Churches and Loss of Passion

As churches move deeper into their ruts…the congregation’s spiritual experience—its passion—fades. The church prays, but lacks any expectation of being acted upon by God. The church praises a holy and awesome God, but sings ho-hum hymns. A church can travel so far within its own little groove that it can no longer see how much its neighbors long to know God. When congregations cease being excited about bringing the good news of Jesus to others, they cease to be exciting.

A congregation can be in this downward path for a long time without being aware that it has walked away from the activity of God.
-- Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion

Church Structures and Change

Each congregation has both a formal and an informal structure.
Wise change agents work at quickly learning the two structures, noting how each functions separately and how they work together. These agents of change also invest time in determining the real leaders of the congregations and how those leaders interact with the two structures.

Therefore, pastors and lay leaders desiring to lead systemic change must first learn both structures (formal and informal) and then determine how the con¬gregation’s actual leaders leverage those structures. If the actual leaders of the congregation really want change and are willing to use or to give up their influence to make the change happen, then you do not need to read this book. Just gather the leaders around you, and go for it!

Many will talk of the need for change while doing everything in their power to inhibit it. This is particularly true of those who brought in the pastor to lead the congregational change. When they realize that real change means a loss of their influence, they quickly turn and become the pastor’s adversary.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Finding One's Mission

In the book Repacking Your Bags, authors Richard Leider and David Shapiro state that their research shows that the number one deadly fear of people is “Having lived a meaningless life.” Finding one’s mission, and then fulfilling it, is perhaps the most vital activity in which a person can engage.
--Laurie Beth Jones, The Path

Clear Goals

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
--Robert Heinlein

Presonal Life Mission Statement

What is my purpose for being on this earth? Your mission is unique to you yet blesses the universe. Here are some hints: What puts a sparkle in your eyes—your deep gladness? And what pulls at your heartstrings—some hunger of the world? Avoid being too general (to glorify God) or too specific (to play the piano). Yet put your flesh on your mission: to glorify God through the song of your life in a way that speaks to working years or retirement or even disability. Rework your mission and keep it short; repeat it as a prayer of your heart; put it on a card inside your closet or desk or in your wallet.
--Kent Ira Groff, The Soul of Tomorrow’s Church

Jesus' Prayer

Just before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He prayed a remarkable prayer for the church He founded. He asked His Father, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me” (John 17:21, KJV).

I often notice that, as Christians, we constantly ask God to answer our prayers. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that; He invites our prayers and is so faithful to answer them. But after reading this verse, I thought, Wouldn’t it be nice if just for once, we could answer one of HIS prayers?
--Wayne Cordeiro, Doing Church as a Team