Put down the stakes where it really matters
By Melissa Lilley
HIGH POINT - Reggie Joiner doesn't have to say a word. All he has to do is bring to the stage a Macintosh Plus computer from the 80s and ripples of laughter begin throughout the crowd. When he talks about how he used this exact computer years ago and was so proud of his purchase, thinking he had achieved technological greatness, the whole crowd laughs, many nodding as if they, too, are remembering back to the earlier years.
Joiner reminisces about the day when people drove around looking for a pay phone - and they drove around without the help of a GPS. He still remembers first learning about TiVo and how it revolutionized the way he watched "24" – commercial free.
His audience is engaged, they laugh because they can relate to these examples, but Joiner’s made his point: things change. What works now and is useful may not always be so in a few years. Speaking to pastors and church leaders at Green Street Baptist Church, Joiner, author of Think Orange, challenged leaders to consider why, if they know technology changes and culture changes, do they think it should be any different for the church? One reason is because "when we make something, we think it should have a shelf life a lot longer than what it does," Joiner said. Then, the question becomes, "are you so satisfied with the status quo that you're going to stay in the scenario you're in?"
Joiner walked his audience through principles of change that church leaders can apply in their own settings, not for the purpose of changing just to change, but with the intent of being able to do their job most effectively. Sometimes the fear of change lies in the wrong place. For example, a church worries about the people who may leave if they change some aspect of the service. Perhaps the greater reason to fear is considering all the people who will remain unreached, without the Gospel, if the church doesn’t change. Pastors must think about what it may cost them not to change.
The mission of the church, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is what should drive any thought of change. "Every time you evaluate your programs, you're reminding everyone of the mission," Joiner said. "Change for the sake of the mission. Churches who do not innovate are threatening what is sacred."
What is sacred is that which is core and not, as some churches believe, that which is cultural. The fact that "Jesus is who He said He was and the only way to get to heaven is through Him, that's core," Joiner said. "We make what is core cultural and what is cultural core." Sunday School, mid-week services and using an organ in worship are a few examples he gave of cultural things that can become core. Joiner kept the mood lighthearted and the audience laughing as he went through this list, his point important but perhaps hard to hear. "Put the stakes in the ground with what is core and you're holding with open hands with is cultural. Make sure you know the difference; if you don't, the people in your church won’t."
A church unwilling to change, unwilling to upgrade its system, runs the risk of losing its capacity to support a more relevant approach. Joiner made certain to flesh out what he meant by relevant. While relevant may mean edgy or contemporary, what it really means is being connected to the matter at hand. "We're not trying to make Jesus relevant. He is relevant. We must communicate the message so that people get it," Joiner said. Joiner likened this idea of being relevant to missionaries living in a foreign land. In that land they try and get to know the people, their culture and their background. "They take timeless truth and connect it to that culture so that they see and get it," Joiner said. “We've forgotten how to be missionaries in our own land."
Sometimes being relevant requires sacrifice. Joiner gave the example of a church that decided to have a contemporary worship service as well as a traditional service. The contemporary service met before the 11 a.m. service, because the 11 a.m. hour is when all the regular members came. "They couldn't even make a decision to prioritize for outsiders," Joiner said.
A theme of the event was involving all the church leaders in developing a comprehensive plan not just for change, but also for how to fulfill the mission of the church. Ministries of the church cannot become silos. "Get around the table and get on the same page," Joiner said. "You can't get the parents to partner with you if you can't even partner with each other."
Joiner explained how parents and the church must work together to make the greatest impact on children and youth. At best, church leaders have about 40 hours a year with the youth at their church, while parents have about 3,000 hours with them at home. "How are you leveraging the 3,000 hours the parent has to sync with the 40 hours you have?" Joiner asked. The mantra these days for the church has become "give us your kids and we'll fix them spiritually." Instead, the church needs to be about engaging parents and helping them feel and act on their responsibility to train their children in God's truth.
Two key ways churches can influence children and youth is by connecting them to a community of leaders and mentors, and involving them in service. By engaging students in service they come to understand that church is not a spectator sport they show up to week after week. "If they don't understand what it means to be the church while they're with you they stand a much greater change of dropping out of church when they leave you," Joiner said. "If you never give them anything significant to do, they will never feel significant," which can lead to the mindset that church is "something they consumed as a child, but is no longer for them."
Joiner gave church leaders and parents much to think about concerning partnering together, creating vision and fighting for relationships with youth, but what it all seemed to come back to is the idea of not being afraid to change, afraid to rethink some things, for the sake of being more effective. Even if something is working, something else may work better. Any leader can walk away from a ministry that isn’t working, Joiner said. But, "killing something that's living so that something else can thrive - that's leadership."
