Dr. Lee of Church Cohort Life shared that unless the church chooses to change people will pull back and potentially walk away from God.

Methods need to shift in order to keep people engaged.  If we won’t, people won’t experience the presence of God, healing and hope because they’ve unplugged from the godly influence.

Similar to Dr. Lee’s challenge, Rick Dubose of North Texas shared, “unless we choose to change the structure to meet the changing families, our church won’t continue to be effective.”   For example, a family of two function fine in a one room apartment; but a family of six would truly feel the pressure and crunch of that environment.

How adaptable has your ministry been to the changes of your community?  Are you willing to change the structure or format of your ministry offerings to remain effective?

In the unexpected seasons of life are the times when God wastes not a moment, a loving lesson, nor a time to show His character to us.  We often don’t like these times and wish them away, but if we could pause to see that every speed bump, detour and closed road has a kingdom building experience waiting for us, it may help.  I’d like to share a couple of stories with you to stir your heart as you enter this unpredictable coming year.

Closed Roads

Headed to spend some days with my family over the holidays we encountered a freeway that was closed.  Closed!  How do you have a closed freeway?  We of course hit the detour button on our GPS which took us seven miles out of our way only to dump us onto the soon closing freeway.  In the middle of the detour, we had some decisions to make as our four children were watching our attitudes and actions.  It made me think about the major financial decisions our church is experiencing where the “freeway was closed down” symbolically speaking.  Our congregation and ministry teams are watching to see our character as well as conduct.  It’s tough to keep it cool when things don’t go as planned while the Lord teaches us incredible lessons about trust and integrity.
(more…)

Where does courage come from? How do we become so courageous that we are able to walk through a season of change?

If courage is the state of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger or pain without fear then it is chosen state of mind.

So what affects our state of mind? Rest, nutrition, focus (what we give attention to in our thoughts), education, whether we start off weak or strong affects our ability to have courage in a situation are some of the things that affect our ability to walk courageously.

Courage comes also from the support of others who believe in you and who is at your side. Joshua was told by the Lord as he entered a new chapter of his life, “Be strong and courageous. Be very strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:6-9) He was not alone.

When was the last time you paused to remember that the Lord your God is with you wherever you go? Are you choosing to have a healthy mind and control what your mind dwells on? Be strong and courageous, the Lord has many things for you to accomplish for Him this year.

Getting out of the way is hard.  And for all the right reasons.  The hugs that run your way at the local grocery store.  The satisfaction that comes from crafting and delivering an engaging Bible lesson.  The joy of watching kids surrender their life to Christ for the first time.  It’s why we do what we do.

But as our church has grown and changed so has my role.  Four years ago I had to get out of the way and allow new leaders to take over my ministry environments.  And they are doing great.  God has done amazing ministry through them.  Things that would have never happened if I had held on to my ministry

And now it is my staff that get the thank you cards.  It is my staff who the kids run to each Sunday morning.  It is my staff who get to walk with kids as they enter into a relationship with their Savior.  And so I find my joy and satisfaction from something different.  In watching others experience the blessing of ministry.

Now that doesn’t mean you won’t still find me rocking babies in the nursery, stepping in for a sick small group leader, or helping the 4 year olds with their craft.  But in these environments I’m not the leader, just a volunteer doing what needs to be done.

Getting out of the way is hard.  But it’s worth it…for all the right reasons.

What’s your story?

KB

Have you ever been in a position that if you don’t change something you’re not going to make it? Or if you don’t take what you know you NEED to be doing seriously the consequences will pile on your mind faster than you can dig your way out?

Recently as I evaluated a weakness related to my ministry and realized it didn’t matter if I was good at it, or if I wanted to do what it took to make things work. I HAD to do what it took to see this through or my ministry efforts would die. I believe in finding people to be strong in my weakness, but this – I had to take care of myself. Meanwhile, the Lord was revealing areas I give attention that I need to let go. Interesting how God speaks in balanced terms even if I am not listening for it.

In your ministry or family what is it that you need to respond to before it consumes you? Have you taken a look at your time and made that “thing” the front of your attention?

I’ve become an insider.

When I arrived at my church a few years ago I had a ton of questions. Why are we doing that? Why is this here? How does that happen? What causes that? and so on. It was a great time of learning but it was a bit challenging to be able to ask all those questions without getting anyone to upset.

But I’ve adapted. Just a few months ago I had two things happen that showed me I had “drank the Kool-Aid” and am now wearing the same lenses as everyone else who has been around for a while.

The first thing happened as I was walking around with someone brainstorming how things could be better. We looked at a room and he asked why it had to be the type of room that it was. I was floored – by changing that room in the way that he suggested it would solve a problem that I had been pondering for the last 4 years.

Then, less than a week later I was meeting with my HR person about our summer camp. I’ve been making changes to the leadership structure each year to fit the strengths of the people that are hired and still get the tasks done. She asked one simple question: “Why is that two positions?” My only answer was that it was that way when I got here and it hadn’t occured to me that it could be different.

I’ve read a number of books and articles that mention this very concept – let someone from outside your church/ministry take a look, then listen to what they say. Having been an outsider I knew how valuable that could be…but I never realized I had moved categories.

Are you an insider? If so, who can you ask to take a look around?
If you aren’t, how can you be sure you’re still asking good questions?

Over the summer Matt Guevara, who has been handling the webmaster duties of the Cory Center, stepped into a new and unexpected role when his church leadership asked him to become the campus pastor of a future campus. Within weeks, the potential of a campus became reality and planning, hiring, and numerous other jobs were in full swing culminating in the launch of the new campus at the beginning of October.

Bethel Graduation

As Matt’s role changed in his ministry, he realized that his role at Cory Center would need to change as well. That’s how my journey with Cory Center begins…

I graduated from Bethel Seminary’s Children and Family Ministry program along with my good friend and Cory Center podcaster, Kyle. I’ve been in ministry for just over 10 years and have a passion to see fathers encouraging one another and engaging in the life of their children – you can see my thoughts on this at Orange Dads and likely will see that bleed through to my work here as well.

In 2008, with a desire to see the Church partner with parents to raise a generation that is excited about their father and their Creator, our family moved to the suburbs of Chicago from the Maryland/DC area. I accepted the call as Children and Family Pastor at the Evangelical Free Church of Wauconda, in (where else?) Wauconda, Il.

As part of the Cory Center, I’ll be taking on the role of Webmaster while Matt moves into a different role on the team. I’ll also author posts, lending my thoughts in the area of parenting helps, strengthening marriages, and leadership.

Every Monday morning, as I sit down at my desk with a hot cup of coffee and open up my laptop to begin another week of ministry, I am greeted by a reminder which reads, ‘Two Notes of Encouragement”

A wise man once told me that church culture is like a rudder of a huge ship.  Culture determines your direction.  If you turn it to quickly everyone falls off the ship.  But if you make small, incremental, intentional changes in the same direction over an extended period of time eventually the ship will be headed in the right direction.

As leaders it is our responsibility to manage the cultural rudder in a way that keeps people from falling off the boat, but also produces a culture where volunteers thrive and children and their families grow spiritually.

Several months ago, through God’s prompting, it became clear to me that the culture of our ministry was missing a spirit of encouragement.  This was not a shock to me.  Encouragement isn’t one of my gifts.  I’m a doer, so it is hard for me to pick my head up long enough to actually notice the amazing volunteers and ministry that goes on around me every Sunday.

So every week I force myself to slow down, look around, and notice.  All morning, in the back of my mind, I am thinking about those ‘two notes of encouragement’ that will face me Monday morning.  They force me to notice.  They force me to pay attention. They force me to live out a different type of culture.  And every week the rudder turns another two degrees.

Whatever the issue may be, as leaders, it is our responsibility to live the culture we want to create.  It is through this ‘living out’ week after week that we begin to change the culture around us ‘two notes of encouragement’ at a time.

What’s your story?

KB

I apologize for the length of this blog post in advance…

Every summer I end up with about a little over 4 weeks to prepare for the fall.  The vast majority of my summer is spent planning and executing our preschool camp (Hot U Jr) and elementary camp (Hot U).  This year we had over 1000 total kids attend the four weeks of Hot U!

As I prepare for the fall, I’m reviewing a document that I go back to often titled “Busting Barriers and Mindset Changes.”  I’ll share some of that document with you because that’s what I am, a sharing kind of guy.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Does a ministry with 60 kids need a different mindset than a ministry with 120 kids?  (If you’re Craig Groeschel, the answer to this is yes.  The basis for these notes was developed by a talk I heard Craig give several months ago.)

As leaders, part of our job is to think differently about our church culture and ministry context. What about your context needs to change? Try this fill-in-the-blank exercise:

Our people will not (fill in the blank).

•    Come early to drop off their kids

•    Show up on time to serve

•    Serve

•    Get into worship

•    Go on a missions trip

•    Respond to email

Now think of the fill-in-the-blank statements you wrote or chose and change them to: We have not led our people to (fill in the blank).  So often in leadership there is much blame given to the people when the problem is not a people problem, it is a leadership problem.  Every time you encounter a perceived cultural issue in your ministry context, translate that cultural issue to a leadership issue.  Leaders lead.  And the kids, parents, and families in your ministry context will probably reflect who you are. Ultimately you cannot export what you do not have to give.

As leaders part of our job is to think differently about programming.  For me the temptation is ALWAYS to do more to reach more.  But so often we have a lot of church activities without spiritual results.  We can reach more by doing less.  For children’s ministry, this is key because it allows the margin for families to have more time together and for leaders to do the things we are uniquely called and gifted to do well.  In my ministry context, this narrowing of the focus is tremendously difficult.  Even after cutting back programs and honing the calendaring process, it is still near-impossible to find a date to train an entire team of children’s ministry leaders because it overlaps with some other untouchable event.

As leaders, part of our job is to think differently about limitations.  Dean Butterfield, our guest blogger, wrote about this idea.  You might want to click over to his post on “Is Bigger Really Better” before you come back to this.  All churches have limited resources – it does not matter if you are a small church or a large church.  I served in a small church in downtown Rockford, IL as a volunteer pastor because the church could not afford to pay me anything.  There was no budget for children’s ministry programming so our VBS supplies had to be donated.  When I went to a larger church in Madison, WI I still had to solicit donations for programming.  It does not matter where you are in ministry, there will be resource limits and that requires leadership and creativity to manage.  Often times, God guides by what he does NOT provide.  Think of Peter, he did not have what the beggar asked for (“silver and gold have I none”) and because of that he was able to give the man what he really needed.  Great leaders see opportunities where others see limitations.

So what are you supposed to do now?

1)    Find someone one or two steps ahead of you and learn how they think. Most people want to learn what they do – not how they think.

2)    Identify one wrong mindset and ask God to renew your mind with truth.  Do it before you to bed tonight