Ten Questions Youth Leaders Ask About Worship

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Developing Vision
Develop and implement a vision for change.

Ten Questions Youth Leaders Ask About

Worship
Sally Morgenthaler and Robert Webber respond
By Sally Morgenthaler, Robert E. Webber March 2000

After a big youth rally that's been hyped with pyrotechnics and a full band that practiced
for weeks, how do you get students back into authentic worship without the aid of those
externals—and keep their praise more than roller-coaster emotionalism?

Sally Morgenthaler: If students aren't experiencing God's presence in any other way than with
big, expensive events, they'll assume God's going to go hide somewhere until the next rally
comes around. If you've ever been fortunate enough to witness a Deliriou5? concert, you know
the swirling, pulsating lights, smoke, interactive video, and the band's incredible musicianship
spells awesome. It's unforgettable. Yet if you've been fortunate enough to light one small candle
with two or three friends, wait for God in silence, and sing a heartfelt confession accompanied
by the quiet ripple of an acoustic guitar, you know there's a vast repertoire for this thing we call
"experiencing God." One of tine values we can build into youths is deep interaction with God—a
simple here-and-now reality in our spiritual communities.

Robert Webber: First, let's keep in mind that there's a new cultural shift taking place with the
rise of [the generation some are calling the] millennials. A great majority of them are reacting
against the loud music and hype often associated with contemporary worship. A key for worship
in the regular rhythm of the church is to remember that communication in a postmodern world
has shifted from verbal explanation to immersed participation in events. The key to good
worship is to stay away from entertainment models and return worship to the people. This
generation wants to participate with the body and the senses. Thoroughly active and
participatory worship will attract and keep our young people.

How do you implement regular worship times in a small group (20-30) that's never done it
consistently before? We've tried several times, but it always seems to die out due to lack
of commitment on the part of the musicians or lack of interest on the part of the
students.

Morgenthaler: Maybe it's the regimentation of a "worship time" that gets in the way. Youths are
relationally driven. That's where their motivations are. If you can let worship times emerge out of
small group discussions or times of prayer, it may seem more authentic. Also it could be that our
evangelical definition of worship—a bunch of praise songs stuck together—needs expansion.
How about paraphrasing Scripture and reading it together? How about, in the context of a small
group setting, encouraging your students to dramatize a parable or play some cool, techno
music underneath it—maybe even relate it to a mainstream song? (e.g., Connect Jesus'
protection of the condemned adulteress to Alanis Morissette's "That I Would Be Good.") I think
a lot of us—adults included—are just plain bored with singing 30 to 40 minutes of praise songs.
We crave multisensory expressions. Why can't we use all the arts to get students to make
worship an aesthetic experience that pleases God by engaging their minds, hearts, emotions,
and spirits?
Webber: You may have to change your style to a more participatory worship. I use communal
gestures: standing, sitting, kneeling, lying prostrate on the floor, prayers of the people, talk-back
sermons, "passing of the peace," and gathering around the table. You may also anoint with oil
and do laying on of hands. This generation wants an authentic embodiment of worship—and
young people are quick and can spot a phony a mile away. But when worship is genuine and
done by them—not to them or for them—they will respond. By the way, passing of the pence—if
you're not familiar with the term—is based on the first words Jesus said to his disciples in the
Upper Room: "Peace be with you." For centuries Christians "passed" or spoke his greeting to
each other in church between the service of the Word and the Eucharist. It became lost in
worship but has recently been restored.

What are the most practical ways to get students involved in actual worship—not just the
music part?

Morgenthaler: If you change your model from a praise-song fixation to a fully orbed, aesthetic
adoration of God, you're going to need dancers, painters, weavers, sculptors, poets, writers,
actors, storytellers, photographers, and digital graphics people. (By the way, there are lots of
budding digital daredevils out there, I can tell you. They're working on creative stuff three to four
hours a day in their basements—and no one knows!) The arts speak to young people. Yes,
music is part of that. But we've isolated our affective experience of God to one tiny slice of the
artistic pie. Worship music is often dictated to us by the worship music industry. I think we can
do better. We can write our own music and then expand the expressive vocabulary to tactile,
visual, et cetera. We will be absolutely astonished at the energy that's released in

students once they're invited to share their gifts-musical and otherwise.

Webber: Let's go back again to this matter of participation: It's not this or that person "doing" an
act of worship, such as reading Scripture or offering a prayer; it's the whole congregation
"doing" the worship. Worship is a drama about the meaning of life: The leaders are prompters of
the drama, the members of the congregation are the players, and—as Kierkegaard said—"If
there's an audience in worship, it's God." We really need a revolution in our understanding of
worship if we're to experience what I'm talking about. The notion that worship is a drama that
recites and enacts God's saving deeds in history is thoroughly biblical—yet unknown to many of
us.

Is there some way to develop a "farm system" for student musicians/vocalists?

Morgenthaler: If you have a band that's first and foremost relationally connected—to each
other, to the rest of the group, and (this is crucial) to non-Christians in your community,
musicians will come. They'll not only be attracted to the very real, caring people behind the
music. A lot of teens—especially band types—are looking for new families. Your band can
become that new family, a new community for students whose lives have been broken apart,
students who are at risk and looking for a soft landing.

Webber: The idea of a farm system for students who wish to learn more about worship leading
is a terrific idea. I believe that youth workers should be proactive in identifying students who
have a particular sensitivity to God's moving and Spirit—musical ability is important, but not as
important as a heart connected to God. And the best way I think you can grow these students
into worship leaders is to offer them training. I'm going to see if the Institute for Worship Studies
can sponsor such a program. Perhaps we could begin by asking people to write and let us know
if there's a need.

I've known youth group leaders who've had non-Christian .student musicians up front,
believing that this will change their hearts toward God. Is this wise?

Morgenthaler: Something we have to understand (and this not only applies to musicians, it
applies to the whole community of students) is that for a generation that values the arts more
highly than business, a generation that would rather buy CDs and digital software or go to the
movies than eat, a generation that would rather stand in line for days to see The Phantom
Menace than sleep, the arts are one of our most powerful evangelistic tools. Now apply that
principle to a band situation: Can we make room for the non-Christian, garage-band guitarist to
play while he or she is in the process of figuring out this "God thing"? Simple fact—salvation
takes longer in this culture. Rarely do students come to our gatherings and sign on the dotted
line the first time. They need to try on faith, to practice "doing" Christianity with us. They need to
develop relationships with us, to see if we're tor real. Worship is a perfect context for all of that
to happen, and the arts can be the conduit into worship.

Now I'm not saying that the majority of your band should be non-Christians or that your worship
leader should be a non-Christian. Let's use some common sense. I'm just saying that God
works in mysterious ways, and if we wait for people to spout out the right words, to look the way
we look, to shed the earrings and tattoos and wear Abercrombie & Fitch, we'll probably miss a
zillion windows of opportunity. Do we put a premium on accountability? Yes. That's what we do
in our families with our kids—they weren't born knowing right and wrong. They learn by doing
and watching and participating. Do we teach the in-process seeker what God expects?
Absolutely. Again, that's what we do in our own families. But we do it in the context of a small
unit—Mom, Dad, brothers, and sisters. In the church of the next millennium, the family/small unit
will be, to a great degree, groups of artists expressing their God experiences together.

Webber: The kind of worship I'm talking about— the kind that moves you into the presence of
God, deepens commitment, and fills you with joy-requires Christian leadership.

How do you gauge whether or not students are ready to lead worship—and what (if any)
personal and spiritual requirements should you place on them?

Morgenthaler: Often we've looked at religious criteria (conformity to institutional expectations)

rather than spiritual depth (vital relationship with God in Christ) when we choose church leaders.
Examples of religious criteria in a student community might be the number of Bible studies
they're in, the number and length of personal quiet times, verses and worship songs
memorized, et cetera. While these activities often aid in spiritual development, we all know that
it's quite easy and—unfortunately—quite common to go through the motions and not develop
greater intimacy with and dependence upon Jesus. And Jesus had some harsh words for those
religious leaders of his day who tended to concentrate on the visible requirements of faith and
ignore matters of the heart—he called them "whitewashed tombs." Clearly God's looking for
broken people with "broken and contrite spirits"; people who know that, without God's mercy
and grace, they can do absolutely nothing of value. These are the kinds of kids we should be
watching for and mentoring into worship leaders—not the perfect, popular, squeaky-clean
musical prodigies or the self-righteous or religiously conformed. We need to look for tax-
collector types who can say, "Have mercy on me, O God, for I am a sinner." Only that kind of
person can truly say, "To God be the glory," and lead others into worship that will transform
lives.

Webber: We need to be careful that we don t fall into legalism with requirements for student
leaders. You can set up systems like that, but if it's "Come to church three times a week, don't
smoke, don't drink," those things don't have a whole lot to do with spirituality. Again, 1 believe
the student worship leader—the one who's the primary person bringing his or her peers into
communion with Christ—needs to be a Christian. But for the other musicians—particularly back-
up players—their role isn't as central because they're playing instruments only. For them, the
issue of personal commitment isn't as crucial.

How do you help a student worship team focus on performing for God and not
performing for the group?

Morgenthaler: We aren't born learning how to worship. In fact it's our nature to do exactly the
opposite (see Romans 1). We have to nurture our teams into the response of worship, and the
best way is to adore God deeply together each week and to get involved in each others' lives at
an intimate level— sharing, confessing, repenting, and interceding. We need to practice giving
ourselves to God as a small group, not just singing the right notes, playing the right chords, or
coming up with cool riffs. It's actually much more crucial that we practice redirecting our hearts
and letting God cleanse our motivations. Worship leaders have a responsibility to continually
remind team members of their higher callings and to gently speak to any prima donna, "look at
me" attitudes.

Better than speaking to it, however, is modeling what being a worshiper looks like. If the leader
and other members of the team are demonstrating true humility and supernatural focus on God,
prima donna-ism rarely becomes a problem. The neat thing is that God is a win-win God. One
of the results of intentionally nurturing worshipers within our teams is evangelism. When non-
Christian instrumentalists experience God "with skin on"—God tangibly at work, reshaping and
remolding selfish, narcissistic individuals (read: Christians)—they sit up and take notice. They
say, "Wow, this stuff is real!"

Webber: Worship leaders need to be intentional. I tell them to reflect on their worship all week
long; "Sing it. Hum it. Pray it. Practice it. Get it inside of your heart and let it take up residence
within you. On the night before you lead worship, throw away all your notes and then lead with a
sense of abandon." The new generation's worship is shifting from performance to a state of
prayer. When you lead worship this way, it will draw the entire congregation into prayerful,
intentional, heartfelt worship.

I've recently found that worship through music has become an effective part of our
outreach events. When talking to non-Christian kids, I often hear positive responses to
the music. Is this a trend?

Morgenthaler: Music has the ability to access the human soul faster than anything else. This
has always been true. When Saul was in the depths of depression, he called upon David's
musical skills to soothe his spirit and give him a sense of hope and renewed joy. We're now
learning that exposure to music early in life helps crucial mental and emotional development.
But is there a new trend in this area? Our whole society—especially those younger than thirty—
craves the "medicine" of music. The percentage of income spent on tapes and CDs has risen
dramatically in the last decade. When we apply this trend to the intense spiritual searching that's
a fact of life as we round the bend of the next millennium, it shouldn't surprise us that God is
harnessing music to tell people he loves them. God is an efficient God and will use the most
effective means in any culture to reach the lost. It's a tremendous window of opportunity. Yet 1
believe God wants us to move beyond music alone and mix in other art forms as well, which is
what MTV has been doing for years. It's also why groups like Delirious? have become so
popular and so effective in telling the old, old story to a new generation.

Webber: We're in the midst of an extraordinary communications revolution that's shifting us

from the primacy of print to a focus on the audio-visual. Sound itself—which creates
atmosphere—is now viewed as an important communicator. For the kind of worship 1 propose,
sound communicates the various moods of worship—the joy of coming into God's presence, the
quietness of confession, the meditative mood of prayer, the joy of the resurrection at the table of
the Lord, and the sense of going forth to love and serve God.

How do you involve all your .students in worship when you have a very diverse,
multicultural group? (We're an interdenominational church, too!)

Morgenthaler: What a great situation to have! Gone are the days when we could be "white
bread" on stage and pretend that God was of northern-European descent. By 2050
demographic experts tell us that Caucasians will be a minority race in America— and it could
happen more quickly than that. So how do we involve all colors and backgrounds in student
worship? We model diversity on our teams by including women, Latinos, African-Americans,
Asians—everybody. It's God's family. And just as importantly, we should start listening to
secular music and incorporating those sounds into our worship writing and arranging. Because,
folks, the world has become a small place in the last 10 to 15 years. We're mixing Celtic
instruments with the Down Under didgeridoo. We're melding Caribbean and Latino rhythms with
the sounds of the koto and industrial techno. If you think about it, most "contemporary" worship
music is not contemporary at all—in fact, it's found nowhere else on the planet. It's like we
freeze-dried plasticized rock circa 1983 and have been feeding that to people ever since. That's
what we consider appropriately "Christian"— just like we used to consider organ and choral
music the only sounds God would hear. No wonder a lot of our students are bored! Our worship
music doesn't represent the diversity and incredible variety of their world.

Webber: The future of worship will be both multicultural and intergenerational, but there are no
gimmicks or tools that have authenticity for multicultural worship. You can read Scripture, pray,
and sing in different languages—but that's secondary. What this generation longs for is
community. If there's genuine love between the cultural groups and a sense that all are
worshiping together, that's the key.

Should I lead youth group worship the same way our church's praise and worship
leaders do, so the students can get adjusted to their styles?

Morgenthaler: Your youth group is a unique community that God continually fashions. Take the
freedom God gives you to celebrate that and to create something new and fresh—a style that
honors the Almighty and reflects your generation's degree of brokenness, lack of tolerance for
slickness, and penchant for complete honesty. Sure you can get some ideas, some principles
from the worship leaders in the adult services—but God loves a new song (Psalm 40:3). What's
more, I sincerely doubt your students want something that's been cloned after their parents'
services. They have their own voices, and they want to use them.

Webber: This is a tough question. Many youths don't like current praise and worship with its
loud, contemporary instrumentation. What they want is ancient liturgy with a contemporary flair.
They want mystery, transcendence, quiet, prayer with the laying on of hands, pageantry,
participation, stability, tradition, and authentic embodiment.

This is what one youth worker said at a recent conference: "1 tried everything in the book to
reach my young people. Finally I gave up and said, "We're just going to have a prayer meeting
where we can pray for each other and meet each other's needs. Kids are coming from
everywhere—both Christians and non-Christians! They sit on the floor, sing, pray, and anoint
each other with oil."

The point is that we're facing a new day with this new generation. Today's teens don't want fun
and games: they want encounters with otherness— encounters that touch their lives with the
healing touch of God. This kind of worship is the key to reaching the unchurched and deepening
the spiritual commitment of the churched.

Worship is going to change significantly in the new millennium, so we'd better get ready for it
now—all of us, youth workers and worship leaders alike.

Excerpt

FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

At Biola University, a fifty-minute chapel is offered every day, Monday through Friday, but is
required three times a week (M, W, F). Students have also initiated their own, student-led,
worship services (mostly praise) on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. Two to three hundred
students attend these guitar-based events.

Here are some changes I've witnessed in the last five years:

 Definitely more student initiative. The trend I've seen in the past five years toward
regular student-initiated worship services wasn't evident during the two previous
decades that I taught at Biola. I have observed the same phenomenon and the same
enthusiasm for worship at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., another
evangelical university.
 These student-led services are guitar-based, with mostly Vineyard, Hill Song, and
Maranatha choruses. I would like to see more balance (i.e., hymns), but 1 am very
impressed with the desire of our students to worship—and it's sincere. Many of the
songs deal with brokermess (of some sort) and the need for inner healing, and they are
sung with a lot of plaintive emotion.
 More excitement in worship.
 Our students know fewer hymns, Biola's students have, for the most part, grown up in
conservative, evangelical churches in Southern California all their lives, churches that
emphasize teaching and evangelism. In my Introduction to Music class (for non-music
majors), I asked seventy-three students how many hymns they knew. First I explained
what a hymn was (gave some examples) and told them they just had to be familiar with
the hymn—enough to be able to sing the melody. Then I asked them to write down the
number of hymns they knew.

The results: 10 percent of the students know five or less hymns, 25 percent know less
than ten hymns, 50 percent know less than twenty, and 75 percent know less than forty.
Only 6 percent of the group knew more than a hundred hymns.

I see this as a massive, significant change. In the cutting-edge megachurches it's not at
all unusual to find no hymns sung on a given Sunday morning. Maybe one a month.
The result? Many of our students are ignorant of hymnody today.
 More guitar-based worship. I think a major weakness today is that hymnals (by and
large) do not contain guitar symbols or chord changes for guitarists. This needs
correction pronto.
 Less corporate reading of Scripture and less extended prayer. In our student-led
worship services, I don't see the practice of reading Scripture corporately. Prayer is very
limited—no extended or bidding prayers. A major weakness (I find the same thing in our
churches.).
 Rise of niche churches of a nongenemtional type. A number of our students attend
churches where the average age is twenty-seven (size: 300-1,000). I personally see a
real problem here.
 Worship is much more physical. A very important trademark of contemporary worship is
the use of the body—clapping to the beat, tapping feet, raising hands, waving hands,
kneeling, jumping, and swaying.

—Barry Liesch, professor of music, Biola University, LaMirada, California;

barry_liesch@peter.biola.edu;

www.worshipinfo.com—Barry's LA Worship Guide.

Worship Like You Mean It: Interview with Sally

Morgenthaler and Robert Webber
YWJ Interview with Robert Webber and Sally Mor

Once upon a time (it was actually 1999), youth workers sent us questions about worship for our
interview with worship experts Robert Webber and Sally Morganthaler.

Much has changed since then. Webber, a prolific author and director of the Institute for Worship
Studies and beloved professor of theology at Wheaton College, died in 2007 at the age of 73.
About the same time, Morgenthaler, a riveting speaker and compelling author, stepped out the
public spotlight after her husband was convicted for a sexual offense.

Two things haven't changed. The concerns youth workers have about worship have remained
constant through the years, and the wisdom Webber and Morgenthaler presented remains
relevant.
YouthWorker Journal: After a big youth rally that's been hyped with pyrotechnics and a full
band that practiced for weeks, how do you get students back into authentic worship without the
aid of those externals—and keep their praise more than roller-coaster emotionalism?

Sally Morganthaler: If students aren't experiencing God's presence in any other way than with
big, expensive events, they'll assume God's going to go hide somewhere until the next rally
comes around.
If you've ever been fortunate enough to witness a Deliriou5? concert, you know the swirling,
pulsating lights, smoke, interactive video and the band's incredible musicianship spells
awesome. It's unforgettable. Yet if you've been fortunate enough to light one small candle with
two or three friends, wait for God in silence and sing a heartfelt confession accompanied by the
quiet ripple of an acoustic guitar, you know there's a vast repertoire for this thing we call
experiencing God. One of the values we can build into youth is deep interaction with God—a
simple here-and-now reality in our spiritual communities.

Robert Webber: First, let's keep in mind there's a new cultural shift taking place with the rise of
millennials. A great majority of them are reacting against the loud music and hype often
associated with contemporary worship.

A key for worship in the regular rhythm of the church is to remember communication in a
postmodern world has shifted from verbal explanation to immersed participation in events. The
key to good worship is to stay away from entertainment models and return worship to the
people. This generation wants to participate with the body and the senses. Thoroughly active
and participatory worship will attract and keep our young people.

YWJ: How do you implement regular worship times in a small group that's never done it
consistently before? We've tried several times, but it always seems to die out due to lack of
commitment on the part of the musicians or lack of interest on the part of the students.

Morgenthaler: Maybe the regimentation of a worship time gets in the way. Youth are
relationally driven. That's where their motivations are. If you can let worship times emerge out of
small group discussion or times of prayer, it may seem more authentic. Also, it could be that our
evangelical definitions of worship—a bunch of praise songs stuck together—needs expansion.

How about paraphrasing Scripture and reading it together? How about, in the context of a small
group setting, encouraging your students to dramatize a parable or play some cool, techno
music underneath it?

I think a lot of us—adults included—are just plain bored with singing 30 to 40 minutes of praise
songs. We crave multi-sensory expressions. Why can't we use all the arts to get students to
make worship an aesthetic experience that pleases God by engaging their minds, hearts,
emotions and spirits?

Webber: You may have to change your style to a more participatory worship. I use communal
gestures: standing, sitting, kneeling, lying prostrate on the floor, prayers of the people, talk-back
sermons, passing of the peace and gathering around the table. You may also anoint with oil and
do laying-on of hands. This generation wants an authentic embodiment of worship—and young
people are quick and can spot a phony a mile away.

However, when worship is genuine and done by them—not to them or for them—they will
respond. By the way, passing the peace (if you're not familiar with that term) is based on the
first words Jesus said to His disciples in the Upper Room: "Peace be with you." For centuries,
Christians passed or spoke His greeting to each other in church between the service of the
Word and the Eucharist. It became lost in worship, but recently has been restored.

YWJ: What are the most practical ways to get students involved in actual worship—not just the
music part?
Morgenthaler: If you change your model from a praise-song fixation to a fully orbed, aesthetic
adoration of God, you're going to need dancers, painters, weavers, sculptors, poets, writers,
actors, storytellers, photographers and digital graphics people. (By the way, there are lots of
budding digital daredevils out there. They're working on creative stuff three to four hours a day
in their basements—and no one knows!) The arts speak to young people.

Yes, music is part of that; but we've isolated our affective experience of God to one tiny slice of
the artistic pie. Worship music often is dictated to us by the worship music industry. I think we
can do better. We can write our own music and then expand the expressive vocabulary to
tactile, visual, etc. We will be absolutely astonished at the energy that's released in students
once they're invited to share their gifts—musical and otherwise.

Webber: Let's go back again to this matter of participation: It's not this person doing an act of
worship, such as reading Scripture or offering a prayer; it's the whole congregation doing the
worship. Worship is a drama about the meaning of life: The leaders are prompters of the drama,
the members of the congregation are the players, and—as Kierkegaard said—"if there's an
audience in worship, it's God." We really need a revolution in our understanding of worship if
we're to experience what I'm talking about. The notion that worship is a drama that recites and
enacts God's saving deeds in history is thoroughly biblical, yet unknown to many of us.

YWJ: Is there some way to develop a farm system for student musicians/vocalists?

Morgenthaler: If you have a band that's first and foremost relationally connected—to each
other, to the rest of the group and (this is critical) to non-Christians in your community,
musicians will come. They'll not only be attracted to the music, but more importantly to the very
real, caring people behind the music. A lot of teens—especially band types—are looking for new
families. Your band can become that new family, a new community for students whose lives
have been broken apart, students who are at risk and looking for a soft landing.

Webber: The idea of a farm system for students who wish to learn more about worship leading
is a terrific idea. I believe youth workers should be proactive in identifying students who have a
particular sensitivity to God's moving and Spirit—musical ability is important, but not as
important as a heart connected to God. The best way I think you can grow these students into
worship leaders is to offer them training.

YWJ: Some youth group leaders have had non-Christian student musicians up front, believing
this will change their hearts toward God. Is this wise?

Morgathaler: Something we have to understand (and this not only applies to musicians, but
also to the whole community of students) is that for a generation that values the arts more
highly than business, a generation that would rather consume digital content than eat, a
generation that would rather stand in line for days to see the latest movie than sleep, the arts
are one of our most powerful evangelistic tools.

Now apply that principle to a band situation: Can we make room for the non-Christian, garage
band guitarist to play while he or she is in the process of figuring out this God thing? Simple
fact: Salvation takes longer in this culture. Rarely do students come to our gatherings and sign
on the dotted line the first time. They need to try on faith, to practice doing Christianity with us.
They need to develop relationships with us to see if we're for real. Worship is a perfect context
for all of that to happen, and the arts can be the conduit into worship.

Now I'm not saying that the majority of your band should be non-Christians or that your worship
leader should be a non-Christian. Let's use some common sense. I'm just saying that God
works in mysterious ways, and if we wait for people to spout out the right words, to look the way
we look, to shed the earrings and tattoos and wear Abercrombie & Fitch, we'll probably miss a
zillion windows of opportunity. Do we put a premium on accountability? Yes. That's what we do
in our families with our kids—they weren't born knowing right and wrong. They learn by doing
and watching and participating. Do we teach the in-process seeker what God expects?
Absolutely. Again, that's what we do in our own families; but we do it in the context of a small
unit—Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters. In the church of the next millennium, the family/small unit
will be (to a great degree) groups of artists expressing their God experiences together.

Webber: The kind of worship I'm talking about, the kind that moves you into the presence of
God, deepens commitment and fills you with joy requires Christian leadership.

YWJ: How do you gauge whether students are ready to lead worship and what (if any) personal
and spiritual requirements should you place on them?

Morganthaler: Often we've looked at religious criteria (conformity to institutional expectations)

rather than spiritual depth (vital relationship with God in Christ) when we choose church leaders.
Examples of religious criteria in a student community might be the number of Bible studies
they're in, the number and length of personal quiet times, verses and worship songs
memorized, etc. While these activities often aid in spiritual development, we all know it's easy
and—unfortunately—quite common to go through the motions and not develop greater intimacy
with and dependence on Jesus.

Jesus had some harsh words for those religious leaders of His day who tended to concentrate
on the visible requirements of faith and ignore matters of the heart—He called them
"whitewashed tombs." Clearly God's looking for broken people with "broken and contrite spirits";
people who know that without God's mercy and grace, they can do absolutely nothing of value.
These are the kinds of kids we should be watching for and mentoring into worship leaders—not
the perfect, popular, squeaky-clean musical prodigies or the self-righteous or religiously
conformed. We need to look for tax-collector types who can say, "Have mercy on me, O God,
for I am a sinner." Only that kind of person can truly say, "To God by the glory," and then lead
others into worship that will transform lives.

Webber: We need to be careful that we don't fall into legalism with requirements for student
leaders. You can set up systems such as that, but if it's "come to church three times a week,
don't smoke, don't drink," those things don't have a whole lot to do with spirituality. Again, I
believe the student worship leader—the one who's the primary person bringing his or her peers
into communion with Christ—needs to be a Christian. For the other musicians, particularly back-
up players, their roles aren't as central because they're playing instruments only. For them, the
issue of personal commitment isn't as crucial.

YWJ: How do you help a student worship team focus on performing for God and not performing
for the group?

Morgenthaler: We aren't born learning how to worship. In fact, it's our nature to do the opposite
(see Rom. 1). We have to nurture our teams into the response of worship, and the best way is
to adore God deeply together each week and to get involved in each other's life at an intimate
level, sharing, confessing, repenting and interceding. We need to practice giving ourselves to
God as a small group, not just singing the right notes, playing the right chords or coming up with
cool riffs. It's actually much more crucial that we practice redirecting our hearts and letting God
cleanse our motivations. Worship leaders have a responsibility to remind team members
continually of their higher calling and to speak gently to any prima donna, "look at me" attitudes.

Better than speaking to it, however, is modeling being a worshiper. If the leader and other
members of the team are demonstrating true humility and supernatural focus on God, prima
donnaism rarely becomes a problem. The neat thing is God is a win-win God. One of the results
of intentionally nurturing worshipers within our teams is evangelism. When non-Christian
instrumentalists experience God with skin on—God tangibly at work, reshaping and remolding
selfish, narcissistic individuals (read: Christians)—they sit up and take notice. They say, "Wow,
this stuff is real!"

Webber: Worship leaders need to be intentional. I tell them to reflect on their worship all week
long: "Sing it. Hum it. Pray it. Practice it. Get it inside your heart and let it take up residence
within you. On the night before you lead worship, throw away all your notes and lead with a
sense of abandon." The new generation's worship is shifting from performance to a state of
prayer. When you lead worship this way, it will draw the entire congregation into prayerful,
intentional, heart-felt worship.

YWJ: Some find worship through music is an effective part of outreach events; when talking to
non-Christian kids, they hear positive responses to the music. Is this a trend?
Morgenthaler: Music has the ability to access the human soul faster than anything else. This
has always been true. When Saul was in the depths of depression, he called on David's musical
skills to sooth his spirit and give him a sense of hope and renewed joy. We're now learning that
exposure to music early in life helps crucial mental and emotional development.

Is there a new trend in this area? Our whole society—especially those younger than 30—craves
the medicine of music. The percentage of income spent on music purchases has risen
dramatically in the past decade. When we apply this trend to the intense spiritual searching
that's a fact of life as we round the bend of the next millennium, it shouldn't surprise us that God
is harnessing music to tell people He loves them. God is an efficient God and will use the most
effective means in any culture to reach the lost. It's a tremendous window of opportunity. Yet I
believe God wants us to move beyond music alone and mix in other art forms, as well, which is
what MTV has been doing for years. IT's also why groups such as Delirou5? have become so
popular and effective in telling the old, old story to a new generation.

Webber: We're in the midst of an extraordinary communications revolution that's shifting us

from the primacy of print to a focus on the audio-visual. Sound itself—which creates
atmosphere—is now viewed as an important communicator. For the kind of worship I propose,
sound communicates the various moods of worship—the joy of coming into God's presence, the
quietness of confession, the meditative mood of prayer, the joy of the resurrection at the table of
the Lord and the sense of going forth to love and serve God.

YWJ: How do you involve all your students in worship when you have a very diverse,
multicultural group?

Morgenthaler: What a great situation! Gone are the days when we could be white bread on
stage and pretend God was of northern-European descent. By 2050, demographic experts tell
us Caucasians will be a minority race in America—and it could happen more quickly than that.
So how do we involve all colors and backgrounds in student worship? We model diversity on
our teams by including women, Latinos, African-Americans, Asians—everybody. It's God's
family.

Just as importantly, we should start listening to secular music and incorporating those sounds in
our worship writing and arranging, because, folks, the world has become a small place in the
past 10-15 years. We're mixing Celtic instruments with the Down Under didgeridoo. We're
melding Caribbean and Latino rhythms with the sounds of the koto and industrial techno. If you
think about it, most contemporary worship music is not contemporary at all. In fact, it's found
nowhere else on the planet. It's like we freeze-dried plasticized rock circa 1983 and have been
feeding that to people ever since. That's what we consider appropriately Christian—just like we
used to consider organ and choral music the only sounds God would hear. No wonder a lot of
our students are bored! Our worship music doesn't represent the diversity and incredible variety
of their world.

Webber: The future of worship will be multicultural and intergenerational, but there are no
gimmicks or tools that have authenticity for multicultural worship. You can read Scripture, pray
and sing in different languages; but that's secondary. What this generation longs for is
community. If there's genuine love between the cultural groups and a sense that all are
worshiping together, that's the key.

YWJ: Should youth leaders lead youth group worship the same way the church's praise and
worship leaders do so the students can get adjusted to their styles?

Morgenthaler: Your youth group is a unique community that God continually fashions. Take the
freedom God gives you to celebrate that and to create something new and fresh—a style that
honors the Almighty and reflects your generation's degree of brokenness, lack of tolerance for
slickness and penchant for complete honesty. Sure you can get some ideas, some principles
from the worship leaders in the adult services, but God loves a new song (Ps. 40:3). What's
more, I sincerely doubt your students want something that's been cloned after their parents'
services. They have their own voices, and they want to use them.
Webber: This is a tough question. Many youth don't like current praise and worship with its
loud, contemporary instrumentation. What they want is ancient liturgy with a contemporary flair.
They want mystery, transcendence, quiet, prayer with the laying on of hands, pageantry,
participation, stability, tradition and authentic embodiment.

This is what one youth worker said at a recent conference: "I tried everything in the book to
reach my young people. Finally, I gave up and said, ‘We're just going to have a prayer meeting
where we can pray for each other and meet each other's needs.' Kids are coming from
everywhere—Christians and non-Christians! They sit on the floor, sing, pray and anoint each
other with oil."

The point is that we're facing a new day with this new generation. Today's teens don't want fun
and games; they want encounters with otherness—encounters that touch their lives with the
healing touch of God. This kind of worship is the key to reaching the unchurched and deepening
the spiritual commitment of the churched.

Worship is going to change significantly in the new millennium, so we'd better get ready for it
now—all of us, youth workers, as well as worship leaders.

This article originally was published in the July-August 1999 issue of YouthWorker Journal.
Even Healthy Churches Need to Change
If it ain't broke … thinking leads nowhere.
H. Dale Burke

Along with many pastors in 1994, I watched with great curiosity as pastor and author Chuck
Swindoll left First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, California, after 22 years to become a
seminary president. Pastor Chuck's books and broadcasts had provided "insight for living" for
my life and "input for preaching" for my sermons. He was then, and remains today, one of my
personal heroes and role models for effective, relevant teaching.

Six months later, over lunch with fellow pastors, the discussion turned to the search for his
replacement. One pastor spoke for the group: "What idiot would follow Chuck Swindoll?" I shook
my head in silent agreement: "Not me." I wasn't looking to make a move, especially to the role
of sacrificial lamb!

Fast forward one year to Sunday morning, December 10, 1995. I sat anxiously holding the hand
of my wife, Becky, on the front pew of the 5,000-member Fullerton church. I listened as Chuck
Swindoll and my mentor, Dr. Howard Hendricks, challenged the church and me at my
installation service. For a moment my mind flashed back to that lunch: "Now I know who
the idiot is!" But God had clearly led, and when God leads, it is always best to follow. I had
frequently taught my churches that you are safer
out on a limb with God than you are seated
Even our oldest and best
comfortably under the tree without him.
ministries need honest
Welcome to the outer limb. assessment, fresh vision.
Blessed by a healthy church
This December I will celebrate my tenth anniversary as the senior pastor in Fullerton. To the
surprise of many, I have survived. The church has grown, and we are joyfully tackling the
challenges of being a church in the 21st century. Why has it gone so well? A main reason is that
First Free Church was and continues to be today a healthy church.

We may not be the model for the emerging church, but we are healthy at the core. We have
fresh, mission-driven vision that builds on our historic strengths while encouraging new
Kingdom initiatives. We are tackling some of the facility obstacles that have limited our growth.
We're blessed with a great staff that is a healthy blend of the old and the new.

One third arrived during the Swindoll era, and they anchor us to the church's core values,
providing stability and credibility in the midst of change. Two thirds have come since my arrival,
and they've provided a fresh perspective and an unbiased look at our strengths and
weaknesses. All have a spirit that is forward-thinking, creative, and unified.

Our membership has grown, and we are once again planting churches. Our giving has never
been better. We are focusing outward and making new inroads into the community.

Our challenge: a healthy church

The overall health of the church was my greatest joy as I began to lead. Yet I soon discovered
that ourhealth—the fact that we did so many things well—was also one of my greatest
challenges. You see, healthy churches need change, too, but healthy churches often fail to feel
the need for change.

After all, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is conventional wisdom. Yet the fact is that our church, like
every good church, needs to embrace innovation. The successes of the past and overall health
had masked the fact that some changes were long overdue. The church had a crowd, but it was
an aging crowd. Youth were quietly exiting after high school or college. Our worship service was
done with excellence, but it wasn't capturing the hearts of many.

In today's culture, every church needs a change-friendly environment that welcomes innovation
and creativity. Not everything needs to be dismantled or discarded. Yet even our oldest and
best ministries, such as our adult discipleship, needed honest assessment, fresh vision, and
creative thinking. For each ministry, we need to "break it down," look it over, and then put it back
together again … continually! Keep it flexible rather than fixed, always looking for ways to
improve.

Over the last ten years, the Fullerton church has proven that it is amazingly flexible for a church
that just turned 50! Yet I also discovered that changing a healthy church, especially
a large healthy church with ahistory of excellence, does not come fast or easily. It can at times
be harder to lead a healthy church through change than one that is sick or dying.

The overall health of the church can mask the more subtle symptoms that indicate a need for
honest assessment and fresh direction. Just as a generally healthy person tends to ignore going
to the doctor, a healthy church tends to not gather the hard truth by asking, "How are
we really doing?"

Innovation should not be exercised in the emergency room of ministry but as a valued discipline
of ongoing health maintenance. If a great church wants its future to be as exciting as its past, it
must embrace change and its accompanying risks before it becomes unhealthy. Change must
become a lifestyle.

Why healthy churches need change

Our world is constantly changing. Whether we like it or not, rapid change is a part of life in the
21st century. This is the world Jesus has called us to reach.

Howard Hendricks put me onto a fascinating book a few years ago entitled If It Ain't Broke …
Break It! The authors observed: "Not only is everything changing, but everything exists in
relationship to something else that is changing." If you don't adjust to that, you will face
extinction.

Our mission is yet to be accomplished. Jesus calls the church to go into all the world with the
good news of grace. The parable of the lost sheep demonstrates just how serious he was about
reaching every lost person. According to this story, even if 99 percent of the culture is being
reached, we should do whatever it takes to go after the final one percent.

Our people are constantly changing. As Howard Hendricks put it: "God never called us to teach
the Bible. He called us to teach people the Bible. So study your Bible, but before you teach it,
make sure you also study your people." Every generation and every culture demands change,
especially today.

At this point, some are no doubt thinking that the church has already changed too much and
that change is actually the problem, not the solution. Not all change is good change. In my
book, Less Is More Leadership, I state: "The best change happens when you first decide what
will never change."

The majority of churches in America are plateaued or dying for one of two reasons: (1) because
they change what they should never change, or (2) because they refuse to change what they
are free to change. The message and the mission should never change, yet our methods must
flex to remain effective.

Scripture gives us function but not forms. One reason the first-century church grew so rapidly
across cultural lines was that Jesus did not give the disciples a formula for "doing church." The
mission and message and values of the Kingdom were crystal clear. The methods, the forms for
"doing church," were left vague for good reason. A global movement with staying power
throughout the generations would have to adapt continuously. Therefore, the apostle Paul could
declare, "I became all things to all men in order that I might win some." Firm up what you will
never give up, and then flex as God leads on everything else.

The purpose or mission statement of the Fullerton church was written in 1955 by the founding
pastor, Wes Gustafson. Pastor Swindoll affirmed it, and so have I. It's not flashy, but it is biblical
and serves today to remind our members why we are in business:

Our mission is:

to be a worshiping community,
building mature disciples
and evangelizing the lost
to the glory of God.

Every major change we made was linked to moving us toward one or more of these three core
purposes. If a church celebrates its methods, it becomes calcified and difficult to change.
Celebrate mission over methods if you hope to build a culture of creativity that remains open to
change.

Change is easier when you are healthy, not unhealthy. If change is prompted by a crisis or
severe decline, the congregation is prone to be suspicious of leadership and the new direction
proposed. After all, why trust the leaders who let things fall into such disrepair? Innovation
almost always comes at a cost, so doing it while you are growing just makes sense. It is always
best to pursue excellence while you're on a roll.

Tom Landry, one of the greatest coaches in NFL history, was always hardest on his team after
a big win. His observation was that the best time to grow and improve was while the team was
on a winning streak. Most winners tended to become prideful, believing they had arrived, so he
would be more critical after a win, looking for ways to fine-tune the plan or add a creative, new
twist to their offense. The goal was to take their best performance and build on it, not maintain
it. After a disappointing loss, the team's energy was drawn to fixing obvious deficiencies and
making sure the team did not lose heart.

Creativity should always flow from the children of the Creator. Change should be the norm in
light of our spiritual DNA. After all, we are created in the image of God and born of his Spirit and
indwelt with his presence. The very fact that the church tends to become fixed in its ways is
evidence of our lack of intimacy with the Spirit of God who loves to provide both new wine and
new wineskins.
Healthy churches led by healthy leaders will seek to develop a culture of creativity in which the
people are free to innovate within the boundaries of clear vision and values.

Servant-leaders continually ask, "How can we better serve you?" Asking that one question and
listening to the answers will unleash an avalanche of innovative thinking from an army of little
creators made in God's image.

The problem is we don't ask and they don't tell. The goal isn't to please people, but it is to serve
people and to always seek to serve them better this year than last. Humility says, "I always have
room to grow."

Every ministry has a natural life cycle and will eventually die unless it is reborn from
within. Churches are born with a pioneer spirit, a lust for adventure, a faith willing to be
stretched. They see a need for a new expression of the Body of Christ. They are fragile but
flexible. They innovate like the pioneers of old, doing whatever it takes to reach their
destination.

Eventually these pioneers settle down, build structures to serve the needs of the community,
and begin to enjoy the fruit of their hard labor.

Innovation with a pioneer spirit can breathe new life into older churches. Church planting is one
way of giving birth to a new generation of ministry, but what about the mother church? Is it
condemned to die a slow death and surrender the future to the emerging church?

I don't believe so.

At Fullerton we are seeking to reproduce ourselves by launching new church plants while
simultaneously pioneering new communities of faith within our congregation.

One example is a new multi-ethnic worship service that was birthed two years ago in response
to the demographic shift of our county. In 1955 our church was launched in a predominantly
white area of Orange County. Our county is now 48 percent white and 52 percent other—
Hispanic, Asian, and African-American.

This service is designed by an African-American worship leader and our Japanese-American

college pastor. The goal of the service is to welcome the 52 percent and help them feel at home
at our church.

Memories or Dreams?
Change is a part of life. At Fullerton we are learning to embrace it. We seek to honor our rich
history without allowing the ghosts of the past to stifle creative ministry.

Howard Hendricks often said, "When your memories are more exciting than your dreams,
you've begun to die." Healthy churches must continue to find their greatest joy in their dreams,
not in their memories. May those dreams call us to life-giving innovation!

Dale Burke is pastor of First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, California.

This article is adapted from Less Is More Leadership by H. Dale Burke (Harvest House, 2004).
Preparing Your Congregation for Change
Successful change requires beginning well.
(Before You Introduce Change - Vision casting isn't step one, or even step two.)
Bruce Boria

Bringing change to an organization isn't easy. Everyone who has ever led a church would
agree. Perhaps it's a congregation that's aging and isn't connecting with younger people, but no
one wants to make changes that would welcome younger people and integrate them into the life
of the church.
Perhaps it's a congregation that has a full Without the first three steps,
calendar and keeps its people busy, but isn't
engaged at all with people in the community
there is rarely a solid enough
outside the church. foundation to bring about
Where do you start with the necessary changes? lasting change.
John Kotter, an expert on leadership at the
Harvard Business School, has studied how the best organizations actually "do" significant
change. He suggests that useful change tends to be associated with a multi-step process,
which creates power and motivation sufficient to overcome the inertia, obstacles, and inevitable
resistance.
In his book Leading Change, he outlines this eight-step process:
1. Establish a sense of urgency.

2. Create a guiding coalition

3. Develop a vision and strategy

4. Communicate the change vision

5. Empower broad-based action

6. Generate short-term wins

7. Consolidate wins and produce more change

8. Anchor new approaches into the culture.

I've found his process has substantial implications for guiding change in my church.
In Kotter's opinion the first three steps are necessary to defrost a hardened status quo. Steps
four to seven introduce a number of new practices. And the last step grounds the changes into
the organization's culture.
My mistake (and in my observation, the mistake of most churches introducing change) has been
to start at step 4: communicating the vision. But Kotter cautions that steps 4, 5, and following
won't succeed unless steps 1 through 3 are implemented.
Without the first three steps, there is rarely a solid enough foundation to bring about lasting
change. Here's what I've learned about the needed preparation before changes are introduced
and the "vision is cast."
A sense of urgency
Establishing a sense of urgency means that people in the church recognize that there's a real
problem. Until they sense "Something's got to be done," too often a congregation will live in
denial.
This can be due to the comfort afforded by past successes, a lack of a visible crisis, low
standards of performance, or fuzzy thinking about the church's purpose. Others are paralyzed
by the complexity of change. The response is to become passive. Whatever the cause, such
complacency must be torn down. Honesty is required, honest talk that is well-informed.
I had recently become senior pastor of a prominent church with a glorious history in Portland,
Oregon. The church enjoyed a storied past that included a number of church plants and the
establishment of Western Seminary.
More recently, however, the church had experienced significant pastoral turnover, four senior
pastors in eight years, and the congregation was seriously graying.
At my first annual business meeting, I was asked, "What changes do you expect to introduce to
the congregation?" The question was asked by one of our older members, one of more than
600 seniors who attended the church. While they enjoyed the church programs and adult
Christian education classes, almost no one between 20-40 years old attended. I knew if any
plans for the future were to succeed, it would require the support of this senior population. But I
also knew they did not sense a crisis.
"I'd like everyone to stand who has children," I said. Nearly the entire congregation stood.
"Now I'd like those who have children that are not attending church on a regular basis to please
sit down," I said. Hesitantly, nearly three-quarters of the group sat down. You could hear an
audible murmur of surprise.
Then I asked those still standing, "Please sit down if your children who DO attend church are
NOT attending here at Hinson Memorial." Nearly two-thirds of those still standing then sat down.
Only about a dozen remained on their feet. By this time, there was a buzz in the auditorium.
"Let's think about the future," I said. "For this church to succeed in the future, we need to
address this situation. What will it take for us to create an environment where your children and
grandchildren would view Hinson as an option for their spiritual growth? For any future plans to
succeed, it will require that you, the senior population, support the changes."
I promised not to marginalize the seniors in our planning, and they pledged their support to
address the crisis they were just now beginning to recognize.
Within a year we had formulated plans for a new worship service and an additional worship
leader for this new service. When we started a contemporary service with the next generation in
mind, the seniors even agreed that it could be held at the 10:30 hour to accommodate the
younger families with children. And the traditional service met at 9 a.m. The financial needs of
this new initiative were undergirded in large part by our senior population.
Within a year and a half, attendance at the contemporary service had nearly doubled the
attendance at the earlier service. The response from the seniors was very positive. I don't think
that would have been the case without them first sensing the urgency. But when that happened,
it was amazing that much of the potential resistance never developed.

A guiding coalition
It's equally important to have a diverse group, a "coalition," develop and plan the possible
changes. Unfortunately, it took me awhile to realize the importance of this. In my enthusiasm, I
have often run way out in front of my congregation and beckoned them to follow.
My father, a career U.S. Marine, would remind me that if a leader turns around and finds no one
following, he is not leading; he is simply taking a walk.
As pastor, I have taken many solitary walks.
One time I had the great idea to host a fair as an outreach to our community, complete with
Christian bands, activities for kids, and food. It required publicity, outdoor staging, portable
restrooms, generators for electricity, and lots more. I managed to recruit a few volunteers, but
the bulk of the responsibilities fell on my shoulders.
The weekend for the event arrived, but a severe storm cancelled the weekend festivities.
At the Sunday worship service, the members of the congregation offered sincere condolences.
To me! They were genuinely sorry for me! Their response underscored the fact that they weren't
particularly upset that the event didn't happen. There was little ownership for this major outreach
event.
I failed to create a guiding coalition that would work with me to ensure that the church was
engaged in this outreach.
Since then I've made sure to draw in other people with sufficient influence and authority so that
any changes are not just "my" project.
A group that works together can accomplish much more than what the individuals could do
separately. The benefit of group solidarity on a congregation is immeasurable.
Creating a coalition of men and women of influence helps to silence the voices of discontent
and to confront the sowers of discord. It also helps remove the obstacles to change and helps
bring a new and healthy attitude as new challenges are faced.
Develop both vision and a strategy Vision and strategy are easier to accomplish when there is a
sense of urgency that is widely recognized, and is getting the attention of a guiding coalition.
But in addition, there must be clarity of both the purpose and the process.
At an informal evening gathering, a member of the church asked me if I had a sense where the
church was headed. Before I could answer, a successful businessman in the church responded,
"Why are you asking the pastor such a question? Have you ever met a pastor who had a
strategic plan?"
My wife, sitting next to me, gently placed her hand on my knee and patted it gently. I responded
to the first gentleman that I was planning to address this at the annual meeting in a few months.
On the car ride home, my wife said she didn't realize I had formulated plans for that meeting.
"I haven't," I said, "but rest assured, I will have a plan!"
Over the next few weeks, I gathered hosts for small group gatherings within the congregation. I
held approximately 50 meetings and asked those gathering for their perceptions about the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats surrounding the ministry. I collected their
responses and paid particular attention to the common themes being expressed.
Drawing in the coalition of leaders, we discussed at length the findings and began to formulate a
plan for the future.
The vision had two parts: (1) to reach out to our surrounding neighborhood, and (2) to build
deeper community within the church body.
The plans for outreach began with a neighborhood picnic on a Sunday morning in a nearby
park, complete with a worship service, amusement rides for the kids, music, and food. We
collected from our church members 250 backpacks filled with school supplies, and we gave one
to each child from the neighborhood who was in elementary school. We fed nearly 2,000 of our
neighbors. And this event built relationships and goodwill with the neighborhood.
We also developed plans to make our building much more user-friendly. We improved signage,
replaced the formidible solid wooden doors on the outside of the building with glass doors
(which presented a much more inviting appearance), and dramatically refurbished the fellowship
hall (where few people chose to linger) to look more like a Starbucks coffee shop, complete with
an espresso bar, and the interaction among our people dramatically increased.
The intentional plan for discipleship included a restructuring of our adult education ministries
with an integrated curriculum, the funding for a new small groups pastor position, and additional
resources dedicated to our children's and student ministry.
After presenting the plan at the congregational meeting, the businessman who was so critical of
the past pastors was the first to come forward and commend the plan. His blessing helped to
galvanize his peers, and the church moved forward toward fulfilling the new vision.
Leading change is not a solo sport. And it doesn't start with "vision casting." Creating a sense of
urgency, building informed, engaged, guiding coalitions, and articulating both a vision and a
strategy will require our best efforts. But it will give new life to our ministries. The road of change
should not be the road less traveled
"How's Your Church Doing?"
God's plans for your church may be bigger than you imagine

John Ortberg

Somebody asked me recently: "How's the church going?"

How do you answer that?

Is it going well if you make the budget? Or fill a building? Or beat last year's average
attendance? Is it determined by comparing your congregation to how other churches are doing?

Of course the tricky part is figuring out how God thinks we're doing. What does he want of us?

I can think of three possible gauges that might guide our response.

Blessings
The first is what might be called "The Blessing Quotient." How much has God blessed your
church?

Jesus said: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the
one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked (Luke 12:48b).

Would your church be in that category of those which have been given much? Start with the gift
of freedom to gather and worship. Then think about the gifts of experience, relationship,
education, financial resources, technological resources, creativity, and vocational backgrounds.
Think about the networks and the learning opportunities and the sheer energy members of your
church and staff possess. These are all gifts from God.

On a scale of 0 to OTC (Off The Charts), what would you say is the Blessing Quotient of your
church? Do you fall closer to the "0" or the OTC end of the spectrum?

Needs
Next variable: again from God's perspective, what would you say the Spiritual Need Quotient of
your part of the world would be?

Think about the number of people who don't know God, who aren't part of a faith community.
Think of the lonely people, the marginalized people, the elderly, the isolated, the confused, the
recently divorced, the jilted, the misfits, the "successful" hedonists.

Think about God. He loves every human being alive with infinitely more love than I can imagine.
When God sees broken families, kids on the streets, sexual confusion and promiscuity, rampant
greed, cynicism and crime, people who know nothing of Jesus, people who ignore issues of sin
and repentance, not because they've thought them through, but because they just live in a
secularized culture …

How do you think God would assess the Spiritual Needs Quotient of your part of the world:
scale of 0 to OTC?

Multiplication
One other variable: let's call it the God Multiplier Quotient.
When people humbly offer what they have to God, he multiplies it. A little boy gives five loaves
and two fish, and Jesus multiplies it to feed 5000. Jesus tells a parable about sowing seed:
Some people … hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—30, 60, even a 100 times what
was sown (Mark 4:20).

The real worth of human contributions is when they get caught up in the divine multiplier effect:

What level of multiplication does God want to use with your church? Is it 30, 60, 100? Pick a
number.

Through God's eyes

What do you think God aspires to for your church?

It's not: "Last year plus 5 percent"

It's not: "Hope they have nice services and full rooms."

It's not: To look like what the culture says a successful church looks like."

No, it's "Off The Charts," and multiplied!

What does that look like?

We have a Founder and Savior and Leader who has already done the math. This question is
not up to us. We don't get to set the bar in a way that will make us feel more comfortable.

I was talking with somebody in our church recently about his work. He said: "Publicly we would
talk about excellence and quality and service, but the reality was we would wake up every
morning and think: 'How can we put the competition out of business?' We didn't put this on our
website. But we wanted to demoralize and defeat the competition"

Who is your competition?

It's not other churches. Every church is our partner and ally. Thank God for Lutherans and
Episcopalians and Methodists and Quakers and Congregationalists and Non-
denominationalists. Jesus, our Founder and Leader, defined the competition: "I tell you that you
are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it."
(Matthew 16:16ff)

In other words, our competition is hell. Hell is at work wherever the will of God is defied.

Every time a little child is left unloved, unwanted, uneducated, unnoticed. Every time a marriage
ends. Every time racial differences divide a street or a city or a church. Every time money gets
worshipped or hoarded. Every time a lie gets told. Every time generations get separated. Every
time a workplace becomes de-humanizing. When families get broken up. When virtue gets torn
down. When sinful habits create a lives of shame or a culture of shamelessness. When faith
gets undermined and hope gets lost and people get trashed. That's when hell is prevailing.

It is not acceptable to Jesus that hell prevail. Your job is not to meet a budget, run a program, fill
a building, or maintain the status quo. Your job is to put hell out of business.

That's what it means for your church to do well.

Copyright © 2011 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.
Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
Developing a Vision When You're Not a Visionary
by by Kevin Miller

Solve some problem right in front of you. Often vision is born by passing through the narrow and
dark birth canal of problems. You see the problem, and you start to work on it. You don't
necessarily feel inspired or see lights. All you are doing is trying to solve some problem right in
front of you. But later, everyone else says, "What a great vision!"

The Bible's classic example is Nehemiah. He hears a terrible report about the few remaining
Jews living in Jerusalem: "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in
great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been
burned with fire." The news makes him cry. Nehemiah fasts, prays, and begins to ask for help
and to assemble the people and materials. Today we hold up Nehemiah as an example of a
visionary leader: he conceived and launched a staggering city-rebuilding project. Nehemiah was
simply trying to solve one problem right in front of him.

My wife, Karen, and I are both in leadership at our church. So dinner-table discussions often
come back to how to help other Christians step into leadership. Volunteers tell us, "I might be
willing to facilitate, but I'm not sure I'm a leader." People don't consider themselves leaders,
because when they say leader, they think of only one type: a strong, visionary leader. And they
know they're not that.

But you don't have to be a visionary to lead well. We've found we can help people move forward
as leaders when we say to them, "You can develop a vision even if you're not a visionary." Here
are six ways that mortals like us can see where a group needs to go:

1. Tie in to a bigger vision that's already in place. First, ask, "Do I even need to come up with a
complete vision from scratch?" Chances are, you don't need to. In most situations, a leader
earlier on or higher up has already set a vision, and you can tie what you're doing into that.

Barb is taking on the women's ministry at our church. Does she need to create a vision? Not
really. First, her ministry is part of a church, and churches have been going on for 2,000 years
and already have a vision: to make disciples through worship, fellowship, teaching, prayer,
missions, etc. Second, her ministry is part of our local church, which already has a vision to
"Build a sanctuary of transformation" (read: "Become a place where people's lives change for
the better because of God"). And finally, Barb's inheriting a women's ministry that already has a
vision to encourage women and help them draw closer to God.

So Barb doesn't need to ask, "How do I come up with a vision?" Instead, she can ask, "What
part of this vision do I want to build on? How can I improve our fulfillment of that?"

If you aren't starting with a vision, though, here are five ways you can work toward one.

2. Pray and wait on God. This is what most Christians think of when they think of "getting a
vision." What does it look like? That varies.

Maybe you'll be reading Scripture, and the particular section captivates you. That's what
happened to a guy named Francis: He wandered into a church and heard being read Jesus'
words to the rich young ruler, "Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and come follow me."
He actually did what he heard, and that's why he's now known as St. Francis.
Or you may be inspired by someone else's ministry. When you see what he or she is doing, you
realize, "Oh, that's what I could be!" For example, hearing preachers like John Ortberg and Tim
Keller moved me; I saw that preaching in a way that touches both mind and heart would be a
great way to invest my life.

Or maybe you'll literally have a middle-of-the-night experience. Billy Graham founded

Christianity Today because "About two o'clock one night in 1953, an idea raced through my
mind, freshly connecting all the things I had said and pondered about reaching a broader
audience. Trying not to disturb Ruth, I slipped out of bed and into my study upstairs to write. A
couple of hours later, the concept of a new magazine was complete." (from The Leadership
Secrets of Billy Graham)

3. Gather a group and jointly develop a vision. When I used to take on a new role at work or
church, I would (a) gather a group, (b) cast my vision for this area, (c) see who got on board
with the vision.

Then I noticed that my wife did things differently. She would (a) gather a group, (b) talk and pray
with all of them, until they all jointly came up with a vision, (c) not worry about who got on board,
because they already were on board. When people come up with the vision, they want to help
make it happen. Two years ago, Karen created an adult-education ministry at our church, and
people said to her, "Wow! How you'd get such a strong team of people to help?" The answer
was simple: She let them develop the vision.

If you use this approach to find your vision, be sure to assemble a "dream team," people with
strong gifts in the area. Then, set a few basic parameters, so the group has just enough
direction to start the conversation.

Why did I think I have to come up with the vision by myself? Now I try to gather a group of
strong leaders and together talk and pray and develop a vision. That takes longer, but the
ministry lasts longer.

4. Listen to the people you want to help. You don't have to be great at coming up with vision, if
you're willing to listen to the people you want to help. If you listen well, people will tell you what
they really need. In other words, the people you want to serve help set your vision.

Twenty-five years ago, a guy at Christianity Today named Keith did research among pastors
who were getting our Leadership Journal and asked them, "What do you need?" One big
answer: "Trained lay leaders."

We tried an annual 130-page journal for lay leaders, and it lasted only 3 years before it died. We
prototyped a 4-page print newsletter in 50 churches, but those churches collectively yawned.
One day I was talking to two pastors and I said, "I don't understand. You say you want trained
lay leaders. So we published a long journal, and you said it was too long. We published a short
newsletter, and it didn't wow you. What do you REALLY want?"

They said, in essence, "Choice, customization, convenience." So we launched a loose-leaf

notebook (pull out just the page you want and photocopy it to train your leaders) and then a
website, www.BuildingChurchLeaders.com. Today, Building Church Leaders is one of
Christianity Today's most successful websites, reaching 75,000 church leaders through its
newsletter and many others through the site.

The point: Where did the vision for that come from? Not from us. It came from the people we
wanted to help.
5. Stay in your gifts and let them guide you. The idea here is that God has already shown you
much of what He wants you to do in life by the way he made you. So ask yourself, "What has
God given me? What passions? What skills? What opportunities? What concerns?"

My wife, Karen, who's on staff at our church, was talking with a young woman named Laura.
Laura said, "I couldn't lead the college ministry. I'm not a visionary." So Karen told her, "Well,
you recently graduated from college, and you like college students. So if you did work with
college students, what would you do?" Laura talked nonstop for 15 minutes. She had more
vision than she thought she did, because she already had the suitable gifts for college ministry.
As Laura talked about "Here's what I care about and what I would do," her gifts began to
express themselves in a solid vision.

6. Solve some problem right in front of you. Often vision is born by passing through the narrow
and dark birth canal of problems. You see the problem, and you start to work on it. You don't
necessarily feel inspired or see lights. All you are doing is trying to solve some problem right in
front of you. But later, everyone else says, "What a great vision!"

The Bible's classic example is Nehemiah. He hears a terrible report about the few remaining
Jews living in Jerusalem: "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in
great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been
burned with fire." The news makes him cry. Nehemiah fasts, prays, and begins to ask for help
and to assemble the people and materials. Today we hold up Nehemiah as an example of a
visionary leader: he conceived and launched a staggering city-rebuilding project. Nehemiah was
simply trying to solve one problem right in front of him.

Bringing your vision to fulfillment. Once you've got your vision, through one or more of the 6
ways listed above, do something with it. Some people don't like the word "vision" because
they've seen it stand for "lots of hype and nothing happens." My sister-in-law worked for a huge
credit-card-processing company. She told me, "The execs would come down and say, 'You're
all leaders.' They'd say, 'We're going to be world-class.' But then they'd go back to their offices,
and nothing would really change."

To avoid hype, dedicate yourself to fulfilling your vision. In Acts 20:24, the apostle Paul says, "I
consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord
Jesus has given me." Bill Hybels comments on this verse: "What is Paul saying? I think he's
saying, 'The moment I received my vision from God, fulfilling that vision became the pressing
priority of my life.' "

Kevin Miller is an Executive Vice President at Christianity Today International. This article first appeared
on GiftedforLeadership.com.
From My Vision to Our Vision
Paul R. Ford

Kent is no Moses, and he knows it.

Gifted as a pastor-teacher, he arrived at his mid-sized Midwestern church believing that God
had called him to shepherd this congregation. The people were generally supportive. But Kent
was staggering under "vision block." The elders were pushing him to "be more of a leader,"
"give us a vision," and "take charge."

Kent did not fit that model. He had a hard time generating visionary ideas. He had little difficulty,
however, discerning whether visionary ideas others espoused were from God. He listened well
to the leaders around him—particularly elders and staff—and was able to synthesize
component pieces of God's vision for the church as shared by key players. He then put the
pieces together and clearly communicated, biblically and sensitively, what God was doing in the
congregation.

"Couldn't God speak through the body?" Kent asked.

But that wasn't the leadership model the elders assumed every church needed. And
they told him so.

If only I were a Moses

Most of today's leadership literature focuses on the "visionary leader," the one who determines
his church's calling and then communicates that vision to the church. The model is Moses'
receiving the Ten Commandments: he went up the mountain, heard from God, and came back
down the mountain to communicate the vision and challenge people to follow. It's the "Moses as
CEO" model.

Americans value the Moses-style leader. This approach is rooted in the rugged individualism
that is so much a part of our culture. The frontier spirit has surely spurred growth and creativity,
but in our culture, often at the expense of community. Throughout American history—whether
homesteaders who left the cities for a new life in the wilderness, or the Internet culture that asks
"Where do you want to go today?"—"we" thinking is usually trumped by the "I" motivations.

While Generation X supposedly lauds community, it will be a long road back. Marketers persist
in promoting self-centeredness, entitlement, and dissatisfaction, emphasizing "my needs" rather
than "what's important for us." Personal freedoms still overshadow group values. It's easier for
individuals to relate to a single leader than to a process-oriented leadership team.

For me, it took extensive training in four other cultures to bring home this reality. And now, after
eight years of work with more than 500 teams from 35 denominations and 20 mission agencies
in North America, I have found less than 5 percent to have healthy leadership teams. Only now
are Americans beginning to realize the limitations of "the Moses model," particularly regarding
vision.

Moses' descent with God's plan in hand is truly a great model for about 30 percent of the 2,000
pastors with whom I have worked. These specially gifted leaders have a clear sense of vision
from the Lord and can mobilize the congregation to fulfill that vision.
But the other 70 percent struggle to varying degrees with discovering their unique vision on their
own. When most pastors go up the mountain, the only tablets they come back with are aspirin!

Because so many stumble trying singlehanded to discover God's intent for their congregation,
does this mean God made a mistake in designing less than one-third of church leaders with the
gift of visionary leadership?

No.

Moses isn't the only model

Through a pastors' group we were in, Kent came to the realization that he could never be the
kind of leader his elders expected. He wept over it. But Kent believed God had designed him to
lead his church just as he is.

Kent, like so many not-Moses pastors, is an equipper, a role that receives considerable
treatment in the New Testament. In fact, I find little emphasis there on the strong visionary
leader concept. There is more emphasis on those who are fully prepared by God to train the
saints for the work of ministry.

In Acts 6, when the church faced a defining moment, no single leader appears to have
envisioned what to do. The apostles asked that leaders be prayerfully chosen to serve. No one
leader stated God's vision; no one leader made those selections. Leadership was a shared
function through which the Spirit worked.

Ephesians 4:11-16 focuses on variously gifted believers' abilities to equip others, and on the
unity and maturity of the group, rather than the individual. The only mention of the individual is
that "each plays his part" (4:16). Maybe there's a reason.

Perhaps God intends some churches to discover their calling through a body life process rather
than an individual. Over the long haul, a leader's ability to effectively equip and release a team
may be the more significant ministry.

How is vision a group experience?

After his tearful reckoning with the way God constructed him, Kent went to his board.

"I cannot be the visionary leader you want me to be," he told them. "If who I am is not sufficient
for your purposes, then I will resign today. But if you believe that God has called me to be your
pastor, then we need to make some changes around here."

The elders unanimously affirmed that he was their leader. Together they set out to establish a
job description that would free Kent to lead through his primary gifts of pastoring, teaching, and
discernment. The new model incorporated several gifted leaders to assist in specific leadership
functions.

The results were astonishing. The church has more than doubled in attendance since that event
three years ago, and the reasons relate directly to the change of heart in Kent and the elders.
No longer does Kent try to fulfill all the functions of a visionary leader, and no longer do the
elders expect him to.

While his pastoral authority has not changed, he shares the leadership functions, and he
continues to discern vision through and with the other key players.
This is "body-life vision." It's a liberating approach for hundreds of pastors I've seen who
suddenly realize they don't have to be the sole originator of church vision.

Esteem the team

If, as Bruce Bugbee says, God has brought "the right people to the right place at the right time
for the right reasons," then understanding who WE are becomes key to discovering God's vision
for our ministry.

The place to start is to define your leadership team that together will seek the vision. In some
churches, it's the pastor and staff. In others, it's the pastor and deacons, elders, or trustees. It
may include program directors. However you define your team, it must include those who set
the course for ministry, who must share the vision, and who will play key roles in fulfilling that
vision in their areas of ministry.

Before leading into the vision segment of the team building process, I introduce the "body life
design team" concept. For a leadership team to discover why and for what purposes God has
called them together, three building blocks must be firmly in place.

First is the concept of "body life" itself. As members of the body of Christ, each member of the
team is vitally important. Jesus' death on the cross has settled any and all issues of
significance.

Once team members understand that their individual significance has been settled at the cross,
they then can begin finding their function alongside others on the team. If they don't settle their
issues of significance in Christ, they'll seek significance in their position, their influence, or other
unhealthy ways. The team will become the battleground on which they seek individual
significance.

Second is "design." Each member of the team has been designed by God. In Christ, each of us
is truly unique. Each us has a spiritual blueprint that determines how we function most
powerfully in ministry. Most people don't know what that is.

Clarify who each player is in Christ. Many assessment tools are available. I developed one
calledDiscovering Your Ministry Identity. Identifying each person's spiritual gifts, ministry burden
or passion, team style, personal values, and "principle priorities" (which key leadership functions
are strongest in you?) helps with both team building and visioning.

A team of individuals must re-learn that "who I am affects who we are." This re-learning is a
process, not an event. Thus team building is stage one, the foundation of that new vision.

In the mid-1990s I trained ministry teams to go into the former Soviet Union. Their task: to
prepare Russian schoolteachers to teach Christian ethics in Russian public schools. One of our
team leaders, who had been to Russia previously, reported the comment of a newly converted
Russian Christian who had observed Americans on an earlier trip: "Why doesn't your team go
home until they like each other, and then come back and share the gospel?"

Ouch! And that was not an uncommon observation. Russians in nearly every city were stunned
by the relational struggles on the American teams.

That brings us to the third building block: team.

"Team" means that each player actively works for unity. Unity is never an accident. It is a choice
and a process. It comes from esteeming "we" (the church) above "I" (the individual believer).
Without this kind of community, vision is nearly impossible. With it, nothing is impossible.

Seeing with new ears

How do you discover the vision within the group—what God has planted in the hearts of your
key players?

Ask them!

The problem is that we seldom ask. A top-down leadership model assumes the leader shares
the vision and everyone else figures out how they fit into it. There is no opportunity for others to
share how God is nudging them.

Yet I have discovered that most Christians, whether in leadership or not, have something or
someone on their hearts for which they will invest their very lives. But rarely do we ask what it is.

In determining God's vision for a congregation, the secret is the order of the sharing. Usually
leaders talk first. The result? Others feel constrained to relate their burden to what the leader
has shared. Yet the real value of this exercise is to hear people before the leader shares,
because God may speak clearly about the church's overall vision through these unprompted
heart callings.

After each player shares his or her ministry burden or passion, then the leader shares.

God does indeed give some level of vision to pastors, but he also communicates the vision, or
components of it, through the hearts of all the players. Seldom does a leader have all the details
worked out. If that leader listens well, he or she will discover specifics he hadn't thought of—or
even strategic pieces of the big picture that previously were fuzzy. Are you listening?

I will never forget the Sunday evening we did this at a church in the Southwest. After sharing
about Paul's burden for the Gentiles in Romans 15, I asked people to share what was on each
of their hearts. With no preparation time, each of the 42 people present shared something.

As each one spoke, excitement rose. Even the quieter people were sharing freely! And they
weren't sharing things "the church ought to do." They were describing people and activities in
which they wanted to invest their very lives.

Last to speak was the pastor. I had asked him in advance to prepare something specific about
his vision for the church.

After listening to the heart of each team member, he had tears in his eyes. "I have nothing to
share," he said. "You all have just shared every significant piece of the burden God has put on
my heart!"

What if you treated your leadership team as players already prepared by God to lead your
church? Wouldn't you look for opportunities to listen? Sometimes God will be speaking.

We call it "the body of Christ." You can trust it, even with something as important as vision.
Paul Ford is a teambuilding specialist with Church Resource Ministries, 1704 California NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110.
He can be reached at PaulRFord@compuserve.com.
At a Glance: Visioneering as a Group
Vision can be a group process, especially for those who value team ministry. Here's a quick
overview of the steps.

1. Build your vision team. The team will include "official leaders" but sometimes
should include other key people, even if they don't hold an office or head a
ministry. In a society that assumes everyone is an individual, people need
lessons on how to function as a team. Team unity is essential. Sign a pact, if
necessary. Agree to agree.
2. Discover who YOU are. The body is functional when every part knows its
function and does it. Help team members discover their uniqueness in Christ.
3. Build on weakness/need. Real unity comes when leaders share weaknesses
as well as strengths. A person's admitted neediness is where the team
becomes vital.
4. Discover who WE are. God has brought your team together for a purpose.
Discover their God-given ambitions, and you'll discover your calling in what God
is already doing.

Teambuilding Questions
As your team develops, ask three key questions.

1. Where is God powerful in you? Spiritual gifts reveal more than what we are "good
at"—they identify where God is powerful in us. While in Kazakstan last year, I
discovered the Kazaks have 20 words for sheep but no comparable words for "spiritual
gift." So I told the Kazaks that spiritual gifts are where God's power is revealed in our
lives. Kazak or American, explore where God has shown his power in you.

2. Where are you weak? When deeper, confidential sharing of weaknesses takes place,
unity can begin. Without it, your team is unlikely to move beyond functional relationships
that merely complete tasks. Real Christian community surfaces at the point of shared
vulnerability, usually modeled first by the leader.

i) When Bill, a senior pastor I met with, freely admitted his weaknesses to his team of
12, team members stopped hiding behind their strengths and honestly admitted
their neediness. Community happened that day for that powerful team (as seen by
others) who had never before felt free to acknowledge how they needed each other.
They were hired for their ministry expertise and had learned to play the "impressing
game" well. When the walls came down, real unity occurred.

ii) Confidentiality, of course, is essential here. No one wants his confessions

discussed around the coffee machine. Honoring each other in our weakness means
protecting one another.

iii) Who do you need? We tend to ask, "What am I good at? Where am I weak, and to
which seminar can I go to improve in my weak areas?" As individuals we tend to
think about fixing our own weaknesses. We seldom think in terms of how God
designed us to need others. But team members need each other. As we identify
specific ways we need others, the team grows stronger.
Resistance to change comes for a variety of reasons.
Wayne Schmidt