The saying ‘ministry builds people but leadership builds the Church‘ is largely true. Dr. Ian Jagelman, in his book ‘the Empowered Church’ writes; ‘Ministry is any activity which serves the needs of people. It includes such things as preaching, teaching, counselling, praying, visiting, feeding and cleaning and, Leadership is any activity which directs, influences, or facilitates ministry by others. It includes such things as planning, decision making, personnel selection and vision setting.

The Church in which the pastors become the professional ministers will grow to a certain size but then invariably fall back. A small group can only keep a limited number of people engaged for a limited time. If the people are not being mobilised, equipped and resourced as Eph 4:11-14 requires, they will never find fulfilment now nor one day hear their own ‘well done’ from Jesus. In NCD surveys, the ACC rates lowest on ’empowering leadership’. The view by many pastors is that it’s easier to do it themselves than to train others or that there is no one who wants to do it. Both views will keep Churches small.

Ministers default to ministry. Their diary tells the story. The church calendar and the board agenda also illustrate it. There is little leadership development only ministry meetings. Lots of presence but little process. Limited discipleship happens because people have limited engagement in growth opportunities.

Leadership can be cultivated but it requires changing long held patterns, operating out of comfort zones, associating with effective leaders, and trial and error processes to find new ways. When long hours and hard work see little result perhaps it’s time to work smarter and not harder.

The post Work smarter appeared first on Australian Christian Churches.

The post Happy Brains appeared first on Australian Christian Churches.

When we flung open our doors to the world to come and find God, we transitioned from a sacred space called a ‘sanctuary’ to the auditorium style the community is acquainted with. Churches that wanted to be inviting did the same with the foyer, converting them to mall type areas with cafes, service desks, open spaces, music experiences, advertising features and clear signage.

It doesn’t need a lot of money to be done well.

Here are some thoughts; Create spaces so that people can congregate sitting and standing after the service. Spaces to lounge, to stand and move on, to sit and chat over smaller café tables or larger communal tables, upright chairs at the right height for people who are older or infirm. Keep serving and exit areas free. Free up a space for those leaving to pass by information features.

Don’t set it up like the old school dance with seats around the outside.

A foyer is the ‘go between’ space where people are welcomed coming in, engaged while there and uplifted going out. It is the space where they can be greeted effusively, where children are settled down, questions can be asked etc, without the last three rows of a church turning around and losing focus in the meeting.

A separate existing space, or one created with dividers, curtains or the like will work. Modern and focused messages on fixed or pop up type stands should engage people with your vision and your culture. Information for new comers and a clearly marked service desk (staffed by a person in the know) so people who are new don’t have to find sister Wendy or brother Cyril.

Good coffee and tea (not instant) are a must. The décor and the ambience needs some creativity and some money spent on it. Ditch the clutter, the paper notices, cover the messages from the organisation you rent the facilities from. chuck the funeral home type flowers, the bread for the needy (do it another way), and the old lending library books. Go to a public place with great ambience where people hang around and reproduce it to the best of your abilities and to the needs of setting up and pulling down. Put a creative team onto it (under 35yo and if you have none, borrow some for the job). Learn from other churches and have people trained to make it a great experience coming in and going out.

The post What’s Inside? appeared first on Australian Christian Churches.

I said to my wife one day; “do I need to go to Church today?” She told me I had to, I was the pastor. Church can get really boring. In the light of busy lifestyles, family needs and more interesting pastimes, Church can be a chore. We ask people to give up their Sunday morning generally and in a church of 100 use up 200 man hours of time. Duty, and responsibility can only take a person so far. “Ought to” and “should” are not a language long sustained. Even if the die hardship do keep coming, when Church is a bore, visitors don’t come back and people don’t bring friends.

 God is not boring. Some things that will take the bore out: preach with enthusiasm, preach life relevant stuff, preach short, use audio visuals, be creative, adjust routine, introduce the true power of God, pray, prophecy, lay hands on people, liven up the calendar with focused events, introduce things that will make people laugh and cry, celebrate often, sing with a tempo that doesn’t drag, worship in short bursts, have a dynamic one hour service instead of a boring two hour one, good coffee and cake, a great welcome, less words and not more, finish on time, no talking head announcements – use PowerPoint at least, move the elements of the service around, get younger visiting speakers, don’t have a communion sermon, don’t let people who no platform gift to ‘have a go’, and, the list goes on. Boring meetings are usually ill considered and ill planned meetings that have fallen in the ruts of easy and usual. You will have creative people who can be mobilised to plan your meetings and a there is world of non boring Church ideas on Google. Consider using them.

The post Yawn appeared first on Australian Christian Churches.

The first time I went overseas everything was foreign to me. The food, language, sights, smells, and customs. It was disorienting. It was so strange that I would not have been surprised to see two moons in the sky. It was like another planet.

Church feels like that to many people who are not used to a Church service. That’s why the apostle Paul taught that the public meeting of the Church should be, well, public. He instructed the women in the Church in Corinth to cover their hair so that ‘they‘, the visitors from a Jewish culture, would not be put off the message. He taught that everyone shouldn’t go on and on in tongues or ‘they‘ would think they were mad and would be put off the message. (This is not the gift of tongues and interpretation. But even here Paul said it was better to prophesy so people could understand). He encouraged the women not to call out across the room in the meeting because ‘they‘ would be distracted from the message. I go to churches regularly where the interjectors distract.

The secret culture of the Church where people sing about lamb’s blood and broken bodies, want the names and addresses of people they have never met, collect a ‘tithe’, suddenly go off the song being sung and leave visitors standing, put their hands on and shout at people who have wandered out to an ‘altar’ call – all without a word of explanation, is alien to the public.

 Unless a Church is happy to stay where they are or only want to accommodate other church goers, they need to live on planet earth. Spirit contemporary Churches have found how to blend pentecostal expression with seeker awareness. Firstly explain everything that is happening, everything, clearly and succinctly. Secondly adjust language; prophecies don’t have to be in King James English and can be in the third person. Structure ‘free’ times; ensure people go to new people during a ‘greeting’ time and ‘free’ worship is short and is incorporated into a song and has a similar melody line. Non structured times disconcert new comers who don’t know what to do. Become an interpreter of culture and language to open the door and let ‘them’ in.

The post What planet are you on? appeared first on Australian Christian Churches.