3, er, 5, no, 7 or Whatever, Steps that Guarantee Successful Missional Church Leadership!

The other day, Andrew, a friend of mine, called me and asked me a question about strategies for missional church leadership (being missional simply means that you live as a "sent" representative of God in the world - a missional church is a church that does not depend on attractional programs to reach people, but rather, it sees its people live dynamic, "sent" lives for Christ in the world as His ambassadors). He is a student in seminary doing a paper on this for a class, and he had to interview a pastor that was seeing his church step out missionally and engage their community and their world. He asked me about strategies and vision and plans. He reads this blog, so let me first of all say that his questions were very fair and I completely understood his assignment. This isn't about the questions. It is about my answers.

My answers were pretty pathetic if you were looking for coherent strategies in the way that most "church" experts talk about strategy.  But, I think that God is showing us some things and while my answers may seem kind of Sunday School-ish, I think that that they are right. Maybe we need some simplicity in this type of discussion.

I basically told him that we didn't have many strategies, at least the way that people think about strategy. Rather, our "strategy" was Jesus. The Bible tells us that we are to look to Christ, to imitate Him, and to fix our eyes and thoughts on Him. Sure, we organize and have events and mission trips and small groups and children's ministry and Sunday School classes and other things as well. But, in that, we are to consider Christ at all times. He is our model, but He is more than that. He is also our life. The Holy Spirit lives in us individually and collectively. God will guide us if we ask. I think that the best missional "strategy" is to spend a lot of time asking God about what He wants you to do, rather than telling Him what you plan to do while asking Him to bless it. John 5:17 tells us that the Father is always working. I believe that. God is always working. Will we join Him in what He is already doing? Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. If that is what God is doing, then what role would He have us play in that in the place that He has sent us?

So, I told Andrew that, or something along those lines. Then, I said that Alan Hirsch really helped me a lot in thinking about missional church leadership because he let me off the hook. Andrew and I went to hear Hirsch speak last summer in New Orleans and he said something that really stuck with me. He said that you will never lead consumers to be missional. Stop trying. It will NEVER happen. I realized that our churches are filled with consumers in that we have people who come to church primarily thinking about how they can get their needs met and how Jesus can help them live a happier, better, brighter and shinier life. In this version of "Christianity," Jesus becomes a means to an end. He is a method by which I get my needs met. We won't sacrifice for a method. So, you will never get consumers to be missional because it does not fit with what they understand Christianity to be. I realized he was right. I am not saying that my church was filled with a bunch of consumers, but I think that all Evangelical Christians in the West have been dramatically affected by consumer Christianity. Hirsch said that people will only become missional when they are disciples of Jesus. You have to go back and lead consumers to be disciples and the only way to do that is to Re:Jesus. We must go back to who Jesus is and ask tough questions about whether or not we are following Him, or are we just wanting Him to meet our perceived needs. About a year and a half ago, I was let off the hook. It wasn't my job to lead my church to become missional. It was my job to introduce people to Jesus day after day and week after week and invite them to follow Him in fresh, new ways. He would do the rest.

Then, I told Andrew about how Paul said that he resolved to know and preach nothing but Jesus Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2). Paul talked about many facets of the Christian life, but all of them flowed directly from the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is supreme. That is what I said at the beginning, but it bears repeating. I repeated myself a lot to Andrew and kept saying the same things over and over again. I tend to do that. But, this SHOULD have been repeated. Christians spend a lot of time talking about every issue under the sun. We talk about our feelings and our emotions and our past and our relationships and our hopes, dreams, and hang-ups. But, we tend to not talk about Christ that much. Talking about Christ Crucified means that I recognize that the biggest problem that I have is my sin and it can only be taken care of through the work of Christ on my behalf. I'm hopeless without Him. And, if I am going to talk about marriage or relationships or the church, I am going to root that firmly in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If I don't do that, I'm really not saying anything.

After recognizing that we needed to fully turn to Jesus, we realized that that meant something. Jesus is not just a philosophical construct or idea. He was/is a real live person. He did things. He still does. We have record of what Jesus is like and what He did in the Bible. The Gospels are full of descriptions regarding the man, Jesus, and His message. So, we make a pretty big deal out of Scripture. Far too many churches use the Bible a lot, but they don't necessarily expect people to really obey it. Okay, maybe that was an overstatement. I mean that they teach on one level and then people obey on another level altogether. But, if we say that we believe the Bible, it would be a good thing if we actually started obeying it, don't you think? Those verses about forgiving one another and acting with humility and loving your enemies and treating others better than yourselves - those are really important teachings. If you want to be missional, I think that you should probably take all of that seriously because if we are not loving people, especially people different from us, then we probably should not spend a lot of time talking about "reaching" them. Who wants to be "reached" by people who don't like you or care about you?

I also told Andrew that I didn't really have a big vision for our church outside of praying that every member would love God and love people to the ends of the earth. What I mean is, I think that the call to make disciples (followers) of Jesus is what the church should be about. I don't think that having some type of goal in your mind that the church that you pastor will one day be a megachurch is very helpful. I mean, if it grows, then work to help it keep growing and remove whatever roadblocks that may arise. That is necessary. But, a lot of pastors pastor the Church of Their Imagination instead of the church that God has given them. When they do this, they lay a heavy load on their current church or church plant that has little to do with helping people to follow Jesus today in their current life situation. If I am constantly pastoring the church of the future, then I end up using the people that God has called me to shepherd as a means to an end that usually has a lot to do with wanting to have a big crowd gather around me to follow me and listen to me speak. Is it God's will that we be successful in ministering to those who are far away from God? Absolutely. But, I think that it is more important that the church be in love with Jesus and be a witness to who He is because they actually know Him.  I am seeing a lot more of this in churches all over lately, and I am glad. 

I kept saying that we pray a lot. That isn't me trying to be overly spiritual. It is simply me saying that I don't know what is coming tomorrow, but I know that God does. He tends to reveal to us what we are to do next and when we walk through one door, He then leads us to another and another. If we take Jesus seriously and really look at what His Word says, then we will see strategies emerge that are mind-blowing. But, we really do need to be led by the Spirit and help others learn to hear God's voice as well. We have seen a lot of breakthroughs in ministering to our community and they have all come because God opened a door and we were led by the Spirit to walk through it. We ended up in India the same way. God is doing amazing things and I can't believe that He lets us be a part of it. Very humbling.

I'm afraid that I don't have 3 or 5 or 7 easy steps to missional church leadership. The title inferred that I knew steps that would guarantee missional church leadership effectiveness. Clearly I was joking. I don't think that there is a roadmap. God works uniquely in the lives of people who gather together in His Name in many different places. There are no formulas. But, as for our church, I do know that people are getting to know Jesus and are experiencing the joy of a relationship with Him. I see people using the gifts that God has given them and stepping forward to do great things for God. I see God tearing down dividing walls and radiating His glory in our community through our church and I am really excited about it. Biblical things are happening and that really gives me great joy. The only strategy that I know that does not disappoint is that we look to Jesus, attempt to pattern our life after His together (not easy), and love God and other people sacrificially. I've only read about a bajillion books on all of this and have been to a great number of conferences and learned a bunch of stuff that I can't remember very well. But, if you are looking for something sustainable, it really does all come back to Jesus. Build your house on the Rock, remember?

Here's the Question: What are we going to do with Jesus? Or rather, what is He going to do with us? What would happen if a church would lay down its institutional and religious trappings and really seek to follow Christ? What would happen if a church said that its strategy was to try and follow Jesus and walk through the doors that He opened? I'm not saying that we're perfect. Far from it. We desperately need a Savior each and every day. But, we believe that He is good and that His ways are better than our ways and that He is strong enough for the church to rest on His shoulders and He brings His Kingdom to a broken world.  We get to be a part of that. Amazing. 

Comments

[Beth]

Good post. I can tell you've been reading Donald Miller :)

[Cameron Crabtree]

One more "Stan-ism" from GGBTS days to affirm your thoughts: "Jesus is our liturgy.

[Alan Cross]

Beth, re: Donald Miller, are you talking about the Jesus focus or my writing style? If it is the writing style, yeah, I have read his stuff and he is really good. I don't think that I am trying to consciously imitate him, but I have made a decision to be more autobiographical in my writing here and less technical. I like the way that he teaches lessons through what he encounters and the people that he talks to. I think that that approach resembles real life and how we learn much more closely. But, I'm not actually thinking, "How would Donald Miller say this." It is more of a conversational, easy-flowing, free approach than I was doing and it has made writing more fun. I don't feel like I am writing a term paper every time I start to blog anymore, which encourages me to just sit down and let the thoughts flow freely.

Cameron: Great quote by Dr. Nelson. He was one of the first to really help me see Jesus as the Head of the church and even as our organizing focus. It is all right there in Scripture, but we lose sight of Him so easily.

[Beth]

Nah, I didn't think it's intentional. It's normal to unconsciously copy the style of someone you're reading. I think it's a combination of the shorter sentences, the first and second POV, and the "and then I told him..." This bit was particularly Donald:

"I kept saying that we pray a lot. That isn't me trying to be overly spiritual. It is simply me saying that I don't know what is coming tomorrow, but I know that God does."

Not that it's a bad thing! It's very easy-going and readable.

Wish we could have been there for the Thai thing. Did you tape it, by chance?