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Has Your Church Been Infiltrated by Internet Christianity?

May 11, 2012 By 2 Comments

Take a listen to the conversations taking place in and around your church these days. Are you hearing anything like this?

  • “Did you hear what they’re saying about Rick Warren?”
  • “You know, I really think we need more teaching about the end times.”
  • “You have to read this email that’s going around. It has a lot to say about the direction of our churches these days.”

If this kind of talk is going on, chances are your church is being infiltrated by Internet Christianity.

During our recent series of Innovate leadership forums, our National Pastor Tim Schroeder provided valuable coaching on this growing phenomenon, where members of our churches are being swept up in internet-fueled side issues.

In its mildest form, Internet Christianity can deflect a church off its mission. At worst it can cause internal strife and division.

Church leaders must be vigilant to lead decisively against this infiltration by speaking truth boldly and by correcting error clearly and lovingly.

How can you tell if Internet Christianity has infiltrated your church? Watch for these warning signs:

1.   Fringe doctrinal issues are gaining a foothold
Be on the lookout for a sudden increase in conversations about topics like the place of sign gifts in the church or the role of women in leadership.

2.   Other churches, ministries and pastors are being criticized
Internet Christianity obsesses over the words and actions of well-known Christian leaders.

Were people in your church clucking their tongues over Andy Stanley’s stand on homosexuality? If so, chances are Internet Christianity has crept in to your church.

3.   The authority of blogs is replacing the authority of scripture
Don’t think the irony of blogging about this is lost on me.

What I’m talking about here is the growing, concerning trend where people in your church may be taking their direction from a handful of influential bloggers, instead of the scriptures being preached from your own pulpit.

Online resources can obviously be a wonderful tool for the spiritual development of your congregation. But without great discernment it can also lead to distractions and divisions in your church.

Stemming this tide may be one of your highest leadership callings.

How have you responded to the growth of Internet Christianity in your church?

Filed Under: Church, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

4 Ways to Get Your Church Unstuck

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

At our recent series of Innovate leadership forums we asked this question; “What one word best describes your church today?”

From Vancouver to Moncton, one of the words we heard over and over was this:

Stuck!

We then profiled Canadian church leaders whose church had found ways to get things moving again. These were the key discoveries:

1.   Leaders must be secure
Laurel Buckingham, senior pastor of Moncton Wesleyan Church, the largest church in Atlantic Canada, stressed that in order for a church to find new traction the point leader must be secure in themselves.

Only out of a secure place can the leader find the courage to ask the tough questions that must be addressed when a church is stalled.

2.   Leaders must focus on soul-care
It’s not possible to lead your church toward renewed momentum when your soul is dry.

This was a key observation of Greg Hochhalter, lead pastor of Sherwood Park Alliance Church near Edmonton.

Greg noted that his marching orders from his board are that he must lead “out of a deep well”, and that his board has provided the means by which he can find the spiritual nourishment he requires.

3. Leaders must be willing to shake up the team
Drawing on more than 30 years of pastoral ministry, our national pastor Tim Schroeder reminded us that the team that “got you stuck” is unlikely to be the team that gets you “unstuck”.

Tim wasn’t advocating the arbitrary dismissal of your leadership team, but did challenge leaders to have the courage to shake things up.

4. Leaders must focus mission and strategy around the church’s core strengths
If a church is to get unstuck it must relentlessly focus on its distinctiveness.

Tim and Greg each reminded us that many stuck churches simply provide too many ministry offerings, thus dissipating precious resources and leading to a lack of ministry focus. A related trap, we learned, was in following trends of other churches, particularly “celebrity churches”.

Instead, we were reminded, to get moving again you must recognize your church’s unique strengths and focus there.

The bottom line in all this?

  • Churches do get stuck
  • They won’t get unstuck by themselves
  • To get things moving again is up to the leader whose heart is fully yielded before God.

Is your church stuck? What are you doing to get things moving again?

Filed Under: Church, Featured, Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

4 Risks that Exaggeration Poses to Your Leadership

May 3, 2012 By 1 Comment

How many of these statements, or statements like them, have you used;

  • “That was the best (event, class, earnings quarter, meeting) we’ve ever had!”
  • “This promises to be the best (baptism service, board retreat, youth outreach, stockholders meeting) ever!”
  • “There is an unbelievable sense of momentum and excitement building in our (church, company, ministry, club)!”

If you find that these types of hyped-up, hyperbole-filled statements are creeping into your leadership communication, watch out. Your leadership could be taking hits that you’re not even aware of.

As a leader you must certainly project optimism. But when you cross the line into hyperbole, you run four significant risks:

1.   You can be seen as inauthentic

Let’s face it. Not every event can be the “best ever”. If you use this kind of language excessively people will start to see you less as a leader, and more as a pitch-man.

Remember, you need to cast vision, not sell a ShamWow.

 2.   You can lose credibility

You know that service you described as the “best ever”? Well guess what. Your people were there, and they know it wasn’t the best ever.

When your communication creates a gap between what your people know to be true, and what you claim to be true, you start to lose credibility.

 3.   Young people start to tune out

At a recent INNOVATE leader’s forum, Greg Hochhalter, senior pastor of Sherwood Park Alliance Church in Alberta, made this important observation. Young people today have their radar on “full alert” for anything that smells like hyperbole, exaggeration or hype.

You can’t afford to alienate this group with your communication.

 4.   You create a culture of “desperation”

As a leader your words have a powerful ability to form and shape culture.

When your communication is flavoured with constant hype you are creating a culture of desperation. For your followers it’s a short walk from desperation to suspicion.

Because of my own optimistic nature, I’ve learned that I need to be vigilant to ensure that hyperbole doesn’t creep into my own communication.

And I would urge you to be just as vigilant.

Because if you can keep away from exaggeration and hype it will be the absolutely greatest thing ever.

(In case you missed it… that was hype!)

How do you keep from over-hyping your communication?

Filed Under: Canadian, Culture, Discipline, Failing, Featured, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to Tackle the 3 Biggest Challenges Facing Canadian Churches

February 14, 2012 By 3 Comments

Take a minute to give an honest reaction to these leadership questions:

  • What part of your church is “stuck”, and what would it take to get it moving again? 
  • How could your church be better positioned to make a significant Kingdom impact? 
  • What would it take to see more people in your faith community move from “consumers” to disciples?

In 2011 these were the questions that dominated leadership conversations in Canada. So in 2012 we’re rolling up our sleeves to see church leaders from coast to coast tackle these challenges.

Introducing Innovate 2012. Innovate is not so much a workshop, as it is series of leadership conversations with some of Canada’s pace-setting church leaders.

And we want you and your leadership team to be a part of the conversation.

Tim Schroeder, The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada’s “National Pastor”, will host the conversation, featuring leaders who have been making progress on each front.

But this is not an afternoon of “talking heads”. This will be an energized, interactive four-hour session, where leadership teams will be working on highly practical applications. It will be a chance for church teams to fire questions at the panel of leaders, and then work to apply learnings to individual church settings.

We believe that these conversations are so important to the advancement of the Kingdom in our country that we are not charging an admission fee to participate. We will gratefully receive donations to offset costs, but we do not want finances to be a reason for your team not to take part.

Each of the 12 sites is limited to 10 teams of six, so I’d urge you to reserve your place now. For more information, and to reserve your table, click here.

So make plans now to bring your leaders to the Innovate 2012 site near you.

And let’s get to work.

Filed Under: Canadian, Church, Team Tagged With: , , , , , ,