Six Reasons We Aren't Growing - A New Perspective (2013 Part I)

Yesterday I posted a blog I wrote in 2009 on "Six Reasons we aren't growing." This blog is my new perspective on the first three reasons


1) Your Ministry is Boring

The Bible isn’t boring. God’s mission for His people isn’t boring. God has made it really is easy to have fun. Teenagers can have fun doing anything.

However, if you spend anytime around people who are actually in the trenches of ministry and you'll discover, God can use anything. God has grown all kinds of ministries.

I think back about my own time in student ministry.  By modern day standards, much of the programming was pretty dull.  There weren't bumper videos before talks. The band often didn't have a drummer.  We often used over head slides.  Yet the ministry out grew our church which was growing extremely fast.  

I'm all for fun and dynamic ministry, but at the same time, it's better to have leaders that love students than leaders who are fun without love.

2) Your Ministry Refuses to Take Risks

If you’re not growing naturally then you’re going to have to make changes. Any time you make change there is risk of failure. If you’re unwilling to take risks, you’re going to eventually going to plateau before sliding into decline.

The longer you run a program, the harder it is to change.

The longer people have been used to your model, the more people will fall in love with it.

If you know you need to make a change, make it sooner than later.

WIth my own ministry, we're in the process of changing when our high school ministry meets. From a leadership standpoint, the change and risk are very easy choices.  However, we've been doing things the way we've been doing things for longer than any of our high schoolers have been in high school. Therefore, the change is something none of our students have experienced.  Therefore, we're getting push back.

When taking a risk, consider how big of a change it will be for your students AND their parents.  This will help prepare you to better communicate the change to your students.

3) Your Leaders Don’t Do Anything

Your leaders will only be as involved as you expect them to be. If you don’t give them clear direction and instruction, they can quickly become chaperons.  If you aren’t growing, find ways to put your leaders spiritual and natural gifting to work.

If you take the Bible seriously, you have to take seriously that each believer has spiritual, supernatural gifts. You're being a fool if you don't tap into this potential.  

I'm a gifted communicator clearly with the gift of teaching, but I'm also a very awkward evangelist.  At the same time, one of my youth leaders is decent communicator, but a brilliant and passionate relational evangelist.  As I look over my leaders, we're all gifted with a different mix.  Every single one of them brings something to the table which I can't bring. 

Discover your leader's spiritual gifts, call out their potential, and watch how God uses them in your ministry.