There are pockets around the United States where it still feels like not a lot has changed. Gail and I were in one of those pockets last week near St. Louis at a large PLI congregation.
“We had our largest attendance at Christmas that we’ve ever had! Last month!”
Not many leaders are saying that these days.
John Kotter maintains that where it once took 20 or 30 years for generational change to occur, it’s happening at an 18 month clip today!
(When you turn the television on and listen long enough to ask yourself what world am I listening in on…now you know. It’s a world that didn’t exist not so many months ago.)
Many of you are aware that PLI has been doing catalyst gatherings hosted by PLI congregations over the last six months.
- To align pastors and people around the urgency of the challenge facing us in the Western church…business as usual leads to bad results!
- To help people realize that it’s foolish to cling to the notion that “if we just had a better pastor than the current one” the old ways would still work. Most of the time, it’s the old ways that are broken, not the pastor.
- To move some early pioneers forward in a new way that can signal hope to most churches that count themselves out of being used by God to redeem a lost and condemned world.
The reason so many pastors today are discouraged is that they feel there’s a conspiracy that’s set them up to fail!
And that’s not fair!
And it doesn’t need to be that way.
This is what it could look like:
- It’s new leadership skills.
- Added resilience.
- A trust in the Spirit to work in seemingly impossible circumstances.
- A large dose of new understanding and urgency among formal and informal leaders.
- And, as John Kotter (again) would say, it’s early wins!
It’s a few pioneering folks who can demonstrate what a different future can look like.
I don’t mean this to sound like a commercial, but here’s the genius of Multipli’s Genesis Leader that Gail and the Multipli team are doing:
You as the leader don’t need to figure out the new path OR how to disciple and send a few would-be pioneers.
Multipli’s light-weight training will start your pioneers reporting early wins that will breathe some new life into some tired ways. Learn more and contact Erin Guelzow to get more details. To be honest with you… Don’t wait! Just learn more. Find out how it could work at your church…or for you!
Or, contact Phil Klopke about PLI’s 1,000 Young Leaders. If it’s been bothering you that the largest adult generation in the U.S. is the least in attendance in your congregation, it’s time for solutions. For action.
And as for your own “new leadership skills?” Raechel can discuss the right “next step” for you.
