This is the first I’ve heard of Skye Jethani, though he seems to be a pretty important figure in the church planting / pastoral conference world. You can check out his blog here. He seems to have a pretty good perspective on things. Here is his video from The Nines online conference from last week:
Skye summarizes his speach with three main points:
- Your legitimacy does not come from the impact of your ministry.
- If outcomes are in God’s hands, and not yours, you must stop judging the legitimacy of your ministry by the tangible outcomes of the ministry. You must also stop judging other ministries by the tangible outcomes as well.
- If our identity is truly rooted in Christ, we will defy the expectations of our culture.
Listen to this eight minute clip. Jethani really makes some great points.
I remember watching to him, loved it!
Seth, in all seriousness, there are good people active in the church planting world. I hope that you will genuinely take into account things that guys like Skye have to say.
Oh I do. As I have said before. I learn from alot of people and try to read alot of books. I had never heard of him prior to the conference either. But I did take lots of notes and am still re-reading over them. There is some good stuff out there.
This is an excellent snippet that delivers a highly impactful message that flies in the face of the constant call to numbers.
For some reason, this brings back memories of the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes. With everyone around you constantly validating you for their own reasons, even if you are way of course, you run a terrible risk of climbing up the ladder at the speed of light – only to realize that it’s leaning against the wrong wall when you get to the top.
Nice observation Paul C.