By: Carey Nieuwhof

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

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

That’s the good news.

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

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

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

I get it. Some days, neither can I.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are 8 easy ways to do it.

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

1. Don’t Take Time off To Restore Yourself

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

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

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

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

Tired

Fatigued

Exhausted

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Let Your Fatigue Drive Your Decisions

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

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

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

So how do you counter that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Play The Short Game

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Ignore Volunteers

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Assume Families are Just Fine

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Don’t Reposition Your Staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Put Online on Autopilot

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

That’s incredible.

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

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

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

8. Put All Your Focus On Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are some ideas on the future church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How well-positioned are you for future pivots?

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

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

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

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

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

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

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

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

What Do You See?

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

I hear you. I’m with you.

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

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

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

What else are you seeing?

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

Scroll down and leave a comment!

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

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by Healthy Growing Churches: Each generation that has ever lived believed that they were living in the most interesting and challenging time in history. The questions they had to answer were more significant than the previous generations, and the barriers to greater humanity were more overwhelming than any other age had ever experienced before them. The pace of cultural change appeared to unfold at a faster rate than any other time in days gone by.

The Challenge

Right now, in this generation, it is difficult to argue against the challenging culture in which we find ourselves embedded. In almost every category you can imagine, life is a constant challenge. The pace of change in our world right now is happening at a speed that makes keeping up a consistent challenge. Technology is changing the way we do everything. The economic landscape is shifting with every week that drops off the calendar. The changes in the culture of the U.S. alone can feel overwhelming. We could add to this list, but you get the point.

There is no question these changes are impacting the local church. It’s left church leaders across our country wrestling with how they navigate their way to higher levels of effectiveness in our unique cultural times. The pace of change demands that we re-imagine the relevance and role of the local church. How do we continue to morph to ensure the church continues to advance God’s redemptive cause?

The Answer

There are many answers to this pressing question as we seek to lead the local church forward in Her missional quest, but there is one answer that must ascend to the top of our lists. The local church must reclaim and live into the call to inspire, enlist, equip, and deploy everyday missionaries to be the hands and feet of Jesus where they live, work, and play.

This isn’t a new answer. Jesus was clear when He passionately spoke the words that we find in Matthew 28:19. This was Jesus’ plan A for reaching the world, and there is no plan B. Our calling as individuals is simple. Each follower of Christ should be walking another individual toward and across the line of faith into a personal relationship with God. It is then our responsibility to help them become an obedient follower of Jesus to see that process repeat to multiple generations of reproduction. It is the call of every local church to ensure there is a pathway and framework to ensure that reproducing disciples are being made and disciple-makers are being raised up and sent.

The Most Significant Volunteer Organization on the Planet

The Church is the most significant volunteer organization on the planet. There are tens of thousands of volunteer hours available from people each week who claim Christ as their Savior. What if a significant portion of those volunteer hours were being leveraged by everyday missionaries living into their missionary call in the places where they live, work, and play? What if some of those hours were more effectively being used to raise up disciples who make disciples?

Our best path forward in our unique culture times is to lean into Jesus’ Plan A for reaching the world. Anything less than an all-in approach to disciple-making as church leaders will leave us with less of an impact going forward. Worst-case scenario, it will likely mean the continued decline and impact of the Church in America.

Make Disciples!

The encouraging dynamic at play in the American Church today is the growing number of church leaders and churches that are working hard to figure out how to make disciples who make disciples to multiple generations of reproduction. It certainly feels like the number of churches that are also wrestling with what it should look like for their church to multiply is at an all-time high.

Are you in the number? If not, then here are a few questions you must answer:

Do we have an intentional framework and pathway to ensure that these everyday missionaries (reproducing disciples of Jesus) are raised up and deployed?
How are you identifying the disciple-makers in your local setting and then empowering them to reach out and disciple others?
Are you prepared to send the called and qualified leaders to establish missional outposts, networks of missional communities, and new churches?

There are resources and tools to help. God has raised up an army of trainers to help each of us figure out how to navigate our way into and through the call of Matthew 28:19. Lean into these resources so you can reach maximum effectiveness in joining God in His redemptive cause in our unique cultural times.

The post Plan A appeared first on Healthy Growing Churches.

Source: Plan A

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by Carey Nieuwhof: The world is changing so fast it often feels impossible to keep up.

Technology is one thing.

But so many other things are changing too. Take cultural assumptions for example. What was true a few years ago—or more dangerously, what we tell ourselves is true—isn’t necessarily true anymore.

Few events in the world do a better job of letting people think about and experience the future than SXSW (pronounced South By Southwest) in Austin, Texas.

Personally, going to SXSW was a bucket list thing for me. But to go there for the first time as a speaker was completely over the top (I spoke to tech and start-up leaders about 7 success killers even top leaders miss, based on the insights in my book, Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges No One Expects and Everyone Experiences.)

There are so many applications I took away from my four days at SXSW that apply to leaders in every field.

Here are 7 things I saw at SXSW about how the world’s changing.

1. Young adults will find the cash and time if the value’s high enough

One of the first things I noticed at SXSW was how young the crowd was. The average age may have been below thirty.

Which is interesting, because SXSW is not an inexpensive event. At all.

Registration starts in the low hundreds and rises quickly to well over $1000. And that’s just for admission. Add flights, hotels and meals to the bill, and you can drop three grand on attending before you know it. (Trust me, there are no bargain airfares, hotels or Airbnbs during SXSW).

It’s also not a small event. 75,000 people will attend this year’s SXSW, so it’s not like someone managed to get 150 27 year olds in the room. No, this attracted tens of thousands of young leaders from around the world.

Yet when I talk to a lot of leaders, and they complain that Millennials and Gen Z don’t give, don’t attend live events and don’t have any money for whatever they happen to be offering.

Apparently not.

Sure, companies ponied up for some attenders, but if that’s the only explanation, I would have expected a lot more 45-60 year old executives.

If you’re having trouble attracting the next generation, it’s likely because they don’t see value in what you’re offering.

Rather than blaming people for not embracing what you’re offering, offer something worth embracing.

If you’re a church leader like I am, the problem, of course, isn’t Jesus or the Gospel. But it may well be your approach to Jesus and the Gospel.

Rather than blaming people for not embracing what you’re offering, offer something worth embracing. Click To Tweet

2. Most organizations underestimate and underutilize young leaders

I spent most of my one-on-one time at SXSW talking to leaders age 30 and under.

Guess what they had in common? All of them were founders of new companies. One had bootstrapped his firm to 75 global employees. Two others were seeking another co-founder for their start up.

Another leader I spent an evening with is Brett Hagler, CEO and Co-founder of New Story who has raised millions of dollars to design the technology to 3-D print houses.

This summer, they’re going to Latin America to 3-D print entire communities. You read that right. They’re 3-D printing villages. (Check out Fast Company’s piece on this latest phase).  Brett is 29.

If your organization keeps 20-something leaders on the bench to learn, or only places them in junior roles, enjoy watching the future pass you by.

If your organization keeps 20-something leaders on the bench to learn, or only places them in junior roles, enjoy watching the future pass you by.Click To Tweet

3. Philosophers and Theologians Have to Catch Up To Engineers

Amy Webb gave a brilliant session on future tech trends. She highlighted just a few of the 300+ trends she notes in her 2019 report.

One thing that was clear from her report and others is that technology is advancing faster than our ability to know what to do with it.

Philosophers and theologians, to be sure, have some catching up to do.

Technology is advancing faster than our ability to know what to do with it. Which is an opportunity for philosophers and theologians.Click To Tweet

On everything from DeepFakes, to autonomous cars (do you program a car to choose to hit a pedestrian or alternatively crash into a cement wall, which may kill the driver?) to genetic engineering, we don’t really know what we’re doing to ourselves.

On DeepFaking, for example, consider this from Amy’s report (p.210…you can download it for free here):

Pair VR with the concept of DeepFake technology and you’ve got a frightening prospect: anyone could virtually take on an identity not their own, complete with a digitally projected physical appearance, voice, and movements indistinguish- able from those of the individual they are impersonating.

In a distant-future era, with VR constituting a majority of human experiences, and with such shapeshifting abilities at everyone’s fingertips, it will become increasingly less possible to verify the identities of those around us.

Distrust will infect all social interaction, along with the intense mental strain of living under constant threat of identity theft, if not loss of identity entirely. New authentication techniques will be imperative if we are to maintain sanity and order in society, and we will need to be constantly vigilant in verifying the identity of those we interact with.

The post-truth culture we live in just got more complicated. Technology is outstripping ethics, and in an era where consensus around ethics and morality is splintering, the field is ripe for theologians and philosophers to speak meaning into our present and future.

Or one more question before we leave this point: who exactly owns your DNA? If you think the answer is clear, think again, particularly if you used an DNA service to learn more about your health or ancestry.

The crisis we’re facing today isn’t a crisis of information or technology, it’s a crisis of meaning and ethics.

The crisis we’re facing today isn’t a crisis of information or technology, it’s a crisis of meaning and ethics. Click To Tweet

4. People Still Have Long Attention Spans and Deep Curiosity

So much for the idea that people have short attention spans.

No, people still have long attention spans and deep curiosity.

As we’ve seen with the surge in long-form podcasting, something I value as a podcaster myself,  humans don’t have the attention span of a goldfish after all. There’s a huge market for long-form, in-depth, nuanced, complex and honest dialogue.

And people’s curiosity runs deep. Deeper than you think. One of the features of SXSW is that people line up for talks…sometimes for hours.

So forget the idea that people have zero patience for great ideas and points of views.

Application? The problem with your messaging may not be that you’re shooting too high, it might be that you’re shooting too low.

The problem with your messaging may not be that you’re shooting too high, it might be that you’re shooting too low.Click To Tweet

And what about length?

Well sure, not every stays for all 11 days of the event. I was there for four, but easily could have stayed longer (and plan to next time).

Because our culture is so geared to choice and autonomy, what most of us who create content of any kind are learning is that 5 minutes of boring is five minutes too long. 60 minutes of fascinating isn’t nearly enough.

What most of us who create content of any kind are learning is that 5 minutes of boring is five minutes too long. 60 minutes of fascinating isn’t nearly enough.Click To Tweet

5. The companies who act like human beings are the companies that are going to make it in the future

One of the drop-the-mic moments that happened for me was in a session led by Minjae Ormes.

In it, one of the presenters shared this quote (source unknown): the companies who act like human beings are the companies that are going to make it in the future.

100%.

As life becomes more digitized, randomized and anonymous, people crave personal and real.

So when you think about your public interface, the more human you become, the more real you are, the more connection you’ll build.

You absolutely need the latest and best technology. But the more human you become, the better your chance for impact is.

The companies who act like human beings are the companies that are going to make it in the future.Click To Tweet

6. Sometimes authenticity gives you authority. Sometimes it doesn’t.

This one’s for communicators who like me, spend a lot of time speaking in front of Christians.

I speak at a church that specializes in reaching unchurched people, but it’s still church. Similarly in the conferences I do, whether that’s in the church conference world or business world, the audience often as a lot of Christians in it.

I just loved that this wasn’t the case at SXSW.

I do believe that authenticity is they key to preaching in a way that reaches our culture today.

Sure, people admire your strengths, but they resonate with your weaknesses, but I noticed something at SXSW that will make me change my approach the next time I’m in front of a group where almost no one shares my faith.

I usually lead with my vulnerabilities when I speak. I’ll talk about my weaknesses, a struggle I had or a mistake I made, and it builds instant rapport….in the church world. 

I spend a lot of time reading my audience when I speak, and what I sensed is that the vulnerability made some people uncomfortable. In the end, the authenticity resonated (I had a number of people from major corporations ask me if I did consulting because they don’t spend nearly enough time talking about it).

But here’s the pivot.

I think what the corporate audience was looking for was authority…what right do I have to speak into this space and what right do I have to speak to them?

After all, Christians (and pastors especially) don’t have a lot of credibility in the culture anymore.

Even though I didn’t lead by announcing I was a pastor (I shared that later in the talk), I realized I needed to establish authority earlier in the talk.

You can do that in a variety of ways:

Describing the problem you’ll address in a way that’s hyper-relevant to your audience
Telling a story that’s directly related to the subject your addressing.
Sharing data on why what you’re talking about matters.
Sharing your credentials on why you have expertise on a given topic.

The day after I spoke, I rewrote my talk, opening it with data on why the subject is so important, sharing what’s at stake and leading with the most pressing problem I sense the audience was leaning into. I moved the more personal, vulnerable things toward the end of the talk.

My big takeaway? In most Christian circles, authenticity gives you authority. When dealing with a non-Christian audience, authority gives you permission to be authentic.

The really sad part? Many Christians never get in front of truly unchurched audiences or people to even test that out.

In most Christian circles, authenticity gives you authority. When dealing with non-Christians, authority gives you permission to be authentic. Many Christians never get in front of truly unchurched audiences or people to test that out. Click To Tweet

7. Production and Branding Are Very Much Alive

There’s a debate about the peak of attractional churches, and I do think we’re moving into an era where real is the real deal.

But don’t let that convince you that branding, production, AVL and cool is dead.

There was an interesting paradox at SXSW. The branding for the event was everywhere. You couldn’t look left or right without seeing a banner, graphics or a step-and-repeat set up for selfies and photo-ups. Not to mention a decent merch counter.

So branding isn’t dead.

But it wasn’t drawing attention to itself. It’s almost as though branding is just something you do…it was baked-in, omni-present and almost like wallpaper.

That’s just where our culture is at right now.

There are two branding mistakes church leaders make.

First, is to put too much stock in it, as though better branding will be your salvation. Of course it won’t be. As ad legend David Ogilvie said, “Good marketing makes a bad product fail faster.” No, branding is just a part of life in 2019.

Which brings us to the second mistake: the tribe of church leaders who don’t brand who criticize churches that do. That’s also an error. Branding, good production and AVL can help you share your message in a relevant way.

The reason relevance still matters is simple: the culture doesn’t listen to people it deems irrelevant. Neither do you.

The reason relevance still matters is simple: the culture doesn’t listen to people it deems irrelevant. Neither do you.Click To Tweet

Get Better At Speaking Into The Culture

Speaking to the culture in a way that connects has never been more nuanced.

Which is why it was so good to create The Art of Better Preaching online, on demand course with Mark Clark. Mark and I are good friends, but have very different approaches and styles in our preaching. Both, by the grace of God, connect with people who don’t normally go to church.

We’d love to show you to preach in a way that connects, without selling out.

The Art of Better Preaching Course is a 12 session video training with a comprehensive, interactive workbook that will help you create, write, and deliver better sermons. The course contains the lessons Mark Clark (lead pastor of  Village Church, a growing mega-church in post-Christian Vancouver) and I have learned, taught, and used over decades of being professional communicators.

This is the complete course you need to start preaching better sermons, including:

7 preaching myths it’s time to bust forever
The 5 keys to preaching sermons to unchurched people (that will keep them coming back)
How to discover the power in the text (and use it to drive your sermon)
The specific characteristics of sermons that reach people in today’s world
Why you need to ditch your sermon notes (and how to do it far more easily than you think.)
How to keep your heart and mind fresh over the long run

And far more! Plus you get an interactive workbook and some bonus resources that will help you write amazing messages week after week.

In the Art of Better Preaching, Mark and I share everything we’ve learned about communicating in a way that will help your church grow without compromising biblical integrity. We cover detailed training on everything from interacting with the biblical text to delivering a talk without using notes, to writing killer bottom lines that people will remember for years.

Check it out today and gain instant access.

What Are You Seeing In Culture?

What changes are you seeing in culture?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post Young Leaders, DeepFakes and 7 Things I Learned at SXSW About How the World Is Changing (Again…) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Young Leaders, DeepFakes and 7 Things I Learned at SXSW About How the World Is Changing (Again…)

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by Carey Nieuwhof: Everything has its season.

And the season of the cool church is, in many ways, coming to an end.

Recently, I wrote a post that generated a lot of discussion online and offline about why charismatic churches are growing and attractional churches are past peak. You can read that post here.

To drill down further, here’s more on what’s been happening as the culture changes around us.

So flip back a few decades…There was an era when simply being a cooler, more relevant church than the church down the road helped churches reach unchurched people.

There was a day when all you had to do was improve the church you led to gain traction.

Trade in the choir for a band. Turn the chancel into a platform. Add some lights, some sound, some haze. Get some great teaching in the room. And voila, you had a growing church.

But we’re quickly moving into a season where having a cool church is like having the best choir in town: it’s wonderful for the handful of people who still listen to choral music.

Somethings changing. And a hundreds of thousands of dollars in lights and great sound gear are probably not going to impact your community like they used to.

So what’s changing? Plenty.

…

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Source: Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church)

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Source: 5 Trends in Cities and Urban Ministry

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