Tips & tools to Multiply Your Impact

As we go into this new year, I thought I would take some time to recommend some of my favorite books I read last year. There were so many to choose from, but here are my top ten:

#1 - The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer. This book was both prophetic and life changing. Very practical. Very challenging. I highly recommend it! 

#2 -Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices by Mosab Hassan Yousef and Ron Brackin​. This is an incredible story of a son of a Hamas Leader, a Palestinian ex-militant who defected to Israel in 1997 and worked with Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. Yousef converted to Christianity in the late 90’s but did not make this public until 2008, for fear his family members might be persecuted. This book is truly an informative first hand account of what is happening in the Middle East and why the “Jesus way” is the best way.

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I have to be honest with you. Being a pastor (or a spiritual leader) is one of the most fulfilling roles that anyone could ever imagine. We get to be a part of the critical moments where people take transformational steps of faith that have an impact for all of ETERNITY. 

We lead people to salvation. Baptize new believers. Preach the very Word of God. Flow in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Marry couples who are in love and want to establish a life together. We get to dedicate babies. Be there at someone’s side at crisis moments to provide wisdom, comfort, and encouragement. 

But there are challenging moments we face in our roles, as well. Burying someone we love. Watching a couple we married call it quits. Having a close friend leave the church. And then there is just the exhaustion of it all. 

Statistics tell us that 42% of those currently in ministry have serious thoughts of resigning and leaving the ministry. But let’s be clear, this trend is not just influenced by the natural challenges we face, but also by the powers of darkness that are at work against us. The voice of the enemy, the voice of our fears and inadequacies, and sometimes the voices of our critics all cry out in unison…“YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH! You don't measure up. You don't have what it takes. You are deficient and unworthy of loyalty, support, and leadership."

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Do you ever feel stuck in your prayer life? In your progress spiritually? 

One of the primary things that keeps me in a “stuck place” is PAIN. What kind of pain? The chronic presence of situations, irritations, and people who are causing me problems. It's the grievous challenges of leadership. It's the stuff that God allows and I just can't understand why.

The apostle Paul had one of those “stuck places”' in his life. He called it his “thorn in the flesh.” 

"Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me." 2 Corinthians 12:7-8

Can you hear Paul pleading? “God, please remove this situation and its negative impact on my life.”  

No one knows for sure what the thorn was: 

• A person that the devil was using? 

• A problem that just wouldn't go away? 

• An emotional or physical pain that was slowing him down? 

No matter what the thorn actually was, we understand that it was an attack from Satan and that God was allowing it in Paul's life.  And Paul is begging God to make it stop! He is wondering why the pain and problems are allowed to continue. Paul is receiving no clear answer as to how long this thorn is going to remain, but then he discovers something. God gives him an answer. 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

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One of the questions I am often asked is what I am looking for in a potential church planter. We have been helping to sponsor, coach, and parent new churches since 1996 and this month we will launch our thirty-second direct plant. Over the years, I have come to understand that there are four key indicators of an effective planter.
I want to preface this discussion with what has become known as the three C's of hiring. Many Lead Pastors use this kind of a grid when making staff hiring decisions:

• Character - Do they have integrity? Are they trustworthy? Do they align with solid Biblical doctrine and teaching? Do they have good references?

• Competency - Do they have the skills and experience needed to do the job you are hiring them to do?

• Chemistry - Do they mesh well with the team that you have in place? 

While all three of these qualities form a good framework to evaluate someone, they are not necessarily stoppers for me if the church planter falls a little short in one of these areas. What do I mean?

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As I was reading my Bible this morning, I was struck by the interactions that Moses has with God in Exodus 6. God gives Moses four massive prophetic promises that Jews have celebrated for thousands of years in the ceremony of the four cups of the Passover Meal. 

But Moses is lost in the crisis of the current moment. He has just had his own people call him out because Pharaoh has made their lives even more miserable! “Make bricks without straw!” This crisis, which followed Moses' first few steps of obedience, shook Moses and brought back some old fears and doubts.

Moses’s life reveals three moments in our spiritual journey where we are tempted to sink down into doubt, insecurity, fear, and therefore, are tempted to live in discouragement and disobedience.

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t's hard to believe that we have now completed Season Three of the Allison Park Leadership Podcast. During this last season, we improved our studio, the quality of our production in general, and truly hit our stride in discussing the controversial issues of the day from a Biblical Perspective. 

In case you missed it, here are our top seven podcast episodes:

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One of the things I quickly learned after becoming the Lead Pastor at Allison Park Church was that life never slows down. Neither does ministry! The only way to lead effectively is to constantly be thinking at least six weeks into the future.

When we plan far enough into the future, we can process the schedule and strategy and verbalize it to everyone who is following us, with enough lead time for them to be able to engage. I'm not sure who said this, but it is very true: “If there is a mist in the pulpit, there's a fog in the pew.” If you are unclear about the future and the “why” behind what you are doing, the people you lead will be totally unaware of what is coming next and will not understand why they should sacrifice their time and energy to participate

As we enter the month of November, if you haven’t looked ahead at the holidays and the new year, now is the time to start.

First, it is important that you have a clear picture of how your church is going to approach the holiday season. What's your plan for Christmas and New Year’s Day? It’s especially challenging this year because both holidays fall on a Sunday. How will you work around and through that schedule effectively?

Second, how will you launch the new year? What's the plan to challenge people spiritually? What will you do personally to lead the way? Let me suggest that you start to think through and begin to articulate a few key things:

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One phrase I have found myself using too much in the last year is “since the pandemic”. But it's hard not to talk about how the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped so much about the way I view life, ministry, strategy and even effectiveness as a pastor and church leader. The huge question on my mind right now is DISCIPLESHIP. What does it take to make robust, mature, Biblically literate, Jesus followers in 2022 and beyond?

• What have we done well over the last twenty years?

• What has been missing?

• What are the obstacles we are facing today?

• How do we develop a plan that really works?

There are five components in disciple-making that are relevant to the methods we have used in the past, and in what we will need to redesign for the future.

#1 - CLASSROOM

One of the contexts for discipleship is in the classroom. Often this is where induction courses are taught for new believers, new members, or growth track classes.

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When my kids were growing up, we had their names and growth marks with dates on the wall in the basement. It was a fun event as we marked how much they had each grown in the past year and a huge celebration when they were finally tall enough to ride certain rides at Kennywood Park!

I think the desire to measure ourselves is something that never really goes away. As we grow older, we stop measuring physical progress (though I still battle the numbers on the scale) and our focus shifts to personal progress and success.

• Am I successful?

• Is my life counting for something?

• Am I parenting well?

• What about my leadership? Am I leading well?

For pastors and church leaders we may ask:

• How is my ministry doing?

• Should it be bigger? Better? More effective?

• Am I somehow inadequate? Ineffective?

These questions are intensely personal and incredibly sensitive. I know! I also know that comparison is a trap. Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 10:12, "When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." I think we all get this concept. Instagram comparison is toxic. Looking at someone else's 'highlight reel' is a recipe for depression, especially when the movie in your head about yourself is of your life's worst moments.

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As I was growing up, one of the things that convinced me to become a follower of Jesus were the stories of God’s miraculous power in the lives of people I knew. One of the stories was about my father’s healing from heart damage caused by a bought with rheumatic fever when he nine years old.

When my dad contracted rheumatic fever, the doctors told him that the that damage to his heart would cause him to be limited the rest of his life; he would never be able to play sports or to do any kind of physical labor. And as he lay on the couch, suffering from the fever and terrible joint pain, he was crying to his mom about the pain. She had done everything she knew to do and so she told him to cry out to Jesus. This little nine year old boy called out on the Name of Jesus and then fell asleep. When he woke up, my father was completely healed.

When my dad reached his forties, he was undergoing a series of testing. He asked the doctors to check his heart for any signs of damage from the rheumatic fever but they indicated that there was no evidence of any damage to his heart at all. No scar tissue. No irregular beats. Nothing at all. My dad passed away last September at 81 years of age but it wasn’t from a heart issue. The healing of his heart that God did at nine years old, he sustained for 72 more years!

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As a leader of an organization, one of the things that I have so appreciated is being able to talk to a Life Coach. Someone who serves in the role of a Life Coach is trained to help you process your problems, challenges, and perspective. They know how to ask powerful questions. They help guide your thinking toward clarity. I will never forget a coaching moment that happened years ago with my friend, Jane Abatte. We were dialoging about challenges with some of my key partners when she asked me a question that was so direct it left me speechless. “Why do you think you are allowing and enabling people to treat you that way?” After a few seconds of total silence, I finally said, “I think I need a day to process that question because I can’t really answer that right now.” Her question hit me like a punch in the stomach. But it was exactly what I needed to consider.

Great coaches ask powerful questions. Let me give you a few basic ones to ponder:

• What is it that you want out of your life right now?

• Where are you trying to change?

• What challenge are you trying to navigate?

• What goal are you trying to reach?

When Jesus provided coaching and direction to His followers, He gave them more than a set of powerful and poignant questions. He knew they needed something beyond just clarity and direction. So much of our world presents strategies for change and growth but most of them are based on self-help tactics. Motivation. Discipline. Habits. Vision. All of these things are amazing keys to becoming better at whatever we are trying to be.

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Written by Pastor Kelli Brownlee (APC Online Campus Pastor)

I remember the first weekend in March 2020 when Allison Park Church went ONLINE ONLY for the weekend services. Like the rest of the world, we assumed that our physical locations would only be shut down by Covid-19 for a week or two.
Our production team, an innovative group of people led by our Experiences Director, Brendon Robinson, seemed to be excited about the pivot.

Prior to the pandemic, we had already been streaming most of our services online from our Hampton Campus location, “the mothership”. But, Covid-19 forced us to accept that there was a group of people who might never step foot in a physical church building again, or at the very least, might be some of the last people to return.

Here are a few things we learned:

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Having been involved with our multi-campus journey for almost 10 years, I have seen the benefits and challenges of having one church in multiple locations. Setting up a structure that serves multiple campuses in different areas of our region, with different demographics of people and with campus pastors that have various leadership styles is extremely complicated. However, being multi-campus allows us to impact communities that would be outside of our reach with a single location model.

One of the most important elements of setting up a multi-campus structure is establishing “Central Ministries and Services”. These central functions are designed to remove some of the day to day tasks from our pastors which allows them to have more time to focus on people. In our structure, our campus staff is free to focus on the needs of the people because our central staff handles many of the specialized skills, systems and/or processes.

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For the past ten years, Allison Park Church has functioned as one church in multiple locations, or what has come to be known as ‘multi-site church’. Currently, we have six physical locations, an online campus, and an associated international church (Revival Church International) who all function as a part of one larger organization.

This post is the beginning of a seven part blog post series, in which the Campus Pastors of APC have been asked to share their perspective on the WHAT and the WHY of our model and function. The first of these is from a pastor who has been on the team for over twenty years. Chris Griffin is currently the Campus Pastor of the Mt Nebo Campus.

Here’s his thoughts on the benefits of being multi-site and how we are better together…

#1 - OPTIONS

People like options. A multi-site church with campuses creates many options for people to choose from, and still belong to the same church. Size options. Geographic options. Demographic options. Service Time options. Worship style options. The size option is really important for some people. Some prefer the worship and production of a larger campus. Also, a larger campus does provide a sense of anonymity for a person or family who is just checking things out. While some people really prefer a smaller campus size that feels more welcoming, less intimidating and can be easier to get connected.

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One of the major adjustments that church leaders needed to make over the last two years is designing a way to measure what success looks like in the areas we lead.

We would all have to admit that, in the past, we were probably overly attached to the metrics of church attendance and giving. These two metrics tend to be the easiest to count and the most gratifying to measure, if they are headed in the right direction. However, if they are dropping, for whatever reason, the feelings of insecurity and failure can settle in like a dark, gloomy cloud.

The endemic and its effect on church attendance has caused many pastors to re-evaluate and begin searching for different ways to measure success while waiting for things to go back to “normal.” (Cue laugh track. If we are honest with ourselves, we all know there is no “normal” anymore).

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Currently, we are in a twenty-one day season of prayer as a church. These moments provide a tremendous opportunity to engage your child or young person in your spiritual journey.

So often, parents are intimidated to engage with their kids spiritually. They may want to leave spiritual training to the "experts"; their children's pastor or youth pastor. While parents may not know where to begin, it's good to remember that spiritual development is not as much about imparting theological knowledge as it is about sharing your spiritual journey with someone.

Jesus' method of discipleship was to be WITH his followers. His influence on them was more than just His teachings. It was about His passions; His dreams; His struggles; and the powerful way He asked questions.

With that in mind, here are a few ways to engage your kids:

#1 - IT'S ABOUT THE PASSION WE SHARE

As a boy, I inherited my dad's passion for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I will never forget sitting around the TV and hearing him yell out in frustration or celebration over what was happening in the game. These were precious moments we shared together.

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