The Well: A Paradigm Shift / Acts 11:19-30

The Woodshed Experience

I want you to think just for a moment as we get started of your favorite biblical character—the man or woman that God used in incredible ways. Just put that influential biblical character in your mind for a moment and answer this question for me: Did they have a woodshed experience?

Do you know what I mean by that? It is an old expression. If you needed to teach someone a lesson, you took them out behind the woodshed and gave them one of these, right? I am fascinated by how many incredible biblical characters share one thing in common: almost all of them have woodshed experiences where God just took them somewhere. It is Moses, David, Abraham, Jacob. In the New Testament, it is Peter and Paul. Almost all of these people had those experiences where God took them away from what was comfortable, held a mirror up to force them to look at themselves, and then did a transformative work in their hearts. They came out of that woodshed experience changed. I would bet that the biblical character you thought of shared that in common.

I don’t know if you have had one of those. For me, I have had several. There is a stubbornness in me that God is constantly working on. The most recent experience I had was a sabbatical experience that we have talked about here before. I pulled away for several months from the grind of ministry, from the intoxication of ministry, the euphoria of ministry, and the perceived value of ministry. God took me away for four months and began to do something in my heart. I didn’t ask for it. I certainly didn’t invite it. I wasn’t necessarily rooting for it. But God doesn’t ask your permission. Have you noticed that? He doesn’t in the pages of the text, and He doesn’t in our lives, because God knows what He wants to do in you, and it is for your good, even through tears.

Sure enough, God started stripping me of all this perceived value of being a pastor, of standing on a stage, communicating to crowds, and going to other places because they invited me to stand on their stages. God just began to whisper in my heart, “Who cares about the crowds? That’s information. That’s not transformation. Good for you—you go and talk to people, but you’re just talking to people. You’re not transforming people.” It was as if God was telling me, “I didn’t call you to Myself way back in college so that you would just talk to people. I called you to Myself that you would be transformed by the gospel and help transform people. Which means, brother, you’ve got to get off the stage and get into people’s lives.”

I was not prepared for that. I really was uncomfortable. Yet God challenged me while I was away to get back to personal transformation. I am still trying to live differently. Some of you have seen it, some of you have felt it, and some of you have even said, “Your teaching is different; your interactions are different.” I am so thankful for that because I don’t want to be who I was. I don’t want to just be on a stage. I want to be about transformation.

While I was pulled away for several months, the church—under the great leadership of our elders, our lead team, our teaching team, and our staff—kept cranking. God was doing something in my life, and all the while I was wondering, “Am I still going to fit here? Is what God is doing in me in alignment with what God is doing in our church?” Because if I come back feeling led to transformation and the church is heading in another direction, that could get a little weird.

When I came off sabbatical and started talking to our staff and elders about what God was doing in the life of the church, it was in perfect alignment. What you were feeling—even though you may not have had the words to articulate it, just like I didn’t early on—was the exact same thing: we are missing something. Our services are great, the music is great, and hopefully the messages are great, but in the midst of that, we are missing something. There is a heart-level transformation piece that is just not quite there. It is not that something is fundamentally wrong; it is just not complete.

As a teaching team, we started asking, “What are we missing?” We realized we don’t fully understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus at a foundational level. We weren’t clear on who Jesus really is and what He requires of us. We weren’t clear on the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the role of the Word of God, evangelism, suffering, what it means to gather, generosity, discipleship, or what it means to live into the kingdom. That is why we did the series Paradigm Shift.

We all had a perceived understanding of each of those categories that may or may not have been accurate. Much like the disciples experienced a paradigm shift when they gained a right view of Jesus, we needed a paradigm shift as well. We walked through those areas, and now this series culminates in what may need to be our final paradigm shift: The Well: A Paradigm Shift.

There are concepts, perspectives, and assumed norms about what it means to be a part of this church—what it means when we say, “I go to The Well. The Well is my church home. That’s where I worship, that’s my faith community, that’s where I’m relationally known.” There is a perceived understanding of that which I am not convinced is right. In fact, I think we need our own paradigm shift. To be honest with you, I have been waiting for this message for four months. When you look at what it means to be the church—specifically to be this church—we need a paradigm shift.

The Church in Antioch

If you have your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter 11. If I asked you which church in your New Testament is the most strategic church in the pages of Scripture—the church that plants churches, is responsible for the movement of the gospel, influences an entire region, and reshapes the entire world—which church would you say? Most people lean toward Jerusalem because that is where it started. Some would say Ephesus because that church was a pretty big deal. But I think the answer is in Acts chapter 11: the church in Antioch.

About 320 miles north of Jerusalem, on the Syrian-Turkish border, sat the third-largest city in the Roman Empire, behind only Rome and Alexandria. It is typically called Syrian Antioch, or Antioch on the Orontes River. It was home to many diaspora Jews—those who had fled their homeland and established residences outside the Promised Land.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus launched the church with a clear geographic progression: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8 (NASB)

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’

In Acts 11, a major shift happens. The church moves from a centralized hub in Jerusalem to a missional outpost over 300 miles north—a place far better positioned for the gospel to go to the ends of the earth. The church shifts from a Jewish focus to a Gentile focus. It moves from being centralized in one location to spreading across Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, Rome, and eventually Spain. The gospel is unleashed outside of a Jewish-Jerusalem context.

The key figure in the book of Acts shifts as well. For the first ten chapters, the main character is Peter. Then Peter slowly fades into the background, and the Apostle Paul becomes the primary figure of Acts and the early church. The nature of ministry shifts too. In the early chapters, they are teaching, arguing, and proving that Jesus is the Christ. But in Antioch, the shift takes place where they now teach and send.

There are two key figures in this sending church in Antioch. The first is a man named Barnabas. We see Barnabas early on in Acts. He is an absolute stud whose name means “Son of Encouragement.” He simply loves people. At the end of Acts chapter 4, he is so moved by generosity that he sells property and donates the proceeds to the church, going far above and beyond what could be expected of an everyday guy. When Jerusalem hears what is happening in Antioch, they send Barnabas to do recon.

The second key figure is a man who, up until chapter 11, has been largely in the background: Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus. He came to faith in Acts 9 through a dramatic woodshed journey. God grabbed him, blinded him, led him to faith, and told him how much he would suffer for the name of Jesus. Paul went into the Desert of Arabia for three years on an intensive Bible study, asking, “What did I miss? How did I whiff on seeing all these Old Testament pictures of Jesus as the Messiah?” He studied his Scriptures, returned briefly to Jerusalem, and then went into exile in a little town called Tarsus, faithfully teaching the Bible under the radar.

Meanwhile, on a parallel historical track, the gospel moved north.

What Happened at Syrian Antioch

Stephen was martyred in Acts 7, Philip went to Samaria in Acts 8, and the gospel began spreading rapidly.

Acts 11:19-20 (NASB)

So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and [began] speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

In verse 19, the gospel arrives in Antioch, but it is spoken to Jews only. But in verse 20, men from Cyprus and Cyrene begin speaking to Greeks about the Lord Jesus. These Greeks were likely “God-fearers”—Gentiles drawn to monotheism who attended the synagogues.

Acts 11:21-26 (NASB)

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and [began] to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain [true] to the Lord; for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Why did Jerusalem send Barnabas? Because everybody loves Barnabas! They said, “Barnabas, everybody loves you. Go figure out what on earth is going on up there.” So Barnabas traveled over 300 miles north to Antioch. The disciples had struggled with an ethnocentric, Jewish-only gospel, so Barnabas went to inspect this new movement. When he arrived, he witnessed the grace of God and rejoiced. He encouraged them to remain true to the Lord with resolute hearts.

People were coming to faith right and left, and a vibrant community was established. But they were missing something. Barnabas was a great encourager, but he wasn’t primarily a gifted teacher. He knew Paul was over in Tarsus, so he went to find him and brought him to Antioch. For an entire year, they met with the church and taught large numbers of people.

I love that dynamic. The encourager recognized his gift to encourage and acknowledged his limitation in teaching, so he went and got Paul. They were a phenomenal duo: Barnabas loved the people, and Paul brought the truth. You punch them in the face with truth, and I’ll hug them when you’re done! That is the body of Christ functioning with diverse gifts.

How effective was this teaching? Was it merely platform teaching filled with information, or was it transformational teaching lived out life-on-life? Look at the end of verse 26: “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” “Christian” literally means a follower of the Messiah. It was a term given to distinguish them, signifying that their lifestyle reflected Jesus. Their transformation was so evident that people looked at them and said, “That person is like Christ.”

Antioch became a teaching hub and the launching pad for world mission. When famine struck Jerusalem in verses 27–30, Antioch took up an offering to support the mothership church. Antioch is the church that funded, commissioned, and sent Paul out on his first, second, and third missionary journeys.

Antioch was special for two reasons. First, God was moving powerfully. You cannot engineer or manipulate what happened there through church growth books; that was the sovereign hand of God. Second, they taught the Word and actually were the church. Leaders led, servants served, encouragers encouraged, and teachers taught. When everyone shows up and does their part, the body of Christ functions in beauty.

Because they experienced real transformation, they didn’t simply sit back and enjoy it. They didn’t say, “Let’s make s’mores, sing Kumbaya, and enjoy our great teaching and encouragement.” Instead, in Acts 13, 15, and 18, they took their best teacher and their best encourager and sent them away to start other churches. That makes zero sense by worldly standards. Why send your best people away? Because they understood the big-C Church. They weren’t focused on building a little castle or a private fiefdom; they saw the broader kingdom of God. They sent them out, and God used them to change the world.

The Story of The Well

When I read about the church in Antioch, I get excited because of the journey we have been on here at The Well. Some of you have been here for three months; some of you have been here for thirteen years. When we started, it was about forty college students. We couldn’t afford to pay attention, let alone pay for equipment. We didn’t have a nickel to our name. We simply said, “If God is for us, who can be against us? Let’s give it a shot. The worst that happens is it crashes and burns.”

God showed up. We became a place of grace where broken, shady people of less-than-reputable character could come—half the people I partied with in high school and college ended up here—yet we spoke the unapologetic truth of God’s Word. We became an authentic, participatory community centered on the text, focusing on spiritual health while allowing for growth.

We started renting the Cross Church facility at Palm and Gettysburg on Sunday nights. We tried 5:00 PM, 6:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 10:00 AM—we tried everything! The church grew rapidly. In 2007, we opened this campus and grew by a thousand people in about three weeks. Panic ensued. We accidentally became a multi-site church because this building was overflowing, so we kept both locations. Later, Cross Church asked to merge with us, so Palm and Gettysburg became our Fig Garden campus.

We launched, retracted, and relaunched several campuses, eventually establishing Southeast. Today, we have three campuses, eight weekend services, an average of 3,000 adults and kids gathering weekly, and six church plants launched. That is insane. You cannot fabricate that. I took seminary classes on planting and growing churches, and I still have no idea what I’m doing. This has always been way over my pay grade. It is entirely the hand of God.

Ministries have been launched out of this church by everyday people who heard the Word and took action: Every Neighborhood Partnership (ENP), Off the Front, Lanna Coffee, Neighborhood Thrift, our Counseling Center, and Serve Fresno. On the outside, it looks fantastic.

The Candid Reality: We Need a Paradigm Shift

Here is the candid reality: when you look closely at what is happening on the inside, there are things that are not quite as awesome.

We don’t sugarcoat anything around here. We are not going to pretend everything is great if it is not. On the outside looking in, things look amazing. But if we don’t deal with the issues beneath the surface and experience a paradigm shift, our church is going to look very different in five years.

First, our overall attendance has plateaued, if not experienced a slow decline, since 2012. Giving has been plateaued or in slow decline since 2013. Miraculously, we are completely debt-free, and we raised $1.5 million in cash to build the kids’ facility during that time, but regular giving has plateaued.

Second, our attendance patterns have shifted drastically. According to our kids’ ministry check-in data, the average family with children attends church once every three weeks. It is incredibly difficult to follow a teaching series, grow in discipleship, or build deep community when you attend once every three weeks. It ends up feeling like three completely different congregations rotating week by week.

Third, we are seeing an extreme imbalance in serving. You may have heard of the Pareto principle—the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. At The Well, we are at best 90/10. We have roughly 10% of our people turning themselves inside out because they love Jesus, carrying the entire load. They are amazing, commendable people, but they cannot sustain that pace forever without burning out. We have too few servants and far too many spectators.

How do I know this? We are forced to close kids’ classrooms every single weekend. We don’t close them because we lack square footage; we close them because we lack volunteers. It has become a cultural issue. Parents will walk up to me and say, “Hey, my kid’s classroom is closed today.” I will say, “How about you get fingerprinted, step into the classroom, and help us keep it open?” And they reply, “Nah, I’ll just take my kid into the main service with me.”

The default mindset has become: I want the church to serve my family, but I don’t want to help. And I might get salty if the service isn’t available, but I’m still not going to jump in. We need a paradigm shift.

In the early days, everyone showed up, served, and worked. We used the language that we are a battleship, not a cruise ship. On a cruise ship, you sit on the Lido deck, eat from the buffet, and expect everyone else to cater to your needs. On a battleship, every single person has a battle station and a job to do. When we talked about “helping people connect to God and each other in every neighborhood,” that wasn’t a slogan for the church staff—that was the personal responsibility of every member.

I used to use the illustration of a Doughboy above-ground swimming pool. My friend Jeff and I would get the water moving in a circle until it created a massive whirlpool. When someone jumped in, they had three choices: they could float with the current, put their feet down and push to make the current stronger, or fight the current and take an elbow to the back every time we came around.

The current at The Well used to be crystal clear: We do life in groups and on teams. That was the undeniable norm. If you weren’t in a life group or on a team, people looked at you and asked, “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you connected?” Today, our posture has become timid: “I know you’re busy, but if you have an extra hour sometime, maybe consider serving…”

Serving used to be magnetic because we understood that what you do is far less important than who you do it with. We had a team of fifteen guys whose only job was setting out patio chairs. We didn’t actually need the chairs set out that early; the chairs were simply an excuse for fifteen men to hang out, share life, and build brotherhood. We don’t have greeting teams at our doors just to say hello; we have them so believers can gather, pray, laugh, and build community before serving others.

Because of our size, multiple campuses, and eight services, it is easy to feel disconnected. You can attend an all-church gathering, meet someone who has been here for eight years, and realize you have never seen them before. The multi-site model can unintentionally fracture community, and as leadership, we haven’t communicated our needs well.

When the current slows down, people get comfortable. When you get comfortable, you start focusing on trivial things. If you are riding a bicycle at top speed, all you care about is balancing the bike and moving forward. But if you are pedaling slowly, you notice every crack in the pavement, every missing reflector, and every bump in the road. In church life, when the current slows down, consumerism and personal preference creep in. Preferences become sacred, and church turns into a customer-service organization trying to satisfy individual tastes.

We need a paradigm shift.

The Teaching Hospital: Becoming a Sending Church

Let me cast a vision for what could be. We are debt-free as a church—for what? We are strategically placed with three locations across Fresno—for what? We have planted six churches—for what? We have an extraordinary staff and elder team—for what?

If we don’t answer the “for what,” comfort will consume us, and we will fail to accomplish what God designed us to do.

Think about the concept of a teaching hospital. A teaching hospital provides outstanding medical care to patients, but it also trains future physicians both clinically and academically. You know you are in a teaching hospital when a fresh-faced resident walks in looking nervous in a pristine white coat, with a veteran, Gandalf-like physician standing right behind them observing. You extend that young doctor a little extra grace because you know they are in training.

I want The Well to function like a spiritual teaching hospital. I don’t want us to merely be a teaching church; I want us to be a sending church. I want to take the Antioch model and live it out right here in Fresno. I want us to raise up leaders, train young pastors, unleash people’s spiritual gifts, and launch them into the kingdom of God.

What does it take to become an Antioch-style sending church? It requires two primary things: teaching and training. And for that to work, it requires immense grace.

It requires grace because you are going to see people who are currently learning, practicing, and developing. They might not be a “10” today, but with encouragement and coaching, they will be incredible three years from now. Can we offer grace as they grow?

We are already seeing this in our worship ministry. Our musicians are leading out with diverse styles—we had a “Hymns and Hip-Hop” service recently, we have had blues, and we have had banjos. It is led by everyday people using their gifts. I love hip-hop, but one of our hospitality volunteers that night told me, “I don’t like hip-hop at all. But the lyrical content tonight was rich, and if it reaches young people for Jesus, I’m all for it.” That is the heart of a sending church!

Becoming a sending church means you will see new faces stepping into leadership, and it also means you will have to say goodbye to familiar faces we love.

Years ago, we started a seminary internship with three men: Jacob Brown (now leading The Well Foothill), Dave Hawes (now leading The Well Madera), and Pete Hingano, who has been leading our Southeast campus. Pete has a deep heart for Sanger. A church in Sanger reached out to him, Pete prayed, and God made it clear that he is called to lead that church. Pete is transitioning to pastor in Sanger. Selfishly, I want Pete to stay here because we are better with him. But being a sending church means celebrating and sending our best out for the kingdom.

The same is true for Jared Rumley. Jared came to us as a 27-year-old kid nearly ten years ago. Recently, he shared that God is calling him to step into a senior pastor role. If we are a sending church, we don’t hoard talent; we create a runway for him to preach, grow, and transition with our blessing.

To prepare our leaders, our campus pastors are going to teach more frequently. We will debrief their messages together as a team to help them sharpen their gifts. We are also shifting Shea Sumlin from his role as Fig Garden Campus Pastor into a new role as Development Director. He will work alongside Dr. Taylor, Mike Slayden, PJ, Melissa Danisi, and others to build an intentional training pipeline to raise up, mentor, and send out leaders.

What This Requires of Us

If The Well is going to experience a paradigm shift, every individual sitting in these seats must experience a personal paradigm shift. We cannot be a sending church without you.

At our Discovery Class, we outline three basic expectations of what it means to be part of this community:

1. Show Up Regularly

In previous generations, pastors never had to tell people to show up to church on Sundays. But today, we need to say it clearly: we need you to show up regularly.

We don’t want guests relying on an info card in a box to receive a generic follow-up call. We want regular attenders turning to the person next to them, saying, “Hey, I haven’t met you before! Are you visiting? Let’s go grab dinner after service.” That relational connection only happens when you are consistently present to initiate and engage.

2. Give Faithfully

We need you to give faithfully because our mission is far from finished. We want to launch more campuses across our city, develop a Spanish-speaking ministry, expand our local and global missional partnerships, and aggressively plant churches. We want Fresno to become an equipping hub where leaders move from all over the country to get trained and sent out. We need your faithful generosity to fuel that kingdom vision.

3. Actively Invest in Discipleship and Serving

You need to be in a life group, and you need to be on a serving team. You may think you don’t need it, but you do. Life transformation happens in circles, not rows. Who you serve with matters deeply.

We have over 700 children attending our campuses every week and 2,600 adults. We should never have to close another kids’ classroom again. Closing a room due to a lack of volunteers should be unthinkable in a church our size. It simply requires you to get fingerprinted, get trained, and step into the room.

Our student ministries are growing rapidly. Just this past week, a junior high small group leader had to step down due to sheer exhaustion. Her entire group of eighth-grade girls was in tears, wondering who would lead them next week. We shouldn’t be scrambling for leaders. We ought to have an army of adults showing up to mentor students, provide meals, and open their homes.

A Personal Commitment

Ten years from now, when the story of The Well is told, what will people say? Will they say, “They started with forty college students, had an incredible run, reached lots of young people, and then got comfortable and plateaued”? Or will they tell the story of a church that embraced a paradigm shift—a church where God transformed spectators into servants and turned a gathering into a world-changing sending hub?

When you walked in today, you were handed a card. I want to ask you to take that card in your hands right now. On it is a simple commitment:

“I recognize that the church is the people, not a building. I am part of the church. I commit to the revolution that Jesus started. I commit to see things differently through His eyes and be a part of what the church is called to be. I will not sit on the sidelines as a spectator. I commit to be involved, to do my part, and to further the kingdom.”

We cannot accomplish what God has called us to do without you. If you have felt disconnected, taking ownership of this mission will connect you in ways you have never experienced before. It is time to step off the sidelines, put our feet down in the water, and push the current forward together.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, thank You for this honest time together. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would stir our hearts with a fresh passion for Jesus and His church. Forgive us for settling into comfort and consumerism. Awaken us to the call of being a teaching and sending church. Move every single one of us to take our place on the team, use our gifts, and advance Your kingdom in this city and around the world. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.