Stay FLEXIBLE!

I hear some leaders say “Don’t have change for changes sake”. Sorry, I want to beg to differ! Change is good. It keeps us supple; it keeps us alive! If you want to keep people out of religion, and engaged with God, you need to wage a war on boredom.

In our nearby city of Hull we have a beautiful aquarium called The Deep. When it first opened I went along to see the sharks. It was awesome to see these terrifying creatures close up. They looked at you as if to say “If it wasn’t for this glass, you’d be lunch chum!” Vicky and I took out an annual membership to visit at will, but as the months went on we noticed the sharks slowly becoming more and more in-active, until they actually looked quite bored. After a year their eyes seemed to yawn “Oh it’s you again”.

Church leader, you have to do all you can, to demolish the “Yawn, it’s you again” feeling our churches can so often fall into. So much of our church existence is muscle memory religion. Same old patterns, same old words, same old times on the same old days, doing the same old stuff. People aren’t backslidden…they’re BORED!

And leader, it can be our fault. We’re boring!

Why not change all the seating for no reason?!  Have new meeting times during the summer. Turn your main hall into a bouncy castle park all summer holidays and worship among the bouncy castles! Hold a worship service, cinema style, in a car park. Gather hundreds in the city centre for a Saturday morning healing service – give out words of knowledge and prayer for the sick! Remove the seats, buy an adventure park, do things that make people move around for prayer, or communion, or just because! Start preaching when they think you should be worshipping. Start worshipping when you normally teach. Do a highly practical workshop when all they want to do is sit and listen to a comforting sermon. Do a worship time with no music accompaniment at all.

LET THE SPIRIT BREAK OUT and go after healings, prophecy and intercession, instead of playing the “church service game”!

They say there are two types of people in the world. Those who have heart attacks, and those who cause them. Which are you?

Part of the journey from dull, muscle memory ministry, back to being Beloved of God, on a Spirit-filled adventure, is to get out the defibrillators and shock your church back to life!

Sometimes, just kindly teaching it, softly speaking it, gently shuffling towards it, ain’t enough any more. Start to let some little sparks fly. A little stretch here, a bigger one there. A small change, a big one. A temporary one, then a permanent one. Teach them change won’t kill you. It might just revive you! You’d be amazed who will awaken, and what will awaken in your church, went you start to stir up a hungering for the Spirit!

An extract from The Divine Reset and Beyond: Pre-order your copy here.⬇️

The Divine Reset & Beyond: EXPANDED EDITION (Pre-Order)

The Divine Reset & Beyond is the fully updated and greatly expanded edition of The Divine Reset, where Jarrod Cooper continues to equip believers, churches, and leadership teams to flex, grow, and adapt to the seismic shifts and innovations reshaping our world since 2020.

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