Six tough questions for the church:
If you build the “perfect” church, they will come.[1]
l
A growing number of people are leaving the
institutional church for a new reason: They are not leaving because they have
lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith! They contend
that the church no longer contributes to their spiritual development.[2]
l
People are not looking for a great church. They
do not wake up everyday wondering what church they can make successful. People
outside the church think church is for church people, not for them. The church
needs a mission fix.[3]
l
The response is not to try and become better at
doing church, but to reboot the mission: a radical obedience to an ancient
command, a concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.[4] Being rescue workers
instead of refugees.
Growing your church will automatically make a difference in
the community.[5]
l
Although there are many things right about the church
growth emphasis, including the wakeup call that decline is inevitable, there
are also several things wrong with the movement. A lot of “growth” is merely
the migration of Christians moving from one church to another. Eg. the closing
down of the mom-and-pop operations, the cannibalisation of the smaller
membership churches by the emerging megachurches.
l
We need to go where people are already hanging
out and be prepared to have conversations with them about the great love of our
lives. This will require a shifting of our efforts form growing churches into
transforming communities.[6]
The church needs more workers for church work.[7]
l
Ministry is defined largely in church terms and
lay people are often defined largely as functionary resources to get church
work done.[8]
l
The reluctance to connect with people outside
the church is just further evidence of a religious church culture rather than
the church being about Jesus or his mission.[9]
l
Church score boards often look at how many
members show up, pay up, and participate in club member activities. However,
measures of a missionary church include: How many ministry initiatives we are
establishing in the streets, how many conversations we are having with
pre-Christians, how many volunteers we are releasing that are aimed at
community transformation, how many congregations are starting to reach
different populations, etc.[10]
Developing better church members will result in greater
evangelism.[11]
l
Many churchgoers, when asked to tell people
about their spiritual journey, may talk about what positions of leadership they
held for the “club”. They have been told that if they conform to church culture
expectations, they will experience a wonderful Christian life.[12] This is “church culture
idolatry”.[13]
l
The solution to this is a radical reintroduction
of spiritual formation.[14] When someone has just
joined a congregation or is becoming a part of church life, instead of dumping
a packet of church club member stuff on them, why not interview them about what
they would like to see happen in their lives in terms of their spiritual
development and personal growth?[15]
Church involvement results in discipleship.[16]
l
Jesus facilitated spiritual formation in his
disciples by introducing them to life situations and then helping them debrief
their experiences.[17] Helping people grow in
the area of spiritual formation involves unpacking life: challenging our
emotional responses that are destructive (envy, hatred, bitterness);
challenging our biases (racial prejudice, social and economic elitism,
intellectual snobbery); challenging our assumptions; challenging our responses;
unpacking our frustrations, our hopes, our dreams, and our disappointments;
bring life to God rather than teaching about God. Curriculum is still an
important place to begin, but it is artificial, whereas life-driven is organic.[18]
l
Team learning environment helps us find out a
lot about ourselves when we work with people who have personalities or ideals
very different from ourselves.[19]
Better planning will get you where you want to go.[20]
l
Planning is important, but most of what has
ultimate effect on the church happens outside of it and outside of its control.[21] The biblical approach to
the future involves prayer and preparation, not prediction and planning. God
wants his people to pray and prepare for his intervention.[22]
Past-present leadership motifs: Priest or holy person;
shepherd or pastor; educator or wordsmith; managers, program directors or CEOs.[23]
Apostolic leadership:
A new breed of church leaders that will meet the leadership
challenges of what it will take for the church to become more missionally
effective.[24]
Revolution in Leadership:
McNeal
suggests that the call in the church today is for apostolic leadership.[25]
There are
many similarities between the first-century and the twenty-first century in
that Palestine in the first century was polycultural:
Roman, Jewish and Eastern influences. The Romans developed the transportation
infrastructure during the Pax Romana. The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost
reflected the strategic timing of God to insure an immediate global impact.[26]
A mission
vs. maintenance tension.[27]
Tradition
had evolved into a traditionalism that insulated Judaism from the mission
field.[28]
The Apostolic leader:
l Visionary.
l Missional.
l Empowering: share the ministry with
others outside their immediate leadership circle (Acts 6:1-6).[29]
l Team oriented and reproducing
l Entrepreneurial: they know how to
connect the gospel with their culture. The apostles cooperated with the Spirit
to rapidly expand their market.[30]
l Kingdom-conscious.
Key effects of apostolic-quality leadership:
l A re-emphasis on the spiritual
dimensions of leadership.
l New leadership practices that are
more ecclesial, that is, team-orientated in expression, based on giftedness and
call.
l Redefinition of ministry benchmarks,
moving from church growth concerns to issues of missional effectiveness.[31]
l A return of the work of God to the
people of God: priesthood of all believers.
l A church in the world rather than
cocooned from it.
l Urban and regional evangelism
strategies that involve alliances among Christian groups and churches of
diverse denominational backgrounds.[32]
Inward focus, church as a refuge:
Although it is true that the church community is a place of
refuge, the “outreach” of a “refuge” congregation” becomes a matter of trying
to keep their children in the faith or just a matter of welcoming the newcomer
out of the cold who already has the faith and has moved into the community.
Activities are primarily geared to, operated with, and enjoyed by club members.
Outward focus, church as doing mission:
They seek cultural relevance and involvement. They not only
risk involvement with the world, they strategize for it. They measure their
effectiveness through the number of transformed life that enter into their
community of faith from nonchurched or unchurched backgrounds.[33]
Four paradigm shifts:
l
From top-down to flat line: Who is empowered for
what? Clergy-driven and clergy-dominated? Missional churches provide venues and
strategies for Christians to discover their spiritual gifts and passion.[34]
l
From inside to inside-out: Where is the font
line in terms of kingdom expansion? It is where the kingdoms collide: home,
school, workplace, gym, neighbourhoods etc.[35]
l
From the outside to outside-in: “We will meet
you where you are.” The “club members only” mentality that exists in many
congregations will need to be overcome.[36]
l
From the edge to the centre: Standard thinking
among Christians sees religion as only one among many life compartments. A
mission-driven church provides encouragement and support for Christians who
find their calling outside the church, who want to make a difference in the
world beyond the church. Christian commitment is not
measured by participation in church activities.[37]
The learning community paradigm: “A group of colleagues who
come together in a spirit of mutual respect, authenticity, learning and shared
responsibility to continually explore and articulate an expanding awareness and
base of knowledge. The process… includes inquiring about each other’s
assumptions and biases, experimenting, risking, and openly assessing the
results.”[38]
Leadership development strategy involving learning clusters:
l
Attempts the development of apostolic leaders
through the establishment of learning communities.[39]
l
The process must recognise the lifelong and
ongoing nature of leadership development.
l
The process seeks to avoid the Lone Ranger
approach to leadership practice.[40]
l
An atmosphere of mutual encouragement.[41]
The standard church leader toolkit often includes a Bible, a
homiletics text, commentaries, seminary class notes, a book on some aspect of
church growth methodology, etc. To keep up to date with today’s world, there
are a few other tools needed.[42]
l
Self-understanding: The leader has to come to
grips with himself/herself.
l
Visioning: Leaders lead from the future.[43]
l
Team building: Effective leaders build teams
around them.[44]
l
Mentoring: The ability to mentor or disciple
other leaders.
l
Communication: The congregation’s ability to
communicate its message to its community.
l
Systems thinking: Actions taken in one area of
church life have implications for others. Eg. creating new ministry ventures
affects the facilities capacity, the fellowship system and caring
infrastructure simultaneously.[45]
l
Managing corporate culture: The effective leader
understands the culture of the organisation in which he/she works.
l
Leading change and transition: No organisation
can survive turbulent times without successfully navigating the white water of
change and transition.
l
Conflict management and resolution: By not
understanding the stages of conflict, church leaders often respond
inappropriately.[46]
l
Networking: Isolated church and congregations
not only become stunted in their own growth, they inhibit the growth of the
kingdom. The lack of networking among church leaders reflects the independent
and individual nature of current models of leadership development.
l
Intuition.
l
Interpersonal skills.[47]
Resource management:
l
Prayer: Home prayer meetings, decision making
(Acts 15), direction for new ministry venture (Acts 13), etc.[48]
l
Staff and leadership team[49]
l
Lay ministry partners[50]
l
Time: Old paradigm approaches value time spent
“doing” ministry. Effective church leaders will spend more time “developing”
ministry.[51]
l
Money: Pay attention to: The motivational bases
for why people give and what they give to. Giving patterns. Communication about
money.[52]
l
Facilities
l
Technology[53]
Spiritual formation
is the most significant issue facing church leaders for the future.[54] Busier Christians are not necessarily more
spiritual.[55] A balanced personal growth involves
physical, intellectual and emotional wellness.[56]
Seminaries are
implementing some form of intentional mentoring. Some link practitioners and
seminarians for expanded field education. Others focus on creating campus
relationships.[57]
Missional communities:
Discipleship is often the missing link to create a missional
church.[58]
Leadership:
l
Low control, high accountability. Ministry does
not need to be controlled by those in power. Rather, it needs to be released to
people who have the vision for how they can minister to people in the name of
Jesus. People should have great freedom to dream about how God would use them
in the world. This freedom should be exercised in a framework of high
accountability.[59]
l
4Cs: Character, competency, chemistry, capacity.[60]
l
Are they committed to Christ?[61]
l
Are they committed to our church?
l
Do they have a clear mission vision?
l
Are they willing to be accountable?
l
Will others follow them? The following can be
small or large but needs to be present in some way.[62]
“We want to make sure our doing comes out of our being.”[63] (Sons and daughters of
God vs workers, etc)
Spark Groups (www.campusrenewal.org)
l
Pick a people group: discern what people group
God is calling to be your mission field.[64]
l
Partner with other believers: ask other
believers to join you in a mission.
l
Pray and plan: Pray every week and ask the Lord
to reveal his plans for you.[65]
l
Presence in the community: Spend a significant
amount of time each week in your community building relationships with many
people. Find out how the target people group spend their time and how we can
join them.
l
Prepare the way for the gospel: Demonstrate the
gospel to your community by being loving, living a holy life, and revealing the
power of God.[66]
l
Proclaim the gospel: Initiate spiritual
conversations by asking questions, sharing your story, and sharing the gospel.
l
Producing disciples: Make disciples by meeting
weekly to study the Bible, teaching your friends to obey the commands of Jesus.[67]
l
Reproduce Spark Groups: Reproducing leaders and
sending them to more unreached people groups.[68]
[1] Reggie McNeal, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for
the Church (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), xv.
[2] McNeal, The Present Future, 4.
[3] McNeal, The Present Future, 10.
[4] McNeal, The Present Future, 18.
[5] McNeal, The Present Future, xv.
[6] McNeal, The Present Future, 42.
[7] McNeal, The Present Future, xv.
[8] McNeal, The Present Future, 45.
[9] McNeal, The Present Future, 52.
[10] McNeal, The Present Future, 67.
[11] McNeal, The Present Future, xv.
[12] McNeal, The Present Future, 72.
[13] McNeal, The Present Future, 73.
[14] McNeal, The Present Future, 73.
[15] McNeal, The Present Future, 76.
[16] McNeal, The Present Future, xv.
[17] McNeal, The Present Future, 85.
[18] McNeal, The Present Future, 86.
[19] McNeal, The Present Future, 90.
[20] McNeal, The Present Future, xv.
[21] McNeal, The Present Future, 92.
[22] McNeal, The Present Future, 93.
[23] McNeal, The Present Future, 122-124.
[24] McNeal, The Present Future, 125.
[25] Reggie McNeal, Revolution in Leadership: Training Apostles
for Tomorrow’s Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 19.
[26] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 22.
[27] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 24.
[28] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 25.
[29] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 28.
[30] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 29.
[31] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 30.
[32] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 31.
[33] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 33.
[34] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 39.
[35] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 40.
[36] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 41.
[37] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 42.
[38] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 50.
[39] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 53.
[40] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 56.
[41] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 57.
[42] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 81.
[43] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 82.
[44] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 83.
[45] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 84.
[46] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 85.
[47] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 86.
[48] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 90.
[49] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 91.
[50] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 92.
[51] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 93.
[52] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 94.
[53] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 95.
[54] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 100.
[55] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 101.
[56] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 102.
[57] McNeal, Revolution in Leadership, 132.
[58] Reggie McNeal, Missional Communities: The Rise of the
Post-Congregational Church (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), 42.
[59] McNeal, Missional Communities, 56.
[60] McNeal, Missional Communities, 57.
[61] McNeal, Missional Communities, 57.
[62] McNeal, Missional Communities, 58.
[63] McNeal, Missional Communities, 67.
[64] McNeal, Missional Communities, 90.
[65] McNeal, Missional Communities, 91.
[66] McNeal, Missional Communities, 92.
[67] McNeal, Missional Communities, 93.
[68] McNeal, Missional Communities, 94.
