Influence Issue 08

ISSUE _ 08 / OCT 2016 _ NOV 2016

CMAI C RH OA L ETLAJYRL .O/R R/O M X AI KNEN ER O SB TO EN RE T S/ODNO U / GL ECILLAY A OJALA

STAY THE COURSE F I N D I N G H O P E I N A D R I F T I N G C U LT U R E WILFREDO “CHOCO” DE JESÚS

Religious Freedom and the Sexual Revolution Preparing the Church Budget When Prayer Is Hard

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Humanity is lost.

Eternity is certain.

Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.

Is it fair that some receive the hope of the gospel again and again—when so many others haven’t heard it even once?

Our mission, in the power of the Spirit, is to reach the lost, plant churches, train leaders, and serve the poor—so all can hear the saving message of Jesus.

I E S E M B L — A S S

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D W O R L

— I O N S M I S S

Our Mission—What & Why: This beautiful 36-page publication explains AGWM’s purpose and mission, is available in quantities to enhance your missions convention, and will inspire your congregation to keep engaged in prayer for and giving to missions.

Call 1-800-988-6568 or order online at agwm.com/resources.

Product # 718-103 Our Mission—What & Why

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we do and Why

— so all can hear

Resources for

SMALL

GROUPS

Find the perfect small group studies to meet your church’s needs.

Available in Spanish

A SPIRIT-EMPOWERED LIFE SMALL GROUP KITS

Have you ever wondered just how much more there is to the Christian life? A Spirit-Empowered Life Small Group Kits take you beyond doing things for God to pursuing a deep relationship with Him. Through the Holy Spirit’s transforming power, you’ll discover how to connect, grow, serve, go, and worship in ways that allow others to see more of God in you.

Available in Spanish Available in Spanish

BELIEVE Be inspired by what God has done in others’ lives and believe God for greater things in your life.

Available in Spanish

LIVING IN THE SPIRIT Take a refreshing look at the unique opportunities for Spirit-filled individuals and the church.

Available in Spanish

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD Explores five commitments to a great marriage with Craig and Amy Groeschel.

THE HUMAN RIGHT JOURNEY SMALL GROUP KIT Everything you need to move students further on their journey toward Jesus and sharing Him with others.

1.855.642.2011

IN THE GAP Learn how to have hope when everything seems hopeless and to have faith when the situation is dire.

Available in Spanish

SPIRITUAL PARENTING Families will be transformed as they learn how to create space for God-encounters in everyday life.

SECRETS Discover the eight biblical secrets to transforming your marriage that every wife needs to know.

UNCOMMON These youth-friendly studies will help the students in your church come alive with Spirit-focused power.

SMALL GROUPS CATALOG Call or visit MyHealthyChurch.com/ Catalogs to get the Small Groups Catalog.

MyHealthyChurch.com/SmallGroups

CONTENTS

7 If You Ask Me

Winning the Hidden Battle

8 Get Set It Only Takes a Spark: A Q&A with Harold Lee

10 Like a Leader

STAY THE COURSE FINDING HOPE

• Live: Mind Viruses • Think: When You Can’t Build a Building • 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

I N A D R I F T I N G C U LT U R E

18 Playbook • Build: Come Along: How to Disciple the Lost Toward Jesus • Know: Religious Freedom and the Sexual Revolution • Invest: Preparing the Church Budget: Appropriate Expense Percentages

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28 Perspectives

The Missional Church vs. The Attractional Church (“Go and Tell” vs. “Come and See”)

30 Stay the Course: Finding Hope in a Drifting Culture

Wifredo De Jesús offers real hope, practical solutions and biblical encouragement so Christians can stay the course in a culture wandering farther from the truth.

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40 Under Pressure: Reflections on Leading When the Pressure Is On

Dr. Carol Taylor shares a few rules of the road that can help keep you moving in the right direction when the pressure is on.

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48 When Prayer Is Hard: How the Spirit Helps Us Pray When We Don’t Know What to Say

Through extended seasons of anxiety, pain and doubt, Dr. Marty Mittelstadt has discovered the importance of two kinds of prayer.

56 Multipliers— Using Talents to Multiply Ministry

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• Sowing Seeds in Rural Communities • Sowing in the Heart of Texas • Coffee with a Purpose • Multiplying in the Military

70 Make It Count

Leadership Pipeline: 8 Steps to Developing and Deploying New Leaders

80 The Final Note

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Extreme Religion? How Americans’ Opinions Differ

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: Miker Acker, Karen and Justin Beiler, John Davidson, Dick Hardy, Wilfredo De Jesús, Brad Leach, Harold Lee. Marty Mittelstadt, Leila Ojala, Ana Pierce, Chris Railey, Mike Robertson, Eli Stewart, Carol Taylor, Alison Ward, Jim Wilkes, 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

IF YOU ASK ME

WINNING THE HIDDEN BATTLE y the time you read this issue of Influence, the U.S. will be just weeks from electing its next president. Rhetoric will be at an all time high; the gloves will be off; the mud already slung. We will all watch in shock and awe as the me-against-you, left-vs.-right, no-holds-barredsteel-cage death match, that is our electoral process, unfolds. Are you not entertained?

Interestingly, a similar left-vs.-right battle wages inside the heart of every leader. It’s not liberal vs. conservative, but rather our will versus God’s will. This hidden battle can prove just as nasty as the public political contest.

We get a glimpse of this battle in Mark 10 as two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, ask Jesus to grant them places on His right and left sides as He comes into His “glory.” Of course, the glory they had in mind was far different than the glory awaiting Jesus. This request reveals a great deal about what was in the heart of these emerging leaders. They wanted to get ahead, advance their own cause and secure their futures.

Their request reveals how far our will can be from God’s will, as Jesus quickly points out to them. We see from this passage how easy it is to hide our efforts for personal gain behind the cloak of religion and a façade of righteousness. This battle wages in the heart of every leader, and it can get ugly. To transform culture and meet the needs of a complex world, we must win the battle of the heart. To win the heart battle, we must consider four questions.

First, where are we placing our ambition? Would an

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honest assessment reveal we are ambitious about the right things? Are we ambitious about personal gain, the comforts of life and honor in the eyes of others or are we ambitious for the things of God? Second, whom do we trust, really? Do we trust God, or do we trust what we can see with our own eyes and accomplish with our own hands?

Third, does our leadership adequately reflect the gospel? The gospel is an invitation to come and die in order to truly live. To what level does our leadership reflect this kind of humility and sacrifice?

Fourth, are we living for our glory or God’s glory?

Don’t answer this question too quickly! How can we alter our lives to better reflect the glory of God in our decisions and activities?

Winning the battle of the heart, and therefore effective leadership, demands answers to these questions. In this issue of Influence, you will hear from transformational leaders who are engaging culture and demonstrating influence in dramatic ways. In our cover story, Pastor Choco De Jesús deals with cultural challenges head-on by sharing how we can find hope in a drifting culture. In facing the high demands of leadership, Dr. Carol Taylor helps us understand how to lead when the pressure is on.

And Marty Mittelstadt brings keen insight into the one thing leaders cannot fail to do — pray. Finally, the Make It Count lessons by Pastor Jim Wilkes discuss how to develop transformational leaders by establishing a leadership pipeline in your organization. We pray these articles and others in this issue will encourage you and give you tools to live and lead to bring glory to God.

Chris Railey 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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GET SET

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4 Questions with Harold Lee

IT ONLY TAKES A SPARK

Harold Lee is an ordained deacon at Promise Ministries International (AG) in Flushing, New York. He serves PMI and the local and global community, and is bringing glory to God in big ways.

Influence: You have dedicated your passion, time and talent to reach people for Christ. What would you say to others who are struggling to break the boundaries in proclaiming their faith in Christ?

Harold Lee: I think it’s part perception and part guilt.

When we tell people we are a Christian, there is an expectation we are to be Christlike. That is a hard act to follow.

I got over my guilt by admitting I’m not perfect. I am a sinner, and Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross took my sins away. We need to tell people exactly that. We are not perfect, and we sin, but God still loves us and forgives us when we truly confess our sins. I’m not saying go ahead and sin because the Father will forgive us.

Though He will, we should never take advantage of His grace and mercy toward us. This is one aspect people forget when they testify to others — God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. How can we not share that!

You are touching countless lives for the gospel with your work in the performing arts and media. How are you doing this?

Promise Ministries International, pastored by Nam Soo Kim, has multiple missions initiatives. I am part of the media/performance team leading the musical “His Life” and Promise Treasures, a hip/hop, praise and worship team. The musical is part of PMI’s mission for the 4/14 Movement, a global movement to reach children for Christ between the ages of 4 and 14.

You work on a trading desk of a major firm on Wall Street. How are you reflecting Christ in a secular environment?

Most people on the trading desk know I am Christian.

One day someone called me “Padre” as a joke, but it

stuck and became my nickname. Because of that, I am able to be more vocal about my faith.

There is an intercom system, called the “hoot,” that is heard throughout the trading desk. If I heard someone using the Lord’s name in vain, I’d say over the hoot, “Don’t use the Lord’s name in vain.” It is now something people expect me to say, so rarely do we hear anyone using the Lord’s name in vain.

I also started Gospel Fridays. It started when I played Christian music during slow times. There are “silent” Christians around the trading desk, so when I play a song they like, they ask me to turn up the volume. Friday is Christian music day where we openly share our faith and support one another in prayer.

Corny as it sounds, it only takes a spark to get a fire going. What started out as a nickname, Padre, turned into a giant spark.

Share a word of encouragement to our readers who feel challenged in expanding their influence in the world.

First and foremost, I’m not a leader; I’m a follower. I might hold a leadership title, but my actions are always to support leadership.

At times Pastor Kim will say to me, “Harold I have this idea I want you to execute.” It is never an “if” or “maybe,” but a “yes sir.” Admittedly, I think to myself Are you crazy? There is no way I can do that! But I found that I can accomplish what I thought was impossible.

Anything is possible through Christ.

We need to set aside “worldly” expectations and expect miracles from His hands working through us. Am I a leader? No! I am a follower of Christ who guides me, and it’s my trust in Him that allows me to do all that I do.

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LIVE

MIND VIRUSES If leaders can diagnose what is defeating them, they can experience a better life in Christ — and bring others along with them.

MIKE ROBERTSON

ave you ever wondered why some people are successful and others are not? Some have great talent, but they never seem to go anywhere, while others with less talent soar.

Sometimes the difference lies in the heart and mind.

Successful leaders focus on taking positive steps toward their goals. Unsuccessful leaders think on things that make them unsuccessful; mind viruses affect their emotional and spiritual health.

A mind virus is much like a physical virus. People can acquire it from a family member, an acquaintance or the television. It causes them to believe something about life that simply is not true. Satan uses these falsehoods, doubts and insecurities to keep people from experiencing the fullness of God’s blessings.

If we, as leaders, can diagnose what is defeating us, we can experience a better life in Christ — and bring others along with us. Just imagine how many people could benefit if we just get rid of our own mind viruses.

Healthier thinking can begin with a couple of purposeful life changes. I believe what we do five minutes before we go to bed is the most important part of our day. Our mind never sleeps. It waits on an instruction as we lie down to rest. Have you ever gone to bed trying to figure out something, and then the next day you had the answer? You simply gave your mind an assignment during the night hours, and your subconscious mapped out a solution. That is why the Bible says, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” (Ephesians 4:26). If you do, your mind will spend all night being angry and attempting to find solutions to relieve that anger. You may wake up in the morning with a map to revenge.

The first five minutes of the day make up the second most important time. I refuse to get out of bed until my mind focuses on good things. I will not allow my day to begin with negative thinking. What am I doing? I am telling my mind viruses that this is not a day for them to expand their destructive intent in my life.

“This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24, NLT).

Today, I am choosing to listen to the balcony voices instead of the basement voices speaking into my life.

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Mike Robertson is the lead pastor of Visalia First (AG) in Visalia, California, and author of Mind Viruses, which can be ordered on www.mikedrobertson.com.

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Here are four things I’ve learned you can build when you can’t build a building.

Build Leaders Leaders are the real foundation for any church, and can be built long before any concrete is poured. If you are frustrated over the lack of a facility, imagine what might happen if you channeled that negative energy into a new initiative to find, develop and empower the next generation of leaders for your church?

WHEN YOU CAN’T BUILD A BUILDING Here are four things you can build when you can’t build a building.

BRAD LEACH

he church is not a building.

I’ve always believed that was true theologically, but planting CityLife Church in the city of Philadelphia has pushed me to believe it experientially.

Church planting in an urban neighborhood made portability a necessity for us. Our church has grown over the past five years, and so have our options to purchase a building. We continue to pray, save and scout for permanent space. But the benefits of portability have helped us resist the urge to compromise on a building that may limit the scope of our impact.

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Build Relationships The church is the people of God, and our real capital is the relationships being built throughout our congregation and community. Our church gathers in a Philadelphia high school that consistently makes all of the wrong lists. While we endure through summers without air conditioning and the not so occasional cockroach and mouse, we also have the privilege to be present where the church is often absent.

If God had a balance sheet for your church, I wonder what it might look like. Perhaps the assets are people, and the real liabilities are the subtle distractions that can come from unhealthy mortgages and deferred maintenance. Buildings are powerful tools when they serve as a tool and don’t become the point. Make people the point.

Build Credibility One day we will find the right building and ask our church to give big. In the meantime, we are doing our best to operate the church with conservative financial strategies that build the congregation’s confidence in our ability to manage money.

Build Faith Portability is a strategy, not a sacred solution. I believe God will lead us to the right miracle facility for our church, so we are setting our congregation’s expectations in that direction by casting vision, developing generosity, saving for a down payment and praying for a million dollar gift.

When that day comes, my prayer is that an enduring value will be forever imbedded in the DNA of our church. Brick and mortar can’t save a city. Instead, God uses growing leaders who love people and build credibility by doing what they can do while waiting for God to do what they can’t do.

Are you waiting for a building? Get busy building!

Brad Leach is lead pastor of CityLife Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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BETWEEN PAIN AND GRACE

Gerald W. Peterman and Andrew J. Schmutzer (Moody)

American Christians don’t know how to suffer well. We think the life of faith should be victorious and joyful, so suffering seems like a defeat and a downer. So, because suffering seems like a defeat and a downer, it must be caused by insufficient faith or obedience on our part. What we need is a biblical theology of suffering — one that recognizes life’s hardness without blaming the victims. Between Pain and Grace by Gerald Peterman and Andrew Schmutzer does just that, in addition to offering helpful insights about how to prevent and ameliorate suffering.

BOOKS WORTH HIGHLIGHTING, FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM

By Influence Magazine

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THE POWER OF THE OTHER Henry Cloud (Harper Business)

Leaders often say, “It’s lonely at the top.” That’s true, but it’s also tragic. Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely. Henry Cloud argues in The Power of the Other that success depends on relationship. “The undeniable reality,” he writes, “is that how well you do in life and in business depends not only on what you do and how you do it, your skills and competencies, but also on who is doing it with you or to you” (emphasis in original). When we connect with others, who we are and what we do reach their full potential.

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THE 9 ARTS OF SPIRITUAL CONVERSATION Mary Schaller and John Crilly (Tyndale Momentum)

Research shows that 75–90 percent of conversions happen because of personal relationship with a Christian family member, friend or colleague. Practically speaking, that means Billy Graham is not the best evangelist to reach your neighbor. You are. In The 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversation, Mary Schaller and John Crilly show readers how to walk “alongside people who believe differently,” so that evangelism, discipleship and spiritual growth take place organically in an authentic relationship. This is a good book to use for training in personal evangelism and small group leadership.

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STUDY THE WORD OF GOD WITH THE BEST RESOURCES AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. Whether you are preparing to preach, teach or just meditate on the word, have the Bible and the Dictionary with the most resources available in one place.

RVR 1960 BIBLIA DE ESTUDIO HOLMAN (HOLMAN STUDY BIBLE)

Available in various cover formats.

Available in RVR60, KJV and NKJV translations.

DICCIONARIO BÍBLICO ILUSTRADO HOLMAN ALSO AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH

FIND THEM WHERE EVER BIBLES ARE SOLD.

WWW.BHESPANOL.COM I WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/BHESPANOL

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By Influence Magazine 1

5 LEADERSHIP QUESTIONS http://www.lifeway.com/leadership/5-leadership-questions/

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This podcast features interviews with Christian leaders such as Christine Caine, Brad Lomenick and Peter Scazzero. Past episodes include “Leading after Failure,” “How Women and Men Can Work Well Together” and “Spiritual Disciplines and Leadership.” Sponsored by LifeWay Leadership and hosted by Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper, the podcast aims “to inform and encourage Christian leaders whether they serve in the pastorate, the business world, nonprofits, or on a volunteer basis.” Episodes run 30 to 45 minutes in length and drop twice weekly. (Available on iTunes | Android | RSS) 2

CMN LESS THAN TEN http://churchmultiplication.net/cmn10

A must-see podcast produced by the Church Multiplication Network of the Assemblies of God, these biweekly videos feature interviews with leaders such as Mark Batterson, Earl Creps and Dary Northup. Hosted by Greg Ford, the podcast describes itself as “informative interviews guaranteed to be less than 10 minutes.” Past topics include church governance, discipleship pathways and navigating seasons of tense political disagreement in your church and community — all from a church-planting perspective. Episodes drop twice a month. (Available on Vimeo)

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DOWNLOAD YOUTH MINISTRY http://blog.downloadyouthministry.com/webshow

Download Youth Ministry features conversations among the podcast’s four hosts — Doug Fields, Jason Carson, Katie Edwards and Josh Griffin — about a variety of issues pertaining to youth ministry. Episodes drop twice monthly and run 30 to 45 minutes in length.

Each episode discusses multiple issues, with past topics including summertime tips for helping students transition from middle to high school to college, combatting spiritual apathy in upperclassmen and what to do when you’re blocked from a student’s social media account. (Available on iTunes | YouTube) 14

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By Influence Magazine 1

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Apps and tech that add to your life 1

MILEIQ

Are you looking for the perfect mileage app to log your personal, business, medical, charity and volunteer miles? MileIQ takes the pain out of manually tracking your miles by remembering your drives so you don’t have to. With MileIQ’s automatic drive detection, you can be confident your drive data for all your ministry and volunteer trips is captured and accurate.

MileIQ not only logs your drives, but it calculates their value automatically. MileIQ creates a mileage log that’s compliant with IRS guidelines, allowing you to get the reimbursement or deduction you deserve with a minimum amount of effort.

MileIQ requires no set-up to start enjoying its many benefits. When you’re ready to personalize, you can set your preferences by adding vehicles, purposes and locations that define your driving.

Try MileIQ for free, and then pick the plan that works for you. The Limited plan is free and gives you access to your first 40 drives every month. A monthly and annual plan is available for a reasonable fee.

MileIQ is available on the App Store and Google Play or visit mileiq.com.

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INFLUENCE RESOURCES APP

The Influence app is all about encouraging intentional Christian leadership. Whether you’re a small group leader in your church or a pastor leading a large congregation, you can utilize the Influence app in your personal leadership journey.

You can use it as a tool to help you in leading others or just an encouragement to edify your own spirit.

With the Influence app, you can stay up-do-date on the latest news and resources; read Influence magazine, a powerful resource filled with articles and tools aimed at empowering Christian leaders; listen to podcasts from premiere voices in church leadership; or connect with Influence Resources via social media.

The Influence app includes functionality for saving your favorite articles on the home feed to a separate folder for later reading. The home page is constantly updated with news about events, Influence music links or other helpful information.

You can find the Influence app in your phone’s app store by searching for “Influence resources.”

FOR MORE INFO, GO TO bit.ly/innuencemagazine

PLAYBOOK : BUILD

COME ALONG: HOW TO DISCIPLE THE LOST TOWARD JESUS It’s simpler than it seems.

LEILA OJALA

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eila, come meet Cassie — you guys will be great friends!” I “ try to keep up as my friend zips across the room and then stops in front of me so abruptly that I almost fall on top of her. “Wait a minute,” she mutters to herself, “Cassie hates Christians.”

In the few seconds it takes her to think this over, my blood pressure has risen by 15 points. I stammer, “Well, um, if you think this isn’t a good idea.”

“Nah,” she decides, not hearing me. “It won’t matter. She’ll love you anyway. Hey Cassie, come meet my friend…”

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Little did I know that this inauspicious introduction would not only jump-start one of the most important friendships of my life, but it would also catapult my training in how to disciple the lost toward Jesus.

John describes this very simple process in one of the most underrated statements of John’s Gospel: “And he [Andrew] brought him [Simon] to Jesus” (John 1:42). Wait a second, you say — that can’t be discipleship!

Andrew didn’t answer any questions. He didn’t prove the gospel by living a mess-free, clutter-free, perfectly super spiritual life. He didn’t perform any miracles. In fact, Jesus did all the work in Peter’s life — all Andrew did was invite Peter to meet Him. Hey, I never said it was complicated. The truth is, discipleship is actually really simple.

I’m going to guess at this point that you really want to believe me — but you just don’t. After all, don’t we have entire libraries devoted to this topic? How to get people to pray the prayer, how to get them plugged into church ministries, how to teach them the Bible, how to help them reach their unbelieving friends but stay holy, how to develop them into leaders, how to, how to, how to…

When I met Cassie, my husband, Eric, and I had just moved to Summit County, Colorado, to plant a church. In this county, which includes Breckenridge, Keystone and a handful of other mountain towns, only four percent of locals claim to be evangelical Christians. We knew that God had called us to reach the other 96 percent, but we had absolutely no idea how. When we first arrived, we stayed up at night asking God, “Who are these lost people, and what do we say to them when we find them?” We wanted to disciple the lost toward Jesus, but the enormity and complexity of it seemed overwhelming, even paralyzing.

And then I met Cassie.

I had no idea how to “get her saved,” but I thought I’d start by being her friend. So we

Have you ever considered that maybe we’re just making it too complicated? drank a lot of coffee, had a lot of conversations and even sometimes had fun together. Through love, grace, time and access to my life (we call this Invitation), something amazing started to happen: I began to truly love her. I longed to see the kingdom of God transform every area of her life. As this love grew, she began to feel it and then trust it. When it was time to tell her that Jesus could change her life too, but it would cost her everything (we call this Challenge), she responded, “I think I knew that.” And a year and a half after that initial introduction, Cassie gave in to the relentless pursuit of Jesus’ mercy and love, and she chose to become His disciple herself.

“Wait,” you say, “there you go again, acting like it’s so simple!” Well, it really is. Bringing people along on the journey, inviting and challenging, while listening to the Spirit — well, it works. We’ve seen this simple process of discipleship transform people’s lives over and over again. And why shouldn’t it work, since that’s exactly how Jesus did it?

Jesus invited the disciples to follow Him, spend time with Him, live alongside Him and learn from His ways long before their “salvation experience” (when they realized He was the Messiah). They didn’t only sit under His teaching and ministry; they ate with Him. Watched Him pray. Saw what made Him laugh. Observed Him as He grieved. He gave them friendship (Invitation) and confronted everything in their lives that stood in the way of the kingdom of God (Challenge), and through this simple process, they became not only disciples — people who do the things Jesus did for the reasons He did them — but also disciple makers.

It’s that simple.

So who are you having coffee with? The choice to disciple one person toward Jesus could result in multiple generations of disciples.

Be brave. Take a chance. Follow Jesus with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength, and invite others to do the same — and you may just be surprised at who comes along.

Leila Ojala is lead pastor of Elements Church in Summit County, Colorado.

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Influence

podcast A collection of inspiring and challenging

conversations aimed at empowering the entire spectrum of church leadership i n f l u e n c e m a g a z i n e . c o m /p o d c a s t

Connect with us! facebook.com/theinfluencemag twitter.com/theinfluencemag

PLAYBOOK : KNOW

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION The real battle for religious freedom is not fought at the ballot box or before a judge’s bench. It is fought in the hearts and minds of self-willed people to whom we declare the promise of Jesus’ gospel.

G EO R G E PAU L WO O D

Religious freedom has emerged as a crucial issue for many American Christian voters in the 2016 presidential election. The next president will appoint at least one Supreme Court justice, possibly more, in addition to filling vacant seats throughout the federal judiciary. The next president will also determine the leadership and policies of executive-branch regulatory bureaucracies. These appointments are important because federal courts and bureaucracies have emerged as key players in shaping American law and public opinion on controversial issues over the last few years, even more so than Congress.

A good example is the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. The case arose because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services promulgated a rule requiring businesses of a certain size to provide comprehensive contraceptive coverage to its employees.

Hobby Lobby, a closely held corporation owned by a Christian family, objected to covering a handful of those contraceptives because they also can induce abortion. The owners argued that the “contraceptive mandate” violated their sincerely held, religiously based, pro-life convictions. Faced with crippling fines for noncompliance with this mandate, the owners sued the department for an exemption under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. They prevailed at the Supreme Court, though with a narrow majority of judges (5–4) ruling in their favor.

Even with this legal victory, supporters of religious freedom must realize there are long-term trends in American culture that affect religious freedom negatively, trends that will continue regardless of who wins the 2016 presidential election. Mary Eberstadt analyzes one of those trends in her new book, It’s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies. “Christianity present, like Christianity past and Christianity to come, contends with many foes and countervailing forces,” she writes. “But its single most powerful enemy now is not the stuff of the philosophy common room. It is the sexual revolution — and the current absolutist defense of that revolution by adherents and beneficiaries.”

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PLAYBOOK : KNOW

Supporters of religious freedom must realize there are long-term trends in American culture that affect religious freedom negatively, trends that will continue regardless of who wins the 2016 presidential election.

To see the truth of this, simply consider the kinds of religious freedom cases that arouse public controversy today.

They typically involve abortion and LGBT issues. LGBT is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby pertained to abortion. A recently withdrawn amendment to California Senate Bill 1146 pertained to LGBT issues.

California state law prohibits discrimination against a number of protected classes, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Many religious colleges and universities require students to affirm a code of behavior that prohibits sexual immorality, including homosexual acts and transgenderism. Recognizing this clash, state law provides those religious schools an accommodation so they can continue to operate according to their sincerely held religious beliefs, despite this nondiscrimination provision. A proposed amendment to SB 1146 would have punished religious schools for operating according to core Christian tenants regarding marriage, family and sexuality. Among the threatened implications was prohibiting access to state scholarship funds by students at those schools. A multiethnic, multifaith coalition convinced the bill’s sponsor to withdraw the amendment, but its victory was a close-run thing. The bill’s sponsor has indicated he may reintroduce the amendment at some time in the future.

The law is not the only arena of conflict, however. So is public opinion. For example, in 2014, Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich resigned under duress when a website shamed him for his contribution to a pro-Proposition 8 organization. Proposition 8 was a successful 2008 California ballot initiative amending the state’s constitution 22

to define marriage as an opposite-sex institution.

The California Supreme Court later struck it down, a decision upheld on technical grounds by the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to decide the case on merits.

Another example, even much modest legislation regarding religious freedom is now routinely denounced as a “license to discriminate,” and garners public opposition from many of our largest and most politically powerful business interests. Traditional believers are regularly caricatured as “bigots” and “haters” because they adhere to biblical teaching on marriage and sexual morality.

Eberstadt refers to this negative public opinion as “the new intolerance.” She argues that the common denominator in these cases is “the protection of the perceived prerogatives of the sexual revolution at all costs.” And she concludes, “No revolution, no new intolerance.”

When you see the connection between support for the sexual revolution and opposition to religious freedom, you see why the 2016 presidential election will not end our nation’s battles over religious freedom. What is ultimately at issue, according to Eberstadt, is not religious freedom but a secular worldview in which radical individual autonomy is the highest value. “‘Doing what you want’ is the new master ethic,” she writes.

“The first corollary to this axiom is that pleasure is the greatest good.” And the first commandment of a pleasure-based ethic is that “no sexual act between consenting adults is wrong.” As long as that secular worldview goes unchallenged, religious freedom is unsafe.

This election is important, so get out and vote!

Religious freedom is important, so defend it! As we do so, however, we must remember that the real battle is not fought at the ballot box or before a judge’s bench. It is fought in the hearts and minds of those self-willed people to whom we declare the promise of Jesus’ gospel: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

George Paul Wood is executive editor of Influence magazine.

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PLAYBOOK : INVEST

any churches are in the process of completing their budget preparations for the next fiscal year. Sometime during the process, you probably wondered if your church is spending the right amount of money in all the right areas. While your budget is thoughtfully prepared, based on ministry needs, and reflects the priorities of the church, you still wonder if the amounts expended on compensation, operations or ministry programs are appropriate for the size of your church and budget.

This is a common question that arises every time a church budget is created.

Some churches ascribe to the 33/33/33 model: 33 percent is allocated to salaries, 33 percent is allocated to operations and programs and 33 percent is allocated to building and infrastructure.

Other churches look to criteria used by lending institutions that require debt and salaries to be no more than 70 percent of undesignated tithes and offerings. This allows 30 percent for operations and ministry programs.

I think a more helpful way to answer this question is to benchmark your church’s financial activity with other churches. Christianity Today surveyed over 1,600 churches in April 2014 and calculated their average expense ratios, which are presented in the following chart.

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PREPARING THE CHURCH BUDGET: APPROPRIATE EXPENSE PERCENTAGES Are the amounts expended on compensation, operations or ministry programs appropriate for the size of your church and budget?

ROLLIE DIMOS

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PLAYBOOK : INVEST CHRISTIANITY TODAY SURVEY 2014 Reserves … 2% Other … 6%

Salaries & Wages … 47%

Admin … 4% Missions … 9% Ministries & Support … 9%

Bldg, Utilities, Maintenance & Insurance … 22%

Responses total less than 100% due to rounding

Comparing your church’s activity to these survey results can be helpful and insightful as you plan for the future. But undoubtedly, your results will vary. Thankfully, there isn’t a right or wrong answer to how much a church should spend in each category. This cookie-cutter approach won’t fit all churches because the unique mission, vision and ministry philosophy of each church will drive expense activity.

Compensation is one of those areas that will vary from church to church. No matter the size or budget philosophy, salary and wages is quite often the largest category for any church. For example, similar to the Christianity Today results, a 2014 survey by Leadership Network found large churches (churches of 1,000 attenders or more) also spend almost 50 percent of their budget on staffing costs.

Compensation can vary greatly based on the season, size and spiritual priorities of your church. For example, new churches may tend to have larger staffing costs relative to their total budget because they are staffing for future growth, or the church congregation has not yet matured in stewardship and giving. Conversely, a church that has the added expense of a mortgage may have a lower percentage in staffing costs than a church that has paid off its mortgage. The same could be true for a church in the midst of a construction program.

Other expense categories will also reflect the unique priorities of each church.

A church that is intentional about reaching beyond its own four walls with local, regional and global ministry programs may have larger mission and program expenses, but a smaller percentage in staffing costs.

The budgets of Pentecostal churches will undoubtedly reflect a greater commitment to missions than the average reported in the Christianity Today survey. Assemblies of God churches have a rich history of supporting missions programs throughout the U.S. and across the globe, and their budgets reflect this commitment to raising new churches and sharing the gospel to unreached people groups.

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A clear-cut answer regarding appropriate expense percentages, other than “it depends,” doesn’t really exist. It depends on the unique circumstances of each church, and it will be heavily influenced by the strategic vision and spiritual priorities of each church. But it is important to measure your expense ratios to make sure your spending reflects your ministry goals.

As you develop and review your budget, here are a few summary thoughts to consider: • Make sure your budget reflects the mission, vision and spiritual priorities of your church. For example, if the church has a vision to reach young families, more funds may be allocated to developing familyfriendly environments, programs and outreach opportunities.

• Benchmarking your budget activity with other churches can be helpful and insightful. But remember that your church’s unique mission, vision and spiritual priorities should drive your actual budget activity.

• Ask experienced members within your church for help. Find businessmen and women within your church who create and execute budgets as part of their profession. They will have expertise that will be invaluable to you.

• Seek counsel within your network of pastors who may be in a similar sized church or face similar socio-economic factors.

• Lastly, the IRS requires compensation provided to ministers to be reasonable. As you create your budget and review compensation packages, one way to determine reasonableness is to consult independent compensation surveys for comparison. Richard Hammar’s annual Compensation Handbook for Church Staff is a great resource.

Rollie Dimos, CIA, CISA, CFE is the Internal Audit director at the AG National Leadership and Resource Center and author of Integrity at Stake: Safeguarding Your Church From Financial Fraud.

If you have a question about this article, you can contact Rollie at rdimos@ag.org.

PERSPECTIVES

The Missional Church vs.

The Attractional Church (“Go and Tell” vs.“Come and See”)

Church leaders agree that the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) defines the mission of the Church: “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ ” However, there is a lively debate among church leaders as to whether this Commission is best fulfilled outside or

A Case for the Missional Church Missional churches are anchored in the mission of God, to bring all people into a relationship with Jesus. They know that most people far from God are not likely to wander into a church on their own, regardless of how excellent the service is. So missional churches focus on discipling believers with the understanding that every believer has been commissioned by Jesus to be, in Paul’s words, a minister of reconciliation.

The missional church believes God is a missionary God: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). A missional church, then, is a sending church, one that thrusts its people into the harvest field to reach a lost world. To this end, missional churches typically aim their worship gatherings more for Christians than unbelievers. To say it another way, their gatherings are more about discipleship than evangelism. That is not to say missional churches value the unsaved less. They see it as their goal to equip believers for the work of ministry, to leave the gathering and have maximum impact where lost people are.

The concept of the missional church is linked more to where it expects the bulk of ministry to the unsaved to take place. Attractional churches expect the bulk (not all) of ministry to the unsaved to take place inside the church (typically during the main worship gathering), whereas missional churches expect the bulk (not all) of ministry to the unsaved to happen outside of the worship gathering in homes, 28

neighborhoods and the marketplace.

Missional churches: • Focus their worship music on adoration and thankfulness sung from the saved to their Savior. Since the unsaved don’t worship Jesus, the worship service need not cater to them.

• Focus their sermons on the spiritual growth of believers. Mature believers can then engage unbelievers with the gospel where they live and work.

• Focus their hospitality on fostering a sense of family among believers rather than a welcoming environment for unbelievers. When unbelievers do come in, they will be attracted to the vibrancy of a healthy spiritual family.

• Desire every believer to go and tell others about Jesus. They are not content to assign the job of evangelism only to pastors during their weekly gatherings.

For New Testament churches, Christians met weekly in order to break bread, share with one another, sing and read Scripture. As they did this faithfully, they were sent out into the world and brought new believers into the family and the family’s weekly gathering. Moreover, if there’s any place for the missional church, it should be squarely within the Pentecostal movement, which was built on the theology of the sent-ness of every believer, empowered by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of making disciples of all people.

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

inside the local church. The Missional Model says, “Go and tell,” an outside approach. The Attractional Model says, “Come and see,” an inside approach. The Attractional Model gained steam in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Led by baby-boomer pastors, attractional churches downplayed traditional forms of worship and denominationally distinctive doctrines in order to reach the increasing number of unchurched Americans. Spiritual “seekers” were invited to “come and see” what was happening in these “contemporary”

and “relevant” churches.

Given the pendulum swing of trends in American churches, an equal and opposite reaction set in. Led by baby busters and older millennials, missional churches began reutilizing older worship traditions — including, in some cases, liturgy — and emphasizing doctrinally rich teaching. They stressed the Church “gathered” for worship and “scattered” for mission.

In this Perspectives, two ministers make a brief case for each approach.

A Case for the Attractional Church Let me begin with a paradoxical confession: Some attractional churches are not very attractive, spiritually speaking. They have replaced gospel-centered preaching with self-help, do-it-yourself and business-leadership messages. Their worship music is more entertaining than participatory. And they seem to lurch from one publicity stunt to the next in order to promote themselves.

Critics of the Attractional Church Model often cite these unattractive examples to refute the model.

They’re wrong, of course. Give me any model of doing church — including your favorite model — and I’ll show you plenty of bad examples.

No, all bad examples do is show the characteristic way attractional churches go wrong, if they go wrong.

Just as “vain repetition” is the characteristic way liturgical churches go wrong, and “the social gospel” the characteristic way missional churches go wrong. So self-help, entertainment and publicity stunts are the characteristic ways attractional churches go wrong.

Knowing this doesn’t refute the model, it simply identifies the dangers to avoid.

At its heart, the Attractional Church Model builds on a sociological insight articulated by Donald A. McGavran and C. Peter Wagner in their book, Understanding Church Growth: “People like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers.” If this sociological insight is correct, then churches must take into account the worldview, concerns and forms of life of the people they are trying to evangelize. Otherwise, churches erect barriers to belief

that people won’t want to cross. This insight underlies the concept of seeker sensitivity.

Attractional churches are sensitive to the worldview, concerns and forms of life of the people they’re trying to reach, i.e., “seekers,” whether they’re evangelizing them outside the church (e.g., Acts 17:16–34) or inside the church (e.g., 1 Corinthians 14:21–25). In other words, seeker sensitivity is more important to attractional churches than the question of where evangelism takes place. Any model that cites the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) as its inspiration will be both “missional,” since “go” is an imperative, and “attractional,” since “baptizing” and “teaching” are characteristic forms of Christian worship gatherings.

There are limits to seeker sensitivity, of course. The one barrier Paul refused to move was “Christ crucified,” which he described as “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23). Other than that, though, he encouraged a variety of culturally appropriate forms of Christianity. After all, didn’t Paul say, in the context of explaining how he evangelized Jews and Gentiles, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (9:22)?

At its best, then, the Attractional Church Model asks a simple question: What are we willing to change about ourselves in order to reach more people for Jesus Christ? My concern is that “not much” is the honest answer too many churches will give to that question.

And that’s why so many Americans increasingly find the church irrelevant…and dare I say it, unattractive.

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S T A Y

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T H E

C O U R S E

FINDING HOPE IN A DRIFTING CULTURE

WILFREDO “CHOCO” DE JESÚS

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n every corner of our country, people are anxious and angry.

They feel their values are no longer respected — or worse, what they believe is ridiculed and rejected. Rich and poor, young and old, conservatives and liberals, citizens and immigrants and all ethnicities — virtually all of us feel threatened by powerful forces causing our culture to drift away from what we hold dear.

In reaction to the drift, people often grasp for extreme, polarized views that promise clarity and security. When they hear of shootings, some demand stricter gun control, but others want to arm more people for self-defense. When they see news reports of the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, some want to open our country to care for the displaced, but others insist on tighter restrictions to keep people out. When they hear the Supreme Court has legalized gay marriage, some say it was inevitable, but others are outraged and worry about the impact on the full range of religious liberties.

The Blink of an Eye

The drift in our culture has occurred in the relative blink of an eye. In New Rules: Searching for Fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down, social scientist Daniel Yankelovich observes how our society moved from self-sacrifice before and during World War II to self-indulgence in the decades that followed.

Prosperity — and advertisements that promoted the vast new array of products and services people expected — promised security, excitement, beauty, control, popularity and an easy life. Over-promising became normal, and most people believed every word.

However, with the promises of the good life came alarming developments. In the 1950s, students learned to hide under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack. We endured the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and we wondered whether our world was coming apart. Abortion became legal in 1973. Leaders removed prayer from schools and cities exploded in riots over civil rights. A sexual revolution swept through the U.S. and the Western world, while the Vietnam War further divided the nation. Watergate shattered our trust in the government. The economy experienced swings of prosperity and collapse. And the events of 9/11 changed the way we see the world and the way the world sees us.

In recent years, political leaders have seemed angrier and more defiant but less effective. Where society once expected leaders to engage in civil discourse and work toward reasonable solutions through dialogue, people increasingly view such actions as 32

evidence of a tragic character flaw. As Americans, we feel out of control. As Christians, we look too often to political leaders rather than God for answers.

Four Responses

H. Richard Niebuhr observes in Christ and Culture that people witnessing these cultural changes may respond in one of four ways: accommodating, opposing, withdrawing or engaging.

1. Some accommodate change. For some people, tolerance is the highest virtue. They “go along to get along,” and they accept every lifestyle and belief as equally valid. Accommodators look at the shift in attitudes toward gay marriage (or guns, immigration, the use of force by police or any other important cultural change), and they say, “Live and let live.

It’s not right to judge anyone! We need to keep up with the culture so we’re not left behind.

We want to be relevant, don’t we?”

2. Some fiercely oppose change. The second group has the opposite reaction. They see proponents of another viewpoint as enemies they must defeat, not reasonable people with a different opinion. They see even small shifts in society as potential major losses. These people oppose change because they are terrified of losing their way of life. They don’t read articles or listen to arguments from the other side; they only listen to friends or commentators who reinforce their fears and enflame their anger.

3. Some withdraw to protect themselves.

Big problems overwhelm this group, and they give up. They say, “What’s the use? My voice means nothing in large debates. Those issues are too complex. I don’t want to get in the line of fire between people who are so angry!”

If someone corners them on an opinion, they say, “Oh, I don’t know. That’s beyond me.”

Many of them don’t watch the news because, they’ve concluded, “It’s too depressing.”

These three reactions to cultural drift may be understandable, but they undermine our

identity as strong, compassionate, wise children of God. Accommodating change may mean compromising truth. Overvaluing tolerance can lead to complacency toward sin. Opposing change at any cost may mean withholding grace, love and mercy from those who disagree. And Christians who withdraw too quickly from debate can lose God-given opportunities to represent Him in a lost and confused world.

However, there is another way to respond to cultural issues.

4. Some engage change with a Christlike blend of truth, grace and purpose. Jesus calls us to be in the world but “not of the world” (John 17:16) and to be “salt” and “light” to the people around us (Matthew 5:13–16). With this identity and perspective,

Christians who withdraw too quickly from debate can lose God-given opportunities to represent Him in a lost and confused world.

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We have every right to speak the truth, but if we grasp God’s grace at all, we won’t despise sinners and blast them with the truth.

we interact with people with truth and grace — not affirming their sins to appear more open-minded, not harshly condemning them, and not withdrawing from them. Instead, we engage them by following the example of Jesus. He moved toward the outcasts and the marginalized. He felt genuine sorrow when people turned from truth. He stood up against injustice, and He boldly faced the religious leaders who despised Him for loving the unlovely.

Jesus lived a simple, humble life, but scarcity didn’t threaten Him. He trusted His Father.

True North

Every person intuitively asks, “What is my life about? What makes life worth living? What is my ultimate purpose?”

Many in our culture — and even in our churches — invest their hearts, time, creativity and money in pursuit of prestige, 34

pleasure, popularity, power and possessions.

These things promise to fill the emptiness in our hearts, but they inevitably fail. Author Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life states, “You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense.”.

God shouts to us through His Word, and He whispers to us through the Spirit to assure us that Jesus paid the ultimate price to rescue us from sin and adopt us into God’s family. We belong to Him! As our love for God deepens, we delight in what gives Him delight, we grieve over the things that grieve Him and we are outraged at the injustices that harm the people God loves. Hearing God’s voice gives us certainty, clarity and compassion. We need to hear Him call our names.

I grew up in poverty in Chicago’s Humboldt Park. My father left home when I was a young boy, leaving my mother to find work to provide for my brothers and me. Two of my older brothers soon joined local gangs. I knew my mother worried about them, and I wanted to support her in every possible way. We stayed in an apartment until my mother couldn’t pay the rent. To stay off the streets, we often lived with other family members. I attended five different elementary schools. I was often alone, wandering the neighborhoods. Poverty,

crime, gangs and police crackdowns were the background noise of my life. When I was 12, the Hispanic community rioted against the Chicago police. By the third day, the governor called the National Guard to restore order.

Two years later, I participated in a summer youth program to clean up our part of the city. There, I met some adults and kids who prayed with deep emotion. I was intrigued. I’d never seen anything like this. The supervisor told me about Jesus, and I trusted Christ as my Savior. I wanted to soak up every moment of my new relationship with God and these friends. My thirst for love was profound. I couldn’t get enough!

A few months later, I attended a youth convention. One night at the altar, a woman came up and touched me on the shoulder.

She prayed for me, and then she spoke God’s words directly to me: “I have called you to be a great leader. Stay on my path.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.”

I thought her expression was nice, but I didn’t realize what it meant. A few minutes later, I got on an elevator to go to my room.

As the door closed, a man got in. He looked at me and said, “Have you not heard? I have called you to be a great leader. Stay on my path. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.”

A coincidence? Not a chance. God was speaking through those two people to give me a clear direction for the rest of my life. No matter what I’ve encountered in school, as a young adult or as a leader, I have always looked back and known that God called my name. He called me to be a leader — not to go along to avoid conflict, not to rage against people who don’t agree with me and not to cower in fear — but to boldly and compassionately engage people with the heart of Jesus.

Stay on Track

For centuries the Church had a way to stay on track with God: repentance. Today, many people don’t want to talk about sin or the need for forgiveness. They prefer to talk about “mistakes,” or “weaknesses” or “bad decisions.” They excuse their moral failures or blame others.

We need to understand the nature and consequences of sin.

Sin is any violation of God’s peace and promises, any attack on God’s good purposes for any person. Does God hate sin? Yes, but not because He delights in blasting people who sin. God hates sin because it disrupts His beautiful plans for His people. If we redefine sin as only weaknesses and mistakes, we don’t see the need for God’s cleansing flood. But a superficial understanding of sin doesn’t let us off the hook emotionally and spiritually.

Instinctively we know something is wrong.

We live with a vague sense of shame that we aren’t what we should be, but we can’t do anything about it.

Our definition of sin and our concept of God’s grace shape our response when God’s Spirit whispers that we need to repent. Paul describes two different kinds of repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:8–11. When Paul pointed out sin in the Corinthians’ lives in an earlier letter, he wasn’t thrilled to condemn them. He loved them and longed for them to walk with God. Sin, he knew, hurt them and blocked their experience of God’s presence and purpose. He wasn’t happy his letter produced sorrow, but he was pleased that their sorrow led them to repentance. Paul contrasts “godly sorrow” and “worldly sorrow”: One results in life, joy, love and power, but the other produces a form of emotional and spiritual death.

Godly sorrow is the gateway to refreshment in the Spirit, a renewed appreciation that God is our loving Father who wants the best for us. When we grasp this truth, we welcome the Spirit’s whisper to repent, and we gladly respond so we can experience the forgiveness Christ has already bought for us. A fresh infusion of forgiveness inspires our hearts and propels us to engage with the people around us. This kind of repentance is attractive, powerful and refreshing, and it can happen often in the lives of believers.

This kind of sorrow doesn’t minimize sin; we are fully aware that our sins required Jesus’ death to pay for them. But it also doesn’t minimize grace; Jesus willingly went to the Cross because He loves us.

How do we know whether our confession and repentance are “godly sorrow” or “worldly sorrow”? It’s easy. Does admitting sin make us feel small and ashamed? Does it make us want to hide from God and lie to those around us? Or does it produce a fresh wave of God’s grace that brings us both relief and gratitude? If it’s not relief and gratitude, it’s not God’s grace.

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Repentance and Engagement

Do’s And Don’ts of Engagement When you see the shifts in attitudes and government policies over gay marriage, guns, the homeless, abortion, immigration, military intervention or the use of force by police, respond like Jesus.

Don’t accommodate. Resist the temptation either to blindly agree with those in authority or to shrug and say, “It’s no big deal.”

Don’t fiercely oppose change. Those on the other side aren’t the enemy. Graciously engage them in dialogue.

Don’t withdraw to protect yourself.

Hold to your values and be willing to form and express a thoughtful opinion.

Do engage. Soak your heart in the grace of God so you can love the defiant and unlovely.

Identify one person — a neighbor or coworker — who disagrees with you on a topic, and get acquainted. Talk about family, history and favorite restaurants.

Don’t talk about your disagreements until at least the fourth or fifth conversation, and when you do, make a point to listen. Don’t give your point of view; just listen and ask a few questions.

Vote, go to city council meetings, and get involved. Speak up for the poor and oppressed, not yourself. Gather friends and participate in a local service project to care for the marginalized in your community.

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True repentance produces humility — a deep reverence for God, a heightened appreciation for God’s grace and the ability to love and forgive sinners. A heart of godly sorrow keeps our relationship with God fresh and alive and reminds us of our calling to be fully His every moment of every day. It’s easy to ignore people in need and criticize those who hold opposing views. Repentance helps us experience forgiveness and grace so we can treat people the way Jesus did. We must fill the well before we can draw from it. We can love the unlovely only to the extent we’ve experienced the unconditional love of God. We can develop a three-fold strategy to engage people in our communities. First, we can take the initiative to personally connect with people who are different from us and who disagree with our positions. Second, we can challenge people in our inner circle — our families, small groups and classes — to befriend and serve people who aren’t like them. Third, we can mobilize our churches to get involved in the fabric of our communities and care for people of different lifestyles and faiths, not with an air of superiority, but loving them like Jesus loves us.

When we talk with those who disagree with us, we should listen to their position. When we don’t listen, we create two problems: We make assumptions, often wrong ones, about the other position, and we communicate that we don’t care enough to value the other person’s perspective. If we don’t listen, we lose the opportunity to connect with the person, no matter how right we believe our cause might be.

A few years ago, a city alderman was considering retiring from his position. As was customary, the alderman was supposed to appoint his successor. My name came up, and the city council asked members of the community to voice their opinions about my qualifications and character. Members of the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) had strenuous objections, so I offered to meet with them. I hosted about 25 members of their group at a restaurant. I went alone because I didn’t want them to feel threatened in any way.

I briefly introduced myself and invited them to ask questions.

For the next hour, they asked dozens of questions about my views, our church and me. One person asked if we would revise our church website to say that we support the LGBT community, replacing our stated belief that God’s design for marriage is between a man and a woman. I wasn’t defensive or angry. I simply told them, “No, we won’t do that. We won’t change our beliefs so I can become an alderman.”

At the end of the hour, I had listened carefully to their points of view, and I stated mine without raising my voice or arguing. But there was no question where I stood on the issues they felt strongly about.

Several of them were obviously angry at my responses. One man in particular was loud, demanding and critical of every answer I gave. At

TM

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FEATURE

the end of our time, I said, “You say you stand for inclusion and tolerance, but it appears you’re intolerant of my faith. That seems inconsistent.”

I wasn’t asking for a response or provoking an argument. I was simply stating an observation, and I hoped at least some of those present would understand.

At the end of the meeting, a lady stood up and said, “I don’t know the reverend very well, but I trust him, and I plan to vote for him.”

But for the first time in Mayor Richard M. Daley’s tenure, he didn’t appoint the person nominated for the post of alderman. I didn’t get the position, but that’s not the end of the story.

Three years later my assistant told me a man named Felix wanted to see me. I didn’t recognize his name, but I was glad to meet him. It turned out I had met him before — at the meeting with the LGBT community.

It was the man who had been so angry and defiant, although now his demeanor was different. He smiled and said, “Pastor Choco, you may not remember me.

I’m leaving the city of Chicago, but before I go, I wanted to see you. I’ve trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I wanted you to know that God has done great things in my life. God told me that before I leave, I need to make things right with you.”

He began crying as he spoke. He paused for a second, and then he asked, “Would you forgive me for being so obnoxious to you? I said things about you and your church that weren’t true.”

I hugged him and said, “Brother, I forgave you years ago, and I’m thrilled to hear that you’ve come to know Jesus! I’m so happy to hear about your journey!”

Felix is still an activist, but now he’s an activist for Jesus. He writes a blog about the grace and power of God to transform lives. He gives all the glory to God, and he generously mentions that I was kind to him when he was angry with me. Felix’s sister is now visiting our church.

Those aren’t the only lives God touched as a result of that meeting. The lady who had been president of the LGBT organization is now on our missions team and is a Life Group coach. She is living a life of abstinence, walking with God in power and love.

We love sinners because we’re sinners and Jesus loves us. We have every right to speak the truth, but if we grasp God’s grace at all, we won’t despise sinners

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and blast them with the truth. Rather, our hearts will break because of sin — both our sin and theirs. When I met with those members of the LGBT community, I didn’t demand they agree with me. I didn’t condemn them or accuse them. I wanted to represent Christ, and I thought about how He related to those who opposed Him. He was clear in His message to sinners, but they knew He loved them. That was my goal. I listened, and I told them what I believed. I was secure in my identity and my message, so I had no need to be defensive in any way. When the meeting was over, I had no guarantee God would use it to change a heart or two in the group, but that’s what He did.

God calls us to be salt in a decaying world and light in spiritual darkness. If we’re cowards — not salty and hiding our lights — we won’t impact others for Christ.

If we’re obnoxious, demanding that people agree with us, we’ll certainly have an impact, but not the kind God wants us to have. To be salt and light, we must have equally radical commitments to love and truth, not one or the other. We love people dearly, listen intently and patiently get to know them, but we’re not afraid to talk about Jesus and His Word.

When we proclaim the truth in love, many will applaud, some will believe and others will persecute us. Don’t invite persecution by being an angry, defiant religious Pharisee. But if you face persecution for loving people the way Jesus loved them and speaking the truth the way He spoke it, you’re in good company.

Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesús is senior pastor of New Life Covenant Church in Chicago, the largest Assemblies of God congregation in the United States.

His latest book, Stay the Course: Finding Hope in a Drifting Culture, is available from My Healthy Church (myhealthychurch.com) or wherever Christian books are sold. This article is adapted from Stay the Course.

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FEATURE

C A R O L A . TAY L O R

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ongratulations, President Taylor. You now have a third-class ticket.”

So announced George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, before the closing benediction of his address at my inauguration as the ninth president of Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif. He was referring to the story he had just told of the adventure of stagecoach travel in the 1800s.

For those willing to risk the dangers, the Concord stagecoach offered three classes of tickets. First-class passengers received service while comfortably seated inside the coach.

They could avoid labor and the sight of it. Second-class ticket holders disembarked and either walked or stood along the roadside to observe while others pushed the coach. Thirdclass passengers were supposed to disembark, roll up their sleeves and push the stagecoach out of the mud or uphill if necessary — without complaint.

The Omaha Herald in 1877 published rules of stagecoach etiquette, including, “Don’t imagine for a moment you are going on a picnic. Expect annoyance, discomfort, and some hardships.”

At my inauguration, I publicly accepted a third-class ticket.

In January 2009, I agreed to step in as acting president at a time of crisis that threatened the life of Vanguard University.

We had gone from being a fully accredited institution to one facing the possibility of termination of accreditation. By June 2009, we had improved enough to avoid loss of accreditation, but we received a public sanction of probation.

By July 2009, a new board of trustees asked me to serve as president, and I asked to defer my inauguration to remain focused on working through the issues that resulted in our probation. Fifteen months later, with the public sanction of probation removed, we used the occasion of the inauguration to celebrate the commission’s declaration of “phenomenal progress” and “a significant institutional turnaround.”

Leading change, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is on, is a perilous journey. For those holding a thirdclass ticket, it can be a paradox of joy, hope and triumph in the midst of struggles. When the pressure is on, a few rules of the road can help keep you moving in the right direction.

“

C

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Demonstrate Grit The first decision a leader makes is whether to commit to the journey. There are at least three options when the pressure mounts: flee, step forward while maintaining an emergency exit strategy or commit fully without looking back.

I was serving as provost and vice president for academic affairs when things started unraveling at Vanguard. Friends and colleagues outside the university began calling and advising me to exit. The president resigned the morning the accreditation team arrived on campus for our site visit. I remember walking across the campus to greet the visit team and thinking, It’s going to be an interesting week.

That was only the beginning. Four months later, the interim president resigned. In an emergency meeting, the executive committee of the board and the executive presbyters of the Southern California District asked me to become acting president. After a scathing visit team report, we had one month to prepare to face the entire accrediting commission with a request to delay a decision until their next meeting in June.

I remember glancing at the red exit sign over the door and hearing the voices of friends encouraging me to take option one: flee. In the midst of the chaos, there was also a quiet voice that asked, “What if this is why you came to VU?” In that moment, I chose option three.

Survive or die, I would fully commit to this journey with Vanguard. I was about to discover whether I and an entire university, board and presbyters would have the perseverance to make the journey.

Angela Duckworth in Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance studied high achievers and concluded they had what she called grit — that blend of passion and perseverance, a kind of ferocious determination to work hard with focus and direction. Scripture calls it endurance and perseverance.

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When we open our hearts to loving our communities deeply, leading change takes on a more profound significance, motivation and joy.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

There are times in a perilous journey when sheer grit and determination are insufficient to produce the will to persevere against all odds. Sometimes in such moments, hope arises unbidden. I used my morning commute to pray. Most mornings, my prayer was, “God, when we come through this, it will be miraculous and for Your glory.”

A few mornings, my “when” became an “if ”: “God, if we come through this …”

And on three occasions, my prayer became a question: “God, have You called me to give hospice care to Vanguard?”

One of the darkest moments was the Friday afternoon in late February when the commission letter arrived. They granted our request to defer a decision until June, but they issued eight seemingly impossible demands and mandated a second site visit in May. That evening, for the first time, I said out loud, “We might not make it.”

While hope is not a strategy, it is essential in a perilous journey. It came in the wee hours of the next morning as I recalled two stories.

The first was that of Elijah, who climbed Mount Carmel to pray for rain and sent his servant out six times to look toward the sea. On the seventh time, his servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (1 Kings 18:44).

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The answer to a prophet’s prayer was one miniscule cloud. But from that tiny cloud, a storm arose that ended the drought. It occurred to me that a small window of time to make huge changes was our equivalent of a tiny cloud, and a tiny cloud on the far horizon is enough when God is in it.

The second story was more immediate and personal. The previous spring I sat with a friend as her husband, David, endured more than nine hours of surgery to repair an aortic dissection. Doctors estimated his chance of survival was three percent. Yet five months after surgery, David returned to work.

My friend later wrote that the only explanation was “but God.” Their tiny cloud of hope was a three percent chance of survival, surrounded by exceptional care and faithful prayers.

A three percent chance of survival and a tiny cloud is enough in God’s hands. I shared this the following Monday when I met with campus leaders to outline the work we would have to accomplish in 44

Most mornings, my prayer was “God, when we come through this, it will be miraculous and for Your glory.” just a few months if Vanguard would survive.

Both stories reminded me of J.R.R. Tolkien’s eucatastrophe, a term he coined in The Tolkien Reader to refer to the sudden turn of events at the end of a story that resulted in the leading character’s good fortune. By affixing the Greek eu, meaning “good,” to catastrophe, Tolkien captured the essence of the best cliff­hangers — an impossible situation suddenly turning to good. This is repeated throughout Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series until finally, against all odds, two unlikely hobbits achieve the

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ultimate quest. Scripture is filled with eucatastrophe moments that inspire us today: Noah surviving the flood, Joseph surviving his brothers’ betrayal and false imprisonment, David defeating a giant, young Hebrews stepping into a fiery furnace, Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, which Tolkien called the greatest eucatastrophe in history.

Confront Reality with Hope In times of change, leaders must courageously face the full reality of the situation while sustaining hope. The challenge is maintaining honesty and transparency, while providing a vision for a way forward with a well-founded hope.

In his preface to Transparency, Warren Bennis says, “organizations need candor the way the heart needs oxygen.” The temptation is to minimize the bleakness of the situation, soften the language of the challenge, ignore reality, hope the situation will get better on its own or make modest changes around the fringes while avoiding the magnitude of issues that contributed to the present situation and the magnitude of changes required to move forward.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins found that leaders of great companies “maintained unwavering faith that they would not just survive, but prevail as a great company. And yet, at the same time, they became relentlessly disciplined at confronting the most brutal facts of their current reality.”

Over the years, I have collected and continue to build a library and portfolio of resources on leadership and strategic planning. But only one book contains words that give life. Scripture is replete with stories of those who faced reality and persevered against all odds. These Bible stories inspired me long before the adventure of leading Vanguard and continue to inspire and sustain me today.

Embrace Change Among a collection of small motivational books on my shelf is one by Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein titled Change Is Good... You Go First: 21 Ways to Inspire Change. Leading change is hard. A favorite African proverb says, “When you pray, move your feet.” We did both.

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Leadership is about mobilizing people for change. In Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change, Harvard professor Ronald Heifetz believes the most successful change does three things: preserves the best of an institution’s history, discards what is no longer relevant and innovates in ways that allow the institution to thrive in the face of new challenges. That sounds simple, but doing it successfully is anything but simple. Heifetz says change attracts conflict. He makes the point that “the tough issues are tough because they often involve losses when roles need redefinition, areas of incompetence need exposure, and loyalties require refashioning.”

That was certainly the case at Vanguard. Some read the accreditation and financial reports and recognized that the university was in a crisis that threatened its life and that things would have to change. Others doubted the situation’s seriousness, believing I and a few others exaggerated the crisis to force unnecessary and damaging changes.

Many think leading change looks like this — a nice linear progression.

In reality, leading change includes periods of confusion and chaos, steps forward, steps backward and more confusion. I texted this image to a vice president during one of those periods of confusion and resistance, with the message that the goal is not to stop in periods of chaos, but to keep moving forward.

During one of those times of resistance and chaos, I printed the number 24 and placed it in a small picture frame

that I would see whenever I looked up from my computer. The number 24 reminded me that on the night of His betrayal, Christ washed 24 feet, not 22, or two, or none. Christlike leaders serve and care for all in their community, including those who disagree with needed change and even those who launch personal attacks.

Grieve the Losses On one particularly exhausting day, I thought of the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. They were tired of manna, tired of the journey, tired of their leader and longing to return to the familiarity of Egypt. A bit later, they actually debated killing Moses.

I also thought of the group of Israelites that returned from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem to restore the temple. At the laying of the new foundation, some shouted for joy, while others wept loudly.

These stories remind me that embracing change means accepting and grieving losses. It may be the loss of resources, a colleague, a program, a way of doing business, privileges once held, the familiarity of traditions or a sense of security.

The challenge for a leader is to live with the paradox of a community’s legitimate and concurrent expressions of joy and sorrow while moving forward.

Love the Community As I prepared my inaugural address at Vanguard University in the fall of 2010, a recurring question intruded into my thoughts and prayers: Do you love Vanguard?

I talked with a friend who shared her own story of serving 15 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Malaysia among the Tagal people. In her fifth year of service, she joined a remembrance ceremony for a village chief who had died. On the third day of the ceremony, her heart broke as she wept with her friends. At that moment, she realized God had given her a deep love for the Tagal people. She had gone to the mission field because she loved Jesus.

She then said, “My prayer is that you will realize what we see clearly: how much you already love Vanguard.”

A few weeks later, as I looked out at the Vanguard community, I indeed felt an overwhelming sense of love for the people who had sacrificed and endured so much.

In their latest book, The Truth About Leadership, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner present 10 truths of leadership.

Their final truth is that love is the soul of leadership. Loving the community is not a cloak to don like academic regalia and then return to its storage bag until the next official event. It is a daily choice. It is costly. It motivates and inspires us to work hard,

While hope is not a strategy, it is essential in a perilous journey. persevere, sacrifice, weep, laugh and make hard decisions. When we open our hearts to loving our communities deeply, leading change takes on a more profound significance, motivation and joy. It is the Jesus way of leading.

Closing Reflection Today, Vanguard University continues its mission and is thriving under the leadership of President Mike Beals. I am living the new adventure of serving my alma maters, Evangel University and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. On my wall hangs an authentic third-class stagecoach ticket, and on my desk is the framed 24. Both remind me of how I want to serve, especially under pressure.

Dr. Carol Taylor, Ph.D. Is president of Evangel University and is an ordained Assemblies of God minister. in 2011, she received the Orange County Business Journal Women in Business Award, and in 2014 she was named to the 24th class of Most Influential Women in Springfield.

This article was adapted from her chapter in Thriving in Leadership: Strategies for Making a Difference in Christian Higher Education, Karen A. Longman, ed., published by Abilene Christian University Press, acupressbooks.com. Used with permission.

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HOW THE SPIRIT HELPS US PRAY WHEN WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY M A R T Y M I T T E L S TA D T

I

am a theologian and a biblical scholar. I teach courses on spiritual formation, Pentecostal history and theology, and New Testament theology with a special interest in the Gospels and Acts. I teach that prayer is a foundational discipline. I stress Pentecostal emphasis upon prayer and intimacy with God. I underscore how Jesus and His first followers practiced prayer, taught about prayer, and expected us to follow suit.

I have a confession. When it comes to prayer, I’m a novice. I’m not very good at it. It’s been a lifelong struggle. I genuinely want to draw close to God. I want to know God. I want to hear God’s voice. I crave God’s wisdom and guidance. And I am growing in prayer.

Through extended seasons of anxiety, pain and doubt, I have discovered the importance of two kinds of prayer.

I continue to employ both forms at various times. Wherever you may be on the spectrum of prayer, I hope my stories will prove helpful.

On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts marched into an Amish schoolhouse in West Nickel Mines, Pa., and shot eight of 10 young girls, killing five of them, before taking his own life. In the days that followed, reports of forgiveness and acts of reconciliation by the Amish baffled reporters and their readers and listeners. Amish families attended the funeral of the killer and believed that the grief of the killer’s widow and children compelled them to participate in collective suffering. Amish families supported Roberts’ family by setting up a scholarship fund for his children. As these and other acts of

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kindness continued, various media groups suggested that the Amish response came as a result of their state of shock and denial on account of inferior grief management skills (even though numerous Amish families accepted professional grief counseling).

In Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, the authors recall the blunt reaction of an Amish business owner to a reporter who could not come to grips with Amish capacity to forgive the killer. When the conversation turned to Amish emphasis on the Lord’s Prayer, the business owner stated: “We don’t think we can improve on Jesus’ prayer.

Why would we need to? We think it’s a pretty good well-rounded prayer. It has all the key points in it.”

The Amish man reminded the reporter of Jesus’ teaching on prayer: “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Why would the Amish forgive such a brutal killer? Because Jesus commands us to do so!

The Amish practice on prayer includes daily recitation of the Lord’s 50

Through extended seasons of anxiety, pain and doubt, I have discovered the importance of two kinds of prayer.

Prayer. The Amish — unlike Pentecostals and most traditions — choose not to employ spontaneous prayers. For the Amish, such spontaneity may lead to hochmut (pride) and diminish a cardinal Amish (and Christian) virtue, namely damut (humility).

I heard this story at a low point in my prayer life. I was perpetually lost for words. As I reflected on the Amish concept that “you can’t improve on Jesus’ prayer,” it made sense. On New Year’s Day 2009, I resolved to pray only the Lord’s Prayer for one year. I told no one outside of my immediate family. Early on, my wife and children wondered about my sanity, though they eventually came to understand and occasionally share in my practice. In public and ecclesial settings, I continued to offer spontaneous prayers.

Though the nature of Jesus’ prayer could fill volumes, I found comfort in the simple, yet profound, words of Jesus. When someone requested prayer for healing, I prayed, “Thy kingdom come.”

When I heard of financial need, I prayed, “Give him his daily bread.”

When I encountered stories of personal failure, I prayed, “Deliver her from the evil one.” And so on. I meant these prayers. I found them assuring. These prayers also relieved a growing dissatisfaction with my inability to find the appropriate theological and emotional responses before or during my prayers.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2014 and another trying season.

A number of dear friends were experiencing terrible grief and pain. I shared in their grief, and once again, I struggled for words.

In the span of a few months an extended family member drowned, a dear colleague lost his wife to a sudden heart attack, and a dear friend with a clean medical history received news of stage four prostate cancer.

I felt exhaustion as I watched the news. Acts of terror around the world, and a sudden onslaught of murderous acts in my normally quiet city stirred questions not unlike those we find in the Psalms.

My workplace was in a transitional season. Fear of job loss made life stressful. At home, I watched my children transition from their late teens to young adulthood. I’m sure I worried more about their futures than they did. The cumulative effect of these events produced yet another season for a fresh encounter with God. But once again, I had no words. This time, I found myself on the opposite end of a prayer spectrum from Jesus’ teaching on prayer.

I struggled to bring rational prayers to God. I experienced the ongoing curse of a theologian; I wondered whether my prayers were theologically sound. I was unable to articulate my pain. I didn’t know how to pray. I dreaded public prayer. I could only sigh.

A recurring response to daily news became a deep sigh.

It was around this time that I reread two essays by Frank Macchia that I assign to my students. In his “Sighs Too Deep for Words:

PRAYING WITH PAUL The prayers in Scripture provide us with limitless opportunities for creative seasons of prayer when we struggle for words. Have you considered the prayers of Paul? I discovered these prayers as a young adult through R. L. Brandt’s Praying with Paul.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:17–19).

“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).

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:9–12).

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Though the nature of Jesus’ prayer could fill volumes, I found comfort in the simple yet profound words of Jesus.

Toward a Theology of Glossolalia,” and “Groans Too Deep for Words: Towards a Theology of Tongues as Initial Evidence” Macchia recounts the moving story of a shoemaker who questioned his rabbi on prayer. The story is found in Abraham Heschel’s Man’s Quest for God. The shoemaker often worked through the night to repair the tattered shoes of his clients, many of whom had only one pair and needed them for work the following day. The shoemaker sometimes raised his hammer and only sighed as he worked through morning prayers. In exhaustion and frustration, the

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devout shoemaker approached his rabbi with his question: “Should I be allowed to miss the occasional morning prayer for the sake of my customers?”

“Perhaps,” said the rabbi, “that sigh is worth more than the prayer itself.”

May it be that sighs represent performative prayers? Is it necessary that prayer be understood only as rational,

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Through my sighs, I experienced the presence of God — this time, not through the literal words of Jesus, but through groans too deep for words. articulated conversations with God? Don’t Pentecostals (and many other Christians) practice activities — including tongues speaking — that transcend verbal communication?

Jacques Ellul remarks in Prayer and Modern Man that prayer is a striving “with the one who is unknowable, beyond our grasp, unapproachable and inexpressible, asking that he be hic et nunc [here and now], the One he promised to be.”

Paul said: “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26).

Pentecostals have consistently — and rightly — taught that Paul’s commentary in Romans 8 includes prayer in the Spirit.

I have also benefited from this kind of personal prayer during comparable times of testing and difficulty.

Gordon Fee has a discussion on the various interpretations of Romans 8:26,27 in his God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul. He associates the wordless groans found in Romans 8 with Paul’s discussion of tongues speech in 1 Corinthians 14.

Through my sighs, I experienced the presence of God — this time, not through the literal words of Jesus, but through groans too deep for words. When I could go no further, when news became overwhelming, when I had no answers, sighs became my prayer. And though the tough questions didn’t always receive answers, God was there — as always.

Given the almost daily news of violence and chaos at home and abroad, and ongoing events in my personal life, I continue to employ both kinds of prayers. Though I had bookmarked this idea in my list of things I ought to write about, I never made it primary. I share it now as my prayerful and reflective response to the sudden passing of my brother. Andy Mittelstadt died of a heart attack on January 6, 2016, at the tender age of 49. I found God’s peace and courage through both forms of prayer.

I dedicate this narrative to Andy. No regrets, only too soon.

I conclude with two prayers. The first is the poetry of a dear friend. In the spirit of the wise rabbi cited above, I turn to the words of Father Kilian McDonnell, a world-renowned Catholic scholar and ecumenist, a leading proponent of the Charismatic renewal and a poet. In Swift Lord, You are Not, McDonnell’s poem “After All the Words” illustrates his loss of words. I share his words — indeed, his lack of words — with you.

After I have emptied out my store of words, depleted all useable sounds, in praising God’s unsayable glory, wasted the Oxford Dictionary, pauperized the Coptic Lexicon, have no breath between my teeth, wordless beauty I give back to God. And finally, we follow the words of the Master Teacher in Matthew 6:9–13, praying: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Amen.

Marty Mittelstadt is professor of New Testament at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri.

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MULTIPLIER

USING TALENTS TO MULTIPLY MINISTRY These leaders are creating ripple effects through their ministries. s we see in the Parable of the Talents illustrated in Matthew 25, when we are faithful with little, we will be set over more. The talents, sometimes referred to as bags of gold, described in Matthew 25 are monetary talents, of course, but I think the principle is transferrable to all skills and gifts the Lord has blessed us with. When we are faithful with what we have, it will multiply. You’ll see this principle illustrated in our “Multipliers” section this issue. Each of these individuals is bringing his or her unique talents to the Kingdom, and they’re creating a ripple effect.

Of course, there’s some risk to any investment. Yet you’ll find it’s far riskier not to invest. The servant described in verse 24 thought he was doing right by burying his gold in the ground and giving it back to the master. But it is clear from the text that breaking even isn’t the goal. To make use of what God gives you, you’ll have to put yourself out there and take some risks. That might mean you take strategic risks for the Kingdom. It might even mean some of your efforts will fail. But, ultimately, as you focus on multiplication through whatever gifts God has given you, you will be blessed, and God will be honored.

Each of our multipliers in this section has taken steps to use their unique talents to further the Kingdom. Lead pastor Mike Acker is familiar with taking strategic risks, and he is now leading church planting efforts in rural Washington. He grew up as a child of church planting missionaries, and he is passionate about how pastors can plant more as they delegate tasks and equip their saints.

Eli Stewart is another leader with a big task ahead of him. Like Acker, his involvement is in church planting and making disciples.

Stewart accepted the call to plant a church in College Station, Texas, as he revitalizes the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries at Texas A&M. His prayer is for upcoming Chi Alpha interns to grab the vision and become multipliers themselves.

Justin and Karen Beiler are skilled in other areas and are using those skills to multiply the kingdom of God. Their love for coffee, social justice, food and design brought them to Springfield, Missouri, to launch Eurasia Coffee & Tea, a café and distributor

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of direct-trade, ethically sourced coffee that gives back to the Eurasia region of Assemblies of God World Missions.

Their business model effectively supports those on the field and makes donors out of coffee-drinkers across the world.

Finally, as Alison Ward was praying about how she could serve the Lord through her life, the word “chaplain” was revealed.

Today, she is multiplying her gifts serving as a military chaplain, a unique position that allows her to serve on the front lines of soldiers’ walk with Christ.

As you’ll see through the following pages, multiplication doesn’t just mean multisite — though it certainly can. It means investing wisely, taking strategic risks, looking at what you’ve been given and getting creative. What innovative means can you use to multiply your ministry today?

Ana Pierce is the online editor of Influence magazine.

SOWING SEEDS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES Lead Pastor Mike Acker has a vision that church planting should be for churches of all sizes, not just large and urban ones.

A Q&A WITH MIKE ACKER

Influence: Tell us a little about your church planting journey.

Mike Acker: Church planting always existed in the background of my life. Growing up with missionary parents in Mexico, we started two churches, one in Spanish and one in English. In college, I was invited to be part of a new church plant in Washington.

When I became a lead pastor, I could see the need around my small rural city. Our church launched another site 20 minutes away. On Sunday morning I traveled between them, and our second site grew to 80 people. Experiences accumulate. Reading inspires. One of the books that encouraged me was How to Multiply Your Church by Ralph Moore.

Now, in a different church, we have planted two café churches, one daughter church, one relaunched campus in a church that was dying and one campus in an empty church building. Every experience has been a training ground for the next.

Some people assume going multisite is only for large churches or urban settings. Please share your experience planting in a rural area.

Church planting and multisite is not just for urban settings, rich churches or large churches. I’m part of a small group of Washington pastors who are encouraging rural churches and smaller churches to multiply in new, creative ways. Thirty people who love Jesus and meet to move the mission of God forward is a church.

It is not the pastor’s job to do everything. My job is to equip the saints. I teach, preach, shepherd, lead and counsel people so they can do the work of the ministry.

As I learn to lean into this role, it frees me up from trying to be the “super pastor.” Additionally, when I don’t try to do everything, I can do more of what I am called to do — pastor and equip.

How have you instilled a vision for multiplication in your members?

Every year we do a missions series (not just world missions, but missions everywhere). We work hard to celebrate life change and new additions to God’s family.

The board, staff and key volunteers read books on multiplication. We pray hard. We ask people to give. Then we go for it! Some don’t want to run with us. I try not to let that get me down. Instead, I run with those who want to run.

Share an encouraging word with would-be church planters.

A big Sunday morning experience is hard to pull off for a church plant. But where does the Bible say we have to have a huge Sunday morning experience? We put a lot of pressure on planters to perform and produce awe-inspiring Sunday morning services. But what if we allowed for other methods of planting? What about the waiter who teaches 30 people at night at a café? What about driving 20 minutes to an abandoned church building and leading a vibrant church without a musical component?

Try it. Risk it. Laugh failure off. Don’t compare. Don’t give up. Pray hard. Wade in; you don’t have to build a dock every time. Position yourself to catch the ball, but allow God to be the one to choose where to throw it.

Mike Acker is lead pastor at Citipoint Church, a rural multisite church based in Mount Vernon, Washington. Mike also serves as president of the board of goonthemission.com, an organization committed to helping end extreme poverty.

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MULTIPLIER

SOWING IN THE HEART OF TEXAS Eli Stewart is on a mission to revitalize Chi Alpha at Texas A&M while planting Mountain Valley Fellowship in College Station.

A Q&A WITH ELI STEWART

Influence: Tell us about your new church plant and its relationship to Chi Alpha.

Eli Stewart: I was asked by the North Texas District of the Assemblies of God to put together a team to relaunch Chi Alpha at Texas A&M University in College Station. The team and I are working hard to raise up “Missionary Fightin’ Aggies” who will help fulfill the Great Commission.

John Van Pay, lead pastor at Gateway Fellowship Church (an AG church plant) in San Antonio, and Johnnie Hauck, Chi Alpha director at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) have had a symbiotic relationship that helped lead Gateway Fellowship to 58

a successful launch. After seeing this unique relationship between Gateway Fellowship and Chi Alpha firsthand, a vision was birthed in me and I prayed: “Lord would You let Texas A&M Chi Alpha work alongside a church plant?”

I was astounded when John Van Pay told me that College Station was on the top ten list of cities where the Assemblies was actively seeking to plant a church. I was even more astounded when the North Texas District approached me and asked if I would facilitate a church plant while directing the Chi Alpha ministry at Texas A&M. With God’s help, we are meeting as Mountain Valley Fellowship now and officially launching in 2017.

Finding lost sheep takes work. Once they are found, you have to fight to bring them home into the community.

Finally, when lost sheep are brought into the community of believers, you have to feed them.

I was part of the pastoral team for Chi Alpha at Sam Houston State University. This Chi Alpha became a great funnel for sending missionaries and workers into the harvest field. I’m praying A&M Chi Alpha will also be a great funnel for sending church planters and missionaries into the field.

Describe the results you are seeing as Chi Alpha interns are trained.

During my 10 years at SHSU Chi Alpha, 190 interns were trained — 165 are now in full-time ministry. Of those 165 interns, 140 are in Chi Alpha ministries throughout the U.S., 20 are world missionaries and five are helping with church planting projects.

Lord willing, we want to shift our proportions for the next 200 interns at A&M — 33 percent to Chi Alpha, 33 percent to World Missions and 33 percent to join with church plants across the U.S. Explain the three core elements that are part of your team members’ job descriptions.

Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” Proverbs 11:30 says, “The one who is wise saves lives.”

My friend, Eli Gautreaux, Chi Alpha director at SHSU, has helped us distill our three core elements to this: Everybody Finds, Everybody Fights, Everybody Feeds.

In other words, finding lost sheep takes work.

Once they are found, you have to fight to bring them home into the community. Finally, when lost sheep are brought into the community of believers, you have to feed them.

Each member of our staff is actively finding, fighting and feeding lost souls in College Station.

We want to raise up church planters and missionaries who can do it again!

How are you working toward a sustainable model that integrates Chi Alpha with church planting?

One strategy is to ensure our volunteers know we have a God-given vision for them. In looking at Jesus’ strategy, His primary goal was to reach individuals, then grow individuals and finally grow His kingdom through individuals. I have had this backwards. The Lord is helping me see the importance of growing people, not for the maintenance of my ministry, but for the furtherance of His kingdom.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to a church leader about integrating college students with an all-ages congregation?

If I had to make the choice between a student being a great small group leader or a volunteer at my church, I would vote small group leader every time. The time students spend at a secular university is an unbelievable training ground for winning souls and developing other students. Young people have the rest of their lives to develop their talents and gifts, but leading other students who are looking to make new friends and grow in their faith can never be repeated. Students should prioritize their time for soul winning and building relationships.

Personal responsibility in leading others is the miraclegrow in a student’s quest for personal holiness. The sooner a student takes responsibility for someone else’s spiritual future, the sooner their personal battles of holiness will be conquered at the foot of the Cross.

Eli Stewart is the director of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries in College Station at Texas A&M University. He is also the lead pastor of Mountain Valley Fellowship, a church plant in College Station.

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MULTIPLIER

COFFEE WITH A PURPOSE Justin and Karen Beiler are giving back to missions in a big way.

A Q&A WITH JUSTIN AND KAREN BEILER

Influence: In a few sentences, what is Eurasia Coffee & Tea? Justin and Karen Beiler: Eurasia Coffee & Tea is a café and distributer of direct-trade, ethically sourced coffee to churches and businesses across America. We give back 10 percent of our sales to social justice needs and projects in Eurasia, working with missionaries on the ground to fight human trafficking, disease, poverty and illiteracy, among others. We call this “coffee with a purpose.”

Your business model supports a unique form of church multiplication. Yet in your daily life, you own and operate Eurasia’s brick-and-mortar coffee shop. What would you say about how “regular people” can become involved in ministry?

As MK’s, we both grew up in ministry and are committed to seeing the church grow in our local community and around the world. However, we’re also both introverts, so most traditional ministry roles weren’t the best match for us. Our greatest impact as “regular people” can be in using what God has given us — our abilities, our time, our resources — to stand behind those on the front lines. We all can pray. We all can give. We can all advocate.

How is Eurasia Coffee & Tea affiliated with the Assemblies of God? Eurasia Coffee & Tea’s relationship with the Assemblies of God is twofold: First, it serves and supports missionaries and AG affiliated projects in Eurasia. In addition to giving back 10 percent, we provide creative fundraising tools for itinerating missionaries, including custom labeled coffee to sell at services and events.

Secondly, we serve AG churches and communities in the U.S. by providing a specialty coffee product that supports missions projects abroad.

In Springfield, Missouri, Eurasia Coffee & Tea has a café 60

inside the AG National Leadership and Resource Center.

And just around the corner on historic Commercial Street is our flagship shop where we built a six-room boutique hotel for visiting missionaries and pastors.

Share a success story you’ve seen through Eurasia.

We work with so many inspiring partners on the field who are doing such incredible work. One of them, Deepika Home of Hope in Kolkata, India, rescues and provides a home for girls born in brothels. They offer a dynamic life change for these girls who go to receive holistic care, a loving home, education — breaking the cycle of human trafficking and providing them with hope for a brighter future. One month, our give-back program provided the funds to build a large, sustainable garden that would provide them with vegetables and fruits for their daily meals. We were able to visit a year later and share a meal with them made from ingredients straight from the garden. It’s just one example of what can be done through social enterprise and doing business for missions.

What’s one simple way our readers can get involved in this movement?

Serve life-changing coffee at your church or business!

Connect with us at www.eurasiacoffeeandtea.com.

Justin and Karen Beiler own and operate Eurasia Coffee & Tea, a company that is giving to missionaries and social justice needs and projects throughout Eurasia.

unlock your potential Whether it’s your church,

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your staff, or yourself, let Global University be the key.

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MULTIPLIER

MULTIPLYING IN THE MILITARY Military chaplain Alison Ward brings the message of Christ to those who serve our country A Q&A WITH ALISON WARD

Influence: What are your main responsibilities serving as a military chaplain?

Alison Ward: My primary role is to see to the religious support of the soldiers, families and authorized civilians within my unit. This is accomplished by ensuring that the First Amendment rights of all soldiers to believe (or not believe) are observed within the Army. Chaplains do so by both performing and providing religious support. Performance involves conducting religious services, rites and ministry according to one’s beliefs and ordaining body.

Provision involves orchestrating religious support for those of a different faith group.

How are you uniquely positioned to lead others to Christ?

Since freedom of religion for all is staunchly maintained, open proselytizing is not conducted in the military. On a different note, when performing religious rites (i.e., leading a service, a Bible study, etc.) or when a soldier comes to me for religious counsel, those in attendance are there willingly. I have both the freedom and flexibility to present all aspects of the gospel. God has blessed in these arenas. There have been many soldiers, leaders and family members whom I have been able to lead to the Lord during my five years as an Army chaplain.

In your role, you are interacting with a great amount of diversity (specifically religious diversity).

What advice do you have for church leaders who are learning how to work with a diverse group of people?

We are experiencing the earth groaning as it awaits the Lord’s return (Romans 8:22). During this time, ministers must work within a pluralistic environment.

This requires great wisdom in engaging the postmodern world. For me, I look to the leadership and ministry 62

model of the apostle Paul found in Acts 17. In this passage, Paul is ministering in Athens, an intellectual, cosmopolitan city. Paul is distressed by what he sees, but his approach is not to belittle or disparage the Athenians’ beliefs. He makes himself available and speaks in their square until he is invited to speak in the Areopagus. In this venue, he compliments their religious nature (v. 22).

Paul then discusses their own literature to reach them and find a springboard from which to launch the presentation of the gospel — the altar to the unknown god.

As a chaplain, I look for opportunities to present Christ and the power of His radical, redeeming love. I encourage fellow church leaders to look for similar openings to present Christ and to maintain a seat at the table in our social marketplace.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in chaplaincy?

If you believe God is calling you to military chaplaincy, my first advice is to pray. This is a unique, rewarding ministry, but you must ensure that the calling is evident and that you are hearing His voice. Gather as much information on the ministry and mission as you can. Consult chaplain recruiters. Talk to fellow chaplains. Learn what this glorious muddy-boots ministry will entail. If you have family, talk to them as this will involve them as well.

Afterwards, go forward in God and enjoy the adventure!

Alison Ward calls Texas home, but currently resides in Georgia. She and her older sister are both Army chaplains.

Pair new believers with a friend and the Dan Betzer’s testimony will challenge your church companion mentor guide for added encouragement. to generously answer the Great Commission.

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WEEK OF PRAYER

2017

Kick off the new year in prayer at your church.

Watch for free downloadable resources in English and Spanish at weekofprayer.ag.org.

Welcome to the My Healthy Church store section. We offer an exclusive collection of Spirit-empowered resources, simplifying the search for the holiday supplies, books, albums, and curriculum you need. Check out what’s inside and see the difference My Healthy Church can make.

As Christmas approaches, My Healthy Church has everything you need for the holidays, including resources for pageants, candlelight services, and more.

Christmas Church Supplies

Easy Christmas Programs

Handbell Music with Handbells

It’s that glorious time of year! Believers celebrate the birth of Christ at special holiday services, and we eagerly anticipate candlelight services, Communion, Christmas programs and other events.

My Healthy Church carries a wide variety of holiday church supplies, so stock up early, for both regular attendees and visitors, and check that off your list of things to do.

• Offering envelopes • Christmas bulletins • Communion supplies • Candlelight service sets • Welcome cards/folders • Christmas programs

These Christmas programs are designed to be easy and fun for everyone .

Just add kids to this easy-to-use system for an instant handbell choir!

Kids only need a practice or two and leaders of your handbell choir don’t even need musical knowledge.

They play the music CD, hold up numbered cards, and when kids see the number for their bell, they ring! Kids will experience the joy of ministering to others. Ages 3+.

Kit includes one set of 8 handbells, and handbells music set. Sets 1 and 4 include Christmas music. Additional music available separately.

Visit MyHealthyChurch.com/ Christmas for information on these resources and more.

‘Twas the Light Before Christmas: In one funfilled night, kids and their families create props, practice and present a Christmas pageant. One hour for rehearsal and one hour for performance.

The Not-So-Silent Night: Three young shepherds get caught “disturbing the peace” after meeting Baby Jesus. This Christmas program is a fully prepared kids pageant that simply has kids pantomime the parts.

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Week of Prayer 2017

Speed the Light My Drive

The Bush Always Burns

Kick off the new year in unified prayer during the month of January.

Watch out for free digital downloads in English and Spanish coming soon to WeekofPrayer.ag.org.

We’ll upload Week of Prayer promotional resources as well as resources to remind the congregation of the prayer focus for each day of the week. Get your congregation excited for the next year by encouraging this focused time of prayer.

Inspire the entire congregation to get involved with Speed the Light missions giving with graphics, videos, sermon notes, and more, all included on a hand flash drive. Whether you’re a veteran youth leader or a newbie, this Speed the Light drive has everything your church needs to put on an exceptional service, create culture and keep the reason for Speed the Light at the forefront.

The Bush Always Burns introduces a Jesus all of us can seek, find and trust in moments that are bright and moments that are dark.

For anyone struggling to know their Heavenly Father, The Bush Always Burns offers a life-giving reminder that Jesus is and always has been waiting for us to turn and see that the bush always burns and the ground is always sacred. Makes an ideal gift for the people in your life who need a reminder of God’s faithfulness.

Visit WeekofPrayer.ag.org for free digital downloads.

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The Human Right Journey Packed with gospelsharing concepts that are accessible to everyone, The Human Right Journey is perfect for both students hungry to share their faith as well as those who’ve never thought about what they believe.

Helping students share their faith won’t be easy, but it will be life changing. Are you ready for the journey? Leader guide and DVD featuring four, 1-hour sessions included.

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Inside Out Rich and Robyn Wilkerson share the simple yet revolutionary idea that anyone, anywhere can be a leader as long as they’re willing to serve. Explore the traits essential to leading and find out how you can develop and improve them. Throughout the pages of Inside Out, you’ll be amazed to discover how any ordinary leader can become an extraordinary one.

Buy five or more copies on MyHealthyChurch.com and receive FREE Inside Out small group resources. Visit MyHealthyChurch.com/ InsideOut to learn more.

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A SpiritEmpowered Life Small Group Kits Don’t just live, live Spirit-empowered!

These small group kits all focus on one of the five keys of the Acts 2 model (connect, grow, serve, go and worship) that are essential to Spirit-empowered living. Lead participants to a deeper understanding of how Holy Spirit empowerment makes an extraordinary difference. The DVD offers engaging teaching segments and testimonies featuring personal stories. The coordinating Study Guide provides easy-to-follow Bible studies and daily devotions. Each kit contains four lessons.

Influence Resources Available in English and Spanish $27.99 per kit

Now What?

This booklet lays a firm foundation for new Christians to build their faith. Its easy-to-read style is organized by questions every new Christian wonders: What just happened to me?

Where do I go from here?

What does God expect of me? The answers are clear and point to the Bible for more discovery. It’s the booklet you want to give every person who comes to salvation through your ministry. Pack of 10.

Rock Solid Believer

Selah 21 Day Devotional

When someone comes to salvation through your church’s ministry, give them this brief, easy-to-read devotional. The booklet guides new Christians through the first week of their new life in Christ, helping them establish a rock-solid foundation to build upon. Filled with Scripture references, Rock Solid Believer points the believer to the Bible to continue the adventure they have begun.

Left unchecked, life tends to take on a pace of its own and may drive you to fatigue and burnout, especially during the holidays.

Pursue the rest God offers as you journey through the Scriptures with the Selah 21 Day Devotional by Kerry Clarensau. Set aside time to receive these profound truths and experience the rest you need. Great for women’s event giveaways and outreach. To see more Selah resources, visit MyHealthyChurch.com/ Selah.

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MAKE IT COUNT Leadership Pipeline: 8 Steps to Developing and Deploying New Leaders

Every Influence magazine contains an eight-week 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.

MAKE IT COUNT

JIM WILKES

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 Jim Wilkes, lead pastor of Journey Community Church ( journeypeople. com) in Fairview Park, Ohio. Jim and his wife, Jennifer, planted Journey Community Church in 2009, a church that has grown to 3 campuses and over 1,400 people.

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.

Leadership Pipeline: 8 Steps to Developing and Deploying New Leaders Let’s go ahead and deal with the elephant in the room. What we are doing is not working. Our churches have a shortage of leaders at all levels. We have the same people doing the same tasks in the same jobs year after year. We have people who are leaving our churches because they cannot find a meaningful way to serve beyond being a greeter or usher. The result? Leaders leave. Growth slows or ceases altogether. And pastors become weary.

These are all indicators that we need to establish a healthy leadership pipeline, which is an intentional process for discovering, developing and deploying new leaders and introducing them into your various ministries.

There has never been a more pressing time for men and women of God to acquire fresh vision and to see that vision through to completion. The great news is that the Bible provides the blueprint for accomplishing these things. Ephesians 4:11,12 says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service…”

As a pastor, you are a gift from Jesus — a gift with an exclusive and important purpose. He gave you to equip His church.

If we are to be successful in our callings, we have to realize that growing leaders does not happen accidentally. It requires an intentional plan. Church growth consultant and author Carl F. George says that, after hearing from God, the most important task of the church is leadership development. I couldn’t agree more.

Imagine leading a church where members of the body of Christ function in unity with one another and not in isolation. How great would that be? The following leadership pipeline lessons lay out the framework for you to do just that. They will provide you with the beginning steps to building your own leadership pipeline.

Before you start, you have to ask yourself, What’s my strategy for developing leaders?

Then, be ready to do something about it. Let’s get started.

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MAKE IT COUNT

LESSON 1 Limits Read: Exodus 18:13–24 Discussing the Text 1. Moses was unaware of his limits. What result did this have in his life and in the people God called him to lead?

2. Who came to the rescue? What would have happened if Jethro had chosen to keep Moses’ blind spots to himself ?

3. What would have happened if Moses had chosen not to listen to wisdom?

4. Do you know your limits, weaknesses or blind spots? Who or what is showing you a better way?

Identifying the Principle You may have a God-given vision, but you also have personal limits. A vision from God is always bigger than what you can accomplish on your own.

Moses’ God-given vision was to get the people of God from point A to point B. The mission of getting the people to the Promised Land consumed him. However, his limits caused a bottleneck. He simply did not have enough time or energy to answer all of the needs of the people.

While pursuing the vision, Moses’ limits caused him to enter into striving mode. When we do not recognize our limitations, we will either give up or strive to make it happen on our own, which always wears us out. The Bible does not hide the fact that we cannot accomplish God’s plans in our own strength. This is why, as the body of Christ, we need one another to fulfill what God has spoken to our hearts.

Jethro recognized Moses’ limits. He did not criticize Moses behind his back. Instead, he helped Moses become a better leader by revealing his blind spot. But for Moses to grow, he had to recognize and accept his limitations.

To accomplish the vision God has placed before us, we must recognize and accept our limits.

We have to admit that we cannot fulfill the vision on our own. Just like Moses, we need leaders to help carry it out.

Applying the Principle 1. What are your limitations? Are they administration, delegation, details or communication?

Are there blind spots others have told you about, but you have failed to listen?

2. Moses did not let just anyone lead. He organized his leaders based on their leadership capacity.

Some led thousands, and some led groups of fifty. Who around you is willing and able to lead in the areas in which you are weakest?

3. Moses had to give up some tasks he was good at to multiply his leadership. What things do you need to start training, equipping and releasing others to do? Remember, just because you are good at something doesn’t mean you should do it.

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Notes

LESSON 2 Organizing

Notes

Read: Luke 9:10–17 Discussing the Text 1. How does Jesus prepare for the miracle of feeding the 5,000? Can you identify the tangible and intangible obstacles in His way? Think logistically, relationally, spiritually, practically and financially.

2. Why did the disciples want to send the crowds away? What would have happened if Jesus led by consensus? How does that apply to your church and area of influence?

3. Are there other examples in the Bible in which preparation was required before a miracle happened? Could it be that we see fewer miracles because we prepare less?

Identifying the Principle In Luke 9, we see Jesus preparing for a miracle. In this story, God wanted to do a miracle in the lives of the people who were there. But the disciples were dragging their feet. They became one of the obstacles. Since Jesus never did anything unless His Father told Him to do it, I would have loved to hear the dialogue Jesus had with His Father.

Jesus had to refocus His disciples because they were ready to check out. He could have accomplished the miracle on His own, but Jesus knew His calling. He knew His role was to provide, not facilitate, the miracle. This is why Jesus does not pass out the bread. He does not organize the people into groups of 50. Instead, He provides space for His disciples to participate in the miracle.

The bulk of Jesus’ ministry centered on an exit strategy. This is why He repeatedly works through His disciples instead of giving up on them. Why? Because Jesus knew He needed to establish a God-ordained leadership pipeline before returning to His Father. If He did not, His ministry would have ended after the Resurrection.

If Jesus needed a leadership pipeline, it is safe to say you need one, too!

Applying the Principle 1. Is the success of your vision tied to the success of your leadership pipeline? If not, what are you going to do about it?

2. What ministry roles are you filling that God might want to use someone else to fill? Do what only you can do, and give the rest away!

3. Look at your congregation and consider whether they are focused on the right tasks. Have you empowered them? Do you have people who are willing to donate time to organize, execute and facilitate ministry?

4. Do you utilize tools like StrengthsFinder or Myers-Briggs to discover the gifting of your volunteers or next-level leaders?

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MAKE IT COUNT

LESSON 3 Leaders of Leaders Read: Ephesians 4:11–15 Discussing the Text 1. Church leadership is a gift, given by Jesus, for a specific purpose. What is that purpose?

2. What happens if we do not equip the saints for effective ministry? Hint: See verse 12.

3. What role are we supposed to play in choosing our leaders?

Identifying the Principle When I read these verses, I feel the call of leadership jump off the page — not just the call for me to be a leader, but also the call to find leaders of leaders.

To apply the Ephesians 4 model successfully, we need to focus on training, equipping and releasing leaders of leaders. I don’t believe God will judge our effectiveness based on how many people attended our churches. I believe He will judge how well we empowered people to fulfill His call on their lives — in short, how we empowered leaders and leaders of leaders.

How did Jesus build leaders? He started by handpicking them. He observed them and strategically chose a motley crew He knew He could develop into a high-performance team.

Let’s follow Jesus’ example and establish high-performance teams that are Spirit-led and performance driven, with clearly defined goals and actionable tasks. The truth is, you can facilitate ministry and see the vision fulfilled by empowering super volunteer leaders. We call them servant leaders.

Where does it start? Just like Jesus, you need a place where you can observe those among you and provide on-ramps to begin the process of training and equipping. At Journey Church, our observation times happen during our level-one leadership roles. You will learn more about level-one leadership roles in lesson 4.

However, someone has to invite people to participate, and they have to accept the challenge.

This can happen at a membership or vision class, during a sermon series or in a variety of other ways. Sometimes it really is as simple as asking someone to attend your vision class or inviting them to a leader’s meeting.

Church leaders often preach Ephesians 4, but how often do we actually implement what it is saying? Remember, our goal is to equip the saints for effective ministry. When we do this, we can change the world!

Applying the Principle 1. What is your specific gifting? How regularly do you operate in this gifting?

2. Are you raising up others, or are you just trying to accomplish the work of the ministry on your own?

3. Do you know what you are looking for? Are you locating and praying for workers?

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Notes

LESSON 4 Servant Leaders

Notes

Read: Matthew 9:35–38 and Mark 10:42–45 Discussing the Text 1. According to Matthew and Mark, what are we supposed to be praying for and striving to become? How do these goals differ? How are they the same?

2. How does viewing those in your church as both servants and workers change your perspective?

How would your church, community and world be different if you embraced both?

3. Why is it important to lead through serving?

Identifying the Principle Remember, your vision and needs will always be greater than your ability to achieve them. We all have limits. This is why Jesus tells us to pray for workers. Most of us do not lack desire. We do not lack vision. We do not even lack workers, though we may think we do. According to Jesus, we do not need only workers. We need workers who will go into the harvest fields.

One of the first things I did as a church planter was list on a whiteboard every role we needed to fill. I listed every area in which the harvest was plentiful but the workers were lacking. I created job descriptions for each role in advance. They included easy-to-identify tasks and achievable goals. Then I prayed. And prayed. And prayed some more.

Before long, God started to send workers. I realized I’d had a lack of workers not because they were hard to find, but because I had not known where to send them. One by one, role by role, I resolved to give ministry away to others. The result? I had more time, and my sermons got much better.

For most of us, the issue isn’t workers. It’s a lack of structure. Whenever there is work to do, we have to ask ourselves what structure we will put in place to accomplish the work. Structure is not an evil word. After all, without structure, our bodies would fall apart.

At Journey, we believe every Christian is called to servant leadership. This is why we strive to have simple on-ramp processes through which people can begin serving. It’s the first stop on our leadership pipeline, with entry-level roles that anyone can fill — roles like greeters, parking lot attendants, ushers, host team members, etc. We then focus on creating leadership environments where we can discover, develop and deploy next-level leaders. These are people who have shown their willingness to enter the harvest field.

If you want a healthy leadership pipeline, you have to ask yourself, Am I making it too difficult for people to enter in? The Bible says to “know them which labor among you” (1 Thessalonians 5:12, KJV), so I am not suggesting giving away ministry to just anyone. But when I read the Gospels, it seems to me that Jesus is an equal opportunity employer. If they were willing and able, Jesus made a way.

Applying the Principle 1. Do you have on-ramps for leadership development? What are they, and is there more than one opportunity throughout the year?

2. How do people get involved and begin serving? Is it simple and easy to understand? The more roadblocks you create, the less impact you’ll have.

3. Do you have job descriptions, goals and clear objectives for each role?

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MAKE IT COUNT

LESSON 5 Coaches Read: Philippians 2:3-4 Discussing the Text 1. Why would Paul feel the need to tell the Philippians to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit?

2. What does it look like to lead with a posture of humility?

3. How does your leadership reflect the interests of others? What about those who lead beneath you? Are they putting others first?

Identifying the Principle The next step on our leadership pipeline is becoming a coach. Coaches are people who have a shepherd’s heart but can still get things done. They focus on building encouraging relationships with the servant leaders on their respective teams, all the while equipping them for a specific job or task.

In the old-school church model, they were known as the head ushers or head greeters. We have coaches in every area of ministry, including weekends, outreaches and kids’ and youth ministry.

It is important that your leadership pipeline is the same across ministries; otherwise, you will create silos.

At Journey Church, the moment someone takes the challenge to go from a servant leader to a coach, we consider him or her to be a next-level leader because now that person is a leader of leaders. This changes the game. The requirements are greater because such individuals copartner with me to lead. They have chosen to take their ability to the next level.

So who is a coach? What characteristics should you look for in a coach? In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul says to entrust his teaching to faithful people who are qualified to teach others.

Remember, God is an equal opportunity employer. He wants everyone who is faithful and willing to learn. A coach is someone who is teachable and who looks to teach others.

What tasks and leadership opportunities could you entrust to coaches? Could you utilize them to free up paid staff to focus on other areas? Could they help you equip others for ministry?

Applying the Principle 1. Great team members don’t simply accomplish tasks. They care for one another. How are you identifying and training coaches to care for your people?

2. Do all of your ministries have coaches? Why or why not?

3. Do you know how to teach someone to care for others?

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Notes

LESSON 6 Coordinators

Notes

Read: Luke 9:14 Discussing the Text 1. What did the disciples want to do?

2. Why was it important to split people into groups?

3. Why didn’t Jesus just do it himself ?

Identifying the Principle Jesus instructed His disciples to organize the people into groups of 50. Why? He wanted to make sure they took care of the logistical obstacles so people could receive.

Coordinators lead their teams to ensure every obstacle is removed for people to encounter Jesus. We cannot make Jesus move, but we can remove every obstacle that keeps people from taking a step toward Him. At Journey, we call these next-level leaders our coordinators. They are people who oversee the logistics needed to facilitate ministry.

This past year, our outreach coordinators worked in cooperation with nonprofits all around our city for Big Serve Week. They made it possible for 401 people to offer 150 hours of service to 21 different organizations. All of our coordinators were volunteers. How was this possible? We empowered leaders and made sure they were set up for success.

People want to use their God-given gifts. Particularly, they want to use their gifts under a vision they believe in. Some people are better relationally (coaches), and some are better with logistics (coordinators). We need both to accomplish the vision. By utilizing coaches and coordinators, you free yourself from having to pay an employee and gain the opportunity to help equip people for ministry.

Applying the Principle 1. High-performance teams need coordinators to keep everyone focused and on task. Do you have a way to train coordinators?

2. What are some tasks you are currently coordinating that you could hand off to a coordinatortype leader this week?

3. Make a list of coordinator positions, and develop job descriptions for them. Next, make a list of individuals you sense could fill these roles. Finally, pray for them, and then set up a time to share the vision with them. Be sure to tell them how they can help bring it to fulfillment.

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LESSON 7 Catalysts Read: 1 Peter 4:10-11 Discussing the Text 1. Why does Peter say each person has a special gift?

2. What happens when we serve outside of our special gifts?

3. What happens when church culture decays? What causes it?

Identifying the Principle Once you have installed your coaches and coordinators into your leadership pipeline, you will need people who make sure your church DNA remains intact.

As the leadership pipeline grows, one of the most difficult challenges is keeping things to your church’s standard, especially if you are a multisite church. As you add more people and voices, opinions and preferences have a tendency to crack the culture.

While it may be tempting at this point to jump ship, scrap the leadership pipeline and do it all yourself because you know how to do it best — this is the worst option. Remember, God calls us to give away the ministry to those we have equipped, not hold on to it so tight we squeeze the life out of it. This whole thing is about preparing God’s people to fulfill their God-given calling. And we have the enviable task of accomplishing this under the tension of keeping the standard high to ensure new people are free to experience Christ. How do we do this? We have to identify servant leaders who are catalysts.

I learned in chemistry class that when you drop a catalyst into an inert substance, a reaction occurs. Catalysts are people who are high-capacity leaders who bleed the vision. They are people who have the qualities of a coach and the capability of a coordinator. They are able to jump into any situation and solve problems to ensure the ministry glorifies God and people are free to experience Jesus.

These uncommon problem solvers are in your church, though many times, they are diamonds in the rough. Our executive pastor was once a high school teacher. Because of our leadership pipeline, we discovered his gifting, developed it and deployed it. He grew from a servant leader in our student program, to a leader, to a first impression coordinator, to a catalyst, to becoming our executive pastor. He was already in our church; we just needed a system to help him rise to the top.

More than likely, God has already sent you the people you need to fulfill the vision. The best way to discover them is through praying and asking God what gifts are lying dormant in your church.

Then, take action. Go after them, and help people take their next step in fulfilling their calling. You may think they are not interested, but you won’t know until you ask.

Applying the Principle 1. Catalysts take time to develop. They require heavy doses of organizational DNA and on-the-job training. How could you best provide this?

2. Do you know your organization’s DNA? Do you have a way of communicating it?

3. How can you communicate your DNA in creative ways (think graphics, videos, wall posters, etc.)?

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Notes

LESSON 8 Champions

Notes

Read: 1 Corinthians 9:23-24 and Ephesians 4:11–15 Discussing the Text 1. How can you equip the people in your church to fulfill their calling?

2. How can you teach others to call greatness out of people?

3. How can you enable others to finish the race?

Identifying the Principle Champions are those who are committed to finishing the race with you. They are leaders of leaders who challenge those around them to keep running well. They lead others to Christ, model Christlike living and pull greatness out of those they’re leading (servant leaders, coaches, coordinators and catalysts).

At Journey Church, champions can be paid or volunteer staff. The key quality of a champion is the ability to get the job done through the right leaders. For a champion, the task is not the most important thing; empowering others is the most important thing. Can a particular volunteer train, equip and release others to an assigned task or job? If not, he or she is probably not ready to be a champion.

Champions look for three things in people: calling, community and competency. The first two are pretty standard in church life. However, I have found that we do not often talk about craft in the church. If you have a job in the marketplace, what is the most common reason for losing the position? It probably won’t be your calling, and it most likely won’t be your community. It will be your lack of competency.

If we have the most important job in the world (equipping people to make an eternal impact), why would we settle for having people on our teams who only have the first two? Calling and community are important, but so is competency. Champions are leaders of leaders who are committed to helping those on their teams elevate all three areas of their lives, especially competency.

Applying the Principle 1. What is your church/ministries “career path”? How does someone join the paid staff team?

If you aren’t raising up champions, you will have a much higher staff turnover rate.

2. Are people aware of your leadership pipeline? Can you put information about it in a flier?

3. What resources do you have available to help people grow in their calling, community and competency?

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THE FINAL NOTE

EXTREME RELIGION? How Americans’ Opinions Differ

EVANGELICALS

ALL U.S. ADULTS

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Percentage which believes a belief or behavior is extreme:

1%

55%

76%

Teach their children that sexual relationships between people of the same sex are morally wrong

5%

52%

75%

Believe that sexual relationships between people of the same sex are morally wrong

10%

60%

83%

Attempt to convert others to their faith

5%

52% 75%

Pray out loud in public for a stranger

Source: Barna Group

For decades, American’s attitudes toward religion and people of faith have been changing. Perceptions are escalating that people of faith are the cause of many of societies ills. In fact, research conducted for David Kinnaman’s coauthored new book, Good Faith, indicates that 60 percent of Americans view people who share their faith as extremists, while 42 percent of Americans believe that people of faith are part of society’s problems.

Is it any wonder, then, that Christians today feel conflicted about their place in culture? Irrelevant and extreme are words often used today to define and describe them. Though maligned, misunderstood and increasingly viewed as extreme, Barna reports a large majority of Christians still believe their faith is a force for good and positively contributes to a better world.

In Good Faith, Kinnaman examines society’s current perceptions of faith and Christianity, and in the court of public opinion, Christianity is viewed by millions of adults to be extreme. So how do evangelicals differ from skeptics and other U.S. adults on what qualifies as religious extremism? Among other factors measured, 1 percent of evangelicals believe it is religiously extreme for a person to teach his or her children that same-sex relationships are morally wrong. However, 55 percent of U.S. adults and 76 percent of skeptics believe this is extremist.

SKEPTICS

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we do and Why

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So we chose AG Financial, and we love our relationship with them.”

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