters. Christians are called to chase after Christ. To love him, to long for him, to pursue him with everything we have. What does this chase look like? Faithfulness: the steadfast commitment to honor the Lord in the nitty-gritty details of everyday life.

HOW CAN YOU GROW IN FAITHFULNESS?

Now more than ever the church needs models of faithfulness. We are bombarded by airbrushed images of success. They belittle faithfulness and commend acclaim. How can we grow in our pursuit of faithfulness?

Believe the gospel. Only those who have put their faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ can be found faithful. Have you done this? Submit your life to Christ. Trust in him for your salvation. Believe he died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead for your justification. Without faith, faithfulness is impossible.
Rethink success. It’s one thing to say success is a life of obedience to Christ, a life of faithfulness. But consider how you react when you don’t get what you want. Perhaps your heart hasn’t caught up to your head’s definition of success. If you think success is a big family, a stable career, or a large church then you’ve wrongly accepted the world’s metric. It’s time to rethink success.
If you are in ministry, listen to Mark Dever’s message, “Endurance Needed: Strength for a Slow Reformation and the Dangerous Allure of Speed.” It’s a sweet reminder that worldly ambition poisons the pastorate.
Get to work. Faithfulness is a gift of the Spirit, but it’s also hard work. Look over that list above. Checking off those boxes is not the pathway to heaven; we’re justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But if God has given us new life, if he has changed our hearts, then we’ll roll up our sleeves and obey his commands.
Leave the results to God. Paul wrote, “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” (1 Cor. 3:6–7). The call to faithfulness is not a call to laziness, but it is a call to rest. We are finite. We may write the best book we could possibly write, and never find a publisher. We may work as hard as we possibly can, and never be promoted. We may share the gospel a thousand times, and never see a convert. It’s our job to be faithful. The rest is up to God.

Source: “What Do You Want?”: Pastoral Reflections on Faithfulness

The post “What Do You Want?”: Pastoral Reflections on Faithfulness appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by John Starke: For the last decade or so, there’s been a deepened interest in urban church planting. Young guys move into big cities with visions of planting “a church for the city.” They want to live in the neighborhoods that many evangelical churches attempted to escape in previous decades.

In the 1990s, I remember first reading Jim Cymbala’s Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, about the renewal of The Brooklyn Tabernacle. I was mesmerized by the foreign world of 1980s New York City described in his stories. But Cymbala wasn’t giving a vision for the city. He was relaying stories from the front lines.

Famous books about churches in New York City, like Fresh Wind or The Cross and the Switchblade, weren’t calling for a renewed interest in moving to the city. They weren’t encouraging intrepid young pastors to invest their lives there. Instead, they told exotic stories of a faraway land that, at best, excited youth group mission trips. And if you happened to get up and move to the city, you’d likely receive more warnings about the sexualized and liberal city than encouragements about the prospective good the Lord might do. “What about your kids?” you’d hear. “Do you want them growing up in that environment?”

A DIFFERENT TIME

But that was then. Things have changed. To be sure, my wife and I still received those warnings and side-eye glances, but that didn’t characterize my experience. Now, newly minted ministers are coming to the city in droves. Now, it’s common for churches in urban contexts to even have “City” in their name. Now, many churches distinguish themselves with their explicit city-oriented mission statements.

This renewed emphasis of urban church planting has even caused weariness among some evangelicals. The weariness isn’t because they believe the city is evil, as previous generations may have, but because they’ve mistook the emphasis as a focus on the “elites” as opposed to the rural and suburban communities of fly-over states.

While I understand the concern, I’m less than sympathetic. In New York, we need a thousand churches planted over the next few decades. That’s not an exaggeration. The renewed focus of church planting in cities, especially in NYC, is only now beginning to see some impact. We probably all know of great stories of churches coming and growing and seeing fruit in the city. But we need more than just a few success stories in a handful of churches. Right now, in Manhattan, only 2 to 4 percent of the population claims to be evangelical or “traditional” Christian. To get something close to 8 to 10 percent, we don’t just need to hear of three or four great stories of growing churches in NYC; we need 600.

A CONCERN

Yet what may be of greater concern is what’s actually drawing more pastors to the city. Some criticize the “for the city” vision so popular these days as working out to mean “for the white culturally elite of the city.” I’m more sympathetic to that concern.

Even still, I think there’s a more basic problem. Call it a pastoral hunch or a spiritual sense, but for many of us who pastor in places like NYC, we’re enchanted by the city. After all, ministering to elites can mean being “associated with elites.” Ministering to people who work on Broadway or at Google or Twitter or for fashion houses, The New York Times, and NPR can mean we’ll be associated with people who work on Broadway or at Google or Twitter or for fashion houses, The New York Times, and NPR. None of us would ever explicitly say that, but we’re often unaware of the desires of our hearts that drive us to do many of the things we do.

WHAT WE SHOULD TELL PROSPECTIVE CITY CHURCH PLANTERS

But what should be communicated to church planters is just how unattractive, humiliating, confusing, tiring, and lonely long-term church planting, revitalizing, and pastoring is, especially in the city. I probably talk to more homeless neighbors than “cultural elites.” I spend more time calling and waiting for paramedics to help unconscious folks on our front steps than I do giving talks at the Googleplex.

Office space, if you can afford it, is often makeshift and uncomfortable. Big crowds and white-walled gallery events are primarily found on Instagram and Pinterest.

The transience is breathtaking, which makes “church growth” difficult on top of the already hostile environment. One close friend of mine just explained to me that he led 75 people through their membership class this year. This sounded like excellent news, since we’d been praying his church wouldn’t have to close it doors because of finances. Yet due to the transient nature, his Sunday morning gathering attendance hasn’t change a bit from last year.

This transience means church planters and revitalizers often struggle with a strange loneliness. Most friends you make will leave within a few years. I was having dinner with a pastor and his wife, and they explained that in the last 18 months they lost all of their closest friends. Pastors and their wives constantly have the experience of having to “start again” with relationships. That can be extremely weary.

Personally, I’ve struggled with depression for the first time in my life and have found a common experience among my colleagues. If you know the dynamics of depression, it exasperates the already difficult challenges of ministry.

Living spaces are expensive. A 1 to 2 bedroom apartment in Manhattan ranges from $3,300 to $4,000 per month. And yet most pastors I know serve churches that don’t pay what they need to survive, take an occasional vacation, and save. Many pastors go into personal debt. The toll this can have on families is significant.

Before they move, many pastors and their wives aren’t aware of how deep our expectations of comfort are, yet they quickly learn in their new, two-bedroom apartments that are 600–700 square feet with no backyard—not to mention the little-to-no family support. As a result, pastors are generally as transient as anyone in New York, and transient pastors aren’t a great formula for church renewal.

An enchantment with the city isn’t the same as a biblical love for the city, and it won’t sustain you in the long run.

WHAT CITIES NEED

I don’t write this in order to push away prospective pastors. Instead, I’m eager to see a generation of pastors who are aware of and have counted the cost, who have wives who know what it will take and what they will have to sacrifice.

Of course this is true not only in New York City

My city and maybe yours needs pastors who know what failure feels like and how to respond to it so that they will persevere nevertheless. We need pastors with thick prayer lives and an awareness that they may be more insecure than they think.

Success in many churches means having a pastor who knows how to experience rejection, criticism, and failure on Sunday, and yet get back up on Monday to pray and prepare yet another Sunday sermon. We need pastors who know how to feel forgettable and to trust God. We need pastors who know how to read their hearts and Bibles just as well as they know how to read The New York Times. We need pastors who learn from their mistakes and pray so that they might be better. We need pastors who will be hospitable and listen to their neighbors. We need pastors who pray for their people, pray for their neighbors, pray for the kingdom to come. Maybe then God will bless us and bring revival. The best pastors doing the best and most fruitful work are prayerful, humble, repentant, teachable, and very secure in Christ. We need so many more pastors like that.

Source: The Loneliness of Church Planting

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Most pastors have a rightful desire to train up future pastors. We realize that one day, our ministry will end and we ought be preparing the next generation to take the gospel to the land we cannot go. This focus, however, can lead us to overemphasize pastoral training at the cost of training “normal guys.”

What follows are a few reminders as to why we must use some of our best time, energy, and resources training up plumbers, lawyers, teachers, and bankers. I will be focusing this discussion on the discipling of men in particular. The need to care for sisters in the Lord is critical and is related to most of the points I make, but won’t be the aim of this article.

1. They make up most of your flock.

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

God has called you to give attention to all the flock, not just some of it. The size of a congregation has an impact on how much attention elders can give to each sheep, but it goes without question that every sheep must matter to us because every sheep matters to God.

If most of your time, energy, and effort is given to future pastors, you’ll neglect the majority of your flock. This focus could unintentionally stifle the growth of the majority of your members who need discipling, instruction, and pastoral counsel. It could also provoke members to bitterness, causing them to feel like “second-class-sheep” in comparison to those who aspire to be pastors. Satan delights in cultivating distrust between sheep and shepherds, and this is an easy way to do it.

One way to consider addressing this tension is to include aspiring pastors in the work of shepherding other sheep. Jesus and Paul are almost always found with disciples by their side. A wise way to care for all the flock and raise up future pastors is to bring these groups together as often as possible.

2. They can reach people pastors can’t.

Before going into full-time ministry I loved working regular jobs. This is because I’m an evangelist at heart and those jobs afforded me the opportunity to be around people who didn’t know Jesus. But when someone becomes a pastor, they’re in one sense making the decision to retreat from the front-lines of evangelism to equip others who will take the gospel into the world.

As a pastor, I view discipling our members as the development of missionaries who will reach people I’ll never be able to reach. My job is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12). If we’re predominantly spending our time with hopeful pastors, we’ll neglect the equipping of church members who are on the front-lines of gospel work in the community.

Brothers, investing in a financier, construction worker, lawyer, or teacher is an investment in people who will reach those you will never be able to reach. This is part of Jesus’ wise plan for reaching the world; don’t neglect it.

It’s also wise to know that some church members can reach other members more effectively than a pastor. For innumerable reasons, some immature sheep are hesitant to receive instruction from pastors, but are willing to listen to other members. As you equip “normal” brothers for ministry, you develop allies and advocates who can help hesitant sheep grow up into maturity.

3. They will help you be a better preacher.  

Hanging out with aspiring pastors can be rewarding, but pastors need time with normal people. When we spend time with men who are dealing with unbelieving bosses, the stress of travel, the pressure to make sales profits, and so on, God educates us about needs of our flock that we might otherwise have overlooked. This shapes us and our preaching.

By spending time with men, visiting their work places, and eating meals in their homes, we gain insights into unique issues we must address in our preaching. Texts we preach yield fresh applications because we see how they apply to the men we meet with. By neglecting discipling relationships with non-pastoral men, we’re robbing the church of rich insights that benefit everyone who hears the sermon.

Pastors aren’t just message-givers, but also message-livers. We’re called to be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). Therefore, being around the flock helps them see what our message looks like in real life. It also helps us avoid hypocrisy. By being among our members, we’ll remember our own sermon applications and ensure we’re applying them ourselves. Not a few times, I’ve had loving sheep say to me, “Now pastor, didn’t you say…” I love it when friends preach my sermons back to me! This helps me more faithfully live what I preach.

4. They will help you follow the Lord. 

Pastors are sheep first, shepherds second. Always. We must remember that though we’re called to lead the Lord’s people, we’re also one of his people. One of our great temptations is to get so caught up in pastoring that we forget we’re sheep in need of care. Fellow church members help us remember this.

Just yesterday, I had coffee with a brother who faithfully serves in our church. We’re in similar life stages, face similar family challenges, and undergo similar work pressures. We both left our meeting refreshed and encouraged to keep trusting the Lord.

I’m encouraged by my fellow elders as well, but they aren’t the only ones I can learn from. Fellow church members allow me into their lives and from them I learn how to be a more faithful father, husband, financial steward, educator, citizen, and more. Pastors aren’t supposed to be experts on everything, and we can always learn from anyone who has the Holy Spirit.

5. They might end up being pastors. 

I took a moment and wrote out a list of half dozen men that are serving as pastors today. What makes these men unique is that my relationship with each of these men began as a normal discipling relationship. One was an oil field worker, another was a physical therapist, another was a salesman, and so on. These were “normal” men with “normal” jobs who just wanted to grow in their relationship with Jesus.

But God used the time, attention, and focused Word ministry to mature them and make clear their calling as a pastor. One of the ways God trains up pastors is by taking men who never thought they’d be pastors and giving them this desire. We’ll remember that Samuel thought he knew who God’s anointed was, but the Lord told him, “Do not look on his appearance…for the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Be faithful with faithful brothers, and you just might be surprised by what the Lord does with some of them.

Source: Pastors, Spend Time with Non-Pastors

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