Every church is unique, but after walking alongside thousands of churches across different sizes, denominations, and communities, we've noticed a consistent pattern. Many pastors faithfully preach God's Word, care deeply for their people, and work tirelessly to lead their churches—yet still wonder why disciple-making feels difficult to sustain. Healthy disciple-making movements don't happen by accident. They are built on three essential elements working together: Spiritual Renewal, Disciple-Making Culture, and Organizational Clarity.
When one of these elements becomes weak or disconnected, churches often find themselves burned out, stalled out, or programmed out. But when all three are healthy and working together, leaders are equipped to cultivate a sustainable disciple-making movement in their unique context. Throughout Movement-Ready Church, we unpack each of these essential elements and provide practical tools to help churches discern their next faithful step. In this article, we'll begin where every healthy movement begins: Spiritual Renewal.
You surely know the quote, “Hope is not a strategy.” As a leader and strategist, I appreciate this sentiment, but as a pastor, I believe an even more important principle is this: “Strategy can never be our greatest hope.”
Often, church leaders gravitate toward planning more than praying. But it’s not an either/or. The strategic and spiritual elements of pastoral leadership are friends, not enemies. God has called us to plan and to strategize, yes, but the spiritual aspect must come first. That’s why the first and most essential element in a church’s mission of disciple-making is spiritual renewal.
This is all about what is happening in the hearts of the church’s leadership. It connects their intimacy with Jesus with their ministry activity. You can think about it this way: Before we look for others to change, we must first look at what needs to change in us. There must be what we call a “desperation in me.”
To activate your disciple-making movement, you must get to the end of yourself, where you’re not relying on your own charisma, the newest program, a bigger conference, or a silver-bullet strategy. Spiritual renewal is all about the leadership team fostering an insatiable hunger for more of God, both for themselves and for their people. As they desperately pursue God, a ripple effect will spread through the church.
In his popular book Leading Change, John Kotter provides the eight steps you must take to lead change in your organization. The first step is to create urgency.1 Until your people see a problem with today and become desperate for a better future, they will never move. The same is true with your church. Until the leadership’ hunger for more of God is greater than their desire for more of the same, a movement can never be started.
Or sustained.
Spiritual renewal is required both to start a movement and to sustain it. Everyone wants to see a disciple-making movement started. The question is, Do you have the grit to lead one? And to keep leading one? When times get tough, when your people aren’t excited anymore, when new opportunities come up, will you stay committed? Spiritual renewal is what helps you stay devoted to what God has called you and your church to do.
Without spiritual renewal fueling your church’s leadership, you will burn out.
As the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth.” You can create the greatest vision and strategy, but if there isn’t a desperation for more of God in your leadership, the first bump in the road will derail your movement. You’ll burn out.
Look at Jesus’s life. How discouraged he must have been when the masses left his movement after hearing a hard teaching. Or how annoyed when the Pharisees knew the law but wouldn’t live it. How angry he must have been when the temple had become a den for robbers. Or how hurt when Peter betrayed him. How disappointed he must have been when the disciples were sleeping instead of praying in the garden. Or how anxious when he was pleading for the cup to be taken from him.
The feelings of a pastor leading his church are much like the ones Jesus felt. We experience great highs but also many deep lows, marked with discouragement, disappointment, fear, hurt, anger, and more.
The mission that was given to Jesus and to us is far too great to try doing it separate from him. If Jesus had not had a deep and consistent intimacy with his Father, he would never have had the strength to overcome the setbacks and hardships of the mission. Similarly, you and your leadership will never be able to lead a disciple-making movement without an intimate connection to the Holy Spirit who sustains you all along the way.
Spiritual Renewal is where every healthy disciple-making movement begins—but it isn't where it ends. Movement-Ready Church explores how Spiritual Renewal, Disciple-Making Culture, and Organizational Clarity work together to help churches move from activity to lasting transformation. Along with the book, you'll also receive access to downloadable companion resources designed to help you begin applying these principles with your leadership team.
Get your copy of Movement-Ready Church here and explore the complete Movement-Ready Framework.
Reading about Spiritual Renewal is one thing. Pursuing it together as a leadership team is another.
The Movement-Ready Training Day brings a Replicate Navigator alongside your church to guide your leaders through the same frameworks found in Movement-Ready Church. Together, you'll assess your disciple-making culture, identify where your church needs the most attention, and leave with a clear one-year objective tailored to your unique context.
No copy-and-paste model. No pressure-filled sales conversation. Just a practical opportunity to discover whether the Movement-Ready Framework is the right next step for your church.
*Available only in the United States
Schedule a Discovery Call here to learn more about bringing Movement-Ready Training Day to your church.
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1. John Kotter, Leading Change (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), v.