Use This “Stop” Doing List to Start Growing Your Church
POINT OF THE POST…Â
Leaders spend so much time thinking about what they can DO to make things better, but they rarely consider what they should stop doing. This post gives leaders 5 things to stop doing.
1. STOP Leading in Fear.
2. STOP trying to Keep People.
3. STOP confusing theology and strategy.
4. STOP attempting to Control Everything.
5. STOP believing the old way will work in our new time.
Read the post to dig into each one.
ONE MORE THING: I love working with leaders. So much that I recently created a Leadership Toolbox Course:
https://churchacceleratorcommunity.com/product/course-leadership-toolbox/
The course contains 6 specific leadership tools you need to lead your team, organization, company, or church well. Check it out.
You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 6 Steps to Define and Redesign Your Church
Does your current ministry model seem clear? Strategic? Intentional?
A clear, strategic, and intentional approach to ministry isn’t unholy. The opposite, in fact. Contributing to the Great Commission doesn’t happen by accident. The more intentional we are in ministry, the better we position our church and ministry for God to work through it.Â
Here’s a question you must answer:Â
If an outsider saw your ministry model, would it appear intentionally designed to move people along a discipleship journey?
Outside perspectives are invaluable. Outsiders have fresh eyes. They aren’t seeing your ministry model as a creator or through dozens of incremental additions. They see it for what it is, not what you perceive it to be.
To better see your ministry strategy accurately, you have two options:
1. Bring in an outside perspective.
2. Think like an outsider.
In this NEW POST, I outline the 6 steps you can take to evaluate your church model like an outsider.
Of course, you can always invite me in to help.
Three Reasons Churches Resist Change
We often hear that people resist change. I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate.
We’ll tackle that partial truth another time. For now, let’s focus on why pastors and churches are so resistant to change.
Some Background:
Every organization (church, business, non-profit, and all the others) struggles with change. Change moves people from a state of known to a place of unknown. Known is comfortable, and the unknown is far from it. Organizations exist because leaders need to bring order to the chaos of creative activities. Order allows for scale and predictability, all of which are essential. The bringing of order created the organization and simultaneously slowed the creative, leadership elements of change. This happens in every organization, but for churches, it seems worse.
Obviously, a complete lack of order isn’t the answer. Churches need order. The cyclical nature of what we do (is it already Sunday?) requires organizing our work, staff, and volunteers. This is a tension: Order produces resistance to change because change provokes disorder in the organization.
That’s a problem that desperately needs a solution. The church is the hope of the world. We’ve been given the saving message of the Gospel to share and spread across the globe. But the world is continuously in a state of change. Culture changes. Openness to truth changes. Consumerism has changed how people look at products, organizations, and churches. Expressive individualism has changed our response to authority (like God and his church). Moving from a Christian to post-Christian culture has dramatically affected the church. There are generational effects.
These current changes aren’t the only changes that we’ll face. These are just the recent changes. There’s more on the way, because change is the only constant in life (that’s from the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus – 500 BC). If the world we serve is ever-changing, that leaves us with only one choice:
Only a church capable of changing can maintain influence in an ever-changing world.
Why do churches resist change?
The One Challenge Facing Every Church
I’ve decided to start something new. If you don’t mind, here’s some quick background and an announcement of sorts. First, some background. A decade ago, I stood in the North Point Community Church hallway, watching thousands of church leaders walking to the parking lot. Our DRIVE Conference had just concluded. Inspired, encouraged, and probably challenged, […]