We are Better Together: Moving from Empire to Kingdom

A Multi-faceted Church

Who loses by the church and parachurch’s lack of unity and cooperation? Absolutely everyone: congregations, ministry organizations, ministry leaders, individual believers . . . and last but certainly not least, the needs of the world and our witness to that watching world.

Personally, I find the opportunities and the asks overwhelming, tiring, and sometimes even guilt-inducing. My husband and I seek to be generous with our time and money. We give regularly to a variety of missional extensions, including our congregation. Yet the requests never end, and every time I get one, I feel like I am falling short in some way, neglecting an important need by saying no.

As a lifelong ministry leader, I’ve been guilty as well—of trying to build my own institution(s), of comparing to others, of feeling like it’s too much effort to collaborate, of wanting to control. I’ve bought into leadership thinking that is contrary to biblical principles. All of this brought me to my a-ha moment in the classroom years ago and started me on the journey of discovery that has led to a number of model and mindset shifts.

A Paradigm Shift: Kingdom, not Empire

Here is one movement we need to make: the shift from empire to kingdom.

“Building the Kingdom of God is a team sport, not a competition. We’re better together, not apart,” assert Greer and Horst. What would it take—not just in theory, but in your own specific context, under your own ministry and leadership—to tear down territorialism and help build a true kingdom ecosystem? Regardless of what we say we believe, do we truly act as if we are stewards and not owners of the resources entrusted to us? Scott Harris asks this hard question of leaders: “Would you go without to accomplish a Kingdom purpose?”

I confess that there are many times I would have answered no to that question. In fact, I once got very worked up that a new church plant in our city had chosen to use an almost identical name as ours. What if instead “we all periodically used ‘our space’ to raise awareness and funds for other nonprofits? What if we became the champions of other organizations and not just our own?” What if we moved from a mindset of “a win for us is a win for the kingdom” to “a win for the kingdom is a win for us”?

The move from empire to kingdom requires ridding ourselves of the sin of envy. To start, we must stop playing the comparison game: stop asking one another how big our churches and organizations are, dropping the names of celebrities who attend or support or endorse your ministry, or reading the magazines and websites with the “largest” and “fastest growing” lists, as if any of those were any measure of missional effectiveness. “Nothing crushes collaboration and friendship faster than comparison.”

Try This Exercise

A simple way to foster a greater kingdom mindset is to install a large map in a place where those in your organization can see it regularly. On the map, use pins or markers in one color to note the needs and constituents in your context and another color to note the other ministries working in the same context: both those that have different missions but within the same location (such as a church, a foster agency, and a teen ministry in the same community) and the same mission but based in different locations (such as different missionary agencies focused on the same continent, country, or people group).

At least once a week, spend time praying for the people and ministry efforts represented by the marks on the map, thanking the Lord for their work and asking for their blessing. Once a month, meet in-person or virtually with a leader from one of the other ministries, getting to know what they do, celebrating their successes, and learning how you can support and encourage them.