ISSUE 27 / JAN_ FEB 2020
ASSEMBLIES OF GOD COLLEGE GUIDE / 61
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CONTRIBUTORS Stephen Blandino, Mike Clarensau, Kadi Cole, John Davidson, Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesús, John Dreher, Greg Ford, Heidi Hewuse, Kent Ingle, Nona Jones, John Lindell, Mike McCrary, Kristi Northup, Kurtis Parks, Kayla Pierce, Christina Quick, Chris Railey, Rick Richardson, JonCarlos Velez, George P. Wood
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CONTENTS
ISSUE_27/ JAN_FEB 2020
8 If You Ask Me
R E F L E C T I O N S O N L E A D E R S H I P
Moments That Matter
10 Get Set L E A D E R S I M PA C T I N G T H E C H U R C H A N D C U LT U R E
Go and Do Likewise! A Q&A With Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesús
12 Like a Leader TOOLS FOR PERSONAL AND CONGREGATIONAL GROWTH
• Live: Pace Yourself • Think: Four Bad Excuses for Avoiding Marriage Counseling • Learn: Recommended Reading for Pastors
22 Playbook S T R AT E G I E S F O R E F F E C T I V E M I N I S T R Y
• Build: Staff Meetings, Sticky Notes, and Synergy • Know: Overcoming Shame • Invest: How to Plug Your Leaking Budget • Ethics: The Accountable Leader
34 CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE FOR WOMEN TO LEAD What every church leader can do. KADI COLE
44 THE CONVERSION COMMUNITY Best practices of churches growing through evangelism. RICK RICHARDSON
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p24 p34
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52 FACING THE CHALLENGES OF PASTORING WITH REALISM AND HOPE Managing our lives with wisdom and intentionality has never been more essential. MIKE CLARENSAU
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61 AG College Guide
SPECIAL SECTION
• Is a Christian College Education Worth It? • Your Guide to Financing Your Student’s Education
77 Multipliers
LEADERS LEVERAGING THEIR GIFTS FOR GOD’S KINGDOM
Pentecostal Worship for a New Generation • John Dreher: Encouraging Others to Step Out • Heidi Hewuse: Matching Gifts With Skills • Kurtis Parks: Sharing the Message Through Music • JonCarlos Velez: Resourcing the Community
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86 Make It Count
AN EIGHT-WEEK STUDY FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS
Measuring Church Health: 8 Keys to Getting a Pulse on Success
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96 The Final Note
Beyond the Politics
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JAN-FEB 2020
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JAN-FEB 2020 Influence | 7 1.855.642.2011 • MyHealthyChurch.com
IF YOU ASK ME
Reflections on Leadership
Moments That Matter CHRIS RAILEY
This year, don’t just plot your goals. Plot the moments that will make the year a great one.
Chris Railey, D.Min., is executive director of Influence Resources and senior director of leadership and church development ministries for The General Council of the Assemblies of God, U.S.A.
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s you look back at the last year, and even the past decade, what are the moments you remember most? What are the moments in your life and ministry that mattered most? If you’re like me, a handful of moments over the course of the last 10 years changed everything. I think of the birth of my youngest son, the starting of a new church, moving to a new city to take a new ministry role, trips, conversations, and moments that impacted me and those around me in significant ways. As you look ahead to a new year, what are the moments you will remember in 2020? As we start a new decade, what moments over the next 10 years will mark your life, family and ministry? You might be thinking, How should I know? I can’t see the future! It’s true that some moments you can’t prepare for, but other moments you can anticipate, prepare for, and make the most of when they come. What if, at the start of this new year, we intentionally prepare for and create the moments that will matter most? A book that impacted me a great deal the last couple of years is The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath. In it, the authors say
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moment spotting is a skill, and that we must start thinking in moments and identifying occasions when we can create memories. As leaders, we often think in terms of goals, but as the Heaths point out, goals are the things in organizations; moments are the things for people. Maybe in addition to setting goals this year, you could set moments — and create memories. What if you anticipated and created the moments that will matter in your personal life, your family, and your church or organization? Instead of just letting moments happen, what if you crafted the moments that matter most this year? Maybe this is the year to take that trip you’ve wanted to take. Maybe you have a teenager you can create a riteof-passage moment for that neither of you will forget. Perhaps you could pick a conference to attend with your team, where you could learn and grow together. (I know a good one: cmnconference.com.) This year, don’t just plot your goals. Plot the moments that will make the year a great one. In this issue, you’ll find articles that will help you make the most of every moment in your ministry. In the cover story, Kadi Cole offers valuable insight on developing female leaders. Rick Richardson reveals the traits of churches that are growing through conversion. And Mike Clarensau considers the challenges facing today’s pastors — and healthy action steps for the road ahead.
GET SET
Leaders Impacting the Church and Culture
Go and Do Likewise! A Q&A WITH WILFREDO “CHOCO” DE JESÚS
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Prior to becoming general treasurer of the Assemblies of God in 2019, Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesús served as senior pastor of New Life Covenant Church in Chicago. New Life is a multisite congregation in city-center Chicago with over 100 holistic ministries serving the entire community. In this interview, De Jesús shares how churches can contribute to the holistic transformation of their neighborhoods.
INFLUENCE: Churches care about the spiritual state of their neighbors. Why should they care about their physical, material, and social states too? DE JESÚS: Because that’s what Jesus taught us in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). Here you have a guy — broken, bleeding, abandoned. He didn’t need to be prayed about or left by the side of the road. He needed to be cared for. The Samaritan made a significant investment of his own time and resources to care for this victim. And Jesus concluded the parable by saying, “Go and do likewise.” So, it is crucial for local churches to have that type of compassion, not just for the spiritual part of people, but for the whole of them. The phrase “redemption and lift” describes how spiritual commitment transforms the totality of a new believer’s life. How did you see this work in Chicago? I’ve seen women who were prostitutes become ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). I’ve seen that happen when people who were drunks and drug addicts totally exchange their passions. The money they were spending on abusing substances they now spend promoting missions. But I’ve also seen change happen in less dramatic ways. New Life has a grocery ministry that feeds 200 families weekly; ministries to teach people how to write a resume, get and keep a job, and improve their financial situation; a ministry to help people expunge their legal records after incarceration so they can get a fresh start. Even when people don’t attend the church, we must try to help them in practical, life-changing ways. What can churches do to tangibly demonstrate their commitment to neighborhood transformation? First, look for others doing good work in
your community. There are nonprofit charities and federal, state, and local agencies whom you can work with to better your neighborhood. Second, bring those resources to bear on the needs in your neighborhood. For example, New Life sponsored outreaches where we brought together nonprofits and agencies so our neighbors could meet with them. In 2014, New Life received the Good Neighbor Award from the Chicago Association of Realtors because we were making a measurable impact on the quality of life in our community. We can’t just sit in a corner, not pay taxes, and do nothing else to transform our neighborhoods. We need to be engaged. So, third, try to be a good neighbor. Fourth, engage the gaps that exist in your communities. When you see a need no one else is meeting, step into that gap and fill it! Finally, as pastors, see yourselves as the pastor of the entire community, even if they don’t attend your church. Or, to put it a little differently, see the entire community as your church.
“I’ve seen women who were prostitutes become ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
How can pastors and churches do these things without losing sight of evangelism, calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ? If we preach the gospel, there is never conflict between repentance and social concern. Repentance as preached by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ always calls for total life-change. Unfortunately, there is a watered-down gospel today that accommodates the culture in one way or another. Pastoring is like refereeing an NFL game. We’ve got to be on the field, ready to throw the flag when there’s injustice or unnecessary roughness. We’ve got to be impartial, calling out the sins and flagrant violations of whoever is playing, not showing partiality, but encouraging everyone equally to play by God’s rules in every aspect of their lives.
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LIVE LIKE A LEADER
Pace Yourself Five questions healthy leaders ask to sustain lifelong ministry.
JOHN LINDELL ising to an altitude of 19,280 feet, Mount Kilimanjaro is known as the roof of Africa. Anyone who has climbed the mountain will likely remember the phrase pole, pole — Swahili for “slowly.” To give the body time to acclimate to the thin air, slowly is the best way to move forward. People who don’t pace themselves won’t make it to the summit. That principle is true not only in mountaineering, but also in life and ministry.
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Pace is important. Every ministry leader must periodically ask an important diagnostic question: Is the pace with which I am doing the work of God destroying God’s work in me? When I find myself viewing my service to the Lord and the people as more of a burden than a blessing, I know something is out of alignment. To regain a healthy pace, I work through these five questions: 1. Have I made a schedule that reflects my priorities? A schedule isn’t just a to-do list or a slate of appointments. It is a reflection of strategic thinking. A schedule isn’t about the expenditure of time as much as an accomplishment of purpose. God created each of us with unique gifts for fulfilling His purpose. Understanding our purpose and building our life and ministry around that purpose will result in a life of maximum impact. Whatever is most important, schedule it. A well-developed schedule will help you live out your values and focus on what provides the highest return on your time investment. 2. Have I created margin for the unexpected? No one knows the future, but you can count on the fact that life will bring surprises. Even the most strategic calendar can’t circumvent that reality, but margin can accommodate it. What may initially feel like a waste will prove to be some of the most valuable time you have. Margin is like a shock absorber, offering a cushion in those times when emergencies arise. Margin also leaves daily space for engaging in meaningful ministry moments without feeling the pressure of a schedule that is too packed. 3. If I add an ongoing commitment, have I subtracted a commitment of equal time consumption? We tend to believe we can do it all, but it doesn’t take a math whiz to know that if you keep adding and adding, at some point you will be completely maxed out. Anyone can say “yes” to requests and opportunities, but a wise leader under-stands that adding something to a full schedule
requires subtracting something else. Over the years, I’ve learned it’s possible to choke to death on opportunity and that not every great opportunity is one I should make room for in my life. I have found that if I am not willing to give up something to add an opportunity, maybe I should let that opportunity go. Keeping this mathematical equation as a part of my scheduling considerations has helped me stay focused on the things God has called me to do. 4. Am I regularly taking one day off in seven? God hardwired into our being the need for a one-day-in-seven rest. When I don’t stop to rest, I forfeit God’s recreative and renewing work in my body and soul. Along the way, self-reliance supplants worship, and deadlines diminish joy. I lose time with those I love most, and I eventually sacrifice my health. Speaking from experience, if we don’t sabbath, a sabbath will be imposed on us. Taking one day a week to rest is also a powerful declaration to yourself and the people around you that you are not your own provider; you are trusting God to supply everything you need. 5. Have I considered that different seasons of life require different schedules? Every season presents unique opportunities and challenges. Recognizing the season I’m in as a leader helps me make the necessary adjustments for a healthy pace. Every organization has times in the calendar when the workload is more intense. Plan in advance to meet the challenges of the busy seasons rested and ready. And once that season comes to a close, don’t feel guilty about adjusting your schedule to allow time to recover. Leaders must let go of the illusion that someone out there should be rescuing us from ourselves. If you’re waiting for someone to say, “You are working way too hard,” dream on. A part of healthy leadership is owning the responsibility of establishing a sustainable pace. Your life, your ministry, your marriage, and your family all depend on it.
A wise leader understands that adding something to a full schedule requires subtracting something else.
John Lindell is senior pastor at James River Church in Ozark, Missouri.
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THINK LIKE A LEADER
Four Bad Excuses for Avoiding Marriage Counseling GREG FORD
Don’t put off seeking the help you and your spouse need.
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arriage can be tough. It may start out as a bed of roses, but eventually the thorns can overtake the fragrant petals. What should you do when the wedding bells start causing migraines and “happily ever after” begins to feel more like a life sentence? It’s easy to fall into passive-aggressive modes of communication or turn away in apathetic indifference. But such responses only breed anger and confusion and deepen the divide.
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The best solution is to connect with someone who has the skills to help you get past not only this season, but other difficult seasons and situations as they come. Most pastors have heard about the benefits of marriage counseling, and many have advised others to seek such help. So why aren’t more of us following through? In my experience, there are four common reasons ministry couples avoid marriage counseling. I’ll address each of these objections in turn.
It’s a Waste of Time
Every marriage could benefit from counseling. I know mine has — and many of my ministry friends would say the same. If you’re considering seeking help, you are in good company. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It means you’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep from failing in your commitment. If someone broke into your house and threatened your family, you would be willing to fight to protect them. So why would you knowingly turn a blind eye to an issue that threatens to tear apart your family? Investing in your marriage is never a waste of time.
It’s Embarrassing
We’ve all done things we wish we could take back. Instead of letting concern about what others might think paralyze you, let it become the motivation you need to take that first step toward healing. Your example will inspire someone to seek help when they need it. Don’t let pride keep you from doing the right thing — and leading the way for those who are watching.
It’s Hopeless
No marriage is hopeless. It may feel hopeless, but it’s not. It will take two people who are willing to put in the effort to make it work. It will take humility, intentionality and determination. It will take patience, prayer and faith in a God with whom all things are possible. Start today. Don’t wait for your spouse to make the first move. You can be the catalyst for change. One person taking the first step is often the encouragement the other person needs to jump on board. Don’t give up. It will be a journey, and you may experience more setbacks along the way. Keep persevering. On the other side is something beautiful. Your marriage can become better than it’s ever been.
It’s Too Expensive
The costliest course of action is not taking care of your marriage. A divorce is much more
expensive than marriage counseling — and not just monetarily. Think of the potential cost to your children and ministry. Consider the toll on your physical, emotional and spiritual health. You spend money on what you most value. I encourage you to look closely at your budget and do whatever it takes to free up the funds for counseling. Here are some ideas: • Downgrade your phone plan. • Cancel your cable. • Sell one of your cars. • Sell your house and move into something more affordable. • Don’t eat out for six months. • Take a less expensive vacation, or skip it altogether. • Don’t buy new clothes for six months. • Cancel your gym membership, and work out at home. If you have kids who are old enough to feel the pinch of the adjustment, use it as a teaching moment about the value of marriage and the necessity of making it a priority. Sit down as a family and say, “We are going through a hard time in our marriage, but don’t worry. We are not going to quit. We need to move some money around so we can afford to get help.” Don’t assume your kids won’t be receptive. They probably won’t be surprised your marriage is struggling. They will be thrilled to know you are committed to working it out. Your words and actions will provide a powerful lesson on how to handle marriage problems when they experience them someday. Children won’t resent the budget cuts when they understand the reason behind them. Even if they do complain now, your kids will see it differently when they are adults. Either way, they will go to bed that night more secure than when they woke up that morning. The stakes are high. The centerpiece of our country, culture and society is the family. The centerpiece of the family is the marriage. If you need help, get it. No excuses.
Instead of letting concern about what others might think paralyze you, let it become the motivation you need to take that first step toward healing.
Greg Ford is lead pastor at One Church (AG) in Gahanna, Ohio.
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LEARN LIKE A LEADER Selected Book Reviews
THE THIRD WAY Many American Christians believe their cultural influence is slipping away. If it is, how should we respond?
Books reviewed by
George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine.
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hristianity in the United States is a mile wide but an inch deep. The faith, especially its Protestant variety, has exerted considerable influence on the nation’s history and culture. A supermajority of citizens continue to identify themselves as believers. On the whole, evangelical churches — where evangelical serves as a theological descriptor, not a political one — are holding steady even as liberal Protestant congregations and Roman Catholic parishes shed adherents. Despite these things, many Christians feel their influence on the broader culture is slipping away. A partial explanation comes from the rapid rise over the last two decades of the “nones,” that share of the populace who picks “None of the above” when asked by pollsters to select their religious affiliation. Radical shifts in public opinion about moral issues such as same-sex marriage, drug use, and voluntary euthanasia constitute an additional explanation. And the once unheard-of
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criticism of Christian charities, such as the Salvation Army, for continuing to uphold biblical standards of sexual morality offers still another explanation. None of these explanations, it should be noted, entail that America has entered a postChristian phase. They do indicate the nation is trending that way, however. If that trend worries you, I encourage you to read Gerald L. Sittser’s Resilient Faith: How the Early Christian “Third Way” Changed the World. Sittser is professor of theology at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, where he also serves as a senior fellow and researcher in the Office of Church Engagement. In Resilient Faith, Sittser offers an account of how the Early Church forged a “Third Way” between accommodation to the surrounding idolatrous culture and isolation from it. He states his thesis at the outset of the book: [T]he early Christian movement became known as the Third Way because Jesus himself was a new way, which in turn spawned a new movement — new in theology, in story, in authority, in community, in worship, and in behavior. Christian belief was so new, in fact, that it required Christians to develop a process of formation in the Third Way to move new believers from conversion to discipleship … . Rejecting both accommodation and isolation, early Christians immersed themselves in the culture as followers of Jesus and servants of the kingdom of God. Over time, this Third-Way approach gained followers, and with increased followership, increasing influence. By the time Constantine converted to Christianity in A.D. 312, Christians already constituted a significant, though occasionally persecuted, minority within the Roman empire. Over the next century, they became the only legal imperial religion. The once powerless Church became powerful.
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“If anything, the harder Christians fight, the more precipitous the decline will be, for cultural power and privilege will come at an increasingly high price.” — Gerald L. Sittser
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Ironically and tragically, this power began to deform the Church. The Third Way became the First Way, integrity giving way to accommodation. Whereas the early Christian movement assumed that idolaters needed a rigorous form of discipleship, the so-called catechumenate, to mold converts into the faith and life of Jesus Christ, the post-Constantinian Church began to assume that everyone under the sway of a Christian emperor was Christian by default. The real faith of early Christians became the nominal faith of Christendom. And that tension between the real and the nominal brings us back to the feeling so many American Christians have that our cultural influence is slipping away. If it is — and I believe that it is — how should we respond? One response is simply for American Christians to engage in cultural and political warfare. While I am a proponent of informed Christian engagement in politics and culture, I worry that this response, however effective it may be in the short term, is ineffective in the long term. Sittser captures the gist of the dilemma when he writes: If anything, the harder Christians fight, the more precipitous the decline will be, for cultural power and privilege will come at an increasingly high price. Christians will either accommodate until the faith becomes almost unrecognizable, or they will isolate until their faith becomes virtually invisible. The better response — the one called for by Jesus Christ himself — is the way of discipleship, “baptizing [the nations] 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” (Matthew 28:19–20). According to that way, success is not defined in terms of the accrual of political power or cultural influence, though they may come, but by fidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of whether they come. He is the Way, so His way must become our way too. Until American Christians decide fidelity
is more important than power and privilege, their Christianity will continue to be a mile wide and an inch deep, though getting narrower and shallower every day. BOOK REVIEWED Gerald L. Sittser, Resilient Faith: How the Early Christian “Third Way” Changed the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2019) .
SLOW DOWN! ohn Mark Comer lived the dream of many pastors. He led a growing congregation (adding 1,000 adherents annually for seven years running) in the Pacific Northwest (one of the nation’s most secular regions). You’d think he’d be happy, but Comer wasn’t. He was burned-out, enduring most pastors’ nightmare. Busyness, “where your life is full with things that matter,” wasn’t the problem. The problem was hurriedness, “when you have too
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RECOMMENDED READING FOR LEADERS By Influence Magazine
MORE LESSONS FROM THE NONPROFIT BOARDROOM Dan Busby and John Pearson (ECFA Press) Good governance is crucial to every organization, including the Church, and a healthy board is crucial to good governance. In this book from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Dan Busby and John Pearson offer timely advice about how a board can govern with “effectiveness” and “excellence,” all the while addressing the “elephants” that complicate its work. The book includes a bonus resource, NonprofitScore, a free online tool to help your board assess its health across six elements (ECFA.org/score).
THE EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT PASTOR Jeannie Clarkson (Wesleyan Publishing House) Jeannie Clarkson defines emotional intelligence as “the ability to (1) understand the ways people (including you) feel and react, and (2) use this knowledge to wisely avoid or smartly solve relational problems.” In The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor, she outlines the habits that will help you gain “insight” and “mastery” in both the “personal” and “relational” aspects of your life and ministry. The payoff ? “Greater emotional intelligence leads to reduced stress and increased influence.” What pastor doesn’t want those things?
THE LEADER’S GREATEST RETURN John C. Maxwell (HarperCollins Leadership) “There is nothing in this world that gives a greater [return on investment] to a leader than attracting, developing, and multiplying leaders,” writes John C. Maxwell. “It’s the key to success for any country, family, organization, or institution.” Though written with a broad readership in mind, The Leader’s Greatest Return holds obvious applications for Christian ministry. It outlines 10 steps you can begin taking today to invest in the people who will multiply the effectiveness of your ministry.
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much to do and the only way to keep the quota up is to hurry.” Jesus was busy, but He never hurried. Hurry is of the devil. So, as Dallas Willard once remarked to John Ortberg, who wrote the Foreword to this book: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” To ruthlessly eliminate hurry, Comer maintains, you need to establish a rule of life, “a schedule and a set of practices to order your life around the way of Jesus in community.” At the heart of this rule are spiritual disciplines, especially silence and solitude, sabbath, simplicity, and slowing. These are not the only spiritual disciplines. They are crucial to unhurrying your life, however. Solitude and silence tune out the “noise,” both external and internal, that so easily distract your attention. Sabbath reminds you that God created the world, and it still spins on its axis without your frenzied efforts. Simplicity of lifestyle eliminates the desire for “more” that so often drives our nonstop work. And slowing is just that: taking time to be present in the moment. These disciplines aren’t just good ideas, though. They’re Jesus’ practices, which He invites us to imitate. “Follow me!” isn’t just a call to belief, after all; it’s a call to walk in Christ’s footsteps, to practice His way of life. “In the years to come,” Comer concludes, “our world will most likely go from fast to faster; more hurried, more soulless, more vapid; ‘deceiving and being deceived’” (2 Timothy 3:13). The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry urges readers to put on Jesus’ yoke (Matthew 11:30). Only by moving slowly but deliberately will we find our soul’s rest, for Christ’s “yoke is easy” and His “burden is light.” Comer did not write merely for pastors. His book is suitable for a wide readership. But pastors, only by slowing down will you be able to busy yourself helping others find rest for their souls too. In this matter as in others, you cannot lead where you have not followed first. BOOK REVIEWED John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook, 2019).
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PLAYBOOK BUILD
Staff Meetings, Sticky Notes, and Synergy K A Y L A P I E R C E
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s leaders, our job is to harness the power of one of our most important resources: our team. First Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace … .” Leadership is a gift (Romans 12:8), and to be good stewards of this gift, we should help our team achieve its creative potential. Research
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in social psychology shows that when it comes to group creativity, the sum of each individual’s contribution can be greater than its parts, resulting in synergy. But how do we cultivate synergy? Because I am a sociologist by trade, I spent last summer conducting research for a company in California’s Silicon Valley. I sat through hundreds of meetings and observed how some of the smartest and most efficient people in the world mine the talent of their teams. I was surprised to discover that one of their most effective tools is not a futuristic digital device, but the lowly sticky note. Every conference room table had a stack of sticky note pads in the center. Stickies cluttered walls and hallways. And they played a crucial role in facilitating teamwork. I believe we can put sticky note strategies to work in our churches. Whether in meetings
with church volunteers, deacons, or staff, here are three ways sticky notes can help produce synergy:
Better Brainstorming
When teams in Silicon Valley needed to maximize creativity and generate new ideas, they did something counterintuitive: They stopped talking. Team members started with a prompt like, Where do we see ourselves in six months? What are we doing well? How can we improve? Five to 10 minutes were allotted for everyone to write down as many ideas as possible. The ideas could be outrageous and ambitious or modest and sensible, but each got its own sticky. Leaders encouraged team members not to overthink their ideas, but to jot down everything that came to mind. After 10 minutes, there were dozens of ideas to build upon collectively, some of which overlapped. Because sticky notes are mobile, the team could rearrange them, putting similar ideas together or categorizing them by type. This brainstorming exercise works for three reasons. First, if we want our groups to be creative, we must maximize the creativity of every team member. Unfortunately, decades of research in group processes demonstrate that some people are more likely to talk than others, and these patterns extend beyond personality. Women and racial minorities are often hesitant to speak up, and they are more likely to experience interruptions. That means people who are well positioned to bring fresh perspectives are least likely to get their ideas on the table. Having everyone write down their ideas at the beginning captures good ideas you might otherwise miss. Second, it discourages groupthink. Ideas iterate through discussion, so early ideas shape later ideas. This process is effective and necessary, but if it comes too early, it can dampen creative thinking by limiting the pool of options prematurely. Generating an abundance of ideas early reduces tunnel vision. Finally, everyone gets recognition for their
contribution. Normally, if two people have the same idea, only the first one to speak gets credit for it. With sticky notes, everyone receives acknowledgement for their good work, which boosts confidence. Whether your team is generating goals for next year, inventing ways to increase visitor retention, or creating outreaches, sticky notes can help get your team’s creative juices flowing.
Stickies cluttered walls and hallways. And they played a crucial role in facilitating teamwork.
Fewer Interruptions
When a meeting is going well, people get excited and want to jump into the conversation, which results in interruptions. Despite good intentions, the habit is hard to break because people interrupt to prevent themselves from losing their train of thought. Interruptions can be especially problematic on ministry teams because people are not just teammates — they are usually good friends. Familiarity can make interrupting easier. Silicon Valley leaders reduced interruptions by encouraging people to write down their thoughts when they felt the urge to interrupt. That way, the speaker can finish and listeners don’t lose their lightbulb moments.
Improved Morale
The emotional and spiritual labor of ministry can be taxing. Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.” Verbal affirmation is great, but don’t underestimate the power of written affirmation. In Silicon Valley, people frequently left sticky notes of encouragement on one another’s desks. When I received one, I felt valued and energized. It encouraged me every time I saw it. When people affirm us verbally, we experience a momentary rush of satisfaction and esteem. When that affirmation is visual — such as words on a sticky note — we can experience that boost again and again. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, strategizing with sticky notes can help us better steward and maximize our team’s creativity.
Kayla Pierce is the kids’ ministry director at SouthGate Church (AG) in South Bend, Indiana. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Notre Dame, where she studies group processes, emotions and identity. You can find out more about her research at kayladrpierce.com.
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PLAYBOOK KNOW
Overcoming Shame NONA JONES Warning: This article recounts a traumatic event that may trigger individuals who have experienced sexual abuse.
Our identity is in Christ, not in our trauma or insecurities.
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was 5 years old the first time my mother’s boyfriend sexually abused me. She left me in his care while she attended her sister’s funeral in New Jersey. Although I told my mother I didn’t want her to leave me with him, she assured me it was only for a few days and I would be fine. The first night she was gone, I locked my bedroom door because I instinctively felt unsafe. But I learned that night a straightened wire hanger could unlock the door. It’s difficult to accurately describe the terror of not being able to make someone stop hurting
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you, of knowing that your tears and screams mean nothing to a heart dulled by perversion and ears deafened by selfishness. That night, he not only broke my body, he broke my spirit. The abuse continued for two years before I told my mother. Although she believed me and had her boyfriend arrested, she picked him up from jail the day of his release and brought him back into our home, where he proceeded to abuse me again. At 9 years of age, I tried unsuccessfully to take my life. I attempted suicide again at age 11. I couldn’t imagine a life worth living, and I certainly couldn’t see how my life was worth saving since my own mother didn’t value me enough to protect me from her boyfriend. What began as a feeling of emptiness grew into a sense of shame for what I thought it must mean about me. I felt it was my fault, that I was defective. I carried in my heart this belief about myself as I moved into adolescence, but I kept it hidden. I was smart and developed an outgoing
personality, which afforded me many leadership opportunities that expanded my influence and honed my gift for public speaking. I excelled academically, earning a full college scholarship. But no matter the achievement, there was always an internal voice telling me it was an accident because I was defective. As my career blossomed and my itinerant ministry grew, I would speak at an event and receive the applause of thousands of people, then return to my hotel room feeling rejected. I had all the trappings of success, but I felt more trapped than successful. I didn’t have joy or peace or contentment. I constantly needed outward validation of my worth because I didn’t believe I was worthy. I couldn’t let go of the shame. But as I studied Scripture, God began to open my eyes to His truth. I saw how Jesus ministered to people in their shame — whether that shame came about as a result of willful sin or circumstances beyond their control.
I read the familiar story of Peter denying he knew Jesus. When the rooster crowed, Peter remembered that Jesus had told him this would happen. Matthew 26:75 says Peter “wept bitterly.” Though the story is very different from mine, I related to Peter’s brokenness and shattered sense of identity. But this story isn’t one of defeat; it’s a story of victory. You see, before the rooster told Peter he was a traitor, Jesus told Peter he would play an important role in God’s plan. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” An incredible plot twist in Peter’s story occurs in Acts 2. It was the Day of Pentecost, and Peter was gathered with 120 disciples in a room in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit fell on them and enabled them to speak in languages they didn’t know. It just so happened that Jews walking the streets outside the room spoke those languages, and while some were amazed and praised God, others denied it was a miracle and just said the disciples were drunk. Peter heard their denials. Perhaps as he listened to them, the rooster began to crow in his mind, reminding him of his own denial of Jesus. But instead of listening to the rooster, Peter lifted his voice and affirmed the very Jesus he had once denied. And because of his words, 3,000 people became Christ followers that day. I have come to believe that God doesn’t want to use us in spite of our past. He wants to use us because of our past. God wants to show us He is able to turn our pain into purpose and our trauma into triumph. We all have two identities warring within us: the rooster telling us who we could never be, and God telling us who He created us to be. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and choosing to believe Jesus is choosing to believe the truth. You are not what happened to you, and you are not what you did. You are fearfully and wonderfully made on purpose through Christ Jesus.
I have come to believe that God doesn’t want to use us in spite of our past. He wants to use us because of our past.
Nona Jones serves as head of Global Faith-Based Partnerships at Facebook where she leads the company’s work with faith-based organizations around the world. She is also CEO of eChurch Partners and the author of her memoir, Success from the Inside Out (Zondervan, 2020).
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PLAYBOOK INVEST
How to Plug Your Leaking Budget MIKE MCCRARY
Five ways your church may be losing money.
any churches are struggling with rising expenses and declining income. According to the 2016 State of the Plate giving report, just 10%–25% of church members tithe. While this calls for diligence in teaching what the Bible says about giving and generosity, equally vital is wise stewardship in church leadership. Start by considering five ways your church may be losing money:
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1. Personnel
Staffing is typically the most significant expense for a healthy church. Personnel costs should range between 33% and 45% of a church’s total budget.
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How does your church’s budget compare with this benchmark? If staffing represents less than 33% of the budget, you may have room to grow by adding staff members or increasing salaries. On the other hand, if staffing costs exceed 45%, adjustments may be in order to reduce those expenses. Either way, don’t make staffing changes without praying, involving your leadership, and seeking counsel. At least once a year, take time to review staff-related costs, including insurance and benefits. Evaluate vacated positions to determine whether these roles are still necessary. Consider hiring contract workers for specific projects or temporary workers when possible,
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If you have not evaluated your church’s budget in quite some time, you may be surprised at the savings you find.
and leverage volunteers to help with the work of your ministry. Resist the temptation to underpay staff or contract workers when budgets are tight. The Bible reminds us that workers deserve appropriate wages, and we should not take advantage of the people we hire as they pursue God’s call. It is better not to hire than to hire with intent to underpay.
2. Facilities
The second largest line item in your budget is your building and facilities. These expenditures — including utilities, insurance, telephone, internet and repairs — should range between 25% and 35% of your church’s budget. There are a number of ways to save on facilities costs. Study your building usage and utility bill to identify inefficiencies. Evaluate major systems like HVAC and appliances for potential utility savings. Make energy improvement upgrades, such as adding programmable thermostats or LED lighting. Consider scaling back phone services, including mobile, or asking for lower rates. Renegotiate your property insurance premium. Consider refinancing your church’s mortgage, renegotiating rental agreements, or moving to a less expensive location. If you own your property, you might offset costs by renting out facilities when your church isn’t using them.
3. Office Expenses
Mike McCrary is director of strategic partnerships for the Church Multiplication Network in Springfield, Missouri.
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As a line item in your budget, office expenses should not exceed 10%. There is a good chance your church literally prints a ton of paper. Think about every document you send to the printer: fliers, brochures, sermon notes and bulletins. Some leaders feel printed bulletins are important, and many churches use them as guides to their worship services. However, a church app or website might reduce or replace the need for bulletins. If you cannot eliminate printed bulletins, consider whether
you can print them in a way that lowers costs. Also evaluate whether you could eliminate other printing or office expenses.
4. Advertising
If your church has been in existence for several years, you may not need a lot of advertising. Are you reaching people with your promotions? If not, it’s time to take a closer look at marketing expenditures. With Facebook and Google, you can reach people in your community, make new connections, and draw people into your worship services for a fraction of what you might spend on more traditional advertising. Additionally, websites that feature reviews are growing significantly in their impact. I know several church leaders who encourage the people in their congregations to write reviews of their churches on sites like Google, Facebook and Yelp.
5. Digital Giving
Another significant way your church could be losing money is by not offering digital options for contributions. I spend a lot of time at the Church Multiplication Network helping new and expanding churches adopt digital and mobile giving solutions. Nearly all of them have increased income after adding digital tools to their offering appeals. While most of us do not love line-by-line budget evaluation, your church can benefit greatly from a careful study of these five budget areas. If you have not evaluated your church’s budget in quite some time, you may be surprised at the savings you find. In each of these five areas, the use of technology can be a key part of controlling expenses and increasing income and engagement. In the coming years, there will be two kinds of churches: those that embrace technology and those that do not. Churches that use technology well will increase congregational participation and improve efficiencies, and those that do not will not. It is that simple.
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PLAYBOOK ETHICS he truth is, I need accountability. I don’t like admitting that because it makes me feel weak. It makes me think somehow I’m not trustworthy — like I can’t count on myself to make good decisions. By now I should be confident in my ability to resist temptation, treat others respectfully and act ethically. Do I really need someone looking over my shoulder, checking in on me, even babysitting me? I’m a grown man for goodness sake … a minister for over two decades. And yet, I’m painfully aware of my own sinful tendencies. I know that left to my own devices, there’s a reasonably good chance I could compromise what I stand for and make decisions that hurt myself and others. If that weren’t enough, I’m reminded how easy it is to fall every time I read about the latest Christian leader to experience a moral failure. I never want to be that guy, but it’s wise to remember that much stronger (dare I say godlier?) people than me have allowed Satan to sabotage them. So I need accountability to stay on the straight and narrow. But I need accountability for other reasons too. Accountability doesn’t just prevent me from doing wrong; it encourages me to do right. Accountability can be a tool to help us get the results we want from life. In other words, it’s for our benefit to help us reach our goals. Your desire for accountability is directly tied to your desire to be everything God has called you to be. If you want to be your best, you need others pushing you toward that end. When a leader falls due to an ethical breach, it’s not unusual to hear those who know him say two things. First, “He had no one in his life who was holding him accountable.” Second, some will say, “I could have told you there was something wrong with him, that he was heading for trouble.” Both of these statements are a terrible commentary on the result of ministerial isolation. All of us — from youth pastor to lead pastor, and from entry level employee to CEO — need people who love us enough to stop us from driving over a proverbial cliff.
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x
The Accountable Leader Now more than ever, ministers need friends to keep them from falling. JOHN DAVIDSON
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All of us — from youth pastor to lead pastor, and from entry level employee to CEO — need people who love us enough to stop us from driving over a proverbial cliff.
John Davidson, Ph.D., is director of leadership development for the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri.
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God’s Word is clear that we need each other. Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” Now more than ever, ministers need friends to help them up. Better yet, we need friends to keep us from falling. We often resist accountability because we think we can handle it. We don’t want people looking over our shoulder, telling us what to do or telling us “no.” Sometimes we resist because we know we’re a sinner, and we want to keep doing what we’re doing. And very often, we’re scared of being embarrassed or ashamed if we’re found out. Those are all very real feelings … and very dangerous. Ultimately, accountability only works if my desire
for holiness outweighs all other desires. I’ve been a part of multiple failed attempts at maintaining accountability partners and participating in accountability groups. Here’s what I discovered in the process. Accountability fails in the following scenarios: • It’s set up to help me reach someone else’s goals for my life. • Those involved are scared to ask hard questions or have difficult conversations. • Those involved won’t tell the truth. • It’s based only in discipline and not in redemption. • Individuals won’t prioritize the time it takes to foster accountable relationships. On the other hand, accountability works when these things are true: • I’m willing to be held accountable. • I not only tolerate, but seek out, people to hold me accountable. • I kill isolation by practicing self-disclosure as a spiritual discipline. • I am humble enough to admit I need help. • I am self-aware enough to invite others into my weak areas. • Those holding me accountable love Jesus and are growing spiritually. They love me and have my best interest in mind. They know me well and are close enough to me to know what questions to ask me. • I love others enough to do the hard work of holding them accountable. Whether you and I submit to the accountability of others now is up to us. But make no mistake, all of us are accountable. We just may not know it yet. The Parable of the Bags of Gold in Matthew 25:14–30 makes it clear that God is watching, and the Master will hold us accountable for how we steward what He has given us (family, finances, power, leadership of others, etc.). Just as ministers should lead the way in discipleship, evangelism and spiritual disciplines, we should also lead the way in demonstrating personal accountability. Doing so will honor God and safeguard the reputation of His Church in the world.
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CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE FOR WOMEN TO LEAD W H AT E V E RY C H U R C H L E A D E R C A N D O KADI COLE
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ou have really nice birthing hips.” That was my introduction to ministry leadership as a young woman. I had recently moved across the country for my first job after college and was volunteering to lead the nametag table for my church’s singles ministry picnic. I was energetic, naïve, hopeful and ready to share Jesus with everyone I met. The 45-year-old divorcee’s creepy comment took me completely by surprise. I had no idea what to do. Was he joking? Did I somehow send a wrong signal? What is the right way to respond to this? I awkwardly tried to laugh it off in the moment, but I’ve never forgotten how suddenly out of place and vulnerable I felt. Thankfully, I had some great leaders who came beside me, rolled their eyes with me, and helped me discover other ministry experiences that were the exact opposite — affirming, uplifting and a whole lot of fun. Had they not, I am pretty sure the “birthing hips” guy and a handful of other unfortunate encounters would have derailed my passion for serving in ministry and eroded my trust in the people who make up the Church. Today, as a church consultant and an executive coach, I spend a lot of time helping church leaders equip and empower women. Opportunities to discuss this
controversial topic came up whenever I taught at conferences and leadership training events. More and more pastors began asking me how they could best develop the women on their teams. I could tell they were genuine in their desire, but as we discussed what they were already doing, it was clear their efforts weren’t always helpful. I feel great compassion for pastors who want to honor God in leading and developing all their people well. They often encounter challenges that are unexpected and confusing. Many are leading in congregations and cultures with built-in biases that can be difficult to identify and overcome. The good news is there are things every church leader can do to create positive change.
Be Aware of Sticky Floors
You’ve likely heard of glass ceilings, those invisible barriers women and minorities must overcome to advance in the ranks of leadership. While it’s important to identify and break down these organizational and systemic barriers, the reality is many women also battle “sticky floors.” These are culturally conditioned mindsets and habits that can hold them back from seeking
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Q U E S T I O N S
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A S K
W O M E N
I N
Y O U R
C H U R C H
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What is it like being a female leader at our church?
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Have you ever tried to lead anything at our church? If not, why? If so, how did it go?
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What opportunities do you think are available to you?
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What roadblocks have you come up against when you’ve tried to lead?
5
How does your own internal thinking impact your leadership?
6
How can we, as pastors and church leaders, support you in your leadership?
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opportunities, sharing viewpoints or stepping into leadership. I once accepted an invitation to participate in a meeting of executive pastors of some of the largest and most influential multisite churches in the world. Though it was an incredible opportunity, I found myself falling into some classic sticky floor tendencies. I was cautious about speaking up in any of the formal conversations. I even slid notes to my pastor so he could add my thoughts to the dialogue because I thought I didn’t belong in that prestigious room of leaders and feared my perspective couldn’t stand on its own. When there was a lull between sessions, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself, so I started picking up dirty plates and empty cups instead of joining the conversations the men were having around me. I worried about being away from my family for a night and wondered whether it was worth it as I battled the inner perfectionism that made me self-conscious the entire time. I later discovered I actually had as much multisite experience as the other leaders in the room. Those notes I passed to my pastor ended up being influential insights. And those intimidating male executive pastors were not only comfortable with me being in the room but have since become some of my biggest champions. The insecurities I felt in that executive meeting are common among women who serve in male-dominated environments or who grew up without many female ministry role models. It is helpful for you, as their leader, to learn about these tendencies so you can recognize them when they surface, and encourage the women on your team to overcome them. Your support can go a long way toward helping them break free from those sticky floors.
Explain Your Theology Often
Communicate your beliefs and practices about women in leadership — and do it often. Don’t assume that because the Assemblies of God ordains women, or because you have women on your team, everyone on your staff and in your congregation fully understands your position. As their leader, you must fill the gap between what your theology prescribes and what the women in your church actually believe they are capable of contributing. Some members may have come from more limiting church or family environments. You may be surprised to learn that what you think is common knowledge is hazy on the front lines of day-to-day ministry, especially if you serve in an area of the country where assumed gender
roles and biases are more prevalent. Failing to talk about your beliefs on a regular basis could mean missing out on a lot of leadership potential. I remember talking with Sarah, who leads the greeter team at her church. Sarah gathers the group for a quick team huddle each Sunday before service, but she often feels conflicted about how to lead this meeting. Although Sarah sees women leading in her church, she isn’t sure what her church believes, and her conservative upbringing makes her tentative. Sarah also senses pressure from the men on her team to not be too strong or direct in her leadership. This makes Sarah wonder whether she should pray for the team out loud or whether it would be better to ask one of the men to do it instead. Sarah wants to be in line with her church’s beliefs and win the respect of the other volunteers, but she frequently feels awkward and fearful. She doesn’t want to do something wrong. Yet Sarah knows she’s supposed to be leading them! Aligning your church’s views with your practices will free leaders like Sarah to represent those beliefs well and lead with confidence.
Protect and Engage Women
The Church is not immune to sexual immorality, infidelity and harassment. Sadly, we see the scandals in the headlines. Because of this, we need ministry and leadership practices that protect women, the integrity of our leaders, and the reputation of our churches. However, many common church practices tend to limit women’s access to important leadership opportunities, mentoring relationships and recognition from supervisors. This also sends the hidden message that women are temptations to be feared and avoided, rather than sisters in Christ. While these are unintentional consequences, we can’t overlook such realities if we want to do a better job of developing female leaders. I suggest the answer lies in finding new ways to navigate our current culture. Guardrails churches may have relied on in the past, such as not permitting men and women to be alone together, don’t address our 24-hour connectivity and the digital access people have to one another today. And frankly, in a culture of changing sexual norms, such policies also overlook the fact that it may no longer be “above reproach” for a male senior pastor to travel alone with a young male seminary intern. We have to consider better options that are inclusive of both genders and offer protection for all.
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WE HAVE TO SHIFT THE CULTURE BEFORE PLANS AND STRATEGIES CAN TAKE ROOT AND PRODUCE FRUIT. For example, although it is a common mentoring practice to take along a younger staff member when making a hospital visit or attending a conference, it is even more helpful to expand this practice by taking two people with you. This could be two men, two women, or a man and a woman. This adds a measure of safety by taking away the intimacy of one-on-one exclusive connections. It also gives women access to mentoring and training formerly closed to them because of gender-specific boundaries. The goal should be to develop female leaders while keeping our churches healthy. When we are both protective and inclusive, our personal leadership and our churches will be stronger for it.
Bridge the Diversity Threshold
The best ideas in the world cannot overpower culture, even if people really want to see change. We have to shift the culture before plans and strategies can take root and produce fruit. We do this when we bridge the gap between what we believe and what our culture is creating. Symbols often communicate more effectively than words alone. The intentional use of symbols can influence and change a church’s culture. For example, adding a female to the senior leadership team is a strong symbol of inclusiveness. However, there can also be unintentional symbols, such as having no women on the senior leadership team. People will assume women are not welcome to serve as leaders if they don’t see any on the team — regardless of the church’s theology.
One of the best ways to remedy this is by being intentional to add qualified, competent female leaders to your teams. Research suggests diversity has a threshold of approximately 30% to be effective. In other words, if you have 10 ministry leaders on a team, three to four of them should be female to be effective at gender diversity. If there are 52 sermons a year, at least 15 should be taught by, or involve, a woman. If you are interviewing candidates for an open staff position, at least 30% of the candidates should be women. Many churches I work with fully support women in all levels of ministry leadership. Yet when they look at the concrete metrics of their leadership pipelines, pastoral recruitment practices, and preaching platforms, they are often underrepresenting female leadership. It’s not intentional, but it is reality. However, it is a reality we can change. When we start tracking our efforts, it’s easy to see whether we are making progress.
Listen
Seek to understand the perspectives of the women in your church by taking time to have conversations with them as individuals. Ask them about their stories and experiences, and then do your best to listen without defending, filtering or offering quick fixes. Use one or more of the following questions to start the conversation: • What is it like being a female leader at our church? • Have you ever tried to lead anything at our church? If not, why? If so, how did it go? • What opportunities do you think are available to you?
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8 BEST PRACTICES 1. Seek to Understand
5. Be an “Other”
Every woman faces challenges and perceptions that can limit her leadership. Learn about what the women in your congregation are battling so you can encourage and challenge them in the right ways. Seek a deeper understanding by asking the women in your church about their experiences, and really listening to them.
Healthy, supportive, positive relationships promote achievement at higher levels. More specifically, relationships with other leaders make a huge impact on a female leader’s development journey. When you champion a female leader on your team, your impact will have lasting results on her life and the ministry of your church.
2. Define What You Believe
6. Create an Environment of Safety
There is often a gap between what a church’s theology invites a woman to do in the church and what she thinks she can do. Even if you have confidence your stance about women in leadership in the Church is clear, there may be confusion and mixed messages in the execution of your beliefs and intentions.
A church should be an environment in which everyone feels valued — and safe. Sexual abuse, harassment, and even the appearance of impropriety are issues we must take seriously. Create fair policies and structures that provide protection and accountability for everyone on the team, while investing in them equally.
3. Mine the Marketplace
7. Upgrade Your People Practices
Many women in ministry previously had successful nonministry careers where they managed projects, led teams, and implemented initiatives. Marketplace training equipped them for their current church leadership positions. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to unleash this kind of proven potential in your church?
Take a look at your human resource practices to see how you treat employees. Evaluating how you recruit and hire, pay and support, and develop and assess both your male and female workers can provide unique insight into your culture’s blind spots and your own unconscious biases so you can ensure everyone is being treated equally.
4. Integrate Spiritual and Leadership Development
8. Take on Your Culture
The integration of spiritual growth and leadership development happens more naturally for male leaders. It’s one of the benefits of being in the “majority” because church culture typically supports relationship-based development of men — especially those who are interested in pursuing career ministry. When you are equally intentional about providing growth opportunities for women who integrate their relationship with Christ with their gifts and callings, you will produce strong, healthy, capable female leaders in your church.
The best ideas in the world cannot overpower culture, even if leaders really want to see change. Honestly evaluate any gaps in your culture, and then do whatever is necessary to lead the charge for deeper connection, acceptance, and change in the way your church views, values, and includes women in leadership. —Kadi Cole
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WHEN YOU TAKE TIME TO LISTEN, YOU PROVIDE VALIDATION AND ELEVATE WOMEN AS LEADERS. • What roadblocks have you come up against when you’ve tried to lead? • How does your own internal thinking impact your leadership? • How can we, as pastors and church leaders, support you in your leadership? So many women feel alone in the biases they face and the sticky floors in which they get stuck. The first and best gift you can offer women is asking questions and listening to their experiences. Giving women an opportunity to process the challenges they’ve faced demonstrates your compassion for their unique perspectives. It will also help clear up any misunderstandings or areas that need realignment within your church culture. For most women, these conversations aren’t tightly hinged on hopes for pay raises and title changes — though these are often deserved! But women do want to know they aren’t struggling alone, unseen, abandoned or unappreciated. When you take time to listen, you provide validation and elevate women as leaders. You also gain priceless insight into how you can better lead your church to be inclusive of everyone’s gifts and contributions.
an honest conversation with him about the material. When the board met, they agreed to increase the pay for women on staff who were making less than men in comparable roles. Another group of board members apologized to female staff members for being so ignorant of the challenges they face. They committed to work together toward eliminating bias from their culture. I’m so encouraged by the leaders who are jumping in to this conversation and really working to make sure they are living out their beliefs in a helpful way. There is still much to do. But we will continue to move in a positive direction as leaders rise up, embrace the sometimes awkward conversations, and do the hard work of leading change within their cultures. Together, we can identify roadblocks, open up dialogue, create solutions and become more intentional about developing everyone God calls to our churches.
Embrace Change
In my book, Developing Female Leaders, I address eight best practices for developing female leaders (see the sidebar). Since its release, I’ve seen positive changes and heard many encouraging stories. One senior pastor who read the book immediately called his board members and asked them to read it and commit to
Kadi Cole is a leadership and organizational consultant, speaker and author of Developing Female Leaders. For more information, visit KadiCole.com.
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"FREEDOM" IN SPAIN
SHARING THE LIGHT OF CHRIST IN THE DARK WORLD OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
"FIRE" IN ARMENIA
A CRY FOR GOD'S WORD IN THEIR HEART LANGUAGE. PROVIDING THE FIREBIBLE FOR ARMENIA.
Best practices of churches growing through evangelism. RICK RICHARDSON
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evin leads a small church that feels like an extended family. People often get together for events and meals. Small groups sometimes meet, but most gatherings are for the whole congregation. Though Kevin has a heart for outreach, few people in the church share his vision. Members love the family atmosphere and don’t really want to become larger. They see seeker-oriented churches as shallow and modern evangelism as superficial and intrusive. They would never say so because who’s going to speak publicly against reaching people who don’t know Jesus? But that’s the reality. Kevin is not sure what to do.
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There’s no panacea, but perhaps we can learn something from the 10% of churches in America that are primarily by making disciples who make disciples.
Bill faces a different situation. He leads a large church with many programs for many types of people in many different stages of life. The church has a men’s ministry and women’s ministry, Sunday School for retired people, Sunday School for people who especially support missions, and Sunday School for young families. Leadership does a great job with premarital counseling, and they have a highly developed small-group system. Yet Bill does not feel like his church is helping many people come to Christ. The church has tried outreach programs and events. Congregants may have seen a win or two, a season of some conversions, but they always seem to fall back into default mode. Most people in the church are focused on the programs of the church that are designed for Christians. Bill wants things to change, but he has no idea how to make it happen — and it’s not that he hasn’t tried. He preaches an evangelism series every year and encourages people to invite friends. Hardly anybody does. A few years back, Bill tried to transition the church to a more seeker-oriented approach. He stopped trying when worship wars broke out over the relative mix of hymns and contemporary songs. A number of his leaders voiced
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concern that discipleship would suffer if the church adopted a more evangelistic focus. Can you relate to any of these struggles? Do you ever feel stuck or stymied in your outreach efforts? Church leaders want to obey Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). But are we getting it done? And how can we do better? As director of the Billy Graham Research Institute at Wheaton College in Illinois, I’ve spent a lot of time pursuing answers to those questions. The institute partnered with LifeWay research to conduct an online survey of 2,000 unchurched people across the U.S., representing diverse regions, ethnicities, and communities. We also conducted a phone survey of 4,500 Protestant churches. Finally, we followed up with interviews of 60 pastors and 60 previously unchurched people from the top 10% of congregations who are growing through evangelism. This research gave us tremendous data and insight. Our research revealed that 90% of the churches in America are either plateaued, declining, or growing primarily at the expense of other churches through transfers. The vast majority of churches in America are basically
playing a zero-sum game. Most pastors have sought a way to improve their witness and win souls for Christ rather than just moving people around between churches, but the needle isn’t moving for them. There’s no panacea, but perhaps we can learn something from the 10% of churches in America that are growing primarily by making disciples who make disciples. We call them conversion communities. People coming to Christ and experiencing life change are regular occurrences in these churches. And 10% of their regular attenders have come to Christ in the last year. The really good news is we found these conversion communities in large and small churches, in urban, suburban, and rural areas, and among diverse ethnicities and racial backgrounds. My conclusion, based on broad research and broad experience on the ground applying the research, is this: Whatever your context and size, you too can become a conversion community. What are these churches doing that you could do? We found 10 predictive factors that characterized conversion communities. Consider which of the factors are in place in your church. Where is your church strongest? What do you need to strengthen or put in place?
Top 10 Predictive Characteristics for Conversion Communities 1. Members invite, include and involve the unchurched. 2. Leaders regularly teach a next-steps class. 3. Leaders regularly attend evangelism training (e.g., missional pastor cohorts). 4. Leaders regularly and personally invite people to Christ. 5. The church financially invests in missions and outreach. 6. People (not just the pastors or professionals) are reaching out and sharing their faith. 7. Leaders translate the regular message to unchurched people and their lives. 8. Church ministry engages the community. 9. The church culture attracts transfers as well as unchurched people. 10. Leaders block out time for personally engaging in evangelism outside the church. From You Found Me by Rick Richardson. Copyright (c) 2019 by Richard C. Richardson III. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, www.ivpress.com.
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These are predictive characteristics. When you find predictive factors in research, you have found pure gold because of their high level of reliability. We discovered these through regression analysis, an approach that involves controlling for every variable but one to see the impact it has. That said, there are three important findings. First, conversion community leaders intentionally reach out and share their faith, even blocking out time on the calendar to do so. These leaders model the intentionality they hope their people will imitate. And the people catch it. They don’t just sit back and cheer their leaders on. They imitate their leaders and reach out to share their faith. Second, these churches engage their communities — not only sharing the gospel but also meeting needs. They proclaim and demonstrate the good news and its results. If they only do just one or the other, they are not nearly as effective in reaching people. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, churches that are reaching people today are deeply hospitable to the unchurched. Those who visit know they are expected, wanted, included, and able to contribute something to the life of the community. We distilled all this down to a simple equation:
+
ML Missional Leaders
MC Missional Congregation
=
CC Conversion Community
From You Found Me by Rick Richardson. Copyright (c) 2019 by Richard C. Richardson III. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, www.ivpress.com.
Congregations who follow this model are growing, changing lives, making disciples, and influencing their communities. Missional leaders model personal outreach. They build friendships, initiate spiritual conversations, share their faith when they have opportunity, and invite people into Christian community when the time is right. They also integrate an evangelistic concern into the ministries they lead. These leaders encourage staff members to engage in outreach, and they practice hospitality to nonbelievers. But conversion communities don’t just have missional leaders. They also have missional practices that char-
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acterize the congregation as a whole. Together they create a culture of engaging people outside the church, bringing people into the church, and extending spectacular hospitality to visitors. Such congregations have a DNA of extension, invitation and hospitality. From the weekly worship services to youth events, children’s ministries, and compassion outreaches, this engaged, invitational and hospitable culture marks everything the congregation does. So how do we develop missional leaders and missional congregations? It begins with a renewed focus on the Great Commission. Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, Texas, is a great example of developing the missional leader part of the equation. The multisite church has planted dozens of other churches. Leaders have also helped churches across the city organize to reach people in Austin. Despite all this, Lead Pastor Tim Hawks was dissatisfied with the church’s impact in evangelism. The church was not a conversion community, though it had tried many ways of moving in that direction. Church leaders knew they needed to mobilize and release their people, but they weren’t sure how. Hawks and his outreach influence leader, Chuck Barber, joined a pastor cohort and over the last couple of years have seen incredible progress. What did they do? First, Hawks began to model personal evangelism other people could imitate in more intentional and focused ways. Pastors have a lot of ways they interact with people that are unique to their profession — such as ministering at funerals, performing baptisms, officiating at weddings, and preaching on Sundays. None of their people can imitate those ways of reaching out. So if pastors want people to imitate them, which is the only way evangelism ever gets caught, they need to reach out in their neighborhoods and communities in ways their people can reproduce. It is amazing to see how much more vibrant in personal outreach senior pastors become with just a little encouragement from their friends — in our case, other pastors in the cohort. No matter how much pastors value personal evangelism and witness, it is easy for that value to get lost in the midst of a busy and demanding leadership life and the huge task of running a church. Hawks felt like mission drift had set in for him. So he made a fresh commitment to build relational bridges in
Conversion communities don’t just have missional leaders. They also have missional that characterize the congregation as a whole.
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his neighborhood and pay more attention to how God might be at work among the unchurched people around him. At our encouragement, Hawks then recruited Barber to help him take an evangelistic lifestyle to the whole congregation. Barber was in charge of small groups at the time, but he also had a huge heart for outreach and really wanted to see every congregant become engaged in reaching and blessing non-Christians in all their spheres of influence. Hawks and Barber shared this vision with the church’s leadership team and started taking intentional steps toward making it a reality. Every 30 days, the team met to talk about their life of witness. They asked leaders to rate their passion for reaching unchurched people on a scale from 1 to 10. They also asked them to share stories of spiritual conversations they were having with nonbelievers. You might think this kind of accountability for personal witness would be uncomfortable, and perhaps it was a little awkward at first. But it has now become the highlight of their leadership meetings. And without this kind of inspiring, loving, direct accountability, people don’t change. By providing inspiration, accountability, and instruction on how to have spiritual conversations, and planning ways to make outreach more intentional, Hawks and Barber are seeing results. Their whole leadership culture
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is shifting. In the last year, 17 of their key leaders personally led 51 people to Christ. This change represents radical forward progress. This church had the heart and desire, but members didn’t have the path. They are now walking a path of evangelism and outreach, and God is blessing it. On the missional community side of the equation, I think of Constance Evangelical Free Church just north of Minneapolis. Lead Pastor Randy Discher and outreach influence leader Sean McDowell partnered to make five key missional practices part of the whole congregation. We call them the BLESS practices, rooted in God’s promise to Abraham that God would fulfill His mission by blessing Abraham and then by blessing all the nations of the earth through Abraham. The five missional practices are: 1. Begin with prayer: Pray for and with unchurched people. 2. Listen: Take time to hear from people and learn their spiritual stories. 3. Eat: Develop the relationship through sharing food. 4. Serve: Meet the needs of others, and let them meet yours. 5. Story: Share your faith story and the story of Jesus.
Based on our research that has identified best practices and then applied them through pastor cohorts in hundreds of churches, I believe
can become a conversion community.
Anyone can do these things wherever they live, work, study or play. These simple steps make evangelism doable and motivating for the everyday people in our churches. Constance has wholeheartedly pursued these practices, motivating and equipping all its people and reaching out as a whole church into the community. When the leaders started on this path, it was a huge prayer of faith for them to trust God to lead 50 people to Christ through their congregation. Since shifting their whole church culture, the congregation has seen 272 people come to Christ in the last year. Most of these converts are still attending and are growing in Christ and with the congregation. With 1,500 in weekly attendance, the church is now a conversion community. It has committed to pursuing this path for the long haul. I could tell you many more stories. I think of a Hispanic Assemblies of God congregation in Boston who has become a conversion community over these last few years, and of a small Methodist church in Portland, Oregon, that has engaged its community and seen conversion growth in powerful ways. The list goes on. We have seen this kind of change in every size church,
of every ethnicity, in every context — urban, suburban and rural. Based on our research that has identified best practices and then applied them through pastor cohorts in hundreds of churches, I believe every church can become a conversion community. As you trust and seek God, reach out to those who don’t know Christ, and pursue the conversion community equation by developing missional leaders and missional congregational practices, you, too, can see your church transform. There is no one-size-fits-all formula. But there is a path and a process for changing the DNA of your congregation. Do you want to become a conversion community? I believe you can.
Dr. Rick Richardson is professor of evangelism and leadership at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He directs the Church Evangelism Institute for the Billy Graham Center and is the author of You Found Me: New Research Showing How Unchurched Nones, Millennials, and Irreligious are Surprisingly Open to Christian Faith.
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MIKE CLARENSAU
Managing our lives with wisdom and intentionality has never been more essential.
FACING THE CHALLENGES OF PASTORING WITH REALISM AND HOPE
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A
nother tragic headline — “Pastor loses fight with depression and takes his own life” — sends shock waves across social media platforms. Meanwhile, other ministers quietly vacate their pulpits after burning out, breaking down, or breaching standards of morality. What is going on? Should we anticipate such collapse in a life of calling designed by a benevolent Savior, or has pastoring in America become something apart from His design? Over the years, I’ve worked closely with hundreds of pastors — as a member of their ranks, as a consultant helping them through their challenges, as a leader in district and national roles, and as an academic dean at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas. I have often felt concern for the seeming escalation of expectation coming from a relatively new source: the leadership demands of their expanding organizations. I sometimes find myself wondering whether we have made pastoring a task that too easily exceeds human capacity. One can hardly look away from the evidence or ignore the steady flow of stories chronicling ministry collapses. In my academic role, I hear students asking different questions than in previous years: “Can I survive as a pastor?” “If strong and respected leaders are having such problems, what will it be like for me?” Such questions require more than an easy motivational tweet in response. Through my work with pastors, I know the struggle is greater than a polished conference culture wants to acknowledge. Yet many of us would insist that life in local church ministry remains the most rewarding path we could have taken. It’s a calling I certainly want my students to be unafraid of pursuing. This life of service to God and His people deserves an enthusiastic “yes.” For that reason, we must be willing to confront some difficult questions and prayerfully work together toward solutions.
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Why Is This Happening?
America’s largest churches are bigger today than ever before, even in denominations where total attendance is in decline. As research coordinator for the Acts 2 Initiative, I recently reported that the average church size in the Assemblies of God USA set another record in 2018, topping 155, even though the median church’s attendance declined to 67, its lowest point in more than four decades. Simply put, though most churches aren’t growing, big churches are getting bigger at an extraordinary rate. With that growth comes even greater demands on ministers — those who are trying to keep up as well as those who are trying to catch up. In 2018, the Assemblies of God also saw the highest level of plateaued and declining churches since such reporting began in 1980. Fully 70% of churches now fall into that category, and many pastors are scrambling to figure out why. They feel the weight of their spiritual responsibility — and the expectations of others for measurable increases in nickels, noses and notable experiences. This pressure, along with myriad other stressors ministers face, ultimately affect the mental, physical and relational health of many.
Mental Health
In their 2012 book Rebound From Burnout: Resilience Skills for Ministers, retired Assemblies of God missionaries Nathan Davis, a psychologist, and Beth Davis, former director of AG HealthCare Ministries (now CompassionLink), introduced their research on pastoral stress. They used the widely accepted Holmes-Rahe stress scale, which assigns numeric stress levels to a variety of significant events, such as the death of a family member or close friend, a major illness, or marital problems. While ministers may not personally experience such struggles more frequently than others, they regularly encounter crises as they preach funerals, make hospital visits, and counsel parishioners.
As the Davises point out, ministry life frequently finds the pastor in the midst of several items on the HolmesRahe scale. This scale assigns a numeric stress level to a variety of significant events and suggests that the average North American lives year to year with a score of about 100 stress units from all combined stress factors. Some of the highest stress experiences are commonplace for all pastors. Crises, death, and life-threatening illnesses can seem like a part of the regular daily schedule as pastors attempt to help their people in navigating
such waters. In fact, such “vicarious exposure” to others in crises adds significantly to the minister’s stress load and often that of his or her family. Using the Holmes-Rahe scale, the Davises suggest “each instance of vicarious stress brought on by church and community members adds 29–39 additional units of stress, depending on the depth of the minister’s friendship and intervention.” The Davises conclude that many ministers may be living with stress levels of 500–600 units.
Ministers absolutely must develop stress management skills to build greater resilience.
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Ministers often feel highly invested in resolving vicarious stress situations, even though such matters are beyond their control. When a minister tries to help hold a church couple’s marriage together, mediate a relational dispute, or take any other action that requires someone else to make better choices, the uncertainty only adds to the stress. Without question, there are numerous occupations that inherently bring significant stress to those who engage them, and I wouldn’t begin to suggest that ministry life exceeds all others. Still, as the Davises insist, ministers absolutely must develop stress management skills to build greater resilience.
Physical Health
A 2008–16 Duke University longitudinal study of more than 1,100 United Methodist clergy discovered abnormally high rates of obesity and metabolic syndrome — risk factors for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes — among these ministers. In fact, 80% of male clergy members and 64% of female clergy members were overweight or obese. Despite the narrow demographic sample, the Duke study is one of the largest to focus on the fitness of U.S. ministers. Church leaders are often so busy serving the congregation they neglect their physical health, which can affect other areas of their lives. The researchers asked participants to rate their life sat-isfaction across several areas, including material and physical well-being, relationships, community involvement, personal accomplishment and development, and recreation. Respondents who did not exercise regularly had life satisfaction scores lower than those of average Americans. People who fail to practice self-care have a harder time caring for others. It’s a simple principle, but one that is easy for pastors to overlook.
Relational Health
While pastors generally report good relations with family
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and friends, ministry life can also strain relationships. The pastor’s marriage and family relationships bring strength and refuge, so ministers must guard their homes from the onslaught of unrealistic expectations that can dominate these relationships. In February 2017, Barna reported the leading factor that pushes pastors into the relational high-risk category is that “ministry at their current church has been difficult for their family.” Recent stories reveal high levels of family brokenness among pastors who are breaking down. Such trauma has certainly not overtaken every pastor’s home, but coping skills and healthy family dynamics are critical for all ministry families. From my observations as I travel and talk with ministers, it seems the quality and character of relationships with key leaders in the church also affect the emotional health of pastors. Pastor-deacon dynamics play a major role in both leader satisfaction and burnout risk. Where such connections are not healthy, emotional stress for ministers continues to escalate.
An Informal Survey
So how are we doing in the Assemblies of God? I recently conducted an informal survey of 35 national and district leaders, evangelists, and others who travel extensively throughout the pastoral community. Though just 35 respondents participated, it’s worth noting that the district leaders represented in the survey oversee more than one-quarter of the Fellowship’s 13,000 U.S. congregations, and the national executives bring an even broader perspective. Noteworthy among the results is the belief that pastors are making a better effort to care for themselves physically than they did 10 years ago. More than half of these leaders agreed that physical fitness is on the rise, while only a handful felt they had seen a decline in this area. One leader noted that pastors are joining the cultural trend toward more trips to the gym. Another mentioned
When asked if pastors are handling stress more effectively, most provided a definitive “no.” there seems to be a rise in fundraising efforts that include physical activity, such as long bike rides or even triathlon-type events. One leader said, “Pastors who spend time with their people are often doing so through physical activity.” If pastors are prioritizing their physical care, the same cannot be said for managing their emotional and mental health. When asked if pastors are handling stress more effectively, most provided a definitive “no.” Given the reasons for rising stress levels already enumerated, this result, however informal, should generate concern. Availability of resources may help account for the difference between efforts toward greater physical health versus emotional health. After all, gym memberships are often more affordable than counseling appointments. And even though some high-profile ministers have acknowledged their own use of mental health counseling and encouraged ministry friends to do likewise, the stigma often persists. Only two of 35 respondents felt that pastoral families have fewer difficulties today than they did a decade ago. Nearly two-thirds disagreed that such difficulties are diminishing. Given the challenges already mentioned, it shouldn’t be surprising that ministry life isn’t getting easier. If ministers aren’t caring effectively for their own emotional health, their resources for leading their families are likely diminished as well. Less than half of our traveling friends believe pastors
are more consistently taking a “day off” each week. Given that many of these leaders are encouraging such pastors toward self-care, this is disappointing. It’s worth noting that older ministers — even some district leaders themselves — acknowledge failure to establish such a practice, admitting that their work habits were formed in an era where self-care was not as commonly expected. When asked if church conflict is declining, the clear answer is also “no.” Twice as many took this position as those who suggested that conflict had lessened over the past decade. It seems that no arena of possible relief for pastor stress levels is within easy reach.
What Can We Do?
Some ministers have demonstrated a strong resistance to the suggestion that self-care is urgent. Perhaps some believe the nature of their work or level of commitment brings an immunity to such struggles. But it seems that more are willing to face their need as the years progress. As one ministry student recently asked me, “How many pastors have to commit suicide before someone changes something?” Better, perhaps, than sounding alarm bells, we would likely benefit from the practical strategies of those who overcome these hazards with joy and a strong sense of purpose. It may be that one or two of the following choices can right the ship for a struggling pastor. At least, we can know that there are others who have found hope in these choices. 1. Prioritize family relationships. Most pastors seek a balance between home and church life, but it often feels more like a game of tug of war for the pastor’s time. The congregation pulls in one direction, and the pastor’s spouse and children suffer rope burns on the other side. Competition between the church and the pastor’s family will never produce real winners. Every investment a pastor makes in family relationships provides greater strength and health for congregational work. When the pastor’s family is healthy, it’s a win for everyone.
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2. Redistribute the work of ministry. One question every pastor should consider is, How much congregational weight is on my shoulders? Ephesians 4 offers more than just a clear picture of a pastor’s unique assignment. The passage also demonstrates the uniqueness (not superiority) of this calling. The pastor’s role is to build up the body of Christ by equipping members for works of service. The congregation forms the frontline, and the pastor’s true work is in supply. Today’s ministry model often positions the pastor as the entire army, with everyone else watching from a safe distance. It seems apparent that the only way a pastor’s job description can become realistic is if he or she focuses more on the Ephesians 4 assignment. That will also require deacons and other designers of pastoral expectations to get on board with the more biblical idea. Therefore, the question of a health crisis among pastors becomes theirs to answer too. 3. Share the vision. Pastors sometimes struggle to find partners in their ministry efforts because they invite people to join them too far downstream — after the vision and direction are established and the decisions are made. Any true sense of partnership between the pastor and people is likely dependent on the pastor’s willingness to involve others in these initial stages. According to Barna, 6 in 10 pastors say they are “primarily responsible for setting the vision and direction of the church.” Even when this responsibility plays to the pastor’s personal strengths, sharing the responsibility makes it easier to share the load. People who help dream the dream are far more likely
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to engage the necessary steps to fulfill it. They have a greater sense of buy-in from the beginning. Those who do not contribute to the “why” won’t be as interested in taking the necessary steps to reach the “what.” Getting more people involved requires sharing vision planning with a wider circle of leaders. 4. Find ministry friends. Supportive relationships with people who understand the challenges of ministry life can be a quality source of emotional fuel. In recent years, many districts and ministry organizations have recognized this and reorganized their efforts around the relational needs of ministers. Structures once designed for administrative functions have given way to relational cohorts or friendship circles to provide muchneeded connection for pastors. Unfortunately, pastors don’t always take advantage of the available opportunities and resources. Busyness may be to blame. The social demands of the pastorate consume much of a pastor’s relational energy. Yet there is no substitute for the friendship of others in ministry. Age-old competitive fears keep some ministers from
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relying on one another. Cohorts and gatherings can trigger insecurities. However, leaders who participated in the informal survey say pastors who are intentionally building relationships with other pastors are reaping real benefits. 5. Take a day off. Many pastors still aren’t scheduling a consistent day off. Some argue they are wired differently, insisting they benefit more from a couple of afternoons of rest each week. While this may seem like a practical alternative, it misses the point. Human beings need a sabbath. God designed the Sabbath for more than just rest. Like tithing and fasting, it demonstrates and develops our dependence on Him. People have needs seven days a week, and many pastors find themselves justifying an equally demanding pace to help them. At the same time, some congregations struggle to embrace or understand that pastors need a day off. Certainly, this is part of the problem. One way to convey a pastor’s need for rest is to label that day of disengaging such responsibility as a “family day.” This informs people of an important and necessary focus in their pastor’s life and how such a day is being spent. Even older saints whose generation seldom thought a day off was appropriate for a pastor will acknowledge that a regular day to invest in family each week is a good idea. Vacations renamed as “family getaways” or “family trips” can also help a congregation reconsider those interrupting phone calls. 6. Find an outlet. Fun activities or hobbies can provide another means of emotional and mental rest. Outside interests are among the first things many pastors give up in response to the time demands of ministry life. Some have even forgotten how to engage such relaxing moments. One minister told me, “When it has been months since you’ve had any time to yourself, you’re not going to be very good at things like hobbies and fun.” Nevertheless, finding avenues for decompressing
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mentally and emotionally can help maintain emotional health and cultivate a positive self-image. Including family members in those activities can also be a great way to make memories together. 7. Be willing to seek help. Without question, seeking counsel for mental and emotional health needs must become an option ministers choose to engage. Fears and stigmas continue to keep many from taking steps toward healing, despite increased awareness, encouragement, and availability. The best way to initiate change is to live it out. We can show others by example that it is OK to ask for help. This generation and future generations of ministers will grow stronger as a result. Through loving relationships, sabbath priorities and the promise of His presence, God has provided what is needed for the work to which He calls us, but it seems evident that today’s ministers must more effectively engage these provisions and be willing to acknowledge their growing need for help. I love the local church and the joy of engaging its potential. A journey through these hardships shouldn’t steer us from our calling any more than a walk through the ICU would convince us to give up on life. Still, we can’t afford to look away, for there are lessons we can learn from every broken story. Most pastors view ministry as a blessing, but that doesn’t mean it is always easy. Managing our lives and limits with wisdom and intentionality has never been more essential.
Mike Clarensau, D. Min., is dean of the College of Bible and Church Ministries at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas.
AG COLLEGE GUIDE
62 Is a Christian College Education Worth It? 68 A G Colleges and Universities 72 Your Guide to Financing Your Student’s Education
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The content of your education and the people who help you assimilate it into your life are critical to the spiritual person you’re becoming.
I S A C H R I S T I A N C O L L E G E E D U C AT I O N
WO RT H I T ? JOHN DAVIDSON
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good college education will cost you time and money. So you want to make sure the investment is worthwhile. People often ask the question, “Is it worth it to get a college education?” That’s a great question. Financially speaking, research continues to show that those with a college education have higher average lifetime earnings than those who do not. The average college graduate makes $570,000 more than the average high school graduate over a lifetime. So even though college is expensive, the long-term financial payoff is positive. But you might be asking another question as well, “Is it worth it to get a Christian college education?” Or more specifically, “Is it worth it to get an Assemblies of God college education?” My answer is “yes” to both, and following are some reasons why.
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Personal Formation
Attending a college that prioritizes the Holy Spirit’s leading during the decision-making process increases the likelihood a student will make good choices.
College years are formative years. Some of the most important decisions of life are often made during the college years. What field to study, what career to engage, what life calling to pursue, and whom to marry are common decisions made during this time. Attending a college that prioritizes the Holy Spirit’s leading during the decision-making process increases the likelihood a student will make good choices.
Spiritual Formation Every college student at every college is being spiritually formed in one way or another, through both the formal education process and the informal process of natural relationships and exposure to ideas. So the content of your education and the people who help you assimilate it into your life are critical to the spiritual person you’re becoming. At Assemblies of God-endorsed colleges and universities, students receive up to 18 credit hours of Bible and theology courses, regardless of their major discipline of study. On top of that, they attend chapel services regularly, have the opportunity to participate in discipleship and campus ministries, and are surrounded by the positive influence of Christian faculty, staff and peers.
Building Blocks Education is a foundational building block for the rest of life. It is more than the transmission of information from professor to student. It fundamentally changes who you are. There are only a handful of experiences in our lives about which we can make that kind of claim. Education is one of them. Think about it this way: Education isn’t just a product you buy. It’s not like a toothbrush or a car or a new pair
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of shoes. It’s not temporary. We don’t throw it away when it gets old. It’s not a resource that ever gets used up. As long as we live, it lives in us. We all start out uneducated, but once we’re educated, it can’t be undone. It affects how we think, learn and see the world. Because of this, where you choose to go to school matters. Whose teaching you choose to submit yourself to matters. During the course of an average semester, a student taking 15 credit hours will spend around 560 hours in the classroom with professors. That doesn’t count all the other interactions he or she will have with faculty. That time can either build upon a student’s Christian worldview instilled by his or her family and church, or it can undermine it. After all, what’s the difference between Philosophy 101 at a state university and Philosophy 101 at an Assemblies of God college? Probably a lot, and it could affect whether that student continues to follow Jesus. One study from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) shows students attending CCCU-affiliated schools experience only one-fourth the drop in church attendance and one-seventh the drop in prayer versus students at public or private secular schools. I’m the parent of a college student. As a responsible parent, I feel the weight of making good decisions about who is teaching my daughter and the environment in which she is learning. The secular academy is growing more liberal. That doesn’t mean they don’t have things to teach us, and it doesn’t mean you should never pursue education from a secular school. It does mean that when we have the chance to choose our education provider, especially for our younger students, we should choose wisely. As you’re investigating college options for your child, a friend, or students in your church, I encourage you to seriously consider an Assemblies of God college. Administrators at any of the Assemblies of God colleges in this guide would be happy to talk with you about how they can help your students become everything God has called them to be.
Dr. John Davidson is director of Alliance for AG Higher Education in Springfield, Missouri.
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JAN-FEB 2020 Influence COLLEGEAVE. GUIDE | 65 1111 N. GLENSTONE JAN-FEB 2020 Influence COLLEGE GUIDE | 65 SPRINGFIELD, MO 65802
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hoosing to attend an endorsed Assemblies of God college or university gives you the confidence of knowing your college experience will be marked by both a quality education and a vibrant spiritual environment. All AG-endorsed schools meet the following criteria: • Committed to the integration of faith and learning in its curriculum • Faculty and administrators who are committed Christians • A commitment to providing students opportunities for spiritual growth and discipleship
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ASSEMBLIES OF GOD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 1435 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, MO 65802-2131 1-800-467-AGTS agts.edu
CARIBBEAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE P.O. Box 1335, Bayamรณn, PR 00960 (787) 780-5555 ctcad.com
CHRIST MISSION COLLEGE 10822 FM 1560 N., San Antonio, TX 78254 (210) 688-3101 cmctx.org
EVANGEL UNIVERSITY 1111 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, MO 65802 1-800-EVANGEL (382-6435) evangel.edu
GLOBAL UNIVERSITY 1211 S. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, MO 65804 1-800-443-1083 globaluniversity.edu
KOREAN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF NEW YORK 13030 31st Ave., Flushing, NY 11354-2818 (718) 461-9700
LABI COLLEGE 14209 E. Lomitas Ave., La Puente, CA 91746 (626) 968-1328 labi.edu
NATIVE AMERICAN BIBLE COLLEGE 355 Albert Currie Rd., Shannon, NC 28386 (910) 843-5304 nabc.edu
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NORTHPOINT BIBLE COLLEGE 320 S. Main St., Haverhill, MA 01835 (978) 478-3400 northpoint.edu
NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY 5520 108th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98033 (425) 822-8266 northwestu.edu
SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY 1000 Longfellow Blvd., Lakeland, FL 33801 (863) 667-5000 seu.edu
SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY 1200 Sycamore St., Waxahachie TX 75165 1-888-YES-SAGU sagu.edu
SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE 10020 N. 15th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85021 (602) 944-3335 aicag.edu
TRINITY BIBLE COLLEGE & GRADUATE SCHOOL 50 Sixth Ave. S., Ellendale, ND 58436 1-800-523-1603 trinitybiblecollege.edu
UNIVERSITY OF VALLEY FORGE 1401 Charlestown Rd., Phoenixville, PA 19460 1-800-432-8322 valleyforge.edu
VANGUARD UNIVERSITY 55 Fair Dr., Costa Mesa, CA 92626-9601 1-800-722-6279 vanguard.edu
NORTH CENTRAL UNIVERSITY 910 Elliot Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404 1-800-289-6222 northcentral.edu
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ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE SINCE 1920 Orange County, CA’s first 4-year college. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY CHRIST-CENTERED
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YOUR GUIDE TO FINANCING YOUR STUDENT’S EDUCATION KENT INGLE
A
s you begin navigating the process of sending your child to college, the financial hurdles can feel overwhelming. It may even seem financially impossible. Yet Matthew 6:26 reminds us not to worry and offers assurance that God will provide: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Ask God to guide you and your student in this process, and more will be possible than you can imagine. There are several ways to secure a college degree without breaking the bank. Finding out what is available is the first step. Learning the ins and outs of the scholarship process is essential to starting your student off on the right foot and ensuring he or she won’t graduate with a heavy debt load. Collectively, students receive approximately $49 billion in scholarships and grants each year. These funds come from state and federal governments, colleges and universities, and private organizations. But to access them, parents and students need the right tools and resources — and a willingness to take the time to understand them. Most families never fully utilize the funding available to them. During the 2016–17 academic year alone, roughly $2.3 billion in federal grant money was never claimed due to one significant factor: Students failed to fill out their FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). As you begin looking for the right school, don’t write off a college based on its stated tuition price. First ask what aid and discounts may be available to you.
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To ensure your family doesn’t miss out on available funds, you will need to educate yourself. Financial aid for college comes in many different forms, from many different sources. The better you understand them, the closer you will move toward making college dreams a reality. Here are the key financial options you will want to become familiar with:
Loans
There are government-subsidized loans and private loans, student loans and parent loans. Borrowers must pay back these funds, usually with interest. Government loans tend to come with lower interest rates and more lenient repayment options than private loans. Student loans are often part of the financial aid package a university offers, though the student can choose not to accept any or all loans. To learn more about the borrowing process and the different types of loans available, visit the U.S. Department of Education website.
Grants
Gift aid in the form of grants and scholarships comes with no expectation of repayment. In general, grants are need-based — designated to students with financial needs, often determined by a family’s income level. Scholarships are most often merit-based — awarded to students who demonstrate academic, athletic, artistic or even social achievement.
Scholarships
Scholarships generally fall into the following categories: • External scholarships, financial aid from private or nonprofit organizations. • School-sponsored scholarships, including need-based, academic and athletic scholarships from universities. • Need-based scholarships from the government or private organizations and schools. Availability depends on your financial situation. This category may include scholarships for specific demographic groups, such as underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students.
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• Merit-based scholarships based on GPA, test scores (PSAT, SAT and ACT), athletics, artistic ability, and more. • Renewable scholarships, which a student may receive each academic year, sometimes contingent on grades and enrollment. • Non-renewable scholarships, one-time gift aid for a single academic year or semester.
FAFSA
Filling out a FAFSA is one of the first steps college-bound students should take (fafsa.ed.gov), even prior to choosing a college or university. FAFSA helps colleges and the government determine a student’s eligibility for certain need-based grants, loans, and federal work study programs. The FAFSA application, which a student must submit each academic year, uses tax information, income, family size, and the number of siblings in college, among other things, to determine the expected family contribution (EFC) toward college tuition. The government and schools can then offer financial aid that helps supplement scholarships and other aid. The application opens Oct. 1 each year, and some state funds are available on a firstcome, first-served basis. For more details on funding college, check out my latest book, The Modern Guide to College. It may be helpful to visit the financial aid offices of prospective schools. You can also use the net price calculator tools on university websites for a financial aid estimate. Determining how to pay for a college education can be a demanding, often frustrating process — for both parents and students. However, it is also a great opportunity for your family to work as a team. Remain patient with one another, and remember it will take some time. If you seek to utilize all the options available to you, you will find sufficient ways to financially support your student’s education. Even when it doesn’t seem possible, remember that where God leads, He will also provide. We can trust Him to guide us and open doors to the right opportunities. Dr. Kent Ingle is president of Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He is the author of four books, including The Modern Guide to College.
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MULTIPLIERS Leaders Leveraging Their Gifts for God’s Kingdom
PENTECOSTAL WORSHIP FOR A NEW GENERATION orship through music is an intrinsic part of the Pentecostal experience. In churches large and small, it is a sacred time in the service when God speaks through songs and softens our hearts to be able to hear His voice. It sets the atmosphere for God to move. How do we pass on the fire of His presence from one generation to the next? So many things about Pentecostal worship are best caught, not just taught. How do we balance a pursuit of the presence of God with the development of skill and excellence? In this issue’s Multipliers, you will meet four dynamic Pentecostal worship leaders. They embody a resurging philosophy of worship that is all about giving the Holy Spirit space to move and people space to respond. At the same time, they demonstrate a passion for doing it well, driven by the desire to make it easy to flow in worship. Their hearts for multiplication motivate them to help young musicians and singers develop into powerful worship leaders. John Dreher is the worship pastor at Faith Assembly in Orlando, Florida. He draws from the rich experiences of leading in all different kinds of churches, cultures and denominations during his formative years. Creating an atmosphere free of fear where people can have access to leaders who believe in them is core to his philosophy of ministry. When Heidi Hewuse became the worship
W
pastor at First Assembly of God in Lexington, Kentucky, she started with what she knew to do: raise up and disciple a youth worship team. Out of that, she and her husband, Travis, have taken dozens of students to the AG National Fine Arts Festival year after year. Kurtis Parks began leading worship in his dad’s church plant when he was 14. Doors opened for him to sing on American Idol, and he received multiple offers for recording contracts, but he walked away to pursue worship. After seven years as the worship pastor at National Community Church in Washington, D.C., he planted Bridges Nashville (AG) in Nashville, Tennessee. He is sharing Christ through music and seeing lives transformed in an unlikely setting. JonCarlos Velez grew up outside of Milwaukee in a Puerto Rican family. He fell in love with music at an early age, and a teacher who saw potential in Velez gave him free lessons. This inspired Velez and his wife, Gabriela, to launch SOAR, an affordable music school operating out of Emmanuel Christian Center (AG) in Minneapolis, where he serves as worship pastor. Each of these people will challenge and inspire you to go beyond the confines of size, space and routine to see the potential in young leaders and act as a guide to them. They are multiplying themselves by giving others an opportunity to lead, becoming less so Christ can become greater.
Kristi Northup is executive pastor and worship leader at Saints Community Church (AG) in New Orleans, where she leads alongside her husband, Wayne. She is director of CMN Women and writes a column for Influencemagazine.com.
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John Dreher is the worship pastor at Faith Assembly in Orlando, Florida.
Encouraging Others to Step Out A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN DREHER
“As worship pastors and leaders looking to be multipliers, we have to be accessible and available to those who want to learn.”
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ohn Dreher started singing in church very young. At age 5, he sang his first solo, “Jesus Loves Me.” “My mother and father had me very involved,” Dreher says. In high school, he tried out everything — even cameras and hospitality ministry in the kitchen, but he soon discovered his calling to worship ministry. In college, Dreher made music as often as he could. Early on Sunday mornings, he served on a worship team at a predominantly white Methodist church. Then he directed the choir at a predominantly black Baptist church. On Wednesdays, he led a Presbyterian contemporary worship service with traditional liturgy. On Saturdays, he served a small Pentecostal church. Those undergrad years gave him a broad exposure to liturgy, denominations and intercultural experiences. “I found that people were people and God is God,” Dreher says. “The differences are what we make of it.” During this time, he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. “I met some young people who didn’t act like everyone else I grew up with,” Dreher says. “They lived a life of holiness, and it drew me to that experience. It came out of a time of worship. We were coming home
J
from a service in my friend’s truck, worshipping, and, like the old saints would say, something got ahold of me! That was my first real Pentecostal environment.” Remaining open to the leading of the Spirit and favoring authenticity over perfectionism in worship are paramount to Dreher. “I’ve been places where it was fear-based,” Dreher says. “Sometimes the music director is like a slave driver. You’re made to feel like, I better not mess up or get up there making God look crazy.” A few weeks after Dreher started working at Faith Assembly in Orlando, Florida, the pastor pulled him aside and said, “You don’t have to tiptoe around me. I believe in what God brought you here to do.” The pastor encouraged Dreher to celebrate mistakes and move forward. “It set me free,” Dreher says. “In the worship ministry here at Faith, I try to create an environment that’s love- and encouragement-based. We’re going to prepare, practice, do everything we can, but you can’t go back and change what happened. I’m not going to belittle or berate anyone.” Dreher offers this advice to leaders who want to multiply themselves: “As worship pastors and leaders looking to be multipliers, we have to be accessible and available to those who want to learn. If you have a demanding fear-based environment, you’re making yourself less accessible to those who want to draw from you. You can’t multiply anyone who can’t get ahold of your hand. “So be accessible to your team, and create an atmosphere where people can draw from you.”
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Matching Gifts With Skills
Heidi Hewuse is the worship pastor at First Assembly of God in Lexington, Kentucky.
“... in the Pentecostal setting, it’s so much more than just singing and playing. The role is discerning what the Holy Spirit is doing in the room.”
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A Q&A WITH HEIDI HEWUSE
naturally to me, and it opened my whole world.
When Heidi Hewuse became a worship pastor at First Assembly of God in Lexington, Kentucky, she and her husband, Travis (who was the youth pastor), wanted to raise up students to discover their gifts and callings. So they did what they knew to do: They started with the worship team. Being in a church that ran less than 250 didn’t keep them from dreaming big. Over seven years, they took 20 to 30 students to the AG National Fine Arts Festival every year. Now Travis is the lead pastor at First Assembly, and Heidi continues as the worship pastor to develop students and adults alike.
What are the most important things to pass on to a young worship leader? There are a lot of singers out there, but in the Pentecostal setting, it’s so much more than just singing and playing. The role is discerning what the Holy Spirit is doing in the room. I’m not looking for the most talented. I’m looking for people who have a heart for God and for worship. I want to help them observe the people and have an ear to what the Holy Spirit is saying. Then I just try to help them develop skills to match the spiritual gifting I’m seeing. On the other hand, you may have a skilled person who seems uninterested in the spiritual. If you invest yourself, walk with them and pray for them, God can spark the fire. It can’t be taught; it has to be caught. It’s the two sides of the coin.
INFLUENCE: What was it that put such a heart in you to equip students? HEWUSE: Even as a small child, I always loved worship. When I was 15, I was given the opportunity by a worship leader to come in after school and learn how to do worship music. For whatever reason, we lost our piano player. Our music minister chose me, even though I clearly was not the best choice. He taught me how to play a chord chart. It had a huge impact on my life that, at 15, he had given me a chance. Now I had the skills to do what came
What’s the hardest part? If you’re going to choose to be a trainer, you have to be willing to let them go. Some will stay, but many will go. You have to have your hands open and let them follow God’s leading. This is a Kingdom effort. It’s not about my church or my ministry, but seeing people pursue God’s dreams for them.
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Kurtis Parks is lead pastor at Bridges Nashville (AG) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sharing the Message Through Music A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H K U R T I S P A R K S
“Message plus music equals memory.”
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urtis Parks started leading worship in the church his father had planted when he was just 14 years old. That led to many years of wrestling with whether to be an entertainer or a worship leader. After traveling and appearing on American Idol, he was on the brink of signing a recording contract. But Parks sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to him, saying, “This is not the path you are supposed to go down.” Parks walked away, and God began to open doors for him to pursue worship ministry. Not long after, Parks became the worship director at National Community Church (AG) in Washington, D.C., led by pastor and New York Times best-selling author Mark Batterson. They crafted a culture of songwriting around the messages, which created the content for seven worship albums. Recently, Parks — along with his wife,
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Sarah, and their two children — took a leap of faith and planted Bridges Nashville (AG) in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee. They’ve introduced the community to a new way of doing church through music and song. “Our vision statement is ‘Where God’s presence and His people connect,’” Parks says. “That’s been at the center of everything.” There is an abundance of great performance and production in Music City, but Parks says it can be challenging to get people to pour out their hearts to God in an authentic way. Parks is passionate about sharing Christ through music. He sees biblical support for this in passages like Colossians 3:16: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” “I think about a song like ‘Be Thou My Vision,’ and it’s been around for over 1,000 years,” Parks says. “The message has not been forgotten because we sing it, and we remember it.” Parks summarizes his ministry philosophy this way: “Message plus music equals memory.” Bridges meets at Nashville’s No. 1 songwriting venue, The Listening Room Cafe, where country songwriters perform six nights a week. Amazingly, God opened the door for the church to use the facility on Sundays. “We open with four songs, during which we do two teaching moments,” Parks says. “This is followed by a message that is like a TED talk, lasting 16 to 18 minutes. Then we have a response song that goes with the talk. After that, we have what we call Selah. It’s a quiet, contemplative time in God’s presence that builds. We have Scriptures on the screen and a prayer team off to the side. We receive Communion every week. The worship builds to the end. It’s tied in to everything we do.” Bridges is reaching artists and musicians, songwriters and creatives. Parks and his team are sharing the Word of God through a medium they love and understand.
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Resourcing the Community JonCarlos Velez is the worship pastor at Emmanuel Christian Center (AG) in Minneapolis.
A Q&A WITH JONCARLOS VELEZ
“In history, the Church was the epicenter of the arts. Why can’t the church be the main source of music education for the community?”
INFLUENCE: How did you become interested in worship ministry? VELEZ: It all started with my praying grandma, a little Puerto Rican woman, Mercedes Alvarado. She always modeled the importance of prayer and gratitude and thanksgiving to Jesus. Being Hispanic, it was lively! The charisma of music was ingrained at a young age. When I was 12, my family began attending Oak Creek Assembly in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The most appealing to me was when they had a moment that would flow, and they would just sing out a song of praise — unscripted, no agenda. Those were the moments that drew me in to a worship relationship. I got involved at youth group playing bass. I started learning the structure of worship. I grew a passion for it. I learned that there’s power in preparation. Preparation can open up a place for the flow, to do it with excellence so that when the Holy Spirit wants to take it in a direction, it puts people at ease and reduces the disruption. How has your upbringing influenced your philosophy of worship leading? Worship should be the most welcoming moment on Sunday morning. If you are hospitable to people, they will be open to the moving of the Holy Spirit. If people come to your house, you work hard to plan out a dinner. Why? You want to build a relationship. We want them to feel like, They took the time to set this up for me. I tell my worship leaders, “Your job is to be the most hospitable person in the room.” We work hard to prepare ourselves. We set the table so they can come, be filled, and then
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the Lord can talk. I’m open to the Holy Spirit, and I want people to be open to the move of God in their lives as well. How did SOAR (School of Artistic Refinement) come about? When I was growing up, my parents couldn’t afford lessons. My music teacher told my parents, “I want to invest in JonCarlos.” She gave her time after school to me, putting tools of practice in my hand. I have the principles today because I was at the right place at the right time. How many kids have a gift, but there’s no one in their lives to invest in their gifts? My wife and I had the idea to open a school that was affordable. We have a team of 10 to 12 instructors who teach guitar, voice, piano, drums and recording. We’ve been able to secure funding through grants and through the investment of our church. How do you envision the future of SOAR? In history, the Church was the epicenter of the arts. Why can’t the church be the main source of music education for the community? We want to be a light and a resource. We’re about 2½ years old as a school, and we’ve seen hundreds of students in our program. Many of them have ended up coming into the church. It’s opened the doors in the public schools, mentoring, coaching, being the hands and feet of Jesus. My dream is to see a SOAR center in every major city, raising up influencers through the curriculum, language, values and training God has helped us develop. Schools badly need the resources for the arts. The Church can raise up the next generation of artists and worship leaders. For more information, visit iwillsoar.org.
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MAKE IT COUNT An Eight-Week Study for Leadership Teams
MEASURING CHURCH HEALTH
8 KEYS TO GETTING A PULSE ON SUCCESS STEPHEN BLANDINO
FREE DOWNLOADABLE DISCUSSION GUIDE HANDOUTS Go to InfluenceMagazine.com • Click on “Downloads”
WHAT IS MAKE IT COUNT?
Week after week you invest time and energy into making every Sunday count. But you also have to think about staff meetings, board meetings, and meetings with key volunteers and other church leaders. Juggling so many meetings can seem overwhelming, especially as you think about developing the leaders around you. Effective leaders are continually looking for great leadership content they can use to develop and mentor other leaders. Make It Count is a powerful, little tool to help you accomplish just that. Each Make It Count lesson is easily adaptable for individual or group discussion, allowing for personal application and reflection among your ministry leaders and
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lead volunteers. The lessons are useful as devotionals in board and staff meetings and in departmental meetings with your lead volunteers. Studying and growing together is an important practice of building strong, healthy relationships with your team members. It is also a necessary component of building healthy, flourishing Blandino churches. These lessons can help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.
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ow do you measure the health of your church? That question can leave your mind spinning. In fact, for many pastors, it’s a controversial question. Some leaders get hung up on the word “measure.” The church is spiritual, so how can you measure spirituality? Other pastors get hung up on “health.” Their strategy is to count, and if the numbers are up, they assume health must also be up. Believe it or not, there really are ways to measure the health of your church. A holistic approach can yield meaningful metrics so you can take steps toward improvement. In this edition of Make It Count, we’re going to unpack eight ways to get a pulse on the health and success of a church. Those eight measurements include the following: • Communities: Whom Are We Reaching? • Stories: Are Lives Being Changed? • Disciples: Are We Developing Fully Devoted Followers of Christ? • Spirit Baptisms: Are People Being Empowered by the Spirit? • Leaders: Are We Equipping Volunteers and Leaders? • Service: Are People Outward Focused? • Growth: Are Our Numbers and Percentages Growing? • Culture: Is Our Environment Healthy? As you read these lessons and discuss them with your team, I believe you’ll become better equipped to help the church grow in health. This is not an overnight process, and some of the application will require hard work. It’s also going to require some thick skin, as well as a willingness to engage in candid conversations. But the results will be worth it.
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The following eight, easy-to-use lessons on measuring church health are written by Stephen Blandino, lead pastor of 7 City Church (AG) in Fort Worth, Texas (7citychurch. com). He planted 7 City Church in 2012 in a thriving cultural arts district near downtown Fort Worth. Blandino blogs regularly at stephenblandino.com and is the author of several books, including Do Good Works, Creating Your Church’s Culture, and GO! Starting a Personal Growth Revolution.
HOW TO USE MAKE IT COUNT
We are pleased to offer the Make It Count Discussion Guide in a downloadable PDF, available through the “Downloads” button on Influencemagazine.com. Each lesson in the PDF Make It Count Discussion Guide is divided into a
Leader’s page and Team Member’s page. The Leader’s page corresponds directly to the material in this print issue of the magazine. We encourage you to print multiple copies of the PDF Discussion Guide from Influencemagazine.com for all your ministry leaders and the team members they lead in your church or organization. You will notice that key words and concepts are underlined in each lesson on the Leader’s page. These underlined words and concepts correspond to the blank spaces found on the team member lesson pages. Team members can fill in the blanks as you progress through each lesson’s material. We trust these lessons will help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.
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Measuring Church Health: 8 Keys to Getting a Pulse on Success
Communities: Whom Are We Reaching? Assess: How would you describe the typical person who attends your church? Insights and Ideas
he apostle Paul had an unwavering commitment to reach people with the gospel. He said, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). He made adjustments in his approach to reach various groups of people. Each church is unique in whom it attracts. Unfortunately, our assumptions about whom we’re reaching often prevent us from making the best decisions about our ministry strategies. If you want to measure your church’s health, it helps to understand your primary communities. That happens best by taking four strategic steps: 1. Survey your congregation. Put together a survey to understand who actually attends your church or ministry department. Ask questions about marital status, race, age, employment type, how long they’ve attended, and their spiritual journey. This information will tell you exactly whom your church or ministry is designed to keep. 2. Study your community. There are three ways to study your community — demographic, psychographic and geographic. Demographic research reveals things like age, marital status and race. Psychographic research helps you understand how people think and behave. And geographic research focuses on a specific area of your city. Using an online site like the Association of Religious Data Archives (thearda.com) can help you understand the community living in a geographic radius around your church. 3. Analyze your guest cards. It’s one thing to know who connects to your church, but it’s another thing to discover who is actually visiting. These are not always the same. For example, 62% of the adults visiting 7 City Church are single; however, we have more married adults in our church than we do single adults. That discovery has caused us to make some changes in our ministry strategy. By analyzing your guest cards, you’ll discover exactly who is visiting, and whether this matches who you are keeping and who lives in your community. 4. Identify your target demographic. This doesn’t mean one group of people is more important than another group of people, or that you shouldn’t welcome people who don’t fit your target. What it does mean is that a church cannot reach everybody. Therefore, you need an “aim and accept” strategy. Aim focuses on designing your services to reach a specific target demographic. Accept focuses on welcoming and loving every person who walks through your doors, regardless of whether he or she reflects that target.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. How well does our church reflect our surrounding community? 2. How would we describe the average person who visits our church? 3. Do we have a clear picture of our target demographic?
Apply
Create and administer a congregational survey (using a tool like surveymonkey.com), do some community research within a two- to five-mile radius of your church (using a tool like thearda.com), and take some time to analyze your guest cards from the previous six to 12 months. Then contrast the data and develop a primary (and possibly a secondary) target demographic. Determine what changes to make in your ministry strategy to reach and disciple this group more effectively.
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Stories: Are Lives Being Changed? Team Review: What did you learn from the congregational survey, community study and analysis of your guests? Assess: What’s the best story of life change at your church you’ve heard this year? Insights and Ideas
here’s nothing like a great story. Whether you’re reading a book, watching a movie or listening to a friend, hearing a compelling story of life change is powerful. In the Gospel of John, we read about Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. After this life-changing encounter, the woman’s story compelled others to believe. John 4:39 says, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’” If we’re not careful, ministry can become so focused on the systems, the numbers and the strategies that we forget about what’s most important — life change. How do you measure and capture stories of life change? Here are five tips: 1. Count spiritual decisions. Measure things like the number of people who made decisions to follow Christ and get baptized in water. These decisions are more than stats; they’re actual spiritual steps that produce life change. 2. Ask spiritual questions. Have your staff and key leaders regularly meet one-on-one with people in the congregation. During those meetings, ask, “What’s God doing in your life right now?” The stories you hear might amaze and inspire you. 3. Celebrate wins. At the beginning of each staff meeting or volunteer meeting, ask your team what wins you can celebrate that week. Make it clear that wins are not just about numbers or events. Seek out stories of changed lives. 4. Capture testimonies. Provide opportunities (online, guest connect card or small groups) for people to share personal testimonies. They may be stories of salvation, freedom, restored marriages, financial breakthrough or any number of victories. 5. Share stories of life change. One way to create and capture more stories of life change is to share such stories publicly (with permission, of course). Sharing a story in a sermon or playing a video testimony during a service can lead to spiritual conversations or powerful ministry moments — during or after the service. Ministry is all about people, and every person needs to experience the life-transforming work of Jesus. If you want to measure the health of your church, you have to be strategic about creating ministry where life change can happen, and then capturing those stories of life change.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. From what ministry initiatives do we tend to hear some of the greatest stories of life change? 2. In which of the five strategies above are we strongest? Weakest? 3. How can we better, and more regularly, evaluate whether life change is taking place?
Apply
Select some of the strategies above, or create your own strategies, to measure life change in your ministry. Then monitor their effectiveness. Finally, implement a communication strategy so others can hear and celebrate what God is doing in the congregation.
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Disciples: Are We Developing Fully Devoted Followers of Christ? Team Review: What changes did you make to measure life change more effectively in your
ministry?
Assess: Whom are you currently discipling? Insights and Ideas
t the conclusion of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gave His disciples the ultimate challenge: “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” (Matthew 28:18–20). Making disciples is easier said than done. There is a common assumption we make in churches when it comes to disciple making: activity + attendance = growth. We assume if we host an activity and lots of people attend, we must be generating healthy spiritual growth. In other words, we must be making disciples. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true. Just because people show up does not mean they’re equipped to grow up. So, how do you measure the health of your disciple-making efforts? Consider three qualities: 1. Effective disciple making is relationally driven. Are your discipleship efforts relationally driven or program driven? Programs aren’t necessarily bad. We just need to make sure our programs are highly relational in their design. After all, our calling is to make disciples, not programs. Evaluate your primary discipleship strategy, and determine how much opportunity there is for relational interaction, spiritual discussion, collective prayer and corporate service. How can you raise the spiritual temperature of the group, elevate accountability, and deepen a coaching or mentoring dynamic? 2. Effective disciple making is habit forming. True discipleship should form healthy habits in disciples. A good discipleship strategy should lead disciples to cultivate regular spiritual disciplines, like prayer, Bible study, worship, fasting, giving, serving and sharing their faith. Ask yourself two questions: Are these habits part of our spiritual conversations with group members, volunteers and leaders? Do we equip our disciples with the tools they need to cultivate these habits? Most people have the desire; they just don’t know where to start. 3. Effective disciple making is fruit bearing. Finally, there should be visible fruit in the lives of disciples. Do you see people becoming more like Jesus? Is the fruit of the Spirit evident in their lives? What evidence do you see of their growth? I realize this can be a bit subjective at times, and it’s impossible to see into the heart of the individual. But in most cases, the fruit reveals the root.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What have been the most effective strategies that have helped you grow as a disciple of Jesus? 2. How relationally driven, habit forming and fruit bearing are the discipleship strategies at our church? 3. Are we truly developing disciples? How?
Apply
Take some time to evaluate the health of your current discipleship strategies. What changes do you need to make to ensure they are more relationally driven, habit forming and fruit bearing? Craft a plan, make the adjustments, and begin monitoring your progress. 90 | Influence
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Spirit Baptisms: Are People Being Empowered by the Spirit? Team Review: What did the assessment of your discipleship strategies reveal? Assess: How well do we help people learn about and experience the Holy Spirit? Insights and Ideas
n Acts 1:8, Jesus made a promise that would change the future: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We must not underestimate the importance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individual believers and in the work of the Church. At the same time, pastors today are trying to figure out the best way to help people receive this beautiful gift. So, it’s worth wrestling with two important questions to help us measure our effectiveness in seeing people filled with the Spirit: 1. Knowledge: How do people learn about the Person, work, and baptism in the Holy Spirit? It’s essential we provide teaching on the person of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and how He empowers us with gifts to serve the Church and our world. This includes answering common questions, extinguishing myths and misconceptions, and helping people understand the real purpose of Spirit baptism. When people discover the practical side of who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does, their hearts become hungry for His activity in their lives. They can learn about the Holy Spirit through services, classes, small groups, books and online resources. Don’t get stuck in a single model for helping people grow in their understanding of the Holy Spirit. 2. Experience: Where do people have the opportunity to experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Some churches use Sunday morning services, while others rely on evening services throughout the week. Some churches take a first Wednesday approach, talking about the Holy Spirit and providing opportunity for people to receive this gift on the first Wednesday evening of the month. Still other churches use a small group strategy, weekend retreat or Saturday morning workshop as a place where people can encounter the Spirit’s baptism. The Holy Spirit is creative, so be creative about how people can experience Him. You have to decide what’s best for your context. Once you answer the knowledge and experience questions, measure your effectiveness, and make necessary adjustments to your strategy along the way.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What difference has the Holy Spirit made in your life? 2. When do you teach on the Holy Spirit in your context? 3. What are the best ministry environments for people — children, youth and adults — to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Apply
Work together as a team to answer the knowledge and experience questions for your ministry. Then build your strategy into your calendar (and monitor its effectiveness) to ensure people receive the wisdom and opportunity they need to encounter the Spirit’s work in their lives.
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Leaders: Are We Equipping Volunteers and Leaders? Team Review: What changes did we make to help people increase their knowledge of the Holy Spirit and experience the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives? Assess: On a scale from 1 to 10, how well do we equip volunteers and leaders in our church? Insights and Ideas
he apostle Paul said, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11–13). One of our primary responsibilities as pastors is to equip people to serve. It’s not enough to preach. We must also develop leaders. Developing leaders is one of the most common challenges pastors face. Why? Because it’s hard work. But you cannot measure the health of your church without measuring how well you equip and empower leaders. What’s the best way to do that? Measure three things: 1. Positions. Begin by measuring how many roles exist in your church (and even outside your church) where people can serve. This list might include greeters, parking team members, café attendants, nursery workers, small group leaders, youth volunteers, production crew members, office helpers, and others. When you understand where people can serve, you’re better equipped to know what kind of volunteers and leaders you need to recruit. 2. Pipeline. Next, measure where people are in your leadership pipeline. Most leadership pipelines have multiple levels, such as volunteer, leader, coach, director and staff. A volunteer might be a greeter, while a leader might oversee all the greeters. A coach might support a team of small group leaders, while a director might support a group of coaches. Measure how many people are in each role at each level of your pipeline. This will help you determine the capacity your church has for future growth. 3. Potential. Finally, measure how many people have the potential to move from one level of your leadership pipeline to the next level. For example, how many people are currently volunteers but have capacity to move to the leader level? And what kind of training will they need to move to the next level of responsibility? Measuring these three areas will help you not only identify your number of volunteers and leaders, but also equip them to take their next step.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. How many volunteers do we currently have? How many leaders do we currently have? 2. Do we have a leadership pipeline that works? If not, what would it look like to create a leadership pipeline for our church? 3. Who in our church is ready to assume a greater level of responsibility?
Apply
Work together as a team to create a leadership pipeline that clearly articulates who is at what level, who has the potential to move to a new level of responsibility, and what steps they need to take to get there. This process can take a while, so you might even make it a staff-wide goal for the next six months.
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Service: Are People Outward Focused? Team Review: What initial steps did we take in developing a leadership pipeline? Assess: Is our congregation more inward focused or outward focused? Why? Insights and Ideas
he natural tendency of a congregation is to become inward focused. In fact, the lead pastor often has to work hard to speak up for the person who’s not sitting at the table (the unbeliever and the unchurched), because few others will. Jesus made it clear: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). That was His mission, and that’s the mission He’s entrusted to His Church. So, how do you measure the “service” side of your church, ministry or department? Consider these three steps: 1. Evaluate your visitor flow. A healthy visitor flow is typically equal to your average Sunday morning attendance. For example, if you average 200 people on Sunday mornings, you should have 200 visitors over the course of the year. If people are not inviting people, one of two things is happening. Either they don’t feel a need to invite friends to church, or they’re embarrassed to invite friends to church. One has to do with urgency, and the other has to do with quality. You need both. People need a sense of urgency, but they will only invite friends to church if the quality of the services compels them to do so. Track your visitor flow in every department, and then make improvements to your services and ministry environments. 2. Practice and promote community service. Another way to measure service is to provide opportunities to serve outside your church. Partner with local nonprofits and schools, or do a serve push where you offer multiple service projects over a four- to eight-week period of time. Mobilize each department in the church to serve, or launch a second Saturday strategy where you do a service project each month. Be sure to measure how many people sign up and show up to serve. Then celebrate the stories of impact during your weekend services. 3. Value and highlight marketplace ministry. Finally, celebrate people who are making a difference on their job and in the marketplace. Highlighting these stories will help people integrate their Sunday morning faith with their Monday morning work. Plus, it helps people feel validated. I often say to our congregation, “What I do on Sunday morning is extraordinarily valuable. But what you do on Monday morning is just as important.” When people feel their work matters, they start to see it through a gospel-centered lens. Make this a practice in every department of the church as you affirm and celebrate what members, volunteers and leaders do Monday through Friday.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. How many visitors did we have in the last 12 months? Is this equal to our average Sunday morning attendance? 2. How many service projects did we do last year? How many people engaged with them? 3. Do we ever highlight marketplace ministry? Do people in our church feel like we value their work? Why or why not?
Apply
Reflect on the three steps above. Then, put together a plan to increase an outward focus among your church members.
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Growth: Are Our Numbers and Percentages Growing? Team Review: What steps have you taken to increase an outward focus among church members?
Assess: What parts of our church are experiencing growth? Why? Insights and Ideas
t’s always exciting to see a church grow. It certainly beats the alternative. While growth creates challenges, I’d much rather have those challenges than the struggles that come with decline. Jesus seemed to value growth as well. When He shared the Parable of the Bags of Gold, He equated faithfulness with the servants’ ability to steward resources in a way that produced growth. After the master settled accounts with his faithful servants, he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21,23). The only way to know whether you’re growing numerically is to count. So, what exactly should we count in ministry? I recommend four categories of metrics: 1. Spiritual metrics • Salvations — Count how many people made a commitment or recommitment to Christ. • Baptisms — Count the number of people baptized in water. • Spirit baptisms — Count the number of people who received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. 2. Ministry metrics • Visitors — Count how many visitors attend every kind of service (kids, youth and adults). • Attendance — Count attendance in every environment (kids, youth and adults). • Groups — Count the number of small groups, group enrollment and group attendance. • Vehicles — Count how many cars are in the parking lot. 3. Financial metrics • Giving — Count tithes, designated offerings, missions and building campaign giving. • Donors — Count how many people make a first- and second-time donation. Mail a handwritten thank you note to all new donors. 4. Leadership metrics • Volunteers — Count how many people are serving in the various areas of ministry. • Leaders — Count how many leaders serve throughout the church, and where they are in the leadership pipeline. In addition to identifying clear metrics, track growth in two ways: numbers and percentages. Tracking growth numerically means counting actual attendance, finances, baptisms, salvations, volunteers, etc. The value of counting is that you’re able to identify room capacity issues, parking issues, growth or decline year over year, and whether you have adequate leaders and volunteers to sustain growth. Tracking growth by monitoring percentages helps you identify whether you’re trending up, down or the same. For example, what percentage of your average attendance is in a group, serving, giving, baptized, etc.? It’s possible for your attendance to increase while your percentages decrease. Percentages can sometimes give you a better indicator of health because they show you the level of engagement in a congregation. Pay attention to both.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What metrics do we currently track? What metrics do we need to start tracking? 2. Do we track percentages? What do the percentages reveal about our church’s health? 3. How often do we review our metrics? How could we more effectively use our metrics to foster healthier ministry?
Apply
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Culture: Is Our Environment Healthy? Team Review: How did you update the metrics for your area of ministry and the church
overall?
Assess: How would you describe the culture of our staff ? Insights and Ideas
hen you visit another country, you always encounter the unique dynamics of its culture. Language, food, clothing, schedules, artifacts, buildings, art and more contribute to a country’s culture. The same is true in church. Every church has a unique way of doing things that contributes to its culture. Here’s the challenge: Some churches create their culture, while other churches drift into their culture. One happens intentionally; the other happens unintentionally. John opened his third letter with these words: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 2). Our prayer should be that the cultures of our churches also enjoy good health. To measure the health of your culture, consider three things: 1. Employee engagement. Research suggests employee engagement improves an organization’s health and growth. For the last couple of years, 7 City Church has used the Gallup Q12 employee engagement survey. This practical (and inexpensive) tool evaluates a team’s engagement in a variety of areas to help the organization identify how it can improve its culture. Administering a survey like this once per year will provide insight into how you need to improve, as well as the opportunity to compare performance year over year. 2. Permission to give feedback. At every level of your church — staff to volunteer — foster an environment that welcomes feedback. Ask questions, seek input and resist the temptation to get defensive. Fostering a feedback culture communicates how much you value the opinions and perspectives of others. It also helps you make better decisions. When this happens within kids, youth, and adult ministry, you will improve as a congregation. The culture thrives because people feel heard. 3. Leadership behavior. The behavior of an organization’s leaders is one of the biggest influencers on an organization’s culture. Until your behavior catches up with your words, your culture will suffer. One way to assess your leadership behavior is by using the TalentSmart Leadership 2.0 assessment. The real value is when you invite your team to assess you as well. The team’s honest, and anonymous, feedback will give you a real picture of your leadership strengths and weaknesses. By implementing practical assessments and gathering insightful feedback, you’ll be better equipped to make the changes necessary to develop a thriving culture.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What’s the greatest strength of our culture? What’s the greatest weakness? 2. What would it look like to create a culture of feedback in your ministry or department? 3. How would you feel about doing the Gallup survey and the Leadership 2.0 assessment?
Apply
Work together as a team to identify the next steps you need to take to improve your culture. This is not always easy, but the benefits can be huge. As you develop your plan, agree to foster a spirit of candor and care. Be honest, but also respect and honor one another.
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THE FINAL NOTE
Beyond the Politics CHRISTINA QUICK
recent report from Pew Research Center shows Americans generally view religion favorably. Yet it seems there is one topic people would rather not hear about at church: politics. More than half of U.S. adults (55%) say organized religion does more good than harm in American society, compared to 20% who say the opposite and 24% who believe it makes no difference. Two-thirds (66%) of all Americans say religious leaders have high ethical standards. Among those who attend services at least a few
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Christina Quick is assistant editor of Influence magazine.
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times a year, 88% say the leaders of their congregations are highly ethical, and 78% hold this view of religious leaders in general. When it comes to politics, however, 63% of U.S. adults — and 54% of those identifying as Christians — want churches to stay out of the fray. Most Americans express a lot of confidence that clergy can provide guidance on growing closer to God (68%) and interpreting Scripture (60%). But far fewer have a great deal of confidence in the ability of religious leaders to help them navigate complex political issues like immigration (20%) and global climate change (13%). Not surprisingly, Christian churchgoers are much more likely to agree with their pastors on religious matters
(88%) than on politics (64%). This holds true for both Democrats and Republicans. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). In this season of partisan politics and divisive rhetoric, it seems many are weary. They need a refuge from the noise. They are seeking truth that transcends the kingdoms of this world — and they are looking to the local church to provide it. What an opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, good news that breaks down dividing walls and changes hearts.