Five things to consider as you serve in a local church

Posted in Leadership

In May, the Uniting Church SA partnered with other Christian denominations and organisations to bring Carey Nieuwhof (pictured) to Adelaide. A respected thinker on leadership and ministry, Carey shared his insights at two different Adelaide events. He spoke particularly on generational leadership and connecting with young people through different phases on their lives – topics he also discusses frequently on his blog and weekly podcast.

Intergenerational Discipleship Developer Mike Wardrop draws on Carey’s ideas and shares some of his thoughts in the wake of these events.

 

Is MISSION more important than MODEL?

An oldie but a goodie – marry the mission, date the method. Churches are famous for talking about mission but holding on to a model that died years ago. Rick Warren suggests that “when the speed of change around an organisation is faster than the speed of change within an organisation, that organisation becomes irrelevant.”

Carey’s challenge in response to this? Build a church so dedicated to connecting with the next generation that you “hate it” someday. A church whose discipleship, mission and worship practices are not devoted to what has happened, but to what is happening right now.

Is your church primarily intended for the people it wants to reach on mission, or the people doing the reaching?

 

Does your church COMPLEMENT or COMPETE with people’s lives?

Families in the 21st Century are incredibly busy, and weekends often provide rare and beautiful leisure time. As a church, there’s no doubt you want to support and connect with families in your local communities. But are you making it easier for them to do so? Is your worship service on at a time when they are willing and able to attend?

Many churches demand a lot of their members/volunteers. One of the dangers of this is that many are denied opportunities for valuable “family time” because they are too busy serving at church. While you should certainly encourage servant-heartedness (because people who serve are the most engaged in your congregation), it’s also important to help families become stronger.

Does your church complement and support families’ lives and relationships? Or does it compete with them?

 

Do you have a STRATEGY that enables your VISION?

For many years now, fuelled by Bill Hybels in particular, churches in the west have talked more specifically about vision and mission within their contexts – which is fantastic! But often what goes missing is the strategy that actually turns the dreams of vision into a practical reality.

Where your time and money goes is a good indicator of what your priorities actually are. So how does your budget look? Your calendar? Your staffing? Are your practices actually aligned with your vision and mission?

Carey’s suggests three central things churches and leaders can do to fix this issue:

  • Develop a clear and compelling vision, mission and strategy.
  • Take personal ownership of the strategy – it is always your strategy, not someone else’s!
  • Reduce competing agendas around the strategy using clarity, simplification and a common language for everyone involved.

 

Are you missing the PHASES of life for your young people?

Carey and the team at Orange Ministries have identified four key phases in the lives of young people where their thinking begins to change. Pre-schoolers asking if they are safe (EMBRACE). Primary schoolers asking if they have what it takes in life (ENGAGE). Middle schoolers asking who likes them – and who they like in return (AFFIRM). High schoolers asking why they should believe you (MOBILISE).

While there’s no guarantee that identifying a phase and then spending time with young people makes something relationally significant happen, you can guarantee that not spending time with your young people makes something significant happen.

What are you doing in your church to recognise, support and disciple young people through all the different phases of life?

 

Jesus has more invested in your church than you do.

If you are anything like me, you sometimes worry about your local church context. Ministers, pastors and volunteers are heavily invested in a variety of spiritual and emotional ways in particular. While I’m fairly certain Jesus had a few things to say to us about the helpfulness of worry, it’s also important that we remember something:

It’s not our church. It was never our church. It’s Jesus’ church.

Jesus gave more for our local church than we ever could. He loves the church more than we can ever imagine. He’s got more passion, more plans, more vision, more diversity, more missional enterprises, more programs, and simply more possibilities than we can have on our radar. Jesus has more invested in our church than we do.

So relax. The burden isn’t ours, it’s his. We aren’t the alpha or omega, we’re not even the epsilon or the omicron. We serve in his church. I’m grateful for leaders and thinkers like Carey who help remind us of this.


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Comments

Comments (3)

  1. Jonathan Davies 30 june 2016, 09:03 Link
    A great reminder of what is most important for going forward. I would also add; clarity around the gospel as a central theme to focus on. More than ever we need to be clear as to the message of the gospel for today.
    Great article!