Why Pastors Need to Leave the Church to Grow the Church

Pastors, if you’re at church seven nights a week, you can’t be friends with non-Christians. So cut a few nights and go live the mission.
The only way you can love a community is to be in the community.
What could this do for you, your church, and your community in 2024?
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[@PastorRobbey]

The gym is how I live out my calling. 70 people now attend our church and yes I met them at the gym.

[@CareyNieuwhof]

Great example!

[@mtcstyle]

The spending time with your family hit. When I started leading worship, I told the senior pastor I would only do it with proper boundaries. Anyone can pick out songs, give a message and help the community. There's only one person on the planet that can be a husband to my wife and a father to my kids.

[@jairusdunston2517]

Totally agree with you on this Carey. I'm a staff pastor at my church (Full time), but on the side, I help coach a high school girls basketball team. As a church staff, we've been working on and planning a volunteer appreciation dinner. However, the night conflicts with my girls team making it to a district finals. I was super nervous to tell my senior pastor about the schedule conflict because I knew that this volunteer event was legitimately a very important event for me to be at, but my sr. pastor's response was so encouraging to me. He said, "You have to be at your district final! This is the price we pay at times when we say we want to be in our community. Our events aren't always going to line up with what's happening outside our church." I was so relieved and appreciate his desire to see our church and staff be the light outside the walls of the church.

[@CareyNieuwhof]

Thank you for sharing this, so encouraging! I love your pastor's response.

[@ChirpyChat]

Real good advice. From experience, pastors who only preach and teach struggle to hold normal conversations where they are not teaching and preaching. (Spore)

[@CareyNieuwhof]

There is certainly much truth to this. We need to step out of the church walls and be in our communities.

[@josiahpetermann6216]

Oof 🔥

[@alanlatta9379]

Preach it! We need this.

[@_Michael_Head_]

so good!

[@jonterry3066]

Totally

[@gracemarybangura621]

Welcome my friend.
Thank you so much for this post.
My family come second issue after God,
My work here is, I am send trained to send to the village to win souls but with all this, I have time for my family,
I am a village church planter.
So I return to my family at weekends to fellowship with them,
I think that's better,

[@terry2588]

Be present for your family. Be authentic and intentional about engaging with others away from the church. 👏🏽

[@lhcc]

Great advice! I'm leaving the church.

[@LetsTalkChurch]

Pastors getting out of the building, set an example for every other member of Church, who is also supposed to be a minister in their community. The church was never meant to be an isolated phenomenon from the world, but the power of God to transform the world. How can we transform the world if we won’t be in it.

[@CareyNieuwhof]

Love these thoughts!

[@dankwilde]

Good stuff Carey

[@CareyNieuwhof]

Thanks, Dan

[@_Michael_Head_]

😀So good! Do the Shepherds smell like the sheep?

[@BillTony2]

Isn't this a result of not having home churches?

[@CareyNieuwhof]

I think home church groups should be careful about staying too much to themselves as well.

[@BillTony2]

@@CareyNieuwhof Couldn't we say the same thing about regular churches too? I'm a 60 year old black man who has been in black churches, white churches, mixed churches, small churches and big churches. I was born again at 19 after growing up in Church all my life. Sometimes we can get the right answer to the wrong question. The right question might be what can we best do to exhort and encourage saints in the word of God to do the work of the ministry..
If you look at the George Barna reports from Arizona Christian University, you will see that churhes of all types across the board are off the rails due to syncretism and other things. Your church MIGHT be an A+ church but please look at the bigger picture BEYOND your church.