Leadership – Page 3 – John Markum

Learn and Return

Posted on January 23, 2017 by johnmarkum

When I said “yes!” to God’s calling me to plant LifeCity Church, there were a few things that I knew that included. The whole driving force behind me sensing God’s call to church planting was directly connected with my passion for reaching my own generation, and that coming up after me. This past Sunday, I shared in detail some of those plans – and yes, dreams – for our future, and what I am praying God will enable us to do in the years to come. Much of this we’re already beginning here and now!

Develop our Pastoral Advisory Team – The top body of lay leadership within our church that will serve as our officers and board of directors for all our business affairs, but who also is responsible to and for our lead pastor (me, for the foreseeable future), his well being, and that of his family, as well as his fitness to serve.
Expand our Ministry Leadership Team – Right now, we have an amazing body of men and women who have been serving LifeCity Church in the direct overseeing of our various ministries. We will continue to develop these leaders, and expand this group as the breadth and spiritual maturity of our church continues to increase.
Refine our discipleship process – We’re piloting a resource that we anticipate becoming the primary avenue through which we make disciples at LifeCity Church. This will be an improving and expanding of our LifeGroups system.
College Interns – Beginning to train the next generation of church leaders preparing for vocational ministry. (potentially, summer 2017!).
Preaching workshop – This summer, I plan to offer a workshop, available to any of our members, who would like to be taught how to teach/preach the Bible, including getting an opportunity to write and deliver their own messages.
Leadership Residencies – Taking up to an entire calendar year to train up and send out future planters, pastors, and missionaries. (potentially, fall 2018).
Increase Support – LifeCity already contributes financially to the work of three ministries. This year, we plan to expand this ministry to supporting other missionaries, planters, and ministries who are joining us in the harvest. We intend on growing to the point where we eventually tithe back to other works , church plants, and missions efforts from our own church.

So this is it! Our structure for leadership, raising more leaders, and sending out the work of the gospel from our church, across the Bay, and around the world. We can’t do it alone! We have to come together as a church family, pray in faith, and continue serving God to see this happen. But as we’ve consistently taught at LifeCity – nothing worthwhile is ever easy, but nothing is too hard for God. Let’s see what God can do through us!

Blessings,
Pastor John

Commitment Covenant

Posted on June 20, 2016 by johnmarkum

During our I Love My Church! series, I’ve challenged our people to sign a commitment covenant. Other churches have similar documents, and the point is simply for everyone who calls LifeCity their church home to know what that actually means. I’ve decided to share the content of that here on my blog:

Believing that God has brought me to this body of believers for this time and purpose, and having decided to follow Jesus wherever He may lead me, I commit to CONNECT with this church family for worship together, GROW in relationships and discipleship through a LifeGroup, SERVE in a ministry team to better and broaden the reach of our church, and GO to others with the invitation to find and follow Jesus.

I will pray for my church to grow ever closer in our walk with God, my pastor and his family to lead with confidence and integrity, and my community to see Jesus in me.

I believe God has called us to a future together, and that nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Trusting God’s calling, I commit to being part of what He is doing to work through LifeCity to that future.

This is my commitment. And I believe the best is yet to come!

Many have signed the covenant already and next Sunday is the last Sunday of our ILMC series. God has already used this in profound ways to connect our church together over our mission. This Sunday’s message will be available online soon, and is the heart behind the whole series. To all our LifeCity peeps, it’s a joy and honor to be your pastor! Thank you for uniting with us to see many people fully experience life in Christ.

Blessings,
Pastor John

The Benefits of a Young Pastor

Posted on August 19, 2015 by johnmarkum

I was 14 years old when I committed my life to vocational ministry and preached my first message. I graduated Bible college at 22, and at 24 was ordained.

Now, at 33, I’m the lead pastor of a church plant. I regularly get told, “You don’t look like a pastor?!” I actually enjoy this comment. Most people apparently think that a pastor has to be a certain age (50’s +), and dress with a weird white collar, or at least a suit and tie. I play Xbox, preach in jeans and a V-neck, and recognize most of the artists on your teens playlist. Not exactly the typical “clergy” persona, I guess.

Most churches looking to hire a pastor, want a man who is at least 50, has a Masters of Divinity, and 20 years experience. It’s obvious to me that a young pastor has always received significant criticism for their youth. Even the apostle Paul gave his young protege, Timothy (a young pastor) some important instruction: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

So here are a few benefits I see to having a young, lead pastor:

Tenure. A young lead pastor has the potential to serve one church for 30+ years. LifeCity’s sending church saw it’s best years under the 44 year ministry of a personal friend and mentor, Mel Brown. The church was running about 120 people when he became “pastor” back in 1968. At the point he retired, the church was running over 800 every week. You could count on one hand the number of people who were there before him at that point. Which means he had been pastor to them, their kids, grand kids, and even many great grandkids to some of those “original” members. He was 25 when he started.
Multi-generational. In their late 20s – early 30s, young pastors can relate equally well to teens as they can to their parents. We’ve seen the challenges of our parents’ generation, our own, and the one coming behind us with nearly equal contact. A church generally attracts people in the community who are in the same stage of life as them. Having a younger pastor makes a church feel more welcoming to a family his age.
Passion. One of the greatest assets a young church leaders has is an unbroken spirit. Many seasoned veterans in ministry have taken massive emotional and relational wounds over the years. You can’t live through the gut-wrenching experiences many pastors have had to lead families and churches through without losing some of your zeal and drive along the way. And to be perfectly clear, young pastors will get theirs also, given just a little more time… But beforehand, these early years of our pastoral ministry are limited and precious for what they have to offer the church in terms of vision, leadership, passion, and faith for God to do the unimaginable. This should be leveraged by those they lead, not scorned.
Outreach. When young pastors talk about reaching people far from God to fully experience life in Christ, we’re not talking theory – we’re talking about our own current relationships. We almost all have friends that we’re trying to live Jesus toward and show the love of God. At some point in pastoring over decades in the same place, the overwhelming majority of your friendships consist largely of people within the church. It takes much greater effort at that point to befriend those outside the church and remember what it’s like to live your faith to someone who doesn’t have the same starting point as you. For young leaders, it’s quite fresh – and urgent.

And as I’ve already mentioned one mentor from an older era, let me also be quick to say – my ministry, and everything I’ve learned is indebted to those who have faithfully lead by example before me. I could write countless posts about each of the great men who have influenced my life, family, and ministry. I hope to pass the torch of leadership to the next generation, just as many of them have to mine.

Blessings,
Pastor John