ISSUE 24 / JULY _ AUGUST 2019
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A HOUSE OF PRAYER BORN (AGAIN) IN THE USA THE DISCERNING LEADER
MAGAZINE
THE SHAPE OF LEADERSHIP INFLUENCE MAGAZINE
S U B S C R I P T I O N S
1445 N. Boonville Avenue Springfield, MO 65802-1894 Influence magazine is published by Influence Resources. Publisher: Douglas E. Clay Executive Director, Influence Resources: Chris Railey Executive Editor: George P. Wood Managing Editor: Rick Knoth Senior Editor: John Davidson Assistant Editor: Christina Quick Contributing Editor: Chris Colvin Designers: Steve Lopez, Prixel Creative Advertising Coordinator: Ron Kopczick
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CONTRIBUTORS Stephen Blandino, Kathy Cannon, Chris Colvin, David Crosby Jr., John Davidson, Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Rhea Falig, Alton Garrison, Patrick Grach, Walter Harvey, Will Jones, Kristi Northup, Stephen and Priscilla Perumalla, Jeffery Portmann, Christina Quick, Chris Railey, Gerad Strong, Al Toledo, Holly Wilson, George P. Wood
SPECIAL THANKS Douglas E. Clay, Alton Garrison, Donna L. Barrett, Rick DuBose, Greg Mundis, Malcolm Burleigh
E D I T O R I A L For info or queries, contact editor@influencemagazine.com. A D V E R T I S I N G Display rates available upon request. Contact advertising@influencemagazine.com. By accepting an advertisement, Influence does not endorse any advertiser or product. We reserve the right to reject advertisements not consistent with the magazine’s objectives. Website: influencemagazine.com Twitter: @theinfluencemag Facebook: facebook.com/theinfluencemag Instagram: @theinfluencemag
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Copyright © 2019 by The General Council of the Assemblies of God, 1445 N. Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65802-1894. Permission required for reprints. All rights reserved. All materials published herein including, but not limited to articles, photographs, images, and illustrations are protected by copyright and owned or controlled by Influence magazine of The General Council of the Assemblies of God. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan (www.zondervan.com). All rights reserved worldwide. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ Influence magazine (ISSN: 2470-6795) is published six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November by Influence Resources (1445 N. Boonville Avenue, Springfield, MO 65802-1894). Periodicals postage paid at Springfield, Missouri, and at other mailing offices. Printed in the U.S.A.
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CONTENTS
ISSUE_24/ JULY_AUGUST 2019
8 If You Ask Me REFLECTIONS ON LEADERSHIP
From Fear to Faith
10 Get Set L E A D E R S I M PA C T I N G T H E C H U R C H A N D C U LT U R E
All the Right Notes A Q&A With Hollyn
p10 12 Like a Leader TOOLS FOR PERSONAL AND CONGREGATIONAL GROWTH
• Live: Three Times to Say ‘No’ • Think: How to Handle Disruptions • Learn: The Netflix of Church Resources and Selected Book Reviews
22 Playbook S T R AT E G I E S F O R E F F E C T I V E M I N I S T R Y
• Build: When Pain Hits Home • Know: Five Habits of High-Capacity Leaders • Invest: Reaching Generation Z • Ethics: Comparison Isn’t the Real Trap We Need to Avoid
36 HOW TO BEGIN RECALIBRATING YOUR CHURCH Any church can move toward greater effectiveness. ALTON GARRISON
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48 A HOUSE OF PRAYER Establishing a God-seeking culture is your church’s most important work. AL TOLEDO
56 BORN (AGAIN) IN THE USA As people of the Spirit, how should we think about immigrants, foreigners and others who are different from us? RODOLFO GALVAN ESTRADA III
65 Multipliers LEADERS LEVERAGING THEIR GIFTS FOR GOD’S KINGDOM
Ministry in the Most Difficult Places • Walter Harvey: A Privileged Calling • Gerad Strong and Rhea Falig: Remembering the Forgotten Places • Jeffery Portmann: Hope Is a Light in the Darkest Places • Stephen and Priscilla Perumalla: Difficulties Won’t Stop Us!
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74 Make It Count AN EIGHT-WEEK STUDY FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS
The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
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88 The Final Note American Mission
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IF YOU ASK ME
Reflections on leadership
From Fear to Faith CHRIS RAILEY wish everyone could attend one of our Church Multiplication Network Launch events. Our team annually conducts eight of these at various sites across the country, each time training and equipping 20 or more church planting teams to start new churches. The events are full of life, anticipation and energy — and the unmistakable combination of faith and fear as these church planters pursue their Godgiven dreams. These diverse groups are preparing for the scariest thing they’ve ever done. Yet they commit their families and futures to God as they follow Him into the unknown. I wish everyone could be in the room at one of these events because it’s a reminder of what it looks like when our faith becomes greater than our fear. The battle between faith and fear is one we constantly fight as leaders. Fear can prove a great motivator, but it should not win out over faith. Unfortunately, it often does. In the Assemblies of God, we’re doing better on the church-planting front than nearly all other denominations. However, we’re still barely breaking even due to church closures. Why aren’t we planting more churches? Why are so many congregations plateaued or declining? Why aren’t more missionaries going to unreached parts of the world? I believe what holds us back is fear. I know this is often true for me. Recently, my 10-year-old son, Cooper, brought home a class assignment that asked him to respond to several innocent questions, including, “What are you afraid of ?” Cooper wrote that he feared 9/11 would happen again. I was stunned. I suppose I expected him to say spiders or snakes or roller coasters, but not that. I would never have guessed a terror attack that happened before Cooper
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Chris Railey, D.Min., is executive director of Influence Resources and senior director of leadership and church development ministries for The General Council of the Assemblies of God, U.S.A.
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was born, in a place he has never visited, was on his radar, much less that he thinks about it enough to feel afraid. It made me wonder how fear in the Church affects our thoughts and behaviors — fear that, consciously or unconsciously, determines whether we play it safe or go for it in Jesus’ name. I wonder how many of my own decisions are secretly rooted in fear. To go where God calls us to go, we must confront our fears and take new steps of faith. There’s much more on the line than how many churches we plant every year. The faith and courage we pass on to the next generation will ultimately shape the future. God is reminding me once again that the key to success in leadership is continually putting myself in a position that requires faith. I’m praying two things this year for the Church Multiplication Network and every leader in the Assemblies of God, myself included: 1. An attitude of expectation — the driving belief that God always has more in store. 2. A willingness to take a new step of faith, positioning ourselves to trust God for miracles. I desire to belong to a Fellowship that never stops taking radical steps of faith to bring glory to God. I want to live my life that way, pass it on to my sons, and instill it in emerging leaders. Throughout this issue of Influence, you’ll hear from others who share that passion. In the cover article, Alton Garrison lays out a bold vision for breathing new life into struggling churches. In “A House of Prayer,” Al Toledo writes insightfully about what it takes to create an atmosphere where people seek and encounter God. And in “Born (Again) in the USA,” Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III offers an important reminder that God’s kingdom transcends the things that divide us, including our biases and fears. I pray this issue of Influence sparks your imagination and moves you forward in faith.
GET SET
Leaders Impacting the Church and Culture
All the Right Notes A Q&A WITH HOLLYN
“ What’s beautiful about art is it requires opinion, honesty and creativity. God is the ultimate creative.”
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Holly Marie Miller Wilson, known by her stage name, Hollyn, is a Christian musician, songwriter and performer. Raised in a Christian home, she started writing music at the age of 14 and recorded her first EP at 15. Hollyn is married to Dillon Wilson, former young adults pastor at Oaks Church (AG) in Red Oak, Texas, where Wilson’s father, Scott, is the senior pastor. Hollyn has toured with Winter Jam 2019 and Newsboys, and has features on tracks from TobyMac.
to ask myself what I wanted to do with my art, and who I wanted to surround myself with. As a 15-year-old at the time, it opened my eyes to another level of the industry I had never been exposed to before. Every part of my life so far has allowed me to pick up knowledge that I’ve used ever since, so I’m thankful for it. How do you hear from God when it comes to songwriting? What is the process of turning it into lyrics that minister to people? I believe that our own lives are the fuel for creativity. Looking around to see who we surround ourselves with, situations day to day, and our expression of emotions play a key role in why and how I write music. For me, it’s all about connection. If I can tap into how I am feeling, and be vulnerable, I hope that openness can bring comfort to other people who have been through the same situations as me.
Photo: Isaac Apon
INFLUENCE: Where did you hone your skills for songwriting, singing and performing? HOLLYN: I’ve always had a passion for music. Ever since I can remember, that’s how I’ve expressed myself. To me, songwriting is a way to connect immediately. Regardless of what a song says, you can provoke emotion. What’s beautiful about art is it requires opinion, honesty and creativity. God is the ultimate creative. So, it’s an ongoing progression through us, as human beings, to continue that expression. You were on Season 12 of American Idol, where you made it to the Hollywood week rounds. What was that experience like for you? It was a unique experience. It pushed me
What message are you hoping to convey through your music to young people today? I want my friends and listeners to understand that life isn’t meant to be done alone. A lot of times, we shut off how we are actually feeling to fuel a facade. I want to do my best to give them a safe place with my art to sing along, be encouraged to tell their friends what’s happening in their lives, and to know life can be beautiful in the midst of pain. Even to see that pain is growth and freedom in disguise sometimes. All we have to do is talk to each other. What is your favorite Scripture verse, and why is it important to you? Galatians 6:2: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” It’s our purpose in life — to love each other, no matter our differences, and to help carry the weight. If we aren’t doing that, why are we here?
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LIVE LIKE A LEADER
Three Times to Say ‘No’ KAT H Y C A N N O N
A negative answer can yield positive results in ministry.
Kathy Cannon is lead pastor at Sacred Church (AG) in San Bruno, California.
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e have a fundamental flaw in our education system. Unfortunately, we have all learned that “no” is the opposite of “yes.” For years, our teachers told us these two words can’t exist in the same space — that one, in fact, negates the other. As pastors, we feel a deep burden and calling to service and fruitfulness, but also a need to juggle the demands of everyday life. We may feel pressure, internally or externally, to say “yes” to as much as possible. But is this the healthiest option? When we learn that “yes” and “no” can coexist, we unlock powerful potential. Sometimes, “no” is the most positive, affirming, Christlike answer we can give. Here are three times to say “no” in ministry: 1. Say “no” when activity is crowding out creativity. As the tasks of fruitfulness increase, we can quickly move into a maintenance mode that wears down our mental capacity for vision casting. Genesis 1 reveals that the Holy Spirit hovered over a void. If you want to see God’s creative power at work in your life and ministry, you need to clear some space in your schedule. What can you automate or delegate to free up blocks of time so you can say “yes” to Spirit-guided study, discovery and dreaming? 2. Say “no” when a program has run its
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course. Many ministries start out with great excitement and engagement from the church body, only to wane in fruitfulness and wear on the pastor. When the natural life cycle of a program or process reaches the end and we’re left holding all the weight and responsibility, it’s time to say “no.” Sometimes, the most pastoral thing we can do is officiate the funeral for a dead ministry. 3. Say “no” when it’s time for others to say “yes.” Pastors are responsible for encouraging and releasing others into a place of maturity. Just as parents give their children increasing levels of responsibility, we must delegate and release responsibility to well-trained laity. This is not about a church family picking up the slack for a pastor; this is about a church being who God created it to be — many parts of one Body, working together. The pastor represents one of God’s gifts to the church, but not the gift. We cannot, and should not, be doing everything. Likewise, the members of the local church cannot, and should not, be doing everything. Perhaps God is calling you and your church into a season of saying “no.” How exciting! Remember, saying “no” is not the opposite of saying “yes.” Saying “no” is the key that opens the door to a better “yes.” Say “yes” to God-inspired creativity, a joyful ministry and life, and a fully utilized and empowered church.
THINK LIKE A LEADER
How to Handle Disruptions KRISTI NORTHUP
Don’t let the unexpected throw you off.
Kristi Northup is co-pastor at Saints Community Church (AG) in Metairie, Louisiana, along with her husband, Wayne. She is also a singer-songwriter and worship leader.
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nyone who grew up in church has at least a few crazy stories about things that went wrong in a service. I’ve seen smoke machines that wouldn’t stop, flying toupees, and people slipping in the baptismal tank. Some disruptions aren’t funny, like heretical prophetic words, a medical emergency, or protesters interrupting a service. With an infinite number of things that can go awry, it helps to have some systems and methods in place so you can respond appropriately. Here are several basic guidelines for dealing with the unexpected in a service: Be a shepherd. First, whether the issue is big or small, the goal is to shepherd people. We don’t want to shame or embarrass them. At the same time, we don’t want to jeopardize the trust or security of the congregation. This principle should always guide the decision of how to handle whatever is going on.
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Rely on teamwork. Inevitably, strange things happen. Several members of your ministry team need to be ready to handle a disruption at a moment’s notice. Prepare staff members, worship leaders, head ushers, elders and deacons to help manage the situation when appropriate. De-escalate. The fastest way to intensify a problem is for a leader to approach it loudly and aggressively. It’s best for an usher or deacon to step in quietly and calmly, with a kind and gracious offer to help. Transitioning a disruptive person to a quieter area, like a lobby or side room, may be enough to resolve the issue. Let the music cover it. Sometimes, a disruption affects only the people immediately surrounding it. A poised worship leader knows how to use music to cover many such disturbances. Chances are, most congregants won’t even realize anything happened. Keep going. After an awkward moment, it’s sometimes best just to move on. Stopping can draw more attention to it. This is often the case when someone accidentally says something inappropriate from a microphone. Acknowledge it. If it’s too obvious to ignore, go ahead and acknowledge whatever happened. It releases the tension from the room if everyone can laugh a little. Address it. Sometimes the situation calls for shepherding. You may need to offer some explanation of what happened, and possibly a theological correction. In these moments, it’s important to share a Scripture to provide some context. This helps congregants understand that you’re not just giving your opinion, and that church leaders rely on something greater than themselves for guidance. Laugh about it later. Laughter really is good medicine. Even difficult situations are easier to assess when you’ve had a chance to see the humor in them. It can be awkward and tricky to know how to handle some situations in the moment. Love your people. Don’t let the unexpected throw you off. Protect them when the situation calls for it. Laugh later when crazy things happen. Someday, it will be an exciting story.
LEARN LIKE A LEADER Selected Book Reviews
NEVER ENOUGH
When organized religion declines, replacement religions fill the void. Books reviewed by
George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine.
merican organized religion is declining. According to Gallup data, only 1 percent of U.S. adults claimed no religious affiliation in 1955. By 2017, that percentage had grown to 20. The younger the adult, the likelier the lack of religious affiliation. For adults aged 30 to 39, the percentage is 28; for those aged 21 to 29, it’s 33 percent. If you’re looking for evidence of secularization in America, this rise of the “nones” is Exhibit A. Yet David Zahl claims in his new book, Seculosity, that “the marketplace in replacement religion is booming.” Those replacements don’t look or feel religious, however — at least not in the capital-R sense of the term, which Zahl describes as “robes and kneeling and the Man Upstairs.” They don’t necessarily look like “folkloric beliefs” or “occult belief systems” either: things like charms, telepathy, or astrology.
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The Netflix of Church Resources arlier this year, the Assemblies of God Church Multiplication Network launched CMN Lead to provide free resources for church leaders around the world. The eye-catching, highly accessible platform offers a variety of videos and other content that users can navigate with the ease of scrolling Netflix. While each ministry is unique, many of the challenges we face as church leaders are similar. CMN Lead provides tools that address these real-life issues. Ministers need to hear from like-minded leaders who can offer wisdom, guidance and encouragement. Of course, meeting with them isn’t always easy. CMN Lead provides a convenient way to glean insights from leaders like Rob Ketterling, Scott Hagan, Mark Batterson and many others. CMN Lead constantly anticipates and virtually answers many of the questions church leaders are asking. CMN Lead does the legwork of networking with influential leaders. The result is a growing library of information on diverse topics for all phases of ministry. Some of the most encouraging offerings are the testimonies of leaders who have been through difficult times, sharing how they made it to the other side. With hundreds of valuable resources and a commitment to add more, CMN Lead equips leaders with the information and tools they need for successful ministry. Visit cmnlead.com.
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Raymond Hudson is executive pastor of New Life Church (AG) in Dublin, California.
In theological terms, seculosity is just the latest example of a “religion of law.”
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Seculosity (continued from page 16) Instead, replacement religions center around everyday concerns such as — to list the topics of the book’s chapters — busyness, romance, parenting, technology, work, leisure, food and politics. Zahl calls each of these replacements “seculosity,” a portmanteau of “secular” and “religiosity.” Seculosity is a religious impulse “directed horizontally rather than vertically, at earthly rather than heavenly objects.” Why does Zahl consider these secular concerns religious? And why should we? Those are fair questions, good ones even, because they go straight to the heart of what our culture thinks religion is. We typically think of religion in capital-R terms: organized religion with its concerns for doctrine, ritual, community and institutions. Those are outward manifestations of an inward impulse, which Zahl calls “the justifying story of our life.” According to him, religion is “what we lean on to tell us we’re OK, that our lives matter.” It is “our preferred guilt-management system.” In other words, religion is what “we rely on not just for meaning or hope but enoughness.” This search for enoughness characterizes religious “nones” just as much as it does the traditionally religious. It is a universal longing. Take the everyday concern about busyness, for example. Ask people how they’re doing, and they’ll probably reply, “Busy.” I certainly would. Between work, marriage, parenting and life in general, it feels like every moment of every day is accounted for … and then some. I tell myself to rest, but the moment I start to do so, the nagging suspicion takes hold that a book needs read, an article needs written, a chore needs accomplished, my kids need helicoptered over, my wife needs date-nighted, the latest blockbuster movie needs watched, etc. (Notice that even our leisure activities, such as dating and movie watching, become to-do items.) These nagging suspicions arise from what Zahl calls “performancism.” He writes: “Performancism turns life into a competition to
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be won (#winning) or a problem to be solved, as opposed to, say, a series of moments to be experienced or an adventure to relish. Performancism invests daily tasks with existential significance and turns even menial activities into measures of enoughness.” And woe betide those who fail at these tasks, because “if you are not doing enough, or doing enough well, you are not enough.” Zahl doesn’t quote Blaise Pascal at this point, but there’s a lot of wisdom in the latter’s statement, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” (Now that I’ve quoted Pascal, I’m feeling guilty that I’m not checking off that to-do item either.) Performancism is “one of the hallmarks of all forms of seculosity,” their underlying assumption, affecting how we approach everyday life. It cripples seculosity’s practitioners with anxiety (Am I enough?), shame (Do they think I’m enough?), and guilt (Have I done enough?). “The common denominator [in all forms of seculosity] is the human heart, yours and mine,” Zahl explains. “Which is to say, the problem is sin.” In theological terms, you see, seculosity is just the latest example of a “religion of law.” It is a form of self-justification or works-righteousness. And like all such schemes, it is doomed to failure because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are not enough. We have not done enough. We cannot do enough. The antidote to seculosity is a “religion of grace,” Zahl concludes. “Sin is not something you can be talked out of (‘stop controlling everything!’) or coached through with the right wisdom. It is something from which you need to be saved.” That salvation depends on the sacrificial love of Christ. He is enough, and only in Him can you be enough. BOOK REVIEWED David Zahl, Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What To Do About It (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2019).
HOW TO DEVELOP WOMEN LEADERS s a Pentecostal minister, I support women’s leadership in the Church. I believe the Holy Spirit calls and empowers women to exercise their spiritual gifts, just as He does for men, whether those gifts prepare them for service as a lead pastor, a leading volunteer, or something in between. And I am grateful to be an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God, a denomination that affirms women’s leadership in both its theology and governing documents. Even so, I recognize that women continue to face obstacles on the road to fulfilling their God-given callings. One major obstacle is theological: Too many evangelical churches and denominations value women’s congregational ministries but continue to cap their leadership at the point where women might exercise authority over men. The other major
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obstacle is practical and common even in churches and denominations like mine that affirm women’s leadership. Here, the problem is that such organizations make inadequate provision for the recruitment, development and retention of women leaders. Kadi Cole’s Developing Female Leaders does not weigh in on the theological obstacle to women’s leadership. Instead, she focuses on the practical obstacle. Whatever a church’s theology of women’s leadership, she argues, all churches can do better at developing women to serve at the highest level their theology allows. This is a shrewd move on Cole’s part, given the intractable debates among evangelicals about gender roles in church and society. It
All churches can do better at developing women to serve at the highest level their theology allows.
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allows her to help all churches, whatever their theologies of women’s leadership, improve their practices of developing women leaders. Here are the eight “best practices” Cole recommends in her book: 1. Seek to understand. 2. Clearly define what you believe. 3. Mine the marketplace. 4. Integrate spiritual formation and leadership development. 5. Be an “other.” 6. Create an environment of safety. 7. Upgrade your people practices. 8. Take on your culture. While this list accurately summarizes the best practices Developing Female Leaders recommends, it fails to articulate the wisdom, empathy and granularity of good advice that runs throughout each chapter of the book. If you are a male church leader, you really
RECOMMENDED READING FOR LEADERS
LEADERSHIP IN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE “Empowering leadership,” write Justin A. Irving and Mark L. Strauss, “is a process by which leaders and followers partner together for the purpose of achieving common goals and shared vision.” Such leaders must cultivate “authentic and purposeful character,” give “priority to people,” and move “toward effectiveness.” The insights in Leadership in Christian Perspective are grounded in the Bible, confirmed by contemporary leadership studies, and demonstrated to be relevant with practical advice to leaders at all levels.
FIND YOUR WAY Carly Fiorina (Tyndale Momentum) Carly Fiorina makes readers two promises in Find Your Way: You will learn to (1) solve problems and (2) realize your potential for leadership, defined as “changing the order of things for the
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BOOK REVIEWED Kadi Cole, Developing Female Leaders: Navigate the Minefields and Release the Potential of Women in Your Church (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2019).
By Influence Magazine
Justin A. Irving and Mark L. Strauss (Baker Academic)
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need to read this book. It will open your eyes to the obstacles that the more-than-half of your congregation, which is female, routinely face as they seek to perform their ministries, whether on staff or as volunteers. More importantly, however, it will give you a detailed plan to clear those obstacles and develop women leaders better. My guess is that as your leadership development practices for women improve, the overall quality of your leadership pipeline will improve too, for both men and women. Finally, for women leaders reading this book, it concludes with a bonus chapter titled, “Best Practices for Female Leaders.”
better.” The book keeps both promises, showing readers a path to influence marked by courage, character, collaboration and optimism. Fiorina’s lessons have broad application to personal and professional — and even pastoral — contexts. “You are not yet all you can be,” she writes. That’s good news, as well as an agenda for change.
EXCELLENCE WINS Horst Schulze (Zondervan) Horst Schulze is a world-famous hotelier, co-founder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and author of its motto: “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” In Excellence Wins, he shows leaders in any profession, including ministry, how to succeed by caring for the deepest needs of people, whether customers or employees. Schulze’s advice grows out of his faith, which sees every person as “one of the ‘others’ Jesus had in mind when he gave the Golden Rule about treating them as I would want to be treated.”
PLAYBOOK BUILD
When Pain Hits Home DAVID CROSBY JR.
Three keys to caring for your family through difficult seasons.
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ife is hard. Life in ministry can be even harder. I’ve heard it said, “If you aren’t in pain, you aren’t
leading.” Pain comes with the territory, and it can show up in a variety of ways. A staff member going rogue. People leaving the church. Financial stress. Marital problems. A child struggling with the pressures of being a pastor’s kid. Whatever the source, the stresses of ministry often spill over into every other area — including the home. Here are three things I’ve learned to do while caring for my own family through painful seasons.
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Practice Self-Care
It may seem selfish to think about my needs when people I care about are hurting. But I’ve come to realize that if I’m unhealthy, I can’t help others. An empty glass cannot refresh a thirsty soul. Taking care of my needs puts me in a better position to minister to my family and my congregation. Simple things like going for a walk, reading a book, sipping a cup of coffee, or taking a nap can release tension and help me refocus. Of course, time alone with God is essential. Jesus often slipped away from the crowds and His disciples to replenish His soul through prayer. The church can wait. I can write my sermon later. When the pressure is on, I press in to God. His sustaining grace and power are
phone and asking a friend to preach on the weekend so I can focus on my family. Or my wife and I may accept another couple’s generous offer to take the kids for a weekend. We’ve even experienced the blessing of people making us meals or coming to clean our house during especially difficult times. I also have godly friends I can talk to about what I’m going through. A listening ear and an encouraging word can make a tremendous difference. (Some church leaders also benefit from professional counselors who can help them gain perspective and offer practical tools for managing stress.) Most importantly, I’ve invited Spirit-filled people I love and respect to fast and pray for specific needs in my family. I trust these people implicitly to protect my family’s privacy while bombarding heaven with righteous prayers. There’s nothing like knowing you have “watchmen on your walls” looking out for you and your family (Isaiah 62:6).
Whatever the source, the stresses of ministry often spill over into every other area — including the home.
Rely on God
what allow me to go the distance and care for myself, my family and my church.
Enlist Help
I have a hard time asking for help. But secrecy and isolation are the work of the enemy. The reality is, my family and I need help — and not just help from God. We need the help of other people. I can’t handle all the challenges of life and ministry on my own. That’s why God says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9–11). Here’s what I’ve discovered: The willingness of others to help exceeds my willingness to ask. Yet I’m learning to reach out for support. It may be a matter of picking up the
I’ve learned that when I navigate it correctly, pain can make me stronger. It teaches me to rely more on God. I trust Him to use even the most difficult situations for His glory and to work in all things for the good of my family (Romans 8:28). When life is painful, I don’t beat myself up for what I could have done differently in the past or worry about what I should do in the future. Instead, I focus on what God would have me do today. What next step can I take right now to help my family move forward? If I persevere, I know God will help me discover the purpose for the pain. James 1:2–4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Whatever you and your family are going through, trust that God is with you. Don’t give up. Your family is counting on you.
David Crosby Jr. is founder and lead pastor of Community Church (AG) in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.
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PLAYBOOK KNOW
Five Habits of High-Capacity Leaders PAT R I C K G R A C H
Surprising lessons I learned from influential pastors.
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had the privilege of attending a small conference alongside some very successful and influential U.S. pastors. I went expecting a lot of posturing and one-upmanship. Thankfully, I was wrong. To my surprise, some of the best lessons I learned were from the participants themselves. I felt like an outsider — like a dwarf among giants — but they welcomed me and taught me by their example how to become a
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better leader and pastor. Here are five things I discovered about high-capacity leaders: 1. High-capacity leaders value time. Though I showed up on time to the conference sessions, I felt late. Nearly every attendee was seated and ready for each session to start — five minutes early. In the church and ministry environments I’ve been familiar with, this never happens. My takeaway was that high-capacity leaders value their time and the time of others. They show up early and ready. They plan ahead
Great leaders are great students. They come ready to learn how to grow in life and leadership.
Patrick Grach is founding and lead pastor of Lifehouse Church (AG) in Hagerstown, Maryland.
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rather than hoping the details fall into place. 2. High-capacity leaders are ready to learn. Personally, I know I have a lot to learn, so I’m eager to listen, read and take notes when others are teaching. But I didn’t expect this from these high-capacity leaders, who, from my perspective, had already arrived. Nevertheless, these pastors sat with tablets or laptops out, nearly on the edge of their seats, ready to listen, take notes and learn from the presenters. High-capacity leaders are humble enough to realize they will never truly arrive. Great leaders are great students. They come ready to learn how to grow in life and leadership. As I spoke with various pastors in the room about their note taking, I discovered a pattern. They not only take great notes, but they write down what they’ll do with what they’ve learned. Now, as I’m learning and writing, I list in bold caps each action step I need to take with the information I’m learning. Then I follow through on those steps. 3. High-capacity leaders ask better questions. These pastors seemed to have an intuitive ability to ask great questions. I learned as much from some of the things they asked as from the answers the presenters gave. The intent of better questions isn’t to make the person asking them look smart; it’s to draw more value from the speaker. Better questions are open-ended, not closed, inviting the person responding to lean in to a wealth of experience and offer what he or she would rarely share. Leaders can borrow such questions from others for future use. My personal favorite is, “What are the lessons in life and leadership that cost you the most?” 4. High-capacity leaders are connectors. Surprisingly, there was very little conversation around the size of our churches or budgets or any other posturing. These pastors were gracious and made me feel like I belonged. Everyone in the room seemed like they were one another’s best friends — even though many were meeting for the first time. They were quick to ask one another questions and actually listen. They cared, showed empathy and offered support. It was disarming
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and encouraging, and it created a sense of belonging that, admittedly, can feel lacking in a world of leadership where the motto is often, “It’s lonely at the top.” These leaders had an uncanny way of connecting with each other and helping the unconnected belong. I left realizing that great leaders are great networkers. They excel at making connections and helping others do the same. 5. High-capacity leaders add value. Several times a pastor I had just met said to me, “Here, you need to meet Pastor X, who can really be a help to you.” Then, the pastor introduced me as a friend. Leaders offered me their cell numbers, mentoring and coaching, words of encouragement, and their church resources. Rather than wanting to get something from me, these pastors added value. Like loving parents investing in their children, these leaders seem to overflow with generosity and goodwill. I genuinely felt they wanted me to win, and that if I won, they would be my most enthusiastic cheerleaders. They were sincerely interested in adding value to the life of someone who may never be able to return the favor. The examples of these high-capacity leaders surprised me and schooled me. The lessons they taught me continue to shape my growth as a leader.
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PLAYBOOK INVEST
Reaching Generation Z WILL JONES
Four things you can do to help young people find their “why.”
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recently visited a popular tea shop spot for youth and college students. As I sat sipping my caramel milk tea, I couldn’t help but notice the way the young people around me interacted. At one table, a teen conversed with her friend while also interfacing with Snapchat. At another table, two guys spoke to each other every 30 seconds or so as they steadily scrolled their phones. Somehow, in spite of all the distractions, they managed to talk about social justice, fashion and school. This is Generation Z. Born after 1996, they lead busy lives. Compared to teens a decade earlier, they spend more time doing homework and less time socializing, according to Pew Research Center. As digital natives,
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they’ve scarcely known a world without smartphones and social media. Perhaps that explains why, despite their hectic schedules, they spend most of their leisure time each day in front of a screen (2.5 hours for girls, and 3.5 hours for boys, on average). The most diverse generation today, they are also on track to become the most educated, with large shares already enrolled in college. They are passionate about equality and social matters, but faith is barely on the radars of many. Barna Group reports that 35 percent of Generation Z identifies as atheist, agnostic or “none.” The members of Gen Z are more likely than older generations to view morality as fluid, believing that what is right or wrong changes over time, Barna found. They are also less likely to see lying, abortion and homosexuality as morally wrong. To be sure, evangelizing this generation poses some unique challenges. Yet we must continue to obey the command of Christ to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). It will take more than lights,
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their trust and respect. There’s a difference between trying to win an argument and seeking another person’s best interest — and they can spot it. The members of Gen Z are open to engaging with people who value their input and affirm who they are as individuals.
Serve With Them
The members of Gen Z are open to engaging with people who value their input and affirm who they are as individuals.
fog machines and loud music. Based on my research and the conversations I’ve had with Gen Z students, I believe there are four things we need to do if we hope to reach them for Jesus.
Show Consideration
This generation’s background is different from that of Americans growing up several decades ago, when attending church was the norm and most people viewed the Bible as authoritative and inspired. The worldview for many of today’s young people more closely resembles the culture of the Athenians in Acts 17. We can’t assume they are biblically literate, or even that they have attended a church. But we can show consideration of their perspectives, and communicate practically when discussing Bible terms and principles. Paul offered this guidance to the Colossians about engaging in conversations with unbelievers: “Be pleasant and hold their interest when you speak the message. Choose your words carefully and be ready to give answers to anyone who asks questions” (Colossians 4:6, CEV).
Seek Understanding Will Jones is founder and lead communicator of Awakening Ministries International in Oklahoma City. For more information, visit awakeningmintl.org.
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Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This certainly applies to Gen Z. Asking questions and listening as they articulate their views on God, life and the world can go a long way not only toward understanding where they’re coming from, but also gaining
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An admirable trait of Gen Z is a strong desire to make a positive difference in the world. It can also become a point of connection with the Church. This generation wants to be a part of something greater than themselves. We can build relationships by including them in activities that benefit the community, empowering them to use their talents and creativity, and demonstrating the love of Christ.
Share the Why
Gen Z cares deeply about the motives behind choices and beliefs. They are also interested in stories, aware that in today’s diverse world there are many different backgrounds and perspectives. It’s not enough to tell them we think Christianity is best for them. They want to know why we choose to follow Jesus. Share with transparency your story, explaining why you made a decision to accept Christ. Relate Jesus’ story, too — the gospel — and the why of His mission. Your authenticity and time investment can help young people find their why. Pray that God will prepare their hearts as you engage in conversations and invite them to become a part of His eternal story. The church has an incredible opportunity to reach and invest in Gen Z, a generation that will influence and shape our nation for years to come. How will we reach them? Will it be through the same methods of evangelism — through church events and flashy environments in our worship services? Probably not. We’ll reach them by being considerate of them as individuals, seeking to understand their perspectives, involving them in what we’re doing, and sharing our testimonies of faith.
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PLAYBOOK ETHICS
Comparison Isn’t the Real Trap We Need to Avoid JOHN DAVIDSON
Where comparison can go sideways.
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t doesn’t matter how secure a person may be. We all know what it’s like to compare ourselves to others, come up short, and feel bad about it. Christian leaders are no exception. We make comparisons based on possessions, income, church size, spouse, job, opportunities, platform, skills, talents and influence. And if we don’t process that comparison in a healthy way, it can result in insecurity, frustration and even depression. Sometimes it seems we can’t stop ourselves from comparing. Yet every time I see an article or hear a talk about comparison, the message is clear: Just stop it! I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen the phrase “comparison trap” or heard someone describe comparison as a pitfall. But is it true? Is comparison a danger to avoid? I’m going to say something that may seem surprising. Comparison isn’t dangerous; it’s natural. In the 1950s, psychologist Leon Festinger
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proposed his social comparison theory. He argued that it’s impossible for people to figure out who they are by themselves. The most natural way we come to know who we are is by comparing ourselves to others. Did you catch that? It’s human nature for us to compare ourselves to people around us. We do this constantly throughout the day. Most of the time it happens subconsciously. Our minds are constantly evaluating our surroundings to see where we stand. We compare ourselves physically, verbally, emotionally and in every other way. For example, are you short or tall? How do you know? The only way to know for sure is by comparing your stature to height averages of other human beings. We make these kinds of comparisons all the time. And typically, it’s no problem. Noticing differences is sometimes even helpful for us because comparisons inform how we relate to and interact with others. And now we have more channels than ever from which to draw our comparisons. The 24-hour news cycle. Magazines. Social media. Constant connectedness that allows us to see what everyone else is doing. But here’s where comparison can go sideways. Sometimes we focus too much on a difference between ourselves and others. It gets stuck in our minds like a splinter that becomes infected and festered. It’s a constant irritation we can’t seem to get past. It begins
to dominate our thoughts. And that’s when we move beyond simple comparison to a very dangerous, biblical concept we rarely talk about: envy. Envy is an inappropriate desire to have what others have. It can even make us wish they didn’t have it. The late author Dorothy Sayers said of envy, “It begins by asking, plausibly, ‘Why should I not enjoy what others enjoy?’ and it ends by demanding, ‘Why should others enjoy what I may not?’” So the progression goes like this: We experience the natural feeling of comparing ourselves to others (all good). That comparison leads to feelings of liking or appreciating what someone else has (still no problem). But if we don’t handle that in a healthy way, it progresses to offense (“God, why do You
treat that person better than You treat me?”). Then it moves to envy (“If I can’t have it, they shouldn’t have it either”). It’s very insidious. Very dark. And it can happen quickly.
The Problem With Envy
It’s easy and non-threatening to talk about the dangers of comparison. On the surface, it seems simple enough for us just to tell people not to compare. Much harder is realizing where misdirected comparison leads and what the Bible teaches about it. The Bible doesn’t say much about comparison, but it has a lot to say about envy. That’s why we’d rather talk about comparison. Talking about envy is uncomfortable. Scripture lists envy along with the worst sins we can think of. Envy is like a cancer, eating us up on the inside (Proverbs 14:30).
The Bible doesn’t say much about comparison, but it has a lot to say about envy.
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Some scholars believe the Tenth Commandment prohibits envy because it is the reason we violate the first nine.
John Davidson, Ph.D., is director of leadership development for the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri.
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Envy comes from the depths of our hearts and defiles us (Mark 7:21–22). Jesus knew envy was the reason the chief priests sent Him to Pilate for execution (Mark 15:10, ESV). Envy will keep us from inheriting the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19–21). Some scholars believe the Tenth Commandment prohibits envy because it is the reason we violate the first nine. Envy isn’t innocent or painless. It starts by victimizing the envier and quickly victimizes the envied. In his social comparison theory, Festinger pointed out that the more similar we are to another person in some way we think is important, the more we tend to compare ourselves to that person. That means we’re more likely to compare ourselves to someone who’s a lot like us. So it doesn’t bother us that a pastor we don’t know in another state has a thriving church, but it does bother us when a young, local pastor starts a church that experiences rapid growth. It doesn’t bother us that a successful leader receives an invitation to speak at a conference, but it stings when an old college roommate gets the invitation instead of us. The closer we are to someone in age, stage of life, level of education, occupation, family situation, etc., the more we’ll compare ourselves to that person. And when we don’t handle that comparison the right way, these are the people we’ll envy. If these statements describe your condition, you might be struggling with envy: • You feel inadequate when you look at others. • You feel God is being more generous with others than He is with you. • You feel like you’re always competing with others. • In your effort to keep up with others, you find yourself striving for things you never wanted before. • You find it hard to appreciate your own successes and opportunities because they don’t look like the successes and opportunities of others.
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The Antidote to Envy
If you recognize there is envy in your life, take these four steps to overcome it: Confront it. Admit that what you feel is more than comparison; it’s envy. Repent to God, and confess to someone who loves you. Celebrate others. Turn your comparison of others into celebration of them. Celebrate what Christ has done in and through them. Celebrate the blessing of God on their lives. Celebrate in their presence, in the presence of others, and in the presence of the Lord. Celebrating others is a healthy response to understanding our comparative differences. Compare yourself to yourself. A 2015 study at Cambridge and Essex universities suggested that as people get older, they compare themselves more to their past selves and less to others, leading to greater happiness. So set goals for your growth, not based on what others are doing, but based on where you want to be in relation to where you’ve been. Catch God’s vision. Remember that your identity is in Christ. Submit to Him, and follow where He leads. Acknowledge that His plan for you won’t look exactly like His plan for someone else. Evaluate and celebrate your gifts, because those are the areas in which God likely wants to use you. Comparison really can happen in a healthy, biblical way. When we compare ourselves now to the people we once were and see how much God has transformed us, it inspires worship (1 Corinthians 6:11). When we compare ourselves to others to see whose godly example we want to emulate, it inspires growth (11:1). When we compare ourselves to people we don’t want to be like, it inspires wisdom (Proverbs 26:11–13). When we compare ourselves to the disenfranchised to see how we can meet their needs, it inspires service (James 5:14–16). If your problem were obesity, you wouldn’t stop eating altogether. You’d eat a well-balanced diet. If your problem is envy, don’t stop comparing altogether. Compare in a healthy, biblical way that leads you to celebrate others and thrive in your calling.
H O W
T O
B E G I N
R E CAL IB RAT I N G Y O U R
C H U R C H
Any church can move toward greater effectiveness. A LT O N G A R R I S O N
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y mom passed away Feb. 28, 2018, at age 96. A few days later, we met with loved ones in Sour Lake, Texas, to hold
a celebration of life service at the first little church Mom and Dad pastored. When I walked into Praise Chapel that day, the flood of memories was overwhelming. It’s still a very little building, with a sanctuary that seats about 90 people. But the building’s size belies its significance. Within that humble square footage, powerful spiritual markers occurred in my life.
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I stood in the sanctuary, feeling a mix of joy and loss as I relived events that continue to shape who I am today. I saw the altar where I received Jesus as my personal Savior at about 6 years of age. I saw the piano. The pastor said it wasn’t the same piano from my childhood, but it sure looked like the one I played growing up. I was only 8 years old when I became the church pianist. I remember trying to tell Dad I wasn’t qualified since I knew only one song. He assured me I could accompany our congregation on that song, and they would sing the rest of the songs a cappella. When Pastor Cody Morgan began guiding our remembrances of Mom, he picked up a small potted plant as a prop and started his message by reading 1 Corinthians 3:6–7: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (KJV). He talked about Mom and Dad planting seeds for the 22 years they served as pastors in that small town, in that small church. The crowd was sparse, the money scarce, and the accolades few. But my parents never gave up. Because of their faithfulness, the seeds they sowed reaped a great harvest that literally impacted the world. My sister and I both sensed God’s call into ministry in that little church. Another minister sent a video of appreciation for Mom and Dad and reported that because of their influence on his life and God’s blessings upon his international television ministry, more than 4,000 people a month are coming to Christ. As people shared testimonies about the ministry in that small town, in that little church, it became apparent the
harvest God had given made all my parents’ sacrifices and investments eternally worthwhile. “Never again,” Pastor Morgan said to our small gathering, “do I want you to see the small things as insignificant. When you place those small things in the hands of a big God, He will do significant things.” I couldn’t have agreed more. I also understood a basic principle Pastor Morgan did not address that morning: Sometimes we refuse to place those small things in the hands of our big God. And we need to rediscover that dependency.
Recalibration Demands Reevaluation
Smaller churches like Praise Chapel serving communities across our nation are experiencing great Kingdom results. But there are those small churches as well that are struggling. First, let me remind you that in this entry decade to our Fellowship’s second century, we are still largely built upon the small community church. If you allow your understanding of what God is doing through the Assemblies of God to focus too closely on our largest churches, you will overlook much of that providential panorama. The following table provided by my colleague, Mike Clarensau, dean of the College of Bible and Church Ministries for Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas, demonstrates the distribution of Sunday attendance according to various size churches and the percentage of total Sunday attendance for each of the size groupings.
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Church Transformation Initiative Data Report, 2017 church attendance range
# of churches
% of total churches
worship attendance
% of total worship attendance
less than 50/no report/pac
5,443
41.9%
131,295
6.5%
LESS THAN 100
8,766
67.4%
361,343
17.9%
LESS THAN 200
10,990
84.5%
663,876
32.9%
LESS THAN 400
12,101
93.1%
964,539
47.8%
LESS THAN 1,000
12,743
98.0%
1,339,538
66.3%
1000+
261
2.0%
681,098
33.7%
2,000+
101
0.8%
466,734
23.1%
In the Assemblies of God USA, 14 percent of our churches are in communities with fewer than 1,000 residents; 33 percent are in towns with populations under 5,000; and nearly half (46 percent) are in towns with populations under 10,000. How, then, do we move forward to strengthen our existing churches while planting new ones? If we are believing God for a healthy, Spirit-empowered church in every community, we need to begin by assessing our current realities. Miracles are always preceded by struggles and problems. Without a problem, there is no need for a miracle. First, we need a miracle to reverse a continuing decline in church health. The percentage of plateaued and declining churches has been rising since the early 1990s and is currently at its highest level in nearly four decades. Only 3 in 10 Assemblies of God churches in America are growing, while 70 percent are either plateaued or declining. Over the last 30-plus years, declining and plateauing trends have most commonly affected small- to midsized churches. In AG churches with fewer than 200 attendees, it currently takes nearly seven attendees to produce one reported convert each year (a ratio that has
risen steadily over the past two decades). Second, we need a miracle to reverse a continuing decline in personal discipleship. Larger churches (1,000+) report nearly 50 percent of all conversions in the Fellowship, with megachurches (2,000+) accounting for nearly 38 percent. However, new converts attending churches of fewer than 200 are twice as likely to follow through with water baptism and significantly more likely to seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Why are we experiencing these difficulties? Among other things, we are well aware of the ongoing battle with our adversary who comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). But spiritual roots express themselves through the mundane and the material. Our culture presents increasing challenges to faithful church attendance. There are a variety of reasons for declining church participation. But the fact is, showing up for services is no longer a priority for much of America. For example, there was a time when schools wouldn’t schedule events on Wednesday or Sunday to avoid conflicting with church services. That’s no longer the case. School teams now schedule road trips on weekends, and young families who were
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S C ENARIO # 1 t o t a l n u m b e r o f a ct i v e a tt e n d e e s = 1 , 0 0 0
10%
10%
1/ month
40%
2 / month
4 / month
40% 3 / month
average weekly attendance total = 775 average monthly attendance / month = 3.1
Recalibration Follows Recommitment
S C ENARIO # 2 t o t a l n u m b e r o f a ct i v e a tt e n d e e s = 1 , 0 0 0
10%
4 / month
15%
40%
3 / month
1 / month
35% 2 / month
average weekly attendance total = 488 average monthly attendance / month = 1.95
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once weekly Sunday attenders travel to watch their children play on the Sabbath. According to a recent report from the Generis Group, a Canadian marketing firm, “research indicates that faithful churchgoers who did attend three or four times per month [10 or 15 years ago] now attend less than two times per month.” This has a radical effect on weekly church attendance figures. Consider a hypothetical church with 1,000 “active attendees,” that is, people who attend at least once monthly. Scenario 1 depicts that church’s attendance 15 years ago, when 80 percent of adherents attended at least three times monthly. Scenario 2 depicts the same church 15 years later, when 75 percent of adherents attend two times monthly or fewer. Over 15 years, the number of active attendees has plateaued at 1,000, but weekly attendance has declined by 37 percent! All because the average churchgoer attends two times monthly or fewer rather than three times monthly or more! We need to be aware of how these changing patterns of church attendance affect our bottom line, but I don’t believe we need to accept them as normative.
Any church can move toward greater effectiveness. But doing so calls for a rejection of the status quo. If you’re perfectly happy where you are, you won’t go anywhere else. A church desperately seeking to move from plateau and decline to revival and expansion must change its thinking, particularly in regard to several false assumptions about recalibration. If the prevailing focus of recalibration is on human effort, any resulting changes will be short-lived and ineffective. God-directed recalibration must include five things: spiritual renewal; godly leadership; fresh vision; team ministry; and a consistent process. The first-century Church began with spiritual renewal, the encounter of Pentecost. According to Acts 2:4, “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Those who witnessed the tremendous display of God’s power began to ask, “What does this mean?” Godly leadership provided the answer. In response to their question, Peter explained what was happening: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are
not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:14–16). After Peter finished his powerful discourse, the question changed from, “What does this mean?” to, “What shall we do?” God had brought fresh vision to those present. At the conclusion of the message, 3,000 were saved and baptized in water. If your church exploded from 120 to 3,120 in one day, and then to 5,000 shortly thereafter, what would you do? You would need a team approach to ministry and a consistent process to disciple the new converts and assimilate them into Christian service. Luke notes the apostolic team and describes the process: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42–47, ESV). That passage reveals five functions of the Church: fellowship, discipleship, gift-oriented ministry, evangelism and worship. We refer to these functions as connect, grow, serve, go and worship. As I explain in A Spirit-Empowered Church, a healthy congregation engages and maintains loving relationships (connects). It develops and mobilizes the people (grows). It acts with clear direction and outward focus (serves). It reproduces and multiplies Christ’s mission in other peoples and places (goes). And it pursues and obeys God passionately (worships). The Day of Pentecost brought a supernatural explosion of growth, with 3,000 people coming to Christ in one day. And the Spirit-inspired process in Acts 2:47 resulted in an incremental increase, with salvations and additions to the Church “day by day.”
Fundamental Questions
If you are ready to begin your church’s recalibration, gather a multigenerational team of influencers, begin asking strategic questions, and then prayerfully develop
specific action steps. Recalibration answers five fundamental questions. 1. Why do we exist as a church? The Great Commission — to reach our lost world with the gospel — rests upon the great commandment — to love God with our entire being — and this combination creates a universal mission for every church. Your church’s specific mission statement should provide long-term direction for how your congregation will reach lost humanity, acting out of passionate love for God. 2. Where are we going? No church has a future if its memories are bigger than its dreams. To realize your full Kingdom potential, your church must identify and develop God’s preferred purposes and plan. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Vision answers the questions, “Where are we going?” and, “Why are we moving in that direction?” The best vision statements combine the passion of the leaders, the abilities of the people, and the needs of the community. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV). 3. How will we behave? Paul told the Thessalonians, “Our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Core values are the DNA of the church. Values inform how leaders prioritize ministries, select personnel and prepare budgets. More than mission or vision, core values tell those inside and outside the congregation what is distinctive and important. 4. How will we get there? The only way for a church to grow is to add more people. That may sound simplistic, but outside of God’s direct intervention to add believers, intentionality on the part of leadership and the recalibration team is paramount. A strategic plan is a necessity. Vision fails because of poor communication, the lack of a clear plan, and failure to implement that plan. Some erroneously insist ministry under the Spirit’s leading always requires spontaneity. God planned the redemption of humanity before He created the world. It is possible to be strategic and Spirit-led simultaneously. Having a plan doesn’t replace passion for God; it shapes that passion into a focused plan and then executes it. Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” 5. How will we engage new people? After a church has
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determined its mission, formed its vision, settled upon its values and created its strategic plan, it is time to engage in the functions of the Church we see in Acts 2:42–47 — fellowship, discipleship, gift-oriented ministry, evangelism and worship. (For help developing a strategy for each of the functions of the Church, see the sidebar on the Acts 2 Journey Cohort on Page 46.) Have you ever been to a conference and felt like you were getting so much information there was no way to accomplish everything you heard? I know I have. It felt like I was drinking from a fire hose. I often think, If I could just get one good idea I could implement, it would be worth the entire conference. With that in mind, I will summarize the recalibration process with three basic goals I call three “I’s” of recalibration: Improve the visitor’s experience; intentionally assimilate; and invest in children.
Improve the Visitor’s Experience
Small Church Essentials by Karl Vaters points out that most people subconsciously decide whether to come back to a church within the first 10 minutes of pulling onto the parking lot. But very few churches take that reality into account when they conduct their weekend services. Remember, the worship experience your church creates doesn’t begin when the music starts. If you haven’t taken a tour of your building, take someone with you and build a checklist of all the things that need painting, repair, removal or replacement. Unkept
buildings and grounds signal a lack of excellence. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make sure there is proper signage. As a guest speaker, I recently drove around a large church several times trying to determine where to enter the building. When Johanna and I first became pastors, we stepped into a challenging situation. Our immediate predecessor stayed only 12 months as pastor, and his predecessor stayed 36 months. In addition to how we structured our services, Johanna and I looked for high-visibility projects that were noncontroversial. Johanna immediately began a church cleaning project with two helpers, Amos and Sam. They didn’t remodel; they just cleaned, discarded stuff and improved the looks of our older building. I raised funds for a sound system, a new vehicle for the youth, and other resources. Visible results helped the atmosphere of the services and accelerated our transition into our new roles as pastors. The smaller your church is, the more strategic you must be in how you use volunteers. If you can have a parking lot greeter, that’s great. If not, at least assign a smiling, outgoing, servant-hearted team at the doors. Be a welcoming church. Too often, fellowship time involves people who already know one another catching up while ignoring guests. When you shake the hands of guests, always tell them your name and ask for theirs. Most churches could increase their attendance just by taking intentional steps to become friendlier. A few practical changes can improve the visitor’s
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ACTS 2
JOURNEY c o h o r t
The Acts 2 Journey Cohort is a transformative process led by an experienced team to help you fulfill the vision you have to strengthen your church spiritually, numerically and relationally. Join with a team of leaders from your church for a series of four weekend retreats over the course of a year to pray, dream and strategize about the future of your church.
We help you discover the answers to these 10 questions: 1
Why do we exist?
2
Where are we going?
3
How should we behave?
4
How will we get there?
5
How will we engage new people?
6
H ow will we treat them when they arrive?
7
How will we disciple them?
8
How will we train them to serve?
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How will we involve them in missions, both locally and globally?
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How will we help them encounter God?
For more information, visit acts2journey.com.
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experience. I frequently tell ministers who are transitioning into a new pastorate that remodeling the women’s restroom is always a quick win. Communication is also vital. Don’t use insider language that guests would not understand. And don’t say or do anything that detracts from the message you want to convey.
Intentionally Assimilate
Assimilation is much more than having front-door greeters. Again, friendliness matters. Of course, most church leaders think they have the friendliest church in town. But being friendly to the familiar faces around you is not sufficient. How quickly can someone coming in from the outside make friends in your church? Assimilation begins with the first impression. Teach everyone to practice the “five-foot rule.” If a guest gets within five feet of a regular attendee, the regular attendee is responsible for taking care of that person. Encourage congregants to act friendly, introduce themselves, answer questions and guide guests to their destinations. Assimilation should lead to ministry involvement. How quickly can someone become involved? There was a time when you needed to become before you could belong. My dad used to say it this way: “We like to clean our fish before we catch them.” I never want to diminish the importance of salvation, discipleship or righteous living. But the sooner someone becomes involved in the church, the faster he or she will assimilate into the life of the church. This doesn’t mean you should lower the bar by giving people roles their character won’t support. However, it doesn’t take the same level of anointing to clean the floors as it does to sing on the worship team.
Invest in Children
It’s a given — parents are concerned for their children’s well-being. The benefits a parent perceives your church can bring to a child’s life are often the make-or-break points for the decision to continue attending. Genderspecific kids’ ministries are attractive to many parents. I know my family has appreciated them. I often hear parents of smaller children say the decision about where to attend church comes down to what is best for their children. I talked about this with my brother-in-law, Sam Rijfkogel, pastor of Grand Rapids First (AG) in
Michigan. Recognizing the importance of children’s ministries, they interviewed several couples with small children — only half of whom were sending their kids to the nursery and children’s area. The parents said their top three concerns were security, safety and cleanliness. Interestingly, curriculum didn’t make the top three. In response to these parental concerns, church leadership made some strategic changes. To address security, they put cameras in classrooms and hallways. They set up a single entry and exit for the children’s area and posted security personnel there. They established double background checks for workers. They implemented strict policies regarding bathrooms, pick-up procedures, and who is allowed in the kids’ areas (approved workers and verified parents only). To address safety, they made sure all equipment is in good shape and up to code (including cribs, changing tables, strollers, toys, walkers, etc.). All workers receive training in emergency weather, fire and lock-down procedures. There is a communication system in each room. They also post a wellness policy and receive no children who are sick, as a protection for all other children. To address cleanliness and appearance, workers sanitize toys for each service. The clean look and fresh smell communicate a message of excellence.
Recalibrate, Then Celebrate
To this day, wherever I minister, regardless of the size and community footprint of the church, I still carry with me part of Praise Chapel in Sour Lake, Texas. My life has been forever shaped and blessed by that little church in that little town. And that is the real purpose of recalibration — to maximize the mission and message of your church and see wonderful life transformation as a result. You can start that process today. It will take all of eternity to reveal the harvest that ensues.
Alton Garrison is the assistant general superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri.
ACTS 2
CHURCH s u r v e y
During the summer of 2018, the Acts 2 Journey released the Acts 2 Church Survey. This new tool, the culmination of research and design efforts spanning the previous five years, now allows churches to measure their Spiritempowered health using a fully validated survey instrument. “While we’ve been helping churches develop vision and strategies through the Acts 2 Journey for several years now, we needed a means of measuring both current reality and the progress being made in developing health and Spirit-empowered life in a local congregation,” states Alton Garrison, director of the Acts 2 Journey. “The Acts 2 Church Survey assesses what have proven to be the four components most critical to church health — Community Engagement, Conflict Resolution, Spirit-Empowered Worship, and the ‘Go’ focus for every believer,” explains Mike Clarensau, research coordinator for the Acts 2 Journey and the survey’s developer. “We have known for some time that lost vision in the pew is the principle cause of congregational plateau and the inward focus that typically follows will bring decline. It’s no surprise to us that ‘outward focus’ dominates the path to health for a Spirit-empowered congregation.” The survey assesses eight additional areas that impact church health and provides a report filled with recommended strategies for addressing each of the results revealed. Additionally, survey questions are included that provide the pastor with insights into his or her congregation’s grasp of various doctrines and biblical values. The Acts 2 Church Survey is available in digital format at acts2journey.com/assessment.
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Establishing a God-seeking culture is your church’s most important work. AL TOLEDO
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y walk with Christ started with a simple prayer on a baseball field. And some of my first experiences with church took place at a prayer meeting. As a kid from Brooklyn who didn’t know anything about the Lord or His people, I called out to God at the start of a game my senior year in high school. I didn’t know how to pray, but I knew pro scouts were there to watch me play baseball. So I nervously whispered, “Lord, if You are real, please help me today. I’ve lived my whole life for this moment.” I immediately felt the presence of God in a way I hadn’t thought possible. I accepted Christ on the spot, declaring to myself, “Jesus is real.” That encounter led me on a sincere search for a place to experience more of God. Little did I know, for most of my life I had lived blocks away from the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Someone suggested I go there, and the prayer meeting blew me away, exposing me to a brand of living for God that I didn’t know existed. There was a purity and sincerity for which I was desperately looking. Seeing people that hungry and vulnerable in God’s presence made a lasting impression. I guess you could say I had a 1 Corinthians 14:25 — “God is really among you!” — experience. Even more amazing, I learned that what I felt corporately in the prayer meeting people also experienced individually outside the church gathering. They sought God, and the Lord’s presence descended to comfort, encourage and answer by His power. I still thank God that the first church I ever walked into was a church where the people really prayed! Had my experience not been so true and genuine, I might have given up on the Lord. My early days of walking with Jesus ultimately shaped
my life and ministry. After more than 25 years in ministry as a lead pastor in Chicago, I’m more convinced than ever about the importance of creating a culture of prayer for people to walk into. The atmosphere that a culture of prayer brings makes the kingdom of God present and active. The possibilities of God are everywhere, and His grace becomes the persuading force of the people.
Leading the Way
Establishing a God-seeking culture is one of the top priorities of any pastor. God’s desire for us when we gather together is emphatic and clear: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17). It’s not as mysterious as some people make it out to be, but it’s also not easy because the devil hates it. There’s nothing the enemy opposes more than God’s people praying, because he knows there’s nothing more dangerous. It all begins with the leaders. I learned how to pray from my church’s leaders, and it remains a Kingdom principle that the spiritual values and practices of pastors shape the people. Something powerful happens when a minister sets the tone simply by seeking God. This is true whether you’re a staff pastor over a few ministries, a senior pastor taking over an established church, or a church planter. My wife, Chrissy, and I have been in all three positions. As a couple, we started every new ministry assignment with a few people praying and waiting on the Lord. The end result was always the same. Despite low numbers, limited resources or even minimal support, prayer released seeds of hope into our small inner circle. Then joy began to spring up because of an inner conviction that Jesus was about to do something amazing. That inner circle becomes a united team that has
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experienced the blessing of God’s presence together. A few prayerful, faith-filled leaders are all the Lord needs to bring about change, breakthrough or turnaround. Prayer focuses our attention on God, rather than on circumstances and comparisons with other churches. This is where the Lord taught me one of the most important lessons I ever learned as a leader. Early on, the Lord whispered to my heart, “Don’t worry about the numbers, because the faithfulness of a few can secure the blessing for the many.” What I discovered in various ministry contexts is that the Lord finds worship and prayer irresistible. He blesses even the smallest group with faith, hope and love beyond compare. During one of our first ministry assignments at a small church, Chrissy led a little choir of about a dozen people, and I led a youth group of just five students. It was amazing to watch God work as we simply prayed. Chrissy’s choir didn’t have the most talented singers in the world, but their hearts were open to the Lord’s presence. Every choir practice started with a mini prayer meeting. When Sunday arrived and the moment came for them to minister, God’s work among them was evident. Despite a limited band and singers, a sweet blessing flowed from these people, and our services became exciting and wonderful. The simple anointing on this small group of singers blessed people. At our first evangelistic outreach — an evening service with a mini choir concert and short testimony — nine people accepted Christ as Savior. The church felt energized, not because of an amazing event but because there was something amazing about a very simple gathering. That is God’s way. A few people seeking God can always bring about a great blessing.
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The Inner Circle
Creating a culture of prayer is really a matter of shaping the church’s spiritual identity. Prayer develops in us an identity that says, “We are the kind of people who call upon God and depend upon Him to lead us and provide a breakthrough.” As we planted Chicago Tabernacle, we made clear choices to establish a prayer culture by prioritizing prayer meetings over small groups (today we have both); staff prayer over more work; and altar calls over convenient dismissals on Sundays, just to name a few examples. It is an identity that grows from the inside out. This is why staff prayer is so important. (If you don’t have a full-time staff, think of your church’s leadership team.) Staff prayer doesn’t have to be eternal to be effective, but it does have to be consistent. If we can’t get the inner circle to pray, we can’t get anybody to pray. The move of God has to begin in the inner circle! The Book of Acts reveals that the Early Church started with an inner circle in the Upper Room. If we don’t have a move of God in staff meetings, how can we expect a move of God in prayer meetings, on Sundays, or in our people’s homes and lives? I believe our staff prayer meeting — which serves as both a prayer time and staff meeting — is where our church culture begins. I had the responsibility of guiding a group of 40-and-under lead pastors at a district council. At one point, one of the group members said, “We have so much work to do, we can’t spend all of our time praying.” I thought of the words of Martin Luther, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Obviously, the Church has much to do, but the deep conviction of our hearts should be that our efforts are in
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vain unless we wait before the Throne of Grace. It’s so easy to give lip service to prayer and then put our real trust in our human efforts. We can seem to accomplish much in ministry, but our times of prayer dramatically affect the spiritual quality of what we do and the way we do it. Prayer brings the presence of God and the Person of Jesus into our midst when we really pray before we do ministry. Without these spiritual realities, ministry in Chicago is simply ineffective. We may be able to draw crowds, but we won’t be able to bring transformation. As the lead pastor, it is my responsibility to remind our staff that Jesus is the only One on whom we should depend. I talk with so many leaders who share stories about moral failures among their staff members. Almost without exception, they barely pray together as a staff. It’s from an outflow of prayer that a healthy church culture develops.
Setting the Tone
When we planted our church in 2002, we chose to start a prayer meeting instead of small groups. This was a weekly source of tension. People would say, “When are you going to start small groups? I need my community.” Our response was, “The prayer meeting is our community. And nothing gets people closer than when they pray together. After all, isn’t the Church’s fellowship with one another a result of their fellowship with Jesus first? After we build a culture of prayer through our prayer meeting, then we’ll spill out into small groups one day.” We felt like we needed not only to do what the Bible says, but also to establish the spiritual atmosphere and environment of our gatherings. I believe nothing grows people and changes them more than face-time with Jesus. The prayer meeting provided that for us collectively.
I noticed that the people loved one another deeply when we prayed together, and that dividing walls fell away as we carried burdens for one another. It sanctified our environment, created a spirit of humility, and consistently sent us home with joy-filled hearts. We’ve never regretted making that decision, because today we receive such wonderful reports from our small groups, where people share, but where prayer also breaks out and God’s presence comes down. It has become our identity and our expectation.
Altar Time
Altar calls on Sundays represent our greatest opportunity to introduce people to an environment of collective prayer. As a church, we sense God’s call to pray together and pray for one another. When people respond to an altar call together, they’re engaging in a prayer meeting. There are so many expressions of corporate prayer that can take place during altar times. The congregation can stretch out hands and pray for those at the altar. People at the altar can pray together. And as James 5:14 describes, leaders can anoint the sick with oil and pray. It’s in these times the local church becomes a house of prayer. Worship can break out, and people can linger in the Lord’s presence. My pastor taught me that good preaching leads people to the throne of grace to have an individual meeting with God. That is what altar calls are all about. When that happens, God’s people slowly but surely begin to believe that God’s house should be a house of prayer.
Prayer Meetings
Prayer looks different at every church, and I’m not insinuating that any specific congregation’s model is
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superior to another. My prayer is that God will make us effective in leading our people to pray, however that looks in our respective churches. It’s important to start from where we are, not from where we want to be. That means growing into a prayer meeting, as opposed to immediately trying to launch a prayer meeting that looks just like another church’s. Your spiritual environment may be ripe to make the change, and that’s great. But if it isn’t, remember that inner circle prayers and altar calls set the tone for what people can expect at a prayer meeting. If you’re planting a church, you can start right out of the gate with a prayer meeting. However, many churches of varying sizes have started a prayer meeting midstream. One example is James River Church (AG) in Ozark, Missouri, which I believe is the largest prayer meeting in the U.S. Another is Evangel Church (AG) in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. The pastor at this church of 800 took a step of faith and started a prayer meeting, which now regularly draws 200 people. Then there’s Bethel Assembly of God in Elmhurst, Illinois. One of our former staff members brought this struggling church up to 125 people, with 30 to 40 people coming each week to pray. Each of these pastors experienced a different journey of faith, courage and the leading of the Holy Spirit. But they all had one thing in common: a desire to seek God. Here are four practical tips for leading prayer meetings: 1. Spend time in worship, which leads to breakthroughs. Providing the best possible experience from a musical perspective is in your best interest,
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because worship attracts the presence of God, and our faith grows to petition Him. 2. Pass around the microphone to people with fire in their hearts to pray. This lets people know that everyone should come ready to participate. It confirms to the Body that prayer is something to which God calls all of us, not just the leaders. 3. Consider using prayer cards. Inviting congregants to fill out prayer cards earlier in the week is a way to bear one another’s burdens. It also helps advertise the prayer meeting. Knowing praying believers are bringing their needs before God will attract people. 4. Don’t overschedule. Prayer meetings should be very different from Sunday services. This is the church’s prayer closet, where we speak to God and God speaks to us. Giving the Spirit space to lead in a prayer meeting is what keeps these gatherings from being stale and predictable. Two sayings have always inspired me as a pastor. One is a quote from D.L. Moody, who said, “Every great move of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.” The other is, “Little is much when God is in it.” It’s encouraging to know that when we pray, God can take our little and make much of it.
Al Toledo is the lead pastor of Chicago Tabernacle (AG) in Chicago.
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B O R N I N
T H E
U S A As people of the Spirit, how should we think about immigrants, foreigners and others who are different from us? R O D O L F O G A LVA N E S T R A D A I I I
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friend once asked me to name my favorite holiday. I think he expected me to mention Christmas or Easter. After all, I am a Bible college professor. He seemed surprised when I said it’s the Fourth of July. Perhaps fireworks in the summertime remind me of my upcoming birthday later in July. But beyond that, there is something special about this holiday, when Americans from all backgrounds, races and ethnicities join together in unity, celebrating the birthday of our country. Born and raised in the United States, I grew up in a family that believes in service. My grandfather was a Marine. My father is a military contractor for the Navy. My mother has worked for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than 30 years. I had planned to enlist in the military or pursue a civil service career myself, until I gave my life to Christ and answered His call to ministry. Although I am an American and English is my first language, I am also Chicano, a Mexican-American. This is as much a part of my life and heritage as my American identity. It is, however, in this intersectional identity that I experience the most conflict — not only between my ethnic and national identities, but also with my Pentecostal and theological understanding of the Christian life. I sometimes wonder, What does it theologically mean to
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be born in the USA? How does our identity as Pentecostals and Americans shape or influence our notions of nationality and ethnicity and our views of foreigners? Like so many others, I love this country because it represents freedom and democracy for all people, not just for its citizens, but for the world. America is a place where anyone, regardless of his or her background, can succeed with hard work. In this land of opportunity, we truly can strive for a better future. But when we talk about being American in today’s global and racially divided society, it means different things to different people. I’ve noticed with increasing concern that the championing of national identity can inadvertently sponsor desensitization or even dehumanization of others who do not look or talk like those in our neighborhoods. As people of the Spirit, how should we think about non-Americans? Should our Pentecostal experience influence the way we view immigrants, foreigners and others who are different from us? It grieves me to see the hostility many people in the U.S. face, especially minorities and immigrants. Of the 7,175 hate crimes reported in 2017 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), about 60 percent were racially or ethnically motivated, according to the FBI. Of course, such issues aren’t unique to our American
We can’t deny that many people still look down on those they see as outsiders. Whether the differences are geographic, ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, or political, relational fractures persist. culture or our time in history. They represent an ageold sin problem. We can trace stereotypes and caricatures of foreigners all the way back to antiquity, when Greek writers devised theories to explain why outsiders looked different. Hippocrates reasoned that soft terrain produces weak people and that those who reside in harsh climates are more courageous and intelligent. Plato and Aristotle went a step further, advancing the idea that Athens was divinely situated in a perfect region, producing Greek people who possessed the greatest wisdom on Earth. Later, the Roman writer Vitruvius similarly claimed that “the races of Italy are the most perfectly constituted” in both “bodily form and in mental activity.” And Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who lived around the time of Christ’s birth, said Romans were not born from barbarians but were descendants of Troy. These perspectives gave Greek and Roman people the perception that they were smarter and stronger than others. A person’s birthplace in the ancient world was more than just a geographic location. It carried connotations of inferiority or superiority. This was true in Israel as well. Gentiles could, and sometimes did, convert to Judaism, but this did not mean birthing relations became irrelevant. Shaye Cohen, a professor of Hebrew literature at Harvard University, notes
that rabbinic writing reflects the inferior position Gentiles had in Jewish society, where tracing one’s lineage to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was extremely important. The location of their birth, their foreign identity, and their non-Jewish ancestry kept Gentiles in Israel largely on the societal fringes. I wish I could say we’ve moved past such divisions today. Yet we can’t deny that many people still look down on those they see as outsiders. Whether the differences are geographic, ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, or political, relational fractures persist. And when fractures show up in our churches, they keep us from functioning as the united body of Christ that God intended. How do we address this as ministry leaders? Jesus’ words in John 3 help light the way.
Born of the Spirit
Even Jesus knew what it was like to have His mission and character questioned based on things like His familial ties or hometown (Matthew 13:55; John 1:46). Nevertheless, Nicodemus the Pharisee came to Jesus at night and confessed, “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God” (John 3:2). In response, Jesus said, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (verse 3). The statement caught Nicodemus off guard. “How can
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Participation in the kingdom of God is not a matter of pedigree. In fact, it requires a change of identity, a new birth — not a physical one, but one that is “of the Spirit.” someone be born when they are old?” he asked (verse 4). Jesus again affirmed that “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (verse 5). Together, the words “birth” and “born” appear eight times in the dialogue. Scholars have offered various opinions on why Jesus chose this imagery. But I believe it reveals a truth that is easy to overlook in this passage: Jesus challenged the birth privileges and ethnic ideologies of the ancient world. At a time when Jewish traditions collided with GrecoRoman theories of birth and identity, Jesus crossed dividing lines to build His Church. Reading His words to Nicodemus with this in mind, Jesus’ call for spiritual renewal also becomes a call for inclusion. Participation in the kingdom of God is not a matter of pedigree. In fact, it requires a change of identity, a new birth — not a physical one, but one that is “of the Spirit” (John 3:8). This language justifies the place of foreigners in God’s family. It offers a strong defense for including those who do not have a Jewish lineage, heritage or land claim. It breaks down barriers that elevate some and sideline others. As the apostle Paul later wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28–29). This was a revolutionary idea, both theologically and culturally. As the late Bible scholar Bruce Malina noted, historic ancestors played a large role in shaping people’s identities in the ancient world. From birth, a person’s ethnicity, level of familial prestige, and ancestral heritage
determined his or her place in society. Without an understanding of this, we can miss the full implications of Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3, and the power of John’s statement in Chapter 1: “To all who did receive [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (verses 12–13). In the ancient world, birth included a real reception of privileges, inheritance and prestige. People often viewed anyone who was not born of the same family and land as a foreign threat to the community. They treated foreigners with suspicion, fearing their practices and customs, as well as the possibility of intermarriage. There was an assumption that outsiders threatened the stability and ethnic solidarity of the community. As the gospel spread in the late first century, the apostles shared Jesus’ message that Gentiles could become part of the family of God solely through the Spirit’s birthing activity. It was, and is, a profound and far-reaching declaration. “Born again” isn’t just a cliché or slogan to put on a T-shirt. It’s a work of the Spirit that makes us new creations and brings us together in Christ.
A Call to Action
When Jesus told Nicodemus of the necessity to be “born of the Spirit,” the claim was one of inclusivity. Nicodemus had a choice to make. His ancestral privileges and membership status did not grant him automatic entrance into the kingdom of God. The good news is that God so loved the world that He made a way for “whoever believes” to receive eternal life (John 3:16).
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Our Pentecostal churches should be places where people from diverse backgrounds feel at home. We are welcoming to all people because the Spirit is welcoming to all people. Jesus’ words challenged Nicodemus’ understanding of others and his relationship with them. They should challenge our thinking as well. Jesus proclaimed a new spiritual lineage that destabilizes all human birth privileges. For the first-century readers of the gospel, this had major implications. Samaritans, Romans and Greeks learned that their relationship with Christ defined their identity above all else. And through the Spirit, they became members of the same community. John 3 certainly has implications for us today as well. As Pentecostal leaders, it challenges us to cultivate communities that have an expansive understanding of what it means to call one another children of God. The birthing activity of the Spirit grants rights and privileges of the Kingdom to all who come to Jesus. We can be proud of our American identity and celebrate its history and heritage, while reminding people that this pride should never become an excuse for hostility or contempt toward others. An eternal perspective never champions the location and privileges of human birth at the expense of our common birth from the Spirit. The exclusion of others based on their race, nationality or ethnic identity is in opposition to what Jesus taught. This is why we must continue to call out racism as sinful. Our Pentecostal churches should be places where people from diverse backgrounds feel at home. We are welcoming to all people because the Spirit is welcoming to all people. The message we proclaim is the same one Jesus shared with Nicodemus: the necessity of being born
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again by the transforming power of the Spirit. This gospel calls all people into a Kingdom that will always supersede cultural privileges and rights. There are many great things about this nation that have created the opportunity for the gospel to spread throughout the world. But during difficult times when our freedoms and opportunities are not equally experienced, we must be cautious about our loves and loyalties. We must remember that the gospel we preach has no boundaries or borders. And we must never forget that xenophobia, racism and exclusion are not merely wrong for morality’s sake; they are destructive ideologies that bring about division and animosity toward those whom the Spirit has embraced and seeks to give new life. Many issues and challenges press upon the Church, even as national debates continue on immigration, globalization and foreign policy. But we can count on this: The Spirit who has given birth to the people of God throughout the ages is the same Spirit who continues to give birth to the people of God throughout the nations. And we are part of this diverse spiritual community. Let us hear in Jesus’ words to Nicodemus a call to remember our identity as born-again believers.
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III is a credentialed Assemblies of God minister and director of accreditation and assistant adjunct professor of the New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.
MULTIPLIERS Leaders Leveraging Their Gifts for God’s Kingdom
MINISTRY IN THE MOST DIFFICULT PLACES inistry is a challenging profession. God equips those He calls to meet the demands, but some places are more difficult than others. What does it take to bring the gospel to the hardest-to-reach places in America? In this issue’s Multipliers, you’ll meet some of the people ministering in places of darkness, where the story of Jesus has been all but erased, places of struggle, where poverty and crime are daily concerns, and places that are easy to overlook, where many feel forgotten. Walter Harvey is senior pastor of Parklawn Assembly of God in Milwaukee. He also serves as president of the National Black Fellowship of the Assemblies of God, which is pursuing a mission of planting and revitalizing churches in the toughest areas of urban America. You’ll find out how Harvey and the NBF (AG) are uniquely positioned to reach those places. Gerad Strong, lead pastor of Bethel Church in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Rhea Falig, pastor of Bethel’s campus in Edgemont, South Dakota, share about the challenges of planting
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in rural settings. Their approach to multisite ministry is changing lives in small towns. Jeffery Portmann launched newhope church (AG) with a singular strategy in mind. He is passionate about reaching one of the most secular corners of America, Washington’s Puget Sound. Coming alongside other churches is one way he is advancing the gospel in this area. Stephen and Priscilla Perumalla are taking on the challenge of urban church planting at The Grace Place NYC (AG) in Hamilton Heights in Upper Manhattan. Their blend of street ministry and local involvement has given them special favor in their neighborhood. And even a personal health struggle wasn’t enough to stop them. Their story is sure to inspire you. Wherever you find yourself in ministry, you will face challenges. Through it all, you can trust a God who is faithful. As you’ll see, relying on Him fully in those difficult times and difficult places is the only way to multiply His message to a lost world.
Chris Colvin is a contributing editor to Influence magazine and specializes in sermon research for pastors and churches. He lives in Springfield, Missouri, with his wife and two children.
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A Privileged Calling A CONVERSATION WITH WALTER HARVEY
“The heartbeat of the National Black Fellowship is planting and revitalizing churches in the toughest areas of urban America.”
Walter Harvey is president of the National Black Fellowship of the Assemblies of God and pastor of Parklawn Assembly of God in Milwaukee.
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he inner cities of America are among the most difficult areas to reach with the gospel. Winning these places for Christ requires an understanding of the dayto-day struggles of the people who live there. The National Black Fellowship of the Assemblies of God (NBF) is taking on that challenge. Most of the network’s churches and leaders are in urban areas that desperately need God’s help. “That landscape is a natural springboard for the equipping and empowering of our constituents to be Jesus with skin on for our neighbors,” says Walter Harvey, NBF president. Harvey has led Parklawn Assembly of God in Milwaukee since 1992. The multiethnic church has been a part of the community since 1909. “The heartbeat of the National Black Fellowship is planting and revitalizing churches in the toughest areas of urban America,” Harvey says. Such places need the hope of the gospel, but Harvey says they also need the long-term involvement of people who love like Jesus loves. According to John 1:14, Jesus “became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (The Message). Harvey says following Christ’s example means sharing His message not only in word, but also in deed. “The gospel does not stop with just a
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personal relationship with Jesus that guarantees an eternal life in heaven,” Harvey says. “It also entails people having gainful employment, quality education, beautiful neighborhoods and a sense of well-being.” Harvey sees his ministry as a “privileged calling, but not an exclusive one.” He believes being a good neighbor where you are is the essence of the gospel. That’s what members of the NBF are doing across the nation. As minorities who live and work in the inner cities, they are in a unique position to share Christ in some of the most under-resourced areas in the U.S. The wide-open field and unique challenge of urban ministry attracts a lot of attention from suburban churches, and Harvey is grateful for those who want to help. However, he says understanding is essential. “The question that should be asked is, ‘What do I need to know that I do not know about your history and your struggle?’” Harvey says. “If you don’t have that perspective when you come in to help, you can often do more harm than good.” One example is suburban churches siphoning off staff from existing inner-city churches to start their own urban ministries. Harvey says a better way to serve is to come alongside the congregations that are there already, and have been there for years, and work together. “That way of thinking will affirm the diversity and unity of the body of Christ, as well as the longevity and labor of love of existing black pastors,” Harvey says. To learn more about the National Black Fellowship, visit nbfag.org.
Remembering the Forgotten Places A CONVERSATION WITH GERAD STRONG AND RHEA FALIG
Struggling communities dot the vast open plains of South Dakota and are ripe for a harvest.
Gerad Strong is lead pastor of Bethel Church (AG) in Rapid City, South Dakota. xxxx xxx xxx
Rhea Falig is pastor at the Edgemont campus of Bethel Church.
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hen you think of multisite churches, rural areas in sparsely populated states may not come immediately to mind. But that isn’t stopping Bethel Church (AG) in Rapid City, South Dakota, from multiplying. In 2012, Gerad Strong sensed God calling him to try a new ministry approach. As lead pastor of Bethel, the same church in which he accepted Christ, he had a vision to reach an overlooked group. “What if we took on the mindset of reaching forgotten people in forgotten places?” he asked. Struggling communities dot the vast open plains of South Dakota and are ripe for harvest. They just need a fresh start. From Rapid City, Strong and his team decided to spread out. They planted satellite campuses in three towns, including Edgemont, where they took over a struggling district church. With fewer than 800 people in the entire village, growing the church was a big challenge. “My husband, Eric, and I weren’t sure what to expect,” says Rhea Falig, who serves as campus pastor at the Edgemont location. “But we were sure God would be faithful. His call has been our anchor.” Early on, the Bethel team made the decision to employ video sermons at each satellite campus. They initially wondered whether this approach would work in rural settings, but it has been successful. “It was really out of necessity,” Strong says.
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“It’s the best way to transfer the DNA of Bethel quickly with these new congregations.” Falig grew up in a rural setting, but always thought ministry that mattered happened in larger places. “I never considered rural to be a mission field,” she says. “Then the Lord spoke to me and said that Edgemont is not far off, forgotten or forsaken. That word shifted my heart forever.” Falig says a willingness to invest in relationships has been crucial. “In a rural setting, there can be a mentality to stay inward focused,” she says. “Eric and I had to be very intentional about creating friendships very quickly.” One tool they’ve used to build friendships is the same video screen they once thought might be off-putting. Since Edgemont has no movie theater, the church hosts family movie nights, which has helped attract several newcomers. Falig is involved in the community, serving on the chamber of commerce and working as a staff writer for the local newspaper. “Whatever door God opens, we’re walking through,” she says. Under Falig’s leadership as campus pastor, the Edgemont location has seen tremendous growth, more than doubling in size — with much of the increase representing new converts. Half the congregation has accepted Christ as Savior within the past year. “It’s really been a field ripe for harvest,” Falig says. Along with Edgemont, Bethel Church is launching new campuses this year in Wall, Summerset, and Sturgis, South Dakota. But the church isn’t stopping there. Plans are already in place to open more campuses in the coming years as God directs. The kingdom of God is expanding — even in the most sparsely populated places.
Hope Is a Light in the Darkest Places A Q & A W I T H J E F F E R Y P O R T M A N N
“As God began to give us ideas, I quickly grabbed a napkin and scribbled them down.”
Jeffery Portmann along with his wife, Joanne, started newhope church (AG) to reach the unreached of Washington’s Puget Sound region .
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INFLUENCE: What makes Puget Sound different from other places in America? PORTMANN: We are as far west as you can get, and people originally came here for a fresh start, adventure and the possibilities of a better life. That adventurous spirit continues today, but it also makes people lean toward self-reliance. As one of the most highly educated places, where major corporations established hubs, there is a level of affluence that can make it difficult to minister because they don’t necessarily feel a need for God. How do you begin sharing the gospel in such an environment? We talk about a post-Christian America, but Puget Sound is really now a pre-Christian community. They haven’t rejected the gospel as much as they haven’t even been exposed to it because their parents and grandparents stopped going to church long ago. But the darker the venue, the brighter the
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light. The gospel is good news. It’s both good and news. It’s news to some because the only concept they have of Jesus is that He is a swear word. So we get to introduce them to Him, and then they find out how good He is. You had a vision to launch five campuses in five years. What was the inspiration for that? It actually started with a napkin. My wife and I were eating dinner and talking about our vision for church planting. As God began to give us ideas, I quickly grabbed a napkin and scribbled them down. It was all about presenting hope and developing people, which meant multiplying. I sensed God right there deposit the vision of 5 in 5 — to plant five campuses in five years. Church planting doesn’t take four years in other places. They just do it. But we needed a different plan because of our unique setting. We started building teams who focused on multiplication and kept the vision in front of our people. The key theme was apprenticing leaders while making disciples. In fact, we just rolled out our new vision: The Next 5 — Each One Add One. Now that God has given us five campuses in five years, we’re going to add five more! How is newhope church influencing the Puget Sound area? We feel like newhope is reinforcement to other churches who are already here. We weren’t the first ones. And we know how hard ministry can be here. Because more people don’t go to church than do, it’s real spiritual warfare. If you’re in a war, you aren’t bothered when another general comes into town. You just appreciate it when they let you know they’re bringing troops in. I hope that people in the community feel hope when they meet someone from newhope. Hope is just an extension of the fruit of the Spirt in their lives daily, wherever they are. No one feels like they have too much hope. And Jesus is the hope of the world through the local church.
Difficulties Won’t Stop Us!
PRISCILLA: This neighborhood is full of young families, and that’s so great. Our heart is to be a neighborhood church and live there. So we were so fortunate to be able to find a place.
A Q&A WITH STEPHEN AND PRISCILLA PERUMALLA
“Our heart is to be a neighborhood church and live there.”
Stephen and Priscilla Perumalla planted The Grace Place NYC (AG) in Hamilton Heights, one of the hardest-to-reach neighborhoods in all of Upper Manhattan.
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INFLUENCE: You two are originally from Texas. What brought you to New York City? PRISCILLA: While in Bible school, we would take missions trips to New York. We weren’t married at the time. We weren’t even dating. But the experience of the city just stayed with us. I remember telling my friend, “There’s something about that Stephen guy. I think we’ll be working together for a long time.” And here we are, over 10 years later, married and planting a church in the city! Was it tough fitting in, without having a built-in connection in the city? STEPHEN: We had felt we wanted to plant a church for a while, and New York City was the first place on our hearts. We knew one family, but they lived nowhere near where we were planting. We felt God tell us to go, and then He started opening doors. Through a friend of a friend, we were able to find an apartment in the tight New York real estate market right in the heart of our community.
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Why was it important to you to be a part of the neighborhood? PRISCILLA: The people in our neighborhood don’t necessarily look like us. They are mostly Dominican, and that’s reflected in our own church. But we wanted to move in and be a part of what’s happening in their lives. That was so important to us. When we meet people and tell them we’re pastors, they ask us if we live in the suburbs or another neighborhood. They’re shocked when we tell them we live right around the block. Being a neighbor means you help out however you can. You build friendships first. And that has paid off in big ways. Our last discipleship track, we realized every person who signed up was a new believer we had met on the street outside the subway, just talking to them about Jesus. What lessons have you learned about trusting God through challenging times? STEPHEN: Right after we made the decision to plant a church, I was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told me they could remove the tumor with no chemo, which was a blessing. But during that whole time we were still on track, not letting anything stop us. Cancer was not going to determine the timeline of our ministry. After moving to New York, I continued regular checkups with a local doctor and assumed everything was fine. It wasn’t. Six months before our initial launch, I was told the cancer had come back. This time I would have to go through chemo. And being far away from family was an added stress. Through God’s incredible grace, I came through all of it, even with all the hospital bills forgiven as well. It has taught us an incredible lesson about spiritual warfare, but more importantly, it has taught us to never give up!
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MAKE IT COUNT An Eight-Week Study for Leadership Teams
THE DISCERNING LEADER:
EIGHT KEYS TO DISCERN THE RIGHT NEXT STEP STEPHEN BLANDINO
WHAT IS MAKE IT COUNT?
Week after week, you invest time and energy into making every Sunday count. But you also have to think about staff meetings, board meetings, and meetings with key volunteers and other church leaders. Juggling so many meetings can seem overwhelming, especially as you think about developing the leaders around you. Effective leaders are continually looking for great leadership content they can use to develop and mentor other leaders. Make It Count is a powerful, little tool to help you accomplish just that. Each Make It Count lesson is easily adaptable for individual or group discussion, allowing for personal application and reflection among your ministry leaders and lead
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volunteers. The lessons are useful as devotionals in board and staff meetings and in departmental meetings with your lead volunteers. Studying and growing together is key to building strong and healthy relationships with your team members, and it is a necessary component to building growing, flourishing churches. These lessons can Blandino help make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you. The following eight, easy-to-use lessons on keys to
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eaders face a mounting number of decisions, many of which are connected to difficult situations, hard realities and uncertain terrain. Whether it’s choosing a future direction, launching a new initiative, hiring staff, promoting volunteers or choosing between right and wrong, leaders today need a healthy dose of discernment. Discernment is the God-given ability to see and judge issues — and their source — through the lens of spiritual truth. The gift of discernment not only distinguishes truth from lies, but it also recognizes the spiritual forces at work behind the issue. When a leader lacks discernment, it becomes difficult to influence positive change. Why? The lack of discernment leads to a lack of good decisions. A lack of good decisions produces a lack of healthy results. A lack of healthy results brings the leader’s credibility into question. And when the leader’s credibility is in doubt, his or her influence deteriorates. You can’t lead a church or organization in a positive direction when influence evaporates. In this edition of Make It Count, we’re going to discover how to become a discerning leader by digging into eight important keys. In these lessons, you’ll learn how to do the following: • Discern truth from falsehood • Discern God’s voice • Discern your vocation • Discern the best decision • Discern when to move forward • Discern healthy relationships • Discern team-building decisions • Discern opportunity from distraction As you read these lessons and discuss them with your team, you’ll be equipped to discern the right next step. Whether it’s a step toward truth, knowing God’s voice, clarifying your call, making the best decision, choosing the right time to move forward, building healthy relationships, developing your team, or pursuing the right opportunity, these insights will cultivate the discernment you need as a leader.
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being a discerning leader are written by Stephen Blandino, lead pastor of 7 City Church (AG) in Fort Worth, Texas (7citychurch.com). He planted 7 City Church in 2012 in a thriving cultural arts district near downtown Fort Worth. Blandino blogs regularly at stephenblandino.com and is the author of several books, including Do Good Works, Creating Your Church’s Culture, and GO! Starting a Personal Growth Revolution.
HOW TO USE MAKE IT COUNT
We are pleased to offer the Make It Count Discussion Guide in a downloadable PDF, available through the “Downloads” button on Influencemagazine.com. Each lesson in the PDF Make It Count Discussion Guide is divided into a
Leader’s page and Team Member’s page. The Leader’s page corresponds directly to the material in this print issue of the magazine. We encourage you to print multiple copies of the PDF Discussion Guide from Influencemagazine.com for all your ministry leaders and the team members they lead in your church or organization. You will notice that key words and concepts are underlined in each lesson on the Leader’s page. These underlined words and phrases correspond to the blank spaces found on the team member lesson pages. Team members can fill in the blanks as you progress through each lesson’s material. We trust these lessons will help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning Truth From Falsehood Assess: Can you share a time when you had to discern truth from a lie? Insights and Ideas
eadership comes with varying layers of complexity. The one thing those complexities have in common is the need to discern right from wrong, good from bad, and truth from falsehood. In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul expounded on the gifts of the Spirit. He writes, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (1 Corinthians 12:7–11, emphasis added). Discernment (or distinguishing between spirits) is the God-given ability to see and judge issues — and their source — through the lens of spiritual truth. The gift of discernment not only recognizes truth from lies, but it also recognizes the spiritual forces at work behind the issue. You will encounter people and situations where discernment is essential. Leaders with the spiritual gift of discernment might handle these moments intuitively. For others, discernment will require more intentionality. The good news is, any leader can become more discerning in three ways: 1. Study Scripture. The best way to discern truth from falsehood is not to become more familiar with the lies, but to become more saturated with the truth. It has often been said that people who are trained to identify fake currency do not handle counterfeit bills. Instead, they work with the real thing. As a result, when they do handle a counterfeit bill, they immediately recognize it as a fake. The same principle applies when distinguishing truth from falsehood. The more you immerse yourself in the truth of Scripture, the more easily you’ll recognize a lie when it surfaces. 2. Pray for discernment. You may not have the spiritual gift of discernment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask God to make you a more discerning leader. Make discernment (and wisdom) a regular part of your prayer life. 3. Welcome the Holy Spirit. Even if the gift of discernment isn’t in you, the Spirit of discernment is. Ask the Holy Spirit to cultivate within you a greater discernment so you can recognize truth from lies and the spirit and motive at work behind leadership issues.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. Do you feel like you have the spiritual gift of discernment? Why or why not? 2. When has the Lord given you clear discernment on an issue in leadership? 3. What would most help you become a more discerning leader?
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Think about a leadership issue you are facing right now that requires discernment. Take some time to study the truth of Scripture, pray for discernment, and welcome the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life. Then come back to the leadership issue and determine what to do next.
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning God’s Voice Team Review: What have you done since our last meeting to better discern truth from falsehood?
Assess: When was a time you knew you heard the voice of God? Insights and Ideas
piritual leaders can glean insight from a wide variety of resources, whether it’s books, mentors, classes, conferences, podcasts or any other number of helpful tools. However, spiritual leaders are first and foremost sensitive to the voice and direction of the Holy Spirit. The question is, how do you discern God’s voice? A closer look at Scripture reveals three common ways God speaks: 1. The truth of His Word. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” The word translated “dwell” means “to be at home in.” In other words, God’s Word should be a welcome member of our lives. In the same way family members speak freely to one another, God’s Word, as a welcome member of your life, should be allowed to speak freely into your life. 2. The confirmation of circumstances. The Old Testament account of Gideon provides one of the most well-known stories of confirmation in Scripture. The Israelites were suffering oppression from the Midianites, and they cried out for relief from the Lord. God heard their prayers, and then He appeared to Gideon and told him to deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Midianites. Gideon hesitated, and before long, his hesitancies turned into excuses. So, Gideon asked God for confirmation three times, and three times God used circumstances to confirm his call to Gideon (Judges 6:36–40). There’s nothing wrong with asking God for confirmation. However, confirmation does not mean faith is no longer necessary. God confirms what you should do, but He doesn’t remove the step of faith required to do it. God’s confirmation proves to you what you should do. Your step of faith proves to God your willingness to do it. 3. The wisdom of His people. Proverbs 11:14 says, “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.” DISCERNING GOD’S VOICE We like to keep asking people for advice until we come across somebody who agrees with us, but the only place to find wise The The Wisdom Confirmation of counsel is from wise people. God will speak to you, but He does of People Circumstances so through people who walk with Him, and who walk in wisdom. These three keys to hearing God’s voice often work together, but they will never violate God’s Word. In fact, God’s Word is The Truth of God’s Word the foundation for discerning God’s voice. The diagram at right illustrates it best.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What is a passage of Scripture God has used to speak to you in a meaningful way? 2. What qualities do you look for in people from whom you seek wisdom? 3. How has God used circumstances in your life to confirm His voice?
Apply
In what area of your life or leadership do you need discernment? Which of the three keys above is missing in your discerning process? How can you seek them out in your life?
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning Your Vocation Team Review: What steps have you taken to better discern the voice of God? Assess: When you’ve made transitions in your vocation, what process did you use to choose a new path? Insights and Ideas
aking changes in your career can be stressful. Nobody wants to make a bad choice. Yet very few people have developed a good filter for discerning a good job from the right job. One reason for this confusion is because we usually focus on the job we want, rather than the person God designed us to be. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Notice, we are God’s handiwork. He deposited within us certain gifts, passions and traits. Those resources are the tools we use to “do good works.” And God, in His wisdom, designed us to do those good works, which He prepared for us before we were even born. The question each of us must answer is this: What are my good works? The following 10 questions will help you discern your good works so you can choose the right vocation: 1. What pain in my past might God want to redeem for a greater purpose? 2. Where have I experienced the greatest success and the greatest failure? 3. What seeds or destiny markers has God planted in my life that might give clues to His purpose for my life? 4. With what kind of personality did God wire me? 5. In what areas do I have the greatest amount of knowledge? 6. What are my natural abilities and skills? 7. What are my spiritual gifts? 8. What am I most passionate about? 9. What are my deepest core values? 10. What do I sense God has called me to do? These 10 questions will yield wonderful insights into who God made you to be and what God has prepared you to do. Once you’ve answered each question, look for two or three common threads woven throughout your responses. Those common threads will give you clues about what God has most likely equipped you to do. After identifying those common threads, ask yourself, What kind of role would best allow me to do what God has called and equipped me to do? The more your role matches your unique design, the greater fulfillment and impact you (and your church or organization) will experience.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. In which of the 10 questions do you have the greatest amount of clarity, and in which do you have the least? 2. What else does God use to help us discern the right vocation? 3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how well does your current role match how God equipped you?
Apply
Take time to answer each of the 10 questions and uncover common threads. What kind of role would best match how God has uniquely equipped you? What steps do you need to take to begin moving toward that role? Understand, these steps may take an extended period of time, and that’s OK. God often cultivates character and other qualities before moving us into the primary role where we will make our greatest contribution. 78 | Influence
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning the Best Decision Team Review: What did you learn about yourself as you reflected on the 10 questions from the last session?
Assess: What is the most important strategy for you when it comes to making good decisions? Insights and Ideas
eadership and decision making go hand in hand. If you don’t like making decisions, you’ll paralyze whatever you’ve been entrusted to lead. The question is, how do you discern the best decision? Discernment in decision making begins with four keys: 1. God. The leadership of the Holy Spirit is essential in decision making. James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5). Too often, we make God the ending place of decision making when, in fact, He has the discernment you desperately need. To discern the best decision, ask yourself, Have I sought the Lord regarding this decision? 2. DNA. Every church and organization has a specific DNA made up of vision, mission, values, strategy and culture. The key is to ensure your decisions support that DNA so you don’t create sideways energy in your organization. To discern the best decision, ask yourself, Is this decision aligned with our DNA, and will it create momentum in the right direction? 3. Research. The greater the decision, the greater the amount of homework you likely need to do. Jesus said, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish’” (Luke 14:28–30). Research focuses on three things: diagnosis, data, and discovery. First, research helps you diagnose the issue and gain understanding of the variables at play in the situation. Second, research embraces external data (such as demographic or psychographic information) and internal metrics (such as performance, trends and statistics) to help you understand your environment and the current results you are getting. Finally, research has a discovery component that helps you search for the best practices to move forward. To discern the best decision, ask yourself, What specific research do I need to do to diagnose my situation, secure the right data and discover the best steps forward? 4. Perspective. A fourth key to discernment is to glean fresh perspective from other people. Those people might include members of the congregation, leaders, customers, coaches or consultants. Outside perspective helps you discover your blind spots and see your situation through fresh eyes. To discern the best decision, ask yourself, To whom do I need to listen so that I can make a better decision?
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What’s the hardest part of decision making for you? 2. Which of the four decision-making ingredients is your strength? Your weakness? 3. What other insights can a leader embrace to discern the best decision?
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Consider a decision you are facing right now, applying the four decision-making ingredients to it: God, DNA, research and perspective. After applying this filter to the process, what would be the best decision for your specific situation?
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Discerning When to Move Forward Team Review: How did the four ingredients to better decision making help you process a decision you are facing right now?
Assess: When have you made a leadership decision that proved to be the right decision but the wrong time? Insights and Ideas
eaders are rarely short on ideas. They see opportunity and possibility, and they’re often ready to jump at a moment’s notice. The problem we usually face is timing. When do we act, and when do we wait? Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” The careful consideration of timing is actually an expression of wise leadership. The wrong timing will introduce you to a series of unanticipated outcomes and unintended consequences. The right timing will increase your credibility as well as buy-in from others. There are four tests that will help you increase your discernment about the right time to move forward: 1. The resource test. When you want to move forward with an idea or a strategy, it will require resources to pull it off. Money, time and energy are necessary to gain traction. You might have all of these resources, but the larger question is whether these resources are already tapped out by other initiatives. Even though your idea might be golden, you may need to wait a few weeks or months so that your budget, staff, volunteers and schedules are not unnecessarily taxed. A loss of margin rarely creates momentum. 2. The sleep test. Ideas are always exciting the moment they are born. It’s when you bring those ideas home that you start to lose sleep. So, before you jump prematurely, sleep on the idea first. If the idea continues to increase in energy after multiple nights of sleep, pay attention to it. Premature action tends to lead to regret, but thoughtful consideration helps you make wiser decisions. 3. The impact test. Take into consideration the kind of impact you can have now versus later. Our excitement makes us want to launch a new idea now (and sometimes we should). But in most cases, a few extra days (or weeks) of planning and preparation will deliver a far better result. In other words, more time usually produces greater impact. 4. The acceptance test. Finally, the best way to determine whether the time is right to move forward is to bounce your idea off of a trusted inner circle. If your inner circle raises some red flags, you should probably pause, reflect and reevaluate. Their acceptance of the idea is critical to the long-term success of the idea. The right timing can be the variable that influences their acceptance of the idea more than any other.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. How have you used one of the four tests to gain greater discernment on moving forward? 2. Which of the four tests are you most tempted to ignore? Why? 3. What other tests would help you better determine the right time to move forward?
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What is a decision, idea or opportunity you are considering now? Apply the four tests to your situation, and then determine when the best time to move forward might be.
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning Healthy Relationships Team Review: How did the four tests help you process the timing of an idea or decision? Assess: Has there ever been a time in your life when you thought a relationship was good for you, but it ended up negatively impacting your life?
Insights and Ideas
t has often been said that your life is the average of the five people with whom you most closely associate. We love that statement when we’re parenting our kids. We’re not so fond of it when it comes to our own lives. So, as a leader, how do you discern which relationships are healthy? Begin by asking three important questions: 1. Can I trust this relationship? Proverbs 18:24 warns us, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” When trust is missing in a relationship, you risk going down a path that “comes to ruin.” And because leaders have influence that impacts people beyond themselves, it’s essential they surround themselves with trustworthy advisors. Trust is a mark of a healthy relationship. 2. Does this relationship draw out the best in me? Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that, “Bad company corrupts good character.” The opposite is also true — good company reinforces good character. There are some people who have a unique disposition that draws everything ugly out of you. Sometimes this is very intentional, but other times a person’s attitude, personality or demeanor sucks the life out of you. If you don’t like the person you are becoming when you’re with a certain individual, that’s probably not a healthy relationship. 3. Does this relationship make me better? Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Healthy relationships are a two-way street of adding value to one another. This doesn’t mean “make me better” relationships are a never-ending discourse of fun times and encouraging words. Yes, there are plenty of those moments. But “make me better” relationships also challenge us, correct us and sharpen us. We need people in our lives who are coaches, not just cheerleaders, and mentors, not just motivators. As ministry leaders, we don’t have the luxury of spending all our time with life-giving people. We work with hurting people, and hurting people often project their pain and problems our way as they seek counsel and ask for prayer. Discerning healthy relationships doesn’t mean forsaking your call to minister to hurting people. However, if unhealthy people consume most of your time, you’ll become mentally and emotionally depleted. Make space for relationships that restore you, replenish you and recharge you.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What person in your life consistently draws out the best in you? 2. What are the qualities of a relationship that make you better? 3. What would it look like for you to be more intentional about developing healthy relationships?
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Do a quick audit on your relationships. Are they trustworthy? Do they draw out the best in you? Are they making you better? Based on your responses, do you need to approach any of these relationships differently? Remember, if you don’t manage relationships wisely, the unhealthy relationships may become a prophecy of the person you will one day become.
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning Team-Building Decisions Team Review: What did your relationship audit reveal about your relationships? Assess: What’s one of the most difficult decisions you’ve had to make with a team you have led?
Insights and Ideas
ome of the hardest decisions a leader has to make involve building, leading and empowering a team. Discernment is critical in these moments because our team decisions have a ripple effect on team dynamics, direction and productivity. Unfortunately, we’re often so desperate for team members that we make rash team decisions. I think Jesus understood this truth. Luke 6:12–16 says, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” Prayer is certainly a critical piece to the team-building puzzle. We need the Lord’s direction when we’re making such important decisions. I would also suggest you consider these six qualities when discerning whether to recruit or promote a team member: 1. Character. Character is a non-negotiable. You want to determine whether the person models integrity, the fruit of the Spirit, and a spiritually mature depth of character. 2. Competence. Does the person have the abilities and skills to do the job? At the very least, does he or she have the capacity to learn any skills that are lacking? 3. Chemistry. This is one of the most important qualities in a team member. Yet it may be the easiest to overlook. Does the person fit the team? If there’s awkwardness, tension or misaligned values, this issue will disrupt the unity of the team. 4. Core values. Do the person’s values align with your team’s values? Values go to the deepest part of a person’s life. If there isn’t resonance in values, there will be a constant tug of war with you as the leader. 5. Calling. You want people who feel a calling to a place and a mission, not a paycheck. Does this person exhibit a genuine passion for the vision of your church or organization? 6. Commitment. Some people are more concerned about titles, perks, benefits and privileges. You’re looking for people who have a do-what-it-takes attitude. Not only are these great qualities for recruiting team members, but they also provide insight on training and promoting team members.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. What questions can you ask potential team members to help you discern whether they have the six qualities listed above? 2. What do these six qualities look like with a staff member versus a volunteer? 3. How can we incorporate these six qualities into our recruitment, promotion, and training processes with staff and volunteers?
Apply
Do a quick assessment to determine how your current team members align with the six qualities above, as well as the kind of training you need to provide moving forward. Also, what steps do you need to take to use these six keys in recruiting future team members and promoting existing team members?
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MAKE IT COUNT Study
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The Discerning Leader: Eight Keys to Discern the Right Next Step
Discerning Opportunity From Distraction Team Review: What steps have you taken to improve discernment in your team-building process?
Assess: How do you know when a new initiative is an opportunity versus a distraction? Insights and Ideas
very church and organization has opportunities knocking at the door. The challenge is knowing whether an opportunity is really a distraction in disguise. Proverbs 4:25–26 reminds us, “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” While this passage certainly has personal application, I believe it can also challenge our thinking on an organizational level. To help you discern between an opportunity and a distraction, consider these seven questions: 1. Does it align with your core competencies? An organization’s core competencies (strengths, passions, vision and mission) are the leverage points for opportunity. If there is misalignment, the organization will work twice as hard but deliver only half the results. 2. Does it present growth or impact potential? Growth potential might include things like guests, attendance or finances. Impact potential might include life change, community transformation or meeting a need. 3. Do you have sustainable resource capacity? Every opportunity comes with two costs: start-up and sustainability. You must determine whether you have the time, money and people to launch and sustain the initiative. Sometimes the better question isn’t, “Do we have the resources?” but rather, “What will we do to get the resources?” 4. Will it put a hole below the waterline? It’s one thing to take a risk that puts a hole in the side of the boat. It’s an entirely different thing to take a risk that puts a hole below the waterline. Seek counsel. Do your research. Take smaller risks to determine the viability of the opportunity. 5. Will it compete with existing strategies? When internal competition arises, it divides the resources mentioned above (time, money and people). Division often leads to distraction. Figure out what you do best, and leverage your resource pool to deliver the greatest growth and impact. 6. Are you confusing opportunities with partnerships? Instead of reinventing the wheel, maybe you should create a win-win situation that leverages the strengths of your organization and a partnering organization. 7. Are you overreaching? Organizational expert Jim Collins writes, “When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall. Although complacency and resistance to change remain dangers to any successful enterprise, overreaching better captures how the mighty fall.” Overreaching happens when organizational success leads us to believe we are invincible. As a result, the focused discipline that brought initial success is exchanged for an uncontrolled appetite for more. Opportunity and focus should coexist.
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Reflect and Discuss
1. When was a time an opportunity turned out to be a distraction in disguise? 2. Which of the seven keys to discerning the difference between a distraction and an opportunity is most challenging to you? 3. Do you believe there is a risk of the seven questions squelching every opportunity? Why or why not? If so, how do you mitigate this risk without getting distracted?
Apply
Use the seven questions to help you discern whether an opportunity before you is really a distraction. 86 | Influence
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THE FINAL NOTE
American Mission CHRISTINA QUICK
The challenges are great. And the opposition is intense.
merica is an increasingly secular nation. The fastest-growing religious affiliation is no religious affiliation. A recent analysis of General Social Survey data showed “nones,” Catholics and evangelicals virtually tied as the largest religious — or nonreligious — groupings. Not surprisingly, biblical views of morality are declining. Gallup reports significant segments of the population approving of sex between an unmarried man and woman (71 percent); homosexual relations (63 percent); and pornography (37 percent).
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Barna Group’s recently published list of the most post-Christian U.S. cities revealed an uptick in secularism over the last two years. In 2017, Portland, Maine, was the most post-Christian city, with Barna’s metrics placing 57 percent of the urban area’s population in that category. In 2019, four cities exceeded this percentage, including Portland (now 60 percent post-Christian) and Springfield, Massachusetts (claiming the top spot, at 66 percent). Respondents in Barna’s nationwide poll qualified as post-Christian by meeting nine of 16 criteria, such as identifying as atheist; believing the Bible is inaccurate; disagreeing that faith is important in their lives; and not attending church in the last six months. This is the mission field of the Church in America. Just as in Jesus’ day, the harvest is
PERCENTAGE OF AMERICANS WHO APPROVE OF ...
Sex between an unmarried man and woman: 71%
Homosexual relations:
MOST POST-CHRISTIAN U.S. CITY: SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
Christina Quick is assistant editor of Influence magazine.
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87% don’t read Scripture
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65% don’t attend church
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60% have never been Christian
63%
Pornography use:
37%
plentiful. The workers are few. The challenges are great. And the opposition is intense. But with God, all things are possible. The Assemblies of God is pursuing a bold vision to see a healthy church in every community across the country. This includes the hardest-to-reach places — like Springfield, Massachusetts, where 87 percent of residents don’t regularly read Scripture, 65 percent don’t attend church, and 60 percent have never claimed Jesus as Savior. Taking the gospel to America’s most secular regions requires a commitment to Spirit-led renewal and multiplication. It will take seeking God for America like never before as we labor together for a harvest of souls.