Reboot

I've been a follower of Jesus for 34 years now. I've seen the church go from "Flakes formula" to the "growth spiral", from "Masterlife" to "Eat This Book", from the Roman Road through EE, CWT, NET, and FAITH, and from program driven to purpose driven and beyond.

I remember when "God of Earth and Outer Space" crept into the hymnal, and when "Pass It On" was considered a real contemporary song. My hearing was affected by Petra, my heart by Dallas Holm, Don Francisco, and especially Keith Green.

My faith walk began with the Baptist Hymnal and a Schofield KJV, moved through a turtle green Living Bible, the NIV, and NASB, and now I've arrived at music lyrics projected on a screen and the NLT 2.0. We've never had so many resources. Need youth materials on dating? Five choices off the top of my head. Marriage? Dozens. Discipleship? Do you want printed or downloadable?

And yet...

For the last few years, I've been fighting a creeping suspicion.

It ain't working.

By "It", I mean church as we have known it. We're not effective in making disciples. By disciples I mean people whose worldview is rooted and established in love of and fidelity to Jesus Christ. Is there growth in what we are doing? Sure. More people come to our worship. More people give to the ministry outreaches that we are doing more of than ever before. By all the numbers I should be a happy man. We've just baptized some new followers at the beach a few Sunday's ago and gave a testimony that the church is alive and active.

But I just don't see the steady progression in those I love and care for as a pastor. Not just those who haven't been Christians long, but even among some who have. They get distracted by the things of this world too often. Their children aren't growing deeper in relationship either, choosing the same fractional loyalties as their parents. They care about the wrong things. Their passions are aroused by trivialities.

Possibly it hasn't been working for a long time, I was just so busy working at it that I didn't notice.

So what to do?

I could do as some of my friends have done. I could leave the pastoral ministry in frustration. In just the past few years I have seen men with great talent and passion for God, trained at the best institutions leave the ministry and find secular employment. Why? Because they decided that if they couldn't change the church, they didn't want to be a part of failure. While I understand what they experienced, and believe that each had to do what they believed to be the right path, I cannot see that as valid for me. Just not who I am.

In the movie Tombstone, Val Kilmer plays Doc Holiday (a fellow Georgian). He greets a man who wants to get after the Earps by cutting him off and stepping in his way and saying, "I'll be your huckleberry."

I think it means "I'm ready for whatever you've got on your mind."

My love for Jesus is strong. My love for the people, and their stories who make up the rich fabric of congregational life has grown more and more in the last few years. I've been through the fire, I've gotten over the need for everyone to like me all the time. Life's too short and the stakes are too high. Push has come to shove. Change must come - again. It's time to reboot the church.

So if I was placed here for such a time as this...

yeah, I'll be your huckleberry.

Stuck! Now what?

We've made so many transitions at New Hope over the last few years. From buttoned up to dressed down, from hierarchy to congregational leadership, from southern traditional (Southern gospel with revivalist hymns) to more contemporary and updated hymns, from older and less men to younger and more men. And over the years, once those settled in we have seen periods of real growth and then the tide ebbs and we recede for a season.

Every time I think we may just get over the hump this time, we seem to find the one soft spot in the field and sink - get bogged down - lose momentum - stall.

Why?

I click through the list of usual suspects in my head.

* Our sanctuary only holds 120
* We are off the beaten path
* We don't advertise regularly
* We do worship with a team of kids/youth haven't had a worship "leader" for two years
* We attract broken and hurting people drawn by our community of love
* We don't do the youth playtime
* We don't do the "Sunday Morning Experience"
* I stink.

Yeah, I could just put out that last one as a stand alone. I'm pretty ruthless about improving though, and I try to seek out godly counsel before heading down any roads that might have the soft spots in them.

But we're stuck.

I really want to know what it is that happens in the life of a congregation that sort of self-regulates the size of it until something or more correctly Some One pushes them through.

To go back through the list with you so you won't think I haven't considered changes.

Sanctuary - we have a $200K mortgage, and no real prospects for a better (bigger) place to meet.

Advertising, worship leader, and so much more - is a money issue.

Socioeconomics - we are blue collar, an enlisted man's church, and have welcomed all sorts of people with needs and problems. Thing is, it is hard to grow those people. They are why they are, many of them because they will not do the hard work to change. But we love them.

Youth and Adults - we made the decision a few years ago to step off the youth group bandwagon and focus on growing healthy disciples. We do less but work harder at what we do and hopefully see people not just coming, but growing deeper.

Worship - yes a worship leader would help, but we're also growing a generation of worshippers in these kids and youth.

Me - you have no idea how much I pray to be more like Jesus and more effective. I'm continually reading, going to seminary, writing and emailing others, trying to make this more than it has been before. I'm never satisfied.

We're healthy as a church.
We love God and each other.
We are meeting our obligations.
We are seeing glimpses of God's grace. We had our last baptism three weeks ago.

But we are stuck.

The biggest battle we face in this is discouragement. yes we know God is faithful, yes we believe we are doing His will, but to coin a phrase "How Long Oh Lord?"

So I close this post, written because I needed to unload, and I begin final preparations for worship tonight. I'll go in knowing I am called to do this, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do God's work, and that ultimately He will judge my efforts.

Shalom,

David

Show Me the Money

I was reading a blog named Missio Dei today and came across this:

Research shows that 90% of SBC churches are plateaued or declining and only 2-3% (Aubrey Malphurs) or 3-5% (Ed Stetzer) will ever recover. What does this tell us about how our resources and energy should be focused? Where do you think our resources and energy is currently focused?

My answer?

On expanding the Kingdom of God.

This is not an either or. It should be a both/and. When you aren't planting enough churches to even cover raw population growth and stay at the same percentage of impact, the problem is "brand" wide. Every plateaued and declining church tells the population around it - "no one here cares. We are willing to sit on this corner and pretend we are making a difference." They "poison the water" and create impressions in the minds of everyone they touch which may never be erased.

We simply cannot afford NOT to vigorously attack this problem as a corporate body. The SBC "brand" is hurting badly. Outside of disaster areas where our relief efforts have born fruit, we are looked on as increasingly detached from the marketplace of ideas. We spent far too much money and time in Washington DC, and far too little meeting our neighbors.

It's funny I read this blog post today, because I had a conversation with a church health expert with another denomination recently. He described their "intervention" method of "turning around" churches. I was greatly impressed with the process he outlined which included a "turn-around pastor" assessment much like that which is routinely done with church planters.

The idea was patterned after a successful campaign among American Baptist churches in the Western US. Dr. Paul Borden has given a great gift to the Body of Christ in this effective and biblical method of turning churches headed to closing into thriving healthy congregations. His Growing Healthy Churches is exactly what we should be doing as a denomination. here's a quote from the website.

Since 1997 over 170 congregation have experienced radical transformation and as a result many are intentionally and successfully reproducing new disciples and leaders.

Take that number and imagine what it would be if applied to the SBC.

You hear that? That was Satan's knees knocking just thinking about it.

The Way of Jesus

We can't say Jesus is the way—"I'm going to follow Jesus"—and then use all the devil's ways. All the "I like to do" or "have a talent for" or "have an aptitude for" or "have a spiritual gift" language is popular in our churches, but we have to do it Jesus's way. The way Jesus did it is as important as the way Jesus is. I'm just trying to connect ways and means. The means by which we do something can destroy what we're doing if they're not appropriate. And I think the American Church is very conspicuous for destroying the way of Jesus in the ways we do church.

- Eugene Peterson from his book "The Jesus Way"

Little places

"Father, where shall I work today?"
And my love flowed warm and free.
He pointed out a tiny spot and said,
"Tend that place for me."

I answered him quickly,
"Oh, no! Not that!
Why no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done;
not that little place for me!"

The word he spoke, then, wasn't stern.
He answered me tenderly;
"Nazareth was a little place.
And so was Galilee."

-- Anonymous

from Revitalize Your Church by Mark O. Wilson

Mark, I just needed to read this today. I put it on my blog so I can be reminded from time to time that what those of us that serve in little places serve a Big God. Thanks for posting this.