Influence Issue 10

ISSUE _ 10 / FEB 2017 _ MAR 2017

ANDREA LATHROP / DAVID KINNAMAN / PETER PIÑÓN

WHY FLOURISHING CHURCHES NEED BOTH

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CONTENTS

8 If You Ask Me Winds of Change

10 Get Set Opportunity, Community and Justice for Kids: A Q&A with Gary and Tammie Webb

WHY FLOURISHING CHURCHES

14 Like a Leader • Live: Building Relationships Through Community Service • Think: A Fresh Look at Church Membership • Read: Books Worth Highlighting, for You and Your Team • Listen: Enhancing Your Listening Experience with Podcasts and More • Tech: Apps and Tech That Add to Your Life

NEED BOTH

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24 Playbook • Build: How to Build a Useful Church Website • Know: Contentment, Risk, & Resilience Among America’s Pastors • Invest: Going Deeper with God for All the Right Reasons

32 Perspectives Conversions: How Do You Measure Them?

Water Baptism vs. Public Confession?

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34 Honor and Energy: Why Flourishing Churches Need Both

Scott Hagan clearly explains how Scripture seamlessly blends the honor generation with the energy generation as a needed collective force necessary for churches to grow and flourish.

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46 Scribes of Our Future

Heath Adamson pragmatically outlines how today’s leaders can skillfully steward the dreams of the next generation of ministers.

54 When Leaders Must Confront Peter Piñón offers eight ways leaders can connect through confrontation.

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62 Multipliers— Multiplying at Any Age • • • •

Young Enough to Serve Reaching His Neighbors Impacting Communities at Any Age A MAP to Volunteering

70 Make It Count Generosity: 8 Principles to Help Your Team Live a Generous Life

80 The Final Note

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Does God Supernaturally Heal People Today?

MAGAZINE

THE SHAPE OF LEADERSHIP

INFLUENCE MAGAZINE 1445 N. Boonville Avenue Springfield, MO 65802-1894 Influence magazine is published by Influence Resources.

Publisher: George O. Wood Executive Director, Influence Resources: Chris Railey Executive Editor: George Paul Wood Managing Editor: Rick Knoth Senior Editor: John Davidson Online Editor: Ana Pierce Designer: Steve Lopez Advertising Coordinator: Ron Kopczick

SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, go to influencemagazine.com or call 1.855.642.2011. Individual one-year subscriptions are $15.

Bulk one-year subscriptions are $10 per subscription, for a minimum of six or more. For additional subscription rates, contact subscribe@influencemagazine.com. Please send all other feedback, requests and questions to feedback@ influencemagazine.com.

All rights reserved. Copyrighted material reprinted with permission. All Scripture references used are from the New International Version (NIV), unless otherwise noted.

CONTRIBUTORS: Heath Adamson, Jerry Falley, Scott Hagan, Dick Hardy, Roger and Maite Huang, Rob Ketterling, David Kinnaman, Andrea Lathrop, Rod Loy, Linda Maracle, Ana Pierce, Peter Piñón, Chris Railey, Gary and Tammie Webb, Wes and Judy Wick, George Paul Wood

Influence magazine (ISSN: 2470-6795) is published six times a year, in December, February, April, June, August and October by Influence Resources (1445 N. Boonville Avenue, Springfield, MO 65802-1894). Periodicals postage paid at Springfield, Missouri, and at other mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

SPECIAL THANKS: Alton Garrison, James Bradford, Douglas Clay, Gregory Mundis, Zollie Smith, Gary Rhoades, Tim Strathdee

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Influence magazine: 1445 N. Boonville Avenue Springfield, MO 65802-1894

EDITORIAL: For info or queries, contact editor@influencemagazine.com.

ADVERTISING: Display rates available upon request. Contact advertising@influencemagazine.com. By accepting an advertisement, Influence does not endorse any advertiser or product. We reserve the right to reject advertisements not consistent with the magazine’s objectives.

Website: influencemagazine.com Twitter: @theinfluencemag Facebook: facebook.com/theinfluencemag Instagram: @theinfluencemag

How do you make a deeper, clearer connection to God’s Word? The Christian Standard Bible is proven to be the optimal blend of accuracy and readability. So it’s as literal to the original as possible without losing its ability to stir your heart. You’ll find it to be highly trustworthy — and deeply satisfying. The CSB: Truth so clear, you’ll want to read it, share it, and live it. Learn more at CSBible.com.

IF YOU ASK ME

WINDS OF CHANGE ometimes as leaders it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. Sometimes the challenge in front of us clouds our perspective of the larger story unfolding around us. What we see and how we see it affects what we do and where we go. Perspective is everything. I was reminded of this recently after reading an opinion piece from a major news outlet. The author was comparing the geopolitical scene from the summer of 1914 to that of today, pointing out that the events of that time led to World War I and changed the course of human history. Political tensions, extreme nationalism and terrorist activity culminated in battle lines drawn and countless lives lost. In the summer of 1914, a handful of specific events caused a chain reaction that impacted every generation that followed.

In the spring of 1914, another chain of events was unfolding that also impacted the world in a significant way. Three hundred Pentecostal leaders gathered in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to form the Assemblies of God. As the world was going to war, God was initiating the next wave of redemptive history. As nations were preparing to destroy each other, God in His sovereignty was setting in motion a great revival that would lead to tens of millions of new believers, thousands of new churches and an inestimable number of changed lives. The author of the opinion piece warned that similar winds are blowing today as they did in 1914. I pray he’s right.

As leaders, we are supposed to walk a few steps ahead of those we lead, see the preferred future and organize people and resources to move toward that future.

Thankfully, as spiritual leaders, the One we follow and

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strive to point people to is more than a few steps ahead of us. He sees the beginning from the end. His ways are above our ways. The story He is writing with our lives is unaltered by the things we consider setbacks, or the circumstances that appear threatening.

As you read this, I’m sure there are things going on around you that feel overwhelming — winds of change blowing in the wrong direction — and circumstances that appear out of your control. The truth is, you may be right to feel the way you do. I wonder, though, if there’s more going on than what you can see. I wonder what seed God is planting that remains just below the surface that will soon rise. I wonder what God is setting in motion that will change everything and everybody around you. As Mark Batterson says in his book If, “That’s the power of Romans 8:31. … ‘If God is for us who can be against us?’ ” I pray that perspective defines your leadership.

I’m pleased to commend to you the contents of this issue of Influence. Our cover story by Scott Hagan entitled: “Honor and Energy: Why Flourishing Churches Need Both” examines the polarizing environment in which young and older leaders sometimes find themselves and how they can find their way out.

Heath Adamson in “Scribes of Our Future” addresses how the older generation of leaders can help the next generation of leaders discern a call to vocational ministry.

And finally, Peter Piñón in “When Leaders Must Confront” discusses eight ways leaders can connect through confrontation.

We trust these and other articles in this issue will inspire, challenge and encourage you to be the dynamic leader God created you to be.

Chris Railey, D.Min., is the executive director of Influence Resources and the senior director of leadership and church development ministries for The General Council of the Assemblies of God, U.S.A.

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WHAT IF THIS IS THE MOMENT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING AND YOUR STUDENTS MISS IT?

A little over 100 years ago at the Azusa Street Revival, people of all ages and backgrounds came together and the Holy Spirit fell in an incredible way. In the services, William Seymour prophesied that 100 years later, another movement even more powerful than Azusa would sweep the nation.

This year we're asking that everyone, youth and leaders alike, unite in Anaheim and ask the question,

WHAT IF IT HAPPENED AGAIN?

REGISTER TODAY AT ANAHEIM17.AG.ORG.

GET SET

4 Questions with Gary and Tammie Webb

OPPORTUNITY, COMMUNITY AND JUSTICE FOR KIDS OCJ Kids, founded by Assemblies of God U.S. missionaries Gary and Tammie Webb, provide services, resources and caring adults to address the needs of society’s most vulnerable.

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Influence: What is OCJ Kids and what inspired you to launch this ministry?

Gary and Tammie Webb: OCJ stands for Opportunity, Community and Justice for Kids. The ministry was birthed in our hearts about 13 years ago. My wife and I saw a tremendous gap in services and resources for children entering foster care and those living in group residential housing. Children were being removed from their homes with just the clothes on their backs — no food or hygiene products — alone and afraid. Some of them were even sleeping on the floor at child services offices. At age 18, they were aging out of foster care with just a trash bag. Seventy percent were becoming homeless or imprisoned within one year of being out of foster care. Seeing this tremendous need, we asked ourselves, “Even though we are unable to foster or adopt a child, how can we make a difference?”

How can churches partner with child services in their areas to meet local foster care needs?

Child services are always in need of basic items for children entering into the foster care system. These items generally include hygiene welcome kits, removal-care packages, clothes, baby items, gift cards and suitcases.

God has opened the door for churches to begin partnering with child services to meet all these needs. As U.S. missionaries, we help churches contact their local child services offices, building community partnerships to meet the needs of each and every foster child.

What resources are available to create an orphan care ministry in the local church?

Two primary resources are available for outreaches: Local programs and OCJ Kids’ services. Local resources can include government foster care services and programs, social service clubs, CASA organizations and local nonprofit groups. These resources are easily identified and utilized. OCJ Kids, as a 501(c)3 organization, provides churches with volunteer training, complete program instruction and support, donation request letters on letterhead, access to local resources and grant writing opportunities.

How can churches be involved with OCJ Kids?

There are two ways for churches to get involved. The first way is to serve as a “host” church. The host church

takes the lead role collecting, building, storing and distributing resource items requested by child services.

Host churches serve as the primary contact for child services. Host churches also have the opportunity to sponsor supervised visitations and seasonal outreach events.

The second way for churches to be involved is to participate as “collaborative” partners. Collaborative partner churches choose the best option for their church to assist the host church by helping with collection drives, providing volunteers for seasonal outreach activities or helping with administrative duties.

How can churches collaborate with the business community to better serve foster and at-risk kids?

Trying to meet every need on your own can be overwhelming. We want to help churches build a coalition of ministry partners in both the business and faith communities to run successful and long-lasting ministry outreaches. Community groups and chambers of commerce meet monthly and are a great way to introduce your church or ministry to small business owners, and like minded churches. These groups exist in part to better their communities and give back. We just need to make them aware of the need and provide them opportunities to get involved. These are great contacts for all your collection drives and fundraisers.

To learn more about how churches can be involved in OCJ Kids, visit ocjkids.org.

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As I was looking around at the kids who were at our VBS last year, I realized we had stopped being an outreach and were just a really expensive discipleship event. When we switched to a MEGA Sports Camp outreach, we had over 100 kids with no church connection come to our sports camp. We were able to show the people in our area that the church is not about buildings, names, or numbers but about people that love Jesus, working together to spread the light of the gospel.�—Shannan Volters, Cleves, Ohio

Visit MEGASportsCamp.com for more information.

LIVE

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH COMMUNITY SERVICE How to understand the hopes, needs and fears of lost people in your city.

ROD LOY

year after becoming pastor, I realized I was living in a church bubble. All the things that keep a pastor busy — funerals, hospital calls, appointments, conflict resolution and meetings with staff — consumed my time. Virtually everyone I talked to and spent time with was a Christian. I considered myself a soul winner, but the only souls I was winning were those who walked in the doors of our church. Something had to change.

My first venture into the “real world” was a first-grade class in a low-income, academically challenged public school. Every Friday morning, I helped the students with their reading. That summer, I became a volunteer lifeguard at a water park. It was long, hot work, but an awesome opportunity to spend time and build relationships with people who didn’t know Jesus. I spent the next seven years working various jobs at the water park, all for free.

Now, our entire pastoral team is involved in the community. We provide food for hungry children, feed the homeless, serve on local and state boards, drive

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school buses, volunteer as chaplains for the police department, substitute teach, coach athletic and academic teams and lead community events. We partner with food banks, Habitat for Humanity, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and countless other organizations. We host parties and awards events for local schools. We even hosted a public high school graduation when weather forced it inside. On three occasions, an entire public school moved into our facility — once for an entire semester. We want people to know us as the church that says “yes” to those needing help.

Our strategy is simple. We look for needs no one else is filling and for groups that are unrecognized and underserved. Then, we get involved. Our goal is to build relational bridges so we can share the love of Jesus.

If you don’t know where to begin, start with the sanitation department in your city. Chances are few people are honoring and appreciating these workers. We host a Christmas lunch for them with free food, gifts for the workers and gift cards so they can purchase gifts for their families. I love seeing our parking lot filled with trash trucks.

Lost people probably won’t accidentally wander in the door of the church. But they are open to an invitation that occurs in the context of a relationship. If they aren’t coming to your world, go to theirs.

I challenge you: get out of your office. Find a place to serve selflessly in your community. The real-world interactions will refresh you. And, when your congregation sees you involved, it will inspire them to be outward-focused. There’s even a bonus benefit: you’ll become a better preacher as you understand the hopes, needs and fears of lost people in your city.

Rod Loy is the senior pastor of First Assembly of God in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

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A FRESH LOOK AT CHURCH MEMBERSHIP How to think about church membership and leverage it in healthy, new ways.

CHRIS RAILEY

ost churches have some form of church membership. But what’s the purpose of church membership? Is there a biblical basis for it? If so, how can churches leverage membership in a healthy way?

If you are a church planter or leading an established church, it’s time for a fresh look at church membership so your church can have a more effective future. Here are some thoughts on how to think about church membership.

1. Make church membership matter.

Hebrews chapter 13 encourages church people to honor their leaders because they

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are the ones who must give an account to God as good shepherds over God’s sheep. The biblical precedent for church membership is tied to the shepherding motif. The main responsibility of the shepherd is to take care of the sheep. Church membership matters because people matter. It’s impossible to give a true account of the people who float in and out of your services from week to week. The people you can give an account for are the ones who submit to the leadership of the church — the ones who come regularly — members.

Each year you should count the sheep so you know who your members are. I suggest making membership good for one year at a time. At the beginning of each year, give people the opportunity to renew their membership for another year. Making the membership covenant good for one year allows people to renew every year voluntarily; it keeps the church on mission; and it provides clear expectations. I’d rather have more people in Sunday attendance than on the membership role. If you have more people on the membership role than show up at your church on Sunday morning, something is missionally wrong. You don’t want people who moved, died or otherwise left the church to remain on your membership role for years on end. So count the sheep every year!

2. Make church membership a part of discipleship. A healthy membership process is part of a clear discipleship pathway. As a leader, your goal is to get newcomers and regular attenders out of the crowd and on the discipleship pathway. For some attenders, this pathway may include making a first-time commitment to Jesus. The pathway should also include helping attenders build relationships through small groups, find a place to serve, obey Jesus in giving generously and eventually become church members dedicated to fulfilling the mission of the church.

Making membership a part of the discipleship pathway helps you know and grow your people better.

3. Make church membership a celebration. We get what we celebrate, so make membership dynamic rather than static by celebrating membership corporately. Hosting a rally early in the year provides a good opportunity to celebrate membership. The rally allows you to cast vision, clarify expectations and hold members accountable for another year.

Church membership doesn’t have to be an outdated list or a stagnate process. It can actually be an invigorating part of church life that serves to keep your church on its God-given mission.

Chris Railey, D.Min., is the executive director of Influence Resources and the senior director of leadership and church development ministries for The General Council of the Assemblies of God, U.S.A.

THE NEXT GIANT LEAP

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CHOOSING OUR RELIGION Elizabeth Drescher (Oxford)

The rise of the “Nones” — people with no religious affiliation — is one of the decade’s most startling religious trends.

Nones constitute nearly a quarter of the American populace.

According to Elizabeth Drescher, they don’t practice a “soulless secularism,” however. They are “neither more nor less spiritual or moral than are Somes,” she writes, referring to people with a specific religious affiliation. Instead, Nones are “spiritual, religious, and moral in ways that are somewhat different from the religiously affiliated.” Better ministry to Nones requires better understanding of them, and this book will help pastors and church leaders achieve the latter.

BOOKS WORTH HIGHLIGHTING, FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM

By Influence Magazine

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TRANSFORMING DISCIPLESHIP Greg Ogden (IVP Books)

How well are Christians in America carrying out the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19)? Not well, according to Greg Ogden. In this book, he sets out to explain what went wrong, why and how to implement an effective church-based strategy for disciple making. “The necessary elements,” he writes, “are to establish a relational disciple-making process that is rooted in a reproducible model … that brings together the transformative elements of life change.”

It’s a book pastors and other church leaders ought to read.

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HOW TO PREACH & TEACH THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR ALL IT’S WORTH Christopher J. H. Wright (Zondervan)

In too many American churches today, the Old Testament goes unread and unpreached. Even when read and preached, however, the Old Testament is too often wrenched out of context, reduced to moralistic and legalistic applications, or mined for questionable prophetic significance. Christopher J. H. Wright sets out to rectify this situation in his book. His approach is practical, grounded in sound biblical exegesis and solid evangelical theology, and attuned to both the ancient culture of the biblical writers and the contemporary culture of its readers.

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By Influence Magazine 1

THE CALLING http://www.christianitytoday.com/local-church/podcast/

The Calling is “a long-form, highly personal interview with a church leader.”

Hosted by Richard Clark, new episodes drop every other week and average 40–45 minutes. Interviews focus on “the nature of church leadership, the inherent struggles that come with that calling, and the many different ways God has shaped individuals to work within his church.” Recent topics include how love of literature shapes faith, how to be faithfully creative in a post-Christian world and how race can be a minefield, even for multiethnic churches.

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MONDAY MORNING PREACHER http://www.preachingtoday.com/media/podcast/

Hosted by Matt Woodley, Monday Morning Preacher is a new podcast from Christianity Today. Episodes average 15 minutes in length and drop several times a month. Each episode consists of “breaking down a clip from a master preacher’s sermon and then exploring how preachers can grow in their craft.” Topics include preaching with courage, featuring a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr.; preaching on controversial topics; and writing effective sermon introductions.

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QUICK TO LISTEN

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http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcast/

Quick to Listen is the flagship podcast of Christianity Today. Hosted by the magazine’s editors, each episode goes “beyond hashtags and hot-takes [to] set aside time to explore the reality behind a major cultural event.” Episodes drop weekly and average 30–40 minutes in length. Recent topics include why Christian persecution keeps rising, what evangelicals can love about Mary the mother of Jesus, and whether refugees’ religion should affect their entrance to the U.S. This is a helpful podcast to keep you informed about current events in both church and society.

Final Note: Don’t forget to check out the Influence Podcast, a collection of inspiring and challenging conversations, aimed at empowering the entire spectrum of church leadership. Episodes drop twice weekly. Monday’s podcast with George P. Wood focuses on theology and culture. Thursday’s podcast with John Davidson focuses on practical ministry issues.

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STAFFING SMARTS

EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOU HIRE THE BEST

From building healthy teams to navigating ministry crises in your church staff, the people you hire are the most significant investment your church will make. So how do you find the right people for your staff?

We’ve released an exciting resource, exclusive to those of you in church leadership who want to hire & maintain the best teams.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF STAFFING SMARTS: EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOU HIRE THE BEST AT: SLINGSHOTGROUP.ORG / STAFFINGSMARTS

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By Influence Magazine

Apps and tech that add to your life 1

WUNDERLIST

Do you live and die by your to-do list? Are you looking for an enjoyable, yet simple way to keep your lists across all your devices? Wunderlist is a simple to-do-list and task manager app that helps you get all your important stuff done so you can keep your life in sync. Collaboration is simple and effective.

Whether you’re collaborating on a project with a friend, family member or another ministry leader, or simply planning a vacation, Wunderlist makes it easy to capture, add attachments, share and complete your projects and to-dos. It instantly syncs between your phone, tablet and computer, so you can access your to-dos and projects from anywhere.

Wunderlist allows you to set due dates and reminders so you will never miss a deadline or important date again. Set reoccurring tasks if you need monthly, weekly or daily reminders. And organize your lists and projects by simply dragging and dropping into a folder to retrieve at a later time.

These are just a few of the important features of Wunderlist.

Visit wunderlist.com or get it on the App Store or Google Play.

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WORD SWAG

Word Swag is one of the best tools for busy church leaders or anyone wanting to enhance their social media posts. This awesome, little app allows you to quickly create beautiful looking announcement slides and flyers, inspirational quotes or jazzed-up photos to share on your personal or church social media site.

Word Swag is like having a personal graphic designer in your pocket to help you create amazing photo or text layouts in just a matter of minutes.

You’ll never be at a loss for words using Word Swag’s extensive library of captions that will inspire and impress your Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers. You can even use Word Swag to make graphics for your blog.

The design possibilities of Word Swag are endless.

The app includes numerous graphic font styles, an endless number of free backgrounds, including gold foil, stamped and watercolor effects, as well as image filters that are engineered to look fantastic with any photo-text design.

For a one-time payment of $4.99, you’ll get your money’s worth many times over. Get it on the App Store or Google Play or visit wordswag.co.

PLAYBOOK : BUILD

HOW TO BUILD A USEFUL CHURCH WEBSITE Following these 13 tips will help your church claim its digital real estate.

DICK HARDY

ou know how important location is for any organization. We hear it all the time: location, location, location. In fact, you’ve probably seen good businesses in your community go out of business simply because of poor locations.

What if you could position your church in a much better location with little cost and without even moving? I’m talking about your digital location, which may be more important these days than your physical location.

If cost were not an issue, wouldn’t it be fantastic to have your building located right off the highway, with high visibility, where everyone in your community passes by? That’s prime real estate! Now let’s consider how this translates to the online world, where Google is the highway, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your digital location. Most guests visit your website first. Many don’t even know where your church is physically located.

To a great extent, you can help determine your digital location. So how can you create a useful church website that will increase the number of guests coming to your church? Follow these 13 tips, and claim your digital real estate.

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1. Invest in a website platform designed for search engines. If someone runs a Google search for “churches in [your city],” for example, your church will rank higher in the search if the website platform is built for search engines.

2. Make sure Google recognizes your website as mobile friendly. You can determine that by doing a Google search for your church on your smartphone and looking for the “mobile-friendly” tag as shown here.

3. Make it easy for visitors to the site to provide their contact information. Capturing names and email addresses is an absolute must. This can happen right on your website, giving you the opportunity to follow up with prospective guests and start relationships with them even before they step through the doors of your facility.

4. Make sure your service times, contact information and physical address are listed on your home page. Make it easy for guests to find this crucial information quickly. Otherwise, people are likely to navigate away.

5. Include an overview video of your church on the home page. A welcoming video from the pastor can give prospective guests an idea of what they will experience upon visiting.

6. Have a place for families to preregister their kids. This helps people take a first step toward attending your church. Not only does it show guests you’re thinking of them, but it also helps the church staff maintain a sense of expectancy for guests to come each week.

7. Show photos of real people who attend your

church. People don’t want to see stock images. They want to see who you really are.

8. Dedicate a place for potential visitors to find out more about your church. A “New Here” section on your website geared specifically for new people could include some of the highlights already mentioned.

9. Use easy-to-understand headings. Use names like Kids and Students when referring to specific departments or ministries. Even for regular attendees, names like Butterflies or Elevate are unclear and don’t express what those ministries really are. The clearer, the better.

10. Provide a platform for online giving. Online giving has dramatically increased over the last five years.

It’s how people do many of their financial transactions these days. Churches that offer online giving options often see a massive increase in giving. The key is making it easy for people to give.

11. List your events online, and keep them up to date. An events page can be a great place for people to find the latest information on what is happening at your church. But don’t forget to keep it updated.

Having events from the past listed online makes your site look neglected.

12. Include a place to watch previous messages.

This helps church members catch up if they miss a week, and it lets potential guests watch a message and get a better feel for what they’ll experience when they visit.

13. Share what you believe. Some people will want more in-depth information about your church, including what you believe. Posting your doctrinal position online helps clarify this for potential guests.

Your church’s website clearly has an impact on your digital location, and how you steward your website will help direct the growth of your church.

Ultimately, your church’s website isn’t just for guests, but welcoming newcomers should be at the heart of it.

This mindset will help you reach more people as you proclaim the unchanging message of Christ in a rapidly changing world.

Dick Hardy is the founder and president of the Hardy Group, a premier organization providing leadership consulting, coaching and resources nationally and internationally to church leaders.

Visit the Hardy Group at thehardygroup.org.

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PLAYBOOK : KNOW

CONTENTMENT, RISK & RESILIENCE AMONG AMERICA’S PASTORS What picture emerges of America’s pastors from Barna’s recent The State of Pastors report?

DAVID KINNAMAN

hen Pepperdine University approached our team at Barna about assessing the condition of 21st-century pastors, we didn’t have to think — the answer was yes.

Few projects could be closer to the heart of our mission to help spiritual influencers understand the times and know what to do (see 1 Chronicles 12:32). No other group of leaders does more to spiritually influence society, and Barna is committed to equipping pastors with information and insights they need to do the job well.

The result of our efforts is a new series of national studies that examine three dimensions of church leaders’ lives: • Self-leadership: pastors’ perceptions of their spiritual, mental and emotional health and their feelings about their closest relationships • Congregational leadership: pastors’ everyday experience in ministry and their priorities, joys and frustrations • Cultural leadership: the influence and engagement of pastors beyond their congregations

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Each dimension of a pastor’s life informs and impacts the others. By looking at the particulars in each dimension — self, congregational and cultural leadership — we believe an accurate picture of the whole emerges.

So what is the picture that emerges from Barna’s findings?

Satisfaction & Risk Pastors report greater satisfaction than the national norm in every facet of life we assessed. Compared to U.S. adults overall, they tend to be more content in their marriages and family lives, less troubled about their financial well-being, more fulfilled in their professions and just as happy with their friendships. Contrary to conventional wisdom, most pastors are faring quite well.

However, we used pastors’ self-assessments to formulate risk metrics for stress-related burnout, relationship problems and spiritual difficulties. Our aggregate analysis shows that many leaders are dealing with some level of risk in these areas: 27

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• More than one-third of pastors are at high (11%) or medium (26%) risk of burnout.

• Two in five tally high (27%) or medium (16%) on the risk metric for relational problems.

• And while only one in 20 is at high risk of spiritual trouble (5%) — giving the impression, at first glance, that this is a non-issue for most pastors — an unexpected six in 10 fall into the medium-risk category (61%), suggesting there are hazardous currents just below the surface.

Not surprisingly, we also found that pastors who consistently practice one or more spiritual disciplines score lower not only on the metric of spiritual risk but also on burnout and relationship risks. In contrast, leaders who are at high risk practice disciplines such as prayer or personal study of the Scriptures less often and less regularly.

If pastors and those who support them should take anything from these findings, it’s that consistent spiritual practices matter. They matter to the quality of pastors’ lives and leadership. They correlate to vocational satisfaction and contentedness with one’s ministry. They impact emotional, spiritual and relational well-being. And they are an essential component of resilience.

The Need for Resilient Leaders After more than three decades studying churches in the U.S. and elsewhere, we at Barna believe the Christian community has, at times, focused too much on raising up strong, almost heroic leaders. But in their excellent book 28

Leaders who are at high risk practice disciplines such as prayer or personal study of the Scriptures less often and less regularly.

Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) and his co-authors contrast robust — another word for strong — with resilient. The pyramids at Giza are robust: big, impressive, immovable, unchangeable except by increments or an act of God. Yet given enough firepower, a single person could wipe them off the face of the earth. A forest, on the other hand, is resilient: at first glance, more vulnerable than the pyramids to a devastation-level event such as a wildfire or attack by an invasive parasite. But wait a decade or a century, and the forest is likely to have recovered — and the soil beneath the trees is likely to have become richer, as well.

I believe church leaders must seek to be more like forests and less like pyramids, able to adapt to or recover from whatever cultural wildfire or superbug comes along. Resilient pastors: • prioritize their own spiritual, emotional and physical needs.

• view challenges realistically.

• learn from their mistakes.

• consider alternate perspectives and new processes.

• expect that God is at work even in adverse situations.

You can find much more data, as well as ideas for developing resilience in yourself and with your ministry team, in Barna’s new report The State of Pastors.

David Kinnaman is president of Barna Group, a research and communications company that studies faith and culture. His is author of Good Faith, You Lost Me and unChristian.

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GOING DEEPER WITH GOD FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS Why leaders should invest in their spiritual growth and how A N D R E A L AT H R O P

piritual growth hasn’t always been one of my favorite subjects. For many years, it was more of a sore subject.

About 16 years ago, I was discussing spiritual growth with a friend during an accountability session when I heard myself saying, “I’m going to live for Jesus the rest of my life.

I mean, I’m not an idiot. I believe heaven and hell are real. But I am pretty sure I will be miserable.”

And I was miserable. It’s hard to avoid it while viewing God as a cosmic taskmaster who is perpetually frustrated and irritated with your lack of progress and production. I thought God wanted me to grow primarily because He was disappointed with my current state, that He needed me to be better so He could squeeze more ministry out of me.

Boy, was I wrong. While pursuing spiritual growth is important, it’s also important to understand why we need it. If we can’t answer the why with biblical truth and conviction, deep spiritual growth probably won’t happen amid the demands of life and ministry.

I am finding that not all motivations for growth are equal. Fear of failure and anxiety about what others think take me only so far.

And while it’s difficult, if not impossible, to invite others into spiritual growth when I’m not experiencing it, I must view it as more than just an opportunity to model one more thing for those I serve. This is not another ministry technique or formula for church growth. A purely utilitarian approach to spiritual growth will leave me malformed and malnourished.

I have become convinced that experiencing a deeper understanding of God’s love is the highest motivation for spiritual growth.

I invest my time, resources and energy in my spiritual growth because God loves me perfectly and thoroughly — and that makes all the difference.

How did I arrive at this insight? It hasn’t always been easy. The struggle is real. The pull toward shallow living is forceful and natural. In his book Celebration of Discipline, theologian Richard Foster says, “Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant

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I thought God wanted me to grow primarily because He was disappointed with my current state, that He needed me to be better so He could squeeze more ministry out of me. satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem.

The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people but for deep people.”

How encouraging. While my pride wishes for greater intelligence and giftedness, what I have the power to change is my depth in Christ. I can open myself to God more and more and allow Him to grow me.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers and for us today speaks directly to this: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16–19).

I know this, and yet am still tempted to short-cut my spiritual growth. Isn’t there a hack for spiritual depth? I like shortcuts and life hacks. I never whisk eggs in a bowl before scrambling them in the skillet. Why would I want to wash another dish? And I use Amazon Prime with such frequency and for such meager purchases that I’m sure they will close my account for abusing it. I could go on and on. Yet I keep finding that there are some things in life that cannot be microwaved; there are things worth pursuing that are not convenient.

We must push against the pull of superficiality. Spiritual practices and disciplines help us do that. There are many disciplines for cultivating depth with God. Allow me to share four that have helped me.

1. Slow down with Scripture. Perhaps you’ve seen children stuff themselves with food and instructed them to slow down. I like eating slowly. It is good for relationships, for digestion and for simply receiving the gift of a meal. Likewise, I like to linger in God’s Word. There are good reasons for reading large chunks of Scripture at a time. But you also need to find time to enjoy your spiritual food, reading it slowly and meditating on just a few verses.

2. Practice praying without ceasing. Invite Jesus into your daily reality through prayer. Work to include Him in every aspect or situation of your everyday life. Set aside focused times of prayer, but don’t let it stop there. Pray throughout the day, especially as you are navigating family life and church ministry.

3. Read spiritual classics that inspire you. I can’t tell you how much encouragement I’ve received from the amazing men and women who have gone before me. Encouragement is like oxygen for the soul; we all need an ample supply.

4. Seek God through solitude. Silence your phone for an increasing period of time each week. Try to not have an agenda during at least some of these occasions. Block out time in your calendar. I dare you to be unavailable to anyone else but God for a period of time each week.

You are more loved than you can imagine. I can’t think of a better reason to invest in your spiritual growth.

Andrea Lathrop is the executive director of Group & Care ministries at Christ Fellowship in West Palm Beach, Florida. Christ Fellowship is a multisite, multiethnic congregation gathering on eight campuses throughout South Florida.

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PERSPECTIVES

Conversions: How Do Y

Water Baptism vs. P Tracking the spiritual growth and discipleship of our congregations can sometimes be as easy as counting.

Within church ministry, there are plenty of numbers that you can count. Offering and attendance represent numbers that are seemingly straightforward and simple to track. But conversions are a little more difficult. How do you determine that someone truly

makes a commitment to follow Jesus?

In this Perspectives, two pastors answer this question, but with different opinions. One points to the Great Commission and its call for water baptism as a true marker of committed salvation. The other pastor sees a public confession of faith as the first act of obedience of a new convert.

WATER BAPTISM easuring the number of conversions in your church is very important. But how do you know for sure that the people behind the numbers are really making a commitment to follow Jesus? Here are two reasons, from Scripture, that water baptism is the best measure for gauging whether or not you’re making disciples.

1. It is Jesus’ plan for evangelism and discipleship. The Great Commission is a mandate to make disciples, not decisions. And obedience is the cornerstone of discipleship. When you read the words of Jesus, His commandment to the disciples is water baptism.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).

If your goal is to make disciples, then Jesus gave the ultimate marker of a changed life: water baptism. This is Jesus’ clear plan and command for you as His follower as you make disciples.

2. It was the apostles’ call

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for salvation. The Early Church was so successful because it followed the clear plan of Jesus. After preaching his great sermons on the Day of Pentecost, Peter makes a call for salvation to the crowd, and it included water baptism.

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ ” (Acts 2:38).

Notice that before Peter asked the crowd to be baptized, he called on them to repent of their sins. Baptism is not salvation, but it is the first mark of those who are truly saved.

As you read through the Book of Acts, over and over again the Church used water baptism as a

way to mark conversions. Twice in Acts chapter 8 Philip the evangelist does this. First he baptizes new believers in Samaria (8:12), and then he baptizes an Ethiopian eunuch who just believed in Jesus (8:36–39). Paul himself was baptized after his conversion (Acts 9:18). Then he called on those he saw converted to be baptized as well. (See Lydia in Acts 16:15 and the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:33.)

As you read these Scriptures, one question comes up: why was water baptism the plan of evangelism and discipleship and the call of salvation for the Early Church?

First of all, it was Jesus’ command.

His command of water baptism was a result of His own obedience at the beginning of His ministry. Second, it’s the clearest way to demonstrate externally what Christ has done internally.

Because it requires a great deal of commitment to be dunked under water publicly, water baptism reflects the commitment we have made inside our hearts to follow Jesus.

ONE ONE ISSUE. ISSUE. TWO TWO PERSPECTIVES. PERSPECTIVES.

o You Measure Them?

s. Public Confession In every church, both water baptism and public confessions of faith should be high on your list of priorities. More importantly than how you count converts, though, is how you lead them afterward. By looking at these two perspectives, and deciding for yourself, you should have a better grasp of who in your church is ready to be discipled.

The purpose of the Perspectives column is to air debates taking place among Christian leaders so that Influence readers can understand both sides of a controversy and make an informed decision for their own congregations and ministries. As editors, we trust that the following debate will help you clarify your own understanding and practice of measuring true conversions.

PUBLIC CONFESSION OF FAITH ow do you measure conversions in your church? It’s very simple: by who comes forward to the altar to make a public confession of faith. The first act of obedience for a person who has just given their whole life to Jesus is not water baptism, Communion or even church membership. Those who are truly converted will confess that Jesus is their Lord.

Water baptism is a great indicator of a person’s growing obedience and walk with the Lord, but it does not signal their conversion. According to Acts 10:47, it is obvious that water baptism followed conversion and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you want to look for signs that a person is fully converted to Christ, look no further than their first act of obedience, confession (Romans 10:9).

Conversions happen because of faith, not because of works. We can do nothing in our own power to make Jesus accept us. Conversion, then, is an act of complete surrender.

And a public confession of that faith is a result of that surrender.

I love water baptisms. I believe

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they are an incredible picture of that surrender. They are a wonderful way to tell the whole world — or at least all who are watching — that you have committed your life to following Jesus. But it’s only a picture. Without understanding this, you may get a poor measurement of how many of your people are truly saved.

So how do you properly measure conversions in your church? By asking those in your congregation who have been touched by the Holy Spirit, who are feeling compelled

about making Jesus Lord of all of their life, to rise to their feet and come forward in a public confession of faith. This is a true act of surrender because it puts all of self behind, including prejudices, pride, self-conscious feelings and doubts.

And it is a more accurate measurement than water baptism because it captures a person’s surrender at the moment of conversion rather than a few days, weeks or even months later.

You are called to challenge people at the point of decision. When you stand behind a pulpit, God gives you time and a platform to woo the hearts of men, women, boys and girls who are far from Him. When the apostle Paul talked about that sacred call, he compared it to how he felt about water baptism: “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 1:17). If God has called you to preach, then preach for a point: reaching those who are lost.

The only way I can see this is happening for sure is through asking for a public confession of faith.

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WHY FLOURISHING C H

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C HURCHES NEED BOTH

SCOTT HAGAN

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ong before my childhood began to segue into adulthood, I became fully aware of my grandmother Addie and the social splendor that surrounded her. She was the lead matriarch of a small mill town called Sedro-Woolley.

When I close my eyes, I remember her as a fixture and mixture of quirks, folklore and triviality. She was always at her best during Thanksgiving supper when she would boast of a father who worked 14-hour days for a bucket of milk or syrup as a paycheck. Then came the tale of how she and Grandpa used pig parts to replace a blown head gasket during a 1931 honeymoon drive from Oklahoma to Iowa. According to Grandma, the newlyweds celebrated their safe arrival in Des Moines by enjoying a meal of bacon hot off the engine.

I just giggled and believed every word.

More than half a century separated us in age, but we shared a sacred sameness. There’s a reciprocal beauty when a proven life meets a promising life. That was our relationship. I loved her stories. She loved my discoveries. As time wore on, Grandma found safety in nesting and nostalgia. For me, it was about wings and wonder.

Even though my own abstracts of destiny, purpose and servant-leadership were still two decades away, that early bond with my grandmother became the rational and emotional framing for how I would assemble my models of leadership and Kingdom life. I somehow knew that honor and energy would need each other for a lifetime. Everything to come would emerge from this one foundational idea.

Honor and energy are not enemy combatants competing for restricted air space; God meant for them to coexist and harmonize. He intended for honor and energy to occupy one bandwidth, not two. Nothing will flourish, especially when it comes to the local church, until these dual ingredients sensibly and pragmatically synergize. Older believers and leaders place a high value on honor (something proven), while younger believers and leaders place higher value on energy (something innovative). But over and over, Scripture seamlessly blends honor with energy as a collective force.

Act 2 is a beautiful interlacing of history with the present day.

The Day of Pentecost reflects the inseparable bone-and-marrow relationship between honor and energy. When the bystanders publicly tried to intimidate Peter over the sudden invasion of heaven in downtown Jerusalem, he quickly defended the honor of the Prophet Joel. He said that someone else had played a role in the events of the day, declaring: “this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Peter was honoring the original source and sequence. Joel’s prophecy was given centuries earlier; yet the 36

sights and sounds were intensely contemporary — so much so that the hearers were pierced to the heart. They cried out to Peter for direction. It was impossible for Peter’s preaching and presentation skills alone to create this kind of mass transparency and impact; it was, in fact, a Spirit-empowered continuum of Joel’s message. This was one sermon, not two. The only thing separating Joel and Peter was a human timeline. In

The energy generation struggles for self-promotion. The honor generation struggles for self-perseveration.

Relationship is the path to solving both of those dilemmas.

other words, honor and energy were equal partners during the birth and convergence of the Church Age. Change is never tidy; it’s disruptive.

Transition is complicated because it’s hard to locate the relationships. The instincts for control are always strongest when there’s a vacuum of leadership. Without sound theology and functional love, a congregation will quickly deconstruct and 37

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partition honor from energy, losing all the conduits of community and communication in the process. A spiteful church transition can turn a healthy congregational family into a toxic flow chart overnight. When this happens, the older crowd sees the younger crowd as rogue, and the younger crowd sees the older crowd as rigid. Sadly, this rogue verses rigid standoff is occurring in churches all over America.

Energy is a biblical concept. It’s not reserved for the young alone. Caleb, at age 85, told Joshua he felt no different than he did at 40: “So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as

A New Leader Shift SIX IMPORTANT BEHAVIORS THAT WILL REINFORCE THE HONOR AND ENERGY DYNAMICS OF YOUR CHURCH AND/OR TEAM

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strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then” (Joshua 14:10–11).

The Prophet Haggai wrote about the Lord stirring up the enthusiasm and energy of the governor, the high priest and the whole remnant of Israel (Haggai 1:14). As Israel returned from captivity to rebuild the ancient lands colonized by Babylon, thus fulfilling the prophetic predictions of Jeremiah

Whatever you hold with a closed fist dies. Whatever you hold with an open hand leaves — but returns alive. In other words, we must lead strategically, but love spontaneously. A great leader empowers; a poor leader controls. Building and preserving an ethos and ethic of honor and energy requires intentional intensity. Unity and team virtue will never happen through ragged individualism. They happen through the robust pursuit of legitimate servant-guided community.

Young and old alike sometimes find themselves in polarizing environments diseased by generational mistrust, a setting that feels cast in stone. Sometimes all you can do to stop the chaos in an organization is build a greenhouse and grow something new. Leadership is a complex science; it’s a social process between independent people. It requires the constant faith and courage to initiate trusting relationships with new people, which is why the cynical and suspicious never achieve enduring influence. Leadership involves hard questions and difficult choices. Every relationship, even corrective ones, must gain inspiration from redemptive optimism. For the Church to be viable, it has to stay generationally connected. The reciprocation between the proven life and the promising life is what makes the body of Christ unique.

One of the most telling passages in Scripture describing the consequences of a generational abandonment and cowardice is 1 Kings 1:5–6: “Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, ‘I will be king.’ So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. (His father had never rebuked him by asking, ‘Why do you behave as you do?’ He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)”

When the generations divide, the fallout can be demoralizing.

Here are six important behaviors that will reinforce the honor and energy dynamics of your church and/or team — behaviors the older

from years earlier (30:18), the people discovered a huge missing element to their efforts.

Their work was honorable, but they lacked the energy levels to pull it off. The Lord poured out a new energy on Zerubbabel and Joshua and filled them with the zeal, enthusiasm and power to successfully carry out Jeremiah’s prophecy.

We face similar spiritual campaigns today as we strive to honor the voice of the Lord

and the voices of those who came prior to us in the sequence of God’s ongoing assignments that can span generations.

It takes the kind of energy Haggai wrote about to complete the task. God often gives this kind of natural energy to each generation as they arrive on the scene and become mature enough to take on the heavy lifting for the Kingdom.

Joel prophetically describes a type of generational distribution of responsibility. “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28).

generation needs to model and teach with reliability and clarity and the younger generation needs to observe, rehearse and assimilate.

1. Answerability. Have I followed through on my assignments? Have I let my team down in any way?

Can I allow others to examine my work? Do I express negative emotions if my ideas or actions need refinement or correction? Do I completely support the critical points of our vision?

2. Planning. There is a direct connection between outcomes and your routines. Have I studied, meditated, written and researched well? Is my presentation sloppy? Am I secretly leaning on my natural gifts and past reputation alone? Am I utilizing all that is available to me to forecast and make a total impact on the people I am serving, or am I looking for others to serve me?

3. Continuity. Am I doing what I need to do, even when I don’t feel like doing it? Are my routines healthy?

If people watched me 24/7 for one week, what would be their takeaway about my life? Would my actions shock or inspire others?

4. Attention to detail. Do I have the passion for swiftly fixing the little things that need correction so that I can surprise and delight those I’m leading? Do I go that extra unexpected mile? Is it clear to the people who listen to me that they are getting my best?

5. Concentration. Do I know the priorities of my own life, as well as the professional priorities of my team? Am I saying “no” to the distractions that can

drain my energies? When the moment comes for me to deliver on what I am supposed to be all about, am I delivering my very best, or am I masking a half-effort?

Do I come across stressed, negative and tired as a leader? Do I continually need people to cut me some slack as a way of staying on this team?

6. Dignity. Is there an emphasis by our team on professionalism, honor and respect for the offices of the New Testament Church? I cannot demand it from the people I serve, but I must demand it of myself. Am I so casual that there is no sense of holiness or divine calling in what I do? It’s not how others view the role of pastor; it’s how I view it. Do I see it as a holy calling or as a demanding, task-orientated life cycle with few moments that feel eternal or transformational?

A final encouragement to the “energy” generation: Grab every opportunity you can, even when it feels small. Trust me, living idly and pessimistically while waiting for the phone to ring with your big break is a bad strategy. Pessimism acts like gravity; it pulls you down. The only way to rise above and overcome boredom is by practicing passion. So go after small assignments to speak, communicate and write, no matter what they are. Take the stuff nobody wants, and do them for free. Do not despise small things (Zechariah 4:10). Just smile big while doing them — like you know something nobody else in the room does. If there’s even one shred of Kingdom-building opportunity tucked inside the assignment, don’t think twice. Just take it.

And above all, don’t quit.

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Young leaders must pace themselves, not simply to avoid burnout, but because they’ve come to understand that substance and wisdom grow like tree bark.

No one can accurately foretell the weight and wear of each dimension, but each generation clearly has unique and differing roles and characteristics. As each generation remains faithful, Kingdom congruency flourishes. The beauty is that each generation keeps developing and maturing, and, like David, grows from kid to king.

From Kid David to King David

According to 1 Chronicles 29:28, “He [David] died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth and honor. His son Solomon succeeded him as king.”

When we think of David, we imagine a younger man, not someone elderly. King David was first kid David. He was a member of the sheep police. He medicated his boredom with target practice, plucking ammunition from a brook without a single set of eyes there to notice. Slaying trees with a sling is a tough way to kill time, especially when you have a passion for taking on giants. But that is nothing new. Every youthful, energetic generation must embrace this phase of life and leadership, remembering that leadership happens over time — not overnight.

For many younger “energy” leaders, the conflict between seed and speed is relentless. Many younger leaders fail because they see leadership as a competition. They are desperate to be first to the marketplace with a product, or to become a cultural thought leader on certain topics. But great leadership is anti-speed. When it comes to the kingdom of God, fast is slow, and slow is fast. The more we strive, the less it actualizes. The science of God’s kingdom is agriculture, not technology. It takes the same amount of time to grow an apple today as it did in the days of Jesus. Young leaders must pace themselves, not simply to avoid burnout, but because they’ve come to understand that substance and wisdom grow like tree bark. No one can go deep in a day.

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From Energy to Honor

For the energy generation, it’s important to remember that great leaders pay attention, while poor leaders seek attention. In their quest for early success, many energy leaders face deep insecurity when they see a peer gaining recognition. The honor generation has been around long enough to know that another person’s success doesn’t steal your potential. There is plenty of wind in the harbor to sail every ship, as long as the sail is up. The fastest way to test the contents of your heart is to hear your competition complimented.

King Saul’s paranoia skyrocketed when the women of Israel danced and sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7). The thought of someone else getting excessive attention drove Saul senseless. Swept out to sea by jealousy, Saul’s influence was over. Attention seekers have a short shelf life when it comes to leadership. Great leaders pay attention to themselves and to the world around them, not for the purpose of applause, but to acquire and absorb anything and everything that might help them transform into something new.

For many energy-only leaders, the modern messaging of faithfulness is code for futility. The honor generation sees it differently. For the energy-only crowd, being told that faithful repetition is the fastest path to results feels manipulative. A lot of young leaders just aren’t buying it like their fathers did. The message feels too institutional, like

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a one-directional win for the guy in charge and no one else.

Spending valuable developmental years alongside someone who doesn’t embody your future ambitions is too ambiguous.

This makes no sense to an expectant generation of all-access leaders. It’s like being asked to load up for a long ride in a parked car. So a whole new set of questions has emerged for the futurecentric leader. But there’s also a dark side effect — a dishonesty that some young leaders need to own. For some, all the human elements of career mapping have supplanted simple trust in God for the future. For many of our young leaders, there’s an unholy urgency to leverage the seen world instead of walking by faith after the unseen. This is how the energy generation feels safe about tomorrow. It’s facts or flight. And frankly, I can’t blame them for the struggle.

Helping young leaders see the meaning and influence hidden inside the little behaviors they begrudge is a tough sell. Young leaders must learn that obscurity is not a leadership disease.

When it comes to spiritual formation, there is a universal link between advancement and growth through adversity.

Biblical leadership is not about becoming the expert or the executive. It’s about being the example. But becoming a sincere leader is a prodigal’s process, and therein lies the challenge.

The best thing about climbing mountains is that you cannot fake your way to the top. If you can manipulate your way there, it doesn’t represent a true accomplishment or result in real growth.

In 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” The word “example” comes from the Greek word tupos. It means “to form by a blow or impression of a figure or image — to become the template of something.” Becoming a fixed imprint or image, like the face of a president stamped on a coin, is a violent process. It has to be for the image to endure. Spiritual formation, or becoming an example, is about getting the image of Christ stamped on you in such a way that people will recognize Christ’s value both in you and on you. The person they first meet and the person they get to know over time are the same person.

I’ve watched young leaders roll their eyes when asked to do things that feel fake. Back during my Bible college days, my homiletics syllabus said I had to preach a canned sermon to pass the class. So there I stood, sick and sweaty, before a fake congregation, asking for a fake response after my fake sermon. It was an exercise in make-believe.

Two years later, I graduated and found my way onto a church staff where I assisted with the 8 a.m. service. My job was to give announcements between the offering and the sermon. This 42

Great leadership is anti-speed. When it comes to the kingdom of God, fast is slow, and slow is fast. amounted to greeting a small crowd of long-faced churchgoers, followed by welcoming mythical guests to a service entirely void of visitors. My emotions told me the whole thing was a waste of my time and talents. I wanted to preach for real instead of experiencing more of the same. Little did I realize at the time that I was growing and cultivating my speaking talents.

We’ve all met a leader, or have been the leader, who feels trapped in a malicious and suspicious world. We have felt the relentless inadequacy that comes as we compare ourselves to other leaders on the internet. We are noticeably wounded, with scabs instead of scars covering our injuries. Picking at ourselves as we do, we never have a chance to heal.

When I began in leadership, I occasionally encountered older leaders who fit this description as well. They enjoyed telling their memoirs of misery to anyone gullible enough to listen. Once passionate and purposed, they had become splintered, void of optimism and critical of everyone past, present and future.

Nobody loves a good leadership war story more than me, but woe stories turn me off. Whenever I hear one of these stories, the last thing I feel is pity. The first thing I feel is poisoned. If you are in such a place, you need to shift your perspective before it’s too late.

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Longevity and Brevity

We’re all born between the dimensions of longevity and brevity. At some point in the journey, we hit a tipping point where personal feelings of longevity (I have a long, full life ahead) give way to feelings of brevity (I’m now measuring my days). While it’s natural as human beings to define our lives by longevity and brevity, both perspectives are terribly flawed. God calls us to minister and to lead from the perspective of eternity, not by the deceptive measurements of longevity and brevity.

The need to secure a place as a thought leader as fast as possible poses a difficulty for the energy generation. The idea of remaining overlooked and unheralded, while others receive recognition and gain promotions, can become a heavy burden.

The energy generation struggles for selfpromotion. The honor generation struggles for self-perseveration. Relationship is the path to solving both of those dilemmas.

For the energy-only generation, the older crowd represents the point on the timeline when relevancy is lost. Their idea of honor is to allow the older crowd to remain present in some kind of pseudo “leadership-hospice.” This is nothing more than counterfeit honor. For the honor-only generation, youthfulness represents an uprising of dangerous independence and a kind of impulsiveness that ends up wasting time and money.

The digital divide has only widened this perception gap between honor and energy. I confess I’m a digital immigrant when it comes to technology. Other than a new garage door opener and a microwave, I spent the first half of my adult life tech free. The idea of assimilating multiple apps with the same ease that I maneuvered a phone book or a Thomas Guide (for those under 40, that is a detailed driving map that “smart” people used to carry in their cars) feels exhausting. So the 44

Every youthful, energetic generation must embrace this phase of life and leadership, remembering that leadership happens over time — not overnight. honor generation just backpedals when it feels ignorant.

With all of these variables at work, the local church is still a wonderful possibility and chemistry of honor and energy. Each element serves and interacts with the other. One cannot exist without the other. Each creates the other. But once honor and energy compete for the same space, a church becomes sidetracked and ineffective.

There’s genuine complexity when it comes to how best to honor those who have contributed both years and tears to the church.

Are we obligated to someone because of tenure? Does aging mean seasoning? Do years of service equal wisdom? The same complexity exists when attempting to raise up and empower a new generation of leaders. Are we obligated to the destiny of a young man or woman with an unproven life? Is vision the best demonstration of character? Should we ever hold back a young leader for the sole purpose of teaching him or her patience?

If we will allow the Holy Spirit to show us the true patterns of biblical honor and energy, the above questions will no longer stress nor distract us as the local church, but they will instead prompt us to pursue intentional relationships marked by the reciprocal beauty of the proven and the promising.

Scott Hagan is co-founder and director of Real Life Churches in Sacramento, California.

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Scribes of Our Future HELPING THE NEXT GENERATION DISCERN A CALL TO VOCATIONAL MINISTRY H E AT H A D A M S O N

T

here is a conversation going on in heaven.

The One who spoke the universe into existence is mentioning people by name. The objects of His attention sit in chemistry class and dream about eradicating poverty.

They sit in cubicles and sense the Holy Spirit drawing them toward a different career path.

They walk the track during gym class and wonder whether God would ask, or even allow, them to become a youth pastor, a missionary or a church planter. Deep within their hearts, these students have an expression of the Church the earth has not yet seen. Who are they?

They are not more spiritual than another. But God has chosen them for a specific sphere of serving. They are those God calls to vocational ministry.

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If anyone believes God is summoning the next generation to become scribes of the future and cowrite the next chapter in God’s story, we do. The Assemblies of God has a rich heritage of stewarding the dreams of the next generation of ministers. An important aspect of this involves those who will say “yes” to a vocational call to ministry. As we look at the landscape of faith in our day and age, we again have the responsibility to get this right.

The call of God to vocational ministry is still as real and tangible as ever. However, the cultural construct and language we must use to steward this conversation may need to evolve. Scripture clearly identifies a call to ministry on the lives of people. God called Abram to leave Chaldea and devote his life to searching for the city “whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). I see Abram as the first church planter. God chose Moses to lead His people, not out of Chaldea, but out of Egypt. His congregation gathered in the desert and at the edge of the Red Sea. Likewise, God selected the apostle Paul to proclaim Christ to the Gentiles. God called Philip to serve in ministry as a deacon and later an evangelist. This took Philip to the citywide revival in Samaria and, later on, to the isolated and barren desert where one conversation with one Ethiopian would forever alter the course of history in Africa. Timothy received the affirmation of a call to ministry when the elders laid hands on him, while Peter simply answered Jesus’ call to follow Him. Each call to vocational ministry is unique, as God often takes into account times, seasons, cultures and individual strengths. There is a call, but the process for fulfilling that call is personal. As leaders, we must become good at being present, available and open when God speaks to the next generation. When I look at millennials today, I am deeply encouraged.

A Radical Openness As a Pharisee, Paul had been instructed to avoid manual labor. He possessed a radical openness to God as he unlearned this way of life and became a tentmaker.

Likewise, a hallmark of Pentecostalism in the 21st century is a radical openness to God. According to an April 2016 LinkedIn study, millennials will change jobs an average of four times within the first decade after leaving college. While some see this as a sign of a 48

How can the Assemblies of God become a place where the next generation of vocational ministers feels welcomed, challenged, embraced and safe? generation that is fickle and unstable, further research unearths a different reality. For millennials, a deeper cause and richer meaning trumps a larger salary when choosing a vocation, a recent survey by Fidelity Investments found. While 86 percent are happy at work, nearly half are “open to new opportunities.”

What could this mean for us as a movement? I see a generation that is willing to explore new horizons and give their lives for a cause. Typically, an individual doesn’t pursue vocational ministry for financial gain.

The cause for which we diligently labor is worth any sacrifice. Millennials are open to new things. I am encouraged as I pray for and believe for a new wave of ministers. Helping those you serve discern a call to vocational ministry may be less about magnanimous spiritual encounters (not that I’m discrediting these) and more about noticing the subtle shifting in the human heart. If someone is open to a career change, would they be open to praying about a call to vocational ministry?

Looking for Community At the turn of the 20th century, when the Azusa Street outpouring was in full swing, William J. Seymour noticed something unique among Pentecostals. For Seymour, speaking in tongues was a sign of unity among races. In Pentecostal Theology and the Christian Spiritual Tradition, Simon Chan writes, “Seymour’s understanding of the Pentecostal event also helped him to see glossolalia in a far more profound way than his white counterparts. Glossolalia was not a badge to identify oneself as a Pentecostal, nor was it just a sign of a supernatural experience; it was, for Seymour, a symbol of God’s bringing together into

one body people from every conceivable background” (page 103).

At a time when racism divided our nation, a Pentecostal community provided common ground for men and women from diverse backgrounds to serve Christ together. Is Pentecostal history without error? Of course not. Is there perceived value in belonging to a community where the Spirit unites? The history of the Assemblies of God and Pentecostalism would say so.

The evidence speaks for itself.

A study from Harvard says, “At their current stage in life, Millennials fundamentally think about their role as a stepping stone and a growth opportunity.

But they also want to feel deeply committed to their role and to work for a manager who will invest in their development, which isn’t entirely different from what other generations value. Our research shows that having a great manager and being part of a great management culture are important to all employees.

However, Millennials place a greater emphasis on opportunities to learn and grow and opportunities for advancement.”

Both inside and outside of vocational ministry, members of this generation want to excel in their vocations, but not alone. They want mentoring relationships. They want to learn from your experience.

They want your “ceiling” to become the “floor” upon which they will one day stand. A ministry community like the Assemblies of God is a perfect fit for this generation. We are as diverse as ever, providing a place for men, women and all ethnicities to serve God in vocational ministry, and we celebrate all generations in the work of the Lord. Let this remind us, however, that we must be relationally accessible. Do we use our influence as leaders to protect our positions, or do we use our influence as leaders to provide opportunity for others?

The call to ministry thrives when there is a community in which to belong. Eli was there when God spoke to Samuel as the young boy learned, through the relationship of a seasoned leader, how to identify God’s voice (1 Samuel 3). It took Eli a few times to recognize it was God speaking to Samuel. It is important that our schedules, to-do lists and perceptions of people don’t sabotage a moment when God speaks to the next generation. Only eternity knows how Samuel’s

life would have been different had Eli overlooked the opportunity. Samuel might not have anointed David to be king. David might not have killed Goliath. The Messiah came from the lineage of David. I am taking my liberty here, but you get the point. Barnabas was there to mentor the young apostle Paul (Acts 9) when the call was evident, but the next step in God’s plan wasn’t.

Paul mentored Timothy and recognized the need for spiritual fathers (and, I will add, mothers; see 1 Corinthians 4:15). Jesus was there when Peter felt disqualified and uneasy about the call of God on his life against the backdrop of his earlier denial (John 21).

Eli, Barnabas, Paul and Jesus model for us the need to take the next generation by the hand. Let us be present to catalyze the call God places on someone else’s life. How can the Assemblies of God become a place where the next generation of vocational ministers feels welcomed, challenged, embraced and safe?

Parents, Pastors and Mentors Parents want their children to succeed. We can equip parents to know how to pray for their students when they express a burden or sense a call. The right support can produce unstoppable momentum in the lives of students who sense a call to vocational ministry.

Too many well-meaning parents want their children to attend law school and seek high-paying jobs before considering ministry. We can equip parents to trust God to provide for their students should He call them.

As a pastor, maybe you could meet with parents after their children and teens come home from retreat.

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Do we use our influence as leaders to protect our positions or to provide opportunity for others? if you want to tell people about Jesus for the rest of your life?”

People who invested time helped pave my life’s path.

I am thankful for them.

Teach parents how to listen to dreams their students may not fully understand how to express.

As a minister, do you invite others to come along with you on visits and errands? Perhaps you could invite a group of college students to be your preaching team as they critique your preaching, assist in gathering content and help you with ways to improve. Like Eli, parents and pastors can help those in our care discern God’s voice by being present.

When I was a young man, a pastor devoted Saturday mornings to me as we prayed together and then went on visitations. I loved those mornings. I am thankful for a youth pastor who took a risk and allowed me to do an offering sermon. I am thankful for a nursing home that allowed me to volunteer on Sunday afternoons. I am thankful for the chaplain at the homeless shelter who invited me to join him in serving the homeless.

I am thankful for a youth leader who was present when I asked, as a new Christian, “What do you do 50

Somnolent with Indifference There was a time when vocational ministry was the icing on the cake during a summer camp experience.

Those who desperately wanted their lives to matter often sought after it. Businesswomen and construction workers viewed members of the clergy as uber spiritual and symbols of consecration. Countless individuals responded in God’s presence to surrender all as vocational ministry seemed to be the logical conclusion. Some responded only to discover their gifts were in education or construction. It is imperative we do not preach everyone into vocational ministry; likewise and equally imperative, a desire to avoid spiritual excess and abuse must not cause us to shy away from talking about this specific call. We need Spiritfilled attorneys, physicians, scientists, law enforcement, etc. We also recognize a unique call for some to vocational ministry. According to Ephesians 4:11, God gives the Church “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers.”

The next generation often struggles with the will of God in their lives. As I travel frequently and speak, I enjoy having conversations with people. Almost every week, I hear something along the lines of, “I think I may be called to ministry, but I’m not sure.

How do you know?”

Often, we look for a mystical experience to validate our call to vocational ministry. This sometimes occurs, and we certainly do not want to discount it. The more spiritual we are, however, the more practical we become. God’s will for our lives has

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much to do with who we become and not simply what we do. Is there a place for vocational calling? Yes. Is vocational calling relegated to clergy alone? No. There is a place for vocational calling in the life of every believer, and seeking God through prayer is the best way to discover God’s plan. Psalm 37:23 promises that the Lord cares about every step in our lives.

Knowing the next step shouldn’t be the fixation, however. The focus is keeping our hearts postured toward Him and remaining connected to the Vine (Jesus), who, through the Cross, exchanged our unrighteousness for His righteousness. He will order our steps as we remain in Him. I am learning more and more that the next generation doesn’t need us to lay out a formula for discerning the vocational call to ministry as much as they need us to exemplify how to walk with Jesus. As they walk with Him, He will whisper to their hearts. And when He does, we can be near to help them discern His voice.

Spiritual Artists The call to ministry is ever alive, and its expression is evolving. In Exodus 31, the first time Scripture mentions someone being filled with the Spirit, Bezalel and Oholiab built on the earth what existed in the heart of God. They were craftsmen who served in excellence. A few chapters later, a group of seamstresses were filled with the Spirit to weave goat’s hair. They used something as seemingly useless and ordinary as goat’s hair to glorify God as the Spirit dispensed wisdom. Excellence and wisdom manifest in unique ways.

There are methods right now for advancing the gospel that existed only as figments of the imagination a few decades ago. It’s almost as if the next generation of ministers can stare at a blank canvas and dream with God. In the 1980s, who would have imagined someone could sit in front of a computer screen and reach the lost in a cyber café in a closed nation? In the 1860s, who would have thought Spirit-filled believers would produce films for sharing the gospel and helping to restore families? Of course, adapting to new methods is not new. Some people criticized William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, for using the automobile to travel and preach the gospel. They accused him of using “worldly methods.” Some struggled with Jonathan Edwards’ use of the Lord’s Supper as a 52

converting ordinance during the First Great Awakening; they called it sacrilegious. The call to vocational ministry in the local church is just as real as it ever was. However, the next generation doesn’t think of pulpits and weddings alone when they dream with God. Like the craftsmen and seamstresses in Exodus, wisdom and excellence manifest in unique ways. I wonder what unique methods and practices, while remaining anchored in Scripture, will appear as a new generation of ministers emerges.

This generation seems to sense a call to start businesses where the gospel can shape culture. This generation also senses a call to plant churches as teams rather than working alone. This generation has unique ideas of what the Church can look like in urban and rural areas. This generation thinks about getting degrees in education and fulfilling the call of missions in that sphere. This generation wants to go to the hard places and take on the difficult tasks. This generation is interested in causes much more than careers. Let us be accused of the same.

The Assemblies of God has a heritage of providing space for dreaming among those God calls to ministry. Let’s make sure we are a community in which all feel welcomed. Never do ministry alone again. Talk about the spiritual nature of vocation and the call to vocational ministry. Let us pray for laborers to serve in the fields as Jesus instructed us. And let us pursue education and lifelong learning while living as Spiritempowered believers. This is indeed the pattern worth emulating.

Heath Adamson is the director of national youth ministries for the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri, and the author of The Bush Always Burns (Vital Resources, 2015).

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When Leaders Must Confront

8 WAYS TO CONNECT THROUGH CONFRONTATION PETER PIÑÓN

In

my early days as a youth pastor, I found myself overwhelmed with the issues my students (and their parents) were facing. I expected our visitors to struggle with behavioral and sin issues, but I didn’t anticipate the issues affecting my own youth group.

I tried pulling students aside before or after our weekly services and asking general questions to see whether they would open up about what I had heard about them doing or observed them doing.

I attempted to address the inappropriate behavior in my sermons.

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On one occasion, a student confessed that she and some other students from the youth group had passed around a Sprite bottle with a Smirnoff-and-soda cocktail at school. That student was contrite and recognized that the behavior needed to stop, but her friends seemed to shrug it off. So there I was, in the middle of a message titled, “Don’t Be Drunk on Wine, but Be Drunk in the Spirit,” getting distracted by soda bottles, wondering whether the contents matched the labels and hoping my students would leave any concoctions in the trash on the way out. I feared that direct, clear confrontation would push them away.

The lack of confrontation and passive attempts led to chronic issues and no change in behavior, and most importantly, no change in the students’ hearts.

Because I was not able to confront in a healthy, assertive way, I ended up confronting with aggression and out of frustration. I could have avoided all of this by viewing confrontation as an opportunity to connect with my students.

Most of us have been in a situation where we knew we needed to say something to someone sometime soon, but we didn’t want to say it — or we wanted to say it but not in the way we should say it. The need for confrontation presents itself in every area of life, from the office, to the church softball team, to your circle of friends. The need is universal, but each person’s confrontation style is individual. Maybe you’re like me and you don’t like confrontation; you might come up with great things to say but never develop the nerve to say them when you need to say them. Or perhaps you think of confrontation and picture a verbal, or even physical, fight. Healthy confrontation falls somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. I used to think the ability to confront was innate: you either have it or you don’t. I convinced myself I was just not good at confrontation. The good news is that we all have the ability to confront in a healthy way.

As a leader, you can probably think of a situation when you faced the task of confronting someone in your church or organization. Maybe you replayed the situation in your head many times after the fact and wondered what you could have said or done differently. We all have room for improvement in the way we confront, but to grow in this area, we have to see it as a skill. If it is a skill, we can practice. If we 56

The truth can be sharp, so sharing it with love while staying relaxed helps the other person remain open to your words. can practice, we you can improve. A good first step is becoming aware of a personal confrontation style.

Once we understand our situational defaults, we can learn to adapt our approaches and create opportunities to connect through confrontation.

Leading psychological theorists describe our communication patterns as passive, aggressive, assertive or a combination of these. In my experience as a counselor, I help people understand where they fall along this continuum, from passive to aggressive, with assertive being in the middle. If you’re an aggressive confronter, you embrace the fight of the fight-or-flight mode. You almost dare someone to do something worthy of confrontation. On the other side of the continuum, if you’re a passive confronter, you typically don’t confront at all. Or, if you do confront, you don’t address the real problem or the whole problem. If you confront by indirectly addressing issues, you may be a passive-aggressive confronter. An assertive confronter directly addresses the issue while empowering the other person to take responsibility for bringing resolution. Depending on your personality, past and position, you may have a tendency to default to a certain spot on the communication and confrontation continuum. Some people even shift along this continuum based on the person involved or the circumstances of the confrontation. For example, you may have no challenges confronting an employee who formally reports to you, but you may struggle to take an assertive stance with your spouse. In the first relationship, the authority and expectations are more explicit; in the latter, there is more room for miscommunication and misplaced expectations. Developing awareness of your patterns can help you choose your location on the continuum for the various relationships and situations in your life.

Confrontation continuum

Aggressive

Assertive

Passive

Aggressive confrontation is

Assertive confrontation is

Passive confrontation is a

a style in which individuals

a style in which individuals

style in which individuals

express their opinions and

clearly state their opinions

have developed a pattern

feelings and demand for

and feelings and firmly ask

of avoiding expressing their

their wants and needs to be

for their wants and needs

met in a way that violates the

while considering the rights

rights and feelings of others.

and feelings of others.

Awareness of your confrontation style, and developing your ability to adapt it, is only part of the process.

As Christian leaders, we also have scriptural guidance on healthy confrontation. Confrontation is the first part of the conflict resolution process that Jesus lays out in Matthew 18:15–20. In verse 15, He says, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.”

Some manuscripts read “sins against you,” so the passage could apply to the full spectrum of relational offenses, or moral and behavioral issues. Here we are focusing on the first stage of confrontation, which the passage describes as one-on-one conversation. There are many practical ways to increase the likelihood of winning over your brother or sister through this process of confrontation. I have found the following eight principles to be useful in my own confrontations.

1. Determine the best time and place. Defining the time and place gives you and the other person time to prepare for the conversation. Confrontation is more likely to be fruitful when the other person is not on the defense — or worse, the offense. You will not always have the opportunity to schedule a future meeting, but

true opinions and feelings, and hope their rights and feelings won’t be violated.

doing so whenever possible can yield benefits. Some see confrontation as an all-or-nothing thing, viewing a delay as a missed opportunity. Try to avoid ambush attack-like confrontation. You can always wait at least five minutes, and say, “Hey, can I talk to you about something important in a few minutes?”

You and the other person need the time to process what needs to be said. Knowing the conversation is coming allows the recipient to be more receptive to the feedback.

American neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux’s research suggests that our brains can undergo an “emotional hijacking” in the midst of a threat. The top layer of the brain (the cerebral cortex) helps us process, problem solve and make decisions while managing the lower, emotionally driven core of the brain (the limbic system). Emotional hijacking involves inhibiting functionality of the upper part of the brain. If the confronter uses an aggressive style, the other person is more likely to perceive a threat and experience this emotional hijacking. The person is unable to process all of the emotional reactions and may match the aggression or even move into a passive state as a self-defense mechanism (fight-or-flight response). Designating a 57

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private time and place to confront creates a safe environment for the recipient and eliminates additional opportunity for perceived threat. If you immediately pull the person off to the side, he or she may worry about others walking by and overhearing the conversation or wonder what others are thinking. You can also protect yourself from experiencing an emotional hijacking in the moment by giving yourself time to step away and think through the situation. Once the threat is removed, you are able to think clearly about your approach and the issues you need to address. Time and space allow both parties involved to engage the whole brain, increasing the chance for a desired outcome.

2. Differentiate between the problem and the person. Taking this approach allows you and the confronted person to approach the problem together.

Most people are not willing to join the cause when you are treating them as though they are the problem. It’s important to think redemptively; making the distinction between the behavior and the identity of the person is critical. For example, you are confronting someone about lying, not confronting a liar about 58

something. If you are not sure what the problem is, consider waiting and praying for clarity before confronting. Some situations may involve a conversation about the observable behavioral problem before identifying the deeper or more significant problem.

3. Provide context about the process. During a confrontation, the other person may not know why you’ve asked to meet. Provide an idea of what you want to talk about as you schedule the conversation. Once you are in the conversation, let the person know what you plan to do. For example, “Like I mentioned before, I’ve noticed this problem. I want to listen to your perspective, share where I’m at and see if we can figure out where to go from there.”

Outlining the confrontation conversation involves the other person and provides assurance that you are on the same team. It eliminates the us-versus-them dynamic. At the end of the confrontation conversation, you can communicate next steps to take action or remedy the problem.

4. Express your thoughts and feelings. Share to clarify your position, rather than offend or accuse.

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We all have room for improvement in the way we confront, but to grow in this area, we have to see it as a skill.

Describe what you are thinking or feeling about the situation. When confronting, it’s more effective to use the word “I” rather than “you.” For example, “I felt hurt when …” instead of, “You hurt me by …” Scripture encourages you to speak the “truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Confrontation is about sharing your thoughts and feelings and checking in to see what the other person is experiencing. The truth can be sharp, so sharing it with love while staying relaxed helps the other person remain open to your words.

5. Be calm during the conversation. The best way to help someone remain calm during a conversation is to keep calm yourself. In the last decade, neuroscientists have learned more about what they call mirror neurons. They suggest that these brain cells could help us share with, connect with and influence another person. If you are tense during a conversation, you could influence the other person to move into a fight-or-flight stance. Proverbs 15:1 says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” A gentle answer isn’t synonymous with a quiet or weak one. Addressing the problem in a confident and direct tone, while remaining calm, can help prevent an angry reaction.

6. Allow feedback. Let the other person share his or her thoughts and feelings during the conversation. Some feedback will be nonverbal. Recognizing basic emotional facial expressions can help you gauge how the person is reacting to the confrontation conversation. Even if you observe what seems like a clearly negative expression, 60

allow the person to confirm his or her response verbally. Something as simple as, “What are your thoughts?” provides an opportunity for sharing.

7. Collaborate on the desired outcome.

Involve the person in the process. When you allow him or her to participate in defining the solution, you communicate that the two of you will work together to solve the problem rather than working against one another. You can offer some suggestions and ask for suggestions. Ultimately, a solution both of you define will have greater chances of success.

8. Follow up to evaluate progress. The confrontation is only a part of the conflict resolution process. By confronting this person, you are committing to taking on part of the role in the growth process. You should both decide on a reasonable time frame to touch base again to see how things have progressed and to work through possible barriers together.

You will have many opportunities to practice your confrontation skills by working with people. You can and will get better. Viewing confrontation as a means of connection will increase your effectiveness as a leader. Leveraging these psychological insights and practicing these guidelines will help you fulfill what Jesus calls you to do — winning your brother or sister through confrontation.

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MULTIPLIER

MULTIPLYING AT ANY AGE These leaders prove that while you may retire from work, you never retire from ministry. s students long for spring break and extended vacations, full days with the promise of relaxation, so do adults as they speak of life’s most glorious reward: retirement. Whether one has high hopes of perfecting a golf swing or finally having enough time to read all the books, many begin the road to retirement with eager anticipation. Yet, along the way, disappointment can creep in.

Many seniors find that life’s third trimester is met with some unwelcome changes — things like new aches and pains or trouble sleeping through the night. Some struggle with feeling a lack of purpose. Others continue to recognize their personal value, yet they experience different treatment from younger acquaintances who may not pay them the respect they deserve.

God has a purpose for us through every age and each season of life. Psalm 92:12–14 says, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’ ” In this “Multipliers” section, you’ll find a group of older adults who aren’t slowing down. On page 63, Wes and Judy Wick have begun a ministry called YES!, Young Enough to Serve, to aid and

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promote ministries that are senior-friendly. On page 64, you’ll find Jerry Falley, who has used his years of missions work with unreached people groups to launch Your Neighbor. Your Neighbor encourages American Christians to connect with new immigrants in their area.

Pages 66-67 tell the story of Roger and Maite Huang.

The Huangs lead a robust ministry called SF City Impact they founded 31 years ago, and through it, they continue to serve fervently. Finally, on page 68 you’ll hear from Linda Maracle who is making herself at home serving with Assemblies of God MAPS. These individuals are just a few examples of many seniors who continue to work fervently for the Lord. Many of them offer wisdom on how the Church can connect generation to generation. While spending time focusing on young people’s needs is irrefutably necessary, we must not forget the number of faithful servants who are walking before us — many of whom raised us. Their wisdom and years of experience are our gain, if only we sit with them and take time to truly listen.

Ana Pierce is the online editor of Influence magazine.

YOUNG ENOUGH TO SERVE Wes and Judy Wick have created a ministry that enables and encourages retirees to continue to serve.

A Q&A WITH WES AND JUDY WICK

Influence: Please share a little about your ministry to seniors, and how it came about.

Wes Wick In her early 50s, Judy served as donor relations consultant for AG Financial Solutions. She met with many seniors who had included family, designated ministries and local churches in their estate plans. While passionate about their families and specific ministries, conversations regarding their church experience would often take a nosedive. Many of the seniors Judy talked to felt left out and forgotten — but they still had so much to offer. It was heartbreaking to Judy to see how generationally isolated and discouraged many seniors had become.

God’s generation-to-generation design for the church is under attack, and Young Enough to Serve (YES!) was birthed to help strengthen churches — focusing on prayer, serving and disciplemaking potential in life’s later years.

Why is it important that seniors stay active in ministry?

The idea that we would stop serving in our later years does not come from Scripture or the heart of God. As our physical bodies age, maintaining a servant’s heart has new challenges. We may need to shift gears and get creative along the way, but remaining open to saying “yes” in the serving arena can lengthen our lifespan and increase our life imprint and legacy.

When seniors prematurely conclude their serving and disciplemaking days are over, it creates a negative ripple across the generations. Conversely, when senior adults continue to serve, it instills inspiration in the next generation to serve as well, i.e., “If Grandma and Grandpa can still make a big difference in the lives of others, in spite of their obstacles, what can I do now to fervently serve the Lord and better steward my gifts?”

Highlight a few of the ministries that are supported

by YES. A plethora of ministry opportunities exists for seniors, both AG-affiliated and interdenominational — and many secular

opportunities as well where seniors can be salt and light.

Assemblies of God MAPS-RV is doing a wonderful job in mobilizing seniors. Some other favorites include Royal Family Kids Camp — where older adults play key roles as camp grandparents and aunts/uncles to foster kids. We are huge fans of Gleanings for the Hungry, Operation Christmas Child and International Students Inc., as well as other ministries that deliberately welcome seniors in many serving roles.

We also desire that leadership be attentive to other programs in our local churches, schools, communities and government where mature Christian influence is sorely needed.

What philosophy of leadership do you stand by?

“With help from all generations” are the first five words of our mission statement. While YES! is focused on inspiring adults over 50, we want to affirm how valuable every generation is in making this happen.

From 1 Corinthians 12, we see how vital it is for each part of the body of Christ to be concerned about the whole and also how the whole Body needs to concern itself with each part. We have to break away from the isolated body part mentality and engage young leaders with us in this adventure. The generation-to-generation relationship adds life and vitality both ways.

Wes and Judy Wick are Assemblies of God U.S. missionaries. They have vocational backgrounds in church ministry, college administration and consulting, and they have been serving through YES! since 2008.

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REACHING HIS NEIGHBORS Through retirement, Jerry Falley is continuing his unique ministry to global unreached people groups in America.

A Q & A W I T H J E R R Y FA L L E Y

Influence: Please share your background in ministry, and tell us what you’re up to now.

Jerry Falley: It was my privilege to pastor four years in the U.S., serve with Assemblies of God World Missions 33 years in Africa, teach missions for nine years at North Central University and Central Bible College, 12 years doing field research on 32 unreached people groups along the coast of Africa, three years as research specialist for Global Initiative and four years at Africa’s Hope editing a bimonthly publication and youth curriculum for Africa.

Currently in retirement I am resourcing a collaborative initiative by AG U.S. Missions, the Illinois District, AG Kansas Ministry Network and the Southern Missouri District in creating an awareness of new Americans settling among us. This joint effort has generated a website, YourNeighbor.us, and has brought “reaching the lost” to the forefront in a nontraditional manner.

How have your years of experience prepared you for reaching unreached people groups in America?

Reaching unreached people groups has been the focus of my ministry since 1975. This passion intensified while personally visiting resistant Islamic people groups during my retirement years. I recognized the barriers to be penetrated in presenting the gospel to them. I began to ask, “How many of those groups are represented here in the U.S, and is anyone intentionally introducing them to Jesus?”

Exercising my cross-cultural skills developed in Africa, I stepped into the lives of an ethnic family living across the street from us. To my surprise, they had lived in the U.S for 20 years, but no one had ever talked to them about religion. This experience prompted me to utilize my research 64

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skills in resourcing the YourNeighbor.us initiative.

What challenge have you faced since retiring, and how have you overcome it?

When I stepped aside from full appointment with AGWM and started drawing Social Security, I became aware of the fact that transition to glory was in the not-to-distant future. I became concerned about the time factor in any anticipation of ministry. Whatever task I would put my hand to do, I did it with all my heart as I always had in ministry. But now I wanted it to be accomplished immediately, rather than giving time for the ministry effort to flesh itself out.

Jeremiah 33:2–3 came alive to me. “This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it — the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. ...” God’s promise, backed by His greatness, gave me confidence to trust in His sufficiency and timing.

What would you say to younger leaders who have their whole ministry ahead of them?

Your success hinges on maintaining a healthy relationship with the Lord and with your family. Give them priority. These two components will either make you or break you. Build into your psyche this goal, “I want to finish well.” What you do now determines where you will be in your final days on this earth. Remember that people are your priority in ministry, not status or position. Regardless of what you do or where you go, measure success by the lives you touch along the way.

Jerry Falley is a retired Assemblies of God World Missions missionary and an unreached people groups research visionary residing with his wife, Maxine, in Nixa, Missouri.

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A MAP TO VOLUNTEERING In Texas, Pastor Scott Wilson of The Oaks Fellowship and Bishop Aaron C. Blake Sr. of Faith Covenant Fellowship are joining hands and hearts for the greater good.

MULTIPLIER

IMPACTING COMMUNITIES AT ANY AGE Roger and Maite Huang started SF City Impact, an outreach in San Francisco, 31 years ago. They continue to serve fervently.

A Q&A WITH ROGER AND MAITE HUANG

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Influence: What is SF City Impact and how did it get started?

Roger and Maite Huang: SF City Impact exists to intervene on behalf of the people in the inner city of San Francisco. We now have five major departments and more than 16 weekly programs, including church at San Francisco Worship Center, a health and wellness center, a thrift shop and more. SF City Impact started with me, Roger, praying to God after I had been a believer for only two years. One day while I was stuck in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, I witnessed a young boy being picked on by a group of bullies. Torn between intervening to help the boy and not wanting to get involved, I drove away with a heavy heart. On the way home God laid the burden of that young boy on my heart, “What if that was your son being picked on?” I didn’t know how to best serve, so the next morning Maite and I hand delivered 50 sandwiches to the district to feed and serve the homeless. That was 31 years ago. We had no vision, no plan, no support — just the two of us — and God. What makes SF City Impact so successful?

On our website, sfcityimpact.com, we list five things that make up the core of who we are and how we behave.

First, we must be humble. We are not above the people we serve, which means we are not above mopping floors or cleaning bathrooms. Second, prayer is our lifeline. We pray about everything, like the persistent widow in Luke 18. The third thing that makes us successful is our work ethic. We take ownership of God’s work, which means we work hard. Fourth, we maintain a sense of humor. That is crucial in this line of work. And finally, we make it a priority to include and invest in people.

Is there a Scripture that guides you, both in your personal life and in your approach to ministry?

We cling to any Scripture that has to do with fasting.

It’s what changed our destiny. We don’t claim a particular verse of Scripture because we want all the gospel. If we had to choose one passage, however, we would pick The Parable of the Persistent Widow found in Luke 18:1–8.

Social justice is what we live for.

What is your philosophy on entering the second half of life?

Later in life, there’s nothing that should stop you from doing what you loved doing in the first half of life. Never

walk away from your first love of ministry. Never look at the “accomplishment” and brag about it; you must continue to remember that God did everything. God will continue to do everything. In the Kingdom, we consider ourselves bellhops. We open the door for others to step in and experience the glory and grace of God. What advantages do older adults have in ministry?

Older adults have two distinct advantages; the first is experience. In the second half of life, older adults are better positioned to know what lies ahead of them, including traps and dangers. We can pass on this insight to younger leaders who have not lived as long or experienced as much as we have. The second advantage we have is knowing we can trust God in every situation. We know God will supply all our need because He has thus far, and will continue to do so in the future. Trust in God’s faithfulness comes from years of experiencing it first hand. This is an important attribute of God we can impart to the next generation of leaders.

The younger generation is growing in wisdom, but older adults can help them grow even more. We should invest in the younger generation with our money, energy and time.

Extending our friendship and mentorship to the younger generation should be a top priority of older leaders. The reward is great.

Share a word of encouragement with older readers who feel their ministry has ended.

Older adults also need revelation from God. Lifechanging revelation still comes to those whose ministry is slowing down and to those who feel their ministry is done because of their age. Such revelation takes place in the innermost room of our hearts when we are alone with the Holy Spirit. No one is done in the ministry because of old age. No one is done because a ministry position has been taken away. We are only done when we refuse to get intimate with the Holy Spirit and discern what God’s will is for the remaining years of our lives.

Roger and Maite Huang are Assemblies of God U.S. missionaries and co-founders of SF City Impact. Roger is author of Chasing God: One Man’s Miraculous Journey in the Heart of the City and Breaking Through: Lives Changed in the Heart of the City.

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A MAP TO VOLUNTEERING Linda Maracle and her husband are extending their service through the Assemblies of God MAPS Program.

A Q&A WITH LINDA MARACLE

Influence: Please explain your work with the Assemblies of God MAPS Program.

Linda Maracle: My husband, David, and I represent the MAPS Department in the Northeast Region of the U.S. We recruit people for the ministry of MAPS, which stands for Missions America Placement Service. The mission of MAPS is to coordinate volunteers to assist churches and ministry institutions with construction and evangelism projects. I contact churches to schedule visits for a five to ten-minute window where we show a video and speak about what MAPS is and how people can get involved. Second, we travel throughout our region visiting prospective churches that want to use RV volunteers or construction teams to either build a new church or renovate an existing one. We complete projects during the winter months in the south.

What is the most effective way for church and lay leaders to work together to multiply the Kingdom?

This past April, I received my ordination with the Assemblies of God. Up to that time, I was a lay leader.

I noticed when a church leader would reach out for help from MAPS that it gave the church body such a boost in morale and excitement when the teams arrived. That in turn gives people from the congregation a desire to volunteer and help in areas they may never have considered before. When serving on a project, MAPS volunteers join in with the congregation and help in any way needed, from constructing the 68

church building to running baby showers, or assisting in the offices. There is no end to what can be done.

What has working with MAPS shown you about retirees’ commitment to ministry?

There is a force of people who happen to be of retirement age who are eager to work even though they may have health issues and limited financial resources.

Their commitment to further the Kingdom by whatever means is astounding. These people are former district superintendents or ministers, contractors, blue-collar workers, teachers, etc., all who are retired.

They get up in the morning and are on the job site by 7 or 7:30, and work until 3 or 4 p.m. They do this in spite of aches or stiffness, not letting their health issues deter them.

What are some ways any retired person can continue to build the kingdom of God? Like anyone, retirees can be active as much or as little as they choose. There are Sunday School classes for all ages; seniors can help by teaching, providing refreshments or cleaning up. One of the things I did was learn to run the sound system so I could step in for funerals or special weekday events when others need to be at work.

In every community, there are groups of boys and girls who need someone to simply love on them and tell them about Jesus. I have seen people who are in their early 80’s who want to volunteer, to be given a chance. The people I work and serve with are devoted to further the Kingdom.

Linda E. Maracle has worked with MAPS with her husband, David, since 2000. They look forward to many more years working with MAPS helping to further the kingdom of God.

Is your team aligned with your vision?

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Prior to entering professional ministry, Kent spent ten years as a television sports anchor for NBC and CBS.

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1.855.642.2011 • MyHealthyChurch.com

MAKE IT COUNT Generosity: 8 Principles to Help Your Team Live a Generous Life

Every Influence magazine will contain an eightweek study designed for leadership teams.

Our hope is that by wrestling with the material together, you will grow closer as a unit as you strive to lead more like Christ.

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MAKE IT COUNT

ROB KETTERLING

Introduction Week after week, you invest time and energy into making every Sunday count. But you also have to think about staff meetings and board meetings, as well as meetings with key volunteers and other church leaders.

Juggling so many meetings can seem overwhelming, especially as you think about how to develop the leaders around you. That’s where the Make It Count section of Influence can help you. We asked leaders from around the country to share their meeting insights and provide great leadership development content you can use with your ministry leaders and key volunteers. This way, you can make every meeting count.

This issue contains eight easy-to-use lessons by Rob Ketterling on living a generous life. Rob is founder and lead pastor of River Valley Church (AG), a multisite church with more than 7,500 in attendance across eight U.S. campuses and two international campuses.

These lessons are easily adaptable for individual or group discussion, allowing for personal application and reflection among ministry leaders. Studying and growing together is key to building strong and healthy relationships with your team members. Regardless of your church’s size, Make It Count can help you more effectively lead your team and your congregation.

Generosity: 8 Principles to Help Your Team Live a Generous Life As followers of Christ, we cannot live in a stingy manner. We serve a God who is generous, and He created us in His image. Salvation is the most generous gift we can ever receive. He literally gave himself for you and me. It cost Him everything — His security, safety, comfort, convenience and His very life. When we stop to consider the generosity of that gift, what could we ever withhold from Him if He asked for it? Would we give up our security, safety, comfort and convenience? Would we give up our lives?

While I am not sure Jesus will ask any of us to give up all of those things, I am sure He will ask all of us to give up some of those things. Of course, generosity isn’t just about giving up something. It is about living a life so rich, deep and significant that others take note and want to know why our lives are so abundant.

A generous life is different in quality from a stingy life. Generous living is noticeable and attractive. When people ask about what is different, we get to tell them about the greatest gift we have received: Jesus. The goal of living a generous life is to lead people to Jesus.

The following eight lessons will teach principles that will help you and your team live generous lives.

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LESSON 1 Where Generosity Begins Read: Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it.”

Discussing the Text 1. Name some specific components of our church that belong to God. 2. How should knowing these belong to God affect the way we view them?

3. If the church and everything in it is God’s, what is our role as church leaders?

Identifying the Principle The movie Finding Nemo features a flock of sea gulls chasing after food and squawking, “Mine, mine, mine!” I always thought these scenes were funny. Then one day, I thought: Do I ever sound like that to God? Does He hear me screaming about what is, “mine, mine, mine” when it comes to my possessions? Have I believed the lie that what I have is all mine?

Psalm 24:1 sets the record straight. In just 17 words, God makes it very clear that everything belongs to Him. Nothing escapes His claim of ownership. I wonder whether selfishness is so engrained in us that He has to remind us repeatedly in one verse that everything is His. Do we live with an awareness that everything belongs to God — including our ministries? Have we succumbed to the lie that we own what we have in this life? What would it look like — and feel like — to live a life where everything truly belongs to God? How would it change the way we follow Him? How would it change the way we lead others?

Applying the Principle 1. Describe a time God overheard you “squawking” about not wanting to be generous. What did that experience teach you?

2. How does it feel to realize that the ministry you lead is really God’s, not yours?

3. Why is it difficult for some people to surrender control of every part of their lives to God? 4. How can we, as leaders, better exemplify surrendered Christian living for those who attend our services?

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Notes

LESSON 2 Giving an Account

Notes

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Discussing the Text 1. How does the reality of eternity influence our outreach and discipleship?

2. For what things will we have to give an account as church leaders?

3. How could we, as a church, facilitate better stewardship of our resources, gifts and talents?

Identifying the Principle We will give an account. That is a sobering thought. In the first lesson, we discovered that God owns everything in our lives; it all belongs to Him. That makes us stewards, rather than owners.

Jesus taught two parables on this idea: the Parable of the Bags of Gold in Matthew 25:14–30 and the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:13–21. In both stories, the point is clear: God has given us these lives to steward, and we will give an account for our choices. We will answer for what we did with the gifts, talents, ideas, resources and relationships God provides.

The idea of stewardship is critical to living a life of generosity.

When we think something is ours (think again of the seagulls in Nemo), we will pursue it earnestly and then hold it tightly to protect it. We will use it in any way we see fit, and, in many cases, in ways that benefit us the most.

But when we begin to think like a steward, our grips loosen on our lives; we live with open hands and open hearts. We will share our lives, and everything in them, more readily. We will have greater confidence when we stand before Him and give an account for all that He entrusted to us.

Applying the Principle 1. How should the knowledge that each person will give an account to God affect the way we approach ministry?

2. How can we keep one another accountable for living with this reality in mind?

3. How can we help those to whom we minister live more purposefully for God? 4. As a staff, what are we doing today that will matter most 100 years from now?

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LESSON 3 When Is Enough Really Enough?

Read: Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ ” Discussing the Text 1. How can greed or materialism hinder church ministry?

2. What is one thing we can do to help one another remain content and focused on our calling?

3. In what ways does a love of money affect our community? Our congregation?

4. How can our church promote compassion and generosity in a materialistic and greedy world?

Identifying the Principle I recently read a story about materialism that shocked me. In the foreword to Your New Money Mindset: Create a Healthy Relationship with Money, by Brad Hewitt and James Moline, Ron Blue, founding director of Kingdom Advisors, wrote about a meeting he had with a Kenyan pastor. Blue asked the pastor, “What is the greatest barrier to the spread of the gospel in your part of Africa?” The pastor replied that it was materialism. The pastor went on to say, “If a man has a mud hut, he wants a stone hut; if he has a thatched roof, he wants a metal roof; if he has one cow, he wants two cows; if he has one acre; he wants two acres.”

Blue wrote, “It was then that I realized that materialism is a disease of the heart.”

Materialism is a disease of the heart. In our world, television, internet and radio ads stir up the incessant desire for more. Comparing our daily lives to the highlight reels of someone else’s life on social media further drives discontent.

Philippians 4:11–13 in The Message says, “Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”

Contentment is learned! It does not come naturally. On the other hand, materialism — the incessant quest for more — comes naturally and is something we have to battle throughout our lives.

Applying the Principle 1. Why can an atmosphere of discontent be toxic in a church?

2. How can we help create an atmosphere of worshipful contentment?

3. What’s the difference between a God-given desire for Kingdom growth and a self-centered desire for bigger and better things?

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LESSON 4 What God Wants

Notes

Read: Proverbs 11:24–25 “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped” (The Message).

Discussing the Text 1. How does generous living open up opportunities for us to share the love of Christ?

2. What blessings has our church experienced as a result of our generous giving?

3. What are some specific things we can do to enlarge our blessings even more by blessing others?

Identifying the Principle Some people have a problem with the idea that we are blessed because we are generous. I don’t have a problem with that concept to be honest with you. To be clear, I don’t believe in the prosperity gospel. But I do believe that obedient people receive rewards from God. These are not necessarily monetary rewards, but God does bless obedience.

When we live generous lives, our world does grow larger. We see God at work around us. We see opportunities to be a blessing. We live with an attitude of abundance, knowing that everything good in our world comes from God — and He is the God of abundance. Living generously enriches our lives.

Acts 20:35 in the Amplified Bible Classic Edition says, “In everything I have pointed out to you [by example] that, by working diligently in this manner, we ought to assist the weak, being mindful of the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, It is more blessed (makes one happier and more to be envied) to give than to receive.”

Jesus said giving makes us happier and even enviable. Have you ever met a happy, stingy person? Have you ever met a grumpy, generous person? I think those are oxymorons!

Generosity is deep living. And it will bring you to the peak of life!

Generosity truly is about living a life so rich, so deep and so significant that others take note and want to know why our lives are as rich as they are.

Applying the Principle 1. When was the last time our church gave sacrificially in response to God’s prompting? What was the result?

2. What can we learn from this experience?

3. Share a time when you were blessed because you showed generosity.

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LESSON 5 Tithing: The Road to Generosity Read: Deuteronomy 14:23 “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives” (TLB).

Discussing the Text 1. How does the principle of tithing teach people to put God first in their lives?

2. How frequently should we address tithing in our teaching and preaching?

3. Why is this often an uncomfortable topic in church?

Identifying the Principle We don’t naturally want to give away our money. We work too hard for it. If we were honest, we would rather keep it than give it away.

That is why God gives us a simple first step. Tithing is a discipline that helps us learn how to obey God with the finances He has given us to steward.

Tithing is like training wheels in our life of generosity. Training wheels help us start riding a bike. They get us moving forward; they give us stability when we are first learning. They help us stay balanced. They give us a taste of what is ahead. But while they are a good start, it is not where we want to stop. One day those training wheels have to come off. One day we have to learn how to balance on our own. It’s then that we start to experience the joy of riding a bike with some speed, racing down a street or on trails through the woods. That is when riding a bike is really fun — and we experience the thrill of it.

Tithing starts us on the road toward generous living, like training wheels start us on the road to riding a bike. Tithing isn’t the thrill of living a generous life, but it gets us going. It gets us started.

It gives us a taste of what it looks like to live generously, but it is not the goal. Tithing is simply the first step in obeying God in living a generous life.

Applying the Principle 1. How have you learned obedience by tithing?

2. How might sharing these personal experiences help those you lead take a step of faith?

3. How do tithes and offerings help grow our church and the kingdom of God? 4. How does giving help the people of our church grow?

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Notes

LESSON 6 Percentages

Notes

Read: 2 Corinthians 9:7 “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (NKJV).

Discussing the Text 1. What is the setting for this command from Paul to the church in Corinth?

2. How does it apply to our church setting?

3. What do you think God wanted to do in the Corinthians’ hearts?

What does He want to do in the hearts of those attending our services?

Identifying the Principle If tithing is like the training wheels for living a generous life, how do we give beyond our tithe? It is easy these days to give to causes.

In fact, the millennial generation generously gives to causes. That is what I love about the younger generation. But in our consumerdriven society, how do we protect against the creep of materialism? I think one of the best ways is to use percentages — both the percentage that we give each month above the tithe and the percentage that we save each month. Let me explain.

Once we establish the tithe as a life discipline, we need to pray (married people should pray together) about what percent of the remaining balance to give away and what percent to save. We want God to establish those percentages. Then, each time we get a raise, we can raise the percentage of our giving (and our saving), not our standard of living. That keeps our tendency toward covetousness in check. Praying about these percentages blunts the need to keep up with the lifestyles of those around us. We give because we prayed first — not out of obligation or guilt or a desperate need.

And what about that money we have been saving? Because we prayed and purposed in our hearts to save a predetermined percentage, we are well positioned to respond when God does speak to our hearts. God will always ask us to stretch and give more. Because He is generous, He will challenge us to be generous. He will ask us to take a step of faith. And we will be ready because we have faithfully saved a predetermined percentage of our income. So we will never miss an opportunity to obey God when He nudges us to give.

Applying the Principle 1. How does giving based on percentages cause us to think differently about our role as stewards?

2. How can giving based on percentages increase our generosity as a church?

3. What can we change as a church to free up more money for missions and outreach giving?

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LESSON 7 Lead!

Read: 1 Peter 5:2–3 “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

Discussing the Text 1. In what ways do you see Peter exhorting pastors to be good stewards in this verse?

2. Why is the exhortation to not pursue dishonest gain included here?

3. What are the key heart attitudes that Peter exhorts ministers to develop?

4. Why is it important that we be examples to our churches?

Identifying the Principle I love golf! It is my favorite game. And I love to work at the game; I am always trying to get better at it. One of the ways I do that is by watching golf videos that show me how to improve my game. If I can pick up just one tip from those videos, I can hit my drives farther or make more putts, which will lower my score. I am looking for great examples to improve my golf game.

I wonder whether the church we are stewarding for God can say that about us. Are we great examples of how to live generously? Are we leading in generosity? Are we generous with our staff ? Are we generous with our people? I am convinced we need to be leaders when it comes to giving in the church. Let’s be the most faithful in our tithes. Let’s be the first ones to give in special offerings. Let’s be the first to support missionaries. Let’s be the first to give to worthy causes or orphans or widows.

Not only do we need to be leading the way in generosity in our churches, but we also need to be generous with other churches.

Let’s be generous to the body of Christ! I believe we can lead when it comes to giving to other churches. Let’s lead by sharing our creativity. Let’s lead by sharing ideas with other churches. Let’s lead by supporting other churches when they take a step in faith.

We may receive greater rewards for what we give away, both individually and as a church, than for anything else we do.

Applying the Principle 1. How can we lead our church more effectively in generosity?

2. What do we have to give away to other churches?

3. How can we be generous with the ideas God gives us?

3. What are some things your team can do to motivate and appreciate your volunteers and create a culture of gratitude?

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Notes

LESSON 8 Challenging Others to Live and Give Generously

Notes

Read: 1 Timothy 6:17–18 “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

Discussing the Text 1. What does this text tell us to do with those who are rich in our churches?

2. How strong is the word “command” in these verses? Why do you think Timothy repeats it?

3. Who are the rich in our church?

Identifying the Principle In our politically correct world, it can seem daunting to challenge someone in the church to the next level of growth in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Yet this is exactly what Paul calls us to do. When we do that, we are serving and stewarding God’s people well.

Money competes for the devotion of every person in the church.

It promises them security and peace and a sense of well-being. But it can deliver none of these things. It is a surrogate, and when the storms of life hit, money fails to deliver on any of its promises. God wants us to lead His people so that their faith is in Him. He wants to be their Supplier and Source, and He makes it clear how we are to lead them toward Him. We must challenge our people to place their trust in God through tithing and giving to missions and other Kingdom causes. We can challenge them to actively do good works in the church, in the community and in the workplace. We can challenge them to lay up riches in heaven rather than merely storing up riches in this world.

Applying the Principle 1. How can we respectfully, yet firmly, challenge our people to live generous lives?

2. What, if anything, scares you about challenging a person who is rich in this world’s goods to give at an even higher level? Who is one person you can challenge to give at a higher level?

3. Is our vision large enough to challenge people to give even more generously than they have been giving?

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THE FINAL NOTE

Faith Segments

(percentage of those who strongly agree)

Does God Supernaturally Heal People Today?

EVANGELICAL

87%

Denominations

PRACTICING CHRISTIAN

61%

(percentage of those who strongly agree) OTHER FAITH

21%

PROTESTANT NO FAITH

7%

CATHOLIC

19%

Source: Barna Group

The Bible is clear that God intervenes in human events and in the lives of people to accomplish His purposes. Both the Old and New Testaments are replete with such examples. Though the Bible is full of accounts of supernatural events and miraculous healings, the subject of divine healing is the cause of much discussion and tension in the church today.

Does God heal people supernaturally today as He did in the Bible?

Ask Americans this question and the majority (66%) say “yes,” according to a recent Barna report.

Among faith segments, Evangelicals are the most likely of any group to believe God supernaturally heals — almost nine in 10 (87%) strongly agree. Among practicing Christians (those who attend religious services at least once a month), six in 10 (61%) strongly agree. Those of other faiths (Islam, Judaism, etc.) are less convinced that God supernaturally heals today — two in 10 (21%). Remarkably, 7 percent of those who claim no faith (agnostics included) believe in the possibility of God’s supernatural healing.

Among denominations, 55 percent of Protestants and 19 percent of Catholics strongly agree in divine healing.

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55%

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