by Rev. Dave Ficken

What is keeping your people from living out your ministry’s vision?

For a church to have traction in the mission of God, there are three important ingredients:

• Be convinced of the need for change.
• Be clear on your context and mission.
• Be catalytic for activation.

The challenge for every one of us church leaders is that Sunday is always coming, the calendar is full and we usually underestimate what is needed for each of the three ingredients. That’s where PLI can help with something that has been cooking in the kitchen for the last 2 years. Keep reading to learn more…

Be Convinced of the Need for Change

In May of 2021, I was in the room with leaders with the Movement Leaders Collective. Alan Hirsch was sharing a study of dozens of churches who wanted to see movemental empowerment of the people of God for the mission of God. He regretted that in spite of the clear vision, the well thought out strategy and the passionate leadership, the one thing that derailed this movement was the lack of conviction that things needed to change. People liked the ideas. They were in vast agreement with the vision. But because there wasn’t a felt pain point to move from their current strategies, most churches didn’t change but in the end resorted back to familiar strategies. If your church doesn’t feel like it needs to change its strategy, it most likely won’t change its strategy.

One of our new partners, the Black Clergy Caucus of the LCMS, is all about activating change. This network exemplifies what is needed for change to happen. They are clear that things cannot stay the same if we really are going to raise up the next generation—or else there won’t be a next generation in the church. Pastor Stephen Wiggins, Sr. of Jacksonville, FL, preached boldly on 2 Kings 7 to those gathered in the Black Clergy Caucus. He reminded us of the lepers who sat outside the city gate with urgent clarity saying, “If we stay here, we will surely die.” Those same marginalized lepers, hours later, were the ones coming back to the city with news of victory over the Syrian army. They knew they couldn’t stay where they were.

Change makes us aware of the risks. We fear what might happen if we have to change. We must also ask: What are we risking if nothing changes? Are we risking stagnation? Are we risking more Gospel conversations in our cities? Baptisms? New ministries? More diverse pathways to impact? It is actually more risky to not change, than it is to implement change.

So what will help you and the people you lead to embrace change?

Be convinced of the need for change. In other words, let the problem ripen. If we are apathetic to change, then the problem hasn’t been made clear enough, or we have not felt the pain of it enough. 

• What do you or your ministry need to see to be more aware of the fact that we can’t just keep doing it the way we have always done it? 
• Whose story in your community hasn’t been heard loud enough yet? 
• What echo chamber do you need to escape so you can be more aware of the needs in your community?

Change is for the sake of advancing the mission of God through the people of God. How can you help your people see just how urgent that change really is?

We can help you do this really well. Vision Bridge is a new PLI Learning Community launching this fall. Check out this pdf or schedule a call with Raechel.