May we invite you to consider investing in pastors
as part of your spiritual legacy?
We do know you have other opportunities for philanthropy.
So why 360 Pastor?
UNPARALLELED RETURN ON INVESTMENT!
We produce a great return (thinking merely financially). For every dollar that helps churches get on mission, those churches will allocate many more dollars to mission.
When pastors lead their churches into the mission of Christ, a new sense of purpose causes the entire church to experience spiritual revival.
As churches experience renewal, they start serving their neighbors. This positive change benefits communities, and it lends credibility to Gospel witness.
When churches care for their community, many people respond to the Gospel, begin following Jesus, and receive eternal life.
Finally, when investors dedicate their prayers and their treasure to missional impact, they experience a joy that can only come through cementing an eternal legacy.
We develop leaders.
Leaders grow churches.
Churches renew communities,
And invite their neighbors to follow Jesus.
People whom God loves populate whole new neighborhoods in heaven.
THE STRATEGIC CASE FOR 360 PASTOR
Why do most legacy American churches need to turn around?
Our world and our nation are in chaos. We think that’s undeniable. We believe God, working through churches like Central Church, can right the ship.
Some people place their hope in politics, academia, media, or business. We’re skeptical. We believe that without people of faith to inhabit these institutions, we will not experience peace. God transforms people through the church. And people of faith transform their communities and nations.
If this sounds grandiose, it’s happened before. Consider the first followers of Jesus. They lived missionally, built up the church, spread the Gospel, cared for neighbors, and upended the Roman Empire.
We believe our world needs the church to lead a revolution like this again. Thinking globally, the church in the two-thirds world is stepping up. But the church in America is slumping. The United States is now the world’s third largest mission field. Can we bend the curve in America?
Sadly, most legacy American churches are asleep at the switch. Christ gave the church a mission. But we believe most legacy churches, frankly, have drifted off mission. They are mostly focused on internal concerns. This is what needs to change.
So the leaders at Central Church decided they wanted to be part of the solution. Like 90% of American churches, Central was allocating 100% of its resources on its current members. It dedicated its programs, staff time, and budget (not counting foreign missions) to the already converted. It touched ZERO people outside its walls. It had drifted far from the God-given mission of “making disciples.” One result: without a compelling purpose, it no longer felt vibrant.
Some people talked vaguely about making an impact in the city, but Central never got around to it.
What causes churches like Central to decline?
The problem was Central’s ingrown culture. It had no Gospel witness. It baptized only its own children. Year after year, it kept doing the same old things. It grew stale. Young people left. The congregation turned gray. Central was a country club for insiders, not a lighthouse to the world.
Ingrown churches decline naturally. With their best years behind them, they downward and trudge on a long, slow march toward death. Legacy churches can survive for decades, but they rarely thrive. Many are a shadow of their former selves. Best case, before they close, they find a dynamic church planter to take the building.
How is the church responding strategically?
As we listen, we hear people pinning their hopes for Kingdom advance in America on church planters. But we need 12,000 church plants a year to keep up with population growth. We’re planting 4000 a year.
We at 360 Pastor support church planting 1000%. We think planters are doing a phenomenal job. Yet it seems, by default, we unfairly put our evangelistic eggs into the one basket of church planting. Roughly 250,000 evangelical congregations serve in America. But somehow our ruling paradigm of church assumes that most of the 250,000 won’t get into the game of reaching out to their neighbors.
We found ourselves wondering: Why do we count disproportionately on church planters to reach our nation? We think church planters would love for the rest of us to help. And we think the rest of us would find great joy in joining the harvest.
Can this change?
Yes! We’ve seen churches turn around. Here’s things unfold:
Central’s pastor and elders finally committed to obeying the command in Mt 28:19-20 to “make disciples.” This included inviting others to follow Christ. The leaders gathered the staff, volunteers, and congregation, and they led them to move from an inward to an outward focus.
Central reorganized around the mission to make disciples, the church started seeing conversions and baptisms.
As new believers joined the church and contributed to its mission, Central started growing in size and godly influence.
At first, some members complained, “Why aren’t you serving me?” But when they saw alcoholics healed, families reunited, and skeptics saved, most got excited about their church again.
Other members expressed concern about deep discipleship. But they soon realized that serving the mission of Christ actually deepens their faith, even more than some traditional church activities.
When a church gets on mission, several things happen: (1) It reaches people for Christ and watches lives change for the better. This produces internal change. (2) Christians who see people come to Christ get excited about their church. This new energy flows throughout the church and creates renewal. (3) The renewed desire to serve God radiates out into the community and brings social renewal. In this way, stagnation gives way to spiritual vitality. The whole church becomes a Gospel lighthouse in its city.
What does it take to transform a church?
In a word, effective spiritual leadership. The decision of Central’s pastor and elders to chart a new course is essential. Without this commitment, the power of the Holy Spirit is wasted. Which is exactly why 360 Pastor zeroes in on this lynchpin—spiritual leadership. By equipping leadership teams and coaching pastors, we set the stage for God to change churches. This single-minded focus has effectively brought renewal.
What is the cost?
Declining churches are often so cash strapped they cannot pay for this experience. So we serve churches at no financial cost to them. We count on financial partners to bridge the gap. Our experience-based budgeting allows us to provide our program very economically: