In my last article I wrote about the characteristics of a Pioneer leader, but character and outlook are different things. During the journey of congregational growth every leader will go through some personal growth seasons. Some of the things that we do when we first arrive in an unreached area will be very different to what we might do when we’ve got an established group of committed Christians.
My plan is to write some more of these series of articles which would include taking a Church from 15 to 25 members, then 25 to 50 and so on. Just now we might have to stop at 50 as that’s where our first congregation is at right now, but there will no doubt be growth in the future.
During each season of growth there is often a key mindset change that needs to happen in order to break the next milestone. As you can guess I’m writing these articles because I’m personally at a place right now where I can remember some of this stuff. We have three venues in Lincoln, one of which is trying to break 15, another which has just broke 25, and a third that is just about breaking 50.
All leaders are different, but most people are the same. As we walk through this process of growth you’ll notice firstly that things can be quite slow. Secondly you’ll notice that the reason for that is people. It’s the Church needing to go slow, and it’s you and I as people needing to learn some personal growth lessons to let the Church grow beyond the limitations that we sometimes put on it.
Pastoral Care
There are three reasons that people get behind a vision or mission. (1) Their selfish ambition. (2) They love the Lord. And (3) they love their leader. When we first got started in Moorland I knew that pastoral care wasn’t my predominant gifting, and so I tried really hard to do it well.
In the beginning I used to try to visit everyone in our Church every week. I had a few good reasons for this. I felt that it would show that I love them. I would raise their aspirations. I also felt that it would make me a better Pastor.
If truth be told, the only thing that it really did was to help people get to know me. They realised that I wasn’t wasn’t self-seeking, and that I genuinely loved them. We had some fights over doctrine and character, but I still visited the next week. It showed that I was faithful to them. We won their hearts and so they decided to stay with us on the journey. Of the fifteen people that had joined us by December 2013, ten people are still part of Ignite Church. We’ve been travelling this road together for nearly five years. That is because I love them, and they love me.
You shouldn’t show empty love to people in order to grow your Church. Instead try forgetting about Church growth and start thinking of personal growth.
We had a bit of an issue in those early days and some guys left our Church, but before they did, and as they did, Jesus had a lesson for me. I remember asking Jesus how was I ever going to get these guys to love each other. One day I got a phone call saying that someone was stuck at a shop with some heavy stuff and couldn’t get home. Then all of a sudden it was all ok. Someone else from the community had just walked into the shop and was able to give them a lift. In that very moment Jesus said: “I will build my Church”. He didn’t mean numerically, he meant that he would build bigger people out of our community. On this occasion he was injecting some love for one another into our community.
Evangelism
As a Pioneer you need to be super evangelistic. Often the biggest problem with a daughter Church – a group of people that are transplanted out of a large established Church into a new area – is that they already come with a mindset. The Church needs pastoring, and there’s no time or zeal for Evangelism from among the community or the Pastor. When you have zero people to look after you can spend all your time thinking up new ways of reaching out to the unchurched. If you’re trying to pioneer today and you’re not strong on Evangelism, then get strong whilst you have a chance.
Not only do you need to attract the lost, but you also want to set a culture of being evangelistic in the Church from the offset. If you show your community that Christians are naturally evangelistic in the early days, they will keep on being evangelistic as you carry on the journey.
The Church in the West has put Pastor/Teachers on a pedestal for the last hundred years, but right now the amount of people that are in the Church to be Pastored or taught is dwindling. The Church needs to start putting Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists back on the pedestal before it runs out people to teach.
As a side note, if you crack on with your evangelistic endeavors you’ll have absolutely loads of people that make commitments to follow Jesus. You’ll learn later on in the journey that the hard part is discipling them. You should look for ways to do this from the start of the journey.
Allowing Failure
People that are the hardest on others will be the hardest on themselves. This is right for Church leaders, and it is also true for those that are becoming Christians.
We need to show grace, and preach grace, and condone grace, and push grace onto people. So often you get a whirlwind convert come and sweep you off your feet with how sold out and passionate they are for the Church. Often they can be quite judgmental, and might even get angry at ‘sinners‘. Sooner or later they will be a sinner too, and they’ll get it wrong. If you don’t find a way to teach them grace before they get there you’ll lose them, and a few others with them too.
Allowing failure extends to the way that we let people try to lead and serve in the Church. If Aunt Pat is offering to head up the refreshments team, but then swears on her Facebook page, it’s worth giving it a little mention at some point, but if you take her job away you’ll have her pulling everyone up on their so called ‘sin’ forever more… if she sticks around.
We shouldn’t condone sin, or bad manners in this case, but God can and will still speak through Pat during a ministry time or at the café with her mates.
Celebrating Easy Wins
You’re going to kick yourself when you’re down because that’s just what we fleshy tikes are like, but if you’re going to beat yourself up you may as well celebrate yourself too. I’ve made a point of not shouting out on social media each time we lead someone to Jesus for two reasons, firstly I don’t want other Church leaders to feel pants, and secondly because I don’t want the people that I’m discipling to feel like I’m just using them to score points.
However, you can celebrate salvation at home, with your leader friends and even in your Church services. In fact, if you celebrate someone becoming a Christian in your services you’ll soon start seeing more people inviting their friends to Church.
What we celebrate we cultivate!
This whole series is really about celebrating the different seasons of Church growth, and the overall mindset of someone who is pioneering a Church and trying to break 15 needs to be one of partnering to build the Kingdom of God in our community. Try to look for Kingdom friends to connect with in your city, town or village and don’t make every conversation about your life or goal. Celebrate their wins as well as your own, and try to really love people no matter how mucky or stupid they come across at times.
There are no pigs in the Kingdom so scatter your pearls.
Finally, I said that there is a key mindset that you need to break each milestone. To break 15 you’ll need to do anything and everything to win the lost. Paul would tell you to try every gimmick, and so do I. You’ll soon realise which ones work.
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