Danger of Pursuing the Kingdom vs. The King (Priorities Series 4 of 6)

Another valuable lesson often learned by church leaders on the field is avoiding the danger of pursuing the kingdom, versus the King. In John 17:3, Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." God's goal for our lives is not merely to serve Him, as a church leader, but to know Him. To love Him. To glorify and enjoy Him. A very common problem with those in ministry, especially those starting and developing new churches, is that they begin to see themselves as primarily servants of God, or soldiers of God. Their view of God becomes primarily that of a Master, or a Commander in Chief. Those pictures of God are true, but there's so much more.

In John 15, Jesus said, "You are my friends." That's richer than merely being a slave or a soldier. In First John 3:1, the Scripture says, see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. In Ephesians 5, we see a picture of a bride and bridegroom. The picture of an intimate lover. We must be very careful. It is so easy to be pursuing the kingdom and not the King. Just as you can be pursuing the truth of God, and not the God of truth. Or you can be using God to solve your problems, rather than using your problems to find God.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, we hear these words. "Thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his riches. But, let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me. That I am the Lord, who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord." In Zephaniah 3:17, we have a beautiful picture of the Lord as our victorious warrior. The Scripture says, "The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy."

Never forget, God's kingdom has sometimes been called an upside down kingdom. God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. "But, to this one, I will look," God says, through the prophet Isaiah, "To him who is humble, and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word." One of the supreme glories of the Gospel is that it is primarily through weakness that God is shown to show His strength. Paul writes, "For consider your calling brothers. That there were not many wise according to the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble. But, God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And the base things of the world, and the despised. God has chosen these things that are not, that he might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God."

Oswald Chambers writes, "God can achieve His purpose either through the absence of human power and resources, or the intentional abandonment of your reliance on them. All through history, God has chosen and used nobodies because their unusual dependence on Him made possible the unique display of His power and grace. He chose and used somebodies only when they renounced their dependence on their natural abilities and resources."

Kent Hughes writes, "To you who deem yourself unusually ordinary, be encouraged. God must have liked ordinary people because He made so many of us. Don't hold your weakness in disdain. That is God's plan, so that through your weakness, He might manifest His strength. And to those of you who consider yourself unusually gifted, you must be very careful not to trust in your strengths illegitimately. In fact, unless you humble yourself, and renounce your dependence upon them, all your labor, and even your fruit is apt to be in vain. It will all be burned up. Jesus said whoever exalts himself shall be humbled. And whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."

The Proverbs teach when pride comes then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom. Never forget God's kingdom is an upside down kingdom. That the way up is the way down. That God's grace, like water, always flows to the lowest place, the foot of the cross. So, as the old hymn writer says, stoop down, and drink, and live.

Danger of Product Living vs. Process Living (Priorities Series 5 of 6)

Another valuable lesson church leaders often learn in the midst of ministry is to avoid the danger of product living versus process living. It's very easy in ministry to be living, most of the time, for another day in the future, for the product or the accomplishment of your next major ministry milestone. And all the while, you don't even realize that you're failing to enjoy the people and the ministry process of how you're getting there.

Church leaders will often say, "Well, I'll finally be happy when we have a certain number of people in worship every Sunday." Or "I'll be happy when I can raise the financial support I need." Or I'll be happy when we are self-supporting as a church." Or "I'll be happy when we're self-governing with our own elders and deacons." Or "I'll be happy when I've been able to pass the baton to another leader." Or "I'll be happy when I'm not sick anymore", "When the kids are older", "When the kids are gone". The list of each milestone or product never ends. 

All the while, church leaders are tempted to fall prey to sinful jealousy of other ministries that are doing better than ours. But even those fleeting moments, when you finally reach that long awaited ministry goal or milestone that you've been living for and look to for so long, oh it feels great, but like sand through your fingers, it so quickly slips away from you, so that you must look ahead then to the next experience that will only come when you meet your next ministry goal or milestone.

Author Isaac Rubin writes, "The joy and happiness from the process lasts much longer and can be much more satisfying over the duration of your life. But if you are totally goal oriented in a success oriented culture and if the product is the only goal, you will destroy much of the possibility for true joy and happiness in life." This is because almost all of your life has to be the process and not the product. If you can't learn to appreciate and enjoy the process of living itself, there goes your joy in life.

Now, if you get nothing out of the doing because you are always looking for the high that will come at the end, you're in serious trouble. But if you learn to be nourished by the whole process, that result at the end of the road, that milestone, that ministry goal, positive or negative, is not terribly significant. You just go onto the next process. You must learn to understand and appreciate process living because the process is really what life is all about. We're in process 98% of the time. If you are living for that final 2%, you're in trouble. The truth is, most of us are in serious trouble.

This story is told when Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world. He wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer. The opiate of winning the next battle was now gone and he was left trembling in withdrawal, unable to live and love life in the present. If you're not careful, you will always be living for tomorrow and find yourself robbed of all your todays. Elizabeth Elliot wrote, "Don't let your living for tomorrow slay your living for today."

The Main Thing (Priorities Series 6 of 6)

Another vitally important lessons that leaders learn, often the hard way, is making the main thing, the main thing. It's been well said that it's hard to lead, but it's harder to love. Most of this module has been focusing on the Great Commission. And so we conclude this course on the Great Commandment. When Jesus was asked what the main thing in life is, he replied, "Love the lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself."

The Apostle Paul put all of our emphasis on things like being a great thinker or a communicator, or a visionary, or even a martyr in perspective when he wrote, "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing." You must never forget that it's possible to love the ministry and not love God or people.

After Jesus' resurrection he met with Peter who had denied him three times and taught him a very valuable lesson regarding this that we all need to learn. The scriptures tell us so when they had finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Shepherd my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."

In Jesus words to Peter we see that one of the greatest ways that church leaders can show their love to Jesus is not merely by doing great exploits for him in the name of the kingdom, but by showing our love to his sheep. To love deeply and well those for whom he died. Church leaders often need to hear Jesus voice today asking them, "Do you love me? Tend my sheep." Love those whom I love.

Just before his death Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, spoke at the seminary in Florida where I was on faculty. He had a terminal respiratory disease. Many said he would never live as long as he had. He was brought into the seminary chapel in a wheelchair with oxygen tubes hooked under his nose. Here is one of the greatest visionary leaders of our generation. And he preached to us as a dying man, to dying men. His focus was not on the importance of capturing a vision for the world, but it was on the importance of capturing a vision for loving God and loving people.

I'll always remember one of his challenges for us, not to see God as useful, but as beautiful. I remember him saying, "You can be the greatest strategist in the world and not have love for God and those dear people he has placed in your life, and you are nothing." He had no regrets about not casting more vision for ministry, but if he had to do it again, he would love more. Then he asked all of assembled there to acknowledge his wife, Vonette, sitting in the audience just behind me. He asked her to stand up and with his voice cracking he shared his gratitude to her and to God for blessing him with such a wonderful life partner. Then he challenged us to make foremost in our ministries our love for God and our love for people.

The good news of the gospel is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus spent his life in ministry, not merely providing leadership to a dozen apostles, but loving them. Ordinary, ungrateful, and sometimes hateful people. He believed they were worth everything he had. As you know complete this course and prepare for your next season of ministry on the field, know that you too are being called by God to love deeply and to love well. An assortment of very ordinary, sinful, messed up people whom Christ has placed under your care. Show your love for a beautiful God by how you love him and his not so beautiful people. That's the real vision. That's the main thing.

Planning Introduction (Planning Series 1 of 6)

The Scriptures teach that the mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps. This lesson addresses a church leader's need to have a practical ministry plan for their first 12 months, especially in light of their completion of all the church development lessons. A ministry plan is a church leader's best estimate of the practical actions necessary during the next 12 months to begin establishing a healthy new church in their community. As we begin, let's take an overview of all the five major seasons of church planting, growth, and multiplication. The lessons in the church development courses are primarily focused on equipping church leaders for the first two seasons, the preparing season, and the gathering season. The lessons in the church renewal courses are focused primarily on equipping church leaders for the next two seasons, the developing season and the growing season. The final season, season five, is the multiplying season. That is its own separate course called Fundamentals in Church Multiplication.

Let's begin with a brief overview of the preparing and gathering seasons that are part of the church development lessons that you've completed. In the church renewal courses, you'll study the next two vital seasons. Immediately under the preparing season title, you see the word leader and the agricultural image of the sower. This means the primary focus in this season is on the church leader, or the leaders who will be establishing the new church. The essential goal for this season is raising up and equipping qualified church leaders with a clear vision, mission, and kingdom strategy. The desired outcomes include a leader who is recruited, assessed, and develops a learning plan, and a leader with a clear call, vision, mission, and strategy for planting. As you can see on the bottom of this season, the primary learning lessons for this season are found in the church development courses.

Most of this work you should have already completed in the lessons prior to this, so we won't focus on this season during this lesson. Instead, our focus in this lesson is more on the gathering season. Immediately after the preparing season title, you see the gathering season and the word community and the agricultural image of the seed. The essential goal for this season is equipping leaders to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom, resulting in professions and changed lives. The desired outcomes include a leader rooted and established in the foundations of the gospel, and a leader equipped to minister the gospel in word and deed, resulting in a core group, the primary focus of the next season called “starting”. As you can see on the bottom of this season also, the primary learning lessons for this season are found in the church development course.

Although we will not focus on the remaining three seasons now, it's helpful to grasp an overview of all five seasons, and understand how they are organically and biblically related. By organically related, this means the agricultural imagery develops organically with each season. As we've seen, the preparing season starts with just the sower's preparation for the task. Then the focus of the gathering season is on the power of the seed of the gospel to bring new life in the community. In the third season, the starting season, the focus shifts more to how the seed of the gospel produces the roots of a strong healthy core group, through the ongoing ministry of God's word and sacrament in both word and deed.

The fourth season is the growing season. Here the image is fruit. The seed has taken root, and now the growing plant is bearing fruit. This season has a focus on equipping and ordaining qualified church leaders to teach, shepherd, and lead a healthy growing church. And like the growing season, the final season never stops. Season five, multiplying. This is the harvest imagery. The sower has sown the seed which has taken root, bearing fruit to the place that it's time for a full harvest. This season is focused on equipping new leaders to repeat this entire process of the other seasons to start, grow, and multiply other gospel centered churches, not only in their community and their nation, but among all nations.

As we do this quick survey of these seasons, note how these seasons are based on the Great Commission Jesus gave us recorded in Matthew 28:16-20. When Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations, he also gave us three primary ways to do that, by going in evangelism, by baptizing new converts into the church, and by teaching those converts how to obey all that Christ commanded. The first season, preparing, is parallel to Jesus' ministry to make disciples for the three years leading up to the time he gave them the Great Commission. The emphasis of the next gathering season is ongoing, doing the ministry of the gospel in word and deed in a new community. And the emphasis of the next season, starting, is on baptizing and establishing the new followers of Christ in all the essentials of the gospel.

The primary emphasis of the growing season is on Jesus' command to teach them to obey all that he commanded. And lastly, the final emphasis of the multiplying season is on doing all this discipleship, not only in our nation, but in all nations.  

Preparing Season (Planning Series 2 of 6)

In this article our focus in on the preparing season. The focus in this season is on the church leader as the sower, the one who will sow the seed of the gospel that will grow into a healthy growing, reproducing church. The goal of the preparing season is to raise up and equip qualified church leaders with a clear mission, vision and strategy. To help you best understand this preparing season we will survey some of the major milestones.

The first one is to confirm your vision and calling. In the earlier lesson on vision, we studied the vital importance of church leaders having a God honoring, kingdom advancing church focused gospel centered vision. It's during this season that leaders need to be prayerfully developing their vision for the glory of God, seeing the supremacy of God in all things, among all nations for the joy of all people and the honor of his name.

Leaders need to be developing a vision for the kingdom of God, to see the reign of God over all things, making his invisible kingdom visible over all spheres of live, spiritual, social and cultural. As well as a vision for the church of God, seeing the embodiment of the rule of Christ on Earth through his church, to be a blessing to all nations and a foretaste of God's kingdom to come and a vision for the gospel of God. To see the good news that God's kingdom has come into the world through Jesus Christ, by his spirit, to redeem and restore all things that were lost in the fall.

Another vital part of this milestone is confirming not only the leader's vision but confirming the leader's calling to church planting and development. In the earlier lesson on calling, we learned how there are normally four primary components that help clarify and confirm the calling of a church leader. The first one is maturity. It's during this season, church leaders are tested to see if their personal lives and spiritual maturity measure up to God's standards recorded in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

The second component is proven gifts and abilities. To be effective in developing a new and a growing church. Normally stronger than normal gifts in outreach and preaching and leadership are confirmed during this time. The third component is sincere affinity. Normally church leaders desire to be involved in developing a new church. This is a check of heart motivations. And finally the component of opportunity. There are people who recognize the leader's gifts and calling and want them to work alongside them, but it's not enough simply to consider how you feel about these components of a call to ministry. The process of confirming your call needs to include the objective assessment of church leadership, those in spiritual authority over you. They included family, peers and mentors in ministry.

The second milestone is to determine your focus group and area. This has to do with your understanding of the people whom you will be serving in the church development. As you learned in the earlier lesson in this core series called "Focus," this is the season where you should do much more than merely determine a place and a people to whom you will go. This is the time when you become a student of the community you plan to serve, carefully studying not just their behaviors but their values, their beliefs, their worldview, the things that keep them up at night.

A third milestone during this preparing season is for you to establish your prayer ministry and support plan. During this season, leaders draw on what they learned in the earlier prayer lesson in this course in order to establish and maintain a strong prayer support base and keep in contact with their prayer partners regularly. This includes not only recruiting a prayer team of normally hundreds of people, it also includes the church leader developing a deeper personal prayer life regularly, praying with and for others, especially in the ministry focus group. To see God be glorified, through the advancement of his kingdom in this church they are developing.

A fourth milestone during the preparing season is for leaders to receive effective training and coaching in church development. This often includes attending conferences, seminars or workshops, taking courses like this one, but the most effective way to learn how to develop a church is not in a course or at a conference or by reading a book. It's through actually doing the work of church development under the oversight of a qualified church or mentor. This is why it's always best for a church leader to have at least a one to two year church planting apprenticeship or internship before developing a church.

A fifth milestone during the preparation season is for leaders to develop a preliminary philosophy of ministry and establish their ministry models. This is when church leaders are able to draw on the outcomes of all the earlier lessons that produced their church's first philosophy of ministry, biblical purposes, core values as well as their future of ministry models and styles. This includes their ministry flow chart that shows all the church's essential ministries and how they work together and a discipleship strategy that describes how someone can go from being an unbeliever to being a fully devoted follower of Christ and responsible growing member of the church.

A sixth milestone during this season is for church leaders to create a church development master plan or proposal with a strategy and a one to two year timeline. The good news is that all the various parts of this plan or proposal have already been completed by the church leaders who have completed all the earlier lessons in this core series. After all the earlier lessons are completed, the development of this master plan or proposal is normally done by simply compiling all the earlier lesson outcome statements and plans into one document. This document is then designed to answer questions like, "Why start a new church? Who will be impacted by this new church? What are their needs? What kind of church will this be? What will the ministries of this church be? How will you start this church? Who will be starting this church? How will it be supported? How can someone support this church plant in prayer and giving? And what is your projected timeline for the next one to two years?"

You will be able to use this proposal as not only a means of vision casting but also goal setting, recruiting and support raising. The final milestone is to establish the financial support base. This includes creating a wise responsible financial budget for the next two to three years, both a personal budget and a ministry budget. You'll need to determine your financial ministry support model, whether it is through personal fundraising, denominational support, network support, a sponsor church or a mixture of these. The end of this season is normally the securing of all the necessary funds and pledges before moving to the field.

Gathering Season: Part 1 (Planning Series 3 of 6)

The second season is church development in the gathering season. The focus in the gathering season is on gathering the core group and the launch team. To use the agricultural imagery we're using in this lesson, the focus is on the seed. In the previous season of preparing, the focus was on the sower preparing and equipping the church planter. In the gathering season, the goal is for the sower to begin sowing by proclaiming the Gospel and the vision of the church resulting in a healthy core group and a launch team for the young church plant. However, this doesn't mean that the only focus of this season is to gather people together in these groups. There are a number of things that begin in this season that will impact the future shape of the church in a very significant way. 

For this reason, the gathering season must also be a time of building patterns into the life of the young church. Things like the effective coaching for the church leader, effective strategies for evangelism and discipleship, for fellowship and other small groups, as well as networking in your community.

First, let's consider coaching. Few things are as important as having a qualified coach to work with you during this season. Especially if that coach will help you develop a personal learning contract that will develop your ministry or character competencies including regular meetings for encouragement, accountability, reflection, refocusing, and planning. Every church planter should have a coach, someone who is regularly checking in with them to help them stay on track with implementing their church planting and development plan. Someone who is checking in with them personally. It's best to have this relationship established before moving to the field, but if you haven't, it is crucial that you have a church planting and development coach from the very beginning of the gathering season.

There should be a coaching relationship that includes regularly scheduled meetings at least once every other week but preferably weekly. A coach is someone to ask you questions. A good coach is an empathetic, active listener. He'll celebrate wins with you, care for you, evaluate and strategize, help you develop skills and character. He'll challenge you.

There are a number of structures for effective coaching. There is one-on-one coaching. There are coaching clusters which usually feature a coach and two or more church planters. There's even peer coaching when you can't find a coach with a group of planters or leaders in the same or similar stages of ministry. These usually work best with a group of three sometimes called a "Coaching Triad". In this setup, each planter takes a turn at a monthly meeting. 30 minutes each of sharing struggles and concerns in their ministry or in their personal life, and they are uninterrupted by the other two church planters. After all three church planters have shared their 30 minutes uninterrupted, then there is a time of prayer, and then afterwards the church planters are able to enjoy each other's friendship and talk more specifically about the problems that were shared during the triad.

Although face-to-face personal relationships are always best, there is virtual coaching using resources online, including support groups. We need to learn to take advantage of the technology that's been developed if you can. You can have coaching, mentoring, and encouraging relationships through video conferencing. If you're going to a place where you're physically distant from others, like an unreached people group or a particularly difficult ministry situation, you can still have these relationships across miles. One of the greatest mistakes church planters make is to fail in this area of taking responsibility for effective coaching. Coaching responsibility primarily falls to you. It does not rest with your denomination or mission agency or network. It does not rest with the coach. It rests with you. Take the initiative. Seek it out. It's one of the most important things you can do during this season.

The gathering season is about much more than establishing a healthy coaching relationship. As we've said, this is the seed stage so it includes significant care in developing the initial strategies across the church's life. Let's first consider networking strategies. Networking is intentionally building authentic relationships with people as a way of life in order to understand them and assist them in their spiritual journey. Any church leader, and particularly someone going into church planting, is constantly establishing relationships. Connecting with people through related interests, mutual friends, in any number of ways. This is networking.

The value of networking during this season can hardly be overstated. The results are often staggering. The vast majority of Christians, when asked who is responsible for their coming to Christ and being folded into their current church, answer, "A friend. A relative." A relationship in their network. To consider it in the realm of business where the term networking is perhaps more often used, studies have shown that a referral generates 80% more results than a cold call or a door to door sales person. 70% of all jobs are found through a person's network of relationships.

Taking advantage of these dynamics in church development means wisely using the systems of connection that are natural to human society. It will definitely mean considering how you can put your natural hobbies and interests to use in connecting with others in a legitimate way. It also means expanding your interests into new areas sometimes to connect with people you would not otherwise. It usually also means connecting, when appropriate, with community leaders such as commissioners, law enforcement, heads of non-profits, school principals, and others. Networking of this sort is a necessary aspect of becoming a church that is engaged with and serving its community well.

It is important for the church leader during this time to have a well-defined networking strategy. Thinking through these dynamics, and putting into practice actions that will lead you to connect meaningfully with others while overcoming the common barriers to implementing a networking strategy such as fear and apathy.

Networking strategies naturally lead to the next area. Evangelism strategies. This will be the beginnings of you putting into practice the work you did in your church development plan earlier in this course. Using the insights that you gained about your ministry focus group to communicate the Gospel to them. This will be deciding on how you will communicate the Gospel. It could be event Evangelism like large meetings where you invite all to come and hear. It could be contact Evangelism where it would be culturally appropriate to go to marketplaces, parks, and places where people congregate to engage them directly with the Gospel presentation. It could simply friendship evangelism where you are focusing primarily on entering into a longer process of befriending and living alongside, working alongside, those you're hoping to reach. Oftentimes including them, being incorporated into your church community or groups, in some way before they even believe.

For others, it might be appropriate to do what is called "Public Forum Evangelism" where you participate in public discussion groups where a number of ideas are shared and promoted around certain topics. For many, the open doors are found through mercy evangelism where you serve people in significant ways. Where they are hurting. Where they have needs. Making a positive social impact. A demonstration of Gospel power and service in a way of earning the right to speak to them of the truths of Christ.

It will most likely be a mixture of some of these or even others, but the point here is that you identify a recognizable strategy that you plan to implement during this critical gathering season. Networking and evangelism strategies will lead people to being gathered, which leads to our next area: Fellowship strategies.

Here you are establishing ways that you will lead people that you meet through networking and evangelism into groups or community that will lead to deepened relationships, discipleship, and service. This can begin by starting your initial cell group. The aim here is not to establish a complicated or complex fellowship structure for your church. You should be establishing something that is simple, transferrable, accountable. The idea here is to create a reproducible structure in a small group that will grow and expand as your church grows into health.

These small groups or cell groups can take many forms. They can be traditional Bible studies that meet during the week at someone's home with a defined curriculum. They can be groups that are dedicated primarily to prayer, or groups that are dedicated to service that meet in any number of places. They can be small discipleship groups. The point in developing a fellowship strategy is to create patterns in your young church that lead to the beauty of the church being lived out in real, practical ways among the people of your church as they deepen their relationships and love for each other.

Never forget that the health of a church is often determined by the health of the small groups. This is why it is essential during this gathering season for the church leader to be starting, growing, and multiplying healthy Gospel-centered small groups.