The Urban Islands Project in conjunction with NextWave.community posed a question to us. “How do you plant an iWork4Him church?” “How do you do this in an urban environment?”  We tackled these questions and more as we spoke to the NextWave.community about iWork4Him and how a church focused on work and the value of work can transform a community by meeting the needs of the community before you start inviting people to church. Enjoy the challenges we offered in this conversation. If you are a pastor of a local church, some of these conversations may cause you to look at things differently. Be warned.  Its always fun to see what God is doing all over the country and this group of church planting pastors is a dynamic group trying to meet the needs of rural communities and urban communities.

Our theme for the month is Reinventing Church Funding. In preparation for our interview, I’m posting a article entitled “Lean Staff, Robust Mission.” The point of the article is to help our audience of church leaders expand their imagination concerning the purpose of the people they lead. We want to help them shift from seeing congregants primarily as volunteers for staffing church programs to viewing them as activated disciple makers serving Jesus where ever they go. I believe your core message is in perfect alignment with this shift in thinking.

• Tell us about your family

  • 3 kids – all married – 6 grandkids – all over the country, MN, MO, Northern Fl.

• Tell us about your experience with the Church

  • Both of us grew up in the church

  • Both committed our lives to full-time Christian ministry at 13

  • Both had an entrepreneurial call on our lives

  • Tried to enroll in seminary and twice the Sr. Pastor of our church came and said – Church leadership is not a good fit, we need more “Lay” ministers

  • Lived our lives as entrepreneurs having been told “church is church and business is business – they have nothing to do with each other” and “business is a necessary evil” – did those pastors know Jesus was a business guy??? Did they ever read the bible?

• Tell us about your podcast

  • iWork4Him is a show dedicated to unlocking God’s purpose for Christ Followers in their work. We highlight workplaces faith testimonies, great written resources and ministries that are actively involved in discipling workplace believers at all levels of an organization.

  • 8 years running

  • 1800 shows

  • 3000 guests

  • Daily 1 minute all over the nation

  • Weekly podcasts

• You have said (something like) the most underutilized missionary resource of the Church are the church members themselves. Talk to us about what you mean by that?

  • What I said is this, churches are designed around what pastors have been taught in seminary. Build a little kingdom and get lots of subjects. The bible talks about the church as a manufacturing plant. Everything produced is useless unless it is put into production. NO WHERE does it say in the scriptures that ONE person has everything the Holy Spirit has to say for the week. Pastors rarely know lost people. Workplace believers are surrounded by them – we need to send them on mission.

• What are some healthy ways that church leaders can interact with high capacity parishioners?

  • Love them

  • Live life with them

  • Earn their trust and admiration

  • Invite them into your life

  • Let the Lord lead them to give you money.

  • They are tired of being asked all the time. They want to invest not only their money, they want a place to invest their money where they are wanted for what’s in their life too.

• If you were starting a church from scratch, what habits would you build into the rhythm of the church?

  • Throw all the old ideas away

  • Stop thinking of church being on Sunday and realize that The Church is in action all 7 days a week

  • Stop thinking a building is the central focus and realize it is a tool and often an ostracizing one at that

  • Love on your community – learn about it, what it needs, work to meet those needs, then share Jesus in action – The local church needs to be seen as the solver of community problems through the power and provision of God – not the government.

  • Understand that your role as pastor is not leader, it is chief servant. Your role is not central to the life of those who go to your church – Jesus is and His Holy Spirit

  • Have a manufacturing plant mentality – don’t know what that is? Go work at one for a month

  • Help each person that you touch to see an attribute of God at work, in their work – Jon Van Sloten – Every Job a parable book

  • Study your bible from an MBA perspective not an MDIV perspective – lots of business, government, politics, education, etc. going on there.

  • Share the podium each week with others who are seeing the amazing hand of God in their lives – don’t be afraid if they say the wrong words, if God is working, everyone needs to hear about it.

  • Forget office hours. Work the streets. Go see everyone who goes to your “church” in their work. Stop expecting everyone to come to you – go to them – let them know you love their work and see God’s hand of blessing on it.

• Other questions

  • What ministries have resources we can take advantage of?

  • Who else is doing what we are doing?

  • How can I make sure I am not wasting Kingdom Resources when I am starting my urban ministry.

Featured Guests: Steve Pike

Ministry/Workplace: Urban Islands Project & NextWave.community

YouTube Video Interview