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 And while the Gospel is never irrelevant in a fast-moving culture, outdated models of church get old, fast.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While the Gospel is never irrelevant in a fast-moving culture, outdated models of church get old, fast.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

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by Bobby Harrington: In his great commission, King Jesus told us to make disciples who “obey everything that he commanded” (Matt. 28:18-20).

If we are honest, that presents us with a big challenge today: we must be clear on Jesus’ commandments so that we can obey them.

But how can we be clear on the meaning of anything these days?

The Oxford Dictionary chose “post-truth” as the 2016 Word of the Year. The Washington Post declared this news with, “It’s official: Truth is dead. Facts are passé”.

As our political and religious discourse shows, objective facts are less influential in shaping our perception of reality than appeals to emotion and self-inspired beliefs (i.e., believing what we want to be true).

I look forward to discussing this question at a deeper level with you, the  Discipleship-First Tribe in 2019 at the National Forum. For now, let me share five elements that guide me as I personally seek clarity on Jesus’ teachings so that I can obey them as a disciple and a disciple maker. I hope they will encourage you to take the same path.

1. I Pray Earnestly that God will Make Jesus’ Truths Clear in Our Culture Today

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Written by Bobby Harrington

Bobby Harrington is the Executive Director of Discipleship.org, a national platform, conference, and ministry that advocates for Jesus’ style of disciple making. He is the founding and lead pastor of Harpeth Christian Church (by the Harpeth River, just outside of Nashville, TN). He has a Doctor of Ministry degree in consulting and has spent years as a coach to church planters and senior pastors. He is the author of several books on discipleship, including DiscipleShift (with Jim Putman and Robert Coleman) and The Disciple Maker’s Handbook (with Josh Patrick).

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

The post The Truth About Jesus’ Commandments in Discipling Relationships appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: The Truth About Jesus’ Commandments in Discipling Relationships

The post The Truth About Jesus’ Commandments in Discipling Relationships appeared first on Passion for Planting.