Climbing The Summit 4,000 Feet!

At one time Gary Hamel was ranked as the #1 influential business thinker by the Wall Street Journal. His book, entitled The Future Of Management, is one I purchased (not read yet) after the Leadership Summit was over. Gary is the next speaker I will try to unpack for you in this series on covering the Leadership Summit I attended, sponsored by Willow Creek via satellite feed. The theme was, “Lead Where You Are!”

Gary asked us a question -- “Is your church changing as fast as the world around us?”
Most of us already realize that the church is typically 10 -20 years behind the times. So it was, to my mind, a loaded question. Because of this fact, it was no surprise that his next statement was, “The church is losing market share in this world!” Here again, another no brainer; we have all known for quite some time the statistics that tell us the church of today is not very effective in reaching out to a lost and dying world. So what is one to do? Gary is convinced that it will take a crisis (Praise God for that. It is already happening.) and a change of the way leaders manage (That’s your call.) to turn the ship around.

Profound paradigm shifts are taking place in the world, and the church is not adapting to these. Our problem is inertia. Lots of organizations are going backward, including the church.

Here are three key imperatives that may help the church regain momentum and thrive once again.

Gary advises us to first of all, conquer denial. Denial oftentime rears its ugly head as dismissal, rationalization, mitigation, and a lack of honest confrontation of self. Face the facts. Deal with the elephant in the room.

Question our beliefs (how we do church or practices). Take some time to listen to the renegades and the dissidents. Let’s not be like the leaders of Jesus’ days. They rejected the radical, the revolutionary (Jesus).
 
Secondly, we need to generate more strategic options. Change needs to seem more exciting than staying pat. There is a need to deconstruct what we already know. If orthodoxy is crippling us, we need to examine that. Are we simply doing what every other church is doing and failing at it? Examine everything we have done at church and what hasn’t changed in the last 3-5 years. Jesus was radical and unconventional. Are we? Are we more committed to changing lives than doing church? Here is a test for all of us -- try sacrificing some of those churchy things we do that are getting in the way of doing what Jesus wants.
  
Do you believe it is dangerous for a few people to control the initiation of change in an existing organization -- when entrenched leaders prohibit needed changes? Top down structures are crippling many churches today. Is there an alternative?

Third, the church needs to get back to more of an organic church model of the first century. We need to reinvent the way we manage and lead, and base it more on the first century Biblical model than the latest corporate model.

There you have it -- more advice at overcoming acedia in our churches. We will advance to the Leadership Summit at 8,000 feet next time!

Climbing The Summit 2,000 Feet!

As the mountain climbers approached the summit, their entire bodies were about to give in to exhaustion. The climb had been demanding and almost fatal. One wrong move, one piece of equipment failure, a lack of oxygen, inclement weather conditions, or a lack of training, could all result in the climbers not only not reaching the summit but possibly going home in a body bag. But once you get to the top and have conquered the peak, all the suffering you went through to get there is soon forgotten, as your mind is racing with thoughts of this achievement!

I recently attended my first Leadership Summit sponsored by Willow Creek via satellite feed. The theme was, “Lead Where You Are.” Like mountain climbing, trying to reach the summit, I found each speaker a little more challenging, a little more profound. But once the two day event was over, I basked in the refreshing winds that are blowing through my heart as I heard the voice of God speaking to my hungry soul.

It will be my task over the next several blogs to highlight some of the speakers and what the topics they addressed mean to the church. So let’s put on our climbing gear and start to head up the mountain.

Bill Hybels' topic (He founded Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL.) was “Leading In A New Reality.” He claims, as we all know, that the church has been blindsided by an economic rogue wave. With this type of storm there is a need for constant action at the helm or the ship will sink. Bill highlighted four lessons that will help us steer through these turbulent times.

Philosophically, we need to act quickly and decisively. We need to be the church no matter what -- an Acts 2 church! The question is -- do we still believe that the local church is the answer, no matter what the times are? We need to be confident that He will teach us lessons we will never forget during these sea squall times. There is nothing like the local church when the local church is working right! How is your church doing philosophically?

Secondly, consider Kingdom Economics. The math makes no sense from a human prospective. Jack Welch (the famous CEO with General Electric) states:”In a crisis, cash is king.” I am sure that the economic times have led to many a discussion in board rooms about what to do. Willow Creek has developed the following plan that may give us a starting point of discussion. In their new budget plan they have decided that there should never be more than 50% of total revenues going towards staff salaries, which means there will be a need for more volunteer empowerment. Ten percent of all revenue will be given away -- notice they did not cut missions. Ten percent will be poured into where the Spirit is working -- I like the freedom here, to keep in touch with God. Fifteen percent will go into ministry. And 15% will go into running the physical plant. Right now people are hungry to hear about money management God’s way! And people will still give generously and sacrificially to God’s red hot visions!

Thirdly, look up the peak into the relational front. In this lesson Bill concentrated mostly with people who are on staffs. There are many churches considering or already going through massive staff reductions. He did make a reference to Jim Collins' new book, How The Mighty Have Fallen. A good question to start with is, “How many absolute key seats are in your organization?” After answering the first question the second would be, “Out of X number of key seats, what percentage are the right people?” What is our plan for filling the rest of the keys seats with the right people? Are we developing backup people for the keys seats we have? Bill stated, “that a fired up, gifted person, that God will do something great through, is the key person!” Sounds like a church planter, eh?

On to the last lesson, which deals with the personal level, we need a replenishment strategy in place. Don’t get to the place in which you are doing God’s work but it is destroying God’s work in you! We need to reinvent a replenishment strategy for the new reality. Find out what fills your bucket and go for it. Get wired with God more! The replenishment of our bucket (Roman 8:6) can be energized by life and peace with the Holy Spirit. When we are filled up, we will lead best. The temptation during these turbulent times is to work 24/7. We need to slow down and listen to God, and He will whisper in our ears, “in My time not yours”. We need to develop rock solid God confidence! What do people see in us these days, “Exhausted and fearful or confident in God”?

Deal with it.

We have all heard about missionaries who have been killed or subjected to extreme torture because of their faith. I expect persecution from those outside the church. I do not expect it from those inside the church. Right?

But in my recent day alone with God, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart the following two Bible passages, both in II Timothy 3 – 3:12 states, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” and 3:1 says, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.”
It’s not heads or tails, will we be persecuted? It’s, we will be persecuted!

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why does it seem we are always persecuted?” Jesus, you told us they will hate us because they hated you. I shake my head and say to myself, “Why this attitude that I shouldn't expect persecution,
that ‘surely, when we became Christians, we were inoculated with a special serum that prevents this deadly disease from affecting us.’ Am I living under a rock? Don't I believe what your word says? Is there a reason why I shouldn’t expect head on collisions with the enemy – broken glass, sheared metal, blood, death?”

Satan laughs at the “World Wrestling Federation” spectacles that go on in churches between believers, which at times lead to divisions. Life gets difficult. We need more strength from God in these times and to not rely on our own steroids (What strength enhancing methods do you use?).

My first thought after God impressed II Timothy 3:1 on my mind was, “Why do I believe my street address is in Disneyland, that I won't meet up with the enemy at every other street corner, that I might as well give up because it's too hard, that I would rather slide back under the covers and not get out of bed, because I am too tired to face the bogey man?”

We cannot fight these battles on our own strength (unless we enjoy being a punching bag for the enemy) but have to rely on God's strength to get us through the difficult times. Don't throw in that towel. Don't give up. Never say die. Be strong and courageous (See Deuteronomy 31:6,8.). There will be – not there might be – difficult times.

Buck up, camper. Maybe we need to stop using God's armor for defense only and do some attacking, overcoming acedia in this area of our lives. “Persecution, schmersecution.” “Difficulty, schmifficulty." Deal with it.