By Michael C. Mack
Chris Lagerlof is the executive catalyst at Mission Orange County (www.missionoc.org). In a Q&A with Exponential (www.exponential.org), “a growing community of leaders committed to accelerating the multiplication of healthy, reproducing faith communities,” Lagerlof talked about the biggest aha”™s he had while reading Becoming a Level 5 Multiplying Church by Todd Wilson and Dave Ferguson.
He says he was moved by Chapter 1, “Rethinking Our Operating System.” He was especially struck by Wilson”™s words:
Pause and reflect on the potential unintended consequences [of the prevailing operating systems, especially in megachurches]. We are called to make biblical disciples who GO as an expression of their increasing maturity. Too often, we are building churches that spend most of their time attracting, appeasing, and seeking to keep cultural Christians sticking around.
“We”™re using a 19th-century operating system in the strategies and models we choose for our churches,” says Lagerlof. “The reality is that Jesus built the original operating system, and it worked really well.” What can church leaders do to rethink their operating systems? Lagerlof says, “We need to revisit what a first-century operating system looks like to become healthier and more effective multipliers.”
He says we also need to “train up a generation of multipliers and movement leaders.” If we can do that, getting exponential thinking into their DNA, it can “redefine the current prevailing church, and the next-generation church will look completely different!”
Get more information about Exponential and Becoming a Level 5 Multiplying Church at www.exponential.org.
Author: Michael C. Mack
Michael C. Mack is editor of Christian Standard. He has served in churches in Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, and Kentucky. He has written more than 25 books and discussion guides as well as hundreds of magazine, newspaper, and web-based articles.
