Session II--GrowUp06

Session II: Just Jump--Carey Nieuwhof

I. Critical Question: Am I afraid to jump? And if so, what am I afraid of?

II. Why Jump?
1. There is no such thing as incremental jumping. Incremental change only gets incremental results.
2. God, himself, is a jumper---Exodus
Heb. 11:3 God creates ex nihilo—out of nothing
3. Because everything is at stake—a radical problem requires a radical change.

55% of Americans will not attend church on Sunday. 80% of Canadians will not attend church on Sunday—sounds like a mission field to me.
85% of American churches are plateaued or declining.

II Cor. 5:18-20---The church is the hope of the world. No one else is going to do it: our education system is not going to do it; our social programs are not going to do it; our government programs are not going to do it. The church is the hope of the world no other institution is or can be because only the church spotlights the provision of God—Jesus Christ.

III. Three Jumps Every Leader Needs to Take
Without these three jumps all other jumps will only be incremental. These are critical and foundational jumps.

1. Jump One: From “it’s about us to it’s about others.” The North American church is one of the most self-focused institutions in the world.

A. Two factors that keep people from making the jump:

a. Loss of mission—the why question: Why do you do what you do?
b. Fear—fear of criticism, fear of losing members

2. Jump Two: From leading people to leading leaders. Exodus 18 should be the leadership model of churches. The One-leader model will wear your church out.

A. Leadership is far more influential than likeability—Moses is not remembered because he was well-liked.
B. Leading kids and students severely limits the scope and influence of your ministry.
C. Leadership, not passion, ensures alignment and momentum.

3. Jump Three: From talking about it to doing it.
Leaders are learners.

A. God rewards transformation, not information.
B. There is no success without sacrifice.
C. You will be most tempted to stop seconds before the critical breakthrough.
D. Focus not on what the jump might cost you, but on what you might miss.
The jumping never ends. Numbers 11


Some thoughts: Kudos to Carey Nieuwhof for the incredible feats of leadership he has accomplished in his church!!! It is stories like Carey’s that remind us that big jumps are not just for mega churches but what make plateaued and declining churches mega churches.

I think there is one take-away from Carey’s message that no church can afford to miss: Churches need to take the jump from “It’s about us” to “it’s about others.” Andy Stanley has put it another way: Churches need to make their decisions based upon who they are going to reach, not who they are going to keep.

The biggest obstacle to change in the church (and other private non-profits for that matter) is the fear of who will leave. The history of many of our churches, particularly their beginnings are stories of huge jumps, huge risks, taken with great faith. In my own church there is an aerial shot of the piece of property that was bought in 1954. In the early fifties FBC was rapidly growing out of a downtown church building. In 1954 the church purchased a piece of land to the east of downtown Ventura. The picture shows walnut orchards and fields; there is not a house, not a business, not a freeway or main street shown in the picture. The property was so far removed from Ventura downtown and residential areas, it was a crazy decision. FBC made that jump in 1954. 52 year’s later the church sits right across from the Pacific View Mall, centrally located in the City of Ventura. Thanks to the leadership of 1954, there is not a church better poised geographically to reach the city of Ventura than FBC.

Every leader knows where change needs to occur in order to make progress. Generally, however, we chose incremental change for fear of disrupting the system too greatly and upsetting or, worse, losing people. The idea is that we can still move toward where we need to be by taking steps imperceptible to everyone except ourselves. Like the frog in the pot we hope that the temperature changes so gradually the frog won’t know it’s boiling. We hope to arrive at the change without anyone noticing they’ve changed. I wonder about this---do we think we will arrive at a place where change isn’t.

In my experience there is no such thing as imperceptible change. People know they are changing, even incrementally. Because the benefits of incremental change are not easily seen, people generally only experience the pain of change. This is a principle: In incremental change only the pain of change is experienced not its benefits. We might be able to learn something from drug-rehabs here.