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 David Posthuma
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Announcing the Release of Made for a Mission
David Posthuma @ Aug 12, 2008 06:54 AM
Would you invest the time to answer the question, "Why am I here?" 
Announcing David Posthuma's book
Made for a MissionFinding Your Place in God's Redemptive PlanHave you ever asked yourself: "Why am I here?" Made for a Mission offers a biblically informed and strategic method to help you answer this all-important question. Made for a Mission is ideal for pastors, staff, and lay leaders who desire to be better equipped in the art of team building and ministry mobilization. The reader will be able to build more effective ministry teams, as well as have defined a personal life mission plan that honors their God ordained design. "I found your book intriguing and probably the most useful tool I've ever been exposed to... "
> More AssessME testimonials Quantity Discounts available through CLC Publications Two Principles that Guarrentee that You will Lead with Style
David Posthuma @ Aug 12, 2008 06:38 AM
Every pastor naturally desires to be an effective leader. So why do some succeed and others fail? Every church desires to thrive in its ministry efforts, so why do some churches seem to “do no wrong” while others can’t seem to “do much right”? These are complex issues. However, if pastoral leaders and their churches adopt two foundational Leadership Style principles and adhere to these principles faithfully, leaders will come to love their place of service and ministry organizations will overcome barriers that have held back their ministries for years.
Principle #2: Principle 1: Lead According to Your Leadership Style
The unfortunate result is that over time, people who God made to be Builders received the message that who they were, and what they contributed to the ministry, was no longer valued. The result is that virtually all the Builders left the church. Any Builders who may still exist within the membership are likely resentful and distrustful of the church leadership.
Overcoming Mission Myopia:
What Kind of Leader Are You?
David Posthuma @ Aug 12, 2008 06:21 AM
NOTE: Portions of this article were published in the July/August edition of REV! Magazine and in David's new book, Made for a Mission. At the 2007 Catalyst leadership convention, Andy Stanley passionately proclaimed: “Leadership is always ‘follow me,’ it is never ‘follow we!’” The context of Andy’s statement was his rejection of leadership by committee. I agree with Andy that committee-based leadership is not a healthy leadership paradigm. Yet, “follow-me”, when applied inappropriately, can also be detrimental to the health and vitality of a ministry organization. God designed numerous styles of leadership influence. Each style is good, created by God, and intended by God to be used for Kingdom purposes. However, when we fail to recognize or appreciate our personal leadership style, only surround ourselves with people who possess similar leadership styles to our own, or impose our leadership style upon those who serve under us, devastating consequences can result. What is It may surprise you to learn that even though the Bible is abundantly clear about the many parts of Christ’s body, when it comes to building ministry teams, many Christians and Christian leaders somehow forget that God created human diversity. It should be self-evident that not every Christ follower will look, sound, nor act like every other Christ follower. However, leaders often suffer from what I call “mission myopia.” The Oxford American Dictionary defines myopia as: “1) nearsightedness; 2) lack of imagination or intellectual insight.” The problem of mission myopia was illustrated quite profoundly to me some time ago when I received a phone call from a pastor asking if I would be willing to meet with him. As we sat and talked, he began to unload his frustration with his church board. He felt his church board was lacking in integrity, failing to fulfill the ministry obligations to which they had agreed, and that he may now have to remove most of the board members. Over my years of pastoral ministry and consulting with ministry leaders, I had come across some difficult and even unhealthy church boards; however, the prospect of removing an entire board seemed quite extreme. As I asked him more about his situation, it became clear that this pastor had led his church leadership team through a strategic planning process that advocated and blessed only one ministry style…the pastor’s…as the required methodology for each one of his board members. In theory, the board members had agreed that the method outlined by their pastor was very important for their church. But in practice, it soon became clear that most of the board members were incapable of sustained personal ministry using the pastor’s methodology. I asked this pastor to describe specific personality attributes regarding each board member. As he did so, it became very clear to me that this well-meaning pastor was violating God’s ordained mission for each one of his board members. This ministry board consisted of individuals who were strong visionary leaders and project administrators. They were task-oriented and systems-oriented people. In contrast, the pastor’s personal style was “relational,” focusing on one-to-one or small group interpersonal ministry. This pastor did not mean to sin against his board, but in fact, by trying to treat each board member as an “eye”...to see and do things his way...he was violating each board member's divinely inspired ministry temperament. I tried to help this pastor realize that his ministry goals could be more effectively accomplished if he were to mobilize his board according to each person's unique personality. I encouraged him to ask his board for forgiveness and to repent of his judgmental attitude toward them. This was a crisis of the pastor's own making...he had forgotten to honor each part of Christ's ministry body. He was suffering from mission myopia.
Leadership Styles The graphic below portrays a continuum of leadership styles, ranging from highly task-driven entrepreneurial leaders on the left, to highly relational and task-avoidant leaders on the right. This broad continuum is divided into six basic “styles” of leadership influence, which are grouped into three general categories: Builders, Managers, and Nurturers.
The Builders The Builder category consists of Pioneers and Strategic Planners. Pioneers are designed by God to develop new ministry programming, systems, and churches. They are strong dynamic leaders who value risk-taking for the Strategic Planners are designed by God to be the “architect” for new ministry development, and established ministry refinement. They are designers of systems and are highly task-oriented. They are the most “prophetic” of leadership types, in that they are able to perceive every major step that will be required to implement a ministry vision. However, they often assume that other people are also able to perceive these steps, and will appreciate the scope of the plan they wish to set in motion. Unfortunately, many other leader-types quickly become overwhelmed by the vast design details offered by the Strategic Planner. Strategic Planners can experience frustration and personal rejection when their “master plans” are not adopted, or are altered without their input.
The Managers The Manager category consists of Administrators and Team Leaders. Administrators are highly task-oriented and love to address the many operational details associated with any mission or project. They generally are not good at multi-tasking, preferring rather to work from a check-off list in their Day Planner or PDA. They gain great satisfaction from checking off accomplishments that provide resources and support to other team members, from their list. Administrators are able to implement and address the many operational details identified within a strategic plan. They are faithful, loyal, hard working individuals. However, they tend to associate their self-worth with the tasks they accomplish. If they “drop a ball”, which is rare, they will often internally punish themselves harshly. They may have difficulty delegating tasks to others, mistakenly assuming that “if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself”. Team Leaders are unique. They are the only leadership style that has one foot in the task-oriented world, and one foot in the relational world. This unique ability to “bridge the two worlds” enables Team Leaders to be both mission-driven and sensitive to relational dynamics. Team Leaders are very mission driven. They naturally gather around themselves people to “go do” some mission or event. Team members often develop deep loyalties to their Team Leader because of the Team Leader’s ability to help each member accomplish a significant mission for Christ, while also affirming each team member emotionally and spiritually. Team Leaders can make excellent pastors and staff. However, Team Leaders do have a significant danger associated with them. The Team Leader profile is the leadership style commonly associated with a church split. In such cases, the Team Leader can point to many mission successes that have earned him or her loyalty from a significant pool of team members. Praise and admiration from team members can lead the Team Leader to become prideful, like King Nebuchadnezzar who said: “Is not this the great [ministry] I have built as [my church], by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty” (Daniel 4:30)? Prideful Team Leaders may feel that they are personally responsible for the various ministry successes within the church, and that if only they could be unencumbered by the restrictions of their superiors, they could be unleashed to accomplish even greater things. For this reason, Team Leaders should be surrounded with healthy accountability people to address any pride issue while it is small and manageable.
The Nurturers The Nurturer category consists of Pastoral Leaders and Encouraging Leaders. The Pastoral Leader is relationally-driven and task-task avoidant. The Pastoral Leader is generally concerned about the emotional and spiritual welfare of the group, team, or congregation…internally they ask themselves, “How are WE doing” emotionally and spiritually? Pastoral Leaders need significant interpersonal time with people. Administrative office duties will likely depress a Pastoral Leader. Similarly, vision casting, strategic plans, and organizational structures are all task-oriented skills the Pastoral Leader will likely be unable to implement effectively. In some cases, Pastoral Leaders may even devalue and dismiss systems and organizational structures as unimportant. Pastoral Leaders often wonder why everyone doesn’t simply minister as they do…person to person. The Pastoral Leader generally values small groups, recovery ministries, one-on-one discipleship, home visitations, hospital visitations, and social gatherings. The Apostle John was a classic Pastoral Leader. His repeated appeal to love God and love one another within his letters portrays his pastoral passion (1 John 3:11). The Encouraging Leader is our last leadership style. Like the Pastoral Leader, Encouraging Leaders are highly relational and task-avoidant. However, they are different in their overall ministry focus…While the Pastoral Leader asks “How are WE doing”, the Encouraging Leader asks, “How are YOU doing” emotionally and spiritually? Encouraging Leaders are generally gifted at analyzing people. They are very self-aware of the emotions of people around them. This leadership-type is seldom showy or public. Often Encouraging Leaders work behind the scenes informally. They shy away from programs and administrative duties unless these enable the Encouraging Leader to spend quality time investing into individuals. Encouraging Leaders generally make excellent councilors, spiritual formation mentors, prayer warriors, and recovery ministry leaders. They may also function well as small group leaders if the small group members are able to “go deep” with one another, spiritually and emotionally. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, was a classic Encouraging Leader, so much so that the Apostles gave him the nickname Barnabus which means, “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36).
Conclusion: It is important that we not only understand our preferred leadership style, and utilize that style effectively, it is also important that we appreciate that God has given us ministry partners who possess differing styles of leadership. Our challenge as leaders is to learn to value these differing leader-types, and to partner with them not merely as our “helpers”, but as co-workers for Christ. Below you will find a simplified Leadership Style assessment I utilize within live seminars and workshops. The online version hosted by AssessMe.org is far more accurate, but the results of this simplified assessment will give you significant insights into your personal leadership style. I encourage you to have other staff and lay leaders take the Leadership Style assessment so that you can build a more effective ministry team, positioning each team member according to their divinely designed leadership style.
A Simple Leadership Style Assessment
This simple assessment is designed to help you identify your dominant Leadership Style. Please respond to the statements below, scoring each statement from 0 – 5 (0 = Does Not Apply; 5 = Strongly Applies). Try to avoid using the score of 3 if at all possible. Once finished, total your scores for each category, and plot your category scores on the graph below. Connect each of the dots with a line to create a trend-chart. (See AssessMe.org for a more accurate assessment and report). Please respond to the statements below, scoring each statement from 0 – 5 (0 = Does Not Apply; 5 = Strongly Applies). Try to avoid using the score of 3 if at all possible.
About the Author David Posthuma’s leadership style consists of a Pioneer/Strategic Planner blend, with a Planner ministry temperament. He is the founder of E-Church Essentials and the chief architect of the AssessMe.org online ministry mobilization assessment program. David has served as a church revitalizer, church plant pastor, church consultant, and since 1998, has designed software solutions for the ministry market. This article is adapted from his book, Made for a David resides in
A Simple & Cost-Effective Way For Church Leaders to Collaborate
David Posthuma @ Feb 13, 2008 09:19 AM
Some time ago, a pastor of a 1,000 member church asked my opinion regarding the need for a server and local area network for the church. At that time I expressed that I believed these were essential tools for any church that is 650 people or larger. It is very common for churches to add part-time and full time staff as they grow, yet fail to provide their staff with the tools they require to collaborate together as a team. In addition, when a church lacks a server/network, all important files must then reside on each individual staff member's computer. Often, when these staff members leave the church, these important ministry files leave with the staff member. Microsoft offers organizations an inexpensive virtual server/network solution called “SharePoint Services”. SharePoint is hosted for your ministry by an external service provider, yet your data is secure and backed-up regularly to prevent data loss. SharePoint provides a very robust web-based virtual server and secure network so that your ministry team can collaborate together and accomplish much more than generally possible through a self-hosted server and Local Area Network (LAN). Features include:
An excellent webinar overview of SharePoint Services can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/demo/index.html. A company called 1and1.com hosts SharePoint Services for an introductory price of $10/month for the first three months (temporary offer), and then $20/month from that point on. This means that you could use SharePoint Services for 5 years before you would spend the same amount for an in-house server and network…plus your ministry will not have to deal with any of the IT hassles. To check out the 1and1 program offering, go to http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/Sharepoint;jsessionid=9FE228EEFF012958ED10929D4BA98B8B.TC61a?__frame=_top&__lf=Static. Your ministry will want to find out how much additional online storage may cost when you get to the point of needing more storage space.
Intentionally Engineering Ministry Structures for Maximum Impact, Part 1: An Introduction
David Posthuma @ Apr 30, 2007 04:03 PM
Every church organization exhibits a unique organizational personality. An organization’s personality type enables its leadership to effectively recruit and mobilize people with some ministry temperaments, while impeding the recruitment and mobilization of others. At this point it may be helpful to distinguish between the big “C” universal Church, and the little “c” local church. Within Christ’s universal Church, you are a vital member with an essential ministry role. However, the local church is not always so inclusive. When people don’t know how to fit within their local church, it is important to discern between the responsibilities of the individual and the responsibilities of the organization for addressing this problem. The local expression of Christ’s Church may at times have difficulty including and mobilizing differing people into ministry. This may be the result of unique institutional dynamics that inadvertently prevent people from participating within the mission. When this occurs, people have difficulty knowing how to serve and support the ministry of their local church. Sadly, pastoral leaders often blame their congregation members for the lack of ministry participation, criticizing their membership as “uncommitted,” when in fact, the organization’s structures may be inhibiting committed people from knowing how serve. Not finding a place of effective ministry service within their church, these committed people will generally develop their own personalized and isolated ministry. Christ never desired his followers to minister in isolation. He always sent his disciples out in teams consisting of two or more members (Luke 10:1 NIV). Similarly, the Apostles always had at least one or two support staff. Remember, we all need each other, and together we best represent the God who created all of us in his image. Our ministry temperament was designed to integrate with other ministry temperaments so that together, we can accomplish for Christ far more than we could ever accomplish individually. It may surprise you to learn that even though the Bible is abundantly clear about the many parts of Christ’s body, when it comes to building ministry teams, many Christians and Christian leaders somehow forget that God created human diversity. It should be self-evident that not every Christ follower will look, sound, nor act like every other Christ follower. However, the Church often suffers from what I call “mission myopia.” The Oxford American Dictionary defines myopia as: “1) nearsightedness; 2) lack of imagination or intellectual insight.” For example, the pastor of one church I was asked to consult with expressed that the biggest problem facing the church over its two decade history was that the church started many good programs, but had difficulty sustaining them. A simple assessment of the Senior Pastor and his board revealed that all the dominant leaders possessed entrepreneurial profiles…they were start-up people; this explained why they started many good ministries but were unable to sustain them. The church leadership needed to learn how to better identify the people within their congregation who excelled at establishing self-perpetuating ministry structures, as well as people who were gifted in managing ongoing ministry programs. The personality of a ministry organization has a direct bearing on its ability to mobilize people for ministry and build effective ministry teams. In fact, the personality of a church often dictates who may serve within the ministry. In the case of the church just mentioned, people who possessed entrepreneurial temperaments easily found places of service within the church. However, people who did not possess such profiles had difficulty knowing how to support the ministry. The principle of mission myopia, that people will naturally gather around themselves others who are like them, inhibits other people-types from participating effectively in ministry. Often, these disenfranchised Christ followers feel like there simply is no place of ministry for them within their church. They may have tried earnestly to find a place of ministry fit, but in the end, they have been made to feel rejected and devalued. I am confident that no healthy church leadership team desires to communicate to people that they are devalued. However, this unintentional communication occurs none the less. For church leadership, the principle of mission myopia infers the following: · Most all church ministries suffer from some level of mission myopia. · · When people cannot find a place of ministry service within their church, they tend to feel devalued and unwanted, and ultimately leave the church. Intentionally Engineering Ministry Structures for Maximum Impact, Part 2: Cultural Modification
David Posthuma @ Apr 30, 2007 04:02 PM
Unlike human ministry temperaments, which can mature but cannot be altered, organizational personalities may be intentionally modified. This is accomplished by positioning the appropriate people, who possess the necessary ministry temperaments, into key positions of influence. The goal in this culture-modification process is to broaden and deepen a church organization’s ministry impact by intentionally including more of the various parts of the body of Christ within its mission. A healthy and mature ministry culture seeks to include every willing servant of Christ associated with their church organization into an appropriate ministry position. Broad-based inclusion of many differing people, possessing many differing ministry temperaments, will likely challenge the organization’s established ministry culture. So, how can an established ministry organization position itself to be more inclusive of all ministry temperaments? First, culture modification is always a top-down process. Organizational leadership will want to evaluate the ministry temperaments of each person of influence, at each functional layer within the organization. For example, it is common in many churches to have three distinct leadership layers: · Layer #1 – Executive leadership team · Layer #2 – Support staff · Layer #3 – Lay leadership When you assess each leader for ministry-fit, and evaluate the cumulative results, you will discover that your organization displays a “temperament theme”. A temperament theme is defined in terms of “shared-quadrant-values” (e.g., Independent vs. Social) and not by the dominance of a specific ministry temperament (e.g., Protagonist) represented throughout the organization. Please refer to the four assessment quadrants PDF. Each assessment quadrant (i.e., Relational Style, Information Style, Decision-Making Style, and Environmental Style) contains two opposing values. For example, the Relational Style category scores individuals (or organizations) along a continuum that ranges from Independent to Social. Temperament themes define the culture of a church as it matures through the various phases of its development. The simplest church model emphasizes a single quadrant-value; typically the “Social” value from the Relational Style quadrant. As the church grows and its ministry requirements become more complex, church leaders will incorporate additional quadrant-values at each stage. Although growth patterns will vary from church to church, this principle can be illustrated by walking through one common church growth scenario. The Churches typically develop in stages, according to their ability to incorporate and emphasize additional quadrant-values. A small church, at or below the 150-member barrier, will generally emphasize the Relational Style quadrant, and uphold “Social” as their defining cultural value. At this stage in the ministry’s development, the church functions much like a family with members who know and care for one another. There is little need for structure or programs. I recently visited with a family friend who pastors a family-feel church outside of the The Warm-Hearted Church If the leadership of the Family-Feel church believes God is calling the ministry to grow beyond the family phase of development, the church will then need to adopt an additional quadrant-value that will compliment and expand upon their established social-relational value. Often, the church leadership, without knowing it, will implement the Decision-Making Style quadrant and seek to position people who have a high “Heart” value into positions of leadership. This new value readily compliments their established social-relational value. Since the current structures and programs are small and simple to manage at this stage, these relational leaders will excel until their ministry responsibilities grow in size and complexity. The church is now positioned to grow beyond the 150 barrier, and will likely stagnate at around 600 people. The Structured Church The 600-person barrier represents the most significant cultural adjustment the church will have to make. At this stage, the church organization will need to define program systems led by leaders who possess administrative and team building skills. It is not uncommon that these administrative leaders are imported from outside the ministry. This is because the highly relational values which have dominated the church to this point may have alienated task-oriented people. Without realizing it, the church leadership will adopt an additional cultural value found in the Environmental Style quadrant, and seek to introduce into the established church culture a “Systematic” value. It is at this point that many relational people within the church begin to fear that the church is losing its “family-feel.” Relationships are no longer defined in terms of the entire church body, but in the context of service and common interest sub-cultures, as well as shepherding small groups. The relational leaders they have known and loved are now being re-positioned or replaced by people who possess strong administrative and team building abilities. I recently observed a 450-member church struggling with the difficult adjustment from Warm-Hearted to Structured. Its children’s ministry was led by a director who possessed a Protagonist ministry temperament. The Protagonist is charismatic when in front of people and thrives in a non-structured environment. The Protagonist is not skilled as an administrator or team builder. While this ministry temperament likely served the children’s ministry well in the early stages of its development, the non-structured culture was now impeding the children’s ministry from growing into excellence. The people who valued “winging it” rather than planning and preparation were able to function within the various roles required by the children’s ministry. However, people with ministry temperaments that valued administration, team building, planning and preparation could not find a place of ministry fit within the “wing-it” culture defined by the Protagonist leader. If the children’s ministry was to reach the next level of development, the Protagonist culture would need to be replaced or modified. The ministry temperaments that will be required to take the children’s ministries program to the next level are the very people that the established culture had until now been alienating. (Side note: A Protagonist’s ‘wing-it” values can always find a place of ministry service within a structured team-based culture. However, a structured team-based person can rarely find a place of ministry service within a “wing-it” culture.) When a Warm-Hearted church is able to transition to a Structured church, and include people who identify with and can implement the new “Systematic” cultural value within the church, they will find that a new army of systems-oriented people can finally be unleashed to serve within the church. These people have not known how to fit and serve effectively in the Family-Feel or Warm-Hearted church. But now, a new team-based synergy liberates strategic planners, administrators and managers to find places of ministry service, and to serve effectively. The Structured church will thrive until it reaches approximately 1,500 people. The Hierarchical Church The Structured church transitions into a Hierarchical church when it consolidates top-tier authority structures, while at the same time integrating a new quadrant value…the “Concrete” value found within the Information Assimilation style quadrant. The ministry now focuses upon providing many concrete and practical ministry services. Generally, there is a unifying thematic value that binds these many services together. Common unifying themes include: Outreach, Seeker Targeted, Seeker Sensitive, Life Purpose, Global Impact, etc. Because of the complex network of team-based ministries, literally thousands of people, of all ministry temperaments, can find a place of ministry service and rise up in status and influence within the ranks. Relationships are nurtured in the context of serving within a ministry team, joining with others around a common interest, or through participation in a small shepherding group. In recent years, the trend has been to break the Hierarchical church down into small functional and relational units. This process has given rise to regional satellite churches…one church meeting concurrently in various locations, via internet streaming from the mother church. With the new millennium, a post-modern reaction to the modernist Hierarchical church has given birth to the Intentionally Engineering Ministry Structures for Maximum Impact, Part 3: Beginning the Engineering
David Posthuma @ Apr 30, 2007 03:58 PM
It is impossible for churches to perfectly balance all the opposing values in each personality quadrant. If this “perfect” balance could be found, then all churches would simply be clones of one another, and so would look alike, function alike, and serve alike. The goal of cultural modification is not to make every church alike. Rather, the goal is to allow diverse ministry temperaments to play appropriate and supportive roles within the ministry’s unique mission and organizational development. Those ministry temperaments that have been kept outside of positions of influence within the organization may indeed provide the exact values, insights, and resources the ministry requires to mature to the next level.
AssessME.org...Mobilize People For Ministry As Never Before Possible!
David Posthuma @ Aug 19, 2006 02:32 PM
 ...You Were Made For A Mission! For several years, E-Church Essentials has received requests from main-stream churches who were not yet ready for all our postmodern online ministry tools, to output our Online Assessment Center as a stand alone program. We have been working on fulfilling this request over the past year. The result? AssessME.org (http://www.assessme.org) is now alive! AssessME.org converts any ministry website into an online assessment center designed exclusively for lay ministry mobilization. As an introductory offer, we are allowing ministries to register a FREE ministry account, and we are including five (5) FREE Assessment Packs so that your key decision-makers can try out the program with no risk or contract.  Limited Time: FREE Registration & 5 FREE Assessment Packs!
A Spiritual Formation Ministry Model for the Local Church
David Posthuma @ Oct 20, 2005 02:04 PM
Jerry: You had asked me for input on your sermon diagram. What I wish to offer you is not intended in any way as a critique of your “Purpose-Driven” mission model, but I hope to offer an entirely different perspective on the purpose of the Church. My perspective is no more valid than your perspective…it’s just different. What I share with you is a glimpse into my own spiritual journey. Take what I offer you to God and see what He says about it. For many years I had been a proponent of the Saddleback Purpose-Driven model because it at least articulated a crude spiritual formation ministry model. I define spiritual formation as “Intentionally Helping People Grow from Spiritual Seekers into Spiritual Leaders”. However, over the years, I have begun to look at this process much less from a systematic programmed perspective as illustrated by Saddleback, and much more from the perspective of being the Holy Spirit’s “assistants” in the process that He initiated and promises to bring to completion (Hebrews 12:2). I start at the same point that you have started, namely the “greatest commandment”. But rather than define the greatest commandment as all-inclusive “Worship”, I have begun to wonder if God was describing for humanity a spiritual formation process. I would modify your “Love God” graphic accordingly:
It is interesting to me that Jesus referred to people as differing soils and that only the well tilled soil was prepared to receive the gospel message and was able to grow and bear fruit up to a hundred-fold harvest (Matthew 13:3-8; 18-23). With this parable in mind, I then ask pastors to answer the following questions: 1) What is your ministry doing to intentionally help people till and prepare their spirit to be receptive to God? 2) What is your ministry doing to intentionally help people till and prepare their emotional-self so that they may form a healthy relationship with God and with one another? 3) What is your ministry doing to intentionally help people till and prepare their minds, with the renewing of their minds, so that they can think and reason according to the Scriptures? 4) What is your ministry doing to intentionally help people till and prepare for life application and ministry service? Many pastors do not know how to answer these four questions because they tend to think and plan from an institution perspective rather than from a spiritual formation perspective. The goal of the institutional perspective is “how can we get more people to serve more”. The goal of the spiritual formation perspective is “how can we get more people to grow more?” The institutional perspective tends to believe that people will grow through personal service so there is very little training or equipping that is necessary. The spiritual formation perspective believes that healthy service is only possible as people are equipped, prepared, and tested for ministry. Depending upon the perspective selected, the impact upon your programming structure will be significant. The institutional perspective typically places a heavy emphasis upon the Sunday worship event, small groups and a few simple classes. This is a fast-paced model designed to process many people quickly. Ministries applying this perspective tend to grow quickly but have shallow spiritual roots. The spiritual formation perspective will place a much higher emphasis upon mentorship, modeling, and training. This is a time-intensive model designed to nurture people through the seasons of life…much like a plant takes time to root, grow, mature and bear fruit (In the case of a vineyard, it may take years and requires pruning and care). Ministries that apply this perspective tend to start more slowly, but if they have a clear and intentional spiritual formation plan, they can grow even greater in ministry impact because they ultimately have more equipped and mature “ministers” to go around. It is also interesting to me that the institutional perspective will typically compartmentalize Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Service and Fellowship…with references to Fellowship often directing people back to the institutional organization and its small groups. The spiritual formation perspective tends to view ministry as less compartmentalized and more “relational”. In fact, you can boil everything down to one concept: “Disciple-Making”. Disciple-Making is evangelism, fellowship, equipping, and worship. It is hard to separate out these elements in the spiritual formation/disciple-making process. If we use Jesus and his disciples as our model, when was Jesus leading the disciples in worship? In fellowship? In Equipping? In Evangelism? For the most part it appears that it was all happening at the same time throughout the course of sharing life together. We also observe that only after considerable investment did Jesus send his disciples out to do ministry, and then he sent them in teams of two with very specific faith-building instructions. You can observe within E-Church Essentials an application of the spiritual formation philosophy as our system is indeed designed to support Evangelism, Discipleship, Fellowship and Equipping for Ministry. However, the various system tools are not clearly compartmentalized according to these Biblical mission objectives. Furthermore, the focus of the program is really intended to help develop people rather than build the structures of an institution. Certainly the institutional model ministry can use our system, and they do, but my goal is to encourage a movement back to spiritual mentorship which was a prevailing ministry paradigm within the Jesus Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the preferred postmodern ministry philosophy, and the model Christ gave to the church within Gospels. I would tend to apply the spiritual formation model within a church setting using the following chart:
The programming structure of the church might involve the following demands upon its people:
These demands are no greater than typically asked by churches utilizing the institutional model, but I believe the results will be far greater spiritual maturity, deeper and more authentic relationships, and healthier ministry service.
Free Online Webinar: TEAM DYNAMICS
David Posthuma @ Aug 15, 2005 03:34 PM
August is the month for gearing-up and mobilizing our ministry teams. However, before you get too far along in the process, please have all your staff and key lay leaders view my FREE online webinar entitled “The Dynamics of Team Building”. The content within this webinar will help you construct effective ministry teams as never before, and also help you understand why some teams you have created in the past exhibited minimal impact. I have also included in the webinar an integrated assessment to help your leadership understand the organizational personality of your church. If you think about it, people have personalities, and your church is comprised of people, therefore people in key leadership roles help define a personality for the organization. Why is it important to know your ministry’s personality? All personality types possess strengths and weaknesses. Your ministry’s personality explains why your organization may thrive in some areas of ministry and struggle in others. However, unlike an individual’s personality which cannot change, organizational personalities can mature and transform according to the influences of the people who are unleashed into key leadership roles. To maximize your ministry’s ability to mobilize highly effective ministry teams: go to http://www.echurchessentials.com/features/teams/ and click on the "Team Dynamics - FREE WEBINAR" link.
The Pew Internet & American Life Report on Podcasting
David Posthuma @ Jul 18, 2005 08:50 AM
The Pew Internet and American Life study has released a report on the progress of Podcasting...the practice of broadcasting MP3 audio files via RSS-capable blogs and websites that may be downloaded to personal computer's and MP3 portable players. Select the link below to view the full report in pdf format... >> View Report Podcasting? What is that and why should I care? That's what many ministry professionals often ask me. They have heard about podcasting, but they don't understand its awesome potential for ministry. Podcasting is literally broadcasting audio files via the internet. The common audio file format is .MP3. Through podcasting, your ministry can broadcast teachings, meditations, announcements, worship...literally anything that people would prefer to listen to rather than read. Just like radio and television broadcasts ministry programming, podcasting broadcasts your important ministry programming online. Pew Internet and American Life recently conducted a study on the development of podcasting. Their summary states: More than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the Web so that they could listen to audio files at a time of their choosing. That amounts to more than 6 million adults who have tried this new feature that allows internet “broadcasts” to be downloaded onto their portable listening device. The popularity of podcasting is growing at a sky-rocketing rate. Two things are necessary for your ministry to begin taking advantage of this new broadcast technology:
The podcast reader is an essential element if your membership are to receive your broadcasts. The reader is simply configured to "subscribe" to your blog's broadcast. Then whenever your ministry posts a new broadcast, all of your members who have the reader installed on their PC's (a Mac version is also available) will automatically receive your broadcast right on their computer. The Pew Internet & American Life Report on Blogging
David Posthuma @ Jul 18, 2005 08:48 AM
The Pew Interent and American Life Study released a report on the status of blogging. This year alone, blogging readership increased 58%. Select the link below to view the full report in pdf format... >> View Report An Easy Way To Survey Your Membership Base
David Posthuma @ Jul 18, 2005 08:46 AM
 Just this past week I spoke with a person who is on staff with the Communication department of a major Christian college. The Communication department evidently had developed a survey, seeking input for the future direction and offerings of the department. Their survey had been developed in a traditional paper format for mass-mailing. Although I do not know the the specifics of this project, let's do a little cost-accounting analysis using approximate expenditures:
Total Cost: $5,000 Bye Bye Boomers
David Posthuma @ Jul 18, 2005 08:43 AM
Wayne Jacobsen, in his book entitled “The Naked Church”, has an interesting critique of the Boomer-driven church-growth ministry model. Using the writing genre of CS Lewis and the Screwtape Letters, he describes our growth-driven churches from the perspective of one of Satan’s henchmen…. "Trying to keep it small hasn't worked - let's make it big!" All the other devils gasped, thinking that old Screwtape had finally bolted his sanity. "Make it big? What do you think we've been working so hard to prevent?" "Hear me out, colleagues: We can kill it with its own success. What would happen if the church suddenly became acceptable?" " "But what would all those people do to it?" Screwtape replied with a smirk, then, sat back as he watched their minds churn. One-by-one the others began to see the brilliance of his scheme. "Many would come just for social reasons. They would quickly dilute those who are really in God's clutches." "And imagine all the programs and activities they would have to plan to keep those people happy. Nothing chokes out intimacy as well as busyness." "A crowd like that would have opinions so diverse and disruptive that the power of the gospel would be compromised in just a few short years." "The church would eventually become a machine, chewing up individuals instead of loving them. Programs would take over where personal ministries now flourish. And everyone knows how easy it is to kill a program." "Hear! Hear!" they all yelled. They couldn't possibly teach all the followers to walk with God personally, so they would soon substitute rules and guidelines for his ever-present voice." "The machine would have to be run by professionals. The others would become nothing more than spectators and bill-payers." "And that leadership would waste most of its time tied up in administration, which we know benefits almost no one." "Who would have time for individuals? They would have to try to disciple people by regulations, and the cracks in that are so wide we could go on vacation." "And best of all," Screwtape spoke up again, "they wouldn't even know what had happened to them. They would think themselves successful beyond their wildest dreams. They would be pillars in the community and stand before huge crowds. We would let them keep all their Christian terms, but we would substitute our own meanings. It's foolproof!" "But size alone won't do that, Screwtape," Satan himself finally said. "They could still teach all those people what it really means to follow God and they could still love people one-by-one no matter how big it got." "True, O Wicked One," Screwtape waggled his index finger, "but do you think they would?" Do you think they would risk losing all those people or would resist the corruption that such power and influence would give them?" Satan smiled in whatever ecstasy hell allows…"Of course not!" He slammed his fist on the table, "Let's do it!" I have to admit, that when I read such words, my spirit responds with an emotional mix of sadness and exhilaration. I feel sadness, not because these words hurt me in any particular way, but rather because everything described by However, I also feel exhilaration because before an unhealthy problem can be cured, the illness must first be diagnosed. Once the illness is diagnosed, steps can be taken to improve the health of the body…in this case, Christ’s Body, the Church. So there is hope…and we know that there is always hope for the Body of Christ because Christ is the head of His Church, not any particular institutional pastor. I believe the Boomer generation, born following 1946, has been greatly used by God to impact this world for the sake of Christ. However, I believe that the Boomer generation has left us not only a great inheritance…but also a great dysfunction. The task before Christ’s emergent Church is to now strip away the dysfunction that has evolved over the past decades, and to value the healthy inheritance the Boomer generation has left for us. A Healthy Inheritance 2006 will mark the 60th birthday of the true Boomer. As our Boomer leaders prepare for retirement, it is only appropriate to thank them for their faithful service and to remember what positive influences they have had upon us and Christ’s Church. Our positive inheritance includes, but is not limited to:
The Jesus Movement of the late 1960’s and 1970’s was inherently anti-establishment and anti-institutionalism. It was not so much about “rebellion” as so typifies that generation, but about a desire by many to have a real and vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and to exist in authentic Christ-centered community. The Jesus Movement was a spiritual revival. It was a grassroots spiritual movement that was not orchestrated by any organization, but rather by the Holy Spirit. Many postmodern ministry leaders today see parallels between the values and goals of emergent postmodern ministry, and the values and goals of the Jesus Movement decades ago. This parallel, I believe, is not merely “70’s-retro” spirituality, but a call by God’s Spirit to return to the place where Christ’s Church was once healthier. It is interesting to me that it is often the Boomers, whom themselves participated in the Jesus Movement, that today are the ones criticizing the emergent postmodern Church for seeking to lay claim to the spiritual values and goals they once espoused.
The Charismatic movement was a direct outgrowth of the Jesus Movement. The Church had finally re-discovered that God was real and active within His creation, and within the life of the Christ Follower. God was not dead institutionalism. God could not be contained in a human “plan” or a “routine” program as typified by so many church services then and now. God had His own purposes, and it was an amazing honor that He would be willing to move in and through His people, to accomplish His good work. The Church of that day learned that the supernatural should be expected…it should be the norm…after all, our God is supernatural. God cannot be constrained or put into a box. The Charismatic movement crossed denominational boundaries. People were Charismatic, not churches. Yes, there were Pentecostal churches, but the Charismatic movement applied primarily to a spiritual revival among people within non-Pentecostal mainline Churches. This influence led to renewed sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit within the life of the local mainline congregation. Yet, today, many of our churches put God into a one-hour highly programmed and performed box, designed right down to 15 second increments. We have often programmed the spiritual passion right out of God’s people and simultaneously quenched the Holy Spirit. What the |
