News / People
LifeWay makes its mark at Catalyst ‘09
LifeWay Research's Ed Stetzer shares data from recent studies
Catalyst sessions addressed a wide variety of topics including organizational and personal leadership, integrity, character, relationships and vision. Well-known Christian leaders, including LifeWay Research Director Ed Stetzer, spoke to attendees about leadership, missional engagement and ministry in today’s culture.
Representatives from Threads, LifeWay’s young adult ministry area, as well as LifeWay Conference Centers and LifeWay’s small group resources area talked with attendees and offered ministry tips from a shared booth in the exhibit hall. Stetzer spoke during a general session and led a lab, or breakout session, focused on church planting.
"Participation in events like Catalyst provides LifeWay an opportunity to reach and impact the broader evangelical community," Stetzer said. "Where else do you have the attention of thousands of young Christian leaders ready to change the world for Christ?"
In 2008 and again this year, LifeWay Research was invited to present data during the conference. This year, Stetzer presented research into pastors’ expectations of what they and their churches might look like 10 years from now.
The research identified encouraging perceptions about the church, including the finding that 78 percent of participants agree (somewhat or strongly, here and throughout) the church is doing a good job fostering and developing young leaders. Additionally, 93 percent said they are investing personally in younger, upcoming leaders. In spite of these strong numbers, the data also revealed that 75 percent of respondents agree their churches have difficulty reaching young adults.
More than half of the respondents (56 percent) expect to be serving in "a very different role" 10 years from now, and 83 percent expect their churches to look very different from what they do now.
"The fact is, the majority of pastors we talked to still believe in the church and her mission," Stetzer said. "But they also recognize that their roles and churches are in a season of change."
In addition to presenting data during a main session, Stetzer also conducted a Catalyst lab during which he offered personal experiences and insights about his journey in church planting.
Several hundred people, including many church planters, attended the lab and listened as Stetzer revealed some of the mistakes he made while serving as a church planter.
"Church planting was the hardest thing, but the greatest thing I ever did," Stetzer told attendees. "I now realize that church planters like me often get drunk with vision but lack the understanding of reality and the benefit of adequate preparation that often leads to critical mistakes."
Stetzer listed seven mistakes church planters should strive to avoid:
- Forgetting the mission. "The tools cannot be the focus. The goal needs to be the focus," Stetzer said. "And the goal must be God’s glory and getting others to live on mission for him."
- Being married to a model. Too often church planters are star-struck by the successful ministry models of others and miss the mission God has called them to fulfill. The "how" of church planting is in some ways determined by the who, when and where, Stetzer said. "If you’re planting a church without attention to these issues, you’re in trouble," he said. "If you’re trying to replicate someone else’s success, then you’re planting a church in your head but not in your community."
- Not taking care of oneself. "Every time I planted a church I was less healthy spiritually with God, physically with myself and relationally with my family," he admitted. Stetzer lamented that he didn’t realize how much he overlooked his family in the process of planting a church. In the end, he said, the people that church planters are trying to reach need to see the pastor being a successful, committed husband and father rather than a successful entrepreneur.
- Acting arrogantly. Arrogance is a tendency that will tempt all church planters, Stetzer cautioned. Too often church planters fail to listen to the hard-earned wisdom of others, and they lack mentoring relationships that provide encouragement and accountability. Stetzer noted that one study found the church plants of pastors who met weekly with mentors to be twice as large as plants of those who did not.
- Not taking believers deeper. Discipleship is critical to church life and health, so "if the vision you have doesn’t include growing people deeper spiritually, then you don’t have the right vision," Stetzer said. Growing a church doesn’t mean pastors can ignore the responsibility to grow individual Christians.
- Ignoring hidden agendas. Experience shows that people will have different visions than what God has given the pastor planting a church. Those individuals shouldn’t be thrown out, but pastors must work hard to align them with the vision. "If you ignore hidden agendas, the peril is great," Stetzer said. "But keep in mind disagreeing with you is not the same as disagreeing with God."
- Being afraid of finances. Most people don’t like to talk about money, but when a new church is being planted they expect it. "Just don’t talk about money in a creepy way," he quipped. "No one is surprised when you talk about money, and if you don’t talk about money you’ll be broke and gone before you know it."
"I love church planters because I love the church," he said. "What your people need is a godly, God-directed church planter. Anything else is not from His agenda, but from yours."
For more information about LifeWay Research, visit LifeWayResearch.com. Information about Catalyst conferences and events can be found at catalystconference.com.
Methodology: Questions on young adult ministry were included in a LifeWay Research study conducted in December 2008 among a random sample of Protestant pastors. Questions about ministry in the next 10 years were included in a LifeWay Research study conducted in September 2009 among a random sample of Protestant pastors. The completed samples for the two phone surveys were 1,004 and 1,002 respectively and provide 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +/- 3.1 percent.
