Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Articles

The End of the Sermon?

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“Online news isn’t journalism; it’s copy-and-paste from the newspaper.”

Guess what year that was written? …in the year 2000…🎶🎤🎹 

There used to be a day when getting your news online carried this sort of stigma. To the public, it was seen as sub-par, less than adequate, mediocre, and untrustworthy. To journalists and news organizations, it was an after-thought.

All of this began to shift in 1998 when the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal first broke on The Drudge Report (an Internet news aggregation site) before any newspaper was able to publish it.

Now fast forward 19 years to March 26, 2017, and at 8:36 am, the same thing happened when two young girls weren’t allowed on a United Airlines flight because they were wearing leggings. Yes you heard me…leggings. It’s not like they had burned their bras or were wearing mini-skirts, short-shorts, or anything revealing by any means.

Well, as you’d expect, within minutes a Twitter storm erupted. By the time United “officially” responded and explained why those girls weren’t allowed to board, the damage had already been done. And when this story hit print the next day, it was considered old hat.

In a day and age when seconds matter in the world of information and breaking news, how do newspapers still exist?

How are they even still profitable? Aside from shrinking margins, high fixed costs, and declining advertising revenue, how are they even still relevant?

The front page of a newspaper was the viral Instagram and the trending Tweet of ol’—it was the breaking news and the historic story. That’s where we got the phrase, “Read all about it! Get your paper, and read all about it!”

It’s what many looked forward to in the morning. It was regular reading over breakfast, during the commute to work, and over the water cooler. However, today, it’s nothing but a reminder of what already happened. It’s something we already knew about within minutes, if not seconds of the actual event.

Are live sermons still relevant?

Is it possible that the traditional live sermon could go the way of the newspaper?

There used to be a day when the only way you could hear a sermon was by going to a local church. Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday nights were the typical selection. If you were a part of a Korean church that held early morning prayer, then you could get your prepared biblical exposition every morning before work.

But what about today? Well, as churches continue to cut traditional programming (often starting with their Sunday evening service) and put their sermons online, do you think a day is coming when the Sunday morning live sermon could face the same fate as the newspaper?

I’m not talking about profitability, I’m talking about relevance.

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Faith Like Broccoli

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prayer

“What are we going to do? There’s not enough food to feed the children. How did we end up here? How are the children going to react?”

These were the questions the orphanage leaders were asking one another on a hot summer day in Chiang Rai, Thailand. When I was pastoring in South Korea, I had led a team to serve the orphans at this particular orphanage in Thailand. The orphanage had close to 100 children. Some came from poverty-stricken homes where their parents couldn’t afford to feed and house them, and others lost their parents due to one circumstance or another.

These were children who, in the world’s standards, didn’t have much, but that didn’t seem to matter.

Constant laughter, joy, and childish pranks filled this orphanage, whether the children were in school, eating a bowl of rice, or playing games with sticks and vegetables.

…that is, until they ran out of food…

When the orphanage leaders realized they had no way to feed the children, they decided to break the news to the children before they prayed over their last supper.

“Children, we need to pray,” said the orphanage director, “we’ve run out of food, money, and all means to go and buy groceries at the market.”

The childish atmosphere immediately turned into nervous silence.

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Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried About “Job Security”

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“It’s all about job security, right?”

Over the course of my adult life, I’ve heard this phrase multiple times. And it’s always irked me the wrong way.

Now I understand where someone might be coming from—they want to be irreplaceable so that they’re never faced with a pink slip and are without a job. As a result, they never write down their process or train others to do what they can do. They hold onto “industry secrets” and proudly declare that they were certified or educated to do these certain tasks. If they get hit by a bus, then the organization will suffer, since no one else can do their job.

I guess that’s job security…but it sounds pretty selfish to me.

In today’s open-share economy, do “industry secrets” even exist anymore? Sure, education and certification are proof that you’ve gone through the steps, but they don’t prove whether or not you’re competent in an area. After all, there are plenty of courses that I’ve received an “A” in, but I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’m incompetent in Calculus and Organic Chemistry.

No one wants to lose their job. I get it. I’m in the same boat.

But what if I were to tell you that there was another way to guarantee your job security?

It’s about having a posture of generosity, rather than scarcity

  • Scarcity is a closed fist approach to work and life.
  • Generosity is an open palm approach to work and life.
  • Scarcity says, “Cutbacks are inevitable, so I need to make myself irreplaceable.”
  • Generosity says, “Those who develop others will never be without a job.”
  • Scarcity says, “I need to add more tasks onto my list of responsibilities so that I become more valuable to the organization.”
  • Generosity says, “When I develop others to do what I can do, I’ll be entrusted with greater responsibility.”

One of the most selfish things a leader can do is to refuse to reproduce themselves.

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Unity vs Uniformity: A Key Issue for Urban Ministry

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urbanministry

Is your mission to fulfill God’s purpose? Or is it your fame within God’s purposes?

This is a valid question for every Christian leader, but as Dhati Lewis states in his book, Among Wolves: Disciple-Making in the City, it’s especially important for leaders in the urban context.

What is Urban?

As sociologists Gottdiener and Hutchinson explain,

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, more than 3 billion persons—about half of the world’s population—lived in urban areas. By 2030, this number is expected to increase from 3 to more than 5 billion persons—some 60 percent of the total world population. This will be the first urban century in human history.

In the face of this emerging reality, Dhati and his team—through the church he’s planted, and the ministry he leads—have developed a strategy for indigenous disciple-making in the urban context. They’ve done this by embracing both density and diversity in the city context, and by creating a culture of effective disciple-making.

By 2030, 60 percent of the world is expected to live in urban areas.

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Urban ministry is not the same thing as inner city ministry to the homeless.

Ministry to the homeless that happens in the inner city is definitely urban, but there are other dimensions that must be taken into account. For example, when a neighborhood is undergoing gentrification, you’ll have a ton of socioeconomic diversity.

Extreme poverty can be right beside extreme wealth.

For example, a family who has owned their house for generations may be forced out of their gentrifying neighborhood because they can’t pay the rising property taxes. Sure they might make a lot on the sale of their home, but where will they move? Their life and community are right there…and it has been there for decades. Is that fair just because some developer wants to build condos and make a quick buck?

Complex issues like gentrification and the mixing of socioeconomic classes are one of the many reasons Dhati defines urban as a combination of two words: density and diversity.

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Dealing with Conflict and Criticism

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When collaborating with others, conflict is to be expected.

Conflict is inevitable when you’re actually doing the hard work of collaborating. After all, if there’s anything that’s a guarantee in leadership, it’s conflict and criticism. So how do you respond? Do you embrace it? Or avoid it?

If there’s anything that’s a guarantee in leadership, it’s conflict and criticism.

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Conflict is not the problem, avoiding conflict resolution is.

So have conflict, and then wrestle to resolution. But whatever you do, don’t avoid conflict; it’s necessary for a healthy team. If you never have conflict on your team, then this might be symptomatic of a deeper issue.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your team:

  • Do people feel the freedom to say what they really think?
  • Are you, as a leader or manager giving enough ownership to those that you lead that mistakes are inevitable?
  • Or is the rope so short because you have control issues and you want everything to be “just right”? And by “just right,” I mean it’s your way or the highway?
Whatever you do, don’t avoid conflict; it’s necessary for a healthy team.

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Allow people to disagree with you, but create environments for this.

In other words, when it’s planning and strategizing time, have a cone of safety where anyone can say anything. This is where differing points of view can come up and be wrestled with. But once you agree on a way forward, make sure everyone is on board. 

Now what if people on your team have conflict with one another?

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Collaboration is a Leadership Competency

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There’s a children’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It starts off like this,

I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Have you ever had one of those days? In 2004, the US Basketball team sure did.

1992 was the first year that professional basketball players were allowed to compete in the Summer Olympic games. This was the birth of the “Dream Team.” I remember watching Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Magic Johnson, and Charles Barkley dominate. I had their basketball cards. I played them in video games. Man, this was the year for basketball.

From that year on, just like Canadians were always expected to dominate hockey, the Americans were expected to do the same with Basketball. After all, who could ever challenge them? Who could beat them? The Americans had not only won gold every time since the Dream Team had competed, but they had also never lost a game—they were undefeated.

But in 2004 it happened in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics.

And although the US team had superstars like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwayne Wade, they lost their opening game in the tournament against Puerto Rico—a team that they should’ve crushed. Instead, they got crushed and were beat 92-73. This was the biggest loss in Olympic history for the US; in fact, it was their first loss ever. Their performance was a far cry from the original Dream Team who typically beat their opponents by 44 points.

Was this the end of the Dream Team?

Well, as much as they scrapped their way to the semifinals, they were eventually defeated by Argentina. Since NBA players were allowed to compete in the Olympics, 2004 was the only year that the USA men’s team did not win gold. In fact, 2004 was the only year they ever lost a game too. In 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016, not only did the US men’s basketball team win gold, but they went undefeated.

So what went wrong?

I only have one thing to say—just one thing. You know that phrase, “Teamwork makes the dream work?” Yeah…I know, pretty amazing, right? Well, apparently they didn’t know that…

Collaboration is the ability to work with others

In this previous article, I outlined the two-year process that I was a part of to identify the universal core competencies of church leaders. Collaboration was one of them. This was a competency that just kept on coming up.

In order to collaborate well, you need to start by working with others

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While collaboration is simply defined as the ability to work with others, it goes far beyond that. To collaborate well, yes, you do need to display proficiency in your ability to work with others.

But as you grow in this competency, as a leader, you need to learn how to:

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Should You Love Those You Lead?

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The only people who can hurt you deeply are the ones you allow to get deep inside your soul. This is what makes love so dangerous. – Erwin McManus

In order to be an effective leader, do you need to love those you’re leading? Is love a competency that a leader needs to display proficiency in?

When it comes to the task or the domain of your work, love will go a long way. After all, when you love what you’re doing, time flies. Can’t you remember doing something for hours upon end, only to realize that it’s past midnight? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this flow. This is what it means to work in your area of greatest talent or strength.

But what about the people you’re working with? Do you need to love them in order to be an effective leader?

The straightforward answer is no. There are a lot of people that I’ve worked with that I definitely did not love. Now obviously, I’m not talking about the romantic sense of love. I’m talking about the sort of brotherly love that causes you to care for, think about, and want to hang out with others outside of work hours.

For some, this sounds like crossing boundaries. “Shouldn’t work be work and personal life be personal life?” While there are many that still hold to this view, there are an increasing number of leaders–millennials especially–that want to see that line done away with.

Just think about it. If you had the choice, wouldn’t you want to love what you’re doing and love who you’re doing it with?

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Learning To Wait…Again

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My wife, Christina, was recently asked to speak to the group of moms at MOPS. I was so inspired by her talk, that I asked if I could post her transcript here as an article. I pray that this is as inspiring to you as it was to me.

The other day, Victoria asked me if the photos back when I was her age were in color or in black and white. Slightly offended, I answered “Oh hunny, I am not that old. Of course they were in color.”

Daniel, my husband, continued the conversation by telling our children that “Back in the day we didn’t have digital pictures. We had to take a picture with a camera that would only allow 25 pictures, then take them to be developed.”

They all had blank stares on their faces. They literally could not imagine a time when you couldn’t instantly see your selfie.

The majority of us grew up in an interesting time. We can remember not having internet, to all of a sudden having our parents yell at us to get off the dial up because they needed to make a phone call.

We remember having to wait for so.many.things.

Waiting for a snail mail letter to come, waiting to use the only phone at home, waiting to use the pay phone. Waiting was a part of our daily lives. It was just a matter of fact. We may not have enjoyed waiting, but what other choice did we have?

But nowadays, with new technology, there is an insatiable thirst for everything in an instant. In an essence, we have forgotten how to wait.

In an essence, we have forgotten how to wait.

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Just ask Google. Google aims to load a page in half a second, since their research shows that most people will abandon a site or try to reload if it takes longer than two seconds to appear. Can you believe that? Google knows that our expectation is for the answer to be in our faces in less than two blinks of an eye.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love things in an instant.

The convenience of our society trying to make things easier, faster, brighter, filtered, and shinier is addicting. But, have you ever stopped to ask yourself: What is this doing to my soul? My spiritual journey? My relationship with Christ?

I am reminded of the time that I completely missed baby Jesus.

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The Impact of Commuting on Church Planting and Campuses

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Garrett Dash Nelson and Alasdair Rae
Garrett Dash Nelson and Alasdair Rae

What happens when you plot four million commutes on a map?

No, this is not a bad joke. The answer is not exhaust clouds, headaches, or road rage. What you actually get is a different picture of the mega-regions—a cluster of interconnected cities.

A few years back, The Guardian wrote about this “endless city” phenomenon and how the mega-regions of this world are possibly going to be one of the most significant and problematic trends in the next 50 years. I mean, just consider the fact that Anna Tibaijuka, former director of UN-Habitat, discovered that half the world currently lives in cities, and by 2050, it’s estimated that 70% of the world will.

While moving into the city is definitely trendy, and a choice that many are making today, it’s not always affordable or the particular lifestyle choice that everyone wants to make. In fact, this is one of the reasons many millennials, according to 2014 U.S. Census Bureau data, are actually moving the opposite way—from the cities to the suburbs. (Think Millennials Prefer The City? Think Again.)

…which is why this new research on commuting and mega-regions is so insightful for church leaders.

While individuals may choose to move to, or stay in, suburban or rural areas, they are still commuting into the city for work. Hence, the rise of mega-regions.

Just take a look at the map (see above) from research that Garrett Nelson of Dartmouth College and Alasdair Rae of the University of Sheffield did using census data on more four million U.S. commutes.

What you see here is not a decline of the city, but an expansion of it, because of commuting.

Instead of abandoning the suburbs or rural areas to move into the cities, many are just choosing to commute instead. This is why, as you’ll see on the map, the commute distance into many of these cities can be quite long. For the commuter, they are not paying attention to city or county lines. Instead, as long as they have a road and a means of transportation, they will commute.

The Same is True for Our Churches

Why are we okay driving to church? Why do we commute to community? Why do we often pass several, if not dozens of churches, on our way to our church worship service on the weekend?

Why are we okay driving to church? Why do we commute to community?

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I’ve lived in cities my entire life. From the 2.5 million Greater Vancouver area that I grew up in, to the 4 million Greater Montreal area and 24 million Seoul capital area that I pastored in, to the 1.8 million Nashville metropolitan area where I now reside. If there’s one thing I know and have experienced, it’s city life. In fact, long commutes have always been a part of my life. So instead of dreading it, I’ve just grown accustomed to it and have learned to leverage that time. My wife, Christina, likes to call it time in the margins. So, while on the bus or train, I read. While driving, I listen to audio books, podcasts, and the Bible. And while walking from one location to the next, I pray.

As a result, when we moved to Nashville, we decided that I would commute to work, but not to church. We did not want to commute to community.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been this way for us. In the last two cities we lived in, we were at least 30 minutes away from our church. Growing up as children, my wife and I both remember 45 minute long commutes to church every weekend.

So how is it that people can commute to your church from a neighboring city or the complete opposite end of your borough, district, county, or however else your region is divided, and still feel like they belong?

It goes back to mega-regions. Commuting is just a normal part of life. Just like people are willing to commute to work, many are still choosing to commute to church.

Just like people are willing to commute to work, many are still choosing to commute to church.

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A Church in Every Neighborhood

Instead of kicking long-distance commuters out because you now have a neighborhood-missional-incarnational approach to church, what if you had a church or campus in every neighborhood? What if, instead of just having a heart for your community or city, you developed one for your mega-region? A missional-incarnational approach for your mega-region?

What if you had a church or campus in every neighborhood?

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Have you ever plotted your membership roll on the map to see where everyone is coming from using a website like batchgeo.com?

If you discovered that you had a concentration of individuals who lived in a particular area of your mega-region, what would you do? Form a small group or mid-size community and leave it at that? Or would you mobilize that community group to be a potential launch team, or core group, for a future campus or church plant?

In most cases, long-distance commuters aren’t making the trek to your church because there aren’t any other churches around. They’re doing it because they connect with your DNA and what your church is about. They’re doing it because they have relational connections and feel like they belong.

Instead of enabling their commute to community, in which they would probably never invite a neighbor to your church because the commute is too long, what if you saw their presence in your church as a seedling for a future campus or church plant in their neighborhood?

Rather than rejecting the mega-region for the sake of incarnational and missional ministry, what if you figured out a way to leverage it?

*My post here was originally published on Dec 13, 2016 in Christianity Today.

The Power of Podcasts

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What podcasts do you listen to?

When I downloaded my first podcast in 2008, I remember having to load it onto my mp3 player so that I could listen to it while walking my dog. It didn’t download automatically nor did it sync efficiently. It was quite a bit of work, but since I’m a learner, I was stoked at the possibility of learning while walking, commuting, and going from one place to another. Trust me, I’ve tried reading a book while walking and it never ends well.

But now it’s 2017. And since then, the percentage of U.S. adults who’ve listened to a podcast in the past month went from 9% in 2008 to 21% in 2016, according to a survey conducted by Edison Research.

Podcasts have passed the tipping point, which is why it’s now commonplace to talk about your favorite podcasts, in the same way we do with our favorite books or TV shows (Seth Godin believes we’ve actually hit a podcast surplus in his fascinating article here).

In fact, when we conducted our research on the State of Church Planting (you can download it here), we even measured the impact of podcasting on a church plant.

Take a look at this image. It shows the average number of commitments to Christ made in church plants who used podcasts as a form of communication versus those who didn’t. Amazing, isn’t it?

NewChurches.com - The State of Church Planting
NewChurches.com – The State of Church Planting

In fact, we also discovered that among new churches that utilized a podcast as a means of communication, 40% started another new church within their first 5 years of existence!

Not only are podcasts a great way to pass time while mowing your lawn, grocery shopping, commuting to work, or exercising, but they are a great way to develop yourself–both personally and spiritually.

Podcasts are a great way to develop yourself–both personally and spiritually

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This is why I host the New Churches Q&A Podcast (we’ve recorded 100+ episodes), and love being on others.

Here’s a list of the other podcasts that I’ve been interviewed on over the past year:

I’d encourage you to check these podcasts and episodes out! If you want to see a list of appearances for 2017 click here, and for 2018 click here.