Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Leadership

Systems and an Encyclopedia

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As a child, I remember flipping through the human anatomy section in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

As a curious child with an insatiable love for learning—I remember times when I would just open up the encyclopedia and read. My favorite section was the human anatomy, since I wanted to be a doctor. In fact, I vividly remember looking through and being amazed by the layers of complexity that the human body presented.

This section was always several pages long.

In fact, it always stuck out from the other pages in the encyclopedia, since each system in the human body was printed on its own plastic, transparent page.

If you had one of these old-school encyclopedias in front of you, the first system you’d see would be the integumentary system—the body’s outer covering. In other words, you’d see a naked human body with skin, hair, and nails. If you flipped that transparent page over to the next—I apologize for the graphic nature of this next phrase—it would almost be like you were peeling the skin off of a human. You’d be left with the muscular system. If you flipped that page over again, you would see the circulatory system.

With every progressive page turn, you would uncover another system that makes up the human body. The nervous system, the lymphatic system, the skeletal system, and so on.

Just like there are different layers of systems in the human body, so it is with the church.

The systems in your church are designed to work together, like they do in the human body, to help your church function as God intends it to. After all, “God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted” (1 Cor. 12:18).

So what exactly are those systems for your church?

While there are many more than just these two, your discipleship pathway and leadership pipeline are what makes up the two core systems that drive everything in your church.

Your discipleship pathway & leadership pipeline are the two core systems that drive everything.

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The 5 Small Shifts

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Are you happy with your existing vision, strategy, and values? Are you producing disciple-makers, disciples, or consumers? Are you worried that what you’re currently doing isn’t sustainable or scalable? Do you need to overhaul your church, but aren’t sure how?

I want to invite you to consider what God might do through you, if you were to implement five small shifts.

In my book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry, you’ll discover five micro-shifts that have the potential to produce macro-change in your church. Here’s a quick overview.

Shift #1: From Destination to Direction

This first shift is about viewing discipleship from a systems perspective. In this shift, you’ll uncover the various ways churches approach discipleship from a fifty-thousand-foot level. We’ll do this by looking at the two spectrums that influence your approach, and then by examining how they intersect.

Shift #2: From Output to Input

In this second shift, you’ll zoom into discipleship at the individual level. We’ll go from looking at the systematic discipleship of the many to the personal discipleship of the one. We’ll do this by unpacking the results of one of the largest research projects on discipleship to date, in order to determine the right metrics for maturity.

Shift #3: From Sage to Guide

Technology has forever changed the way individuals learn. Moreover, adults learn differently than children. We simply can’t teach the way we were taught. In this shift, we’ll unpack these issues and you’ll explore what it looks like to move from being a sage on the stage to a guide on the side when it comes to discipleship and leadership development.

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The Myth of the Silver Bullet

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Have you ever noticed the deep longing inside of you for the silver bullet? For that one quick, magical solution that will solve all of your problems?

I know I have. I remember thinking to myself that this one sermon I was getting ready to preach was going to be so powerful that the chains of apathy in my church would finally be broken. The consumeristic tendencies hidden in everyone’s hearts were going to be rooted out once and for all. Everyone in the church would befriend those far from God, share the gospel with them, see them experience new life in Christ, and then disciple them to do the same.

People were going to move from being merely disciples to being disciple-makers.

Instead of the church being a place to get their needs met, the church was going to see itself as a house of prayer for all nations, a hospital for sinners and not a hotel for saints, a disciple-making institute, and a tangible sign, instrument, and foretaste of the kingdom of God. This was going to be the day, the sermon, and the moment that would go down in history.

When it didn’t quite happen the way I had envisioned it, I realized my mistake.

Oh, how naïve I was. I thought the sermon was the silver bullet, when it was actually the discipleship model that the church down the road was using! I mean, just look at how successful they were.

Well, when that didn’t work either, I turned to secular management books. And then to church consultants. And then to . . .

Does any of this sound familiar?

The myth of the silver bullet is alive and well…

…and it’s not because of old reruns of The Lone Ranger, or teenage novels about werewolves. It’s alive and well because we want the quick fix. We have been conditioned for the instant. It’s our hidden addiction.

We have been conditioned for the instant. It’s our hidden addiction.

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If our computers take longer than a minute to start, we think something’s wrong. If we want to read a book, we can download it instantly. If we want to listen to one, we can literally press play the moment after we purchase it. If we want toothpaste, laundry detergent, or a few bananas, we can order it on Prime Now and get it within two hours. And now, with the launch of Amazon Go, we don’t even need to line up and pay the cashier at the grocery store!

Sure, this is convenient, but the unfortunate side effect is that we’ve been conditioned like Pavlov’s dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.

The availability of goods and resources—and our consumption of them—have conditioned us to need instant gratification. Regrettably, this has seeped into our spiritual lives and the way we lead our churches.

If you’ve been around ministry long enough, you’ll know that there are no perfect models, no one right way of doing ministry or leading a church (I’m talking about church practice, not theology).

There are no silver bullets—one-decision solutions that will solve all your woes and unleash your church into a new season of fruitfulness.

The only way change happens— significant, long-lasting, macro-level change—is through a series of small decisions, steps, or micro-shifts, that are put into action and completed one at a time.

The only way change happens is through a series of small decisions, steps, or micro-shifts…

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Isn’t that why the late great preacher of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, Charles Spurgeon, said, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark”?

The snail had no silver bullet. It got to the ark one small step at a time.

Let me ask you a few questions:

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The Off-Beaten Path to Stress Relief

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What are you holding onto? Or maybe the real question is, what’s holding onto you?

Take a moment and think through each of these questions:

  • When you post a picture on social media, how often do you find yourself pulling out your phone to check the number of likes, views, or comments?
  • When things get stressful, what do you do to relieve the pressure?
  • When you feel like you’re at the end of your rope, what do you turn to?
  • When you’re happy and joyful, what caused it?
  • When you’re satisfied and content, what were the factors that led to it?

Your answers to each of these questions reveal what you’re holding onto, or what’s holding onto you…

…because we don’t turn to the things we do for no reason.

Matthew 11:28-30 has always been one of those passages that I would not only use when counseling, discipling, and mentoring others…but also personally when feeling burdened and overwhelmed.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. – Matt 11:28-30 CSB

Last year, while preaching through the wisdom literature in the Scriptures, there was this one particular Sunday where I compared Godly wisdom against Earthly wisdom in Proverbs 7. While this is a common theme throughout the wisdom literature, this proverb explicitly illustrates what happens when you walk down the path of the world versus the path of God.

There are no shades of grey in this Proverb.

It clearly shows that sin has a cost, and its name is death. Sin results in hell, but I’m not just talking about eternity here…I’m also talking about hell on earth.

Sin has a cost, and its name is death.

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After all, while the enemy might whisper into our ears to try and convince us that we can outsmart others, or live duplicitous lives, God’s ways will always prevail because his light will shine and cast out darkness.

Sin is like a teenager with a credit card—enjoy now, pay later. After all, “Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? Can a man walk on burning coals without scorching his feet?” (Prov 6:27-28 CSB)

Sin is like a teenager with a credit card—enjoy now, pay later.

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I ended the sermon by sharing the way to embrace Godly wisdom.

No, I didn’t preach behavior modification, since it’s only the Holy Spirit through the power of the gospel that can truly bring about change in our hearts.

I shared that we need to humble ourselves and come before the Lord in confession, so that we can rest in the one who truly cares for our souls. And that’s when I read Matt 11:28-30 and unpacked it for my church.

To be honest, for the longest time, what stood out to me about this passage was Jesus’ call to come to him—it wasn’t the reference to take up his yoke.

In fact, while I sort of understood what a yoke was, I often deemphasized those words and instead focused on coming to Christ and finding rest in him.

Oh how I missed the point of this passage!

Jesus is essentially saying, “Stop yoking yourself to what can only further burden and slow you down. Stop yoking yourself to the ways of this world—the temporary and the fleeting. Instead, take up my yoke…”

When I think of a yoke, I think of a pair of oxen working with one another to pull something.

While the yoke is helpful, since two can obviously pull more weight than one, it is also helpful to maintain forward movement, even when one of the oxen’s are tired or weak.

In this passage, Jesus is inviting us to join him and take up his yoke!

He’s not asking us to coast by getting on his back or jumping on the trailer that he’s pulling. He’s asking us to pull with him, and learn from him.

If that’s not a picture for how we ought to disciple others, I don’t know what is.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here…it’s ridiculous to think that we’ll ever pull our fair share of the weight when yoked with Jesus. But that’s what’s beautiful about this specific invitation from Christ.

Life is stressful.

Life is burdensome. And there’s always more to do than there is time in the day. With the 5000+ marketing messages that we get on a daily basis, we’re consistently barraged by the world telling us that we are what we do, we are what we have, and we are who we know.

But Jesus is saying, “Come to me.”

He is inviting us to come to him with our burdens, needs, everything we’re holding onto, and everything that’s holding onto us, and he promises us freedom, rest, and peace from all of it.

Will you accept his invitation today?

 

Input vs Output Goals for Discipleship

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Have you ever judged the effectiveness of your ministry by the size of attendance?

On Easter Sunday, after setting up extra chairs, perhaps you had to pull out even more to accommodate the influx of people. It may have felt good to preach to a full room. Lives were changed and there was a tangible buzz in the air.

By all accounts, that service felt like a win.

But then what happened in the following weeks? Where did all the people go? Did they stick with their faith? Or did everything go back to “normal?”

And if that happened, did you end up feeling like a failure?

The fact is, we can’t help having responses like this.

From report cards and standardized testing scores to gas mileage in our cars and the square footage of our homes, we measure everything—especially what “success” looks like in ministry.

  • How many people were baptized last year?
  • What is your average weekend attendance?
  • How many campuses do you have?
  • How many do you have on staff?
  • What about your budget?

Those can be great indicators of health. But they don’t measure matters of the heart. And they don’t tell us whether someone in our church is a disciple and whether people are maturing in their faith.

I want to introduce a different way to measure success in discipleship—one that is based on one of the largest studies done to date on discipleship in North America. So let’s dig in.

Measuring discipleship can be a little like measuring other kinds of human endeavors aimed at changing your life—like losing weight or saving money.

There are two factors to keep in mind: input goals and output goals.

Input goals are the behaviors or habits you adopt when trying to make a change.

In weight loss, input goals would be things like counting calories, exercising, or cutting back on fast food. For saving money, they’d be things like bringing your lunch to work or setting a family budget.

We adopt those input goals in order to see some kind of output in the future.

Output goals equal feeling better physically, losing a certain number of pounds, or having a certain amount of money in the bank.

The two are linked; certain kinds of inputs lead to certain kinds of outputs.

Churches often measure success in ministry and whether someone is a mature disciple by using output goals, such as attendance, giving, and serving. But we need to think about input goals as well.

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