The Principle of Leadership Connection

"A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink". 

The lady described in this story from John 4 is unknown to us. We don't know her name. We only know that she was of a snubbed gender and a despised race. Yet Jesus connected with her. As we read the entire story, something remarkable transpires between Jesus and this unknown woman. Through Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well we learn about the value of "connection", what some people call emotional intelligence. 

People don't connect well to frowning, intense, defensive leaders.  A leader can only lead to the degree they can emotionally connect with people. A leader who is "out of touch" with how they come across to people, who lacks what is called "EQ", emotional intelligence, is limited in their effectiveness.

What is the biblical basis of the leadership principle of “connection”? We see it at work in how Jesus related to a broad spectrum of people. He connected to ordinary fisherman, tax collectors, religious officials, Roman officers, women caught in adultery, Mary and Martha when they blamed Jesus for the death of Lazarus, and his own very diverse team of apostles.

In the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well, we see the principles of "connection" in action. We see in Jesus the ultimate example of emotional intelligence. Jesus reached over the walls of gender separation, racial prejudice, immoral behavior, theological difference, and initial personal rejection. Jesus did not rely on policies or religious practices to relate to her. He connected to her through wise and discerning personal interaction.

Jesus is our example in each of the following qualities of leadership connection. He connected with the woman at the well in order to minister to her. He was not being deceitful or manipulative. He was wise and patient, reaching out to her across the very real divide that separated them. Wise leaders today will learn to do the same.

Five components of leadership "connection" we can see in Jesus interaction with the woman at the well:

• Self-awareness. Jesus was fully aware of who he was and what he had to offer. He offered “living water”. He demonstrated the ability to recognize and understand his own drives and emotions and how they affect other people. Self-awareness involves self-confidence, realistic self appraisal, and a self-deprecating sense of humor.  Can you picture a warm and wry smile on Jesus’ face as he tells this woman to go and call her “husband” and come back to him, knowing full well she had five husbands? Leaders with self-awareness are aware of their own moods but don’t allow those moods to disrupt relationships or control their attitudes or actions. 

• Self-regulation. Jesus had the ability to recognize and control his impulses. It says in John 4:4, “Jesus had to pass through Samaria”. It was the impulse of the Spirit that led him to pass through Samaria. Normally, Jews avoided Samaria. Jesus knew the difference between an impulse of the Spirit and an impulse of the flesh. Leaders with high levels of emotional intelligence don’t allow their moods to disrupt their speech or actions, but rather they allow the Spirit to lead them. Self-aware and self-controlled leaders are not prisoners of their own personalities. Self-regulated leaders have the ability to suspend judgment before acting or speaking. This includes openness to change and comfort with ambiguity. As uncomfortable as it can be, it includes welcoming responses to constructive criticism and assessment of our leadership effectiveness. 

• Self-motivation. Self-motivated leaders are not dependent on church structures or other leaders to motivate them. Like Jesus, they are passionate about ministry and work for it's own value. They are filled with the Spirit and call daily upon the Spirit’s help to recharge and re-energize them. Jesus demonstrated self-initiative and the ability to pursue ministry goals he set for himself with great energy and persistence (he was not in competition with others – see John 4:1-3).  Self-motivated leaders feed themselves spiritually from the Word and with prayer. They have to – they are pioneers. They cannot be dependent on others to prop them up or get them going each day.

• Healthy empathy. Jesus understood the emotional makeup of people. He was a student of human nature. He was highly empathetic with the woman at the well without losing objectivity. Emotionally intelligent people show empathy but they are not governed by it. Jesus demonstrated the ability to understand the emotional makeup of the woman at the well. He had compassion on her, but he didn’t allow that to keep him from confronting her sin and holding her responsible for her actions and choices. He acted responsibly to the woman, but he did not take responsibility for the woman. Healthy empathy is the skill of adjusting one’s responses according to people’s emotional reactions. If they over react, we don’t. If they leave us, we don’t attack them. If they rebel, we bless them. We respond in the opposite spirit. Healthy empathy involves the ability to attract and retain talented people in our endeavors, and to reach across cultural walls and barriers to build our teams and churches.

• Social-skill. Jesus demonstrated a unique ability to find common ground with people. He had not committed adultery. He was not a Samaritan. Yet he reached out to the Samaritan woman with grace. Social-skill is the ability to hear and not react to people with differing views or opinions. Leaders with social-skill are proficient at building and maintaining networks of relationships beyond a cadre of close friends with similar backgrounds. Just as Jesus found common ground with the woman at the well by talking about water and asking for a drink, so leaders with social-skill have the ability to find common ground and build rapport with those they lead and work with. This skill includes efficiency in leading change, persuasiveness, and efficiency in building and leading teams.  Those with social-skill don’t lead with policies or procedures but with vision and biblical values.

From these five components flow such qualities as emotional warmth, listening attentively, smiling, encouragement and affirmation, genuine interest, faith in people, non-defensiveness, openness to new ideas and non-reactiveness. These are the qualities that enable a bridge of understanding and trust to be built from leaders to those they lead. It’s the leadership principle of connection at work. 

Why is the leadership principle of connection so important? You can't lead people you can't connect to. The five components of connection, when genuine, allow us to build a bridge of trust and understanding to people. That is the heart of “emotional intelligence”.

Great “connectors” have mentored me in my life. One of the greatest were the co-founders of Youth with a Mission, Loren and Darlene Cunningham. Again and again I was struck by how Loren and Darlene connected with people. In big crowds or small, they would focus on one individual at a time, smile warmly, ask them questions, hear their vision, and then challenge and encourage them to do something great for God. Loren and Darlene were both connectors.

When people felt led to leave YWAM, they blessed them. When young leaders came up with new and sometimes crazy visions for ministry, they listened with an open heart. Those strengths allowed Loren and Darlene to build one of the largest missionary movements in the history of the church. It is no accident that YWAM is made up of leaders that are both young and old, men and women, and people of all cultures.

That is connecting at it’s best! I rarely saw Loren or Darlene react to people when they were disappointed in a decision a person made. They were masters at team building and retaining their teams. They showed great empathy no matter the situation. They both demonstrated exceptional emotional intelligence.

Loren and Darlene planted the seeds of greatness and great achievement in the hearts of many young leaders by challenging them to go beyond what they had dreamed or thought of doing before that time...then they would give them an opportunity to do what they encouraged them to dream about. Even if it didn’t fit in with how they thought it should be done.

Great connectors are great opportunity providers! When people working with Loren and Darlene sought other avenues of Christian service, they didn't react or condemn them... they cheered them on in their dreams. They didn’t demand or manipulate people to join them, but inspired them with vision by "connecting" to their dreams.  Many leaders today in business, government, church denominations, missionary organizations, and local churches can point to their experience in Youth With a Mission as life changing. Loren and Darlene set a DNA of connection that has built bridges to people in all walks of life.

I have reflected many times on the leadership skill of connection. I have assessed my own strengths and weaknesses in this regard, and asked others to help me do that. Why? I don’t want to close doors to those God wants me to lead. I want to grow in my skills as a connector to people.

I have concluded that “EQ” is not another worldly management fad, but a learned ability to connect wisely. It is a God-given ability that we can develop to serve God’s people effectively.

Ten C’s of Leadership Team Building

One of the privileges of leadership is choosing your own leadership team. In principle, you should not work with people on your team you did not choose. Though we must be open to accept those God sends us, and though others may expect us to “inherit” team members by virtue of the fact that they were there before us, in the end, a pastor or movement leader should carefully choose their own team.

You have the final say in who joins your leadership team, and you should exercise that God given responsibility with care, courage and wisdom.

We all want to work with great people. But how do we go about selecting a leadership team? Far too many of us accept the first person that is eager to join us, without taking time to probe deeper.  Don’t let desperation for help drive your team building!

Effective team leaders define the key roles they need filled on their team, but more importantly, they have a clearly thought through set of qualifications in mind for team members.

• Courtesy - Does the prospective team member know how to respect other team members? Can they listen, learn and adjust their convictions? Do they have emotional intelligence (healthy self-awareness, self-control, self-initiative, social skills, healthy empathy)? Are they collaborative in their approach to decision making?

• Chemistry - Do they have good chemistry with the team leader and other team members? Are they likeable and can have a good time with those they work with?

• Competence - Do they have the skills necessary to add strength to the team? If they don’t, are they willing to learn the skills needed? Do they demonstrate the communication skills necessary to carry out their assignments?

• Character - Are they a servant? Do they show integrity? Are they reliable and do they keep their word? Team members have to be responsible and show initiative.

• Core Values - Are they aligned in their core values with the rest of the team and the church/organization/movement? Have they demonstrated their core values by the fruit of their life?

• Courage - Are they willing to take risks? Are they a person of faith who is willing to take on new challenges, should they be called for? Are they creative and innovative?

• Capacity - Do they have the emotional capacity for the responsibility? Can they handle stress and pressure? Can they handle the load of added work that serving on a team requires?

• Culture - Do they work well with people of other cultures? Are they sensitive and adaptive to different cultural contexts?

• Calling/Commitment - What are their spiritual gifts and do they complement the team? Do they have a call from God to serve in this regard? Does this role match their leadership gifts? Do they demonstrate commitment to the vision of the church/organization/movement? 

• Clear Expectations - Have you discussed your expectations and theirs? Do they understand the role of the team and are they clear about what is expected of them in terms of time, resources, and responsibilities?

Apostolic Leadership Qualities

Most leadership experts I know define leadership as influence. That is one aspect of it, but I don’t think it’s the whole story. Based on a careful look at Acts 13:1-3 we find apostolic leaders have seven qualities:

Leaders have Holy Spirit insight. They listen to God.

Leaders demonstrate initiative. They take action.

Leaders exert influence. They have spiritual ambition.

Leaders have impact. They expect results.

Leaders exercise integrity. They have godly character.

Leaders take arrows. They can handle criticism.

Leaders make decisions. They are decisive.

Simple Doesn't Mean Stupid or Unbiblical

I love this article written by a colleague here in Cape Town. We teach these principles but more importantly we strive to practice them as a way of life. If you want to make disciples of the lost, grow your church or start new churches with those who don’t know Jesus, I think you will find the article immensely helpful…

Viral - Creating Disciple-Making Movements

By Daniel Wesley - 5 April 2013

Around the world, missiologists have recognized and described 100 different disciple-making movements that are exploding in some of the least likely places you would imagine.  Some of these movements have seen millions become followers of Jesus in a few short years.  One particular movement, among mostly Muslims and adherents to tribal religions, has seen 18,000 house churches planted in just 7 short years. The churches in this movement have 35 people on average and are entirely made up of former Muslims, Animists and Atheists.  There are movements in China and India that far surpass this numerically.  So what can we learn from these movements that may be useful to us in the context of college ministry? They all have common elements that are easily adapted into a university ministry.

Follow Then Believe

There are varied names for the approach and various differences between different movements, but one common ingredient in all these movements is raising up “followers” among unbelievers.

Follower - someone who respects Jesus, is willing to learn from Him/about Him and even attempt to honor Him in his or her life.

This was the religious context into which Rabbi Jesus entered 2000 years ago. People would associate themselves with a teacher or rabbi, learn from him, follow him, and obey him. Jesus took it further. He was not content with merely showing His followers a way to live, but showing He was the way to live life with God. He did not only want external obedience but inward transformation that came through faith. BUT He usually began by asking people to follow Him. It is important that we notice from Scripture that Jesus had people following Him in simple obedience before they had “accepted” Him or embraced the fullness of who we know Him to be.  In fact, many times they would help introduce Him to their friends before they really understood fully who He was. (John 1:43-46; John 4:28-30).

Needless to say, they eventually did come to fully believe, but their initial lack of understanding and/or poor theology did not keep them from Jesus, or keep Jesus from them.  The result was that these early followers turned the Roman world upside down within a century.  No doubt each of them had different points at which they understood who Jesus was, stepped into the fullness of faith and experienced regeneration, but amazingly many were called “disciples” before that happened! Don’t take my word for it, go back and read about the disciples (Luke 5-6, John 1, Matthew 10 and Mark 3).  As you read through the gospels, notice the different ways many of his disciples lacked basic Christology leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection and, in a few cases, after His resurrection.  It is interesting that most us have assumed that we must “get someone saved” before we teach them to follow Jesus. It seems the Jesus model is oftentimes the reverse. What if teaching them to follow Jesus is really critical to saving faith and to making future disciples? Doesn’t this correspond to our experience as well? We were intrigued, attended something, were exposed to Jesus, wanted to explore this more, maybe talked to others, and even sometimes did things we thought might honor God. Then at some point God’s Spirit and His grace broke through and we truly believed and truly committed our lives to Jesus. On the other hand, haven’t you known people who made a “decision” for Christ, but whose lives never changed?  Perhaps we should invite people to follow Jesus in obedience and let the Holy Spirit bring conviction in His timing. (I know this is mind-bending a little, but bear with me on this.)

So how do we help people to start following Jesus regardless of their “salvation status?”  It is quite simple actually. There are 6 simple transferable steps we can use to lead unbelievers forward in following Jesus.

Prerequisite: Gather a Group of Unbelievers

This might be the hardest step for many. But didn’t Jesus mix it up mostly with those who didn’t know Him? Didn’t He say He was called to the “sick”? They could be from a dorm, an athletic team, a club, a study group, or some neighbors. You could do this yourself, or better, have a student you want to train do this. In fact, the latter method is preferred if you are wanting to start a movement. Train, empower, release….this does not mean doing it for them! (Eph 4:12).  Of course, in your own life you should be modeling this as well with your unbelieving peers.

Invite unbelievers to study the “life of Jesus,” the “teachings of Jesus,” or the “Bible for themselves.”  You will find that MANY are open to this.  Avoid inviting them to your large weekly meeting or to a Sunday service.  That MAY come later, but begin by just meeting with them one-on-one and in small groups.  Try to avoid having one unbeliever with 5 or 6 believers.  Have your students meet with unbelievers one-on-one and then have them invite THEIR unbelieving friends to join them.  Don’t let the unbelievers be “outnumbered.”  If you need to be at the first few meetings or so, fine.  But your goal is to release your students to do this.  You can meet with them outside that time to debrief and coach them further.  Here is the goal: find people interested in Jesus, help them start to follow Him, and get them to invite their friends to do the same.

Ok, so once we have a small group of unbelievers gathered, here’s what it would look like:

1. Thanks

   Invite everyone in the circle to share something for which they are thankful.  Celebrate with them as they share their gratitude.  While we are teaching them to be grateful to God for “every good and perfect gift” (Jas 1: 17), it is not necessary to tell them this in the early weeks. Just let them share and celebrate with them.   [Message: Gratitude is frequently the first thing we express to God when addressing Him and is how the Scripture describes the process of coming into His presence.  (Psalm 100)]

2. Needs

   Have everyone share something for which they need prayer.  [Message: God is a living God who answers prayer and who is concerned with our needs.]

3. Scripture

   Read a short passage of 5-15 verses. Read the passage in 2 different translations and let different people read.  Close the Bible and invite someone to share the story in his or her own words.  Make sure they understand that the goal is to merely repeat the story in their own words and not to draw conclusions.  After the first person has shared the story ask if anyone wants to add details that were missed.  [Message: Scripture is critical to following Jesus and is our first means of receiving truth.  Scripture is the plumb line by which we judge any word from God.]

4. Listen

   Have everyone wait on the Lord for 1 or 2 minutes to see what part of the passage the Holy Spirit would highlight for them.  [Message:  God speaks to us by His Spirit and it is proper to learn to hear His voice most frequently through Scripture.]

5. Obey

   After sharing what God highlighted from Scripture, have everyone share an “I Will” statement which expresses obedience to what was just learned.  Something important happens in calling them to obedience to Jesus. Be willing to challenge people with statements that are measurable and specific.  Avoid letting someone end with a vague immeasurable commitment like “I will be more grateful this week.”  Set the standard in the early weeks and the fellow group members will hold each other’s feet to the fire! Challenge them to hone their statements down to something more tangible. [Message: Obedience is part of what it means to love and follow Jesus.  The Christian life is faith in action.  Of course action doesn’t save someone but it will lead to true disciples of Jesus who have learned the importance of obedience.]

6. Close the Loop

   Start your next meeting (notice I did not say “week 2” as you may want to meet more frequently than just weekly) by having each person review their “I will” statement from the previous meeting.  Be sure to CELEBRATE even partial obedience.  If a guy shares that he drinks himself to sleep every night and he reports that he went 3 days after the previous meeting without drinking, celebrate that fact and encourage him in how he grew in obedience.  Keep pointing them to Jesus as the “author and finisher” of our faith.

That’s it!  Now, we may have raised some questions (see below), but the basic idea is that we find people who respect Jesus and want to learn about His teachings.  We ask those people to meet so we can learn together what it means to follow Jesus.  We watch the Holy Spirit draw them and convict them through the process of learning to follow Jesus.  Then they go do the same with their friends. This appears to be the overwhelming model presented in the gospels. The epistles do an amazing job of expounding on concepts such as sin, faith and grace. However, let’s make sure we balance the gospels and the epistles in our approach to making disciples and watch God give us more incredible fruit, as He is already doing around the world.

Issues and Concerns

Naturally this model might raise some questions. I will attempt to briefly address a few here:

Questions for Discussion

1. What do you like about this strategy? Dislike? Are you possibly apprehensive due to a tradition? A Biblical issue? A fear? Or something else?

2. Could you see any advantages to such a model if you are trying to make many new followers of Jesus on your campus?

3. How could you implement this into your ministry?  Think of a pilot program with a few students. (think: who, when, where…)

“Daniel Wesley” is a Trainer for CPx (Church Planting Experience).

Healthy Church

I found this article from churchplants.com to be very stimulating, so much so that I have added my own comments. Some leaders are not aware of what emotional health in their church family looks or feels like. Dysfunction is so common that most of us grow up "unhealthy" but don't know it. Perhaps reflecting on this article together with other leaders in your church will increase your desire and awareness of what it means to be an emotionally healthy church. It's been a life-long journey for me personally.

8 Signs of an Emotionally Healthy New Church - churchplants.com

By Paul Williams

Is the church you’re leading emotionally healthy? How do you tell if it is or isn’t? Is there a way to know if you’re on the path to good health or heading in the wrong direction?  Discovering the answers to these questions is vital, especially for new churches.

For more than 65 years, the Orchard Group has planted churches. For many decades, the churches we planted were small and struggling. But over the last 15 years, our churches have grown quickly and thrived. People repeatedly ask what changed. My standard answer is to say that when you stick around long enough (I have been with the ministry for more than 30 years), God starts to feel sorry for you! In reality, we cannot pinpoint exactly what brought about our growth.

However, we are sure of one thing that has contributed to our turnaround. For 15 years, we simply have not hired a senior pastor unless we were convinced he or she was an excellent leader with the skills, wisdom and maturity to lead a great church. The older I get, the more I realize just how important emotional intelligence is to strong leadership.

In his book, Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue, author Edwin H. Friedman looks at the relational dynamics of family as a way of understanding the relational dynamics of a church family. He says the two hardest places to work in America are the family-owned business and the church. Chances are you’d probably agree.

Like families, all churches will have emotional processes they have to work through. Friedman writes that every church has “background radiation from the big bang of the congregation’s creation.” Discovering the source of that radiation and thoroughly dealing with it are critical to the ongoing health of your church. Consider what he identifies as eight signs of an emotionally healthy church (from a family dynamics perspective), and use these signs to honestly assess the deficits in your church family and what you as a leader can focus on to put your church on the path toward emotional health.

1. The church will be balanced between separateness and togetherness. 

It has differentiated itself and can say, “We are a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, but we are an independent church.” That kind of balance is rare in a new church. It’s more likely to happen in a healthy, growing church with strong leadership.

Floyd: A sure sign of emotional unhealthiness is identity confusion, i.e., when individuals and communities find their identity from being closely related to others. Symptoms: constant feelings of rejection, co-dependence, control and blame, insecurity. Unhealthy leaders are threatened by unhealthy followers and co-workers. Their identity is tied up in how "perfectly" others perform. 

2. The church will show a connectedness across generations. 

Just 50 years ago, most churches were made up of multiple generations of people. Grandpa attended church with his granddaughter. In the megachurch age, that is less likely. In fact, many megachurches are generation-specific because the first generation of megachurches was populated primarily by Baby Boomers.

Newer churches tend to be focused on the Millennial Generation. It is rare to find a new church or megachurch that has successfully attracted multiple generations. This is one area of church stability not likely to change in the near future.

Floyd: multi-generational connectedness can happen via smaller units of aged based communities within the larger community...but there must be bridges that unite and build the connection. The bridges are common activities that unite everyone in the community. 

3. A healthy new church will have both volunteer leaders and professional leaders who show little enmeshment or fusion (the tendency to engage in overly involved, overly close emotional relationships).

The leaders know their issues, both personally and in the congregational environment. They might say, “We are all crazy around here. Most of the time we recognize it.”

Floyd: healthy self-awareness helps prevent enmeshment and fusion. Such awareness comes from humility and learning from life experiences, teachableness, good mentoring/discipling, and asking the Holy Spirit for correction. 

4. The church will also create a grace-filled environment.

This is appropriate in an age in which people are often converted to community before they are converted to Christ. There will be respect and support for those with different values and feelings, and the congregation will be aware of both the inside and outside influences on the church family as a whole. 

Floyd: welcoming pre-believers into the life of the community of faith requires both courage and clear conviction of core beliefs. One without the other will lead to compromise or confusion, or both.

5. Healthy new churches will also avoid triangulation at all levels.

Any two people will not feel the need to pull a third into a conversation. If triangulation is resisted at the staff and volunteer leadership levels, it will be modeled to the entire congregation. Nevertheless when people are involved, you’ll always find attempts at triangulation. The key is to confront it, and avoid being drawn into it.

Floyd: stated more simply, triangulation is the process of involving third parties in conflicts through gossip and manipulation. “Triangulation” is most commonly used to describe a situation in which one family member will not communicate directly with another family member, but will communicate with a third family member, which can lead to the third family member becoming part of the triangle. It is a term used to describe what happens in dysfunctional families, as well as work and church parties in conflict.

Triangulation can describe family members playing others off against each other, thus “splitting” the relationships. This is playing the two people against each other, but usually the person doing the splitting does so through gossip and character assassination.

6. In a healthy church family, there will be room for people to experience pain without the leaders of the church rushing in to save them. 

They will recognize that faith has seasons, or stages. Some people are in the stage in which they need rules, regulations and tight boundaries.

Others may be in a place of questioning, where they need room to move back and forth across the threshold of faith. Still, others have a mature faith that is far beyond focusing tightly on rules and regulations. All have to live under one roof. Leaders who are sensitive to this will walk the fine line between rigidity and chaos.

Floyd: People with pain don’t need someone to “fix” them. Those who constantly find fulfillment from “fixing people” may have an unhealthy need to “rescue” others. The need to rescue others demonstrates a lack of healthy boundaries in one’s own personality, and an inability to distinguish between being responsible “to” people and responsible “for” people.

Healthy church communities allow room for people be at differently places in their healing journey, and are not embarrassed by those in their midst with “problems”, whether emotional, moral or spiritual in nature. People in their church with “problems” intimidate unhealthy leaders - they believe it reflects poorly on their leadership.

"Pain" in a person's life must be confronted if it spills over into the community and causes deception, division, or damage to other members of the community. 

7. Healthy churches will believe in their church family and see its positives. 

They might say, “Of course we are messed up. But on our better days, we manage to reflect the image of Jesus, at least a little bit.” As a congregation, church leaders will understand what they are good at and where their weaknesses lie. They will maintain a healthy level of objectivity about the church they serve.

Floyd: healthy leaders focus on the strengths of others, not weaknesses. They create an atmosphere of appreciation and encouragement. Unhealthy leaders feel compulsion to correct and control the behavior and even the beliefs of others.

8. Finally, a healthy congregation will have members who utilize each other for genuine feedback, not as crutches.

In a church where the leaders are well differentiated (our ability to be objective and separate our feelings and thoughts from the environment that shaped us), genuine feedback is far more likely than in a church where too many enmeshments have occurred.

The lack of genuine feedback has been the downfall of many a charismatic church pastor. Every leadership team needs to have the strength to be honest and open with those in the highest positions of influence.

Floyd: all leaders struggle with criticism, and local churches seem to have more than their fair share of it. Yet those who are secure welcome both positive and negative feedback (as long as it is not deceptive, divisive, or damaging). Feedback is essential to create a learning, growing community. One mentor said to me, “Experience is not the best teacher, but evaluated experience is”.

I urge you to spend some time studying these eight signs both by yourself and with your leadership or launch team. How does your church fare? What can you do to improve in two or three of these areas? Start making a plan to improve.

Paul Williams is the chairman of church planting organization Orchard Group, Inc., which has planted more than 70 churches, primarily in New York and the Northeast. He has served with the ministry since 1979 and during that time Orchard’s new churches have grown from an average of 50 at five years of age to an average of 500 at five years of age. Paul is editor-at-large and a weekly columnist with Christian Standard magazine, and serves as preaching associate at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colo., and Christ’s Church of the Valley in Philadelphia.

Bill Hybels on Church Planting

What I’d Do Differently If I Planted a Church Today

By Bill Hybels

The suburban Chicago church plant, launched by a 22-year-old Bill Hybels back in 1975, would dramatically impact the face of American Christianity. What later became one of the nation’s first megachurches, which now draws some 25,000 worshippers each week, Willow Creek Community Church began in a closed-on-Sunday-morning movie theater and was mostly staffed by teenaged volunteers passionate for Jesus Christ. As Willow grew, sharing what it learned with other churches became one of its highest priorities.

In this interview featured in the new Exponential Resources Series eBook, MOVE for Church Planters: What Willow Creek and 1000 Churches Reveal about Spriritual Growth,  Hybels shares what he has learned in 37 years of ministry; how his experience might impact his actions were he planting a church today; and what advice he would most like to share with those whose passion is to share the good news of Jesus Christ with unchurched people in a relevant, compelling and successful way.

Welcome to that conversation.

Before we start talking about what you might do the same and differently if you were planting a church today, let’s talk a little about our current environment. What societal factors have changed in the past 40 years that would impact your decisions today?

Bill Hybels:  I think that there's even more resistance/cynicism to the idea of the institutionalized church now than there was then. And I think that’s the result of all of the skepticism created as too many well-known pastors - and even some denominations - have broken trust. People who are starting a church today have to present an even stronger argument than we did in the mid 70s for Why another church?

So I would spend a lot of time coming up with the rationale for why I would be starting another church. What's going to be different? What's going to keep it from becoming like these others? That would be very important, because I think there's a general feeling that there are already enough churches.

In short, if you are going to launch a new church, you have to start with a white hot, differentiated, compelling vision, or why take up more real estate?

With this current environment in mind, can you give us an example of what worked well in your church plant 37 years ago that you would duplicate if you were planting a church today?

Bill Hybels:  One thing I really got right is that I started Willow with my friends. The founders are still with me today and we're still best of friends. I had an incredible team of proven people around me, and we had established a loving and joyful community before we held our first service. That I did right, by the grace of God. So if I were starting fresh, the minute I felt I had clarity on the vision for starting a new church, I would present that vision to close, trusted friends who I wanted to come along with me on this adventure.

Do you have an example of something you would do very differently?

Bill Hybels:  Something that I didn't do well - and this is a common problem all across the world - was to adequately capitalize our ministry. Therefore, the financial pressures were terribly destructive to the life of our church for the first five years. And it didn't have to be that way. Most church planters and church planting organizations these days say you’ve got to raise X amount of money, so you’re sure people can survive - like, making sure your rent payment can be made.

That kind of information was not widely known because there weren't many church plants going on in our era. So I rather naively said, “God's leading us to do this, so God will provide. We're going to hold the first service and pass a plate around and it's all going to be good.”

Well, we didn't have a big enough core. We didn't have people who had professional careers and resources to be able to invest, and we sank further and further into debt. All of us had to do things like take on part-time jobs and bring boarders into our homes, which led to a chaotic, unsustainable lifestyle.

Any other practical steps you’d recommend to church planters?

Bill Hybels:  I can think of two. The first is how to decide where to locate their church. When I talk with church planters, I always start by talking about vision. But quite quickly after the vision talk, I ask this question: “What demographic do you think calls the best out of you?” When you’re with a certain kind of people, do you get a sense of exuberance - that these are the kind of people I want to do life with?

Some church planters actually think that's an illegal question. But let me give you an example. I was talking with a church planter who was on the verge of quitting. I knew his family background. These were very sophisticated people - grad school trained, excellent educational institutions and all that. And the church planting organization had put him in a blue collar, lower education level, semi-rural setting that was boring this guy to tears.

These were lovely people. It's just that they didn't call the best out of him. He would want to discuss complex subject matters and things that are going to shape the future of the world. But they were not willing to engage in those conversations - the kind that gave him a lot of life and excitement. So I said, “Before you quit and go back into the business world, why don't you see if there's another plant that can be done in an area with a demographic that you actually feel fairly excited about?” And he said, “I couldn't ask for that because that would be arrogant.” I said, “I don't know that you ought to feel like that’s so bad, because a certain environment is going to call the best out of you and in another environment you're not going to feel like such a great fit.”

And I think "fit" is key. God can always overrule it and call you to do anything. But if you have a choice in the matter, why don't you choose to locate where the demographics call the best out of you? I heard from him several years later. He had relocated. It was like talking to a different guy. And he said, “I wouldn't have stayed in ministry in that setting. But this is the group I'm supposed to be with.”

It works the other way, too. Sometimes working with the poor and uneducated calls the best out of very sophisticated people. But they know that it does, so it works. The main thing is, find the fit. You have to have the self-awareness to know who calls the best out of you.

A second practical issue is how to think about using volunteers vs. adding staff. In my opinion, the more a young church can get done through volunteers, the better. The fewer the staff, the better. As I said earlier, when we started Willow, we were undercapitalized and one of the downsides of that was tremendous financial stress. One of the upsides was that every week I told everyone attending the church, “we need you!” And they knew it was true. We needed everybody to step up; to take care of kids; to help set up and take down chairs; and eventually, to help us find a piece of land. That brought people forward. At one point, I think we were dangerously close to having 100 percent of our attendees serving because we didn't have any paid staff.

What you describe sounds like a strategy to Create Ownership, which is one of the four best practices discovered by REVEAL. Can you elaborate on how REVEAL has influenced your thinking about how a church can best fulfill its mission to help people become fully devoted followers of Christ?

Bill Hybels:  I’d start by going back to something that was a miss in the early days ofWillow, and it's still a mystery to me why it was so much of a miss. It may be due to the fact I was still a fairly recent Christian when we started the church. In fact, I had only been a Christian five years. So when I started Willow, I loved reading God's Word and I loved communicating with Him in prayer and reading good Christian books. I liked that just because of my relationship with God.

But I dramatically underestimated how often my colleagues and the people in the church practiced the classic spiritual disciplines. I just thought everybody spent time with God and surrendered their spirits before Him every day. That everybody worked hard to receive promptings from God, quieting the ambient noise in their lives so they could hear Him. I misjudged that, and the few times that I preached on it, I remember seeing the semi-confused faces of the people in the crowd and thinking, “I must be doing a terrible job of teaching this because they are not getting it or they are not interested. I'm not getting the same kind of feedback that I get when I teach on other subject matters.”

So, I wound up not teaching on the spiritual practices very often. It's hard to do, and I got mixed response. Decades later I found out, primarily through REVEAL, that I should have stuck with that. I should not have been dissuaded by the kind of feedback I was getting. I should have done a major series on the classic spiritual disciplines every single year, whether I saw confused faces or not. I should have just dug in and made that a regular part of the menu.

We also had some feedback that went like this: “Yeah, well, interesting. But I'd really like to know something more practical than this, like how to be a better parent. Why don't you teach this other stuff at a seminar, not on Sunday morning?”

Well, we didn't have the facilities or the teachers to hold those kinds of seminars. So, it wasn't until decades later when we found out, through REVEAL, that you can strip away almost every other thing the church does, but at the core of the core of the core, growing people into Christ followers is all about helping them engage in God's Word and inspiring them to invite God to be at the center of their lives. I did not emphasize that as much in the early days as I do now.

So you would do things differently today?

Bill Hybels:  Absolutely. Now at Willow we have what we call the Getting Started Classes. The second movement in the Getting Started Classes is the spiritual practices: how to read your Bible, how to pray, how to surrender, how to confess your sins. We get people on track with these very basic things that will help them walk with Christ as soon as they show any movement. In the early days of Willow, when someone showed spiritual movement we would congratulate them and point them toward a ministry where they could serve or a group where they could get to know other people. But we didn't instill a strong awareness that, more than anything, people need to know how to relate to God through His Word, and how to hear His prompting. How to navigate a day with Him in your head, in your heart, at your side and all of that. It's a deep regret I carry.

Christ-Centered leadership is at the heart of REVEAL’s best-practice findings. How do you keep your passion for Jesus fired up?

Bill Hybels:  In Romans 12:11, Paul says: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." He's saying don’t let your zeal burn low, but he’s also saying you're responsible for your zeal. I like to remind myself of that. It's my responsibility to keep my passion hot. It's no one else's. So if mine starts running low, I have to discern what cooled it off and then I’ve got to stop letting that happen. I have to figure out who the people are, what the books and the experiences are, that refresh my spirit and then lean into whatever works to re-fire a passion for Jesus.

For example, whenever I'm around certain people for any length of time, I feel my pulse rate increasing. They fire me up. I need to be around them a little more. And, besides the Bible, the book I’ve turned to more often than any other for inspiration and encouragement is Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines. If I need spiritual refueling, that book works for me. So, who I'm with, what I read, where I go, that’s what keeps me charged up.

To close, do you have a final word of advice or encouragement for church planters?

Bill Hybels:  You're one of the luckiest people on the planet because the most important thing happening on earth is the establishment and building of local churches. God selected you to be able to form a community where this incredibly important work is going to be going on under your direction for perhaps the next 40 years. You won the lottery!

Enjoy it! Every day realize you don't have to stand at a drill press. You don't have to load and unload trucks. You get to traffic in kingdom ideas and work with great people who are pulling with you to try to form this Acts 2 dream of Christ's church. You should fall on your knees and say, “God, what an incredible privilege to be invited by your Holy Spirit to play a key role in the most important thing happening on planet Earth.”

I tell pastors all the time that I've had a ball! We've taken our hits. There are bad days. But I've had an astonishingly blessed ride. And I think God would have that same heart toward every pastor. I think he wants every pastor to love His Word and love the adventure of His work. I don't even know what it's like to lay my head on the pillow and say that today was a waste. Every night, I feel like we moved the ball. We may have only moved it a foot, but we moved the kingdom ball ahead a little bit today. That's good enough for me.

A high percentage of the human race hits the pillow at night feeling like their day was a waste. They didn't move anything eternal ahead. They didn't touch any lives. They didn't do anything that's going to outlive them. So my final word to church planters is this - you won the lottery! You get to lead the coolest endeavor on planet Earth, the only agency God said he was going to predictably bless and favor.

You get to be a part of that! 

Bill Hybels, founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek, is well-known for his relevant and insightful Bible-based teaching. He is the author of 17 books, including Rediscovering Church and Fit to Be Tied (both co-authored with his wife Lynne), Too Busy Not to Pray, Becoming a Contagious Christian (with Mark Mittelberg), and The God You're Looking For. He is chairman of the Willow Creek Association's board of directors. Bill received a bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College. He and Lynne are the parents of two adult children & have one grandchild. 

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Quiet Time Religion

Here is a thought going through my head this morning, "What religion does not allow, grace does". 

I was speaking to someone recently about their struggles with their "quiet time". It struck me while we were talking that the goal of quiet times is not quiet times, but conversation with a person, with God. It's speaking to someone, and allowing them to speak as well. It's about relationship.

I don't know about you, but i don't approach talking with friends with a need for emotional connection or a huge sense of intimacy. I don't approach friendships in terms of duty to be together, but in delight in hanging out, catching up, sharing story, connecting with someone I enjoy. I don't place a burden on others to meet a need or give me some huge emotional lift. I spend time with people for the value of being with them, and allow the relationship to be what it is.

The goal of spending time with God is not found in how much emotional intimacy we feel, but in simply being with him. I approach being with my wife the same way... we just enjoy each other's company, sometimes laughter, sometimes sadness, sometimes just sitting together without talking, sometimes sharing our hearts very deeply... we talk while driving together, we talk over meals, we make dates to hang out without interruption, we turn off the phones, and give attention to each other. And if we get busy, then we go out of our way to make sure we have time to talk and be together.

It's about relationship, not religious duty. The same applies to our relationship with God.

I can tell you what happens if Sally and I don't have time together... we grow apart. We get disconnected. Hurts turn into offenses. Little things become big things.

Communication fosters deeper relationship with my wife, not an emotional relationship, but just pure relationship, sometimes with emotion sometimes not. It causes our hearts to stay connected, for trust to grow, for affection and commitment to be strengthened.

Spending time with Jesus is the same for me... it is not a thing to do, but someone to talk to. 

If this is true, then spending time with Jesus counts whenever it happens, any time of the day, any posture, any moment... walking, shopping, driving, it all counts! 

Growing, healthy relationships are intentional. If you want your relationship with someone to grow, then you get intentional about meeting up, about sharing dreams and disappointments. The same is true of our relationship with God. 

So let's chuck quiet time religion, as in the duty to do something to please God, and focus on talking to God, on speaking to him as a friend. Focus on the pure value of talking to him about burdens, about joys, and about the things that distress us. Tell him everything...

Does that mean there is no need to set aside time on a regular basis to read the Bible and pray?  Not at all... it will enhance your relationship actually. Be intentional about being spontaneous.

The big bonus is grace.  There is an impartation of God's grace that happens when we are intentional about being with God, about accepting his offer to give himself to us. So ask freely, and receive freely. If we love it when friends ask us for advice, for help, how much more does God delight in us when we ask him?

It's about grace flowing down...covering our sins, covering our fears and failures. Let it flow... ask for it, any time and all the time. When you shower or bathe and dress for the day. When you eat food. When you are driving or walking. Be intentional but don't be religious.

Remember, grace allows what religion does not. 

John's gospel says, "Of his fullness have we all received, grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ" John 1:16

Make it a receiving day today!  Be intentional but not religious.

Safe theology. Dangerous life.

A co-worker and a man I disciple wrote the following article after I spoke on values, safety, and what is really dangerous.

Many people worry about their safety and security. We happen to live and serve in South Africa, a country bound by fear and crime and loaded with gates, locks and alarms. But we also serve in a missional community where many people are preparing to go to hostile places around the world where the gospel has not yet reached. So, danger is a very real thing for many of our friends who are counting the cost of giving their lives.

Last week, I was listening to Floyd (our leader here) teach on values and he started talking about danger in a way that stirred my heart.

• Living in constant disobedience to Jesus…that is dangerous.

• When our greatest goal is to work 70 hours a week for 35 years so we can have a nice house and a pension…that is dangerous.

• When a Mom and Dad compromise the will of God while their kids watch on…that is dangerous.

• When you are more interested in insuring your life on this earth (70 years if you’re lucky) while you do nothing to insure your life for all eternity….that is dangerous.

• Wanna hear something else dangerous? Dangerous is when you install gates, alarms and locks all around you and your family while you open your doors wide to the father of lies, the great destroyer and accuser, satan.

Perhaps it would do us all some good to consider the differences between danger in the world and danger in the Kingdom.

You can lead people if you don't "need" people

John 2:23-25, "During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn't need any help in seeing right through them."

Jesus had no need of people therefore he could lead people. Needy leaders are grasping leaders. If we trust God to bring us the people we need, people will sense our security, that we won't "claim them" as own own, and be more likely to follow us.

A visiting friend commented, after visiting me when I was a young leader, "You see people for how they can meet your needs and help you fulfill your vision... God wants to change that. God wants you to see people for how you can help them fulfill their vision, not yours. If you will hold people with a relaxed grasp, with your hands open, God will fill your hands with more leaders than you know what to do with. But if you hold onto them tightly, then your hands will be full and God cannot give you more people, especially the right people."

Complicity and Confrontation

Complicity and Confrontation – 1 Samuel 2:12 – 3:14

“Do not share in other people’s sins...” 1 Timothy 5:22

Corruption and Compromise - Whenever corruption and compromise takes place, the spotlight should be on the one who committed the sin, the perpetrator.

But that can be a distraction from another sin, that of complicity on the part of those who knew about the sin and were silent. To be silent when knowing about sin is agreement with that sin.

Complicity is the sin of hiding people’s sins.

Not so obvious is the sin of leaders in the background who know about the corruption and compromise, and are silent. There are those in the foreground, whose sin is seen, and those in the background, whose sin is not seen, but is just as great an act of irresponsibility.

It was once said, “The despicable conduct of those in the foreground is not possible apart from the irresponsibility of the leaders in the background...”

Silent Perpetrators – Those who are fearful of being rejected, who are filled with indecisiveness, concerned about their image, lacking in love for their leader or friend, clinging to the safety of being inconspicuous, saying little or nothing, turning a blind eye, claiming busyness, rationalizing responsibility, are guilty of anemic spirit; these are the leaders and friends who fear man more than God, who are prisoners not leaders, and cowards not true compatriots.

The biblical figure who was guilty of the sin of complicity is Eli the High Priest (I Samuels 2: 12-35; 3: 11-14).

Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinebas, were priests under Eli’s leadership. They ate meat that was to be offered for sacrifices and seduced young women who assisted at the tabernacle. The New Living Translation calls them scoundrels. As an old man, Eli did confront his sons on one occasion. However, it was weak and half-hearted, and therefore ineffective. He did not stop their blasphemy. He covered it up. Despite his age, Eli still had responsibility. In fact, God repeatedly warned Eli to discipline his sons (I Samuel 3:13). Under the authority of God, Eli could have dismissed his sons from priesthood. He did not. Eli could have cut them off from the community (Numbers 15: 30). He did not. Therefore, God harshly judged Eli, making good on the promise to bring an early death to Eli’s sons and the rest of his family as well as cut his family off from the line of priests.

When things go wrong publicly with a leader, look beyond the public to the private. No man or woman who sins publicly is without a private world of family and friends and fellow leaders. Who knew and did not speak up? Who spoke up but did not follow up? Who followed up but did not speak up?

What roles do leaders and leaders of leaders and family and friends of leaders play in corruption, compromise, and cowardice? We cannot claim culture when God says it is compromise.

Complicity – participation in wrong-doing. Complicity comes from the word accomplice, meaning an associate, an ally, to wrap or fold together. An accomplice is a person who helps another person commit a crime.

Complicity is the result of the fear of man. It is caused by a lack of the fear of God. It is the sin of negligence. It is to cover up, to conceal, to deny, minimizing, or otherwise failing to challenge or expose wrongdoing. Silence about the sin of a friend or family member or another leader is not love, it is cowardice.

Every leader has a choice: you can obey your culture or obey Christ. Christ or culture, who will you follow? Who will you obey?

Skill of confrontation – what should one do when a friend, a follower, a family member, or fellow leader sins?

1. Pray for true love, for wisdom, and for courage and strength to do the right thing with the right attitude of heart and mind. 1 Timothy 2:2, “pray for those in authority”.

2. Go to the person alone. Ask questions - don’t make accusations. Speak with respect not anger. You are not responsible for their actions; you are responsible for your actions. Do not be drawn into an argument, do not be swayed by emotions.    1 Timothy 4:12, “let no man despise your youth... but be an example”

3. Take time for discernment – an “injury time out” of a few hours or if needed, for a few days, to reflect, to discern, and to seek God’s wisdom and guidance.

4. Go with another person who has witnessed the same situation. Give the guilty person the opportunity to confess their sin himself or herself. Wait a few hours, not days or weeks or months to hear their response. 1 Timothy 5:1 “do not rebuke an older man, but speak to him as a father”

5. Offer to go with them to confess their sin to their leaders.

6. Go to the proper authority to report the sin. If they don’t confess their sins openly to their leaders. Go with tears, not tantrums. 1 Timothy 1:8, “lifting up holy hands, without wrath...”

“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words...he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which comes envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth...from such men withdraw yourself…

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in perdition and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows...

Flee these things... fight the good fight of faith... keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing...

Command the rich not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but to trust in the living God, who gives us all things to enjoy...” 1 Timothy 6:3-19

See also 2 Timothy 2:14-18...

“A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God will perhaps grant them repentance, so they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will...” 2 Timothy 2:24-26

This article was adapted from other articles and sources, which have been lost. To my regret, I cannot attribute proper credit where it is due.

Planning Not to Be Needed

Every great leader is a leader who wants others to outdo him, to excel him and to replace him. The test of a leader is to be able to serve without a title or position... what a great challenge!  

“One aspect of a job well done as a servant leader is what we do to prepare others to carry on after our season of leadership is completed. Your personal succession planning efforts will speak volumes about your motives as a leader. It is likely that anyone leading from an ego involved in the promotion and protection of self is not going to spend much time training and developing their potential successor. In the use of His time and efforts on earth, Jesus modeled sacrificial passion for ensuring that His followers were equipped to carry on the movement.”

Blanchard, Ken, Phil Hodges. The Servant Leader. Nashville: J. Countryman, 2003.

Seven Marks of Disciple Making Churches in the Muslim World

This article is from Joel News International:

West-Africa - Seven Marks of New Churches in the Muslim World

For more than seven years Jerry Trousdale studied disciple making movements in the Muslim world, especially in West-Africa. In that period more than 6,000 new Muslim-background churches were started in 18 countries, comprising 70 different Muslim people groups. Trousdale found that ‘church’ is being done in a specific way:

1. Groups are kept small. The average church size is 31.2 Christians per church. In extremely high-risk areas this is approximately 15 Christians per church. Church buildings are uncommon as they only increase the risk of persecution.

2. Every member is expected to participate in ongoing ‘discovery Bible studies’ in which people together learn how to obey God and help one another grow in faithfulness to Him.

3. The leadership of the church is somewhat collective, but typically includes a facilitator who is receiving ongoing biblical training and mentoring. This is done two to four times a year, without extracting them to other regions. The facilitators support themselves financially.

4. Many churches set aside special times every week for prayer and fasting.

5. Between 60 and 70 percent of the churches report a dramatic healing or deliverance that usually causes the church to suddenly accelerate in growth.

6. More than half of the Muslim-background churches are planted among people who are considered totally unengaged by the gospel. About one quarter of the churches are in Muslim-dominant regions where persecution is very common. In some areas, the sheer number of churches that are planted changes the spiritual environment, which in turn gives Christians much greater freedom.

7. Disciples reproduce disciples, and churches reproduce churches in ways that are biblically informed and culturally appropriate. There are not many programs, but quite of lot of genuine transformation of individuals, families and whole communities.

Source: Jerry Trousdale

Six Types of People You Meet in Church Planting

Guest article

by Todd Bumgarner

As a church planter, you are called to raise up disciples and leaders. It's an investment of time and energy that is critical to the mission of your church. One of the hardest truths early on in church planting is discerning who is with you and who is not. As I have worked with people, I’ve learned there are six categories into which someone falls. Categorizing people is helpful to determine where to focus your time and energy and to wake you up to the reality that some people, despite their excitement and interest, simply are not on board.

1. Family

These are the folks who are all-in. They’ve caught the vision and want to help in any way possible. They are servant-leaders and their commitment is apparent via a verbal conversation in which they express it. It is important to realize that simply showing up at things does not make someone part of the family (consistency does not necessarily equal commitment). A better gauge is to combine their consistency with their language. Folks who are in the family use phrases with first-personal plurals like “our church” or “we can do this.”

2. Fence

These are people who are interested in what you’re doing, excited about what you’re doing, have come to one or more of your vision meetings, or otherwise expressed their interest/excitement. People in this category require patience. Often people on the fence are plugged in to other church communities, and asking them to uproot from that to join what you’re doing is a complicated decision and process. I tell people on the fence that we are not in the business of stealing people from other churches, but to cast the vision and trust that the Holy Spirit will do his job.

In a church plant, people on the fence ultimately have to be called by the church planter to commitment. A church plant consisting only of interested and excited people (but with no commitment) will fail. This is the category where the most time and prayer will be spent. In addition, a prayerful ear to the Spirit’s prompting of when to call them to commit must be discerned. The goal is to move people from the fence to the family or discern if perhaps they are simply a “friend.”

3. Fans

On Facebook, having a lot of fans is great; in a church plant—not so much. Fans love what you’re doing, express their excitement, follow you on Twitter, meet you for coffee, let you buy them lunch, but never come to anything that you organize. Fans are typically podcasting Driscoll, reading Piper, and can give you the latest update on Chandler’s cancer faster than it takes for you to find it on the web.

Fans will suck the energy out of you. Often people in this category are another “F” word I like to use: “floaters.” They don’t have a church home, and float from one church to another, avoiding commitment, and seeing themselves as getting “fed” from guys they podcast. Fans love to talk about terms like “gospel-centered” and “missionally-focused” but fail to ever translate their talk to their walk.

Fans need to be quickly moved to the fence or the farm or they will consume your time and distract you from the mission.

4. Friends

Friends are typically gospel-centered people who are playing in the same league but on a different team. They are interested in what you’re doing, realize the importance of it, and want to support you in any way they can, but in the end are plugged-into and committed to another church. Friends are great, but they’re not family. You can call on friends for practical help and outside advice, but when you’re trying to build a family, sometimes you have to limit your time with friends.

5. Farm

The farm is made up of people who were on the fence and turned out not to be in the family when you called them to commit, or folks who were fans that you simply had to move to the farm, as they were much more interested in hanging out in the grandstands than ever making it onto the field. Instead of being all-in, they’ve verbally or non-verbally stated that they are out. The sad reality of a church planter is that once people are on the farm, it is typically a distraction from the mission to continue to pursue them. If they want to rejoin the fence, trust that they will on their own.

6. Foes

Foes are the critics and the opposite of “family.” We’ve had a few of these in our short history as a church plant, including one lady who accused me of trying to attract people to our church with beer, and another I’ve never met who sent me an email with some poor exegesis of 1 Timothy 3 and tried to tell me that I was not qualified to be an elder. I would have liked to meet her.

As a church planter, you will have a growing family, people on the fence, a host of fans, some good friends, a growing farm, and a number of foes. Your goal is to call people to commit and determine who’s in the family so that you can march forward with your mission to reach the unreached for Christ.

By Acts 29 Network

When is Church Growth Not Healthy Growth?

I am a big fan and a friend of Mark Buckley, who pastors Living Streams Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Mark and his wife Kristine have been the guests of All Nations in the past and will come again next year, God willing. We are willing - just need to work out the dates with Mark and Kristine.

I love Mark's perspective on when church growth is not good growth...

Healthy Things Grow Naturally - December 2012

Many people say healthy things grow. If something stops growing, it’s not healthy. Some people apply that logic to churches and others apply it to businesses. I want to clarify that concept. No plants, animals or people keep growing indefinitely. All living things reach a maximum size determined by genetics and environment, otherwise they would become gigantic. When healthy things reach maturity, new growth comes through reproduction.

No business or church can grow indefinitely either. Healthy businesses stay focused on their customers and main products. If they get overextended they are vulnerable to all kinds of problems. Healthy churches grow to a size determined by the gifts, talents and opportunities given by God to the congregation and leaders. They reproduce by raising up mature disciples who establish new ministries and plant new churches. The apostles left Jerusalem to preach the gospel and establish new churches. Some of the new churches they established grew larger and lasted longer than the church in Jerusalem.

Jesus said, “See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or toil.” (Mat. 6:28) Healthy things grow naturally. It is a flawed form of judgment to value people by the size of their ministry, business or bank account. That is like saying your mother was an incredible woman because she raised you in a big house. The impact of your mother, father, or friend is as great as the love they showed you and the wisdom they imparted to you. If Christ is in you, you may not be impressive to the world, but the faith and love you have can transform the life of anyone who believes your message.

One reason I enjoy the challenge of sports and games is the opportunity to make progress in ways that are measurable. A smoother golf swing improves my scores and helps me to feel like I’m learning and growing. We need to have a sense that we are growing in wisdom and understanding in life as well. After midlife, our bodies diminish in strength and energy. Life can be depressing if we focus on that decline. Fortunately, the Lord allows us to grow in grace and wisdom throughout our lives.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (II Corinthians 4:16) Inward renewal comes as we draw near to the Lord in prayer and experience his grace. I’m learning to trust God in deeper ways, so my faith stays alive under stress and pressure. Spiritual growth can be measured by peace in our hearts and confidence in God when we face the pressures of life.

Our six year old grandson Matisse captured a scorpion and released it recently. The next day he asked his mother, “If I can catch a baby scorpion, how can we train it to hunt? Do they have books on that?”

Matisse will grow in size, wisdom and understanding in the years to come, but he is precious to us right now. You too will naturally grow in wisdom and understanding as you read the word of God and put it into practice. Yet I hope you realize that you are loved as much today as you will be on the day you meet the Lord and receive your reward.

Join the Largest Prayer Meeting in the World

Hello, 20 years ago God allowed me and several others the privilege of helping to pioneer what is most likely the largest prayer initiative in the world, called "30 days of prayer for the Muslim world". Since that time it has spread all over the world and now millions of people pray during Ramadan for pre-believing Muslims.

I want to call this prayer and awareness initiative to your attention and ask that you join me in supporting this amazing opportunity to stir up love and faith and reconciliation toward Muslims who have not yet come to faith in Jesus. Join believers all over the globe praying during Ramadan - not because we believe in Islam, but because we believe for those who follow Islam to come to faith in Jesus!

Who knows what God will do when we join with many others to fast and pray during Ramadan for Muslims to come to faith in Jesus!!

Since this and many other prayer initiatives began to reach out in love to Muslims, many have had dreams of Jesus, met followers of Jesus, and have opened their hearts to the peace of God through Jeus Christ. The greatest solution to war and strife in North Africa, India, Indonesa, and the Middle East is prayer and the love of Jesus.

P.S. To subscribe to regular updates or get more information on how you can get your church community and movement involved write to: 30-days@bfp-listen.de

Below is an update from 30 Days…

Dear friends,

20 years ago a few mission leaders were praying together. They felt challenged to focus their attention on reaching the Muslim world. Thus was born the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World movement.

Today, that agency has 10 times more teams working in the Muslim world than they did 20 years ago. Many other mission and church agencies have joined in. We have seen major breakthroughs. For example, in South Asia at least half a million Muslims come to faith among the Bengali. In Iran, Christian satellite broadcasting is widely viewed and supports a strong and growing underground church movement with thousands of house fellowships multiplying throughout the country. Several hundred thousand members of an unreached Berber group in North Africa have come to faith in just one of several movements taking place in that region.

The 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim world prayer event has played a big part in that - educating, motivating and encouraging believers to respectfully and lovingly share their faith. The guide is now distributed in over 38 languages, and millions have participated. We have a team of people across the planet who not only contribute to the contents of the booklet but also are actively involved in ministry reaching the lost.

We feel an urgency to continue calling the Christian world to pray. This is not the time to stop praying, giving and going. The avalanche of prayer, we believe, is seeing much fruit. And as we watch events take place in North Africa and across the Muslim world, we sense we must add our prayers and actions to the work God is doing. We are investing in eternity!

You will read many more miracles and facts in our coming prayer guide. I encourage you to get the prayer materials to your family, friends, church and social network. At our end we are doing our utmost to produce the prayer guide so it will engage as many Christians as possible. We also encourage everyone to contribute financially to the ongoing work. There are many bills to pay for the new booklet and of course for the people in the fields.

So, what of the next 20 years? According to a 2011 Pew study, twenty years from now the Muslim world population will have doubled from what it was 20 years ago. Muslims will represent a quarter of the global population. As followers of Christ, we must rise to meet this growth with a double portion of faith and love. Let's keep up the avalanche of prayer.

God bless you,

Ron and the team.

New Book

Mirror, Mirror - A Reflected Life

by Carolyn Ros

I wanted to draw your attention to this new book published by a friend.

From the press release:

Carolyn Ros, or Kari as she was known during her growing-up years, seemed to have everything going for her as she graduated from high school and headed off to college. The child of American missionary parents, she had grown up in Japan speaking two languages. Very early on she was chosen to model for Japanese advertisements, she excelled in her studies in a well-respected international school, and seemed to be the belle of the ball. Underneath it all, however, was a mountain of fear and doubt that was plaguing her and driving her deeper into anorexia and bulimia. Then, on top of all that, her world came crashing down as her face, hands, and knees were injured in a motorcycle accident. She was left a shaken shell. It would take years of serious probing and honest self-examination and a bold question from a fellow college student to get her started back on the road to self-realization and fulfillment. The book not only includes her story, but also many of the spiritual meditations that brought her renewed hope and strength.

Please see here for the full press release.

New Videos

I wanted to draw your attention towards two new videos, shot during my furlough in the United States. Both were shot during my time at LCC Redding.

The first is on Discipleship and can be found here.

The second is on Discipleship and Leadership and can be found here.

If you have the time, check them out!

Leadership is a Performing Art

Leadership is a performing art, not a science. It is the art of influencing others, not just to accomplish something together, but to want to accomplish great things together. Servant leaders challenge existing processes without manipulating or overpowering people, then they enable others to act by encouraging their hearts, modeling the way forward, and inspiring a shared vision. The authority that servant leaders have to impact the lives of others comes from their ability to serve artfully, and thus to influence people align themselves to want to act together. Servant leaders pay attention to individuals, stimulate people intellectually, inspire a big vision, and through these art forms, influence others to act together to achieve what they could not do alone. Servant leaders live what they ask others to do. Their integrity and character sustains their artful ability to inspire many others.

The Use and Abuse of Spiritual Authority

Because of the tendency of good but sometimes immature leaders to respond to selfish or needy people with overbearing authority, and because of the influence of cult figures on so many unwary young people, it is important to be aware of some of the unhealthy extremes leaders can go to in exercising their leadership.

Hopefully the checklist below will not only help members of organizations or congregations evaluate the kind of authority they are following, but will also help sincere leaders do some "soul-searching" if they are leading out of insecurity or are responding wrongly to those with needs in their group.

I have included at the end of this paper some Biblical principles for leaders to follow in responding to those people in their congregation or group that have need of loving confrontation. I have also included some guidelines on how to respond to leaders when they are wrong.

Extremism on the question of authority is easy to find: some go to one extreme and propound a kind of Christian anarchism where everyone is a law unto themselves with no need for accountability or submission; others go to the other extreme and teach a pyramidal authority structure that undermines the priesthood of the believer and exalts authority figures to a place God never intended them to have.  Those who dare to live in the "radical middle" will no doubt make mistakes in finding their way, but will in the end enjoy the rewards of their efforts: deep friendships, godly accountability, the serenity of surrendering others to the Lord and the peace of living in a manner that is pleasing to our Father.

I am a bit uncomfortable with those who appoint themselves to be "watch dogs" for the Body of Christ, especially when they are quick to judge or are harsh in their spirit.  Perhaps this is another form of authoritarianism?  Obviously we need those who are called by God to serve the church by discerning the "inroads of apostasy" (I highly recommend the Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Berkeley Christian College, Box 4309, Berkeley, CA 94704), but it is very important that they do their research thoroughly and without bias, and that they pray for those they find to be immature or unbiblical.  Those who do this kind of research have an additional responsibility to be mature, discerning Christians (James 3:1, 5-12).  They need to seek out those they find to be in extremism and give them a chance to both explain themselves and/or repent if they have been wrong (Matthew 5:21-16, 7:1-5; Galatians 6:1-3).  Researchers on cults have no less a responsibility to follow biblical principles of intercession, conversation and church discipline than what they expect from those they are researching in other areas of belief and practice.  I have known of instances where those researching the cults have judged others in the Body of Christ wrongly and have hurt and damaged people to the same extent that they were accusing others of doing.

The following contains principles that should be applied equally to all those in the Body of Christ whether pastor, leader or researcher.

1.     Insistence on sharing all things in common:  Insisting on giving up private ownership can be a way of controlling people's lives.

2.     Treatment of women:  When women are not given any authority or are not recognized as equals to men through respect for their opinions, then authoritarianism is sure to follow.

3.     The power of leaders:  The scripture teaches us to submit to those whom the Lord has placed over us  -  Acts 20:28-31;  I Timothy 1:3, 4:11;  Titus 1:13, 3:1;  Hebrews 13:17.  The question is, how much and where.  The Bible makes clear that in specific areas leaders do have authority, but there are very definite limits to this authority.  For example, a leader does not have the right to tell people what to do in their personal lives.  If you think through all the illustrations in the scriptures where elders and apostles were exercising authority, can you think of any instance where any of the leaders in the scripture, even in the crisis days of the early church in Jerusalem, ever tried to dominate or control somebody's life?  Even Peter made the clear comment that Ananias and Saphira could have kept all their money and property (the point is that doing what everyone else was doing was not mandatory).  The sin was not in what they kept, but in their lying.  There are no illustrations in the New Testament that are even remotely similar to the control being exercised by some elders or leaders over God's people today.

Leaders do not have the right to confirm people's personal guidance as to whether they get married, continue working in full-time Christian service or go to another place in that service.  It is a privilege to pray with others about their personal guidance but not a right.  A leader can obviously give a word of caution or counsel for a person from the word, but that should be shared as a friend.  To confuse the two is to bring people under condemnation and make them feel obligated to do what the person is saying because they are an authority figure.

4.     Turnover in leadership:  If there is a rapid turnover in leadership every two or three years, it could be an indication the leader is not the kind of person who can win long term friendships due to instability in his life or an overbearing personality.  It is very important for those in an organization to ask how long do those working up-close stay with their leader.  If people do leave, do they feel condemned when they do so?  Would they feel comfortable in returning for a visit?

5.     The leader's reaction under pressure:  If the leader is consistently defensive, it may show that he is insecure, unsure of himself and his work.  He may try to exercise a great deal of control over others and is often unsure of himself and may express his insecurity through authoritarianism.

6.     Exclusiveness:  Any time a group has an exclusive view toward their role in the church, it could be an indication that there is not only pride but authoritarianism.  Do they recognize all other committed Christians as believers and a part of the Body of Christ?  Beware of those who categorize some Christians as being more special to God, or having a revelation or experience or doctrine that produces the fruit of pride and/or exclusiveness.

7.     The psychological makeup of a leader:  Does the leader have in his nature a need to control others within his environment?  There are some people who; have this psychological flaw.  The Lord can use this man, but he must have God break this in his life or he will tend towards authoritarianism and manipulation.  Sometimes this trait surfaces in the beginning of a ministry, or it could come out later in a time of crisis or conflict.

8.     Group conformity:  There is always some need for conformity, particularly amongst organizations that have policies and procedures that are necessary for the accomplishing of their goals.  However, these policies and goals should be open for the scrutiny of all in the Body of Christ, and should be made with the counsel of godly people outside of the organization.  They should be explained to those who join the organization before any commitment of membership is made so that the individuals understand what would be required of them and expected of them and they can agree to it beforehand.

9.     Leaving the group:  When individuals want to leave the group are they made to feel guilty or is pressure put on them to stay?  Do they feel hurt when they leave?  Do they feel like they're second-class Christians, if they are not staying with the group and going back to a local church? 

10.  Possessiveness of staff and fellow workers:  Does the leader make those who work with him feel obligated to stay?  Is there a constant pressure used by the leadership to manipulate people into staying with the group?  Do they feel somehow they have to break out in order to leave the group?  Is "guidance" or "covering" used as a way of keeping people in the group?  This kind of possessiveness can often lead to great hurts and make people feel very condemned for leaving the group.

11.  Atmosphere of mistrust:  Do the leaders use rules, regulations, scriptures and policies to control people's lives?  Or do they create an atmosphere of grace and trust?  Do the leaders rely upon people's maturity or do they continually infer that the people cannot be trusted and "laws" must exist to regulate people's behavior?  Obviously there must be a certain amount of submission, particularly in missionary organizations that have developed policies and procedures in order to be more efficient in achieving their goals.  But even then those policies should be based on trust and not forced on those who disagree.  Hopefully potential areas of disagreement will be discovered before a candidate joins the missionary society, but if not they should be given the freedom to leave (if conflict doe arise) with appreciation for one another and a simple agreement that it is best for a parting of ways. 

12.  Questions and criticisms:  Can members of the group bring up their questions or make constructive criticism without the leadership becoming defensive?  Are the leaders secure enough and mature enough in the Lord to encourage people to share hurts or disappointments, or ask questions about things they disagree with without fear of recrimination or being judged as being "critical or rebellious"?  Are the leaders accountable to somebody else besides themselves and "the Lord"?  Are they open to be corrected?

13.  Overwork:  Does the leadership make the members of the group or organization feel obligated to work long hours, burning the candle at both ends?  Do the leaders drive their people and make them feel guilty for having personal time for hobbies, recreation, letter writing etc.?  Leaders can be guilty of burning their people out and placing them under condemnation for wanting the time necessary to be refuelled and refreshed in order to keep doing their work with the emotional strength that they need to carry it out. 

14.  Moral impurity:  Often those who become authoritarian or manipulative have compromised morally and are living in sin.

15.  Role confusion - inspirational and pastoral leadership:  A leader can become authoritarian or abusive in his leadership if he does not learn to distinguish the difference between personal counseling and visionary inspiration.  It is one thing to stand in front of a group and inspire the group with "the word of the Lord" for the direction of the group; it is quite another thing to be involved in personal counseling.  If the leader approaches his personal counseling in the same style and manner as he would to seek to inspire the whole group with a word from the Lord, he can come across not only very directional but also overbearing or overwhelming to those to whom he is giving counsel.  His role in counseling is to remind people of scriptural principles and encourage them to seek the Lord and to put God first in obeying His word.  It is not his responsibility to tell people what to do or to correct the errors in their life, but more to encourage them to be open to the Lord and to obey His word.

16.  Ownership of policies and major decisions:  Do the leaders give the people an opportunity to feel ownership at a grass roots level about decisions that are being made for the group?  Are decisions handed down arbitrarily from the top without any opportunity for the staff to participate in the decision?  Do the people feel like they can be a part of shaping the policies of the community and not be rebellious if they question them?

17.  Over emphasis on one person’s responsibility:  Too much emphasis in this area without emphasizing God's grace and mercy produces condemnation and doubt about God's love and forgiveness.  It is the loving kindness of God that leads men to repentance.

18.  Taking too much responsibility to correct the problems in people’s lives and not leaving them free to respond to the Lord when they are ready to do so:  Trying to be the Holy Spirit for people always leads to conflict and hurt.

19.  Denying people the right of appeal of a decision they disagree with or denying them right of accessibility to go to others for counsel when they disagree with a leader:  To "box" a person in in this way is very unjust and shows that the leader is at the very least exerting undue pressure on the person concerned, and perhaps it indicates the basic insecurity of the leader and his unhealthy need to be in control of the situation.

20.  Not admitting faults or refusing to lead from a place of vulnerability and transparency:  If the leadership makes mistakes or has somehow been a part of a situation that has been unjust which can include not communicating difficult living situations ahead of time and then blaming people for reacting to them; or not giving people adequate food or heating; or putting them under immature leadership and then blaming them for not cooperating, or exploiting their financial generosity.  In all these circumstances we should admit our failures and weaknesses and ask forgiveness from those who have been hurt.  If a leader does not do that he will tend to blame others for the reactions and accuse them of "having the wrong attitude" or "being in rebellion." (An excellent book on this subject is The Man Who Could Do No Wrong, by Charles Blair, Chosen Books.)

21.  Teaching that a leader should always be obeyed no matter what he says because he is "God's anointed," or "you should obey the leader even if he is wrong and leave matters in God’s hand to judge.”:  We should teach people to obey God and His Word, not men because they are called "leaders."   Obviously people need to deal with independence and an unbroken spirit, but that should be dealt with in the opposite spirit: gentleness and love. When there is a need for confrontation over bad attitudes, the following scriptural guidelines should be followed:

(1)  Galatians 6:1-3  -  Go in a spirit of gentleness and humility "looking to ourselves lest we too be tempted. . ."

(2)  Proverbs 8:17; Deuteronomy 17:3-4; I Timothy 5:19  -  Always hear both sides of a matter and thoroughly look into all the points of view before a judgment is made.

(3)  James 3:13-18, 5:19-20; Matthew 18:15-18  -  Follow the spirit of love outlined in these passages. Seek in every way to be redemptive. Never put people in a position where it is hard for them to return or seek counsel or find help from others. Remember that the portions of scripture on church discipline in Matthew are preceded and followed by injunctions to "not despise one of these little ones" (speaking of a straying or lost sheep) and to forgive our brother "seventy times seven" - which does not mean exactly four hundred and ninety!

(4)  I Samuel 12:23  -  Pray for those we are concerned about to make sure we have God's heart for them and we are not reacting to them out of our own hurt or disappointment, even the disappointment that comes out of love for a person that we know could have done much better.  We must pray until we have God's heart for a person, then go to them when we sense God has prepared their heart for the correction.  Timing can be everything.

(5)  Proverbs 11:14, 15:22, 24:6  -  When there is a difficulty with someone's attitude seek the counsel of a mature, older pastor (particularly the pastor of the person involved) on how to respond.  There is great protection and wisdom in seeking the counsel of others, especially from older more mature men, outside one's own group or organization.  The willingness to seek this counsel shows a caution that reflects maturity and real love for what is best for the person involved.

The principles above give us guidelines on how to respond to those that we are correcting when we are in a position of leadership or when we are going to a brother or sister in need.  But what do we do when the leader over us or any person in a position of authority is wrong, either in their attitude or actions?  The following guidelines can be helpful.

(1)  Make sure the facts are correct.  Don't judge a person wrongly, and don't accept a charge against a person on the word of just one other person (Romans 2:12; Deuteronomy 13:12-14; and I Timothy 5:19).  It is very important to hear all sides of a conflict before a judgment is made.

(2)  Pray for the leader and make sure that you have no critical spirit or root of bitterness in your heart toward them.  If you've been hurt or disappointed, make sure that you keep on forgiving until your heart is free of hurt.  Make sure you maintain a heart of love since love covers a multitude of sins (I Peter 4:8).  It is possible to lose objectivity about a situation through taking on the hurts of others.  If you counsel with people who have been hurt by an authority figure and you take on their pain you can take sides in the conflict and lose the opportunity to both offer sound biblical counsel to the one hurt (e.g. to forgive and pray for the ones who hurt them) and be a minister of reconciliation and healing in the broken relationship.

(3)  Pray for the leader that he will have a revelation from the Lord about the wrong that he's done or that he will know the right thing to do if he needs wisdom in the situation.  It's extremely important that we intercede for him as an indication of our genuine commitment to the person and for God's best in the situation.

(4)  If a leader has done something wrong and there is no change, seek God in humility if you are to speak to them.  If it is an obvious wrong, such as stealing, being involved in a sexual sin, being dishonest etc., and you've gone to them and they do not repent, then go to another godly person in the Body of Christ and ask them to go with you to talk to the person again (Matthew 18:15-18; Luke 17:4).

(5)  If there is no response and it is not a matter of serious disobedience to obvious moral principles, then do not go to others in the Body of Christ criticizing and slandering the person concerned.  The Bible does speak very strongly about the importance of unity and forgiveness in the Body of Christ.  To go to others when you disagree with a decision could put you in a position of causing a greater sin than the one that you are concerned about in the life of the leader.  There are strong warnings in the scriptures about taking matters into our own hands and trying to correct them.  Even David would not attack Saul in spite of his great sin because God had put him in that position of leadership.  David trusted God to bring an answer in the situation (I Samuel 24:6; Numbers 14; Ephesians 4:26, 29, 30-32).

(6)  If the leader is authoritarian or immature or very unwise, you have one of two options:  you can stay under his authority and continue to pray for him after you've gone to him to share your concern, or you could leave the group.  It is important that you do not stay and become critical and bitter.  You have the freedom before God to leave at any time that you feel the pressure is too great on you, but do not stay and become a source of division.  If you do stay you should have the faith that God is going to bring a change in the situation and that He wants you there to be a blessing to others and for your own personal growth.  God will vindicate you if you keep your heart right and continue to pray and believe the Lord.  If it is a matter of moral impurity or compromise on orthodox doctrines such as the inspiration of the scriptures, the divinity of Christ, the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, his atonement on the cross - then after bringing a warning to the person and they will not change, then you should also leave the group.  To stay where there is moral impurity or doctrinal heresy could lead to compromise in your own life.

(7)  If you are unsure as to what to do, seek counsel of godly people outside of the group.  Go to a mature pastor or a leader in another organization, even if your leaders tell you not to do so!  Every believer has that right.

At the same time that we point out some of the abuses of authority, it is important to affirm the great need for godly leaders. To become a wise leader means years of experience, which of course includes making mistakes and failing. The scripture gives many examples of failure on the part of those who went on to be greatly used by God, this includes Moses, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Peter, Paul and many others.

There is a great need for wise fathers in the Lord who will take Timothys under their wings and encourage them and train them in godliness and wisdom. Where there is abuse of authority obviously there needs to be correction, but even more important there needs to be restoration and the kind of counsel and commitment that redeems one who has failed. The leader who does that is indeed a rare and blessed person. May their kind greatly increase!

II Timothy 2:24, 25a

I Peter 5:1-3

I Corinthians 4:15,17

I Thessalonians 2:7, 11-12

Called of God

From the excellent website, churchplanting.com comes this devotional article by Peter Sung…

And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” But he had nothing to say  ~ Matthew 22:12

READING:  Matthew 22:1-14

Every Christian is at once called to salvation and to ministry. Christians minister because we are called of God. Sometimes a more specific calling is recognized to be on a person and that person is called out by his community to help equip other Christians to do better ministry. It is the responsibility of the church community to discern whether that calling should also include a transition from secular employment to paid full time ministry.

The Greek word for calling is kaleo which means “to call out loud or to invite.” By definition, others must issue an invitation or a call. I cannot invite myself to someone else’s wedding party. That is the prerogative of the host. God does the calling. A church community does the confirming.

Consider your own calling. Who’s calling you? What are they calling you to do? The notion of calling gets tricky with church planting because the church community is yet to form and therefore yet to call. But, if we are indeed called, we answer to someone in some way. To whom are you accountable? As the apostle Paul says, no one can preach unless they are sent. Who is sending you?

Many church planters are rogue, isolated and unaccountable. They have invited themselves to a party without receiving any invitation. Jesus once told a sobering parable about a guest who was not invited and not properly dressed. He was promptly removed from the party lest the guest of honor, his son, be dishonored.

Are you called of God? Has your calling been confirmed by a community? Are you accountable?

Thank you, Father, for calling me and for using others to confirm it. Help me to walk worthy of my high calling with integrity and proper submission. Amen.