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.

An idea...feel free to use it.

I have this crazy idea...it isn't really new to me, but don't know how to get it going...so here it is. If you get around to organizing it before I do...Great! In the Education world, there are a series of conferences called "In Search of the Great Teacher", in which teachers from multiple disciplines get together and help each other out in an iron sharpens iron type environment. In the business world, Seth Godin has his MBA program that only allows the best and brightest marketers to attend. Great things happen when you get a bunch of like minded people together intent on helping each other reach their maximum potential. In both cases, there isn't necessarily one guru who knows it all and teaches all the others. It is a collaborative effort on the part of all involved.
My idea is to do the same thing with pastors. Get a group of 10-15 pastors together in a room for a couple days. Preferably from different denominations,different size churches, and different age ranges. Each one bring two ideas from their ministry that just really seem to work well to share with the other pastors. They will also bring one thing that just seems to stand in their way. They feel like they beat their head against the wall with this issue. Of course there is no guarantee that anyone will have a solution, but with 10-15 other pastors in the room, someone might have faced that same problem before. There, that is the whole idea. Putting minds together who want to grow in their ability to minister to the people God has called them to minister to. It isn't a competition, and no perfect pastor is going to come explain to the peons how ministry should be done. If you are interested and live in the upstate of SC send me a message and if I have much response, I can put it together. If you are from another part of the country and you like the idea...Have at it! No charge, I am giving it away for free!

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?...

Communication to Lead

I want to start with this quote from Saul Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals”:

“One can lack any of the qualities of an organizer – with one exception – and still be effective and successful. That exception is the art of communication. It does not matter what you know about anything if you cannot communicate to your people. In that event you are not even a failure. You’re just not there. Communication with others takes place when they understand what you’re trying to get across to them. If they don’t understand, then you are not communicating regardless of your words, pictures or anything else. People only understand things in terms of their experience, which means that you must get within their experience.”

This is from a secular book that has nothing to do with churches, but the truth of his arguement rings true. We have the greatest story ever told! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a life changing ideal that we need to communicate to everyone! Doing so effectively is a challenge that we as "The Church" seem to struggle with. We as Christians are always communicating something to the world. The question is: What are we communicating? How effective is our communication? Is it relevant to the hearer? Have a great day, and communicate the Gospel effectively to someone today while you are at it!

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.

Borrowed Vision

Marketing guru, Seth Godin, wrote: "You shouldn't pick your strategy by modeling someone else's success." He was talking about bloggers and marketing, but in the ministry world, this holds true as well. It is easy to see other pastors who have been successful and think, ((Well, if I had that building I could have a church of 20 billion too!)) or the many other thoughts that pop in the head of someone who for whatever reason feels like the ministry God has called them to isn't quite measuring up to the ministry God has called someone else to. And there you have my main point. IF you are doing what GOD called you to do, and you are doing it to the very best of your ability, then you are successful in God's eyes, and He is the one that matters. It is tempting to steal someone else's vision just because we see it working somewhere else, but sadly, God gave them that vision for their time and place in history. If He didn't give it to you, than you still may see some success(As the world would judge success) with a lot of hard work, but it won't be what God had planned for you. We can all learn from others, but there is a huge difference between learning from them and trying to copy what they did. Have an awesome day and seek GOD'S vision for you and your ministry!

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.

Church Planting and staffing

Have you ever thought about planting a church? What does it take...other than everything you have and a bit more? God has allowed me to be part of a church that was a couple years old when I first attended. It is now a 4 1/2 year old church plant. The senior pastor is a visionary who is also quite ADD, I am much more conservative, structured...the rest of the staff is as different from each other as they are from us. We ALL have two common goals - to reach people with the love of Jesus Christ and to teach them to love others with the Love of Christ! Many would consider our church a "successful" church plant. It wasn't accomplished by finding a bunch of people who were exactly like the church planter. (If it were, I would not have been allowed to even attend, much less end up on staff.)If you are considering planting a church, this is one small point among many to keep in mind. As you start staffing even if that is unpaid lay staff, find someone who has strengths in your weaknesses. My wife often laughs that 1/2 the staff here are ADD or ADHD and the other half are uber-organized number-crunching nerds....you can guess which category I fall into. That is a good thing! Guess what, if I were the "front man" for the church...it wouldn't look anything like it does, and I must admit, it would probably be much more boring to many. I am not the super get excited kind of person. Those people are needed! Calm, cool and collected doesn't inspire people unless there are guns involved. Passion does! I thank the Lord that he let me be a part of such a diverse bunch every day! Have fun with your church plant! We need more of them! Until everyone on the planet can claim to have been presented with the gospel and have made a choice to accept Jesus or reject Him, we still have a lot of work to do!

Snowballs

Yesterday, there actually was a short snow fall here in South Carolina in April,but that isn't what I am talking about today. If you have followed this blog or my Home TEAM blog, you know that our church just put together an Egg Drop event in Easley, SC. It was a great success...which means we are already working on the next events. Yes Plural. Next year, we will be doing a bigger, better Egg Drop on March 27th! Mark your calendar! Currently, though other than having reserved the field for next March, I am working on some smaller events. May 17th is Tennis Shoe Sunday! May 24th is our Outdoor Baptism! We are planning for a big day there! July 4th is a big block party event in the parking lot at 5 Point Fellowship! It takes time to put together a great event! If you are a leader in your church, you will quickly find out that those events that you just "throw together" look like exactly that. Spend the time and money to do everything your church does with excellence! Oh, and if you are wondering why a church is involved in city event planning...Sunday morning about 10 people gave their hearts to the Lord! Many new visitors have come because they attended one of our community events. Have fun in your community showing people the love of Jesus Christ and then see what happens!

Updating on Year Goals...

For those of you who have followed my blog...Hi Mom. Just wanted to update you on the progress of my goals I set back on my birthday in November. On the goal of reading through the Bible twice, I just finished the first read through this morning. On the professional goal of presenting at at least one conference; last month, I presented a workshop at the SCFLTA (South Carolina Foreign Language Teacher's Association)Conference. The third goal was to have the Home TEAM ministry representing 50% of the church or more. We have three new Home TEAMs, but our church is growing faster than the Home TEAM ministry, so I need to do more on that goal! Please keep me in your prayers on that one!

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!

Stepping out of the box

If you keep up with my blog, you know that I work with small group ministries at my church. Recently, in recruiting new leaders, I talked with a couple who I thought would make a great pair to host a new Home TEAM(our name for small groups). They were interested, and then pitched an idea to me. "What about a group for blended families?" I was pleased with their initiative and so we began working out the details. During those weeks, I did some checking because honestly, I know nothing about blended families beyond watching the Brady Bunch when I was a kid. There are no step or half anybodies in my family. I came across some interesting statistics. 30% of marriages in the United States create a blended family situation. As we know, the divorce rate in the church sadly is no different than outside the church, so chances are that there are blended families in any congregation. As I began reading about some of the issues they face, I realized that what started out as an idea from one couple who want to be Home TEAM leaders could end up being an incredible ministry! As I look around my own church, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that at least 20% of our congregation are in some kind of blended family situation, and the reality is that I am probably very low on that statistic. I am writing as someone who knows nothing of the struggles these families face except from what I have read. Many pastors and church leaders are like me in this respect, so maybe this blog entry will trigger a new idea for your congregation. Have a great day!

Lessons fom David

This morning I was reading a story we all know well about David going to fight Goliath. The part that struck me today is that though David walked in the confidence of God Almighty, he went against all contemporary wisdom of his day. Notice though that once he defeated Goliath, all the men of Israel gave chase to the Philistines. In today's wold, sometimes God will call us to do things that may fly in the face of contemporary wisdom of our day. Yet, when it works, there will be many who flock to follow and cash in on the victory. David wasn't without a plan, but he did do something that everyone else thought he was crazy to undertake! Have fun facing your giants...though like David, you must make sure the Lord is on your side first.

Connections!

We all know by now that people come to church not just because the preacher does an incredible job of applying God's word to our lives or because the choir sings so well the angels are jealous or because the sanctuary is wonderful and pristine in its decorations or that it is a perfect doctrinal match for them. People come join with a church often because of the connections they make there. One of the reasons the landscape is dotted with small churches is because half the people in the church are related and the other half are their friends. The connections are there! In a church that is growing, you soon run into the obstacle of people coming in, loving the service yet still not coming back after a few weeks. They didn't get connected to those around them. So what is the quick fix? Get friendlier greeters and ushers? No, your greeters and ushers are most likely friendly enough. (If they aren't then you have other issues to deal with.) There isn't a quick fix. The long hard fix is to find ways to connect people with new believers who come into your church. There isn't one perfect way to do that. Some churches have great Sunday School programs! My church doesn't even have Sunday School, but our Home TEAM's are exploding! Please don't take that to mean that we have it all figured out...we still have a long way to go! I have a friend whose wife absolutely despises small groups/home groups...but they love singing in the choir at their church and have established life long friendships with those in the choir. We as humans have to fight against our habit forming nature to reach out to the new people who come through the doors of our churches to help them connect to others. If you are a pastor, mentor your church leaders to reach out rather than standing in a circle talking to each other on Sunday Mornings. Invite people over to your house for lunch or to go out to eat with you after church. Only by getting involved in people's lives outside of Sunday mornings will we be able to effectively reach them with the gospel and then keep them in a relationship that will help them connect to God and to each other. Have an awesome day!

Connections!

This is an incredibly busy week! And that is AWESOME! The part of my job that I absolutely love is helping people connect to God and to each other. The busy part of this week is that tonight, the men of the church are getting together to meet with a missionary and investigate helping out with his mission next summer. So Connection will happen there! Then tomorrow night is a Home TEAM meeting which is temporarily at my house. Connections again! Thursday night is nothing, and my wife works, so the dog and I can just veg out! Friday night is the start of a brand new Home TEAM for young couples! Connections will be started there! Saturday night is date night with my wife! Definite connection possibility there! Sunday night, I am teaching the New Believer's class. Connections again! Monday night, we are having a leadership/vision casting meeting with the church staff and some of the lay leaders in the church. Connections will be made there! As you can see, it is a busy week, but I am jacked up! People will be connecting with God and with each other at each of these events! God is awesome! When we seek Him, He gives us the desires of our hearts! As I see people draw closer to God and grow in their relationship with Him, the desire of my heart is fulfilled! When I see people loving each other in community and not just "doing church", it thrills me! In your church, are you helping people to connect to God and to each other?

Part Time Pastors

This blog is for all of you out there who are "Part Time" pastors. As we all soon learn, there is no such thing as "part time" when one is in any area of ministry. My "full time" job is as a Spanish instructor, however, I often find myself working on ministry stuff during office hours, or even getting a great idea in the middle of class that is for the "part time" job, not the full time one. I am sure if you are in this situation that you completely understand.
The thought that goes through my mind is that there is no such thing as a "Part Time" Christian, so why should any of us be "Part Time" pastors. In truth, we aren't! OK, so our salary from the congregation wouldn't keep a dog in dog food, so we work another job to be able to afford our ministry habit. You are a full time Christian even when you work in a "secular" job. Isn't that what we teach our congregation? So you are a full time pastor even when you work that secular job too! Paul made tents so he could preach the gospel. Have fun and enjoy the ministry God has given you! Remember that he counted it all JOY to be able to suffer for Christ. Chances are that if you are a pastor reading this in the United States, you aren't truly suffering. Police aren't hauling us out in the streets and beating us for being a Christian as they are in some countries. Have fun this Sunday with your congregation! As your church grows, you never know. You might end up "Full Time"!

New Days Ahead

At my church, we just hit that 600 mark. A little background, we are a four year old church plant in a rented theater building. Our space is far from optimal though the location is good in the downtown area of our big town/small city. While we have space in the main theater(sanctuary) for the adults in the two services, the kids side of the church is overflowing! It is a good problem to have!
Creative solutions is becoming the name of the game around here. We have a New Believer's class meeting in the pastor's office,there is another group meeting in the lobby, of course in the sanctuary, and then the upstairs, downstairs and classroom space is being used on the "children's" side on Sunday nights! God is Awesome! We are praying for God's guidance,(and funding), for a new location or some other creative way to handle the growth. It is incredible to see people coming to the Lord and seeing people's lives changed.
This is more of a testimony than a great blog to help your church, but hopefully it will encourage you if you are a pastor out there who feels like your church is handicapped by your facilities. God can do amazing things with very little! Think a few loaves of bread and some fish!

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.

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?