A couple weeks ago I attended the Make Room Whiteboard Session at Life Church in Memphis Tennessee with Pastor John Siebeling. Life Church hosts four of these a year and this particular one focused on culture. The first night we were invited to attend Life Church’s culmination of their 21 days of prayer for a prayer and healing service. Pastor John shared a simple message on the ABC’s of prayer: Authentic, Bold and Corporate.
Bold prayers honor God and God honors bold prayers.
Pastor John Siebeling
Two things I noticed right away was the worship culture and diversity of the church. They had a series on racial issues starting that upcoming weekend (Super Bowl Sunday). They seemed to have a pulse on their community and were meeting them right where they live. Worship was powerful and the time of prayer was great.
The next morning the sessions began. What I liked about Pastor John was that he didn’t say “copy our culture”. He encouraged us to find our own. He talked about the parts of a healthy culture. He did share with us the 10 attitudes that shaped Life Church and their culture. He shared with us the 7 metrics that they count and the 6 things they focus on doing.
At the second session Pastor John focused on 5 things about teams with the last being about leadership pipeline. Everyone is talking about leadership pipelines today. He broke theirs down. One of the things I liked about his is that they look at their pipeline beginning in the 4/5th grade serving ministry. I’ve always had some sort of ministry for 4/5th graders to serve when I was a kid’s pastor but never looked at it like it was part of the overall church’s leadership pipeline. That takes intentionality.
After that we had a lunch session and the senior pastors and staff split off. We got to hear from some of the team of Life Church. One thing that stuck out to me is that they really live a healthy culture, it’s not just something they talk about. They are very honorable to each other and their pastors. They push honor in every direction. I had many takeaways from this sessions.
After this we had another session with Pastor John. This one was on “sons & daughters of the house”. He had several examples of staff on hand that were raised up in the house. He gave us the five things they do to make room for young people and 6 tips.
Overall I took 10 pages of notes in my notebook. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say I am looking forward to going back to Life Church for one of the other sessions. The staff is real. The culture is strong. The church is healthy. It wasn’t just another conference. It was inspiring and encouraging to see it in action.