by: Brett Porter,
One of the most common questions I get as I meet with pastors and leadership teams is something like, “What resources do you have for ____?” It’s the most common question for a good reason. When we are trying to grow in an area, the common question is where to find something to help point us in the right direction.
As we pursue healthy churches, we are always looking to strengthen the four pillars of a healthy church. These four pillars are…
1) Engage the City
2) Disciple-Making Pathway
3) Leadership Pipeline
4) Multiplication
When we need development within any of the four pillars the common focus is to find some sort of book, curriculum, videos, articles, etc. to help us grow in that needed area.
We are finding that pastors have a tendency to bend in one of two ways to provide some growth in the development process.
First, is to take a resource or material and simply copy and paste. This usually spells disaster because for years, churches have proven many times over that copying and pasting ministry success in one place does not translate to success in other places. There is a DNA, a culture, a context, a missional rhythm, leadership, etc. at play behind any strong pillar.
Second, is to start with a clean sheet of paper and try to begin from scratch developing one’s own development needs for the pillar in question. Often times this results in a long-tough journey that leads to nowhere. The reason makes complete sense. A church struggling in a pillar is struggling for a reason and to try to fix it themselves without leaning on others becomes a very tedious and often fruitless path.
One of the most often untapped resources we have is our fellow brothers and sisters, colleagues leading in churches within our own city and region.
A pursuit for our churches across Ontario is to be churches that “give ourselves away.” We long for churches to walk with other churches to learn and grow together. As a church leader learning to “give ourselves away” to one another, here are three thoughts (of many) to keep in mind…
The mission is bigger than you.
Do not forget that local churches start, live, and die. But the Kingdom of God, the “big C” Church, continues to be alive and well from generation to generation. Guard yourself from competition, from hoarding people or other resources, and keep the scope in the proper place. Giving yourselves away starts here.
Discover the journey.
Even though it has not worked for years, the culture is still prevailing to simply copy and paste from one context to another and assuming same results. Help stop the downward spiral. Learn to sit and listen, ask questions, listen some more, and discover the context, the heart of the leaders, and the giftings. Let us stop giving answers before we hear the depth of the needs.
Share principles.
Spend more time sharing the why, the how, then when, and the learning from the context, the pain of the process to get to where you are, etc. AND less time sharing what you are doing. The best way to “give yourself away” to others is not just tell them what you did, but to tell them how you got to that space. Help them learn to navigate the questions, the discovery.
What are other ways you can think about to continue to learn how to “give ourselves away?”
Let us focus on being a family of churches. A family that fights for unity and pursues the common mission of Jesus together. A family that collectively helps one another out with the chores of the Kingdom pursuit. A family that longs to see other family members live out their calling. Let us be a family of churches giving ourselves away for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.
