Midas Church

I have spent several years in professional ministry and lay volunteer ministry at several different evangelical churches. Though I have been a member at a couple of "megachurches", the lion's share of my intense involvement has been with smaller churches that always seem to struggle. At the latter, we had staffs who loved God, loved people, and worked hard, just like in the larger churches, but our hard work was rarely rewarded with success. I know that word really irks some ministry people, as focusing on "success" can lead to quantifying ministry in ways that it was never meant to be quantified and turning a creative, joyful work into an endless checklist.

But I think in our heart of hearts, we always wanted the "Midas touch" that those larger churches always seemed to have. Everything these "Midas churches" did turned to gold. Every event blew away expectations. Volunteers were numerous, talented, and energized. The attendees have a great time and are touched with the love of Christ. In the smaller churches, it often felt like we were happy if everyone survived. I always wondered, "why can't we have what they have?"

Last month, my church hosted a 5K run to raise money for the International Justice Mission, called the "Run:4Justice". It was amazing event that not only brought the whole church together but raised a ton of cash for IJM...it was their biggest single-event fundraiser ever! Here's what, from my perspective, made this "Midas event" turn to gold:

• Innovation - what church does 5Ks? People couldn't believe this was hosted by a church. One runner said with surprise, "it wasn't even cheesy!" To draw people into a vision, we've got to innovate and do things outside of the box.
• Big Vision - the entire leadership team never thought we could make it to 1000 runners and $100,000. We all thought we'd come up short, but the big leader, Local Mission Pastor Amy Nobles, kept pushing us toward that huge goal. The result? 1355 runners, $133,000. We were blown away! Big goals inspire people...sometimes "realism" is a copout.
• Commitment to Excellence - it was made clear to us that every single aspect of the run was to be done with complete and total dedication to excellence. We wanted not just to make it through the event, but to put on an event that people would be wowed by. Many runners told us it was the best 5K they've ever participated in...that's because we weren't allowed to compromise on quality. Be proud of your product, your vision, your event, or whatever you're doing and be willing to sacrifice the blood, sweat, tears, and cash it'll take to make it awesome.
• Planning ahead - 18 months of total planning, 5 months of intense planning, and one month of I'm-doing-nothing-else-in-my-life-but-the-Run planning was put into this event. Our leaders had us convinced that they had done the work to plan this sucker to a TEE. Planning inspires confidence in volunteers and increases ownership.
• Money - yeah, this part is tough. You gotta spend the cash to get the impact a lot of times. But with this event, the premise was so cool, the planning was so perfect, the people were so pumped, that the money came rolling in right on time. If you don't have the cash flow to make it go well, do something that you DO have the cash to do right...we can't compromise quality just because we don't have gobs of money.
• Advertisement - we used as many different avenues as possible to get the word out. If people don't hear about it, they won't come. Online, word of mouth, whatever...if the vision is compelling, people will show up when they hear about it.
• Sustained spiritual energy and positivity - our leaders were encouragers and kept us going, even when we (and they) wanted to quit.
• Leaders were the most committed - I knew that no matter how hard I was working, my leaders were working harder to get this done...that's incredibly inspirational!
• Involved the entire church - from babies to baby boomers, the whole church got in on the Run. A 9 year-old boy even published a children's book about the cause!

Amazing event, amazing church. Now that I'm rested up, I'm looking forward to what's next!

Tiger Church

"10 Then the Lord said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.11 Obey what I command you today." - Exodus 34:10-11

I read this week's cover story of TIME magazine about "tiger mothers," the now-popular euphemism for strict Chinese parents. Some of the measures taken to discipline children are shocking, like calling a kid "garbage" or saying that second place is "disgraceful." But a lot of it really resonated with me. Specifically, I really am wondering if we are raising a nation of wimps, and even more frightening, a church of wimps.

When I was in youth ministry professionally, I kept feeling like I had to satisfy appetites that would never be satisfied. And I got very tired of having to be gimmicky to get kids to follow Christ. A part of me always admired the Chinese churches around us (in Arcadia, CA there are a lot), because their kids always seemed so well-behaved, polite, and dedicated. Now, granted, they tended to be more dedicated to school than their faith, but I also saw that the tireless and hyper-focused work ethic they brought to their schoolwork ended up in their spiritual discipline as well.

I wonder if we need more "tiger churches". It's not about whether Chinese culture or American culture are better, but about how close we are to realizing our purpose in the Kingdom of God. God told Moses that He would do amazing things through Israel if they obeyed Him. We see that caveat throughout the Bible: faith is tied to obedience. We must create kids and adults who are unyieldingly obedient to Jesus in order to see the power of God unleashed upon a broken and needy world that is crying out for Him. I wonder if we have too low of standards for our youth and treat them as too fragile. Here are a few things I learned from this article:

1. Assume strength, not fragility, and kids will believe they are strong, too

2. Praise hard work rather than inherent talent or intelligence, and kids will relish challenges rather than shy away from them. They will also connect their strength with their hard work rather than puffing themselves up with pride.

3. Demand excellence in everything, and they will live up to that standard. We must have expectations high enough for kids to fail, so they can learn how to do so gracefully.

Kids at church should respect their pastors, listen during sermons, be encouraging to each other, bring their Bibles, etc....we need to start expecting these things and teach kids the expectations, something I didn't do in youth ministry for fear of driving them away. Our kids hunger for a higher standard, something to live up to. Let's give it to them.