Rick Warren's Urbana 06 Workshop for Pastors and Church Leaders
Called to Lead a Missional Churchby Dave and Mary Jane Shadowen
It takes unselfish people to grow a church, says Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church in California. “Are you willing to do what is inconvenient for you in order to reach out to others?” he asked the participants attending the Urbana 06 Pastors and Church Leaders track.
It is only when you start sharing with others that a church becomes a missional church. Churches often fail this goal, instead opting to choose to be cool or hip rather than effective. But, to coin a business adage, results speak for themselves—missional churches are effective in reaching out to the unsaved rather than merely reaching in to serve the saints.
Pastors are the most underrated change agents, according to Warren. Collectively, they speak to more people on a single Sunday morning than the total of fans who attend in person all of the sporting events in the country in an entire year. Pastors can do this by leading by modeling and leading by example. Growing churches require pastors who are growing as well.
Reaching out often involves significant change in past practices and programs, he added. Warren challenged pastors to not be afraid to fail, considering each failure an important part of their education as pastors and leaders. He reminded them that using an outmoded mode of communication was to be unfaithful to the gospel.
Paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 9:19–23, he dared them to become like twenty-somethings to reach twenty-somethings or become like senior citizens to reach senior citizens in order to get on each group’s message level. The church and the presentation of the message must be culturally relevant. David was said to have done this (“in his generation”). Paul was all things to all men. We need to do the timeless in a timely way. Billy Sunday had to shout because he didn’t have a microphone. You don’t have to make the Bible relevant. The Bible is relevant. You need to make the style of presentation relevant.
People need islands of stability and the church can provide this to them, he added. A healthy church is by definition not necessarily big or small. Growth is not the goal of the church but rather health. If a church is healthy, growth is automatic and is the natural byproduct of a healthy church. He went on to compare a healthy church to healthy children. Children don’t have to be ordered to grow. If they are healthy, growth is automatic. A parent’s responsibility and, by extension, a pastor’s responsibility is to guarantee health, not growth.
Christians and churches must be led through stages of commitment. Jesus started his ministry with “Come and see,” which requires no commitment, and ended his ministry asking for total commitment. He turned up the heat in stages. At the same time, he provided different levels of leadership to different groups around him:
He fed the 5000.
He taught the 70.
He trained the 12.
He mentored the 3, who became the pillars of the church.
Warren then discussed five stages of renewal:
Stage 1: Personal Renewal
Personal renewal starts in the heart of the leader. God uses all kinds of vessels: broken vessels, misshapened vessels, flawed vessels, short vessels, tall vessels, etc. But he does not use a dirty vessel. It is imperative for leaders to present themselves as clean vessels before God.
Stage 2: Relational Renewal
God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Historically, relationships within the church membership are rebuilt as a result of a retreat or revival. When churches have strong relationships among the members, the singing gets better. The harmony among members is evident by the improved singing each time the congregation sings. Another clear indicator of strong relationships is that people stay longer after church, visiting with one another and lingering after the service is over.
While many churches are successful with steps one and two, they often are unable to go beyond these two steps and continue through the remainder of the steps.
Step 3: Purpose Renewal
Warren reminded the pastors that God has called all of us to advance his kingdom—that is our task. By helping each member find his or her purpose and by each church finding its purpose, you will not be able to stop a church from growing. Once individuals and churches uncover their purpose, their energy will be renewed and their outreach will be effective.
Step 4: Structural Renewal
Just as you can’t put new wine into old wineskins, Warren encouraged pastors to create new structures at each stage of their congregation’s growth. A church of sixty will need a different structure than a church of 160 than a church of 260, etc. Each church size is “a different animal,” remarked Warren. “So don’t think you can continue growing in size without significantly changing your structure.”
Step 5: Cultural Renewal
“A changed church will change their culture,” said Warren, and will ultimately impact their surrounding communities and culture.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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