In this post, we’re giving you an inside look at Chapter 3 from Movement-Ready Church.
Starting something new in ministry takes courage.
Sustaining it takes endurance and wonder.
While every individual and every church will have its own unique story of spiritual renewal, we’ve identified five shifts that will be consistent for you and your church regardless of your context. They won’t ensure a disciple-making movement. In fact, you mustn’t pursue them like that, as a means to spark change, but rather to seek after God yourself. Seeking him is your goal. By doing this, you will experience a one-man or one-woman personal revival in your life, which will have a ripple effect in the lives of those around you.
I remember them with the acronym R.E.N.E.W. I explained the first three (Reliance, Expectancy, and Necessity) in our last blog post. If you missed it, click here to read it! Here, I'll share the last two R.E.N.E.W. Shifts (Endurance and Wonder).
The Endurance Shift
Moving from pleasing people to pleasing God
The fourth shift that needs to happen for pastors is the endurance shift, where leaders do the hard work, the high-endurance work, of filtering out the competing voices that clamor for their attention. We choose instead to work for an audience of one.
Just as Jesus had multiple voices that threatened the start of his movement, so will you. There will be those who are excited for the church’s vision, but there will be plenty who are apathetic, critical, or distracted. Remembering whose voice to listen to is essential.
Most of us as pastors crave the approval of others. Their thoughts of us and their opinions on the work we’re doing can factor greatly into the way we lead. It’s a constant struggle in pastoral ministry. But if we allow these voices to drive the internal discussion that happens between our ears, we’ll be tempted to shrink back if God’s Spirit leads us to a decision that could upset this comfortable balance, and we’ll be forced to decide whether to base our plans on what our people are telling us or to dare move forward in faith on what God is telling us.
The problem with this method is that most men and women in the church aren’t hearing from God. They’re getting more of their opinions and marching orders from political news feeds and the trending topics of the day (consider Prov. 29:25).
From all these shifts comes an increased ability to hear from him—to turn down the noise, tune out the distractions, and truly hear from him. Then with his voice in your heart, in your mind, in your spirit, lead out in a way that is pleasing to him. Because his voice is the only one that matters.
When was the last time you made time to hear? When you hear from God—I mean, truly hear from him—you won’t falter under the pressure of men any longer, doing whatever it takes to accommodate them. When you hear from God, you won’t acquiesce to others’ opinions. When you hear from God, you’ll stake your life on that word. And, who knows, a movement may follow.
The Wonder Shift
Moving from appreciation of God’s presence to awe of God’s presence
In ministry, it’s easy to lose our wonder of God. When he and our jobs begin to mingle together, we can lose the freshness and awe that we had of him at the beginning. As a result, we often find ourselves moving spiritually backwards. What started with awe of him is now more like appreciation of him, acknowledgment of him. And if left unaddressed, even our appreciation will slowly descend into apathy toward him.
The wonder shift is about moving yourself and your people back into being in awe of who God is and what he is doing in your church.
Jesus regularly left people amazed by his words and actions. Amazed by the authority of his teaching. Amazed by the astonishment of his miracles. This word—amazement—when it appears in the Bible, is most often connected to crowds. But as Ronald Rolheiser says, in his book Sacred Fire, “Crowds do not think; they act out of blind energy, and that carries immense dangers. Indeed, scripture scholars tell us that in the Gospels, almost every time the word ‘crowd’ is used, one can supply the adjective ‘mindless.’”
So amazement, though it makes people notice what God is doing, doesn’t transform anyone. And therefore, it’s not far removed from mere appreciation of who God is and what he has done. All of which is good but doesn’t lead to lasting life change.
Jesus was suspicious of amazement. At one point, he even warned the crowds, “Do not be amazed” by what they saw and heard from him (John 5:28) because he knew human feelings tend to be fickle. Amazement is like a vapor, here one minute and gone the next.
The biblical response to him is awe and wonder.
The difference between appreciating God and being in awe of God can be calculated in unhurried time. When we slow down, we are able to contemplate God’s goodness and greatness. It’s the difference between observing the beauty of God’s creation as you drive through the mountains versus sitting in the mountains.
We need our ministry fed and fueled by frequent times of sitting in the awesomeness of God’s presence. Or else there’s nothing we can draw from, other than a disinterested appreciation of him, other than the occasional high spot with him.
The movement you and your church need doesn’t operate on fumes. It runs on prayer, it runs on faith, it runs on time, it runs on him. On the wonder of him.
Endurance keeps us faithful. Wonder keeps us alive.
Together, they sustain the movement God begins.
If we want to see lasting disciple-making impact, we must guard our hearts—not just our calendars—and remain anchored in obedience and awe.
Order Movement-Ready Church Now
I believe every church is called to make disciples who make disciples—but that doesn’t happen by accident. Movement-Ready Church was written to help you rediscover the heart of Jesus’ mission and build a pathway to live it out in your church. As you read, you’ll also unlock 15+ free tools and resources to help you apply what you’re learning along the way. My prayer is that this book equips and encourages you to lead with renewed clarity. Order your copy today by clicking here and take your next step toward a disciple-making movement.
