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.

The local church and world missions

 March is the month that American Baptists receive the America for Christ offering. This money helps our denomination support various ministries in the US and Puerto Rico. A percentage also goes to each ABC region to help support their ministries. It is one of four special mission offerings the denomination receives each year. 

In recent years there has been an emphasis on churches having a missional mindset. Such a mindset challenges churches to see their community as a mission field. This is appropriate, and I have challenged churches for years to develop this mindset. I encourage members of the congregation to stop seeing themselves as simply members of the church but to see themselves as missionaries gifted by God to impact their community. I also encourage them to stop seeing their church as merely a church, but to begin to see it as a mission station placed in the midst of a rapidly growing pagan culture.

Unfortunately, some churches, trying to adopt that mindset, no longer see the importance of global missions. Some have stopped giving to their denomination's mission work and diverted that money to local missions. I an aware of one church that had been giving approximately $12,000.00 a year to its denomination's mission work until a new pastor, who was not favorable to that denomination, convinced the church to spend that money to reach local youth. While reaching local youth is certainly a worthwhile vision, both could have been done. Local mission work and global mission support are not an either/or endeavor; it is both/and. Not only did the denomination lose the funding for mission work, the last I knew there was no increase in the number of youth attending the church.

I have long advocated that God honors churches that honor mission. The Great Commission not only challenges us to reach those surrounding our church, it also challenges us to reach persons around the world. God calls certain individuals to go to far-off places to share the gospel, but He calls each of us to help support that work financially. Some churches do that by supporting specific missionaries while others do it by giving to their denomination's mission offerings. Either way is acceptable.

American Baptists have four special mission offerings each year. These go towards different ministry objectives of the denomination, and each of them should be supported by ABC churches. Let's not tie the hands of those God has called to serve in a mission field by failing to support them with our prayers and our financial gifts.

Adaptive leadership in the church

 Church leaders are asking why the changes they are attempting to make are not actually producing results. One reason is that we are trying to make things happen that are not going to happen. A church consultant shared something online this week that goes along with what I've been writing about for some time. We have been lying to ourselves saying that people will come back to the church. We said that when our young people started leaving the church. We said it when Covid kept people from attending the services in person. At least then we could point to the numbers of people who began watching online, but many churches now report they are seeing those numbers decrease, and it's not because these folks have returned to the live service. Some have learned they can get by very well without attending church very often, if at all. Most of them will not come back. We can keep trying to make changes in the hope that people will return to the church, but the likelihood is that they won't. 

The second reason our change efforts are failing is that we continue to make technical changes when adaptive changes are required. We make technical changes when we try to tweak a system we already have with things we already know. We might change the times of our worship service, change our committees into teams, change the music in our services, change the format of our services, make changes in the way we present our sermons, etc. In other words, we do what we already know what to do but we dress it up a little different. Technical solutions are fine if our problems are technical in nature, but the challenges I'm referring to are not technical. As you may have already learned, you can do all these things and nothing has really changed in the church.

If we want to respond to the challenges facing today's church we have to adapt to the reality of today's culture. We have to be willing to go on an adventure we had not planned on taking and find new ways to be the church in a new world.

Let me give you an example from outside the church. Last year our state banned public gatherings for about 3 months or so due to Covid. Even when that was lifted limited numbers of people were permitted to gather. When I resumed having auctions it was not uncommon for there to be no more than 20 people attending. That is not good for an auction! A friend of mine told me he was making a shift to doing his auction online. At first I was not interested in doing that. I love auction day. There is an excitement associated with auctions that I felt was not possible online. But, the people were not coming back. Prices were lower than they should be which wasn't good for me or my sellers. Something had to change.

I could have made technical changes. I could have changed my auction day from Tuesday to Thursday to see if people would come back. I could have increased my advertising or held special promotions. However, none of those would have made a difference. So, I adapted to the new reality and began conducting my auctions online. I signed up with an online company and had to learn their program. I had to learn new ways of presenting the items I have for sale at auction. I had to convince some sellers that online auctions were a good way to sell their items. I had to learn new marketing methods and how to effectively ship those items that were not purchased locally. The truth is we are still learning. The adaptive changes I made worked, and this year we will do more auctions than we've done the previous three years combined and new people from across the country sign up for every auction. It has been very successful.

Churches can beat their heads against the wall trying to get the people back who have left or we can accept the fact that most of them are not coming back and renew our focus on fulfilling the Great Commission in our communities. We can become worshiping, praying communities reaching into our neighborhoods to offer healing and hope to those who have been broken by life.

What will this look like? I don't know. What will the adaptive changes we need to make look like? I don't know. I don't believe anyone knows. Let's not wait until someone finds out and offers us a conference. I don't think there is time for that. Instead, let's take risks, let's trust God and launch out seeking to be on mission with Him. No doubt there will be some failures on the way doing that, but it's better than trying to do the same things that haven't been effective in decades.

Seminary didn't prepare me for this

 At gatherings of pastor meetings one will often hear it said, "Seminary didn't prepare me for this." It's usually said out of frustration at the growing number of challenges church leaders face today. Although some claim much higher numbers, actual research indicates that about 250 pastors leave the ministry each month for reasons other than death or retirement. For many of these pastors, the demands and the ever-changing face of ministry made them decide to make a career move. Other data indicates that 29% of pastors considered leaving the ministry in the past year. Some of that may be due to the challenges they faced dealing with Covid, but for many, that challenge was just one more on top of the many other challenges they faced.

It's been said, "What got you here won't get you there." That's certainly true of ministry. Think of all the churches that once saw large crowds, growing ministries and successful programs that are now struggling and even facing closing their doors. They thought they could just continue doing what they had always done and continue to see the same results. Even some larger churches that have known tremendous growth over the past decade are now beginning to sense that things are not well and their effective ministries are no longer providing the results they once did.

Those pastors who pointed at their seminary education were right: seminary did not prepare them for ministry today. Seminary taught them how to preach, how to manage the church structures they were in, how to provide pastoral care and to be the theological and church history experts in their churches. All necessary things to know and sufficient for churches during Christendom, but we now live in a post-Christian world, and it is in this world that we are called to do ministry. The things we learned previously will not be sufficient in this new world. New skills are needed. New ways of understanding ministry must be learned.

One of the problems is that there are no experts to teach us. We are in a completely new, uncharted territory when it comes to doing ministry. I've written before about how the church is in a time of transition, and no one knows what it's going to look like on the other side. So what do we do?

We explore. This is a time when bold leadership is needed that seeks creative ways to do ministry in our world as it exists today, not as we remember it. We take chances and try new things. Each church and its leadership must look for ways to do ministry in the communities in which they were placed by God. We recognize that we are now missionaries called to reach a pagan world. Our churches are not merely places in which to meet but are mission stations where people worship God and then are taught how to do ministry as missionaries. 

Some church leaders and the churches they lead will be unable to adapt to this new way of thinking. They will be convinced that if they just try harder doing the things they've always done that things will improve. They won't. What got you here won't get you there. What you learned in seminary will not be sufficient for ministry in the 21st century. We face too many new challenges that our education and past success did not prepare us to address.

I challenge you to begin to look at ministry with fresh eyes. Ask God to help you with that. Are there new ways of doing ministry that will be more effective? How can you lead your congregation to explore those new ways? What needs to be transformed for your congregation to become willing to take the necessary risks these times require? As a leader, are you willing be transformed first before asking your church to be transformed?

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Churches are reaching people through the side doors

Traditional churches have long sought to reach new people by inviting them to attend the Sunday morning worship service. A few generations ago it was common for church members to go door-to-door through their neighborhoods passing out tracts and inviting people to come to their church. That type of outreach isn't practiced by many churches today, but the emphasis is still trying to encourage people to attend a church service, The declining numbers in many churches today proves that strategy is not effective.

Most growing churches have replaced the attractional model with a more missional one that emphasizes being out in the community and developing relationships with those who live and work there. These relationships soon point to the best ways the churches can serve those in the community and ministries can be birthed through this understanding. These new ministries provide side doors into the church.

A side door ministry can be anything that brings members of the congregation and members of the community together for some interest or need they both have in common. For instance, a group of individuals who share a common interest in quilting might meet once a week to learn more about quilting and to work on their quilts. Another group might want to come together to learn about bass fishing. Perhaps a third group might consist of persons recently divorced who have custody of their children. Still another group might want to get together to learn how to better manage their personal finances. Another group might be grandparents who are now raising their grandchildren. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

As these groups meet together relationships are developed among those attending. Unchurched people begin to form relationships with members of the church. As these relationships deepen and biblical truths are presented during their meetings it may well be that some of those attending will decide to attend a worship service. Knowing there is someone they know who will be there makes it less threatening to do so.

Since we are still challenged to practice social distancing, forming these groups may not be feasible right now, but that also makes this a perfect time to begin thinking about forming such groups and putting a plan together to do so. The pandemic will not last forever, and churches need to be prepared to reach out with these small groups as soon as it's safe to do so. 

What does a church need to start such a group? First, there must be someone, or several someones, in the church who have a passion for a particular group. Perhaps there is someone in your church who enjoys fishing in bass tournaments and would enjoy passing on some of the things he or she has learned about fishing to others. If there are persons in the community interested in learning fishing techniques you may have the ingredients necessary for a small group. Along with the individual there also needs to be a team of individuals who want to help with the planning. This is too important to leave it to just one person to develop the group and be responsible for all the planning and work that will be required for it to be successful.

Regardless of the size of your church, every church can have at least one such group that will offer a side door to your church. You may be surprised at how fast your church might grow if you open up a side door to go along with your front door.

Why do new churches grow?

For the past several years many denominations have focused on planting new churches. Some of these new churches were planted in areas where the denomination already had churches. When I was doing judicatory ministry some of the existing churches, most of them struggling to remain open, asked why their denomination didn't spend that money to help them rather than starting a new church. They felt their years of loyalty meant nothing to the denomination. I would explain that denominations were focused on starting new churches because new churches reach new people.

A similar question I was often asked was why a new, often non-denominational, church could come into a community and quickly grow when so many of the existing churches were barely holding on by their fingertips. While there are many reasons for this, one of those reasons is the way these new churches are often structured.

Traditional, existing churches are often so focused on doing things the right way that they fail to do the right things. Many of them must have a monthly business meeting to discuss mundane reports and vote on every detail of church life. By the time committees and boards discuss issues and make a proposal for the church to vote on the opportunities presented by the issue those opportunities have already passed. I know churches that still vote each month on whether to pay their bills or not. The treasurer reads off the monthly bills and asks for a vote to pay them. I hope the church is going to pay its bills! You won't find the new, growing churches structured like that.

These churches may have a quarterly business meeting, and often just one meeting each year to approve the budget and the slate of officers for the coming year. In some of these churches they are limited to only 3-4 items that requires a congregational vote. This may include the calling of a minister, the budget, the new officers and the sale or purchase of property. Everything else is handled by the leadership of the church. That primary leadership may be the pastoral staff or an Elder board or a church council.

Established churches, especially smaller ones, often depend on congregational voting to handle the administrative and maintenance tasks of the church and look to the pastoral staff to provide the ministry tasks. In a church with a solo pastor the task falls upon him or her to grow the church, and if growth does not occur the pastor is often replaced with one who, hopefully, will grow the church before it declines even more.

In new churches the roles are often reversed. The leadership is entrusted to handle the administrative and maintenance tasks while the congregation is challenged to grow the church and to minister to one another. As I've said to many pastor gatherings where I have spoken, no matter how good the pastor may be, he or she can only be in one place at a time doing one task. But, if 50 people in the congregation see themselves as ministers, as Ephesians 4 teaches, now the church has 50 people in 50 places doing 50 things. Which is likely to grow a church faster? In Ephesians 4 the apostle Paul challenges the pastors to equip the saints to do the work of ministry and challenges the church to do that ministry.

These new, growing churches are growing because they are following this biblical model. They trust the pastor to lead the church, to make decisions that will benefit the church and to equip the members to do ministry. Those members are then expected to be involved in ministering to their communities and to one another.

Tomorrow I'll address another difference between existing churches and many newer churches that leads to growth.

Missional vs maintenance-minded churches

Every author hopes that his or her book will sell a million copies. The reality is that most will sell far fewer than that. Way fewer! Occasionally, someone will call me asking how to get a book published. I explain how I did it, but I also explain to them that writing books, especially for the Christian market is not the most profitable endeavor, unless you're writing about end-times or are a well-known pastor of a megachurch. I always tell the caller to not plan on quitting their day job any time soon!

The one book I wrote whose sales have most disappointed me is Intentional Ministry in a Not-So-Mega Church: Becoming a Missional Community This book explores the differences between maintenance-minded churches and missional churches and discusses how to transform from a maintenance-minded mindset to one that is more missional.

For much of my ministry I have heard small churches complain about their lack of growth and the limited impact they've had on their communities. Much of the reason for this is they are stuck in a maintenance mindset. They continue to do the same things over and over that they've done since the 1950s, and they wonder why it's not working any more. They remain stuck in their ruts because these ruts are comfortable, everyone knows their role, and no one has to do anything differently.

As I point out in the book, a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out. There's not much life around a grave, and there's not much life around a rut either. God is doing new things today, and the church that signs up to be on mission with God will have to do new things as well.

In order to do new things, some old things will have to change. Some will have to be eliminated. Churches don't like eliminating their sacred cows, and they certainly don't enjoy change. In the book I try to help church leaders lead their churches through the changes they might need to take. I try not to identify what those changes are because they might differ among churches, but I can almost guarantee that some things will have to change to develop a more missional mindset.

If your church is stuck I encourage you to consider buying this book. it may help jump-start your way out of your ruts. I think it's a book that can help a lot of churches.

Various denominational groups have invited me to present seminars based on this book, and these seminars have been well received by those attending. If you think this material might be helpful to your church, association, or judicatory please contact me so we can discuss my sharing it with them.

Now is the time to schedule your conference speakers for 2019

For the past two years I have served as a Transitional Pastor for a church as it searched for a new pastor. Next Sunday will be my last day at the church. Their new pastor will begin the following week. During this time I did not schedule any conferences or other speaking events so I could concentrate my attention on serving this church. Now that my time there is ending I am open to speaking at your conferences or leading seminars for your organization.

The primary focus of the eight books I've published has been on small church/bivocational ministry. Because of these books I've been privileged to speak to various groups in ten different denominations and on the campuses of four universities. At some of the events I've led workshops as part of large denominational conferences, and in others I've conducted day-long seminars training pastors and denominational leaders.

My best selling book has been The Healthy Small Church: Diagnosis and Treatment for the Big Issues. That book has also been the foundation for my most requested seminar "The Healthy Small Church." In that seminar we explore some of the problems found in many small churches that lead to poor health and how to address them to enable the church to become healthier.

The second most requested seminar has been "Transforming the Small Church from Maintenance-Minded to Missional." It is based on my book Intentional Ministry in a Not-So-Mega Church: Becoming a Missional Community This seminar examines the differences between a maintenance-minded church and a missional church and how to transition the church from one to the other.

A third seminar I'm asked to do is "Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century." This one is based on my book The Bivocational Pastor: Two Jobs, One Ministry and other research I've done on this topic. With the rapid growth of bivocational ministry in many denominations this seminar is becoming increasingly important.

A fourth seminar I've done is based on my book The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry and goes by the same title. Ministers face tremendous pressures that seminary often does not prepare them for, In this seminar we explore how to reduce those pressures to help make ministry more enjoyable and effective.

In addition, I have also worked with various denominational leaders helping them to better understand the unique needs of their small church and bivocational ministers.

I served one small, rural church as their bivocational pastor for 20 years and spent the next 14 years serving in judicatory ministry. My doctoral thesis was "Coaching Bivocational Ministers for Greater Ministry Effectiveness." Much of my ministry focus has been on smaller churches and bivocational leadership. The various presentations come not only from my books but from my research on these subjects and over 35 years in ministry.

Any of these presentations are available in a one-hour workshop, a half-day presentation or a six-hour seminar. We can tailor any of them to fit your needs.

As you know, now is the time to think about the persons you want to invite to speak to your 2019 gatherings. Currently, my 2019 schedule is open so now is the time to talk about scheduling me for your next event. The fastest way to contact me is at dbickers@roadrunner.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

How intentional is your church?

One of the words that I have thought about a lot in recent years is intentionality. Maybe it's because one wants to live life more intentionally as one gets older. Maybe it's because I hate to waste time. It might be because during my 14 years as a judicatory minister I saw very few churches doing anything with any sense of intentionality. Actually, it's probably because of all three of these reasons.

As I've often said, many churches open their doors each Sunday morning hoping something good will happen. Few do anything intentionally to make that happen. Many churches complain about their lack of growth, but few are taking intentional steps that will enable growth to occur.

The working title for my book Intentional Ministry in a Not-So-Mega Church: Becoming a Missional Community was Transforming the Small Church from Maintenance to Missional. The thesis for the book was that churches had to be intentional in their efforts to minister or effective ministry would never occur.

The church I am now serving as Transitional Minister recently completed a vision discernment process. We worked hard to identify God's vision for the future of this church, but the real work is just now beginning. A vision statement is only worthwhile if it actually guides the decisions and actions of the church. Too often, the vision statement is approved by the church, filed away in a folder, and never heard from again. I don't want that to happen in this church.

I've challenged each ministry team in the church to begin discussing what they need to do to make this vision a reality. I asked them to consider what they need to do differently, to set goals, and identify the steps they need to take to reach those goals that will allow them to live into this vision. I want every ministry in the church to be very intentional about what they are doing so the church can have the greatest possible impact on our community.

How intentional is your church when it comes to planning ministries? Do you identify what your community needs, or do you just try something you heard worked for another church somewhere else? Maybe your church is one that simply unlocks the door and expects God to bring in the masses. Exactly how well is that working for you? If it's not working as well as you would like (and I doubt it is) then what do you need to do differently? What intentional steps does your church need to take to have a more powerful impact on the people God has called you to reach? Intentional. It's a good word for ministry.

Transforming churches from maintenance-minded to missional

This past weekend I had the privilege of leading a conference for a Presbyterian district in northern Indiana on leading a church from a maintenance-mindset to a missional mindset. This is the second year in a row I've been invited to work with these pastors and lay leaders. We had about 35 people attend this event. They took a lot of notes and asked many good questions.

The majority of churches are stuck in a maintenance mode. Such churches have primarily an inward focus that is committed to caring for its members and less committed to serving those outside the church. When churches begin to go down the decline side of their life-cycle they also begin to move from an inward focus to a survival mentality. Now they become very risk averse and are very protective of whatever resources they do have. Although such churches can survive for years, this mindset will eventually lead to their death and eventual closure.

During this conference we covered a number of things churches can do to move to a more missional mentality, but it really begins with capturing a fresh vision from God for their future. The good news is that God does have a vision for each church; the bad news is many churches never understand what that vision is.

The mission of the church is found in the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. It is the same for all churches regardless of size. The vision is how a particular church will fulfill that mission today in the community they serve. For that reason, the vision will be different for each church. Because churches are made up of people with different spiritual gifts and different ministry passions, and because communities have different needs, the vision will be different for each church. It is not enough to try to copy what other churches are doing. Each church must discern God's vision for their church.

Without a fresh vision that is owned by the congregation a church will never move out of its maintenance mindset. Why should they? They have nothing to move towards. However, if a church captures a vision for ministering to those outside the church community it now has a reason to abandon its ruts and identify ways to better serve that community.

Our nation needs the church more than ever, but it needs a church that has a passion to fulfill the mission God has given the church and a vision for how to do that. I pray that your church will begin to make that move to a more missional mindset.

New ways of doing church

I recently came across a quote that said, "There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet." That statement keeps running over and over in my mind. I don't know what those ways are at this point. (Obviously, since no one has thought of them yet!) But, they are out there. Someone will think of them, and as new ways of doing church are discovered new people will be reached with the Gospel.

A few weeks ago I posted an article on this site that addressed the future of the local church. You can read that post here. In that article I suggested several changes we would likely to see in the future church, but there are many, many more changes that we will see in the future that have not even been considered yet.

Some find that this much change will be a scary thing. I find it fascinating. My biggest regret is that at my age I will not see much of it. At a recent pastor's conference I was leading I told the younger pastors that I envied them because they were going to see exciting changes occur in the church that those of us in my generation will probably not experience.

But, such changes will require innovative thinking that is not afraid to fail. There will be organic churches develop that will frighten denominational leaders and cause established churches to question their authenticity. These churches will reach people who would never darken the doorway of most traditional churches.

I expect many of these will be new church plants that do not have a history or tradition people want to preserve. They will be free to create their own systems and traditions, and these will be created to enable them to fulfill the vision they believe God has given them for ministry.

It will be much harder for established churches to create new ways of doing church because there is such an emphasis in these churches to preserve their past. Some in these churches see their role as that of a protector of everything that has gone on before. They will oppose any suggestion of doing anything that has not been done before and will attempt to remove anyone, pastor or lay person, who suggests such a thing. Such people forget that virtually everything their church does now was once a change from how things used to be done. Few churches operate today exactly as they did 150 years ago. (If nothing else, most of them have inside toilets today!)

Leadership will be required for a church to launch out into new ways of doing church. It will require visionary leaders who are not afraid of conflict or failure, and who can withstand the challenges that are sure to come from within Christian circles. Such leaders will have to be passionate about what they are trying to create and be highly skilled at casting vision so others can share in the ownership of that vision.

I'll close with a few questions. If you are in a traditional church today, how many churches in your community function almost exactly like your church? Does your community need that many churches that are almost carbon copies of one another? Are there new things you can do that will allow your church to reach those in your community that are not being reached by any church? Do you care enough about those people to make the necessary changes?

Sharing with bivocational ministers

This past Saturday I was privileged to share with Church of the Nazarene bivocational and small church pastors from the Michigan District. That morning I shared a workshop on "The Healthy Small Church," and after lunch I shared on "Transforming the Small Church From Maintenance-Minded to Missional." We had a great day with a lot of questions and discussion among those attending.

This event was the idea of District Superintendent John Seaman. John and I first met when I was a speaker at PALCON in 2010. He has a deep appreciation for bivocational ministers and wanted to offer them some training opportunities that would address some of their particular challenges. This fall I will return to lead two more workshops.

It is exciting to me that more and more judicatory leaders are seeking ways to offer training to their bivocational and small church pastors. These leaders recognize the growing numbers of such ministers and their importance to their churches. They also realize that these pastors face unique challenges and need training to help them address those challenges.

This recent conference was my third one for this year, and I have seven more currently scheduled for 2016. Seven different denominational groups have invited me to speak to their bivocational and small church leaders this year. There has been a very good turnout at the three previous events, and I look forward to the remaining ones on the schedule. It is exciting to meet these pastors and lay leaders, hear their concerns, and try to answer their questions. These are sharp folks who are doing a great work for the Kingdom of God.

There is still time for your church or denomination to get on my schedule this year, and it's not too early to be thinking about 2017. I was surprised at how quickly these 10 events were booked this year.

Before leaving Michigan I was invited to preach at Elmdale Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning. We had a great service with some wonderful people. Their pastor, Nate Gray, has been at the church for six years and reminded the congregation when he introduced me of how my book The Healthy Small Church: Diagnosis and Treatment for the Big Issues had been instrumental in turning their church around after he came. It's always nice to know that something you've done has had a positive impact on others. I was blessed by being with this growing congregation and getting to know this young pastor and his family.

Preaching needs two qualities

As someone whose ministry required him to visit in different churches nearly every week for 14 years I've had the opportunity to hear a lot of sermons from many preachers. The best messages I heard had two qualities. They contained both exposition and application.

There are some pastors today who believe that they have to water down the gospel if they want to reach new (often younger) people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Numerous studies have found that young people and unchurched people are not turned off by biblically sound messages. In fact, they want to hear such sermons. I would encourage you to read The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy by Colleen Carroll and Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them by Thom Rainer for more on this.

But, sound exposition is not enough. There must also be application. As a pastor there were times I would finish preparing a sermon, read it, and then throw it away because it didn't answer the "So what?" question. There was nothing wrong theologically with the message, but it didn't compel anyone to do anything. As pastors we don't want to be content with sending people home from a worship service inspired to eat lunch. We want to challenge people to do something as a result of what they have just experienced and heard.

In one of my favorite books, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians, Jim Henderson, a Christian, pays atheist Matt Casper to attend 12 churches with him and then write a book about their experiences and observations in each of these churches. At the end of their experience Casper's primary question was "Jim, is this what Jesus told you guys to do?" It seemed to him after visiting some of the best-known churches in America that the only thing Jesus wanted his followers to do was to have church services.

Casper was looking for people to be challenged to action because of what they claimed they believed. He felt that asking people to "follow Jesus" wasn't enough. He was looking for concrete application. "Because we believe this to be true we should be doing...."

Exposition and application are both important if we want to preach messages that will change people's lives. Leave either one out and we shortchange our hearers. On the other hand, if we make sure to include both in every message we will grow our church spiritually and, often, numerically as well.

A missionary mindset

In yesterday's post I addressed the entitlement mindset that runs rampant in today's society. We also looked at how that same mindset impacts our churches in a negative way and prevents us from fulfilling our mission in the world. Today, I want to look at the mindset that should be seen in our churches.

We spend a lot of time focusing on church membership. Churches are concerned that people are not willing to join their churches as members. This is really the wrong thing to worry about.

Church membership is all about rights and privileges. If I am a member of the country club I can go there and play golf or use their pool or tennis courts. I can attend dinners and parties there because I am a member, and with membership comes privileges.

As a church member I am entitled to certain privileges. I may get free weddings for my children or a free funeral when I die. I can pick out the styles of music we'll have in our services and when those services will begin. I get to vote on things that happen in the church because I'm a member, and with membership comes privileges.

Is it not time to stop seeing ourselves a merely church members and begin to see ourselves as missionaries? Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit has given gifts to every believer to be used in ministry, but many church members are not involved in any ministry that uses their gifts.

No matter how gifted your pastor is, he or she can only be in one place at one time doing one thing. What if your church had 50 people who saw themselves as ministers? Now, you would have 50 people in 50 places doing 50 things. Would you rather grow your church by addition (1+1) or by multiplication (50X1)? I am full agreement with the individual who said that our baptism was our ordination into ministry. It's time that every Christian develop a missionary mindset and abandon the entitlement mindset.

Along with that, we need to stop seeing our churches as merely churches and begin seeing them as mission stations that have been placed in the midst of a rapidly emerging pagan culture. Our society is rapidly growing worse as it abandons the biblical foundations upon which it was founded. The church has been called to be salt and light in the midst of darkness, and we now live in a very dark time that is only going to get darker. If we are going to ever have an impact on the 21st century we are going to have to become missional in our thinking, and that is going to be a much different mindset that many of our churches now have.

I believe God is now raising up an body of believers and churches that will have this missionary mindset. Those who want to continue in their entitlement thinking will fade away into insignificance until finally "Ichabod" is written above their door. Each of us can choose which mindset we will have.

Where is your focus?

In 1999 I bought my first motorcycle, a Honda Shadow Ace Tourer. It was 1100 cc and a great road bike. However, I had a problem as I was learning to ride it. If I looked off the road at something I tended to go in that direction. I nearly ran off the road a few times until I realized I needed to stay focused on the road ahead. Eventually, I was able to look around without going in the direction I was looking, but it took me a couple of months.

Of course, this is true in much of our lives. We go in the direction of our focus. People who are focused on their own needs often have problems in their marriages and other relationships. Those who are too focused on one aspect of life, such as making money, will usually suffer in other areas of their lives.

The same is true in churches. Our churches function according to their focus. Growing churches are typically focused on doing ministry in the community and reaching new people. Plateaued and declining churches are likely to be focused on maintaining what they have. Your church is today what it decided 5, 10, and even 20 years ago what it was going to be. When it determined what it would focus on it set itself on a path that has resulted in its present state.

As I tell church leaders in one of my seminars, if you like what your church is today, congratulations! Your church has made good decisions that has brought it to this place. But, if you are not satisfied with the current situation in your church you must change something if you want the church to change. Your church must change its focus.

That is why I wrote the book Intentional Ministry in a Not-So-Mega Church: Becoming a Missional Community. The majority of small churches are focused on themselves, their survival, and maintaining what they currently have. That is a recipe for growing smaller and eventually dying. However, these churches can transform themselves from that maintenance mentality to one that is more missional. This book provides churches and their leaders with the necessary steps to make this transition possible.

In the book I point out the importance for a church to understand the culture it is trying to impact. Today's culture is much different than the one many of us in smaller churches grew up in. If we don't understand some of those differences we will be seen as irrelevant.

I address the importance of vision. Having a clear God-given vision is essential for a church to have the right focus. When we focus on the right vision we are less likely to be led away to doing lesser things. It keeps us from running off the road.

Smaller churches are often quite resistant to change. In the book I explain how to introduce change to our congregations and what is needed for change to occur. I also address how to best respond to those who oppose change.

The focus of your church is extremely important. It will determine the direction of your church. Is your church focused on maintenance? If so, expect a steady decline until your church eventually closes its doors. Is your church focused on the vision God has for it? If this is the case, both the church and the community it serves will be blessed.

2015-2016 bivocational ministry conferences

Seven years ago I had a sabbatical during which I talked with leaders from several denominations. I was interested in finding out what was happening with bivocational ministry. Without exception, every leader said that bivocational ministry was growing in their denominations and each of them admitted that training such leaders was a challenge. Some were more intentional than others about offering training to their bivocational leadership, but each of them admitted that more needed to be done.

For the past several years I've been privileged to have led numerous conferences and seminars for bivocational and small church leaders. Regardless of denominational affiliation, I've found that most bivocational leaders face the same challenges and the same is true of smaller churches no matter what name is above their door. It has been a joy to work with so many different denominations to help train their bivocational and small church leadership.

Requests are starting to come in now asking about my availability to lead workshops for bivocational and small church leaders in 2015, and I'm sure I'll soon start hearing from denominational leaders wanting to schedule something in 2016. If you think I might be able to help your small church leaders and the churches they service, I encourage you to contact me soon to get on my calendar.

I currently offer several seminars:

• The Healthy Small Church (This has been my most requested.)
• Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century
• Transforming the Small Church from Maintenance-Minded to Missional
• The Healthy Pastor: Maintaining Balance in the Ministry
• Church Hospitality: A Key to Seeing Your First-Time Guests Return

In addition to these, I have developed some special presentations that met specific needs such as keynote messages. I would be glad to do that for your special needs.

If you are a denominational leader, I would be glad to talk with you about presenting one of these seminars to your small church leaders. If you are a pastor and feel that one of these would be a help to you, please forward this article to one of the leaders who could arrange for me to come to your area. Perhaps you are not part of a denomination. I would encourage you to contact other independent pastors in your area to see if they would like to host of one of these events.

In an effort to maintain balance in my own life, I only schedule a few of these events each year.  My schedule tends to fill up fairly quickly so I encourage you to contact me soon if you think I may be able to help your bivocational and small church leaders. 

Wandering in the wilderness

I find myself often preaching from the life and ministry of Moses.  There are so many lessons to be found in Moses that are applicable to both individuals and to churches.  When we think of Moses we often think of him leading the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years, but not many people realize that the actual trip should have taken no more than just a few days.  The reason for the longer journey was due to their refusal to enter the land God had promised to them.  God had brought them out of slavery to a land he had prepared for them, but they trusted the negative report of the spies more than they trusted God.  As a result of their disobedience none of that generation was allowed to enter the Promise Land but were forced to wander in the wilderness.

This story has many applications to churches today.  Just as God had a purpose for the people of Israel, he has a purpose for churches today.  Unfortunately, many churches will not even seek to know that purpose much less fulfill it.  Much like the spies did, there are people in these churches who loudly insist that the church cannot achieve the purpose God has for it.  They describe all the giants the church will face if they attempt to live out God's purpose for their church and the huge walls that stand between them and their dreams.  When churches decide to trust the negative reports more than they trust God they soon find themselves wandering in the wilderness while God seeks others who will follow him.

Many of these churches have been wandering in a wilderness of their own making for decades.  They cry out to God, they complain about their wilderness experience while watching other churches being used of God, they insist they want to have a positive impact on their communities, but they repeatedly refuse to be obedient to the vision God has for them.  I've seen some of these churches approach the Promised Land time and again only each time to turn away because of the perceived giants that live there.

Because of their refusal to obey God he is raising up new churches to do the work existing churches will not do.  Established churches often complain about their denominations providing resources to start new churches while their churches struggle.  "Give us that money and we'll be able to do more," they claim, but it's not a matter of resources.  It's a matter of faith.  Your church already has all the resources it needs to fulfill God's purpose for your church.  Do you really believe that God would have a vision for your church that you did not have the resources to achieve?  God will achieve his purposes, and your church can either be a part of that or continue to wander in the wilderness.

Tough words, but this is the decision the early Israelites made and it's the decision that many of our churches are making today.  Are you content to live in the wilderness or are you ready to be a part of what God is doing in the world today?  It really is your choice.

Would your community miss you if your church closed?

I recently read a business blog that asked if the community would miss the reader's business if it closed.  Several years ago one of the big box stores opened in our community to the excitement of the majority of people.  Many of the smaller Mom and Pop stores in the community were forced to close.  One supermarket near our house remained open for several years but one day announced that it would soon be closing.  I told the owner I hated to see that happen, and he explained that he had done the calculations and knew to the month when his store would begin going in the red.  He simply could not compete with the prices the big box store offered.

His store did close and he began another career.  Although that occurred over a dozen years ago people are still talking about how much they miss that supermarket.  Maybe the selection wasn't as large and the prices were slightly higher, but the service was much better than anything the big box store offered, and there was a certain satisfaction in doing business with someone local who was involved in local activities.  His store is definitely missed.

Would your community miss your church if it closed?  I think this is a great question for a church to answer, but it's not one that should be answered too quickly.  Any answer you give must be supported by facts to support it.

Several years ago I was meeting with a pastor search committee of a small, rural church.  The church was located on a county road well off the highway.  It was dark.  The church had no directional signs once one left the highway and many of the county road signs were missing as well.  I finally stopped at a house and asked where the church was located.  No one knew.  I drove to another house and asked for directions.  They didn't know either.  About 15 minutes later I stumbled onto the church parking lot.  The church was located about a mile from both of those houses.  Would they miss that church if it closed?  I doubt they would even know it had closed.

What is your church doing to make itself known in the community?  What ministries does your church offer the community?  A business term that is popular today is Top-of-the-Mind Awareness (TOMA).  This means that when someone needs a service or product, the first provider of that service or product that comes to your mind has the highest TOMA.  Where would your church rate on the list of local church TOMA?

A common mistake is that people assume that the largest church in a community will have the highest TOMA, but that isn't necessarily the case.  A small church, if it is serving its community well, can have a very high TOMA as well. and for those people who prefer the smaller church it could even have a higher TOMA than the larger church.

If you want to impact your community for Jesus Christ, you need to minister to it in such a way that your church would be missed if it ever had to close its doors.  If you do, it's highly unlikely that you will ever have to worry about closing!

Why do so many church members resist change

This past Saturday I led a workshop for a church that averages about 300 people each Sunday morning.  Their pastor asked me to speak to their leadership about their need to become more missional.  Now, this is a healthy church that is having a positive impact in its community, but the pastor knew there was more that could be done.  He also knew that there were some in the congregation that believed their church should focus more on the current membership than on those outside the church.  Our meeting was very positive and I have little doubt that this church is going to be seeking a fresh vision for ministry to those outside the Kingdom of God.

Part of our discussion focused on leading change in a church.  Anyone who has been in church leadership for any amount of time knows that there is often resistance in a church any time someone suggests changing anything.  If this church was going to transition from being an inwardly-focused church to one that is more missional in its ministry it would have to be able to address any resistance to change that it might encounter in this process.  No doubt there are many reasons why church members resist change, but I shared just some of the most common.

Some people resist change because they are controllers.  These are people who believe the church exists for them and their loved ones, and they will oppose anything that threatens their position or power within the church.  While they will often work in the shadows trying to get people on their side, if challenged they can be very vicious and will be determined to win at any cost.  Fortunately, these people are often a small minority in churches; unfortunately, their power far exceeds their numbers because churches are often unwilling to challenge them.
Until churches are willing to confront these people they will never be able to move forward or implement any kind of significant change.

Another reason it can be difficult to implement change in a church has to do with the relationships that exist in churches, especially smaller churches.  Smaller churches are very relationship driven, and anything that might affect the existing relationships in these churches will be resisted.  (This is one reason many churches won't confront the controllers!  They prefer to maintain their relationship with these people rather than challenge their toxic behavior.)  Before suggesting any change, be sure to know how it might impact relationships in the church and be ready to address that.

A third reason people can be resistant to change has to do with their role in the church.  One question that will often be in the minds of people is how will this change impact their role in the church.  Even more importantly, will they even still have a role in the church?  These are serious questions for persons who have committed their lives to serving in a church, and they must be considered whenever planning to introduce change into a church.

Before attempting to introduce change into a church it is important that the leadership address these concerns on the front end.  They are going to be a factor in the change effort so you might as well be prepared and fire a preemptive strike.  Bring up these concerns before others do and share the answers to them as part of the initial presentation.  You will often find less resistance when you reassure people on the front end, and your efforts at change will be more effective.

Workshops and conferences for bivocational and small church leaders

One of the things I enjoy is leading workshops and conferences for bivocational ministers and leaders of smaller churches.  When I served as a bivocational pastor I never felt that any of the workshops I attended were developed specifically for me and the church I served.  My hope at these events was that I could learn a principle, down-size it to fit our church, and our church benefit from my effort.  Sometimes that worked, and sometimes it didn't.  When my first book was published in 2000 I began receiving invitations from various denominational leaders to speak to their small church leaders, and I always enjoy these gatherings.

It's been fascinating to see how these leaders responded to the opportunity to attend a session devoted specifically to their needs.  In some cases, very few attended the session.  In fact, at one meeting no one showed up, and the sponsors and I returned to our motel rooms early that evening.  At other times there have been large turnouts.  The most remarkable story I heard came from a group of pastors I was eating lunch with one day in the midst of a day-long conference.  They told me they had driven nine hours one way to attend the meeting!  The next year their denomination invited me to lead the same conference at a setting near where these people were from, and they were back the second year.

The thing I enjoy so much about these meetings is the opportunity to speak into the lives of those who attend.  Because I served as a bivocational pastor for 20 years I understand some of the challenges and frustrations they face.  Along with the practical material I share with them, I also offer them encouragement and affirmation.  For some of them, the latter two are the most important things they receive from these meetings.

I currently offer several workshops and conferences.  Each of them have been developed for an all-day session (six hours), a half-day session (three hours), or for a workshop (one hour).  The titles I offer are

• The Healthy Small Church  (My most requested one)
• Transforming the Small Church from Maintenance-Minded to Missional
• The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Stresses of Ministry
• Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century
• Church Hospitality: Turning First-Time Guests into Disciples
• Coaching Bivocational Ministers for Greater Ministry Effectiveness (This is primarily for judicatory leaders who want to use coaching techniques to assist their bivocational ministers.)

Each of these are based upon some of the books I've published and contain practical ideas that small church leaders can implement in their churches.  In every session I hear repeatedly from pastors that I must have visited their churches because I've described them perfectly.  There is not a lot of theory in these sessions.  Instead we focus on real world situations and offer solutions for how to best address them.

I have led these sessions for the Southern Baptist Convention, the American Baptist Churches, the General Baptists, the Atlantic Baptist Mission, the Salvation Army, the United Methodist Church, the Church of the Nazarene, the Wesleyan Church, and at leadership conferences hosted by various universities.  If you feel that one of these sessions might be helpful to your bivocational and small church leaders, please feel free to contact me.  My 2014 calendar is filling up fast, but there are still some open dates this fall and winter, and it's not too early to be thinking about 2015.