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.

Scripture memorization

This week, our senior pastor asked the staff of 5 Point Fellowship to memorize Colossians 4:5,6 "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." As I have worked on getting this verse not only into my head, but also into my heart, God has been using it to speak to me. The horrid thing for me to admit is that I haven't consciously tried to memorize scripture since the summer of 2007! There is a difference between just reading and studying God's word, and memorizing it so that it is a part of you. I know that isn't new to anyone reading this blog, and it isn't "new" to me either, but it seems that I had forgotten this truth somewhere along the road. Now that I have written about it, hopefully this will help me be accountable to the people who read this and I will stay on track putting Gods word in my heart so that I won't sin against HIM.

Thoughts from Sunday!

This last Sunday, we talked about some great stuff...SEX! The sermon was soundly biblical, yet for some reason, people were a little on edge that the church would talk about such an important subject. Are there certain subjects that the church just isn't supposed to talk about? God showed up in an amazing way in the song portion of the service. As people sang out worshiping God, He was there! It was incredible! Now I am sure He wasn't there to find out about sex, after all, He created it. He was there because His people were shouting out praises to Him!
As I have mentioned, our church here in Easley, SC is hitting that awkward stage of between about 500-600 people. That is incredible for a 4 year old church, especially where most of the growth is from new Christians, not transplant growth. The reason it is awkward is that we find ourselves struggling to find leaders! One would think that with almost six hundred people, surely a few hundred would be fine leadership material. And, that is true, but they aren't yet there. Many of the people have been Christians less than two years. So, this convoluted blog is a request. Any ideas on how to help people realize their leadership potential in a very short amount of time? What is working in your church?

Responsibility

Erwin McManus, once quoted an unnamed source, "Is it possible that Christianity has rejected this gospel because it demands too much of us?" Jesus changed the world with his life. He didn't call us to be comfortable or even successful by the world's standards. He called each of us who know Him to share that testimony of His grace with others. That quote is stuck in my head. Are we causing sinners to reject the gospel because we make it look to easy? There isn't a club in America that doesn't ask its members to do something, yet we so often try to get people to come to church and believe in our God with an promise that Salvation is free. We know that true faith in Jesus Christ costs us everything! He freely gives us salvation, but are we doing our job sharing with new believers the cost of the decision they have made? And do we really think that unsaved or un-churched people don't have a clue that if they commit to this Jesus following stuff that they are going to have to do more than pray once and it is all over? Please do not misinterpret what I am saying, I know that we are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, and not by anything we do. I am however saying that once we are saved by grace, that there are things that we are called to do. Are we adequately sharing that with the people that we share the gospel with? I would love to hear comments on this one!

Big Church/Small Church

If your church has less than thirty people, you can skip this blog and come back later. Many people like a “small church” because they feel like they get to know people better. One of the complaints about mid-size and large churches is that people feel they get lost in the numbers and don’t really create relationships. So, the challenge is to create the “small church” inside the “large church”. That is where all the small groups come in. Churches who get people plugged in to what they are doing find that those people don’t leave. It is a way of closing that back door. Small groups can be many things though, not just Bible study groups. Again, I will give a few suggestions, but then let your brain spin a little and see if you can add some.
1. Traditional Small Groups/Home Groups/Cell Groups/Sunday School
2. Accountability Groups
3. Worship team or Choir
4. Drama Group
5. Motorcycle Club
6. Prayer team
7. Church Decorating team
8. Ministry teams – puppet, music, street evangelism…
9. Creativity team – Art, Setting up the Pulpit area for each series the pastor is doing.
10. Event Coordination team – Sets up 4th of July, Septemberfest, Christmas activities etc.
Hopefully this scratched the surface for you and got you thinking about ways to plug people into small groups in your church so that they can build the relationships that smaller churches take for granted.

Memorize the Playbook?

I heard an interesting thought this evening that I thought would be worth sharing with the type of people who might read my blog. The thought was, “If churches were like football teams, then most pastors would get fired after the first season.” Most churches and church leaders included have the idea that we memorize the playbook (Bible). We teach the playbook. We even practice the plays in the playbook. But what would happen to a team that knew every play in the book but couldn’t execute the plays for a win during the game? The team owners wouldn’t care if the coach said, “I know we lost 55-0 but my players know every play in the playbook.” Pastor’s and leaders in the church are much like a coach. Once the people leave the confines of the locker room (church lobby) and head out onto the field (real life) that is when we find out how good a job the coaching staff is doing. Philippians 4:9 tells us to “Put into practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” Hopefully we can inspire and motivate those who are learning, receiving, hearing and seeing from and in us to put what we have modeled for them into practice so that the game of life can be won! If you didn’t like this blog, blame me. If you really liked it, check out Travis Holmes’ new church Thrive Church at www.thrivechurch.tv or see his blog link to the right on my page. Most of this thought was stolen from his mind.

Five Points of the Church

If you are a pastor, you most likely at some point back in Bible College or Seminary studied the five reasons for a church’s existence -- Discipleship, Worship, Ministry, Fellowship, and Evangelism. If you didn’t go to Bible College, maybe where introduced to these fundamental truths through Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. As time goes by, has your church continued to work in all five areas? Are you really good at Fellowship, but maybe haven’t reached out in Evangelism in a while? Or maybe Evangelism is your focus! But somewhere the Discipleship got left out.
Before you start beating yourself up and feeling like this is going to be one more thing you read which shows you how or why your ministry is failing, remember the words of Paul in I Corinthians 12: 12 “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” You, as a pastor or leader in your church cannot fulfill all of these roles by yourself. WE as the whole body of Christ work together to create the community that is the Body of Believers.
This blog is just a reminder that as we constantly seek to improve our walk with the Lord and to improve our churches we can get back to basics. We can ask ourselves five simple questions that may need more than just simple answers.
1. Am I working to disciple one person?
2. Does my life worship God?
3. How am I ministering to others?
4. Have I spent time with another Christian sharing with them and uplifting them?
5. How have I shared Jesus with someone recently?

Have fun and enjoy serving the Lord!

Accountability Groups

In your church, there are men and women who struggle with sin! If this comes as a shock to you, I suggest leaving the bubble you live in. Satan likes to tell us that since we have all sinned that God can’t use us anymore and that we should just give up and be sinners. Accountability groups allow us to confess our sins one to another as James 5:16 exhorts us to do without the fear that our deepest darkest sins will be broadcast from the bell tower for all the land to hear.
So you think this sounds like a good idea and don’t know how to get started. Here are a couple pointers.
1. Pick people of the same gender! While hanging out with people of the opposite gender is great fun, they make for lousy accountability partners. Men are more open with men, and likewise women are more open with women.
2. Pick people that don’t gossip. Proverbs 20:19 says, “A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.” (NIV)
3. Set some ground rules. One good one is that what is said in your Accountability group stays in your accountability group. I don’t even share with my wife the things the men in my accountability group share with me.
The following are the questions we use, though feel free to modify them or make up questions of your own that challenge your group in the areas that you and they are struggling with. (Disclaimer: I didn’t come up with these. I hope there is not a copyright on this list of questions. If you are the author; feel free to contact me and I will either give you credit or remove them at your option.)
1. Have you spent daily time in the Scripture and in prayer?
2. Have you had any flirtatious or lustful attitudes, tempting thoughts, or exposed yourself to any explicit materials, which would not glorify God?
3. Have you been completely above reproach in your financial dealings?
4. Have you spent quality relationship time with your family and friends?
5. Have you done your 100 percent best in your job, school, etc.?
6. Have you told any half-truths or outright lies, putting yourself in a better light to those around you?
7. Have you shared the Gospel with an unbeliever this week?
8. Have you taken care of your body through daily physical exercise and proper eating/sleeping habits?
9. Have you allowed any person or circumstance to rob you of your joy?
10. Have you lied to us on any of your answers today?
My personal experience has been that as I grew to know and trust the men in my accountability group, my spiritual walk with the Lord also grew and I learned to trust HIM more too. The first step can be scary, but I highly recommend getting together at a set time and place each week to grow in the Lord with a small group of people with whom you can let your guard down. You will also see great new friendships bloom out of these relationships. Don’t forget to have fun!