What to do when your church is content - but shouldn’t be
My book fell open to that page believe it or not, page 51 (makes me think of one of my favorite verses – Luke 9:51.) Jody Flowers was sent to a church that had plateaued. He asked himself “how can a new pastor take an impressive but flatlined church to new levels of outreach and faith?”
Answer: Sow intentional seeds of discontent
He asked questions like this,
“Isn’t it great that God is bringing people to our region who need Jesus?”
“I wonder why over 20 years we’ve only seen 46 new people (added to our worship attendance.)”
“When is the last time we’ve heard a testimony of someone who came to faith through this church?”
I love how he got them to think regionally just by posing the question that way - not our town or community or even parish but our region.
He took to heart the quote, “to plant a church, stay on your knees, but to transition a church stay on your face,” as prayer became the foundation for all they did and do. Simply put he said, “we are about drawing a crowd so we can disciple a crowd.” At one point they used a Disciple 12 x 12 model where they sought to have 12 groups of 12 people working on becoming disciples together. Perhaps that could be your vision for 2012. Our own Due West UMC uses a similar approach by “Making Disciples out of Followers and Followers out of Wanderers.”
The changes were not without resistance but the fruit was hard to deny. One member was heard to say, “I don’t know who all these people are but what’s happening in their lives is great.”
For more insight pick up Dale Galloway and Warren Bird’s book Innovative Transitions: How Change Can Take Your Church to the Next Level and maybe your copy will open to the page you most need to read that day!
Or visit Chapin UMC in South Carolina to see it in person. http://www.chapinumc.com
What are you waiting for?