Not Just More, But Different

I will never be satisfied with a church filled only with people who know Christ. God longs for the “lost to be found.” But for years I found the greatest joy in more people coming to church.

Today, I’m redefining success to not just more people, but different people.

A few years ago, our church was experiencing record crowds of people. But we also had many people who’d been with us for years falling into major sins.

We seemed to be effective at getting people into Church, but were we truly getting people into Christ?

I’ve been set free from being totally driven by attendance. Instead I’m asking God to take those we have into a deeper place of intimacy and knowledge of Christ. I’d rather have fewer and totally committed believers than a large number of lazy, apathetic, carnally minded and unproductive cultural Christians.

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Giving Out

As a pastor, I’ve always seen it as my role to teach people to give. My primary teaching has been to lead people to give to the local church. While I still believe the local church is the hope of the world (quoting Bill Hybels), I am not as focused on what our church can “bring in” financially, but what we can “give out.”

For years I said to myself, “One day, when we have ____________, we’ll be more generous.” The words in the blank changed over time.

• One day when we have a real building…
• One day when we have a bigger staff…
• One day when we have the building paid off…
• One day when we complete the new phase…
• One day when we add these new campuses…

After years of half-hearted promises, I believed God said “Today is one day. It is time to put your money where your mouth is.”
We’ve worked to change our culture to a culture of generosity. (We’ve learned a lot from Dino Rizzo at Healing Place and Chris Hodges at Church of the Highlands.)

Since success isn’t simply bringing money in, we see it as…

• Providing as many free resources as possible to help other churches.
• Making a significant impact on the people in our community.
• Helping meet needs around the world in the name of Jesus.

When it comes to finances and resources, for us success is no longer just what we bring in, but what we send out.

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Sending Out

For years, my emotions rode the roller coaster of attendance. After a strong week of attendance I felt good about myself and life. After a bad week of attendance, I felt like the world was crashing down around me.

I was consumed with bringing people in. Never once did I lay awake wondering why we hadn’t sent more people out.

About ten years into leading Life Church, I started thinking about how big we were (according to some standards), but how little we’d actually accomplished (according to God’s standards). Compared to the real needs of our communities, we had not made a significant difference.

That’s when I got excited about a new measurement of success. Instead of “defining the win” by how many people we brought in, what if success was measured by how many people we sent out?

• How many can we send into our communities to serve?
• How many can we send into the world to evangelize those without Christ?
• How many can we send to help start new churches?

Rather than just celebrating those we bring in, let’s celebrate those we send out!

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Changing the Scorecard

Reggie McNeil wrote a good book called Missional Renaissance, Changing the Scorecard for the Church. His subtitle explains in six words what I’ve been feeling, but unable to express succinctly. For many churches, it’s time to “redefine the win.”

For years, the most important measurements of success for churches in my circles were attendance, salvations, baptisms and the budgets.

(These measurements of success were often reflected in my conversations with other pastors. “So, how many people did you have at church last Sunday? What’s your annual budget?”)

In my mind, those traditional markers of success will always be worthy of measuring, but the scorecard for tomorrow’s church must be broader.

• Bigger crowds don’t necessarily mean bigger success. (A church could offer free beer and draw a crowd.)
• Bigger budgets (leading to bigger buildings) don’t necessarily equal bigger success.
• Salvations and baptisms would surely be celebrated in heaven, but these celebrations should be the beginning of success and not the end goal.

This week I’ll write about three other ways to measure success.

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Cultural Relevance

Understanding the culture is helpful for a Christian to reach those without Christ. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:22 “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”

Jesus was the master at communicating God’s truth in a way that people understood. Unfortunately, as committed Christians, we can love Christ without being as effective at showing Him to those who don’t know Him.

Here are some questions we use in our interviews to help us understand how a candidate might relate to people outside the Church.

• What five or six adjectives best describe you?
• What words best describe your ministry style?
• What are the last three books you’ve read?
• What is the last movie you watched?
• How many unbelievers do you have regular contact with?
• Tell us about the last person you personally led to Christ.

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Meetup: Melbourne

Next week I’ll be in Australia to enjoy some travel around the country with my wife. While I’m there, I’m looking forward to connecting with local church leaders at some meetups in Melbourne so we can get together, exchange ideas, and share what God’s doing in our churches. If you’re going to be in the area, or know of a church leader who might be interested in attending, we’d love to have you there. The events are free, and you’re welcome to bring as many people from your team as you’d like.

Friday, May 29

• 9.30-11.30am: Round Table Event 1- Berwick Church of Christ, 446 Centre Road, Berwick
• 3:00-5:00pm: Round Table Event 2- Essendon Baptist Church, 138 Buckley Street, Essendon

Please RSVP for this free event.

Any questions regarding this event can be directed to:
 Anita Rossow & Anne Thomas at australia@lifechurch.tv.

We look forward to seeing what God does through these relationships!

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Flexibility

We have a saying: “Change is good, all the time, and all the time change is good.” For the organization to remain agile, we need team members that are agile. We seek team members that accept and assimilate change quickly.

Here are some questions we might ask:

• During your ministry role, what was the most difficult adjustment you’ve had to make? What was the situation? Why was it a difficult adjustment? What did you do? What happened as a result of your actions?
• Tell me about the last time you were responsible for implementing a change in a previous work context. What was the change? What steps did you take to implement the change?  How many were affected by the change?  What mistakes did you make along the way?  What was the outcome?

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Sense of Humor

Bill Hybels wrote about the 3 “C’s” in Courageous Leadership. He said you should hire someone with character, competency, and chemistry. Many people overlook the “chemistry” part in hiring.

If we don’t enjoy each other, we won’t likely do a good job together. That’s why we ask questions to see if a person has a good sense of humor.

• Tell us one of your most embarrassing moments.
• What is one of your favorite jokes?
• What is one of the funniest things that you’ve seen in the church world?

These questions can be a little tough on the spot. Even if a person is nervous and can’t immediately come up with a funny joke, in an hour interview, he or she will certainly show signs of having a sense of humor or not.

At the end of the interview, if you don’t enjoy the person at all, you might look elsewhere.

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