In an age where many churches and businesses are opening locations, James Emery White decided to close all of his…and experienced the biggest growth they’ve had in years.
Jim explains why they did it, how it happened, why he’s investing so much in digital outreach and how to grow your church younger when you grow older as a leader.
Welcome to Episode 322 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Guest Links
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Church and Culture
Episode Links
Pro Media Fire
Does your staff ever get overwhelmed with creative and media demands? I recently heard about Vista Community Church, a growing church with a couple of campuses who ran into a problem recently. The communications director handling all of the graphic design and social media left. So, to solve the problem, they reached out to Pro Media Fire to get a media bundle, and within a day, the church had an entire creative team working for them at less than the cost of the previous staff member.
Whether you have a small, mid-sized or large church you may have this same problem. You can hire an entire creative team of professionals for a fraction of the cost of hiring additional in-house staff.
Get 10% off for life at
ProMediaFire.com/Carey.
ReThink Leadership
If you’re a senior leader at your church, join us for ReThink Leadership, April 29-May 1 in Atlanta, Georgia. We have an incredible lineup including Simon Sinek, Mark Batterson, Jon Acuff, Chris Hodges, and so many others. I’ll be hosting it along with Jon Acuff.
It’s in a unique gathering around tables with other leaders. We’ll be talking about some of the biggest challenges leaders are facing. You don’t want to miss it.
Register by February 29th and get 20% off with coupon code RL20Carey at
ReThinkLeadership.com.
CONVERSATION LINKS
Christ Among the Dragons by James Emery White
Church and Culture: The Vanishing Eccelesiology
Christianity for People Who Aren’t Christians by James Emery White
A Search for the Spiritual by James Emery White
3 Insights from Jim
1. We need to be married to the mission not the methodology
So many churches fall in love with how they are doing church that it begins to take priority over the mission. James Emery White does his best to keep the opposite mindset at all levels of their organization. For them, the mission is sacred and nothing else. If something doesn’t help more people come to Jesus, they don’t do it.
One way that he does this is by casting the vision to the church often and heavy. He attacks the mindsets that put people’s preference over reaching the lost, and he challenges his people to “die to themselves” a disproportionately high amount. He believes that this is one of their biggest success factors.
2. We have to give people the option of staying anonymous as long as possible
Jim has taken their church in the direction of having more and more evangelism and outreach happen online. When they get people into these processes, they are very intentional about letting people stay anonymous as long as they would like. Once people come out into the public, then they engage them in community.
This is the modern example of someone sitting in the back by the exit for months and finally stepping forward to volunteer, become baptized, or some other form of engagement. Those people had the option to stay anonymous if they would like, and our online audiences need that option as well.
3. If you want to be relevant to the next generation, be yourself
So many pastors think that the key to staying relevant with the next generation is to wear hipster glasses, tight jeans, and talk as though you are super young and hip. Jim argues that this is actually weird to the next generation. They would much prefer that you be yourself and be a mentor for them however you can be.
The next generation has endless access to information and almost no access to wisdom. They’ve never been parented and they’ve never had a functional family. So, if you can be that father figure and a wisdom figure who is culturally literate and who is relevant, but who’s bringing wisdom to bear, and get to a place where you’re almost fathering them in a way they never were fathered, the attraction is just palpable.
Quotes from Episode 322
'Multisite is a physical approach in a digital world. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet When you've started something, it takes a certain degree of humility and courage to end it. @cnieuwhof Click To Tweet Most databases these days are completely outdated. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet I'm very cold-hearted toward methodology. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet We really did have a culture where everybody realized it's all about the mission. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet I've often said that, when you're dealing with the depraved church and every church is depraved, you have to spend a disproportionate amount of energy on those things that involve death of self. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet We really want the online experience to be wide open and then they can let us know when they're ready, because otherwise we could scare them off. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet Today’s young people have endless access to information and almost no access to wisdom. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To Tweet I want to bring on people who intuitively know what to do, and they only come to you when they need coaching or help pass something over to think through something. @JamesEmeryWhite Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 322
Looking for a key quote? More of a reader?
Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here.
Watch Back Episodes of The Podcast on YouTube
Select episodes of this podcast are now on YouTube. Our new YouTube Channel gives you a chance to watch some episodes, not just listen. We’ll add select episodes to YouTube as time goes on.
Subscribed Yet?
Subscribe for free and never miss out on wisdom from world-class leaders like Brian Houston, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Nancy Duarte, Henry Cloud, Patrick Lencioni, Francis Chan, Ann Voskamp, Erwin McManus and many others.
Subscribe using your favorite podcast app via
Spread the Word. Leave a Rating and Review
Hopefully, this episode has helped you lead like never before. That’s my goal. If you appreciated it, could you share the love?
The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Stitcher and on TuneIn as well.
Your ratings and reviews help us place the podcast in front of new leaders and listeners. Your feedback also lets me know how I can better serve you.
Thank you for being so awesome.
Next Episode: Josh Gagnon
Having dreams is easy. Keeping dreams alive is difficult, especially in the face of rejection and disappointment. What do you do when your book proposal gets rejected, your church isn’t growing as fast as you think it should and your life, though good, isn’t happening the way you hoped? Pastor and author, Josh Gagnon, talks about his experience of rejection and disappointment, what’s he’s learned and how to keep your dream alive when you’re facing setbacks.
Subscribe for free now and you won’t miss Episode 323.
