Friday, February 3, 2023
by
Melinda Johnstone
"When you focus on numbers, you don’t tend to grow. But when you focus on health, you typically grow. If the soil is healthy, what you put into it can grow." ~Pastor Samuel Vogel~
Growth at the International Evangelical Church in Finland (IEC) has not been by chance. It’s not because the winds of the Spirit happened to blow that way this season, and not because there has been a new pastor with a special razzle-dazzle anointing. This has been a very deliberate, hard, and careful journey. This is a story of a small team of people learning to notice the ways of the Master Grower, to how the lilies in His fields grow (Matthew 6:28). This is a story of paying attention.
When they received their latest NCD survey results, the team at IEC found it to be a true reflection of what they had been experiencing. Their growing attentiveness in everyday moments has increased their sensitivity so that their results were not a revelation but a confirmation. Just like the results reflected, they sense more hope and excitement in their church. They sense more common-unity in their leadership team. They sense healthier interpersonal dynamics. They feel more alive and more together. And they know why.
“We’re on the journey of getting a sense, and paying attention to, what the spiritual health of the soil is and focusing on that instead of mere outcomes.”
It sounds like bad news—limitations. And yet, for Samuel and team, facing the reality of their limitations was liberating for them. It freed them up to think of what was possible and to stop burning energy on what was not going to work at their current stage of development.
“Churches that can run can do different things to those that are barely standing. We’re not yet running… but what CAN we do?”
Samuel's church conducted their first NCD Church Survey 5 years ago and have, since then, purposefully embraced it as a means of getting clear on reality. Although the culture at IEC was passionately aiming high, they needed to know their true starting point. The church leadership knew their energy was leaking away and they wanted to know where. And how to fix it. Using the NCD survey as a training tool, Samuel and team have learned to pay attention to the most immediate barriers to the lilies in their field flourishing.
Although IEC are from many different backgrounds and cultures, with different mother tongues, the leadership have grasped the power of having a common language that helps unite their team to rally round kingdom values, pursue kingdom ways, and multiply this paradigm throughout the life of the church. Not every person who walks through their doors will be able to parrot the 8 NCD characteristics of healthy growing churches, but they will increasingly experience them. Those in influence are wrestling and communicating together with this language and paradigm to bring all aspects of health to life.
Instead of their first priority being on getting a ministry to work well, like making better coffee, producing good sound at the worship gathering, or running a good Bible study, they concluded that paying attention to the people doing the ministry must be their primary focus. To build those who can carry the load is crucial in being able to withstand both the struggles and difficulties that come in living as a community and the unpredictability of global threats.
With lots of young international students currently in their church community, the leadership at IEC could be afraid of heavily investing in their lives, knowing that a number of them are likely to be transient and their stay may be short. But rather than perceiving this as a risk and withholding their affection or attention, they are seeing the value of investing in whatever youth come their way, so that these young people will then be empowered to carry something of great value with them wherever they may go. This is a lateral but natural way of multiplying. As a result of the change of perspective towards the youth, together with a united leadership focus on investing in health, many more youth have been calling IEC their home and investing their own time, treasure and talent.
Covid was the global game changer. For IEC, it meant a broom was put through activities and plans, giving reprieve from those that were unfruitfully taxing their people, while highlighting the value of others. It was met with a sense of relief that the pattern of being overstretched, poor in strategy, and disconnected in their efforts, had to change. Only the healthy habits could survive. And the few resources they had became too valuable to squander. For a church that serves the whole capital region, with members being up to 2 hours apart from one another and many little pockets of church activities happening throughout the city, their energies had literally been stretched too thin for too long. The uninvited pruning of Covid became a blessing that invigorated new growth and focused attention on the things that would bear most fruit.
There's been a lot of new growth in the people at IEC. There is much to celebrate and relish. Like a little sapling that has spurted tremendous growth, with fresh foliage full of life, now the focus of the leadership team must be to train, direct, stake, and support this new growth with structures that prove effective for their current stage of development. Because the story of IEC is one of paying careful attention, we can be confident that they will discover the value of the structures they need in this season, and we can know that over time, the stake that supports the little sapling will become unnecessary, for the way of effectiveness will become a natural and internal part of their being.
Thank you for sharing your story, IEC, and we pray you will keep growing to be, “magnificent, like great towering trees, standing for what is right, standing to the glory of the Eternal.” (Isaiah 61)
To those who have ears, hear!
To those who have eyes, pay attention!
Growth at the International Evangelical Church in Finland (IEC) has not been by chance. It’s not because the winds of the Spirit happened to blow that way this season, and not because there has been a new pastor with a special razzle-dazzle anointing. This has been a very deliberate, hard, and careful journey. This is a story of a small team of people learning to notice the ways of the Master Grower, to how the lilies in His fields grow (Matthew 6:28). This is a story of paying attention.
When they received their latest NCD survey results, the team at IEC found it to be a true reflection of what they had been experiencing. Their growing attentiveness in everyday moments has increased their sensitivity so that their results were not a revelation but a confirmation. Just like the results reflected, they sense more hope and excitement in their church. They sense more common-unity in their leadership team. They sense healthier interpersonal dynamics. They feel more alive and more together. And they know why.
“We’re on the journey of getting a sense, and paying attention to, what the spiritual health of the soil is and focusing on that instead of mere outcomes.”
It sounds like bad news—limitations. And yet, for Samuel and team, facing the reality of their limitations was liberating for them. It freed them up to think of what was possible and to stop burning energy on what was not going to work at their current stage of development.
“Churches that can run can do different things to those that are barely standing. We’re not yet running… but what CAN we do?”
Samuel's church conducted their first NCD Church Survey 5 years ago and have, since then, purposefully embraced it as a means of getting clear on reality. Although the culture at IEC was passionately aiming high, they needed to know their true starting point. The church leadership knew their energy was leaking away and they wanted to know where. And how to fix it. Using the NCD survey as a training tool, Samuel and team have learned to pay attention to the most immediate barriers to the lilies in their field flourishing.
Although IEC are from many different backgrounds and cultures, with different mother tongues, the leadership have grasped the power of having a common language that helps unite their team to rally round kingdom values, pursue kingdom ways, and multiply this paradigm throughout the life of the church. Not every person who walks through their doors will be able to parrot the 8 NCD characteristics of healthy growing churches, but they will increasingly experience them. Those in influence are wrestling and communicating together with this language and paradigm to bring all aspects of health to life.
Instead of their first priority being on getting a ministry to work well, like making better coffee, producing good sound at the worship gathering, or running a good Bible study, they concluded that paying attention to the people doing the ministry must be their primary focus. To build those who can carry the load is crucial in being able to withstand both the struggles and difficulties that come in living as a community and the unpredictability of global threats.
With lots of young international students currently in their church community, the leadership at IEC could be afraid of heavily investing in their lives, knowing that a number of them are likely to be transient and their stay may be short. But rather than perceiving this as a risk and withholding their affection or attention, they are seeing the value of investing in whatever youth come their way, so that these young people will then be empowered to carry something of great value with them wherever they may go. This is a lateral but natural way of multiplying. As a result of the change of perspective towards the youth, together with a united leadership focus on investing in health, many more youth have been calling IEC their home and investing their own time, treasure and talent.
Covid was the global game changer. For IEC, it meant a broom was put through activities and plans, giving reprieve from those that were unfruitfully taxing their people, while highlighting the value of others. It was met with a sense of relief that the pattern of being overstretched, poor in strategy, and disconnected in their efforts, had to change. Only the healthy habits could survive. And the few resources they had became too valuable to squander. For a church that serves the whole capital region, with members being up to 2 hours apart from one another and many little pockets of church activities happening throughout the city, their energies had literally been stretched too thin for too long. The uninvited pruning of Covid became a blessing that invigorated new growth and focused attention on the things that would bear most fruit.
There's been a lot of new growth in the people at IEC. There is much to celebrate and relish. Like a little sapling that has spurted tremendous growth, with fresh foliage full of life, now the focus of the leadership team must be to train, direct, stake, and support this new growth with structures that prove effective for their current stage of development. Because the story of IEC is one of paying careful attention, we can be confident that they will discover the value of the structures they need in this season, and we can know that over time, the stake that supports the little sapling will become unnecessary, for the way of effectiveness will become a natural and internal part of their being.
Thank you for sharing your story, IEC, and we pray you will keep growing to be, “magnificent, like great towering trees, standing for what is right, standing to the glory of the Eternal.” (Isaiah 61)
To those who have ears, hear!
To those who have eyes, pay attention!
passionate spirituality effective structures loving relationships
Paying attention to our part in the Kingdom
