We are finishing up the Fusion book by Nelson Searcy. If you need to have your own copy you can find it at AMAZON HERE.

What happens after Sunday morning? This is a most critical time and our follow up must be FAST, FRIENDLY and FUNCTIONAL.

Immediate 36 hour follow up. Monday is a good day to do this. First time guests should receive an email that thanks them for attending and directly invites them to come back. Include a link to your website where they can fill out a guest survey (which takes 30 SECONDS) Email should be sent between 2 and 3pm when people are looking for things to distract themselves.

96 hour snail mail response. Handwritten note (in an envelope that doesn’t look like a bill)with a small appropriate gift. Starbucks card, etc.

Growing churches spend $400 to $500 on evangelism for each person who walks through the door as a first time guest. Investment…..because it is always harder to get a return visit than an initial visit.

One Month Followup. Focus on getting returning first time guests not chasing down guests from months ago. Don’t focus on the unresponsive. Often guests that do not return have simply fallen back into their Sunday routine. Wow them by remembering them.

Handwritten notes can be made by FIRST RESPONSE TEAM….but should carry the name of the pastor who preached.

Second Time Guests .

Encourage them to sign the Second Time Guest Box on the communication card. The are encouraged to sign because they got gifts the first time! That’s ok ….. remember you are moving them through a process.

Encourage Deeper Involvement Through a Next Step. You want them to get involved in a serving opportunity, connect with a small group or have them attend some special event (even a simple movie night)

Follow up with Second Time Guests: 1. 36 hr email response. Thank them. 2. Give them an opportunity to fill our a second time guest survey. 3. Give them an opportunity to get plugged in and include a link that will help them take a NEXT STEP.

Follow up with a letter that they receive on Thurs. This time no handwritten note but a typed letter (but no business envelope!) thanking them and giving them more information on how they can get involved. Include another gift. (This is the last gift)

How to make them STICK.

1. Friends. The more they have the more likely they will continue to come.

2. Small groups….GOAL of having ALL regular adult attenders in groups. (Window of opportunity. If they don’t make friends within 4 to 6 months, they will not stick!)

3. Fun Events.. Play groups (bowling, movie night, pottery class, community events, etc.)….low pressure, low commitment and fun!

4. Service teams. Even if not believers…..in fact, this helps them stick so they can become believers.

Taking ownership – give them RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility precedes ownership and ownership precedes membership.

RETENTION – RETURN, RELATIONSHIPS, RESPONSIBILITY

Listen to the Podcast by author of Fusion: Turning First Time Guests Into Fully Engaged Members of Your Church, Nelson Searcy. Click HERE

Part #1 helps us understand that everything speaks to the first time guest and how can we do the best with what we have?

Part #2 found HERE discusses the system of moving people through a process where they can “stick” and have the best opportunity to experience God.

This is taken from www.churchleaderinsights.com

If you need to have your own copy of FUSION you can get it over at Amazon….click HERE.

These days, the only thing more unsettled than the weather is the state of the economy. Ford celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Model-T by posting the biggest quarterly loss in its history. The major airlines fly into the summer-vacation season by adding vast amounts of red ink to an industry that is already drowning in it. (American Airlines, by one estimate, loses $3.3 million per day.) And Yahoo, once the lovable darling of the Internet, caves in to corporate curmudgeon Carl Icahn as it tries to maintain its independence.

And yet…amidst all these dark clouds ands ominous forecasts, there are patches of bright sun and clear skies. Honda just reported profits of $1.7 billion for the quarter ended June 30—a record quarterly performance for a company that’s posted lots of great quarters. Southwest Airlines reported yet another profitable quarter—a 15% increase over a year ago, and its 69th consecutive quarter of profitability. And Netflix, the online-movie pioneer whose fortunes skeptics love to question, delivered better-than-expected results and increased its subscriber base to an eye-opening 8.4 million households.

How is it that Honda, Southwest, and Netflix manage to thrive, when so many of their peers not only struggle to break even but flirt with outright disaster? The answers don’t just speak to these three competitors, but to the new logic of competition itself.

First, high-performing companies understand that it’s not enough to be “pretty good” at everything anymore. As a company, you have to be the most of something—the most exclusive, the most affordable, the most responsive, the most friendly. Companies used to want to be in the middle of the road—that’s where all the customers were. But now, in an age of hyper-competition and non-stop innovation, the middle of the road is the road to ruin. What do they say in Texas? “The only thing in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos.” To which we might now add: “And once-great companies that are slowly going out of business.”

There’s no doubt that Honda, Southwest, and Netflix have always understand what they are the most of. Honda is legendary for its focus on the performance of its engines and its commitment to grow from the low end of the automobile market up the value chain. Southwest has always managed to combine low fares with great service—anything else is a distraction. And Netflix understands that it doesn’t just offer customers the widest variety of movies to watch, but that it helps customer make smarter choices about the movies they watch.

Second, high-performance companies understand that in an era of great turmoil, the best strategy is to stick with what you believe in. Business thinkers love to excoriate big companies and their leaders because they don’t have the guts to change. In fact, the problem with many big companies is that all they do is change. They lurch from one consulting firm to the next, from one management fad to another, from one target customer base to a different set of customers. Detroit’s Big Three seem to change business strategies with every model year! They diversified into other industries, then refocused on cars, they pushed high-margins SUVs and pickups, now they are scrambling to make more small cars.

Amazingly, even in a business environment filled with dramatic change, Honda, Southwest, and Netflix stick to their guns. Sure, they tweak things at the margins: Southwest has fine-tuned its boarding procedures to appeal to business travelers, Netflix is experimenting with digital downloads as opposed to movies-by-mail. But they have made big strategic bets for the long term—and they don’t hedge their bets based on the price of fuel or the latest developments in Silicon Valley.

Legendary management guru Jim Collins puts it best: “The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”

There’s a third element that helps to explain extraordinary performance in these extraordinarily difficult times. Each of these companies connects with its customers based not just on price and features, but on identity and emotion. They have become virtually irreplaceable in the eyes of their customers. The researchers at Gallup have identified an escalating hierarchy of connections between companies and their customers—from confidence to integrity to pride to passion. To test for passion, Gallup asks customers a simple question: “Can you imagine a world without this product or brand?” It’s a lofty goal, but great companies (like Honda, Southwest, and Netflix) get there.

Ask yourself, honestly: Can your customers live without you? Because if they can, they probably will.

 

PermaLink: Why the “Middle of the Road” Is the Road to Ruin

From Strategycentral.org blog

The Upside of Constraints

Every organization has limits to what it can do.  Limits to the money it can spend.  Limits to the time it can invest in a project.  Limits to the manpower it can employ.  Those limits can be thought of as constraints.  Some elements of those constraints are just “facts of life”; imposed by cash on hand, etc.  Others are more self-imposed.  Budgets are a form of self-imposed constraints.  And there is an upside to constraints.

Michael Porter has said that “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do,” which is a kind of constraint.  I tripped across an interesting companion concept in Michael Raynor’s The Strategy Paradox.   He writes that, “constraints…are the cell walls of a living organism without which the vital essence would bleed away (p. 181).”  Isn’t that an interesting way of thinking about the upside of constraints? 

Choosing what not to do, the concept that you can’t do everything (or at least not successfully), is at the heart of a good strategy.  And the truth might be that not having the appropriate constraints leads to your organization’s “vital essence” bleeding away.

What constraints have you intentionally imposed?  What constraints might you need to put in?  Interesting…don’t you think?

Choosing What NOT To Do

 

.How aware is your organization of the need to thoughtfully develop your plan?  As you can probably tell by now it’s a little bit of a hobby horse with me…frustrating when there’s really no thought to consequences or effects of what is done.  Recently I wrote about the upside of constraints.

 

There’s a great parallel in an interesting interview that Guy Kawasaki did with Tim Berry about developing a business plan.  In talking about the important qualities of a plan, Berry says that a plan sets “priorities with the understanding that you can’t do everything.”  He goes on to say that “after all the buzzwords and analysis, strategy is focus. What can you do better than anyone else? What’s your core competence?”

 

When you think about your organization, is there an awareness of the fact that you can’t do everything?  Or is there the attempt to actually be all things to all people?  Do you know what you do better than anyone else?  What your core competencies are?

 

These questions are along the same line as a couple of great ones that I found in Drucker’s The Practice of Management.  “What have we done well and without any great strain while somebody else has failed to do the same job?”  The corollary is good as well.  “What do we do poorly while someone else seems to have no difficulty with it? (p. 114).

These questions are at the heart of good planning.  Can you talk through those questions with your team?  Do you ever reserve time to slow down long enough to wrestle with this kind of discussion?  Without it, you’re toast.

From a useful blog www.strategycentral.org

Execution is Not a Strategy

Have a clear vision about where you want to go as an organization but finding it impossible to execute on the dream?  It could be that your strategy is not a good one.  Knowing where you want to go (remember that vision answers the where question) cannot overcome an insufficient or ineffective how.

What can be done about it?  Developing a good strategy is hard work, but is right at the heart of the matter if you really want to get to where you’re dreaming of going.  After all, “A good strategy allows a company to execute well.  On the other hand, excellent execution is impossible for a company with a poor strategy.  It’s a cause and effect relationship.  Good strategy is the cause.  Excellent execution is the effect ( The Origin of Brands, p. 178-9).”

How do you develop a strategy that is effective?

• Start with a clear understanding of where you’d like to go.
• Begin with the end in mind and work back to where you are.  Working backwards will allow you to see what might need to happen first.
• Identify the “first wins” that will begin to move you in the right direction.
• Put in place the steps that will sustain the new trajectory.

Don’t be afraid to begin.  A key to developing effective strategy is to know that testing a new strategy is just part of the process.  If it does what you want it to do…good.  If it doesn’t…tweak it to correct the flaw.  Waiting on “ready, aim, fire” when “ready, fire, aim” will work slows down the implementation (if it doesn’t bring it to a complete halt!

This thanks to our Small Groups Consultant Mark Howell who writes a blog called strategy central.

Are you a learner?  Early in my experience I heard someone say that you could tell when a person stopped learning by looking at the copyright dates in their library.  There’s truth to that.  Once you stop learning you’re toast.  On that note, I tripped across this great quote from Jeff Rosenberg, Senior VP, Product Management at Google:

Keep on challenging yourself, because learning doesn’t end with graduation. In fact, in the real world, while the answers to the odd-numbered problems are not in the back of the textbook, the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market. Learning, it turns out, is a lifelong major.

10 Ways to Keep Me from Discovering Your Church
I’m now a few weeks into looking for a new fellowship body and I’ve come up against many barriers that churches have in place to keep me from easily finding or connecting with them. There are a couple local churches that have completely vexed my efforts to learn more about them and after 2 weeks and several hours of effort, I’ve stopped trying to reach them. The reality is most people, myself included, are probably not going to attend your church if they can’t find any information about it beforehand. Other churches I’ve managed to find and attend, only to be thwarted in my efforts to learn more or get connected. This is all part of what I call church discoverability, which includes initially hearing about a church, learning more, first attending and initial connecting.
So if your church’s goal is to make it painfully difficult to be discovered by new people, here are 10 real ways I’ve experienced that churches keep from being discovered:
Don’t have a website : This is the information age, even 107 year old women have blogs, but not your church. No church website, no blog, no flickr account, and don’t podcast your sermons. Knowledge is power and providing me easy access to information about your church might empower me to learn more or even visit. So even if you must have a website, make sure it is poorly designed, lacking in information, hard to navigate, out of date and doesn’t have an rss feed to make things even remotely easy for me.
Be completely inactive in the community : If you’re not doing anything in the community then no one will talk about your church. That makes it a lot harder for me to accidentally find out anything useful. So don’t serve the community or partner with other churches or non-profits. In fact it’s really just best if you stay completely inward-focused and don’t do anything missional in your city.
Don’t answer your phone : Regardless of what time I call (weekday, weekend, morning, afternoon, evening) don’t answer the phone and don’t have an answering machine or voice mail for me to leave a message or prayer request. If you do have voice mail, don’t include your website address, service times or directions to your church on your message, and don’t ever answer the phone on Sunday mornings. That way when I’m lost en route to service, I’ll have no choice but to drive around aimlessly until I give up and go home.
Allow misinformation : Sometimes you just can’t prevent denominations or directories from listing information about your church. When contact information changes, don’t tell them about the update. You can save time by providing them incorrect information initially and for added confusion make sure each directory lists different information about your church, all of it wrong.
Lack clear signage : Even if I’m determined to visit your church, you have several on site options to discourage me. The first is to play hide and seek. Is your church in a nondescript building or on a street with several other churches? Have absolutely no signage; none, whatsoever. Except maybe on the mailbox, where you abbreviate things beyond comprehension. If you run a Christian school, put up a 10′ x 14′ sign just for it, so I’ll be led to believe the building is only a school.
Have insufficient parking/seating : Other discouraging on-site options are lack of adequate parking and seating. Does your church seat 200? Only have 30 parking spaces. Been running at capacity for weeks or months? Don’t start another service, so that there will be standing room only. Have visitors’ parking? Put it in the corner of the lot away from the entrance. Have adequate parking? Don’t stripe the lot or have parking attendants; chaos is best. Have adequate seating? Make it as uncomfortable as possible.
Ignore Visitors : Despite your best efforts I have found and attended your church. In fact, I even filled out a visitor’s card requesting more information. Don’t acknowledge my visit in any way. Don’t call me, don’t send me a thank you card, don’t answer any of my questions or give me any information about how to become involved or learn more about Jesus. Also don’t have any literature available to provide visitors and don’t train your volunteers to be courteous or helpful in anyway.
Respond half-heartedly to inquiries : If responding to information requests at all, do so extremely slowly and only partially. Wait 1 week or more to return emails or phone calls and if I ask several questions, don’t answer them all. Instead just tell me I should come to a service to find out more. That saves you a couple minutes of response time and makes you look very busy and important. Whatever you do, do not start a dialogue with me.
Be evasive about your beliefs : When I ask a direct question about the church’s beliefs, ignore the question or act like you don’t understand and then start telling me about your denomination or church programs. For “What We Believe”, only include the Nicene Creed on your website or literature. If I’m adamant about wanting positional clarity, instead tell me about the love of Jesus and how Christianity isn’t about division. For those times you do answer my questions, act offended that I would even ask, then try and make me feel stupid or sinful for questioning you.
Lie to me : When all else fails, simply lie to me about your church. You might just get a few weeks of attendance out of me before I learn the truth. Are you denominationally affiliated? Don’t mention it ever and talk about how independent you are when I find out. Being on mission is important to me, so make it sound like all 500 of your members are actively involved in serving the city, even though you don’t give a single cent to local missions and never talk about it from the pulpit, because you actually hate the city and it’s sinful people. Lastly, spend a lot of time telling me how you are distinctive from other churches, even though you’re not.
There are certainly other ways to keep me from discovering your church, but these have proven quite effective over recent weeks. I assure you, that if you implement these 10 things, you will manage to keep just about everyone from finding or connecting with your church.

Being who God really made us to be.  We have discovered that since 1961 to this day, people say Concordia “feels like home.”  It’s hard work discovering or uncovering who God truly made us to be.  Good work Concordia!  Now how do we effectively live out that unique vision?  Don’t miss this Sunday’s Mission Training Camp on strategy.

Uncage Your Vision

By Will Mancini

 

Leadership conversations these days are laced with a common thread: we are rethinking the “vision” word we use so often in ministry. Like a burr under a saddle, something is irritating the collective soul of church leadership. What is it? Look closely at the introduction of current leadership books and you will see it.  Listen carefully to the passion of today’s emerging leaders, and you’ll hear it. The key word is “unique.”

From within the conferencing era of church equipping, leaders are diagnosing more and more the epidemic of photocopied vision and are repenting of unoriginal sin. Why? Unintentionally, leaders have traded out a lion for pussycat, by taming the unique call of God for their church by a preoccupation with what is working down the street.

In the opening of their 2008 book, The Intangible Kingdom , church planters Hugh Halter and Matt Smay tell the story of starting the Addulam community. What motivated them? ”We no longer could deny God’s unique work among us.”

Recently Anthony Coppedge, a church media consultant posted this comment on his blog: “There are more churches contacting me who have lost their own identity in the race to implement the Fellowbackgrangepoint Church model. What model is that, you say? Why it’s the mash-up of all of the best practices of each of those churches distilled into an un-reproducible, unauthentic version of their own church.”

At the first annual Whiteboard Sessions in May of 2008, Perry Noble told a humorous story of refusing to walk up a gigantic hill to get his mail as a kid. One day he decided to simply walk across the street and returned to his mom with the neighbor’s mail instead. It’s just mail right? Why not take the shorter path? That day Perry breathed fire when he passionately urged church leaders to take the harder path of getting their own mail from God, rather than reading another leader’s mail. Perry called us to find our unique vision.

You’ve seen this problem in many forms. If you want to experiment for yourself, randomly walk into a church in your town and see if you can tell which church conference the staff has been to in the last six months. I have found that it takes about five minutes. It may the Purpose Driven banners in the foyer, or cut-and-paste “Willowspeak” in the church mission statement, but you will see it somewhere.

What’s the cost of such practices? In the church leader’s version of keeping up with the Jones’ we render vision impotent. When we duplicate a model rather than incarnating our own, passion becomes derivative and conviction lives second hand. Vision is not simple, clear and powerful but simplistic. Remember Dolly, the first cloned sheep? She died at one-third life expectancy after developing arthritis and progressive lung disease.

The good news for the church leader is that God wants to do something cosmically significant and locally specific through you. I believe that Jesus wants to release a redemptive movement with your local church as an epicenter. When that happens, your vision will be original, organic, bold and extravagant. It will be unique. Since God never mass-produces snowflakes, sunsets or saints why would we believe that he is mass-producing churches?

It’s time for church leaders to uncage their vision.

So what does that look like and how do you start? Here are some ideas to get you rolling.

Uncaging vision begins with the vision of God.  Finding your unique vision starts by worshipping and listening to the Chief Visionary. Remember that no “better future” than you can imagine was not already imagined in the heart of God. He started with perfection in Eden and he will end with perfection in New Jerusalem. But you have your part in the story in between—thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When was the last time you prayed to God as the ultimate source of vision?

Uncaging vision demands ruthless self-examination.  One definition of genius is the ability to scrutinize the obvious. Most leaders are so close to their community both inside and outside of the church, that they miss the contextual and cultural cues that are essential to guide the vision discovery process. The win is to answer the question, “What can our church do better than ten thousand others?” I call this your Kingdom Concept. How does your church specifically glorify God and make disciples? One key practice for self-examination is to invite a strategic outsider who can bring objectivity and honesty to the process.

Uncaging vision requires robust team dialogue.  Vision has been a lone-ranger sport for way too long. Missional leaders are opting for a higher standard of team leadership that is practiced in community. It’s only through brutally honest conversation and the blood, sweat and tears of God-honoring transparency that a team can forge a clear vision. As the leader are you allowing others to come to the vision table?

Uncaging vision involves meticulous articulation.  Words create worlds. Every single word, metaphor or story that drives your vision must be carefully created if you want to have a stunning impact. Of course, having some statement on the wall is no end all. We all know that! But when I am around great leaders with unique, God-given vision, I am always amazed by their carefully tuned word choice. In my work with leaders we hold up a five-fold standard. Is every aspect of your vision clear, concise, compelling, catalytic, and contextual?

Uncaging vision extracts significant time commitment. The deathblow to discovering unique vision usually boils down to time. Most leaders are unwilling to practice the above points because they are running so fast on a ministry treadmill. The few who get off the treadmill, however, always run faster and further for the mission of Jesus in the world.

In the end, if you are trying to lead with someone else’s vision, who is going to fulfill yours? The American dream does not apply to the church: your church can’t be anything you want it to be. But it can be everything God wants it to be. 

Will Mancini emerged from the trenches of local church leadership to found Auxano , a first-of-kind consulting ministry that focuses on vision clarity. As a “clarity evangelist ,” Will has served as vision architect for hundreds of churches across the country. Will’s style blends the best of three worlds: the process thinking from the discipline of engineering, the communications savvy as an ad agency executive, and the practical theology as a pastoral leader. His education includes a ThM in Pastoral Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State.  He is the author of Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement , a Leadership Network Publication, and Building Leaders .

10 Rules for Respect
One way to build trust.
Charles W. Christian
Topics:Board, Communication, Conflict, Conflict resolution, Confrontation, Difficult people, Division, Leadership, Mentoring, Spiritual leadership
Filters:Church board, Church staff, Discipleship, Elder, Pastor, Pastoral care, Preaching, Small groups
Purpose:Discipleship
References:1 Timothy 5:17-20
Date Added:July 11, 2007

 
 
When I came to this church five years ago, many of my board members had grandchildren older than I was. Most of the rest had children my age. At age 23, I was their pastor. That was intimidating.
I was told by a mentor that I would have to have some rules of the road for communicating with my congregation. How would I get people so much older than I to talk to me rather than among themselves?
The list I drew up has evolved into ten principles that have transformed the way our church communicates. They now form a covenant signed each year by all the leaders, including me.
If you have a problem with me, come to me (privately).
If I have a problem with you, I’ll come to you (privately).
If someone has a problem with me and comes to you, send them to me. (I’ll do the same for you.)
If someone consistently will not come to me, say, “Let’s go to the pastor together. I am sure he will see us about this.” (I will do the same for you.)
Be careful how you interpret me—I’d rather do that. On matters that are unclear, do not feel pressured to interpret my feelings or thoughts. It is easy to misinterpret intentions.
I will be careful how I interpret you.
If it’s confidential, don’t tell. (This especially applies to board meetings.) If you or anyone comes to me in confidence, I won’t tell unless (a) the person is going to harm himself/herself, (b) the person is going to physically harm someone else, (c) a child has been physically or sexually abused. I expect the same from you.
I do not read unsigned letters or notes.
I do not manipulate; I will not be manipulated; do not let others manipulate you. Do not let others try to manipulate me through you. I will not preach “at” you on Sunday mornings. I will leave conviction to the Holy Spirit (he does it better anyway).
When in doubt, just say it. The only dumb questions are those that don’t get asked. We are a family here and we care about each other, so if you have a concern, pray, and then (if led) speak up. If I can answer it without misrepresenting something or breaking a confidence, I will.
While they have not eliminated every problem, the principles have provided a strong foundation for loving, Christlike communication.
Recently two members asked a longtime leader to “tell the pastor” about some idea that was not working. At first, this leader agreed to speak with me. Then, she called the two members back and said, “I’ve thought about what you asked me to do. I know that the pastor would appreciate it if you told him yourself. He always wants to hear what church members think. If he does not respond, then call me and you and I will go together.”
That afternoon, the members sat with me in my office, and we worked through their problem. I did not know about their request of the person who sent them to me.
“I’m so glad you came to me personally,” I closed our conversation. “Around here, all of our leaders believe in open communication, even about difficult matters.”
Later, when I learned the rest of the story, I knew our adherence to the road rules had given that leader an opportunity to communicate her confidence in me. And I was allowed to cement two other relationships that might have presented roadblocks later on.

Compelled By Love
By Ed Stetzer
It’s the middle of the week. Again.
Sunday was great – at least sorta. The new person you met yesterday might attend next weekend – maybe. And the podcast you listened to is teaching you how to lead better – you hope.
But there is still one lingering question in the back of your head.
Why?
After all, who really appreciates all that I’m doing? Sure. The person being fawned over is grateful. The friend in the hospital room is glad to see you. And the person who was led to Christ states their “eternal gratitude.”
But sometimes, we get tired.
The “wet blanket committee” roams the church to see what passion they can squelch. Tons of logistical work has to be done when all you really want to do is talk to people about Jesus. And there’s the never ending cycle of dreaming, strategy, and vision-casting. It’s a lot for one person to handle.
So why?
Because of love. Not love like a Reese Witherspoon romantic-comedy or an afternoon talk show pseudo-psychology counseling session. I’m talking about love that asks you to die for the greater good. Like Jack Bauer in 24. Or Leonidas and the Spartans . The kind of love that motivates us should be the same as Christ – a dying love.
Love stands at the center of the Christian life. Understood rightly, it is the “why.” It is the supreme command of scripture. When Christ was asked to name the greatest law, he pointed out that it is to love God supremely and others sacrificially (Matthew 22:37-40).
But here is a problem in the church. And, unfortunately, the world has caught on to it. We have a lot of unloving Christians – and unloving churches.
We all must admit that, at times, we have lived this oxymoronic life too. To that end, God works to change the passions and intentions of our hearts. He forms us to be like the Son. He knows that for the church to tell the gospel, it must live the gospel as well. The life of the church must be a living, breathing expression of that love because it is founded in the One who is love.
1 John 4:7-8 (HCSB)   Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
There is a devastating lesson contained in these verses. If your life isn’t marked by love, then you don’t know God. But how do you know if it is? Let’s consider three tests.
Test #1: Entry to Christ
I’m not talking about a bland repetition of the so-called sinner’s prayer. I am not against a sinner’s prayer. But, on its own, it limits the gospel to repeating words.
Forming a relationship with the Almighty is more than signing a little card and parroting a prayer on the front pew. Utter transformation by our Creator God flows out His nature of love.
Ultimately, I think we do a disservice to people when we say, “Just pray this prayer,” and then we pronounce them “saved” or “born again” or whatever term is being used this week. A person can read the prayer on a tract and never begin a relationship with their Creator. But when it is genuinely the intent of my heart to repent, follow Christ, and love Him supremely, He changes me.
You know this.  So make sure your “why” is right.  You minister so people can be invited into a transforming relationship with Christ, not so they will join your church or sign on to your vision for the community.
Test #2: Walk with Christ
In the third grade, I stopped signing cards “Love, Ed.” I thought it was silly, girly, and, to be honest, my family did not really love that well. So, all my cards ended with “From Ed.” Cold, sterile, and pointless.
Too many in church leadership operate with a “From _____” mentality. Churches and Christians act like religious pharmacies doling out platitudes to get people through the day but never entering into their lives. That’s nothing like Christ, who was called a drunkard because He hung out with people at dinner parties.
Maybe this is why Oprah, Dr. Phil, and the SuperNanny are so popular – people feel loved by them, even though they’ve never met them.
If the church is represented by any human emotion through the scriptures – it is love. Just consider the main images God uses to describe us: body parts rightly relating to one another, a temple housing the presence of God, and a bride anticipating the arrival of her groom.
Let love embody your missional life. The church, born out of the character of God, is missional by nature, so let love stand as the guard over that mission.
Begin by extending a compassionate heart to the members of your church. When feeling prompted to check in with an absent member, do it out of love instead of duty. This week, sit somewhere different during worship and interact with someone new. Seek out an older person who is often alone. Help your family collectively decide who to reach out to – perhaps someone in (or even outside of) your church who is in pain. These simple acts of love will put us on the proper path to “carrying a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name.”
Just make sure you think beyond the Sunday morning crowd. Invite a family over for dinner who has never attended your church before. Invest in a long-term friendship with someone you know is “far from God.” Organize your Bible study group to take care packages to a home for abused women in the county. There are myriad ways to go on mission with God, to express His love to those who need it desperately.
Test #3: Teaching Christ
Catalyst is all about moving people from here to there. Leadership, it has been said by many, is influence. But influence devoid of love is cold manipulation. There is a choice we must make about how we will pass on leadership skills to the next group of leaders for God’s church.
I was raised in a New York union family. My dad was an iron lather. My grandfather, a firemen. My uncle, a cop. All Irish … and all tough folks. And, in my neighborhood, it could be pretty cut-throat.
You can imagine my surprise when I entered the ministry, expecting something completely different – and rarely found it. Church people can make union people look like daisies. Then again, maybe you are not surprised.
I have good friends – like many of you – who have been through “meat grinder” churches. It is ugly and a lot of bitterness usually follows. But I also know a lot of godly leaders in the church today. They are the ones who live out 2 Corinthians 5:14. Being compelled by Christ’s love, they lead others to the mercy of God.
Evaluate your leadership lessons to others. Are you raising-up leaders who show love by dying as Christ did or manipulate people toward a preferred future feeling? The portrait of God the Father is that of the searcher; looking for the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. The image of God the Son is that of the Great Shepherd who lays down his life for the flock. The image of God the Spirit is the one who indwells the mortal so we might be reminded of the enduring truths of God.
As others taught you, it is time to turn around and disciple the next generation of leaders for God’s kingdom. Teach your new leaders to love people as Christ did – with a dying love.
What Now?
If you, like me, bemoan the lack of love in Christians and their churches, let’s start the revolution. Be the one who shows the love of Christ, lives the normal Christian life – and truly acts like a Christian.
I teach my 6 year old that others will know we are Jesus’ disciples by our love. Now, we must live that truth out. That will make all the difference.
Order either Compelled by Love or Impulsados por el Amor , the Spanish language version, through wmustore.com and receive 30% off when you use promo code G01032 .
Ed Stetzer is the President of LifeWay Research and co-author (with Philip Nation) of Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living . Ed is also an experienced church planter and frequent speaker. His other books include: Comeback Churches , Breaking the Missional Code , and Planting Missional Churches
Understand what it means to be compelled by love. Trusted missiologist Ed Stetzer, along with pastor and coauthor Philip Nation, in Compelled by Love will challenge you to look at love within the context of God, the church, and the lives of individual believers. Compelled by Love will give you a basic theological understanding and a platform for personal application to understand what missional living is all about—that is, understanding your calling to love others. Look at the love of God; begin to truly understand what is at the center of the church’s foundation, Commission, and direction; but most importantly, understand your role within the mission of God as you integrate love into all aspects of your missional calling.