A prescription for perseverence

Do today’s leaders know what it takes to mentor the next generation? Here are four things we all need to influence young leaders.

As you head into these final few weeks leading up to Easter just think of all the people who will be invited to your online and onsite experiences. Imagine all those people engaging and receiving personalized, follow-up messages from you. Are you ready?

In this blog you will find helpful ideas and resources for creating your Easter Experience whether you are in person or online, needing an online plug and play, or simply some Pinterest ideas to enrich what you are already planning.

Pastor Joachim Chisanga is one of the millions of people on the move for reasons benign and tragic. He misses the warmer, free, expressive climate and worship in southern Africa but he has adapted to southern Alberta. His perspective on adapting to change and leading outbound, adaptive change is informative.

Updated resources to access The Alberta Government or AHS for clarification on COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions. Links to helpful sites to empower Kids Min leaders.

Medium-Sized Communities (MSC) are where you belong before you believe. They are safe step before a person chooses to become a part of a small group. MSCs are an environment where the unengaged get engaged in biblical community, the lost come to know Jesus, leaders are developed, lives are restored, care and prayer happens both in and outside of the groups, and both introverts and extroverts find community. It’s the “one anothers” being lived out.

God is doing miracles through online outreach. Here’s the reality: Church attendance is not decreasing; it’s decentralizing. Digital channels do not compete with physical attendance, they partner with it. A discipleship pathway will serve you in making digital disciples.

A “Discipleship pathway” is the intentional route, steps, and paths in your church to develop missionary disciples for Kingdom impact. It is the engine for the effectiveness of your mission. The goal for a discipleship pathway is never to get someone through it; the goal is to get individuals to own it. As long as the church owns the pathway, the only possible response for an individual is consumption. When something is ours, a shift happens inside of us, and we tend to approach it in a fundamentally different way.

Things we must take with us as leaders into the future of the Church.

Easter spells hope. Clarity creates certainty. No one knows for sure what gathering restrictions will be like at Easter. AHS Step 3 may go into effect on March 22nd. What that means for gathering restrictions is unknown. Planning for an onsite AND an online service this Easter weekend creates certainty for your team and congregation and hope for seekers in your community.

Our world desperately needs disciples who not only call themselves Christians, but who reflect Jesus. The accountability factor is what takes a micro-shift from the individual level to the church-wide level and where you can begin seeing discipleship as a system from a thirty-thousand-foot level. When a micro-shift is made at this level, your church will embark on a new trajectory to both spiritual and numerical growth.

25 years ago Starbucks made a shift. If Starbucks had only focused on the what, without making an intentional shift to the where and when, they would not have experienced the widespread success that they have. After all, people do not just go to Starbucks for the coffee; they also go to relax, read, work, and have conversations. This micro-shift led to a macro-change in the coffee-drinking culture. What if you could make a similar micro-shift as a church leader that would result in a macro-change in your disciple making culture? What if this micro-shift would set your church on a trajectory to both spiritual and numerical growth? Would you consider it?

She felt a nervous excitement signing up for the women’s event. It wasn’t easy to do, but she reasoned that spending time with other Christian women would allow her to meet friends and find a welcome into the life of her new church. No one welcomed her. Everyone was busy. The only seat open was a corner one on the very last row. Every occupied chair seemed to scream, “You aren’t welcome here. We already have friends, and you aren’t one of them.” Of course, this was not the intent. Still, it was a memory she never forgot.

Obsession may seem like a sinister thing in Hollywood movies, but it's fuel when it's directed toward godly outcomes. Those who obsess over their mission are likely to stick with their work well beyond the time the non-obsessed have given up. Obsession is a passion of the resilient.

As church leaders move into the future it would serve us well to be exposed to the diversity of the world. If we aren’t, our default mental models will create a single-story narrative to help us make sense by making simplistic assumptions that ensure our comfort and keep us from having to change.

As COVID-19 continues to affect in-person gatherings for churches, congregations need to once again consider options for conducting annual congregational business meetings. Here are some answers to questions you may have.

Resilience can be developed by anybody of any age. Leaders across Canada offered their personal practices that helped them build resilience. Good for you, your family and your team.