I started out as the youth pastor of my current church. Then, I became the children’s assistant pastor for two and a half years. During this time, the lead pastor had a moral failing. Overnight, I was transitioned to interim lead pastor, and I did my very best to navigate that tough stretch of road for the church. That first month, we went from 80 people to 20 people. People left because I was a kid just out of Bible school. I did my best and believed God, but what I started doing was working to change the culture, the way we did things, and opening us up to be known as a welcoming church. We saw steady growth from that point forward.
It’s been almost 40 years at Abiding Word Church now, and our church has grown to nearly 500. What brought the people? What has established us as a leading church in our area? Purposeful service.
Today, I want to share with you a few steps you can take to move your services from predictable to purposeful. Pastor Jim and I discussed these recently on a webinar. If you didn’t catch it, you can here. But for those of you who prefer to read, let me share an overview of our discussion.
- Prioritize Prayer Before Preparation. Over the last year, God has been dealing with me about tithing your prayer time. That’s a concept I’d never heard before, but a minister at a conference I attended said it, and it convicted me. How many hours do you have in the day? How many hours are you in the office? Take a percentage of that time, and put it into prayer. That will help you in the ministry of the Word. You can have the best message in town, and people will come, but they won’t stay. The more you pray, the more God will draw the people and connect them to others in the church. Those attachments will help them stay.
- Allow Biblical Instruction to Bring the Inspiration. You don’t need to put pressure on yourself to bring inspiration to the message God gives you. All you need to do is internalize the message. Back in 2010, I took part in a community theatre production of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. A fellow who was in a touring company came and watched our rehearsal. He told me afterward, “You internalize your part better than anybody in the cast.” That’s what I do as a pastor. I take what I have in scripture, and I internalize it so that it’s coming from my heart. You internalize when you pray, meditate on the passage, and make it a part of you.
- Work Hard at Teaching Templates. Jim Graff told me he developed a teaching template to keep short attention spans engaged and bring more application to his messages. I’d never heard that concept before, but I did employ it during COVID. When I would record messages, I would look into the camera as if I was sitting in the living room with that family.
- Aim Series at Spiritual Growth. This is about speaking to your audience and not being “above” them in terms of your delivery style. Back in 1999, I read The Purpose-Driven Church by Rick Warren. I had the book sitting on my desk for a year or two before then, but I just wasn’t ready to read it. I took it to a retreat, and it wrecked me. I saw that some of the things we were doing were religious—sacred cows—and they didn’t really have a point. So that began to catalyst change, and as I made some tweaks, we saw spiritual growth.
- Manage My Energy to Make Sure Services are Excellent. Our staff has been together for about seven years now. If you think about it, there is a succession of holidays and special events that’s never ending in the church. You’re on this wheel. And you have to intentionally take time to refresh yourself, rest, and do the things any lead pastor should be doing, such as communicating the vision clearly, investing in leaders, raising money to fulfill the mission, and teaching God’s Word in a compelling way. To a layperson in the church, it’s kind of mind-blowing that there are lost people that we as pastors need to be speaking to in addition to the congregation. Sometimes, it’s a real juggle to meet the needs, but really, it’s the Holy Spirit who does that. You and I as leaders simply need to speak to the people where they are—lost, new believer, mature believer, or leader—and help them grow.
It takes energy to make sure our services are purposeful. On the natural side, we have two Sunday services right now. For a long time, one was on Saturday, and the other was on Sunday. Dropping the Saturday service in favor of two Sunday services was probably the greatest move of God we ever made. For staff and volunteers, they were ready to carry me on their shoulders when I finally agreed to it! But in between services, I’m intentional about just being another guy. I’m in the lobby before and after service. When the people leave, I go back to my office, drink some juice, have a muffin, rest for a minute, and pray in the Holy Ghost, and then I head back out. We all need those times to reflect, refresh, and regather ourselves.
Lead pastoring is quite a ride! You have your ups and downs, as any pastor knows, but God is faithful. If you’ll listen to Him, and then listen to wise men like Pastor Jim has on the Significant Leader Webinars, you’ll gather wisdom that will make your journey easier and more successful.
Be careful not to isolate yourself from other men and women in leadership positions. Early on, I did that unintentionally. I was in northwest Illinois, 120 miles west of Chicago. We didn’t have Christian television available for a while, before Dish came along. We felt very alone. Our fellowship was through the Bible school I went to, and I would attempt to go to events off and on, but they were discouraging because they would often be talking about the newest Christian fad, and I had no clue what they were talking about. With Significant Church, you can be involved wherever God has stationed you. This group of leaders is here to encourage you and lift you up and help you with ideas and resources that will bless you and help your church succeed. Why wouldn’t you get involved?
If you’re new to Significant Church, or if you’re a long-standing member, I hope you’ll join us at the National Leadership Retreat in Austin, Texas, this January. You can learn more about it and register here. I believe you’ll be glad you did!
This blog was created using content from the webinar From Predictable to Purposeful Services.
