So You’re Already Leading a Church…
12Church is designed to build missional communities from the ground up rather than attempting to retrofit disciple making into an existing church.
But what if you have a passion for disciple making and are engaged in an existing church? How can you implement 12Church ideas, or some other focused disciple making strategy in your context?
First the bad news: It won’t be easy.
Every church is optimized for something. A church that isn’t effective in disciple making has been optimized for something else- usually producing weekend events. And that is what the congregants want and expect. Changing that structure, culture and programming is a major undertaking.
To make things even more challenging, most church leaders are under-equipped in leadership. And one of the greatest challenges in leadership is leading intentional change.
Depending on the chasm you must bridge to move your current ministry into effective disciple making, you may be facing a change that will call for a dismantling and reinvention of all you are doing. You may be facing the hard reality of trying to pour new wine into old wine skins. And both Jesus and current innovation theory suggest that this doesn’t tend to go well.
The good news? What the Lord calls you to he equips you for. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 assures us that when we are focused on making disciples, we are partnering with the One who has all authority and who guarantees his presence in that mission.
Click Here to Download the final chapter of DNA of a Christ Follower which addresses this issue further.
And if you plan to go down this path, get a copy of Leading Change by John Kotter.
One final note for context: The book DNA of a Christ Follower seeks to answer the question of WHAT a follower of Jesus is. 12Church seeks to answer the question of HOW we can become and make these followers.
If you are an attendee of an existing church, download the chapter above, and be a gentle, prayerful catalyst for disciple-making in your church.