Leading a Culture of Confession

We don’t get to choose who opens up to us.

It’s a real bummer, isn’t it? I know I’ve had friends who I can tell are going through a really hard time but they’re not talking to anybody about it. I just want to shake them until they start talking. “TELL ME YOUR SECRETS SO I CAN BE THERE FOR YOU, YOU FREAKING JERK!”

Not the best approach.

We can’t force people to confide in us but I do think there are some simple steps we can take, as leaders, to let the people in our community know that they can trust us.

I created a 4 part video training that walks through how we can lead a culture of confession.

I posted the first video on Facebook the other day. The rest is available for free on my website. At first you had to sign up with your e-mail address in order to view them but I decided to get rid of that.

3 Reasons to Evaluate Church Events

Earlier I asked if your church evaluates big events. Here are 3 reasons why an evaluation meeting can be so important.

WE GAIN PERSPECTIVE 

It might not be until you’re in a meeting with your team, hearing everyone’s experience at the event, that you realize not a single person noticed the little mistakes you’ve been kicking yourself over all week. You’ve been so zoomed in you didn’t notice how successful the big picture was!

WE CAN CELEBRATE EACH OTHER 

So often in ministry, the moment an event is over we’re focused on what’s next. It’s important to take a moment, pause, share our wins, our stories, and encouragement with each other.

WE CAN MAKE OUR NEXT EVENT EVEN BETTER 

What did we learn? What did we try this time that we want to change for next time? If we don’t look at it now, we’re dooming ourselves to repeating it next time.

How do you evaluate big events?

If you’re looking for something easy to use I have a simple EVENT EVALUATION GUIDE that can help give some direction as you take notes and unpack your latest event.

Hey Pastors, How Was Easter?

When I think about planning big events for the church, two quotes come to mind:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

It’s so important to unpack and evaluate an event in the weeks after it’s all over.

There’s so much we can learn from every event we do. It can shape and influence the next outreach or conference on the calendar. It can completely change how you approach the same event next year.

For most of us the dust just settled from Easter.

How’d it go?

The whole thing is still fresh in our minds so it’s the perfect time to sit down with our team and evaluate the whole thing.

I’ve been working on resources for churches who bring me in for big events and one of the things I wanted to create was super simple EVALUATION GUIDE that can help give some direction as you walk through the details of your last event.

It's simple and barebones on purpose. I just wanted to make an easy guide for when you meet with leaders to talk through how things went.

Buzz Lightyear's Confession

I wanted to share one of the 10 Free Sermon Illustrations About Confession that I'm giving away. This is one of my favorites. If you want you the other 9, sign up here.

“For to confess is not simply to change but to first face and fully deny the false person you were trying to be.”

This is a quote from Josh Larsen’s book Movies are Prayers. In his chapter on how movies can be prayers of confession he looks at Buzz Lightyear’s journey in TOY STORY. For the majority of the film Buzz believes he is actually a real life space ranger and not just a toy. This all comes crumbling down when he happens to see a commercial advertising other Buzz Lightyear toys.

Feeling at his lowest, Woody tries to cheer up Buzz by saying “being a toy is a lot better than being a space ranger.”

On this scene Josh Larsen writes “Glancing from the corporate stamp on his wrist (“Made in Taiwan”) the hand-lettered inscription on the bottom of his foot (“ANDY”), Buzz comes to understand that his true identity lies not in the facade of a factious hero but in being claimed by someone else, someone who loves him despite his faults.”

Get 10 FREE SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS ABOUT CONFESSION