Questions for our Existence
This weekend I spoke to 60 large church pastors who are a part of the the Lutheran Church (LCMS). Billy Graham called the denomination a “sleeping giant.” The denomination as some unique strengths but is experiencing a long term decline as with many other denominations. As I prepared my time, I sensed the Spirit’s leading to begin to write down a few questions. So at the top of the pad I wrote down, “Questions for our existence” and this is what spilled out. I decided to end my talk with these questions:
- Are the Lutherans the only group that has the privilege to proclaim the Law and Gospel? If not, then why should Lutherans exist?
- Why would an active Christ follower in 2009 want to be Lutheran if they weren’t born into it?
- What is the single greatest reason to be a Lutheran in 2009? Why would a lost world care about that reason?
- If we are stronger at educating children than other denominations why aren’t we a growing denomination?
- Do we want to exercise the privilege of preaching without the responsibility being sent? (Romans 10)
- Who are Lutherans sent to today? Who is your church sent to reach?
- Does practicing the sacraments make you a church if you have jettisoned the mission of Jesus?
- What is keeping the strongest churches in our pack from taking more risks?
- If our strongest churches of the LCMS don’t take the risks then who will?
- What’s keeping the denomination from dramatically celebrating the small pockets of true innovation?
- Why aren’t the larger churches and the denominational leaders working better together for the future of the denomination?
- What will the state of the denomination be in 2080?
- Why do we elevate academia over action when our founder modeled both?
- How come Lutherans have fewer large churches than many other protestant groups?
- Who is solving our ineffective decision-making structures and policies and why aren’t large churches banding together to show the way?
- What would you be willing to give up today in your church (speaking to the large church pastor) if it meant the denomination would be stronger in 2080?
Hopefor09.com: Church Unique Snapshot
It was a thrill to work Sal Sberna and team at a church called the MET in North Houston (Metropolitan Baptist Church). They contracted with Auxano two years ago to do vision clarification and continue to use us for sub-ministry alignment and vision-based stewardship development. Their mission is to connect people each day to the real Jesus in a real way. Recently they began an initiative called HopeFor09.com. Its a way to take a sermon series to the next level by providing a series-based blog, videos, bible resources and e-vite online. Check it out here.
Biggest Ministry Mistakes
Blogger Tony Morgan just asked his twitter followers to write in about their biggest ministry mistakes. In the list below you will see the mistake that fuels our ministry at Auxano: Mistaken Identity
- @gsligon - “trusting a volunteer with too much influence in my ministry. can you say sabotage?”
- @menatpausecoach - “thinking that one would be ‘closer to God’ by leaving secular world for full-time ministry.”
- @teddywinter - “thinking that I can sustain it all. The need for a team is incredibly necessary.”
- @jodyearley - “calling a Jr. High event SNR (Santa’s Not Real) and then promoting in the worship guide for the little kids to see.”
- @michaelharrison - “not delegating or empowering others to serve”
- @chuck_scott - “procrastinating and calling that relying on the Holy Spirit for prompting.”
- @youcanknowgod - “student ministry services that compete with weekend services”
- @jasonsalamun - “Not raising funds prior to launching our church.”
- @kellyadkins - “caring about something less than God does. also, caring about something more than God does.”
- @dale_schaeffer - “Changing who we are as a church to fit the demographics of a community…lesson: just be who you are and watch God work.”
- @kentshaffer - “Trying to take an old school projector down from the ceiling by myself. It broke, and I almost did.”
While some of these are humorous, the idea of "changing who we are as a church" can be very dangerous. When I worked with Max Lucado at Oak Hills Church, I ripped a phrase from his book, The Cure for a Common Life, and use it for churches: "Your church can't be anything you want it to be, but it can be everything God wants it to be."
Normalizing Absurdity
I recently shared a favorite Einstein quote in one of my posts. It became the seed to a session entitled Normalizing Absurdity that I will be doing at Leadership Networks Innovation Cubed Conference in January. Check out their post on it here.
Be Absurd or Don’t Be At All
I spent four hours with ten methodist church planters on thursday morning. I started the time by asking them to articulate their most pressing challenge. Half of them were in their first eight weeks after launch. The clearest common thread was the challenge of moving guests to core. One planter mentioned that after only a couple of months he was accumulating folks but didn’t know who was really on the team and who could really be counted on.
What is the key in calling people to commitment and cultivating real stakeholders? I challenged these planters with a quote from Einstein- “If at first the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.” I asked if their vision stretched the minds and hearts of their core and even their guests when given the chance to share. I asked if the could passionately explain why their church is different and why it will make a difference. I believe a bold, extravagant, unique, God-centered vision is critical to muster heroic sacrifice and radical contribution to get a plant off the ground.
Too often, leaders ask people to do petty, trivial projects in the name of Jesus and we wonder why we get trivial commitment. Or we set up a new church initiative with no compelling differentiator- why should someone drive past a more established church with better ministries to come to the new church plant? Jack Trout, the marketing guru says, “Differentiate or die.” My parting thought to these planters was an adaptation of Einstein- If you want to move guests to core, call them to a compelling vision- be absurd or don’t be at all!
