the reluctant leader

What is an Every Nation Church (Part II Christ-centered)

This is the long-ago promised continuation of this blog about what an Every Nation church is supposed to look like.  (I’ve been traveling way too much lately – so my blogging has been less than consistent.)

Here’s my best description of why Every Nation Churches and Ministries exists:

To honor God and establish
Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, Socially Responsible
Churches and Campus ministries
In Every Nation

What is a Christ-centered church and campus ministry?

It seems absurd to have to say that we are trying to build Christ-centered churches and campus ministries. Of course a church should be Christ-centered. However, it is unfortunately common for churches and ministries to be centered on almost everything but Christ.

I have seen churches that are preacher-centered, personality-centered, doctrine-centered, worship style-centered, spiritual gift-centered, prophet-centered, profit-centered, vision-centered, building-centered, political agenda-centered…

Many mega-churches in my city (Manila) are known, not by the church name, but by the name of their bigger-than-life mega-leader – Brother Bill’s church, Pastor Peter’s church, Dr Dan’s church.

Here’s what Paul said about this idea of being Christ-centered:

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.     (Col 1:17,18)       
 
Ultimately we exist to honor God and point people to Christ, not for any man, doctrine or experience to take center stage.

*** Latest accidental missionary post HERE.

Leadership Lessons from Down Under

Great week here in Manila with the 2 Kevin's. Finally have a moment to update this blog, so here are some observations and lessons from my time in Australia with the Christian Outreach Center leaders:

1. Family/Ministry Balance.
It was refreshing to be around visionary men who were just as eager to tell me about their kids and grandkids as they were to talk about their ministries. I believe doing ministry is exciting and important - but not quite as exciting and important as doing family. Priorities matter.

2. Emerging/Established Leadership Balance.
While most of the COC pastors are older than me, they seemed to intentionally surround themselves with and empower next generation leaders. Most pastors naturally work with people 10 years older and 10 years younger. That means a 50 year-old pastor will usually have staff that is 40-60 years old. It takes deliberate effort for the 50 year old pastor to attract and work with teens, 20's and 30's. These Aussies seemed to pull it off - established leaders leading with emerging leaders - without killing each other.

3. Youth/Adult Balance.
It is rare to see 50 & 60 year old pastors filling their stage with worship leaders and music teams of young people in their 20's. While I might not always like the music style or the hairstyle - I love the results - a flood of young people "owning" the church and the vision. COC head honcho, David McD, said repeatedly, "it is not enough to just have a good youth group. If you want to reach youth, you have to make sure the youth influence and shape the CULTURE of the whole church." I agree with David.

In summary, my Aussie experience inspired me to focus on family, next generation leaders and youth. I hope the Aussies learned something from me.

Special thx to Sean Morris for inviting me to minister to the COC leaders.

New post on my accidental missionary blog, HERE.

 

Learning from Other Churches and Movements

My first year in the Philippines – 24  years ago – I was young and clueless about church planting, ministry and life in general. But I had a big vision and wanted to establish the kind of church that would eventually make a difference in my community (U-Belt), my new city (Metro Manila), the Philippines and the world.

At the time I was part of a bold church planting and campus ministry. Most of our churches and campus ministries were small. For some reason, I knew I was called to reach thousands, but very few churches in our movement had 100 members.

So I had to learn from others.

Since I had no idea how to plant a church that would reach 1000s and influence our community and culture, I visited seemingly "happening" churches in my quest to learn how to “break the missional code” in Manila. I visited several veteran Filipino pastors and foreign missionaries, and asked them questions about doing ministry in the Philippines.

Some really helped me. Some were too busy to see me. Others had more security than royalty and rock stars, so I could not get to them.

(NOTE: I'm sure those mega-church leaders would have gladly spent time with a 24 year-old clueless church planter, if only their pit-bull PAs had told them I needed help. Maybe that experience is why, today, I'd rather spend time with a pastor of a small church than a mega-church pastor.)

As I interviewed pastors and studied their ministries, I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. But maybe the most important lesson was the realization that there was so much to learn from other churches and movements. That wasn't really how the ministry I was in did things in those days. Others learned from us - or that seemed to be the prevailing attitude. 

I always encourage our new church planters and campus missionaries to visit the healthy growing churches and ministries in their cities before they start their ministries. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Find someone in your area who was "cracked the code" and learn from them. Don't compromise your vision and values, but learn all you can from others, then apply your vision and values to your context.   

Next reluctant leader blog will be about what I learned from my recent 10 day trip to Australia ministering to the pastors and leaders of the Christian Outreach Center church planting movement.