Jennifer Kay Smith
in love with creativity & its sourceArchive for mike slaughter
Day 3 of Missional Church class
Day 3 at Ginghamsburg…
Strategic Leadership
- More people focus on faith in Jesus rather than following Jesus
- Need to move from macro-focus (mega church or mall church) to micro (cafe & house churches)
- Empower micro-communities committed to macro-mission
- Err on grace rather than judgment
- Jesus was people building, not church building
- Boring is not the same thing as truth
- Tell YOUR stories
- God does his best work in a cemetery situation
- A short series based on Gospel Lite will get the crowds, but not necessarily make disciples
- All sermons and curriculum should preach, teach & heal
- You’re gonna die. It’s not about you. Get your butt out there and serve.
- If you’re going to push mission, you must give many opportunities for mission.
- Exposing people to real poverty really changes people.
- Right action moves people from donation to sacrifice
- Money follows mission, not local church needs or denominational mandates
- Spend LESS on mortar than money going out in mission
- As soon as more money is being spent on mortar, you’re not a missional church
Visioning
- You can’t be all things to all people
- Most people look around and see human things, a leader sees through the eyes of God
- Visioning is the promising picture of God’s preferred future
- Vision is a leader’s mental image that conveys where organization needs to be in future
- Vision is primarily right-brained and passionate
- Goal setting and strategy development are the result, they don’t precede vision
- I’m 25 and almost dead. I don’t have time to play church
- Vision comes from a leader, not a committee
- Microscope people (see by magnifying present reality) vs. Telescope people (see the future)
1. Formulate the vision (a clear picture of our destination sustains us)
2. Articulate vision (be repetitive, write it down in many ways)
3. Activate vision (strategic action plans)
- One year rule: If I have one year to live, what would I spend my energy and time on?
- People aren’t looking for meetings, they are looking for meaning
- The essential quality of visionary is COURAGE
- I’m not the miracle
- Some people see a ghost in the storm, leaders see Jesus
- God can’t use us if we can’t claim our brokenness
- Most people want to do Bible study, not discipleship
Picture of the Day
Happy 3 years today Aaron!!
Day 2 of my Missional Church class
Things I’ve learned from Mike Slaughter, the people of Ginghamsburg and God. (wish I had a link for God..)
- Must be willing to leave some people behind to reach more people
- Lead in truth; don’t just respond to the opinion of the congregation
- Am I willing to bet my life on what I believe?
- The success or failure of a church comes down to leadership
- The landscape is cluttered with the corpses of people who failed in self-leadership
- Two of the critical values in our culture and speed & innovation, it has created a culture of hurry. “I’m a dangerous person when I miss that time with God.”
- Our devotion time with God reminds of who I am and whose I am.
- I must stop using the Word for my purposes and let the Word use me.
- I need to feel secure in God, not necessarily my job.
- Relationships are formed in the margins of life – if my schedule is full, I miss so much.
- Many of us have great missional passion but we often hand hold the upper middle class
- Minimize brick, maximize mission
- A leader’s job is to continue to paint a promising picture of the future
- Must create a culture of service from the very beginning – it’s an expectation
- The pastor’s job is to identify people’s burning bushes and throw fuel on them
- Being a servant isn’t an option
- You can’t be all things to all people – we try to be relevant to unchurched AND appease insider – define who you’re trying to reach
- God values devotion over busyness – how much of our ministry is busyness?
- When you’re not in the Word, you’ll make mistakes based on other people’s judgments
- There’s no throw away conversations
- It’s not about how to get the world into the church; it’s about getting the church into the world.
- True renewal is not how many people are coming, but how many are acting justly
- YOU CANNOT FEAR FAILURE
Picture of the Day:
