Rebooting - by Lester Zimmerman

Every now and then I need to reboot.  When my computer slows down, I need to reboot. In order to update my programs, I need to take time to stop and reboot. Sometimes I need to stop and get away by myself to reboot spiritually. Some of our church programs and structures need a reboot at times or we can soon become irrelevant and outdated.

We are rebooting several things in our network to give them a broader and younger appeal. We need to keep reaching out to the younger generation of emerging leaders. My daughter who is 34 and serves as the Director of International Growth with Elim Fellowship wrote about an encounter she had.

She writes, “I remember the moment I realized I was old. I was riding in the car with our Chinese exchange student talking about a Facebook post that I recently uploaded when suddenly from the back seat I hear him say, “Facebook is for old people. No one young uses it.” That was it. That was the moment where I realized I was old and out of touch. I thought I was young! I mean I am only 34! But that moment started me on a journey of discovering and paying attention to the younger people around me. Asking them for their advice and feedback. Putting down Facebook and picking up Instagram.”

Well, recently we called together a number of younger leaders in our network and asked them for advice and feedback. We asked what we could be doing different to appeal to younger leaders? What needs a reboot? Sometimes we need to look through younger eyes.

Out of this meeting we decided to reboot several things.

The beginning of the year we rebooted our monthly leader’s meeting. We are trying to get them started on time, limit some of the reporting, and building in a time at the end for table discussion or impartation.

The other big reboot is our website. It was feeling tired and old. The team got their head together and began a redesign. We are adding some new features like a blog, place to list ministry openings, a featured message from one of our network pastors every month, and we are designing a church planting section and more. We simplified several things and will also be developing a network App.  We are excited about our new website and App and want to make it even more interactive as we move forward.

We are still tweaking things so if you have any ideas on how we can make our website helpful, let us know, and the team will consider it.

Now it’s time for me to shut down the computer, go home, and reboot.

By Lester Zimmerman
Hopewell Network
Apostolic Leader