How One Church Mastered Mobilizing People for Kingdom Impact

YOUR CHURCH CAN ONLY GROW TO THE CAPACITY OF ITS LEADERSHIP

And it’s more than organizational leadership.

• It’s establishing spiritual and missional leaders so your church can minister to more people in better ways.
• It’s developing the skill to appropriately challenge and support your people to mobilize them to do what God has called them to do.

Recruiting people to fill predetermined ministry slots is a grind, isn’t it?

The thought of having to keep something going because you think that it needs to keep going drains the life and energy from you and your people.

VBS anyone?

THE DOWNTOWN PHOENIX CHURCH STORY

In the spring of 2022 Pastor Jim Helman of The Downtown Phoenix Church flipped the script and broke through.

For 34 years he worked in one of the largest churches in Phoenix. Massive programs. The recruiting never ended.

That spring everyone who attended The Downtown Phoenix Church completed a gift assessment. Then we spent two weeks debriefing the congregation.

Mercy emerged as the predominate gift among the people.

It shocked them.

Then I asked them what type of people were attracted to the church.

They described the hurting, displaced, and marginalized.

Shocker. Those who needed mercy found mercy.

Some in the church had a heart for the 12,000 university students downtown so events were created to connect to those students.

Guess what? The students who needed mercy found it.

• Students battling gender dysphoria.
• Nursing students not being accepted into a highly competitive Nursing School.
• Breakups with loved ones.
• Problems with parents and professors.

They rinsed and repeated the same approach with young adults and the working poor in the downtown area.

Some of their congregants discovered they were gifted in teaching, hospitality, and leadership. So we mobilized them.

• The church now has six capable teachers. Up from two.
• It also has developed a pipeline of about 15 leaders. Up from five.
• More people are willing to host events. One of their events routinely attracts 20+ young adults in an apartment.

Result?

The church ministers to more people in better ways and the church nearly doubled in size.

Why?

Because the ministry capacity increased. Its leadership capacity did too. Working in tandem, these are essential for churches to grow spiritually, numerically, and financially.

Now here is the interesting thing.

Jim is not a natural leader, he is a musician who loves people.

He had to learn how to lead in his 60’s. He knew he needed help.

So, he invested in himself and participated in our leadership training.

“I highly recommend the partnership that The GO Center offers in pastoring the pastors. This type of continual education is especially critical as our culture accelerates in change.” – Jim Helman, Pastor, Downtown Phoenix Church.

The moral of this story?

Mobilize your people based off their gifting, passion, and personality. This is the way God wired them. It is the surest path to prevent burnout, reboot your church, and to fulfill vision and plan that God has laid before you.