Which Church Do You Want To Grow?

This thought came to me yesterday in the only room in my house where a person can really think: the bathroom. So many church leaders & church members talk about church growth, but I wonder which church they are really talking about. Are they talking about THE church (Big C, the Kingdom, etc.), or are they talking about their church (you know, Fill in the Blank Baptist Church, Methodist Church, or Community Church). Experience has shown me that most people are talking about #2. They want their church to grow. In fact I've watched people get mad when other churches are growing which leads them to criticize the other church saying that the church is shallow or only trying to entertain people. The problem is that I think we're all missing the boat if all we are talking about is our church growing & even if we're being very spiritual & talking about the Kingdom of God growing. I've decided I don't want the church (institutional or global) to grow. I want the church (remember? the people, the real church) to grow.

I know what you're saying, "Why can't we have both?" Yes, we can, but most of the time we as leaders plan & program to grow our church (institution) without really evaluating whether or not we're growing the church (people). If leaders focus on growing the real church (the people), then the institution will grow, & it will grow properly. It will grow because God's people are being transformed, & they are living that transformation out in front of a world that is searching for change. Jesus didn't die for an institution. He died for people. We must seek to redefine church growth as growing people. Out of that kind of church growth flows all of the other stuff that many of us have become preoccupied with.

What do you think? Which church have been trying to grow? Have you been guilty of putting the institution ahead of the people?

Old School Resources-Books

You remember books right? Books are those things with real paper pages with words printed on them. People used to put them up on shelves (by the way, a good library looks way cooler than your Kindle, I'm just sayin). Needless to say I'm a book guy; call me old fashioned, but I love books. Here are a few that you must read. They're not all leadership, & most of the ones that are have practical, real life application too.

The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley
This is Andy's latest book & it's really great. In fact it's so practical that you don't even have to believe in the Bible to appreciate the wisdom of it. Definitely worth picking up.

Visioneering by Andy Stanley
Yeah, Andy again. If you look at my own personal library, you'll find his name a lot. Visioneering is an amazing book for leaders (business, ministry, or family). You don't have to be a pastor or business leader to be able to take the principles & put them into practice. I read this book at least once a year.

Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley
I promise this is the last time I'll highlight on of Andy's books, but this one is great too. It profiles a handful of qualities that leaders must pursue in order to maximize their leadership ability. It's also set up in such a way that a small group or staff could work through it together. I've taken students through the material in this book, & they loved it.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
I believe every Christian should have at least two books: The Bible & Mere Christianity. This work by Lewis is still one of the best explanations of Christian faith, & you can find it in pretty much any book store. It is universally considered to be a classic.

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
You can't recommend some books on leadership without at least one John Maxwell book. This one is still a must read. You can't go wrong with any of John's books, but I'd recommend this one because so much of his teaching is built on these leadership principles.

Chazown by Craig Groeschel
This book might not be as well known as the others, but it's really good. Craig breaks down the necessity for having a vision for you life. Then he zeroes in on some specific areas of your life in which you need to apply that vision. It also has on of the coolest cover/packaging designs that I've ever seen.

The Bible
Here are some things I've been reading through a lot this year. Many of these I've gone back & read multiple times because these books & passages have been so powerful to me right now.
Judges-Most Christians skip right over this book, yet it's one of the most action packed & scandalous books in the Bible. It's a picture of what happens when people decide to do what is right in their own eyes.
The Sermon on the Mount-So often these days people claim they want to go "deep" in the Word. What most of those people mean is they want more information, but the truth is that it doesn't get much deeper than Jesus' words found in the Sermon on the Mount. Read honestly, it will convict & challenge you.
Proverbs-Seriously, you'd be a fool to ignore this book. Read one a day for the next month. You'll be shocked at how practical it is.
Acts-Specifically the first few chapters. Watch how the church came to be. Watch how they prepared for a movement of God & how they responded to what God did & how they dealt with some of their first issues.

I could go on & on, but I won't. If you've got some books you'd like to recommend, leave a comment. Or if you want to know of other books I'd recommend, just let me know.

More Resources-Blogs

Today I wanted to share with you a list of blogs that I read pretty much everyday. The writers of these blogs not only share great leadership insights, but their insights almost always apply to everyday life as well. The first group I'll share are all guys who lead great ministries that are impacting their communities in amazing ways.

Evotional.com-Mark Batterson is the Lead Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. His blog is a good mix of his personal life, ministry, & leadership insights. Mark is a gifted writer. He's had a couple of books published as well that I'll be sharing later in the week.

Swerve.Lifechurch.tv-This is the blog of Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor of Lifechurch.tv, & Bobby Gruenewald, Pastor & Innovation Leader at Lifechurch. Craig shares some great insights on growing as a believer & as a leader. Bobby often shares about technical innovations or creativity in ministry. Another cool aspect to the blog is that they often utilize guest bloggers from inside Lifechurch to give you an even broader perspective on leadership & ministry.

PerryNoble.com-Perry is the Senior Pastor of Newspring Church in Anderson, SC. That's right Anderson, SC! Perry's raw & unfiltered style has won him some big time followers & more than his fair share of critics as well, but as you read Perry's posts & listen to him speak, you'll understand that he has a love for God & God's people that compels him to speak the truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Perry's blog is probably my favorite blog on the Internet.

StevenFurtick.com-Pastor Steven leads Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. He's a gifted young leader who is leading an explosive ministry but who refuses to be satisfied. He continually challenges Elevation to continue to reach Charlotte & the world. His blog utilizes audio & video posts pretty often which is a cool feature. Just last week, he posted excerpts from the IMPART Conference that Elevation hosted.

One final blog for today...

Seth Godin-OK, so Seth isn't a ministry leader, but he is a marketing & business guru. Some of his insights are amazingly profound. He has a great communication style & a great ability to make his point clearly & concisely. Ministry leaders & business leaders would greatly benefit from his blog. The great thing is that some of these insights are purely about organizations; many of them can be applied to life in general. I think that's what has made Seth such a compelling writer & leader.

Tomorrow I'll share some books that I think are well worth the cash you'll have to lay down in order to get your hands on them.

What are some of your favorite blogs? There's so many out there; how did you stumble upon the ones that you read regularly?

Resource Week

This week I'm going to pass on some of the resources I've found really helpful for me in my growth as a believer & as a leader. The great news about a lot of this is that it's totally free because it's online. I will recommend some books that you should definitely go out & buy. They'll be worth so much more than the price on the cover.

The first area I'll hit are some websites & blogs that I use simply for reading & also for study helps in studying the Bible & preparing lessons.

The Blue Letter Bible-This is a site I've found recently that allows you to easily access the original languages of the Bible in an online way. You just enter the passage you're reading & it brings up lots of good resources like the original languages, other uses of the word, etc. It's not hard to use; just play around a bit & you should get the hang of it. This isn't going to be for everybody, but it could be useful if you're interested in digging into something a little deeper than just a brief devotional. It's a good online tool for lesson prep.

Catalystspace.com-This site is one of the best out there in the arena of leadership, especially Christian leadership. Not only does this site offer great online articles, but you can also subscribe to their digital magazine Catalyst Leadership or the monthly Catalyst Monthly which synthesizes the best stuff from the site for the entire month. Excellent stuff here!

Lifechurch.tv Open-This site is an amazing asset for those of us who have to regularly teach & preach. Lifechurch.tv has put their resources available for FREE to pastors & teachers. For me, the best part is their creative elements. Rarely do I use the actual lessons, but there have been many times that I had a lesson or a series that I wanted some cool creative pieces before & this was the place to go.

Here are a few blogs that I read often:

The Bowman Family-This is my wife's blog, & I don't think she realizes that she's a pretty good writer. It's also got some great pics of my little girls, Julia & Audrey. If you have any desire to know more about my personal life, you'll find it here.

BradLomenick.com-Brad is the director of Catalyst. He's got some amazing insights that he brings on life & leadership. Besides the fact that he's an Oklahoma Sooner fan, he's a pretty sharp guy that you should check out.

Flowerdust.net-Flowerdust is the blog of Anne Jackson. Anne has also served on the staff of Cross Point Church in the Nashville area. She's now focusing on speaking & writing. Her blog is many times raw & always thought provoking. Anne is one of the giants in the blogosphere, & she would hate that I wrote that about her.

Tomorrow I'll share some other blogs that I read pretty much everyday. I promise these are people that you need to be reading because they are great thinkers & great men of God, plus they're usually pretty entertaining to read too, & that always helps.

Religion or Revolution?

This is a copy of my guest blog post at www.jackalopekid.com from last Friday. It's a little longer than my normal posts, but when you might only have one shot you need to leave it all out there.

I've been in church most of my life. I grew up in a church where our pastor screamed & yelled to the point that we all feared he would have a heart attack. I've been to camp, sung the songs, raised my hands, & done all of that stuff. As a pastor, I've even led those camps. Yet a few years ago, I asked myself, "Is this really what Christianity is?" Is Christianity nothing more than going to worship every week, & if you're really holy, going to your small group every week? Or is there something more? Could it be that we've been called to a life that is bigger than worship services, Sunday School, & potluck dinners? I found the answer in an unlikely place: the words of Jesus!

In the book of Acts, Jesus blows away all of His disciples' ideas about what it meant to be associated Him. They were thinking about marching on Jerusalem & throwing the Romans out. Actually, they were thinking about Jesus doing that; they would just be there to share in the spoils of victory! They were expecting a revolution that would set them free from the Roman oppression over Israel. Jesus had something very different in mind.

Jesus envisioned a revolution too, but it was a revolution of faith not politics. And Jesus wasn't going to be the one to take it forward. It was going to left in the hands of this rag-tag bunch of disciples who had a loud mouthed fisherman named Peter as their leader. Not only were they going to be the ones to take this thing to the next level, Jesus said they would take it global. Think about that: global? Most people in the first century weren't going to travel more than a few days from home, & these guys from the backwoods of Israel were going to take a story about a Jewish carpenter into places like Rome & Athens? Yet these guys believed it. Not only that, they actually did it! Within a few decades of Jesus' words, His followers had managed to take the gospel to every corner of the known world. These guys believed in the revolution. They believed that Jesus really wanted to change the world through them. Now years later, I wonder how many of us actually take Jesus seriously here. Do we really believe what Jesus says?

Do we really believe we are the agents of this revolution? Or are we content with simply "doing church"? Jesus says that by the power of the Holy Spirit we are going to be a part of a revolution that is global in scope & eternal in significance, yet so many of us live lives that are consumed with me, myself, & I & the here & now. Do we think Jesus was just giving us a pep talk before He went back to heaven?

If we want to be a part of something more than just a religion, if we want to be a part of a movement, a revolution of faith, then we have to embrace the words of Jesus. We have to let go of the excuses. The excuses have to melt away in the shadow of the power of His Spirit. We have to be consumed by the call that challenges us to leave an impact on the entire world, beginning right where we are now. If you find yourself doing religion & not participating in a revolution. throw off all of your preconceptions about what Jesus can do or wants to do in you & simply start being the agent of Christ in this world.

What excuses do you need to abandon? Where do you need to be that agent of Christ? How can you be a part of Christ's global, eternal revolution?