Dr. Warren Bird on Church Splits, Healing, and Making Healthy Pivots in 2021

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

COVID disrupted everything. It's time for you to move forward fearlessly.

Warren Bird, Ph.D., researches cutting-edge churches and works with their leaders to multiply their evangelistic and disciple-making impact.

He is widely recognized as among the nation’s leading students, researchers and writers about megachurches. As @lensweet tweeted, “No one knows more about megachurches than @warrenbird.”

Today he is Vice President of Research and Equipping at the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit accrediting agency designed to enhance trust and certify integrity in Christ-centered churches and ministries.

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Discover more insights and resources at JonathanHerron.com & @HighFiveJon

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'Holy Shift: Laugh Your Mass Off and Use Comedy Principles to Quickly Reach More People Far From God'

Available NOW on Amazon + ChurchLeaders.com!

PHOTO ESSAY: January 17th at Life Church

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Fearlessly Shatter Your Next Growth Barrier!

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Ministry Intern Orientation

When a LEADER gets better, EVERYONE gets better.

That’s why I take our internship program at Life Church so seriously and passionately.

I love investing into emerging church leaders!

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““These early Christians were ON FIRE with the conviction that they had become, through Christ, literally sons of God; they were PIONEERS of a new humanity, founders of a new Kingdom.

They still speak to us across the centuries. Perhaps if we believed what they believed, we might achieve what they achieved.””

— J.B. Phillips, 1947

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For what it’s worth, here’s the most recent orientation sessions for our Ministry Interns…

- Matthew 16:18

- "You are the KRISTOS (Christ)"

- They believed to their core that Jesus was the Son of the living God!

- Luke 15 is the HEARTBEAT of Life Church

- Matthew 28 is not a Great SUGGESTION, it's the Great COMMISSION!

- Ezekiel 11

- Dichotomists vs Trichotomists

- Acts 1 = Pray

- Acts 2 = Spirit-empowered witnesses

- Acts 2:42

- Acts 2:46 & 4:32 = High Tech + High Touch

LifeChurchMichigan.com/getinvolved

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“I prefer the way I do evangelism to the way you don’t.”

— D.L. Moody to his religious critics

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* Read 'Holy Shift' for the history and unique ministry strategy of our church

Narrow the Focus

- WHAT is the mission? Luke 15

- WHO is our mission field? The Lost, Let-Down & Looking.

- Our Vision: Reach the Lost at Any Cost!

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LIFE CYCLE of a CHURCH:

• Healthy Things Grow

• Growing Things Change

• Changing Things Challenge

• Challenging Things Drive Us Toward God

• Trusting God Leads to Obedience

• Obeying God Leads to Health

• Healthy Things Grow...

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At Life Church, we think STEPS, not PROGRAMS!

- High Tech + High Touch

- Post-COVID World = Strengthen our High Touch

- Our role is to help people take next steps from Crowd to Christ to Core!

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Lifers are our CORE.

- What is a LIFER?

A Lifer is someone living out the 4 G's of Life Church:

1) GROWTH - I am committed to the GROWTH of my church by INVITING!

2) GROUPS - Watch your faith grow through investing in GROUP relationships with people who want to learn and grow with you.

3) GIFTS - Use your spiritual GIFTS and start volunteering right away -- see the immediate difference you can make by serving on a Team.

4) GENEROSITY - See God’s promises fulfilled through your GENEROSITY and take ownership in what God is doing through this ministry.

MORE INFO: LifeChurchMichigan.com/getinvolved

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Life Church STRUCTURE

- We are structured for SUCCESS!

- Jesus is the Senior Pastor (1 Peter 5)

- Lead Pastor is the Quarterback (1 Peter 5, Titus 1, 1 Timothy 3)

- Lead Pastor is accountable to Board of Directors

- Accounting Firm is accountable to Board of Directors

- Staff are accountable to Lead Pastor (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1)

- Ministry Interns are accountable to Staff (Paul - Timothy - Titus)

- Lifers are set-up for SUCCESS every Sunday by Staff and Interns (Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12)

Process of moving Crowd to Christ to Core: Begin, Belong, Believe (think steps, not programs!)

LifeChurchMichigan.com

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"Every heart with Christ is a missionary; every heart without Christ is a mission field." (Dick Hillis, missionary to Asia)

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Dream Bigger

One December evening the cry of ‘Fire!’ echoed through Thomas Edison’s plant.  Spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room and within moments all the packing compounds, film and other flammable goods had gone up with a whoosh.

When the family couldn’t find Edison, they became concerned.
Was he safe? With all his assets going up in smoke, would his spirit be broken? He was 67, no age to begin anew.

Then they saw him in the plant yard, running toward the family.
‘Where’s Mom?’ he shouted. ‘Go get her! Tell her to get her friends!
They’ll never see a fire like this again!’

At 5:30 the next morning, when the fire was barely under control,
Thomas Edison called his employees together and announced: 
‘We’re rebuilding!’ 

One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area.
Another, to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought he added, 
‘Oh, by the way.  Anybody know where we can get some money?”

Later on he explained, ‘You can always make capital out of disaster.
We’ve just cleared out a bunch of old rubbish! 
We’ll build bigger and better on these ruins.’

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Whatever happened last year is now in the past. 

If you had a great 2020, great!  But if you had a rough 2020, it’s over and done. And if there’s anything we can learn from Edison in this New Year, it is that you do not have time to maintain past regrets.

This year, start fresh. 
Dream big. 
Stand back up and stretch your faith further.

That’s the beauty of following Christ: your vision is never too big for God! He forgives, He authors second acts, and He releases you from your past (see Romans 8:1).

Now be careful; don’t waste this fresh page. 
Don’t be obligated to ordinary. 
No one will ever follow you down the street if you’re carrying a banner that says, “Onward toward mediocrity.”

Instead, take risks.
Paint a big picture of what could be and should be.
And then do it.

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Every time the Wright Brothers would attempt to fly their plane, they would bring enough extra materials for multiple crashes.

Which means that every time they went out, 
they knew they would fail. 

They would crash and rebuild.

And crash and rebuild. 

And that's why they took off.

If you dream big and work hard, you can do anything in this world.

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3 Pastoral Thoughts on the Washington, D.C. Insurrection

Like millions of Americans, I was flabbergasted and deeply saddened January 6th by the words and behaviors flying across social media sites and news programs.

The Washington Post had a heckuva lede in telling the story:

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Every person who cherishes their democratic freedoms should feel shaken today.

This is was not democracy in action; this was an attempted coup.

I say this as a pastor and a student of history.

For what it’s worth, here are 3 Pastoral Thoughts on the Washington, D.C. Insurrection:

1. This is not our Home.

   Like Daniel, we are exiles. As C.S. Lewis once said, “We were made for Another World.”

   
   Waving Confederate flags, Jesus 2020 banners, and political signs to the cameras while forcefully desecrating a place of government cherished by millions is not how we will reach the world for Christ.
   
   ”Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.
   Blessed are those whose help is from the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the LORD their God.”

   (Psalm 146: 3 + 5)

   
   What happened on January 6th makes self-professing Christians look crazier than Mike Tyson in a Spelling Bee.
   
   Gen Z was just handed yet another pitiful example of what happens when you mix politics with religion: you get politics. You want to know why the younger generation has stopped going to church? It’s because they’ve been to a church.

   
   There is a difference between making a point and making a difference. Wednesday’s actions did neither.

2. Walk Away From Your Media Echo Chamber

With so many entertainment and news options offered by whomever we choose to follow on social media / radio / streaming news services, we now live in a time where we can self-isolate within a chosen media echo chamber.

False narratives are unhealthy (and ultimately are what led religious people to crucify Jesus!). Rhetoric is not just empty words; the Scriptures warn us over and over about how the tongues has the power of life and death.

"Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.”
(Isaiah 8:12-13)

Let’s choose our fears wisely.

The more you pursue an idol, the less it delivers and the more it demands.

Let’s choose conversation over condemnation.

Cancel Culture is not the Way of Jesus.

3. We Have More Work To Do in terms of Political Discipleship.

Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world, for if it was His servants would fight (John 18:36).

Peter struck out with sword, but Jesus said, "No more of this!" (Luke 22:49-51).

Love is:

• patient

• kind

• does not boast

• not arrogant

• not rude

• not irritable

• not resentful

• does not rejoice at wrongdoing

• bears all things

• believes the best

(1 Corinthians 13)

As a pastor, I was disappointed seeing social media responses in the Insurrection’s aftermath from Christians: conspiracy theories, leaps of logic, trumpeting freedom of speech over loss of life.

As a father of three African-American children, I cringed.

The ugliness of white privilege was emerging from within public, online posts from Christians.

The Facebook comments I was reading were coming from my own friends.

Please, please, pause and reflect before posting about any correlations with last summer’s racial tensions.

As Jesus pleaded with the Father, in your anger you know not what you are doing (posting).

Please consider taking some time to try and understand why your African-American and Muslim friends are seeing January 6th’s words and behaviors through a different lens.

We can all make room for more historical education and understanding and empathy in our lives.

Maintaining a posture of humility and teachability is a prerequisite for following Jesus.

In closing, thank you for being open to hearing my thoughts.

I am not perfect.

I am not infallible.

By the grace of God, I am who I am today.

For my part, my door is always open for conversation and understanding.

In Christ, the best is yet to come!

PHOTO ESSAY: NEW YEAR, FRESH START AT LIFE CHURCH

“Resolution One:
I will live for God.

Resolution Two:
If no one else does, I still will.”

— Jonathan Edwards

When Christians are Addicted to Outrage

In my opinion, the Best Article of the Year was this March column from Ed Stetzer in Christianity Today.

Highlights:

We’ve become addicted to outrage and it’s killing us.

We have turned outrage into an emotional version of junk food binge-eating — it’s too common, mostly unnecessary, and almost never useful. And, it doesn’t change things for the better.

Rather than seeing our world through the lens of everything that’s broken I argue we should use a lens with four main features:

First, when dealing with others we must be empathetic.

Instead of putting on our best Pharisee fatigues and going to war with people, we start with the view of Scripture, that our world is broken, lost, and in bondage. God’s solution for the world’s sin was not to be outraged but to love, sending Jesus to die for us.

Second, we respond with humility.

In Philippians 2, Paul told believers to be of the same mind as Jesus. And what is that mind?

“He humbled himself.”

The third aspect of our lens is to see people as image bearing.

We value people as created in the very image of God. Even those who hate us are entitled to being treated with dignity. Remember Jesus told us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us.

Finally, our lens includes being sacrificial.

We will not win people to Christ by shouting at them online or spending all our energy in protection mode.

…Show the love Jesus shows: compassionate, respectful, and courageous (see Matt. 9:35-38).

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Part of the reason why 2020 hurt so much was because it exposed our weakened relationships with God.

A.W. Tozer once said that we all have as much of God in our lives as we truly desire.

Together, let's make 2021 different.

Instead of being a fan of Christ, let's press in and become fully-devoted followers of Christ.

DISCOVER MORE at LifeChurchMichigan.com/bold