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Timeless Ministry in an Ever-Changing World

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Life's Healing Choices

Building a Better Life

Change is inevitable. During the last few decades, the speed of change in the communities where we serve has grown exponentially. We’ve seen it all around us, including our own communities. In this quickly changing environment, we want our ministries to be relevant—not so we get invited to speak at conferences or get the praise of our ministry friends, but so that we reach more people for Jesus. Acts 13:36 is one of my favorite verses. “For David served God’s purposes in his own time, and then he died” (GNT). David did the timeless—God’s purposes—in an ever-changing world. That’s always been my prayer for my life. I want to serve God’s unchanging purposes in my generation. Our message never changes. God calls us to “contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints” (Jude 1:3 NASB). Our mission isn’t to make the Bible relevant. It is already relevant. But the way we communicate the unchanging message of the Bible in today’s changing world can become irrelevant. How does irrelevance happen? Irrelevance isn’t just something that affects churches. Every organization can become irrelevant when the speed of cultural change surpasses its rate of organizational growth. The faster the culture changes, the easier it is to become irrelevant. I had the privilege of having Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, as a mentor for the last 30 years of his life. One time I asked him, “How often does a rapidly growing organization need to change its structure?” He suggested changing the structure every time the organization grows by 45 percent. At the time, that was a problem for Saddleback. For the first few years of its existence, the church grew by 47 percent each year. That means we needed to re-structure the church every year. The structure that worked at 50 didn’t work at 150. The structure we had at 500 didn’t work at 1,000. The DNA of Relevance Relevant leadership for a pastor and relevant ministry for a church won’t happen by accident. It’s a choice. You’ll need to deal constantly with three factors to stay relevant:

Organizational culture
Personal culture
Congregational emotions

All three are important as you seek to serve God’s purposes in your generation. You’ll need to make three decisions to stay relevant—one for each of those factors. Develop a ‘lab’ mentality Laboratories experiment. Your church should never stop experimenting. And when you do, don’t be afraid to fail. If you fail, simply try something else. Sometimes you’ll have to try 99 things that don’t work only to find success with the 100th. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll become irrelevant. Yesterday’s solutions won’t work tomorrow. Never stop learning Growing organizations require growing leaders. The moment you stop growing, your organization stops growing. All leaders are learners. Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success” (NIV). It isn’t dedication or desire that brings success. It’s skill. It’s like farming. You can work from sunup to sundown, but if you’re raising tomatoes and using a wheat harvester, you’ll get nowhere. Or if you’re growing wheat but using a corn harvester, you’ll struggle. Skill brings success. A sharp ax makes woodcutting easier than a dull one requiring extra swings. Work smarter first, then work harder. You’re never wasting your time when you’re sharpening your ax. So always keep learning. Read articles like this. Read books. Go to conferences. Take a class. You won’t stay relevant if you stop learning. Acknowledge the grief Your church can’t grow without change. There’s also no change without loss and no pain without grief. You must let go of the old to grab onto the new. Sometimes when there’s pushback on church changes, it’s because people are mourning. They aren’t angry at you (though it may seem like it). They’re grieving the changes that are happening in their church family. Grief is good. It’s how we get through the transitions of life. We need to go through all the stages of grief, including anger. Grief over the changes in your church won’t kill your church. Fear, resentment, and pride will. A wise pastor understands the emotions of the people he is leading. Let your congregation grieve, and then honor the past without perpetuating it. Don’t confuse relevance with style either. Styles change just like everything else. I’ve seen a number of ministry styles come and go during my ministry. Build your ministry not on a style but on the purposes of God. They’ll never change.

Recent Articles

Pastors Are People-Builders

For 12 years the Green Bay Packers won only 30 percent of their games. By 1958 they were 1 in 10. They were terrible. Then came Vince Lombardi. He was a people-builder. During the next nine years with the Packers, he had nine winning seasons. They beat their opponents 75 percent of the time and won five championships, including the first two Super Bowls. That’s the resume of a people-builder. A people-builder makes people better.Pastor, you’re a people-builder, too. God is using you to help people be all that he has made them to be. But more than likely, you’ve never been trained to do that. How do you bring out the best in people? Whether it’s the average layperson in your congregation, a leader you’re mentoring, or a staff person you’re helping to grow, your ability to build people is essential to what you do. In fact, your need to be a people-builder isn’t limited to your ministry role. You also need to be a builder of your family and friends.These four steps will help you build people more effectively:Give people a personal challenge. Paul does this in Ephesians 4:1: “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received” (CSB). He challenges readers to make their lives count. Why? We all need a cause, a project, or a dream that calls forth the best in our lives. Your people need a cause or dream to strive for, too.God wants you and your congregation to use your strengths and abilities for him. In the secular world, career planning, temperament analysis, and competency tests are big business. Why? We all need someone who will give us a personal challenge, help us discover what we’re good at, and urge us to do it well.    The Bible teaches us that’s what the church should do. We should be people-builders. That’s always been the idea around the CLASS system developed at Saddleback. In each of those classes, we challenge people to live out God’s purposes. What’s your church doing to challenge people to fulfill God’s purposes?Give them complete confidence. Paul says in Romans 15:2, “We should all be concerned about our neighbor and the good things that will build his faith” (GWT). Paul tells us to build up others in the faith. Pastor, to bring out the best in others, we need to give them complete confidence in what God can do through them. Jesus did this with Peter. Peter’s name Petros meant “pebble.” But Jesus, in effect, said, “Pebble, you’re going to be a rock. I’m giving you a new name.” When Jesus said that to Peter, he was anything but a rock. He was Mr. Impulsive, Mr. Foot-in-Mouth, Mr. Let’s Do It! But Jesus said he was going to be a rock. Jesus didn’t tell him what he was; he told him what he could be.Whenever you label somebody, you reinforce what they are. Label the people you lead as “lazy,” “unorganized,” or “a temper problem,” and that’s what you’ll get. Build them up instead. God did this to Gideon. He called him a “mighty man of courage” when he was the biggest wimp out there. God called him a man of courage, and he became one.    1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “So encourage each other and give each other strength, just as you are doing now” (NCV). If you’re going to be a people-builder, you’ve got to be good at encouragement. How do you do that? Here are three tips:It needs to be real—not insincere manipulation. It needs to be regular. Express it frequently.It needs to be recognizable or precise. Tell the person exactly what you’re encouraging in him or her.Sometimes you’ll hear people say, “Whenever something is wrong, I hear it from my boss!” Don’t be that kind of boss; it’s poor leadership.  Give them wise counsel. You’ll see no progress without learning, and no learning without feedback. Since none of us is perfect, our perceptions get off base. We need people in our lives who will lay it out on the line and be honest with us.Proverbs 27:17, says, “People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron” (GNT). We bring out the best in others when we’re willing to be honest with them. People-builders care enough to correct and confront.   Remember, though, correction is very powerful and can be dangerous. Correction done the right way builds people up; correction done the wrong way can scar a person for life. What is the difference between the right and wrong way to correct? It’s your attitude in correcting. If your attitude is: “I’m going to point out this weakness in your life just to point it out,” that’s wrong. People don’t need to have their faults pointed out. Most of us are well aware of our faults. Your purpose must be to change their behavior, not to condemn them. Ephesians 4:1 says, “We will speak the truth in love” (NLT).Give them full credit. To be a people-builder, you need to praise the growth and the changes you see in the lives of others. I used to have a sign in my office that said, “God can do great things through the person who doesn’t care who gets the credit.” That’s part of people-building. Usually we like to share the blame and keep the credit. The Bible says we’re to do just the opposite. Romans 12:10 says, “Let us have real warm affection for one another . . . and a willingness to let the other man have the credit” (PHILLIPS). As a pastor, you’ll get a lot of the credit when things go well (and a lot of the blame when they don’t). That’s natural. But next time someone showers you with praise for something going well at the church (recent growth, a new event that’s making an impact, or something like that), find out who should share the credit and give it to them. That’s leadership. It’s also how you build the leaders you have. If you’re always taking the credit for what’s happening in your church, it shouldn’t surprise you when you have trouble keeping leaders.  Applying these four principles will take a lot of work. I won’t sugar-coat it. There’s always a price tag to being a people-builder. It may take your time, your effort, your money, your energy—and it may lead to losing your privacy. Most of all, it’ll cost you selfishness. You can’t be selfish and be a people-builder.So why should you do it? Because of what God has done for you. God has been good to you, so you should be good to others. Do it out of a response to all God has done in your life. I want to challenge you to spend the rest of your ministry—the rest of your life, for that matter—as a people-builder. Focus your ministry around helping others be all that God has called them to be. That’s what a shepherd does; that’s what a pastor does.I can't think of a better way to spend my life.

Joy Returns When Christ Is First

Pastor, a lot of people—including those of us in ministry—are looking for joy in all the wrong places. We chase after bigger churches, more effective programs, or the applause of peers and congregants. But joy never shows up there.Misplaced priorities can eliminate your ministry joy.Paul explained this in his letter to the Philippians: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7–8, NIV)That was Paul’s “profit and loss statement.” Everything that once seemed like a gain now counted as loss compared to knowing Christ. Even while sitting in a prison cell, Paul could rejoice because his priorities were centered on Jesus.Notice the word “rubbish.” The translators were being polite. The original word means dung, manure. Paul wasn’t mincing words. Without Jesus, everything else—fame, money, or power—is worthless garbage. Only Christ brings lasting joy.You will lose your joy in ministry if you let lesser things distract you. People will let you down. Plans won’t always work out. Attendance will fluctuate. If you keep your focus there, joy will evaporate.Paul reminds us that life is about tradeoffs. He surrendered everything so that he could be found “in Christ.” Jesus said the same thing: “No one can serve two masters.” (Matthew 6:24, NIV) Many of us want Jesus plus something else. But you can’t have two #1s.Here’s the reality: When we come to Christ, we give up everything. That may feel restrictive at first, but it’s really the doorway to joy. When we surrender, Jesus reshapes our gifts, reforms our goals, and gives them back with greater purpose than before.Missionary Jim Elliot, who gave his life in Ecuador, put it this way: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”So what are you holding on to that keeps stealing your joy? Has your ministry—even your goals for it—taken the place of Christ?It’s time to reorder your priorities. Put Jesus back in the center. When you do, you’ll discover again the joy you’ve been missing.

Faith Before the Miracle

Ministry often feels like standing on the edge of a fast-moving river—uncertain, overwhelming, and too deep to cross. You know what God has called you to do, but the next step still feels risky.That’s where Joshua found himself as he prepared to lead Israel into the Promised Land. God had given him the assignment, but it required courage. That’s why God said not once, but three times: “Be strong and courageous. . . . Be strong and very courageous. . . . Be strong and courageous!” (Joshua 1:6-7, 9 NLT).Fear can keep you from starting.Discouragement can keep you from continuing.But God has already given you what you need to move forward:God is with you. No matter what meetings, hospital visits, hard conversations, or leadership decisions await you this week, you won’t face them alone. “No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you” (Joshua 1:5 NLT). God keeps his promises. He hasn’t brought you this far to abandon his work in you or through you. “Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their ancestors to give them as an inheritance” (Joshua 1:6 CSB).God has called you to this. This isn’t a job you picked for yourself. You’re not in ministry by accident. “Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 CSB).When the priests arrived at the Jordan River, God didn’t stop the water in advance. He told them to step into it—and then the waters would stop. He asked them to trust him, not the circumstances.Sometimes the miracle happens after the step, not before.Pastor, is there something you’re hesitating to do because you’re waiting for God to clear the path first? Is there a conversation you’re avoiding, a change you’re delaying, a vision you’ve shelved?Be strong. Be courageous. God has not changed. He is with you.And he’s still parting rivers when his people step forward in faith.

Is God Waiting on You?

Pastor, as you step into another week of shepherding God’s people, remember this: God wants to bless you and your ministry. But he ties his blessings to a condition—obedience.The Bible contains over 7,000 promises where God essentially says, “If you do this, I will do this.”If you confess your sins, I will forgive you.If you call upon me, I will save you.If you obey me, I will bless you.When it feels like you’re waiting on God to move in your church, he may actually be waiting on you—to trust him more deeply, to walk in obedience, and to follow his lead in your ministry.Take Deuteronomy 28:2-6 as an example. Notice the blessings and the condition: “You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God: Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed” (NLT).You may not tend fields or flocks, but you do tend the flock of God. This promise still applies. God will bless your family and the work of your ministry. He will sustain you in preaching, in counseling, in leadership, and in carrying the unseen burdens of your congregation.God not only wants to bless everything you do in service to him—he also wants those blessings to be visible to others. His goodness in your life becomes a testimony to his faithfulness.Psalm 31:19 reminds us: “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you” (CSB).God already has blessings stored up for you as a pastor—encouragements, provisions, fruitfulness—that he intends to pour out as you walk in obedience.As Ezekiel 34:26 says: “I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing” (NIV).That’s what God wants for your life and ministry: showers of blessing.So don’t miss what he wants to do this week. Lean into obedience. Follow his directions. Trust that he is faithful—and watch him fulfill his promises in your life and your church.

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