Consulting, Coaching & Chatter

The article appeared in the Jan-Feb 2008 issue of Net Results magazine.

Just in case you’ve missed out on the hue and cry of futurists, forecasters, denominational leaders, and even local pastors, there’s a leadership deficit in the church. There are too many “jobs” in the local church to do and not enough doers to lead. That many, if not most, local church “jobs” do little to further the kingdom of God is an article for another issue. Today, I want to help you raise up effective, practicing disciples who are following Jesus in the mission field of your community.

Let me begin by sharing something I learned years ago. Some of you may be old enough to have been in ministry back when the “Church Growth” movement was at its height. That movement was largely based upon the assumption that a church’s effective programming would initiate and sustain growth. Years later, the Church Growth movement was largely discredited because, frankly, it didn’t work. Raising up a program, even the popular “Friend Sunday,” seldom showed long-term growth potential. Oh sure, people would come, but about as fast as they came, they left. The problem was, in my opinion, that the proponents of the Church Growth movement believed that those who attended North American churches were practicing, maturing disciples of Jesus. They were mistaken, badly mistaken, and the situation has only deteriorated since then. If the Church Growth movement had begun with the spiritual development of the church, I’m convinced things would have been different.

Which brings us to our lack of leaders in the church today. In general, the leadership void in the local church is largely the church’s own fault, or I should say, it’s the fault of current and past church leadership. Let’s face it, leaders are supposed to lead. That is, they’re supposed to be out in front and their followers are on their heels. If a leader climbs a mountain, the followers climb a mountain. If a leader forges a swollen river, the followers are forging right on behind them. But that’s not what’s been happening in the church … not for at least a millennium-and-a-half. During the last 1,500 years or more, church leadership has done precious little leading. Instead, we’ve worked very hard to set things up so that we would be needed. Although we say we believe in the “priesthood of all believers,” we generally practice the “priesthood of the all clergy.”

Take the average worship service as an example. The “professionals” are the ones up front while the believers are in the seats watching. Oh sure, they can sing along, but by and large, they are non-participants. We professionals pray on their behalf. We teach the Bible on their behalf (ostensibly to explain the scriptures more thoroughly, but the fact is, the only Bible reading most “Christians” get is that which is read to them from the pulpit). We orchestrate, lead, and produce worship on their behalf.

In Acts 2–6, when there were only twelve professionals and well over 3,120 believers, the believers pretty much took care of themselves in terms of scripture study, prayer, worship, pastoral care, evangelism, and so on. Sure, there was a place for the paid professionals, but it wasn’t to do anything “on behalf” of the believers—it was to enable and equip (train) the believers to do the ministry of the church (works of service).

In our world today, as a result of our “professionalism,” we’ve produced generations of Christians who are content to “go to church” instead of being the church; who expect the institutional church to spiritually nurture and feed them (in an hour or two each week); who depend on the clergy to do most of their praying and Bible study for them; and who have abdicated nearly 100 percent of their personal responsibility for their own spiritual maturity. I mean, isn’t that why they “pay” the preacher? And so long as those in the rank and file reflect this attitude, they will continue to abdicate their roles as leaders. I’ve found that when a church is filled with spiritually mature Christians, they have little difficulty raising up leaders.

The solution is simple, but it isn’t necessarily easy: stop fostering dependency by encouraging personal responsibility. Although there are a number of ways to do this, let me share three ways to begin the process.

Stop Praying On Behalf of Others

Although ceasing to pray on behalf of others sounds harsh, I’m not suggesting that you stop praying for anybody. On the other hand, I am advocating that you stop letting people off the hook when it comes to prayer. Most churches I’ve worked with, and most small groups I’ve attended, talk about prayer longer than they actually spend time praying. The primary culprit is the indefatigable prayer requests. In smaller family-sized churches, asking for prayer requests from the congregation during worship is a common practice. I won’t go into the other reasons why this practice should not be continued, other than to mention that it virtually guarantees that the church will be unable to see significant growth, but I will say this: at best, the practice creates an impression that clergy are the only ones qualified to pray for the needs of the congregation.

In small groups, which is the more appropriate venue for praying as a group for one another, the prayer request time needs to be brought to an end. I know that sounds harsh as well, but the best way to teach people to pray is to create a fail-safe opportunity for them to practice prayer. The easiest way to create that opportunity is to put an end to prayer requests in order to spend the time in prayer. The fact is, if someone has a need and believes in the power of prayer—or wants to believe in it—they’ll do their own praying. Even aloud, if necessary. Most people need only a safe place and some encouragement in order to become prayer practitioners.

As an aside, if you decide to eliminate the prayer request time in your small groups, it works better if you don’t make a dogmatic announcement such as “We’re not going to take prayer requests anymore.” Instead, it’s more effective to simply say, “We’re going to spend some time in prayer now. If you have a prayer need, or know of someone who needs prayer, speak the need during the prayer time and we’ll all join you in that prayer.” And then bow your head to indicate that the prayer time has begun.

For years, I’ve practiced the no prayer request “rule” in a variety of small and large group settings and regularly get the question, “What about those folks who simply won’t pray aloud?” There are two answers. First, there’s nothing biblically to indicate that praying aloud has any more effect on God than praying silently. But second, in my experience, those who tell me they don’t pray aloud often become the most committed out-loud pray-ers in the group when given the opportunity and encouragement to pray.

Train the Spiritual Habits

If you ask the average Christian which of the spiritual disciplines they’re practicing and you’ll either get a blank stare or they’ll mumble something about devotionals. In reality, there are many different spiritual habits that are available, any of which will help develop a mature spirituality. The problem is, most Christians don’t have a clue about the variety of practices available—they’ve mostly heard about morning devotionals.

The key to getting folks to practice the spiritual habits is to both teach and train them. The teaching part is where the church traditionally excels. Teaching a spiritual habit means to expose people to the particular practice so they understand it. For instance, in my book High-Voltage Spirituality I teach on several different spiritual habits and offer over forty ways in which to practice them. A list of spiritual habits may include:

Study

Prayer

Retreats

Worship

Pilgrimages

Faith Sharing

Accountability

Giving Something Up

Taking Something On

Projection and Reflection

However, far too often, the church does a great job of teaching, but when it comes to training, it’s not so good. Training takes practice, typically lots of practice, and the church has generally done a poor job of helping people put the spiritual habits into practice. Instead, far too often, the church has equated browbeating with encouragement for practicing a spiritual discipline.

The easiest and least painful way to train a spiritual habit is to introduce it during a small group gathering (Sunday school, an elders, deacons, or board meeting) and then have them practice it together. Then invite the group members to commit to practice the habit three or more times during the week. When they’ve agreed to the commitment, have each one choose a partner who will make at least one contact during the week to simply ask this question: “Have you practiced your spiritual habit this week?” Nothing more than to ask the question. No recriminations if the partner has not; no finger wagging or browbeating allowed. Encourage the partners to repeat their contact each week for at least four weeks. Many spiritual habits have been started and continue to this day because of this practice.

Practice Informal Accountability

Here’s where it all comes together. I’ve discovered that most people in the church really do want their faith to be both genuine and effective. When pressed, most folks are unsatisfied with their current state of spirituality and yearn to have a deep, meaningful, and fulfilling relationship with God. They just don’t know how—which isn’t exactly true. They do know how, they just don’t have the discipline to pull it off on their own.

That’s where you can help. In fact, that’s where you must help if your congregation, small group, or even your best friend is going to become effective in the faith. I don’t care if you’re the pastor, a staff member, an unpaid church leader, or an unaffiliated Christian—you can help others become faithful, practicing disciples of Jesus by practicing informal accountability.

Here’s how it works. Informal accountability is simply the gentle lobbing of an accountability question and seeing what happens. For instance, in a small group recently I casually asked, “So, what did you read in the scriptures last week that intrigued you?” The responses ranged from “Huh?” to “Well, I was reading ______ and it started me thinking ______.” One young man offered, “I wasn’t here last week and didn’t get the assignment” which launched a conversation by the group of the need for Christians to be “in” the Word. Funny thing … I asked a similar question two weeks later and got several responses. By week six, almost everyone had taken to reading their Bibles during the week—probably not every day, but they were reading it more than they had been. Why? Because the casual accountability question raises both awareness and expectation.

Informal accountability works on both the group level and on a personal level. Pastors, you could ask the congregation on Sunday morning “What did you hear from God in your prayer time this week? Turn and share with someone sitting near you.” Lay leader, you could ask your pastor, “So, how many unchurched people did you spend time with this week?”

Here’s an example list of informal accountability questions you could be asking:

1. What is the most significant word/message you heard from God in your listening time?

2. What intrigued you the most in your Bible reading this week?

3. What have you intentionally given up for the sake of the Kingdom this week?

4. What good work did you accomplish in the name of Jesus this week?

5. How did you spend time reflecting on your spirituality this week? What new commitments did you make?

6. How did the Spirit “break through” into your life this week in worship?

7. How have you shared your faith this week? What was the result?

When a church is filled with spiritually practiced Christians, leaders naturally begin to emerge as God begins working on their hearts. By helping the congregation get over its institutional dependency, by training the spiritual habits, and by practicing informal accountability, new committed ministry leaders will begin to emerge in your congregation ready to go where God is leading them and leading the church.