The Secret to Resurrecting Ministries
A Guest Post By Michael Holmes:
Michael is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness. He’s also a blogger that gives insights on applying powerful ancient principles from The Bible to the world of business. Providing a relevant Word for relevant times from a relevant God.
All ministries are dying.
I’m serious. Dying.
How? In either one of two ways:
- Dying to themselves and living to Christ
- Dying in their communities and becomes less relevant and influential
Now please understand: we want the first! In order to remain effective and be the salt that changes neighborhoods we need to rely more on Jesus. In that way, we need to die. But unfortunately, there’s too many coffins for the second death!
David wrote a recent post about the Anglican Bishops handing out invitations inviting people to come to church. A very unorthodox move. A Bishop who presides over 211 parishes said,
“Traditionally, we’ve not been good at inviting people to come to church.”
A drop in membership is probably the reason for the “wake up call.” Trying to fight that second death. And though I applaud their marketing efforts without “this secret“…in the long run…it won’t work.
What’s the secret?
Simple:
its called a fundamental shift.
What in the world is a “fundamental shift”?!
I’m glad you asked.
“Fundamental Shift” Defined
Here’s the simplest way to explain it: a new purpose and a new vision.
That’s it!!! That’s the “secret!” Hasn’t Rick Warren been preaching this secret for years??
He has.
So why is it a secret?
It’s a secret when we overlook it (or them) for “other” options.
Oh!
Understand that without these two every other “innovation” will fail. Why?
Because without purpose and/or vision no matter what you change (marketing efforts, better programs, a more upbeat service) you’ll end up going back to the things that got you in trouble!
And when there’s a shift from purpose and vision there has to be a shift back (hence, the cool term 
).
How do shifts happen? Easy…a shift in leadership: Either the leader changes or is changed. It starts and ends with purpose
Diagram of how purpose and vision work:
Purpose is defined as: “The object toward which one strives or for which something exists.”
We’re all guided by purpose. The Bible says, “The noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided.” [1] Without it, we’re like children “tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine.” [2]
And so a ministry starts with purpose (who we are), and out of that purpose flows vision (where we’re going). But the purpose of the vision is to fulfill the purpose of the ministry; in other words, “we’re going here to become who we are or who we were called to be.” And the same way Peter lost sight of Jesus and began to sink, ministries start to sink when they lose sight of purpose.
Back to the drawing board
In this competitive religious landscape purpose is needed more than ever. We need ministries who know who they are, where they’re going, and are willing to make adjustments to get there. We need ministries with no purpose to find purpose. And, we need ministries who’ve lost purpose to have a fundamental shift.
By now you’ve heard of some denominational marketing campaigns hatched over the past few years; but what these denominations need is a new purpose, not new marketing–because good marketing without a fundamental shift is still bad publicity!
What are your thoughts?
[1]Isaiah 32: 8 (The Bible in Basic English)
[2]Ephesians 4:14 (The Amplified)
Photos From Flickr: Photo Mojo and House of Sims
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