All in Carson Reed
In these days, the gospel matters. And it matters when churches listen for the gospel and choose to repent. Churches that declare the truth of the gospel to the world matter. Such work is the work of Christian leaders today. The challenge in our world is not that the world has gone crazy; the challenge in our world is whether leaders will truly embrace the powerful word of gospel news for themselves, for their congregations, and for the world.
The arriving and present Jesus is the good news of God. That is why Paul will claim that it is the very power of God to save and deliver people (Rom 1:16). I will say more about good news as it is offered in Acts on another occasion. However, for the moment here, I want to make some clear and important claims about the good news that inform the life of the church and the practice of ministerial leadership.
So if you are simply curious about how to improve your leadership, or if you find yourself in some degree of stress about leadership, I encourage you to trust in the truth that God is actively being God. All seven of these principles point to the One that matters.
When churches preach Jesus Christ, call people to discipleship, welcome all to community and shared life, practice hospitality and care for others, then churches continually find opportunities to live into a simple Christian witness.
Story after story unfolds and it becomes so abundantly clear that what makes for health and vitality is that in every new moment there is the space to look for God’s arrival and to name it!
Healthy, vibrant churches have a high degree of correlation between their declared theology and their practiced theology.
Yet if leaders remain in the world of present reality without the hope-engendering question of “What if?” then leaders falter in their leadership.
When trouble comes—and it will come!—faith in the God who is at work in the world must be at the center of our attention.
Although we say we are practicing obedience to God’s voice, we may be practicing something else altogether.
Congregational leaders can study congregational life, the decline of Christianity, and the aging of their church, yet they miss the most important thing of all.
Hope is the thing. Not wishful thinking about a job raise or whether your football team will win, but Hope as the Christian vision for the living of our days.
Before we ask people to do more in our churches, we need to make sure that what we are asking them to do creates identity, community, meaning, and purpose.
The sneaky thing about renewal is that it is not up to us—it is up to God. God cannot do the work God desires to do when communities of faith assume that they are the center of things.
Folk who study congregations speak of congregations having a “life cycle.” If you’re thinking that your church might be one of them, let’s take a deeper look.
The reason to know about God in the past is so that we can recognize the action of God today.
How is my own practice of Christian faith shaping my values, attitudes, and behaviors? Decline certainly calls for renewal. Yet renewal begins with me.
We lose sleep over what to do with our ministries and our organizations. Yet we have forgotten—and we simply ignore—the one thing that really matters; the presence of God among his people.
For churches to flourish, the answer will lie in healthy congregational life and robust Christian formation.
Churches that live in the presence of the gospel are paying attention to spiritual vitality, passing and forming the Christian faith in people, and practicing hospitality to the world.
Spiritually, revival is not something one can do. I can restore a house, rebuild a car, or renew an old orchard. However, when it comes to congregational life, revival is God’s work alone.
