Four Themes, One Moonshot

​Two weeks ago, our district said yes to a plan. This week I want to hand you the map: CLICK HERE TO VIEW

When God gave Habakkuk a vision, he attached an instruction to it: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2). God did not want the vision admired. He wanted it written down clearly enough that his people could read it and act on it. The same needs to be true of the five-year plan we launched together at District Conference. It should not live in a binder on a shelf at the district office. It should be plain enough that a pastor, a board member, or a brand-new leader can pick it up and run with it.

So let me make it plain.

Start with the destination. Here is the moonshot, and I intend to repeat it until every one of us can say it from memory. By 2031: every Crossroads pastor has access to coaching, cohorts, and formation. Every Crossroads church has a Great Commission Plan and a developing leader for their next Kingdom Expression.

Everything the district does for the next five years climbs toward those two sentences. And the climb moves on four impact areas: the health of our pastors, the health of our churches, the development of our leaders, and the multiplication of new Kingdom Expressions.

Notice the order, because it matters. These four are a sequence, not a menu. Healthy pastors lead healthy churches. Healthy churches develop leaders. Developed leaders multiply new Kingdom Expressions. You cannot skip a step and expect the next one to hold. A church cannot develop leaders it does not have, and a pastor running on empty cannot build a healthy congregation, no matter how good the plan is. Paul describes the church as a body “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,” so that it “builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:16). When each part is working properly. That is the logic of the four themes. Pastor, church, leader, multiplication: each one supplies the next.

Underneath all four runs one engine, and I want to name it now because it is our focus for this first year: disciple-making. Making disciples who make disciples is what turns a healthy pastor into a healthy church, a healthy church into a pipeline of leaders, and a pipeline of leaders into new Kingdom Expressions. It is the work the plan exists to serve, and the Disciple-Making Lab is where that focus will land this year. You will hear much more about the Lab this fall.

Now, here is why I am giving you the map in July. This newsletter is going to walk the whole plan with you, one theme at a time, between now and the end of the year. Consider this issue the table of contents.

Beginning July 27, we will spend six weeks on the first theme in a series called The Sustainable Pastor: the rhythms, rest, and relationships that keep a pastor whole, because everything in ministry flows from the life of the one doing it. In September and October, eight weeks on the Marks of a Healthy Church: what health actually is, how to assess it honestly, and how to build your church’s Great Commission Plan in its three parts. In November, five weeks on Becoming the Leader the Future Needs, timed to the season when many of us review the year and plan the next one. And through Advent, four weeks on New Kingdom Expressions, because God’s first mission move was presence, and Christmas is the right season to talk about filling our communities with the church.

Each series will stand on its own. You will be able to hand a whole series to your board, your staff, or a developing leader as one piece. Which is exactly what I hope you will do, starting now.

Because here is the honest truth about district plans: a plan owned only by the district office is a document. A plan owned by a hundred churches is a movement. The moonshot does not need your admiration. It needs your congregation’s participation, one impact area at a time.

​So here is this week’s assignment, and it is a simple one. Share this issue with your board or leadership team, and ask them one question: which of the four areas does our church most need this year? The health of your pastor. The health of your church. The development of your leaders. The multiplication of something new. Let the conversation run longer than you planned. Then hold onto the answer, because the series that addresses it is already on the calendar, and I wrote the map so you could run.