5 reasons to stay at your church

Leaders are wired for change. Leaders see a need or challenge and want to push the organization to a better future. This love of change sometimes leads us to look outside our current ministry role. Go ahead and admit it, you look at other ministry settings and wonder if it might be time for a move. What would it be like to serve there or with that team? Leaders love the thrill of the move and the enticement of possibility. This week I will have been here at Grace Community Church for five years. For the first time in my adult life I have lived in the same house for five years. I have been serving this city for five years and it is hard to understand but I am thrilled about the next five. Funny thing I am discovering is that time spend in a ministry setting leads to trust and trust (by parents, staff members, the church family, and community leaders) leads to opportunity. Time spent in ministry allows you to build something that is better not just bigger. Here are five reasons to consider blocking out distractions and stay in your ministry setting...

1. You get to serve multiple generations // There is nothing quite as cool as getting to watch a senior graduate and then see their 6th grade sister show up in your middle school environment. That is priceless. That is generational ministry. That is what being an influence partnered with the family looks like.
2. You can take bigger risks for the Kingdom // When you have relational credibility you have the influence to take bigger risks for the Kingdom of God. People follow leaders they trust will be there if things don't go well.
3. You can see your strategy through // How do you know if your strategy really is making a difference. Plant your life in a city and see what happens over the span of several years!
4. You can make changes and corrections faster // When you are committed to staying you will push your self you keep molding the organization. Invest leaders don't like stagnation. Time allows you to make changes and see them through.
5. You learn to strive for the bigger story and not just a perfect picture // When you stay locked in with a ministry or a church you learn to look for the bigger story for motivation. Time with people teaches you that there are no perfect families or churches. What really inspires is the bigger story that God is at work.

no more "youth sections" at church

When I was growing up and when I did youth ministry in my 20's every church had a youth section. Most of you leading in churches have the same thing. It's that section of the church where all the teens sit during the Sunday morning services. Youth sections exist because teens are looking for something to connect with at church that makes sense. In most churches the only thing that keeps them there and makes sense are other friendships. That is why the huddle and seem to disconnect from the rest of the church. One of my friends on twitter mentioned that he has began to sit in the teen section just to engage those teens and build relationships. That idea got me thinking. Our church at Grace Community doesn't have a youth section. It's the first place I have ever served where teens sit with small group leaders, their parents, or serve as a volunteer all over the church. When I process why this is our reality I think it comes from the fact that we have given the church to them. It's their church as much as it's their parents church. We program with them in mind. We ask them to be a part of the church. We empower them to make a difference right now by serving and giving them real responsibility. Maybe we could end "youth sections" at church if we just gave the church away to them now. They are not the future of the church, they are the church. If you want them to stay connected to your church and other churches for years to come give them the keys to the castle right now. Engage them, empower them, believe in them, and live life with them. The churches that will be around in 20 years are the ones who are giving the church away to teens right now. Don't give them a section give them the entire sanctuary.

Are your teens missed at church?

Are your teens missed at church when you go away for a retreat or camp? The answer to that question reveals how integrated the teens are in your church culture. The honest truth is that for most churches the rest of the church doesn't notices when the teens are gone...some people may even be glad that group of kids that sit together on Sunday is not there because we know many times teens intimidate adults. A few weeks ago we took our small group leaders and teens to a retreat and we missed a Sunday morning. Those teens were missed. Why? Because most of those teens serve somewhere in our church culture. Because those teens actually go to the worship service and worship with their families and friends on Sunday. Because they bring energy to our church week in and week out. We missed them because they are a part of our church family...they belong in the church...they make an impact in the church. For all of us who lead student ministries we need to be honest and ask ourselves how we are helping the teens we lead connect to the church, serve in the church, find a place to belong at church. I know this is a difficult idea but maybe the reasons teens do not see the need for an inter-generational church is that as a teen they never connect with that church. How do we do this...here are just a few ideas that may help bridge the gap.

• Let teens see you connect with the church. // you need to be worshiping with your church on Sundays (if you are not leading a Sunday morning environment). We can set the tone by supporting the church not just our ministry.
• Empower teens to serve on Sundays. // when teens find a place to serve at church many times they find a place to belong. If you do Sunday morning environments for teens then challenge them to attend and then serve.
• Communicate what your student ministry is doing with your church. // keep adults in the loop of what God is doing in the student ministry you lead. Build a culture of sharing the good things God is doing. People love to hear an celebrate good news.
• Connect efforts of the church and student ministry together. // find ways to connect baptisms, mission projects, church wide strategy together with your student ministry.
• Welcome your senior pastor and other staff into your student environment. // let your senior pastor speak one week or just hang out for the night, ask staff to visit and help you evaluate your environment, keep staff in the loop of your vision. Connect the world of the church and your ministry!

attract a crowd or make disciples...can we do BOTH?

A friend of mine described the church they attend to me by this statement. "They (the church leadership) are just trying to make disciples, they are not worried about numbers." I am thrilled this friend has found a church where they can plug into and serve with but their description about church made me begin to process those 2 ideas...attracting a crowd vs. making disciples. You see I serve at that church who gets classified as a crowd attractor. Many times people think because of our crowd and the messiness of people we must not be concerned with moving people toward being more like Jesus. That assumption couldn't be more wrong. We are consumed with tweaking our strategy so we assure people are growing spiritually. We are also just as passionate about creating environments where people feel passionate about inviting their friends and neighbors. We are focused on investing in those who are with us and reaching our to those who are far from God simultaneously. This applies to everything we do in family ministry also. We strive to create environments where people want to be and at the same time we push, pray, and plan for forward spiritual motion. All our churches...our ministries...can be places that attract and invest. I pray we always strive to reach people AND make disciples and I pray we never stop worrying about all those people who are far from God. As Andy Stanley says, this is a tension to manage not a problem to solve.

allergic to CHURCH?

When I was a kid I was allergic to almost everything. I took this test where they poked needles in my back and yep I was allergic to trees, grass, dogs, and cats. I then had to take allergy shots to build my resistance against those allergies. Over time I got over many of the things that bothered me because the shots kept exposing me to the things that I was allergic to in small doses. I tell you that wonderful story to talk about something else I am now allergic too and that is ineffective churches, outdated rules and religion. You want to know why people are resistant to Christ? Most of the time it springs from ineffective churches, outdated rules, and religion. When I get around a church immersed in poor leadership, legalism, and stuffy religion I feel like I am cuddling a cat (yep, very allergic to cats). I think my church allergy has grown because I now spend my life discovering ways to reinvent church for today rather than protecting ways we did church 50 years ago. When I get around old methods that clearly are not working anymore it almost like being in a house with mold...I HAVE TO GET AWAY. Here are a few things that kick my church allergy into next level craziness...

• Poor Leadership / I am amazed that so many churches allow people with little character and leadership ability to make decisions and have influence. For most churches the people who shout the loudest and give the most money have the most control. Only problem there is that Jesus never modeled that mindset. Churches need a revolution of Christ-like leaders to rise up and stop the noise.
• Poor Communication / seriously, I don't blame people outside the church for not coming to church when I hear most communication inside the church. Poor may be a nice word for much that goes on today. We have the greatest message in all of history wrapped in Jesus Christ. we have no room for poor communication!
• Tradition Worship / not "traditional worship", music is only preference. Worship of traditions on the other hand is nothing more than worshiping a small man-made God. Traditions make us feel in control. Worship of traditions only place us in control.
• Wasted Resources / think of all the resources being spent on dying organizations (churches). What if dying churches started giving their buildings to church plants that need space to grow? What an idea!
• Legalism / obsession with rules, procedures, dress, behavior is a passion for many churches. Our goal is to make disciples of Jesus not robots who follow rules.
• Inward Obsession / when you hear church leaders talk about how they are just focusing on helping the people who attend "grow" then you can bet they have not thought about reaching their city in a while. Inward obsession leads to a church culture club only interested in caring for one another. The others...those who have not found Christ get left outside our church doors.

the joys of having no building

This weekend was huge for GCC. We figured out how to train our set up and tear down teams! We have grown so fast it has been hard to get a handle on this MAJOR issue. It only took three years but I think we hit on something that works for us this weekend. Karen Grizzard and Katrina Watts made the plan, our set up team leaders did the training, and IT WORKED! Here at Grace Community we rent Rossview High School each week so that means each week we have to set up and then tear down all our environments. We have amazing volunteers but it has been so difficult to ask new volunteers to come into the system and know what to do. If you are in a church that rents space you know how this goes. Here is what we did! We had dinner and training for our set up team Saturday night then we had lunch and training for the tear down team Sunday afternoon and dedicated time to both these teams. Why it took us three years to figure this out I am not sure but it worked. I think the fact that we have moved venues several times hurt our training process. We also thought we could train on Sunday mornings...THAT IS VERY HARD...this scared off many volunteers because it seemed so fast and confusing. We needed the extra time to encourage, and allow time for questions as we trained.

Here were the keys...provided food, designated time, allowed for tons of questions, and had a system that made sense in place before we did the training. ALSO the one thing we would do different is promote MORE. We evaluated the event today and we know we think we have a WINNER in this plan.

I think we will have a facility ONE DAY here at GCC but not having one and renting space makes us seek to be efficient, trust God, and equip volunteers to pull this off each week. Thanks to all of you out there who volunteer each week at your church. Thanks to all of you who serve at GCC! Because of you people encounter God each week in our gatherings. It is worth it!