Transformational Relationship Webinar | Ed Stetzer & LifeWay Research
Notes taken by Stevan Sheets | http://www.stevansheets.com | Twitter - @navets
SESSION #1 - Thomas Rainer
5 Principals –
1. The principal of L+1
L=Leader
Leader plus 1
Ask God to use ME!
2. Principal of reward
Reward the type of behavior you will begin to see
3. Principal of eating the elephant
Begin to understand the context in which transformation can take place
4. Principal of strategic relationships
Who are those in the church that when they speak, others listen.
5. Principal of a leadership team
Expanding beyond the strategic relationships
Most-often going to be a laity team.
Characteristics of the leadership team:
1. Has a compelling purpose
2. The right leader (moving them forward)
3. The right team
4. Conducive culture (adapt from ME to MISSIONAL)
Q&A...
+ How do we discern where to BEGIN to make changes?
Rainer: start where there is the most low-hanging fruit. Where there is the most available early victories.
+ appropriate rewards?
Rainer: new scorecard. whole idea of what we count becomes the reward system. Lift up other things other than the “nickels & noses”. Missional involvement.
+ for many, the church is the “safe” place that has not changed (refuge)...how do you bring about change without sweeping the rug from under their feet?
Rainer: worst way: FORCE it. best way: bring them together and ask them the questions - maybe slow and awkward
What to do: (Thomas Rainer is still presenting)
Relational intentionality -
1. Principal of strategic relationships:
PRAY: “Lord, give me a love for these people.” (prayerful dependence)
2. Principal of early victories -
3. Principal of matching passions -
Every person is gifted at something - leadership job is to point them towards their passions
4. Principal of leadership modeling -
somebody is watching you (a lot more than you think)
5. Principal of intentional ownership -
you are going to do certain things within the church even if you don’t enjoy doing them
Q&A...
+ What would you say to introverted pastors to lead as introverts?
Rainer: most introverts are introverts in casual acquaintances. The more we get to know someone, the less introverted we can be with them. Learn to be more extroverted. Sometimes, do that which is against the grain..
+ What’s the relationship between relational intentionality and spiritual formation?
Rainer: the more we develop relationships, the more they can see who we are and grow in spiritual formation
+ Is relational intentionality the same as mentoring?
Rainer: mentoring falls more in the “formality” category. RI is more ‘informal’. Mentors who don’t know they’re our mentors...
+ How would you advise a N00B to start out in Relational Intentionality?
Rainer: spend time building relationships. FOCUS on getting to know people - who they are, where they are in their situation..
Wrap-up with Ed Stetzer:
Transformational Individuals - new life.
Transformational Churches -
Transformational Communities -
Prayerful Dependence
Prayer happens naturally out of the community of believers.
“People who go to Jesus, go to Jesus together!”
Jesus is angry when prayer is replaced by earthly activities...
Principals on prayerful dependence:
1. The proper use of his house
- As we embrace Jesus, we embrace his priorities
2. Accessibility
- prayer gives all people access to God
- TCs are places where prayer is taught as the way for everyone to connect with the one true God.
3. The response to His praying people
- Jesus invites people to invite Him into their lives through praying
- The lord wants to involve us in His divine work
Praying churches -
1. experience breakthroughs
2. have praying leaders
3. commonly experience answers to prayer
4. pray because they believe it matters if they pray
::LUNCH BREAK::
Second-half of The Transformational Small Church Conference (“The Exchange Live”) #smallchurch (1:30PM EST)
Small Church Panel
Pastor Castro | El Shaddai Christian Church, Brentwood, TN
Building completely destroyed one weekend during Nashville floods
Helped church realize that the church is NOT a building, but the body of Christ.
David Gould | First Wesleyan, Nashville, TN
http://www.nashvillefirst.com/ |
Lynn Harper | Promised Land Missionary Baptist Church, Dallas, TX
feeding programs, summer camp
Brian Bullard, Community Fellowship Baptist Church, Covington, GA
http://www.baptistsites.net/cfbc/index.cfm? |
“Just this ONE”
John Racioppa | Westmoreland FBC, Westmoreland, TN
http://www.westmorelandfbc.org/ | http://mylifeasjohn.blogspot.com/
Deut 23 - God wants to be a part of the camp...
Jason Whitehurst | Music City Assembly of God, Nashville, TN
http://twitter.com/pastorjasonmcag | http://musiccityag.com/ac/
Panel Questions:
Advantages of being in a small church?
If the pastor does it, and has at least one with him, people will follow!
“We are not a church IN the community - we are a church OF the community” (Harper)
“Partner with what is already going on!” (Gould)
“It’s not about receiving, it’s about giving.” (Castro)
What have you had to give up in order to do the important ‘work’ in your small church?
- Sunday School - put emphasis in lifegroups instead (Whitehurst)
- It’s important to see why we do what we do. Reference to “Simple Church” book. (Gould)
How do you handle the “fixers”?
- don’t discount them initially - some have righteous criticism (Whitehurst)
- keep the main thing the main thing (Gould)
How do we measure success? (Changing the scorecard)
- celebrate individuals who make minor steps! (Harper)
- when people who don’t go to our church are talking about our church (Racioppa)
Ed Stetzer & Mike Harland (Director, LifeWay Worship)
20 free downloads - LifeWayWorship.com CODE: smallchurch2010
Relevance vs. Reverance
Transformation Churches:
70% agree that “A sesnse of anticipation and expectation surrounds our worship services.”
75% agree that “We see evidence of God changing lives as a result of our worship services.”
67% agree that “People regularly make a decision to obey God as a result of our worship services.”
MIKE HARLAND’s presentation:
Worship wars? Change from discussing “style” to “purpose”...
Worship: Actively Embrace Jesus
Engaging in the First Action
- The human heart is designed to find someone or something to hold in high esteem
- God’s intention from the beginning was to hold that esteemed position in our lives
- Worship is our response to the revelation of who Jesus is.
Transformational churches...
- Place worship at the center point of their efforts
- Have such a love for God that they know worship is a manner of living not a mode of church programming. (Romans 12 - “living sacrifice = service/worship”)
“Praise is fruit of our lips. Worship is fruit of our lives.”
Worship produces obedience. Greater the revelation, the greater the obedience.
Churches that Qualify as Transformational Churches
- Are those where merely scheduling and holding a worship service is not enough
- Have a high confidence that lives will be impacted through worship
- Expecting God’s presence to be real and transformative in their worship experience
Corporate Gatherings Matter
- Taking issue with the corporate gathering of God’s people is in vogue
- Many report that worship numbers are sliding at an alarming rate
Reasons for Corporate Gatherings
- God is glorified when Christians gather together to worship Him.
- People will witness our worship and ask, “Who?”
- People will witness our worship and ask, “Where?”
What happens when we Gather?
We don’t want to gather trying to impress crowds with our tech, innovation and creativity but to passionatly worship the God who saves.
When we Gather...
- We should want more people attending worship because it is a signal of priority
- Worship serves to connect
Relevance vs Reverence
- Reducing worship to a focus on style removes God as the reason for gathering
- Transformational Churches find a way for people to avoid the debates about place, style and method
- New venues will reflect the passion and problems of existing venues.
Purpose of worship
- Transformational Churches actively engage people in worship and are led by worship leaders who value participation over performance.
The Goal of Worship
- GOAL - to move from style to purpose
Principals for focusing on purpose
- We are not called to lead worship, but to lead people into the presence of God
- Worship is a spiritual discipline that
Worship produces transformation
- Active engagement transforms people
“Transformational churches show people who Jesus is - without fog machine, rock band, projection system.” - Mike Harland
Q&A with Mike Harland and Ed Stetzer
+ How do we do this?
Answer: look and see what we have to work with... what resources are available for us to do what we can do. (LifeWayWorship.com plug) The #1 issue small churches face is lack of musicians. DON’T sacrifice the spiritual nature of what worship leading is. Sprituality wins out over just a guy who can play guitar.
+ What does a “worship leader”/”musician” look like?
Answer: worship leader needs to be in step with pastor..
+ How do we emphasize this in the planning of our worship services?
Answer: put the revelation of the character of Jesus in the mix. Ask, “what does this say about Jesus?” (Revelation -> Response)
MISSION - about how we show the Love of Christ in word and action... (Ed Stetzer)
“Showing and sharing the love of Christ”
Engaging the Mission
73% agree “Our church’s members understand the importance of sharing their faith story with friends.”
Transformational churches engage people in ministry within the church and mission outside the church.
- Evangelism is the natural part of life for its members
- The church has made a conscious decision that their existence is directly related to God’s mission of seeing people of seeing people reconciled to God through Christ.
- Transformational Churches were active - even aggressive - about service in the community
- TCs have a significantly higher percentage of believers who see their church engaged in deeper mission
Church Membership
- TCs have a different perspective on church membership - more than signing a card
- membership is equated with a commitment to both the church and to serve the gospel to the community.
Engaging fully in mission - the activity we should crave is advancing the gospel in the lives of unbelievers
Advancing the Gospel
- Not something you easily get over - it is something you live in.
- A cross-centered and resurrection powered life no longer lives for itself. It shouldn’t. Instead it dies daily for the new priority of the kingdom mission.
Steps to engaging God’s Mission:
1. Define Success.
- The TC Scorecard should have the heading: “Lives being transformed by the power of Christ.”
2. Prepare.
- Transformational Churches receive training to be on mission
- Too many churches rely on surface-level orientation
“What you train for, you remain focused on.”
LEADERS and the LOST (two groups we need to focus our time and energy on)
3. Providing personal leadership to believers
- the most valuable resource for the missional journey is real-life examples and real-time conversations
4. Moving into the community
- Transformational Churches build a good reputation with the city.
“If your church were suddenly to disappear from the community, would anyone notice?” OUCH.
“Church exists for God’s glory and to be a people that join Jesus on His mission.”
80/20 rule versus the 80/20 SIN issue
Get your church OUT OF THE BUILDING
BE the church, don’t GO to church.
Q&A...
+ What about serving at a church where most are past their “physical serve” prime?
Answer: Everybody (believers) can do something.
+ What advice - practical hints - for finding needs in community?
Answer: ask people who love the community - YOU need to know more about your community than anyone else! How? Talk to those on school boards, government officials.., talk to other churches
::BREAK::
Ed Stetzer & Rick Howerton (small groups specialist)
Proximity does NOT equal “community”. Sitting near someone is not enough. Move from sitting in rows to sitting in circles! LIVING LIFE TOGETHER.
LIFE TOGETHER
- Small Groups
- Sunday School
Transformational Practice
- believers join their lives for the purpose of maturing their faith and engaging in God’s mission
Too many churches are using small groups for assimilation instead of transformation.
Using them to get people to come to church instead of BE the church.
Community in a Transformational Church
- life change happens best among friends both old and new -
- community is an activity that delivers transformation
- moves us away from a fortress mentality
- creates a safe-zone
Transformational Churches...
- put a premium on involving people in small-group communities
- place emphasis on getting new members immediately involved in small group
Vital for small group leader to invite personally - not just via a sign-up list.
“Invitation follows the conversation”
Supporting Factors to small groups success
- Smaller # of people provide a greater opportunity for personal discovery
- smaller communities are just that - communities
- best way to geniune life change through the local church
“We are going to be involved in life change - not just a weekly meeting”
5 Deliverables of smaller communities
1. Smaller communities deliver deeper relationships
2. Smaller communities deliver accountability relationships
3. Smaller communities deliver environments for spiritual growth
4. Smaller communities deliver maximum participation
5. Smaller communities deliver missional opportunities
Five Elements of a Transformational Small Group
1. Mission oriented - focus must go to joining God on his mission
2. Word-driven mentality - Word of God DRIVES us.
3. Multiplication mindset - groups must understand from day one that their purpose is to reproduce
4. Stranger Welcoming - groups must always be concerned about the empty chair
5. Kingdom focused -
Q&A
+ Doctrinally pure?
Answer: Lots of thoughts and ideas can circle the runway, but the leader must make sure the TRUTH lands. Small group leadership is key.
+ Church of 100, suggested for # of groups?
Answer: How many adults? Divide by 10. 5-8 small groups of adults in a church of 100. Study: about 50% of the church is usually involved in small groups... “HEALTHY” is MORE THAN 50%..
+ How do you produce an effective small group ministry
Answer: teach people the REASON behind them.
“As the church gets larger, it MUST get smaller.” - emphasize small groups
+ What size is small enough to NOT have small groups?
Answer: 15 people = need two small groups
http://twitter.com/rickhowerton | http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/small-group-training
+ How do you move to this model when def of success is that “everyone knows everyone”?
Answer: ask “do you really know each other or do you know about each other?” Pastor: start teaching a series on relationship and how they look in Scripture..
Church Assessment Instrument
Transformationalchurch.com
Missionary Mentality (Ed Stetzer)
Asking “what do we need to know about these people”?
64% agree that what our church does as activities relate to the type of people in our community.
Many people want to go back to a “golden era”.. change way of thinking to where we are going in the future!
“Don’t turn TOOLS into RULES!” (radio, bus ministry, etc.)
Discovering a missionary mentality
- understanding context or a missionary mentality is a key concept in Transformational Churches
- Transformational Churches know, understand, and are deeply in love with their cities, communities, and people.
Where are you?
- A critical mindset shift toward a missionary mentality is from the idea that people have stories to the idea that people are stories
- We must know the stories in our places of ministry
Missionary Call to People
- TC empower and release people to live on mission, with a missionary mentality, where they are right now, at the right time, following God’s activity and obeying His assignment.
Changing the world, not MY world
- Transformational Churches demonstrate a passion for the world
- Churches who want to be transformational and missional need to keep their global focus
Q&A...
+ Community has been burned by our church. What now?
Answer: build a new reputation. show community we’re about the business of showing Jesus’ love.
+ Church has huge emphasis on international mission instead of local.
Answer: easier for small churches to be involved globally; and don’t devalue global missions. Simultaneously about global and local! GLOCAL! Can’t outsource the mission of God!
WHERE TO START?
Pray!!