Video Transcript: Lesson 26 Prioritization

Welcome back. We're we're still at it right, this incredible call that God has upon  your life and my life to bring health and renewal and vitality to His Church, His  Bride, what an amazing calling it is. I'm so glad that you're doing it with me. I'm  just so grateful that God's calling you to this, that there are other people out in  the world, who just value the Lord, what he's doing, and they value where he's  planted them. And committed to doing good work there, I share your heart,  brother and sisters. So let's pray that God's going to use this time, this next  lecture to continue to build into you all that you need to get where he's calling  you to be. Father, thank you once again, for this gathering I have with my  brothers and sisters, Lord, we know that even in this Lord, your spirit is present.  So Lord, I pray that You would help guide my words, and that you would open  their ears, Lord, that the things we would say would be a blessing to you and  would move us Lord, closer to stronger and healthier. churches and ministries.  We pray this in Your name, amen. Okay, so a few lectures ago, we talked about  some of the most critical, like indicators of Church Health, and there were five  things and I said that, you know, a lot of lists have 10 or 12 things. And so when  I was doing that I was trying to really kind of collapse and condense and just  kind of what was the most important thing. Where I was starting to go with that is we're going to kind of really push in more today, which is this idea of prioritizing.  So we're going to try to think differently about kind of what we're going to do and how we're going to do it and what we do first and why we're doing it first. Okay.  So where to start? I think that can be a huge question. For churches that are  going through revitalization. I remember looking at the whole situation that I was  in with my church. It was an old church. The church had split, the church had  very little structure to it. There was just like a number of issues like I could have  just, I could have thrown like a dart anywhere and hit an area that our church  needed to address, right. I think I shared this when we did our assessment, we  did our first NCD assessment. And it's you get evaluate, or you self evaluate in  eight categories. Each of our eight categories was below average. So one of the nice things our coach had told us he was like, Well, the good news is you can  start anywhere, and it's going to make a difference. It can be awfully  overwhelming. Okay, so what's actually like the first thing, the first step, what's  the first area that we need to address. Should we talk about worship? Should we talk about prayer? Should we address the nature of the relationships we have  here? Should we address personal spiritual disciplines? Maybe we should get  small groups going? Well, I need to have more leaders. You know, our  evangelism? Isn't that good. I mean, really, I mean, we can start just about  anywhere, right? My goodness. And so what we're going to talk about today is  prioritizing, and this is one of the hardest things that we had to do as we were  getting launched on our way. And I can say, every time that we take the next  step, it becomes just as difficult because figuring out step one is hard. But once  you do step one, and things are going well, trying to just figure out what step two

is, it's just as challenging. So let's talk about prioritization. And so what I would  say, what we want to do is really work towards something, the first thing we're  going to do out of the gate, is whatever you decide is something that will have  maximum impact, right? Again, there's so many things you could work on. And  

my my word of caution is if you try to do like more than one thing, you're going to be splitting your time, your energy, your resources, your people, your attention,  your focus. And you're going to just I think you're just going to either you're going to either not do it well or you're going to just crash. So my, my counsel to you is  whatever you wherever God is leading you. Okay, to do is, is really just focus on  one thing, that might be the most important advice you get through this entire 36 lectures, as you begin revitalization focus on one thing. Now, I can't tell you what that one thing is. Maybe it's something you've seen in your assessments. Maybe it's something where we did Church Health Indicators, it was something there,  maybe it was something else you become aware of. But my guess is that by the  time you've gotten here, that you, you, you are aware of what needs to be  addressed at least a good number of things that need to be addressed. So how  do you pick which one? Again, my word of advice is you just pick one and you  do maximum impact, what's going to have the biggest hit right away. So here's  how I did it kind of with our, and there's, there's a few different ways you can do  it. I have here most pins, I don't know how many of you are familiar with the  sport of bowling. But the idea is, you've got this big ball with holes in it, and you  roll the ball down a long kind of alley, this big strip of wood. And at the end of it,  there are 10 pins, and you try to knock down as many pins as you can with each roll. And the idea is you can knock down all 10 at once. But if you don't knock  them all down, you get a second try, and you try to knock down as many as you  can. So with that kind of image of bowling. Our idea, when we were trying to  figure out what to do first was, what could we do? That was going to knock down the most pins that was going to have the biggest impact. And so what we ended  up doing was really focusing on developing a small group ministry. At the time,  we did not have a small group ministry at all, in our church, we really didn't have  a very strong Sunday school program, either. So we thought this area of  personal discipleship was really important that people would would really grow  with small groups. But it went beyond that, because we also knew that we  needed to work on developing relationships, for people to get closer. We also  knew that kind of more like, again, like personal study time, was going to be  really important. So as we were thinking about what are the different things that  we could do, we realized that small groups, were going to be a great way to  address several things that we felt needed to grow like a spiritual formation,  community, that it would possibly be a way that people could invite others into  gospel sharing, they could invite their friends and to be part of it, relationships  were going to improve because people would be spending time together, they'd  be praying together, all that kind of stuff. And so for us small groups was the one

that we said, if we do this, we're actually going to be addressing multiple areas  by doing this one thing. And it ended up being very effective. So maybe  something you want to think about is what is something we can do this actually  going to address multiple areas of need. You know, if we're going to really start  off with thinking about worship, or we're going to start off thinking about  expanding leaders, or we're going to think about prayer. You know, we're going  to think about what we need to do to make sure that every ministry is focused on the gospel, again, there's just like, a million places you could start, okay. But  what's one that's just going to, like knock down just like a ton of pins, as many  as you can. Another way, another process of evaluating is kind of what might be  the most obvious. I would say this has been the case, especially if there's been  some kind of a neglect of an area to like, just an extreme measure, maybe, you  know, just a place of gross disobedience, you know, kind of the elephant in the  room. Perhaps there's just tremendous conflict in the congregation. You know,  you're not going to really get anywhere until you start to deal with that. So it's  like, if you feel like there's something like that going on, like we're not gonna go  anywhere until we fix this first, that probably then a good place for you to start.  There was a church that I became familiar with. And for them, it really was  worship. Now they had, and I'm not for one style of worship or another  traditional, contemporary, whatever it's God is honored and blessed invoked. But this church, the only sang out of a hymnal, which is fine, but the hymnal was  printed in the 1940s. And the newest song in the hymnal was from 1912. And  that's all that the church used. So it's saying that the earliest or the most recent  songs that the church is singing was over 100 years old. And that just kind of  reflects the way that things were done, like nothing had changed in like, 100  years, like, so it was like, kind of like a time warp. Okay, so now they could keep  a traditional style of worship. But I mean, just thinking like, there's nothing worth  singing that God has not moved in any way in the last 100 years. Like, that was  a real problem. Okay, so that was very obvious in being there. And as a way the  values that they had put on worship the way they did worship. It was, it was  obvious. And it wasn't just about, you know, what we need to change to draw  crowds, it was, the people were not growing in worship, God was not really  being honored just in the way it was approached the way it was done. And so  that might be like, really obvious. Or it could be prayer, you know, that there's  just there is next to zero prayer going on, in the life of the church, and you're  like, we have to start there. Okay. So there's this different, you know, again,  there could be something that's so obvious to you. That you just need to  address it, just think of like, if your, your building had a huge hole in the roof,  right? And you you have some money to to fix the building? Well, what are you  going to spend the money on first, right, you're going to fix the hole in the roof,  you're not going to worry about, you know, painting your office, or you're not  going to worry about getting the carpet steam cleaned, you know, in the hallway,

you're going to fix that gaping hole in the roof, right? So that's another way of  thinking about it is like, is there something that's obvious that's really preventing  and limiting us from doing the kind of ministry we want to do, that God is calling  us to do. And I think that that's probably a way that we can see or understand  Jesus, when he addresses the churches in the letters in Revelation. There were  some obvious and gross sin going on. And he just addressed that, and was like,  You know what, you can't do this anymore. You have to stop and you need to  start doing this. Okay. And then one more. And this is from Christian Schwarz,  again, going back to natural church development. He talks about this idea of  minimum factor that gives this image of a bucket, and we're kind of giving an old bucket where it would have like, the wooden slats that would go all around, I  think, technically, they're called the staves. But let's just say like, there's these  wooden slats that go around. And then there's like, you know, a metal band that  holds them together and you pour the water in a bucket and natural church  development, this idea of like that, different parts of the church are like two  different slats. And if you pour water into the bucket, the you can only fill the  bucket as high as the shortest slat. So maybe one slat of worship is here, and  evangelism here and prayer is here and leaders is here. But whatever the  lowest one is, you will never get beyond that, like, you pour water, water. And as  soon as it hits that level, it's going to keep, you know, falling out. So what  Christian Schwarz recommends is, if you've done an assessment, pick the  lowest number, or pick the lowest, the category that has the lowest number and  start there because you're never going to be able to get beyond that. So he  really advises going after the minimum factor or the lowest score. Now,  obviously, there's some overlap here. That if you go with what's most obvious  That's probably a pretty good chance that it's also your lowest area. And you  might be end up addressing other things. Excuse me? So how do you how do  you actually go about then actually picking? Like, what are we going to do? How are we going to get started? What's, what's the one thing we are going to work  on, as, as a church or as a ministry? Well, I've just got a couple of things here  for you about what that process is. And I would say, first and foremost, you need to decide with a group, what that is, it really just shouldn't be you, on your own  working independently, you know, who is your leadership team, who are the  people who are also invested in this, who are the people you're going to be  counting on to help get this work done, that this needs to be a group thing, there needs to be some shared ownership, there needs to be an investment by  others. And so planning some time where you can, you know, lay out some  different options, and then just open up the floor and, and discuss and pray and  discern. And it's not a fast process. Usually, for us, it's kind of like more of a  retreat setting, it usually takes like three hours, one day, two hours, the next and  we kind of figure out what we want to do when we vote on it, and we kind of  narrow it down, and then we'll take some time off, like overnight, and we'll pray 

about it. And we'll do some scripture studies, we start our next meeting, and kind of so we just really, it's like just mutual discernment. And just really trying to find  where is God leading us? Where is God calling us next? And there are times  where it's more obvious than others. There's some times where we walk in, it's  like, yeah, we all know exactly what God wants next. And then sometimes it's  like, you know, what, I don't know, we, there's some really good options, but  what is specifically God calling us to do. But what what really makes a difference is doing it with a group is that when you figure out what it is that God wants you  to do, and the next year or whatever, that when you leave, it's not just one  person, there's six people, there's eight people, there's 10, people who all have  a common vision, who all have a sense of like, I've heard from the Lord, I know  where he wants to take this. And it's not well, this is just what the pastor wants,  or this is just what this person wants, right? It's, we've decided this together. And that is so important, right? Just that it's not just coming from like the top down.  But it's like the community discerning God's thing together. Now, obviously,  there's a risk in this, that the group might decide some things that you do not,  wouldn't be your first choice. And, and I can say that that has happened in my  realm in my ministry as well. And what I found, is this, that having a group of  people work on what would be your second choice is far more effective than  them not working on, what is your first choice, right? People aren't just dying to  get up to be like, hey, what do you want us to do? You just lead us and we're  gonna, like, they have their own thoughts, God, the Holy Spirit is in them, God is working through them. They, they want to get excited about that. So I would say  that having people, you know, obviously, within reason, that if there's a group,  and they, they are just, you know, you really think you need to work on  evangelism. But they really think you know, small groups or prayer is the way to  go, you're gonna get a lot more impact at the end of the day, by doing kind of  where they're at, and they want to own and they want to do, then just like, kind  of your thing. So I would say be real willing to release it to the process. There's a Holy Spirit can work through community. And then sooner or later, you will all  end up in agreement. And more than once I came in, like, I know, this is where  we're going to go. And by the end of the meetings as a retreat, I was in a  different place. And I really was able to hear God speaking through somebody  else and say, wow, like, that's absolutely correct. And I didn't even think about  that. So we really want like the wisdom of the Body of Christ coming together.  Okay, so you can certainly help facilitate that. You can lay out a bunch of  different options. You can ask follow up questions, you can you know, people  who are more quiet and you can pull them in. And, you know, and you can offer  your own thoughts. But I would say in a very kind of like, controlled way, kind of  where it's equal footing, not like, well, I know what you all said, but now we're  going to really hear what we're going to do, you know, you're going to instantly  turn people off, you know, just valuing what others are saying, what, you know, if

they're serious about praying for the Lord and hearing hearing from him, you  know, just honor that. Don't just pay lip service. So decide with a group. Okay.  And then if you think that's kind of a little risky. The next one is, was for me was  one of the biggest challenges of all in revitalization, which was having somebody else lead it. When we decided that we were going to do this small group, we're  gonna really focus on developing small groups. Because that was an area we  didn't score well, and it was going to knock the most pins down, it was just going to really be a great catalyst for revitalization. The coach who we had asked me,  my job was to pick the leader that I thought would be most qualified and able to  lead the group. And when he asked me that, I kind of was like, What do you  mean, like, I just assumed like, I was going to be leading, and I was going to be  the pastor. And he basically said, no, like, that's the problem. Like, you need  other people to lead. And so we had invested a ton of time, a ton of money into  this whole revitalization program, I was going through a doctorate, we'd flown  people around the country to, to get the training we needed, we had the coach  flying in from out of state every month. So I felt like there was an awful lot riding  on this. And this was going to be our big thing, this was our big thing coming out  of the gate. And my job was to pick the person who was going to lead it. Now  there are plenty of qualified and able people at our church, but like, I was so  taken aback, like, no, like, like, I was pretty sure I was gonna be doing that, like,  I'm the pastor. And he was insistent that it be somebody else. And that my role  would just be to to appoint that person. And then to be a resource if that person  needed any encouragement, or any help. And that was one of the most  important things that happened in revitalization. And it's been one of the most  important lessons I've learned in ministry, I picked a wonderfully gifted  gentleman, in fact, he was a very successful executive, in a big company. He  was, he's a born leader. He's very personable. I had every reason to pick this  person, he loves the Lord. And he did an amazing job. He built a great team  around him, and they launched this ministry. And they certainly did not do  everything the way I would have done it. And that probably turned out to be a  really good thing. But they owned it, and they got invested. And they got excited. And they drew their family members into it. They were sharing it with people in  the congregation. And so my role was really just kind of being on the outside,  and kind of watching. And it worked. They launched it, it was fabulous. We've  had it in place, I don't know, maybe six years, it's been most of our congregation is involved in small groups. It's been a great blessing. People are getting  connected. People are growing in their faith. It's been everything we hoped it  would be it ended up knocking down a bunch of pins at once. And and I didn't  lead it. And I realized in that moment, like, whenever we were going to do  something moving forward strategically, that I was not going to be the person,  which was the complete reversal of every way I had ever operated like, well, this is a really important thing. So I need to take care of it. And I realized no, that my 

job was to equip the things if we think about what Paul writes in Ephesians that  our job as pastors and leaders isn't to do everything is to equip the saints to  build up to the body. And that was a key leadership shift for me and made me  think differently about how I needed to lead how I needed To function and how I  had been previously, kind of like the problem, not the solution. So I just want to  challenge you on that. And then finally, uh, one last thing, and this is just as  important is to make space for these new as this new initiative that you're trying  to do. Let me just put it this way, stop doing things that clutter, the calendar, the  church calendar, things that take time, things that take energy, that are not  focused on church revitalization that are things that aren't contributing to the  health of the church, like, I'd have to just pull the plug on these sorts of things.  An illustration that we often use is like, different ministries, like everybody has  kind of like are our church like, it's like an old west, like gunfighter, you have a  you have a revolver. And it's like you have a six shooter. So you only have six  bullets, right? You can only it's not like you have unlimited. So you have to be  when you only have six bullets, you have to be really, really careful about how  you shoot those bullets, right. Or, in our context, when we're talking about doing  one thing, you have one bullet, right. So you have to make sure that what you're  trying to do, is really focused and intentional. So we have several things going  on in our church that were using our facility, there was like a community men's  basketball group. They use our church, nobody from our church was a part of  this. And there was no Bible study, there was no outreach, there was nothing.  And after a while, when we were getting serious about this, and we were using  our church for different spaces and stuff, we just pulled the plug and said, You  know what? It's just wear and tear. It's just, we were having some issues with it,  it was preventing us from doing the things we wanted to do because the space  is being used. And we just said, You know what, that's it, we're done. There was  a medical equipment ministry that we had for a while, we realized that there was nobody leading it the thing was like, it was valuable. But it was just somebody  else needed to do it. It was just a kind of drain on us. And so we ended up  finding another partner and handing it off to them. We even recently went  through this, and there's a major ministry that our church founded in the  community, it's a big worship. community event draws 1000s of people over the  course of 10 weeks in the summer, we have over 30,000 people come to this.  We've been doing it at our church for almost 75 years. And this past year, we  decided we weren't doing it anymore. And that's a long conversation. But the the the reality was, it had nothing to do with our church. It had nothing to do with  what we were trying to do. Now it was a great thing. And it was a good thing.  And we were blessed to be able to give it off to somebody who is very much was their thing, and it was driving them. But that was a really hard thing to to give up  something had been part of our community for that long, something that we  were so identified with. But it was taking up so much time and so much energy 

and money out of what we're trying to do, we just had to cut it loose. And that  was really kind of like a sacred cow that we just had to just finally just move  away from. So as you're trying to do, revitalization, if I could just encourage you  to give yourself some space, stop doing the things that aren't helping you that  are just a distraction that are just weighing you down. They're taking up time and money and people and volunteers and leaders to do that just aren't really at all  what God's calling you to do or what your church is supposed to be about. Okay, so let's, let's pray for some wisdom here as we consider about, you know, just  thinking differently about doing some things. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we confess  that there are times when we have made the church into something you've  never called it to be. We love you, Lord, that you're grateful, and you're merciful  towards us. And we pray, Lord, that we might lead with wisdom and with clarity, I pray for my brothers and sisters here Lord that through this lecture, you are  bringing to their minds, things that they would need to work on and God beyond  that, I pray for those who are working with them in their ministry that God, you  would bring upon them a sense of consensus and unity. Just a unanimous idea  of what it is God that they need to address and that you will empower them to do it. Lord, I pray for just a spirit of harmony and agreement in all the churches  represented in this class. Lord, we just love you. We thank you and help us Lord getting a get us off to a good start we praise your name amen