What are you doing?

OK, so you have a church. What is its purpose? Who is it trying to reach? I know that all churches have some things in common. They at least should have in common that they are trying to reach people for Jesus Christ and disciple those people and most likely be a place of fellowship for believers. Beyond that, there are differences. Example: if you are trying to reach out to young urban professionals, would you really want to start your church in a barn or a rodeo arena? However, if your target is to reach cowboys, that might be the perfect place. Some things to keep in mind as you plant a church or redefine the church you have just started pastoring...or even just realized something needs to change because you have been in a downhill rut for years in the church you are a leader at.
1. Know what you are about. If you don't have a passionate call from God to reach the people you are trying to reach, then why should they come to a laissez faire church? Like writing a blog, if the church doesn't offer quality content, then there is to much competition for their time. They won't waste it on a church just because it has a building and a sign out front.
2. Be proactive in evangelism. You can't expect people to come through the doors of your church on their own. They need a reason to come. Some will occasionally come because they are family of the people already there, but to reach the rest of the community, it is important to go to them. There are thousands of ways to do that, but the important thing is that you are reaching out beyond the walls of the church.
3. Don't rely on tradition to bring them in. This may just be a continuation of point 2, but just because peoples parents are from the Church of God of Methodibapticostal Episconazaratholic doesn't mean that they will follow in those footsteps unless they have a reason to. This is also a point to look at what you are currently doing. Is your church doing X program because it is effectively helping you reach one of the goals of the church like reaching out to the community or discipling believers, or is X program in place just because as long as grandma has been there in that church that is the way it has been done?
4. Help your congregation find their passions. Most people have them they just need help focusing their passion. They need leadership, and that is where you as a pastor or church leader come in.

I hope this gave you a few ideas for kick starting your church if you were in a slump and if you are a church planter, my hat is off to you! Hope this helped you too.

Some thoughts on Acts Chapter 5

Acts 5: Verses 12-16 seem almost impossible, and if we separate it from the rest of the chapter, it most likely would be. After verse 16, we see how the early church leaders were persecuted. Even though they were spared death by Rabbi Gamaliel’s speech, they were still beaten. (vs. 40) Notice that in verse 41, the apostles who had been beaten with whips were rejoicing “because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. “ So how does that affect the miracles going on in verses 12-16? The early church lived dangerously and at the same time powerfully! Not in their own power but in the power of the Holy Spirit! They didn’t just pray about the sick in their congregation, they healed them! Many of these healings throughout the book of Acts are sudden and dramatic. They aren’t just someone feeling a little better after a prayer is said, they are crippled people getting up and walking, paralyzed people not just twitching a toe, but getting up and leaping and jumping in the air! People are raised from the dead! Before you start thinking, “that was then, we live in the 21st century now and those things don’t happen”, remember, our Lord Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever! (Hebrews 13:8) Pray believing that the Lord will do miraculous things!

Being a great #2 or #3 or #4...

If you are a senior pastor, you can skip reading my blog today. Take a little extra time to prepare the sermon you will be preaching on August 30th or September 6th. This is for associate pastors or staff pastors. We, I am included in this group, know that we are vital to the health of our churches, but often it is tough being the #2 guy, or even the assistant to the assistant to the assistant in some cases. Here are some ideas to help you be the very best that you can be at your ministry.
1. Be the best in YOUR area of ministry! Just because you aren't in charge of the church doesn't mean that God Almighty hasn't put you in the possition you are in to affect people's lives. You need to do the very best job that you can to see that your area of ministry runs with excelence!
2. Be your senior pastor's biggest cheerleader in public. Never tear him down in front of other people and don't gossip behind his back. In private, you can let him know you disagree with him, and the two of you can duke it out if necessary. But in public you have his back 100% at all times.
3. Self critique often. Does your area of ministry need to exist? It is better for you to realize that you need to change than to have someone else tell you that you are obsolete.
I have to run, so I may blog more on this later...as a part timer, have to get to work at the other job. Have an awesome day!

Policies and Procedures

It seems in most churches that there are countless policies and procedures. Some of those are written, some are not. The question I want us to consider today is: Why is it so easy to write a policy, but seemingly difficult to change one once it is in place? In your church, is there a way to change or challenge existing policies without causing a church split? I am not talking about challenging the deity of Jesus Christ. I am more referring to things that the senior pastor may not realize. Example, a couple weeks ago, we had a guest speaker. Our pastor sat in the congregation and took notes along with the rest of us. At staff meeting the next day he remarked that the pens that we give out with the bulletins don't write well. We decided then as a staff that new pens were not an out of the question change and set about ordering some new ones. Now, if our senior pastor hadn't had occasion to sit in the congregation and use one of our pens; How long would it have been before a change would have been made? (I am looking at and thinking about our own church's policy/procedure as I write this.) The funny or not so funny thing is that each of us in the room knew that the pens weren't that great, but hadn't rocked the boat to look for new ones anytime recently. (We still have a case of the old ones that haven't been used up yet.) Pens are just an example, but it makes a few points come to life.
1. If you are a senior pastor. Take a Sunday to sit in the congregation and watch how your church operates from a different point of view. Let an associate speak or bring in someone from the outside, but other than the speaker, let things go on as normal. (Other than that, you will get a twisted view of the service if everything is done up specially for the guest speaker.)
2. If you are not the senior pastor. Remember that your senior pastor isn't in every ministry area of the church. There may be a glaring or not so glaring problem that needs to be changed that he quite simply is not aware even exists. Let him know. It helps if instead of just pointing out the problem, you also have a solution in hand.

Have an awesome day!

Your First Time?

Some of us have been in church so long that we don't remember what the first time we stepped into a church felt like. Stop and think. What does your church look like to the person who is showing up for the first time? What if it is their first time in a church EVER? How is your church constantly keeping in mind that there are people coming who don't know "the rules" who don't know what "an offering" is or a "clap offering"? There are so many micro-culture things that go on in a church that many times we don't even remember why we do them. Does everyone pray out loud once the prayer is started, or do they bow their heads in silence when the person leading in prayer prays? Do you put one finger in the air when you walk across the front of the church? Do people kneel, stand, jump, shout, lay down, spin around? All of that is fine, but can you explain it quickly to the person who doesn't know anything about the Lord and even less about your church?
A quick thought for the end of my morning rant: God doesn't give us more than we can bear. Is your church ready to bear the burden of new growth? Baby Christians? Messy New People?...

Rethinking Church...

Before I write anything on this topic, I must first confess that I am church cultured all the way through. I have been in church since the first Sunday after my mother and father created me. Nine months or so later, I became a regular in the church nursery. You get the picture. In the world of business, a lot is changing, old business models aren't necessarily working as well as they once did. Technology and the internet have made it possible for people to make business connections that were nearly impossible 5o years ago. So, my question is, how is that affecting the church? Should it? While the message we have to give away must remain constant through time, the way in which that message is given must be ever evolving and changing if we are to reach this generation for Christ! Pastors, we are awful about finding something that works and sticking with it long after it has ceased to work. Flannel board was all the rage and the newest and coolest way to reach people with the love of Jesus about 40 years ago. Fanny Crosby wrote incredible hymns that were put to the popular music of her day in the later half of the 1800's. Overhead projectors shining the lyrics to "Majesty" up on the front wall of the church were great in the 1980's! None of those things are bad. None of them will send anyone to hell. So why wouldn't we keep using them in church? (Some churches still do.)The sinner on the street wouldn't connect with the method in which the message was portrayed. Fanny Crosby herself said that her songs were written to speak to the man on the street, not to the highbrow church person. I am not just writing about music. Fellowship is meant to be relational. We can worship together in a large church, but fellowship only happens in small groups. How do we as a church, unless your church is only 10-15 people, continue to reach out to people while also creating environments in which small groups can assemble and spend time getting to know each other in very real relationships? At our church, we use a small group model that we call "Home TEAMs". They are great! The problem is that less than 25% of our congregation are actively involved in one. That means that 75% basically show up on Sunday for a worship service and never experience the meaningful relationships that Christ meant for His Body - The church, to share.
Going back to the idea of rethinking business. Often 80% of your customers only account for 20% of your profit/income. In the church, we often say that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Nice to see that isn't only a church problem, but is it possible to get the other 80% actively involved in the work of the Lord? Yes it is! Here is my "Rethinking church" idea. We often refer to certain organizations as "para-church organizations" or "faith based organizations" I would propose that maybe some of these are really undercover churches. An example: I used to work as a volunteer with a group of theaters in the Midwest called Stained Glass Theatre. They put on plays using volunteer actors. All the shows contained a strong salvation message, but were not "Bible stories". (Except for very few.) This group of stage hands/script writers/actors/editors/...were a fellowship of people who loved the Lord and loved theatre. Through that ministry and its offshoots, thousands of people have come to know Jesus as their Savior. Thousands more have had their walk with the Lord strengthened, and I am only referring to the spectators! The people who were in the theatre, were all working toward a common goal. Some had big jobs, others little ones, but all were involved with a purpose. When one is sick or hurting all are their to comfort and help. When one rejoices, all rejoice. Is SGT perfect? No! But were real meaningful relationships build every day? Yes! People found fellowship with other Christians and with God there. So is it a church? You can decide that one...maybe we should look at that model though, and see how it can affect our church. Having a common goal and purpose, and each person having his or her role in carrying out that goal can cause a revolution in Christendom. Sorry this one is so long. Have an awesome day! Hopefully you are thinking a bit.

Connecting a Vision!

Many pastors and leaders have a vision for their church/community/company...Remember that it isn't enough to tell people once! Many times, we as leaders wonder why the people we work with don't catch the vision. Maybe it is because we aren't communicating it well. (I am a Spanish teacher and on exams, I see when I have communicated the material well and when I haven't.) In church, we don't usually give exams to our parishioners, but we do see the results of people making the vision of the church their own! If the vision can be "sloganized" it should be used every week! A more detailed version of the vision should be communicated to the church body a minimum of once every six weeks. Yes, I know that is 9 of your 52 sermons a year. Remember that I am not a senior pastor. I do know that the pulpit time is very valuable to communicate the message God has given you. If the vision God has given you for the church you are leading isn't the same as the messages He is giving you throughout your ministry, then you might need to take a second look at what you think the vision for your church is. At our church, the Vision Statement is to "Reach lost people with the love of Jesus and Teach them to love like Jesus" It is simple, but that idea permeates each sermon/series/activity/ministry that we do. As people get a hold of that vision, they will be excited about it with the same passion that you as the pastor are. (Note: if you don't have a passion for the vision, neither will the people in your congregation.)Have fun and let people in on the vision. It isn't a secret that others will steal, it should be given away freely!

This Weekend

This last weekend, the staff of my church went to Asheville for a retreat. Some of the questions we went over are worth posting on here for those who aren't on staff at 5 Point Fellowship who read this blog.
1. What questions do I need to be asking?
2. Is there anything that I need to be dealing with that I am trying to deny? (Sin, lack of ability, conflict...)
3. Am I broken over the state of our community?
4. Am I leading with pure motives?
5. As a leader, do I understand my position?
6. Am I prepared to share the vision? (Do you know the vision of your church? Can you share it?)
7. Do I really expect everyone to be excited about this vision?
8. Am I willing to fight for it(The vision of the church)?

There were many more questions, but these were some I thought my readers might find applicable no matter what church you are serving in.

Desert Times/Transition Times

I was just thinking about Moses wandering in the desert. I have heard pastors say they feel like such and such a time was their time in the desert. So lets look at the bright side of desert wandering. Look at the desert as the transition time between where they were, Egypt, and where they would end up, Israel/The Promised Land. It took some work to get the people out of Egypt! Remember the plagues?! Then, as Moses and the people of Israel are out in the desert, there are those church members (Oops, I mean Israelite people) who want to go back to the way things used to be. However, even in the desert, some of the greatest experiences took place! God gave Moses the 10 Commandments in the desert, not in Egypt or the Promised Land! Please, as a pastor don't take this example to far and think (((Great, so my job is to lead through the desert, and then God is going to need someone else to take my congregation to their promised land.))) However, It probably does mean that you will need to make changes in your leadership style! Doing things they way they have always been done tends to give you the same results you have been getting...or worse, not better. Just remember in any change out of Egypt, there is some transitioning desert time of struggle and complaining before you get to the Promised Land. Where ever you are in this journey, praise the Lord that He is allowing you to lead a group of people there!

Crazy in love?

So, if you are a pastor or leader, and you are trying to figure out why someone else's ministry seems to be doing better than yours, ask your self: "Am I crazy in love with Jesus?" You know the kind of in love I mean. You can't wait to see Him, You can't wait to read His letter to you, You can't keep yourself from talking about Him to your friends, family, total strangers, because you are so completely head over heals in love with Him that it is impossible to think of a subject you would rather think about or talk about or dream about than Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. If you can say that about yourself without any hesitation (and you aren't lying...which would be some kind of weird, given the topic) then you are where God wants you even if your ministry doesn't seem to be heading for mega-church status anytime soon. People who are crazy in love with Jesus are contagious! If you aren't, find someone who is and work with them. If I am right, and it is contagious, then you will soon catch it! People who are 100% sold out for God are awesome witnesses! So get a little Crazy in Love!

Floating Axe Heads...

I am really feeling like a spiritual wimp today. As I continue to read through 2 Kings, I am in awe of the miracles that God did through His prophets! Jesus told us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. These Old Testament prophets had a faith that I have never experienced. It is easy to pray for someone to be healed of a cold, and if they feel better, great! As a child I remember seeing a real healing miracle. My babysitter had fallen off her barrel racing horse and dislocated her elbow...which she had done many times. It swelled up quite large. In front of my eyes, as men prayed for her, the swelling shrunk down and her elbow went back into place and she was completely healed! There was no trick photography or fancy shouting, just a group of guys from the church that both she and I went to began to pray for a young lady in pain and God chose to intervene. What I learned this morning as I read is that God doesn't only care about our health or the big government stuff. He also cared about a man who lost a borrowed axe head in the water. He didn't have the money to replace the axe head I am sure, so God saw fit to allow that axe head to float! Wow! I pray that God will allow me to have the faith that flowed through Elijah and Elisha!

This Morning

This morning on my way to work, I heard the news pop in at the top of the hour on my favorite radio station. One ten second news blurb suddenly caught my attention. It was a fatal car wreck, but the part that grabbed my attention was that it is the street corner by the school where I teach. I still don't know who died, but it made me think. People die every minute in this world, but it often isn't until we are or, like in the case of the wreck this morning, could be affected by an event that we really take notice. That hit me like a ton of bricks! How often do we overlook people who represent souls going to hell just because they don't directly affect our lives? Those people are somebody to someone, and God's will is that none should perish! Let us get the blinders off and reach out to people beyond our circle of friends and family. (In this blog, I am mostly preaching to myself...if you are along for the ride, bless you!)

Lost People...

My church is in the Bible belt, and so it might seem to outsiders that everyone down here in South Carolina are already Christians. Here is the truth; There are enough lost people to fill the churches in our town many times over! For to long churches have been about seeing themselves grow and so they start a new neat program that gets a few people to transfer membership from the church down the road and they at the same time fight to stay ahead of the other churches so that their own members don't transfer away. That is a horrible way to grow a church! When our churches remember that the number one goal of God's people is to reach out to lost sinners, then the church will grow! Like D.L. Moody said, "It is the greatest pleasure of living to win souls to Christ." That zeal to win souls on his part helped lead thousands if not millions of people to the Lord! That was a huge revival! If you want to see growth in your church, reach the lost in your community and your church will explode. (Warning: Baby Christians are messy and will screw up your perfect programs!)

Church Leadership

Monday Night, we had a bunch of the leaders in our church get together with the pastor for a time of fellowship and letting the pastor do some vision casting. We as a church must have a purpose! If we just say, "Well, we want to be a church." What does that mean? Why should God bless a church if it has no purpose for being? Here in South Carolina, you almost can't throw a rock without breaking a stained glass window. There are at least four churches within a quick stroll of my office. We each have a ministry working as part of the Body of Christ! As pastors and leaders who read this blog, remember that the congregation needs leadership. If you are a leader who isn't the senior pastor, remember to support the leadership of your pastor! If he can't count on the trust of his associate pastors and lay leadership, he will be hamstrung in his ability to lead the church. Does that mean that you must agree with every move he makes? No! But, it does mean that you trust him to be hearing from God, and if you think he is hearing wrong, you will confront him directly and privately, not talk about his "bad decision" behind his back. (Remember that I am not a senior pastor and am not speaking out of anger here.) God will do great things with a church that is showing people his love and leading souls to Jesus Christ, but my personal belief is that He doesn't have much reason to bless churches that are really just clubs that sing nice songs together. It is also hard to lead a church that is fighting internally. Sorry for the rant...the point is to support your pastor and leadership. Have an incredible day! God is AWESOME!

New Ideas in Church Growth

I was talking with a friend today about church growth American style versus other ideas for church growth. We began the conversation discussing church planting models, and finally came to an idea that crossed the two ideas. What if churches, when they hit the point that they can afford to hire a second pastor would plant a new church. Then as the two churches grow, the pastors could continue to work with both congregations, but without the need to be tied to one large building in one geographic location. As the third, fourth, fifth etc. churches were planted, the geographic area impacted by the church as a whole would be larger. Once in a while, a large facility could be rented or borrowed that would be of sufficient size to hold the mother/sister churches in one location for a joint service that would be much like the "mega-church" experience, but without the constant overhead of maintaining the multi-million dollar structures that the larger church would need for a single location. (Note: I am not bashing large churches here; I am just throwing out an alternative hypothesis for church growth/church planting.)If there are any pastors of large churches/mega-churches that actually read my blog, I would be curious if you think there is any merit to this idea? Is there ever a feeling of being trapped by the need to maintain the structure of the church that inhibits the ability to do what you set out to do when the church was planted? Which was most likely that you wanted to reach people for Jesus Christ.

Thoughts on the last weeks.

Sometimes we humans sin just from our own stupidity and human nature, and sometimes Satan is gunning for us. I just want to mention an interesting "coincidence" from the last few weeks. A while back my pastor asked me to start a pornography addiction recovery group at our church. At first, I thought, how in the world do you get guys to come to a group like that? But then, after praying about it and talking to my wife about it, I agreed. Two weeks ago, we had our first meeting of "Monday Night Porn Talk". Here is the interesting part. Almost immediately, the level of e-mails inviting me to visit singles and/or porn sites arriving in my inbox went up drastically, and those are just the ones that got through the filter! So, why am I sharing this? On one hand, keeping a low profile is easier, but when we begin to challenge a stronghold of Satan not only outside the church, but one he has IN the church, I do believe he gets upset and fights back. The great thing is that our God is much more powerful than Satan can ever hope to be! We already have victory over him through Jesus Christ. So if you feel like Satan is keeping you from doing something that God has asked you to do, I am encouraging you to do it! And while Satan will retaliate when provoked, our Lord God is not challenged at all by the forces of darkness. Thanks for reading. Sorry I haven't posted in a week or so.

Missions

Churches have different views of what “Missions” means. In its most simple form, it is anything that reaches out to others with a purpose. In Christianity, we reach out to others with the purpose of showing them God’s love and asking them to join us in our journey through life accepting Jesus as their Savior. When Jesus told us to “Go unto all the world” he mentioned Judea, Samaria and the ends or the uttermost parts of the earth. Many preachers have paraphrased that to mean your local community, your state/country, and foreign missions too. I believe that there is order to that. If all our church is doing is sending some money to a missionary in a far off land while never showing God’s love to the grumpy guy who lives right next to the church building, then we have missed the call. Likewise, if we are reaching out to our local community, but never reach beyond it, we have also missed out on what God intended. If your church has never taken part in foreign missions, then I encourage you to do so. I don’t just mean that you send a few dollars to a missionary. Contact a missionary and find out how you can help them on the field. When you take a group of people from your own church and reach out in another area of the world, it will not only help the missionary and the people where you go serve, but it will be a life changing event in the lives of the people on your team! Another side affect is that when people are concerned about those who live in another land, they will begin to see the needs in their own community as well. If your church rarely goes outside the walls of the building you meet in, give missions of any kind a try! I am sure that you will find the effort very worth the return on investment when you see how the people in your own congregation are changed.

A cool link!

The following blog made me think of a prayer time my pastor and I had recently.
Steven Furtick's Blog really hit me. Are we dreaming God sized dreams?

Lone Ranger or A-Team?

This post is more for pastors, but Lay leaders still might want to read it. Pastor, are you a Lone Ranger or part of an A-Team is the question we are looking at. If you aren’t in the right age bracket for those references to make sense, The Lone Ranger fought crime by himself (though he did have a sidekick) and the A-Team was a group of guys who fought as a team, each one adding his level of expertise. I am not talking about how many people you have on staff. Some of you have a small church, and you are the staff. What I am talking about is running your church and sermon preparation. Are you trying to do it all by yourself? I want to suggest, if you aren’t already doing it that you try having a creativity team/big picture team/ideas team or whatever you want to call it. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t still your source of inspiration for your sermons. But it does mean that once you have the direction for your sermon that there will be people to help you in the planning. If you use video clips, they can help you get or create good ones to go with your sermon. They can help you pick out music for the song service that ties into the sermon topic. If you decorate your platform for a sermon or series, they can help you come up with ways to do it, and help carry out that decoration. These people don’t have to be paid staff, just find creative people in your church that love the Lord and would be willing to meet with you at some time during the week. As people see how things come together in your church they will be more supportive of you as a pastor as well. This works in a church of 20 or a church of 20,000. Granted in the church of 20, if your creativity team is very large, there won’t be very many people who haven’t already hashed out your sermon with you before Sunday morning comes, but so what? They are involved, and they will remember the sermon better than if they just came Sunday morning and listened to it. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This doesn’t have to only apply to the Sunday morning worship service.
If you disagree with me on this, please comment! If you are using a creativity team in your church, please comment too! And if you aren’t, but want to start one, try it out, then come back and comment later once you have! I would love to hear feedback on this one….I don’t want to be a Lone Ranger blogger!

Going Somewhere?

As a child, most likely you read the book Alice in Wonderland. At one point in the story, Alice comes to a fork in the road and there is the famous grinning Cheshire Cat. She asks him, “Which road should I take?” to which he responds, “Where are you going?” She answers him, “I don’t know.” And so the cat says, “Then it doesn’t matter which road you take.” The lesson for pastors or lay people here is that if we don’t have a plan for where our church is going, then we will most likely end up taking a lot of roads to nowhere. Casting the vision for the church must come from the leadership, but if the pastor and leaders in the church are unsure of God’s purpose and vision for their congregation, then the baby Christian in the pew has no chance of catching that vision and direction. Today’s blog is simple.
1. If you don’t already have a concrete vision for your church, get on your knees in prayer until you do.
2. Share that vision often with your church. As a Spanish teacher, I know that repetition is very important to get the average student to learn something. The same goes for teaching in the church.
3. Make sure the staff and leaders in your church know and share that vision and can share it with the people they are working with.