Re:Vision: The Key to Transforming Your Church

by Aubrey Malphurs

The tool we prefer is the Modified Heights Spiritual Gift Inventory.

Look at the Exploration Summary on page 95.

we felt that with the average pastoral tenure in America at 3.5

noted that for some pastors a turnaround was already in evidence between two and three years.

re-envisioning pastor (REP) and non–re-envisioning pastor (NREP)

Are there identifiable contributing factors or characteristics of re-envisioning pastors (REPs) that set them apart from non–re-envisioning pastors (NREPs)?

Factors or characteristics of Reenvisionining pastors REP

the 7–point range of the Personal Profile (DISC), re-envisioning pastors would score in the mid to higher range on either the D or I or both temperaments. Low range: 1–3 Mid-range: 4 High range: 5–7

we guessed that re-envisioning pastors would score in the 25 to 62 range on the Pastoral Leadership Audit, found in the Pastoral Leadership Survey.

Not every church is able to grow. Often there are mitigating circumstances that make church growth impossible.

The majority of churches can grow given the right leadership.

worship attendance as the most accurate measure of church growth.[2]

There is no perfect turnaround pastor. No one has all the qualities listed in the research.

We found that there was no distinction between NREPs and REPs regarding the length of ministry experience. However, long tenure with a re-envisioning pastor produces steady continuous growth, while long tenure with a non–re-envisioning pastor results in decline.

No diff btwn REP and NREP in terms of tenure. But with REP continued growth, NREP continued decline

Average age of participating pastors 48.2 52.4

The oldest REP was 70 and the youngest REP was 19.

chronological ages weren’t statistically significant.

Must we limit pastoral ministry to younger pastors if we expect a revitalization? Four REPs were 60+ when they began their ministries at their churches. The oldest was 67, one was 65, and two were 60. The youngest was 19 and the next youngest was 21.

Barna writes that the average turnaround pastor will lead only one church through a reversal.[5] Our work indicated that this isn’t correct. REPs shouldn’t be too quick to step down after leading one church in a turnaround. Allow God to use you repeatedly. Multiple Turnarounds 24 pastors: 2 turnarounds 25 pastors: 3 turnarounds

By far the most prevalent profiles of the re-envisioning pastors were DI, ID, D, or I or some other combination with D or I.

75 Re-envisioning pastors (D, I, or D and I combinations) DI—22 pastors DS—4 pastors ID—14 pastors

14 Non–re-envisioning pastors (S or C or combination) SC—5 pastors S—2 pastors CS—4 pastors C—3 pastors

The distinctions between the REPs and NREPs are also telling. Unlike the REPs, they tend to be more introverted. Like the REPs they are more sensing than intuitive. Unlike the REPs they are slightly more thinking than feeling, and like the REPs judgment exceeds perception by a wide margin. The most common patterns for REPs are: ESTJ (15), ENFP (12), ESFJ (11), or ISTJ (9). Those patterns for the NREPs are INTJ (6) or ISFJ (4), or ESFJ (4). This is most significant. It would appear that if you are an ESTJ, ENFP, ESFJ, or ISTJ on the MBTI, you are likely a pastor who can lead plateaued or declining churches to re-envision themselves and should strongly consider this when taking a church.

Pastoral Leadership Audit.

Range 1: 25–47. You likely have what it takes to be a re-envisioning pastor/leader. Chances increase the lower your score. Thus God may have wired you to revitalize struggling churches.

Based on worship size, the larger the church, the lower and thus the better the score. REPs seem to be attracted to and thrive in larger churches.

The REPs ranged between 26 and 56 on the PLA, which was lower and better than the NREPs, who ranged between 32 and 73 on the PLA. Results of the PLA Range 25–47: 97 pastors

Twenty-four Discoveries Insight 1: Re-envisioning pastors are passionate and visionary. They have a clear vision and cast it well. Insight 2: More often than not, re-envisioners have a mentor or coach who supplies wisdom and counsel to help them through the good times as well as guide them in the difficult times. Insight 3: Renewal pastors have good people skills and thus get along and work well with people. Insight 4: Re-envisioning pastors tend to be more innovational than traditional. Insight 5: Turnaround pastors seem to have more energy to expend on ministry than the NREPs. Insight 6: Re-envisioners are young in ministry, regardless of their chronological age. Insight 7: Pastors who revitalize churches are good team players. They get along well with people (see Discovery 3) and work well with them on teams. Insight 8: Re-envisioning pastors are delegators. They realize that they can’t re-envision churches alone. They know that if they fail to delegate the re-envisioning process, it won’t happen. Insight 9: Turnaround pastors are good at training new leaders. They realize that leadership is the hope of the church—everything rises or falls with leadership. Thus they are committed to leader development. Insight 10: Revitalizers are focused and determined. They realize what is most important, focus on that, and push until it gets done. Insight 11: Turnaround pastors embrace necessary change and are willing to pay the price that change brings with it. Insight 12: Re-envisi...

********** Great profile on turn around re-envisioning pastors

If you discover that God has designed you to be a re-envisioning pastor, your church will have been experiencing 2.5 percent growth or better for at least the last three years, if not more. We would strongly encourage you to continue in church re-envisioning as opposed to some other ministries, because we desperately need re-envisioning leaders in our churches, as we discovered in chapter 6.

If you are part of a denomination, judicatory, network, or some similar organization, volunteer to work with the directors of missions, executive directors, superintendents, bishops, and so on. Carve out some time for them.

. If you are more comfortable problem solving than vision casting, you’re going to have a difficult time of it. . . . If you are conflict—or risk—averse, there’s no need to start a process that you probably won’t finish. You are better off managing what’s been handed to you and praying that God will raise up a leader who will challenge the status quo and introduce change. Your observations about what needs to change may be spot on. You just may not be the one to drive the process.[1]

Most often the call is to the vocational ministry of pastor or missionary. He accomplishes this call in a variety of ways, most of which are described as a subjective “inner call.” For example, the Holy Spirit may call people through such experiences as a special inner conviction, an unusual urge to preach the gospel, a particular passage of Scripture that is impressed on one’s mind, and so on.

The qualifications for elders are listed in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9. Of the fifteen or more qualifications, a special, inner call is not among them nor implied. First Timothy 3:1 indicates that a person could “desire” or set his heart on being an elder/pastor. This clearly teaches personal proactivity on the part of the believer, which contradicts the idea

Sixth, in a sense, God has called all believers, not some, into the ministry regardless of their profession, whether a pastor, missionary, businessperson, and so on. He has equipped every believer with spiritual gifts and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to accomplish his ministry.

this pastoral design consists of such gifts as leadership, administration, teaching, pastoring, and so on.

The collective evidence is that re-envisioning pastors make up anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of established pastors. Thus 75 to 90 percent of pastors are non–re-envisioning pastors.

In 1 Corinthians 9:19–24 Paul teaches us an important principle that relates to our ministry. He relates that at times we have to make sacrifices for the sake of the gospel if we’re to move a ministry forward. He writes, “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible” (v. 19). Then he summarizes: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I may save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I might share in its blessings” (vv. 22–23). The same can be the case in leading a church through a revitalization. Though a person may not be wired to re-envision churches, he might take up the challenge to do so for the sake of the gospel—doing what he’s not best wired for that he might save some.

REP make sacrifices as Paul says in 1 Cor 9:19-24 to be all things to all people in order for them to come to Christ through you

If you’re a re-envisioning pastor, are you training others to become or function as re-envisioning pastors? Does your church offer an internship or residency for training these pastors? If not, why not? Are you a mentor or coach to some pastors or future pastors? Why or why not? If you are part of a denomination, association, network, or judicatory, are you willing to help it re-envision its pastors? Why or why not?

Sometimes pastors can be the loneliest people in the church. Do you have someone in your life who can come alongside you and give you objective input as to your divine design and your abilities to envision or re-envision churches? Who might be such a person? What will you do about this, if anything?

The three tools that we have discovered are so critical to divine design and personal discovery are the Personal Profile (DISC), the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and the Pastoral Leadership Audit (PLA). These make up three phases of the transformation process that we’ll walk through in this chapter. We

Three tools to determine if REP pastor

will lead you through the first of three phases of the discovery process. PHASE 1: THE PERSONAL PROFILE (DISC) Step 1: Discover Your DISC Temperament Step 2: Confirm Your DISC Temperament Step 3: Understand Your DISC Temperament Step 4: Compare Your DISC Score to That of a Re-Envisioning Pastor Step 5: Apply Your DISC Results to Your Ministry

Process of determing personality in DISC

DOMINANCE TEMPERAMENT The letter D represents the dominance temperament. The profile suggests that one with this temperament may be somewhat strong and controlling. The D’s orientation to life is that they’re more goal oriented than people oriented. They are also fast paced as they go through life as opposed to operating at a slower pace. The way you motivate a D is with a challenge. They function best in an environment that provides lots of challenges and opportunities and freedom from control while being more in control. Under pressure a D will be aggressive as well as autocratic. They like to take charge. Ds would benefit from listening first and acting later. Ds tend to be open to change, especially when that change brings challenges with it, which is normally the case. Their strength is that they’re productive. They get things done. They’re also decisive and firm. However, their weaknesses are that they come across as too busy, insensitive, and inflexible. INFLUENCE TEMPERAMENT The letter I represents the influence temperament. The profile sums up this temperament as characteristic of one with a natural ability to influence or lead others. The I’s focus in life, unlike the D, is people and forming relationships with them. Like the Ds, Is are fast paced and move through life quickly. And you motivate them through recognizing them and their accomplishments. They function best in an environment that is friendly and fun loving and where they can inspire and relate to peop...

In chapter 7 we unwrapped re-envisioning pastors’ responses to the Personal Profile. To an overwhelming degree, their temperaments were a combination of the D and the I (DI and ID) or a lone I or D.

The D Temperament The I Temperament ___Decisive ___Outgoing ___Controlling ___Expressive ___Competent ___Influential ___Blunt ___Enthusiastic ___Competitive ___Persuasive ___Callous ___Impulsive ___Volatile ___Manipulative ___Persistent ___Personable ___Productive ___Animated ___Self-reliant ___Articulate

Make a point of being around or spending some time with and observing people who are DIs, IDs, Ds, and Is, especially pastors. They can be your models; it’s similar to Paul’s inviting the Corinthians to imitate him in 1 Corinthians 11:1.

Compare Your MBTI Type to That of a Re-Envisioning Pastor In chapter 7 we explored the re-envisioning pastors’ responses to the MBTI. To an overwhelming degree, their types were the ESTJ, ENFP, ESFJ, and/or ISTJ. Though not a primary type, the ENTJ or ENFJ leader should theoretically be good at re-envisioning churches due to their intuition and natural focus on the future as opposed to the present. What was also important to note was that as signaled above the re-envisioning pastors were overwhelmingly both extroverts and judgment types (more than two to one). Compare your validated score with that of the re-envisioning pastors. Have you patterned to be one of the four above? Which? The closer you are to these profiles, the greater the chances of your being or becoming a re-envisioning pastor. The further away you are, the more difficult it becomes, but not impossible. Look back to your DISC score. What did it reveal when compared to that of a re-envisioning pastor?

Make a point of being around or spending some time with and observing people who are ESFJs and ESTJs, especially pastors. Again, this is following a model, as Paul encourages in the New Testament. It’s good to have knowledge about leaders with these re-envisioning temperaments, but you’ll learn much more by observing the life of such a leader.

Phase 3: The Pastoral Leadership Audit (PLA) The Pastoral Survey we used in our exploration was made up of three parts: information about the pastor’s ministry, the Personal Profile (DISC) and the Myers Briggs (MBTI), and the Pastoral Leadership Audit (PLA). In this final phase, we’ll observe the results of the Pastoral Leadership Audit to see if they provide any help in your becoming a re-envisioning pastor. PHASE 3: THE PASTORAL LEADERSHIP AUDIT (PLA) Step 1: Observe the Results of the PLA Step 2: Compare Your Characteristics Step 3: Attempt to Validate Your Results Step 4: Attempt to Understand Your Results Step 5: Apply the Results to Your Life and Leadership

*****Pastoral Leadership Audit

Observe the Results of the PLA Discovery 2 surfaced a number of identifiable characteristics of turnaround or re-envisioning pastors who took the PLA. Following is a list of what we discovered: More a leader than a manager Has a clear, compelling vision More innovative than traditional Outgoing Above average people skills Very energetic Young in ministry, regardless of age Team player Delegator An inspiring preacher and communicator Exerts a strong influence in the church Embraces change and innovation A conflict resolver A problem resolver A visionary preacher More directive than passive Passionate vision communicator Developer of new leaders Empowers people to use their gifts Is a self-starter Has or has had a mentor or coach Effective at leading various generations through change Prepared to pay the price to lead change Has led a church through a turnaround

**** Pastoral Leadership Audit characteristics of a Turn around pastor

All the pastors in our sample of re-envisioning pastors didn’t reflect all these characteristics, nor did they have to. But the more of these characteristics they had, the better. (One pastor did reflect all but one of them.) Also non–re-envisioning pastors did reflect some but not many of the characteristics.

happen. Following are seven reasons a vision is so important. THE IMPORTANCE OF A VISION Vision Clarifies Direction Vision Impacts Leadership Vision Motivates People Vision Prompts Giving Vision Creates Energy Vision Fosters Risk Taking Vision Sustains Ministry

Vision reasons it is important