If the pastor, or any one leader, is leading a church board and is (by design or default) the primary decision-maker and evaluator of all the ministries of the church, then the church becomes too pastor-dependent. In other cases, perhaps without strong central leadership, some churches develop many ministries that fragment the limited time and resources of too few members. Just because the church manual has a “slot” for a certain ministry, does not mean every church everywhere HAS to do that ministry. Church members become busy, but the overall mission of the church is not coordinated. My philosophy is that I would rather do less, but do it very well.

Since I entered ministry, I have found the week to week and month to month challenges of administration and leadership to be an on-the-job learning experience! And while praying for the Holy Spirit, living true to Christ’s example, and even preaching powerful, Biblical sermons is vital, it is not enough to sustain the growth of the Kingdom of God in our churches. Take for example Jesus’ comment about wine and wineskins. New wine requires new wineskins. Fresh spirituality and empowerment needs functional and effective church structures to keep alive. 

One of my churches is currently brainstorming a new way to organize itself for more fruitfulness. We have simply defined our mission around three core priorities: love God (worship), love each other (fellowship), and serve our community (outreach). We want everything we do to be held to at least one of these core purposes. And furthermore, being a smaller church with busy families, we realize there is only energy and talent to do one or two major things in each of these areas.

Our idea is to form three ministry leadership teams around each of these three areas. We will shorten our board meeting time, and then allow each of these ministry leadership teams to meet simultaneously. We did not want to have three different teams meeting at all different times, because then communication, consistency, and burnout (for church-workaholics) will become a problem. This way, instead of one board under one person’s leadership trying to do everything, we make room for people to discover a specific area of passion and work together on a team for that area. There are no extra layers of administration required, just a different structure that decentralizes ministry planning and evaluation. As pastor, I work closely with the leaders and co-leaders of each ministry leadership team, but even I can’t be on all of them!

We hope this strategy will unleash the team-work model of local church leadership that the early church experienced (Ephesians 4). What do you think? 

And then some powerful quotes started hitting me-”Leaders are readers,” and other such quotes.

A few days ago I read this powerful post that really impacted me from Bob Franquiz. Allow me to share it with you:

And then last night I saw the movie based on the story of Dr. Ben Carson, renowned neuro-surgeon, and I was impacted by one of the simple tools that led to his success. His mother turned off the television! He had been quite a bad student, and his mother feared that he wouldn’t amount to much, so she allowed him and his brother to choose 2-3 shows to watch for the entire week. She also sent them off to the library to check out books and made them do reports based on the books they were reading. The discipline of reading is what helped to catapult him into his next levels of learning and excellence.

So I set a goal a few weeks back of reading one book per week. I don’t always make it, but I certainly try. The world has lots of mediocrity. And I don’t want to sit in that lot.

So how are you spending your time? What impact has reading made in your life? What have you been inspired by lately?

Here are some problems that I have with the book, though:

1. His mixed use of phrases: In the introduction to the book (p. xxxi) he gives some definitions of terms that he uses frequently. The problem comes in his definition of the use “unbiblical.” The Random House Dictionary defines unbiblical as “not in accord with, or sanctioned by biblical teaching.” In other words, something that is unbiblical is something that is against biblical principles. But Viola uses the term to refer to something that is not found in the Bible. Here he confuses the term extra-biblical with unbiblical. Something that is extra-biblical is something that is not found in the Bible. It is an emotionally neutral word.

The Bible doesn’t mention chimneys or a million other things. Those things are extra-biblical. It doesn’t mean they are evil, they just are not mentioned in the Bible. Yet, Viola uses the term unbiblical to refer to things that are not mentioned in the Bible. Unbiblical, of course, is an emotionally charged and loaded word. So when he uses the word unbiblical, it gives the impression that what he’s referring to is violating biblical principles. This is irresponsible. Crusades were taken because people violated biblical principles. Yet he uses this word with full force nonetheless.

2. His dismissal of Old Testament principles: With one quote Viola dismisses himself of any attachment whatsoever to anything that’s written in the Old Testament. He says, “Ancient Judaism was centered on three elements: the Temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifice. When Jesus came, He ended all three, fulfilling them in Himself…Consequently, the Temple, the professional priesthood, and the sacrifice of Judaism all passed away with the coming of Jesus Christ” (11).

 He uses this argument to attempt to erase any semblance of order in a worship service, leadership, or place of worship. So with the one quote, he completely divorces himself from the Old Testament and any principles that may be applied, and moves on to his ideal worship service. He uses this same argument to disavow any use of pastors in the NT.

3. His questionable application of historical facts: Though the book is filled with lengthy footnotes, it does not do them academic justice. You see, it’s one thing to have an observable fact. The other thing is how you apply it. It’s one thing to have data, but another thing how you extrapolate the data. He takes what happened in the New Testament as a prescriptive ideal of what has to happen in order for a church to be biblical. By doing this I think he misses the point that what happened in the New Testament worked as it should because they were being led by the Holy Spirit in the midst of persecution.

4. His dogmatism related to paganism itself: Viola wants to draw the line with anything that could possibly have had any pagan influence. I think one of the more important questions involved is, “can a pagan symbol be redeemed for Christian use?” I think the answer to that is yes. For example, in Numbers 21:6 God sent serpents amongst the people as a punishment for their rebellion. To quell the serpents that were biting people, the people were commanded to look upon a bronze serpent that Moses had shaped on a pole. Ever since Eden, serpents had been considered a symbol of sin, a symbol of rebellion against God. Through this action, God redeemed this “pagan” symbol and used it as a symbol for salvation. In Acts 17, Paul used the symbol of a pagan altar addressed “to the unknown god” (Acts 17:23), and used it as a bridge to take them from what they know, to where God is. He used a vehicle that was very familiar to them, and “reframed” it for the sake of Christ.

Regarding preaching he attempts to find its pagan roots through traveling-preaching pagan philosophers (89).  But did not Jesus preach and teach? Did not the disciples gather to preach? Did not Paul preach and teach constantly? He says, “research conducted by the Barna Group has shown that sermons are generally ineffective at facilitating worship, at drawing people closer to God, and at conveying life-changing information to those in the audience” (104).

This quote, however, is in direct conflict with research done by Thom Rainer, author of Surprising Insights From the Unchurched, which shows  that quality biblical preaching is one of the biggest factors in attracting the unchurched. Rainer says, “…we noted the high correlation between expository preaching and evangelistic effectiveness. Now we are hearing from the formerly unchurched that preaching that truly teaches the Bible in its original context is a major factor in reaching the unchurched…the formerly unchurched told us that they were attracted to strong biblical teaching and to understanding Christian doctrine” (58).

In referencing the use of the word “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11, Viola says, “This is the only verse in the entire New Testament where the word pastor is used. One solitary verse is a mighty scanty piece of evidence on which to hang the Protestant faith” (106). What Viola misunderstands, though, is that the modern role of pastor is akin to what is called an elder in the Bible. The apostle Paul would plant churches and set in place elders to lead the church. This was in line with the role that God had called him to as an apostle (church planter). But instead of noticing this, Viola tries to make the awkward connection that since Paul would start a church and leave, that churches that have pastors are functioning in an unbiblical form.

Although I agree with many of the findings Viola makes regarding pagan origins, I don’t agree with his conclusions that the only acceptable and God honoring form of meeting is in a home with out any kind of leader. As Christians, our job is to be missionaries to whatever culture has yet to be impacted, and to seek whatever methods we can to reach them that does not violate biblical principles.

The reason that Christianity is a little different in every country and culture is because people have taken this missionary principle seriously. What we bring to culture is not a form of worship, or a building, or a model of leadership, we bring them Christ. And our job is to speak to them in the language that they understand, all for the purpose of them understanding and accepting Christ.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Skribit helps build interactivity by allowing people to suggest and vote on topics that they’d like to hear about. (Full disclosure: I’ve installed it on my own blog, and am currently testing out the features. So if you’d like to suggest a topic for me to research and write about, write it in the Skribit tool on the Modern Ekklesia blog). This has originally been designed as a tool for bloggers, but I believe this could be of use to churches in several ways.

For one, churches can use Skribit on their website for a period of time for sermon suggestions. I’m planning on having a summer series called “You Asked For It! Top Questions From the Bible.” I’m asking the people to submit questions that they’d like to hear about. Out of all the questions that are submitted, I’m going to have them vote on the 8 most popular topics. They submit, vote, and prioritize the most important topics. That’s why it’s called “You Asked For It!” Get it? Ok…

Secondly, churches can use this as a digital suggestion box. The possibilities are quite endless. If you want to give people the opportunity to suggest and vote on anything, Skribit is your tool.

Have any other ideas for cool uses of Skribit?

**As an update, I’m planning on taking one or two questions a month that are addressed via the Skribit tool and answer them in a feature called “You Asked For It!” So thanks for the first two questions, and keep a look out for the new feature.

“Look, there are most of the churches in our community, but ours is not advertised in there,” she said in a stern voice , implying that it was my responsibility to make sure it was.

As I examined the newspaper, I realized that it was an edition that went out to an area completely populated by retirement communities. In fact, this area (which I will allow to remain nameless) is billed as “America’s premier retirement community.”

“Well, I think we could probably advertise online,” I responded, hoping that she’d give up her crusade. But that’s when she made a very telling statement-”But none of us are online!”

If you advertise in mediums that retirement age people use frequently, guess what kind of people you’ll get? If you advertise in mediums that younger people use…well, you guessed it.

So here’s the principle: how you advertise determines the kind of people you reach.

I know this sounds very obvious, but in that moment, this principle took on new life to me. If I were to advertise in that newspaper, it would be very clear the kind of demographic I would be reaching. We all need the gospel, but churches need to focus on who they can best reach in their own area.

If someone is looking for a church to attend, and happens to be in a younger demographic, Google is generally the first place that will be checked. Ten years ago, the first place someone would check would be the yellow pages or the newspaper. I think the last time I actually opened one of those bulky yellow pages was at least two years ago. So instead of advertising in that newspaper, I decided to jump on the Google Adwords bandwagon and give it a whirl. Here’s a great podcast that describes in detail how to advertise using Google Adwords. The podcast is called “God Bless Google.”

We’ve been using it for two weeks now, so allow me to share with you some of our preliminary findings:

Look: This is what the advertisement ends up looking like. When someone does a search for churches in tampa, they will see our ad on the right side of the page. **If you do a search for our church please don’t click on the ad. Every time you click on the ad it takes money out of our account. I want to reserve those ads for people that are truly making original searches. Thanks!

Cost: How much it costs depends on you. We currently put in $25 a month into the system. The more money you put in, the higher your ad will be on the page, and the more it will be shown throughout the day when someone makes a search.

Result: After two weeks of being on there, it’s been shown 1,912 times. Of those, 27 people actually clicked on our site, costing us a total $9.88. This puts us at .37 cents per click. 

We’ve found Google Adwords to be very relevant, inexpensive, and interactive. What more could you ask for?

Have you tried Google Adwords? What results have you seen? How else are you advertising?

Here’s an excellent quote that sums it up:
“Generation G captures the growing importance of ‘generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy—and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.

In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have replaced ‘taking’ as the new status symbol. Businesses should follow this societal/behavioral shift, however much it may oppose their decades-old devotion to me, myself and I.”

People are rejecting and distancing themselves from companies and organization that exhibit greed, and are coming to companies that are “more willing and able to give, to share, to collaborate; to be more ‘generous’ in many ways.”

He points to the success of generous/collaborative companies like Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and others to prove his point.

So what do we do with this information? Joseph Michelli, author of The Starbucks Experience, points to this culture of generosity (values-driven business model) in the company as a reason for the extreme loyalty of so many Starbucks customers. He gives examples of Starbucks having unannounced free coffee and ice-cream days and going (way) out of the way to surprise and delight customers.

What can a church do to connect to the high value of generosity? Nelson Searcy, pastor of the Journey Church has tried several things. First-time guests get a free book, as well as a gift that’s mailed to them a few days later. During a recent series on biblical finance, he gave away hundreds of free copies of The Total Money Makeover (a $15) book to those that attended.
They also give away lots of free resources and DVD’s, not to mention having a vision to connect with one million people through servant evangelism in the city of NY.

One would think that this kind of generosity will just make a company or church go broke, but those that have implemented systems of generosity have noticed the exact opposite. Instead of cultivating a mentality in the people of consumerism, they people are taught a valuable lesson on sacrificial giving and biblical generosity, which they learn and return on.

How are you modeling generosity? What has worked for you?