The Cross and Our Deepest Questions

ISSUE 28 / MAR_ APR 2020

w a r r e n b i r d / k r i s t i n o r t h u p / PRESTON U L M ER

THE CROSS AND OUR DEEPEST QUESTIONS

MAGAZINE

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former Central Bible College president

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Influence | 3

CONTENTS

ISSUE_28/MAR_APR 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

One More

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

An Unexpected Path to Leadership A Conversation With Amy Farley

14 Like a Leader TOOLS FOR PERSONAL AND CONGREGATIONAL GROWTH

• Live: Diversity Matters

• Think: American Religious Freedom Today

• Learn: Recommended Reading for Leaders

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24 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: Building a Culture of Constructive Feedback

• Know: One Thing That Will Short-Circuit Your Leadership

• Invest: Charisma Is Not Enough

• Ethics: Collaboration, Not Competition

34 THE CROSS AND OUR DEEPEST QUESTIONS Questions about God’s presence in our suffering are bound to come up. Here are three truths that will lift us up against the gravity of those questions.

PRESTON ULMER

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44 MOVING EASTER GUESTS TOWARD GREATER FAITH

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What research shows about turning occasional attenders into fully committed followers of Christ.

WARREN BIRD

52 A CULTURE OF RESURRECTION How baptism and Communion help us remember Christ’s death and resurrection … and our own.

KRISTI NORTHUP

60 Multipliers LEADERS LEVERAGING THEIR GIFTS FOR GOD’S KINGDOM

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A Fabric of Unity Stan Grant and Shawn Franco are reaping a harvest — not just in their own churches but across Richmond, Virginia.

CHRIS COLVIN

66 Make It Count AN EIGHT-WEEK STUDY FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS

Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

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80 The Final Note How Parents Are Choosing Their Church

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IF YOU ASK ME

Reflections on Leadership

One More CHRIS RAILEY

Big dreams become a reality when we embrace an attitude of “one more.”

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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e recently concluded our third annual CMN Conference, where over 1,600 pastors, leaders and church planters gathered to seek God and dream about the future. The power of God there was tangible.

People came with a real sense of expectation and willingness to take a new step of faith, and we will see the ripple effect from this event for a long time to come.

I’m passionate about the next generation, the future of the Church, and the future of our Fellowship. One of the joys of what I do comes from seeing a new wave of leaders catch the vision for multiplication.

One of the primary messages we try to communicate to leaders everywhere is the importance of a God-given dream. Simply put, God-given dreams change everything.

When Spirit-filled men and women receive a dream from God, it transforms people and communities — and even generations. We need to hold on to old dreams, dream new dreams, and continue to believe for more than we can see today. Dreams inspire. Dreams move us forward. God-given dreams change everything. But how do we stay faithful to

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the vision and the dream God gave us when it seems so far away and the daily grind of ministry seems so overwhelming? That’s a question I find myself asking quite a bit. Maybe you can relate.

God is certainly the giver of visions and dreams, but He is also the God of one at a time, of daily steps of faithfulness that don’t always seem game-changing by themselves.

However, big dreams become a reality when we embrace an attitude of “one more.” It’s when our one more meets God’s immeasurably more that the miracle happens, and the dream becomes a reality.

God is calling us not only to dream again, but to live with an attitude every day of one more. One more conversation with someone who doesn’t know Jesus, one more invitation, one more prayer offered, one more act of obedience, one more step of faith, one more soul saved, one more life changed, one more disciple made, one more leader developed, one more missionary sent, one more service started, one more campus launched, one more church planted. In our one more, God can do way more than we can ask or imagine.

If you’re overwhelmed with the daily grind and the task at hand, if the dream God gave you seems a long way from where you find yourself today, commit yourself all over again to reaching just one more person for Jesus. Over the course of your life in ministry, I think you’ll see the dream become a reality.

This issue of Influence delivers articles that will equip and inspire you in your Kingdom work. In the cover story, Preston Ulmer offers a stirring reminder that the cross of Christ meets people where they are, even in their pain and doubts.

Warren Bird provides valuable insight on moving Easter guests toward greater faith.

And Kristi Northup writes about the importance of keeping Jesus’ redeeming work in focus through a continual emphasis on water baptism and Communion.

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GET SET

Leaders Impacting the Church and Culture

An Unexpected Path to Leadership A Conversation With Amy Farley G E O R G E P. W O O D

“ I felt like God was done with me, and He couldn’t use me anymore.”

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my Farley did not set out to be the senior pastor of an international church in Southeast Asia, nor the director of its educational consultancy.

Farley grew up in an Assemblies of God church in Fort Worth, Texas, and felt called to ministry at an early age.

“I didn’t know what it would be or what it would look like, because I only saw my limitations,” Farley says.

When she was a student at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas, that calling took the shape of full-time missions.

After initially resisting the idea, Farley finally told God, “I’ll go wherever You want me to go, but You have to go with me.”

Still, several years passed before Farley had a clear sense of direction. She worked as a children’s pastor and looked into several opportunities, but none of them panned out. Farley began to wonder whether she had missed God’s leading.

When Farley traveled to South Africa with a cohort of children’s pastors on a short-term missions trip, she felt she had finally found her calling. Farley returned to the United States, resigned her job, raised money, and served as a missionary associate with Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) in South Africa.

Two years later, Farley transitioned to a church-planting team in the northern part of a Muslim-majority country in West Africa.

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Missiologists consider that region of the country completely unreached.

“We had no churches there and no known believers at the time the project started,” Farley says. “We were building a school, and through the school, planting a church.”

All was going well until May 19, 2014. Farley was asleep when two men broke into her house in the predawn hours, tied her up, and sexually assaulted her. After they left, she ran to the home of fellow church planters. Within

hours, she was on a plane out of the country, heading into a two-year journey of physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery. But at the time, Farley believed her ministry was over.

“I felt like God was done with me, and He couldn’t use me anymore,” Farley says.

Nevertheless, she continued to feel the call to missions and wrestled with the idea of returning to Africa.

“I wanted, with everything in me, to go back to Africa,” Farley says.

But she also sensed that door was closed.

During Farley’s recovery, she received an unexpected invitation from longtime mentors Joel and Marie Watson to join them in Southeast Asia. They were the senior pastors of a major metropolitan international church and directors of an educational consultancy.

“I didn’t want to go,” Farley says, adding sheepishly, “I don’t even like Asian food.”

But when the Watsons persisted, she finally

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“ ... during that trip, there was a spark of life after there had been such a long time of death.”

George P. Wood is executive editor of Influence magazine.

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told them, “If [AGWM] leadership approves, I’ll make a trip.”

The approval came, and Farley agreed to go for two weeks. The Watsons hadn’t asked her to do ministry, but Farley found herself working alongside them with orphans. And that’s when God began to heal her.

“I don’t know if it’s the brokenness in me that connected with the brokenness in those kids,” Farley says. “But during that trip, there was a spark of life after there had been such a long time of death.”

Farley made a yearlong commitment to work alongside the Watsons. It wasn’t an easy decision.

“I felt the Lord leading me longer term for Southeast Asia, and I wrestled with it,” she says.

Farley still felt called to missions. She just didn’t expect to be in Asia.

“I wept for three days when I made the decision,” Farley says. “It was very much a thing of obedience for me, because I did not want to do it.”

Then, tragedy struck again. Joel Watson had a heart attack and died unexpectedly.

Looking at the international church she and her husband led, alongside the educational consultancy, Marie Watson said to Farley, “What are we going to do with this?

We’re going to have to shut this down.”

Somewhat reluctantly, Farley replied, “I’ll step in and help until we find a more permanent solution.”

Within a matter of weeks, Farley knew God was calling her to be the more permanent solution. And that’s how, on Dec. 16, 2018, Farley became senior pastor of a major metropolitan international church in Southeast Asia, and the director of its educational consultancy.

Farley’s leadership journey has been a winding one, zigging across three continents and zagging between moments of self-doubt, violence, tragic death, and unlooked-for opportunities. What she has discovered in the midst of these things is the importance of depending on God. “It just comes down to obedience and just trusting the Lord,” Farley says.

Trust and obey — a good compass for all who take an unexpected path to leadership!

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“With powerful insight from God’s Word and memorable stories that will inspire you, One Small Step will lead you to take giant strides for God’s kingdom.”

—CHRIS HODGES, Senior Pastor of Church of the Highlands, author of The Daniel Dilemma and What’s Next?

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LIVE LIKE A LEADER

Diversity Matters SARAH JACKSON

Coexisting is not enough. God calls us to love one another.

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t was just after 8 in the morning on September 20. A text from a Chi Alpha alumna glared at me. A highly offensive racial slur and a message telling blacks to “leave” had been spray-painted on a campus building overnight, and it was inciting our university community.

This was 2016, an election year. Division and racial tensions were simmering across

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the nation. Recent racially charged police shootings had many on edge. Activists everywhere reminded us that “black lives matter,” while others shouted, “All lives matter!”

It was another day to face ugly realities. As a white woman, I don’t experience racism in the same way as my minority friends and family members. But as the wife of a black man and the mother of biracial children, these issues are deeply personal for me.

And as the Chi Alpha campus missionary leader of a diverse group of students at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, my response matters. This incident was highly visible, but smaller ones happen all

around me every day that also matter. Sadly, it is often far easier to be reactionary than proactive.

In every space, there is a majority and a minority. In the Early Church, there were majority and minority populations. In our Fellowship, there are majority and minority members. In our ministries, there are majority and minority groups. And with this truth come real challenges. How we respond matters.

We must seek understanding, acknowledge the challenges we face, and proactively work toward resolving them.

Minority challenges when interacting with majority groups include the following: • Consistent stress to fit in and meet the majority group’s expectations.

• Feeling excluded when cultural values are less valuable to the majority culture.

• Suppression of cultural norms to appease the majority cultural preference.

• A general sense of not being understood by majority persons.

Majority challenges when interacting with minority groups include the following: • Reluctance to let go of tradition and comfort to build relational bridges.

• Resistance to change because of a lack of value for the change.

• Struggle to embrace minority culture and values at a heart level.

• Lack of investment relationally to understand the needs and struggles of minorities.

Such challenges often lead to coexisting rather than interexisting, and staying independent versus interdependent. But as members of the body of Christ, we cannot afford to remain divided. Scripture calls us to love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Peter 1:22).

In Acts 6, there was a dispute regarding the care of widows, which was a majority/minority issue. In Acts 15, the Council in Jerusalem had to process a majority/ minority issue. In each situation, we see the Church taking steps to consider and care for those who were not the majority. This was

not a momentary response of appeasement.

It was a proactive response that changed the trajectory of the entire Church.

John 3:16 reminds us that God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus, His Son. Christ perfectly shows us the example of coming into a space that was not like His and yet loving it well.

I’ve taken several missions trips over the years. Each time, I sought a deeper understanding of the people and culture we are going to serve before we even arrived in the country. That has led me to ask myself, Am I taking more time to understand a people group I will serve for one week than I am a minority person who has been in my community for years?

In premarital counseling, we take weeks to help engaged couples get to know each other better. Why? Because we don’t want the marriage to be based merely on feelings but on true understanding of value, vision and calling.

If couples in love misunderstand each other, how much easier is it for neighbors, co-workers and church members to be worlds apart? How often do we interact with a minority person and feel we know them without taking the time to learn more about who they are and what they are all about?

Sadly, we tend to realize our differences only when societal moments draw attention to them. Then, out of a lack of relational investment, we make snap judgments. This ought not be.

The Assemblies of God is a diverse fellowship. Yet there is still much to understand about our diversity. As we continually become more diverse, how can we be sure we aren’t just coexisting?

We are witnessing the rise of the most diverse generation America has known. But do our congregations and church leadership teams reflect this diversity? It’s time to move beyond feeling good about diversity — and become intentional about understanding it.

Diversity matters. You matter. Your response matters.

It’s time to move beyond feeling good about diversity — and become intentional about understanding it.

Sarah Jackson is a Chi Alpha campus missionary to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

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THINK LIKE A LEADER

American Religious Freedom Today KRISTEN WAGGONER

What you should know about emerging legal trends.

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he First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution uniquely protects Americans’ rights to religious freedom and free speech. Historically, we have been able to pray and share our faith openly, choose our vocations, and live out our beliefs without encountering government penalties.

But as the leader of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s U.S. legal division, I am concerned that religious liberty is eroding. Even some of the most socially beneficial doctrines of the Christian faith are now culturally taboo. And there are those who go beyond maligning the

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Christian faith to using government power to suppress that faith.

For example, at my church home, Cedar Park Church (AG) in Bothell, Washington, supporting life at every stage is a vibrant part of the mission. The church has multiple pro-life ministries that serve the elderly, the sick, vulnerable women, and the unborn, among others.

But the state of Washington has threatened to impose criminal penalties on Pastors Jay and Sandy Smith unless Cedar Park violates its convictions by providing employee health insurance that covers elective abortions.

Cedar Park is not alone; many Christian churches and ministries face similar threats.

But amid these challenges, we retain our sacred responsibility to bear witness to the gospel and to steward our freedoms for the next generation. As in the Book of Esther, God is raising up leaders “for such a time as this,” to live out the gospel in our present moment.

He calls courageous people to stand for Him and for the cause of freedom.

And providentially, we are seeing God’s hand at work — so much so that we should be hopeful here and now about the opportunities to protect religious freedom.

In Weakness, God Gives True Strength

I’ve seen firsthand the open government hostility toward Christian ministries and individuals. For example, Missouri officials refused to award a religious preschool a government grant for playground resurfacing solely because a church owned the playground. California officials ordered religious pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for free abortions or close their doors.

The city of Anchorage, Alaska, told Downtown Hope Center, a religious shelter, that it had to force vulnerable, homeless women to sleep overnight just feet from a biological male who identified as female. And when cake artist Jack Phillips followed his faith by declining to use his art to create a custom cake celebrating a same-sex wedding ceremony, Colorado’s ensuing prosecution cost Phillips half his family’s income.

But by God’s grace, these clients had the courage to challenge unjust laws, and they prevailed. The religious preschool, the prolife pregnancy centers, and Phillips won before the U.S. Supreme Court. Downtown Hope Center won safety and privacy for its ladies in a lower federal court.

And God is bringing more victories: In Phoenix, the Christian owners of Brush & Nib Studio overcame the city’s threats of fines and even jail to force them to use their art to celebrate same-sex unions if they created custom work for biblical marriages.

After ADF brought a lawsuit, the New York City Council repealed a law barring therapists

from listening to and counseling adult patients who wanted to reduce same-sex attraction or make peace with their biological sex.

The Landscape in 2020

I was privileged to argue Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court warned government officials they cannot be hostile to people of faith, and rejected the argument that those who believe marriage is between a man and a woman were akin to racists.

Now, in Arlene’s Flowers v. State of Washington, we are asking the Court to also make plain that the government cannot force Americans to participate in religious ceremonies or create artistic expressions that violate their conscience. The owner of Arlene’s, Barronelle Stutzman, is facing the loss of nearly all she owns, because she could not in good conscience create custom floral art celebrating a longtime customer’s same-sex wedding, despite serving customers regardless of their sexual orientation.

In another petition, Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra, we’re asking the Court to rule that religious nonprofits cannot be required to disclose the names and addresses of donors to a state registry, which will inevitably subject donors to possible harassment and impact charitable giving.

Also before the Supreme Court this year is the religious freedom of private Christian schools in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, where justices will consider whether state governments can exclude students attending these schools from student-aid programs available to those who attend secular private schools.

In Little Sisters of the Poor v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court will again weigh in on whether Catholic nuns dedicated to serving the elderly poor must provide contraceptives (including the week-after pill) in their health insurance plans or pay millions of dollars in fines for declining to do so. If the case sounds familiar, it’s because high courts already acted twice to

The Equality Act would force religious business owners, ministry leaders, artists and many others to violate their beliefs about marriage and sexuality.

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Kristen Waggoner serves as senior vice president of U.S. Legal Division and Communications for Alliance Defending Freedom.

ADF is the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious fredom, free speech, sanctity of life, and marriage and family. She was born into an Assemblies of God family and her father is an AG minister.

Follow Kristen on Twitter at @ KWaggonerADF.

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protect the Little Sisters. But still the Pennsylvania attorney general has fought to take away the Little Sisters’ exemption — even though Pennsylvania has already admitted it can and does use state programs to provide contraceptives to those who need them.

ADF attorneys are making similar arguments in State of California v. Azar on behalf of the March for Life organization and, in February, asked the Supreme Court to consider that case as well.

In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on two cases addressing whether government officials control whom a churchrun school chooses to teach its religion classes. The Ninth Circuit previously ruled against two California Catholic elementary schools that had terminated teacher contracts based on a history of poor performance, but the Supreme Court’s decision to pick up the cases could restore the schools’ freedom to select and keep teachers who embody and teach their faith effectively, without government interference.

Catholic Social Services has asked the Supreme Court to intervene against Philadelphia’s efforts to prevent CSS from helping needy children unless it agrees to place children in homes with cohabiting unmarried or same-sex couples — an obvious violation of its long-standing religious convictions. ADF is litigating similar cases with New York and Michigan ministries that may also reach the Supreme Court.

And ADF is defending Cedar Park and the Smiths against the state’s efforts to treat them like criminals for respecting the sanctity of every human life. A lawsuit involving Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego challenges a similar law.

Legislative Challenges

On the legislative front, Christians face the so-called Equality Act, which would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes to portions of federal law. The Equality Act would force religious business

owners, ministry leaders, artists and many others to violate their beliefs about marriage and sexuality. It would require medical professionals, parents and religious hospitals to provide and support so-called “gender affirmation” surgeries and treatments, despite serious scientific faults and religiously based concerns. The act would endanger women by forcing them to share privacy areas with biological men, and it would strip female athletes of fair competition by making them compete against biological males.

The Tide Is Turning — Toward Freedom

Despite the increasing pressure for churches, ministries and believers to abandon their convictions, there are signs that the tide of protecting religious freedom and speech is turning. The legal victories identified above signal courts are recognizing that the First Amendment protects dissenting voices in a hostile cultural climate.

Recent legal challenges brought by gender identity activists are also bringing together unexpected allies. One example is radical feminists joining ADF in arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court in Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, recognizing that erasing the distinctions between men and women harms all Americans, regardless of faith or political ideology.

We expect a ruling in this case soon.

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recognized in 2017, a “wind is picking up that is hostile to those with traditional moral beliefs,” but “the most important fight is for the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans. It is up to all of us to evangelize our fellow Americans about the issue of religious freedom.”

Certainly, Justice Alito was talking to us lawyers. But what he said applies to every Christian. We all have a duty to proclaim the gospel boldly and winsomely, while ensuring that civil government protects the rights of all to live out our faith freely. As the apostle Paul put it: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

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LEARN LIKE A LEADER Selected Book Reviews

Longing for Revival : From Holy Discontent to Breakthrough Faith t various times, I have experienced periods of intense spiritual growth. I have also participated in extended occasions in church life where the adjectives more and better describe the congregation’s experience of God and of effectiveness in mission, respectively. Both are examples of revival.

Revival seems like a strange term to many Christians today, a word from another age or place. They acknowledge that revival happened back then or is happening somewhere else, but they don’t see it happening right now, right here. They don’t feel it happening in themselves either.

Worse, the term revival provokes suspicion in some minds because of its association with

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Books reviewed by

George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine.

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anti-intellectualism and emotionalism. This suspicion isn’t new. In his 1876 autobiography, Charles Finney described as a “burnt district” certain areas of central and western New York. “Taking what they had seen as a specimen of a revival of religion,” Finney writes, “they felt justified in opposing anything looking toward the promoting of a revival.”

But once you factor out the strangeness of and suspicions about the word revival, it still names what all Christians want, individually and corporately: more of God, and better effectiveness in mission. We all long for revival.

Revival is the work of God’s Spirit. We can’t gin it up, but we can prepare to receive it. How to do so is the subject of Longing for Revival

by James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer. Choung is vice president of strategy and innovation for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (USA).

Pfeiffer is next gen pastor at North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, California. They divide their work into three parts.

Part One asks, what is revival? It is, in their words, “a season of breakthroughs in word, deed, and power that ushers in a new normal of kingdom experience and fruitfulness.”

Word, deed, and power express the gospel in different ways: word as “biblical preaching and teaching”; deed as “compassion and justice”; and power in “miraculous or explicitly supernatural ways.”

Different revivals begin with an emphasis on different expressions. The Great Awakening is remembered for its preaching, the Second Great Awakening for its activism, and Azusa Street for its signs and wonders. Yet, the authors contend, “Revivals, as they mature, move toward the center. They exhibit word, deed, and power in love.” A focus on one of these expressions to the detriment of others “can stunt revival in our hearts and communities.”

Part Two asks, how do you prepare for revival? It outlines four essential practices: consecration, calling, contending and character. These are especially the practices of those who lead revivals. “Revivals are first experienced, and then given away,” the authors write.

Consecration consists of “making ourselves available to God so he can make us holy, and set us apart for his holiness.” Calling nourishes a “holy discontent” with the way things are. “It’s a provocateur against comfort, prodding us toward an alternative vision of what God can do.” The consecrated and called engage in contending, which isn’t contentiousness! Instead, it is “learning to pray in such a way as to not give up” — spiritual warfare, in other words, “fighting with God’s power and not with our own.” Finally, character. “Revival leadership invariably takes us on a path of confrontation with the status quo, and that means our character will be tested by both the praise we receive and the rejection we suffer.” Too often, revivals falter because their leaders fail this test.

Part Three asks, how do you lead revival?

One noteworthy insight is what the authors call the “Mystery and Strategy Paradox.” In any revival, there are experiential elements (“mystery”) and organizational elements (“strategy”). According to the authors, a “holistic” revival majors in both mystery and strategy. When it majors in mystery but minors in strategy, it’s “experiential.” When it minors in mystery but majors in strategy, it’s “pragmatic.” When it minors in both, it’s merely “social,” a gathering of amiable people with no greater passion or purpose.

There’s an old gospel chorus that, if you pray it and live it, will lead beyond no greater to more and better. It doesn’t make an appearance in Longing for Revival, but it’s a fitting coda nonetheless: Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Hallelujah, amen!

Hallelujah, Thine the glory, revive us again!

BOOK REVIEWED James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer, Longing for Revival: From Holy Discontent to Breakthrough Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020).

The Age of AI : Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity opular thinking about artificial intelligence (AI) alternates between the utopian and dystopian. Will our future be like the 1999 film Bicentennial Man, in which a robot becomes human over the course of 200 years? Or will it be like the 1984 movie The Terminator, in which a cyborg assassin travels back in time to kill the mother of the man who will prevent an AI-initiated nuclear holocaust?

Perhaps the future will be a little of both. As Jason Thacker demonstrates in The Age of AI, humanity is the image of God, and “God gave us specific jobs and responsibilities to perform as we seek to reflect him in this world.”

Technology — even complicated technology like AI — is simply “a tool that helps us

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Our technology reflects our mixed character as the image of God marred. It helps, and it harms.

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RECOMMENDED READING FOR LEADERS

By Influence Magazine

WHAT IF? Tommy Barnett (ARC Resources) “Throughout my life,” writes Tommy Barnett, “God has continually prodded and prompted me to ask, ‘What if ?’” He continues, “Through all these years, ‘What if ?’ has been quickly followed by ‘Why not?’ and then ‘Wow!’ God is doing amazing things.” Barnett is global pastor of Dream City Church in Phoenix and founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center. What If? is the story of his life and ministry, and a reminder that the best way to learn how to lead is to observe how leaders live.

EVERY DAY MATTERS Brandon D. Crowe (Lexham Press) If you have too much to do but don’t know where to start, you might want to read this book. The purpose of Every Day Matters is “to help you think biblically about how to get things done (productivity), and to give practical advice for maximizing your time and energy toward the most important things in everyday life.” Brandon D. Crowe outlines a “biblical perspective” on productivity (Part I), identifies its “basic principles” (Part II), and makes “practical suggestions” for getting things done (Part III).

100 DAYS TO A HEALTHIER CHURCH Karl Vaters (Moody Publishers) “Any church can become healthier in 100 days — not perfect, but healthier,” writes Karl Vaters. His book is a 100-day, step-by-step guide that will help your church’s leaders — pastors and lay leaders together — assess the congregation’s health and missionality, select a target for improvement, train teams for the task at hand, and implement the plan. Although 100 Days to a Healthier Church can be used by churches of any size, it is designed with the average church in mind (i.e., a church with 75 in Sunday attendance).

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live out our God-given callings.” The problem is that humanity “brought sin into the world and broke the natural order of things.” Our technology reflects our mixed character as the image of God marred. It helps, and it harms.

Thus, AI holds both promise and peril. In the medical field, AI promises to make more accurate diagnoses and perform more intricate surgeries. But will it also deny medical care to those with low odds of survival? AI promises to make factory work less arduous, but will robots take jobs from humans?

Social media helps people connect across distances and barriers, even as AI runs complex algorithms in the background and sweeps up personal data. Is that information safe from hackers, criminals and authoritarian governments?

Underlying these ethical dilemmas is a theological paradox. Some AI advocates — called transhumanists — believe humans are simply complex machines. When machines become sufficiently complex, they too will become almost human, like Robin Williams’ robot character in Bicentennial Man. The hope is such machines will avoid human failings.

Thacker identifies the paradox: “We dumb down what it means to be human and treat each other as simple machines, but at the same time put our hope and faith in these machines to solve the problems and ills that we deal with each day.”

In the process, we idolize our creations but demean God’s — people made in His image.

“AI is changing everything about our world and society,” writes Thacker. “And we aren’t prepared.”

Reading The Age of AI is a good starting place.

BOOK REVIEWED Jason Thacker, The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020).

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PLAYBOOK BUILD

Building a Culture of Constructive Feedback HUNTER WILSON

How fresh insight may help you take steps toward improving your sermons and your church’s ministries.

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Share the Same Vision

New York Times bestselling author Simon Sinek once wrote, “There are only two things in this world: content and context. Content is the stuff we do, the things we say, the work we’re engaged in. Yet content has no meaning whatsoever without context. Context is the picture on the jigsaw puzzle box that shows us how to bring the pieces together — the why.

The stronger, more vibrant that picture, the easier it will be to figure out this puzzle as a team — a team united under a common cause.”

At Oaks Church (AG) in Red Oak, Texas, we often ask team members and others for feedback on the content we create, including the sermons we plan to deliver. But we are also careful to share the context of what we consider a win.

Before I give feedback on the content of a sermon, I want to make sure I know the context of what the speaker is trying to accomplish with the message. I like to ask three questions: What do you want people to know?

What do you want them to feel? What do you want them to do because of this sermon?

Once everyone involved is clear on the context, or what a bull’s-eye sounds like, we give our feedback team the following prompts: • What about this sermon was right that we can optimize?

• What about this sermon was wrong that we can fix?

• What was missing that we can add?

• What was confusing that we can clarify?

When everyone knows the desired finish line, we have an easier time providing a quality evaluation.

The Goal

Delivering feedback that actually makes people feel grateful for the tweaks is an art.

If the feedback comes across as a personal attack, they will likely withdraw or assume a defensive attitude.

A common mistake people make in their critiques is explaining what they would have done. The goal is not to make everyone sound like you. This approach almost always strikes thewrong tone. The primary mission is helping the speaker reach his or her goals. Try framing your feedback like this: “I know you said your primary goal for this message is to help people understand what it means to love their neighbors. Can I suggest one way to bring that point out more clearly in your conclusion?”

Critiques are seldom well received in the absence of respect and relationship — especially when they are unsolicited.

Unsolicited Feedback

Why is it that hearing feedback from one person can feel totally different than hearing the same remarks from another? Critiques are seldom well received in the absence of respect and relationship — especially when they are unsolicited.

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted.”

If you are tempted to offer unsolicited feedback, first ask yourself these questions: • If I were to grade myself on a scale from 1 to 10, how much does this person respect me?

• How much do I respect him or her?

• How strong is our relationship?

The lower the number on any of these, the more careful you should be with the feedback you give. While constructive criticism

can be beneficial, unsolicited feedback is usually more annoying than helpful unless there is a healthy relationship and mutual respect.

Positive Change

If you want to grow, or want your church to grow, you’re going to need help. Feedback is vital to any team that wants to get better. If consistent feedback is not part of the culture in your church, start by modeling the way.

If you’re a pastor, invite a select group you highly respect and have a relationship with to speak into your sermons. Once that becomes normal, open doors for input in other areas.

The fresh insight may help you take steps toward improving your sermons and your church’s ministries.

Hunter Wilson is the strategy specialist pastor at Oaks Church in Red Oak, Texas.

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PLAYBOOK KNOW

One Thing That Will Short-Circuit Your Leadership SAM CHAND

Regardless of the specifics of your ministry, thinking is an important part of the job.

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few months ago, I was wrestling with the question, Sam, what do you do for a living? Many answers came to my mind: leadership consultant, author, speaker, etc. However, the one that finally made more sense than any other was thinker. I think for a living.

My guess is that’s true for you as well. As a minister, you think for a living. This is not the only thing you do, of course. Right thinking comes from Spirit-filled living, prayer, time in Scripture, obedience, and love for God and His people (Romans 12:2).

Nevertheless, thinking does pervade your daily activities. You read and interpret the Bible for preaching and teaching, for example.

You listen and offer verbal counsel to people in distress. You discern God’s vision for your church or ministry and write a statement of vision, mission and values. You create strategic plans for your ministry and craft a budget to implement them. Regardless of the specifics of your ministry, when you’re a pastor or church leader, thinking is an important part of the job.

Thinking requires mental margin, broader

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bandwidth and the ability to be a reflective person — a leader who is willing to churn rather than rush to change. As a leader, regardless of your ministry, you rose to your present position by solving problems in one form or another. The better you became at solving problems, the more responsibilities you received. Your church or ministry values your ability to identify problems and work toward solutions with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

One thing that will short-circuit your leadership is the inability to think at higher levels than your present stage and age of ministry leadership requires.

Three characteristics affect your thinking.

The first is how you deal with distractions, those things that take your attention away from what you’re supposed to be doing. The second is whether you pay appropriate attention, actively engaging your mind on the person in front of you or the task at hand. The third is whether you have the ability to maintain focus, the center of mental activity that requires full concentration.

Of the three items above, let me focus on

focus, because it is the most crucial. As a minister, you have choices to make daily about the Five P’s: people, places, programs, procedures and plans. These choices, and the range of issues they touch on, can feel overwhelming.

How, then, do you focus on the critical few while still managing to deal with the important many?

Years ago, my friend Pastor Scott Wilson of Oaks Church (AG) in Red Oak, Texas, shared with me the acronym FOCUS (First things first; Other things second; Cut out the unimportant; Unify the vision; Stick with it).

Isn’t that a great definition? Focus requires us to prioritize our ministry tasks, discerning what we must do, what we can delegate to others, and what we can stop doing entirely.

Then it requires us to unify our team behind the vision of what everyone is supposed to be doing — and developing the perseverance to see our individualized tasks through to successful completion.

In other words, focus comes from the who.

The starting place for finding focus should always be with questions like, Who am I? What can I alone do? And if I were to die today, what would I most regret leaving unfinished? You need to know who God called you to be and what is (and is not) essential to your ministry leadership.

You also need to identify what drains focus.

As a leadership consultant, I’ve discovered that

focus drains away when leaders feel marginalized. Marginalization happens when others limit our input and influence in areas where we should have decision-making authority.

Diversion can also drain focus. This happens when nonessential things occupy our time and thoughts and divert them from the important to the trivial.

A third reason leaders lose focus is because they are attacked. Resistance and overt attacks can remove focus from the main issues. Finally, being seduced by the need for approval drains focus. When pleasing our allies becomes more important than staying on a difficult course, we’re definitely distracted. The leader is seduced by a need to be liked.

Once you know who you are and what you must do, and once you’ve determined to plug the drain on your focus, you need to communicate it to others in your ministry. That means you and members of your ministry team have a clear understanding of each person’s roles and responsibilities. Multitaskers may look good on paper, but they will ultimately lose focus.

The main task they were hired for will become the most neglected one.

Be a leader, and avoid the temptation of helping others do their jobs. You stay focused so they can do the same. If everyone wears only one hat, everyone can function at higher levels of accountability and performance — including you!

Thinking requires mental margin, broader bandwidth and the ability to be a reflective person — a leader who is willing to churn rather than rush to change.

Sam Chand is a leadership architect, consultant, author, change strategist, speaker and thinker. For more information, visit samchand.com.

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PLAYBOOK INVEST

Charisma Is Not Enough:

Why Invest in Your Leaders’ Theological Development … and How STEPHANIE NANCE

s a pastor, it’s easy to feel as if we have entered a competition for people’s time and attention. The pressure can lead us to recruit leaders with charisma, talent and creativity who attract people but lack theological development. As a result, we might produce good service experiences that people attend but miss cultivating spiritual depth to help them grow as Christ followers.

Developing theological substance in your leaders, whether paid or volunteer, is crucial for the formation of all God’s people under your care.

Although not everyone needs a theology degree, everyone has a theology that needs developed — a way to think about and make sense of the nature of God. We tend to look for theologically trained preachers while overlooking the fact that formation also takes place outside of the sermon context. Consequently, we may neglect the training of those who lead and communicate theology in indirect but vital ways.

Consider young volunteers and staff who were born in the digital age. They may not have

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elopment … and How Although not everyone needs a theology degree, everyone has a theology that needs developed.

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theology degrees, but they can effortlessly navigate communication for our churches in the high-tech world. Throughout Church history, art and technology have communicated theology to laypeople, particularly during times of illiteracy. Whether through the 5th-century Celtic high crosses, 12th-century stained glass windows, 15th-century printing press, or 21st-century social media, art and technology can uniquely capture imaginations and hearts with the gospel. Given our biblically illiterate culture, we must invest theologically in those who design graphics, develop videos, and run social media platforms.

Theological development requires intentionality, especially in today’s world. After all, the pace of modern life leaves little time for contemplation and study.

As a result, many of our leaders don’t know how to process theological concepts. It’s easier to retweet someone else’s thoughts than to cultivate our own beliefs from Scripture.

Yet a shallow understanding of God’s truths makes it difficult to live out faith, let alone guide others in theirs.

In light of these challenges, it’s clear there is a need for Bible education. Of course, seminary isn’t accessible, practical or necessary for everyone. Nevertheless, you can invest in your leaders’ theological development in several ways — regardless of your education level or resources.

Pull your leaders close. Walk them through your thinking process when crafting sermons and series. Let them know the questions you ask of a text and how you allow the text to ask questions of you. Also, show your leaders how you wrestle with God as you minister to people in their suffering and loss.

Yes, theology develops in the study of Scripture, but it also takes shape in day-to-day pastoral care.

Listen to podcasts together. Plenty of theology podcasts exist. Find podcasts formatted as interviews and conversations with theologians, which will teach your leaders how to engage in the process of theological development. Podcasts will improve your leaders’ listening skills, expand their attention spans, and widen their vocabularies,

all of which are essential in theology.

Read and discuss books together. A plethora of theological books exist. Don’t be afraid to stretch your leaders, but refrain from making it so far above their level that they become discouraged.

Ask good questions. Make those around you think. Jesus did. Study how He asked questions and what He asked. Questions lead to spiritual and theological growth. Your primary job as a pastor isn’t to give all the answers, but to develop those around you.

Encourage your leaders in their prayer lives. Do we even need to mention prayer?

Absolutely. Consider Genesis 3. The serpent went to Eve and essentially called the nature of God into question, which turned the conversation into a theology discussion. Why didn’t Adam and Eve bring God into the conversation? Here lies the danger of theology — that it becomes a cognitive activity where we sit around with friends (or on Twitter and Facebook) and argue, talking about God but not with Him. Teach your leaders to invite God into the conversation.

Model a contemplative life. Follow Jesus’ example by making time for silence and solitude. This means you will need to simplify your calendar. Then encourage your leaders to unplug from technology and find space to meditate on Scripture and theology.

Ensure your leaders are with people. Leaders of all ages in various areas of ministry need to sit regularly with the sick and the skeptic, hearing their questions and disappointments. Theology deeply resides in the human experience. Remember, God became one of us, taking on human nature to abide with us. We reflect Him when we live our theology and dwell with people.

Such an investment takes significant time. It might be easier to recruit only those who are theologically developed through education and experience. However, Jesus didn’t take that approach, so we probably shouldn’t either. The investment will cost us some-thing because true discipleship always does.

A shallow understanding of God’s truths makes it difficult to live out faith, let alone guide others in theirs.

Stephanie Nance, D.Min., is adult spiritual formation pastor at Chapel Springs Church (AG) in Bristow, Virginia.

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PLAYBOOK ETHICS

Collaboration, Not Competition JOHN DAVIDSON

Reaching your community for Jesus is too big a task to accomplish alone.

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rowing families step on one another’s toes. It’s a byproduct of living in close proximity. Growing church communities are the same way. As churches multiply across the country, some will inevitably start in communities with existing congregations. And the church planters of today will face this issue tomorrow.

How should you respond when you hear someone is wanting to start a church in the community where you pastor? It could easily feel like someone is stepping on your toes.

When that happens, is your first thought about competition or collaboration?

Ministers who are deeply rooted in a community can feel threatened when a new church comes to town. Insecurities may cause them to worry: Does the church planter think my community needs a new church because I’m not effective enough?

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Will the new church try to steal people who attend my church?

What if I can’t compete with all the new church has to offer?

And whether intentionally or unintentionally, they may find themselves holding a “No Trespassing” sign. It tells everyone who comes near, “No more churches needed here. My church has this community covered already.”

Such responses arise from a scarcity mindset that treats missions as a zero-sum game.

It’s easy to think there are only so many people to go around, so every person who goes to your church is one less to attend mine.

Those fears are natural, but they’re not biblical. The enemy of our souls would have us believe other churches are a threat. But the sad truth is, there are likely more people far from Christ in your community than any one pastor or church can reach and disciple.

In Matthew 9:37, Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”

Lost people are all around us; there’s no shortage of them. The shortage is in harvest workers. So if we took Jesus’ words seriously, the signs we’d hang above our churches wouldn’t be “No Trespassing” but “Help Wanted.”

In the same passage, Jesus tells His disciples, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (verse 38). It is, in fact, one of the few prayers Jesus explicitly commands us to pray.

Are you reciting that prayer regularly? If so, perhaps the new pastor moving to town to start a church is God’s answer to your prayer.

After all, the task of reaching your community for Jesus is too big for you to accomplish alone.

How we react to this situation has everything to do with how we see the harvest and the clock.

Harvest

Do you see the work of the harvest in your community as just begun or almost complete?

If you see it as almost complete, you may feel like you don’t need any help. However, if it’s just begun, there’s a lot more to do, and many more hands are needed to accomplish it.

According to Pew Research Center, nearly 5 billion people in the world don’t profess Christ, and 60% of Americans don’t identify as born-again Christians. No matter where you live, the harvest is plentiful.

Clock

Jesus said workers have to toil while it’s day, because night is coming when no one can work. As farmers know, when the sun is up and the weather is good during harvest season, it’s a mad dash to bring in as much of the crop as possible. As the sun starts to set, they work even more feverishly to finish the job.

In a spiritual sense, how much time do you feel is left for the world to hear about Jesus? If you think the clock is winding down and time is short, that’s good incentive to invite the assistance of everyone willing

to join with you in the harvest work.

I believe we’ve only scratched the surface of the harvest, and we’re running out of time. We need all hands on deck in every community. So here’s how I suggest ministers react when a new church starts in their community: Assume the best. I work with enough church planters to know this about them: They don’t start a new church to compete with existing churches. They start a new work to reach lost people who don’t attend church.

You can either wonder why a new church planter didn’t reach out to you and get your blessing to plant near you, or you can make it your goal to initiate a conversation, blessing the pastor and genuinely welcoming him or her to town. Offer to introduce this new leader to key influencers, which could greatly accelerate the fledgling congregation’s Kingdom effectiveness. Do for this church what you wish others would have done for you.

Honor one another. The only Bible-sanctioned competition in the Church is to outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10). What does that look like? Speak highly of the new pastor and the church. Offer to help them in any way you can.

Encourage your congregation to pray for this new church launching in your community — that God would give it favor and that many who are far from Christ would be saved and discipled through the church’s ministry.

Stay faithful to your calling, and cooperate with others. You can be passionate about what God has called you to do and Kingdom-oriented enough to embrace what God has called others to do. Make a decision not to compete. You’re co-workers in the same enterprise. Instead of competing, look for ways to cooperate with the new church on outreach initiatives, community events or resource sharing. And if you want to take collaboration to the next level, consider gifting finances and/or people from your church to help get the new church started.

Planting these seeds of generosity will result in a harvest for both churches.

You can be passionate about what God has called you to do and Kingdomoriented enough to embrace what God has called others to do.

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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THE CROSS AND OUR DEEPEST QUESTIONS PRESTON ULMER

Questions about God’s presence in our suffering are bound to come up.

Here are three truths that will lift us up against the gravity of those questions.

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JULY-AUGUST 2019

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was in a hurry to get to church for a meeting and thought ordering a plain, black cup of coffee would make it quick.

Greg ran the coffee shop before his retirement. Now he works only on Sundays, though Greg sometimes travels to Costa Rica without telling anyone. He regularly wears tropical shirts that make him look like he just returned from a cruise.

However, Greg doesn’t like cruise ships; he insists they don’t allow enough time with the locals, and they are too commercialized.

Greg is unhurried, spontaneous and outgoing. But I had to meet the core leaders of our church planting team for our weekly training and didn’t have time for small talk. My head still hurt from a lack of sleep, and my mind was on my schedule.

“Hey, Preston,” Greg said from behind the counter.

I smiled and said “hi.” Then we locked eyes.

“You’re a pastor, right?”

“Yes,” I responded. “But I know that’s a loaded word for so many people. I prefer not to lead off with that.”

Just behind me was a giant picture of Greg riding a motorcycle with his third wife, flipping off the camera as he’s driving. Neither the workers nor the patrons seemed like the religious types who post Instagram pictures of their coffee devotions.

“I just had a quick question about all that,” Greg continued. “I know you believe in God, but if God is real, then how are we supposed to make sense of all the pain we experience? I say whatever works for you is what you should do. No one belief in God will work for everyone.

Life is too hard.”

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And just like that, I knew I was going to be late for my meeting. I had been talking with Greg for more than a year, and he chose that time and place to ask one of the most profound questions about life: What good does God make of our suffering?

Whether they arise from our own experiences, or from conversations with people to whom we are ministering, questions about God’s presence in our suffering are bound to come up. Here are three truths that will lift us up against the gravity of those questions: Jesus anticipates our questions, empathizes with our pain, and weakens the sting of both in this age.

Anticipates Our Questions

Jesus’ humanity was never more apparent than when He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

(Matthew 27:46).

It wasn’t a philosophical question. It was existential in nature — arising not only from Jesus’ identification with the human struggles described in Psalm 22 but also from His personal experience of suffering. Our pain doesn’t offend God, and neither do our honest questions.

The Eleven must have had plenty of questions in the hours between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. In their grief, perhaps the disciples even questioned the decision to abandon their regular lives and follow Jesus on His travels.

Christ followers and unbelievers of every generation have wrestled with questions. Disappointment and discouragement can turn to disillusionment when we try to move people too quickly to Easter. Before the answer becomes apparent, there are questions. Before the Resurrection, we encounter the Cross.

In no uncertain terms, Christ’s resurrection is our victory and hope. However, it feels disingenuous to arrive at the Resurrection without first acknowledging that, for some, the agony of the Cross hits closer to home.

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Sometimes the existential realities of life are so disorienting that we must spend more time with the Son of God hanging on a tree.

Jesus shares our bruises and scars. Our pain doesn’t go unnoticed. The Lord absorbed it on our behalf.

That is why Paul, writing about death, was able to declare, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Yet before the apostle penned those words, Jesus asked, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus never guaranteed a trouble-free life. In fact, He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, emphasis added).

In times of trouble and turmoil, we can find answers to our existential questions not only in Jesus’ resurrection, but also in His suffering.

Where is God when it hurts? Why did my wife get cancer? How did my company fail? When did our marriage fall apart? There will be trouble. There will be questions.

“But take heart!”

In books and sermons, author Brennan Manning famously coined the phrase, “God loves you unconditionally as you are, not as you should be, because no one is as they should be.” The Cross lets us know that God truly loves us this way, in the midst of our unresolved questions and our unrelenting pain.

I’ve never been a fan of the saying, “Don’t put a question mark where God placed a period.” Maybe it’s my curious nature or my distaste for clichés. But I’ve also noticed that Jesus himself asked questions.

When I experience suffering and pain, many of my questions echo what Jesus has already asked. As I follow Him, it is natural that I both suffer and have questions. If these were unavoidable in Jesus’ life, how can His followers not experience them as well?

Jesus: “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

Jesus asked the Twelve (John 6:67).

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“OUR PAIN DOESN’T OFFEND GOD, AND NEITHER DO OUR HONEST QUESTIONS.”

Me: “Am I going to be alone?”

Jesus: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Me: “Are You up there? Why don’t I feel You?” Jesus: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (Matthew 26:39).

Me: “When will You step in and bring relief ?”

Jesus leads us even in our questioning. When we feel like investigating God and His character, Christ has done two things already: 1. Through His example, He has acknowledged the pain of the situation.

2. He has shined the spotlight back on us, revealing areas of our lives that need His redemptive work.

Either way, we serve a God who has no interest in sidestepping our hang-ups.

Hebrews 4:15 says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin.”

Empathizes With Our Pain

The Scottish minister George MacLeod wrote, “Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves.”

There was no earthly glory to behold on the hill that day.

There was no resurrection to preach. No redemption of Israel in the offing. And, worst of all, no resurrected Savior for the world. The successful mission of Jesus seemed like a quickly fading ministry.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated in Ethics, “The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.”

The message of God was nailed to a cross, a place for the thieves and lowlifes of the time. By all appearances, the Light of the World was snuffed out by darkness. Thankfully, that wasn’t the end of the story. As John later wrote, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Jesus has won the victory, but that doesn’t grant us immunity from pain. In this fallen world, we still experience dark days.

Some valleys are so deep it may feel like the shadows will consume us. I felt this sort of pain and despair as a sophomore in Bible college. The questions started with what one would consider to be apologetic in nature. Is God real? How do I know that Christianity is the one true religion? Why do bad things happen to good people?

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I had not yet heard the word “apologetics.” I didn’t know what it meant, who it was for, or how to use it. But these questions quickly turned existential in nature, resulting in a deep sense of doubting that Jesus is who He claimed to be. My thoughts shifted from questions to doubts in the following way: • “Does God exist?” became, “Does God make a difference in my life?”

• “Is Christianity the one true religion?” became, “Who cares about what is true?”

• “Why do bad things happen to good people?” became, “Why am I suffering and no one cares?”

I was sinking from doubt into serious depression. At one point, I looked a doctor in the eye and said, “Please find something wrong with me and give me a pill to fix it.”

A pill or a Savior … I would have taken either. Since it felt like my Savior was still hanging on a tree, I wanted to try something else.

I was unhappy with the belief system I had chosen, and it felt like I was at a standstill.

In his children’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis described a grim season in the land of Narnia: “always winter, but it never gets to Christmas.”

Similarly, it felt like the Crucifixion was the end of the story. Where was Easter?

Perhaps this is how the disciples felt the day Jesus died.

The claims they wanted to be true didn’t seem to be holding up to what was right in front of them. The disciples needed Jesus off that tree and active in the world again.

Little did the disciples know that for the greatest act in history to take place, Jesus had to conquer the deepest pains. And to conquer them, He had to face them. Experience them. Question them.

Such things are not always evident in the moment of suffering and pain. However, we do not have to stay perplexed. There is hope moving forward. There are perspective-shifting attitudes that help us untangle ourselves from the common assumption that we are owed more in this life.

Stephen Hawking was an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge. Although his brilliance and character

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did not always line up, there is no disputing that Hawking made substantial advancements in the theory of relativity. Hawking also had Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), which eventually took his life.

Over time, Hawking lost the ability to walk and speak.

He learned to articulate his thoughts through the tiniest movements of his fingers. This didn’t stop Hawking from writing, progressing in his field of study, and participating in interviews.

In December 2004, a reporter asked Hawking how he kept his spirits up. Hawking’s response was fascinating: “My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21.

Everything since then has been a bonus.”

Suddenly, each small pleasure becomes priceless when you have to count your days.

I realize a famous atheist may seem out of place in a discussion of Christ’s work on the cross. But the point is, all people experience more dramatic questions in the wake of pain. Of course, not all come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

The best Hawking could do was learn to live each day with gratitude. Although good, Christians have a brighter light to shine than that.

As I have talked with atheists and skeptics, I have learned that how we respond to the existential questions of life should truly differentiate Christ followers from others. Gratefulness is the floor, not the ceiling, for those who understand what Jesus did on the cross.

If you find yourself haunted by questions of God’s seeming absence and lack of power in your life, know that He is with you in your pain.

When faced with the death of a loved one, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). This seems natural enough — except when you read further and realize Jesus must have known He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead a few moments later.

We know why we cry when someone dies. Simply, we don’t have the power to resurrect them. Why was Jesus crying? I sincerely believe the pain of His followers moved Him to tears.

“ I N F U W O

“GRATEFULNESS IS THE FLOOR, NOT THE CEILING, FOR THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS DID ON THE CROSS.’’

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“IF JESUS’ PAIN GIVES US COMFORT IN THIS LIFE, HIS RESURRECTION GIVES US HOPE THAT NOTHING IN THIS LIFE WILL HAVE THE FINAL SAY.” 40 | Influence

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As the “image of the invisible God,” Jesus shows us what the Father feels over our affliction and grief. God does not take pleasure in our suffering. Whether it is a literal death, or the death of a relationship with someone we trusted, God is compassionate, and Christ’s tears are real. Jesus truly understands our pain.

Weakens Their Sting

The Cross represents so much more than God’s ability to empathize with our physical or emotional pain.

Jesus experienced all possible types of suffering on the cross — spiritual, physical and emotional.

Isaiah 53:3–5 prophetically described the scene: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished

by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

The enemy of our souls exhausted the weapons of hell on one Man, but Jesus turned the tables. Colossians 2:15 declares that Christ, “having disarmed the [spiritual] powers and authorities, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

In light of the Resurrection, no worldly hope compares to the light of God, shining through Christ on the cross. As you minister to those who are suffering this Easter, be careful not to compare their struggles to anything other than what Christ experienced on the cross.

The point is not to minimize their pain, but to offer a reminder that the God who experienced exponentially greater pain than any one of us has promised to walk with us through what feels overwhelming.

This is why the Cross may seem more real than the Resurrection on this side of eternity. It is the part of the story we can feel, see and touch. It doesn’t take faith to suffer. It takes faith to trust the One who went before our suffering, in all ways, and came out victoriously.

God pivoted all of history toward the deepest sorrow and greatest injustice that have ever taken place, so we could all see and experience the greatest victory of all time.

Our questions about pain and suffering lead us to the Cross, but they don’t leave us at the Cross. If Jesus’

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“OUR QUESTIONS ABOUT PAIN AND SUFFERING LEAD US TO THE CROSS, BUT THEY DON’T LEAVE US AT THE CROSS.” pain gives us comfort in this life, His resurrection gives us hope that nothing in this life will have the final say.

The message of Easter is not just that Jesus is alive.

The message of Easter is that Jesus has risen! Everything was placed on Him, but none of it could hold Him down.

Jesus is the Pioneer who has gone before us in every way. Christ knows the path of our questions and pain. He has the scars of One who has gone through suffering, and He lives to tell about it.

I’ve always found it curious that the glorified body of Christ retained its scars. We don’t know much about what the resurrected Lord looked like, but Scripture seems to indicate He had scars (John 20:24–27). It’s as if the Resurrection is insufficient without the Cross, and the Cross is entirely worthless without the Resurrection.

Our God bears the marks of our questions and pain.

Not only does He weaken the sting of both in this age, but He will ultimately remove the sting entirely in the age to come. “Then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’” (1 Corinthians 15:54–55; cf. Isaiah 25:8; Hosea 13:14).

Since Jesus went before us, He now gives us the strength to go with Him. The author of Hebrews put it this way: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and

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free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death … . Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:14–15,18 ).

When I finally finished my conversation with Greg, he told me he had never noticed how Jesus experienced similar pain. Greg had heard about the Resurrection, but never the humanity of Jesus in the Crucifixion. From then on, I changed my leader’s meetings so Greg and I could meet every Sunday to talk through his questions about life.

For Greg, the gospel wasn’t good news if we skipped straight to the Resurrection. Not only was it how he learned of a God who knows our pain, but it is also where Greg learned how much God loves him.

Wherever you have dialogue about Jesus this Easter, make sure your sermons and conversations leave room for those struck down with questions about life. It makes the Resurrection all the more remarkable!

Preston Ulmer is director of network development for the AG Church Multiplication Network in Springfield, Missouri. He is also founder and president of The Doubter’s Club, gatherings of Christians and non-Christians who are pursuing truth together.

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What research shows about turning occasional attenders into fully committed followers of Christ.

Moving Easter Guests 44 | Influence

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Toward Greater Faith WARREN BIRD

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C

hris Morante, lead pastor at Evangel Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, approaches big days like Easter with extra prayer.

“I want people to have a life-changing revelation of Christ, to move from knowing about Him to knowing Him personally,” Morante says. “I approach big days by praying for specific people, thinking about their story, asking God for a burden for them, and believing that as they hear the gospel and see the power of changed lives, they too will experience the power and hope of Christ.”

When it comes to attracting the unchurched and occasional attenders, the biggest three days for most churches are Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day. Recognized by Outreach magazine as one of the fastest-growing congregations in 2019, Evangel Church finds those “holly and lily” days to be so spiritually fruitful that leaders often plan an additional big day during the year — bringing in a well-known Christian athlete as a guest, for instance.

How ready are you for your church’s next big day? To prepare well, you’ll need to identify the most strategic steps you can take to attract, welcome, retain and disciple new people. Start by prayerfully answering these nine questions:

1. Do you believe sizable numbers of unchurched people could indeed come to the church you serve? In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commanded His followers to “make disciples of all nations.” This certainly includes our own unsaved relatives, friends and neighbors.

Jesus also affirmed that the spiritual harvest is ready and waiting for us. “The harvest is plentiful,” He said in Luke 10:2. The holdup, Jesus explained, is not with the harvest but with the workers: “The workers are few.”

To underscore this point, Jesus asked His disciples to pray, not for the harvest but for something else: “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (emphasis added). Just in case it wasn’t clear who those workers should include, Jesus’ next word to His disciples was this: “Go!” (Luke 10:3).

If you and your leadership team don’t contagiously believe your church can and should meaningfully minister to more unchurched people, and that your church’s best days are yet ahead, stop reading now. Pause to calendar that issue as a major point of Bible study and prayer.

2. Are you building faith in your people that their friends will say “yes” to an invitation to attend church?

Contrary to what churchgoers may think, many people would welcome an invitation to church, especially from someone they know.

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How ready are you for your church’s next big day?

In a 2016 LifeWay Research survey of unchurched Americans, about one-third (35%) said they would likely attend a church worship service if invited. And more than half said they would respond favorably to an invitation from a friend or neighbor (51%), or from a family member (55%). What an opportunity!

Numerous other studies affirm that 70%–95% of firsttime guests in most churches were personally invited.

Do you want more first-time guests? Give your members good reasons to invite their friends, and specific guidance for following through. And don’t just limit this to Easter.

An example of low-hanging fruit is to maximize the weekend when children are singing as part of the worship service. During such times, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas — unchurched and not — are highly receptive to an invitation. Provide invitation cards, social media announcements, or other ways for parents to invite their friends. Make sure the church website includes easy-tofind directions, service times and other relevant information for first-time guests.

Consider whether your sermon illustrations, announcements and other service elements will appeal to first-time guests — giving them a reason to come back, even when their little Maria is not singing.

3. Do you monitor your guest count and train your people in how to invite their friends? The old adage is true: What you inspect, you will see more of. What you monitor and measure usually increases.

Almost every church has a member who loves to count things and create spreadsheets. Perhaps that person can track attendance growth and figure out some ratios for your leadership team.

To grow even slightly, a church needs at least the

same number of new guests each year as its average worship attendance. If you average 100 people weekly, do you average roughly two guests each weekend — more on big holidays, and perhaps fewer on other days?

If you average 1,000 people weekly, do you average 20 weekly newcomers?

How many new guests does your church need? Divide your average weekly attendance by 52; the quotient is how many guests your church needs to average every week for minimal growth.

The assumption here comes from the research-rich book What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church by Gary L. McIntosh and Charles Arn. According to the authors, churches annually lose 10% of attendees through death, transfer and dropout, and keep 15% of first-time guests, thus netting 5% growth. To grow at a faster rate, you’ll need even more visitors. Instead of 2% guests each week, aim for 4%.

(Count local guests only — not Aunt Minnie, who is visiting family but lives 1,000 miles away.)

4. Do you know what push to make on Easter as the best way to draw people back in the near future? Imagine it’s the moment in the Easter service when you or a lay leader welcomes your first-time guests and invites them to return.

What kind of appeal will draw the biggest positive response? An exhortation to come more often? An encouragement to return that evening for the launch of a 10-week discipleship group where they’ll “meet lots of great people”?

Actually, neither. Instead, offer them an experience that will help them see faith demonstrated. Perhaps you could mention the teaching series that’s launching the following week where they can hear stories of how God has helped people like them deal with loneliness (or anxiety, or another felt need) and what Jesus had to say about it.

Many advertising appeals today highlight time well saved, but experiences are about time well spent.

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“Today, people more highly value experiences that engage them personally and in memorable ways,” write B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in The Experience Economy.

Jesus met Peter where he was and called him to step into a life-changing experience. Jesus said, in effect, “You like to fish? Let me show you how to fish for people.”

Jesus invited Peter into an experience that became a journey of faith in God. Do likewise with your congregation — guests and longtime members alike.

In Liquid Church: Six Powerful Currents to Saturate Your City for Christ, Tim Lucas and I explain that each big-attendance day should include an invitation to return for a one-time experience.

Examples include bringing the family on an upcoming Saturday to help package meals for the homeless, joining the church’s young adults who are coordinating an overnight cardboard box sleepover in the church parking lot to raise awareness about hunger, helping with a total makeover of a women’s shelter, and signing up for a 5K walkrun to support the digging of clean-water wells overseas.

Churches of all sizes do good in Jesus’ name. Why not time these outreaches so your big days can include an invitation to an easy-entry, low-commitment, one-time, relationship-building shared experience with other people in your church?

5. Do you have a safe way of capturing contact information for your guests at whatever level they’re willing to share? If you don’t regularly invite people to tell you a bit

To grow even slightly, a church needs at least the same number of new guests each year as its average worship attendance.

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about themselves — through connection cards, a friendship pad, a cell phone app, geocoding, or another method — you’re missing huge potential for follow-up.

Just as important, if you’re not regularly reviewing this process to ask what’s working, what’s not, and how you can tweak the system, your methods may become ineffective.

In a rapidly changing culture, you should continually assess the ways people are most receptive to letting you into their world. In addition, have a team review all forms of data capture (sanctuary, nursery, financial giving, etc.) at least annually to be sure they’re syncing with one another.

But don’t stop there. If people in your community are comfortable participating in a local restaurant’s invitation to register their birthday for a free meal, there are safe ways you can invite them to tell your church more about themselves.

For example, one church that has active Facebook and Instagram pages always sets up a photo-inviting backdrop for its big days. They might bring in a live lamb for Easter or a series of props for Mother’s Day, such as an empty picture frame big enough for a family to pose inside.

A volunteer offers to use people’s smartphones to take photos and then asks them to tag the church when they post them on social media. If they do — and most do — voila, more access to keeping in touch.

Your church has 0% chance of sending someone further information to enrich their spiritual life if you have no contact information for reaching them.

Your church has 0% chance of sending someone further information to enrich their spiritual life if you have no contact information for reaching them.

6. Do you give higher priority to second-time guests than to first-timers, and to third-time guests than to second-timers? It’s great to let your first-time guests know you’re glad they came, perhaps by letter, email, social media post or phone. But what about your second-time visitors, the ones who liked the experience enough to come back? By their presence, they are telling you, “We are clearly interested in your church.”

What Every Pastor Should Know includes research on visitor retention. According to the authors, those who made two visits to the same church during a six-week period were almost twice as likely to settle there, and those who visited three times were almost three times as likely to stay.

In short, the more often people visit, the more likely they are to stay. So in addition to your first-timer letter or email, create notes to send to second-time and third-time guests.

Also develop a strategy for connecting second- and third-time guests with regular attendees over things they have in common, such as marital and family status, age or occupation. When newcomers have friends in the church, they are more likely to become active and involved.

7. Have you created and recently evaluated your process for moving people along a discipleship pathway? People visit churches for many reasons, but relationships are

often what bring them back. Genuine relationship building goes far beyond the “greet one another” time in the worship service, or even the friendly greeter who calls people by name — as helpful and important as these moments are.

“The biggest win for a first-time guest is to make sure they’re a second-time guest,” says Carlos Cardenas, who grew up in the Assemblies of God and now serves as the director of campuses and teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship in Miami.

Of course, you want to do far more than draw people back. You want them to come to know Christ and grow in their faith.

Has your leadership team mapped out a pathway for discipleship, one that helps newcomers build relationships — with people other than the pastor — at each point along the way?

Suppose a family comes to church on Easter, returns two weeks later, and then again two weeks after that. If someone interviewed them as they exited the building on that third visit, how well could they answer this question: What does this church recommend as the top option or two for us if we want to take the next steps forward in our spiritual journeys? People need clarity on how best to make friendships and how best to grow — and ideally how to do both at the same time.

“We not only review our connection and growth

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If the spiritual health of the church and its leadership aren’t strong and growing, it doesn’t matter how good your processes are. pathway regularly, we also study it continually to find its weak points and then make it better,” Cardenas says. “We ask tough questions often.”

Personally following up on the connection cards every week is a top priority of the campus pastors and key volunteers, Cardenas says.

Churches grow bigger by getting smaller. People find their identity not in the whole but in a unit within the whole.

Your target should be for 80% of the adults in your congregation to be involved in a Sunday School class, home group, service team or other small group where they can comfortably say, “Would you guys pray for my job interview this week?” or even, “My teens are driving me crazy; I need some help.”

8. Do you regularly offer people specific small steps they can take to grow in their faith? You don’t want people at your church going everywhere and nowhere at the same time. They shouldn’t hear one message in the weekly sermons, another in the bulletin or announcements, and still another in emails, on signage, or on the church’s Facebook page.

Churches that report the strongest spiritual and numerical growth have the highest level of clarity in their vision.

The book Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples became popular because churches tend to add, over time, layer upon layer of programming. It

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may be well intentioned, but it often causes confusion and diluted focus. Too many people are unsure of where their church is going, or how it can help them grow spiritually.

The solution is for a unified leadership team to translate the church’s ministries and events into a series of small steps. Each week, offer people something specific they can do to get involved in the life of the church.

This can happen in more places than just the worship services. For example, on a monthly or quarterly basis, invite repeat visitors to an after-church pizza meal with the pastor.

During the event, have three lay leaders each describe an easy-to-join, low-commitment, entry-point ministry, such as a one-month stint helping with the coffee stand or setup team. Also use the opportunity to discuss the church’s vision and goals and additional ways to join in.

The more you demonstrate intentionality in your growth pathway, the more people will take part.

9. Have you laid the groundwork for year after year of high-attendance weekends? Looking ahead long-term, what’s the best way to prepare for your next high-attendance event?

Start by developing a healthier pastoral staff and board.

At the end of the day, if the spiritual health of the church and its leadership aren’t strong and growing, it doesn’t matter how good your processes are.

Further, a recent landmark study of church boards by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

found that the most significant difference between effective and ineffective boards is the degree of clarity about roles — who does what.

Effective boards know where they’re going, and they focus on that future, setting policies and tracking goals to get there. In addition, effective boards practice soul care for the senior pastor, putting priority on making sure their senior leader has a good work-life balance.

In some sense, your attendees, new and old, can’t be any healthier than you are. Your ministry is the overflow of your walk with Jesus. If the intake isn’t exceeding the output, the upkeep will be your downfall! Partner not only with your staff, volunteer and paid, but also with your board.

Are you ready to move your church, including all newcomers, toward greater faith?

Evangelism has two sides: go and tell, and come and see. Remember how Andrew brought his brother Peter to Jesus (John 1:41)? Every church has Andrews, and some may have a Peter. And God has given you the privilege of impacting world changes like that every week, but especially on big days like Easter.

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is vice president of research and equipping for the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability based in Winchester, Virginia, and the author of 31 books on church leadership.

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This book is for anyone who longs for a deeper connection to God, who has felt far from peace and hope, and who needs the assurance that God is both interested in who they are and accepts them.

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ECTION

How baptism and Communion help us remember Christ’s death and resurrection … and our own.

KRISTI NORTHUP

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rowing up, water baptism was mostly for church kids and the occasional return of a prodigal. I was baptized by immersion at age 11 — old enough to know Jesus was in my heart. Yet I can’t say it was a particularly meaningful moment in my faith journey.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a baptism service at Stone Creek Church (AG) in Urbana, Illinois. It was 1999, and I was a new summer intern. It wasn’t the grandeur of the space that impressed me. (Lacking a permanent baptismal, the staff had rolled out a small, portable tank.) It was the response of sheer joy.

The band played in the background as each person shared his or her faith story. After the pastor said, “I now baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” and plunged the person under the water, the congregation cheered and applauded. The worship team then launched into a song of praise.

It was powerful. I vowed to myself that if I ever led a

church, this was the way I would do baptisms.

I’m not the only one who has had this revelation. Across the country, baptism and Holy Communion are receiving renewed focus.

Weighty Symbols

Baptism by immersion can be a catalyst for personal change in the lives of individuals, as they remember and publicly proclaim they are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ (Romans 6:1–4). It reminds churches of their Godgiven mandate to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them (Matthew 28:19–20).

Communion is a time of identifying with and participating in Christ’s sacrifice, proclaiming His message, remembering what He did for us on the cross, and anticipating His soon return (Matthew 26:29; Luke 22:16,19; 1 Corinthians 10:16–17; 11:24,26).

Both ordinances (sometimes called sacrements in other Christian traditions) of the Church draw attention

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“baptism and communion do not in themselves offer any saving power, but they are public rites of identification for those who are believers.’’

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to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In some ways, the ordinances are awkward. They don’t seem to fit with our neatly packaged weekly church production. Soaking wet people, splashing gallons of water on the carpet. Grape juice that represents blood. It may seem silly to some. It can be difficult to explain.

But these symbols remind us of our most fundamental beliefs. We should not shy away from them because of their awkwardness. The realities the ordinances represent should shake us from our routines, capture our attention, and inspire our worship.

Baptism and Communion do not in themselves offer any saving power, but they are public rites of identification for those who are believers. Baptism is a physical demonstration of the death of our old self and our new birth in Christ. It marks our incorporation into the Church, the body of Christ (Galatians 3:26–28; Ephesians 4:5–6).

Communion gives us pause as we reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice. It is a time for coming together, uniting our hearts in an act of worship and fellowship around the table of the Lord. he fact that these are symbolic practices doesn’t mean we should dismiss their importance. We honor our national flag and cherish wedding rings because of what they represent. Similarly, the ordinances of baptism and Communion carry a weighty significance we must not overlook.

Why does the regular practice of these symbols matter? In generations past, there was a tacit understanding of Scripture and biblical principles. Even those who were not churchgoers had some knowledge of the Ten Commandments and other commonly cited Scriptures.

Today, we can no longer assume people know the Bible or that they understand the centrality of the Crucifixion and Resurrection to our faith.

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Furthermore, the cultural messages of self-centeredness and self-love can crowd out the gospel unless we continually point back to the Cross.

Paul told the Corinthians, “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1–2). aptism and Communion in our services help keep the emphasis where it needs to be: on Jesus’ redemptive work.

It has never been more important for us to constantly remind people Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith. Giving congregants the opportunity to experience the Cross through all their senses — sight, sound, touch, taste and smell — strengthens their connection to faith.

Baptism and Communion, when regularly practiced in the local church, naturally foster a culture of Resurrection that keeps Jesus at the center of everything we do.

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Water Baptism

Across the country, pastors have increasingly made baptism by immersion a time to celebrate, emphasize the Great Commission, and invite friends and family to services.

Churches are finding creative ways to highlight the importance of baptism. Some give T-shirts to candidates, which can later open doors for these new believers to talk about their decision to follow Christ in baptism.

Others use video testimonies to help people share their salvation stories.

A baptism Sunday can bring in many visitors if the church helps the candidates get the word out. Invitation cards for friends and family can make it easier for them to ask loved ones to attend. Visitors can then hear

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the testimonies of lives transformed in Christ.

Portable churches are often creative by necessity, turning these events into church picnics and baptizing people in a pool, a lake or even the ocean. Some use a feed trough as a trendy baptismal tank; it can be stored outside and used either outdoors or indoors. t Newhope Church (AG) in Puyallup, Washington, baptism is an important part of the discipleship process. The church hosts baptism services every two months at all five Newhope campuses. The process looks different for each age group, but it’s important for those considering baptism to understand what it means, according to Lead Pastor Jeffery Portmann.

The church recommends dedication for children under age 8. Kids over age 8 through middle school take a class with their parents. They complete several devotionals as a family before they are able to sign up for baptism. High school students go through the information in their small groups, and adults complete a self-guided learning tool.

These steps help people understand the importance of baptism to their faith through Scripture passages and teaching. As candidates work through the process, the church connects them to small groups. Leaders also follow up on them after baptism.

Baptism can be evangelistic. It can be part of the discipleship process. It can also be spontaneous. It’s beautiful to see spontaneous baptisms for those who feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit to participate while watching others take this important step in their faith journey.

There are many ways to incorporate a greater emphasis on believers following Jesus in obedience by being baptized. The important thing is to provide opportunity, bring understanding, and make it a special celebration.

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Holy Communion

In contrast to the celebration of baptism by immersion, Communion is a solemn encounter with God. Anyone who has experienced the death of someone close to them knows that remembering is a solemn experience, no matter how much of a celebration we may try to make it.

At our church, Saints Community Church (AG) in New Orleans, we initially began offering Communion weekly as a way to bridge the experience for people from a Catholic background. Now, eight years later, it has deeply impacted the way our church keeps Christ at the center. It

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is a simple way to talk weekly about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is a built-in call to repentance and a visible affirmation of faith.

How do we make this work on a weekly basis? We stop after the second song and give a short explanation and instructions. People quietly come forward, where our leaders serve them the cup and bread. Then they go back to their seats to receive Communion in their own time.

We have a minute or two without singing, with an acoustic guitar or a keyboard quietly playing in the background.

As a worship leader, I deeply appreciate that quiet moment where I am just a simple Christian, connecting with God during our service. I find that for many people, life is so full of noise. This may be the quietest moment of the week for them, which can open their hearts to hear God speak.

Churches practice Communion weekly in other ways as well. Some set the elements at the altar where people can serve themselves during worship. Others may not serve Communion on Sunday morning, but serve it regularly during the midweek service.

I’ve recently seen several churches serve Communion in families or groups around a table, which offers the communal experience of sharing it with other members of the body of Christ.

The regular practice of Communion brings our services back to Jesus all year long. On Easter, the power of His resurrection is more deeply impacting when we stop to think about what it means to overcome death. On Pentecost Sunday, we remember that the Holy Spirit came so we can be witnesses to Jesus’ story. On national holidays, the ordinances remind us of the spiritual freedom Jesus made possible. At Christmas, baptism and Communion point to the reason Jesus came into our world. inisters often ask me whether serving Communion weekly decreases the value or makes it more mundane. On the contrary, it has made it more meaningful for me personally.

In the same way I love to lift my hands and sing with all my might, or work my way through the Bible each year, I feel drawn to the practice of Communion. I think about the suffering of Christ every time I receive the cup and the bread. The practice challenges me to respond to my own sufferings like Jesus responded to the cross.

Remembering every seven days that Jesus was an innocent man who died a violent and unjust death has given

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“the regular practice of communion brings our services back to jesus all year long.’’

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to the heart of god.

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COMMUNION

LS ME CLOS me greater compassion for the innocent who suffer violence. As we share in Communion, I often think about the persecuted Church, unable to worship and sing, but able to break bread together.

On a recent Friday during our noon prayer time, I struggled to engage. The projects I was working on consumed my thoughts. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shift to prayer. Finally, I went to the church kitchen and prepared Communion for the 13 of us at prayer that day. ne by one, I served the elements to each person, speaking the blessing we regularly share over them: “This represents the blood of Christ, poured out for you. This represents the body of Christ, broken for you.”

This moment brought me down from the frantic thoughts of tasks and strategy to the place where Christ wanted to meet me. My prayers were no longer situational self-talk. Instead, I asked Jesus to make me more like Him. It wasn’t something magical that happened; it was simply an intentional reminder that shifted my mind into alignment with His Spirit.

Communion pulls me closer to the heart of God, where the pressures and distractions of ministry become muffled for a moment by the embrace of His blood and His body.

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Christ Centered

If people remember our churches more for the experience, gifts, blessing, production, politics, community or self-care, we’ve missed the mark. Pentecost without Jesus is just mysticism. Pentecost through Jesus is the greatest power for transformation in the history of humankind.

We must offer the bread of life — which is Christ — over and over, reinforcing that He is the bedrock of our faith.

Let’s create a culture of Resurrection, laser-focused on Jesus, girded by the demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism and Communion bring to life my favorite Bible passage, Philippians 3:10–11: “I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

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 regular column for Influencemagazine.com.

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MULTIPLIERS Leaders Leveraging Their Gifts for God’s Kingdom

A Fabric of Unity C H R I S C O LV I N

Stan Grant and Shawn Franco are reaping a harvest — not just in their own churches but across Richmond, Virginia.

hat does multiplication cost? If it’s a matter of attending conferences, updating technology, hiring staff, or paying for advertising, it might be possible to assign a price tag.

But what if the investment were more than just financial? What if it meant giving up staff and even sending some of your own members to start a new church? What if you released resources so another pastor across town could start something new? Would it be worth it to multiply the influence of the gospel where you live?

For two pastors in greater Richmond, Virginia, the answer is yes. Through their sacrificial commitment to multiplication, Stan Grant and Shawn Franco have helped others launch into multiplying ministries of their own.

Grant has been lead pastor at Cloverhill Church (Assemblies of God) in Midlothian since 1997, when he oversaw its relaunch.

Franco took over the lead position at Cornerstone Church (AG) in North Chesterfield during 2010, after serving several years on staff. Both have been answering the call to plant other churches through their influence and resources.

“Among the Assemblies of God in Richmond, there is a fabric of unity,” Franco says.

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Intending to be Multipliers

A thriving community, Richmond is a field ripe for harvest. Over the last decade, it has grown at a rate roughly double that of the state of Virginia and the nation as a whole, according to census data. It is also a diverse city, racially, ethnically and economically.

Cloverhill Church has been strongly missions-minded from the beginning. After years of supporting missionaries around the world, the congregation sensed God leading them to

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consider the missions opportunities in their own city as well.

The church decided to make planting other churches a focus of prayer. Grant soon began talking with people who were ready to plant; they just needed the support and leadership of a sending church.

In 2011, Cloverhill planted its first new congregation, Destination Church (AG) in Hopewell, a suburb south of Richmond, with Bryan Briggs as pastor.

Then, in 2017, Cloverhill helped Adam and Leslie Martino launch United Church (AG) in Richmond.

Two years later, Cloverhill sent out Nate and Anna Clarke to plant Oasis Church (AG), which meets at a public high school just outside the city limits.

“I really wanted to multiply, not just add to the Kingdom,” Grant says. “And I knew I could do that best through investing in other people.”

Grant knew the intentional investment might mean his own church wouldn’t see

(Left to right) Sara and Shawn Franco (Cornerstone AG), Bryan Briggs (Destination Church), Stan Grant (Cloverhill Church), Adam and Leslie Martino (United Church), Hannah and Brandon Baldwin (New Community Church).

numeric growth, but he was committed to expanding the reach of the gospel throughout Richmond.

Around the same time, Cornerstone Church was making its own effort. When Franco took over as lead pastor in 2010, he felt impressed to continue the missional legacy of those who came before him.

“This city planted us years ago, and we wanted to return the favor,” Franco says.

He laid out a vision of planting three churches in the span of 10 years. The first work was a sister church in Ethiopia.

In 2017, Cornerstone planted Motivation Church (AG) in Richmond. Travis Jones (formerly a staff pastor at Cornerstone) and his wife, Brittany, lead the young congregation.

This September, Cornerstone will help Brandon and Hannah Baldwin launch New Community Church (AG), also in Richmond.

Being intentional about multiplying means being willing to give, Franco says.

“We committed to send people and money,” Franco says of Motivation Church’s launch.

“We sent about 50 or 60 people, more than a

tenth of our total church body. We also raised money that we gave to that church plant. If you factor in the lost tithes from the members transferring, it was a pretty big price to pay.”

Yet God proved faithful. Within six months, Cornerstone’s attendance exceeded the preplanting total, and the church had its strongest financial year ever.

Leveraging Organic Relationships

Relationships have been key to multiplication success throughout Richmond. Two years before Destination Church launched, Briggs sensed God speaking to him about church planting, but he wasn’t sure how to start. He had heard about Grant’s desire to plant churches, so he contacted him.

“I just wanted to sit down and ask him some questions,” Briggs says. “I had no idea about church planting, but I knew he did.”

That conversation led to an invitation to join the staff at Cloverhill and eventually launch his own church. Interestingly, Briggs’ father, Larry, had helped plant Cloverhill years earlier, when the elder Briggs was lead pastor of MAR-APR 2020

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ANGIE AND STAN GRANT / CLOVERHILL CHURCH

SARA AND SHAWN FRANCO / CORNERSTONE CHURCH

Stan Grant is senior pastor of Cloverhill Church, which has two locations in suburban Richmond, Virginia. He has led the church since 1997, when he spearheaded a relaunch of the existing congregation.

Shawn and Sara Franco began leading Cornerstone Church in 2010. Originally from Long Island, New York, Shawn Franco has lived in the Richmond area for more than 25 years.

Colonial Heights Assembly of God near Richmond. Grant remembered fondly this act of generosity and wanted to return the favor.

That is just one of many ways AG pastors have leveraged organic relationships to multiply in the Richmond area. They have learned to look in their own backyards for opportunities. That sometimes means letting go of great staff people.

The Baldwins grew up in Cornerstone Church. After moving away to attend college and do missions work, they made their way back home in 2004, and Brandon Baldwin joined the staff. When the Baldwins launch New Community Church this fall, it will

be the culmination of a long relationship between them and their sending church.

“I’ve honestly never done church without (Brandon Baldwin),” Franco says.

While Franco acknowledges it will be hard to see them go, he says letting go means extending the reach of the gospel. Each time the congregation sends a staff member on to another church or ministry, God fills in the gaps they leave behind, Franco says.

“I’m committed to our staff,” Franco says.

“I’ve told them that if any of them want to be a senior pastor somewhere else, we will help them. Their commitment is to serve us; our commitment is to grow them. And that means

ADAM AND LESLIE MARTINO / UNITED CHURCH

NATE AND ANNA CLARKE / OASIS CHURCH

Adam and Leslie Martino, originally from Staten Island, New York, planted United Church in 2017 with help from Cloverhill Church.

Nate and Anna Clarke started Oasis Church in 2019 after several years of successful ministry in Richmond and across the country.

BRYAN AND KELLY BRIGGS / DESTINATION CHURCH

TRAVIS AND BRITTANY JONES / MOTIVATION CHURCH

Bryan and Kelly Briggs planted Destination Church in 2011 with help from Stan Grant and the congregation at Cloverhill, where Bryan Briggs previously served as a staff member.

Travis and Brittany Jones started Motivation Church in the urban center of Richmond in 2017. A diverse church in a diverse area, Motivation Church aims for unity in an urban core that consists of blue-collar workers and upper-class professionals.

launching them when they’re ready.”

These organic relationships were coming from all different directions, weaving in and out from church to church. But as Grant and Franco paid attention, they saw how it was a chance to multiply their impact.

Another way these organic relationships happen is through God’s guidance. The Martinos grew up on Staten Island, New York. They happened to be passing through Richmond and staying with friends when they heard about Grant and his desire to plant churches.

That’s when they began to sense God was giving them a vision for ministry in Richmond.

“I met Pastor Stan and gave him permission to speak into my life” Adam Martino says. “After a few conversations, we realized that planting was the best way for Leslie and me to fulfill what God had placed in our hearts for Richmond.”

BRANDON AND HANNAH BALDWIN / NEW COMMUNITY CHURCH In fall 2020, Brandon and Hannah Baldwin will leave the staff of Cornerstone Church to plant New Community Church.

Deciding to Be Different

This multiplication approach has been crucial to reaching the city’s diverse population.

Grant and Franco believed opening campuses that replicated their own mission and methods wasn’t the best way to attract the city’s unreached demographics. Fresh ministries have their own drawing power.

When Jones was a staff member at Cornerstone Church, a midweek student service helped him catch the vision for starting a new work in the heart of the city.

“We would bus in kids from all over the Richmond area, especially from one specific neighborhood,” Jones says. “And I remember one student telling me he wished there was a church his mom could attend.”

Motivation Church has been the mother’s spiritual home for several years now.

The students who previously rode a bus to the suburbs to attend services now have a church they can call their own, in their own neighborhood.

A diverse church in a diverse area, Motivation Church aims to unify an urban core that

“I really wanted to multiply, not just add to the Kingdom. And I knew I could do that best through investing in other people.”

— Stan Grant

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“Their commitment is to serve us; our commitment is to grow them.

And that means launching them when they’re ready.”

— Shawn Franco

Chris Colvin specializes in sermon research for pastors and churches. He lives in Springfield, Missouri.

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consists of blue-collar workers and upperclass professionals. Each week, business leaders worship alongside factory workers.

That sense of coming together has been a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

The manifold expressions of church multiplication are evident across the city. Geographically, the congregations are located all over the map. They range in attendance from around 200 to well over 2,000. Together, they represent a weekly gathering of nearly 6,000.

What one church could not accomplish alone has become a reality as all work together.

Their methods are quite different as well.

Cornerstone does a lot of outreach in the public schools around it. The church ministers to four different generations and three cultures, in two languages: English and Spanish. It has strong ties to Chesterfield County and the greater Richmond area.

Cloverhill Church is committed to being a presence in the community, especially in the area of foster care. Last year alone, there were 13 adoptions within the congregation. There is also a strong missions focus.

Destination Church may be the most unique. The congregation began with 450 members and has grown steadily over the past nine years. Located in a movie theater, the church shows family-friendly movies throughout the week and uses the theater as a worship space on weekends. This marketplace ministry paradigm has proven successful. Destination Church now ministers to more than 2,300 people each week, most of them previously unchurched.

In deciding to be different, each church allows the mission field to determine the methods. They reflect their neighborhood demographics in almost every area. The leaders agree that multiplication of that magnitude could not happen in a cookie-cutter context.

Spiritual Mentoring

Grant and Franco are passionate not only about multiplication, but about investing in the lives of other church leaders.

The Clarkes are examples of the power of

spiritual mentoring. Nate Clarke grew up at Cloverhill Church. He then served as a campus pastor for Destination Church. When the Clarkes were preparing to launch Oasis Church, they turned to Grant for advice.

“When we first thought about planting, we approached Pastor Stan about it,” Nate Clarke says. “He told us that whatever that looked like, they wanted to be our sending church.”

Launched in September 2019, Oasis is not yet a year old but is already multiplying. Clarke says much of that is due to help from more seasoned ministers like Grant and Briggs, both of whom serve as overseers of Oasis.

Grant says he gains insight through mentoring relationships as well.

“When we get together, I think I learn more from them than they do from me,” Grant says.

Mentoring is essential to multiplication because it requires a level of selflessness that allows natural leaders to emerge. Fostering growth in individuals leads to Kingdom growth, according to Franco.

“The kingdom of God can only grow through leaders,” Franco says.

Franco sees investments in new leaders as investments in his own congregation.

“How else would I grow healthy leaders for my church if I didn’t encourage them to be great leaders on their own?” Franco asks.

Grant says multiplication is making a positive difference throughout Richmond.

“By being a resource to launch these churches, it’s not just a way to give young leaders opportunities, but also a way to give our community life-giving churches they need.”

The cost may seem great at times. When God asks a congregation to send their best staff people and members to start a church across town, it can be scary. But as Grant and Franco have discovered, the rewards can be tremendous. They set out intentionally to do just that. Grant and Franco have leveraged God-given relationships and uniqueness to the benefit of the community. And they have kept giving through spiritual mentoring.

They are reaping a harvest — not just in their own churches but across Richmond.

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MAKE IT COUNT An Eight-Week Study for Leadership Teams

CONFLICT RESOLUTION HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATE CONFLICT IN YOUR HOME, TEAM, CHURCH AND SOCIETY 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 churches.

Blandino These lessons can help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.

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onflict! Everybody has it, and almost everybody hates it. And if you’re a leader, you get a double dose (and probably more) of conflict as you work hard to lead your team, congregation or organization.

It’s not uncommon to face conflicts when you have to make big decisions, or when you’re trying to advance a noble vision, or when you’re having to deal with an unexpected or unforeseen obstacle. Add to that the conflicts we experience at home and in society, and life can quickly feel like one giant maze of conflict resolution.

Regardless of the situation, the question is, “How do you successfully navigate conflict and bring about a healthy resolution?” That’s the focus of this edition of “Make It Count.” Over the next eight lessons, we’re going to discover practical insights on conflict resolution, including: • Three types of conflict • Developing the posture to successfully navigate conflict • How ‘to do’ conflict • What to do when you can’t resolve a conflict • How to handle conflict at home • How to handle conflict with your team • How to handle conflict in the congregation • How to handle conflict in society As you read and discuss these eight lessons with your team, you’ll be challenged and equipped to successfully navigate conflict and move toward a better future. Conflict resolution isn’t easy, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. These lessons will give you biblical and practical perspective so you can face conflict in a manner that is healthy and honorable and enables the best outcome.

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The following eight, easy-to-use lessons on managing conflict in your home, team, church and society 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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MAKE IT COUNT Study

1

Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

Three Types of Conflict Assess: What kinds of conflict do you think leaders deal with the most?

Insights and Ideas

o matter how much of a peacemaker you are, we all experience conflict in some shape, form or fashion.

James 4:1–6 describes the various forms of conflict like this: “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’”

James introduces us to three kinds of conflict: 1. External conflict. James begins his instructions on conflict with a question: “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” James is referring to relational conflict among followers of Christ. Regardless of the situation, the biggest issue in any conflict is the health of the individuals involved in the conflict. Healthy people know how to successfully navigate conflict, but unhealthy people produce and perpetuate conflict.

2. Internal conflict. James does more than simply identify conflicts in the church. He addresses the root of the problem when he answers his own question with another question: “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” The desires James refers to are sensual desires born of selfish wants. James shows a progression — an escalation — in conflict and makes a connection between wants and wars.

James talks about the desire for something that seems out of reach. That’s the internal want. Then he talks about lashing out with arguments and violence. That’s the external war. The point is clear: Our unfulfilled internal wants produce our uncontrolled external wars.

3. Upward conflict. Upward conflict is the tension we have with God. What causes this conflict? Verses 2–6 provide three clues: impure motives, adulterous relationships and pride. In other words, we experience conflict with God when we pray with impure motives, exercise spiritual infidelity, and walk in a spirit of pride.

Here’s the big idea of James’ words: Upward peace creates inward peace that produces outward peace.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. How does James 4:1–6 speak to you as a leader (at home and at work)?

2. Which form of conflict — external, internal or upward — do you think leaders struggle with most? Why? 3. What form of conflict are you challenged to address in your own life or ministry?

Apply

Spend some time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any kind of conflict you need to resolve, whether external, internal or upward. Whatever you sense God saying, walk in obedience to His leadership.

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2

Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

Developing the Posture to Successfully Navigate Conflict Team Review: How did you respond to the Lord’s leading regarding any unresolved external, internal or upward conflict?

Assess: What attitudes are necessary to successfully navigate conflict?

Insights and Ideas

very person on earth — rich or poor, wise or foolish, young or old — will experience conflict. Nobody is immune from conflict. So, what separates those who successfully navigate conflict from those who find it continually hindering and undermining them? I believe it comes down to posture. In other words, the attitude and spirit in which you approach conflict have the greatest impact on your ability to manage conflict in a healthy manner.

Some people go into conflict with a fix-it mindset. They’ve already decided what to do, and they’re determined to fix the situation or the other person. Others avoid conflict altogether, trying to ignore it or wish it away. Still others enter conflict with a commitment to manage it successfully. These individuals typically exhibit three qualities: 1. Humility. Ephesians 4:2 says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” When you approach conflict out of a spirit of humility, it immediately disarms much of the aggressiveness and agitation associated with the conflict. Furthermore, humility allows you to be teachable in the process. There is almost always something to learn from conflict. Unfortunately, most leaders want to do all the teaching. Proverbs 23:12 says, “Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.” Notice, teachability is not automatic. You have to “apply” your heart and ears before you can glean wisdom. That starts with humility.

2. A willingness to listen. One of Stephen Covey’s habits of highly effective people is, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This is only possible if we embrace a listening posture. Give the person your undivided attention. Not only will you understand what’s really going on, but you’ll likely garner greater respect from the other party. Most people simply want to feel heard. Unfortunately, leaders often keep this from happening because they leverage the force of their position or personality to make their point.

As Proverbs 18:13 reminds us, “To answer before listening — that is folly and shame.”

3. Genuine kindness. Finally, enter conflict with a posture of kindness. Too often we come into conflict with our words and attitudes loaded with poison and defensiveness. This never goes well, and usually creates more damage. Keep this simple truth in mind: Being a jerk is a not a prerequisite for engaging conflict. Model kindness. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

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Reflect and Discuss

1. How have you seen a person’s attitude or posture impact his or her ability (positively or negatively) to navigate conflict?

2. Which of the three qualities above most stands out to you?

3. What other attitudes are essential to successfully navigate conflict?

Apply

Quickly think about a conflict you experienced recently. Which of the three ingredients above was in short supply (on your end)? What would you do differently if you were to face the conflict again today?

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3

Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

How to ‘Do’ Conflict Team Review: After reflecting on a previous conflict, what would you have changed about your posture toward that conflict?

Assess: How do you typically handle conflict?

Insights and Ideas

cts 15 relates a conflict between Paul and Barnabas and a group of men from Judea.

The issue had to do with whether Gentiles should be circumcised. From this conflict, we discover six practical steps to conflict resolution: 1. Hear both sides of the story. Paul and Barnabas reported how God had used them to make Gentile converts. And believers who were in the party of the Pharisees explained their view that Gentiles should be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses (Acts 15:2–5). The apostles and elders heard both sides of the story.

2. Engage in discussion. Next, the apostles and elders took time to discuss the matter.

Acts 15:6–7 says, “The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion … .” Rather than jumping to a quick conclusion, these leaders took the time necessary to gain a full understanding of the conflict.

3. Present the facts. After much discussion, Peter addressed the crowd by drawing their attention to the work God was doing among the Gentiles and the fact that God had shown acceptance of the Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:7–11).

4. Provide supporting evidence. Paul and Barnabas talked about the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. Then, James quoted the prophets to confirm the work of the Spirit among the Gentiles (Acts 15:12–18). This commentary provided additional evidence to help the leaders deal with the conflict wisely.

5. Articulate a kind, responsible, and Spirit-led solution. James said, “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath” (Acts 15:19–21). Notice, the solution was based on the facts — without being overbearing and without ignoring the Gentiles’ responsibilities. Verse 28 says, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements … .” The requirements were explained as directed by the Holy Spirit.

6. Put together a communication strategy. Finally, after articulating the solution, the apostles and elders put together a team to deliver a letter to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. The letter brought clarification to the entire situation and provided a solution.

What was the final result? Acts 15:31 says, “The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message.” The Church successfully and responsibly resolved the conflict.

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Read and Reflect

1. How do these six conflict resolution strategies challenge you?

2. Which of the six principles is easiest for you to forget? Why? 3. How might the use of these principles have produced a better result in a previous conflict you’ve faced?

Apply

Think about a conflict you are facing right now. Using the conflict resolution framework in Acts 15, how should you proceed and make room for resolution?

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4

Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

What to Do When You Can’t Resolve a Conflict Team Review: How have the six steps from Acts 15 changed the way you approach conflict?

Assess: When was a time you faced a conflict you couldn’t resolve?

Insights and Ideas

nfortunately, we can’t resolve every conflict in the way we might hope. In fact, some conflicts are never resolved. What do you do in those situations? How do you move forward when conflict is simmering in the background?

1. Decipher between resolving and managing tension. Author Andy Stanley notes the importance of assessing whether a conflict is a tension to be resolved or a tension to be managed. For example, if you have kids, you may be experiencing tension regarding how much freedom to give them. They, of course, expect more freedom. You, on the other hand, expect more responsibility in their behavior (which will earn them more freedom). You will never fully resolve this tension because it was meant to be managed, not resolved. The same is true in church. There may be tension about how much worship to do in your services. Some people think it’s too much, while others insist it’s too little. You’ll never resolve this tension and make everyone happy. Instead, it’s a tension you have to manage. When you can’t resolve a conflict, ask yourself, Is this a conflict that was meant to be resolved, or is this a tension that was meant to be managed?

2. Protect the relationship. Sometimes a conflict will arise that jeopardizes a relationship.

You might disagree with a family member’s behavior, or you might be at odds with how a co-worker is handling a project. Even if the conflict escalates, always make the relationship your highest priority. Maintain open communication, and don’t burn bridges.

People are more important than our opinions and projects.

3. Set clear boundaries. Proverbs 25:17 says, “Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house — too much of you, and they will hate you.” Notice, this verse doesn’t say never to set foot in your neighbor’s house. It simply sets a boundary. The same principle applies to conflict. When a conflict remains unresolved, it doesn’t mean you should never talk to the person again. Rather, you may need to set some boundaries. This is especially true if the other person is disrespectful or even toxic.

4. Pray. Finally, if a conflict is unresolved, pray for yourself and the other person. Ask God to help you resolve the conflict. Protect your heart from bitterness. Pray for God to bless the other person. I’ve seen resolutions happen years later as people were faithful to pray, trust the Lord, and maintain an open heart.

Unresolved conflict is not easy to navigate, but the four steps above will help you reframe the conflict and your response to it.

U

Reflect and Discuss

1. What does unresolved conflict do in our hearts?

2. Which of the four strategies above most challenges you? Why? 3. What tips or ideas would you add to the list above?

Apply

What conflict have you faced that was never resolved? How do the four steps above reframe the conflict in your mind? Perhaps you need to initiate contact to bring about resolution.

If so, what should be your first step?

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5

Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

How to Handle Conflict at Home Team Review: What other thoughts have you had about unresolved conflict?

Assess: What are the biggest sources of conflict in homes today?

Insights and Ideas

egardless of your role at home, conflict will inevitably arise. For some, these conflicts rest like a dark storm cloud, changing the atmosphere of the home. For others, these conflicts come and go quickly, never having time to grow deep roots of bitterness.

So, how do you handle conflict in a healthy way at home? Here are four keys: 1. Trust. Establishing trust begins with a love that’s not based on emotion. Author Jimmy Evans observes that agape love — unconditional love — is the only love not based on emotion, and it must serve as the thermostat for your home. If the thermostat of your home is based on emotion, then the temperature of love in your home will go up and down. In this environment, trust evaporates because it has no solid foundation. But when you set the thermostat with agape love, trust has a firm footing.

2. Truth. Speaking truth in a family is essential. Lies will only undermine the trust you’ve worked hard to establish. In Ephesians 4:15, the apostle Paul said, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Author Jimmy Evans says, “Truth without grace is mean.

Grace without truth is meaningless.” You need both to foster a healthy home. If you can’t speak the truth in love, you will eventually resent the people you love.

3. Tone. Tone is all about how you tell the truth. Again, Paul said, “Instead, speaking the truth in love … .” (Ephesians 4:15). Simply put, we must speak the truth in the tone of love. Tone always dictates how a conversation will go, and the tone of connection will always outpace the tone of correction. What do the tone of connection and the tone of correction sound like? Proverbs 15:1 tells us: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” The tone of connection is gentle, while the tone of correction is harsh.

4. Timing. The last key to resolving conflict at home is timing. Our tendency is to deal with conflict when it’s at one of two extremes: when it’s easy to resolve or when it has turned into a full-blown crisis. When conflict is somewhere in the middle, we tend to ignore it. But ignoring conflict allows it to compound over time. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What kind of love was your family built on growing up? How did it affect trust in your home?

2. How have you found the four keys above to be true in your own family?

3. Which of the four keys are your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?

Apply

Prayerfully review the four keys to handling conflict at home. What are some practical steps you can take to cultivate trust, truth, tone and timing? Put together an action plan this week, and start fostering a healthier conflict resolution environment in your home.

72 | Influence

MAR-APR 2020

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Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

How to Handle Conflict With Your Team Team Review: How have you applied trust, truth, tone and timing to cultivate healthy conflict resolution at home?

Assess: What are the biggest conflicts we experience as a team?

Insights and Ideas

eam conflict can be negative, demoralizing and demeaning. We’ve all seen conflict disrupt the unity of a team and stop progress in its tracks. So, how do you handle conflict with your team? Consider these four strategies: 1. Cultivate healthy team conflict. Author and consultant Patrick Lencioni is a big proponent of team conflict resolution and has written extensively on the subject. Lencioni asserts that when a team cannot disagree, debate ideas or have hard conversations, the organization fails to produce results. What’s the key to creating healthy conflict with your team? Trust. When you really trust one another, people are much more willing to push back on ideas and engage in lively discussions because they don’t fear retribution.

The result is increased commitment and accountability for results.

2. Establish conflict ground rules. Culture is the result of whatever you tolerate. If you tolerate murmuring, complaining, backstabbing and conflict among team members, you’ll produce a culture with silos, anger and even hostility. In his organization, financial expert Dave Ramsey says, “Complaints go up and praise goes around.” In other words, if you have a complaint about a team member, go to that team member first. If that doesn’t resolve it, go “up” to your supervisor (not your co-workers, friends, or anyone else who will listen). But if you have praise for your team members, share it and celebrate it. Identify your ground rules for conflict resolution, and then communicate them to your team.

3. Deal with conflict quickly. Conflict has a way of gathering listeners and growing legs.

In other words, when a conflict arises, people tend to share it with anyone who will listen, and those people walk around sharing it with everyone else. Don’t let conflict go unchecked. If you have an issue with a team member, address it now. If two of your team members are having issues with each other, pull them together and make them deal with it like grown adults. As the apostle Paul said, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” (Ephesians 4:26). The longer a conflict brews, the longer your mission will suffer.

4. Invest in relationships. Finally, if you want to minimize unnecessary team conflict, spend time investing in team relationships. Spend time together (outside of your team environment), eating, celebrating and praying together. The more “off-time” a team spends together, the less conflict you’ll experience.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. How open (and trusting) is our team when it comes to engaging in healthy conflict?

2. What ground rules do we need to establish when conflict arises between fellow team members?

3. How can we better invest in relationships among our team members?

Apply

Take two steps this week. First, if there is a conflict between you and a team member, commit to resolve it in the next five days. Don’t wait. Second, work as a team to come up with healthy ground rules on how to handle conflict when it arises. Agree on these as a team, communicate them, and hold one another accountable.

74 | Influence

MAR-APR 2020

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Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

How to Handle Conflict in the Congregation Team Review: What progress have you made toward establishing ground rules for handling conflict with your team? Do they need to be revised in any way?

Assess: What are the biggest conflicts we are experiencing in our congregation right now?

Insights and Ideas

n Matthew 18:15–17, Jesus talked about how to deal with conflict caused by sin. He said, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

While this passage deals specifically with sin, we can also apply a broader principle of conflict resolution. Generally, conflict resolution in a congregation ought to include three things: 1. Process. Jesus articulated a step-by-step process in this passage as it relates to confronting sin in the congregation. Similarly, congregational conflict requires a process if you’re going to handle it effectively. For example, if there is a conflict over purchasing land, relocating, ending a ministry or defunding a program, you must identify the appropriate steps to resolve the conflict. The key is to create the conflict resolution process in advance of conflict with a group of wise, strategic and mature leaders. This enables you to create the process before emotions get in the way.

2. Progression. The second thing to notice in Jesus’ illustration is that there was a progression in how the conflict was handled. It started by going directly to the individual in a one-on-one conversation. Eventually, the conflict came before the entire congregation. What’s the lesson in conflict resolution? Never start conflict resolution with the most extreme response. In most cases, a kind, responsible and gracious response in a one-on-one conversation will take care of the conflict. Nobody wants to be embarrassed, and this approach protects the dignity of the individual. However, if a one-onone conversation doesn’t work, a progressive process that outlines next steps ensures resolution is still possible. Do you have a progressive process for conflict resolution?

3. People. Finally, Jesus’ approach involved a variety of people in the process — from key leaders to the entire congregation. Who are the wise leaders who can offer perspective, help and guidance when conflicts arise? Navigating conflict alone can prove detrimental.

To resolve congregational conflict, establish a clear process, ensure the process is progressive in nature (based on the severity of the conflict), and identify wise leaders who can offer keen insight as you progress through the process.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What is our process for dealing with conflict in our congregation?

2. How is our process appropriately progressive, and how does it engage wise leaders?

3. What is a conflict we could apply these principles to right now?

Apply

Work together as a team to develop a plan to wisely address a congregational conflict.

Create a process, make it progressive, and include the right people.

76 | Influence

MAR-APR 2020

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Conflict Resolution: How to Successfully Navigate Conflict in Your Home, Team, Church and Society

How to Handle Conflict in Society Team Review: What progress have you made toward resolving conflict in your congregation?

Assess: What hot issues in society are producing the greatest levels of conflict?

Insights and Ideas

ociety is becoming increasingly complex, as are the issues at play locally, nationally and internationally. Handling these issues isn’t easy, and in today’s culture, you may be vilified if you say the wrong thing.

How do we handle conflict in society when the fallout can be unforgiving? Here are three characteristics that should mark our response as Christian leaders: 1. Biblical clarity. Our worldview must remain rooted in the teachings of Scripture.

Everybody has an opinion, but opinions come and go. We must be grounded in Scripture, and we must teach our congregations to think biblically. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Regularly allow God’s Word to judge your thoughts and attitudes, aligning your life with His truth.

2. Cultural sensitivity. Too often our cultural backgrounds cloud our response to cultural issues. We forget what it’s like to be in somebody else’s shoes — to feel their pain, hardship, trials and cultural norms. As a result, we make blanket statements that leave no room for discussion, much less compassion. Keep in mind every person you disagree with is still made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). You can disagree without being disagreeable. Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12). One of the best ways to practice the Golden Rule is to listen, seek to understand a person’s culture, and exhibit unconditional love.

3. Personal wisdom. Finally, it’s imperative that we use wisdom in how we handle conflicts in society. Take politics, for example. Perhaps no other issue is creating so much division. We are first and foremost citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) — not Republicans or Democrats. If you tie your faith to a political party, you will only be disappointed in the end. The gospel is above — not under — any political party. When you share political posts on social media, you may limit your ability to reach 50% of the people God has called you to reach, and maybe even 50% of your congregation. Not everyone thinks like you, much less votes like you. No, you shouldn’t give up your biblical values, but use wisdom. Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What are the hottest cultural issues our congregation or community is talking about?

2. Which of the three characteristics above do you struggle with the most? Why? 3. What does it look like to exercise all three of these characteristics in a politically polarizing environment?

Apply

Take time as a team to pray for your congregation, city and nation. Ask God to give you wisdom on how to handle conflicts in society through a way that honors God, demonstrates compassion, and advances the gospel.

78 | Influence

MAR-APR 2020

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THE FINAL NOTE

How Parents Are Choosing Their Church engaging with the Bible on their own at least once a week.

Even as worship attendance declines or raining the next generation of Christ plateaus in many places across the country, followers is a vital mission for any engaged Christian parents recognize they church. But a new report from Barna need the local church. Most want church Group suggests congregations who aren’t leaders involved with guiding their kids, and investing in quality children’s ministries may 44% would like instruction have a hard time attracting on how to navigate tough topand retaining young families. ics at home. This represents a In a survey of engaged tremendous opportunity for Christian parents with chilchurches to make disciples by dren aged 6 to 12, more than partnering with families. half (58%) said they chose A previous Barna poll their churches based on revealed that the share of 13the kids’ programs. (Barna to 18-year-olds identifying defines these parents as U.S. as atheist was double that of churchgoers who profess Engaged Christian parents the general population. In an a personal commitment to increasingly secular world, Christ; believe in the inspiwho chose churches children’s ministries have ration of Scripture and the based on children’s programs. never been more important. death and resurrection of Ephesians 6:4 emphasizes the importance Jesus; and desire to pass on their faith to their of bringing up children in the “training and children.) instruction of the Lord.” There are no guaranEncouragingly, 57% of the parents polled tees they will choose to serve God, of course. are very satisfied with their children’s spiriYet reaching the next generation with the tual development thus far. The share is even good news of Jesus while they’re small will higher among those who attend services give them a big boost in the right direction. weekly (61%). And 81% report their kids are

CHRISTINA QUICK

Reaching the next generation with the good news of Jesus while they’re small will give them a big boost in the right direction.

Christina Quick is assistant editor of Influence magazine.

80 | Influence

MAR-APR 2020

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