Breaking the Missional Code Transitions to Missional Ministry

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Change… …always happens, and most change is out of our control.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code What we can control… …is our response to a changing culture.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code The response by the missional congregation to change has produced emerging transitional patterns.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code As churches seek to break the code, they respond to change with intentional change.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes Not every program (even GREAT programs) worked every time.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes The most important thing— seek to understand the people we were called to reach and develop processes to reach them.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes never Programs never seem to work the same way in two places.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes Churches need certain processes to accomplish their purposes.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes The church congregation should function like a human body. (1 Cor. 12:12-20)

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code The church as a body Every part is influenced by every other part. The “body” of Christ is one unit that operates through a series of systems. Every part is influenced by every other part. The “body” of Christ is one unit that operates through a series of systems.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes Program orientation — assumes the health of the overall system and does not see the various programs as interactive and interdependent..

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Program orientation Therefore…it is destined to be ineffective.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code From Programs to Processes The only exceptions will be those churches with a process-focused approach or if the overall body of a church just “happens” to be healthy.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Demographics to Discernment 1980s – Elmer Towns launched the highly successful seminar– “How to Reach the Baby Boomers.”

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Demographics to Discernment Generational approaches no longer work.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Demographics to Discernment The growing diversity of our society is resistant to pigeonholing.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Demographics to Discernment Demographics are not the answer. We need to decipher the individual communities to which God has sent us. Demographics are not the answer. We need to decipher the individual communities to which God has sent us.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Demographics to Discernment Pastors are spending more time asking why the people in their community have not yet responded.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions It is easy to try and copy the models of others because we want to copy their success in our own context.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions Instead of importing styles and models, more pastors are asking the same questions that international missionaries do:

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions What style of worship /music will best help this group to worship in spirit and truth?

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions What evangelism methods should I use here to reach the most people without compromising the gospel?

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions What structure of church would best connect with this community?

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions How can this church be God’s missionary to this community?

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Models to Missions Christology should shape our missiology and should shape our ecclesiology. ~Frost & Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the Twenty-First Century Church

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Attractional to Incarnational The leaders that move from attracting prospects to incarnating the gospel are the ones breaking the code.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Attractional to Incarnational The church that is incarnational is interested more in the harvest than in the barn.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Uniformity to Diversity Today, people are realizing that God is using many different kinds of methods and models to reach different kinds of people.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Uniformity to Diversity Nobody things that their model is “a” model; they think it is “the” model. Nobody things that their model is “a” model; they think it is “the” model.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Uniformity to Diversity If churches are faithfully proclaiming the Word and reaching their communities, we should celebrate them, whatever they look like.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Uniformity to Diversity The answer is not to make all of our churches look alike.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Uniformity to Diversity The answer is to have everyone seeking the same thing: to glorify God by being an indigenous expression of church life where they are.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Professional to Passionate Ministry used to be the realm of the seminary- trained—not so any more.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Seating to Sending “Big” was almost better in the age of church growth.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Seating to Sending In the age of the missional church, the impact of kingdom growth is more important.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Seating to Sending Church leaders that break the code have decided that the most important thing is to empower and release their church family for kingdom impact.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Seating to Sending These churches give themselves away rather than serve their own needs.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Seating to Sending Churches need to move from “every member a minister” to “every member a missionary.”

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples For too many churches, we supposedly win thousands to Christ every year, and yet few follow through and become active disciples.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples “Should churches focus on better disciples or focus on reaching out?”

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples You cannot separate evangelism and discipleship.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples We need missional churches that are focused on serious disciple making, not just leading people to make a decision.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples For this to occur, we must identify what is a disciple.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples As we fully define a disciple to include both the inner disciplines of personal spirituality and the outer disciplines of missional living…

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Decisions to Disciples …then we will move our churches to be filled with missionary disciples like the early church.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Additional to Exponential All healthy things reproduce.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Additional to Exponential One of the signs that something is “living” is that it reproduces itself.

© 2005 – 2006 Dr. Ed Stetzer, excerpts from Breaking the Missional Code Additional to Exponential But let’s face it, there is not much addition going on, let alone multiplication.