The Centering Act of a Leadower

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centering act of a leadower

If you Google “the first rule of leadership,” you will find lines like, “Mission above ego,” “Everything is your fault” (ouch), “It’s not about you,” or “Lead yourself before others.” When it comes to Christian leadership what if it was, “A Leader must also be a follower.” That ties our last blog theme of discipleship, with this new season of blogs on leadership.

If leaders are also followers, does that make us leadowers? (that’s probably a better fusion of words than folders, ha-ha). As followers of Jesus, who lead other followers of Jesus – leadowers, I wonder if a shift in how we view the church is helpful.

Typically we have thought about the church as a bounded set. A bounded set has a clear boundary line. We know what or who is inside the line, and what or who is outside the line. Just like there are words inside this box and other words outside it. The church as a bounded set has merit – those who are in Christ Jesus are inside the line. That’s very important! But thinking about the church only as a bounded set has some problems. Could it lead to an “us and them” mentality? Is simply being inside enough? As leaders, how do we help people progress if getting in is the goal?

What if the church was more than just a bounded set, what if we also thought of her as a centered set. A centered set is focused on moving towards a middle bullseye. In the church’s case, that center bullseye is Jesus. The goal of discipleship is Christlikeness. Just getting in isn’t the goal. Getting to the center is. Christian leadership is the act of following Jesus as you lead others deeper into following Jesus. I suspect many of us have always thought like this to some degree. But I think digging deeper into the metaphor could be helpful.

Could it broaden our understanding of who we lead and how we lead?

I’m convinced thinking like this can reshape our leadership. All kinds of people, both “inside” and “outside” of the bounded set are moving toward Jesus in a variety of ways. It is our privilege and responsibility to walk with some of them. Sadly, there are sometimes people we consider “inside”, even at some point close to the center, who have acted in ways which move them away from Jesus. We are called to walk with some of them as well. This fuses evangelism and discipleship into one continuous journey. It’s both the journey of those we are called to be with, and our journey as well.

I said “walk with” in the last paragraph because our leadership style shifts if we are on the same journey. Instead of leading from a place of arrival, a place where we have all the answers; what if we led from a place with questions? What if our journey was marked by curiosity and searching? What if we followed the example of a question asking Jesus as we lead? You might call it Spiritual Direction or Coaching, but it is simply the art of asking questions that help others dig deeper into Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the transformative power in our lives. He is the one who ultimately moves us closer to the bullseye. Questions create space. Space to be in the presence of God. Space to know Jesus more. Space to be open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, both in our lives and in the lives of those we lead.

As I end this blog, here are a few great leadower questions:

  1. Where do I (you) see God at work right now? How can I (you) join him?
  2. What is the one thing God is inviting me (you) into today? Or asking me (you) to obey?
  3. What is the thing I (you) could do now to create space for God to move me (you) closer to Jesus?
  4. How does this decision/activity draw me (you) closer to Jesus, or push me (you) away from him?

Neil Bassingthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

How Jesus Made Disciples

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how Jesus made disciples

Many Christians and churches in North America do not reproduce themselves. Nearly four thousand churches close every year in North America. Ed Stetzer estimates that 70% to 80% of all evangelical churches in the U.S. have either stopped growing or are in decline![1] The main reason is this: North America’s church is not reproducing. In contrast, the church in the global south (Asia, Africa, and Latin America) is exploding in number simply because they are reproducing. The Disciple Making Movement (DMM) that we hear about in North America is based on the experience of the disciple-making movements in the global south. We need to learn from the global south and our Lord Jesus how existing churches in North America can become a reproducing disciple-making movement once again.

The ultimate goal of discipleship is to reproduce disciples with the gospel through developing disciple-making leaders and church planters.

Reproduction ensures that a movement will live past its founding stages. The church was never intended to be an end in itself; instead, it is called to reproduce and fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples. Reproduction is the goal of every living thing. We see this throughout the pages of the Bible. The Bible is full of reproductive language. God created humankind, animals, and plants to reproduce. Reproduction is also seen in Jesus’s agricultural language throughout the gospels.

The Evangelical Free Church of the Philippines has a vision of planting two hundred churches in the Philippines and internationally, including Canada and the U.S., by 2026. The Evangelical Free Church of Canada is part of this exciting project. To put it simply, their plan is for each local church to reproduce, at least to plant one church within four years!

Intentionally reproducing disciples’ results from selecting, training, and empowering leaders and church planters who will reproduce themselves in others. This begins locally with the church and then can take place on a larger scale through the reproduction of church plants regionally and internationally. You and I can be a part of a 21st-century disciple-making movement that can change our world for Christ. Let us reproduce and multiply!

Ike Agawin
ServeBeyond Director

[1] Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing, 2007), p.18

The Walk

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“Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (Galatians 5:25 – MSG)

One of the odd things about discipleship, is that we live in a physical world, but discipleship involves spiritual realities. If I’m honest, I know that much of what I have called spiritual growth could be done just as easily if the Holy Spirit were not present. I remember the day when some of this physical, spiritual divide really started to come together for me. Unexpectedly, it was the act of going for a walk that helped me bring the physical and spiritual aspects of discipleship together in a way that has changed the way I experienced my own walk with God and the way I seek to help others in their discipleship journey.

I came across an interesting path. The path was centered around the shape of a cross. If I followed the path. It would lead me to the center of the cross. It was not possible to make a wrong turn and get lost. Even though the next steps were always clear as I walked, I could never tell if I was getting closer or farther from the center.

Sometimes the path would take me very near the center and then it would turn, and I would be walking at the outer edge again. This physical walk is meant to provide a participatory demonstration of what it’s like to walk with the Spirit. To walk this path, you have no choice but to trust the path. It will lead you to the center of the cross. But even when everything in you says, leave the path and take a different route, if you trust the path, you will never get lost.

As I followed that path back out from the center, I began to understand what I had not before. In the process of trying to live the life of the spirit, I was always trying to force the issue. If I did not feel spiritual, I would pretend or invent spiritual stuff. If it seemed I was not close to God as I was before, I was filled with guilt and even shame. As I left the path that day, I understood what it means to believe better than I had. Trust the path. Trust the spirit. Trust the promises of God.

Follow the spirit and the path will be true. I will never know when the way the spirit takes me will lead me closer or farther. But if I remain in faith, it will lead me to Jesus. In God’s way and in God’s time. I will not be lost. Trust, believe, walk in faith. You can imagine that this understanding transformed how I seek to disciple others.

If I can help another fellow disciple in finding the path, and then walking with them until they trust the path, I can trust the life of the spirit to take it from there. Sometimes it seems the other person is moving away from Jesus and sometimes it seems they are closer than they really are. I no longer try to force others to be where I think they should be. They will not be lost. Trust, believe, walk in faith.

“Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (Galatians 5:25 – MSG)

Marvin Penner
EFCC Alberta Parkland District Superintendent

Following Jesus is not like SnapChat

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following Jesus is not like snapchat

Social media is such a mixed bag. One thing it has done is bring back the word “follow.” However, it feels to me like it has made the word distant and passive.

“Follow me,” was Jesus’ call to the first disciples. Action was the response. Proximity of relationship was required. A saying of some Jewish rabbis was, “Cover yourself in the dust of your rabbi’s feet.” The idiom means being right on the heels of the rabbi. Following closely, observing, imitating, learning to be like the rabbi. In the rabbinical system of Jesus’ day, the call to follow a rabbi meant you would leave the life of the family trade behind and enter a new life with one goal and only one – be like your rabbi.

Jesus’ call to us is similar. Our society is different. We don’t have family trades and Jesus doesn’t call all of us to leave our current jobs behind. Although that might be the call for some of us. However, the call to be a disciple is a call to leave our previous life behind and enter one of close relationship with him, with one goal – being conformed to the image of Jesus. This goal is not one we manufacture. We are transformed by the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

Does that sound passive? Just sit and let the Holy Spirit go to work? But that’s not following like a disciple. That’s closer to the kind of following we do on social media. If we follow Jesus like the first disciples, it will be active. They made time for Jesus, walked with him, went places together, talked with him, watched him, ate with him, were astounded by him, and devoted years of their lives to him. Yes, there were also times they failed him, forgot about him, doubted him, and even betrayed him. They weren’t perfect. Neither are we. Yet without active long-term relational connection with Jesus, they would never have grown more like him. The same is true for us. Disciples don’t SnapChat with Jesus. The more time and space we make for Jesus, the more we are transformed by the Spirit. Paul says it this way,

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God…Let them be a living and holy sacrifice…Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Romans 12:1-2

What does this mean for you and me? Whoever you are, whatever you do; the highest calling for all of us is to be followers of Jesus.

Do we desire to be close to Jesus? What are we doing to get closer?

What practices shape your day around him? How do they help you listen and see him better?

When you hear and see him better, how do you imitate (obey) what you observe?

Disciples need each other as well. Who is walking along side you in this journey of following Jesus?

Neil Bassingthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

The Methodology of Mission – Making Disciples

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the methodology of mission

Our Lord Jesus tells His disciples what the specific task of mission is to be:

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

This is the focal point of the Great Commission. The highest priority of Jesus’ mission is evangelism. Jesus tells what specific outcome evangelism is to have – making disciples. What that means and how it is to be done is clarified by Jesus.

An examination of Matthew 28:19-20 shows that this Scripture text consists of four verbs. It consists of an imperative tied to three accompanying participles. The central imperative or command is not the first verb to “go” but “make disciples.” The centerpiece of Jesus’ command is the making of disciples.

How is disciple-making to be done?

Jesus tells His disciples that making other disciples is a three-step process: first, by going to those who had no exposure to the gospel; second, by calling them into a relationship with Jesus that culminates in baptism; and third, by teaching them to observe Jesus’ commands.

All three activities – going, baptizing, and teaching – are necessary components of transformational or real-life discipleship. When done correctly, lives are genuinely changed. This is the ultimate objective of disciple-making – the transformation of lives.

However, the greatest omission of the Great Commission worldwide is the lack of changed lives. All too often, decisions and proselytes are made instead of disciples.

When this happens, churches are filled with bodies that exhibit little evidence of changed beliefs and behaviors. This results in spiritually apathetic “believers” who deteriorate into nominal Christians. And nominal Christians, although wearing the tag “Christian,” are not Christ-followers at all. They are superficial followers of Christ in need of conversion experience.

It is incumbent on every disciple of Christ to reproduce themselves and to engage in the process of making disciples that have the transformation of lives as the final goal. Only then are people genuinely disciples of Christ. Only then is the intended outcome of the Great Commission achieved among all nations.

Ike Agawin
ServeBeyond Director

REAL LIFE Discipleship

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real life discipleship II

Over the next couple of months, you will have the opportunity to read some great blog posts related to the issue of discipleship. Discipleship is ultimately what we are about — making obedient followers of Jesus. The topic certainly deserves our attention. Bill Taylor introduced the topic last week, but as we embark on this short journey of discussion — and before we get too deep into the issue of discipleship — I want to spend a couple of moments contemplating the descriptors of “REAL LIFE.” Why have we attached that to the concept of discipleship?

Of course, there are several potential responses to that question. We could say that we want to consider REAL “life discipleship.”  In other words, not theoretical, academic, or even ideal, discipleship but discipleship that is truly life discipleship, honest and real. Not fake or pretend.

While that is true, I would like to suggest that there is something else bound up in that description. The discipleship we want to focus on is a discipleship that is expressed and experienced in “real life.”  And what is “real life?”  Bill suggested last week that it is complex – and messy. But allow me to push into further detail with a question.

Is “real life discipleship” made up of two hours in church on a Sunday morning?

“Included” yes, “made up,” only partly. “Reflected in” – maybe, “exhausted” – by no means. Sunday morning is only a small part of what we are thinking about. Any discipleship that is limited to our Sunday morning (or Saturday night, or Sunday evening) experience is more than just truncated, it is immature and unbalanced. The discipleship that Jesus calls us to is a real-life discipleship, which means discipleship that embraces all of life as we are experiencing it.

Monday morning is as much a part of our discipleship as Sunday morning. Your interaction with your boss, or employee, or client, should reveal your discipleship as much as your interaction with a friend after a Sunday service around a cup of coffee. Your tone with your children in response to their disobedience or defiance is as much discipleship as taking them to youth group on Thursday night. Your engagement with your neighbor is as much discipleship as your engagement with your pastor.

Real Life is your Sunday experience with your church family. But it is also so much more. Real life includes your workplace, your school, your kid’s school, your family, your neighbors, your hockey rink, your “enemies,” your politicians, your…. You get the point. Real life discipleship impacts all of life. Complete life, and honest life. It is about being a disciple in all of your real, actual life. The good. The bad. The ugly. The bright spots. The dark corners.

This is our calling, to help make real life disciples. And it can only succeed if we as leaders are embracing and exhibiting real life discipleship. Let us take off the masks, open our discipleship daytimers to all 7 days of our week, and expose our entire real life to the call of discipleship Jesus has for us. Are you brave enough to do that? I hope so. Join us in the journey.

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

Real Life Discipleship

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real life discipleship

In a word, what I am saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”  Matthew 5:48 (The Message) 

I love this paraphrase of Matthew 5:48. It rightly summarizes what Jesus is calling His kingdom subjects to (especially in light of the previous verses). In this season we are focusing on real life discipleship. There is no doubt that disciples of Jesus ought to look different than subjects of the kingdom of this world. Jesus is our King. As His subjects, we are ambassadors to this foreign land we live in. We ought to reflect His kingdom values and be a faithful, non-anxious presence in this high anxiety world.

Carey Nieuwhof recently shared a fabulous blog entitled, 3 Ways the Modern World Destroys Your joy, Hope, and Faith in Everything (and How to fight back). He argues that having too many choices undermines our joy. We become paralyzed by FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. If we choose, then we may miss out on something better. So, we avoid committing to things, or choosing. And we miss out. The second thing he highlights is the commodification of loneliness. One would think that social media would alleviate loneliness. Instead, relationships are more surface and designed for validation from strangers rather than being honest, vulnerable (and yes, dangerous) friendships. The third issue robbing us of joy, hope and faith is the apocalyptic spectacle of “politics as entertainment.”  We live in a world of selective reporting that leads to a negative view of the world; a negativity bias that sees the “world going to hell in a handbasket.”  This leads to a polarization on issues based on gross oversimplification. We do not want reality – reality is boring and complicated. We want simple, apocalyptic entertainment. Nieuwhof argues that we live in an affluent society addicted to a hunger for apocalypse – every little issue is seen as “the sky is falling.”  He notes that we want from the world what we are hesitant to dole out to others – justice, love, understanding and kindness.

It seems to me that we do live in a society short on Joy, Hope and Faith. Worse, followers of Jesus can get caught up the very things that destroy human flourishing. This is where real life discipleship comes in. As subjects of Jesus’ Kingdom, we are called to grow up, to be mature. To live out our God-given identity towards others generously and graciously (as He lives towards us). This is to make a simple point.

Real life discipleship is not about more knowledge. It is about living as kingdom subjects who dole out what we want from others – justice, love, and kindness.

We need the power of Jesus and His Holy Spirit for this. Yet we have a part in this too. My part is to focus on things above, practice contentment, thankfulness (undermine FOMO!). I am called to live out my faith in community, not substituting “safe” surface validation of strangers for the honest, refining deep communication of brothers and sisters.

Lastly, I am called to put away this addiction to oversimplifying and overdramatizing the events of the world I live in. I am called to live out my faith as a disciple in the real world. And the real world is more complex than the media portrays it to be (and as I am tempted to think it is). That is why James and Jesus reminded us to be slow to judge. The world and its issues are complex, and I do not have all the data. So obedient disciples of Jesus are slow to speak, anger and judge. We are quick to listen and entrust justice to the One who has all the data. And while we are here (as His ambassadors), we should ask ourselves, “If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do…How would I be? What would I do?”  This might lead us to being real life disciples who in some small ways, create pockets of grace and flourishing in this post-fall world that reflect God’s pre-fall design.

Bill Taylor
EFCC Executive Director

Rebuilding our Witness and Reputation

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rebuilding our witness and reputation

I didn’t get much sleep last Sunday night. I was grieving for the body of Christ, as another body blow to its reputation landed in its gut. I’m writing this less than a week after the Matt Chandler (Village Church in the USA) announcement regarding his leave of absence, after having engaged in an inappropriate social media relationship with a woman. Whatever the facts of this case may be (we are not going to explore them here), it is just one in a lengthy string of celebrity pastors and Christian leaders who have fallen. Regardless of tribe, distance, or church size; this hurts the entire body of Jesus.

In this blog, we have been talking about rebuilding. Especially rebuilding after Covid. What if there’s other rebuilding which needs our attention? What about our part in rebuilding the witness and reputation of the body of Christ? You may say, “we had no part in destroying it, why should we be concerned about rebuilding it.” Or “those are other churches with other kinds of leaders.” While there may be truth in that, we are not altogether separated from these issues. I still remember the faces of shock and grief, as I read a letter from the EFCC Home Office to our congregation, a little more than two decades ago, which announced the resignation of our EFCC President at the time. I think the questions for us remain. We have a part to play. But what exactly is that part?

Charting a comprehensive solution clearly requires something outside the scope of this blog. However, some great books addressing some of the issues are out there. It would be healthy for us all to give these matters some thought. Here are three recommendations:

  • A Church Called Tov – Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer
  • Celebrities for Jesus – Katelyn Beaty
  • When Narcissism Comes to Church – Chuck DeGroat

Finally let me talk about two things that I believe matter greatly:

Character Matters

We are the church of Jesus Christ. We are disciples. The finished product of discipleship is to look like Jesus. While this will not be accomplished in this life, that is the journey we collectively help each other travel. Jesus says those who abide in him will bear fruit. That fruit should include the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When the church of Jesus Christ empowers and emboldens leaders who are far more concerned with results and growth than the pursuit of godly character and fruitfulness, we are flirting with disaster. I’m not saying this is the case in every single scandal, but the telltale signs of this have been all over most of them.

Church Culture Matters

We must be intentional about developing and maintaining church cultures built on the foundational pillars of humility, servanthood, and accountability to one another. We are all servants. Submission is the posture of a disciple. Walking with each other in that posture is how we grow.

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back unto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Gal. 6:1-3

Most of the leaders who have crashed have been the product of a church culture that seems, at least to me, opposed to the verses quoted above. In an attempt to manufacture the “bigger and better” church there is a trend that Christian writer Skye Jethani has called the “Evangelical Industrial Complex.” He identifies the product being produced in this Complex as the celebrity pastor. After all every major enterprise needs its CEO and protecting the “brand” becomes imperative. I suspect he is right. For each of these crashed leaders, a culture was in place that enabled a style of leadership to develop, unchecked at times, which ultimately led to a crash. Understand, I’m not making excuses for their bad behaviour. These leaders made terrible choices that they didn’t have to make. The above quoted passage goes on to talk about personal responsibility and the fact that we reap what we sow. However, culture still matters.

You may still be saying, we aren’t that kind of church, why does this matter to us? Well, we love to copy “success.”

Haven’t we all been tempted at times to adopt principles, methods, or a church model from somewhere else just to get results?

And let’s be candid, some of this stuff just appeals to our fleshy desires. It feels good to be called the “chief elder.” I have heard that term bantered around at a conference by church leaders. It seems innocent in and of itself – and may well be — but when does it begin to infect a culture with pride and protectionism as opposed to humility, servanthood, and accountability?

I’ve got far more questions than answers these days, especially about this topic. But let’s continue to talk as an EFCC family about the part we play in helping rebuild the witness and reputation of the body of Christ.

Neil Bassignthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

Rebuilding Our Vision for Ministry

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rebuilding our vision for ministry

Vision is crucial for organizational and leadership success. Without a clear vision, leaders and organizations will stagnate and go nowhere. If leaders do not see where they are going, they are unlikely to get there.

Vision can serve as a True North for organizations and help leaders keep their bearings as they lead their people forward. Any organization with no clear vision of where it is going is in danger of mission drift and being sidetracked and failing to accomplish its purpose. A leader or an organization without a vision to serve is at risk of becoming self-serving.

Helen Keller was once asked, “What would be worse than being born blind”? She replied, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

A clear and compelling vision is critical for leaders and organizations. But where do ministry leaders get their vision?

I once led a national mission organization and was expected to have my vision to move the organization forward. There was tremendous pressure for me to come up with a personal vision. It was very stressful, especially when my vision did not match other leaders’ visions. Leaders are expected to generate a vision, envision a desirable future for their organization, and then develop a plan to achieve the results. The leader is responsible for interpreting the rapid global changes around them and looking into the future to determine the best approach for their organizations.

But God does not ask His leaders and followers to operate this way. When it comes to vision, no statement is more frequently quoted or misquoted by many Christian and non-Christian leaders than King Solomon’s famous observation: “Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18 KJV). A more accurate translation in Hebrew is, “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint (Proverbs 29:18 NIV). People come up with a vision, while revelation is something people receive.

Great leaders can dream a vision but cannot discover God’s will. God must reveal it. Leaders who ignore God’s will project their vision and accomplish their own agendas.

Great leaders in the Bible like Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, and Peter received visions from God. Abraham did not become the father of many nations because he had a vision for it. God called him and revealed God’s vision to him. Abraham obeyed and led with God’s vision. Moses became the deliverer of Israel not because he had a leader-generated vision. God revealed to Moses His vision to deliver His people from Pharaoh. Moses obeyed and ran with God’s vision. It was not Paul’s vision to become the Apostle to the Gentiles. He persecuted the Church, but God called him on the road to Damascus. God revealed His vision to Paul. Paul obeyed and embraced God’s vision. Great leaders in the Bible did not come up with their vision. They did not create their vision. God revealed His vision to them. They obeyed, and God’s vision was their vision.

God has revealed His vision for the Church in Revelation 7:9-10:

9 After these things, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

This is God’s vision for the Church, and He calls His leaders to obey and run with His vision to become a reality. Today, God’s vision has not changed. As we rebuild our vision for ministry in the 21st century, let us renew and rebuild our vision with God’s vision.

Ike Agawin
ServeBeyond Director

Rebuilding According to Reality not Partiality

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rebuilding according to reality not partiality

If you read our EFCC Blog regularly (or even semi-regularly), you will know that over the past several months we have been talking about “rebuilding.”  We have talked about the foundation of our rebuilding work, which thankfully has remained unchanged. And several of the posts have challenged us with considerations about “how” to effectively rebuild. But there is one consideration of rebuilding we have not yet talked much about:  Who are you rebuilding for, and with? Certainly, we are working for God’s purposes, yet there remains an important consideration regarding the specific target group our calling embraces.

Allow me to start with this:  We need to rebuild, not refresh. Refresh assumes many things remain the same. Rebuilding assumes many things have changed. So, to rebuild, we must consider well the context we are rebuilding with and for.

Paul had a special calling to the Gentiles (see, for example, Acts 9:15). Peter, on the other hand, spent much time ministering to the Jews. They both understood something of the groups they were called to, and their ministries took into account the culture they were seeking to impact. Even as Paul spoke to the philosophers at Mars Hill in Acts 17, he made certain that he knew something about what they believed, what their worldview was. Without pushing further into these examples, I simply want to say that it is really important that we have an accurate picture of the people God has called us to minister to and with.

Friends, you do not need me to tell you that the world has changed over the past couple of years. And I would say that more change is coming – to our world and thus to the church. What people expect of the church, what people are willing to give to the church (time and resources), what the community expects of the church, what will be effective in engaging the community – in sum, the culture we are ministering within and to, has all changed and will continue to do so. My question for you to ponder is simply this:  are you working to rebuild for a 1999 culture/world, or a 2025 culture/world. We may wish things were the same as they used to be. We may wish that people in our churches were the same, that the people in our communities were the same. But wishing will not make it so.

We cannot rebuild the past. Nor should our rebuilding ignore reality.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said that “He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.” (Life Together, p 27). Stretching Bonhoeffer’s observation into our context here — if you have a picture of the church you are trying to rebuild that is based on your personal dream and not the reality of where people are truly at, the world you want versus the world we have, you will struggle to experience fruitfulness.

So, my plea is simply. Look around. Ask. Listen. Learn. Do your best to understand where people’s hearts are at today. What are their needs? Will you meet them where they are at, not just where you think they should be? Will you rebuild based on where they are at, not where you think they should be? Will you be flexible enough (as Neil talked about last week) to rebuild based on the “new normal” not the comfortable past, or your ideal future? More than ever, we need to be students of the culture, students of the people, students of worldviews different than what we are used to, maybe even different than what we are comfortable with.   Only then we will be able to rebuild with the effectiveness God calls us to.

When rebuilding the right focus and foundation is essential. Wisdom, humility, respect, and a gracious attitude are key. But knowing and understanding the world around you cannot be ignored. We all need to take another, honest, brave look around us, and then begin to rebuild with the context of our world in mind.

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

Rebuild to Generate the Right Product

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rebuild to generate the right product

Jesus came and told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I recently read a great blog post from Carey Nieuwhof entitled, “When the pastor becomes the product.” In it, Nieuwhof reminds us of how easy it is for both mega churches and small churches to mistakenly make the pastor the center of the church. Indeed, the pastor ends up being the “product” a church offers to consumers (and potential customers) inside and outside of the church. Nieuwhof rightly reminds us that the church, not the pastor, is the Body of Christ. He illustrates how making the pastor the center places way too much pressure on the pastor. Lastly, he admits that pastors can enjoy being the center of the church way too much (and resent the pressure that comes from it at the same time).

I quoted Matthew 28:18-20 above. The Great Commission of Jesus reminds me that all authority has been given to Jesus. He is the center of the church (read Colossians 1 on this), not me. The product that He wants us to invest in are disciples who are taught to obey everything Jesus commanded. In Paul’s language from Ephesians 4, that would be mature disciples who are equipped to do “works of service.” Gifted celebrity preachers and omnicompetent parish chaplains are not the product we try to sell to the world and to sheep currently residing in other sheepfolds.

We are not rebuilding post COVID to manufacture the best programs, spiritual packages and personnel so that more sheep will be attracted to our sheepfolds than to the church down the road. The product is a mature disciple.

It’s not that the pastor and the programs aren’t important. In fact, pastors need to be at the center of helping a local church discern what a mature, fruit of the Spirit disciple looks like. The pastor also needs to help a local church design disciple-making pathways that help disciples become “conformed to the image of His Son.” This actually necessitates that pastors think through carefully what the Sunday morning worship service can accomplish as part of the disciple-making pathway. Then we need to ascertain what other parts of the church program help a disciple mature and produce “fruit of the Spirit” “works of service.” Simply telling folks what they are doing wrong and what more they need to do on Sunday morning is not enough. Jesus didn’t intend us to “teach them to obey everything He commanded” exclusively from behind a pulpit (from a safe distance). Jesus walked with disciples for the better part of three years, and His teaching was mostly informal and situational – in the context of whatever was going on in life at the time. Yes, Jesus occasionally had a more formal “sermon” (on a mount), but most of His “Word-working” (as Lee Eclov calls it), was in informal everyday life contexts.

Steve Sharpe and Neil B have insightfully highlighted that there is a great difference between accountability to law and accountability/discipling by grace. Discipling by law means I tell disciples what they should or should not do – but I don’t walk alongside them to help them succeed (or restore them and encourage them to try again once they have failed.) Discipling by grace means someone commits to walking alongside me and helping me succeed. It’s like two people who want to lose weight and agree to be accountability partners. Accountability by law means we will check in once a week and share how we ate junk food and didn’t exercise and we will promise to do better next week (but we know deep down that we will fail again because we are on our own). Accountability by grace means that we will agree to go grocery shopping together to make sure we don’t buy junk food. One of us will pick the other up on our way to the gym and we will exercise together. If we want to rebuild the right product, we need accountability partners who will help each other succeed. We need to build systems where disciples are accountability partners of grace. Sunday morning services will be important for some things, but if the product we are trying to build is a mature disciple, then we will need to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded” not only in sermons, but in incarnational pathways of grace.

Bill Taylor
EFCC Executive Director

Flexible like Water

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flexible like water

The infamous Ross Geller “pivot” scene from the TV show Friends resurfaced in Covid. Ross is trying to direct people moving a sofa up a stairway. All he can do is stand and yell “PIVOT.” Covid felt like that.

The flexibility we learned during Covid may bode well for our future. But let’s try a different metaphor. Water is highly adaptable. Just ask seven-year-old me. The walk home from school during the spring thaw was a blast. I got to race popsicle sticks down the sidewalk gutters with my friends. Strange kid, right? It was great fun! We would run ahead and build snow blockades and channels for the sticks to navigate. The amazing thing was the running water almost never got stopped. It always found a way past the obstacles. Water does that.

Let’s take that metaphor and apply it to church and ministry. In our rebuilding, I hope we aren’t simply rushing back to “normal”. I hope we are reflecting on what adapting to a new ministry context means.

We witnessed a fair amount of isolation and loneliness during the pandemic. I’m not sure that was isolated to the pandemic, it seems to be on-going.

Should we be thinking about strengthening “church as family” in this context? What would we need to do to make church feel more like family? In what ways do we need to shift how we function to ensure that people and relationships trump programs and structure? This is only one of the ways we could and probably should adapt. But adapting is hard.

One of the things that I love about my job is that I hear quite a bit from church planters. Church planters are typically highly adaptable. They must be like water, always finding ways around obstacles. Here are a few ideas from their world that might help us be more flexible:

Conduct short-term experiments

When church planters start, everything is a short-term experiment. However, established church have a harder time doing experiments. Most churches try to implement change with a vote on something that no one has tried. What if you could test drive a change? Try out a change for three months, or six months to see how it fits? Would that help us become more adaptable?

Foster an R&D environment

Church planters don’t stop experimenting. It’s pretty much their life. It’s necessary. Research and development are crucial to the process. While that kind of change is clearly uncomfortable for most people, how could your ministry or church be more like an R&D environment? How would this help you move ahead in ministry?

Make space for small failures

We almost always learn more from failure than from success. Church planters certainly do. I believe our churches and ministries could too. Now there is a huge difference between small failures and colossal ones. A culture of short-term experiments will result in some small failures. However, if we can’t make space for small failures so we can learn, a much larger failure may be waiting for us down the road.

Always evaluate

Experimenting, R&D, and space for small failure, don’t matter if there is no evaluation. A handful of questions should be asked after every experiment. What did we learn? How did this help us make disciples of Jesus? How has this helped or hindered our mission? Is there a better way to accomplish what we set out to do? What failure do we not want to repeat? What success do we want to celebrate? I suspect you could think of a few more.

Being flexible like water sounds a little bit scary, but it just might be one of the skills we need to move forward.

Neil Bassignthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst