S2E4: Hitting the Reset Button on a Ministry.

I'm gonna welcome you out to session four of our cohort. We've had such a great time with our first three sessions. We're gonna be jumping into session four, which I've titled Hitting the Reset Button. We're gonna dive into what that means in a minute, but really this session will hopefully get us thinking about changes, right? Change is part of ministry, change is part of life. And this session is gonna again specifically focus in on what does it look like when we need to hit the reset button? If we think about it, ministry is all about change. Things are always changing from the technology that we use, from how we convey music, sound, whatever, all these different aspects of ministry change over time. And when you think about what we do from day to day, sometimes we have to think about hitting the reset button to kind of relaunch something, restart something. And so I want to take this time to kind of talk over this as pastors and as leaders. When you think about the disc profile, which I think many of us are familiar with, 69% of the Western civilization, so 69% of just everyone that you see, that these are people that do not like change. And I'm talking about change, like when you go to the grocery store and they've moved your cereal from maybe the the middle of kind of like where you can reach it to maybe down below those kinds of changes. Like people just don't like change. 69% of people Don't like change. And I think many pastors and leaders find it difficult to initiate a reset because it brings about change. So there might be things you're thinking about right now that you know you you think, man, I need to hit a reset button. We need to kind of we need to relaunch, restart, redo something here. But you don't want to just kind of rush into that, or maybe you're even hesitant because you know it's going to bring about change. But ministry, if you think back from the book of Acts, we think about the church, the birth of the church. Ministry requires change and adaptation. Again, when you look at the statistics, just specifically at church plants, 80% of churches or church plants close within the first couple of years. And so change is just one of those necessary elements that I think we need to look at in ministry. Now I know many of us probably have a good story about change, but I want to share one with you from one of the first church plants I was with ⁓ down in South Florida. We had the individual who Was in charge of the donuts. I mean, if you're gonna do Sunday morning ministry, or really any day of the week, I think, at any time, you kind of need someone there to do some donuts. And so we would go in and order donuts. And so this person who was in charge of the donuts took it upon themselves to begin to slap hands, cut donuts in half, get very militant about protecting the donuts because their goal was to make sure that everyone had more than enough donuts. And as you can imagine, in the SNAP meetings, we got to talk a lot about the donuts. And so eventually we decided to hit the reset button and we decided that we needed to take care of this particular area because it wasn't going to plan. And so even if it's just with donuts or even if it's something even larger, maybe with men's ministry or women's ministry or groups, or maybe even just relaunching a church, rebranding a church. Restarting something else, or even maybe restarting a new season. Maybe God is calling you away from what you're doing. All these things can be be considered things that we would hit a reset button. Now, resets, if you if you think about it, when you hit the reset button, what you can expect is a bunch of change to be ushered in. But we know that this doesn't just apply to ministry. In fact, I found a couple of quotes just for people in the world. ⁓ when it talks about reset and and the change that it creates. ⁓ Ellen Glasgow said, all change is not growth as all movement is not forward. And so again, great, great quote on change and perhaps maybe something that's generated from hitting a reset. Alan Watts had this to say, he says, the only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and dance, and join the dance. So again, you you can't escape change sometimes, right? It's just part of life. And then finally, Mark Levy says this. He says, if you don't change with the times, the times are going to change you. Now, many of us have probably heard that one before, but again, if you don't change, then guess what? The times are going to change without you. Now I think back to kind of early ministry, late 1990s, back in the 1900s, early 2000s, before projectors were kind of affordable, before Pro presenter was a thing before LED walls. We use this thing called a transparency, right? We had these this little projector that you would take this little this little clear thing and you you'd write all your words on it. Hopefully you had had great handwriting for your worship lyrics and things like that. And you would project your words up onto the wall. Now that worked, right? And I remember my wife and I doing worship, and this is when we were dating, and so we would go around and she had this huge. three ring binder full of all these worship songs and we'd pull them out. You know, she'd pull the ones out that we were going to be doing. And and that's just the way it was. Now eventually we we moved into using computers and projectors. And man, it was amazing because then you could use graphics and pictures and and colors. It was it was pretty amazing. But the thing is is that we had to be willing to even embrace little change like that. And so if we don't recognize change, then that is a recipe for forced change. And I think sometimes God brings that about. If we're not going to change and hit the reset button on things, then He'll be more than happy to help usher us along and to kind of force that upon us. And so we're going to jump in and talk about hitting the reset button. I'm going to look at Luke chapter 10 here with us today. I believe verses one through three is where we're going to be Luke chapter 10. Up until this point in the Gospel of Luke, we've seen Jesus perform miracles. We've seen Jesus transfigured. And then Jesus even explain. To the disciple, what the cost of being a disciple was. And now here in chapter 10, in these first couple of verses, we're gonna see Jesus send them out. I'm gonna read these verses to you. We're gonna break it down and we're gonna look at how this applies to us. Says in Luke chapter ten, verses one through three, it says, After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. Verse two, it says. Then he said to them, The harvest is harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. And finally, verse three: Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Now many of us have heard this before. I personally like it all until it gets to the we're sending you out like lambs among the wolves part, right? And I think many of us can probably say We don't necessarily want to go out in harm's way. But let's break this down because I want to say I want us to take this in context a little bit. When you think about who Jesus was talking to, he was talking to a larger group of people who had been following him around. And so up until this point, all they had ever known about ministry was what they saw Jesus do. They knew that they were going to get up and follow Jesus around. And so I don't want to say they weren't very active, but this was going to be the first time Jesus wanna say, like, hey guys. You're on your own. But look what it says. It says, after these things. And so again, up until this point, Jesus had performed miracles, he had been transfigured, and now he turned to this larger group of followers, and he was going to say, You're going to be my messengers. And then it says, The Lord appointed seventy others also to send them two by two before his face into every city and every place. So this larger group was beyond the twelve disciples. And up until this point, this group More than likely just simply follow Jesus around. They observed, they listened, they got up and they they repeated this daily. But now Jesus was going to change things up. He was going to hit this reset button for them. And instead of being in a large group, he was going to send them out two by two to do what? To minister, to be messengers. Jesus was about to hit the reset button on everything that they knew about ministry. And again, up until this point, they watched Jesus, they followed Jesus. They were mostly hands off. But Jesus says, Hey, I got a great idea. Let's hit the reset button. We're going to send you out two by two, change things up. You are going to be messengers. He goes on in verse two, and he says, Then he said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. So as Jesus changed and began to change their focus, he gave them some encouragement and some observations. He said, Hey, listen, where you're going. There's a great harvest. And that's good news, right? I mean, if if we're gonna hit the reset button, we feel like God calling us onto something, we wouldn't feel like we're going there for on purpose and for a purpose. So here Jesus is saying, listen, guys, there's a purpose. There's a great harvest. But then he follows it up and says, But the laborers are few. So let me kind of break this down into layman terms. He's saying, listen, guys, there's great potential where I'm sending you. But there's always that word, right? But it's going to be Hard work. Does that sound like ministry? Is that is that connecting with any of us? God sends you out because there's great potential. There's a great potential for a harvest, but it's going to be hard work. The laborers are few. And so the point I want to make here is that when God calls you to hit the reset button, it's because there's a great potential in the work He has before you. Don't think of hitting the reset button as an escape. Don't think about hitting the reset button as You know, a way to get away from what you know now and the and the circumstances and the difficulty, because chances are there's gonna be great opportunity, but equally it's gonna be a lot of work. He goes on, he says, Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So any kind of reset here is gonna have an element of what? Prayer. It says right here, therefore pray. The Lord is telling them, Listen, y'all need to pray before you go, before anything. We need to pray. So there's an element of prayer. And he and he instructed him to pray. And he says the harvest, the work to be done is great. But those willing, those who want to kind of step in to do it, who are called, and maybe who step into the space, there are few. So to translate that into kind of like a normal, you know, something maybe you and I can kind of you know connect with, there's more work than you can handle. Can you imagine that ministry? There's more work than you can handle. And don't you love that this is the result of hitting the reset button? So you might be sitting in your place right now thinking, man, there's several things I want to hit the reset button on, maybe a season, maybe relaunching a ministry. And those might be of the Lord, and those are things that you probably should pray about and consider doing if that's what the Lord's putting on your heart. But know that it's going to be a lot of work. Know that it's going to potentially be more work than you can handle. And so we go to that. With an attitude of prayer. And finally, in verse three, he says, Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. So Jesus sends them out. He says, Go your way. And he reminds them that they're going to be sent out as lambs among wolves. Now, this might sound a bit, you know, like concerning to us. We're going be concerned, like, Lord, you've sent me out with wolves, but but notice the context here. If you're a lamb of the Lord, that means you have a shepherd. He's our shepherd. And where they're going is not easy. But to be sent out as a lamb means that you're gonna have a shepherd watching over you. And isn't it good to know that Jesus, our good shepherd, watches over us in our current situation? In the situation in the future where we may be hitting a reset button, that the Lord is watching over us. He's with us. And so when Jesus hit the reset button, these disciples, man, he changed their world. These followers of Christ. And their world was drastically changed real quick in these couple of verses from simply observing and following and watching to now actively participating and trusting in every step and praying. The second thing we see again, he changed the disciples, or number two, he was going to follow them. And I love that the Lord just didn't send them out. No, he followed them. And our good shepherd never leaves his sheep. And so if God has put a season of a reset in front of you, or maybe an opportunity to reset something in the church, relaunch something, whatever the case may be, that our good shepherd doesn't leave his sheep. If this is where he's calling you to go. The third thing I want to share again when we think about, you know, when Jesus hit the reset button, when we can look at this scripture is he didn't send them out alone, did he? No, you look back at the scripture and it says two by two. And so it reminds me and it encourages me that when I'm hitting this reset button that I should have probably a couple people with me. That's one of the great things about being in this cohort. Other lead pastors and leaders who who are going through the same things that I might experience in a church or or other staff or or trustees or elders or whatever you may have, someone on their board. But he didn't send them out alone, but they went together. And so I'd encourage you, don't hit the reset button by yourself. Don't pull the solo. Do it with a group. Do it with a cohort. Do it with collaboration from others. And I believe that the Lord will use that. Again, to not only minister to you but help you do life with others, but really enjoy that reset season. The fourth thing I want to share is that he wanted to paint a picture of what the other side of the reset looked like. Now don't get fooled. I think many of us could get fooled into thinking, like, maybe I just hit the reset button. That's almost like retiring. I'm just going to kind of step back. And maybe for some of you, you're thinking, man, one of these days I'm going to retire from ministry. And I don't like that word. I think, well. You know, there are seasons where we're more active than not. I don't think we ever retire from ministry. And I think for you and I to kind of think through the seasons of life, and you might be a lead pastor and you might be thinking of how do you pass that that torch to that next generation? And those are great things to be thinking about. I mean, I need to be thinking about that at some point, right? I think we all do. But the point is, is that we're not doing that so we can go retire and and fish the rest of the days of our lives. No, God is Going to call us into a different season of ministry, which is going to require a reset, which is going to require us to pray, which is going to require us to walk two by two with a group of people, which is going to be synonymous with being like a lamb being sent out among wolves. Again, we see the parallel here. You don't retire from ministry. You don't, you don't think about hitting the reset button as an escape. And then the last thing I want to remind us that Jesus said in here. Is that he reminded them that it was not going to be easy. Every step of faith requires trust. Think about when you perhaps launched a ministry or a church, or maybe said, like, yes, the Lord has called me to revitalize something. And you kind of had like a two-digit numerical problem. And then as the years go on, you have a three, four, five, six, seven, whatever digit numerical problem, right? Every step of faith requires trust and obedience. And knowing that our our good shepherd is with us. And while the circumstances may be difficult and may seem larger than last season, we can know that if God's called us to the season and to the hit this reset button, he's going to be with us. And so, real quick, what's some application here? And we're going to jump into hopefully some discussion on this with some folks that you know in this cohort. The question I want to ask is: when should you hit the reset button? Okay, that's that's the million-dollar question, right? Very simple. When the Lord directs you to. Now I know that sounds very Christian-east. That sounds very pastoral, right? But it's true. If God's putting on your heart, I don't know what he's putting on your heart, you don't know what he's putting on my heart. Now I think that we can share that and we can get some some counsel and some wisdom. But as the Lord leads you to do this, you're gonna know. And I would say you need to be ready for a challenge. Hitting the reset button, you need to be ready for a challenge. You don't hit the reset button because you're frustrated. You don't hit a reset button because You had a bad Sunday. You hit a reset button because the Lord called you to do so. And the second thing I want to talk about is last thing I want to end here, really. The second thing, what can we expect after we hit that button? Expect new challenges. Okay, it's going to be part of it. Expect new challenges and difficulties to hit you that you weren't expecting. And if you're expecting something easy, then maybe this isn't the reset that the Lord has for you. Hitting the reset button doesn't excuse you and I from leaning into God for the next season of ministry. In fact, we should be ramping it up and maybe accelerating and leaning into the Lord even more. Hitting the reset button doesn't mean that our circumstances will get any easier. They may become more difficult. And so as we think about this, what are some things that you need to hit the reset button on? What are some things that you're thinking about? It might be simply changing. A day of the week that a group meets. It might be something bigger, like maybe the Lord is calling you into a different season life, away from your current mission field. He might be pointing you to a new area that has a great harvest. What is the Lord calling you to do? These are things that as pastors we're going to have to negotiate. And so I pray that our group time is amazing because I believe that this is going to be a topic that is going to serve you and I well. And I want to encourage you. Don't be afraid to hit that button if the Lord is calling to do it. Okay. Just be encouraged to do so. But let's bathe that in prayer. Let's do that with others. And may we step in to that season, knowing that there's going to be a great harvest. But guess what? The workers are going to be few. I hope this blesses you and hope you have a great discussion in your cohort.