God With Us ... Really!

ISSUE 32 / NOV_DEC 2020

GARY TYRA / ED STETZER / JONATHAN PITTS

of ears ple!

Y n Eleve ish Peo g n i t Jew bra Cele Hope to ing Bring

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REASONS TO SUPPORT JACOB’S HOPE

and Its Efforts to Serve the Jewish People Around the World

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IT’S BIBLICAL. “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, NASB).

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THE GOOD NEWS IS SHARED. As the world becomes more dangerous and divisive, Israel has served as a beacon of hope. Jacob’s Hope is connected with a respected Pentecostal organization that believes in bringing all people to faith.

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IT DEMONSTRATES GRATITUDE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE. Through the Jewish people and Israel, both the Old and New Covenants were given. Jacob’s Hope provides support by helping meet needs. The blessings received from this compassion-driven outreach to the Jewish people are used to partner with Jewish believing congregations, leadership training, and more.

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Since 2009 Jacob’s Hope has worked around the world to bring hope to the Jewish people through compassionate ministry and evangelism.

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Partner with us to bring hope to the Jewish people in Israel and the nations.

Love. Hope. Messiah. jacobshope.com (417) 865-3295 jacobshope@jacobshope.com P.O. BOX 1046, SPRINGFIELD, MO 65801

Acct. No. 390907

NOV-DEC 2020

Influence | 1

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

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Please send all other feedback, requests and questions to feedback@influencemagazine.com.

Influence magazine is published by the Assemblies of God Publisher: Douglas E. Clay Executive Editor: George P. Wood Managing Editor: Rick Knoth Senior Editor: John Davidson Assistant Editor: Christina Quick Designers: Steve Lopez and Prixel Creative Advertising Coordinator: Ron Kopczick

CONTRIBUTORS Steve Argue, Stephen Blandino, Malcolm Burleigh, Chris Colvin, John Davidson, David Docusen, Kent Ingle, Blessin Mathew, Manny Melendez, Robert P. Menzies, Kristi Northup, Svetlana Papazov, Jonathan Pitts, Kara Powell, Ed Stetzer, Gary Tyra, George P. Wood

SPECIAL THANKS Donna L. Barrett, Malcolm Burleigh, Douglas E. Clay, Wilfredo De Jesús, Rick DuBose, Greg Mundis

EDITORIAL

Copyright © 2020 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.™

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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.

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NOV-DEC 2020

Influence | 3

CONTENTS 8 From the Editor Authority, Mission, Presence George P. Wood

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10 Get Set LEADERS IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND CULTURE

U.S. Missions: Partnering With the Church to Reach America A Q&A with Malcolm Burleigh

12 Leadership TOOLS FOR PERSONAL AND CONGREGATIONAL GROWTH

• Self Why Every Leader Needs to be Led Kent Ingle

• Marriage & Family The Church and the Pastor’s Spouse Blessin Mathew

• Practice Marketplace Missionaries Svetlana Papazov

• Ethics Don’t Let Bad Choices Hijack Your Health John Davidson

28 God With Us … Really!

Moving beyond thinking about God’s presence to experiencing it.

Gary Tyra

38 Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste Ten lessons to help us when — not if — the next crisis comes.

Ed Stetzer

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ISSUE_32/NOV_DEC 2020

46 Helping Neighbors Help Neighbors The power of partnership-minded ministry.

Jonathan Pitts with Chris Colvin

54 Pentecost as Paradigm Acts 2 and the Church’s bold, prophetic witness.

Robert P. Menzies

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60 Church Ministry STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE MINISTRY

• Children Help, There are Kids in My Service!

Manny Melendez

• Youth The 3 C’s of Youth Ministry Innovation Kara Powell and Steve Argue

• Adult Creating a Culture of Invitation Kristi Northup

66 Reviews Power, Vulnerability and the Church Plus Recommended Reading for Leaders George P. Wood

68 Make It Count AN EIGHT-WEEK STUDY FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS

Eight Practices to Start the New Year Stephen Blandino

80 This Is My Story

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When God Opened My Eyes David Docusen

NOV-DEC 2020

Influence | 5

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FROM THE EDITOR

Authority, Mission, Presence G E O R G E P. W O O D

George P. Wood is executive editor of Influence magazine.

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Reflections on Leadership

he holiday season may not seem like the right time to discuss the Great Commission, but it is, and for two

reasons.

First, many churches experience increased worship service attendance and expanded community outreach opportunities during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both offer congregations occasions to share the gospel in creative and practical ways. Pastors and other church leaders need to make the most of these moments.

Second, and most importantly, the birth of Jesus Christ is a missional event. The angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream said this regarding Mary: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Decades later, Paul reminded Timothy of this “trustworthy saying”: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Therefore, whether because nonbelievers will come to church or because Christ has come to them, Christmas is a Great Commission season. As we reflect on the Commission, three elements stand out.

1. Authority: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).

We live in an age of authenticity, where any authority outside the self is experienced as arbitrary and oppressive. And let’s be honest, the authorities — social, political, and even religious — have let us down far too often and in far too many ways. So, when Christ speaks of being given “all authority,” contemporary hearers get understandably worried.

But Christ’s authority is manger-born.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Christ’s authority is as one who invites rather than one who imposes.

And who can reasonably resist the authority of the One who offers the riches of heaven itself ? Surely, His “yoke is easy” and

His “burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

2. Mission: “Make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

Eddie Aikau, a lifeguard on Hawaii’s North Shore, was famous for braving treacherous waves to save swimmers no others would attempt to rescue. When he died, Hawaiians popularized the phrase “Eddie Would Go” as a tribute to his daring compassion.

At heart, the Great Commission is the imperative of disciple making, but Jesus used three participles to explain how we do this: going, baptizing and teaching. Mission involves bringing people to faith (symbolized by baptism) and growing them in that faith (through teaching). However, neither of those activities can even begin to happen unless we start moving.

Jesus would go. Indeed, He has gone across all eternity to reach us. Will we follow Him and go too?

3. Presence: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

We typically think of God’s presence in terms of comfort. One dictionary offers two primary definitions of that word: “strengthening aid” and “a feeling of relief or encouragement.” Many of us want the latter without the former.

However, Christ offers both forms of comfort to those who follow Him in mission.

Jesus strengthens to share His good news and encourages when the world’s bad news gets us low.

This holiday season especially, God is “with us” (Matthew 1:23). Let’s not keep that good news to ourselves!

In this issue, Gary Tyra offers theological and practical insights about God’s presence among us. Ed Stetzer enumerates 10 things churches should learn from this year’s pandemic. Jonathan Pitts identifies creative ways to reach out to our communities at this time of year. And Robert Menzies shows why Pentecost (Acts 2) constitutes a paradigm for the Church’s mission.

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GET SET

Leaders Impacting the Church and Culture

U.S. Missions: Partnering With the Church to Reach America A Q&A WITH MALCOLM BURLEIGH 10 | Influence

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Malcolm Burleigh is executive director of Assemblies of God U.S. Missions and a member of the AG Executive Leadership Team.

He formerly served as senior director of Intercultural Ministries, and he led the National Black Fellowship of the Assemblies of God from 2008–12. Burleigh also was senior pastor of Living Faith Assembly of God in Tampa, Florida, for 18 years. He is the author of AgendaDriven or Assignment-Led?

INFLUENCE: How did you become a Christian and a minister?

BURLEIGH: I was 30 years old when I came into faith, after years of rejecting God and having a hard heart toward anything pertaining to the Church or the Bible. My hatred toward religion and God was so intense I stopped my wife and children from attending church.

I made it clear to her I didn’t want a Bible or prayer in our home.

I gave my wife an ultimatum: Choose the church or choose me. She chose the church, which devastated me and began the process of God drawing me to himself.

Through an invitation from my young daughters, I attended a function at the church to see them in a performance. During the event, the pastor preached a sermon. God spoke to my heart, and I began to weep. God’s Spirit was beginning to work in my heart.

That next week, I found myself at the altar and surrendered my life to Christ. From that day, God gave me a desire to preach His Word.

Why does U.S. Missions matter?

The United States is the third largest mission field in the world, third only to China and India. The cities throughout our nation have become mission fields, where lost communities are in need of a Savior.

Immigrants and refugees are coming by the thousands, according to the plan and will of God. God is raising up AG U.S. Missions to mobilize Kingdom laborers and to partner with the local church to make disciples in the challenging and neglected mission fields of America.

What are the primary ministries of Assemblies of God U.S. Missions?

First is chaplaincy. Chaplains are widely known for their work in hospitals, prisons and the military. However, they also serve in 37 other specialized areas.

Chi Alpha Campus Ministries is changing the world through our college and university campuses. Currently, Chi Alpha is on

300-plus campuses across the United States.

U.S. Mission America Placement Service (U.S. MAPS) is a network of dedicated volunteers and associates who are involved in construction for churches, districts and centers.

Youth Alive evangelizes students in schools with the gospel of the Kingdom. Youth Alive is active on junior high, middle school, and high school campuses.

Intercultural Ministries raises up indigenous ministers of the gospel within the 15 ethnic communities we are reaching.

Adult and Teen Challenge is a residential program for individuals with life-controlling issues.

Finally, I oversee missionaries who have a specialized calling.

God is raising up AG U.S. Missions to mobilize Kingdom laborers … to make disciples in the challenging and neglected mission fields of America.

What are the greatest challenges U.S. missionaries face?

One is a lack of exposure and understanding of who we are in our Fellowship. We have missionaries, chaplains and project volunteers working to advance the Kingdom through specialized fields of ministry.

Through a greater knowledge of U.S. Missions, churches and districts can utilize our expertise to reach these specialized people groups.

What are some leadership lessons you’ve learned?

Here are a few: • The health of the team is directly tied to the hearts of the team members.

• You can’t be in authority if you’re not under it.

• Any strength overextended becomes a weakness.

• Ministry never trumps family.

• You are not forsaking the team you lead by being loyal to the team you’re on.

• You may say you have my back, but I want you nowhere near my back if you don’t have my heart.

• Agenda-driven leaders focus on their autonomy; assignment-led leaders focus on God’s authority.

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LEADERSHIP SELF

Why Every Leader Needs to Be Led KENT INGLE

Three ways we grow in leadership by following.

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eaders need leadership. This is certainly true for young, novice, or struggling leaders. And it is equally true for mature, experienced, and successful ones. Every leader needs someone to follow.

For me, one such person has been Bob E. Cooley, president emeritus of GordonConwell Theological Seminary. Over the years, he has been pivotal in helping me process several significant changes at

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Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, where I serve as president. Cooley’s wisdom and wealth of experience guided me through the unknowns of where these transitions were taking us. His steady voice helped me understand the necessity of change, which increased my confidence when change became difficult.

Learning to follow helps us grow as leaders. It also makes us better followers of Jesus Christ. Here are three things leaders can gain by following:

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Our first and most important calling in life and ministry is not to lead, but to follow.

Wisdom

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

God created us for community. He never meant for us to live life isolated from others, and God doesn’t want us to lead that way either. Just as Timothy needed Paul, we need mentors who will invest in our growth as leaders.

We need people who are willing to push us beyond our comfort zones, encourage us when we feel like giving up, and speak into our lives with biblical wisdom and bold honesty. Regardless of our level of leadership, we all need someone like that to follow.

The book The King’s Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi tells the true story of how Logue’s grandfather became an unlikely mentor to a member of the British royal family.

As Prince Albert prepared to ascend to the throne as King George VI, he struggled with a chronic stutter. The prince’s wife sought speech therapist Lionel Logue to help him overcome his stuttering.

Despite Albert’s belief that this common man was beneath him, the two developed a close bond. Over time, the therapist indeed helped Albert gain the speaking skills to address his country as monarch.

It turns out even a king needs someone to follow.

Compassion

Kent Ingle, D.Min., is president of Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He is the author of four books, including The Modern Guide to College.

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Having someone to follow makes us more mindful of those looking to us for leadership.

We become aware of needs, and we see potential, we might have overlooked before. We want to invest in someone, just as someone invested in us.

In short, being a follower increases our empathy as leaders. Empathy is not something that comes naturally for most of us, but it is vital in leadership. It stretches our capacity for healthy relationships by helping us hear and see others more clearly and enabling us to function out of compassion.

Leadership coach and author Lolly Daskal wrote, “At the core leadership is ultimately

about others. It means inspiring them to take actions beyond their capabilities, leading them in a compelling and inspiring direction. And empathy is the foundation of those actions.”

Obedience

Above all, every ministry leader needs to be an obedient follower of Jesus.

Jesus called His disciples to become leaders in His Church and preachers of His gospel. But first, Jesus called them to follow Him: “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him” (Matthew 4:18–20).

If we want to make disciples of Jesus, we must live as disciples of Jesus. No matter how seasoned we become as leaders, our call to follow never changes. Our first and most important calling in life and ministry is not to lead, but to follow.

That’s why Paul told the church in Corinth, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Even Jesus modeled following, saying of the Father, “I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29).

Jesus followed the Father’s guidance all the way to a cross, despite knowing the pain He would endure. At Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Yet He concluded by saying, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Mathew 26:39).

That’s the ultimate picture of what it looks like to lead by following.

It’s easy in leadership to get caught up in following our vision, our priorities, and our goals. Instead, we need to ask God to lead us — through the wisdom of people He places in our lives, through empathetic compassion, and most importantly through the revelation of His Word and the guidance of His Spirit.

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Trusted, biblically based resources

LEADERSHIP MARRIAGE & FAMILY

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The Church and the Pastor’s Spouse BLESSI N MAT H EW

What should a congregation reasonably expect?

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love being in ministry with my husband. There is no greater joy than watching him step into a full-time ministry position, while the Lord supernaturally fills my heart with the same passion to see the church grow and flourish.

I have the unique privilege of knowing my husband’s desire and heart for the campus we lead. I believe God calls the family on a journey together. Whether it is ministry, parenting, or a business venture, the family shares in the blessings and responsibilities of that calling.

I am a pastor’s wife, a pharmacist, and a mother of three amazing boys. I also serve my church in a volunteer position. Life is full and fun — and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

The stereotype of what it means to be a

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pastor’s spouse is becoming a thing of the past. Women are thriving and living out their callings in the Church and in the marketplace.

The wives — and husbands — of ministers often have busy lives and careers outside the church.

So, how can today’s churches equip, empower and encourage the husbands and wives of those who are in full-time ministry?

Becoming more sensitive to the following three areas would be a great start:

Individuality

Just as other members of the congregation have different gifts, abilities and interests, pastors and their spouses are no exception.

I enjoy talking with people one-on-one, but unlike my husband, I am introverted by nature. That is why I am grateful for leaders who have encouraged me to serve in ways that align with my personality and gifts.

I serve on our church’s Connections Team, where I help people get connected to our volunteer areas. Interacting with new families soon after they begin attending the church has been a joy for me.

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It is life-giving and energizing for people to find the right fit in serving. This is no less true for the spouses of pastors.

It is life-giving and energizing for people to find the right fit in serving. This is no less true for the spouses of pastors.

Seasons

Blessin Mathew is the wife of Tom Mathew, North Campus pastor at James River Church in Springfield, Missouri.

She is a pharmacist and the mother of three boys.

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There may be seasons when a pastor’s husband or wife can be highly involved in the week-to-week operations of the church, and other seasons when it’s necessary to take a step back.

As the mother of a newborn — as well as a second-grader and kindergartener who are doing school at home because of the pandemic — I am in the latter season. I am still connecting with and encouraging people through phone calls, text messages, and social media, but I have scaled back my overall involvement. As much as I would like to do more, it is not possible given our current reality.

When churches take notice of such seasons, this can be a great blessing to a pastor’s family. Additionally, acknowledging and accommodating seasonal shifts can go a long way toward promoting the health of ministry families.

Expectations

Sometimes the church needs all hands on deck. A pastor’s spouse understands this and

is ready to jump in so long as his or hers individuality and season of life are not overlooked.

Very few people are more invested in seeing the ministry succeed than the person who is married to the pastor.

A few years ago, we were going through a transition at our campus with our Atmosphere and Hosting Team. This was our largest volunteer team, and it was critical to keep this ministry moving forward without skipping a beat.

Because of the importance of this team and my unique platform of influence, church leadership approached me about overseeing this ministry. I was able to move into the role quickly, meeting the need and gaining meaningful experience. I formed close relationships with volunteers and their families that have lasted to this day.

After bringing strength and stability to this ministry area, we brought in another individual to take over this role while I transitioned to the Connections Team. I am grateful for each opportunity I have to help build the church.

As my husband stepped into a full-time ministry position at the church 10 years ago, the Lord called me too. That doesn’t mean we can’t pursue our callings in different ways, while holding up each other’s arms and cheering each other on.

My husband cannot be a pharmacist, but he cares for our kids and supports me in my vocation. I may not be the one giving the altar call on a Sunday morning, but I am doing what I can to help people begin their walk with Jesus. What we do, we do together!

Our individual callings are callings for the entire family. As a ministry family, we join hands and work wholeheartedly together toward what the Lord has for us. After all, we get to be a part of something that is making an eternal difference.

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE

Marketplace Missionaries SVETLANA PAPAZOV

Four ways to prepare believers on Sunday for their work on Monday.

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he excitement was palpable as pastors and marketplace leaders began filling our church for a one-day conference on whole-life discipleship and the value of work. The morning training focused on the redemptive mandate of every Christian in the workplace. The idea that any work can be evangelistic challenged my new friend.

He had walked in with his mind made up to quit his job and go into full-time ministry. My friend enjoyed his work as an inventor, but he thought the only Kingdom value was

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in the tithes he gave the local church.

Because of what he had heard — and hadn’t heard — from the pulpit, this sincere believer was struggling to see a connection between his faith and his calling. My friend’s attitude toward his Monday-through-Friday job reflects that of many congregants who faithfully attend church on Sundays.

A week has 168 hours. On average, people who work full-time spend fewer than two of those hours on religious, civic and organizational activities, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But they devote about 44 hours weekly to their jobs — more time than they spend on any other waking activity.

Every day, churchgoers work alongside people who are skeptical of religion. According to Pew Research Center, 54% of U.S. adults seldom or never attend services.

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Barna Group reports that 72% of Christians “don’t fully connect the importance of their faith to their mission at work.”

The American Church has sent many missionaries abroad, but there is also a vast mission field in our own backyard. To evangelize anew those who might not otherwise hear the gospel, we need to empower our congregants to become marketplace missionaries.

Believers have an opportunity to build a bridge to grace for people who never hear from a pastor. But they may not recognize their potential to make an eternal difference without the support and encouragement of their local churches. Barna Group reports that 72% of Christians “don’t fully connect the importance of their faith to their mission at work.”

To help parishioners begin to see their workplaces as mission fields, pastors should regularly affirm Monday work as a calling that’s just as important as Sunday work. Here are four ways to do that:

Intentional Language

What you say as a leader matters. If you associate God’s calling only with the work of fulltime pastors, missionaries, and church staff, you communicate that these are the God-chosen and blessed vocations. What about the truck driver, mechanic, office manager, farmer, chemist or business owner?

Intentionally acknowledging on Sunday the redemptive value of vocations outside the church will change the way your people think about what they do on Monday.

Workplace Visits Svetlana Papazov, D. Min., is pastor of Real Life Church (AG) in Midlothian, Virginia, which she planted in 2016. She is author of the breakthrough book Church for Monday and founder and CEO of Real Life Center for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Excellence, an entrepreneurial incubator and coworking center that share the same facility as the church.

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Arrange to meet up with congregants for lunch at their office buildings, construction sites, and factories. Ask permission to deliver coffee and bagels for the entire office or work crew. Pray with police officers and hospital workers before they begin their shifts. Show up to support a military family when a member deploys. Bring several church staff members and some colorful baskets of supplies to help a teacher prepare, and pray over, the classroom before the start of the school year.

When pastors build into their weekly schedules this vital function of shepherding,

it allows them to connect the two worlds — the church and the marketplace — and convey to congregants, “Your work matters to God.”

Celebration

People often sit in church for decades before they see someone from their profession on the platform. Set aside a special time to recognize and celebrate God’s call on marketplace workers. Give it a creative name, such as Monday on Sunday or This Time Tomorrow.

Ask parishioners interview questions that focus on their workplace mission: What has God called you to do this time tomorrow?

What are the joys and challenges of being a follower of Jesus where you work? How can we pray for your work?

Commissioning

To help congregants integrate faith and work, consider commissioning them during a service.

Labor Day is a natural time to recognize the work congregants do. You may want to commission teachers and school staff at the start of the academic year.

Just as you might do when sending out vocational ministers, invite those who agree to be marketplace missionaries to come to the front of the church. Then have elders, pastors and members of the congregation extend hands and pray over them. Release these workers to advance the purposes and presence of God outside the church walls.

I’m happy to say my inventor friend left the conference encouraged that most Christ followers preach from behind the desk, not the pulpit.

Pastors can make a pivotal difference by affirming the unique contributions and callings of Christian lawyers, baristas, architects, forklift operators, doctors, and teachers, and sending them out as marketplace missionaries.

These workers can translate the gospel for the unchurched in word and deed, reaching their respective mission fields with the hope of Christ in ways no one else can.

LEADERSHIP ETHICS

Don’t Let Bad Choices Hijack Your Health JOHN DAVIDSON ife is fragile. Most of us know someone who seemed like the picture of health before receiving a terminal diagnosis or dying suddenly from a heart attack. Sometimes you make good choices and take care of yourself, only to succumb to the effects of living in a fallen world. Nevertheless, what we can control, we should.

The holiday season may seem like the worst time to talk about health. I get it. I like festive meals and pie. I also like chocolate, greasy burgers, fried chicken wings, and Dr Pepper. But a commitment to caring for the body God provided me motivates me to prioritize good decisions in every season.

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A commitment to healthy living is the right choice, ethically and professionally.

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You don’t have to train like an Olympian to get in better shape, but you do need to start somewhere.

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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What does this have to do with ethics? I believe taking care of your body is as much an ethical issue as a physical one. There are three reasons why a healthy ministerial ethic should include a commitment to healthy living.

First, your body is a temple. In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, the apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

Paul was arguing against sexual impurity on the basis that the believer’s physical body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. It follows, then, that we should also avoid other things that would taint or damage that temple.

Second, a physical body is necessary for fulfilling your God-given mission. Paul makes it clear in 2 Corinthians 5:1 that believers get two bodies — an earthly body and an eventual heavenly body. Your earthly body is the only vehicle for ministry you have. When it becomes too worn out, depleted, damaged, or sick to continue functioning, the body dies.

Whether you’ve done everything God has assigned to you or not, you’re finished.

Finally, God cares about your body. The creation narrative in Genesis shows the care God takes in making human life. In the Gospels, the restoration of bodies is a key component of Jesus’ ministry. And 1 Thessalonians 4 reveals God will eventually raise our physical bodies in the process of making all things new. If God created and cares about my body, I too should care about it and for it.

The goal in healthier living is progress, not perfection. You don’t have to do this perfectly; simply make a commitment to improve.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying food, but there is value in self-control. You don’t have to train like an Olympian to get in better shape, but you do need to start somewhere.

Chances are, you could live a healthier lifestyle with a few minor changes in your daily routine. As you enjoy the holidays with family and friends and turn the corner into the new year, consider taking a few

healthy baby steps in the right direction: • Become accountable. Ask someone to help you on your health journey. Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help, but having a friend, spouse, co-worker or personal trainer nudge you in the right direction could be just the motivation you need to meet your goals.

• Shop wisely. If you buy the right food when grocery shopping, you’ll make the right food when you’re at home cooking.

If you buy junk food at the store, you’ll reach for it at home.

• Use portion control. During the holidays, there are plenty of opportunities to overindulge, from family meals with turkey and stuffing to office parties with cookies and pies. If you’re trying to lose weight, you may find that simply eating less will help. Enjoy the food. Just don’t go back for seconds.

• Move more. Exercising and staying in shape are important, but these things can also be challenging in a ministerial job that is often sedentary. Walk several times a week with a friend or your spouse. Or take solitary walks and use them as prayer times. Count steps using a phone app, and see if you can get in a few more each day.

As a Bible-centered believer, I’m pro-life, which means I am against the premature termination of life in the womb. But that same conviction means I am also against people making decisions that, over time, lead to the premature termination of their lives as adults.

Ministerial ethics demand we steward our physical bodies in such a way that we do not abort God’s plan for our lives because we’re no longer healthy enough to complete it.

As with most other things in life and leadership, your physical health isn’t just about you. It’s about enjoying a long life of impact for Jesus on your family, church, community and world. And as you take steps toward better health, your journey will inspire others who want to change but need a godly example to follow.

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Moving beyond thinking about God’s presence to experiencing it.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

— Matthew 1:23

GARY TYRA

E

arly in my pastoral ministry, something remarkable occurred that caused the notion of Jesus being “God with us” to really come to life for me.

St. John of the Cross wrote about a painful but ultimately beneficial spiritual experience he referred to as his “dark night of the soul.” My own dark night of the soul occurred in the early 1980s and lasted 18 months.

I had been under a lot of pressure, doing my best in my mid-20s to pastor a small, somewhat dysfunctional church while also hurrying my way through a master of divinity degree and endeavoring to be a responsible husband and father. Then, on top of the physical, emotional, and mental stress I was already wrestling with, I entered a season of psychological and spiritual desolation.

Routine medical tests, the recounting of my family’s medical history, and careless comments from a doctor triggered a mental health crisis. In essence, I developed an intense phobia related to cancer, the disease that claimed the lives of both my mother and father during my youth.

I remained fully functional in terms of keeping up my responsibilities. However, my spiritual life was strained like a guitar string tightened to the breaking point. I questioned whether God really cared. At times, I wondered whether He was there at all.

In seminary, I had been studying the theology of John Calvin and the doctrine of the double decree — the notion that prior to creating any of us, God sovereignly predetermined who would receive salvation and who would not.

At that spiritually precarious time in my life, I applied this doctrine to myself in the worst possible way. Thus, in addition to a phobic anxiety regarding my physical health,

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I started worrying obsessively over my spiritual wellbeing. As irrational and theologically naïve as it may seem now, the fear was real and overwhelming.

Then I had what I call my Immanuel moment — a personal “God with us” experience. While it didn’t immediately end my dark night, it has profoundly affected my life and ministry ever since.

It was late on a Saturday night. I had just finished cleaning the church and was kneeling at the altar in prayer, desperately seeking some relief from my pervasive and growing sense of anxiety.

In the empty, dimly lit church, I literally cried out to God for some sort of word of assurance that He did love me and had chosen me to be a part of His elect. While praying, I sensed I was supposed to pick up my Bible and read Deuteronomy 7:6. I had no conscious awareness of what this verse said. Still, in obedience to the Spirit’s prompting, I turned to the passage and read these words:

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For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Of all the verses in the Bible, I heard a voice in my heart telling me at that critical time to turn to and read this particular one. What are you supposed to do with an experience like this?

What do we do with a God like this, a God who is so faithful to show up at just the right time? What do we do with a God who reveals His love in such a personal way as to change the course of our lives?

Such moments powerfully illustrate Jesus’ commitment to be Immanuel, “God with us.” As we enter the Advent season following a difficult and painful year, it’s worth considering again what it means to encounter the reality of the Incarnation in our lives and ministries.

I’m convinced we can go beyond merely singing about

Jesus being “God with us” and really experience Him as such. As we prepare for the holiday season, it is the perfect time to prepare our hearts to receive anew the blessings of God’s abiding presence.

I believe there are four key ingredients to Immanuel moments.

1. Theological Realism

It’s alarmingly easy for even seasoned Christians to slip into what I refer to as functional deism. Simply put, deism is the belief that God exists but He’s not really with us.

Deism assumes God created the universe and then withdrew from it, leaving it to run according to natural laws.

Deists might pray, but they tend to talk toward the idea of God rather than to God. They might participate in worship, but they don’t genuinely expect to encounter the God in their song lyrics. The idea that the Creator might be up to something in their lives — something deists should be careful to cooperate with rather than resist — never occurs to them.

The truth is, many people who claim to believe in God are content to live each day in a way that’s essentially bereft of the experience of His empowering presence. In his 1971 book, $3.00 Worth of God, pastor Wilbur Rees drew attention to this lamentable reality. With biting sarcasm, he wrote the following: I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

Few American churchgoers would refer to themselves as deists. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a functional deism at work in their day-to-day lives.

The alternative to functional deism is theological realism. According to this biblically supported perspective, God is a real, personal, relational, Trinitarian Being with whom we can interact in deeply meaningful ways.

Thanks to the incarnation of Christ (John 1:14) and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we not only can conceptualize God, but we can also experience Him. He really can be with us!

There is a vast difference between a real relationship with God and a merely philosophical faith or formalistic

The notion that God is committed to being with His people permeates the biblical witness. religion based on rules and rituals. Theological realism makes a real relationship with God, and personal experiences with Him, possible.

2. Theology of Presence

In addition to theological realism, we must also become convinced of how eager God is to interact with us in empowering, transformational, life-story shaping ways.

The notion that God is committed to being with His people permeates the biblical witness.

Consider first the Old Testament. Though some biblical passages may seem to portray God as an austere deity who is always aloof, such a reading misses the point of the Scriptures. In every era of Old Testament history, and in every book, we can see God’s deep desire to dwell with, rather than apart from, His covenant people (e.g., Genesis 26:24; Leviticus 26:11–12; Deuteronomy 20:4; Joshua 1:5; Judges 6:12; 2 Samuel 7:9; Isaiah 41:10; Jeremiah 30:11; Ezekiel 37:27; Amos 5:14; Zephaniah 3:14–15).

The Book of Psalms repeatedly points to the reality of God being present with His people (e.g., 14:5).

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More specifically, the Psalms speak of God surrounding His people (125:1–2) and being ever available as a Source of personal guidance and empowerment (73:23–24; 118:6–7; 139:7–10).

A careful reading reveals that the possibility of experiencing the presence of God is a major theme in the Old Testament. Yet the story is earmarked by exasperation.

Tragically, God’s covenant people kept pushing Him away.

They continually engaged in acts of self-sabotage. Their hearts were hard and prone to wander. As a result, they proved to be incapable of experiencing God with them in

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the enduring manner their God desired.

But God’s grace was greater (Romans 5:20). The prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of a “righteous servant” whose substitutionary suffering would atone for sins and make reconciliation with God possible (Isaiah 53:1–12).

Isaiah also spoke of the birth of a future messianic king who would “reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (Isaiah 9:6–7).

The witness of the Old Testament to the importance of God’s presence brings a sense of hopeful anticipation. It looks forward to the time when the Messiah would arrive on the scene and make things right. According to Isaiah, this Messiah would be born of a virgin and would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

The season of Advent is all about the fulfillment of Israel’s wistful longing for the appearing of the One whose name literally means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

It’s no wonder, then, that the New Testament also presents us with a powerful theology of God’s presence.

In addition to passages that focus on the possibility of believers experiencing the presence and reality of God in general (e.g., Acts 17:38; Hebrews 13:5; Philippians 4:4–7; 2 Corinthians 6:14–18; Ephesians 3:16–19; 2 Thessalonians 3:16; Revelation 21:1–3), there are texts that portray the dramatic significance of the incarnation of the eternal Son. This is especially evident in Chapter 1 of John’s Gospel.

In the opening verse, John reveals that the Word, so critical to the experience of the life and light that flow from our Creator, was not only with God in the beginning, but He was and is God. In verse 14, we read that the Word has become flesh — appeared in incarnate form — and pitched His tent among us. In verse 18, John indicates that one of the reasons for the Incarnation was precisely this: to make God known to His covenant people, to literally be God with us.

But that’s not all the New Testament has to say about God being with us. Other passages portray Jesus himself assuring His followers of His perpetual presence (Matthew 18:19–20; 28:19–20). Still other texts speak of the amazing possibility of an ongoing mentoring relationship with the risen Christ by means of His indwelling Spirit (e.g., John 14:16–18; 16:12–15).

Just think of it: The incarnate Son continues to be with His followers in a comforting and empowering manner, through His Spirit, even after His return to the right hand of the Father.

The upshot is that, according to the New Testament, the events of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost combine to create the potential for us to experience the power and presence of God. But to realize this potential, we must embrace a realism that’s not only theological in nature, but pneumatological as well. After all, possessing the potential as Spirit-filled believers to experience a moment-by-moment mentoring relationship with the incarnate and risen Christ doesn’t do us any good if we’re not alive to the Spirit’s moving in our lives. Thus, there’s a third ingredient if we’re to fully experience “God with us.”

3. Pneumatological Realism

The Greek word for wind, breath or spirit is pneuma.

Therefore, pneumatology is simply the study of what the Bible has to say about the Holy Spirit. Pneumatological realism begins with the recognition that just as God the Father can be conceived of in an impersonal manner and reduced to a mere idea, concept or force, so can His Spirit.

What’s more, it’s possible for church members — and leaders — to assume a posture of presumption with

respect to the Spirit of God, rather than one earmarked by a sense of expectancy. It’s one thing to say we believe in the work of the Spirit. It’s another to seek Him, wait on Him, and expect Him to impact us in meaningful, life-transforming, ministry-engendering ways. Doing the former without the latter is like pulling the power cord on our walk with Christ.

Even some non-Pentecostal evangelicals have been willing to acknowledge how crucial the Spirit of Jesus is to our following Him. Biblical scholar John Stott once said, “The Christian life is essentially life in the Spirit, that is to say, a life which is animated, sustained, directed, and enriched by the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, true Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, indeed impossible.”

The sad reality is it’s possible for the life-giving, transformational work of the Spirit to be resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), rejected (1Thessalonians 4:8), and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

Really experiencing “God with us” — life-story shaping encounters with the incarnate and risen Jesus — requires that we assume an attitudinal posture of expectancy

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The events of christmas, easter, and pentEcost combine to create the potential for us to experience the power and presence of god. toward the Spirit of Christ rather simply presuming His presence in our lives.

This is why the apostle Paul encouraged church members to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:15–18), and to “keep in step” with Him (Galatians 5:25). Learning to live each day aware of, in touch with, and responsive to the Spirit’s promptings in our lives is what a pneumatological realism is all about.

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4. Proximity

Finally, we must take the initiative to draw near to God. This is especially necessary in times of intense spiritual attack when we might wonder whether He’s really there.

Like it or not, the devil and the demonic are also realities. According to passages such as Hebrews 2:14–15 and 1 John 3:8, another major reason for Christ’s incarnation was the empowering of God’s people to overcome the evil one. Not surprisingly, the experience of “God with us” is key.

My dark night of the soul taught me this. What started as a physical problem turned into an anxiety disorder and, finally, a spiritual battle. Taking advantage of the situation, the devil launched an insidious assault. The result was a season of suffering that I knew was irrational but simply couldn’t control. The more I prayed, the more confused and bewildered I became.

My Immanuel moment opened my eyes to the reality that God was with me in that dark place, but I still needed to take intentional steps toward Him. At one point early in my crisis, I sensed God telling me He had allowed this difficulty. He then showed me how to overcome it. Although this prophetic encounter was reassuring at the time, I failed to act on it in a responsible manner. So, the dark night continued. My anguished wrestling with a spirit of fear persisted. Self-sabotage happens.

Finally, a year and a half after the onset of the crisis, I experienced another prophetic encounter with God. I was away from home attending a pastors’ conference. One evening, while I was alone in my hotel room, the anxiety demons pounced. Unable to sleep, I sat on the edge of the bed, in the dark, with my head in my hands and my elbows resting on my knees. I cried out to God in frustration, “Where are You? Why won’t You just say the word and deliver me from this spirit of fear?”

Then, in the early morning stillness, I heard a word from the Lord deep in my heart: “Gary, I told you at the very beginning of this ordeal that it was purposeful, that I wanted to teach you vital lessons about dealing with the devil that you, as a pastor, can pass on to others.”

The next day at the conference, God continued to speak to me, but in a powerfully affirming, comforting manner.

I had become desperate for a personal encounter with God. In His time, He showed up, communicating a message of both truth and grace. He directed my attention specifically to James 4:7–10: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

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I returned home and began focusing on drawing closer to God. When I finally realized the way to defeat the devil was not by battling him myself, but by drawing near to God, I experienced the empowerment I so desperately needed. Within a couple of weeks, I realized my spiritual struggle had come to an end.

I’m not suggesting my experience represents the sum total of what it means to overcome the devil. Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 suggests there may be times when the appropriate response is not to keep praying for deliverance, but to embrace the trial, allowing it to intensify the manner in which our lives speak to others of God’s reality and empowering presence.

Sometimes God asks us simply to persevere in faith (Revelation 2:10).

Yet I have learned proximity to God matters. Drawing near in desperation and obedience was what saved my life and ministry nearly 40 years ago. If we want to experience “God with us,” we sometimes must “come near” to Him in a proactive manner, defying the devil in the process.

Our God is holy, but He is not austere and aloof. He is a personal God who is eager to be with us. He is a speaking, communicating God who, through the incarnation of His Son and the outpouring of His Spirit, wants to mentor us in a moment-by-moment manner through the entirety of our lives, even in our darkest hours.

But for us to really experience “God with us,” four things are necessary: theological realism, awareness of the Bible’s theology of presence, pneumatological realism, and a willingness to keep coming near.

Because of Christ’s incarnation and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we don’t have to settle for $3 worth of God. It really is possible to experience the power of “God with us.”

May your Advent season this year be especially blessed!

Gary Tyra, D. Min., is professor of biblical and practical theology at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California.

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if we want to experience “god with us,” we sometimes must “come near” to him in a proactive manner, essentially defying the devil in the process.

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never let a crisis go to waste Ten lessons to help us when — not if — the next crisis comes.

ED STETZER

I

n The Life of Reason, philosopher George Santayana famously warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” While true, remembering is not always enough.

I think a better maxim is that which is often attributed to Winston Churchill: “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

In other words, we need to learn from difficult times and then take steps toward positive change. COVID-19 showed us we weren’t as prepared for crises as we needed to be. However, this moment can help shape our response to the next crisis.

We don’t want to overlook what the global pandemic can teach us as a Church. Here are 10 lessons to help us navigate future crises when — not if — they come:

1. Create Flexible Systems

A crisis, by definition, brings uncertainty, so having systems that can adapt quickly is vital. To put it another way, blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

In Crisis Leadership, author Tim Johnson identifies two types of crises: incident and issue. Both require adaptable responses.

An incident crisis is something that happens suddenly, like a tornado. There are disaster relief teams in both the private and public sectors trained to respond to this kind of crisis. Equipping people in your congregation, identifying individuals with resources and skills, and putting a crisis leadership team in place can better prepare your church for an incident crisis.

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remaining adaptable when a situation is in flux is crucial for meeting each need that arises.

An issue crisis is more ongoing. The pandemic has been both an incident crisis, shutting down the country rather quickly, and an issue crisis, with complex, long-term implications.

Both types of crises call for flexible systems that can pivot rapidly — whether that means moving meetings online during a pandemic or sending out relief workers following a natural disaster.

Remaining adaptable when a situation is in flux is crucial for meeting each need that arises. Flexible systems make it easier to stay calm, make the necessary transitions, deploy resources, and outline clear next steps for effective ministry.

These are the responses that build confidence among those you lead. They will begin to believe you can do this together, and they will walk through the crisis with you.

2. Don’t Overreact or Underreact

Consider the famous moment on Sept. 11, 2001, when President George W. Bush was reading a book to schoolchildren. Chief of Staff Andrew Card entered the room, leaned over, and whispered in Bush’s ear that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York City. It was clear that America was under attack.

What was Bush’s first response? He kept reading to the kids. Though some later criticized this decision, Bush said he didn’t want to frighten the children.

There can be a fine line between overreacting and underreacting in a crisis. You don’t want to run out of the room with your hair on fire. But you also can’t ignore the real issues, carrying on indefinitely as though nothing has changed.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins tells the story of U.S. Navy Adm. James Stockdale, who was captured during the Vietnam War. At the time, Stockdale was one of the highest-ranking officers in the POW camp. His captors tortured him and told him he wouldn’t survive.

But he did.

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Stockdale later said, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Collins calls this balance of realism and optimism the Stockdale Paradox. According to Stockdale, prisoners who failed to face reality were most prone to despair and death.

The admiral put it this way: They were the ones who said, “We’re going to be out by Christmas.” And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, “We’re going to be out by Easter.” And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.

Similarly, some church leaders said in March, “We’re going to be back by April.” Then, “We’re going to be back

by Easter.” Those people ended up demoralizing their churches in the long run. We learned the Church needs both realism and hope. This helps us avoid both overreaction and underreaction.

3. Seek God

In the Book of Acts, Jesus’ followers seemed to go from one crisis to the next. Through each difficulty, the Church sought God in prayer (e.g., Acts 4:1–31; 12:5–17; 16:25–34).

In many ways, Acts is a series of answered prayers.

Prayer should be our first response in times of crises as well. As author S.D. Gordon observed: “You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you can’t do more than pray before you’ve prayed.”

Prayer is an ever-present resource for believers.

4. Seek Unity

Crises don’t create division; they reveal and exacerbate division. The U.S. saw this in disputes that erupted over masks and shutdowns amid the pandemic, as well as in

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against a backdrop of uncertainty and division, the local church should be a place of clarity and unity. the racial divide following the death of George Floyd.

Unsurprisingly, all this conflict spilled over into churches as well.

Against a backdrop of uncertainty and division, the local church should be a place of clarity and unity. After all, Jesus prayed for this very thing for His followers (John 17:20–21). How can we achieve the unity He wants us to experience?

First, we need deeper community. We can show the world we are Jesus’ disciples by putting aside our differences and simply loving one another (John 13:35). That means meeting tangible needs, praying for one another, and encouraging one another in the faith rather than arguing on social media.

Second, we need a deeper covenant. Our commitment to Christ should motivate us to emulate Him and put others ahead of ourselves (Philippians 2).

Third, we need a deeper calling. This comes back to our mission: Why are we here? And in light of that purpose, what should our posture be in the midst of a crisis?

A biblical way to move toward greater unity in times of uncertainty and division is for church leaders to come together and seek God’s will (Acts 15).

After gaining God’s perspective, say to the church, “We might not agree on everything as a congregation, but our pastors and elders have talked and prayed, and we have determined to walk through this time together with the following actions … .”

Speak with a united voice and with the genuine assurance of having heard from God. Clarity in times of uncertainty helps foster unity.

5. Move Beyond the Building

People have been saying for years how the church shouldn’t be about the building. The Lord in His providence removed most of us from our buildings for a season.

What we found is our evangelism was largely based on inviting people to church instead of on Jesus’ Great

Commission: “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19, emphasis added).

When I was a teenager, I played chess competitively.

One of the ways I learned to improve my game was to remove the queen. People who are not good at playing chess rely too much on their queen.

For too long, the worship service and the church building were like the queen in a chess match, becoming more central than they should have been. Our best ministry happens in the community.

Yes, our services are important. We need to prioritize and value meeting together. But we also must return to the biblical idea that the Church consists of the people of God, on mission for God to a world in need of God, not a club that meets in isolation from the world.

The church is a MASH unit sent out to rescue the perishing, not a museum set aside to relish the past.

6. Focus on Discipleship

Far too many people in our churches have been discipled by their cable news choices and spiritually shaped by their social media feeds. We have to take seriously the importance of discipling into believers a vision for an alternative, countercultural, Kingdom community — and discipling out of them a devotion to politics and pundits.

We learned in 2020 that the Church, rather than stepping up as a beacon of hope in a divided land, often reflected that same division.

We want to be shaped by the unchanging truths of the eternal Word, not the shifting opinions of the erratic world.

Through the increased use of online ministry, small groups, and faithful preaching, we can put before people the Bread of Life to counter the fast-food diet of media consumption.

7. Innovate

The book You’re It uses a metaphor of three rooms — a basement, a workroom, and a laboratory — to describe how the brain responds in a crisis.

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during a crisis, your mission, vision and values stay the same. they are nonnegotiable.

The basement is the lower level, the safe place. This is where people go when a tornado hits. It’s a normal reaction to take cover when a crisis roars onto the scene. At the beginning of the pandemic, people went into survival mode and fled to the basement, so to speak. That’s when toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and canned soup disappeared from store shelves.

But we can’t lead from the basement. We have to get to the workroom to find new routines and patterns that fit the current situation. The workroom means leading people to a new normal. It’s where we ask the question, What does this mean long-term?

In the season between crises — and to some degree, during them — we also need to work in the laboratory space. The laboratory is where we develop new ideas for future crises.

Some innovations will develop during a crisis, just as we saw new ministries birthed in the pandemic. But it’s better to be innovating and preparing in the calm before the next crisis.

8. Know What’s Not Negotiable

There are five elements to keep in mind during a crisis: • Mission • Vision • Values • Strategy • Structure During a crisis, your mission, vision and values stay the same. They are nonnegotiable. But your strategy and structure change.

A crisis should serve as a rallying cry for the Church to focus intensely on the mission. Showing and sharing the gospel, caring for the hurting, and loving God and others are never optional — not even when a crisis arises. If anything, the mission, vision and values should become more central during difficult times, as other things fall away.

Mission is what God has called us to do. Vision is how we do it. Churches will fulfill the mission with a vision unique to their community.

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Amid the pandemic, some churches focused on feeding the hungry. Others served hospital staffs. Still others cared specifically for senior adults. The context of a specific church will impact how it serves the unchanging mission.

At the same time, we must adapt our strategy and structure. A case in point is the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, which I lead. Our mission, vision and values remained the same throughout the pandemic. Graham talked about us being a world hub of inspiration and training for evangelism and mission; we’re still doing that today. But our strategies have shifted substantially over the past few months.

Instead of physically gathering global leaders, we came together via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other digital platforms. We also changed our structure. But the mission, vision and values never changed.

9. Equip and Empower

A crisis reminds us of the need to prepare and mobilize people, whether we’re facing a wildfire, a hurricane, or a virus.

For churches, this means involving far more members in the mission. This is an Ephesians 4:11–12 moment: “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”

A scene in the 1995 film Apollo 13 provides a glimpse of what can happen in the midst of a crisis. Apollo 13 is in trouble. The oxygen scrubbers don’t work. NASA scientists hear that they have to find a way to “fit a square peg into a round hole.” Although it seems like an impossible situation, the team immediately gets to work solving the problem.

We need to empower people to figure out how to do hard tasks in a crisis. People in our churches are far more capable than our current equipping and empowering demonstrate.

During the pandemic, many small group leaders led their groups to do remarkable ministry in numerous

communities. Let’s equip, empower, and release staff members and lay leaders to do more than we could ever accomplish on our own.

10. Care for the Community

The words of the prophet Zechariah speak to us today: “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other” (Zechariah 7:10).

Americans are blessed with many freedoms. However, some Christians today emphasize freedom over those who are at risk.

God calls us to care for the marginalized, the broken, and the hurting, and to put others ahead of ourselves. Just as Jesus did, we should have compassion for those who are like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36–38). We need to protect the vulnerable.

Again, why are we here? And in light of that, what

should our posture be in the midst of a crisis?

My grandfather, who was a fire battalion chief in New York City, was very influential in my later childhood and early teen years.

I remember him saying, “Eddie, we’re the ones who run toward the fire or the crisis everyone else is running away from.”

May the Church learn from this season and be more prepared to run toward the mission in times of crisis.

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois. You can find his course on crisis leadership at wheatonx.wheaton.edu.

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HELPING NEIGHBORS HELP NEIGHBORS

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP-MINDED MINISTRY J O N AT H A N P I T TS

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with

C H R I S C O LV I N

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C

hristmas is a time of giving and serving. It is an annual reminder of the biblical truth, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Your church is likely planning ways to invest in and serve your community this season and beyond.

But how do you make the most of your limited time and resources?

When I first came to Church of the City in Franklin, Tennessee, where I serve as executive pastor, I was pleased to find the congregation was already engaged in a robust ministry to the area. This included reaching out in practical but gospel-oriented ways. It wasn’t something the church adopted when it reached a certain size. It was a part of the DNA from the start.

Church of the City has always pursued a neighborhood church model. With five campuses in four locations today, that looks a bit different than it once did. Yet the founding principle remains the same: a local church in a local community doing local ministry.

Every church has a local mission field, a neighborhood, a context, and a God-given calling. Every church must prayerfully determine how to reach its community with the good news of Jesus Christ — and serve it in ways that point people to Him.

two approaches

Frustrations around effective outreach usually come from a lack of direction rather than a lack of desire. In many cases, churches either don’t know where to start, or

they aren’t sure how to follow through on their plans.

When planting Church of the City, leaders took a look at how most churches do community engagement and then evaluated the potential effectiveness of each model in our context. They found there were two main approaches.

The more traditional approach, what I call ministry-minded outreach, keeps everything in-house.

Whether starting a prison ministry or opening a thrift store, the church manages the entire effort internally, including recruiting volunteers and planning a budget.

At first glance, it might seem like retaining control would make it easier to stay on mission. However, the reality is no one church can do all things well.

After all, a pastor who is leading a congregation and preaching weekly probably doesn’t have the time and expertise to run a food pantry or afterschool program.

Finding volunteers with the capacities to manage a new enterprise may not be realistic either. As outreach expands, you run the risk of doing many things with mediocrity.

The second approach, partnership-minded outreach, is the path Church of the City took from the beginning.

Instead of building something from the ground up, we hit the ground running by identifying organizations already in place that were already doing things well. We provided volunteers and, in some cases, funding, while the organizations gave us a platform and opportunity.

This is a more sustainable strategy. There were feeding programs that were already successful. There were

we view our missional partnerships through the lens of our values.

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clothing drives that were already meeting needs. The community didn’t need another one of those. What it needed were people willing to step up and help out.

Partnership allows each party to leverage strengths to cover deficits. Two of the most difficult and time-consuming challenges for any organization are raising funds and filling volunteer ranks. We can provide help in these areas, while also promoting health and growth among our people.

Despite some success, our initial approach was not as intentional as it should have been. The heart of what we were doing was right, but the way we were doing it needed more thoughtful planning. That realization led to the development of a missional partnership strategy.

missional partnerships

We took four practical steps to ensure our partnerships were not only mutually beneficial, but also on mission for what God had called us to accomplish.

1. Identify the mission. This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to matching up your church with any organization. To have a missional partnership, you first need to know your mission.

Of course, your church’s mission may change, and the strategy you employ to accomplish it is fluid. To really understand who your church is at the core, first consider your values. Those are the unchanging principles, the nonnegotiables that make your mission possible.

We view our missional partnerships through the lens of our values. One of those values is generosity. In a culture

that often fixates on accumulating wealth and possessions, we pursue the Kingdom principle of giving and serving generously. That helps drive our outreach model as we consider partnerships.

Another value is worship. Not every outreach opportunity presents a time of traditional worship. However, when we worship, we invite the presence and power of Jesus into the circumstances and realities of our lives.

That can also happen as we give and serve, and as we celebrate what God does through us.

2. Start simple. Is there an elementary school nearby with a great need? Schools are among the easiest places to begin meeting needs and forming missional partnerships.

Tony Evans at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas started by reaching out to one school. He visited with the local superintendent to ask what needs the church could meet.

This simple gesture showed school leaders the church was serious about serving. It was not a volunteer visiting or a minister making a phone call. It was the senior pastor showing up in person. This set the tone for a successful partnership.

That meeting didn’t lead to massive assemblies on campus. When Evans asked what the school needed, the answer was simply, “Men. We need men to come on campus and read to our kids and eat lunch with them.”

And that’s what the church provided.

A school is often the best place to start developing

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when you develop trust through partnerships, you can become a solution to the next need. missional partnerships. Schools represent an important mission field. They have kids, families and people who are in need of the gospel. If you go in with the intention of meeting one basic need, you will likely find other needs to meet as well — both tangible and spiritual.

3. Seek small wins, and build on them. When you discover a need you can meet, try to meet it. The pastor of one of our smaller campuses developed a relationship with the local chief of police.

In conversation, the pastor learned there was an issue with attempted suicides in the jurisdiction. When officers responded, the procedure was to place the individual in the back of a patrol car, just as they did during an arrest.

The officers needed a special van for transporting suicidal people with a greater level of care and dignity.

Though the police department’s budget had not yet allowed for the purchase, our church was able to spring into action and buy a van for them.

Not only did we strengthen our relationship with the police force in a tangible way, but we also built on that so whenever there was a need, the department would feel comfortable calling on us.

When you develop trust through partnerships, you can become a solution to the next need. People will see the value your church adds to the community, and they will be more likely to help out when you need them.

4. Refine the strategy. Don’t be rigid in your approach.

Instead, be willing to adapt as needed.

When we build big strategies, we may not see wins because we’re constantly working toward that one goal.

Be willing to shift and adapt so your team can pick up smaller wins, gain momentum, and grow in confidence.

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Develop a strategy you can scale to serve more organizations. We began by tithing 10% of our total offerings into a fund we now use to form these missional partnerships. We hope over time to increase that to 12%, or even 15%. As we scale up, we can reach more needs through different organizations without having to start from scratch.

To manage this, we formed an advisory council from our membership to vet each organization and decide on the best approaches. Within the first year of creating that structure, we were able to bless 24 different groups.

We can also bring each need to our congregation with confidence because we have built trust.

It’s important to develop a system that can withstand pressure. Each person on our advisory council works with an organization we support — not just for accountability, but to walk with our missional partners.

Members ask how they can pray with partners each week, and what needs they and their organizations are facing. When we tie a person to a need in the community, it strengthens the bond.

Be sure to brand and promote your outreach, articulating what you do and why. This keeps service opportunities in front of your congregants and builds credibility with people inside and outside the church. It lets those who have never been to your church see how you are serving the city.

Internally, we tie our strategy to small groups. Each group chooses which organization to serve. This gives the groups a greater sense of purpose and encourages intentionality in serving.

One of our campuses remodeled the teachers’ lounge at

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partnership-minded ministry has given us the margin to pivot quickly to meet needs as they arise.

the school where it meets each Sunday for worship. That wasn’t a space our church uses on the weekends; it was just a way to give back. Being there for our community means being there for those who support the education of our children.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we weren’t able to meet in the schools for worship. Naturally, that was difficult for our congregation. But we were also concerned about how the crisis was affecting our community.

Some kids were missing out on in-person instruction.

In response, we decided to help fund a local tutoring organization that could do what we could not: offer immediate assistance to students who were struggling academically.

We also hosted food drives to provide relief to the many unemployed individuals and families who were having a hard time buying groceries.

Church is about more than meetings and sermons. It is also about reaching out, and stepping out, to make a difference in the world around us.

The words of James challenge us to put our faith into action: “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15–17).

Partnership-minded ministry has given us the margin to pivot quickly to meet needs as they arise. It has also allowed us to build strong relationships within the community, which makes it easier to work alongside others and maximize our outreach efforts.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 says, “Two are better than one,

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because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.”

Together, we are stronger. Through partnerships, we are making a difference, loving our neighbors, sharing the compassion of Christ, advancing the Kingdom, and bringing glory to God. This approach to outreach has been a huge blessing for all of us. Rather than building and managing a largescale outreach, we have gone all in on several fronts. This gives us room to breathe as a staff. It also gives us a larger footprint in our world.

We can reach more people for the gospel — our main goal. And we can keep bringing people into the Kingdom by meeting immediate, tangible needs.

Jonathan Pitts is executive pastor of Church of the City in Franklin, Tennessee.

Chris Colvin specializes in sermon research for pastors and churches. He lives in Springfield, Missouri.

42% OF THE WORLD IS STILL WAITING

FOR ACCESS TO

THE

GOSPEL.

HOW LONG WILL THEY HAVE TO WAIT?

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Pentecost as Paradigm Acts 2 and the Church’s bold, prophetic witness.

R O B E R T P. M E N Z I E S

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N

ew Testament scholars widely agree that Jesus’ dramatic sermon at Nazareth in Luke 4:16–30 is paradigmatic for Luke’s Gospel. All the major themes that will appear in the Gospel are foreshadowed here: the work of the Spirit; the universality of the gospel; the grace of God; and the rejection of Jesus.

This is the one significant point where the chronology of Luke differs from that of Mark. Here Luke takes an event from the middle of Jesus’ ministry and brings it right up front. Luke does this because he understands that this event, particularly Jesus’ recitation of Isaiah 61:1–2 and His declaration that this prophecy is now being fulfilled in His ministry, provides important insights into the nature of Jesus and His mission.

This passage, then, provides us with a model for Jesus’ subsequent ministry.

Luke provides a similar sort of paradigmatic introduction for his second volume, the Book of Acts. After the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, Peter delivers a sermon (Acts 2:14–41) that in many ways parallels that of Jesus in Luke 4. In his sermon, Peter also refers to an Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming of the Spirit, this time Joel 2:28–32, and declares that this prophecy too is now being fulfilled (Acts 2:17–21).

The message is clear: Just as Jesus was anointed by the Spirit to fulfill His prophetic vocation, so also Jesus’ disciples have been anointed as end-time prophets to proclaim the Word of God. The text of Joel 2:28–32 that is cited here, like the paradigmatic passage in Luke 4, also shows signs of careful editing on the part of Luke.

Luke carefully shapes this quotation from the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures) to highlight important theological themes. Three modifications are particularly striking: First, in Acts 2:17, Luke alters the order of the two lines that refer to young men having visions and old men dreaming dreams. In Joel, the old men dreaming dreams comes first. But Luke reverses the order: “Your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

Luke rearranges these two lines drawn from Joel so that the reference to “visions” precedes the comment about “dreams.”

A survey of Acts reveals this alteration is not a whim or an oversight. It is intentional. Luke prioritizes “visions” to emphasize their importance. This highlights a theme Luke sees as vitally important — one that recurs throughout his narrative.

The terms associated with dreams and dreaming occur

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nowhere else in the Book of Acts. Clearly, Luke is not big on dreaming.

By contrast, references to visions are not only plentiful in Luke’s narrative, but they also come at strategic moments (e.g., Acts 9:10,12; 10:3,17; 16:9; 18:9). Thus, Luke’s alteration appears theologically motivated.

Of course, visions are not the only way God guides the Church in the Book of Acts. Yet Luke’s point is hard to miss: By linking the “visions” of Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:17) with the visions of the Early Church, Luke is in effect saying that in “these last days” — that period inaugurated with Jesus’ birth and leading up to the Day of the Lord — the mission of the Church must be directed by God. God will lead His end-time prophets in special and personal ways, including visions, angelic visitations, and the prompting of the Spirit, so that we might fulfill our calling to take the gospel to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

So, the experience of the Early Church, a Church God supernaturally led, serves as a model for the Church throughout the age.

Second, with the addition of a few words in verse 19, Luke transforms Joel’s text to read: “I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below” (emphases added). In this way, Luke consciously links the miracles associated with Jesus (notice the very first verse that follows the quotation from Joel: “Jesus … was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs,” Acts 2:22) and the Early Church (e.g., 2:43) together with the cosmic portents listed by Joel (Acts 2:19–20).

All are signs and wonders that mark the end of the age.

For Luke, “these last days” — remember, Luke’s church and ours are firmly rooted in this period — represents an epoch of signs and wonders.

Luke is not only conscious of the significant role miracles have played in the growth of the Early Church, but he also anticipates signs and wonders continuing to characterize the ministry of the Church.

Third and most important for our purposes, Luke inserts the phrase “and they will prophesy” into the quotation in verse 18. This simply emphasizes what is already present in the text of Joel. The previous verse reminded us this end-time outpouring of the Spirit of which Joel prophesies is nothing less than a fulfillment of Moses’ wish “that all the Lord’s people were prophets” (Numbers 11:29).

Acts 2:17 quotes Joel 2:28 verbatim: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.”

Now, in verse 18, Luke echoes this refrain. Luke highlights

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The experience of the Early Church, a Church God supernaturally led, serves as a model for the Church throughout the age. the fact that the Spirit comes as the source of prophetic inspiration because this theme will dominate his narrative. It is a message Luke does not want his readers to miss.

The Church in “these last days,” Luke declares, is to be a community of prophets — prophets who are called to take the message of “salvation … to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). And now Luke reminds his readers that they also have been promised power to fulfill this calling. The Spirit will come and enable the Church — Luke’s and ours — to bear bold witness for Jesus in the face of opposition and persecution.

This theme of bold, prophetic witness is anticipated in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is anointed with the Spirit to “proclaim good news to the poor,” so that He might “proclaim freedom for the prisoners” and “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19).

The parallels between Jesus’ experience at the Jordan River and of the disciples at Pentecost are striking. Both occur at the beginning of the respective missions of Jesus and the Early Church. Both center on the coming of the Spirit. And both are described as a prophetic anointing in the context of a sermon that cites Old Testament prophecy.

Through his careful shaping of the narrative, Luke presents Jesus, the ultimate Prophet, as a model for all His followers, from Pentecost onward. The Church has a mission to carry out, a message to proclaim.

This motif of bold, Spirit-inspired witness is also evident in the teaching of Jesus. Luke foreshadows events that will follow in his second volume by relating the important promise of Jesus in Luke 12:11–12: “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

Immediately after Pentecost, in the first story Luke recounts, we begin to see how relevant and important this promise of Jesus is for the mission of the Church. Following the healing of a crippled beggar, a large crowd gathers, gaping at this marvelous event. The story builds to a climax as the Jewish leaders arrest Peter and John for preaching about the resurrection of Jesus.

“You killed the author of life,” Peter declares, “but

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God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this” (Acts 3:15).

The Jewish leaders, upset with this turn of events, move in and arrest Peter and John. After spending the night in prison, Peter and John are called before the leaders and questioned. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, bears bold witness for Jesus (Acts 4:8).

The courage of Peter and John is so striking it leaves the Jewish leaders astonished and amazed. Finally, after deliberations, the leaders command the apostles to stop preaching about Jesus.

But Peter and John reply with incredible boldness, saying, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20).

This is merely the beginning of the persecution the endtime prophets must face. Very soon, the apostles are again arrested. The Jewish leaders interrogate them and angrily declare, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this [Jesus’] name … . Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching” (Acts 5:28).

Peter and the apostles incur the wrath of their opponents when they declare, “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead … . We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:29–32).

The apostles are flogged and warned not to speak about Jesus. But the beatings do not have their desired effect.

The apostles rejoice that they have been “counted worthy of suffering” for Jesus and continue to proclaim “the good news that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 5:41–42).

The persecution intensifies. What began with warnings in Acts 4 and led to beatings in Acts 5 now extends to Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7. Just as the apostles were strengthened by the Spirit to bear bold witness for Jesus, so also Stephen’s witness unto death is inspired by the Spirit (Acts 6:10).

In the midst of Stephen’s sermon to his persecutors recorded in Acts 7, he declares, “You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute?” (Acts 7:51–52). There is powerful irony here, for this same crowd moves to kill Stephen, a man “full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:55). The witness of another prophet is rejected.

This pattern of bold, Spirit-inspired witness in the face of opposition continues with Paul, the dominant character in the latter portion of Acts. Paul is chosen by the Lord to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

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We are told Paul’s journey will not be easy. The Lord, speaking to Ananias, declares, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16).

And suffer he does. Yet, in the face of mind-numbing opposition, Paul is guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. A trail of churches filled with believers who worship Jesus are left in Paul’s wake. The narrative of Acts ends with Paul imprisoned in Rome, where he preaches about Jesus “with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31).

Luke’s motive in presenting these models of Spirit-inspired ministry — Peter, John, Stephen and Paul, to name a few — should not be missed. Luke has more in mind than simply declaring to his church, “This is how it all began!”

Certainly Luke highlights the reliability of the apostolic witness to the resurrection of Jesus. And Luke wants to be sure we are all clear about their message, which is to be handed on from generation to generation, people group to people group, until it reaches “the ends of the earth.”

Yet Luke also narrates the ministry of these end-time prophets because he sees them as important models of missionary praxis his church needs to emulate.

These characters in Acts demonstrate what it truly means to be a part of Joel’s end-time prophetic band and thus challenge Luke’s readers to fulfill their calling to be a light to the nations. As they face opposition by relying on the Holy Spirit, who enables them to bear bold witness for Jesus no matter the cost, these end-time prophets call Luke’s church to courageously follow the path first traveled by our Lord.

Pentecostals, today, likewise affirm that every Christian has been called and promised the power needed to become bold, Spirit-inspired witnesses for Jesus. The Church is nothing less than a community of end-time prophets.

This article is adapted from Christ-Centered: The Evangelical Nature of Pentecostal Theology (2020), and is used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, www.wipfandstock.com.

Robert P. Menzies, Ph.D., is director of the Asian Center for Pentecostal Theology (www.pentecost.asia) and the author of numerous books, including Spirit and Power: Foundations of Pentecostal Experience (2000) and Pentecost: This Story is Our Story (2013).

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CHURCH MINISTRY CHILDREN

Help, There Are Kids in My Service!

MA N N Y ME LE N DEZ

Practical tips for engaging your church’s youngest members.

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hen the pandemic shut down in-person gatherings across the U.S., families viewed online services together at home. Even as churches reopened, kids’ services often remained on hold, which meant parents brought their children into the sanctuary. Now, as the holidays approach, some churches are planning family services as part of their seasonal programming.

There may be a number of reasons why many of your listeners are smaller and squirmier than usual. With more kids in the mix, how can you keep services running smoothly — and make the most of your time together?

First, let’s consider the opportunity before us. When I was growing up, kids had no choice but to sit with their parents in adult services.

While I’m a big proponent of age-specific learning, there are some advantages of families attending services together.

One important benefit is children getting to see their parents worship in a public setting. I once watched a father and his 8-year-old son praising God together during a worship service. The little boy’s posture, standing with his arms outstretched, was a mirror image of his father’s. It was a beautiful reminder of the power of generational discipleship.

What parents model, children imitate — including church participation. From taking Communion to responding to an altar call, kids are more likely to join in when they see moms, dads, and grandparents doing it.

Giving children a chance to hear from the lead pastor and worship with people of all ages is another advantage of families attending together. Such experiences help them understand church is more than just kids’ ministry.

As a family pastor, one of my most important goals is to see children become lifelong disciples of Jesus. I want them to know they

W

are always welcome in church and that they will never outgrow God’s family.

Admittedly, as I reflect on those times when I had to sit with my mom in the sanctuary, I don’t remember much other than being bored.

But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bring kids into our services. Rather, it means we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to be intentional when we have the whole family together.

Be Kid Friendly

One of the first rules of communication is to

completely revamp your services, but do include elements that capture the attention of little ones. Relatable stories and simple jokes are easy ways to draw kids into a message.

Mix It Up

Standard sermons are among the least effective ways of connecting with children.

Be willing to do things a little differently on occasion. After all, variety and creativity can go a long way toward engaging people of all ages.

Plan moments that will connect with your little ones. The gospel is serious stuff, but don’t be afraid to bring in elements that make children laugh, such as a cartoon clip, or sit up and take notice, such as a living nativity. Your parents will thank you for it.

Offer hands-on activities. Coloring pages can keep kids occupied in a variety of settings, but if they illustrate the sermon theme, these and other interactive activities powerfully reinforce the day’s message as well.

These can also become resources for parents to use as they revisit the sermon with kids at home.

Involve the parents. Consider ways to engage children through their parents. Intentional family prayer times during the service and take-home discussion questions are just a couple of ideas.

One of the first rules of communication is to know your listeners.

Bring In Experts

know your listeners. Here are three things to keep in mind when including kids: 1. Acknowledge them. Publicly recognizing children during the service, whether by name or in general, lets everyone know, especially the kids, they are welcome.

2. Watch the time. Whether planning the length of your sermon or the number of worship sets, keep the tolerance level of children in mind. Kids generally have shorter attention spans and may check out sooner than adults.

3. Catch their interest. You don’t have to

You don’t have to do this alone. You probably already have people in your church who are pros at connecting with kids, from elementary school teachers to your own children’s pastor. Recruit them to help you plan and create family services that will reach young attendees.

This could be a time for your kids’ ministry team to shine. Be sure to let them know how much you value their input and creativity.

Whatever the reason for bringing together people of all ages for services, we should never view it as a burden. Instead, let’s see it as an amazing opportunity to stretch ourselves and make our families stronger.

Manny Melendez is the family pastor at Radiant Church (AG) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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CHURCH MINISTRY YOUTH

KA R A P OW E LL a n d ST EVE A RG UE

Do students’ problems and your solutions seem light-years apart?

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don’t know what I’m doing.”

Said most youth leaders.

Out loud.

To no one.

In youth ministry, it’s hard to admit when we don’t know what we’re doing or where we’re going. It probably didn’t seem that way when you started. Or at least you didn’t notice. Confidence can run high at first — especially after a few initial successes — but as the months drag on, the way forward often gets blurry.

In fact, it’s likely that the more you’ve gotten to know students, the more you realize a great talk, an awesome retreat, or your contagious adrenaline won’t reach their deep and complex circumstances. Their problems and your solutions seem light-years apart.

“I

We all want more than that — for our ministries and for us.

You want more of God’s creativity to flow through you. You long for God to lead you forward.

Building on a dozen years of research and working intensively with cohorts of 60 youth ministries and 120 youth leaders over the past four years, our team at the Fuller Youth Institute has developed an innovation process you can use to revive or refresh your youth ministry.

Here’s the good news: While it’s taken a while for us to unearth this process, you already have the raw materials — what we call the three C’s of innovation — to succeed. By practicing the two key steps inherent in each of these three C’s, you can draw your innovative capacities out of hiding and channel them in the right discipleship direction.

Compassion

Innovation starts with compassionately focusing on people, not programs. You can unleash your compassion to spark innovation by taking two critical steps, the first of which is to empathize with your students — their perspectives, their feelings, and their needs. This initial step is the foundation of innovation. Empathetically listening and asking questions has the potential to radically shift your assumptions — even about the young people you think you know best — and reorient all you do toward their most pressing needs.

The second key step toward compassion comes as you interpret the messages heard from your students. Careful interpretation allows you to understand their current tendencies and habits and discern the Jesus-centered replacements that bring more hope, freedom and love. Peeling back the initial layers of students’ emotions to discover what they ultimately long for helps you identify the Jesus-focused goal of your entire innovation process.

Creativity

Having compassionately empathized with and interpreted your students’ longings and losses, you are now ready for the second C of innovation: creativity. The first key creative step is to expand your ministry imagination.

Spend some time envisioning new practices, or fresh takes on familiar practices, that could help your young people realize Jesus’ better answers to their most pressing questions.

Depending on your personality and team dynamics, you may want to use a fast-paced innovative process, like coming up with six possibilities in six minutes and then sifting through all the ideas. Or you could opt for a slower, more reflective individual or group process, such as reflecting on how God has worked in the past, is working in the present,

and might work in the future.

Once you have an expansive list of possibilities, your second creative step is to narrow it to one viable new ministry approach. This step requires more than voting for the most popular suggestion. Rather, your team will need to prayerfully choose the idea that best intersects with your students’ greatest needs.

Courage

Your courage is what motivates you to step out, take risks, and try your innovative idea.

Courageous initiatives start small, are tested with feedback, invite participation, gather support, and prepare for maximum success.

As such, courage requires two essential steps: experimenting on the margins and launching your new approach.

We highly recommend to first test your innovative idea on the margins through smaller experiments. Multiple small experiments help gain initial input from students and others so you can improve your new approach before you launch. As you take the final step and launch your now-refined idea, you’ll want to train your team and communicate with the broader congregation as the Lord makes your innovative idea a reality.

Combined, these three essential moves and the six steps that support them empower you toward new youth ministry innovation. But we don’t want you to move forward alone.

You can’t (nor would you want to) completely move forward toward compassion, creativity and courage on your own. In every step, collaborate, learn together, and grow in mutual support. This process gives space for God not only to help you develop new ideas, but also develop a stronger team that’s better poised to disciple young people.

They’re counting on you. We’re believing in you.

For more details on this innovation process, check out Sticky Faith Innovation: How Your Compassion, Creativity, and Courage Can Support Teenagers’ Lasting Faith by Steven Argue and Caleb Roose, releasing in January 2021 at fulleryouthinstitute.org.

Kara Powell, Ph.D., is executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She is the author or co-author of a number of books, including Faith in an Anxious World, Growing With , and The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family.

Steve Argue, Ph.D., is associate professor of youth, family, and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary and applied research strategist at the Fuller Youth Institute. For more information, visit StevenArgue.com.

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CHURCH MINISTRY ADULT

Creating a Culture of Invitation K R I ST I N ORT HU P

Helping leaders and congregations grow in their love for the lost.

here are a number of ways to pursue church growth. There are tips for making facilities more appealing and marketing tools for promoting ministries. There are keywords on Google and mailers for sending people who move into the neighborhood. Though these can be helpful for name recognition, they don’t take the place of soul winning.

When we planted Saints Community Church in New Orleans during 2011, we tried everything. We sent out a 25,000-piece mailer. We distributed doorhangers in the

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neighborhood where we were meeting. We even had a billboard. We eventually discovered that without personal invitations, none of our marketing mattered.

As we encouraged and empowered people to invite friends and share their faith, our church began to grow — one person at a time.

We are not a megachurch by any means, but our multicampus congregation is one of the larger churches in our community.

Evangelism is not easy for many of us. But there are ways to help leaders and congregations grow in their love for the lost and strengthen their skills for inviting people.

Lead By Example

The key to creating culture always requires leadership from the top, and that is certainly true of inviting. It is important for people to hear the leader share personal stories of

A missions team from Saints Community Church that provided hurricane relief in Lake Charles, Louisiana, included several members who came to faith after accepting an invitation from a friend.

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inviting people. It doesn’t always have to be a perfect story, one that ends with a salvation response. Real stories — however imperfect — can inspire people to invite those they care about as well.

Make Invitation Easy

Give people tangible tools. We have found invite cards related to a series or special Sunday are especially effective. It’s also helpful to have something general available with church information people can hand out at any time. We’ve created screensavers that remind our churchgoers to invite others and social media posts they can share. Get creative, but keep it simple.

It’s also easier to invite on special days when there are other guests. When our friend Dan Hunter was youth pastor at Oaks Church (AG) in Red Oak, Texas, the church had an event called One Day, encouraging everyone to bring one friend on one day. The first time we tried this, we had over 100 firsttime guests.

We make a big deal out of baptisms and baby dedications, as well as Easter, Christmas and any special reason to get people in the door.

Prioritize Relationships

For our staff and leaders, there is no higher priority than spending time with unbelievers. If one of us receives an invitation to a city meeting that happens to conflict with our staff meeting, the city meeting takes precedence.

One of the ways we demonstrate a heart of caring is by being present. Whether it’s a round of golf or a little league

game, birthday parties or bar mitzvahs, we are going. We expect staff members to continually invest in relationships with unbelievers.

During the pandemic, we assembled from our database a list of everyone who had ever visited our church and their contact information. We divided up the list and asked 50 church leaders — staff members, elders, and volunteers — to call each person. We asked people if they were OK and if they needed anything, offered prayer, and invited them to join an online small group.

We asked each person calling to consider hosting a small group. In this way, we added 20 new groups and a lot of hurting people.

This isn’t about events, but it is about extending the hand of care at a critical time and sharing the hope of Christ.

For our staff and leaders, there is no higher priority than spending time with unbelievers.

Persevere

The first few years after planting our church, I worked full-time in banking. I often invited co-workers to church. Even years after I left, I would stop by and personally invite friends for special days. I still went to Christmas parties and dropped off a coffee drink if I had a coupon, just to keep in touch.

When the pandemic hit, one friend from the bank began watching our Sunday service on Facebook. She started sharing our videos, commenting, and soon joined a Zoom small group. The first Sunday we met in person, she was there, mask and all. After eight years of inviting, my friend had a crisis and realized she needed God’s help.

Don’t give up if you don’t see results right away. Ask, and keep asking.

Is it awkward? Yes. Do I feel weird every time I send a text message reminding someone to come? Yes. I have to care more about that person’s spiritual condition than my fear.

Follow those promptings from the Holy Spirit, and see what God does when you step out. Share those experiences with your congregation, and make it easier for them to experience the joy of sharing their faith.

Together, you can grow in passion for seeing friends and neighbors find Jesus.

Kristi Northup is executive pastor and worship leader at Saints Community Church (AG) in New Orleans, where she leads alongside her husband, Wayne.

She is director of CMN Women and writes a regular column for Influencemagazine.com.

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REVIEWS

Selected Book Reviews

Power, Vulnerability and the Church G E O R G E P. W O O D n his 1633 poem, “The Bag,” George Herbert depicted the Incarnation as a descent from almighty majesty to naked vulnerability: The God of power, as he did ride In his majestic robes of glorie, Reserv’d to light; and so one day He did descend, undressing all the way.

This descent, which Paul described as an emptying (Greek, kenosis) in Philippians 2:7, presents profound metaphysical challenges to theologians. After all, how does God empty himself ?

It presents more practical problems to Christians, however, who are called to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (2:5). This is doubly true of Christian leaders, for how does one lead as a servant?

To the extent we have not felt the tension between a leader’s power and a servant’s vulnerability, we have not yet developed a Christlike mindset.

The intersection of power and vulnerability is the theme of Diane Langberg’s excellent new book, Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church.

A Christian psychologist who co-founded the Global Trauma Recovery Institute at Philadelphia’s Mission Seminary, Langberg serves on the board of Godly

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Books reviewed by

George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine.

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Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment (GRACE), and co-chairs the American Bible Society’s Trauma Advisory Council.

Over the past decade, her expertise in trauma and abuse has been sorely needed by many Christian churches and ministries.

For Langberg, the issue is not whether we can eschew power or overcome vulnerability entirely. All people have power to one degree or another. And all people are vulnerable. The issue, then, is how we use power in the face of vulnerability.

Too often, leaders use their powerful positions to abuse the vulnerability of their followers. This abuse always involves deception, and it often creates an abusive culture in the organization the abuser leads.

RECOMMENDED READING FOR LEADERS

By Influence Magazine Langberg offers a depressing catalog of the forms that abuse can take: physical, verbal, emotional, knowledge- and skill-based, economic, sexual, and even spiritual. Such abuse manifests in various relationships: between men and women, between racial/ethnic majorities and minorities, and between adults and children, among others.

Whatever the form or relationship, the powerful leverage their power to selfish ends, hiding their vulnerabilities even as they prey on the vulnerabilities of others. This is not the way of Jesus.

The antidote to such abuse is a closer following after Christ.

“Because Jesus never wavered from choosing love and obedience to the Father as the driving force in his life,” Langberg writes, “he was a threat to both individuals and systems of his day, a holy dissident with a disruptive presence and disruptive words.”

She goes on to say, “This Christ disturbs massive systems and turns the world upside down. We, as his people, are to be like him.”

Christ followers should use their power to help and heal the vulnerable and to call out abuse and injustice.

Langberg believes the American church is passing through a “Valley of Achor” moment. (Achor is Hebrew for “trouble.”) In Joshua 7:26, this name describes the valley where God judged Achan for disobeying His commandment and enriching himself from the destruction of Jericho.

Like Achan, too many Christian leaders have abused their power and brought cultural discredit on Christ’s Church.

“This Valley of Trouble is God ordained,” Langberg says, “and in this place, he is calling his people back to himself.”

There is no way around this valley. American Christians can only go through it, repenting of their abuse of power and turning again and again to Christ.

Only in this way will God “make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (Hosea 2:15), for us and for the vulnerable Christ calls us to serve.

BOOK REVIEWED Diane Langberg,Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2020).

TEMPERED RESILIENCE Tod Bolsinger (IVP) The subtitle of Tempered Resilience speaks of “how leaders are formed in the crucible of change.”

Using the image of a blacksmith’s shop, Tod Bolsinger writes, “Tempering a leader is a process of reflection, relationships, and practices during the act of leading that form resilience to continue leading when the resistance is highest” (emphasis in original).

Given how much change pastors and other church leaders have faced, initiated, and endured this year, this book is a timely read.

MODELS OF EVANGELISM Priscilla Pope-Levison (Baker Academic) In this book, Priscilla Pope-Levison presents “eight influential models of evangelism”: personal, small group, visitation, liturgical, church growth, prophetic, revival, and media. She outlines biblical, theological, historical, and practical foundations for each model, providing a fair-minded assessment of its pros and cons. Models of Evangelism concludes by identifying five qualities essential to each model: hospitality, relationship, integrity, message-bearing, and church participation. This book will help church leaders think more faithfully and creatively about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in their communities.

LEAD Paul David Tripp (Crossway) “The church is in desperate need of a leadership community whose function is not just structured to achieve with efficiency but is more deeply shaped by the comforts and calls of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” In Lead, Paul David Tripp enumerates 12 gospel-shaped principles that should guide the leadership of the local church. Biblically rooted and pastorally sensitive, this book should be on the reading lists of pastors, pastoral staff, and board members.

Better yet, read it as a group!

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MAKE IT COUNT An Eight-Week Study for Leadership Teams

Eight Practices to Start the New Year STEPHEN BLANDINO

WHAT IS MAKE IT COUNT?

e are in a busy season of the year, and 2020 has been anything but predictable. Unexpected events have led to a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety, and many of our plans have been severely disrupted and displaced.

But 2021 is right around the corner. So, what can we do in this busy season to have a productive new year beginning Jan. 1? While there are still plenty of unknowns and uncertainties, we can prepare now to make the new year fruitful.

Resolutions are common at the start of a new year, but there are other practices that can produce transformational results. In fact, these practices can foster a greater sense of health, a sharper sense of focus, and a sustainable rhythm for the entire year.

This edition of Make It Count looks at eight practices for starting — and finishing — the new year well. With the way 2020 has shaped up, these eight practices could be crucial in 2021: 1. Rest Regularly 2. Recharge Relationally 3. Rejoice Daily 4. Renew Spiritually 5. Reflect Carefully 6. Refocus Purposefully 7. Remove Deliberately 8. Reprioritize Strategically

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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

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and lead 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 an important practice of building strong, healthy relationships with your team members. It is also Blandino a necessary component of building healthy, flourishing churches. These lessons can help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.

The following eight, easy-to-use lessons on practices for starting the new year are written by Stephen Blandino,

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FREE DOWNLOADABLE DISCUSSION GUIDE HANDOUTS By preparing for a new year with these eight practices, leaders will lay a great foundation to start and finish strong. Not only will you gain extraordinary focus, but you’ll establish habits for living and leading from a healthier posture.

Each lesson offers biblical perspective and practical application so you can make the new year count. Furthermore, as you discuss the lessons with your team, each team member will become more focused and intentional on a personal, departmental and organizational level.

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.

Go to InfluenceMagazine.com Click on “Downloads”

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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MAKE IT COUNT Study

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Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Rest Regularly Assess: What are your biggest challenges to getting adequate rest as a leader?

Insights and Ideas

arathoners experience the greatest temptation to call it quits at the 20- to 21-mile mark. That’s the point when they usually hit the wall emotionally. They’re exhausted, and the finish line is nowhere in sight. Leaders experience a similar feeling during hectic seasons with high demands.

For pastors, one of those times can be a fast-paced Christmas season, with lots of activities and stressful schedules. Plus, with so many unforeseen events in 2020, the entire year has come with waves of physical exhaustion, mental fatigue, and emotional weariness. By the time the new year rolls around, it should be clear that our pace needs adjusting.

Jesus described the starting place for a healthier pace when He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

You may feel weary and burdened right now, but rest can change everything for you. Rest produces two benefits that are especially impactful.

1. Rest refreshes the soul. Jesus said “you will find rest for your souls.” When we choose to pull back, lean into the Lord, and rest, we make space for our souls to breathe. Leadership has a way of constricting our time, energy and emotional resources, but rest gives us breathing room so our souls can expand with God’s peace and strength.

2. Rest recalibrates your pace. Your pace can fall into two categories: could do and should do. Your “could do” pace is how fast you can run — but just because you can doesn’t meet you should. Your “should do” pace is the sustainable rhythm that allows you to find the rest necessary to finish well. You have to focus on the pace you should do, not what you could do. When you intentionally rest, you create a sustainable pace, one that maintains adequate reserves for the last few miles of the race.

While we often think of the new year as a time to ramp up, you may need to start by slowing things down. Resist the urge to load up the calendar with lots of new activities. Take time to slow down mentally, emotionally and physically. Recalibrate your pace. Embrace the practice of rest. You’ll discover a greater sense of peace, and your mind will be clear so you can leverage the other seven practices as you start the new year.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. Why does our culture find it so hard to practice regular rest?

2. When and how do you experience the greatest amount of rest as a leader?

3. What would it look like to create a more sustainable pace and pattern of rest this year?

Apply

Take a moment to reflect on your pace in 2020. When did you find yourself the least rested and the most rested? What are two or three things you could change to make space for adequate rest in the new year?

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Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Recharge Relationally Team Review: What adjustments will you make to leave room for rest in the new year?

Assess: In what ways have you found relationships helpful for recharging your life?

Insights and Ideas

eaders have a tendency to retract into isolation as the demands of leadership increase.

When our pace increases, our connectivity decreases. In other words, community is often the casualty of a chaotic schedule. The very thing that recharges us often becomes unplugged from our lives.

Scripture makes clear the value of relationships. Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 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.” And 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Both passages show the beauty and benefit of relationships.

To start the new year right, practice recharging relationally. None of us are good enough to do life alone. Here are two steps to get you started: 1. Form a life team. Author John Townsend challenges leaders to form a “life team” that will provide a healthy dose of “relational nutrients.” A life team is a small group of three to 10 people with whom you meet regularly for mutual support and growth. These relationships provide important relational nutrients, such as acceptance, comfort, affirmation, respect, encouragement, forgiveness, celebration, perspective, insight, feedback, advice and accountability. Townsend says members of a life team need to have chemistry with one another and be vulnerable, honest, and able to challenge one another.

2. Schedule relational time. The idea of scheduling relational time may seem a bit cold, but that’s exactly what most leaders need to do. Think about it this way: Schedule blocks of time where relationships can thrive, and then make what you do in those blocks of time meaningful, purposeful and even spontaneous. Creativity can still thrive in the context of structure. Structure keeps relationships in focus; what you do within that structure keeps relationships fulfilling.

The practice of recharging relationally will make a huge difference in the new year. But, as with anything important, this doesn’t happen accidentally. You need a team, and you need a time. The team is the whom, and the time is the when. The team provides the nutrients, and the time ensures regular delivery of those nutrients.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What have you found to be the most beneficial way to make room for relationships in your life?

2. What are the greatest benefits you experience personally when engaging in meaningful relationships?

3. How does the idea of forming a life team challenge you? What, if anything, do you not like about the idea of a life team?

Apply

Put together a list of people who could be on your life team. What family members, friends or mentors would be on your list? Then, take steps to intentionally form this team and engage with members regularly. To recharge at a deeper level relationally, consider reading People Fuel by John Townsend.

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MAKE IT COUNT Study

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Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Rejoice Daily Team Review: What progress have you made toward putting together a life team?

Assess: On a scale from 1 to 10, how well do you practice expressing gratitude to God and others?

Insights and Ideas

t’s easy for leaders to focus so much on where they’re going they don’t stop to express gratitude for where they’ve been. In fact, because leaders can usually see the gaps in a service, product or system, they may come across as chronically critical or discontented.

That’s especially true when they fail to thank God and others.

Thanksgiving should be a lifestyle for Christians. The apostle Paul said to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The practice of rejoicing daily helps us enter a new year with a new mindset. How do we develop this attitude of gratitude?

1. Reframe your perspective. In life, we tend to translate “good” to mean “easy,” and “hard” to mean “bad.” In other words, we see whatever makes life easier as good, and whatever makes life harder as bad. The problem is, we assume that’s God’s perspective as well.

It’s not. God’s “good” looks different than ours because He sees it through the lens of our growth. And the things that help us grow the most are rarely the things that are easy. The question is, can you be thankful for the good that helps you grow — even when it’s hard? A life of gratitude starts with a deliberate decision to reframe life with a different perspective.

2. Start a gratitude journal. If we’re going to rejoice frequently, most of us need a system for doing so. Why not start the year with a 30-day gratitude journal? Write down two things each day for which you’re grateful. You might even make this a practice you engage with family or a friend, perhaps over a meal or a phone call.

3. Regularly worship the Lord. Psalm 25:14 says, “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” Worship reminds us of God’s goodness and helps us develop a sweet, satisfying companionship with Him. Choose to start the new year by rejoicing daily. Celebrate wins, focus on God’s faithfulness, and actively express an attitude of gratitude.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What are two things you are thankful for right now?

2. Why do we have a natural tendency to equate “hard” with “bad,” and “easy” with “good”?

3. What would it look like for you to “rejoice daily” in the new year?

Apply

Make a decision to start a gratitude journal for the first month of the new year. Whether you use a paper journal or a digital device, write down two things you are grateful for each day.

At the end of the month, reflect on your journey, how it has changed your thinking, and the potential benefits of continuing this practice.

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Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Renew Spiritually Team Review: What difference can daily gratitude make in your life?

Assess: How do you most enjoy connecting with God?

Insights and Ideas

egular spiritual renewal is one of the most important practices for starting the new year right. Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

Seeking first means making it a single-minded priority — a first and foremost habit — to pursue a life fully submitted to Christ’s rule and authority, and to conform to His standard of character and holiness. Our calling is to put God first, and then trust Him to provide the things He knows we need.

Jesus modeled spiritual renewal on a regular basis. Luke 5:16 says, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” From Jesus’ example, we discover three keys to spiritual renewal: 1. Frequency. Prayer was something Jesus did “often.” This implies a habit. John 6:15 says, “Jesus ... withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (emphasis added). Jesus didn’t restrict prayer to temple visits or mealtimes. Prayer was a frequent practice that shaped His life and leadership.

2. Privacy. Luke 5:16 also reveals Jesus “withdrew” for prayer. This word implies privacy and seclusion. Jesus sought a place for prayer away from the crowds and the distractions. Luke 9:18 says Jesus prayed in private with His disciples. In John 6:15, Jesus withdrew “by himself.” Jesus withdrew from the noise to be with His Father and hear from His Father. We need to do the same. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” It’s in the stillness that you experience His presence.

3. Vicinity. Finally, Jesus had a place for prayer. Luke 5:16 indicates He prayed in the wilderness. In Matthew 14:13 and Mark 1:35, Jesus went to a “solitary place.” Jesus’ private habit of prayer was formed in a private place of prayer. Spiritual renewal requires a pace and a place. The place provides privacy, and the pace cultivates intimacy. When combined, we experience a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father. What would happen if your greatest goal in the new year wasn’t to advance, but rather to withdraw?

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Reflect and Discuss

1. When was a time you felt most refreshed in your relationship with God? 2. How do you typically experience your greatest times of spiritual renewal?

3. Which of the three keys to spiritual renewal — frequency, privacy, or vicinity — is your greatest strength, and which is your biggest challenge?

Apply

Reflect on Jesus’ pattern for experiencing spiritual renewal. What might frequency, privacy and vicinity look like for you? Test them over the next couple of weeks until you find a pace and place that work for you. Then, make this your practice in the new year.

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Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Reflect Carefully Team Review: How have the three keys to spiritual renewal — frequency, privacy and vicinity — worked for you?

Assess: Does personal reflection come naturally for you? Why or why not?

Insights and Ideas

uthor and pastor Andy Stanley says, “Experience doesn’t make you wiser. Evaluated experience makes you wiser.”

It’s when we intentionally put our lives under the microscope that we discover the insights that help us make better decisions and develop better habits. The apostle Paul encouraged this evaluation process when he said, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Preparing for a new year with the practice of careful reflection will give you the perspective you need before moving forward. Too often we do what we’ve always done without taking time to evaluate whether it’s actually working. As a result, we spend our time putting out fires, reacting to the urgent, and letting others dictate our use of time. Next year can be different, but it starts with reflecting on the current year and asking yourself four questions: 1. What lessons have I learned? Begin by mining for lessons you’ve gleaned over this year.

Lessons often emerge when we observe patterns that have developed over a period of several weeks or months.

2. How have I invested my time over the past year? When you go day-by-day through your entire calendar, you can quickly discover how you’ve invested your time. This exercise reveals time wasters, time drainers, and poor time management practices. Once you’ve gained a clear picture of reality, you can ask the third question.

3. What will give me the greatest return on my investment of time in the new year? Author John Maxwell says success is determined by your daily agenda. After identifying what has filled your daily agenda over the previous year, determine what changes you need to make in the new year. To get the greatest return on your investment of time, you must determine what to stop, start or delegate while remaining true to your gifts, passions and highest priorities.

4. What changes do I need to make? Careful reflection of our lives will bring to the surface specific changes we need to make. Those changes may have to do with the use of our time, talent or treasure, and they may be changes in how we lead.

Reflecting carefully will yield dynamic insights we can leverage for the future. Without reflection, we live in a constant state of reactionary panic.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. Do you have a regular practice of reflection in your life? If so, what does that process look like?

2. Which of the four reflection questions most challenges you? Why? 3. What can we do to practice reflection on an organizational level?

Apply

Carve out some time this week to review your calendar, and then ask yourself the four questions above. Next, align the new year’s calendar with the changes you need to make and the adjustments that will yield the greatest return on your investment of time.

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Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Refocus Purposefully Team Review: What did you learn or change after reviewing your calendar?

Assess: How clear are you on your personal purpose and core values?

Insights and Ideas

ecause leaders often feel pulled in multiple directions, it’s essential to have a strong compass that points you in the right direction. The apostle Paul said, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

If you don’t understand the “good works” God has called you to pursue, you’ll invest your time throughout the new year doing things that simply may not matter. To help you refocus, consider four points to the purpose compass: 1. Life mission. What is the life mission to which God has called you? This may be expressed in three ways: what God has called you to do (gifts, abilities and skills); whom God has called you to serve (a specific audience or group); and the outcome God wants to produce through your life (the result of using your gifts, abilities and skills).

Clarifying your life mission will enable you to strategically align the resources of your life with God’s purpose for your life.

2. Core values. What principles, priorities or people are most important to you? The answer to this question defines your core values. Those principles, priorities and people could be God, family, integrity, hard work, leadership development, excellence, etc.

Identify your values, and then narrow that list to between five and seven.

3. Personal legacy. What is the ultimate legacy you want to leave behind? If you want to leave a legacy worth remembering when you die, you have to write a legacy worth recording while you’re alive. You write your legacy by focusing on three things: your character (who you are), your connections (whom you’ve impacted), and your contributions (what you’ve done). By focusing on these three areas now, you can be intentional about writing a legacy that counts.

4. Life Scriptures. Identify one or more Scriptures that capture the essence of your life. A life Scripture is usually a verse God has used to shape or support you. In other words, it’s a verse God used to shape you into the person you are today, or to support you during a deep valley. Are you living your life according to these life-shaping truths? Are you expanding your pursuit of Scripture to become more like Jesus?

When you refocus on these four points of your purpose compass, you’ll be more likely to align your new year to what matters most.

B

Reflect and Discuss

1. On which of the four points of the compass do you have the greatest clarity and the least clarity?

2. What are some of your core values?

3. What kinds of character, connections and contributions do you want to be a part of your legacy?

Apply

Take time to identify the four points of your purpose compass. This may take a few days — or weeks — but the impact could shape the rest of your life. The greater clarity you have, the more equipped you’ll be to purposefully refocus your time on what matters most in the new year.

NOV-DEC 2020

Influence | 75

MAKE IT COUNT Study

7

Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Remove Deliberately Team Review: What steps have you taken to identify your life mission, core values, personal legacy and life Scriptures?

Assess: What things tend to clutter your life and schedule the most?

Insights and Ideas

s leadership responsibilities increase, life becomes increasingly complex. The truth is, the fight to simplify seems to intensify the longer we lead.

At some point, we have to shed everything that gets in the way of what’s most important.

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (emphasis added).

This principle of overcoming hindrances applies to leadership as well. Not only must we throw off the sin that hinders and entangles, but we must also deliberately remove the clutter that gets in the way of doing what God has called us to do. Leaders should deliberately “throw off” three forms of clutter: 1. Throw off calendar clutter. How many times do we clutter our calendars with things that simply add no value to our lives, or anyone else’s life? Calendar clutter often shows up as poor time management skills, saying “yes” to meetings that don’t matter, or adding tasks to your to-do-list that have little return on the time required to do them. A big part of decluttering our calendar is clarifying our highest priorities. When priorities are clear, the clutter starts to stand out like a sore thumb.

2. Throw off digital clutter. Digital clutter includes everything from email and apps to social media. If you want to remove the digital clutter, unsubscribe from emails that clutter your inbox. Put limits on apps that consume too much time. Deliberately cut down on the endless social media scrolling. Limit the constant consumption of gaming and entertainment. Digital clutter is robbing our peace and bombarding our lives with distractions.

3. Throw off relational clutter. Relationships become clutter when they are dysfunctional, consume inordinate amounts of time, or violate healthy boundaries. You have to clarify your relationships and then prioritize those relationships. In some cases, you may even need to separate yourself from relationships that negatively impact your life.

The practice of deliberately removing the clutter from your life tends to be emotional.

When you become used to the clutter, the clutter often becomes your default. But when you deliberately declutter your life, you start to experience a greater measure of God’s peace.

A

Reflect and Discuss

1. Which of the three forms of clutter is your biggest challenge? Why? 2. How much time do you believe would be freed up by removing the calendar, digital and relational clutter from your life?

3. What is a deliberate step you could take today toward decluttering?

Apply

Do a clutter audit on your calendar, use of digital tools, and relationships. Identify the things that are consuming too much of your time and the people who are draining your emotional energy. Develop a strategy to declutter and create boundaries and accountability that will foster greater health.

76 | Influence

NOV-DEC 2020

MAKE IT COUNT Study

8

Eight Practices to Start the New Year

Reprioritize Strategically Team Review: What have you done in the last week to declutter your life?

Assess: What steps do you take each day, week or year to strategically reprioritize your life?

Insights and Ideas

he apostle Paul had an unwavering goal to know Christ. He said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12–14).

What gave Paul’s goal so much power was that it became his singular focus. Nothing distracted him. He did this “one thing,” and Paul forgot everything behind him as he moved toward his highest priority. That same power of focus is essential if we want to make the new year count. When we embrace the previous seven practices, we gain the clarity and focus necessary to strategically reprioritize the future. As leaders, this strategic reprioritization should happen in four areas: 1. Strategically reprioritize your personal growth. One way to reprioritize personal growth is to create a plan. A good plan for personal growth will answer four questions: In what areas do I want to grow? How do I plan to grow? Who will hold me accountable to grow?

When and how will I evaluate my growth progress? Following this process with three or four growth goals will make a significant impact over the next year.

2. Strategically reprioritize your family health. Family time is often lost in the busyness of leadership. To strategically reprioritize your family in the new year, sit down with your family members to develop a plan that works for everyone. Making this a family effort gives each person a voice and helps everybody make it a priority.

3. Strategically reprioritize your team’s growth. How intentional are you about growing the members of your team? You can strategically reprioritize your team’s growth by attending conferences together, reading and discussing books, listening to podcasts, providing practical training, and even viewing leadership courses or webinars together. The key is to map out a clear and concise developmental plan for the next year.

4. Strategically reprioritize your organizational goals. What are the most important three or four goals your organization should pursue in the next six to 12 months? When you clarify your goals, you can strategically reprioritize your resources around those goals.

T

Reflect and Discuss

1. In what way do the apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 3:12–14 challenge you?

2. Which of the four areas of reprioritization needs the most attention from you right now?

Why? 3. Pick one of the four reprioritization areas. What might it look like to strategically reprioritize that area over the next year?

Apply

Put together an appropriate team to develop a clear and practical strategy for this year in each of the four reprioritization areas. Then, put the strategy in writing, create a timeline, delegate responsibilities, and monitor progress.

NOV-DEC 2020

Influence | 77

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THIS IS MY STORY

(continued from page 80)

After the service, I wrote a phrase in my journal: “Like people invite like people.”

I cried and confessed to God, “Our beautiful church looks nothing like our beautiful city.”

That day, I started a journey that would deeply impact my relationship with God and others.

I knew I had much to learn and that I needed to start by looking inward. I prayed David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23–34, asking God to search my heart and expose anything that offends Him. I wanted my life and ministry to reflect God’s kingdom.

Over the course of the next five years, I became more curious about God’s heart for racial and economic injustice. I intentionally began reaching out to people who were different than me, and I listened more than I talked.

Our church launched a monthly book club that explored racial reconciliation. We relocated our facilities to a more diverse area of Charlotte, where we responded to the needs of our neighborhood and built new friendships. As we listened, learned, and loved, our congregation naturally grew more diverse.

During that same period of time, I started a doctoral program at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, with a focus on racial and economic justice. My studies helped inform my preaching. I no longer saved conversations about these topics for special sermons. As the Holy Spirit illuminated God’s heart during my times of prayer and Bible study, I regularly integrated into my sermons what both the Old Testament and New Testament have to say about seeking justice and loving our neighbors.

Since the day God opened my eyes, I have not seen the Bible or my neighborhood in the same way. As I opened my heart and my world to people who are different from me, I saw glimpses of God’s beauty.

In 2018, I joined a group of leaders in our community to launch a nonprofit called Freedom Communities. This organization

focuses on family-centered community transformation by ensuring each family has access to education, employment, health care, and housing.

God has miraculously opened doors for us to build three mixed-income housing communities. We’ve also developed a path toward home ownership for families.

We launched a new program called Moms Moving Forward that pairs single moms with life coaches. The life coaches assess immediate needs and help these women work toward a sustainable path to a flourishing future.

My family and I recently took a step of faith to transition the pastoral role of Center City Church to a dear friend, Jon Hernandez. The call to advocate for racial and economic justice and help others reach across dividing lines is now my primary focus.

Throughout this process, I have discovered the importance of courage and curiosity. We need courage to engage hard conversations and stay in them long enough to experience meaningful change in our hearts. We need curiosity to reframe our thinking and realize we can learn from neighbors who come from different backgrounds.

The message of neighborliness has sent us across the country preaching, teaching, and training at churches, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. I have the joy of working with churches to move from limited outreach programming to holistic community development strategies that engage the resources of congregations for the benefit of their neighbors in low-income communities.

Engaging in activities that bring us closer to our neighbors is a foretaste of heaven on earth. The picture of the community of God in the Book of Revelation includes every nation, tribe and tongue.

May God’s kingdom come on earth — in our relationships and in our churches — as it is in heaven as we experience the beauty of God across dividing lines.

As we listened, learned, and loved, our congregation naturally grew more diverse.

David Docusen, D.Min., has 20 years of ministry experience as a pastor, church planter, speaker, and adjunct professor. He is the author of Neighborliness: Finding the Beauty of God Across Dividing Lines. Follow him on social media at @daviddocusen.

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Influence | 79

THIS IS MY STORY

WHEN GOD OPENED MY EYES Discovering the beauty of diversity D AV I D D O C U S E N

W

e all look alike, I thought to myself.

My heart raced as I looked across the room at the people who had gathered for the worship service at Center City Church (AG) in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Leaning against a simple metal podium in an elementary school auditorium, I was about to preach as I had done each Sunday for the previous five years. Standing in front of my congregation, scanning the faces of people who had become family to me, I was not prepared for my heart to be broken. Tears filled my eyes as I struggled for words.

I am not sure why it happened on this day, but it was as if God opened my eyes and showed me that most of the people in this church looked just like me — young and white. And the plaid. There was so much plaid. (continued on page 79)

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NOV-DEC 2020

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