Daniel Im's Blog, page 17

The Myth of the Silver Bullet

Have you ever noticed the deep longing inside of you for the silver bullet? For that one quick, magical solution that will solve all of your problems?

I know I have. I remember thinking to myself that this one sermon I was getting ready to preach was going to be so powerful that the chains of apathy in my church would finally be broken. The consumeristic tendencies hidden in everyone’s hearts were going to be rooted out once and for all. Everyone in the church would befriend those far from God, share the gospel with them, see them experience new life in Christ, and then disciple them to do the same.

People were going to move from being merely disciples to being disciple-makers.

Instead of the church being a place to get their needs met, the church was going to see itself as a house of prayer for all nations, a hospital for sinners and not a hotel for saints, a disciple-making institute, and a tangible sign, instrument, and foretaste of the kingdom of God. This was going to be the day, the sermon, and the moment that would go down in history.

When it didn’t quite happen the way I had envisioned it, I realized my mistake.

Oh, how naïve I was. I thought the sermon was the silver bullet, when it was actually the discipleship model that the church down the road was using! I mean, just look at how successful they were.

Well, when that didn’t work either, I turned to secular management books. And then to church consultants. And then to . . .

Does any of this sound familiar?

The myth of the silver bullet is alive and well…

…and it’s not because of old reruns of The Lone Ranger, or teenage novels about werewolves. It’s alive and well because we want the quick fix. We have been conditioned for the instant. It’s our hidden addiction.

We have been conditioned for the instant. It’s our hidden addiction.
Click To Tweet

If our computers take longer than a minute to start, we think something’s wrong. If we want to read a book, we can download it instantly. If we want to listen to one, we can literally press play the moment after we purchase it. If we want toothpaste, laundry detergent, or a few bananas, we can order it on Prime Now and get it within two hours. And now, with the launch of Amazon Go, we don’t even need to line up and pay the cashier at the grocery store!

Sure, this is convenient, but the unfortunate side effect is that we’ve been conditioned like Pavlov’s dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.

The availability of goods and resources—and our consumption of them—have conditioned us to need instant gratification. Regrettably, this has seeped into our spiritual lives and the way we lead our churches.

If you’ve been around ministry long enough, you’ll know that there are no perfect models, no one right way of doing ministry or leading a church (I’m talking about church practice, not theology).

There are no silver bullets—one-decision solutions that will solve all your woes and unleash your church into a new season of fruitfulness.

The only way change happens— significant, long-lasting, macro-level change—is through a series of small decisions, steps, or micro-shifts, that are put into action and completed one at a time.

The only way change happens is through a series of small decisions, steps, or micro-shifts…
Click To Tweet

Isn’t that why the late great preacher of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, Charles Spurgeon, said, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark”?

The snail had no silver bullet. It got to the ark one small step at a time.

Let me ask you a few questions:

Are you happy with your existing vision, strategy, and values, or do you need to revisit them?
Are you producing disciple-makers, disciples, or consumers?
Are you worried that what you’re currently doing isn’t sustainable or scalable?
Do you need to overhaul your church, but aren’t sure what to do differently?
Are you thinking about planting a church or campus but want to make sure that you grow by multiplication, instead of addition?

In my book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry, I want to invite you to consider.

Consider what God might do in and through you and your church, if you were to implement the small changes, or micro-shifts, that you read about in each chapter.

As you work through each chapter, be sure to leverage the audits, frameworks, and questions. These tools will help you “consider the path for your feet” so that you can stop talking about change and instead do something about it (Prov. 4:25–26).

Each chapter is designed to cut through the noise and complexity of ministry to provide you with sensible wisdom to make your next micro-shift. After all, isn’t that better than the one silver bullet that is larger than life, one-size-fits-all, and often too complex the more you learn about it?

Learn more about the five small shifts by watching the video below and picking up a copy of the book.

*This was a modified excerpt from my book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry.

The Off-Beaten Path to Stress Relief

What are you holding onto? Or maybe the real question is, what’s holding onto you?

Take a moment and think through each of these questions:

When you post a picture on social media, how often do you find yourself pulling out your phone to check the number of likes, views, or comments?
When things get stressful, what do you do to relieve the pressure?
When you feel like you’re at the end of your rope, what do you turn to?
When you’re happy and joyful, what caused it?
When you’re satisfied and content, what were the factors that led to it?

Your answers to each of these questions reveal what you’re holding onto, or what’s holding onto you…

…because we don’t turn to the things we do for no reason.

Matthew 11:28-30 has always been one of those passages that I would not only use when counseling, discipling, and mentoring others…but also personally when feeling burdened and overwhelmed.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. – Matt 11:28-30 CSB

Last year, while preaching through the wisdom literature in the Scriptures, there was this one particular Sunday where I compared Godly wisdom against Earthly wisdom in Proverbs 7. While this is a common theme throughout the wisdom literature, this proverb explicitly illustrates what happens when you walk down the path of the world versus the path of God.

There are no shades of grey in this Proverb.

It clearly shows that sin has a cost, and its name is death. Sin results in hell, but I’m not just talking about eternity here…I’m also talking about hell on earth.

Sin has a cost, and its name is death.

After all, while the enemy might whisper into our ears to try and convince us that we can outsmart others, or live duplicitous lives, God’s ways will always prevail because his light will shine and cast out darkness.

Sin is like a teenager with a credit card—enjoy now, pay later. After all, “Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? Can a man walk on burning coals without scorching his feet?” (Prov 6:27-28 CSB)

Sin is like a teenager with a credit card—enjoy now, pay later.
Click To Tweet

I ended the sermon by sharing the way to embrace Godly wisdom.

No, I didn’t preach behavior modification, since it’s only the Holy Spirit through the power of the gospel that can truly bring about change in our hearts.

I shared that we need to humble ourselves and come before the Lord in confession, so that we can rest in the one who truly cares for our souls. And that’s when I read Matt 11:28-30 and unpacked it for my church.

To be honest, for the longest time, what stood out to me about this passage was Jesus’ call to come to him—it wasn’t the reference to take up his yoke.

In fact, while I sort of understood what a yoke was, I often deemphasized those words and instead focused on coming to Christ and finding rest in him.

Oh how I missed the point of this passage!

Jesus is essentially saying, “Stop yoking yourself to what can only further burden and slow you down. Stop yoking yourself to the ways of this world—the temporary and the fleeting. Instead, take up my yoke…”

When I think of a yoke, I think of a pair of oxen working with one another to pull something.

While the yoke is helpful, since two can obviously pull more weight than one, it is also helpful to maintain forward movement, even when one of the oxen’s are tired or weak.

In this passage, Jesus is inviting us to join him and take up his yoke!

He’s not asking us to coast by getting on his back or jumping on the trailer that he’s pulling. He’s asking us to pull with him, and learn from him.

If that’s not a picture for how we ought to disciple others, I don’t know what is.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here…it’s ridiculous to think that we’ll ever pull our fair share of the weight when yoked with Jesus. But that’s what’s beautiful about this specific invitation from Christ.

Life is stressful.

Life is burdensome. And there’s always more to do than there is time in the day. With the 5000+ marketing messages that we get on a daily basis, we’re consistently barraged by the world telling us that we are what we do, we are what we have, and we are who we know.

But Jesus is saying, “Come to me.”

He is inviting us to come to him with our burdens, needs, everything we’re holding onto, and everything that’s holding onto us, and he promises us freedom, rest, and peace from all of it.

Will you accept his invitation today?

 

Input vs Output Goals for Discipleship

Have you ever judged the effectiveness of your ministry by the size of attendance?

On Easter Sunday, after setting up extra chairs, perhaps you had to pull out even more to accommodate the influx of people. It may have felt good to preach to a full room. Lives were changed and there was a tangible buzz in the air.

By all accounts, that service felt like a win.

But then what happened in the following weeks? Where did all the people go? Did they stick with their faith? Or did everything go back to “normal?”

And if that happened, did you end up feeling like a failure?

The fact is, we can’t help having responses like this.

From report cards and standardized testing scores to gas mileage in our cars and the square footage of our homes, we measure everything—especially what “success” looks like in ministry.

How many people were baptized last year?
What is your average weekend attendance?
How many campuses do you have?
How many do you have on staff?
What about your budget?

Those can be great indicators of health. But they don’t measure matters of the heart. And they don’t tell us whether someone in our church is a disciple and whether people are maturing in their faith.

I want to introduce a different way to measure success in discipleship—one that is based on one of the largest studies done to date on discipleship in North America. So let’s dig in.

Measuring discipleship can be a little like measuring other kinds of human endeavors aimed at changing your life—like losing weight or saving money.

There are two factors to keep in mind: input goals and output goals.

Input goals are the behaviors or habits you adopt when trying to make a change.

In weight loss, input goals would be things like counting calories, exercising, or cutting back on fast food. For saving money, they’d be things like bringing your lunch to work or setting a family budget.

We adopt those input goals in order to see some kind of output in the future.

Output goals equal feeling better physically, losing a certain number of pounds, or having a certain amount of money in the bank.

The two are linked; certain kinds of inputs lead to certain kinds of outputs.

Churches often measure success in ministry and whether someone is a mature disciple by using output goals, such as attendance, giving, and serving. But we need to think about input goals as well.

A few years ago, LifeWay Research embarked on an in-depth study to examine the state of discipleship in the church today—the Transformational Discipleship Assessment (TDA).

That study included interviews with 28 discipleship experts, a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, and a survey of 4,000 lay people in North America (30 percent of the respondents were from Canada).

This research revealed eight attributes that consistently show up in the lives of maturing disciples:

Bible engagement
Obeying God and denying self
Serving God and others
Sharing Christ
Exercising faith
Seeking God
Building relationships
Being unashamed (transparency)

The study also found that certain kinds of behavior led to people growing in those attributes. Among them: confessing our sins and reading the Bible. Let’s take a look at both.

1. The study found that confessing sins on a regular basis can lead to spiritual growth.

People in the study who confessed their sins often became more transparent with other people, were more willing to deny themselves, and were more interested in seeking a deeper relationship with God—not surprising factors at all.

But the study also found that confessing sins led people to be more willing to share Christ with others!!!

Just think about the implications of that…

As expected, praying for non-believers, sharing with them how to become Christians, and inviting them to church were the typical input goals that led to a higher score in the study’s output goal of sharing Christ.

But how does confessing your sins relate to evangelism?

Perhaps it’s confession that helps you get in the right posture to share your faith with others. Or perhaps it’s sin that reminds you of the distance that once separated you from God. In either case, just imagine what would result if we began leading our congregation to confession on a regular basis!

This is the power of research and of thinking about maturity through the lens of input and output goals.

Confessing sins leads people to be more willing to share Christ with others.
Click To Tweet

2. Reading the Bible was another input goal that affected spiritual growth.

In fact, it was, hands down, the input goal that had the greatest direct impact on the total score of all output goals, or discipleship attributes, in the TDA.

When asked, “How often, if at all, do you personally read the Bible?” individuals who read some Scripture every day showed higher levels of spiritual growth than those who didn’t read the Bible as regularly.

It’s important to understand that this survey question was not measuring whether an individual studied the Bible thoroughly or memorized Scripture.

While those two were definitely important factors that predicted a higher score for Bible engagement, this is not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the simple act of reading the Bible on a regular basis!

In other words, the more an individual did the input goal of reading the Bible, the higher the person scored in all of the output goals.

So the more you can help the people in your church to read the Bible, the better they will be able to obey God and deny self, serve God and others, share Christ, exercise their faith, seek God, build relationships, and be unashamed about their faith.

This is astounding. While you might not need a research project to tell you that reading your Bible helps you mature broadly as a disciple, it’s amazing that it helps you grow in all of these specific discipleship attributes.

Reading the Bible on a regular basis led to the greatest impact on overall maturity.
Click To Tweet

Faithfulness and Fruitfulness

While it’s easy for me to geek out on this research, since I’m passionate about discipleship and church strategy, I need to remind myself that I cannot force myself or legalistically mature myself in Christ.

I can be faithful, which will result in fruitfulness in God’s timing and His providence, but I cannot make myself fruitful.

Ultimately, there’s nothing you or I can do to cause ourselves or those in our churches to grow spiritually. God is the one who gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6). No program, strategy, matrix, or pathway alone will cause your church members to grow.

No program, strategy, matrix, or pathway alone will cause your church members to grow.
Click To Tweet

Growth is up to God and it’s ultimately His responsibility. However, we cannot let that be a cop-out for doing nothing. We still have a role in the growth, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 3:4-7, to plant and water the harvest that is so plentiful.

Dig Deeper

For the full list of behaviors that led to spiritual growth, as well as a plan and system to help you develop a discipleship pathway that fits the unique culture of your church, pick up a copy of my book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts That Will Transform Your Ministry. This article was an adapted excerpt from it.

*My article here was originally published in the Summer 2017 print issue of Facts & Trends.

Taking Credit for Others Work

Have you ever taken credit for others work? For something you didn’t do? For something that wasn’t yours? 

I know I have…

In fact, I’ve never admitted the following story to anyone…ever. So here we go.

That shoe wasn’t mine. Yet I took it home and pretended that it was mine. I took credit for it. My teacher and my parents thought it was gorgeous. But the stark truth is that it wasn’t actually my work.

I’m talking about a clay model of a shoe…

Now to my defense, when I grabbed that shoe, I honestly thought it was mine. After all, it had the Nike swoosh on it and it was a high top. And while those two characteristics of a clay shoe didn’t necessarily thin the pack or narrow the options, when I grabbed that shoe, I was convinced it was mine.

Okay…I wasn’t fully convinced, since there was another shoe on the table that had the same characteristics. But surely, that ugly thing wasn’t my creation. I was definitely more talented than that. After all, doesn’t baking clay get rid of all the imperfections?

It wasn’t until another student went to the teacher, and I overheard him describe what his shoe looked like, that I realized I had taken the wrong one. But at that point, it was too late. I had already committed. And I didn’t want to say anything.

So I just kept the shoe, took credit for it, and brought it home.

While that might seem like a silly story, it revealed something about my heart, and the condition of the human heart.

It’s much easier to be prideful, than humble.
It’s much easier to go with the flow, than disrupt the status quo.
It’s much easier to say yes, than no.

This past week, while I was doing my daily Bible reading, the first few verses in 1 Samuel 13 stood out to me in a fresh way. Although I had read this chapter multiple times over the years, since the book of 1 Samuel is one of my favorite books of the Bible, I had never noticed this particular detail.

Unfortunately, it’s much easier to go with the flow, than disrupt the status quo.
Click To Tweet

Here it is in the CSB translation. Let’s see if you notice it too.

1 Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty-two years over Israel. 2 He chose three thousand men from Israel for himself: two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and in Bethel’s hill country, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. He sent the rest of the troops away, each to his own tent.

3 Jonathan attacked the Philistine garrison that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. So Saul blew the ram’s horn throughout the land saying, “Let the Hebrews hear! ” 4 And all Israel heard the news, “Saul has attacked the Philistine garrison, and Israel is now repulsive to the Philistines.” Then the troops were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

What stood out to you in this passage?

Was it the fact that Saul was thirty years old when he became king?
That he reigned forty-two years over Israel?
That there are two major characters in these verses, King Saul and his son, Jonathan?
That Saul took more men to be with him than his son, Benjamin?
That Jonathan was the one that attacked, rather than Saul?
Or, was it the fact that Saul took credit for what Jonathan did?

Let’s take a deeper look at this.

It’s great that Jonathan was the one that attacked the Philistines. It’s also great that Saul decided to announce the news to the Israelites all throughout the land. But what wasn’t great is that he said to everyone—all throughout Israel—that “Saul has attacked the Philistine garrison…”

Sure, Saul was the king and he had every right to do this. After all, the army was his, the people were his, and he was the one that made the announcement.

However, given the fact that it wasn’t some random corporal or captain that led the charge, but it was his son, you’d think he would announce the news as it really happened. On top of that, it wasn’t like his army had thousands of divisions either. There were 3000 men in his army and they were only divided into two camps: his and his son’s.

Yet Saul decided to take all the credit for himself. He took credit for others work. He took credit for something he didn’t do.

What’s God saying to you right now? Can you think of a moment when you’ve done the same?

Let’s choose to be different. Let’s choose to be people of integrity.  Let’s give credit to whom credit is due.

And even when we are acknowledged and celebrated for work that we’ve actually done, let’s find ways to pass on the credit and share that joy with others.

But most of all, let’s give it all back to God—because it’s “in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28).

Always find ways to pass on the credit and share that joy with others.
Click To Tweet

5 Myths That Block Disciple Making

“I want to make my life count. I want to do big things for the kingdom. I only want to do things that have an eternal significance.”

Have you ever prayed such prayers? I know I definitely have.

In fact, when I was getting serious about my relationship with Christ, this is what I regularly prayed for because I wanted my life to count. I wanted to make a difference in this world. I didn’t want to live for what was temporal—my fame and my glory—but for what was eternal.

And the only way that I knew how to judge whether or not something was a “big thing” for the kingdom was by its size. This is what I thought:

Small churches = small impact
Small conferences = not significant
Small platform = lack of the right gifting

Years later, after God broke me and stripped away everything I had, I realized my ambitions weren’t as pure as I made them out to be.

Sure, I said that I wanted to make a big impact for the kingdom, but that was contingent upon me making the big impact for God. Yes, I obviously wanted to do things that had an eternal significance, but only if I could share that eternal significance with God…

I tried to sanctify my ambition with the right words, but it was all a sham.

Now to be fair, I wasn’t doing it intentionally; it was just that my heart was deceived. I thought that if I said the right things and did the right things, I would eventually believe the right things, but boy, did I ever have it backwards.

You can’t accelerate maturity or spiritual growth.

I was trying to sanctify myself, when in fact, it’s God who does the sanctifying in us as we lay ourselves before him. (If you want to learn how I worked through that desert experience, click here).

You can’t accelerate maturity or spiritual growth.
Click To Tweet

In The Disciple Maker’s Handbook: 7 Elements of a Discipleship Lifestyle by my friends, Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick, they call this the performance myth. I was trying to define myself through my accomplishments, instead of what God had already accomplished for me through Christ.

Bobby and Josh put it well,

Most Christians want to devote their lives to something significant. Deep inside they want to make some kind of difference in the world, to leave a mark, a lasting legacy. It is a longing for significance to do something great with their lives. But for many Christians, this desire gets distorted and hijacked because they have bought into one of the prevailing myths of our world. (11)

Here are the five myths as outlined in The Disciple Maker’s Handbook:

The Performance Myth: The best way to make your life count is through personal accomplishments others can see.
The Comfort Myth: Do everything you can to avoid pain and discomfort, and you’ll have a great life.
The Generosity Myth: Find the latest and trendiest cause and go all in—show that you are a giver!
The Money Myth: Earn as much as you can…save as much as you can…a great legacy is all about financial security.
The Pleasure Myth: You only live once, so live it up…make that bucket list and do it all.

Which of these myths have you struggled with? Or are currently struggling with?

For as long as you see your life’s purpose to fulfill one of these myths, you will never be able to devote yourself fully “to the greatest cause on earth—being a disciple of Jesus, who makes disciples.” (12)

The greatest cause on earth—being a disciple of Jesus, who makes disciples.
Click To Tweet

They go on to say,

Our achievements and our comforts will be long forgotten. Our generous moments will be remembered, but will the cause to which we contributed be the one that ultimately matters in eternity? Our money will have no value. Our pleasures in this world will be gone. The items on our bucket list that have nothing to do with knowing, trusting, following, treasuring, and proclaiming Jesus will look like utter foolishness.

What can make our lives so different is an unwavering commitment to follow Jesus. His life was filled with purpose, mission, and eternal impact. His life was so remarkable because of his unwavering commitment to reaching lost people and making disciples. He poured his life into the mission to redeem humanity, and, in the process, he raised up just a few people. Then he commanded them to do the same with others. In so doing, he started a revolution that changed world history (12-13).

If you want to shatter the myths that are holding you back and learn what Jesus did and how he did it, then be sure to enter this month’s draw to win one of three copies of The Disciple Maker’s Handbook: 7 Elements of a Discipleship Lifestyle by my friends, Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick.

Enter to Win

Next Steps:

Enter the giveaway to win one of three copies of The Disciple Maker’s Handbook: 7 Elements of a Discipleship Lifestyle
Purchase a copy of the book for your team
Follow Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick on Twitter
Learn more about the Disciple Making Forum that I’ll be speaking at here

Under Appreciating vs Over Celebrating

Why is Tuesday pizza day for Stephen Colbert and his team? And why has it been for a few weeks now?

This time last year, Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” was losing to Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” by over a million viewers. However, when Trump became president, something happened for Colbert…there was a turning point for his show.

You can read this recent NY Times article for a hypothesis as to why this happened, but essentially, the turning point was a result of a three-hour heart-to-heart conversation between Colbert and his executive producer, Chris Licht.

And during that meeting, they made a deal…

“The deal was, he said, ‘Listen, let me make these decisions and don’t try to take them back from me,’” Mr. Colbert remembered. “And I said, ‘O.K., well, don’t debate with me what’s funny.’”

So Mr. Colbert focused on the comedy and his performance, and Mr. Licht dealt with management issues that the host had been expending energy on: staffing, budgets, sales meetings, the works. [1]

After that meeting, Colbert started to ease up and focus on the things that came naturally to him. Leaving the rest to others.

Essentially, he became more of who he really was.

So in classic Colbert fashion, he made a deal with his team. Whenever they would beat “The Tonight Show” in ratings, they’d celebrate with pizza.

Pizza? A reward like that sounds like high school…

But it worked. It changed the atmosphere of the office. And so, as Chad Batka reported in his NY Times article,

Throughout the offices of “The Late Show,” staff members could be heard saying, “Pizza! Pizza!” — celebrating a reward that comes on Tuesdays when they beat “The Tonight Show” in the ratings. [2]

In light of the pizza party, here are my questions for you:

Does your team have something to look forward to?
After your team completes their goals—especially stretch ones—are you taking the time to celebrate?
When’s the next time you can use something as simple as a pizza party, to bless and celebrate your team?

The fact is, no one can ever feel too appreciated. So it’s always better to over celebrate than under appreciate.

After all, as Patrick Lencioni likes to say, “Nobody ever leaves a company because they were encouraged too much.”

Consider starting today.

It’s always better to over celebrate than under appreciate.
Click To Tweet

No one can ever feel too appreciated.
Click To Tweet

 

7 Constants for Church Planting

Let’s go on a short journey exploring the recent history of significant movements that have shaped what we’re seeing in the West today.

This history is important to digest as we look forward to the possibilities that lie ahead—with God! Less than 50 years ago, a movement was birthed to reach a specific subculture in the United States: the hippies. At a time when America was infatuated with drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll, there was a great awakening of individuals who decided to reject that lifestyle and seek God instead. This was the Jesus People movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

When Kenn Gulliksen was sent out by the Calvary Chapel in 1974 to start a church in West Los Angeles, no one would’ve guessed or even imagined that less than 50 years later, there would be over 2,400 churches in 95 countries that would share the same name: Vineyard.

Eight years after Gulliksen planted
 the first Vineyard church, there were at least seven Vineyard churches in this loosely defined network. It was at this point, in 1982, when John Wimber became the first director of this growing Vineyard movement.

Sure, your church may not be 
Vineyard and may not affirm all they do, but you can’t deny the tangible, movemental impact they have had planting new churches. This impact is, without question, one of their greatest attributes.

In fact, here are seven constants to church planting that John Wimber outlined and lived by as he led the Vineyard movement to plant over 1,000 churches in their lifetime:
1) Constantly Tell Your Story.

When church planters were getting ready to launch, Wimber would commonly teach them to share why they were there.

Tell everyone why you are there. And once you’ve told them ten times—tell them five hundred more…The problem is many pastors get bored of telling their own story—so they quit telling it. And then they wonder why their church quits growing. People thrive on narrative, that’s how God created us as humans, and a powerful narrative becomes the key factor of vision-casting and leadership. Not telling your story can be a contributing factor to lack of church growth, because people lose focus when you’re not consistently telling who you are and where you’re going. And they lose their reason for existence. 

2) Constantly Tell His Story.

As important as your story is, the true priority is His story—Jesus’ story. Because people thrive on narratives, you need to consider how to share your story in a way that connects
 with God’s grand narrative for the world.

How does Jesus fit into why you are there? Wimber would teach church planters that, “Every occasion ought to have His story in it. Jesus is the Son of God. It’s always in there, always wrapped up in the midst of any exchange with people.”

How can you share your story in a way that connects with God’s grand narrative for the world?
Click To Tweet

3) Constantly Explain the Mysteries of Life.

This point was twofold for Wimber.
 On the one hand, he emphasized
 the importance of calling people to a deeper commitment to Christ—not just to salvation but also to mission. Then he elaborated on the importance of metrics to help you know how you’re doing in ministry.

We have to have ways of measuring where we’re at in ministry. Most people play church like guys playing basketball without a ball and without a hoop. They play without the very things which provide a measurement, or standard, for who’s winning the game…So when it comes to church leadership, I keep putting in the ball and the hoops. I keep bringing out things that are concrete ways of measuring how you’re doing: Is the church growing numerically? Is there tangible fruit? Are people getting saved and assimilated into
 the church? How many of the poor are you caring for? How many new leaders have you developed? Is the quality of ministry and body life and love amongst people growing? Those kinds of questions make some people mad. They don’t want you introducing those kind of elements, because if you start actually measuring, things don’t look so good. Some would rather appear to play than actually play.

4) Constantly Disciple.

There are two types of family members in your church, those serving in 
the army and those healing in the hospital. Part of your church’s long-term plan for movemental growth involves consistently advancing the front line of the gospel into new territories. You need disciples to dig 
in the trenches and fight for ground with their friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

Wimber taught that it was okay to be in the hospital temporarily to get healed, but it wasn’t okay to stay there permanently.

5) Constantly Expand the Infrastructure.

At the beginning of a church plant, it’s okay to not have much infrastructure because you don’t need it. But as
 you grow, Wimber emphasized that you need to have the discipline to structure toward growth. Sustainable, repeatable, and scalable structure that allows people to connect and care for others is vital for the health of a church.

Sustainable, repeatable, and scalable structure allows people to connect and care for others.
Click To Tweet

6) Constantly 
Live in Brokenness.

The New Testament calls us to a high level of character, and the worst thing you can do is to put on a religious façade and pretend you have it all together. The mark of a maturing believer is self-awareness when you fail and transparency within community to cling to Jesus with others.

Wimber regularly exhorted his church planters to “live constantly with the awareness that we just don’t measure up” so that we can rely on and trust Jesus to make up the difference.

The mark of a maturing believer is self-awareness when you fail and transparency within community.
Click To Tweet

7) Constantly 
Re-evaluate and Be Flexible in What You Are Doing.

This isn’t a license to continually tweak things that aren’t broken, but the awareness that evaluation is critical for growth and the health of a movement. Wimber said it well: “But whatever you do, don’t hold onto things for their own sake. Programs are a means to an end. Evaluate their effectiveness. Keep what works; get rid of what doesn’t. Do whatever is necessary to help the church of Jesus Christ to advance.”

Keep what works; get rid of what doesn’t.
Click To Tweet

These seven constants are as applicable today as they were 30 years ago and represent two primary commitments. First, a commitment
 to perseverance in faith, believing 
the promises of God that He will
 build the church. Second, a missional intentionality evident in the movement of people directed toward a kingdom of God objective.

This was an excerpt from the newest book that I wrote with Ed Stetzer, 1000 Churches: How Past Movements Did It—And How Your Church Can, Too. Continue reading by downloading it for free here.

Why Are You So Busy?

There’s this app on my watch that reminds me to breathe.

I’m not quite sure how to turn the setting off, but a few times a day, I hear this annoyingly soothing little jingle that reminds me it’s time to breathe.

And to be completely honest, though I’ve had this watch for a while now, I’ve only done the breathing exercise once.

Why? Because it always prompts me to breathe at the worst times. I’m either in a meeting, fighting through traffic, writing, or in a conversation with someone else.

It’s not that I don’t think it’s important; it’s just that I’m too busy to breathe…

Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? I mean…how can anyone be too busy to breathe?

When I did that breathing exercise for the first time, one thing I immediately realized was just how shallow and quick my normal breaths were.

The fact is, we don’t normally breathe deeply like that, even though it’s proven to…

Reset our system
Slow our heartbeat
Lower/stabilize our blood pressure
And release toxins

You would think that those reasons would be enough to motivate us to slow down and breathe deeply, but they simply don’t cut it. Why is this the case?

According to an experiment at the University of Toronto, individuals who are paid by the hour volunteer less of their time and tend to feel more antsy when they are not working.

In another study from Sogang University in Seoul, Korea, one researcher found that among Americans, “complaints about insufficient time come disproportionately from well-off families. Even after holding constant the hours spent working at jobs or at home, those with bigger paychecks still felt more anxiety about their time.”

And in 2011, Gallup reported that “The more cash-rich working Americans are, the more time-poor they feel.”

The more cash-rich working Americans are, the more time-poor they feel.
Click To Tweet

Here’s the issue.

We are busy because we want to get to a point where we can rest, as quoted from an Economist article, “being busy can make you rich,” however, the problem with that is the very fact that “being rich makes you feel busier still.”

Being busy can make you rich, but being rich makes you feel busier still.
Click To Tweet

What’s ironic is that the more you are financially able to buy what you want, go where you wish, and do what you please, the more this actually breeds impatience…

So what’s the solution?

Well, as we see in Ecclesiastes 2:4-10, it’s not to amass possessions and seek contentment in the stuff of life. 

4 I increased my achievements. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and planted every kind of fruit tree in them. 6 I constructed reservoirs for myself from which to irrigate a grove of flourishing trees. 7 I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned livestock—​large herds and flocks—​more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.8 I also amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered male and female singers for myself, and many concubines, the delights of men. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me. 10 All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.

Solomon experienced abundance in everything…

He had that HGTV show home.
His home had a real stone fireplace, not fake airstone.
He had land…a lot of it.
He was wiser than anyone else.
He had an army of employees working for him.
Money wasn’t an issue. He probably had more of an issue trying to find a place to store it all.
Entertainment, pleasure, and sex…he had it all, anytime he wanted.
He was successful according to all “earthly standards.”
The life he lived is the life that commercials and this world tell us that we need.

But after achieving all of this, look at what he said in verse 11…

11 When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

The things of this earth do not satisfy. They always come up short.

So don’t repeat the same mistakes that Solomon made. Learn from his experience. Learn from his life.

Seek rest and satisfaction in the one who can restore your soul, renew your life, lead you along the right path, grant you wisdom, and help you make the right decisions.

The things of this earth do not satisfy. They always come up short.
Click To Tweet

If you do this, then your perspective will change and you will grow in gratitude, experience true joy and pleasure, and realize that life is not about your temporary mission, but about participating in the great, grand, and eternal mission of God.

Start by resting in Jesus—the shepherd of your soul.

Mow your lawn tomorrow
Go shopping tomorrow
Enjoy God’s creation
Enjoy one another
Delight yourself in the Lord
Eat, drink, and enjoy today
And as you do it all, thank God at every moment
Today, breathe deeply and worship our Lord

It’s as one of my friends says, “if every breath is from God, then every breath should be for God.”

Psalm 23 (CSB):

1 The Lord is my shepherd;

I have what I need.

2 He lets me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He renews my life;

he leads me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even when I go through the darkest valley,

I fear no danger,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

as long as I live.

Becoming Fluent in the Gospel

Three months…

It was going to be three months of doing my own laundry. Three months of cooking my own meals. Three months of working a real job. And three months in French…

It was the summer before my senior year in university, and I had signed up for a three-month mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was called Montreal Project.

The idea is that we would learn how to see life as mission and mission as life.

During the day, we would work a real job. During the evenings, we would be discipled, disciple others, and evangelize. On the weekends, we would do outreach and bless the community.

It was a missional missions trip before missional was cool.

Do you see life as mission and mission as life?
Click To Tweet

Instead of just seeing the mission field as “over there,” we learnt how to see it as also “being here.” After all, the nations had come to us, and I was living in one of the most unreached cities in the Western world.

However, it wasn’t until the end of the third month that I began to understand the importance of fluency.

No I’m not talking about French—as important as that was for the mission’s trip. I’m talking about fluency as my friend, Jeff Vanderstelt, defines it in his latest book, Gospel Fluency.

I believe such fluency is what God wants his people to experience with the gospel. He wants them to be able to translate the world around them and the world inside of them through the lens of the gospel—the truths of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus. Gospel-fluent people think, feel, and perceive everything in light of what has been accomplished in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

They see the world differently. They think differently. They feel differently.

When they are listening to people, they are thinking, “How is this in line with the truths of the gospel? What about Jesus and his work might be good news to this person today? How can I bring the hope of the gospel to bear on this life or situation so this person might experience salvation and Jesus will be glorified?” [1]

—— Enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article for a chance to win one of four copies of Jeff Vanderstelt’s book, Gospel Fluency ——

From the moment I woke up to the time I hit the sack, I was on mission. I was on mission to share the gospel with my coworkers. I was on mission to be salt and light in Montreal. I was on mission to see the name and fame of Jesus Christ be declared in a city where churches were being converted into condos, and basilicas were tourist attractions rather than places of worship. And I realized that the only way this was going to happen is if I learnt how to become fluent in the gospel in the everyday stuff of life.

You need to know the gospel, hear the gospel, and practice proclaiming it.
Click To Tweet

The gospel will never become your “native tongue,” without immersion in a “gospel-speaking culture.”

Here’s how Jeff puts it,

You do need to receive some formal training in the basics of the gospel, just as learning a language requires knowing the basics of grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure…However, formal training alone does not make one fluent. You become fluent through immersion in a gospel-speaking community and through ongoing practice. You have to know it, regularly hear it, and practice proclaiming it…Gospel fluency begins in you, gets worked out within community, and is expressed to a world that needs to hear about Jesus.[2]

While you may not be able to quit your job and move to a different city for three months, you can take your first steps towards gospel fluency right where you are.

Start by reading Gospel Fluency with a group of friends. Learn the language and create a community where you are speaking the gospel into one another’s lives on a regular basis.

This isn’t a silver bullet. You have to do this over the long haul, but stick to it because it’ll be worth it. You’ll see kingdom transformation in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

Enter to Win

Next Steps:

Enter the giveaway to win one of four copies of  Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life
Read the interview I did with Jeff Vanderstelt on Missional Practices
Read the book review I did on Jeff Vanderstelt’s first book, Saturate

 

End Notes:

[1] Jeff Vanderstelt, Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2017), 41-42.

[2] Ibid., 43.

We Fail. Jesus Restores.

When have you really enjoyed making a mess?

Making a mess in the kitchen is one thing. Making a mess of life is quite another. I can clean the kitchen to the point you’d never know I was in there. But when I make a mess of my life, I can’t just wipe away the evidence—or the consequences—with a good disinfectant.

Have you ever found yourself at rock bottom?

It may have been because of an inappropriate relationship, a string of lies, or a temptation or habit that seemed to gradually take over everything in life. At that moment, you stand at a crossroad. Do you continue down the road you’re on, continuing to repeat the mistakes because the pain of changing seems greater than the pain of remaining the same? Or do you look to Jesus for a way out?

Have you ever found yourself at rock bottom?
Click To Tweet

Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, knew what it meant to mess up. He failed in a big way. But Peter’s story also offers us encouragement and points us to the way out—a fresh start in Jesus Christ.

Let’s take a look at John 18:15-18, 25-27 from the CSB translation,

15 Simon Peter was following Jesus, as was another disciple. That disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest; so he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. 16 But Peter remained standing outside by the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the girl who was the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. 17 Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” “I am not,” he said. 18 Now the servants and the officials had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold. They were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself. … 25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” 27 Peter denied it again. Immediately a rooster crowed.

Peter had been through a lot on this particular evening:

The last supper
Failing Jesus by falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane
Witnessing Judas’ betrayal
Fighting the temple guards
And watching Jesus allow Himself to be arrested and taken away

None of these events excuse Peter’s denials, but they do help us recognize that he was surely exhausted and confused. His whole world had been turned upside down. Still, after all the disciples initially ran away from Jesus’ arrest (see Matt. 26:55), Peter at least made an effort to get near enough to see and hear what was going on—as long as he could do it undetected.

Question: What emotions would you have experienced in Peter’s situation?

“The other disciple,” who is generally acknowledged to be John, was able to follow Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. Peter stayed outside. Being neither a slave nor a member of the temple police, he must have stood out like a sore thumb. Not surprisingly, people immediately began connecting him with Jesus’ followers—and that’s when the denials started.

The Gospel of Luke adds another detail after the rooster’s famous crow: “Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61-62).

Many times we tend to see the men and women in Scripture as “bigger than life.”

Their encounters with God and their victories seem so far beyond what we experience today. We may view their failures as equally above our own—and more catastrophic. Consequently, we might be tempted to say: “I would never fail Jesus like that.”

In fact, that’s just what Peter said earlier that night. When Jesus shared one last meal with His disciples, He predicted Judas’s betrayal. When Peter declared that he would lay down his life for Jesus, the Lord predicted that he also would betray Him (see John 13:37-38).

This no doubt came as a shock to Peter. After all, he alone had walked on water with Jesus, and he was the first of the disciples to confess, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Thus, Peter responded like many of us surely would: “I will never deny you!” (Matt. 26:35).

Maybe we’re not so different from Peter after all.

We’ve all been in circumstances where we gave in to fear or succumbed to the crowd. We may not have denied Jesus as overtly as Peter did, but we’ve had our own moments when we tried to hide our relationship with Him.

We’ve denied Him through our words and our actions. And whenever we choose to sin, we’re denying once again the One we say is Lord over our lives. Somewhere along the way, a rooster crows, and we’re hit with the full force of our denial. When that happens to you—not if, but when—what do you do?

What happens after you fail? Do you write yourself off as a failure? Do you just try to get on with your life as if nothing happened?

What happens after you fail? Do you write yourself off as a failure?
Click To Tweet

We’ll see from the life of Peter that a far better option awaits…

How do you typically respond after a failure or big mistake?

Check the statement (or statements) that apply, or write out your own.   When I fail…

__ I get angry.

__ I become depressed.

__ I don’t let it bother me.

__ I try to make sure no one saw what happened.

__ I try to learn from what happened.

__ Other:

How has your relationship with Jesus helped you move on from failure in the past?

Want to Learn More?

This is an excerpt from the first session of a 6-session Bible study that I wrote for the Summer 2017 edition of Bible Studies for Life.

Session 1 – A Fresh Start (John 18:15-18, 25-27; 21:15-19)
Session 2 – Objections Overruled (Exodus 3:11-12; 4:10-17)
Session 3 – The Gift of Grace (2 Corinthians 12:2-10)
Session 4 – A Channel of Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:2-7)
Session 5 – A Passion to Share the Gospel (2 Corinthians 5:11, 14-21)
Session 6 – Right Here, Right Now (Mark 5:1-2, 8-15, 18-20)

Pick up your copy here.