No Silver Bullets

Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry

Daniel Im

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781433651540
• eBook ISBN: 9781433651557
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

What if I told you that you were only one step away from unlocking new levels of maturity and growth in your church?

The myth of the silver bullet still exists because we desperately want it to. We all prefer quick fixes and bandage solutions to the long, hard, slow work that produces real change. So the moment we learn about a new ministry or strategy and see its effect in another church, we run to implement it in our own. Unfortunately, this impulse is usually met by opposition, skepticism, and ultimately, rejection.

What if the solution isn't a new model or a complicated strategy, but a shift in perspective? What if you could keep your church's current vision, values, and model, and simply make a few micro-shifts...leading to macro-changes?

This book explores five micro-shifts that have the potential to produce macro-changes in your church. As you read, you will discover how to integrate these micro-shifts into the life of your church, starting with the way you disciple. You will finish by developing a plan to structure, communicate, and evaluate these changes to ensure that they take root and pave the way for lasting change and kingdom impact.

 

SECTION I

THE SHIFTS

Chapter 1

From Destination to Direction

“You can create a stronger movement with twelve disciples than with 1,200 consumers.”

—Alan Hirsch

We had made it. We had finally made it. I no longer had to make up excuses, bend the truth, or gripe when I would share what we did during summer vacation with my friends. Long gone were the days I would complain that my summer was filled with Kumon math problems, Korean language school, violin practice, and hanging out on dairy crates at the back of my parents’ grocery store. My family was going to Disneyland.

You heard me right—Disneyland! And I was going to make sure all my friends knew about it when I came back from summer vacation. Me and Mickey—it would be glorious.

I had a simple childhood. My parents immigrated from South Korea to Canada in the 1970s and had nothing. They literally started with nothing. So in order to support my three older sisters and me, my parents had to work. And I’m not talking about a forty-hour desk job with nice perks. I’m talking about working all day and night, without any help, benefits, sick days, or vacation. In fact, the only time we ever took a vacation was when my parents decided that they were done with their business. So they sold it and we went on vacation. I’m guessing they were burned out.

As a kid, I didn’t care. It didn’t bother me that my parents sold their only means of making an income. Or that they didn’t have plans on what was next—at least to my knowledge. I was just happy that we were going to go on a real vacation to a faraway land!

After a week in the van, we finally arrived at my long-awaited paradise—Disneyland. Now I understand that it shouldn’t take a whole week to drive to Disneyland from Vancouver, Canada, but when there are four children in the van and one parent doing the majority of the driving, things often take longer than they should. I was so excited we were finally at Disneyland, that right after entering the park, I bee-lined to Autopia—the ride with a real-working gas pedal and a steering wheel. Sure, we had been in a car for a week, but now I could be the driver and I could be in control. I mean, come on; as a five-year-old boy, what else could you expect? It was a dream come true.

After a full day of lining up and relining up for Autopia, we hit the sack. The next morning, my dad announced . . . that we were going back home. I couldn’t believe it. After a week of driving, and only one day at Disneyland . . . that was it?

What injustice! How could he? This felt like torture. No amount of griping, begging, crying, or negotiating worked. We couldn’t change my parents’ minds. So we left paradise and began our trek home. To be honest, I guess I was so depressed and upset that I don’t even remember the trip back.

The Journey Matters Too

As an adult, I wish I knew then what I know now about vacations. The journey is as much a part of the vacation as is the destination. Instead of viewing that vacation as an epic failure—since we were only at Disneyland for a day—what do you think would have happened if I had shifted my perspective and viewed the entire journey as an equal part of it?

Perhaps I would have remembered the fun that we had on the way backstopping in San Francisco and spending way too much time in a gift shop buying T-shirts and snow globes—don’t ask me why we bought snow globes in San Francisco.

Or maybe I would have remembered the beauty of the Grand Canyon-esque valleys we saw during one of our rest stops. And how during that rest stop, I was dressed up as a great safari explorer intent on wielding my plastic sword and killing all the imaginary bad guys!

I may have even remembered the special time my parents let us sleep at a Motel 6 because “cabin fever” can actually apply to long road trips in a van too. As cool as our maroon Ford Sidewinder was—with captain seats in the second row, and a third row that reclined into a bed—six people in a van all day and night can get a bit taxing at times.

The journey is just as much a part of the adventure as the destination.

If I had only shifted my perspective, the ride home might have been as enjoyable as our time at Disney.

In hindsight, it’s a good thing this is how I see it now—the journey, or the direction, really is as much a part of the adventure as is the destination. In fact, those three memories are as vivid, if not more real to me, than the numerous times I went on Autopia.

How ironic.

From Mourning to Intentional Celebration

When I pastored in Korea, I named our ministry Nine37 after Matthew 9:37: “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.” The leadership team and I did this because we knew that we would only have our church members for a few years before they would leave us. After all, as globe-trotting expats, they were only ever going to be with us temporarily before moving onto their next big thing. So we would regularly give them a guilt trip and tell them that they had to stay with us, because the harvest was abundant in Korea and the workers were few.

Okay, not really. But we did have to intentionally shift our perspective in order to deal with this reality. So instead of trying to keep them from leaving, we decided to send them out instead. Instead of mourning, we decided to rejoice and celebrate.

As a result, every week during our pre-service Sunday morning prayer time, we would literally pray Matthew 9:35–38 over our church. Our leadership team would intentionally ask God to transform our church members into Kingdom-focused harvest workers. We prayed that wherever they went, they would be a greater blessing there as a result of their time in our ministry here. So when the time came for people to leave, instead of giving them the cold shoulder, we commissioned them. This could not have happened without shifting our perspective.

The Same Is True for Your Church

Think about your church. What do you long to see for them? What do you regularly pray over them? If God were to answer your deepest prayers for your church, what would happen? What would change?

Would your church be filled with a movement of disciple-making disciples that infiltrated all areas of your region (Matt. 28:18–20)?

Or maybe your worship service would be filled with “a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language” worshipping beside one another (Rev. 7:9)?

Perhaps your church would be meeting daily, living life together, meeting one another’s needs, praising God, receiving favor from all people, and being used by God to save people on a daily basis (Acts 2:42–47)?

Whatever dream God has given you for your church, I want to be the first one to tell you that it’s possible. After all, the fact that you’re even reading this book and praying for your church means that you’re on the right track.

But I also want to be the first one to tell you that achieving those dreams does not require a radical change; you don’t have to blow everything up and start over. All it requires is a series of micro-shifts, taken one step a time. After all, let’s be honest with ourselves—there’s no silver bullet in life, so why would we assume that there’s one in ministry?

But . . .

I love the following quote—often attributed to Harriet Tubman—about dreams: “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” And this one by Walt Disney: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”1

The problem though, is that a dream is precisely that—a dream. Dreams are not reality. They are the hidden potential for the future that lies dormant within each and every one of us. Dreams are like the statue that’s imprisoned in the walls of marble, awaiting the sculptor to set it free—as the iconic Italian artist Michelangelo once said. So while I like inspirational quotes as much as the next person, inspiration can only get us so far.

Dreams require courage and strength. They cannot be achieved on a whim, since they require a strategy and a plan. I mean, do you really think the Underground Railroad was built without a strategy or a plan? And what about the Disney Empire?

The Three Influences on Your Church

Dreams are the hidden potential for the future that lies dormant within each and every one of us.

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Table of contents

• Foreword
• Introduction
• SECTION I—THE SHIFTS
• SECTION II—THE PATH
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Notes