I am convinced that ignorance is the main reason churches in North America, and in many parts of the world, are not experiencing growth—spiritual and numerical. No, I am not talking about pastors having low IQ levels. I’m referring to the type of ignorance where you don’t know why you do ministry the way that you do. More than anything, it’s a lack of self-awareness.
Let me paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from the Chinese general, military strategist, and author of The Art of War, Sun Tzu: “If you know your enemy, you’ll win half of the battles. But if you know yourself, you’ll win the other half.”
As pastors and church leaders, many of us are guilty of only focusing on half of the equation. We’ve been so focused, not on our “enemy” per se, but on other successful ministries and pastors that we’ve failed to pay attention to our local context to discover why things aren’t working the way we want them to. What if the solution to unlocking a new season of growth didn’t start with a new model? What if it started with self-awareness as a church?
The Influences Matrix (as diagramed above) is designed to help you start with self-awareness so that you can pinpoint the way your church approaches discipleship as a system from a 50,000-foot level.
If your church is on the destination end of the spectrum, then you are typically trying to get everyone in your church to complete a formulaic set of discipleship classes because this is the defined way and best environment to grow people to maturity. If they finish the classes, then they’re mature—they’ve arrived at the destination.
If your church is on the direction end of the spectrum, then you see discipleship as an ongoing process. So instead of focusing on a pre-defined set of classes to become mature, you create multiple non-formulaic learning experiences that help people take the next step in their walk with Christ. In the same way, you understand that the classroom environment is only one of the many places that spiritual formation can take place.
Typically, the rest of articles like this one, and the full video interview which it’s based off of, is reserved for Plus Members. But this month, we wanted to give you a taste of Plus Membership, so the remainder of the article is below! In addition, watch the full video interview here.
If your church is on the low accountability end of the spectrum, you are typically scattered and indifferent. This is because you either let everyone choose their own path or because you aren’t creating intentional on-ramps and off-ramps to help people get into discipleship classes or environments.
If your church is on the high accountability end of this spectrum, then your discipleship processes are typically organized and heavily involved. The particular nature of involvement and organization will look different depending on where your church is in the destination/direction spectrum.
Let’s dig deeper into each of the quadrants so that you can pinpoint where your church is in this matrix.
So here’s my question to you. Where would you place your church at in this Influences Matrix?