Bert's Blog

Harvest . . . still on my mind

Harvest is still on my mind.  The obsession was fueled this week when I heard about a church that hadn’t held a VBS in years, but did so this summer.  By the way, that’s all about new leadership.  Anyway, they had something like over 60 kids attend every day, and get this . . . over 30 came to faith in Christ.  Wow!

My thought when I heard the story was, “the soil was really right there.  It was God’s time.”  Then I remembered a statement I’d read just a few days earlier:

They will decide whether or not to return before they ever hear the sermon.

What lingers with me about the harvest is this: while we can’t usually control the quality of the “soil” (Matthew 13) in a person’s heart, we can help amend that soil.  How?  By  reaching out, befriending, welcoming, preparing our facilities to receive others, thinking of others rather than ourselves, making our places including church outsider friendly, shaping our talk to fit visitors rather than regulars, serving in community arenas outside our churches, always thinking about and really caring about the reason Jesus died.

And as I thought about the community mentioned above, I realized the pastor there had done that very thing . . . he had not only sown seed, but through his leadership, he and the congregation had been used by God to amend the soil. 

Let’s take a look at ourselves . . . okay?  Let’s ask God to shape who we are in Him, regardless of the cost, so that we are not just sowers, but also amenders of the soil around us.  And let’s not carelessly contribute to hard soil becoming harder, untended soil becoming more weedy or rocky soil becoming even less productive.

They will decide whether or not to return before they ever hear the sermon.

Book lost, point preserved . . .

Whether lost or loaned, it has been a long time since I’ve seen my copy of John Lawrence’s “Laws of the Harvest.”  Never mind.  Fact is I can’t seem to stop thinking about harvest these days.

One particular law really has my attention: we are only reaping the past today. That means future harvests will reflect what we sow today in character and quantity.

Don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so busy dealing with today’s harvest (very important, of course) that I forget I’m right now sowing the seeds of my contribution to tomorrow’s ingathering.  So are you.  And just like we’re harvesting, at least in part, what others previously planted, there will be those in the future who will harvest the results from our sowing today.

Puts a premium on future harvests and on the character of the seed we are sowing right now.  A sobering yet powerful truth:  “. . . for whatever a man sows this will he reap.” Gal. 6:7  

Peers, coaches and exponential impact

Exponential.  It’s a word I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.  I think sensing a shortness of time makes me think this way.  You know . . . the time you thought was unlimited at a particular stage in life now seems very dear . . . very limited.  That thought moves me from thinking arithmetic to thinking multiplication.

When it comes to life impact, multiplication matters.  It’s what Jesus called us to be . . . multipliers . . . exponentially reproductive followers.  And that’s why a book entitled “Exponential”* caught my attention . . . the authors propose that my friends and I can start a missional movement.  Last I checked that’s what SWCBA is supposed to be . . . a missional (exponential) movement. Hmmm.

According to the authors, leadership – reproductive leadership – is a key.  And reproductive leaders need four relationships: they need followers, apprentices, peers and coaches. 

Peers and coaches are my focus for the moment.  Why?  Recognizing the value and role of peers in our lives is the uniqueness of association.  We – peers and colleagues – acknowledge the value and practice the application of mutual coaching to reach mutually held mission objectives . . . exponentially.

We encourage and correct each other . . . we pray for each other and share best practices . . . we reveal our challenges and speak into the challenges of others . . . we guard each other and cherish accountability . . . we commit to results and not just activity.  And in our relationships, we accept the calling to invest in others and receive investment from others who share that calling.  All the time, we’re moving each other toward exponential impact . . . not 4 + 4 + 4, but 4 x 4 x 4 . . .

No lone rangers in the Lord’s exponential strategy . . . only peers and coaches who understand exponential impact is a “we” reality.  It's the reality of effective association.

*The  book referenced is “Exponential” by Dave and Jon Ferguson; Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2010.  It's a good read, particularly if you're in the process of rethinking how you do ministry. 

Where are the pastoral opportunities?

Most weeks here include phone calls and emails from those looking for opportunities to shepherd a Southwest congregation.  Many of the hopeful callers have been looking for quite some time.  Our oft-repeated response is "we have few openings and it is very slow in the pastoral 'job market.'"

Depending upon who you read, you’ll encounter varying explanations for this situation.  The Pew Forum in a recent article reported that we’ve moved from a clergy shortage to a clergy glut in North America.  The reasoning is that the glut is making the position search more competitive and difficult.  However, MSN recently reported that one of the fastest growing areas of professional need for the next decade will be for new clergy.  Population growth and retirements drive their conclusion.

Regardless of the opinion of experts, our take is that pastoral opportunities in evangelical churches in this region are very limited at this point in time.  Why?  One reason is that we evangelicals are experiencing a net loss in available churches every year and have been for quite some time.  Secondly, the economy has caused many staff cutbacks and hiring freezes in churches.  Thirdly, the overwhelming percentage of evangelical churches either plateaued or in decline has created a specific pastoral need that most candidates aren't equipped to fill.  Lastly, we’re not opening enough new churches to offset the reality of church plateau, decline and death.

So what are searching pastors to do?  Here are some possible answers . . . and you’re not going to like all of them:

• Retool yourself to be able to truly help declining and plateaued congregations . . . it’s the major market right now.
• Start something . . . evangelicals need new congregations.  You’re likely going to have to “bootstrap” your dream as the funding for church plants is not what it used to be even though the need is still great.
• Move your thinking from “this is my career” to “this is my calling.”  It will help you find new ways to discover opportunities and fund them.
• Be a missionary in this culture.  There are many churches that need shepherds, but can’t afford the traditional pastor.  Think bi-vocational.
• Apply your calling at a church that needs staff help, but can’t afford it.  In other words, become a volunteer.
• Develop a skill base that will help fund your calling even when the church can't.
• Sharpen all your pastoral skills and especially those needed for effectiveness in this changing North American culture.
• Get deep in the Lord.  Make the Bible, prayer and Godly friends your most precious tools.
• Find a coach who can help you.  Become a coach yourself.
• Learn to network.
• Don’t give up.  Christ’s church still needs His called shepherds. If you’re one of them, there’s a place for you.  It just may not look like it used to.  Pray and persist.

Leaders on my mind . . .

In the past seven days I’ve had occasion to speak with three pastors leading major change in their churches and to attend services in two of those churches.  The difference between the first time I met these congregations and now is striking.  In each instance, combative, argumentative and resistant cultures have been replaced with happy, open, confident and welcoming cultures that are now having a startling effect on their respective communities.

And as much as I’d enjoy talking about those congregations and the changes they’re experiencing, it’s the leaders who are on my mind today.  Difficult, usually dying and most always disobedient congregations don’t usually attract healthy leaders.  Healthy leaders don’t go to those places.  Yet God graced each with a healthy leader who is making a huge difference . . . who is restoring life where life wasn’t evident not long ago.

What sets these leaders apart?  First, it’s their brokenness before God.  No matter the difficulty of their assignment, they somehow sense the grace of God in it; that He has entrusted them with something special and undeserved.  And they clearly understand who they are in relationship to Him and the assignment.  Secondly, you quickly sense their passion for those things God is passionate about – seeking and saving those who are lost. They’re about getting the results the Lord commissioned them to get. Third, no risk seems too large when it comes to pursuing and accomplishing the mission that has captured their passion.  They are willing to die for that mission which in our culture means potentially putting their job, health, security, status and reputation on the line.

To see unfruitful congregations change typically requires a change in who controls the church.  Such changes require tremendous courage, a fourth characteristic, on the part of leadership.  Many of the best of these leaders have spiritual scar tissue surrounding their souls as a result of leading reluctant people to freedom in Christ and His mission.  And lastly, they are deeply committed to Christ’s mission . . . they are missionaries at their core . . . missionaries who lead their congregations in becoming missionaries.

So how do I feel about those three men mentioned above that God has used so powerfully as well as all of those like them?  They’re my heroes.  If there was such a thing as a purple heart for performance in the face of ministry danger, I’d like to pin one on each of them.  And by the way, may their tribe increase.

Got health?

It’s no secret.  My team and I spend much of our time helping good churches and leaders regain lost effectiveness.  Renowned business leader Jack Welch, when asked about his most important task at GM, said it this way, “Fighting entropy.”  It was his way of saying, doing battle with our tendency to lose effectiveness.  We all share this challenge.

Well, in one of those churches and in one of those effectiveness conversations, a leader asked us the same question this way, “So what characterizes a healthy church?”  What a great question.  Stalling for time, I put the question back to the group and got a boat-load of possible answers.

However, as I’ve considered the question frequently since that meeting, I’ve come to believe there’s only one answer: reproduction.  Healthy organisms reproduce, and the church’s main calling is reproduction.  Jesus said that His followers will catch people (Matthew 4).  And at the end of His earthly ministry, He turned that truth into a commissioning of His disciples (Matthew 28).

So healthy churches undoubtedly share many important characteristics, but the ultimate measure is the singular result to which He called us: reproduce disciples. 

If you think exploring that question and a remarkably effective answer has relevance for you, then you’ll want to be at our SWCBA Annual Celebration . . . March 13 . . . First Baptist Church, Tempe, Arizona.  Check our website for details: www.southwestcba.com.

The Jesus said to them, “You come follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.”

The Gospel . . . Unleashed

Okay. Okay.  I know I’ve been neglecting the blog.  Problem is I got stuck in a pattern I found frustrating . . . institutional . . . not to my liking.  Couldn’t lick the pattern so I simply escaped it . . . not a recommended approach for solving anything.  Just felt like I was in a box I didn’t like, but couldn’t get out of . . . couldn’t write my way out of . . . couldn’t study my way out of . . . couldn’t pray my way out of.

Then I discovered it was God’s box, and I needed to be in it!  I needed to feel what it’s like to be, on the one hand, made to be unleashed, but on the other facing the reality of confinement.  Maybe like the wild animals we watch in the zoo . . . pacing around in their cages, no matter how much we try to disguise cages as their real environment . . . somehow as we watch the pacing we have that feeling they weren’t meant to be there . . . confined.  They were built to be unleashed.

So it is with the Gospel . . . it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.  It is meant to be unleashed.  Yet, we so often succeed in boxing it up . . . confining it in packaging we call the church.  And the people who make up the church . . . confined in the box . . . become cantankerous, difficult . . . deep down inside they know they were saved for something else . . . to be unleashed . . . they just can’t find the door out. 

And we pastors and Christian leaders can be the confining agents if we’re not careful . . . people called to unleash men and women who have been changed by the Gospel inadvertently creating cages that tame both the people and the power.

So here’s my theme for this year: UNLEASHED.  I’m going to do everything possible to stay unleashed, and to help leaders, churches, and Christians get unleashed if they’re not . . . stay unleashed if they are.  It’s a scary, wonderful, faith-driven theme . . . a life-changer, church-changer, community-changer and maybe even a world-changer.  What do you think?  Are you ready to let God unleash the Gospel in you . . . through you?  Could make for an exciting 2010.

Anticipation

Searching for the Silver Bullet? Don't

A few days ago Alice and I returned from a wonderful vacation . . . we kayaked, fished, read books, played golf, enjoyed kids and completed a few cabin projects as well.  It was a great couple of weeks of August weather and fun in Washington State.

And the old football coach noticed something . . . high school football practice was under way.  And of course, I stopped and watched for a while!  What surprised me was that practices today look a lot like they did when I was still coaching . . . over 30 years ago.  Yikes!

In the couple of practices I watched, the coaching theme was clear.  It’s all about fundamentals.  You want to win . . . then you have to be fundamentally sound. 

Interestingly, in football and in church there is no escaping the need to be good at the fundamentals.  Which brings me back to vulnerable churches – like struggling athletic programs, when churches begin to struggle they often look for a “silver bullet” . . . one trick play, if you will, that will turn everything around.  Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets – at least any that have long term value.

A few days ago I spoke with a colleague in another state – a master at taking churches that are stuck at a particular growth level or declining, and restoring effective missional momentum.  He said, “I receive calls regularly from some church’s leadership wanting help, but I end up helping very few.”  Okay, I had to ask the question: why don’t you end up helping more of them?

His answer?  “Mostly they are looking for a quick fix.  What I do, and what works, takes work . . . real hard work for the long haul.  They don’t want to do that.”  In my coaching terms, his answer is to win you’ve got to learn how to execute the fundamentals excellently and you’ve got practice those fundamentals over and over and over again.  In reality, you never get beyond the fundamentals: biblical integrity, obedience, evangelism, spiritual growth, prayer, Christ-like love, generosity, authenticity, worship . . . you get the idea.

It’s one of the messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 – 3; they each strayed away from a fundamental or two, and they were each called back to them.  In fact, their ongoing lives as churches depended on it.  So do ours.

Developing Leadership . . . the "must do" of healthy churches

 Before we talk leadership, here’s a quote from the Summer 2009 Leadership Journal regarding interdependence, the topic of my last blog:

“We truly want to have an impact in our community, but too often we don’t achieve anything significant because we insist on doing everything ourselves.  We’re so caught up with our individual goals, agendas and projects that we forget how desperately we need each other.  Our impact is weakened because, like the world around us, Christians have succumbed to individualism.”

                                                Tullian Tchividjian, pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian,

Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Leadership Journal, p. 98)

Well, interdependence is indeed critical for healthy churches . . . it is the Body of Christ at work, after all.  And a constant, consistent and effective development of leadership would fall into that critical category as well.

Visits with vulnerable churches almost always reveal missing generations within the congregation and comparable missing generations of leadership.  Someone in a vulnerable church will often say it this way: “we’re down to two elders, and we have no prospects in the wings.”  When leadership gets that thin, vulnerability is almost always a characteristic of the church’s overall status.

This characteristic doesn’t grow over night.  It usually grows in churches that once had growing ministries and developing leaders.  However, upon arriving at a reasonable level of success, those leaders who had been moving the mission forward stopped doing the things that made them effective.  They began to simply ride those key elements, including leadership, which had been put in place during the growing period.  When that “ride” begins, ineffectiveness and its partner decline are not too far away. 

Too many seasons of the ride will create huge leadership and generational gaps in a church.  If existing long enough, those gaps will be nearly impossible to close.

The principle?  Good church leadership never stops doing, in principle, the things that made their church and its mission successful, and one of those keys is having generations of leadership always in development.