Risk, Transition And Misfires On Two Coasts
I have been blessed to partner with a few of the leading “outward” movements on the planet – the Christian & Missionary Alliance, Mosaic, and CoastlandTampa. All three invest in risk-takers. This has been a year of risk and transitions as well as a year of some pretty good misfires. In August I relocated my family from the West Coast to the East Coast. Ironically, my misfires were not confined to one coast!
Big jump from SE to Outflow!
In January Steve Sjogren’s book OutflowTM was released. I decided to take my community of faith, love, and hope through it. I was excited beyond words. I poured my life into the message, followed the game plan suggested in the pastor’s kit, and tried to get my leaders motivated. I believed that:
Every leader desiring to influence and impact their God-given community must develop the practice of outflow.
However, I made the assumption that “everyone” would readily embrace showing God’s love in a practical way and noticing God, noticing others on a daily basis. I assumed, “Hey, we have done the servant evangelism thing – on a once a month, event-approach.” I thought, “No big stretch for my people make the step towards outflow.”
I soon found that the step was really a big jump. The harder I pushed the more it seemed to go in reverse. Believe it or not we started to lose people – not a good thing when you are trying to grow a church. I became frustrated and discouraged. I even thought, they don’t get it!
I realized that I had to model it over and over – DNA is more caught than taught! It is a process like compounded interest. It takes time but eventually pays off (another risky aspect is to be willing to outflow because it is what Christ calls us to do regardless of the immediate payoff).
I had to take a step back in order to help my people make the big jump. I had to strategically take my leaders with me to places like Starbucks and model buying the latte for the person behind us in line. I had to take them out to eat and model the skill of noticing others. I had to model the art of the “Triple-Tip” (budgeting 30% for the server’s tip – to make up for the average 10% they typically receive). I had to pray that another leader in my church would get it, practice it, and become a fellow champion of outflow. I thank God he sent me Bob Baker – who not only joined me in modeling it but stood up and said, “You know I don’t normally stand up to say anything but I have to tell you outflowing will change your life!” More powerful was to hear him share about his experiences of outflow. This really captured the attention of others in our church.
Youth are great at Outflow!
Throughout most of this year I have failed to recognize one of the greatest untapped resources for outflow – youth. I have not been directly involved with middle school and high school students and my sonar was not tuned into this massive tribe.
Now I know you are saying, come on JE, duh! But, I not talking about the fact that youth can outflow. They can champion it. Let me break it down with a seemingly unrelated illustration.
In the 70s, my parents were not always in the habit of making sure we wore our seatbelts. In turn, I still have to think twice about securing the safety restraint. However, my four-year old daughter is pretty consistent in telling me to “buckle up for safety.”
In a similar vein, my twelve-year old son is my outflow conscience. About a month ago I noticed that whenever he is with me, which is quite often when I’m out-and-about town, he has a pack of Big Red Gum to give to a waiter or postal worker or whomever we encounter. He never fails to “remind” me to call the manager over to compliment our server or cook. He is a practitioner and advocate of showing / communicating God’s love in a practical way! He also nudges me if I forget to get the email of the person we have served, especially when the encounter has been divinely extended into a conversation (next month we will look at the importance and art of getting emails). I now tell my son to see himself as my outflow partner!
Misfiring is part of the forward progress-process
I would suspect that many of you totally relate with my misfires. First, transitioning your people from event-style, servant evangelism to outflow can be a bigger jump than you think.
- The obvious is to make sure you yourself outflow.
- Model & do outflow with your leaders.
- Pray and prompt them to become champions
- Empower them to become advocates as they share their stories of outflow.
Second, don’t miss some of your outflow partners with the most potential, youth (so often right under your radar).
- Recognize that youth get it more than we think.
- Listen and learn from their simple/uncomplicated approach.
- Dub them as fellow ‘Knights’/partners of outflow.