What leaders really want
Many of us who serve as pastors and ministry leaders have a deep longing to see our congregations grow spiritually. We want that for ourselves, too. Many of us also long to reach our neighbors and surrounding communities to share the love and welcome of Jesus.
But the way forward can be confusing. Should we add more programs, hire additional staff, or (heaven forbid) overhaul our churches entirely? There’s a lot of conflicting “wisdom” out there that only increases the strain on us. We are often overwhelmed with just trying to keep our churches afloat. We don’t need one more thing on our endless to-do lists. And so spiritual formation, discipleship, and outreach get pushed aside, falling victim to the demands on our time seem most urgent.
What if the answers were found not in doing more, but in harnessing the best of what we’re already doing in our churches? The practices of refocusing on what God wants for us, asking discerning questions, seeking God’s wisdom, and listening well can focus our attention on what truly matters. It’s not about more activity. It’s about building a culture of spiritual growth around what we have right now.
Our busy church calendars
Church programming tends to happen in response to the needs that arise in our congregations. Bible studies, fellowship groups, kids’ activities, potlucks, craft nights, and all kinds of gatherings get added to the calendar over time.
Other programs might come from our own reflexive responses as leaders to past ministry situations. If we were previously at a church that lacked an effective youth group, for example, we might devote most of our energy and resources to building that up in our current congregation.
Of course, these impulses can lead to good developments. What’s missing, though, is an emphasis on what God wants for us and for our people. If what we offer flows only from human wisdom and desires, we are passing up an opportunity to tap the riches of God’s discernment for our community.
Refocus on what God wants for us
With so many competing priorities within the church, it can be helpful to first reorient our attention to what God wants most for us. Jesus gives us a concise summary of this in the Gospel of Mark when he answers a question from a scribe about “[w]hich commandment is the first of all” (Mark 12:28).
Jesus responds by saying, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). He then adds, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31). The types of love Jesus describes here are the markers we can use to tell us if we are growing spiritually in the right direction.
Make space by asking questions
With Jesus’ wise words in mind, it makes sense to consider everything we do in our church communities through the lens of how it helps (or hinders) us from achieving love for God, ourselves, and others.
Imagine laying out before you all of the programs and offerings in your congregation. As you sift through the volume and variety, pick up each one and examine it, asking the following questions:
- Is this helping our people grow spiritually?
- Is this helping our staff and leaders grow spiritually?
- Is this helping us to better love God?
- Is this helping us to better love ourselves and others inside the church?
- Is this helping us to better love our neighbors outside the church?
If there is not a clear “yes” to any of these questions for a particular element of church programming, then it’s worth wondering whether it should remain in its current form or at all.
This kind of discernment can be uncomfortable. It’s easy to add things; it’s much harder to remove them, especially if they are beloved by your congregation. But this is holy work. This is the kind of work that God can help you do. It is the act of taking stock and paring away what isn’t essential for the purpose of making space for the things that are.
Space is necessary for seeking God’s wisdom. Space in our churches, schedules, and lives is what makes it possible for us to slow down, to stop overfunctioning and overprogramming, and to notice the gentle, quiet movement of God’s Spirit.
Seek God’s wisdom
When we make space to pause, breathe, and listen, there are a variety of practical ways that we might seek what God intends for us and for our congregation. Here are a few ideas:
- Start and end meetings with prayer and/or brief scripture readings. These practices invite God’s voice directly into your work.
- Structure staff schedules to encourage personal time with God, such as weekly Sabbaths, group or private spiritual direction sessions, and single day or multi-day quiet retreats. Allocate resources to support these activities. This communicates that being in God’s presence is a priority for your church.
- Have conversations with your team that invite them to share about their own spiritual journeys. Normalize this practice by doing it often, by listening well, and by embracing vulnerability and honesty.
- Continue to ask questions about your congregation that consider where you have been in the past, where God is taking you in the future, what kind of people you are becoming, and how you are going to get there.
In everything you do, whether it is sending an email or deciding on the next sermon series, bring God into the decision-making process. This is more than mere programming. This is orienting the life of your church around God’s wisdom.
Prioritize your own spiritual growth
To create the kind of culture that fosters spiritual growth, it’s best to work from the top down. Those in senior leadership should be the ones to model what it looks like to seek God. If you are in a high-level role, then tending to your own walk with Jesus is vital for the health of your congregation.
The people you serve listen to what you say, but they learn even more from what you do and how you live. Your life of faith has implications far beyond you; it directly impacts the people in your church community. Your public work in the church—preaching, teaching, and leading, for instance—is supported by the private work of spending time in God’s presence. This takes intentionality because there is rarely recognition or reward for the hidden activities that deepen our relationship with Jesus.
Listen to your congregation and neighbors
As you get comfortable talking about spirituality with your staff, expand the practice to people in your congregation and then to people outside in the broader community. This could include hosting listening sessions to find out where your congregants are spiritually and how they want to grow, or what your neighbors think about God as well as what they might find interesting or off-putting about church experiences.
It might mean visiting with people near your church and deliberately noticing how God is already at work among them. It may also mean joining God’s mission in the neighborhood rather than imposing your own agenda. This is the start of true outreach: meeting people where they are and allowing ourselves to be the outsiders in their world. This is a rare thing, a true extension of God’s love, and people notice when it happens because they feel valued and seen.
Slow and small is just fine
It takes courage to stop, reflect, and commit to change. Not every church community is ready right away to make the shift from a focus on programming to a focus on spiritual growth. That’s okay; it’s more important to eventually get everyone aligned around the shared vision of what it means to follow Jesus. It takes time to shift people’s understanding and readiness. This is slow work that is worth the extra effort.
Pay attention to God’s invitations to your congregation specifically. What works well at a different church might work poorly in yours. Attend to what helps your people grow, and to what helps your staff and volunteers become more like Jesus. Notice what is happening in the neighborhood around you. And make sure you are doing the important work of tending to your own spiritual formation.
Let God take charge
This may sound like a lot. But most of this is simply shifting our focus to God rather than relying solely on our own efforts. The Church is God’s design. Let’s put God in charge of our programs, our schedules, and our lives. Let’s turn our people over to God, too. We and our congregations will be all the better for it.
