Video Transcript: Lesson 15 Leading the Congregation

Hello, welcome back. Let's, let's jump right into lecture number 15. We're, this is  our third lecture in the series on repentance. And we're going to be talking about how you can lead a group of people through this wonderful, wonderfully  powerful and transforming exercise of repentance. So let me offer a prayer. And  we will get started right away. Lord, thanks again for meeting us. In this lecture, I pray that for everyone who's listening, that their hearts and their minds would be open to the truth you have and Lord, I thank you for my story. And the wonderful  gracious people were that you worked through to bring renewal and repentance  to our to our church. Lord, thank you for the ways that you will do similar things  in the ministries and churches represented by all those listening. So in advance,  Lord, we praise your name, amen. Okay, so the big idea kind of going through  this series on repentance is that the church cannot move forward when it's  saddled with sin. Okay, that going back to Aiken, when there is sin in the camp,  you can't move forward, you've got to deal with it, you've got to address it. And  so we're going to be today looking at an example of how I was able to lead my  congregation through this. And when I say I led it, certainly I mean, it's the work  of the Holy Spirit. Repentance is not a work that is done by human effort. We are really dealing in the realm of the work of the Spirit. And I've referred to the spirit  many times through these lectures, and for good reason. There's nothing here  that that I could do. I really, and my leaders, we really just had to rely on God to  show up and do what he did. But I'll tell you what, when when you start getting  serious about repentance, and wanting to see repentance and being willing to  have God test you the Psalm 139, and reveal to you, I find that that's a prayer,  God will always answer, he will move in through that. So the basic model that  I'm going to give as my my story, and the one that I would commend to you, is  really kind of a three fold three layer model and kind of, they really go in steps.  So the first thing was really dealing with the pastor or the leader of the ministry,  to that person has to be kind of the first one into the pool. You know, repentance  is a pool, and everybody's scared of the water. They don't know how cold it is,  somebody's got to be the first one in or you think of the penguins on the ice  shelves in Antarctica. And they don't know if the sea lion is down, they're gonna  gobble and well, one penguin has to jump in first, right? Usually, it's a tangle of  somebody gets pushed in first. But in this case, somebody has to jump in first.  And that needs to be the leader. So in a couple lectures from now, we're going  to be spending three lectures talking about the revitalized leader, that leadership being revitalized churches begin with revitalized leaders. So we're going to have some lectures are really specifically for you. And part of that is again, it's going  to be starting with repentance. So I won't get too much into that, because we've  got a bit of that coming just a little bit down the road. But it does begin with the  pastor modeling what repentance looks like in being honest, and then being  vulnerable about that. So for me, when when this was happening when we were starting the revitalization process, and I've shared when we got our assessment 

scores, they were just awful. And they were terrible. And I just felt really bad  about it. And I was defensive, but then I kind of embraced it. And when I shared  with the leaders at different times aftrer that, that, that I did feel really bad about  that and that I had been at the church for five or six years at that point. So like, I  owned it like that I should have, you know, whatever was wrong with the church, like if it was it was under my watch. And that, you know, I needed to be a better  leader. I needed to be more effective in different ways I had shared that I had  put too much too much emphasis on, on programs. I had kind of launched some things without necessarily thinking about how it would fit with the congregation, I had kind of done some things without like, enough people kind of behind it. I had wanted too much to churches to do kind of like my ideas, instead of getting them to come alongside and or it's really just kind of what their ideas were, and, and  how we could work together. I just, you know, I just kind of laid it out kind of like  from this kind of spiritual leadership, things that, that this, I just laid it out, I had  covered a few of my shortcomings in my spiritual disciplines that I was wrestling  with, that I wasn't, I hadn't prayed for the church the way I needed to. I hadn't  studied scripture, in terms of revitalization the way I needed to. And so I just laid  that out. That wasn't to the whole church. But I laid it out to our leaders, and not  just all at once, but over a series of meetings and conversations, whether it was, again around a conference table, or it was one on one at lunch. But I was really  just trying to model what repentance looks like. And so I was not just to give  confessing, but I confess, and then I would say, Well, this is what I'm trying to do about it. And I'm, and I'm reading this book, and I'm getting coaching over here, I decided I'm going to do this Bible reading plan. I'm waking up extra early to do  prayer, whatever. So I was really trying to model that for our, for our leaders. And that's where it has to begin, if you don't do it, don't expect anyone else to do it.  So you're getting you're the first one in the pool, you're the first one off the ice  shelf, and there you go, you just got to do it. So they know what it looks like. And they know also that it's safe. Because when I was doing that, everybody, which  is very gracious and everybody, it was interesting that as you repent, you will  find that other people all of a sudden begin like sharing their shortcomings and  their weaknesses and their need to repent as well. Like it's just the they come  alongside you. So that's what happened. Then it really was then for our team  leaders to embrace repentance. And so I had a challenge for them. And I asked  them to write a letter to the congregation. And it was just kind of an open letter to the church. Really just kind of laying all our stuff out there. Kind of, you know,  acknowledging the present state of the church, recent turmoil that the church  had been in prior to my getting there. You just kind of lay everything out. So they did several, several drafts of it. And then I had done a message on repentance.  And it was kind of like a half message. And then when I got halfway through the  message, I invited all our elders and deacons. So at that time, there's probably  maybe about 10 or 12. And then they came up, and they read a letter that 

addressed numerous areas of disobedience, and dysfunction in the  congregation that they had identified. And what was amazing is that some of  these people were like kind of brand new on our leadership team. They  assumed sole responsibility of decisions that had been made before they were  even on our board. They were assuming responsibility of things that had  happened in our history. If you remember we talked about Ezra did that same  thing, just owning it. And just being very honest about things in our church that  had been disappointing. Things that had been hurtful things that we had kind of  allowed to go on. Whether it was kind of the nature of relationships or just a lack of like evangelism, like we kind of things we turned a blind eye to. So the elders  and the deacons, they took turns reading parts of the letter, and somebody  would read a part of the letter, and then offer a scripture that spoke to it. And  then another person would pray over it and to be a prayer of confession, and  repentance. And we went through, this whole front of our church was filled with  these people who were publicly repenting, it was more than I could have ever  thought more than I could have imagined that they would do. And it was just a  tremendous moment. I mean, it was a watershed moment for our congregation,  to see their leaders upfront, calling sin, sin, owning it, and taking responsibility  for it in a public setting on Sunday morning and worship. I can tell you looking  around the room, there were more than a few people who had tears in their eyes who are watching, and just listening. And it was it was just an incredibly moving,  and a powerful experience. And what we did in the planning of that, as the  leaders, and we're very transparent, and they were very vulnerable, again, they  had kind of done what I modeled for them, then they had done it. And then they,  at the end of reading the letter, they had asked the congregation then to write  their own letter back to them, write a letter back to the the leaders, whether they  wanted to do it individually, or as a small group activity, we had a number of  small groups who've done it. And to say, what are you willing to kind of claim  responsibility for? What are you willing to own in all this, and as we go through  the season of confession and repentance, and, you know, I really didn't know  what to think, you know, is like one person gonna write something or like, a lot. I  didn't think we were gonna get a whole lot, I thought I knew we would get some,  but I wasn't sure how much. And I was really surprised by there was a very  generous response. There were a lot of letters that came in, and, you know,  people signing their names and saying, you know, this is, this is how I've  contributed to what's going on here. And whether it was a current thing, or  sometimes people would go back 20 or 25 years. And, you know, they said  something awful, and caused a big stir. It was amazing, because all this sin was  coming, it was just bubbling up to the surface, and it was being met with just  humility, nobody was like, Yeah, you know, I knew you were a jerk. So you know, this just proves that there was such a grace and a welcoming and, and a healing that came through it. And but also then this sense of like, okay, we don't want to 

be these people anymore. You know, who were who are stumbling on these  areas, we want to be we want to be a church that is is different from this, that a  church that doesn't have this, but a church that is, you know, gets along really  well that bears each other's burdens. We want to be a church that's ministering  deeply to the community. We want to be a church of, you know, a certain level of leadership, all that kind of stuff. Well, we that was that was just again, like a  watershed moment is that really kind of like the dam burst. When we did that,  then that really opened up the door for us to get serious about revitalization.  Remember, in the first lecture, in this series I talked about until you get to the  point of revival of repentance, you're not going to see any revitalization. And  honestly, for us, that this was the moment where it started. This is what really  got things going. If I can say there were two things that really got us going one  was when our leaders accepted the results of the assessment, and then two  when they did this public act of repentance, and then the church joined in with  them. Those were big, kind of building blocks. Those were the big you know,  that was the foundation of everything we've been doing in the last, you know, six plus years was what happened right in those moments. We decided that  repentance was a really really big thing in that we it was something we needed  to stay on top of so we said okay, at at leadership meetings from time to time  We'd set a schedule, we're going to engage in times of repentance. So we don't, we don't forget this, we made sure that in all our worship gatherings, there was a time of confession and repentance. And with assurance along it, you know,  God's goodness, God's grace. But we said, This is who we want to be. We want  to be a people who are always in a place of repenting, not getting comfortable  with our sin, but always raising it up to the surface of the surface. And like I said, it's been something that's been carried on, you know, years later, we just went  through a 40 day, season of repentance, we just had 40 hours, we have like a  prayer relay, where somebody prays for an hour, in the prayer room in our  church. And then somebody comes in the next hour. And we kind of feel to come like a prayer relay. And we just had a 40 hour prayer relay on repentance, where we needed to repent, personally, and it's a congregation. And so this wasn't this  one time thing. We've, we've kept it going. And I'm not saying this is like, like,  look at us, and look at how great we are. It was just, you can't have that attitude  when you keep coming back to repentance of like, look at how good we are. But as we come back to repentance, we're always realizing where we still need to  grow in Christ. And we're saying, looking how great the Lord is, oh, he's  amazing. He's awesome. And we're just trying to get closer and closer to the  light as his glorious radiance, we're moving towards that. So that's where we're  at, I would suggest this, this, this movement of beginning with you to within a  broader leadership team, to the congregation, I do think that's a pretty it's just a  smart way to go about it. You know, set the example, be the model show people, it's safe , show people it's okay to do share with them the joy of repentance, as 

you as you repent and saying, and knowing the grace of God, that I  experienced, even through this repentance, and, you know, you need to create  that kind of a culture and an atmosphere. And we're still working on it, you know, years later, but Repentance isn't nearly as scary of a thing anymore. And we've  even had people share some stories of repentance during worship services. On  Sunday, you just say, Hey, this is where I was at. And this is what, where I erred, and this is where I made a mistake. And God has done this in my life. And I'm so grateful. We've had people who've come to our elders, and share some pretty  significant sin in their life and asking for forgiveness and showing demonstrating  the fruits of repentance. It's really been tremendous. And so again, I say that  until you get to this point of having the church engaged in repentance. Well,  you're really you're just going to keep running into a wall trying to see anything  change. Okay, so, you, you have some help, because you will be saying, Okay,  where do I start? How do we, how do we address this? Well, one, you know,  your own weaknesses, and your own sins, you know, Psalm 139, pray that God  would seek you would seek you, or even search you out, as you seek Him that  He would reveal to you how are you contributing to this? How can you just  whether it's personally or as a leadership person, how can you repent? Then  working with your when you get to your leaders, talking about more of the  church broadly, and even kind of yourself, you've got some help. If you've been  doing this, you've got assessments, you have history, and you have diagnosis,  Autopsy that we've talked about, okay, all the work you did kind of as we  covered in our first 12 lectures, you can see it now all that is that is just the  material we are now going to use for repentance. That's what all that hard work  was for, to get us to a place of to know where we needed to turn from and where we needed to go towards. Okay, hopefully that all makes a lot of sense for you.  I'm going to leave you with the verse we'd read on our first series, first lecture on repentance, as kind of our way out. But as you use these wonderful resources  that you've built for yourself, you are on your way to repentance, you are on your way to renewal and revitalization. So let me send you out with this blessing. This is our prayer, repentance and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.  that times of refreshing may come from the Lord brothers and sisters. That is my prayer over you. Thanks again so much for watching and listening and I pray  that God is going to be doing a great work in and through your ministry.