Finding a Sustainable Pace In Church Renewal

Last week, I compared leading church to running on a treadmill. The pace of change in today’s world is relentless.  We feel like we have to run faster and faster just to stay in the same place.

• Andrew Root described this common experience at the Church Now Cafe, which I summarized last week. This week, I want to offer a few of his insights from the second session on the conference, along with some of my own ideas on the subject.

Five Ways To Find A Sustainable Pace in Ministry

1. The World’s Equation

• Root presented the way the world works in the form of an equation: Money plus commodities equals more money.
• Some churches adopt this with a slight change: Members plus programs equals more members. The unstated assumption is that membership is the only metric worth measuring and that programs are the best way to increase membership. What if it’s not that simple?

2. New Math for the Church

• Healthy organisms grow, and Jesus wants his church to grow. However, how should we define “growth” when it comes to the church?
• Obviously, in light of the Great Commission, numerical growth is important. However, Root says that, in Christianity, growth is always into something. Specifically, it is into the life of Christ — into Christlikeness. How do we account for that in our goal-setting, data collection, and evaluations?

3. Offering a Counter-Cultural Alternative

• In some regards, people expect the church to keep up with the relentless pace of change they observe in every other area of their lives. But perhaps they also have an unspoken desire to find respite from that chaotic way of living.
• It’s not just church leaders who are being crushed by the pace of change we have been considering. All the people who live in our communities may also feel crushed by the constant need to prove themselves, perform better, and deliver results. What if we offered something different than the world for them?

4. Being truly present

• The church can offer a profound alternative to the world’s relentless pace simply by committing to walk alongside people and love them unconditionally. In the church, they can find a place where they do not have to earn their keep or prove their worth by meeting ever-increasing performance standards.
• There is a simple word for what we are talking about — “grace.” Root says our task is to lead people to see their brokenness and how the Gospel of God’s grace meets their soul’s deepest need.

5. A sustainable pace

• Lastly, I want to add a bit of wisdom from Carey Nieuwhof. He has a wakeup call for pastors who think a vacation or a sabbatical is all it will take to fix the unsustainable pace they’ve maintained for years.
• Nieuwhof says, “A Sabbatical isn’t the solution for an unsustainable pace. A sustainable pace is the solution for an unsustainable pace.” I would echo his reality check. The only cure to an unsustainable pace is a sustainable pace, and at the end of the day, the buck stops with you for creating it in your own life. How will you take steps to do that today?

As we think about how to navigate the relentless pace of modern life, as it intersects with church ministry, I believe the best resource we have is the Gospel. It both reminds us that we are unconditionally loved (Titus 3:5), and it inspires us to work with all of our hearts to advance his mission on earth (Col. 3:23)!