Tag Archive for: Church Leadership

5 Reasons Why I Love My Church (Shoreline)

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One of the reasons why we launched Renue.me is because we believe in championing the cause of the local church. We also believe that every follower of Christ should be plugged into a life-giving church. Here are a few reasons why I love my church. I attend Shoreline Christian Center, Austin, TX. The senior pastors are Rob & Laura Koke.

1. People Feel Loved: There is a genuine love for people that flows through the culture of the church. The vision of church is “Unveiling God’s Love.” The reputation of Shoreline proceeds itself, because when people come to Shoreline, they know they will feel God’s love in a authentic way. That’s our prayer anyway.

2.  Leadership Diversity: Now, when I say diversity, I’m not talking about racial diversity, I’m talking about diversity among leadership styles. If you step back and look closely at the key leaders (the one’s who are the most visible) on the church staff you will find lots of diversity in personalities and leadership styles. You’ll find some leaders who have a calm, gentle strength in their leadership style and you’ll find others that have a loud and more dynamic approach. But, in it all I love how every leader, regardless of their leadership style have the same heart to work as ONE. Our senior pastor does an excellent job to empower, nurture and release his staff leaders to flourish in their God-given leadership abilities.

3. Always Thinking Outward: Shoreline is a very large church. Sometimes you can feel lost in the crowd. But, from a Kingdom perspective, Shoreline is just a small church that has a mega-vision. What does that mean? That means what is happening now is small compared to where God wants to take us as a Body in the future. An outward mindset to serve our community, nation and the world is evident in the culture of our church. We’re always thinking and experimenting with new ways to reach new people for Christ. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but you’ll never know unless you step-out into the unknown and try new things. I’ve noticed that’s what my church likes to do. I like that.

4. An Entrepreneur Spirit Among Our Young Adults: I have noticed that there is a large amount of young adults within our church that have decided to step out to pusue the vision God has put in their hearts. I love it! That’s the way it should be, but unfortunately it isn’t in every young adult ministry. We have young adults leading ministry non-profits, social causes, event/conference productions, authors/life coaches, and the list goes on and on. There is a large amount of young adults within our church that have lots of vision to step out into the unknown and take a risk. Why you ask? The real question is…why not? When you’re in your 20-something’s, you don’t have a whole lot to lose except by doing nothing.

5. People Believe The Best In You: One thing I love about my church is the incredible amount of encouragement I get from leaders and friends. I don’t think there is a week that goes by when I don’t hear someone encouraging someone else. The culture of the church loves to believe the best in people and are consistently encouraging others to pursue their dreams.

Below are some of our church leaders on Twitter that I think you should follow. You’ll get some great encouragement and insight from their tweets:

What are some reasons why you love your church?

Bring the Solution

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Recently I heard Pastor Matthew Barnettt speak at Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. His message was on forward motion! These two words define the ministry of Renue. He went on to share a powerful set of statements comparing an activist and an actionist.

An Activist makes people aware of problems.

An Actionist creates a solution.

An Activist points the finger at those who should be solving the problem.

An Actionist takes personal responsibility to be the solution.

There is nothing wrong with being an activist, we need them, but there is a time for actionists to arise and put feet to their desires. Playing it safe and always talking about what you “will” do does not get things done. If God has put something in you to do, then take the steps necessary to do it.

There’s a song that Hillsong United sings, and one line reads, “God be the solution. We will be Your hands, be Your feet.” We act in partnership with the Lord to accomplish His will on the earth.

James 2:15-17 & 22 reads, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed.’ But does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead…You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did.”

What are you doing right now to serve God’s heart in your sphere of influence? Check out the video to see how you can get involved in projects happening right now. i-heart.org

Your Thoughts?

Know the Language of Your Audience; Not the Language of Your Denomination

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Ever been to a church service where the style and flavor of the service was not connecting or relating at all with the people sitting in the audience? Have you ever felt that the people leading a service were more concerned or equipped to serve a denominational style than the audience that God placed in front of them to connect with at that given moment?

Well, unfortunately I and about 4,000 other college students and young adults experienced one of these services just a couple of weeks ago. All I could think was…How sad can this be? 4,000 college students unengaged with the service and bored out of their minds. It’s sad when very smart and gifted leaders who have been called by God to preach the Gospel, still choose to minister through a denominational filter instead of an understanding of the audience he or she is about to minister too.

Let me say this. Church and ministry are changing. Why? Because the millennial generation is getting older and more influential in today’s culture. And, because of this fact it will and in some ways already is beginning to affect how church will be done in years down the road. So, buckle up and get ready, it will be an interesting ride.

When you begin to plan a church service and your audience are millennials, please, put aside the language or the style of your denomination. And, try to connect in relevant ways with the language of this generation. 1990’s worship music, a stage that looks like it just came out of a Christian TV set and a sermon that would make you fall asleep is not the language of the millennial generation.

Most of the time, this generation don’t want to hear another sermon, they just want to be a part of a conversation surrounding Biblical truths about what it means to be a dedicated Christ follower.

The truth is this generation needs mentors more than ever. But what is sad is a lot of older leaders in the faith are not allowing themselves to change how they connect with this generation. Some are more interested in staying to their denominational style of ministry than embracing what God wants to do through the next generation.

If you want to impact and connect with millennials, then know their language. Understanding the millennial language will help you gauge the effectiveness and spiritual impact on the environment, worship/music, teaching and relational community of your church service.

Your Thoughts?