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Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?

By
J.D. Greear
-
communicating with the unchurched

After the Israelites responded to God’s faithfulness in delivering them from Egypt by making a golden statue to worship and having an all-night orgy around it (not a good response), God confronted Moses on Mt. Sinai and told him that God’s wrath would “burn hot against them and consume them” (Exodus 32:10).

“But Moses implored the LORD his God and said…‘Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.”’”

And then, the most amazing verse:

“And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people”
(Exodus 32:11-14 ESV).

What is going on here? Does Moses’ prayer convince God to change his mind by reminding God of something he had said, something that he had apparently forgotten about? Was God just having an off day? Had he forgotten to do his quiet time that morning?

Did Moses really change God’s mind?

Let me make it even more confusing for you: Moses, the same author who recorded this story, says clearly in Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.”

What should we do with this? Engineers and accountants and other type-A people (like myself) will struggle with this, but God is too big to contain in neat, tidy formulas. We should approach these issues not as contradictions to be resolved but as three truths to be held in tension:

1. God’s purposes are unchanging.

Verses like Numbers 23:19 are clear: God is not a man. He never learns anything new. He doesn’t wise up with experience or change his mind.

The prophet Isaiah concurs: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning…saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

And the apostle Paul: “In him we have…been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

Moses, Isaiah and Paul are three of the most significant authors of Scripture, and they all say the same thing. So, it seems clear that God’s purposes are unchanging, but, like I said, we have to hold this in tension with another truth.

2. God’s plans are unfolding.

The text of Exodus says that God changed his course of action based on Moses’ prayer. And here’s the irony of the story: God is the one who tells Moses to go down and see the situation (v. 7). Moses didn’t know the people had corrupted themselves. God showed this to him.

Furthermore, the very thing that Moses uses to “change God’s mind” is God’s own promise. (And God, of course, hadn’t forgotten his promises.)

Do you see what’s happening? God had put Moses into a situation so that he would see the problem God already knew about, remember God’s promises, and petition God to change his course of action. Moses’ prayer itself is a result of God’s plan.

God wants Moses to ask this, so he sovereignly puts him in a situation where he will ask for it.

What First Steps Would You Suggest for a Church Just Starting a Women’s Ministry?

By
Jen Oshman
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communicating with the unchurched

Author’s Note: This past weekend I attended a Word-Filled Women Workshop hosted by The Gospel Coalition at another Acts29 church in Denver. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion, to which attendees could present questions that come from their local context. I was glad to be on the panel and provide my two cents on a few different topics. I was given three specific questions to answer and I thought I would share them here, with you. (This is how I often blog—if I had to think about it in real life, then why not write it down and share it here? Hopefully it will be helpful to someone and God can use it twice!) I shared Q&A #1 two days ago, #2 yesterday and #3 is below. 

Question #3: What first steps would you suggest for a church just starting a women’s ministry?

Answer: This question is timely for us, as our church plant has been meeting publicly now for just over a year. We’re living this! Here are the steps I would suggest and some things to consider (not necessarily in this order, but roughly).

1. Make sure your pastor is on board. I would not advise starting any ministry without the strong support of your pastor. Hopefully he and other elders are enthusiastically in favor of you ministering to women. Ideally, the elders would be involved to a certain degree in the women’s ministry (providing encouragement, oversight, funding, awareness of materials, endorsing of teachers, etc). Make sure those who are heading up the women’s ministry have the full support of your elders.

2. Don’t attempt to compete with other churches in your community. Be confident in the calling that God has placed on your church to reach the specific women in your sphere of influence. Don’t try to provide the buffet of programs and activities that are often available at established churches.

3. I’m not sure who said it first, but what you win them with, you win them to. In other words, the ways that you hope the women will grow must be present from the beginning. If you want them to grow in the Word, make sure you lead with the Word. Attractional methods such as well-known and gifted public speakers (amazing coffee bar, pinterest crafts), while possibly a boost at first, cannot be maintained, and ladies who are won with that are not likely to return if it doesn’t remain.

4. Don’t over program. Ladies are already so very busy. Plan one (Weekly? Monthly?) quality Word-saturated event that will feed them and bless them and don’t ask them to come to more. By providing something based on the Bible that is truly nourishing, and by not asking them to give more time away from their already over-taxed calendars, they’ll be eager to return next time. Also, try not to compete with Gospel Communities (or small groups, life groups, etc.) that are already in place, as it’s better for a gal to attend a group with her husband than leave him behind. (Or she can do both! Just be mindful of not taxing family units too much by planning competing events.)

5. In the very beginning—before you have a Bible study planned or ministry plan laid out—endeavor to get to know the ladies that God has brought to your church. Spend time with them. Have them all over for brunch or a park play date. What are their burdens and needs and fears and joys? Study them like you would if you were a foreign missionary. Get to know what they need and seek to serve them and bless them.

6. Women are almost always highly relational. Make sure your women’s ministry allows for time for ladies to get to know one another. As they build relationships they will be eager to come back because their new friends will have been used of God to meet some very deep needs. These relationships will often do the work of professional counseling as ladies share and meet deep needs and rehearse the gospel to one another.

7. Bathe it all in prayer. As you seek to create this ministry, I hope you don’t have to do it alone! Find a couple of friends to partner with you and pray, pray, pray together. Beg the Lord to lead you and ask for sensitivity to his leading. Pray that he alone moves in the hearts of the women at your church. You want his will to be done above all!

8. Women need childcare. They just do, and there’s really no way around it. Look within your community and see if there might be some childcare workers available: teens, grandmas, homeschooled high school students. Or perhaps hire it out. Or have the ladies take turns (not my favorite solution). Ask your friends at other churches what they do. Without childcare, women’s ministry is really hard. 

When Leaders Lose Their Souls

By
Ruth Haley Barton
-
communicating with the unchurched

“For what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
Matthew 16:26 (NLT)

I want to talk to you about the soul—your soul, my soul and the soul of our leadership.

When I refer to the soul, I am not talking about some ill-defined, amorphous, soft-around-the-edges sort of thing. I am talking about the part of you that is most real—the very essence of you that God knew before he brought you forth in physical form, the part that will exist after your body goes into the ground. This is the “you” that exists beyond any role that you play, any job that you perform, any relationship that seems to define you, or any notoriety or success you may have achieved. It is the part of you that longs for more of God than you have right now and that may, even now, be aware of “missing” God amid the challenges of life in ministry.

As our teacher Bob Mulholland used to say, “It is the place where God is present to you.”

When the Shekinah Is Gone

Jesus indicates that it is possible to gain the whole world but lose your own soul. If he were talking to us as leaders today, he might point out that it is possible to gain the whole world—including the world of ministry success—and lose your own soul in the midst of it all. He might remind us that it is possible to find your soul, after so much seeking, only to lose it again.

He might also point out that when leaders lose their souls, so do the churches and organizations they lead. “Soul slips away easily from a church or an institution,” Gordon Cosby, founding pastor of Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C., observes. “You may go to any of these places and find that the Spirit has departed and the Shekinah is gone… When a local church loses its soul it begins to slip into mediocrity and is unable to give life. The average person doesn’t even know when a church begins to lose its soul. It takes unusual deeper wisdom to see it, and then when we see it, it is costly beyond words to retrieve it.”

A Loss Too Great

Losing your soul is sort of like losing a credit card. You think it’s in your wallet or purse so you don’t give it much thought until one day you reach for it and you can’t find it. The minute you realize it’s gone, you start scrambling to find it, trying to remember when you last used it or at least had it in your possession. No matter what is going on in your life, you have to stop and look for it because otherwise there could be major damage done. Oh, that we would feel the same sense of urgency when we become aware that we have lost our souls!

In her book Leaving Church, parish priest and award-winning preacher Barbara Brown Taylor described what it was like to feel her soul slipping away. She says:

“Many of the things that were happening inside of me seemed too shameful to talk about out loud. Laid low by what was happening at Grace-Calvary, I did not have the energy to put a positive spin on anything…beyond my luminous images of Sunday mornings I saw the committee meetings, the numbing routines and the chronically difficult people who took up a large part of my time. Behind my heroic image of myself I saw my tiresome perfectionism, my resentment of those who did not try as hard as I did, and my huge appetite for approval. I saw the forgiving faces of my family, left behind every holiday for the last 15 years, while I went to conduct services for other people and their families.

“Above all, I saw that my desire to draw as near to God as I could had backfired on me somehow. Drawn to care for hurt things, I had ended up with compassion fatigue. Drawn to a life of servanthood, I had ended up a service provider. Drawn to marry the Divine Presence, I had ended up estranged… Like the bluebirds that sat on my windowsills, pecking at the reflections they saw in the glass, I could not reach the greenness for which my soul longed. For years I had believed that if I just kept at it, the glass would finally disappear. Now for the first time, I wondered if I had devoted myself to an illusion.”

Something Not Quite Right

Sometimes our sense that all is not well at the soul level is more subtle—like it was for this young pastor who came for spiritual direction. With keen self-awareness he observed, “I find [leadership] conferences to be very exciting on one level but there is something darker that happens as well. Sometimes they leave me feeling competitive toward other churches and what they are accomplishing. I leave the conference feeling dissatisfied with my own situation—my own staff, my own resources, my own gifts and abilities. My ego gets ramped up to do bigger and better things and then I go home and drive everyone crazy. Three months later, the conference notebook is on a bookshelf somewhere and I have returned to life as usual with a vague feeling of uneasiness about my effectiveness as a leader, never quite sure if I am measuring up.”

This was not a critique of any particular conference; rather, he was courageously naming in God’s presence and in the presence of another person what was taking place inside his soul in the context of his leadership. His desire was to hear from God in that place. He knew that in order for his soul to be well, he could not afford to live his life driven blindly by unexamined inner dynamics.

When It Is NOT Well With Your Soul

Some of us know that we are losing bits and pieces of our souls every day and we are scared to death that we might be very close to going over an edge. Others of us are still hanging in there fairly well but we are not sure how long we will last. All of us have watched ministry friends and colleagues endure heartbreak, failure or betrayal that was so profound they left ministry and are now selling real estate.

Those of us who have been in ministry for any length of time at all are under no illusion that we are exempt from such outcomes. Even the young ones know better these days. One emerging leader wrote, “I feel the call of God to move deeper and deeper into service through preaching and leadership. At the same time I am keenly aware of what ministry is doing to the personal spiritual lives of almost everyone I know on staff or in key volunteer positions in the church. I am increasingly unsure about how one is supposed to navigate the time commitments of ministry and one’s personal journey toward growth and wholeness. I find myself wondering if the two aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Paying attention to such uncomfortable admissions requires a certain kind of courage because we never know where such honest reflections will take us. However, if we are willing to listen to our uneasiness, it might lead us to important questions that are lurking under the surface of our Christian busyness. “How does spiritual leadership differ from other models of how we lead?”

We might find ourselves wondering, “And how can I be strengthened at the soul level to provide such leadership? What would it look like for me to lead more consistently from my soul—the place of my own encounter with God—rather than leading primarily from my head, my unbridled activism or my performance oriented driven-ness. What would it be like to find God in the context of my leadership rather than miss God in the context of my leadership?”

How Is It With Your Soul?

When the Wesleyan bands of Christ-followers got together for their small group meetings, their first question to each other was, “How is it with your soul?” This is the best possible question for us as leaders in light of Jesus’ warning and in light of what we witness in and around us.

So, how is it with your soul? Take a few moments in quiet to listen to this question in God’s presence and see what comes. Allow the following prayer from pastor Ted Loder to lead you into an honest moment of speaking with God about the condition of your soul these days.

O God of such truth as sweeps away all lies,
of such grace as shrivels all excuses,
come now to find us
for we have lost ourselves
in a shuffle of disguises
and in the rattle of empty words.

Let your Spirit move mercifully
To recreate us from
The chaos of our lives.

We have been careless of our days
our loves our gifts
our chances…

Our prayer is to change, O God,
not out of despair of self
but for love of you,
and the selves we long to become
before we simply waste away.

Let your mercy move in and through us now…

Amen.

This article originally appeared here.

Russian Churches Welcome Soccer Fans and Chance to Witness

By
Bob Ditmer
-
communicating with the unchurched

More than 2.3 million tickets have already been sold for the June 14th World Cup in Russia. Officials say the games will be sold out leaving international soccer fans looking for other venues to watch the games.

The search is an evangelistic opportunity for Christian ministries in a nation where open evangelism is now illegal.

Several have found creative ways to share the gospel in a hostile environment.

Missionaries find creative ways to share the gospel

Mission Eurasia and two partnering organizations are producing specially designed New Testaments. They will be presented to visitors who come to 250 registered Russian churches—basically being transformed into community centers—to watch live, big-screen broadcasts of the soon-to-be sold out World Cup games. That means events in churches, many of which will use their sanctuaries to screen the games, are likely to attract considerable crowds, according to Sergey Rakhuba, president of the ministry.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity, especially at a time when the Iron Curtain that cracked down on Christianity during the Soviet era has been strictly limiting public missionary activity and evangelism under the guise of anti-terrorism,” says Rakhuba, a native of Russia. “It will likely be a little bit of a stretch for the more traditional evangelical churches to use their facilities as soccer game viewing centers, but this fresh, strategic approach, which actually is a demonstration of the power of ‘the gift of hospitality,’ is needed in the current political and social climate. Creative outreaches like this one are what our young leaders are trained to do through School Without Walls, Mission Eurasia’s flexible, ministry-based leadership training program.”

Two years ago, the Russian government began cracking down on religious groups other than the Orthodox church. Ostensibly to fight terrorism, the Russian Duma passed laws placing tight restrictions on missionary activity and evangelism outside of churches.

The Forum 18 news service reports the law is being used to confine religious exercise to easily regulated places, with 156 prosecutions for violating it last year and others continuing this year. Activities ranging from prayer meetings in homes to posting worship times on a religious website, or praying in the presence of other citizens, have been interpreted as “missionary activity.” Evangelical Christians make up the vast majority of the law’s victims.

Donald Ossewaarde, a U.S. citizen and pastor in Oryol, Russia, was arrested in his house while holding a Bible study connected to his church. He said the crackdown on missionaries are hindering the spread of the gospel and forced many to leave the country.

The Mission Eurasia initiative offers a window of opportunity to spread the gospel in a very restrictive environment.

QR codes and other creative ways to share the gospel 

The Russian New Testaments that will be handed out contain a modern twist: a QR code that will connect users with a New Life app and 70 pages of discipleship materials. They will also include 12 pages of printed material that provide an introduction to Christianity, the gospel and Bible reading.

The campaign will enlist Russian evangelical churches to distribute 100,000 Russian-language New Testaments to soccer fans who come to watch the matches. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities across Russia. The games end July 15.

What Is a Tithe? Depends on Who You Ask

By
Bob Ditmer
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define tithing
Lightstock #169369

Most churchgoers say the Bible commands them to tithe. But not everyone agrees on how to define tithing.

How Do You Define Tithing?

“Tithe” is defined in the Bible as one-tenth of a person’s produce or earnings. But a new study from LifeWay Research shows there is a difference of opinion to the question, “Ten percent of what?”  

Among pastors who believe tithing is a biblical command, 56 percent say it’s a tenth of a person’s gross income, 17 percent say it’s a tenth of a person’s net income, 11 percent say it’s “whatever a person sets aside to give,” and 7 percent say it’s “whatever amount a person actually gives.”

The study did not ask churchgoers their definition of tithe. But it did register their views on whether they should give.

Most churchgoers believe they are commanded to give. And many believe in the idea of tithing.

Eighty-three percent agree when asked, “Is tithing a biblical command that still applies today?” Eight percent say it is not. 10 percent aren’t sure.

Those who have evangelical beliefs (86 percent) say it is a biblical command for today. So do 79 percent of other churchgoers. Many Baptists (87 percent), Pentecostals, (86 percent), nondenominational churchgoers (81 percent) and Lutherans (68 percent) agree as well.

“Both pastors and churchgoers see giving as a vital part of their faith,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “They don’t always agree on how much a churchgoer should give. But most seem to see 10 percent as an ideal to strive for.”

Meanwhile, other research suggests many Christians are not living their beliefs. A 2015 State of the Plate study estimated that only 7.4 percent of professed churchgoers are tithing.  

Majority of Churchgoers Split Their Tithes

While a large majority of churchgoers say the Bible commands them to give, their money doesn’t always go in the offering plate.

Half of Protestant churchgoers say their tithes can go to a Christian ministry rather than a church. A third say tithes can go to help an individual in need.

And more than a few (18 percent) say tithes can even go to a secular charity.

McConnell concluded from the data, “For many churchgoers, tithing is just another term for generosity.”

For the study, LifeWay Research surveyed 1,010 Americans who attend services at a Protestant or nondenominational church at least once a month—as well as 1,000 Protestant senior pastors.

New Initiative Hopes to Bridge the Divide in Evangelicalism

By
Bob Ditmer
-
communicating with the unchurched

A new body is being formed in an attempt to mend the rift that has developed in evangelicalism following the 2016 election.

The Congress of Christian Leaders (CCL) will seek to foster unity and serve growing Christian movements across the globe. It will be anchored on an unwavering commitment to righteousness and justice.

Founding the organization are American evangelical leaders Samuel Rodriguez and Rev. Johnnie Moore.

Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, will serve as the chairman of CCL. Rev. Moore, who is also an evangelical public relations executive, will serve as the organization’s founding president.

Moore told The Christian Post that the organization seeks to bridge a “gap between evangelicalism in the United States and around the world.”

Organization hopes to reunite evangelicalism

Members of the organization will include Christian organizations, pastors, denominational heads, business leaders, thought leaders and other notable Christian figures.

“In times of rapid change and upheaval as we’re experiencing today, it is imperative for the church to respond with bold, fresh thinking that is capable of bridging the establishment and the emerging,” Rodriguez says. “Our aim at the CCL is to say yes to all willing partners, private, denominational and governmental, and then apply uncompromising Christ-centered advocacy in support of uniting, growing, strengthening and empowering the entire church.”

“This organization, by virtue of its leadership, will be uniquely positioned to help bring unity to the evangelical and Christian movements that have too often been disparate, uncoordinated and unnecessarily contentious at times,” Rodriguez continued. “The CCL is the embodiment of our conviction that we are more powerful when we stand together for righteousness and justice. It is through our common bonds of faith that we will magnify our collective reach and impact for the cause of Christ on this earth.”

Divide in evangelicalism is wide

While unity in the severely divided evangelical movement is the goal, getting there will prove a challenge.

John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College, calls Moore and Rodriguez, and others who supported President Donald Trump, “court evangelicals.” A term he defines as “a Christian leader who has sacrificed deeply held convictions on the altar of worldly power.”

Conversely, he refers to himself and those who met recently at Wheaton College to discuss the state of evangelicalism and a variety of political issues “non-court evangelicals.”

He wrote of the CCL formation on his blog:

“I appreciate Moore’s attempt to stress unity over division, but there is a real naivety in some of his remarks above. Both Moore and Rodriguez seem to think that their support for Trump has done no damage to their witness or their ability to cast a large tent with this proposed organization. Frankly, I don’t see how ANY organization associated with Moore (and perhaps less so with Rodriguez) can be understood apart from their decision to support the presidency of Donald Trump. Moore and Rodriguez may have big dreams about creating a global coalition of evangelicals, but they seem pretty clueless about just how divided evangelicalism is at the moment and what role they have played in that division.”

Moore considers those objections unjustified.

“While there is kind of a media obsession with our relationship with the Trump administration, our relationship with the Trump administration represents, in the big picture, an extremely small piece of what we focus on and what we do around the world.”

“Sam and I both have the same point of view, which is that any time a political leader asks you for advice, you have an obligation to give that advice whether or not it is received,” Moore continued, adding that they would have advised Hillary Clinton had she won and asked for their advice.

“People who would try to be divisive around this announcement for that reason are either uninformed or they have other intentions. It doesn’t affect the reality of our actual reputation and work and our intentions.”

The Congress of Christian Leaders will unveil its founding board of trustees over the next several months and will announce its inaugural membership during its first formal meeting in the fall. These decisions will be the result of a “listening tour” Rodriguez and Moore will conduct over the next several months throughout the United States and around the world.

Willow Creek: No Collusion in Bill Hybels Allegations

By
Megan Briggs
-
communicating with the unchurched

The elder board of Willow Creek gave an update last night concerning the investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Bill Hybels. Pam Orr, the chair of the Elder Board, said “some apologies” to the women who came forward were in order.

“We have talked with several of [the women who have made allegations against Hybels] and are deeply saddened by the experiences they are sharing with us. We do believe we owe these women some apologies,” Orr stated in the Wednesday night meeting. Admitting the Board’s initial response to the allegations was to defend Hybels and his reputation, Orr said their reaction “cast some of the women in an unfair and negative light.”

The unfair light Orr refers to is the fact that when the board spoke to the congregation after the Chicago Tribune article breaking the news of the allegations to the public was published, the wording used by Willow Creek was that the allegations were all lies and those speaking out were colluding against Hybels. Orr apologized for the “sweeping statements” and admitted, “we do not believe the stories were all lies or that all the people were colluding against him.”

The group of people falling into the category of those formerly accused of collusion includes several high profile leaders who have had touch points with Willow Creek, like John Ortberg and Nancy Beach.

While Orr did not share the board’s current assessment of the allegations, she did say based on the conversations they have had so far, “we believe at least some of Bill’s choices were inappropriate.”

Willow Creek Is Determined to Learn from Its Mistakes

Moving forward, Orr outlined what the church leadership is doing to implement additional safeguards to ensure these kinds of things don’t happen again.

Getting to the Bottom of the Allegations – “We will continue seeking to have personal conversations, in a spirit of humility and listening, to speak directly with those who have raised concerns.”

Employing Outside Expertise – “We know we need outside expertise to help, and we have already consulted with several outside experts who are guiding us with next steps.” She did not give further detail on the outside expertise being employed or the next steps. (The lack of outside expertise was one of the criticisms some on the Willow Creek Associations board voiced about the initial investigation into the allegations four years ago.)

Reviewing Policies – “We are looking at ways we can improve our guidelines for how men and women work together, our email retention policy, and our policy on how someone can raise a concern about senior leaders.”

Orr also stated the Board is committed to walking alongside Hybels pastorally and to “work closely with the WCA board to take appropriate next steps with him.” Hybels announced his resignation about a month ago—just six months before he was planning to retire.

In closing, Orr noted her term as the chair of the Elder Board is ending this month. She will pass the baton to Lane Moyer, who has served for three years as an elder and attended the church since 1988. Orr says she will leave her post “with a heart that is broken over the grief this season has brought to so many.”

For the Children’s Sake…Don’t Waste the Summer

By
Dema Kohen
-
communicating with the unchurched

It’s not a secret that church attendance significantly drops in the summer months. After all, it’s vacation season. School is out, the weather is warm and the beach is calling.

Welcome to what has become known as the “summer slump.”

As humidity is rising and attendance is dropping, we might be tempted to give only a half-hearted effort to children’s ministry. After all, isn’t summer meant to be a time for rest and relaxation?

While summer certainly should be a time to renew your strength and refresh your spirit, that’s not all that it can or should be.

“By God’s design, summer is a season of growth and fruitfulness. And summer can be a time of tremendous creativity and growth in our churches, if we are willing to make the effort.” – Ann Michel

Consider these often overlooked sides of summer and see how each one presents you with a rare opportunity to engage your community, serve your families and perhaps, as a by-product, boost your summer attendance.

SUMMER IS A SEASON OF SEARCHING

Many new people are moving into your community and are looking for a new church home.

What would it look like for you to be at the top of your game to receive the visitors God may bring your way this summer: families who send their kids to your vacation Bible school, people who move to your neighborhood, or people just passing through?

Suggestions:

  • Make sure your website is both accurate and accessible. Before someone steps their foot into your church building, they will first go to your website or Facebook page. Most of the people will have this question on their mind, “What does this church have to offer my children?” In many cases, they will choose to come or not come to your church based on how you answered that question.
  • Have a trained hospitality team in place, ready to welcome visiting families, guide them through the check-in process, help them find their way around your building and answer their questions. Parents will forget what the pastor preached about that Sunday and their children will forget the Bible lesson that was taught, but they will not forget how they felt while visiting your church. Make sure that visiting families feel genuinely welcomed every single Sunday.
  • Send fun mail*. Make yourself unforgettable by mailing each new child that visited your church a surprise package. It can be a bouncy ball, a Frisbee or a spinner with your children’s ministry logo and a card with a handwritten message from one of the class leaders. (Did you know that you don’t need to wrap a Frisbee or a ball? Just stick the stamp and address label and brighten a child’s day.) Be sure to include information about upcoming events like VBS, day camp, movie night, etc. This will make a great impression on families and give them a reason to come back.

*HERE is a list of 21 fun things you can send in the mail without wrapping them. Being unforgettable can really be this easy and fun!

SUMMER IS A SEASON OF BOREDOM

Children have all the time in the world and no idea what to do with it. Parents feel like they will lose their mind if they hear their children say, “I am bored!” one more time.

Can you think of any ways your church could provide families with some fun and affordable cures for their summertime stuck-at-home blues?

You know that the first thing many children will ask their parents in the morning is, “Are we doing anything fun today?”

What can you do to be part of the answer?

Suggestions:

  • Sponsor a Summer Family Challenge where families tackle various missions and earn points. With this challenge you can take the most dreadful tasks, like going three days without sugary snacks and drinks, giving up all screens for X number of days, raising money for a missionary, writing a letter to grandparent, reading a book and so on, and turn them into exciting assignments each one earning points and bringing the families closer to the desirable prize. Click HERE for examples of some of the Summer Family Challenge.
  • Offer special events that entire families can participate in. You can pick one day in a week and give it a fun name like Terrific Tuesdays, Wacky Wednesdays, Fun Day Sundays and so on. Each time do something different. Your options are limitless. LEGO® day, Nerf® wars, paint night, movie night, cookie bake off, wild water day (get out the hoses, the sprinklers, bubble machines, some inflatable pools, and don’t forget the water balloons; water slide would be a bonus), board games night, nature or photo scavenger hunt, talent show, lawn party, slime party, and on, and on, and on.  

Have You Fallen Into the “Passionate Preaching Trap”?

By
Josh Reich
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communicating with the unchurched

If you listen to enough of a pastor’s sermons, you will hear a few things:

  1. What he is passionate about.
  2. What he struggles with.
  3. What he wants to become.

Pastors tend to stick with what they know or like. If I had my way, I’d preach on a New Testament letter every time. Other guys would preach from a gospel whenever given the chance. A few will throw in some Old Testament wrath of God.

Sunday, as we are going through Galatians, we got to a topic that I haven’t preached a lot on. It isn’t because I don’t care about it or don’t think it is important. Truthfully, it hasn’t come up in any of the series we’ve done. It’s the topic of approval.

Now, we all struggle with approval to some degree. We all care what people think, to some degree. It is just different for everyone.

For me, my struggles center around control and power. I don’t care too much if you like me, but I do care a lot if I lose.

If a pastor isn’t careful, they will only preach on the things they find important. This can be good and bad.

It’s good because it should mean a pastor is passionate about what he is communicating. It’s good because his sermons will tend to be more thorough because it’s on a topic he likes or has read a lot about (because he struggles with it).

If you aren’t careful though, you will end up missing an enormous part of your church. Your church doesn’t have the same struggles you have. They don’t have the same temptations or history or baggage that you do.

Because of that, they need to hear sermons about things you aren’t as passionate about.

This is one of the benefits to preaching through books of the Bible. You can’t skip anything. Now, choosing to preach through Galatians, I knew I was going to hit the topics of legalism, approval and moralism. It is the theme of the book. It is one of the reasons we chose it, because we haven’t had a lot of sermons on those topics.

Pastors will also stay away from topics they don’t want to talk about. Maybe a pastor is more of a shepherd than a vision caster, so he won’t preach a lot about vision. This will lead the church to be aimless. Or, he’s a vision caster who can’t stop talking and no one gets cared for because he never preaches on it. A pastor isn’t an evangelist, so there is no talk on evangelism, just discipleship and growing. Or the other way around.

If you simply talk about what you like, care about, are passionate about or things you know about, you will keep your church from hearing all that God wants to teach them.

Wanted: People to Lead Us in the Way of Wonder

By
Trevin Wax
-
communicating with the unchurched

In an age of disenchantment, a world in which people are starved by superficiality, we need writers and pastors and artists who can feed us with the wonder of existence.

The writers I most enjoy reading are those who lead us in the way of wonder: poets and artists who tell the truth by “telling it slant,” as Emily Dickinson said. I’m referring to the gift of recognizing and describing truth in such a way that our imaginations are seized by wonder and we stand in awe of the reality we see.

We do not need thinkers who reduce the wonders of this world to facts. We need seers who open our eyes to just how wonder-full the facts are.

We need theologians and pastors who combine their desire for theological accuracy with the desire to showcase biblical beauty, until we stand in awe—of this world in all of its haunted goodness and of the gospel in all of its long-awaited surprise.

The best writers and artists are driven not by the need to show you themselves, as if to invite you into the prison of their minds, but by the desire to open windows so that you get a glimpse of glorious realities that stand outside and above us, enduring truths that do not depend on intellectual fads. They are not content to merely amuse us as we pass our time in a wonder-less era of cultural fatigue. They startle us with truth and goodness and beauty.

We don’t need writers with new ideas; we need writers with new eyes for old truths.

We need people who lead us in the way of wonder. We need to be awakened—to be refilled with childlike wonder at both the world and the gospel.

Many of today’s preachers and writers have found inspiration in the imaginative apologetics of C.S. Lewis. John Piper writes:

Lewis’ keen, penetrating sense of his own heart’s aching for Joy, combined with his utter amazement at the sheer, objective realness of things other than himself, has over and over awakened me from the slumbers of self-absorption to see and savor the world and through the world, the Maker of the world. And this sense of wonder at what is—really is—has carried over into doctrine, and the gospel in particular.

Lewis gave me, and continues to give me, an intense sense of the astonishing “realness” of things. He had the ability to see and feel what most of us see and do not see. He had what Alan Jacobs called “omnivorous attentiveness.” I love that phrase. What this has done for me is hard to communicate. To wake up in the morning and to be aware of the firmness of the mattress, the warmth of the sun’s rays, the sound of the clock ticking, the coldness of the wooden floor, the wetness of the water in the sink, the sheer being of things (“quiddity” as he called it). And not just to be aware but to wonder. To be amazed that the water is wet. It did not have to be wet. If there were no such thing as water, and one day someone showed it to you, you would simply be astonished.

He helped me become alive to life. To look at the sunrise and say with an amazed smile, “God did it again!” He helped me to see what is there in the world—things which if we didn’t have them, we would pay a million dollars to have, but having them, ignore. He convicts me of my callous inability to enjoy God’s daily gifts. He helps me to awaken my dazed soul so that the realities of life and of God and heaven and hell are seen and felt.

The way of wonder may start with the world, but for Christians, it must move us toward the God of the gospel.

God’s Metrics

By
Nicholas Batzig
-
communicating with the unchurched

God’s metrics are not our metrics. The way in which we seek to measure fruitfulness and faithfulness is often quite skewed. No one understood the issue of faithfulness and fruitfulness so well as the great Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 3, he first explained the nature of a fruitful Gospel ministry by drawing off of the farming metaphor:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:6-8).  

The fruitfulness of a Gospel ministry is never observed in total in the here and now. The one who waters the seed of God’s word in men and women’s lives may see the increase, while the one who sowed the seed may not. The one who planted and the one who watered may never see the increase, but a future generation may see it. God may chose to delay fruit until some later period in an individual’s life. The fruit may appear on a deathbed—rare though deathbed conversions may be—when those things that faithful ministers taught and proclaimed come rushing into an individual’s mind and heart by the working of the Spirit in their last moments of life. The increase is entirely the work of God and entirely dependent on God’s timing.

While the fruit may not always be evident in the here and now, Paul insisted that there is a day coming when “each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” What ought a faithful ministry look like? Paul moved on to the illustration of a builder to capture this point:

“As a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:10-15). 

I built homes for a number of years after I was converted. On one occasion, the company for which I was working was building a large cabin on the top of a mountain. Another construction company happened to be building another cabin on the same property on which we were building. We had begun our work quite a while before this other construction company had begun theirs. Both cabins were going to be essentially the same size. We sought to be meticulous in our craftsmanship. However, I started noticing that the other construction company was building much faster than we were. The owner of the cabin we were building started complaining that we were not timely enough in our work. I asked my boss why the other construction company was finishing much more quickly than we were. He walked me over to their cabin and reached up under one of the eaves. When he pulled back the trim, I quickly realized that there was no frame behind it. The construction company was (literally) cutting corners to finish more quickly and to be able to boast about their timing. This, it seems to me, helps illustrate just what the Apostle is getting at in 1 Corinthians 3. Anyone can build something quickly using wood, hay and stubble. These are not costly materials. Gold, silver and precious stones, by way of contrast, are costly and take a great deal of time to refine and shape before they can be used for building.

Andrew Stanley’s Sermon is a Joke. Literally

By
Bob Ditmer
-
communicating with the unchurched


Decatur City Church, not far from Atlanta, bills itself as a different kind of church. Here’s proof. The current series is titled, “You’re Life’s a Joke.”  It’s a cross between stand-up comedy at a comedy club and Sunday morning worship.

Last week’s speaker–Andrew Stanley, son of Andy Stanley and grandson of Charles Stanley.

In last week’s gig, Andrew, who has appeared at several comedy clubs around Georgia, tells the audience “I’m brought to you by nepotism,” which isn’t inaccurate. Decatur City Church is one of the many campuses of North Point Ministries—his dad’s church.

The jokes about growing up in a famous family didn’t stop there.  Andrew says he’s often asked “what’s it like growing up growing up as Andy Stanley’s son?”  He tells them, “I was really fortunate to grow up in a house with one of the most influential Christian leaders of a generation…his words.”

Andrew has been doing stand-up for about two years, which he calls “a really fun way to disappoint my grandfather.”

Apparently, Charles always hoped one of his grandchildren would continue in “the family business” of pastoring a church but Andrew quips, “stand-up comedy is so close.”

The remainder of Andrew’s routine is poking fun at his homeschool, preacher’s kid upbringing, the reason he “appears nervous on stage”, being single, and church mission trips.  He chided his generation for turning mission trips into an opportunity to get selfies with the locals and questioned the resolve of sorority girls who go on well-digging mission trips in Africa and manage to send back selfies with perfect makeup.  He jokes, they likely didn’t #MakeADifference.

It appears Andy is fully behind his son’s career choice. In promoting the series on twitter Andy tweeted, “The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. But apparently the tree was planted on a hill. @AndrewWStanley opens @decaturcity…”

No tweets yet from Charles.

New Zealand’s Anglican Church to Bless Same-Sex Marriage

By
Bob Ditmer
-
communicating with the unchurched

Anglican beliefs on homosexuality are changing. The Anglican Church in New Zealand has voted in favor of blessing couples who desire a same-sex marriage.

It means priests will now be able to bless or refuse to conduct same-sex marriages or civil unions without penalty.  Same-sex marriages, however, are still not permitted to be conducted in churches.

The new policy appears to be intended to keep the church from dividing over the issue, which has been the source of earnest debate in New Zealand for almost 50 years.

At the 2016 Synod, church leaders looked for ways to allow new rites of blessing rather than doctrinal changes.  Following the gathering, the province established a working group to explore “structural arrangements” that would allow people who hold differing convictions about same-sex relationships to remain together in the Church.

It does not appear that goal will be realized.

Anglican beliefs on homosexuality Could Divide New Zealand’s church

“By contrast to General Synod 2016, when the Way Forward report and its recommendations were shelved, the reaction to today’s decision was, after a brief burst of applause, quite muted,” Anglican Taonga reported. “Sadness, perhaps, though, that despite the best efforts of the Motion 29 working group, some have said they can no longer stay in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.”

During a speech made at General Synod, Jay Behan, who is the Vicar of St Stephen’s Shirley, Christchurch, spoke against the motion, and said he couldn’t “live with it”.

“This issue has never been for conservatives, about bigotry, or about exclusion, or about hatred. It’s a difference of opinion over how you love,” he explained. “The passing of this report finds us left behind and unable to move forward with you in good conscience as we seek to honour the Lord and love His people,” he said in a letter also signed by another conservative. “We leave with no anger or bitterness in our hearts and we wish you the best as you seek to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Anglican Taonga reported a speech from the other side of the debate, and said member Cruz Karauti-Fox, Manawa o te Wheke said: “I have many friends in the LGBT community. I myself am a part of the LGBT community.”

Anglican priest and blogger Peter Carrell says there will be Anglicans who are “unhappy with the decision”.

“There will be Anglicans who wish to stay in our church and wonder if they can live with this decision: to you I make this observation: there will not be one canonical change which requires you to do anything differently to what you are currently doing or to believe anything differently to what you currently believe.”

The motion noted that the Pacific Island countries within the diocese – Samoa, Tonga and Fiji – do not recognize unions between people of the same gender; and said that a debate at the Polynesia diocesan synod had shown its members were opposed to the blessing of same-sex relationships.

The province becomes the third in the Anglican Communion to permit the blessing of same-sex relationships, after the US-based Episcopal Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church. Unlike those two, the Church in New Zealand has done so without changing its official doctrine that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Criticism: A Pastor’s All-Too-Common Companion

By
Bob Ditmer
-
communicating with the unchurched

Criticism and suffering are realities in ministry. But they’re essential for those working in one of life’s most stressful jobs: being a useful pastor. In fact, criticism can go a long way toward teaching pastors about redemptive suffering.  

That’s a synopsis of a recent message John MacArthur delivered to a group of pastors that he titled, “Criticism: A Pastor’s All-too-Common Companion.”

Pastors and Redemptive Suffering

MacArthur was a good choice to deliver that message. He’s pastored the same church for 50 years and in that time he’s heard plenty of criticism.

He’s heard complaints about doctrine, practice, his sermons, who occupies the pulpit, his notoriety and just about everything in between. Hundreds have left his church over the disagreements, but he happily points out, “most returned.”

In some cases his views were misrepresented only to be documented in a written diatribe that  was handed out to people who came to hear him as a guest speaker at Moody Bible Church.

And that was before the internet. He jokes, ”If I believed what they say about me on the internet, I wouldn’t go to my church.”

But a suffering minister is no joke and he points out, “The worst pain is the pain inflicted by those close to you. That’s the life of pastors.  That’s where we live.”

Being a pastor is one of the most stressful jobs

MacArthur says he finds comfort in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church.

The arrival of false teachers, false apostles, deceivers and those “who masquerade as Satan” had thrown Paul into deep depression.

Their plan was obvious, since there was no Bible yet, they had to destroy the Corinthians’ confidence in Paul.

They accused him of being in ministry for the money, to coerce favors from women, they accused him of hidden shame, falsifying his authority, lying about the blessings and success of his ministry. They even called his speech contemptible and his presence unimpressive.  MacArthur’s translation: they said Paul was “ugly and can’t communicate.” MacArthur calls it a classic example of pastor abuse.

And it was working.

Paul was devastated. He cries out in his pain and suffering.  His only defense against the attacks is the testimony of his conscience. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:12: “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.”

Thom Rainer: How Relational Is Your Church?

By
Jason Daye
-
communicating with the unchurched

Thom Rainer is a writer, researcher, speaker, and current president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

Key Questions for Thom Rainer:

– Why don’t pastors realize how unwelcoming their churches are?
– What are some of the most common reasons why guests don’t return to a church?
– What do guests like to see when they visit a church?
– Can a church be too friendly?

[SUBSCRIBE] For more ChurchLeaders podcasts click here!

Key Quotes from Thom Rainer:

“Guests often say this is a friendly church if you know each other…it’s the holy huddle.”

“Friendliness takes an overt effort and even if you think your church is friendly you probably aren’t to guests.”

“Every year I would bring on at least two mystery guests…in order to see with our eyes wide open what others think of us.”

“The church’s website is now the front door…you need to think of the guest’s perspective (when designing it).”

“First opinion of visitors is website, second is when they get on site, third is when they sit down.”

“If there is a consistent issue that prevents people from coming back, it’s the relational issue.”

“If you win the parents, you are almost certain of winning the entire family and get them to come back.”

“A significant number of people like their personal space. If everyone is saying welcome to church with no emotion, it can be overkill.”

“Ask yourself, how do you like to be engaged? That’s how you should engage guests.”

Links Mentioned by Thom Rainer in the Show:

Becoming a Welcoming Church

thomrainer.com

Thom Rainer on ChurchLeaders:

Thom Rainer Reveals the Secret Pain of Pastors

Thom Rainer: “A good leader is someone who is out in front of his people, but not too far…”

Thom Rainer on Church Attendance Trends Every Leader Should Know

 

Making Disciples Takes More Than One Big Weekend

By
Rick Warren
-
communicating with the unchurched

Big-attendance days, like Easter and Christmas, are important for the growth of a church. You get to meet a lot of guests and then follow up with them after they visit. You also get a visual picture of what your church can look like a year down the road on an average Sunday.

It Takes More Than Big Days

The problem with big days, however, is that we sometimes see them as the end goal, and they’re not. High-attendance days are just one part of a bigger picture when it comes to making disciples.

After Easter, a lot of churches start preparing for what many leaders refer to as the “summer slump,” when attendance and giving decrease because of vacation travel, sports and other interests competing with the church for time on the weekend.

That’s why it’s vital to focus, on a regular basis, on the systems you have in place for making disciples in between those big days.

To put it another way, you have five or six weeks per year to invite as many people as possible to attend a special worship event, but you have 52 weeks per year to help people take their next step in their spiritual walk.

Every week, you can consistently teach the truth of the Bible in a way that helps people apply it in their daily lives. That means planning your preaching over months at a time, teaching in series, and growing in your understanding of preaching for life change.

Every week, your church can see people growing spiritually by helping them develop the spiritual disciplines. You can use a membership class, followed by a discipleship class, followed by classes to help people start serving and sharing their faith, too.

Every week, you can connect more people in vital relationships by helping them join a small group or start a small group themselves. To make this happen, focus on building a small groups system that develops leaders who can coach other leaders.

Every week, you can help people discover how God has shaped them for ministry and offer opportunities to serve others. Every new believer has been given a gift by the Holy Spirit, and every week is an opportunity to open the door for someone else to serve.

Every week, you can equip people to share their faith, live on mission, and invest their time, talent and treasure for the Kingdom’s sake. On high-attendance weekends, you’ll have a lot of people who come to observe what you’re like as a church. Your goal is to empower them to move from being consumers of the church to contributors within the church.

Some of the work you do as a church leader has to do with promoting Sundays and inviting more people to attend. But a larger portion of your leadership energy should be devoted to growing people and building the systems necessary to help people take their next steps.

If you will focus on making disciples on a regular, consistent basis, then the high-attendance weekends simply become opportunities to help more people plug into the body so they can grow spiritually and become world-changing missionaries.

This article originally appeared here.

Maximizing Your Purpose – Minimizing Your Pain

By
Daniel Henderson
-
communicating with the unchurched

Millions will wake up this morning with no clear sense of purpose. Without a compelling “why” behind all of their “hows,” life is void of motivation and meaning. For the majority, days are spent going through the motions of a mundane life.

Others (I would suggest a minority) are gripped by a compelling biblical reason for living. They tend to experience significance and sustained joy, even in the routine days of the journey.

Maximizing Your Purpose – Minimizing Your Pain

Wise Christians learn early that their purpose in life is the gospel. They are consistently persuaded from the depth of their soul, by the word and the Spirit, that Christ has saved them and left them on this earth to embrace and live the gospel for the sake of others. Ordinary Christians see the gospel as some kind of “add-on” while their values are still rooted in the systems of this world. Rather than living for others, they are self-focused, dissatisfied and unfruitful.

Our Model for Mission

In my book, The Deeper Life, I provide an exercise that lists the many passages where Jesus explicitly described why He came—the purpose behind His earthly mission. I suggest that we are wise to embrace these same realities in shaping our sense of purpose for life on earth. Knowing our purpose fuels all that we do and frames each day with eternal significance.

One such passage states Jesus’ mission in compelling terms. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). In context, the mother of James and John requested special privilege for her sons in His future kingdom. This incited “indignation” among the other 10. Jesus contrasted the self-serving style of worldly leaders with His own values by stating, “Whoever would be first among you must be your slave” (see Matthew 20:20-27). Then, He settled the debate with this powerful statement of His own purpose in life.

NOT Our Daily Purpose

Don’t miss the clear disclaimer. This truth is essential in avoiding unnecessary pain and perplexity in life. We are NOT here to be ministered unto.

Over the years I have been profoundly affected by an excellent article by J.H. Horsburgh, titled “Not To Be Ministered Unto.” (You can find my posting of his original article HERE.) He honestly testifies, “In the ups and downs, the wear and tear of daily life, there are few passages of Scripture which search me as this does. It convicts, rebukes and condemns me. It is always finding me out. And, yet, how it encourages, quiets, strengthens, comforts and helps me!”

He goes on, in much detail to state that:

This desire to be ministered unto is at the bottom of disagreements in the nursery, fights in the school, quarrels amongst private individuals, wars among nations. And, alas, not only in the world is this spirit prevalent, but in the church also. As Christians we do not adequately realize—perhaps we hardly realize at all—how much of sin and failure, how much of vexation and discontent, how much of peevishness and irritability, how much of discord and unhappiness in our lives, is due to our DESIRE TO BE MINISTERED UNTO instead of coming not to be ministered unto.

Horsburgh elaborates,

Are we not too often cross, vexed, rasped, indignant? Sometimes we show it by a foolish exhibition of temper; sometimes we restrain ourselves, but there the nasty feeling is. And why? In all probability because we want to be ministered unto and have been disappointed… The fact is we are always wanting to be ministered unto by people, by circumstances, by fortune (“luck” perhaps you call it), by the weather, by something. To be ministered unto is so natural, so necessary, so proper! We have been brought up to expect it. And if we are thwarted as we often are, we are apt to get cross, sulky, moody, nervous, and perhaps end by making ourselves miserable, and others too.

When the gospel purifies our core motivations, it minimizes unnecessary daily pain that can arise from false expectations and feelings of neglect, or even rejection.

The Liberty of Lowered Expectations

When we stop anticipating that others are obligated, in any way, to serve us, we are free to live with an unselfish and deeply satisfying gospel-based purpose. Christ living in us compels and empowers us to do so. For this to be our consistent experience we must be secure in our identity in Him, finding our sufficiency in what Jesus says to be true about us. Otherwise we will be scrambling for significance based on how people view, validate or value us. (This is why I teach in The Deeper Life that identity precedes purpose in our process of daily renewal.)

When we stop anticipating that others are obligated, in any way, to serve us, we are free to live with an unselfish and deeply satisfying gospel-based purpose. Christ living in us compels and empowers us to do so. This does not mean that we are to be martyrs or that we pretend to have no needs. Of course, we should always be grateful for the gracious service others provide for us. Yet, our ambition is to live the gospel, from a secure and satisfied soul, and find our joy in how Christ uses us to serve—not in how others bolster our neediness by their service to us.

The Fulfillment of a Gospel Focus

Horsburgh offers a helpful summary of a better perspective:

I am persuaded that the happiness of our lives depends enormously on the spirit in which we come afresh into the world each day. If we come to be ministered unto, we shall soon be fretting and inwardly fuming. But if we come NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, but to minister, it will be very different. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” It is happier to minister than to be ministered unto. And it is far nobler: “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:27).

He continues,

With this fact in view, in what a different light must we regard NOT BEING MINISTERED UNTO. Welcome disappointment! Welcome hardship! Welcome slight! Welcome thorns and pricks! These may all be turned to excellent account. To fail in getting what we want may be a piece of good fortune! To be thwarted may be so good for us! To have our wishes crossed may be positive blessing! To be trampled upon may be a splendid thing! For every time we are not ministered unto, a fresh opportunity is given for Self to die! And the person who snubs us may well be regarded as a friend for administering to our arch enemy—SELF—a stout knock on the head! SELF MUST BE MORTIFIED. For it is only as Self dies that we can live the happy and victorious life.

Christ’s Person and Purpose Through Me

Many passages could be cited to explain these realities. One serves as a strong conclusion: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Christ has given us life and is our life. As we trust Him, by His indwelling presence, to live through us, we are supernaturally empowered each day to love others and give our life away for them—just like Jesus. This is a compelling and satisfying purpose for those who affirm why they are not here and why they are here. This will change the way you live as you embrace a gospel clarity in why you live.

This post originally appeared here.

Power Up – Video Game VBS

By
Corinne Noble
-
communicating with the unchurched

This post is a long time coming! Last summer, we decided to jump into writing our own VBS curriculum for the first time. At the time, I had been writing weekly curriculum for our kid’s ministry for about a year, but taking on VBS was a whole new level of writing. At first, I was a bit scared that I was biting off too much too quickly since it was my second time ever putting on a VBS, but as I got into writing the content, I realized it was totally worth the extra work and effort. I decided to go with a video game theme because I knew it would be super popular with the kids! I chose themes that would be familiar to kids and adults. I’m not sure who was more excited, the kids or the volunteers.

This VBS curriculum is written for a four night (or day) VBS with rotations the first three nights, and the last night written as a family night to include the parents. Each night builds on the previous night’s theme. On night one, kids will learn how to power up by plugging into the ultimate power source (God). Night two teaches them to pause to spend time with God. Night three encourages kids to invite their friends to church, so they have an opportunity to know Jesus (multiplayer). On night four (the family night), families are reminded that we only have one life to live and we have a choice to live it for ourselves or for God. The first three nights are written for 45 minutes-one hour in the large group session and about one hour and 30 minutes in small group rotations. The first three nights’ large group sessions include a daily verse, stage game, takeaway statement, message/object lesson, and a character skit as well as four small group rotation activities. Small group rotations include a snacktivity, do-it-yourself includes verse, stage game, takeaway statement, message/object lesson and a character skit aimed at the whole family. Graphic slides for the overall theme and for each night’s topic are included.

Power Up VBS Overview

Day 1

  • Topic – Power Up (Salvation)
  • Bible Story – Jesus, the Power Source (John 1:1-13)
  • Today’s Takeaway – I can power up when I give God control.
  • Daily Verse – “If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
  • Snacktivity – Question Box Krispies
  • Verse Game – Pop the Bob-ombs
  • DIY Project – Angry Birds Ball Catch Game
  • Small Group Devotion – Controller = Holy Spirit
  • Game – Life-sized Angry Birds

Day 2

  • Topic – Pause (Prayer/Devotions)
  • Bible Story – Martha is Distracted (Luke 10:38-42)
  • Today’s Takeaway – I need to pause to spend time with God.
  • Daily Verse – “Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.” James 1:22
  • Snacktivity – Angry Birds Scenes
  • Verse Game – Tetris Towers
  • DIY Project – Minecraft Slime
  • Small Group Devotion – Game Coins = Taking time for God’s Word and prayer
  • Game – Human Pacman

Day 3

  • Topic – Multiplayer (Tell others about Jesus)
  • Bible Story – Many Multiplayers (Matthew 28:16-20)
  • Today’s Takeaway – I can add multiplayers to God’s team.
  • Daily Verse – “Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19
  • Snacktivity – Minecraft Torches/Evangelism Skittles
  • Verse Game – Pacman Ping Pong Ball Toss
  • DIY Project – Pacman Board Game
  • Small Group Devotion – Mushroom Kingdom vs. Kingdom of God
  • Game – Frogger

Day 4 (Family Night)

  • Topic – One Life (Live for Jesus)
  • Bible Story – Life is Short (Ephesians 5:15-17)
  • Today’s Takeaway – I have only one life to live and I’m not going to waste it.
  • Daily Verse – “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” James 4:14

Additional Resources

Video Game VBS Pinterest Board – Check out my Video Game VBS Pinterest board for more great ideas for set design, crafts and games to go along with the series.

Video Game VBS Set Design – Head over to my set design page to find ideas for decorating your environments for the theme.

VBS Verse Songs. You will have to purchase these songs to use in your ministry, but it is worth it. Jumpstart3 offers options for hand motions and lyric videos for all their songs as well.

I hope that other ministries will be able to use this VBS curriculum to minister to many more kids and families.

Which VBS are you using in your ministry this year? What are you looking for when you are choosing a VBS for your ministry?

This article originally appeared here.

This is More Important to Discipleship Than Structures

By
Joel Comiskey
-
communicating with the unchurched

Discipleship Key

Jim Berry writes in his book The Power of Habit, ”The kind of life we lead today is essentially the product of our habits—our daily routines, our daily processes.” In this month’s newsletter, I talked about Freddy Noble’s church in Manhattan, New York. I first gave a seminar there in 2005, and at that time, the church had been transitioning for a couple of years. I rejoice that today cell ministry has become a habit for him and his people. Freddy continues to lead a cell group, coaches and equips leaders, and gives clear vision and direction to the church.

Even today, Freddy has to guard against well-meaning people who blur the vision, but the good news is that it’s far easier now to stay on course than before. Why? Because cell ministry has become part of the culture. It’s a lifestyle, a habit. The members attend cells each week as part of who they are and what they do. Yes, Freddy still has to occasionally say “no” to competing programs, but most of the members are becoming disciples through cell ministry, and their example speaks loudly and clearly about the vision of the church. Paul pointed to the changed lives of his disciples when people had questions:

“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2).

Freddy simply points to what the church is already doing when people have other agendas. He encourages everyone to start the process of becoming a disciple through cell ministry, rather than just sitting and watching others minster.

I coach another pastor who recently said to me, “Joel, my goal this year is for my people to really understand that cell ministry is all about making disciples who make disciples. Four years ago, I thought that changing the coaching structure would make the difference, but I failed to help the people grasp the deeper value of the why of cell ministry, and the importance of disciple-making.”

This pastor confessed to me that for many years he was focused on outward, structural changes but now realizes that the key is making cell ministry a life-style and habit. This pastor is looking for permanent change in his church.

Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, once said, “Watch your actions for they become…habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” What about you? Is cell ministry a habit? Whether your leading a group, attending one or pastoring a church, ask Jesus to deepen your convictions and habits so that making disciples becomes a lifestyle.

This article originally appeared here.

A Great 2-Word Coaching Tool

By
Dan Reiland
-
communicating with the unchurched

Coaching leaders is one of the things about ministry that I love most. Great coaching is a truly transformational process and contributes significantly toward greater Kingdom impact.

For me, the relationships themselves are personally gratifying. It’s rewarding to have coaching and mentoring relationships also become friendships, and I love seeing my friends succeed.

For context, there is a slight difference between coaching and mentoring, and of course they overlap.

Coaching tends to be more of a week to week or month to month ongoing process, focused on more immediate results, with someone who is a regular part of your life. Investment from a great mentor may only take place once or twice a year, can be from a distance, and usually focuses in on the bigger picture and long term.

Great coaches (and mentors) ask great questions.

The questions are often unique and focused on the individual. But good coaches also have favorite “go to” questions that are helpful every time. I’ve been using one that focuses on two words for at least 25 years.

Here it is: Fruit & Joy.

You can frame it up in a number of ways. For example:

  • “How would you describe the level of fruit and joy in your ministry life?”
  • “Which is greater for you right now, fruit or joy, and why?”
  • “Tell me about the fruit and joy in your life.”

Here’s how it works.

I write those two words on a napkin, over a cup of coffee, slide it across the table and say something like: “How would you describe the level of fruit and joy in your life?”

It always produces a fantastic conversation, because every time one or the other (fruit or joy) is not quite up to par.

Let me unpack this tool for you as a coach to your leaders.

1) Fruit

I like the word fruit because it carries biblical weight from John 15:1-8. The reference is to results or production (bearing or producing fruit). The idea is one of measurable eternal outcomes. Success always includes results.

Success is not a secular term that should be rejected by the church. Joshua Chapter 1 is one of many biblical examples where God refers directly or indirectly to success. (God promised prosperity and success for obedience, strength and courage.)

Acts Chapter 2 is another. (Believers were filled with the Spirit, many were saved and baptized, and church grew by about 3,000 people.)

In the same way, spiritual outcomes are not subjective merely because they involve people.

  • One person saying yes to Jesus is measurable.
  • Recruiting one small group leader is quantifiable.
  • A rocky marriage restored to health is clear for all to see.

These examples represent the fruit of someone’s leadership.

2) Joy

This is also a specific word choice with biblical context from Galatians 5:22-23. Joy is listed as a fruit of the spirit.

Joy is deeper than “happiness.” There’s nothing wrong with the idea of a surface level happiness, but it’s not wise to measure long-term healthy leadership against something so temporary.

Over the long-haul, there are many days in ministry leadership that are not easy. In fact, some days and even extended seasons, are very difficult.

But even in those tough times you can still experience a deep and abiding joy.

These difficulties are not always directly connected to your work. Sometimes it’s personal and about a problem at home. And it’s simply impossible to separate your personal life at home and your leadership in the church.

God’s love and joy is with you and those you coach.

3) You must have both.

This is the primary insight for the coaching tool. You must have fruit and joy.

If you have one without the other for any length of time, your leadership experience begins to suffer. Over a long enough period of time, your life starts to break down.

Fruit without joy is drudgery.
Results without joy is too heavy a burden for anyone to carry. Every leader needs to cultivate a sense of inner joy.

Joy is cultivated by loving the people you work with, loving your job and loving God. Gratitude and a positive attitude also play a big part.

Joy without fruit is barren.
Joy without results is a fun party, but in terms of your leadership efforts, it is essentially a waste of time.

God designed us to be productive as leaders, and productivity (fruit) is enhanced by growing as a leader, in combination with focused and consistent hard work.

You can’t go the distance without both fruit and joy.  

If you want to truly help those you coach, help them grow in both fruit and joy!

This article originally appeared here.

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