Over the years as I have led I have always looked for increase. It is my make-up. I have always looked for the next improvement, the 1% I could have done better. I have a growth mindset and in some ways always have. That has many advantages and many disadvantages too!

On top of that I have an interest in churches and more specifically movements. I love to look at their dynamics and what causes them to rise, grow and in too many cases stall, fall or decline. There are many people who have written incredibly around this (Steve Addison, Rodney Stark, John Wimber, Gary McIntosh and more) and my quick thoughts are pretty much a summary of theirs but I would prefer to link these thoughts not to organisations but to our personal life.

It feels easier to pioneer when you are 18

Why? Because you have very little to lose. You usually don’t have anyone who is dependant on you, you usually don’t have assets of any great value, you usually have very little resting on you and all of that is an advantage to a pioneer. At this stage you can live your life with abandon, failure doesn’t feel like a reality, but even if it happens you are young enough to recover and go again.

The older you get, these things often change. The chances are you may find a husband or a wife, you may have kids, perhaps you buy some property and you will require a job to pay for these things. All of a sudden you have something to lose. A bad decision can mean losing the house, disadvantaging your family. Failure at this point affects more than you and you are older so do you have the same kind of bounce-back-ability?

This most naturally makes us more cautious, less pioneer and more settler. Logically that makes sense. It’s why we see people as they get older becoming more conservative. They stall, stagnate and often shrink back. It’s not a rule of course but it seems commonplace to me.

What’s the alternative?

Some have chosen to not get married, have no family, not acquire any possessions or wealth, to remain free. This is certainly one way to approach it but it doesn’t guarantee a life fill of pioneering.

Surely it is about keeping rooted to Jesus? Surely the older we get the more pioneering we should become because we have had the chance to spend more time with Jesus.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame,and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

When Paul is calling us to throw off everything that hinders I don’t believe he is talking about our families and possessions literally but he is calling us to throw off the wrong thinking that those things preclude us from pioneering. We are to keep our eyes fixed on the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. We are follow the one who continues to pioneer. In the same way we might follow a guide up an unexplored mountain we are to follow Jesus through this unexplored life.

There is a natural challenge to pioneering as life continues but I believe that is what God continually calls us to do. If we are going to co-labour with the creator then the chances are He will call us into creating! That requires a pioneering spirit.

How can we practical position ourselves for pioneering today regardless of what age or stage we find ourselves?