Instead of highlighting The Fastest Growing Churches, I recommend we highlight The Slowest Churches, i.e. those that help us most to slow down and pay attention to God, ourselves, and others.
Creating opportunities for people to form community, friendship and biblical connection doesn’t just happen. But when we become intentional in how we create environments for people to connect with God and each other ‒ we create a culture of radical hospitality.
Whether you lead a church, a business or organization, the tone you set will be reflected among your members, employees or other followers. If you fail to set an example by resting for refreshing, renewal and recharging, others will imitate you. The result will be a burned-out, irritable, disloyal group of people.
How do we as leaders know when to keep going and when to rest? How do we avoid becoming TOO comfortable with this world and its comforts as we seek to fulfill our calling as leaders?
Being a leader doesn’t mean you allow poor quality of work to prevail. There are times a leader has to micromanage. We need good systems and processes.
Simplicity brings with it focus, energy, clarity, understanding and power. Is it easy to get to this level of simplicity? Definitely not. It is excruciatingly difficult and totally worthwhile.
Let’s consider five limitations of church programs so that we don’t treat these programs as if they’re simple formulas for producing mature disciples of Jesus.
The world hungers for and desperately needs institutions that practice forgiveness well enough to train us in failure, that tell the truth and that teach ways of repair. Without such institutions, it is, quite simply, difficult even to breathe.
Many Christian workers make the mistake of assuming that they are earning shares in the ministries they work for through their hard work and dedication. It seems logical. God is the sole owner of the church. Always has been. Always will be. He paid for it with the priceless blood of Christ.