Gospel-driven ministry
Some good thoughts on ministry/church practices...
Gospel 101 from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.
Know your role
I love John's response to his disciples over their concern that they are "losing" people to Jesus' ministry: "God in heaven appoints each person's work." (John 3:27)
John had a confidence in and a clear understanding of his God-appointed role in ministry: To prepare the way for Christ - "that is all." (v.28) Nothing more, nothing less.
In a highly-pressurized ministry culture that says do more, grow more, multiply more, expand more, etc., can pastors and ministry leaders every say "that is all"? I think one of the keys to ministry is to know your appointed role, find satisfaction in your role, and stop trying to become like someone else or their ministry.
There is a distinction between "that is all" and "it is finished". To be clear, the work of the Kingdom is never finished until Christ's return. When John said "that is all" he wasn't declaring mission accomplished; he was simply saying I know my role on the grander stage, and I won't try to overreach and play someone else's role.
In short, know your role.
Staff meeting agenda
I'm always interested in how other church's run their staff meetings, so I'd thought Id' share our meeting agenda just in case someone else has the same interest.
We meet on Tuesdays from 9am to 5pm. Mondays are a day off. The meeting is formatted around the three main "flywheels" GBCK is pushing on: 1)discipleship, 2)Weekend services, and 3)leadership development.
9am - 10am: Leadership discussion
We use this time to discuss a book we're reading together as a staff. Currently, we're listening to Breaking Growth Barriers by Nelson Searcy.
10am - 12pm: Administration, follow-up, discipleship
We use this time to follow-up on people and tasks. We talk about what needs to be done for upcoming events, classes, or services. We also focus on following-up with people who filled out a Connection card from this past Sunday.
12pm - 2pm: Weekend services
We discuss upcoming message series, specials, music, and anything else that involves the worship and preaching. We try to get as far ahead as possible. We're always trying to make our services more compelling and comfortable.
2pm - 5pm: more discipleship and leadership
We talk about our discipleship process. We gauge how many people are moving through the process. We look for ways to improve and tweak things. We also focus on small group leadership and ministry leadership. Currently, we're talking a lot about leadership seasons, and about developing a system for progress and feedback reports.
Center of the Gospel
Re-reading A.W. Tozer's Man: The Dwelling Place of God. I appreciated his thoughts on how Christ is often presented as a "a cure to ills, a way out of troubles, a quick and easy means to the achievement of personal ends." The problem with this is selfish gain becomes the center of the gospel.
If Jesus is all about making our lives better, then why just Christianity? There are lots of other belief systems, faith practices, gurus, and techniques that can improve our lives.
The gospel is not about what we get, it's about what Christ has done. Jesus is the center of the gospel not us.
All Christ-followers are commanded to share the gospel, but let's be careful that we don't present the gospel as a benefits package, or a new and improved product. We are not salespeople, we are messengers.
Thoughts on leadership and ministry…
Yesterday we had a great "round table" meeting of the Hawaii Every Nation pastors. We meet almost every month and it's such a valuable time of sharing, inspiration, and fellowship.
Here are some takeaways from our discussion:
• Get people in their right lanes so they can function and serve effectively.
• You need people who can get things done, but you also need leaders. (For me, you need people who not only can do stuff, but who can think things through.)
• It's necessary to move people through their seasons of life, especially in a leadership context.
• Choose relationships over methods.
• Just because there's a lot of activity doesn't mean there's fruitfulness.
• Patience, it's God's church and he's working at his pace not mine.
• What I do now will shape my ministry 40 years from now.
• Leaders impart values. You can never let up on imparting the value of reaching others for Jesus.
• God is always working on the man of God. (As I grow the church grows.)
• People want to hear your heart
• Embrace the process of developing my philosophy and theology of ministry. (What do I believe?)
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