Church health - MinistryTogether

When a leader fails; judgement, grace and restoration

The first elders meeting after the pastor was caught was tense. Some of the elders didn’t see why this was such a big deal, others were focused on a speedy path to restoration, while one elder believed the pastor’s actions were disqualifying and grounds for immediate dismissal. Over the course of the next few weeks the elders coalesced around three main questions:

Who are we to pass judgement?
Shouldn’t we extend the same grace the pastor preached about?
How soon can we restore the pastor?

By the end of the month the lone dissenting elder resigned and left the church, leaving the other six to move forward on a path that led to the pastor’s return to preaching within weeks, and reinstatement in a lead role soon after. It became obvious that it was time to for me to leave because my answers to the three questions above clearly did not align with those of the elders.

Every time a church leader’s immorality becomes public I see a form of these questions on blog sites and on social media. Who are we to judge? Don’t we believe in grace? Isn’t restoration the goal? I have spent a lot of time thinking, praying, and reading about these questions, and have landed at the same place I was when I left that church; the answers are in the questions.

Who are we to judge?

Jesus admonition, “Do not judge others…” in Matthew 7 is the go-to verse for the point of view that we are in no position to judge others. Paul clearly said that “All have sinned,” so how can we in good conscience judge others? Who are we to judge?

The full context of Jesus’ words are helpful.

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”

Matthew 7:1-5 NLT

Jesus did not prohibit judging, he is simply explaining how the Kingdom works. Since I will be judged, I will be subject to the same standard that I set for others. The answer isn’t no standard, no judgement, the answer is consistency.

Neither did Jesus say we should never take a speck out of a friend’s eye. He said we need to deal with our junk before dealing with other people’s sin. He didn’t say leave others blinded, he said do the necessary work in our own lives first.

In his first letter to the Corinthian church Paul clearly says that we are to judge other Christians.

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 NLT

Since none of us is without sin, there is no place for self-righteousness in the church. There is, however, an important time and place for sober minded judgement when a leader is in sin.

What about grace?

If the core of Christianity is grace, if we are all sinners saved by grace, how can we not extend the same grace Jesus offers us to pastors and leaders who fail? Look at King David, he sexually assaulted his neighbor and then had her husband killed to cover his sin. If David can be called “a man after God’s own heart,” then who are we to condemn another man for his sin?

It is interesting to look at the context of this quote. When Paul refers to David as a man after God’s own heart he is citing 1 Samuel 13:14 when Samuel says to Saul,

“But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

1 Samuel 13:14 NLT

This takes place before David is anointed King, before he met Uriah and his wife Bathsheba, before Nathan became a prophet, and before David committed some of the most egregious sins recorded in the Bible. Samuel wasn’t endorsing David’s actions, he was speaking prophetically about a man he’d yet to meet. David’s actions, later condemned by Nathan, led to catastrophic results for David, his family, and for the kingdom of Israel. David wasn’t immune to grace, but neither did grace give David immunity for his actions.

Grace is a messy, difficult thing. In God’s grace he allowed Jesus to die a horrible death, under the banner of grace Ananias and Saphira died for their deception. Grace isn’t some kind of cosmic get out of jail free card.

Grace in the absence of justice is simply license, a free pass to sin and the destruction that comes with it.

Isn’t restoration the goal?

Within days or weeks of the revelation of a leader’s sin the conversation turns to restoration. What will the process look like? How long will it take? Who should lead the organization while we wait for the leader to return? The challenge is we often confuse restoration with reinstatement. Reinstatement is about getting the leader back into the same role. Restoration is about

- Restoring a right relationship with God
- Restoring a shrunken heart
- Restoring a marriage, and family
- Restoring broken relationships
- Restoring health to people crushed by the leader’s sin
- Restoring integrity, trust, holiness

There is no set timeline or program for restoration. Restoration requires repentance, time, accountability, introspection, amends, reconstruction of a life and soul.

Restoration built on a timeline for reinstatement will fail. True restoration will take a lifetime.

I am not saying that every leader with moral sin is permanently disqualified from reinstatement to ministry; the circumstances of immorality vary wildly. Reinstatement just can’t be the primary goal of restoration. Some leaders can come back to ministry, some can even come back to the role where they failed. Some cannot. Reinstatement should be a completely separate conversation from restoration. Every leader is eligible for restoration, not every leader is eligible for reinstatement.

The last word

I hope this topic will simply cease to be a thing. Pastors will stop sleeping with people they’re not married to, leaders will stop using their power for sex, and church staff will simply use texting for important messages and stupid memes. While we wait for that day let’s agree to a sober understanding of judgment, grace, and restoration when others fail.

Leading Through Pain

By Sherry Surratt

At 5:30 A.M. I stumbled to the bathroom, jamming my pinky toe on the corner of the cabinet. The pain shot up my leg, jarring my foggy brain into full-awake mode. As I sank to the floor, a sick feeling crept over my insides. One second ago I was thinking about the day ahead, but now I only had one thought: How can I make this pain stop?

When something hurts, we want the pain to end right away. If you’ve ever suffered a break or sprain, you know it demands your full attention; the misery focuses your brain with laser acuity on the offended appendage. With my injured toe, I certainly hadn’t been thinking about it a second ago. But now, I couldn’t think of anything else.

Author Sam Chand in Leadership Pain says there can be great benefits to the pain we experience in leadership. It forms and refines us. It focuses our attention on areas that were previously ignored. It speaks loudly through the moments of misery, and if we lean into it, it can become our greatest teacher.

When I bump up against opposition, angst, failure, or anything painful in my leadership, I look for the quickest fix. Sometimes I start with a mental brush off: Just keep going, and it will go away. Sometimes I’ll call on its lazy stepsister, avoidance: It’s not that bad! Stop worrying and think about something else. Sometimes I play the blame game: That wasn’t my fault—she dropped the ball. And other times I will sink into shame: I’ve read everything I can. When am I going to learn to be a good leader?

But pain is always trying to tell us something. My stubbed toe was shouting at me to take a minute and assess the damage. Luckily, it was no worse than a torn toenail and a bit of swelling. Usually the difficulties we encounter in leadership deserve a larger pause. Is my attitude out of alignment? Are there areas of growth I have been avoiding and need to address? Do I need to develop courage and face something head on instead of simply wishing it would improve?

Here’s what Chand says: Growth equals change, change equals loss, loss equals pain, and therefore being a leader means I’m going to experience pain. I can deny it or try to hide from it, but if I’m going to commit to leading well, there will be pain. The question isn’t how can I avoid or stop it. The question is: How will I let it be my best teacher? Here are some things I’m learning to do.

Know that pain is part of the journey

I used to think good leaders led so well that their journey was easy. Not so. Good leaders tackle hard things and face uncertainty and fear on a regular basis. They have moments of regret and worry like I do. Just because I’m experiencing pain, it doesn’t mean I’m a lousy leader—it means I have an open door to become a better one.

Embrace it and make it my friend

When I pretend something’s not painful, nobody wins. God, the creator of emotions, allows me to experience painful emotions for a reason. He has big things to say to me when I’m lonely, exhausted, or discouraged. But I need to acknowledge the painful moments and lean in. I’m learning to reframe my questions during the pain. Instead of God, why aren’t you changing these circumstances? I’m learning to say, God, what is it you want to say to me? Sometimes his answer is simply, Daughter, you are enough. I love you. The gap between where I am today as a leader and where God wants me to be can be bridged by the way I embrace the pain he enables me to endure.

Be thankful for what comes next

I don’t have to pretend to like painful experiences in the moment, but I can look back from the other side with gratitude. I’m a better leader after I honestly face criticism and realize it didn’t kill me. I’m a more empathetic, compassionate leader after a failure once I experience the stamina it takes to get up and try again. It’s a powerful thing to admit that I wouldn’t have learned those critical lessons any other way. I can be thankful for what pain helps me become.

So when the pain inevitably comes and you begin to question why you’re leading, remember that pain is a natural part of this process. Pain will make you a better leader. And when you’ve made your way through the pain to the other side, I hope you take time to reach back and help those of us who are still wading through it.

The Lazy Person’s Guide to Leadership

Leadership is exhausting. On top of all the stuff you have to get done there’s all the stuff the people you’re leading have to get done, and all the stuff the people being led by the people you’re leading that has to get done. I need a nap just writing that sentence, but we haven’t even gotten to the part where you have to develop all the people developing all the people, and you have to hold all the people accountable for holding all the people accountable for developing all the people. Oh, and next Sunday is Easter.

Its almost too much for one person to handle. Which may be the point.

What if our challenge with leadership isn’t that we’re not working hard enough? What if the challenge is that we’re working too hard? As I have gotten older I’ve realized that the most effective leaders actually do less, not more. Perhaps laziness is the unspoken hero of leadership qualities. If that is the case, here are some tips on how to be a lazy, effective leader.

Don’t be Google

As leaders we love to answer questions. It makes us feel smart and important, and when we answer the questions we know the answers are right. (Because the answers are ours.) There are a few challenges when I become Google for the people I lead. First, if I answer the first question then I’ll need to answer the second, third and fourth questions. Soon there will be a line at my door of people with questions only I can answer. Have you ever tried to take an afternoon nap with a crowd at your door demanding answers? Its almost impossible.

The second challenge with trying to be Google is that I don’t always have the best, or even the right, answers. I’ve found that when I let people figure things out for themselves they often come up with better answers. It is a killer to my ego, because I always want to be right, but my ego often needs a little deflating.

The third challenge with filling in for Google is I am keeping people from growing. Growth comes from trying, failing, getting back up and trying again. I can give insight from my own experience, but for the most part it is healthy for people to learn for themselves rather than just parroting what they hear from me. It also leaves me a lot more time for my siesta.

Don’t be Jiffy Lube

Every time I take my car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change they find 15 other things I urgently need to fix. “Mr. Surratt, your catalytic converter isn’t converting, your tie rods are untied, and your oil pump has pumped its last.” They don’t understand my philosophy of car repair; if you ignore a problem long enough it will eventually go away. Unfortunately this philosophy hasn’t worked out so well as a car owner.

On the other hand, its actually a decent leadership philosophy. Similar to our urge to be Google, as leaders we often want to jump in and fix things. We jump on every urgent email thread with the solution to the problem. What I’ve discovered, however, is that if I’ll hang back and not provide the instant solution, many problem will indeed fix themselves. Sometimes the solution isn’t exactly what I would have suggested, but its usually good enough. And it didn’t interrupt my afternoon game of golf. (I haven’t golfed in years, but you get the point.)

Don’t be Netflix

Netflix constantly has suggestions for what I want to watch next. “Because you watched Ted Lasso you might like Bend It Like Beckham, or Drive to Survive, or Ted.” You know me so well, Netflix. Leaders are tempted to do the same thing, but instead of making suggestions based on the other persons background, all of our suggestions are based on our own experience. “When I was a youth pastor back in the 90’s, before you were born, lock-ins were really big. You should do a lock-in.” Never mind that lock-ins and the Backstreet Boys have had been equally popular with teenagers over the past 20 years. We mistakenly think our nostalgic suggestions are even remotely helpful to this generation of leaders.

A much better approach than Netflix is the Braintrust process developed by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar. His book, Creativity Inc., is worth the read, but here’s an excerpt describing the Braintrust process.

Don’t be Waffle House

Breakfast at the Waffle House may be the most American experience possible. Truck drivers and bar tenders sharing a meal with a sweet little family of four on their first foray into the world of smothered and covered hash browns. And breakfast is served 24/7/365, the Awful Waffle is always there for you. Even on Christmas Day. Especially on Christmas Day.

Great lazy leaders don’t share Waffle House’s hours. There are hours of the day, days of the week, and weeks of the year when you aren’t open for business. You don’t answer email, respond to texts, or “jump on a quick call.” Waffle House leaders burn out leaders, including themselves. 99% of leadership challenges either resolve themselves or can wait until you get back. You aren’t a short-order cook in a greasy kitchen.

A healthy, effective, sometimes lazy leader is a gift to the church, non-profit, or company they work for. They empower the leaders around them, and present a model of life-giving leadership to everyone in the organization. So take that nap, play that round of golf, and practice the art of lazy leadership.

Should Women Preach or Lead in the Church? Maybe…

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]While being interviewed by key leaders for a teaching pastor position, an elder asked me whether I was a complementarian or egalitarian. I confidently stated that I was a complementarian, and than began down the long list of women pastors on my spiritual journey. The group looked more and more uncomfortable the further I went until the lead pastor finally interrupted, “Are you sure you are complementarian?” I immediately realized my mistake, “Oh, I’m sorry, I meant egalitarian.”

You could fill the air lead the room, it would have been better if I’d said I was a satanist. Elders suddenly remembered they had urgent appointments elsewhere, and staff had an urgent need to get back to their offices. Soon the group dwindled to me, the lead pastor and one clueless staff member who was still hoping for a free lunch. The pastor, who’d invited me to the interview, looked like I’d kicked him a few inches below his gut. He gave me a quick tour of the building and then invited me back to his office. Once inside I tried to ease the tension with a joke, “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” He apologized profusely and admitted he should have vetted my theology of women (Is that a thing? Feminology?) before dragging me through the inquisition. We agreed to remain friends, knowing we’d never work together at a church.

And that’s how I learned the difference between complementarian and egalitarian.

My views have continued to morph, however, in the years since. After a lifetime of study, experience, thinking and prayer I have finally decided I am both complementarian and egalitarian, I’m a complegalitarian

Complegalitairan: In some contexts and cultures women are gifted, qualified, and called to lead, preach, and exercise authority in the church. In other contexts and cultures those roles are better served by men.

I have landed in this camp (so far I may be the only one here) because it is the only way I can make sense of scripture, history, and my experience in the real world. I understand the implications of 1 Timothy 2, but I have to balance that with other passages where women were not only not silent, but preached, led and held positions of authority over men. From Miriam to Deborah to Huldah to Priscilla to Phoebe to the daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9), some women in some contexts prophesy (preach), teach, hold office and lead. I can’t accept an argument that says women are forbidden to hold certain offices, have authority over men, or preach when there are clear examples in the Bible of women doing all of the above, seemingly with God’s full blessing.

I also recognize that in some cultures and some contexts the fact that a woman is leading could overshadow the presentation of the Gospel. We have to remember that at the end of the day the Gospel trumps all other concerns. That is why Jesus did not stand up to they horrible abuses of the Roman government and Paul did not advocate for the end of slavery. They were both focused on the main thing, the hope of the Gospel.

Paul said he became all things to all people so that by all means he might save some. His primary concern was “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. I suspect in ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish culture the most effective messenger for the Gospel was often a man because of the patriarchal bent of society. I do not think that is always the case in every context and culture. Neither, it seems, did Paul.

I have been watching from the sidelines as Southern Baptists tear each other apart over this issue. There was a huge uproar when Beth Moore preached at a church on a Sunday morning, and subsequently left the Southern Baptist denomination over the fallout. The roar got even louder when Pastor Rick Warren announced Saddleback Church ordained three women as pastors. Seminary president and Southern Baptist Convention President candidate Albert Mohler has led the charge against women preaching or leading in SBC churches (except in narrowly defined roles), recently saying,

“If you look at the denominations where women do the preaching, they are also the denominations where people do the leaving.”

The irony of this statement is overwhelming when you realize that over the past 15 years SBC has lost 2.3 million members, 14% of its total membership, while adhering to a strict complementarian standard. At the same time what is being called “Spirit-empowered Christianity” (aka Pentecostal and Charismatic), which is almost entirely egalitarian in practice, has exploded in growth all over the world.

The current SBC President, J.D. Greear, along with all of the other candidates to succeed him, agree with Albert Mohler that women preaching and leading above certain levels in the church is a line in the sand they will not cross. While the SBC has to determine the future of the SBC, it seems from the outside that this issue is overshadowing the mission to bring the hope of Jesus to a lost and dying world. The message I fear is being unintentionally amplified is that men simply want to maintain authority over women.

That is why I am now a complegalitarian. I believe God created men and women with different gifts and abilities. I think some women are gifted by their creator to lead in some circumstances, and some men are gifted by their creator to lead in other circumstances. I think in some contexts the practice of women leading men can so overshadow the message of the Gospel that it can be destructive to mission of the church, and I believe in other contexts the practice of barring women from certain levels of leadership and preaching can also be destructive the mission of the church. I think this is why Paul gives Timothy instructions that limit women’s roles in the church and in Romans commends women for filling those very roles. I think Paul may have been the first complegalitarian.

‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.’ 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 (NIV)

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Back to the Past: The Quick End of Innovation in the Church

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]About a year ago many of us were saying, “Church has changed forever, it will never be the same.” We adopted the word phyigital (which sounds like a restless physician’s ponytail to me) and we declared that we were now online churches with physical locations. About two weeks later everyone quit watching our online streams. (Not everyone, but it felt like it.) Researchers started telling us that not only had our people quit paying attention, they were never coming back to our churches. We were doomed, I say, doomed.

And then Texas and Florida decided Covid wasn’t a thing and churches resumed in-person meetings. We were tentative at first; requiring masks and banning singing (which wasn’t much of a change for most attenders), offering few if any kids’ programs, and carefully measuring 6’ between seats, rows and urinals. And then one crazy church in every community declared the government couldn’t tell them what to do, burned their masks and staged an all-church group hug. We were back!

Little by little the “back to the past” movement took hold. As Covid began to recede and vaccinations rolled out like ‘Bama at the Sugar Bowl (I have no idea) churches felt loosed to go out and revert to exactly what they did before. And revert they did. Great music! Relevant sermons! Fun kids’ ministry! once again ruled the land.

The pressure to revert is enormous. The people know what they want and they want what they had before. They like the music, the sermons, and whatever kids’ ministry leaders do to keep their children entertained for an hour. They tried the new, the creative and the unprecedented for a year, and now they are ready for the comfortable, the predictable and the recognizable.

And the good news is we are the best in the world at what we used to do. We have honed our model to a fine art, we have taught it at conferences and we’ve written about it ad nauseam. Our staff, our buildings and our budgets are all built on the pre-pandemic model of church. Phygital was like that girl you met at summer camp; she was fun for a week, but now that you’re home its time to pick back up with your childhood sweetheart. (Sometimes these analogies don’t even make sense to me.) No one is more nostalgic for yesterday than those of us who spent a lifetime creating the past.

There are a whole lot of people who are perfectly satisfied with church the way it used to be. Many of them will come back, or they’ll at least check in occasionally to see if you’re still doing it the way they like. They’ll keep volunteering occasionally, giving a little once in awhile, and warming our stack chairs when they are in town and there’s nothing better to do. This isn’t everyone, but its a much bigger percentage than most of us would like to admit. The quickest path to the numbers and accolades we are used to is back the way we came.

There are two challenges on the path back. The first is, if we continue to do the things we did before, we will continue to see the same results. Our numbers may grow, but the level of engagement and true discipleship will not. If shut down taught as anything its that our congregations are not nearly as mature as disciples as we had thought our hoped. Attenders will be happier, satisfied and comfortable, but they are unlikely to grow.

The other challenge is most of the people in our communities who did not attend before Covid are even more unlikely to attend after. They have read stories of church gatherings as super-spreader events, pastors demanding their rights and refusing to follow guidelines, and Christians storming the Capitol. They don’t care about the nuances of the truth, or the bias of the reporters. What they have seen over the last year has only confirmed their belief that our churches are inconsequential at best and destructive at worst. What we did before was somewhat ineffective among the truly unchurched, now I fear that it may be seen as completely irrelevant.

The problem with finding a new path forward is you have to find a new path forward. (Insightful) There isn’t a template to follow or a model to emulate. The biggest question I get is, “Who is doing this well, and how can I learn from them?” It is a great question, but the answer is no one. We are all figuring this out together. A great book to read on the season we find ourselves in is Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger. His premise is we find ourselves in a similar situation to Lewis and Clark when their expedition encountered the Rocky Mountains. They were experienced at navigating rivers, but now they had to learn to climb mountains. I think we’re at a similar crossroads; we can go back down the river, or we can learn how to climb a mountain.

I met this week in Atlanta with a handful of leaders who are intent on becoming mountain climbers, focused on blazing a new path forward. They are asking hard questions about what a church really is, where it meets, and how it connects to a larger church body. They are learning from the progress and mistakes of pioneers who’ve been asking these questions for many years. These weren’t just wild-eyed entrepreneurs, they were leaders from some of the best known churches in the country. Although they are in the minority, I believe these leaders, and others like them, are willing to take the withering criticism, make the costly mistakes, and carve out the uncertain trail that is required for the church to prevail in this completely new season.

Carving a path through the mountains is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I love the church as it has been, but I can’t spend any more time helping it be a better version of what it was. My goal is to find the way forward through meaningful conversations among like minded leaders, focused on discovering church for the new reality. Here are the conversations I want to focus on:

Innovation rather than imitation
Diversity in race, gender, age and background
Leaving a legacy through the the next generation
Church in the context of the broader community

I’ll share details soon on how can join these conversations, but for now I have one question, do you want to paddle back up the river, or do you want to climb the mountains?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][social_buttons full_width_icons=”true” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

What if everything we knew about church changed? What then?

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Sundays feel weird. Normally Sundays are energizing, challenging and exhausting. On Sundays we get to do the things we are wired to do; preach, lead worship, teach kids, and connect with people we love. Now a typical Sunday consists of watching a pre-recorded service and making small talk in an online chat room. When we get done we don’t even have sports to sleep to. Weird.

Mondays feel weird too. The past couple of weeks we’ve scrambled to get our services online, create virtual small groups and find ways to love our community while keeping our distance. Now we have a lot of that figured out. Sure we’ll tweak and fine tune, but most of the things that we’ve worked so hard to adapt are coming into shape. Now its Monday again and what do we work on now?

We still have to write sermons and find way to record content without infecting each other. We have to check on attenders and reach out to community leaders. We have to make sure online groups are happening and figure out the things that aren’t working. But what is our mission? What are we really focused on now that we cannot gather as a church for many weeks to come?

Here’s my recommendation for a things to work on this week. I think if we focus on these three things we’ll make incredible progress in our new normal.

Celebrate

Let’s take time to celebrate. We are doing things as a church we wouldn’t have thought possible three weeks ago. We are preaching to a camera and getting pretty good at it. We are connecting with people we’ve known for years, and people we’ve never met, in ways we didn’t know was possible. We are figuring out communion and baptism and giving and prayer without being in the same room, and its working. We are seeing creativity and passion from people who previously sat on the sidelines. We are bringing hope and light to our community at a time when they desperately need it. We are being the church in ways we couldn’t have imagined way back in February. That calls for a socially-distanced virtual party.

Mourn

We’ve lost some things that are really hard to let go of. We will not gather on Easter. We will not have Good Friday communion together. We will not go to that conference we’ve been looking forward to for months. Each of us have lost or will lose many things, and we need to take the time to mourn. There are many aspects of our current situation that suck, and pretending that they don’t doesn’t help. Take some time to grieve what you’ve lost.

Innovate

I love seeing stories of companies pivoting right now to manufacture things they’ve never built before. Car makers are making ventilators, and shoe companies are making masks. This morning I read about a scientific group in Ohio who’ve figured out a way to turn shipping containers into sanitation units for health care workers’ personal protection equipment (PPE). It gives me hope because I see incredible innovation happening around the world.

The same innovation has to happen in the church world. We can no longer to do what we’ve always done. I see little glimpses of innovation in the way churches are doing services, but that is barely the tip of the iceberg of the innovation that has to come. Obviously we have to create opportunities for people to connect, worship and learn together, but that barely scratches the surface of what we have to figure out.

The challenge is innovation is uncomfortable. For many of us in ministry we’ve spent decades learning to do what we do. Years in college and seminary, and more years working for churches figuring out how to create the best environments possible for ministry to happen, and now those environments don’t exist. We’ve been to conferences, connected in cohorts and leaned into coaches (I have to use my alliteration skills somewhere) to learn the very best way to do church. And now most of what we learned is secondary at best. Let’s be honest, it feels really strange sitting on our couches watching a pre-recorded Sunday service. We try to make conversation in the chat, but its hollow at best.

We have to invent new ways to do what we are called to do. Our calling hasn’t changed, but our methods of ministry have to. We can’t continue to focus on how to do what we’ve always done, but do it online. We can’t just focus on making our 45 minutes on Sunday the best they can be. We have to understand the needs of today and how we can help. We have to innovate.

Here are some innovations I think we need:

Teaching Pastors

How can we teach people to dig into the Bible for themselves? Rather than giving them an already baked bread like we normally offer on Sunday, how can we point them to the flour, eggs, yeast and milk and challenge them to bake their own loaf? How can we create enough hunger in people that when they finish watching us teach they feel compelled to pull out their Bible (or App) and figure it out for themselves? I think the opportunity for innovation is not just how we preach, but what outcome we hope for.

Worship Leaders

No band, no haze, no moving lights and no graphics. Just you staring at a camera trying to lead people in worship. What do you hope people are doing as they watch online? Singing, praying, sitting silently? Is it unrealistic to think the average guy watching is going to suddenly burst into off key singing while sitting in his PJs with his family? If its not participation, what is the goal of Sunday worship? How can you innovate in how you lead? I think this is more crucial than recording the next viral worship song created by your team singing into cell phones. I don’t know where we need more innovation right now than in the area of worship.

NextGen Pastors

Kids are currently spending more time with their parents than their peers, teachers or church leaders. Now is the time to get serious about helping parents know how to have honest conversations with their kids about faith. No matter how good your online experiences are right now, they pale in comparison to the daily conversations kids and students are having in their homes. Are you connecting with parents to understand how you can help? Are you coming up with creative resources that parents are actually using?

The biggest mistake we can make as church leaders right now is to think the adaptations we’ve made to make what we’ve always done available online are an adequate response to our new reality. There is a good chance church will never be the same, how are we innovating to lead our congregation into this new season? What if we sat down together and rewrote our job descriptions for this season? Let’s cross out the things that don’t really apply right now and add in the things that are essential. Let’s create time in our schedule to celebrate, mourn and innovate. Let’s become the church God wants us to become through this crisis.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][social_buttons full_width_icons=”true” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Stop counting attendance and start counting care

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]For the past 30 years the primary indicator of health in churches is weekend attendance. We know that “healthy things grow”, so obviously the faster our church grows the healthier it is. We celebrate the largest and fastest growing churches as the models we all want to emulate. When a new church plant explodes in growth we crowd around the pastor to learn his secrets.

The challenge is that healthy things aren’t the only things that grow. Weeds grow faster than healthy plants, and cancer cells kill the body by growing faster than other, healthier cells. By focusing on numerical growth in the church we may inadvertently feed the very thing that could choke out true health.

Another challenge with tracking attendance is it doesn’t always measure what we think it does. I remember talking to another pastor in our community a few years ago. He was excited about the sudden growth he’d seen over the past few months. I wanted to be excited for him, but the church I served had recently gone through a moral failure by a key leader, and our attendance was shrinking at the exact time his was growing. Attendance growth isn’t always as it appears.

Finally, measuring weekend attendance is becoming irrelevant. In a culture of online church, sermon podcasts and declining frequency of attendance even among committed members, the number of people sitting in pews or stack chairs from week to week no longer reflects the true size of a congregation. We need to move beyond butts in seats as a primary measure of the health of a congregation.

So what should we measure? The go to answers are baptisms, giving and small group participation. There is nothing wrong with measuring these areas, but it is still incomplete. To truly understand how healthy we are as a church we have to know how we are caring for the three circles of people we are called to shepherd; our neighbors, our followers and our disciples.

Neighbors

Key word: Compassion
Key questions: Who are our neighbors and how are we easing their pain?

A neighbor is anyone who comes into contact with your church. Neighbors live next door to the church and next door to people who attend your church. Neighbors are the school and city officials who interact with your congregation. Your neighbors are the people who serve your members in restaurants, stores and entertainment venues. Your neighbors may never walk into your church, but they are still your responsibility.

In the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus not only broadens the definition of a neighbor, he shows how to treat our neighbors with compassion. Unlike the religious leaders in the story, the Samaritan has compassion for his neighbor. He bandages his wounds and provides for his needs. He isn’t concerned about where the injured man attends synagogue; he is a neighbor so he cares for him. A major component of the mission of our church is to discover where our neighbors are hurting and how we can help.

A healthy church cares for their neighbors both corporately and personally. When there is a crisis in the community a healthy church is the first to step in to help, and when there is a need in a neighborhood healthy church members are the ones who stand in the gap. Measuring health begins with tracking how compassionately we care for our neighbors. How are we easing their pain?

Followers

Key word: Provision
Key questions: Who are our followers and how are providing for their needs?

A follower is anyone who considers your church their church. This is tricky, because there are a lot of people who claim your church whom you’ve never met. They may attend only on Christmas and Easter, they may drop in a few times a year, or they may just watch online, but a follower would consider your church the place to:

Get married
Have a family member’s funeral
Be baptized
Dedicate their baby

Regardless how deep their connection, if they consider your church their church they are a follower and you have responsibility for them.

We see Jesus’ provision for followers in the story of feeding of the 5000 when he says to Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (John 6:5) I imagine the disciples thought, “Why are they our problem? They are adults, let them figure it out for themselves. Besides, it would take a miracle to take care for all these people.” Jesus believed, however, that He and the disciples should care even for casual followers.

The bigger your church grows the more followers you attract. Conservatively your church has twice as many followers as average weekend attenders. A church of 300 on Sunday has 600 followers, a church of 3000 has 6,000 followers, and a church of 30,000 on a weekend carries the weight of 60,000 people. That is larger than the town I live in. We love to attract huge crowds, but if we are faithful to Jesus’ example we have to also provide for the needs of the ever growing circle of followers.

Disciples

Key word: Direction
Who are our disciples and how are we helping them grow?

A disciple in this context is anyone committed to the vision, values and mission of your church. It includes the staff, leaders and elders, as well as the committed attenders who support and love your church. You are responsible to do everything possible to ensure the disciples are growing in their faith and reflecting the model of Christ.

The growth of His disciples was Jesus’ primary mission while he was on earth. He taught them, challenged then and rebuked them, all with the goal of seeing them grow in their understanding of him and their commitment to the Kingdom. When he knew his time grew short and the cross loomed ahead, he withdrew with his disciples for one last time. He washed their feet, he fed them, and he taught them the core value of love. As he faced the cross his attention was on the 12 men who would soon abandon him. His commitment to the disciples wasn’t based on how much they gave, led or served; it was based solely on his love and care for them.

This is the commitment we are called to as leaders in the church. We are never told we will give an account for the number of people we can convince to sit in an auditorium on a Sunday and listen to us talk and sing. We will, however, be held accountable for the disciples who follow us as we follow Christ. How are we loving them and helping them grow?

The Shift

Before Online Church, traveling youth sports teams, and the ability to work from anywhere, weekend attendance was a decent indicator of the effectiveness of a church. Today weekend attendance is nothing more than a popularity contest. The “winner” is the church with the best band, coolest website and best speaker. Churches grow to thousands overnight and we all want to know the secret to their phenomenal growth.

The bigger question is how are caring for the flock God has entrusted to us? How can we measure the impact we are having on the hurts in the lives of our neighbors? How can we discover the true needs of the followers of our church and how can we know we are meeting those needs? How can we make sure that the disciples around us are growing more like Christ?

When we are faithful with the people God gives us, our neighbors, followers and disciples, He can trust us with more. Our job is to plant and water, it is God’s job to make it grow. What if over the next 20 years we become as intentional on measuring and improving how we are care for people as we’ve been on filling buildings for the past 20 years? Can you imagine the harvest?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][social_buttons full_width_icons=”true” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Why your church needs to be thinking 100 years down the road

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Recently I heard the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Choulnard, describe a very difficult season in the early days of the company when growth outpaced revenue and they had to lay off some of the workers. This was incredibly difficult fo Choulnard because he tried to treat his employees like family. The turning point came when he asked this question:

“How would decisions change if we were thinking about our company 100 years from now?

That is not a question American marketplace or church leaders ask very often. We focus on how we can grow quickly, how we can address today’s problems today. Sometimes we’ll try to look five or ten years down the road, but we’re quickly back to the urgency of growth today. There is no Outreach Magazine Top 100 Slowest Growing Churches list.

Greg McKeown, the author of Essentialism, sees great value in a 100 year viewpoint,

“This kind of tremendously long-term vision starts to help us to discern between the absolutely essential things and the total, trivial many. With that perspective, you can start to see that most of what we are consumed with and even worried about are things that won’t even matter five years from now.”

What would happen if we did take the extreme long view in churches? If we thought more about the impact of our decisions in 100 years rather than focusing almost exclusively on what’s right in front of?

How would a 100 year viewpoint impact church staffing?

The amount of turnover right now in churches is overwhelming. Every week I hear from a pastor looking for their next staff member. They don’t have time to develop anyone from within, they have a hole they need to plug as soon as possible. Who do I know who would do an amazing job?

If we were looking 100 years down the road I think we would see how important it is to grow leaders from within rather than constantly trying to pick fruit off of other people’s trees. Once we’ve picked all the trees around us clean, we will still have holes with no one to fill them. With a long view, however, we would see that children’s ministry may not be great tomorrow or next week, but with the right coaching and encouragement we could likely develop great leaders over the next 10 years.

How would a 100 year viewpoint impact building decisions?

Church buildings are often made built on the need of the hour. We need children’s space. We need auditorium space. We need a student building with all the bells and whistles. We never think about what might be useful in 20 years, or 50 years. With a longer horizon we might not be in such a hurry to spend millions of dollars to build what we need right now. On the converse we might not be so quick to saddle the next generation with massive debt to solve this generation’s challenges.

How would a 100 year viewpoint impact local outreach?

What if we had a bifocal vision for outreach? We continue to help our community now, but we are also planting seeds that will potentially change our community in 20 years. How could we invest in Kindergartners in a way that will make an impact when they are Seniors?

In the same podcast Patagonia founder Chouland said this, “The faster a business grows, the faster it dies. We decided on a growth program so that we would be around 100 years from now.” What would happen if we stopped pursing growth for the sake of growth? What would change in your church focused on a 100 years from now?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][social_buttons full_width_icons=”true” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Cheerleaders, kiddie pools and middle school accountants; how lead pastors can reach the next generation

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Tomorrow morning at a ridiculously early hour I will head to The Orange Conference, a gathering of over 8000 NextGen leaders from all over the world. I have been attending or teaching at this conference for over a decade because I can’t think of a better way to invest than to sow into the people who lead kids and students in the local church. The potential fruit is exponential. Here are some of the reasons I continue to invest in NextGen leaders:

The vast majority of Christians decide to follow Christ before they turn 18
A majority of young people never return to church after they go to college
Many teenagers quit church when they become sophomores, the year they get their drivers license and/or their parents let them choose not to go
Children often decide by 3rd grade whether they like going to church, though they can’t quit until 10th grade

The future of the church is being determined by how we minister to the kids and families in our churches. [bctt tweet=”Better programming, outreach or small groups are meaningless if the next generation leaves and never returns.” username=”geoffsurratt”] If I were a lead pastor I would make kids and student ministry my number one priority, and here’s how I’d do it…

Act like a cheerleader

[bctt tweet=”The most effective thing a lead pastor can do is be the cheerleader for NextGen ministries (kids, students, families.)” username=”geoffsurratt”]
In most churches what the lead pastor champions gets done. One lead pastor I worked with was a frustrated rock star, so the music ministry got all the cool toys. Another lead pastor saw the world through the eyes of a counselor, so the church funded a large counseling center. Andy Stanley is passionate about the next generations, so North Point church has incredible kids and student ministries.

So how can you be a cheerleader for NextGen ministry?

Use illustrations from family ministry in your sermons
Celebrate NextGen ministry wins or milestones publicly
Never disparage working with students or kids. I cringe when I hear a lead pastor say, “I’m glad I don’t have to work with middle schoolers.” It is demeaning and deflating to those who do.
Make working with kids and students a place of honor

Budget like a middle schooler

[bctt tweet=”The budget reveals more than the mission statement about how much a church values the next generation” username=”geoffsurratt”]

Nothing reveals values like a bank statement; you spend your money on what you care about. What does your church’s bank statement say about how you value the next generation? If you want to impact kids and students, budget for it. Here’s how Craig Groeschel told me this works at Life.Church:

“One of LifeChurch’s core values is stewardship. Because of that—and not in spite of it—we spend a lot of money on kids. Considering the scope and scale of the ministry that LifeKIDS executes each week, it really doesn’t matter how it compares to other ministry departments or programs. That’s an apples to oranges comparison.”

Swim in the kiddie pool

[bctt tweet=”Pastors who want to impact the next generation show up regularly in student and kids environments” username=”geoffsurratt”]

When a senior leader participates in children’s or student ministry it allows them to experience what the volunteers and kids experience, and it shows support for the ministry. Many pastors feel they are too busy to show up, or that their presence will be a distraction. I would counter that their lack of presence sends the message they only care about what happens in the adult auditorium. To counteract that impression why not

Volunteer in the nursery when you aren’t preaching
Teach the elementary lesson from time to time
Help lead a middle school small group
Go as a leader on a high school missions trip

I understand all of these ideas are tough to pull off and not your favorite thing to do, but I can’t imagine a better way to invest your time in a very vulnerable generation.

Let the kids sit at the adult table

[bctt tweet=”Reaching the next generation means involving them at every level of the local church” username=”geoffsurratt”]

Can we call a moratorium on “Student Takeover” weekends? You know, the weekend you have teenagers do the greeting and ushering, the student band lead worship, and the youth pastor preach. Not only is the experience not great for the attenders (all the parents and grandparents love it. Everyone else, not so much), but its really just a form of tokenism. Unintentionally we send the message that NextGen is the “B” team.

Instead why not weave students into everything we do?

Invite teenagers to be ushers and greeters, involve students in the tech booth and add teens as a regular part of the worship team.
Use NextGen leaders to do the announcements,
Have the youth pastor do one point of the sermon occasionally

Rather than a “sink or swim” once a year context, invest in younger leaders every weekend.

Beyond just including them on the weekend, make sure NextGen leaders are at the decision making table during the week. It is a mistake to expect to be effective in ministering to kids and students if the leaders are not a part of shaping the direction of the church. It will take some creativity, but leveraging your influence to include younger leaders will pay significant dividends down the road.

All is not lost

Despite the dire warnings that Millennials are already gone and Gen Y is close behind, all is not lost in the local church. I believe if pastors will take the lead in focusing on the next generation there is a bright future ahead, but it will take intentionality, courage and patience. Lots and lots of patience.

You can read more practical advice,,based on research on interviews, on reaching the next generation in the free eBook The Church Will Thrive. You can download your copy here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][social_buttons full_width_icons=”true” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Kicking Camels on the Monday Before Easter

It’s the Monday before Easter, Super Bowl week for the local church. This weekend you will likely see more new faces at church than you’ve seen all year. You and the other leaders at your church are focused on creating the best experience possible for your guests, and praying that at least some will consider coming back. Underneath all the preparation and prayer is a deep desire for people to come face-to-face with the risen Jesus.

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves every Easter. Everything has to be perfect, the music has to be amazing and the sermon has to present the Gospel effectively. It can feel like everything is riding on what happens this weekend.

The reality, however, is everything doesn’t ride on what happens at your church on Easter. Some churches will see huge crowds, some will not. Some churches will have amazing experiences, others will have camels kicking guests in the face (a true story for another day). Some pastors will Instagram pictures of 100s being baptized and others will delete their social media accounts. Regardless of what happens at your church on Easter, here is what I know:

The reality of your call will not be determined by the size of your crowd.
The truth of the Gospel will shine regardless how tarnished your presentation.
Your Father sees your heart and is proud.

I will be praying for you this weekend that, in spite of the challenges you may face you, will hear the voice of God saying, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”

But try not to let any camels kick the guests. That’s not good.