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I wrote this post while live blogging at the RightNOW Conference in Dallas, TX. It was originally published on Nov 6th, and a lot of church leaders were impacted by Chandler’s thoughts here.

Matt Chandler is the Lead Pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX

5 family traits for The Village Church

1. truth (unflinching unapologetic view of the scripture)

2. spirituality

3. missional living (intentional living)

4. foot washing (serving withing the church community)

5. community

Elder governed by an all male leadership responsible for theology and philosophy

The executive staff is made up of men and  women who deal with the operational system of the church.  The larger a church gets the more their people are viewed as expendable and a nuisance, but we will listen to any covenant member who takes issue with something we do.

We participate in church discipline. Last year we actually removed 12 people from the Village Church.  We have done  it publicly, in groups but we have not done it in front of all 8000 people because most are not covenant members.

In the last 7 years 3 people have left our staff, no one has left The Village Church to go to another church. We have a very brotherly environment.  The youth intern can come into my office and ask me any question.If there is no longer the opportunity for you to lead up or influence it may be time for you to consider moving on.  That door is always open for everyone at the Village. My leadership style at the village church is influence not control. I attend meetings but I don’t lead them.

I don’t believe in the beating up of old saints, and I don’t think God honors that.  Honor what’s old while you press on to what’s new.  When you come in and say something is stupid or it doesn’t work don’t forget that some people came to know Christ by way of those methods and systems.  You may say “I Surrender All” sung to an organ no longer works, but all they are remembering is the night their heart exploded and Christ’s redeeming love became real to them while they sang that song.  Can you see how offensive that could be?

We feel called to this thing for 40 years not 7 because we are all selling cars because we are burned out.

If I can’t lead my family I am disqualified from doing this.  I don’t want my kids to hate the church because I loved it more than them.

We show the testimonies of people who are still doubting and struggling with their faith because I don’t just want to show the hero because it makes super spirituality look normative.  The hunger to be godly is an objective evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work.

Pastor’s don’t baptize at our church.  If you win someone to Christ you baptize them, because there are two testimonies in the pool.  The guy in the cubicle who was scared to death to share the gospel with his co-worker is now a missionary, and the other guy in the pool has been redeemed by God.

I don’t just want to teach at non believers. I want to set Biblical framework up against their framework, and I use secular examples to prove my point.  I call this Presuppositional apologetics, Tim Keller is the jedi on this right now.

I’m constantly trying to stay in tune with what is stirring up my heart for Jesus Christ and what is robbing me of those affections. I want to be very watchful of my soul.  I have people internally and externally to whom I am accountable.  I am subject to a 360 review where my wife and my children are even interviewed about whether I am taking care of my family and myself.

Some guys buy into themselves as the reason for what is happening.

The Village Church has 3000 covenant members, and 8000 total attenders at 3 campuses.

Mark Batterson is the Lead Pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC

Numbers 11

Our church is 70% single 20 somethings.  Three weeks ago we got a call from Union Station saying that they were closing down the movie theatres.  One of our campuses had been meeting in a movie theatre here for years.  I truly didn’t know what I was going to do.

Unbelief is putting the circumstance between you and God, while faith is putting God between you and your circumstance.  If we only lead with our logic and those things we have learned we lead from memory. There is a shift when we are not leading out of creativity but memory.  We are not imagining the future. We are just remembering the past.

If you don’t have a vision and you are not leading out of right brain imagination you try to become all things to all people.  In this scripture the Israelites are complaining, even saying we should have stayed in Egypt.

In verse 20 God promises the people meat to eat and Moses immediately does the math.

Has God ever given you a dream that just didn’t add up?

The reason vision dies is because we can’t answer the question why.

“A low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils and a high view of God is the answer to ten thousand temporal problems.”

In verse 23 God asks ,”Is my arm too short?”   We try to make God fit into the logical constraints of our left brain.

Finally in verse 24 Moses is called upon to tell the people what God has spoken.  What’s the hardest message you have ever had to give?  The things I don’t want to say are often the things they need to hear.

Don’t allow logical constraints to restrict the work of God in your life.  Allow your dream to flourish and let your imagination grow.

We would have people with very secular testimonies, atheists, witches etc.  But what always hurt me as a pastor was the ones who would say “I grew up in church….” this was followed by a series of events and finally they said ….”and for the first time I heard the gospel.”

This either means we were not teaching the gospel or we were and they just weren’t hearing it.  For a while everyone with a testimony like this, I would write their name down and try to track them down to talk to them.

I found that from growing up in church I could remember a lot of moralistic deism. We don’t go to movies, we don’t drink alcohol, we don’t date, and we don’t smoke. There was a lot of behavior modification, but I don’t remember a lot of the gospel.

1 Cor 15:1-6   Paul tells them to return to the gospel, this is of first importance

If you ever teach sanctification outside of the cross you are going to confuse and pervert.

It doesn’t take the gospel to care for the poor or love your wife or not use cuss words and replace them with Christian cuss words (dingfod).  That doesn’t take the gospel.

Gal 2:19- Gal 3:4  Here they get away from the gospel into the works of the law

In Phil we see whether you are rich or poor the gospel must go forth

We can see the gospel in two ways.

The Evangelical  tradition GOD-MAN-CHRIST-RESPONSE

In Col 1:13-23

God is holy and we, man, are not holy. The scary part is not that our wickedness is wicked. The scary part is that our good is nothing but filthy rags to him, it’s still wickedness. BUT God is rich in mercy and Christ came to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and if we will respond in confessing our faith and in deep repentance we can be saved.

Another way we see this is a reformed view CREATION-FALL-REDEMPTION-CONSUMMATION

Creation is good and the fall destroys it. God made everything to work a certain way. Food was made to nourish us, we would eat and worship. Wine would be enjoyed, and we would worship the creator.  Marriage was a holy covenant ordained by God himself. Work was meant for us to honor God and worship him.

After the fall we see how creation has been destroyed.Food leads to gluttony or indifference. Wine leads to alcoholism and indifference. Marriage is a tangled mess in our society.   Our jobs have become where we try to find our self worth and get the definition of who are.

Jesus Christ comes and reconciles all things to God, and when Gods work of reconciliation is complete all things will be as he originally intended. We work towards consummation

I have never seen us so polarized over secondary idiot issues.  I would contend that they are both wrong and they are both right.

The reason we do what we do and go where we go is the atoning work of Jesus Christ. You don’t feel the need to tell people about the atoning work of Jesus Christ and you don’t feel the need to tell them they are sinners. It’s not just about meeting felt needs. What is going to heal dirty wicked hearts? The Cross!

Otherwise it’s like taking a glass of water and throwing it in the ocean.  Then you say the ocean is now clean and billions can come and drink from it.  It’s the same thing if we are meeting people’s felt needs without bringing them to the cross.

It’s not just about giving them food clothing and shelter.  It’s not just about helping them through tough times and counseling them.  It’s not just about being a friend to them.  It’s about the gospel, and that is what will transform lives.

I’m pleading with leaders to get the gospel right. Without it all the issues that plague us today are going nowhere.

Do you really have any affection for Jesus Christ or is this just your niche in life?

Do you really have a new heart?

Do you really have a new life?

Will you do the painful work of self-examination?

Are you saved?

Too often we are not worried about living, we are worried about our standard of living.

We are more worried about our own standard of living and not concerned about others having the chance to live at all. We live as though there is only an emergency if it effects me. Somehow what is happening all around the world is not an emergency. Are we afraid that we will give too much away and God won’t come through?

Too many talented people are trying to push the church along. When we read the ‘manual’, we see that the church is an unstoppable force on its own. All of these things kept happening and people were amazed, but when we look at the church today it seems stoppable.  They weren’t having a planning session in the upper room.  We spend so much time trying to make things happen in the church, and we don’t spend enough time praying that God drive the church forward.

2 Peter 1:1-8

Do grace and peace define your lives?  We do so many things wrong and God has given us grace and peace, but this should allow for us to show grace and peace to others.  Grace and peace are multiplied by knowing Jesus.

We must be steadfast in our dependence on God.  The great things that have happened at your church, did they happen because of your ideas or planning? They probably just happened to you.  Allow God to create the movement and be in a place of submission and obedience so He can use you there.

Almost everyone in this room is here because they want to be more effective in their ministry.  Scripture talks about become the man or woman of God that He has created you to be.  Then He will do the rest.  Movements happen through Him not by our own efforts.

Mac Lake is the Leadership Development Pastor at Seacost Church in Mount Pleasant SC

There came a point where I was juggling so man balls that I was about to drop them all, and no one knew it but me.  The only way to survive in ministry is to build leaders.  Everyone thinks there is a leadership problem in the church but that is simply not true.  There are leaders everywhere, they are coaching sports teams, they are leading in local schools, and they are leaders at work. There isn’t a leadership problem in the church there is a leadership development problem.

We cling to a program oriented approach to leadership development. There are six drawbacks we can see with this approach.

1. Distance (People have to drive back to the church or wherever you are having your program means some won’t show up)

2. Busyness (Everyone has baseball games and PTA meetings)

3. Timing

4. Relational Loyalty (in multisite churches you run the risk of leaders becoming loyal to the person teaching your program or class)

5. Artificial Learning Environment (these leaders will not be called upon to minister in classrooms)

6. Self-Selected Leadership (when you simply ask volunteers to show up, you’re  not always getting the high capacity leaders)

We need to move a way from a program oriented approach to leadership development and embrace a people oriented approach to leadership development where we are developing people 1 one 1 or 2 on 2.  These are the benefits to this approach.

1. Any Place (doesn’t have to be in a church or at a classroom so distance isn’t an issue)

2. Any Pace (for extremely busy leaders, this allows you to work at their pace)

3. Any Time (work around schedules and commitments)

4. Relational Loyalty (they are being developed by a pastor or leader with whom they will be working)

5. Real Live Experience (you are able to coach them through situations as they come along)

6. Leader Selected Leaders (allows you to identify your high capacity  high potential leaders)

Seven Ingredients to a healthy  leadership development strategy as modeled by Jesus.

1. high confidence in leaders (We feel like we have to wait for leaders to be ready, but the disciples certainly weren’t ready.  Look for willingness over readiness.)

2. high connection (Jesus spent time with his disciples. Leadership development is relationship.)

3. high content (Jesus often spoke in parables and his disciples were with him when he taught at various places.  Provide content so leaders can ponder and think through things in private time.  Remember, you don’t only develop them when they are with you.)

4. coaching (When Peter started sinking while trying to walk on the water Jesus asks him, “Why did you doubt?”  Jesus saw the opportunity for development and asks him in the moment.)

5. challenges (Luke 10 Jesus sends these disciples out with certain instructions.  They come back and debrief, or go over what they have experienced.  Give your leaders challenges and use this opportunities for growth.)

6. cluster learning (Sometimes Jesus would instruct the entire group of 12.  Allow your leaders the benefit of peer-to-peer learning.)

7. conference learning (Jesus taught huge crowds at times too.)

Inspire people to care for the souls of people.  We have used them for so long to make spreadsheets and count money and make phone calls.  Equip them now to truly care for the souls of people.

Mark Batterson is the Lead Pastor at National Community Church in Washington DC

I recently visited a church in Rome that was built over a 4^th century church, which was built over 1^st century catacombs where believers used to risk their lives to worship God.  Imagine the beauty of the worship here where they worshiped God in the midst of danger.

There have been so many developments within the church that I wonder if we have built over some of those things which first drove us toward the cause of Christ, causing us to forget our first love.

We need to be courageous enough to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what’s wrong with us. I think we are not great at the Great Commandment and we have to be great at the Great Commandment.

Let’s talk specifically about loving God with all of our minds.  The drivers who drive the black cabs in London have to go through 3 yrs of training and only a few make the cut.  Studies show that these cab drivers actually have a larger hippocampus than the regular cab drivers.  Essentially this is the part of the brain responsible for memory.  Studies have shown that the drivers with the longest tenure had the largest hippocampus showing more plasticity than we had originally thought. Neurologists have shown that we have the ability to learn something new every day for the next 300 yrs.

The human brain is an amazing thing. My question is this, what does that have to do with the Great Commandment?  When scripture says we need to love God with our entire mind we know we must engage the right and left brain. Everything that exists today was once a thought in someone’s imagination.

I would rather have one God idea than a thousand good ideas.

Everyone one of us can have a thousand good ideas and that’s good but that’s not what changes the course of history.  It’s the God ideas that will change history.

2 Cor. 5 Take every thought captive and make them obedient to Christ. It seems this passage is always preachd in a negative context.   Maybe it’s not just in the negative context that we are supposed to look at it.  Maybe we are also supposed to take those dreams that God places in our hearts and take them captive.

When I was younger I heard a preacher give a sermon from the OT about a guy named Beniah who chased a Lion into a pit on a snowy day.  I thought to myself at that moment I would like to write a book on that one day. A God idea was placed in my heart that day.  Well it took 15 years and two different manuscripts for it to happen.  Part of me wished God had never placed that God idea within me, because it was taking such a toll on me.  You take a thought captive by holding on to it and nurturing it and never giving up on it. Then set your alarm clock for very early in the morning and make it happen

Scripture says, in Col. 4:2  ”Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful.”  it is the picture of a watchman on a tower who can see things that other people can’t see.  When you pray you will be shown things that other people can’t see.

You have no idea how the kingdom of God can be advanced through your talents and passions. It’s not about you it’s about those God ideas He has placed within you. Take them captive and make it happen.

The majority of our church is composed of the 20-something crowd. This is what I have found they are searching for.

1. Looking for a place to belong deep desire to connect with other human beings but they are unable to do it

2. hunger for spiritual depth, but don’t know how to get there (perpetually frustrated they are prone to religious fads)

How do these things take place Biblically? Historically they have taken place in God’s body of believers. I would contend 20s find it difficult to find this in the church because their view of church has been based on culture and not on sound teaching. So as soon as they are pressed they will go and try to find the next coolest church.

It was before the fall that God said it is not okay for man to be alone.  Even though he had all creation to rule over and intimacy with God, God commanded human contact.

The church is talked about in 4 contexts in the New Testament.

1. House Church

2. Church in the City

3. Region

4. The World

What does the church do?

1. Worship God (not talking about music)

2. Nurture Believers (disciple believers)

3. Minister to the World (evangelism and mercy)

4. Keeping those purposes in balance (many churches like to pick one, but we are called to all)

What makes the church the church?

A church is a place where the word is rightly preached.  There is no such thing as liberal and conservative Christianity

The sacraments are rightly administered. (baptism and the Lord’s supper)

1Pet 5:1-5 Who are my elders and who am I accountable to shepherd?

1 Cor 5:1 How do you do church discipline, how do you remove a brother if there is no sense of belonging.? We see from these passages that we are supposed to belong to a body of believers. When you hear people saying there is no Biblical mandate for belonging to a church they are lying.

Why we belong,

1. obedience

2. safety 1 pet 5:8 Heb 5:13 (the only way for you to truly be encouraged is for people to actually know who you are and see through your bull when they are pretending

3. purpose and growth 1 cor 12:12-20 (for us to be all that God has for us to be you’ve got be you I’ve got to be me and we’ve got to be we

Remeber the importance of Belong, Believe, and Support.

If you belong and believe but you don’t support (submit) you’re a rebel.

If you belong and support but don’t believe you’re lost. (you’re not a believer)

If you believe and support but you don’t belong, you’re a consumer. (This is an overwhelming problem in the Bible Belt)

Look at how many books have been written on missiology over the past ten years and compare it to the number of books that have been written on ecclesiology.

The wider you cast the net the more shallow it will be.

Francis Chan is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California

There is a fight in the American church to cling to this concept of being a trader, and live out the call of Christ.  We often don’t look for the truth of scripture.  We know what we want and we use scripture to make an argument to back up what we want rather than opening the word of God and simply looking to what it says.When we here Simon says we do what Simon says. It seems that when Jesus says something we think it’s good enough to memorize it.  It’s good enough to study it, or know it in the Greek, but it’s not necessary to do it.

! Pet 4:12-14 (NIV) There were many occasions where I almost gave up, because it seemed so obvious to me how things should be.  But, in reading this passage I see that I shouldn’t be surprised when painful trials come. In fact, you should be concerned if you’re NOT suffering.

1 Pet 5:10 (NIV) Know that after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace himself will restore you.

Some of you have had a few times in your life where you were doing something that scared you to death but you experienced this supernatural peace because you knew you doing the will of God.  Why would you experience the Comforter when you are comfortable?

I’m not saying let’s go out of here and love suffering. I’m saying let’s go out of here and love Jesus so much that we are willing to endure for the cause of Christ.

Q. What kind of leader are you.

A. Strategic leader, I’m not very good with people but I like numbers and statistics.

Q.Have you gone through bringing confrontation to an organization?

A. When the book Revolution came out a lot of people were ticked off by it. Everyone is driven by something, truth is what drives me.  I know one day I will answer to God for what I did with the truths He gave me to deliver to His people.  People have been very upset, andI try to listen to what they are upset about.  If I have done something I shouldn’t have done than I would regret that.  Being a leader is about transforming the world, and if you’re transforming the world you don’t mess around.

Q. You talk about a calling from God for servant leaders.  Did you notice that in interviewing master leaders?

A. Many of them haven’t just been beaten up over the years they have been destroyed.  So they rest heavily on God’s calling, and that is what helps them move on.

Q. What should trends should church leaders be concerned about today?

A. Parents have taken on the mindset that it is the churches job to raise their children spiritually and that is completely wrong.  If we are going to try to do new things with adults it is often wasted time.  If we we try to recognize the needs adults have in changing their world for Christ we could start with parents, and helping them understand the importance of their ministry to their children.  We must help them learn how to think, and part of that is teaching them what they have been indoctrinated to think.

Q. Why is ministry to adults considered wasted time at some points?

A. When you look to see the amount of influence the local church has on the life of the average American it comes out to an average of 0.5%.  The church is simply doing things that don’t make sense, we must create opportunities for people to have a Biblical worldview

Q. What are the reasonable expectations for what we can accomplish in the ministry?

A. Let me preface by saying the Holy Spirit can do anything He wants without asking my permission. There are dramatic instances of people changing but they seem to be the exception. I asked myself a few years ago what can I really do that would add value to the kingdom before the return of Christ.

1. One thing is I throw my resources and everything I can to reach children and win them back from the enemy.

2. Prepare families for that battle. Almost half of all born again adults in this country don’t believe that Satan is real so they don’t even know there is a battle.

3. The Media- You can do something with your people to help them recognize what that is doing to them.  Teach the them how much time they are giving to that and what it is doing to their children.

4. Leadership- You must say I have only have a short time and ask yourself how can you strategically use that time.  Don’t worry about the board or the elders know what your vision is and know that God has placed it within you.  You must be ready to say I’ll die for this vision.  Know that this only happens with a team.

5. World View- The vast majority of born again Christians don’t have a Biblical world view.  We are talking about having the mind of Christ in order to determine that we would need hours with a person.  Since we only have about 15 minutes we have boiled it down to 9 questions.  We believe that we overestimate the amount of born again Christians who have a Biblical world view and we estimate 18% of adults and around 1.5% of born again teens have a Biblical world view.

6. We must be open to new models of what the church would look like in a culture like what we have today. I pray that God would bless the socks off the people who are trying pitiful things just because they are trying.  We can no longer do things the way we have always done them.

Q.  What are examples of what some churches are doing that are working?

A. There are many churches that are willing to re-investigate their model.  Some churches have said the model of house churches makes more sense and have actually closed down facilities to reach people through house churches.  Some have realized you will not connect with people anywhere more than you can on the internet, and are finding ways to lead people to Christ in this venue.  What is NOT working is when we just try to do what we’ve been doing better.

Q. What are the trends you have seen with regards to ministering to the next generation?

A. Two things that are very important to the next generation are relationship and experiences.  Something that is not very important to them is truth.  This is very troubling when our evangelistic model is based on proclamation.  We must work to build relationships and allow conversations instead of simply telling them what to believe.  It’s all about getting them to think critically so that in private they will begin to think through their beliefs and way of  thinking.  Evangelism without serious discipleship is spiritual abuse.

Q. What is your personal experience with the house church movement?

A. We got a bunch of families together and we prayed knowing that we could not lose this battle.  We committed to pray for 6 months about becoming a house church. We finally decided that we would try it, and we have been doing a house church now for 4 years. We did it primarily because we were so concerned about our children. I have to say that it has been the greatest spiritual experience we have ever had and it has revolutionized our family experience.

What I learned from the Master Leaders.

Make not of items that are of personal value.  For those items that are not of personal intrigue try to figure out why this isn’t important to you.  Is it because it’s an area you have already mastered or is it an area you just don’t care that much about.  If it is the latter it may mean that you don’t perform well in that area.

Great leaders are always interacting with other leaders about leadership, not just growing and developing on their own.

Why we need leaders to step up…

1. The more selfish our society becomes, the more critical godly leadership is.

2. The more choices people have, without a biblical worldview as their foundation, the more confused our priorities become and the more crucial godly vision and strategy are.

3. In times of rapid cultural change, the rules are different, the competition stiffer, the stakes higher, the opportunities greater necessitating superior leadership to guides us forward.

4. Recent poor decisions and behavior by high profile leaders have ushered in an era of criticism, skepticism, and mistrust, requiring a new generation of wise and godly leaders to restore public trust and confidence.

5. In  a culture that rejects absolute moral and spiritual truth, and that esteems extreme choice, the results are confusion, stress distraction, busyness, and chaos- the antidote to which is focused leaders who can make sense of reality, provide vision,and deliver direction to make the vision a reality.

6. Our culture has adopted a hyper-individualism that undermines community, nation and persona relationships, raising the need for an emphasis upon team based leadership.

7. Churches have given lip service to leadership but suffer from a paucity of genuine leaders who are guiding people toward tru Christ like transformation.

Fewer than 1 of every 5 senior pastors in Protestant churches in America can be counted as leaders. They have the call of ministry but not the call of leadership.

Six leadership checkpoints from these master leaders…

1. Leaders can strategically change reality, but they cannot intentionally change people.

(Once a person reaches the age of 13, they change very little. This is why I would say our single most important ministry is ministry to children, and the churches greatest mission is the mission to young people.) Pre-teen years experimentation and establishment…teen years refinement and application…adult years consistency and transmission…senior years re evaluation and finality

2. Nobody is the complete leadership package so it’s important to work in a leadership team.

(Pray that God would move us toward dependence on him and interdependence with others.) “None of us is as smart as all of us” -Ken Blanchard. Humility is one of the most difficult character traits to find among Christian leaders.Major on your primary talents and compensate for your weaknesses.

The best teams

-small in number

-time together, know each other

-lean on their captain

-share vision, values, passion

-vulnerable and communicate

-strive to empower people to achieve the vision

3. One of the most under-valued and least common skills among leaders is listening.

“We should lead with our ears.” “You cannot listen effectively unless you are willing to have your mind changed.” -Ken Blanchard

“I never learned anything by talking.”- Lou Holtz

There is a time to listen, a time to analyze, a time to decide, and a time to act.

4. Leaders must master conflict and confrontation.

Conflict is normal…Expect it, Accept it, and Address it. Leaders run from it, deny it, and are ultimately defeated by it.

1.Seize the initiative

2. Do your Homework

3. Position yourself as a friend, not a foe

4, Ask clarifying questions and listen to what is said

5. Seek a win-win outcome.

Leaders bring danger with them because the diligently seek the truth.  Sometimes it demands a confrontation.  Do people appreciate your leadership because it’s safe to be in your present or is it a little scary because they know you believe in truth and justice and you won’t stand for anything less?

5. Success is helping people achieve their potential. (Do we measure the same thing Jesus died for? You get what you measure!)

6. Do not accept a leadership position unless you’re ready to pay a stiff price.  The more significant the outcome you seek to achieve, the more substantial the price you can expect to pay.

What is pressure? It is having to make a decision that matters when you are not ready to do so.  Pressure purifies you and prepares you for something more.  In the midst of pressure there are certain foundations that will allow you to thrive.

Foundations:

-God (allow Him to be your strength)

-convictions (know your calling)

-family and close friends (to give you honest input)

Remember

People need to be led

Leadership is a calling, not a job

Commit yourself and others to a vision

The vision should be from God

Success is cooperating with God to facilitate life transformation.