Daily Archives: May 26, 2009
“rick warren is a lot easier to copy than bill hybels”
when i was associate pastor in a little church in northern california i focused primarily on the youth – jr high through college age. in one six-month period i was needed to preach a half-dozen times. i needed some great material that would really touch the lives of the small congregation. i had just finished reading a couple of john ortberg’s first books and aside from adding my own illustrations, used love beyond reason as the content of my messages.
geoff surratt admits his tendency to do this early on in his ministry in a rural texas church in chapter 7 of ten stupid things that keep churches from growing. this chapter looks at copying another successful church. “the problem i ran into was that unchurches harry and saddleback sam didn’t live in huffman, texas; we were surrounded by redneck bubba and unemployed eddie.” he says “the challenge is when we stop learning and start leaning; when we try to simply copy what we’ve seen in another successful ministry.”
geoff asks 4 questions to his readers to help find the unique niche that God has created you to fill:
- who are you?
- what can’t you stand?
- where is your church?
- who’s not going to your church?
God calls us to lead the specific ministry in the way he has wired us to lead. who are you called to lead and how do you lead them? comment below on how you figured out these two questions; i’ll randomly select one commentor and send them a free copy of ten stupid things and a journal with the cartoon of this chapter on the cover.
