Video Transcript: Lesson 24 Balancing Human Effort & the Work of the Holy Spirit

Hello, welcome back Christian leaders institute here with you. I'm John Kenny.  We're plugging away. And we're talking about Church Health today. And we are  going to just jump right into it. And today, as you can see from the slide here,  we're going to be talking about balancing human effort and the work of the Holy  Spirit. And I think that's an important lecture for us to have an important  conversation because it almost seems like when we talk about church  revitalization, there's, there's conflicting messages. And there's a message of  like, this all depends on God, and we have to pray for it. And we're trying to bring life to something that is dead, and the work of renewal and resurrection and all  this and, and then on the other side, we're talking about doing some strategic  planning, and trying to and setting things in motion and indicators and  assessments and all these kinds of things. And you say, well, which is it? Is it? Is it the work of God? Or is it is what we're doing? So we're going to try to find a  healthy balance there today. Because I think that's really required for getting to  the place of having a healthy church is having a healthy balance and  understanding of what is God doing and what are we doing in this process of  church revitalization? So let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray for your wisdom.  Lord, your Word says that those who ask for wisdom, you will give it a lord. I ask for myself, and for my dear brothers and sisters watching this, Lord, that we  would have wisdom and knowing what it is worth that we can do. And Lord, what it is that only you can do and and truly the wisdom to know the difference. Lord,  bless our time together today. Amen. Okay, so for this, I'm going to rely on my  insights I gained from Christian Schwarz, we've talked about him a little bit.  Natural church development is his book, his ministry, whole movement that he's  got going, he makes a really good distinction here, when we're talking about  balance, and he really kind of talks about two ditches, we want to avoid kind of,  we want to, we kind of want to be in the middle. And he says you can either kind of fall in a ditch on this side, or kind of a ditch on this side. And the one is  technocratic. And the other is spiritualistic. And you might be saying what in the  world is technocratic? And what in the world is spiritualistic? Well, that's what  we're gonna spend the next few minutes talking about. And some ways, these  are kind of like opposites. You could kind of fall into one ditch kind of taking an  extreme approach of being to human focused. And you can take another  approach, which would be like too much of just abandoning any human  responsibility, right. So we want to find a good, a good middle ground. And these are the words that he uses technocratic and spiritualistic. So let's talk about that  now. So Christian Schwarz talks about technocratic in terms of there's too much  emphasis on strategic planning on organization, right, there's too much  emphasis on kind of like a method or a program that would lead you to think that you're going to experience revitalization. This is the way he describes it in his  book. Rather than trusting the person of Christ alone, people look for some form of outward security, they look for programs that will guarantee its health. So 

we're looking for, like, if I just do this, it's all going to go great. Okay. And I think a lot of church revitalization kind of conferences and books kind of make, I mean,  they kind of make that plea, don't they? It's like, well, if you do this, you know,  you're going to get the kind of results you're looking for. But as we've talked  about, many times, there's no silver bullet. There's no magic solution. There's no amount of human effort that's going to get you what you want to get. My own  experience, like I was burned out, I was exhausted, I was tired. Like, I couldn't  work harder. I would have worked harder to get the church moving, but I couldn't work any harder, right? So we know that this is not this is a flawed way of  thinking about things. Okay. So, another really wonderful quote, Bill Henard, who wrote a great book. I've mentioned it before can these bones live? He warns  against the futility, like, kind of a waste of an overly technocratic approach. He  says, in order for the church to be revived, it will demand a mighty work of God's Spirit. Following a particular methodology or program does not guarantee  success. One might greatly desire for the church to revitalize and grow, but  genuine church growth calls for more than personal passion and requires the  Spirit of God. I think he's, you know, we've talked about this, right? I mean, you  know, this, hopefully, at this point, you know, we're just covering the same kind  of ground. But even with that, let me throw on one more quote. And this is  another quote from some church consultants, one of them Thom Rainer, we've  talked about him before another one, Ed Stetzer. These are like two of the the  Guru's of church revitalization in Church Health, this is what they say about their lack of faith in a human powered approach to revitalization. So Ed Stetzer and  Thom Rainer say strategies, excellent methods, or even commitment cannot  substitute for humble dependence on God. If our motivation is numerical growth, then we have no real reason to pray. Organizational expansion principles will  produce results relative to your to your community or market. teamwork,  communication, people skills, and quality control will produce results. But none  of these things will produce substantive results from God in the lives of people.  Transformation is his work, we cannot rely on ourselves and see transformation, it is impossible to affect life change in others. Okay, so all these guys are saying  the same thing that we have been saying kind of all along. And this gets back to  our last lecture about the priority of prayer. This is a God, you know, empowered enterprise we're doing in terms of church revitalization. It's not just a matter of  coming up with a game plan and following steps one through five and getting the results we want. Now, what did Jesus kind of, say on this? Well, I think I think  there's a wonderful verse here, and I'm going to just invite you to read it along  with me because I think this is Jesus's way of saying what all these other people say, I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him he  will bear much fruit apart from me you can do nothing right? Okay. We know  this. This is a familiar text Jesus says apart from him if we're trying to do  something outside of Him, we will be unproductive we will not see the kind of 

results we want to see. However, if we are we remain in Him in a relationship  with Him. We will bear much fruit. Okay, doesn't it makes me think of the Harry  Reeder's vitality paradigm, the remember the roots in the tree and then the fruit.  So if we remain connected to Jesus, in a meaningful way, in an intentional way,  as his disciples, we will bear fruit again. I mean, this is like Christian Schwarz's  all by itself principle. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Again, the driving force is Jesus, who is the vine and life comes to us through  him. Okay. So there is no substitute for that, apart from divine God  empowerment. Ministry is going to be lifeless, and unable to bring about even  the slightest measure of new life. And so I think this is one of the reasons why  churches are in decline in the first place. Because we're trying to do something  apart from Jesus. And if you feel like you're in a ministry context, or situation  where nothing is happening, I would challenge you to take a look at this as a  your church. Does your ministry just in the place where it is apart from the Lord? Okay, so that's one get, we're going to do everything and then maybe later if we  remember we'll pray about it. Oh, Okay, God, we've got all these plans and then  Oh, yeah. Oh, God bless what we want to do. Okay. Now there's a kind of a  opposite approach to revitalization or to ministry. That is the spiritualistic  approach. Okay. So in his book, national church development, Christian  Schwarz talks about this approach, which is, it underestimates the value and  significance of planning and organization. Okay. So in this approach, there's  really no room for something as human driven as strategic planning, right? The  church is just going to, we're just going to pray and we're going to wait for God  to move, we're just going to wait for God to do something. And, and I've known  churches like that, you know, what, you know, any kind of planning or whatever,  that's, you know, that's not, that's not biblical. You know, we're just gonna wait  for God to do something God's gonna show us and certainly, there's seasons of  discernment. And we think God, what would you have for us? And we pray  through that. Not dismissing that, but this idea of like, kind of just letting God  hey, whatever God wants to do, God's gonna do, right. So there's some real  problems with the spiritualistic view. Churches that have this will lack direction  like there, there is no focus, there is no direction, right? What are we doing? We  don't know. Second, there's a diminished role of leadership. If there isn't there a  shepherd or an under Shepherd, we might say, as pastors are described, or  leaders are described in the New Testament, if there's no one shepherding, well, then why do you have a Shepherd? The flock are just going to kind of wander  and scatter and so there's a real diminished role of leadership. And then, I think  a third thing that's really important is we have to realize that if you're not  planning and thinking and and using your mind and your reason, you're really  vacating like any responsibility for the health of the church, right? It's like, the  church is not doing well, kind of like not my problem, not my fault. There's  nothing I can, like, I'm not responsible for the problem. And I'm not responsible 

for the solution. Right? That's a terrible approach, right? I mean, what's the point of like, even being in ministry, if that's kind of where you're at, like, I mean, what  if God called us to, if not to lead his people not to grow the kingdom, like he  specifically called people up to do that. And another one, another problem with a spiritualistic approach is it really lacked confidence in God's ability to work  through ordinary means, including people. God always works through not  always, because there is a miraculous, but more often than not, God works  through ordinary means. We can even think of sacraments, you know, bread,  you know, cup, water, like God works through ordinary means. Jesus, a loaf of  bread and fish, Jesus mud, spit, God works through very ordinary means,  including people, very ordinary people. And to say that, like, you know, any kind  of planning and visioning and structure is not like God honoring, I think is  actually quite quite the reverse. I think God does work through all those kinds of  things. Like that's how he most often, in fact, works through things right. Okay.  So I would say that, despite the fact that the church has to have and must have  a radical dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit, there remains great,  tremendous value in human planning, and effort. So here's a quote from an  author, wonderful church consultant, Aubrey Malphurs. I believe we may have  talked about him previously. M-A-L-P-H-U-R-S. Aubrey Malphurs. He said this  strategic thinking and acting can be found in the Bible. It is biblical. God has  sovereignly chosen to work through strategic thinking and acting to accomplish  His Divine Will on Earth. Accordingly, churches must be careful of those who  advised them to ignore any planning and simply let go. And let God. So just in  support of what Malphurs says, the Bible offers numerous examples of those  who faithfully serve God through the planning and execution of a strategy. I think of Moses, you think of Joshua, we think of Nehemiah. Like, these are pretty  faithful people, right? Like, they all had plans of what they were going to do. Like they all had a, you know, they all had a playbook, they all knew what they were  going to be doing. They all had something set out in front of them. They didn't  just like, bump into things and be like, Well, who knows what's gonna happen?  Like, they had direction they had focus, right? Well, what's to give out? Kind of  what is the book of Proverbs say, there's in Proverbs. But I like this one here,  the simple believe anything but the prudent give thoughts to their steps. So God  honors those who are wise, those who think things out those who plan ahead,  right? I mean, there's a number of Proverbs about that. So we can't just like  dismiss all of that and be like, well, kind of whatever happens happens, we're  gonna just see where this all ends up. No, we need to be strategic about this.  We need to be careful, we need to be really focused. Okay. So can we think of  some examples of people who had this kind of balance between planning and  the work of the Spirit? Yes. How about Jesus and Paul? Right. I mean, think  about let's think about Jesus Himself. Jesus understood his mission clearly. And, and he did that, like, I mean, he waited until he was 30. Until his time was right. 

Where Jesus went, and why he went there, and the things he taught like, those  weren't just like, by happenstance, it wasn't just by accident. Jesus was  incredibly deliberate with the things he said. And like he would know people's  thoughts. And he would say, like, he was, like, healing intentionally on the  Sabbath. Like he did that on purpose to show people that you know, how they  had had things wrong. And how they misunderstood things, right. Jesus often  will talk about, it's not yet my time, but then when it's, he's nearing the cross.  He's like, my time has now come like there's an order like he knows of what he's wanting to do. And there's time where he pulls away with his disciples. He's like,  knowing his time is short. He wants to get away with them and pour into them  like, so Jesus was kind of really strategic about it. Yet, obviously, he's ministers  through the Holy Spirit. You know, Jesus says, you know, the work that he does,  he does it through the Spirit, he doesn't do things on his own power. He only  says what God tells, his father tells me to say He does it through the work of the  Spirit. What do we think about Paul? Paul had a travel schedule that he  planned, he wanted to go to different places. Sometimes he got blocked out of it. Sometimes he stayed longer than he wanted, right? But But he had a plan. He's  like, let's go back and do this. Let's go visit here, here and here. And he's like, I  really want to get to Spain, I really want to go here. And then in his letters, he  gives strategic advice and counsel to churches and leaders about what they  need to do. But at the same time, Paul is always, always open to the spirits  leading. Never do we see Paul plays anything in his own ability, his own  preaching his own wisdom, but it's always the power of the Spirit is at work  within him. Right? That's the idea. That's how we see Jesus and Paul kind of  having this really good balance of these two things. Okay, so conclusion, where  are we at? Here's what I want you to do. Here's what I need to do. Here's what  we all need to do. Work hard. Use all your gifts, all your abilities, all your  resources, and trust the spirit to get it done. That's it, you know, churches that  are seeking revitalization, ideally, you know, they're working really hard towards  it. You know, I've said it over and over like revitalization is hard work. It's been a  lot of time. It's been a lot of reading. It's been a lot of meetings. It's been a lot of  effort to get things going. But at the same time, it's being wholly dependent on  the work of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it. In a way, it's kind of like our own  personal sanctification, right? It's God's doing something through us. But at the  same time, we're, we have to cooperate with what the Spirit is doing in us. So  my sanctification isn't just like me working really hard to try to become more  holy, because that's useless. I can't become more holy. But it's not also not just  kind of sitting back and doing nothing. Paul says, work out your salvation with  fear and trembling, right? We need to yield to the spirit, we need to cooperate,  we need to stay in step with the Spirit, right? So it's kind of like the same thing  as we're doing it, but like, on a congregational level instead of personal level,  and finding really that balance. So when we talk about, is it about working hard? 

Is it about the? Or is it about trusting completely in the work of the Holy Spirit, it's not either or it's both. And you need both working together in harmony and  trusting that God is going to work for you work through ordinary means to  accomplish His will. So we we work and we develop plans, and in a couple of  lectures ahead, we're going to focus a lot on that, you know, what do you have  to do, kind of building out your plans. But you you work on that, but you then  have to hold those plans loosely, like God might change it, God might take this  in a different direction, God might want you to stay where you are, in this  circumstance longer than you want to. God might introduce a new person or a  new dynamic that you hadn't expected. And so you have to kind of just be willing to see, you know, where is God at work? Is he calling us to something new? Is  he calling us to something different? And just going with that? So I'm hoping this  has been kind of a helpful lecture for you as we think about revitalization?  What's our role, and what's God's role? It's both we God. And it's, it's by his  sovereign design, this is how God has decreed it. He invites us into partnership  with him. He doesn't just give it to us and then say, hey, it's all on you. But at the  same time, he doesn't say like, I'm doing it all. You're not responsible for  anything like, He invites us into partnership with him. And it's, I think, finding a  good balance in that. It's where we really start to see a lot of wonderful things  happen, in a sense that God is moving and working in and through us. All right,  so let me pray for you. Father, thanks for today. This time we've had and God we confess that we've probably been in one ditch or the other at one point in our  lives and in our ministry, God for myself, I, I just confess to being too  technocratic, and relying too much Lord on my own ability and, and systems and programs at times, and Lord, neglecting the first piece of praying and invoking  your Spirit, God for my brothers and sisters who are in that same place, God,  would you just encourage us? And would you just show up in undeniable ways  to encourage us in prayer and work for those who are not very good at planning  and really minimize it? God? Would you just remind them that you've given them a wonderful mind, capacities or reason you've given us Lord, this great being  made in your image, the ability to have vision and see the future, and plan God,  and that we might use that together for your honor and your glory, Lord, for  these things, we just trust you. Forgive us, Lord, when we stray and always  bring us back to the place where we need to be doing ministry hand in hand with you. We pray this in Your name. Amen. All right. That's it for healthy churches  and come back. We've got a next series of lectures coming up about thinking  differently about church and ministry than you have before. And we're going to  cover three areas about thinking differently. So come on back, keep going. We  are getting there. We are getting nearer to the end every lecture, and God is  working through this and he's working through you. So hang in there, do the  work, do the readings. And we'll see you next time.