15. What is the Great Commission, and how does it relate to me?
You’ve probably heard some ministries described as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” On the flip side you’ve most likely encountered a youth group that dug deep into the Word of God with their teenagers, but was not very effective when it came to reaching out to the lost. Many youth leaders may dismiss this dichotomy between these two kinds of youth ministry approaches as merely stylistic. But Jesus grants no such reprieve to youth leaders. His last and lasting mandate to his followers was, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19). This command has one clear directive and two clear directions. The one directive is to make disciples. The two directions are to go wide (Go and make disciples”) and grow deep (“teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”). As we build our youth ministries, we are compelled by Christ himself to make disciples through this intentional approach. The grid illustrates what this approach looks like.
Deep and Wide Youth Ministry is not a gimmick or a method. It is not based on the shifting sands of the next new thing. No, it is rooted in the final command of Jesus to his first followers. It is in force until “the end of the age.”Like Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, the principles
Deep and Wide Youth Ministry is not a gimmick or a method. It is not based on the shifting sands of the next new thing. No, it is rooted in the final command of Jesus to his first followers. It is in force until “the end of the age.”Like Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, the principles
God created us to be with him. Genesis 1, 2
Our sins separate us from God. Genesis 3
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. Genesis 4 - Malachi 4
Paying the price for sin Jesus died and rose again. Matthew, Mark, Luke
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. John - Jude
Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. Revelation
Amateurs are motivated but don’t really know how to share the gospel. Rookies learn a method and robotically go through it. Pros have mastered the message and are able to share Jesus in a natural and effective way.
It is during this phase of evangelistic training teenagers learn to pray for one friend to come to Christ, pursue that friend on a spiritual level (AKA “bring God up”) and persuade their friends to attend the youth group, believe in Christ, connect to a group of Christian friends, develop spiritually and evangelize others.
Pray-Pursue-Persuade
It is during this phase of evangelistic training teenagers learn to pray for one friend to come to Christ, pursue that friend on a spiritual level (AKA “bring God up”) and persuade their friends to attend the youth group, believe in Christ, connect to a group of Christian friends, develop spiritually and evangelize others.
Giving the gospel weekly
It is essential for you to make a commitment to give the gospel weekly in the context of your main youth group
4)
Nevera.
Sometimesb.
Oftenc.
All the timed.
To what degree are you depending on Jesus to live through you every day, instead of trying to serve God in your 5) own power?
I’m not sure what you’re talking about but am sure that I’m not doing it.a.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about but hope that I’m doing it.b.
I think I know what you’re talking about and think I’m doing it.c.
I know what you’re talking about and I’m totally depending on Jesus as much as I can every day.d.
Describe your closest friends’ passion for Jesus?6)
Very coola.
Pretty Warmb.
Kind of Hotc.
Blazing hotd.
23
Questions to ask your teenagers:
How would you honestly rate your internal spiritual desire to fully live for Jesus in every area of your life? 1)
Kind of coola.
Pretty warmb.
Hotc.
Blazing Hotd.
How often do you spend time reading God’s Word and praying about how to apply what you’ve learned to your 2) life?
Nevera.
Sometimesb.
Oftenc.
Just about every dayd.
How ready would you feel to debate an atheist about the existence of God? 3)
Not ready, willing or ablea.
Willing but not ableb.
Willing, able, but not quite sure if I’m readyc.
Ready, willing and able!d.
How often do you share your faith with those you know?4)
Nevera.
Sometimesb.
Oftenc.
All the timed.
To what degree are you depending on Jesus to live through you every day, instead of trying to serve God in your 5) own power?
I’m not sure what you’re talking about but am sure that I’m not doing it.a.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about but hope that I’m doing it.b.
I think I know what you’re talking about and think I’m doing it.c.
I know what you’re talking about and I’m totally depending on Jesus as much as I can every day.d.
Describe your closest friends’ passion for Jesus?6)
Very coola.
Pretty Warmb.
Kind of Hotc.
Blazing hotd.
24
What do you honestly think of Christianity?7)
A nice story that I’m not sure ofa.
I know it’s true but I’m not sure it’s worth living totally forb.
I know it’s true and worth living forc.
I know it’s true and worth dying ford.
If Jesus were to show up right now and evaluate your spiritual life to your face, he would describe you as:8)
Apathetic a.
Interestedb.
Excitedc.
Passionated.
When’s the last time you shared the gospel with someone?9)
I never havea.
I have but I can’t rememberb.
In the last yearc.
In the last monthd.
Are you willing to do what it takes to grow deeper in the truth of God’s Word and go wider into your circle of 10) influence with the gospel of Jesus?
To be honest, no.a.
Yes, but I’m not sure if I want to start right now.b.
Yes, I’m very willing.c.
Yes, I’m already doing it the best that I can, but am willing to do whatever it takes.d.
*NOTE: There is no failsafe way of identifying spiritual levels of growth and maturity. All of these questions (for you, your staff and your teenagers) are designed more for discussion and self-evaluation. Only God truly knows the actual, accurate level of spiritual maturity and evangelistic effectiveness in the hearts of believers. These questions are designed to get you talking, thinking and to give you a more accurate picture of where your teenagers are at on the Deep and Wide grid.
Based on you and your staff’s evaluation of your teenagers and your teenagers’ evaluations of themselves put an actual percentage in each of the sections below. Write these percentages in pencil (page 21) as the goal is to “push them” deeper and wider. Personally evaluate and rate them quarterly, adjusting the numbers you’ve written in each section of the grid. Have all your teenagers and staff take this test annually.
Why is it so hard to share our faith?
Why did Greg hesitate?
Why do we hesitate?
Talk about a time when you missed an opportunity.
Can you always tell when someone is suicidal?
Why or why not?
How can we 'see the sign' better and make the most of every opportunity?
What are some ways we can be more urgent about sharing our faith?
Who is someone you can start praying for today?
This book will also help you realize that one of the most powerful persuaders when it comes to sharing Jesus is a Spirit empowered, loving Christian who listens just as much as he or she talks! But this field guide doesn't stop there. As you read this book you'll also discover the following:
How to identify your style of sharing Jesus
How to defend your faith without offending your friend
How to share the gospel message in a clear and compassionate way
How to make the message clear and simple
How to share your own personal story of coming to believe in Jesus
And much, much more!
So you talk about it, read about it, hear others chatter about it, even imagine what your life would be like if you did it...but you don't.
Throughout church history the gospel message has been effective in virtually every single part of the world it has been introduced to. Sure, there have been groups that have been more difficult to reach because of ingrained belief systems that are non-Biblical. But even then the gospel will eventually penetrate hardened hearts and change made-up minds. Why? Because the message of the gospel is not just a competing belief system. It is not merely one of the many horses to bet on at the racetrack of worldviews. It is the truth, subsidized by hard facts, energized by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the sinner's conscience. And it is not a truth devoid of feeling. It is ablaze with feeling, passion and power. Its logic can transform the mind. Its heat can warm the cold heart.
When you share the gospel message in this postmodern student culture, share it with the internal confidence that it is a dynamic and explosive force that can penetrate the hardest of walls with the shrapnel of truth. Speak that message of hope knowing that it is living and active and hungry - and it will not stop until it has caught its prey. Speak it with the absolute assurance that God in his sovereignty will bring in those whom he has called when he has called them in spite of the cultural nuances that seem to be roadblocks to belief.
Don't hesitate to share the gospel with the teens of today.
Although the gospel doesn't change, our tactics of sharing it with different groups can and should depending on the audience. In other words, though the gospel message never changes, the way we communicate it to different audiences can and should change. As we will see later, Paul used a vastly different technique in reaching the Greeks on Mar's Hill than he did the Jews in the synagogue (Acts 17).
Try going to an unreached tribe in Papua , New Guinea and using the Four Spiritual Laws right off the bat. The responses could vary - but most likely you would get beaten or eaten. To reach these cultures years of study have been done to identify belief systems and find common ground. Then a strategy is developed based on this research. It is then tried and tweaked until the most effective methodology is uncovered.
It is no different in today's student culture.
You probably wouldn't approach a student from a Jewish background the same way you would approach a student from a Wicca belief system. The entry points are different. One has a monotheistic worldview. The other is polytheistic or atheistic. One accepts the Old Testament as authoritative. The other rejects Scripture as absolute truth.
How do we become skilled at becoming good news bearers to this culture of students? We become students of the students. We study them and discover what makes them tick and what gets them ticked. We find out what they value. In other words, we listen.
This is not passive listening but aggressive. We listen to find entry points into their worlds. We ask questions that open doors and initiate conversations about the gospel. We try and tweak until we find an effective method. In other words, we must find an open door!
As we present the love story of the gospel with students we must never forget to present the catalytic reality that Jesus called himself "the way" not "a way." Christianity is inclusive in the fact that everyone is welcomed to believe. It is exclusive in the sense that if those who don't are condemned to an eternity separated from the love of God.
The key is to share the gospel story as the better story that just happens to be true. We must be loving. We must learn to listen. But we must share the story as truth - because it is true.
Don't be intimidated!
We have an historic opportunity before us! The students of today are open to spiritual topics like never before. They are looking for feeling, reality, and, yes, truth. All that and more is wrapped up in the true love story of Christianity!
Reaching postmodern students with the gospel of Jesus Christ may take some hard work, creativity, and a ton of prayer - but if we are not making the attempt, how can we call ourselves 'youth ministers'?
NEWSFLASH: THE GOSPEL IS AS POWERFUL AS EVER!!!
Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Tree. It was my favorite Bible story as a kid. And because of that, over the years I’d come to the conclusion that it belongs in Vacation Bible School only—certainly not on a blueprint for youth ministry. (Just in case, though, I stuck it on the flannelboard of my brain should I ever be subpoenaed to teach preschool.)
But oddly enough—a mere five years into youth ministry—I’ve found this simple Bible story has become the guiding metaphor for my service to this generation.
For the first few years of my ministry, I surrendered to the temptation of defining success by bodies in chairs, names on sign-up sheets, and smiles on faces. My ministry was to the "crowd," with little concern for those who didn’t possess the courage, strength, desire, or ability to rise above the distractions around them.
Then an eight-year-old girl at summer camp started me rethinking all of that.
I was sharing the story of Zacchaeus at a morning chapel—knowing that more minds were on the craft shack or ping-pong than on salvation. I chose the smallest kid to play the leading role and a reluctant-yet-stout counselor to provide the branches on which our little Zach could perch. I picked a Jesus. And for the crowd I assembled a small band of willing volunteers. The drama unfolded. There were giggles as "Zacchaeus" made his way up the "tree," hitting a few ticklish spots on his journey. Then Jesus came to town, Zacchaeus came down, we sang the familiar song, and all the kids in the crowd returned to their seats. But before turning over the podium to the cabin inspectors, I closed by asking a question:
What would have happened if Zacchaeus hadn’t climbed the tree that day?
Maybe I naively expected a first-grader to respond with something like, "Well, obviously he would have missed Jesus and salvation would not have come to his house that day, and Jesus would have had to wait to state that his mission was to ’seek and save the lost’," because I was taken aback by this eight-year-old girl’s response:
His song wouldn’t be as much fun to sing!
It took me only a moment to see my question through her eyes. Then I began to hear with her ears. (You’ll have to sing out loud to get the effect.)
Zacchaeus was a wee little manA wee little man was heHe started to climb in a sycamore treeBut he didn’t...And then...he went home.
(Not the greatest tune without Zacchaeus’ upward journey, huh?)
That’s how we ended chapel. But that little girl began something new in me. She helped me realize that my definition of a successful ministry had been severely missing the mark.
I was more interested in the next retreat, more focused on my next class, and more excited about the newest game I planned to teach at the next devotional—completely oblivious to those in my group whose songs were not much fun to sing because their faith was so small...and the crowd was too tall...and they had no sycamore tree to climb.
I hadn’t been looking out for my Zacchaeuses.
. . . . .
At my church, we have a private preschool and kindergarten. In the nearby church courtyard is a playground. And on that playground is an off-limits tree. A big tree. A tempting tree. I mean, this is a Mount-Everest-of-a-tree to little, exploring eyes. It’s as though God chose a playground and placed a tree in the middle and declared, "On every other structure thou mayest climb, but on this tree thou mayest not climb, for on the day when thou dost, thou shalt surely...be placed in time-out...or something."
Eventually a red line was painted above the second limb from the ground. The children were free to climb to that line, but everything above was forbidden territory. And "Mrs. Wanda" (as the kids call her) guards that tree with a watchful eye that would impress an angel wielding a flaming sword.
But after hours—figuring Mrs. Wanda and her whistle have departed for wherever kindergarten teachers go until 8 a.m. the next day—some kids do climb above the red line. There’s something about that tree that beckons, "Come...and climb!" to every adventurer.
What makes it tough is that those who’ve boldly gone where no child has gone before tell other children about the view. During recess they proudly (albeit quietly) boast to those content with hop-scotch, "I have been to the promised land...and from it you can see over the fence of the playground!"
What they’ve seen "up there" is amazing—much more so than the mundane sandbox.
Each morning I see that tree when I go to my office. Every day I see wee little people looking up, peering through its branches in awe. And I’m reminded that what they seek is a viewpoint so very different from their own. But without the tree, their quest is impossible—and their song is not as much fun to sing.
That’s when it hit me.
For many years I tried to be Jesus to the teens God entrusted to me. I tried to save them. I tried to heal them. I tried to build a ministry that would be truth and light for them.
And all those years I noticed only three characters in the Zacchaeus story—Jesus the Savior, Zacchaeus the sinner, and the crowd of distractions.
I forgot about the sycamore tree.
The sycamore tree is me.
And ministering as the sycamore tree is the mission to which I’ve been called.
When I made that realization, I developed a new definition for success in youth ministry—a clearer image of who God’s called me to be and what he’s called me to do:
Like the sycamore tree, my job is to lift teens above the crowd so they might see the approaching Savior.
I was so occupied with bearing the burden of saving kids that I failed to acknowledge that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He will find them. He will heal them.
Jesus simply pleads with me to create an environment where teens will willingly choose to "come and climb" so they’ll be found by him.
. . . . .
Luke records that when "Jesus reached the spot," he calls to Zacchaeus to come down. Jesus doesn’t stumble upon the tree. He doesn’t follow the crowd’s jeers and pointing fingers to find a stranger out on a limb. This meeting is no accident. He goes "to the spot" as though it’s his destination that day—not some comical interruption preceding an important public appearance.
Jesus’ search for Zacchaeus is far more noteworthy than Zacchaeus’ attempt to catch a glimpse of the Christ. The story is not about a seeking tax collector, but about a seeking Savior.
Imagine the houses that had been cleaned that day in hopes that Jesus would invite himself there for the evening. City leaders, prominent dignitaries, wealthy landowners—all certain they had it "together" enough that Jesus would choose them as dinner companions.
Jesus, however, made his reservation before he ever arrived in town. Others wanted to be seen with Jesus, but this day will forever be remembered because one man wanted to be seen by Jesus—and he needed a sycamore tree to fulfill this desire.
"He wanted to see who Jesus was but...he could not because of the crowd" (Luke 19:3).
Preaching (at least the way I’ve done it) won’t win much of this generation to Christ; but being available when a teen wants to climb higher to investigate the outrageous claims of the Son of God, will.
. . . . .
In the Zacchaeus song we all know, I’ve always been bothered by the way we recreate the moment when Jesus encounters his new friend. Maybe your Sunday school teacher was kinder and gentler, but mine would shake her finger and say, "Zacchaeus, you come down from that tree!" with the kind of vocal inflection my mother would use when employing my first, middle, and last names along with phrases like "wait until your father gets home!"
Maybe it doesn’t matter much what tone of voice Jesus uses here, but to me (and I imagine to any teen listening for him), Jesus’s tone is vital. The voice Zacchaeus hears offers peace, protection, and a promise. His invitation seems to say, "Zacchaeus, you don’t belong on a tree. That’s my job." The response Jesus receives from Zacchaeus is immediate, sincere, and abundant.
How do I measure the success of my ministry?
If it’s only through numbers or pats on the back, the lost are seldom sought or saved. If what I want to hear is, "I enjoyed the retreat," "Great class!" or "Good pizza," then salvation will not likely come to the homes of those I serve.
But—as a sycamore tree—I long to hear teens say, "I see him, and I know he sees me."
My challenge is to be guided by the sycamore metaphor. Not as a formula for success or steps to a healthy ministry, but as a way to understand my role—our roles—in the kingdom.
. . . . .
I now perform a one-man drama from the viewpoint of the sycamore tree. In character, I describe the excitement of being so close to Jesus and the anticipation of catching a glimpse of the Savior. Noticing Zacchaeus in the crowd, however, I fear that he might get too close and then I will be forever linked with a sinner in Christ’s memory. Then Zacchaeus begins his climb up my trunk—and the higher he climbs, the lower I feel.
But then—after hearing the invitation of Jesus and the response of the tax collector—I am forever changed. I realize that I’ve become the closest witness to the encounter between these two men. At that moment—despite not being noticed myself—I’ve been used to lift someone above the crowd so that he might see the approaching Savior and that the approaching Savior might see him.
Repentance is shouted. Forgiveness is offered. Salvation is delivered. And it’s the sycamore tree that provides the means for this miracle to occur. To witness someone’s song becoming so much more fun to sing.
Like the sycamore tree, my job is to lift teens above the crowd so they might see the approaching Savior.
PostscriptLuke eventually tells the story of another tree. The first tree holds a man living a lie while on the other hangs a man dying for truth.
Zacchaeus climbs a tree to get the attention of Jesus. Jesus climbs a tree and dies to get ours.
Being a tree is easy.
Being a Savior is not.
David Skidmore lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he serves as youth minister (and sycamore tree) of the West End Church of Christ. He dedicates these words to each person who's been a branch on his way up to see Jesus more clearly.
The above author bio was current as of the date this article was published.
© 2000 Youth SpecialtiesPermission is granted to distribute articles to other youth workers within your church, but may not be re-published (print or electronic) without permission.
Back to more Evangelism/Outreach articles
Friday, February 29, 2008
In this inspiring book, Erwin McManus uses the biblical account of Israel's war with the Philistines (1 Samuel 13 and 14) and the characters of Saul and Jonathan to demonstrate the difference between living a life of purpose and adventure, and living one of apathy and missed opportunity. In the midst of a less-than-hopeful battle, Saul-who should have been leading-rested beneath a pomegranate tree as Jonathan seized the divine moment that would impact the future of Israel. Through this story McManus artfully illustrates the eight characteristics of an adventurer's heart, what he calls "the Jonathan factor." Using powerful examples from his own life and ministry, along with fresh biblical teaching, McManus asserts that God crafts divine moments specific to each of us-priceless opportunities for us to actively engage in God's big-picture plan. Apathy and apprehension prevent us from being all we are meant to be for God's kingdom. But by developing the characteristics McManus outlines, Christians can move from mundane to miraculous living.
Making Vision Stick
Andy Stanley
Thursday, 4-5 pm.
Kids’ Stuff – Northpoint Church in Atlanta
Question: Are you willing to let it go? Are you willing to lay it down? Are you willing
to sacrifice into order to become a leader?
No sacrifices that we’ve made can compare to the joy God gives us in living a life
committed to Him and to the wonder of building the local church and seeing lives
changed.
If the followers don’t get it, is because the leader hasn’t gotten it across.
What do I need to do to make sure it sticks with the people closest to me and then on
down through the levels of leadership?
Where the vision is not clear there is no focus and then there is randomness and
complexity.
You will ask the question: would I go here if I didn’t work here?
When you are the senior pastor and you are driving in the car and your wife asks, “Would
we go there if you weren’t the pastor?” What has happened is your vision has leaked,
there is randomness. There is sideways energy and you will wake up and not like the
organization we started.
Successful – complexity is the enemy of vision.
Everybody is busy but you’ve lost
Failure – there is a temptation to confuse your plan and strategy fails people assume it
was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies must always be changed. But visions are the
same and have to be refined.
And everything in between.
Vision is about what could be and should be.
In light of what is now, no wonder vision doesn’t stick. The legitimate needs of today
take away vision.
The vision doesn’t change.
I. There are three things you must do with vision to make it stick.
A. To make your vision stick:
1. Cast it strategically - Provides definition.
If it is a mist in the pulpit it is a fog in the pew.
Forces you to define.
2. Celebrate it systematically provides inspiration.
Regular ways to celebrate it.
3. Live it continuously
B. Each of the three provides a critical element
1. Casting a vision provides definition
2. Celebrating a vision provides inspiration
3. Living out a vision provides credibility.
When people understand that you are doing to do it anyway, this is part of who they are,
all of a sudden you are leading from the point of influence.
II. Cast It
None of us cast it enough.
Why? We’ve already said that!
As a communicator I feel I have to say it differently.
We feel like we are repeating something.
For vision to stick it has to be cast over and over.
A. Be strategic about when you cast vision
Not Labor Day
Not tax day.
3 Sundays in January
Strategic service Sunday – in May
By newsletter
By email
Etc.
Once a year is not enough!
How do we drive this throughout the organization?
B. Be strategic about how you cast vision
All of us are vision casters – we are keepers of the vision.
Whenever you cast vision work through these three things…
If you do you will become compelling.
1. Define the problem!
What problem does my organization or my piece of the ministry designed to solve?
If we don’t do what we do something won’t be accomplished.
There is something that won’t happen if you don’t do what you do.
Why is it we exist?
2. Offer a solution!
Your vision is a solution to a problem.
The truth is that your vision is the solution to a problem.
When your vision solves a problem that people feel emotionally about you will capture
people’s hearts.
3. You have to present them with a reason to do it and to do it now!
Willow is the solution to a problem.
If you don’t know what the problem is
And you can’t state the solution
And you don’t know why you must do it and do it now then you don’t have
vision.
If you can develop terminology and phraseology that do the three above then you are on
your way to developing a compelling vision.
What is it that needs to be done and no one is doing anything about it?
Andy is going to do it with or without us.
When you can talk about it in this way people will come alive.
III. Celebrate it
A. Make celebration a part of your culture!
You celebrate the vision spontaneously!
You need to built into the system time to celebrate your vision.
Celebrating your vision puts skin on the vision!
If you don’t do this vision becomes what anyone wants it to be.
Celebration let’s everyone know what the bullseye looks like.
Advantage – email lets us communicate with each other.
B. Illustrations:
1. Story telling
Is there anything that happened this last weekend that
2. Baptism
The way we do baptism.
In our church you must, in addition to being a Christian, you must produce a 2-4 minute
video of your story!
You have to built it into the schedule celebrating your vision.
Share these stories Sunday after Sunday.
IV. Live It
A. Your willingness to embody the vision of your organization will have a direct impact
on your credibility as a leader.
Invest and invite strategy!
How do people know that it is a genuine value and passion of the pastor?
I’m doing the best I can to live this out.
The first people to leave will the be smartest people who know that you aren’t doing what
you say is your vision.
To lead as God has called you to lead, it must be a part of your life.
They would do it anyway.
B. The primary thing that will keep you from living the vision is life.
C. If you loves your burden you lose your passion.
If you lose your passion who will lose sight of your vision.
V. Checking for leaks!
A. Keep an eye on programming.
Think steps, not programs!
We measure every addition to programming in reference to steps to accomplish your
vision. Every program needs to take people somewhere. We don’t add anything that
doesn’t get people into small groups.
B. Listen to three things
1. Prayer requests – it will tell you if people are locked into your vision.
Everybody is going to get sick and die. That gives us job security.
Woo! Is anybody burdened for a lost person.
Are sick people the only thing we are burdened for?
We have 12 sick people
Help them all get well or get sick and die and go on to be with you.
A huge indicator of vision.
2. Listen to great stories.
3. Listen to what people are complaining about.
Indicates what they are concerned about.
We are so committed to building relationships with unsaved people.
We are here to be an influence.
We are here to connect.
You asked me to comment on Bill Hybels’ talk on These Things We Must Do—from last year’s Leadership Summit; and you particularly want me to say what his talk means for church leaders here in New Zealand.
I loved his talk! I think it’s the hardest hitting talk I’ve ever heard him give; and in drawing out lessons for us, I don’t want to soften his words to make them more palatable.
Bill began by noting the sailing magazine he’d read that mentioned the 35 things you’ve got to do to win sailboat races, the 50 facets of leadership one book said you have to master to lead people, John Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, Jack Welch’s eight leadership basics for growing a great organisation—and two colleagues’ request to talk at the Summit about the four things (just four!) we must do to grow prevailing churches.
So to help him get clarity and urgency, Bill imagines his colleagues sitting at his deathbed with a microphone as the doctor comes in and tells them Bill’s only got four sentences left in him! So his colleagues, Jimmy (Mellado) and Steve (Bell), tell him not to waste words saying goodbye to his family, quoting Scriptures or singing a final song to God—just ‘give us the four points, and then die.’
Here’s a brief summary of Bill’s talk about his ‘dying’ moments—followed by the reflections you requested.
Keep the vision clear
Get the people engaged
Make your gatherings memorable
Pace yourself for the long haul
What Bill’s talk means for us
The local church—the hope of the world
To discuss at leaders meetings
And for denominational leaders
Download
Keep the vision clear
His first dying sentence to his friends is, ‘keep the vision clear’, because as Proverbs 29:18 says, ‘Without a vision, the people perish’—that is, their dreams of doing something great for God die, although they themselves still live.
Bill paints an alarming picture of the crippling paralysis that sets in within months of vision getting fuzzy, and he warns us that this is what happens to ‘God’s sons and daughters’ when we don’t cast a compelling Christ-honouring vision that grips our people—they perish, die on the inside!
Then he comments on how congregations give up believing their pastors and leaders will ever paint a picture that will give them passion about something—as they still gather on Sundays and sing their songs, endure mindless and heartless sermons, and drive away ‘wondering why they bother with the whole thing. They just perish.’
So from his imagined deathbed Bill urges us to keep the vision clear, talking about it at our team meetings till it burns like a fire inside us, preparing for the day we share it with our whole church family ‘like prizefighters preparing for a heavy weight fight’, and putting ‘every last ounce of energy and emotion into it knowing it’s the most important talk we’ll give all year.’
Then he tells us what happens when leaders do this. People’s eyes get bigger, their posture straightens, their smiles get wider, and they start to soar—at Willow Creek, standing in long lines at the end of his vision talks as they sign up for the new vision. They’re captured by it; and Bill says we owe it to our people because they’ll perish without it.
‘Vision’, says Bill, is ‘the most potent offensive weapon in the leader’s arsenal …. So…. Keep the vision clear.’
Get the people engaged
Bill’s second deathbed whisper is, ‘get the people engaged’—just as in Nehemiah 4:6 ‘all the people worked with all their hearts.’ We’re to get every single person in our church working with all their hearts.
Bill illustrated this ‘ownership’ principle with the amazing story of a U.S. Navy captain turning his ‘ship and crew into the most unified, highest performing ship in the U.S. Navy.’ Then for the next 10 minutes, 20% of his talk, he walked us through the utter tragedy of his dad that no pastor ever engaged—and what would have engaged him!
I’ve never heard Bill talk so movingly about his non-engaged dad. In the church Bill grew up in, pastors came and went every four years, and as a boy, Bill secretly hoped that just one of these pastors would engage his dad and make him ‘a stakeholder of some sort. But it never happened, and he went to his grave without ever feeling the thrill of being a part of a Kingdom dream team,’—although he was one of the best leaders Bill has ever known. Still today, if he thinks about it too long, he breaks down—the utter, terrible waste of a gifted life!
So what would have got his dad on board with a pastor or leaders in a local church? Here’s Bill’s list.
1. His dad would have needed to be quite sure that ‘the pastor of that church was totally committed to the future of that church’—because his dad was a high commitment guy and would never sign on with a low-commitment leader.
Then, assuring us he doesn’t want to be disrespectful, but using the strongest language I’ve ever heard him use with leaders, he tells us if he we’re not in the pastorate because we have a burning vision to see God do something in our church, we should ‘Just get out …. because the Kingdom cannot proceed with leaders like that.’ His ‘dad would never have followed a half-hearted, kind of peacekeeping, neutral individual’; he’d only have responded to someone with a vision firestorm burning inside them.
2. His dad would ‘never have signed up for a small dream … a safe, sanitized, low-risk church vision’—because high capacity people like him don’t ‘sign up for tidy, little, easily achievable missions.’ They need dangerous ones, and we have to provide them.
3. His dad would never have ‘stepped forward, just kind of voluntarily, to offer his services’, never have raised his hand in a service, or gone to a table to sign up for a little committee—because ‘Leaders respond to other leaders, and he would have had to be asked.’ To sign up the high capacity people we need so much, we should be up front and ask them for their help. We shouldn’t say ‘no’ for them before they’re asked.
4. To become involved in the local church, his dad ‘would have had to have had a crystal clear idea of what he was being asked to do’—and the space to do it in. He wouldn’t want you checking over his shoulder every 15 minutes.
5. To be a volunteer in the local church, his dad ‘would have needed feedback and evaluation’—confirming when he was on the right track or helping him back on course when he wasn’t.
6. Finally, like every volunteer in every church, his dad would have needed an occasional reminder that what he was doing ‘really, really matters, and it matters for all eternity.’ Volunteers who work at their jobs for 50 hours a week, come home to a host of family tasks, and then pour themselves out for the local church, need to hear that they’re ‘not crazy’ doing this—just as Jesus used to assure his followers that they weren’t crazy for giving their lives to follow him.
In summing up, Bill said that if the pastor and leaders of the church had offered those kinds of things to his dad, he would have given his everything for it, and probably pulled in half a dozen of his high capacity business buddies with him. But, sadly, it never happened. Instead, he just warmed a pew his entire adult life, and dropped dead from a massive heart attack at about the age Bill is now. And Bill says there are millions of people like that in our churches—just waiting to give the Kingdom task their best shot … if only someone would ask them. So he urges us to do something and engage our people!
Make your gatherings memorable
Bill’s third deathbed recommendation is, ‘make your gatherings memorable’—that is, create such great church services that our people would never think of missing them and ‘regularly kick themselves around the block for not inviting more friends with them.’
Bill then reflected on the early days of the Willow Creek story when he went door to door every day, six days a week, for six weeks, asking people why they didn’t go to church. People gave him one main answer—they were bored to death by the services; they couldn’t stand them, wouldn’t subject themselves to them, and found them irrelevant to their lives. Then, he says, ‘Things haven’t changed.’
Building on Acts 2:43, ‘And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe’, he illustrated the ‘awe’ principle from a large service in London—and one at the little church he attends in the summer time. Both were awesome.
Then he added that the older he gets, the more he realises that when people now come to our services, they come hoping against hope that God will touch their lives—that He’ll meet them, His Spirit will whisper to them, and something awe-inspiring will happen that day. So, he says, all of us involved in services should ‘work really, really hard to make our services as memorable and as potentially awesome as we possibly can’, because people don’t want services as usual. And using several further illustrations from their ministry at Willow Creek, he repeats his plea to make our services memorable.
Pace yourself for the long haul
Finally, from his imagined deathbed, Bill urged us to pace ourselves for the long haul—that is, ‘to run in such a way as to win the prize’ (1 Corinthians 9:24).
To make his point, Bill dwelt at length on the Ultra Marathon Man who worked up to running extraordinary distances—and his own ministry crisis at the 15-year mark.
Then he commented how in that 4-year crisis, Willow Creek took the (then) daring steps of going to team teaching, team leadership, and giving him summer study breaks—and how now, reaching the 30-year mark, his passion is to finish well, even as the One he’ll stand before one day finished His race well.
So, with the Summit ending, and to drive this fourth point home, Bill told one last story about attending a pastor friend’s celebration to mark 50 years of being a senior pastor.
Bill spoke first; then the aging, white-haired pastor rose to his feet, and as he went to walk off the stage the church cheered and applauded him. Then he turned to Bill and the congregation, and told them how God called him to the ministry when they were singing a hymn in the country church he attended as a boy. Then he recited all four verses of the hymn that changed his life … ‘I love thy church, O Lord’—right through to ‘For her my tears shall fall. For her my prayers ascend. To her my cares and toils be given till toils and cares shall end.’
And there on the stage, as this aged pastor spoke, Bill broke down as he looked at this man who’d ‘given his guts’ for the church God loves and calls His bride. For that church, said Bill, ending his talk and the Leadership Summit, is ‘The hope of the world.’
What Bill’s talk means for us
Dave, nearly a year has passed since Bill gave his profoundly moving talk; and since you’ll need something on paper for your leadership meetings, I’ve written this brief summary so you can talk about it together—then discuss the lessons and questions I’ve added.
As I’ve pondered his talk over many months, still moved as much as the day I first heard it, I believe he’s touched on four things that deeply trouble the New Zealand Church—and on which its very survival depends.
Starved of vision, our churches are perishing
With a few notable exceptions, our churches are starved of vision—so they languish, with few people finding and following Jesus. Yet God intended His church to be the hope of the world. So what needs to change?
To grow our churches again, we’ve got to grasp that the visions that change churches (like the vision that burned in the young Bill Hybels’ heart as he listened to Dr Bilezikian) start in a senior leader’s heart, spread through the leadership team, and burst into flame in the congregation—just as Bill described in his talk, because as he says elsewhere, ‘vision is a picture of the future that produces passion in you.’
But even great visions die in 30 days. So when we’ve found and shared our vision (or dream), and got our people on board, we’ve got to give great vision-casting messages at strategic times of the year and work at keeping the vision alive and growing in people’s hearts—through our praise and worship, our service prayers, our notices, our testimonies, and especially our preaching. When it comes to churches and church services, we reap what we sow!
If you haven’t got a compelling church vision or dream yet, start today. Read website Letters 10, 11, and 13; and begin with all urgency because your church’s very survival may depend on it. Worsening denominational statistics remind us that more of the same will not do; our churches must change or face a slow and painful death.
Let’s each therefore determine that from this moment forward, we’ll go all out to find and implement the compelling vision that will change and grow our churches—because the local church is the hope of the world!
Without engaging our people, we’ll never win
We know from long experience that a pastor can only care for a small group of people; and today we’re a land of small churches—with dedicated pastors pouring themselves out for their little flocks, hoping against hope that something good will happen one day. But as the statistics show, it rarely does, because one person can’t grow a church on their own, no matter how dedicated or godly they may be.
Churches grow when leaders find a compelling vision and come to their congregations with the vision firestorm, Bill mentioned, burning in their hearts—and so share it, that the people sign up for it, and gifted individuals like Bill’s dad sign up for it when approached to do something ‘crazy’ for God! And even if you feel you don’t have any ‘gifted’ people at the moment, God can make up the difference … if your people are on fire for God—like John Wesley’s Methodists and General Booth’s Salvationists!
So our first challenge is to find a vision that overwhelms us; our second challenge is to so share it with our people that they sign up for it with enthusiasm and commitment.
To grow a local church, we must engage our people—even if we’ve only got a few!
Without great church services, we’ll never grow
Our church services have let us down for years, and are still the biggest reason for people not coming to church—or dropping out of church when they leave.
The great mid-twentieth century theologian and preacher, Helmut Thielicke, wrote about them as the crowds began emptying out of the western churches. Later, people told the young Bill Hybels they were the main reason why they didn’t come to church—and as he said in his talk, things haven’t changed and may even be worse.
In fact, some years ago, a Kiwi church got graduate business students from the local university to survey the many thousands of people who lived near their church; and the students found ‘the overwhelming majority’ of those who responded said they’d attend a church like the one doing the survey—if invited by a friend or relative to something special. Out there, it’s not the people who’re reluctant to come; it’s us who aren’t ready to receive them!
To grow our churches, we must, as Bill says, work very, very hard at putting on the best services we possibly can—using the great special Sundays of the year to invite people to a service they’ll connect with, and closing the ‘style’ gap between our special and ordinary services because God wants His church to grow.
So we get a compelling vision, we powerfully engage all our people, and we put on great church services to connect with the people we’re reaching for Jesus. Without great church services, we’ll never grow.
Without pacing ourselves, we won’t last
Ministry, whether paid or voluntary, is a marathon—not a sprint.
And whether it’s paid, or voluntary, we can launch into it with such energy and lack of self-care that we burn out, and unlike Jesus and Paul, never complete our course—dragging our church down with us because we didn’t pace ourselves for the long haul.
So let’s lead with vision, engage our people with enthusiasm, put on outstanding services, and so run as to complete our course—these are Bill’s ‘deathbed’ challenges!
The local church—the hope of the world
Dave, I’m glad to comment on Bill’s great talk.
And if perhaps it is a far cry from the Leadership Summit and Bill’s big church in Chicago, to your small but growing church in New Zealand, the things Bill shared are as important for you here as they are for him there.
You do indeed just have a handful of people at present, but you’ve started the journey to a new future.Give top priority now to finding that vision that will transform your church. Share it with your people with all the grace and passion God gives you. Give your services a ‘mission wash’ so they really reach and hold newer people—as well as holding your present people. And take a little time for yourself out of each day, your day off each week, a little extra time if possible each month, and your full entitlement of holidays each year. Aim, like Jesus and Paul, and Bill and his aged pastor friend, to finish your ministry with joy.
Making Vision Stick
Andy Stanley
Thursday, 4-5 pm.
Kids’ Stuff – Northpoint Church in Atlanta
Question: Are you willing to let it go? Are you willing to lay it down? Are you willing
to sacrifice into order to become a leader?
No sacrifices that we’ve made can compare to the joy God gives us in living a life
committed to Him and to the wonder of building the local church and seeing lives
changed.
If the followers don’t get it, is because the leader hasn’t gotten it across.
What do I need to do to make sure it sticks with the people closest to me and then on
down through the levels of leadership?
Where the vision is not clear there is no focus and then there is randomness and
complexity.
You will ask the question: would I go here if I didn’t work here?
When you are the senior pastor and you are driving in the car and your wife asks, “Would
we go there if you weren’t the pastor?” What has happened is your vision has leaked,
there is randomness. There is sideways energy and you will wake up and not like the
organization we started.
Successful – complexity is the enemy of vision.
Everybody is busy but you’ve lost
Failure – there is a temptation to confuse your plan and strategy fails people assume it
was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies must always be changed. But visions are the
same and have to be refined.
And everything in between.
Vision is about what could be and should be.
In light of what is now, no wonder vision doesn’t stick. The legitimate needs of today
take away vision.
The vision doesn’t change.
I. There are three things you must do with vision to make it stick.
A. To make your vision stick:
1. Cast it strategically - Provides definition.
If it is a mist in the pulpit it is a fog in the pew.
Forces you to define.
2. Celebrate it systematically provides inspiration.
Regular ways to celebrate it.
3. Live it continuously
B. Each of the three provides a critical element
1. Casting a vision provides definition
2. Celebrating a vision provides inspiration
3. Living out a vision provides credibility.
When people understand that you are doing to do it anyway, this is part of who they are,
all of a sudden you are leading from the point of influence.
II. Cast It
None of us cast it enough.
Why? We’ve already said that!
As a communicator I feel I have to say it differently.
We feel like we are repeating something.
For vision to stick it has to be cast over and over.
A. Be strategic about when you cast vision
Not Labor Day
Not tax day.
3 Sundays in January
Strategic service Sunday – in May
By newsletter
By email
Etc.
Once a year is not enough!
How do we drive this throughout the organization?
B. Be strategic about how you cast vision
All of us are vision casters – we are keepers of the vision.
Whenever you cast vision work through these three things…
If you do you will become compelling.
1. Define the problem!
What problem does my organization or my piece of the ministry designed to solve?
If we don’t do what we do something won’t be accomplished.
There is something that won’t happen if you don’t do what you do.
Why is it we exist?
2. Offer a solution!
Your vision is a solution to a problem.
The truth is that your vision is the solution to a problem.
When your vision solves a problem that people feel emotionally about you will capture
people’s hearts.
3. You have to present them with a reason to do it and to do it now!
Willow is the solution to a problem.
If you don’t know what the problem is
And you can’t state the solution
And you don’t know why you must do it and do it now then you don’t have
vision.
If you can develop terminology and phraseology that do the three above then you are on
your way to developing a compelling vision.
What is it that needs to be done and no one is doing anything about it?
Andy is going to do it with or without us.
When you can talk about it in this way people will come alive.
III. Celebrate it
A. Make celebration a part of your culture!
You celebrate the vision spontaneously!
You need to built into the system time to celebrate your vision.
Celebrating your vision puts skin on the vision!
If you don’t do this vision becomes what anyone wants it to be.
Celebration let’s everyone know what the bullseye looks like.
Advantage – email lets us communicate with each other.
B. Illustrations:
1. Story telling
Is there anything that happened this last weekend that
2. Baptism
The way we do baptism.
In our church you must, in addition to being a Christian, you must produce a 2-4 minute
video of your story!
You have to built it into the schedule celebrating your vision.
Share these stories Sunday after Sunday.
IV. Live It
A. Your willingness to embody the vision of your organization will have a direct impact
on your credibility as a leader.
Invest and invite strategy!
How do people know that it is a genuine value and passion of the pastor?
I’m doing the best I can to live this out.
The first people to leave will the be smartest people who know that you aren’t doing what
you say is your vision.
To lead as God has called you to lead, it must be a part of your life.
They would do it anyway.
B. The primary thing that will keep you from living the vision is life.
C. If you loves your burden you lose your passion.
If you lose your passion who will lose sight of your vision.
V. Checking for leaks!
A. Keep an eye on programming.
Think steps, not programs!
We measure every addition to programming in reference to steps to accomplish your
vision. Every program needs to take people somewhere. We don’t add anything that
doesn’t get people into small groups.
B. Listen to three things
1. Prayer requests – it will tell you if people are locked into your vision.
Everybody is going to get sick and die. That gives us job security.
Woo! Is anybody burdened for a lost person.
Are sick people the only thing we are burdened for?
We have 12 sick people
Help them all get well or get sick and die and go on to be with you.
A huge indicator of vision.
2. Listen to great stories.
3. Listen to what people are complaining about.
Indicates what they are concerned about.
We are so committed to building relationships with unsaved people.
We are here to be an influence.
We are here to connect.
You asked me to comment on Bill Hybels’ talk on These Things We Must Do—from last year’s Leadership Summit; and you particularly want me to say what his talk means for church leaders here in New Zealand.
I loved his talk! I think it’s the hardest hitting talk I’ve ever heard him give; and in drawing out lessons for us, I don’t want to soften his words to make them more palatable.
Bill began by noting the sailing magazine he’d read that mentioned the 35 things you’ve got to do to win sailboat races, the 50 facets of leadership one book said you have to master to lead people, John Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, Jack Welch’s eight leadership basics for growing a great organisation—and two colleagues’ request to talk at the Summit about the four things (just four!) we must do to grow prevailing churches.
So to help him get clarity and urgency, Bill imagines his colleagues sitting at his deathbed with a microphone as the doctor comes in and tells them Bill’s only got four sentences left in him! So his colleagues, Jimmy (Mellado) and Steve (Bell), tell him not to waste words saying goodbye to his family, quoting Scriptures or singing a final song to God—just ‘give us the four points, and then die.’
Here’s a brief summary of Bill’s talk about his ‘dying’ moments—followed by the reflections you requested.
Keep the vision clear
Get the people engaged
Make your gatherings memorable
Pace yourself for the long haul
What Bill’s talk means for us
The local church—the hope of the world
To discuss at leaders meetings
And for denominational leaders
Download
Keep the vision clear
His first dying sentence to his friends is, ‘keep the vision clear’, because as Proverbs 29:18 says, ‘Without a vision, the people perish’—that is, their dreams of doing something great for God die, although they themselves still live.
Bill paints an alarming picture of the crippling paralysis that sets in within months of vision getting fuzzy, and he warns us that this is what happens to ‘God’s sons and daughters’ when we don’t cast a compelling Christ-honouring vision that grips our people—they perish, die on the inside!
Then he comments on how congregations give up believing their pastors and leaders will ever paint a picture that will give them passion about something—as they still gather on Sundays and sing their songs, endure mindless and heartless sermons, and drive away ‘wondering why they bother with the whole thing. They just perish.’
So from his imagined deathbed Bill urges us to keep the vision clear, talking about it at our team meetings till it burns like a fire inside us, preparing for the day we share it with our whole church family ‘like prizefighters preparing for a heavy weight fight’, and putting ‘every last ounce of energy and emotion into it knowing it’s the most important talk we’ll give all year.’
Then he tells us what happens when leaders do this. People’s eyes get bigger, their posture straightens, their smiles get wider, and they start to soar—at Willow Creek, standing in long lines at the end of his vision talks as they sign up for the new vision. They’re captured by it; and Bill says we owe it to our people because they’ll perish without it.
‘Vision’, says Bill, is ‘the most potent offensive weapon in the leader’s arsenal …. So…. Keep the vision clear.’
Get the people engaged
Bill’s second deathbed whisper is, ‘get the people engaged’—just as in Nehemiah 4:6 ‘all the people worked with all their hearts.’ We’re to get every single person in our church working with all their hearts.
Bill illustrated this ‘ownership’ principle with the amazing story of a U.S. Navy captain turning his ‘ship and crew into the most unified, highest performing ship in the U.S. Navy.’ Then for the next 10 minutes, 20% of his talk, he walked us through the utter tragedy of his dad that no pastor ever engaged—and what would have engaged him!
I’ve never heard Bill talk so movingly about his non-engaged dad. In the church Bill grew up in, pastors came and went every four years, and as a boy, Bill secretly hoped that just one of these pastors would engage his dad and make him ‘a stakeholder of some sort. But it never happened, and he went to his grave without ever feeling the thrill of being a part of a Kingdom dream team,’—although he was one of the best leaders Bill has ever known. Still today, if he thinks about it too long, he breaks down—the utter, terrible waste of a gifted life!
So what would have got his dad on board with a pastor or leaders in a local church? Here’s Bill’s list.
1. His dad would have needed to be quite sure that ‘the pastor of that church was totally committed to the future of that church’—because his dad was a high commitment guy and would never sign on with a low-commitment leader.
Then, assuring us he doesn’t want to be disrespectful, but using the strongest language I’ve ever heard him use with leaders, he tells us if he we’re not in the pastorate because we have a burning vision to see God do something in our church, we should ‘Just get out …. because the Kingdom cannot proceed with leaders like that.’ His ‘dad would never have followed a half-hearted, kind of peacekeeping, neutral individual’; he’d only have responded to someone with a vision firestorm burning inside them.
2. His dad would ‘never have signed up for a small dream … a safe, sanitized, low-risk church vision’—because high capacity people like him don’t ‘sign up for tidy, little, easily achievable missions.’ They need dangerous ones, and we have to provide them.
3. His dad would never have ‘stepped forward, just kind of voluntarily, to offer his services’, never have raised his hand in a service, or gone to a table to sign up for a little committee—because ‘Leaders respond to other leaders, and he would have had to be asked.’ To sign up the high capacity people we need so much, we should be up front and ask them for their help. We shouldn’t say ‘no’ for them before they’re asked.
4. To become involved in the local church, his dad ‘would have had to have had a crystal clear idea of what he was being asked to do’—and the space to do it in. He wouldn’t want you checking over his shoulder every 15 minutes.
5. To be a volunteer in the local church, his dad ‘would have needed feedback and evaluation’—confirming when he was on the right track or helping him back on course when he wasn’t.
6. Finally, like every volunteer in every church, his dad would have needed an occasional reminder that what he was doing ‘really, really matters, and it matters for all eternity.’ Volunteers who work at their jobs for 50 hours a week, come home to a host of family tasks, and then pour themselves out for the local church, need to hear that they’re ‘not crazy’ doing this—just as Jesus used to assure his followers that they weren’t crazy for giving their lives to follow him.
In summing up, Bill said that if the pastor and leaders of the church had offered those kinds of things to his dad, he would have given his everything for it, and probably pulled in half a dozen of his high capacity business buddies with him. But, sadly, it never happened. Instead, he just warmed a pew his entire adult life, and dropped dead from a massive heart attack at about the age Bill is now. And Bill says there are millions of people like that in our churches—just waiting to give the Kingdom task their best shot … if only someone would ask them. So he urges us to do something and engage our people!
Make your gatherings memorable
Bill’s third deathbed recommendation is, ‘make your gatherings memorable’—that is, create such great church services that our people would never think of missing them and ‘regularly kick themselves around the block for not inviting more friends with them.’
Bill then reflected on the early days of the Willow Creek story when he went door to door every day, six days a week, for six weeks, asking people why they didn’t go to church. People gave him one main answer—they were bored to death by the services; they couldn’t stand them, wouldn’t subject themselves to them, and found them irrelevant to their lives. Then, he says, ‘Things haven’t changed.’
Building on Acts 2:43, ‘And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe’, he illustrated the ‘awe’ principle from a large service in London—and one at the little church he attends in the summer time. Both were awesome.
Then he added that the older he gets, the more he realises that when people now come to our services, they come hoping against hope that God will touch their lives—that He’ll meet them, His Spirit will whisper to them, and something awe-inspiring will happen that day. So, he says, all of us involved in services should ‘work really, really hard to make our services as memorable and as potentially awesome as we possibly can’, because people don’t want services as usual. And using several further illustrations from their ministry at Willow Creek, he repeats his plea to make our services memorable.
Pace yourself for the long haul
Finally, from his imagined deathbed, Bill urged us to pace ourselves for the long haul—that is, ‘to run in such a way as to win the prize’ (1 Corinthians 9:24).
To make his point, Bill dwelt at length on the Ultra Marathon Man who worked up to running extraordinary distances—and his own ministry crisis at the 15-year mark.
Then he commented how in that 4-year crisis, Willow Creek took the (then) daring steps of going to team teaching, team leadership, and giving him summer study breaks—and how now, reaching the 30-year mark, his passion is to finish well, even as the One he’ll stand before one day finished His race well.
So, with the Summit ending, and to drive this fourth point home, Bill told one last story about attending a pastor friend’s celebration to mark 50 years of being a senior pastor.
Bill spoke first; then the aging, white-haired pastor rose to his feet, and as he went to walk off the stage the church cheered and applauded him. Then he turned to Bill and the congregation, and told them how God called him to the ministry when they were singing a hymn in the country church he attended as a boy. Then he recited all four verses of the hymn that changed his life … ‘I love thy church, O Lord’—right through to ‘For her my tears shall fall. For her my prayers ascend. To her my cares and toils be given till toils and cares shall end.’
And there on the stage, as this aged pastor spoke, Bill broke down as he looked at this man who’d ‘given his guts’ for the church God loves and calls His bride. For that church, said Bill, ending his talk and the Leadership Summit, is ‘The hope of the world.’
What Bill’s talk means for us
Dave, nearly a year has passed since Bill gave his profoundly moving talk; and since you’ll need something on paper for your leadership meetings, I’ve written this brief summary so you can talk about it together—then discuss the lessons and questions I’ve added.
As I’ve pondered his talk over many months, still moved as much as the day I first heard it, I believe he’s touched on four things that deeply trouble the New Zealand Church—and on which its very survival depends.
Starved of vision, our churches are perishing
With a few notable exceptions, our churches are starved of vision—so they languish, with few people finding and following Jesus. Yet God intended His church to be the hope of the world. So what needs to change?
To grow our churches again, we’ve got to grasp that the visions that change churches (like the vision that burned in the young Bill Hybels’ heart as he listened to Dr Bilezikian) start in a senior leader’s heart, spread through the leadership team, and burst into flame in the congregation—just as Bill described in his talk, because as he says elsewhere, ‘vision is a picture of the future that produces passion in you.’
But even great visions die in 30 days. So when we’ve found and shared our vision (or dream), and got our people on board, we’ve got to give great vision-casting messages at strategic times of the year and work at keeping the vision alive and growing in people’s hearts—through our praise and worship, our service prayers, our notices, our testimonies, and especially our preaching. When it comes to churches and church services, we reap what we sow!
If you haven’t got a compelling church vision or dream yet, start today. Read website Letters 10, 11, and 13; and begin with all urgency because your church’s very survival may depend on it. Worsening denominational statistics remind us that more of the same will not do; our churches must change or face a slow and painful death.
Let’s each therefore determine that from this moment forward, we’ll go all out to find and implement the compelling vision that will change and grow our churches—because the local church is the hope of the world!
Without engaging our people, we’ll never win
We know from long experience that a pastor can only care for a small group of people; and today we’re a land of small churches—with dedicated pastors pouring themselves out for their little flocks, hoping against hope that something good will happen one day. But as the statistics show, it rarely does, because one person can’t grow a church on their own, no matter how dedicated or godly they may be.
Churches grow when leaders find a compelling vision and come to their congregations with the vision firestorm, Bill mentioned, burning in their hearts—and so share it, that the people sign up for it, and gifted individuals like Bill’s dad sign up for it when approached to do something ‘crazy’ for God! And even if you feel you don’t have any ‘gifted’ people at the moment, God can make up the difference … if your people are on fire for God—like John Wesley’s Methodists and General Booth’s Salvationists!
So our first challenge is to find a vision that overwhelms us; our second challenge is to so share it with our people that they sign up for it with enthusiasm and commitment.
To grow a local church, we must engage our people—even if we’ve only got a few!
Without great church services, we’ll never grow
Our church services have let us down for years, and are still the biggest reason for people not coming to church—or dropping out of church when they leave.
The great mid-twentieth century theologian and preacher, Helmut Thielicke, wrote about them as the crowds began emptying out of the western churches. Later, people told the young Bill Hybels they were the main reason why they didn’t come to church—and as he said in his talk, things haven’t changed and may even be worse.
In fact, some years ago, a Kiwi church got graduate business students from the local university to survey the many thousands of people who lived near their church; and the students found ‘the overwhelming majority’ of those who responded said they’d attend a church like the one doing the survey—if invited by a friend or relative to something special. Out there, it’s not the people who’re reluctant to come; it’s us who aren’t ready to receive them!
To grow our churches, we must, as Bill says, work very, very hard at putting on the best services we possibly can—using the great special Sundays of the year to invite people to a service they’ll connect with, and closing the ‘style’ gap between our special and ordinary services because God wants His church to grow.
So we get a compelling vision, we powerfully engage all our people, and we put on great church services to connect with the people we’re reaching for Jesus. Without great church services, we’ll never grow.
Without pacing ourselves, we won’t last
Ministry, whether paid or voluntary, is a marathon—not a sprint.
And whether it’s paid, or voluntary, we can launch into it with such energy and lack of self-care that we burn out, and unlike Jesus and Paul, never complete our course—dragging our church down with us because we didn’t pace ourselves for the long haul.
So let’s lead with vision, engage our people with enthusiasm, put on outstanding services, and so run as to complete our course—these are Bill’s ‘deathbed’ challenges!
The local church—the hope of the world
Dave, I’m glad to comment on Bill’s great talk.
And if perhaps it is a far cry from the Leadership Summit and Bill’s big church in Chicago, to your small but growing church in New Zealand, the things Bill shared are as important for you here as they are for him there.
You do indeed just have a handful of people at present, but you’ve started the journey to a new future.Give top priority now to finding that vision that will transform your church. Share it with your people with all the grace and passion God gives you. Give your services a ‘mission wash’ so they really reach and hold newer people—as well as holding your present people. And take a little time for yourself out of each day, your day off each week, a little extra time if possible each month, and your full entitlement of holidays each year. Aim, like Jesus and Paul, and Bill and his aged pastor friend, to finish your ministry with joy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)