One challenge facing today's church

In 2006 The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk was published. As a Resource Minister in our region at the time, I read it hoping to find some tools I could use to help some of our churches. Frankly, I didn't really understand much of what the book was saying. This week I began re-reading it, and it is hitting home. They are saying some of the same things I've been saying to churches for the past few years. (Maybe I understood the book better than I thought!) For instance, they write

People are no longer willing to learn the internal language of the congregation. They are not shaped by loyalty to institutions and have little interest in joining groups or programs. No amount of rearranging of programs will change this. The reality is that the organizational cultures, the environments, created in congregations over several generations are no longer able to engage the changed context and its emerging generations,

Unfortunately, many of our churches fail to realize this is happening or they refuse to do anything differently to minister to a new generation. Instead, they spend time putting down new carpet, painting walls and rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while whistling a happy tune as the ship is sinking.

Pastors and lay leaders need to stop talking about what's happening in the church and discover what is happening in people's lives. Rather than simply offering programs that we used in the 1950s we need to discern what current needs are and how we can best address them. Such discovery is unlikely to happen within the walls of the church. I once met with a church board and pastor to discuss this very issue. I asked how many people in the immediate community attended their church, the answer was virtually none. I then asked what were the needs of the people in the community? The pastor looked at me and asked, "How do we find that out?" After recovering from my immediate shock I answered, "By going outside the church and asking them." He had never thought about that.

But, what happens once the church better understands the culture of the surrounding community? Here is where it really starts getting tricky. Chances are likely that what is discovered in that culture is unlike anything the church has addressed before. Pastors are trained in seminary to manage institutions, counsel, exegete Scripture, preach and do the things often associated with pastoral ministry. Most congregations have simply been taught to let the pastor lead them in the things he or she has been trained to do.

A bivocational pastor who was a school teacher once told me that the young people in his school that did not fit in any of the cliques (jock, nerd, farmer, etc.) were assuming they were gay and began to identify that way. He was at a loss of what to do. How many churches and pastors are equipped to address the growing trend of gender dysphoria that we hear so much about these days? There is not space in this post to mention the many other challenges found in today's society that the church must address if it wants to reach this generation for Jesus Christ.

I hope as I continue to read this book that I will find some answers because I too must admit that I do not have the answers to the questions I've raised. But, if we don't find some answers we will not reach this generation for the Kingdom of God and our churches will continue to become more irrelevant.

Is your church ready to minister to the world of today?

The book publishing world has changed a great deal in the past few years. It took me about three years from the time of writing to the publication of my first book. After that one was released, it was much easier to find a publisher for my next books. In fact, one publisher even asked me to write a book for them to publish. This is not the case today, at least for many authors.

Few publishers will even consider a manuscript or book proposal that comes to them from the author. They require an agent representing the author to present them with a book proposal. Despite contacting virtually every agent who represents Christian authors, I could not find anyone who would consider a book proposal for my latest book. It seems the content is not as important as the number of people who follow you on social media. One website offered two boxes in which you could contact them. One was for people who had social media followers over 10,000 and the other was for those who had less than 10,000 followers. Needless to say, I never heard from that organization when I checked the one with the fewer number of followers.

I share this with you because I decided to self-publish the book on Amazon for the Kindle platform. The problem with doing this is that the books get lost in the tens of thousands of other self-published books that are published on that platform. So, I decided to market the book through this blog.

The title of the book is Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?. We live in a time of cultural change that has never been seen before in the history of mankind. Values and beliefs are changing rapidly, and the church must understand these changes and speak to them if it is to have any relevancy to this current generation. The book includes 12 chapters that address some of the pressing issues of the day and offers a biblical response to each of them. Among the topics discussed are racial issues, mental illness, poverty, sexual issues, suicide, gender dysphoria and more. It is the aim of the book to present an understanding of each of these issues, why they are important for the church to address, and how to do so in a loving, non-judgmental but biblical manner. 

The book is only $6.95, and you can order it here.

If you do so, and find it helpful, please let others know about it. I believe it will help your church better minister to the issues that are causing people today so much pain and difficulty.

The church as missionaries

 The church in North America, as we know it, is currently involved in a major transition. For the past two or three decades we have believed that we were still at the center of life for most people. That wasn't true, but we preferred to believe it was. As a result of our confusion, we were surprised that our numbers were decreasing as well as our impact on society. Many were challenging our mistaken beliefs by pointing out that the traditional church was dying, but many of us refused to listen. Our refusal to listen has resulted in approximately 100 churches in the US closing its doors every week.

We failed to recognize that God was calling His church to once again become missionaries into its community. America is no longer a Christian nation, if it ever was. We are a rapidly emerging pagan society (my favorite way of looking at our nation today) that desperately needs missionaries to proclaim the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that connects with our current generation.

This will require that we explore new ways of understanding the life of the church in today's postmodern world. We can no longer hide behind the walls of our "sanctuaries" singing our hymns and praying the same prayers we have prayed for years and believing we are doing the work of the Kingdom. I am convinced that in 2024 God is calling His church to become missionaries to the communities in which it serves. This means that today's church must reinvent itself.

First, we must stop thinking of ourselves as simply churches that gather once a week, listen to a sermon, sing a few songs and return home inspired to eat lunch. Churches today must begin to see themselves as mission stations placed in the midst of this rapidly emerging pagan society to proclaim the saving message of Jesus Christ. Likewise, church members can no longer be content to view themselves as just members of a church but to recognize that God has called them to be missionaries in their community. God has given them spiritual gifts that are to be used to minister to others, and every member of every church must begin to use those gifts as missionaries.

Secondly, we must recognize that the culture we are called to reach is often much different than the one in which we were raised. The music is different, the worldview is different, the beliefs about truth and morality are different, the way they pursue spirituality is different. We can complain about these differences or we can adjust how we minister to this younger generation in a way that recognizes these differences.

Throughout church history the music has undergone many changes. Most traditional churches that sing from their hymnbooks fail to recognize that some of those songs were quite controversial when they first appeared. Many traditional churches today want to protect traditional hymns from being replaced by more contemporary music and fail to realize that these traditional hymns were once viewed as a scandalous attempt to replace "true" Christian worship. That fact is that there are many great worship songs today that will speak much more to today's culture than the ones written in the 1800s found in our hymn books.

Any time a missionary enters a new mission field, he or she must adapt themselves to that culture. That is not compromise; it is a simple acceptance that they have entered a new culture. They must learn to eat new food, listen to the music preferences of the people, learn new languages, identify the cultural practices of the people and learn how to best present the Gospel to this mission field in light of what they have learned.

The church in North American can do no less if we are to be faithful to our calling to reach this current generation.

How do we defend Christian truth in today's culture?

 I believe the title of this post is one of the most critical questions we can ask today. In a postmodern society the idea of absolute truth is rejected. The only absolute truth that is acceptable is that there is no absolute truth! Paul Gould addresses this problem in his excellent book Cultural Apologetics. He first defines the problem by writing

"Today, religious claims generally and Christian claims specifically are viewed as subjective claims. The truth claims of Christianity are not understood as claims pointing to an objective, mind-independent reality. Rather they are viewed as private, subjective beliefs held by a few faithful individuals. As subjective beliefs, these claims are viewed as irrelevant to the so-called public marketplace of ideas. Christianity is marginalized and ignored since the claims Christians make are treated as personal preference, not as something publicly testable, and not as claims that can compete for the mantle of 'public truth,'"

Tony Dungy is one of the kindest, gentlest Christian men you will ever meet. He has come under tremendous criticism because he dared tweet that he and his wife would be attending a Right-to-Life rally. To the postmodern individual this was unacceptable. They alone know the truth, and the only truth acceptable to the "woke" generation is that abortion should be available to all persons. 

The same things happens when one makes the claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. This is not acceptable in our pluralistic society that insists that all religions pray to the same God and that, if heaven even exists, that all persons will  go to "a better place" when they die. Anyone who studies world religions even briefly will note that all religions are not the same and that all gods are not the same. Jesus said He was the only way to God. This is a tough claim to make to today's culture, but it is one as Christians we must make. All roads may lead to Rome, but all religions do not lead to salvation.

We could address many other areas in which our modern culture has deviated from clear Christian teaching. The problem is that, while we may understand there is a problem, few churches are willing to address it. One reason we do not address the differences between Christian teaching and today's postmodern mindset may be fear of upsetting people. Another reason we do not is because we are not sure we know how to relate the Gospel to the various aspects of contemporary life.

I have found this book very helpful in that regard. Gould gives us direction that we as ministers can use to speak to the issues that divided the church and our culture. He writes, "The cultural apologist should help seekers overcome...barriers so that the seekers can genuinely consider the question of Jesus as an attractive possibility....What we cannot do, however, is to ignore them if we want others to see and understand Jesus as their only hope and greatest need."

The missing generations

Go into many churches, especially if they are older and smaller churches, and you are likely to find some generations missing.  You will often find in these churches senior saints and smaller children who were probably brought to the church by their grandparents. You are likely not to find many in the 18-39 age range. These generations have been lost to many churches. Many in this age range attended church when they were younger, but for various reasons they have withdrawn from the church.

Some people believe they left the church because they found the music and/or the worship services boring. This is probably true for some of them. Others point to college as a factor in many of them walking away from the church or even their faith. No doubt this is also true for some. But these may not be the primary reasons we have lost our young people and continue to do so.

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, has studied young people for a number of years and believes there are other reasons we see young people walking away from the church. He writes about what his research has taught him in his book You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith.

One of the interesting reasons he has found is that the church is overprotective. Many children today are raised by what has become known as helicopter parents who want to protect them from anything that might harm them. Certainly, no parent wants their children harmed, but it's possible to go overboard with trying to protect them from every possible danger. I'm surprised some kids are not sent outside to play covered in bubble-wrap!

As these children grow us they find many churches doing the same thing. They are constantly warned about the dangers of the world. Again, such warnings are necessary as there is much evil in the world. But they wonder how the church can influence our culture if we are to avoid it.

Jesus always spoke of the risks associated with following Him. He never promised life would be easy or even safe when one became a Christian. He challenged us to be in the world but not of it. We are to be salt and light to our evil world, not avoid it. Young people want to make a difference in the world, and they are frustrated that the church's teaching often discourages that.

Kinnaman wrote, "For many young Christians, there is a realization that they want to follow Christ in a way that does not separate them from the culture. They want to be culture makers, not culture avoiders." When they see their church merely condemning the culture without trying to redeem it, they will try to do that without the church.

The author points out that this is especially true for young people who are creatives and artists. Christian musicians are sometimes condemned by the church for performing for secular audiences. Christian filmmakers also may not receive much support from the Christian community if their movies are not overtly Christian. The music and films may contain positive Christian-inspired themes, but some in the church will still not be satisfied. 

If we want to keep our young people the church must become willing to support them in their efforts to transform the culture in which they are going to live. That could get messy at times and it may be uncomfortable for some people, but this is the risk we must take. We've often heard people say that young people are the church of the future, but these people are wrong. Young people are the church of today if we will help them in their efforts to transform the culture in which we all live.

How will your church choose to minister?

 My latest book is titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?. It addresses some of the cultural issues that the church is facing. Many churches have tried to ignore some of these but to continue to do that is to abandon a lot of hurting people. Most of these are not new challenges, but they are ones a lot of churches are not prepared to address. It's tempting to think that only those persons outside the church are dealing with these issues, but that it not the case. The truth is that many within our churches are dealing with the same challenges. I wrote this book to help church leaders and their churches be better informed about how to serve those in our congregations and communities.

How will your church minister to the individual who may be dealing with gender dysphoria? While this is not a new issue, it is one that seems to be increasing as we continue into the 21st century. How much do you know about the difficulties people face when they believe they were born the wrong gender? While many in our society today encourage those persons to live into the gender they prefer, is this the best solution for them physically, emotionally and spiritually? How do you minister to the other family members? The book provides a chapter to help provide an overview of what science, and more importantly, the Scriptures say about this challenge. You will also find some helpful resources there to further your understanding.

How will your church minister to the person considering suicide as a way to end their pain? More people think about suicide than you may realize, and it is a growing problem among young people. Do you know the signs of someone who is thinking about ending his or her life? How do you minister to the family of someone who has taken his or her life or the loved ones who live each day in fear that the person will? Again, I think this book will help you find some answers and point you to more helpful resources.

Despite what our culture says about same-sex marriage and relationships, what does the Bible teach? Just as importantly, how does the church share that information in a way that is helpful. For too long the church has been seen as hostile towards people in same-sex relationships. Many people today believe the Bible teaches that we are to hate those in such relationships, but that is not what it teaches at all. All persons, regardless of the choices they have made in life, are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with respect. This book tries to remind us that the Bible teaches us to always speak the truth in love.

If your church is like most, you want to help those who come to you with financial needs. But, how much of that money actually helps them? Are we enabling bad behavior and/or bad choices? Are we helping people remain dependent upon others? How can the church provide help in a way that respects the dignity of the person and helps them become financially wise?

Other chapters focus on different challenges the church currently faces and will likely face even more in the future. If we want to be relevant to the needs of this generation, as well as future ones, we must learn how to best respond to these various challenges. My prayer is that this latest book will provide church leaders with some of the tools they will need to do that. It's only available for your Kindle devices from Amazon.

Is Your Church for Ministry in the Coming Decade?

 It's hardly a secret that many people are facing new challenges and attacks today that threaten to destroy individuals and families. However, if you walk into many churches you never hear anything about these issues. It seems that many churches are willing to keep talking about the same things they've talked about for decades while ignoring the real pain many in their congregations and communities are facing. One of the reasons many have rejected the church is because they believe it is irrelevant to their lives, and much of that irrelevancy comes from the fact that we refuse to address the issues  people in the 21st century face.  This is why I've published my latest book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?

I've written this book to help church leaders have the information and tools they need to address some of the issues people in their congregations and communities are facing. Some of these issues include racism, poverty, violence, addictions, suicide, sexual and gender confusion among others. While these may not be new to the 21st century, they remain subjects many churches seem to avoid, and they are issues that are tearing people's lives apart.

For the past year I've tried to find a publisher for this book. When I wrote my previous books it was relatively easy to find a publisher. If you had good content and a timely subject, someone would be eager to publish it. Today, it seems that without a large social media presence it's hard to find a publisher or even an agent to look at a book. I finally decided to release the book as a eBook on Kindle. Not only can I go ahead and make the book available, I can keep the cost of the book down making it more affordable. It seemed like a win for everyone!

Ministry today is much different than it was when I began my pastoral ministry 40 years ago, and I am convinced it will be even more different, and difficult, in the years to come. So many people are overwhelmed by the challenges they face, and they do not know where to turn for answers. The answers are found in God and His Word, but they will never know that if the church doesn't speak up. My prayer is that this book will help the church find its voice.

Church and culture

 I am reading a very interesting book that explores how people perceive God. I won't mention the name of the book because, although I find it interesting, it is not one I would necessarily recommend. I am finding some good information in it, but there are also some significant problems with how the author understands God.

The author is a neuroscientist who studies how people think about God, their meditative practices, and how people pursue spirituality and an understanding of God. I am still in the first third of the book as it is not a quick read.

Not surprisingly, his studies find that people are moving away from a traditional understanding of who God is. The research he has done finds that many people think of God as a feeling or an idea but not as a personal God who can be known. This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has seen our culture shifting away from traditional Christian teaching. While this is troubling enough, the author suggests that churches will respond to this in the same way it has always done - by reinventing themselves to meet the expectations and desires of the culture. Of course, we have already seen this as mainline churches have become more liberal in their theology and evangelical churches have moved away from much of their traditional views to be more accepting to "seekers." Go into many churches today and you will be hard pressed to know if you are in a worship service or a self-help seminar.

The church is to impact the culture in which it lives, not allow the culture to shape it into something it prefers. The New Testament church had such an impact on its culture it became known as the people who turned the world upside-down. That could not be said of today's church. Instead, the world has turned the church upside-down. Too many churches seek to be politically correct rather than doctrinally sound. We prefer to tickle the ears of our supporters than to speak biblical truth that lives might be changed. If our culture is dysfunctional as many claim, the church is an enabler for that dysfunction. Smoke machines and strobe lights on the stage won't cure our culture's dysfunctions. Only the power of God can do that, and until the truth of God's Word is boldly proclaimed in the church and marketplace His power will not be experienced.

For years we have been warned that the church must not violate the separation of church and state. For those who do not know their history, the First Amendment was written to keep the government out of the church, not to keep the church out of government or the public arena. It is a lie that says that the church cannot be involved in public affairs or speak to the moral issues facing our culture. For too long we have bowed down to those liberal organizations who seek to silence the church and Christian people in order to promote their own evil ideas and beliefs.

Our nation is facing serious problems, and until the Christian church is prepared to address them they will only get worse. Someone asked me earlier this week what God had to say to those nations that turned from following Him. He nodded as I said that those nations would not survive. I then went on to remind him that those nations were always destroyed from within before they destroyed from invaders from without. We are seeing that internal destruction occurring today. If our nation is to be saved the church must begin to pray, repent of its sins, seek the face of God, and boldly proclaim His word to the nation.  

Is your church ready for the future?

Churches and denominations have spent a lot of time in recent weeks talking about what the future holds for the church when this pandemic is over. It's probably a good discussion to have, but it misses an important point that many are overlooking. With or without the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the church is moving into difficult waters as it is going to be confronted with a growing number of challenges in the coming years. These have nothing to do with church structures or systems, They have everything to do with the culture in which we will minister.

I just finished writing a new book this week with the working title of Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? I am now in the process of contacting publishers and literary agents to see if anyone is interested in the book.

The book looks at some of the issues that I believe the church will have to confront in the next decade if it wishes to be relevant to our culture. Many of these are not new issues, but they are issues the church has either refused to address in the past or failed to adequately address. Many of them are quite disruptive, even now, and will become more so in the near future.

Some of the issues I mention are the growing divide between races in this country, the church's response to the mental health crisis affecting the nation, poverty issues, widespread addiction, the breakdown of the traditional family, the growing acts of violence sweeping the nation, sexual and gender issues, the level of distrust of authority in both government and the church, including that directed towards God and the Scriptures, and the increasing attacks on religious freedom that we are experiencing.

For too long the church has sat around wringing its hands complaining about these things but doing little about them. For instance, a study of 500 churches 98.4 percent of the pastors said they knew of people in their congregation dealing with some form of mental illness or disorder. Yet, only 12.5 percent of these pastors reported their churches ever discussed mental health issues openly.

A similar discrepancy exists when it comes to race issues. In another study only four percent of white Protestants identified racism as an issue while one-third of African-American Protestants said it was an issue. Of that number, twenty-five percent said it was the most important issue Christians needed to address. It's hard to fix a problem if people are not aware there is a problem.

Many of the challenges mentioned in the book are not new. In fact, the first-century church faced many of these same issues as has the church throughout history. But, these problems are getting worse, and as our population continues to increase I believe they will become even greater problems in the future. My other concern is that much of the church isn't ready to face them. In fact, we've often tried to avoid them or we've addressed them using the wrong tactics.

I try to offer solutions that will honor both biblical truth and grace. Sometimes, the solution can be a little messy and make some folks in the church uncomfortable, but I believe they offer the best opportunity to help people find real answers to their situations.

Please pray with me that this book will find a publisher. I believe it contains a much needed message for the church as it prepares to minister in the coming years.

Cultural shifts and the church

A few years ago David Platt wrote an excellent book Counter Culture: Following Christ in an Anti-Christian Age that discussed several cultural shifts that have occurred in recent years. These shifts have created a lot of difficult conversations among churches and denominations. Some have turned away from biblical teaching in the areas of the shifts and embraced the changes while others have stood steadfast in promoting traditional marriages, sexual morality and religious liberty. Platt urges believers to keep their focus on the holiness of God and His mercy towards all while remaining faithful to the teachings of Scripture. I read this book when it first came out and am in the process of reading it again.

No one can argue that our nation and world has not gone through tremendous cultural changes over the years. Traditional values have been set aside by laws, by the courts, by churches and denominations and in the thinking of many within our culture. Behaviors that not that long ago were rejected by the majority of society is now openly displayed and approved by many. As Platt writes, "Godless worldviews thus leave us with a hopeless subjectivity concerning good and evil that is wholly dependent on social constructs. Whatever a culture deems right is right, and whatever a culture deems wrong is wrong." What God has to say about a matter doesn't matter to an increasing population, including growing numbers of people within the church.

For the past several years numerous denominations have created multiple committees and councils to "study" these changes in the culture and report back so the denomination can issue a Statement on the issue. In some cases, these Statements are not binding upon their churches but are only an opinion on the matter that churches can accept or reject. If enough reject it another committee is formed for further study. Personally, I think many of these studies consists more of checking to see which way the wind is blowing rather than to determine what the Word of God has to say about the matter.

The late Francis Schaffer saw this day coming. Platt quotes Schaffer who wrote, "Where is the clear voice speaking to the crucial issues of the day with distinctively biblical, Christian answers? With tears we must say it is not there and that a large segment of the evangelical world has become seduced by the world spirit of this present age. And more than this, we can expect the future to be a further disaster if the evangelical world does not take a stand for biblical truth and morality in the full spectrum of life." Powerful words, and even more powerful when one realizes he wrote this in 1982!

It is precisely because the church did not speak with a clear voice when these issues first began to rise that we find ourselves where we are today. The worldview that welcomes these cultural changes is one that ultimately leads to destruction and pain in the lives of those who hold it. We see even now the damaging results of a worldview that rejects God in the violence, the lives ruined by drugs, the number of children growing up in single-parent homes, the poverty that holds so many in its grip, the sex trafficking that is damaging so many lives, the rising suicide rate in our country, the confusion around sexual identity and the emptiness so many experience in their lives.

There is but one answer to this pain and confusion and that is to return to God and His standards. The church must become united in not only speaking God's truth to this culture; it must also become actively involved in countering it. I recently read of a group of Christian women who began ministering to the workers of a strip club. They went to the club to meet the women and begin to know them. As they built relationships with them they were able to share Christ with them. In time, the owner even allowed them to have a Bible study there for the women before the club opened. Their pastor led the Bible study, and for some of the workers he was the first male in their lives who treated them with respect. Some became Christians and found other employment. One of the things that stood out to the Christian ladies was that they were the first to treat the women who worked there with respect. They were told that many of the workers often received letters from church people who condemned them and what they did, but no one ever reached out in love to build a relationship with them. How many church folk will go into a strip club to love people and invite them to encounter Jesus Christ in a transforming way?

Standing against the culture of our day will not be popular, even within some churches. Many prefer to not rock the boat, not take an unpopular stand and avoid any controversy as a way to attract people to the church. We need to remind such people that the Gospel itself is controversial and yet if we fail to proclaim it we are doing people a disservice and, worse, making the sacrificial death of Christ of no effect. No church can take on every cultural change, but every church can do something.

This is not your grandfather's church

A number of years ago  General Motors ran a series of ads trying to save their Oldsmobile line of cars. The slogan was "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." Young people were shown driving the car to try to impress upon people the Olds line was no longer a luxury line of cars just for the middle aged and older. The commercials did not work, and within a few years the Oldsmobile line of cars was gone.

I've gone back another generation in this blog title. The church is no longer your grandfather's church although many seem to think it is. Many churches haven't changed a thing since our grandfathers attended there and wonder why they are not attracting younger people.

This thought came to me as I began reading Marshall Goldsmith's book What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful. As the title indicates, this is not a book about churches. It is a book about how successful people can become more successful by working to change the things that might be holding them back. Still, the concept is valid for churches.

For a long time many declining churches believed if they just worked harder at the things that helped them grow in the past, that growth would return. These churches did not believe they needed to change anything; they just needed to work harder and get the few younger people who did attend there to become more committed. Unfortunately, that mindset was not effective.

Churches that have remained healthy, and have even grown in recent years, are convinced they just need to continue doing what they've been doing. After all, it's been effective so there surely can't be any reason to change anything. Again, that mindset will prove ineffective in time.

We are being called to reach a generation of people who are nothing like our fathers and certainly not like our grandfathers. Their mindsets are very different. The Builder generation and even the early Boomers (like myself) had a high regard for institutions. Millennials do not share that same regard. We had a fairly high regard for the denominations in which we were raised. Millennials also do not share that mindset. The list of differences could go on and on, and we cannot expect to reach this generation until we understand these differences.

Your church may be doing a lot of things right, but until it engages the new generations it will not reach them. It may just be one small thing that needs to be changed before you can effectively engage the new generations, or it may be that a lot of things have to be changed. But, until you make those changes do not expect to have much impact on Millennials and the generations that follow. Remember, what got you here won't get you there.

What gets measured and applauded is done again

Every organization has a culture, including churches. In healthy cultures people understand their roles, assume responsibility for fulfilling those roles, and are held accountable. These things do not happen in unhealthy cultures which is one of the reasons why they are unhealthy.

We've all been told that what we measure gets done, and this is true. An important aspect of setting goals is that the goals must be measurable. Otherwise, we won't know if we've accomplished the goal or not. It's also important to not wait until the end of the year to do the measuring. Regular times should be set aside to measure how much progress is being made on an individual goal. Failing to do that means that we reach the end of the year, find out we can't accomplish our goal, and there's no time to do anything about it.

While measurement is essential to achieving our roles, so is recognition. Too many leaders spend time looking for things that are wrong in their organizations. They want to fix problems to make their organization more effective. That's needed, but we must also spend time looking for the things people are doing right and recognizing that.

I've never met a person who did not like to be recognized for his or her accomplishments. Even the most humble of people want to know they are contributing to the success of the organization. While we should criticize in private, we need to recognize good things publicly.

Such recognition should be done in a timely manner as well. I know an individual who received an "Employee of the Month" award from her company. Unfortunately, she received the award five months after the date listed on the award. It might have meant a lot more to her if she had received it when she earned it.

Such public recognition is perhaps even more important in a church setting than in a business because we are working primarily with volunteers. They are giving their time to something which they believe is important, and they want to know their effort makes a difference.

When we measure what people are doing we are holding them accountable. We are also telling them that what they are doing matters. If it didn't matter we wouldn't measure it. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar used to challenged his audiences to become "Good Finders," people who went around looking for the positive and good in what people were doing. This is what we need to be doing in our churches and in all organizations. When we applaud people for the good things they are doing, they are likely to repeat that behavior, and that will make every organization stronger.