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Why Every Christian Must be a Theologian

By
Jared C. Wilson
-
Lightstock #1976

Every Christian must be a theologian. In a variety of ways, I used to tell this to my church often. And the looks I got from some surprised souls are the evidence that I had not yet adequately communicated that the purposeful theological study of God by lay people is important.

Many times the confused responses come from a misunderstanding of what is meant in this context by theology. So I tell my church what I don’t mean. When I say every Christian must be a theologian, I don’t mean that every Christian must be an academic or that every Christian must be a scholar or that every Christian must work hard at giving the impression of being a know-it-all. We all basically understand what is meant in the biblical warning that “knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Nobody likes an egghead.

But the answer to formal scholasticism or dry intellectualism is not a neglect of theological study. Laypeople have no biblical warrant to leave the duty of doctrine up to pastors and professors alone. Therefore, I remind my church that theology—coming from the Greek words theos (God) and logos (word)—simply means “the knowledge (or study) of God.” If you’re a Christian, you must by definition know God. Christians are disciples of Jesus; they are student-followers of Jesus. The longer we follow Him, the more we learn about Him and, consequently, the more deeply we come to know Him.

Why Be a Theologian?

There are at least three primary reasons why every Christian ought to be a theologian.

First, theological study of God is commanded.

Having a mind lovingly dedicated to God is required most notably in the great commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Loving God with all of our minds certainly means more than theological study, but it certainly does not mean less than that.

Second, the theological study of God is vital to salvation.

Now, of course, I do not mean that intellectual pursuit merits salvation. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone (Eph. 2:8) totally apart from any works of our own (Rom. 3:28), which includes any intellectual exertion. But at the same time, the faith by which we are justified, the faith that receives the completeness of Christ’s finished work and thus His perfect righteousness, is a reasonable faith. Faith may not be the same as rationality, but this does not mean that faith in God is irrational.

Saving faith is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8; Rom. 12:3), but it is not some amorphous, information-free spiritual vacuum. The exercise of faith is predicated on information—initially, the historical announcement of the good news of what Jesus has done—and the strengthening of faith is built on information, as well.

Our continued growth in the grace of God, our perseverance as saints, is vitally connected to our pursuit of the knowledge of God’s character and God’s works as revealed in God’s Word. Contrary to the way some idolaters of doubt would have you believe, the Christian faith is founded on facts. Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that for the Christian, faith is not some leap into the dark. Instead, it is inextricably connected to assurance and conviction. It stands to reason that the more theological facts we feast on in the Word, the more assurance and conviction—and thus the more faith—we will cultivate.

Paul tells his young protégé Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:16). He is reminding Timothy that the sanctification resulting in continual discipleship to Christ necessarily includes intense study of God’s Word.

Third, the study of God authenticates and fuels worship.

True Christians are not those who believe in some vague God or trust in vague spiritual platitudes. True Christians are those who believe in the triune God of the holy Scriptures and have placed their trust by the real Spirit in the real Savior—Jesus—as proclaimed in the specific words of the historical gospel.

Knowing the right information about God is just one way we authenticate our Christianity. Intentionally or consistently err in the vital facts about God, and you jeopardize the veracity of your claim truly to know God. This is why we must pursue theological robustness not just in our pastor’s preaching but in our church’s music and in our church’s prayers, both corporate and private.

Does God NEED Your Worship?

By
Joe McKeever
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communicating with the unchurched

Can we talk about worship?

Here are a few quotes to get us started. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of any of them, having found them in that motherlode of fascinating quotes, real and imagined, solid and made-up-on-the spot, the Internet. Smiley-face goes here …

1. From actor Brad Pitt:

“I didn’t understand this idea of a God who says, ‘You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I’m the best, and then I’ll give you eternal happiness. If you won’t, then you don’t get it!’ It seemed to be about ego. I can’t see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me.”

There is a reason this makes no sense to you, Mr. Pitt.

The Apostle Paul put it this way: “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he understand them, for they are spiritually appraised” (I Corinthians 2:14).

Don’t mean to be harsh in that assessment, but it explains why so many on the outside look at Christian worship and shake their heads. They just don’t get it.

Let me repeat that: They. Do. Not. Get. It.

2. From a blog in which this guy talks about religion:

Someone asked him why God wants us to worship Him. He answered, “Everyone likes being praised. It’s a huge ego bump, after all. But why does God need it? I mean, what kind of egomaniac needs millions of people all over the world praising his name? Isn’t that a little arrogant? Short answer: Yes.”

He went on to make a case for God being egotistical. Oh, and he thought he was being pro-God.

He should spare God the compliment.

Without knowing this fellow, just from this I’d say he’s another one who just doesn’t get the business of Christian worship.

3. From a Catholic website:

“While worshiping God changes us for the better, the primary aim of our worship is not self-improvement. In the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the liturgy used by many of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, the priest at one point chants, “For to You is due all glory, honor and worship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

“While God doesn’t need our worship in order to be complete, our worship is still a duty—something that we owe to God. But it is a duty that we can perform cheerfully, knowing that, in doing so, we are participating briefly in the life of heaven.”

OK, this is thought provoking. But it still seems to imply that we might be “adding value” to Heaven in some way, and that God is somehow diminished a tad when we fail to worship.

10 Things Pastors Never Want to Hear

By
Summer Stevens
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communicating with the unchurched

There are some things pastors never want to hear.

After an especially emotionally taxing message one Sunday, my husband was shaking hands and greeting people at the door. On the way out, one gentleman said to him, “I just heard the same message this week on the radio, same stories and everything! Do you buy your sermons somewhere?” He was stunned, having never purchased a sermon in his life, and he’d found all his own original illustrations that week to fit the message. All he could do was stammer a “no” as the man left for the parking lot, the wind knocked out of his sails. And then tried to put on a smiling face for the next person in line, who had just heard the entire conversation.

Statements Pastors Never Want to Hear

Here are 10 things pastors never want to hear:

1. “You only work one day a week.” Every pastor has heard this, either with a joking elbow to the ribs, or from a sincere patron who really believes it. But this comment stings, especially since most pastors struggle to take even one day off a week.

2. “You weren’t preaching that sermon to me, were you?” There are two ways this comment can be made. The first one is an encouraging, “I really needed to hear that and it was like you were preaching right to me!” The second comes from someone who felt convicted and therefore angry that his pastor would dare bring up any of his shortcomings. This is one of the reasons you come to church, right? If you are closed to God’s working in your heart, then you are probably coming to church for the wrong reasons.

3. “We are all here volunteering, at least you are getting paid.” This is a true statement, but one that hurts for several reasons. First of all, yes, this is the pastor’s job, and the way he supports his family. Secondly, you are a volunteer, which means you can step out of your position at any time, for any reason, with relative ease. Finally, consider the fact that the small church pastor especially has to be present at almost every church function, meeting, baptism and service, whereas volunteers have the leisure to pick and choose what they’d like to attend. Even if, as a volunteer, you attend all church activities, remember that it’s your choice to be there. For your pastor, is a requirement of his job.

4. “Boy, you sure are on vacation a lot.” Just because a pastor is not in the pulpit doesn’t mean he’s taking a vacation day. There are many reasons a pastor may not preach: He’s researching a new series, he’s participating or teaching at an educational conference or retreat, or he’s performing an out of town wedding or funeral. Other times he may be present at church while another pastor or missionary gives the message. On these weeks, your pastor doesn’t take a few days to go golfing; instead, these weeks are usually a much needed opportunity to catch up on vision casting, read relevant ministry books that he’s been putting off, or plan for a retreat.

5. “You can afford that, we all know what you make.” There are a lot of reasons pastors never want to hear something like this, and you should never say it. First of all, it’s awkward enough for a pastor’s family to have their salary not only posted in an annual report, but voted on by the congregation. Beyond that, the number in the budget can be misleading. Many churches will include the entire salary package, which could include health insurance, a retirement contribution, or a book or travel allowance. These things should not be included under a general “salary” section as they are misleading as to how much the pastor actually earns. Next, most people don’t know, but pastors are considered self-employed for IRS tax purposes. That means that he has to pay the “employer part” of Social Security and Medicare taxes (he must include his housing allowance in this). So, whatever number is on the budget, chop off 15.3 percent right off the top. Finally, records show that pastors are among the most faithful tithers in the church, and most pastors use a portion of their personal salary beyond their tithe to personally give to needy members of the church or open their home and their refrigerators to serve people.

6. “Your kids need to be setting an example.” PKs have enough to overcome without added stress from the congregation. You didn’t hire your pastor’s children, you hired him. Believe me, he already feels the stress of his children’s behavior without you saying anything. If you want to discourage your pastor, pick on his kids.

7. “I don’t trust you.” Is it any wonder this is something pastors never want to hear? This can be said in about 100 different ways. It may be in the way the elder board checks up on his calendar, or your response to where he feels the Lord is leading the church. I knew a pastor once whose board required that he submit receipts for pizza he bought every week for the youth group and go through the reimbursement procedure instead of trusting him with a church debit or credit card. It was a small thing, but it said loudly, “I don’t trust you.” If you can trust that God is speaking through your pastor, you also need to be able to trust him in the small stuff.

5 Risks Every Leader Should Take

By
Timothy Parsons
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communicating with the unchurched

I’m considered a very “safe” person. I tend to be very risk averse and only take a chance on something when I’ve analyzed and calculated it to the extent that it is no longer a risk. It’s a magical place to be—full of worry, anxiousness and procrastination  You should really consider vacationing there sometime.

As a leader, we are always one decision away from total failure. Or at least that’s the way I feel most of the time. This mindset causes me to enjoy the status quo more than I should and rebel against those that try anything new or risky. But if any leader is to be successful, he/she must be willing to take some risks.

Risks lead to innovation.

Risks lead to higher plateaus of success.

Risks lead to longevity as a leader.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating reckless risk-taking. But I am saying that leaders must be willing to take risks … and that can be difficult for many of us, because risks often go against our own conscious and comfort zone and can open us up to critique and failure. Here are five risks that I believe every leader should take:

1.  Stand for what you believe in.

This can be very easy for some people, but not for everyone. I am especially thinking about times when it seems that all the naysayers are shouting “NAY” as loud as they can. It is easier to go with the flow or to just continue doing what we’ve always done. But I believe that this risk leads you and the team you lead into new heights of envisioning what could be … versus what is or what has always been.

2.  Stand up for someone who can’t do it on their own.

There are people all around you who “don’t have a voice.” The people who aren’t decision makers. The people who only speak up when they have to. The people who don’t have the necessary information to even know that something is about to impact what they do. I have worked on teams where there was no minority representation, yet decisions that were being made had a direct impact on them. So, to speak up and give a voice to a person or a group of people is something that every leader should take a risk on. It’s risky because you may be a lone voice. It’s risky because you may not fully know what needs to be said and why. It’s risky because it can be easily misunderstood.

3.  Give someone a second chance.

When someone on the team doesn’t follow through, it’s easy to give up on them instantly. When someone fails, it’s easy to find someone else to do it. When someone doesn’t interview well, it’s easy to not give them a second interview. I think that giving people a second chance, as difficult as it can be, has the potential for the greatest upside. Learning from mistakes can be the greatest teacher, but if we don’t give those that we lead the opportunity to learn and do differently, we’re robbing them of the chance to get better and grow.

Pro-Life Millennials? Mike Pence Has Reason to Hope

By
Bob Ditmer
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communicating with the unchurched

Vice President Mike Pence predicted earlier this week that legal abortion would end in the U.S. “in our time.”

“I know in my heart of hearts this will be the generation that restores life in America,” Pence said at a luncheon in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List & Life Institute, a pro-life organization.

Were the Vice President’s comments simply wishful thinking from a politician that has fought for restrictions on abortion for many years, or are there signs of change in American culture?

It appears something is indeed happening. In the past month there have been several references in the mainstream media to a growing opposition to abortion among millennials.

Buried at the end of a Chicago Tribune story the day after the March for Life in Washington, D. C. in January were these two paragraphs:

“But much attention should be paid to next generation of voters….a growing number of young Americans have become more vocal about their opposition to abortion.

“We are there every day on the campuses. Right where the culture is formed. Right where those future voters are being created and we’re changing their minds about abortion,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, told the Christian Broadcasting Network.

On its website, Students for Life points out that “79 percent of Planned Parenthoods are 5 miles from a college. 52 percent of abortion seeking women are under 25. College and high school is a time when worldviews are challenged and formed. Culture is shaped by the young. If we want to end abortion, we have to start with the youth.”

On February 21, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was on the cable network to discuss the school shooting in Parkland, Florida when he took the conversation in an unexpected direction.

American youth support limiting abortion, he said, because of advancements in technology. “You are seeing poll numbers move on abortion for banning abortions after 20 weeks,” Scarborough said. “Because for the past decade, younger Americans have been going in and they have been seeing 3D imagery where they can look into the womb.”

The poll numbers Scarborough referenced came from a January 2017 Quinnipiac poll that asked Americans whether they would support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy if it were enacted in their state. Nearly half—49 percent—of 18- to 34-year-olds said they would support it. The poll found that 35- to 49-year-olds were the only age group that supported the ban more.

A January op-ed piece by Eugene Scott in the Washington Post that highlighted the Quinnipiac poll appears to be what triggered the recent media interest in the documented and growing opposition to abortion among millennials.

The article’s title, Millennials Have a Surprising View on Later-Term Abortion, suggests a bias of its own but it impartially points out that after the US Senate voted in January to block a proposed federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks, “one of the constituent groups they may have offended is one that both parties are highly interested in winning: millennial voters…..After the ban was shot down…some of the loudest criticism among antiabortion advocates came from younger Americans.”

In the Senate debate over the proposed ban on late-term abortions, advocates pointed out that the US is one of only seven nations that allows abortions after 20 weeks putting the US in a group that includes North Korea and China. It could be argued, in addition to 3D imagery, that fact could be weighing on the minds of millennials.

Following the ban’s defeat in the Senate, Lila Rose, the 29-year-old founder and president of Live Action, tweeted “Today, 46 senators voted AGAINST protecting preborn children from abortion after 20 weeks. This is extreme and beyond heartless.”

In his address this week, Pence said “Life is winning….Americans — especially younger Americans — are choosing and embracing the sanctity of life more and more every day.”

Jeff Vanderstelt: When Discipling, Admit You Don’t Know Everything

By
Jason Daye
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communicating with the unchurched

Jeff Vanderstelt is the visionary leader of the Soma Family of Churches and the lead teaching pastor at Doxa Church in Bellevue, WA. Jeff is the author of “Saturate,” “Saturate Field Guide,” and “Gospel Fluency” (2017). He and Jayne, his wife of twenty-three years, have three children; Haylee, Caleb, and Maggie.

Key Questions for Jeff Vanderstelt:

– How do you define the gospel?
– Where is the church missing the message of the gospel?
– How can a pastor in a smaller church get more community involvement in my ministry?

[SUBSCRIBE] For more ChurchLeaders podcasts click here!

Key Quotes from Jeff Vanderstelt:

“We’ve missed how much the gospel impacts all of life.”

“In our preaching programs, are we just affirming an idolatrous view of man instead of a Christ-centered view of God’s people?”

“If the majority of conversion stories are primarily, somebody came and heard the preacher preach and came to faith that way, then you’re telling them that you can enter as an individual and leave as an individual and your conversion was largely individualistic.”

“Look at your week and see how much time you are putting into doing ministry and how much time are you putting into equipping ministers?”

“Ask yourself, if I were to put some time into a few for a season, what kinds of things would I train them to do to allow me to share leadership with more people in my church and redistribute a lot of my energies away from doing all the ministry for the people to equipping more people for the ministry.”

“The sin in our life or lack of fruit of the spirit is always connected to our beliefs, who God is and what has he done in my life.”

“Paying attention to our unbelief or wrong beliefs is key to understanding why we do what we do.”

“At the heart of your sin is a complete unbelief in the truths of who Jesus is and what he’s done for you.”

“Most of our thinking about discipleship and teaching has taken on this idea of, I’m the master teacher and you have to listen to what I have to say. There is potential for arrogance.”

“We have to do better about listening to people, better at asking questions. We have to assume that we don’t know everything.”

“When you give someone the opportunity to open up and share and you are genuinely interested in them, people will spill out all kinds of stuff that they’ve probably never told anybody. If those moments don’t happen you’re not really making disciples….it’s just information dump.”

“We believe the best place to disciple people, the Jesus commanded way to disciple people, is we have to disciple people in everyday places.”

Links Mentioned by Jeff Vanderstelt in the Show:

Gospel Fluency

The Gospel Fluency Handbook

SOMA

Saturate

Saturate the World

Jeff Vanderstelt on ChurchLeaders:

More Than Mercy Ministry: Defining Missional

What It Means to “Be” the Church

5 Ways Pastors Can Prepare Their Churches for Suffering

By
Dave Furman
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communicating with the unchurched

Pastors, it’s inevitable that members of your congregation will suffer. D.A. Carson has famously said, “All you have to do is live long enough, and you will suffer.” As you seek to shepherd your congregation, don’t wait until suffering comes. Don’t start preparing people for death in the ICU.

There are several things we can do as pastors to prepare our churches for suffering right now. Below I’ve listed five.

  1. Pastors, keep preaching expositionally.

Expositional preaching makes sure the point of the passage is the point of the sermon. It also normally includes walking different books of the Bible passage by passage. By doing this, the pastor ensures a biblical diet for their members—a buffet of teaching from the historical books, poetic books, prophetic books, the Gospels, the epistles and apocalyptic material.

By regularly rotating your preaching calendar, you will by necessity hit on all areas of the Christian life, including suffering. Furthermore, by preaching expositionally you’re more likely to share with the congregation what God has to say about suffering rather than tips from your own limited experience.

  1. Pastors, don’t forget to preach the Old Testament.

Don’t forget about how much Old Testament books have to teach us about trials. As you preach through Genesis, 1 and 2 Kings, Jeremiah, and Job you will highlight for your people believers who trusted God amid suffering.

The heroes from Scripture aren’t the heroes of comic-book movies we watch today. David once said he would regularly flood his bed with tears. Job curses his own birth and thinks he and the world would have been better off if he had died. Elijah wanted to die when Ahab and Jezebel were coming after him. Under the back-breaking burden of leadership, Moses asked God to take his life. Jeremiah has been called the weeping prophet for his lack of fruit.

These men are the heroes of the Bible—and each one suffered. So pastors, hold these Scriptures out for your congregation regularly.

  1. Pastors, make the church a safe place to open up about pain. 

As it’s often been said, the church is not a museum of saints but a hospital for the hurting. Our members need to know this. They need to know they won’t be ostracized for their weakness, but that suffering is a sadly “normal” part of this fallen world. They need to know they won’t be immediately asked of being in unrepentant sin when they admit they’re feeling mental or emotional pain.

One of the best ways to make the church a safe place for the hurting is for pastors to be open about their own suffering. Clearly, the spotlight in the sermon and the worship service needs to be on Jesus. But when appropriate, pastors should feel free to share their own struggles. It might be sharing in an evening service or asking for prayer from the congregation at appropriate times. The goal is to not make it abnormal or awkward for church members to bring up their own struggles before the body.

  1. Pastors, talk about heaven a lot.

Our congregations need to know that their best life is not now. They need to know that Jesus is going to return and make all wrongs right. So pastors, point your people regularly to Revelation 21 and 22 where Jesus will wipe every tear from our eyes and death will be no more—neither will mourning or crying. On this day, eternal joy will visit us and never leave.

Teaching on heaven may not automatically console a suffering person. But it’s much easier to have this rich doctrine in your heart before trials come, rather than to try to inject it in the midst of intense suffering.

  1. Pastors, build a culture of care—starting now.

Ephesians 4:7 tells us that Christ gives each believer the gifts and abilities to serve and care for others. In other words, caring for the hurting is not the sole job of the elders, but of the whole congregation.

With this in mind, it might be wise to encourage certain members who are gifted at this to inspire and lead other members in helping the hurting. Perhaps this will encourage a culture of care to emerge. Perhaps it will begin to be normal for one member to help another member. At our church we have a deaconess of member care who has built a team of church members who together look out for needs in the congregation. If you can get a culture of care started today, you’ll be ready when suffering and tragedy come.

* * * * * 

Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from Dave’s new book Kiss the Wave: Embracing God in Your Trials.

This article originally appeared here.

Getting Small Churches on Mission

By
Ed Stetzer
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communicating with the unchurched

I recently wrote a chapter for a book edited by my friend Jeff Farmer called Small Church, Excellent Ministry: A Guidebook for Pastors. My chapter specifically looked at “Getting Small Churches on Mission.” The below is used with permission from Wipf & Stock Publishers. In Part 1, I offered three big-picture ways for smaller churches to begin moving toward mission. Today, I talk about how smaller churches can reach their communities and beyond for Christ.

Numerically, smaller churches dominate U.S. life. They should also be key parts of the mission.

There is much benefit, therefore, in identifying various ways that smaller churches can reach their communities and beyond for Christ. This chapter will identify and briefly expound a few ways small churches can be mission-minded, both locally and globally. They are in no particular order of preference or importance, and there is certainly no expectation that a church on mission would only select one of these opportunities. Many coalesce together and can be seamlessly integrated to form a more fully orbed missional church.

Small churches can serve the hurting and the poor.

Today, churches are known for many things, but meeting the needs of the hurting and poor is rarely (if ever) one of them. If we join Jesus on his mission, I think we too will serve those who are hurting. In fact, I think the world is often confused when they see a church that claims to follow Jesus but is not actually doing much of what Jesus did.

They know he healed the sick and ministered to the hurting, and they wonder why a church would be unengaged in these areas. To paraphrase Ghandi, “Why do your Christians look so little like your Jesus?”

Think back to the early church. One of the primary activities they were known for was serving the poor. As one Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, wrote:

These [Christians] not only feed their own, but ours also; welcoming them with their [love], they attract them, as children are attracted with cakes . . . Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated [Christians] devote themselves to works of charity, and by a display of false compassion have established and given effect to their pernicious errors. Such practice is common among them, and causes contempt for our gods.

He knew that acts of charity towards the least of society in the name of Jesus were having a profound effect. The marginalized, those who had little to give to society, still had value and worth in the eyes of God and Christians, and as their needs were met their hearts were opened to abandoning false gods and learning about Jesus.

Small churches can recapture this passion for ministering to the hurting in their communities. You don’t need state-of-the-art worship facilities or a seven-digit church budget to care for those in need. You only need to be willing to engage and empathize with the downcast and weary, and in doing so you might see their hearts opened to Jesus.

Small churches can partner together, either through association via a denominational structure or as part of a city partnership, to pool resources towards this end. A food pantry that is stocked once per month by a different church is an affordable way that small churches can contribute. Giving to a ministerial alliance fund specifically created to assist with an overdue utility bill or missed rent payment means the world to someone on the brink of having their electricity cut off or being evicted from their home.

How to Love People Who are Different Than You

By
Rick Warren
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communicating with the unchurched

God intentionally created everyone to be unique. And when we appreciate the uniqueness that we see in others, we truly honor the creative work of God around us. The world is a work of art, full of color and full of diversity.

Nobody looks quite like you look. You’re not one in a million; you’re one in 7 billion! And if you have a problem with people who are different from you, you really have a problem with God. Racism is essentially believing that God should have made everyone else to be just like you.

First Corinthians 15:38-40 says, “God gives everything the kind of body he wants it to have. People, animals, birds and fish are each made of flesh, but none of them are alike. Everything in the heavens has a body, and so does everything on earth. But each one is very different from all the others” (CEV). That’s intentionality.

Then the Bible says, in Acts 17:26, “From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be” (CEV).

We all ultimately descended from two mutual parents, Adam and Eve. Our unity was fractured by sin and its effects, but God created us for oneness. And the church is ultimately the steward of that oneness. Every church should, as much as possible, reflect the diversity of its surrounding community and set the example for the rest of the world in terms of cultivating oneness in diversity.

We talk so much about the brokenness of sin in our lives leaving us all with hurts, habits and hang-ups. And those hurts affect every relationship in our lives. The obvious ones are with our spouses, our kids, our parents and our siblings. But that same brokenness is evident when there is prejudice buried deep in our hearts toward people of other races and ethnicities.

Part of the journey toward wholeness and healing is making amends with the people we’ve offended and hurt, and that includes people we’ve pushed away because of racial and ethnic differences.

In other words, recovery isn’t just an issue of overcoming addictions. It’s also an issue of showing love to everyone around us.

And here are four ways to show love to people with whom you have differences.

  • Listen to them. When you listen to people, you’re giving them the ability to speak to you while affirming their dignity.
  • Look at them. When you give people your attention, you’re giving them the most important thing you possess your—time.
  • Learn from them. You can learn from anyone when you ask the right questions and when you are teachable.
  • Laugh with them. Humor is a great equalizer and lowers tension. The words humor and humility come from the same root. The mark of humility is your ability to laugh at yourself.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him” (NCV).

When you’ve experienced redemption through Christ, and reconciliation with God and with other people, you can’t help but turn outward and be an agent of reconciliation in all of your relationships. And that includes your relationships with people who are simply different from you by God’s creative design.

This article originally appeared here.

How to Make Meetings More Than Meetings

By
Chris Wesley
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communicating with the unchurched

If you need to meet with me, make it worth my time. I’m a meeting snob, because I have little margin and do not want it compromised. I want to leave a meeting feeling inspired, and ready to take on what was discussed.

I know I’m a little demanding when it comes to meeting integrity; however, they can be the death of your organization if not done correctly. You are asking people to sacrifice an important commodity (Time) that can not be returned.

Meetings do not always have to be memorable; however, they should be engaging. It’s where situations are discussed, dreams are revealed and teams grow together. To make meetings something your team embraces, make sure you keep to:

BASIC ETIQUETTE. That means:

• Starting on Time

• Preparing Ahead of Time

• Providing an Agenda Early

• Ending on Time

It’s not rocket science. If you follow some of the basic etiquette of a meeting, you can at least prevent people from leaving angry. HOWEVER, if you want to make your meetings engaging and motivating:

• Always Include Prayer: You need to bring God into the conversation. It might sound simple, but it’s easily forgotten. Make sure you take time to invite God in to lead, guide and bless the conversation. At the end, thank Him and ask for His continued guidance. If anything, it serves as a reminder as to why you do what you do.

• Create an Engaging Environment: There are a million things that can serve as distractions to your meeting. Before you begin, make sure you have a designated meeting space. Arrange furniture and adjust lighting to promote healthy conversation. Create guidelines (i.e., silence your cell phones) if you think certain things might distract. Be intentional about your meeting environments.

• Cast Vision: Your meetings should have a purpose. Talk about what you hope to accomplish in the meeting as you begin, so that people know where it is you want to go. When people have expectations, they’ll be more focused on how to get there.

• Engage Conflict: Not everyone has to agree on every matter. In fact, when there is conflict there can be healthy conversation. When you fear conflict, you enable bad ideas to grow, people are unheard and tension arises. Allow all sides to be heard by engaging in conflict so that progress can be made.

• Leave With Clarity: Again, not everyone has to agree; however, everyone should be clear on what is discussed. Before ending a meeting (or an issue), review some of the key points and make sure everyone is on the same page. Make sure that people understand what has been decided and what needs to be done. This way, no one is surprised when a decision is made.

Make meetings more than just a painful exercise by giving them and the people who attend them value. When meetings are effective, people will be engaged. When done right, they will move your ministry in an entirely new direction.

How do you make your meetings more than a meeting?

Under Pressure: When Your Minister Husband is Forced Out

By
Courtney L Moore
-
communicating with the unchurched

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The thought repeated in my mind as I wrestled to understand how everything had gone so wrong. My husband had taken his first full-time ministry position after seminary, but somehow, within a short time period, we were leaving under hurtful, unanticipated circumstances. The place we had excitedly moved to, where we purchased our first home, among whom we felt called to love, serve, and pour our lives into seemed to be rejecting us. It felt like our only option was to trust God and move on.

Time and distance have now broadened my perspective of this life-altering event, and though I hope pastors and their wives will never have to experience a similar situation, I’d like to share some tools to help them navigate the situation with wisdom should it arise.

1. Expect to feel a range of emotions.

Pain will always follow any time we’re met with resistance or outright rejection after we’ve attempted to love and serve. The hurt is felt even more deeply when the church rejects us, a people and place we expect to find love and acceptance. The effects can be devastating, and the emotions are wide-ranging.

In our situation, I was truly shocked at the turn of events that took place. Then confusion set in as I analyzed every detail of the events that had unfolded. I was angry at the people I thought caused it all. My husband and I also felt alone. None of our friends had been through this. I worried about the future, but in my best moments, God graced me with peace to trust Him even though we had no idea what was next. Expect to feel a broad range of emotions.

2. Try not to cast blame.

As we mentally dissect the situation, specific faces will come to mind as well as the harm they caused. But my warning is to try not to cast blame on these people.

For starters, blaming others will only lodge seeds of bitterness and unforgiveness in our hearts that can become our undoing. Forgiving those who harm us is really the only path forward, though it’s tough. The Apostle Paul provides us a great example in 2 Timothy 4:14-18.

Secondly, time will show there were many factors involved that we were blind to in the moment. Sin and its entanglements are more complex than we suppose. Spiritual warfare is usually unseen but plays an enormous role. The spiritual immaturity of the congregation or our own mistakes can also be factors. The situation may appear black and white on the surface, but time will usually reveal that finding fault is more of a complicated matter.

3. Don’t turn your back on God.

The psalmist who penned Psalm 73 saw the prosperity of the wicked and wondered what the point was in following God when it led to suffering. We may be tempted to feel this way, too, when it seems like schemers win at our expense.

We may also be tempted to question God. We believed He had a good plan for our lives in sending us to that particular church, but now it looks like He was wrong. Can He really be trusted?

With thoughts like these, we must turn our eyes to Jesus, who knew rejection well. He loved, served and forgave those who would murder Him. The cross did not look like a good plan, but the Father’s good for Jesus came 3 days later and for the rest of eternity (See Phil 2:8-11). We must lift eyes of faith beyond our temporal good and trust He is working an eternal good for us as well.

4. Guard your heart from bitterness, apathy and cynicism.

Witnessing and being the recipient of professing Christians’ sin can tempt us toward this deadly trio, but there is hardly anything more destructive to the heart of ministers and their families.

The insidious nature of bitterness, apathy, and cynicism allow pastors and their wives to say the right words, teach the right doctrines and smile at all the right times, while underneath the façade lies a deadening of the soul and faith that can leave their ministry spiritually lifeless.

I’ve written about how God led me out of cynicism, but the best warning I could give pastors and their wives would be to guard their heart from the beginning.

5. Be humble enough to learn from it.

My husband and I can now look back at the situation we were involved in and view it with new eyes. Our hurt has faded, and we’re mainly thankful for the invaluable lessons we were only able to learn by walking through that hard season.

These lessons fall into categories such as the nature of man and depravity, our own weaknesses and blind spots, what it means to love and serve others patiently and also the reality of church world/politics. We thank God for opening our eyes to these things and truly wish the very best for the church we served for that short time.

Dear pastors and wives whose church wants you to leave, God will take care of you. He sees you and loves you, and He is working even right now behind the scenes for your good. Keep trusting Him!

This article originally appeared here.

When Revival Happens Elsewhere

By
Nicolas Alford
-
communicating with the unchurched

Iain Murray describes biblical revival as consisting of “…a larger giving of God’s Spirit for the making known of Christ’s glory… a sense of God… not only in conviction of sin but equally in the bewildered amazement of Christians at the consciousness of the Lord who is in their midst.”1 Revival is not a constant reality in church history or in the life of any specific congregation, rather it is descriptive of those extraordinary times when the Lord is pleased to pour out a greater abundance of saving grace, there is a greater zeal for Kingdom priorities, and a vital spirituality characterizes the people of God.  It is a time of unique energy and vigor regarding gospel labors, and of unique blessing from the Lord in those pursuits.

All churches would love to see such things become a reality in their own midst.  Who would dare to say that they would not want the Lord to pour out such grace, to act in mighty ways to save sinners, to animate and revitalize His people in such ways described?  To be desirous of such blessing need not signal any depreciation of the normal plodding rhythms of ministry and the ordinary means of grace.  Indeed, Biblical revival is not a circumventing of normal ministry activities, it is a fresh and dynamic outpouring of grace through those very ordained means.

It is true that some people take revival and do unbiblical things with the concept.  In fact, much of Murray’s book is given over to distinguishing the difference between true God given revival and man’s foolish attempts to manufacture an outpouring of the Spirit- a pursuit he labels as revivalism.  To the historically minded, terms like revival sometimes evoke negative associations like Charles Finney’s anxious bench (a forerunner of the more modern altar call), and to the broader culture it often takes on a garish tent-huckster ethos, but we should never let other people’s errors define our practice.  None of these abuses are the fault of authentic revival.  And so quite aware of the dangers of a false and manufactured show of dramatic piety, even solidly Reformed men do say, “Lord, if it pleases you, send revival in our midst!”

But what about when you pray for revival and it comes…but to someone else? What are we to think of extraordinary measures of grace that God seems to pour out on others, while He seems pleased to withhold it from us? What am I to think of my neighbor’s revival?

To that question I offer three responses.

1. Avoid the temptation to adopt an elitist “narrow way” cynicism.

The present reality is that the Kingdom of God on earth is fractured into a multitude of church denominations, sects, movements, and coalitions.  At this stage in church history, no matter what segment of evangelical Christianity you call home, there are always more people outside your circle than inside of it.  No one group has the majority. What that means is that God is always doing more outside your narrow context than inside of it.  This conclusion is unavoidable, unless you want to say that only your own theological and ecclesiastic tradition is truly the place that God is pleased to work.

We’d rarely say that out loud, but I fear that sometimes we do think that way.  It comes out when we adopt a “narrow way” cynicism regarding revival in other denominations or movements.2 When we assign to apparent revival in other quarters a “broad way” condemnation because of the various ways they aren’t like us and therefore aren’t faithful to God’s Word and therefore couldn’t possibly be enjoying his blessing while we aren’t, don’t we betray the cynical elitism in our hearts?

Let’s not do that.  When our Christian brothers and sisters in other denominational contexts see real blessing from God on their labors, let’s not let our various disagreements with them over doctrine and practice prevent us from recognizing the true work of God in their midst.  Let’s not betray a belief that if God isn’t blessing us (or those most incredibly like us) whatever we are seeing must be a mere mirage of revival.  Being different from us doesn’t put another group beyond the reach of God’s blessing anymore than it puts them beyond the reach of His grace.  This of course doesn’t apply to those who hold to outright heretical views–I’m not talking about that.  But not all doctrinal disagreements are heretical.  There are a multitude of second tier issues which Christians will always disagree on.  Are we really ready to say that those who we disagree with over Baptism, or the exact role of the Law, or the precise nature of the Spiritual gifts or many other issues we rightly make distinctions over are so far gone that we can’t grant to them the genuine blessing and favor of the Lord?  Do we really want to say with our dismissive attitudes that we are the only ones who are deserving of His favor?

2. Avoid the temptation to adopt a shallow imitation of the latest new thing.

It is one thing to humble acknowledge the work of God in other contexts, it is a different thing to try and imitate whatever latest fads seem to be associated with that revival.  I use the word “fad” not necessarily to denigrate, but rather because it is an accurate description of evangelical patterns.  There is always some latest new thing.  Sometimes it has value, sometimes it doesn’t.  The test is God’s unchanging Word.

Sometimes two churches adopt identical strategies and have leadership that is practically interchangeable, but God grants revival to one while the other simply plods on without seeing extraordinary things in their midst.  Maybe they even see trial and struggle.  God is pleased to work when and where He chooses.  It’s not necessarily a stamp of divine approval or disapproval on either one.

It would be a mistake to assume that because God is pleased to work in diverse segments of the Kingdom, that the distinctions between those segments are irrelevant.  It would be a mistake to depreciate doctrinal precision on that count.  We can humbly recognize God at work in a context which our own Biblical convictions do not allow us to participate in.  Doing so does not make us compromisers; it merely keeps us chaste in our appraisals of our own achievements and humbly aware that we are never indispensable to the God who is actually the one building His Church.  Almost as bad as letting our doctrinal disagreements prevent us from thanking God for His work among other sorts of Christians would be to on that count dismiss or diminish the importance of taking those open and firm doctrinal stands.

3. Seek first the Kingdom of God.

Maybe the issue is that we spend too much time looking around horizontally, period.  Maybe we need to reevaluate the value of our horizontal evaluations. Maybe rather than correcting those outside our circles so often, we should be more concerned with working out actual gospel ministry in the doctrinal and traditional context to which we are committed.  Maybe we need to think about what we are truly seeking first, our own glory or that of the Lord?

This might sound preachy… but I am a preacher, so go figure.  To be clear, I’m preaching to myself as much as anyone else.  I want to be the sort of Christian who can rejoice whenever and wherever the gospel is proclaimed and people are being reached.  I don’t think I have to give up an inch of theological or doctrinal conviction to do that.  But I do think I have to give up some pride.

May God send us true revival, and if He sends it to others instead, may He send it all the more!

1. Ian Murray, Revival & Revivalism, p. 30.

2. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV)

This article originally appeared here.

Watch Matt Redman Worship God Over the City of Los Angeles

By
Megan Briggs
-
communicating with the unchurched

In September 2017, Matt Redman released Glory Songs, a collection of 13 new songs that are will likely make it to many churches’ worship sets in the coming years.

The video above shows Redman with accompanying musicians performing the song on top of the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles, California.

This isn’t the first time Redman has taken to a public space to worship God. In 2016, Redman partnered with a Luis Palau event and transformed Times Square in New York City into a worship room.

And while worshipping God with a big crowd in a public place is something Redman is familiar with, he says it’s not as easy as leading worship as a pastor, week in and week out. In an interview with ChurchLeaders, Redman shared about his experience leading worship in a local church context for several years. In many ways, Redman feels that job was a lot harder than being a recording artist and performing at evangelism events (or on the top of Capitol Record in Los Angeles). “When you’re leading week in, week out…you’ve got to bring something new and shepherd people over a long period of time. That’s the hardest thing,” Redman said.

Although he hasn’t been a worship pastor for a long time now, Redman is still contributing to the church through his songwriting. Glory Songs is Redman’s 10th album, and it contains a handful of songs your church will surely want to integrate into its worship rotation. As sing-able as the album is, the intention behind it is equally as inviting and necessary right now, given America’s current tensions.

Redman’s heart for the album was to provide some bridges between different streams of the church (specifically the American church) by way of music. Toward this end, Redman collaborated with a number of artists, including Tasha Cobbs Leonard, a contemporary gospel singer and songwriter. Leonard worked with Redman on the song “Gracefully Broken.” She also recorded her own version of the song on her latest album, Heart. Passion. Pursuit., which was released in August 2017.

In an interview with New Song Cafe, Redman shares the origins of the song, which started in a hotel business room when he, Jonas Myrin, Bryan and Katie Torwalt, formed the verses. After this meeting, Leonard contacted Redman asking if he wanted to collaborate. “She’s got a real heart for bridging together some of the streams of the church,” Redman says.

Redman also discusses some of the themes present in the song. The song highlights God’s grace. Redman explains that even as God allows us to break, “it’s done kindly and gracefully and there’s no cruelty in it. And there’s no harshness in it.”

Starting at 6:30 of the video, Redman explains how to play the song on the guitar. If you’d like to perform this song at your church, head over to Worship Together for a free chord chart download with transposing options.

To hear more of Redman’s insights on leading worship in a local church, check out our conversation with him on the ChurchLeaders Podcast.

This Is the Future of Church Growth

By
Bob Ditmer
-
communicating with the unchurched

Church growth research is showing that the future of church growth may look like its past.

The very first Christians met in homes. The church grew through social networks and intimate interpersonal attachments. It multiplied as believers moved from one area to another starting churches wherever they went. A sea change appears to be underway in the American church returning it to its roots. The megachurch model that began in the 1970s is giving way to church planting and multiplication.

Church Growth Research

A study from Warren Bird and Dale Travis for the Leadership Network found 83 percent of pastors under age 40 “have a future vision to plant/launch.” The researchers call the findings “astounding” and “a dramatic change.”

Travis is the CEO of Leadership Network.

“When I joined Leadership Network in 1995, senior pastors of larger churches of that era desired to grow a single site and hoped for 3,000 seats in one venue where they could do two Sunday services to meet the demand. Many eventually did. Now when I meet with our Next Generation Pastors LeaderGroups, the dream has changed. Now their question is: How do we add our second and third sites to reach more people? These younger leaders now aspire not for a larger congregation on a single campus, but for a church that reaches more people across a wider geographical stance.”

The researchers consider their findings “big news” because it implies a value shift among younger pastors. It forecasts more reproduction through multisites and church planting, often with a multiplication bias that those new locations will in turn birth still others.

The research also discovered that church planters and campus pastors in their first five years at a church are 2.3 times more likely to have a vision to plant/launch than pastors who have been at the same church more than 10 years.

Bird and Travis have some theories on this finding including:

  • This statistic speaks to the fresh thinking that a pastor brings to a newly launched church or campus.
  • Newer pastors tend to be younger and younger generations think multiplication before “mega” size.

They also admit that their research sample is focused on growing, thriving churches as opposed to a random-sample group. The growth bias likely influenced the results. Even so, they say the differences are dramatic between aspirations of church planters or campus pastors at a new site versus longer-term pastors.

This wave of young pastors focused on church planting and multiplication will have to deal with a challenge that faces all new startups: sustainability.

Estimates vary widely on the survivability of church plants. A study from the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention of over 1,000 churches (from 11 evangelical networks and denominations) to discover the factors leading to church plant survivability and health revealed that around 68 percent of church plants still exist four years after having been started.

Church planter Frank Viola believes the average lifespan of a house church is only six months to two years.

And some may wonder if new church plants are simply keeping up with established church closures. Southern Baptist researcher Thom Rainer believes between 8,000 and 10,000 churches close every year.

5 Things I Have to Do, but Don’t Like Doing, as a Leader

By
Ron Edmondson
-
communicating with the unchurched

A friend asked me once to name the things I do as a leader because I have to, but don’t necessarily like to. He even had a term for it. He called it the “underbelly of leadership.”

It was a great question. It caused me to think. There are actually lots of things I do that I don’t enjoy doing. That’s likely what most of us call work. But, what do I “have” to do?

Here’s a stab at an answer to the question.

Here are five things I have to do as a leader, but don’t always like to do:

Managing

I much prefer leading a vision to managing the process of accomplishing the vision. I love big pictures, but I stress over details. Part of my role, however, as a leader is to make sure the vision is actually accomplished and not simply painted. Many people start with great ideas, but the reality is few finish. Leading often starts very well. Managing effectively gets it done.

Correcting

I would rather receive the “Best Boss” award by being “Mr. Nice Guy.” Part of the leader’s responsibility, however, is to offer constructive criticism—and sometimes correction—so the team gets better and the organization continues to improve.

Patience

I know patience is a fruit of the Spirit, but it is the fruit I struggle with the most. I want accomplishment and I want it sooner rather than later. I have to recognize, however, fast is not always best and others on my team are wired differently from me for a reason. They balance me well.

Submitting

I would rather have it my way. (Did I just admit that?) The fact is, however, there are smarter people than me on our team about some issues, and if things are only done my way we will be limited to my strength and not the strength of the team.

Failing

I like to win. I want success and progress. It is how I am wired, and the desire for a win keeps me focused on accomplishing the vision through strategy and diligence. The fact remains, however, some of my greatest growth times in life and leadership have come through times of personal failure. I have to allow failure in my life and in the life of our team in order to help us to learn ways to improve—through failing.

This article originally appeared here.

Dear Church Shopper

By
Meggie Lee Calvin
-
communicating with the unchurched

Over the years, there have been many children who have served as evangelists to their parents. A kid plugs into one of our #kidmin programs, and in no time, the parent who was once a mere wave in a car now joins his child as an essential part of the tribe.

There are usually four types of persons to which these little evangelists introduce me, and their responses sound something like this;

Before (now) Branded Beatriz: “I don’t mean to cut you off, but we are already strongly committed to another church. My son is just coming here to be with his friends. Also, please don’t expect me to play any other role but simply dropping him at your church door, and promptly picking him up at 5:30. One last thing, keep the small talk to a minimum, please.”

Radically Rigid Rick: “Before my family commits, I need to see an exact list of all doctrinal statements that have been explored within your denomination over the past 200 years. I want to assure that we will be on the same page 100 percent of the time on all theological matters. Oh, and the second that someone implies a spiritual thought that differs from my convictions, we are outta here!”

Hesitantly Hanging Back Hal: “OK, Lady. You’re puttin’ off a real ‘Mandy-Moore-from-Saved’ vibe right now and since I didn’t understand most of the words in that service, I’m just gonna smile ‘til you’re done talkin’ and then politely leave. Side-note: I didn’t know cults had such good donuts.”

Transparently Toying-With-the-Idea Tia: “Hey, can we do coffee sometime? I really would like to chat about church. I am not really sure what questions to ask, but I just believe in my heart that my family needs this. We need to focus on the spiritual side of life, and I want to explore the ways that the church can support us in this.”

As always, I leave each well-intended conversation regretting that I did not say more; hence this letter.

Dear Church Shopper, 

Thank you for all that you withstood to get to church this morning. I am sure you endured wardrobe battles with your kids and there is a (big) chance that walking by our greeter led to an awkward conversation; so for all that you sacrificed to check us out—thank you.

I know you sense the Divine in your life, and you desire to put words to this experience. You’ve come to the right place. The church can be extremely helpful in this endeavor.

Now before we go any further, there is something I must first address. I offer advanced apologies for the behaviors of some that you might meet here. Although Christ is transforming lives in this church, some of us still do or say things that are far from Christ-like. To type frankly, there are a few whack-a-doos and jerks in those pews. Nothing seems to scare shoppers like yourself away quicker, so they have earned this third paragraph.

All of us come with areas of growth, and some in our church community (like in any community) lack a level of self-awareness that would enable them to improve upon these areas. While we do not condone their actions, Christ calls us to see them through a lens of grace and accountability.

Knowing this does not make them easier to love. And honestly, some might never be easy to love. However, you did not just enter the “United Church of [that whack-a-doo/jerk you just met in the pew]”; nor is it the “United Church of [that very hypocritical Christian from nine years ago that ruined organized religion for you]”.

This is the church that follows, worships and seeks to become like Jesus (the) Christ. It’s not about their hypocritical acts (albeit these are distracting to our faith). It’s about who we become when God lovingly molds us. And we cannot become who we were meant to be alone. We were made for community.

While these souls will be part of your church experience, you will also meet others whose hearts beat for justice and mercy. Those who are seeking to be more and more Christ-like every day. Those who, like you, are seeking to do life with an authentic faith community. Those who will join you through life’s deepest joys and darkest days. Those whose love will remove all doubt that God made you, knows you and lovingly creates an abundant life with and for you. Yes—those people are here too (they’re just two pews back).

Christ-led commitment like this in no way guarantees that we will agree on all theological matters all of the time. However, it is our role as your church staff to equip you to grapple through these moments with grace. While this equipping can happen in other places, the church carries this out through studying the Bible, prayer, worship, fellowship and encouraging your talents through acts of service.

Compared to the rest of your week, some pieces of the church-life might bore you. Realistically, I would like to think that this won’t always be the case. I believe that it will become more soul-nourishing as we grow as a community. I would like to think that as we passionately use our talents to serve others, worshipping together would naturally become more electric. However, this might not always hold true.

Three months might pass, and while you are giving it your all, you might still find certain pieces as stagnant, or eve—life-sucking. In these moments of discontent, God could be using you to catalyze our church forward. Please share these thoughts and feelings with our church staff.

While we are not aiming for boring, we will occasionally aim for different. Some pieces of our service might feel a little (OK very) foreign to you. For any discomfort—we apologize. It is meant to occasionally feel different because it is meant to be sacred. Unlike the rest of your week where you check it off your list or are entertained by it, worship calls for a vulnerable participation.

Worship calls for us to be open to the voice of the Holy One as we remember, anticipate and celebrate the restorative acts of God in our lives. The more we partake in worship the easier it is for us to hear this voice throughout our week. Consider Sunday morning as a volume knob. The more you partake, the louder the voice of God resounds in and through your life.

So wear whatever you want, be in whatever mood you want and try turning that knob with us this Sunday. God has already been speaking to you and we would be delighted to join you in that conversation.

Hopefully & Happily,
Your Church Staff

This article originally appeared here.

6 Questions I’m Hearing From Young People Raised in Evangelical Churches

By
Chuck Lawless
-
communicating with the unchurched

I heard these questions from young people in the 1980s, but they tended to die down (at least among young people in my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, who were then in the midst of our conservative resurgence). With no desire to use this post to enter into theological debates, I want to review some of the same questions I’m beginning to hear again—often among college students raised in Christian homes.

  1. “How do I know the Bible is true?” Few young people I know are willing to accept their parents’ faith at face value. They respect the Bible, but that doesn’t mean they always accept it as truth.
  2. “If God is love, won’t He accept love in any relationship?” Some young folks accept the Bible’s description of God as love, but they turn to other sources to define that love. They thus broaden their definition beyond biblical parameters.
  3. “Does it really matter whether I go to church?” “If my faith is between me and God,” some say, “I don’t really need to be part of a church.” A spirit of individualism overshadows any sense of needing other believers as witnesses and encouragers.
  4. “Might there be more than one way to God?” Often raised among followers of other world faiths, many young people struggle understanding why God would judge their friends and classmates.
  5. “Who cares what denomination the church is?” The question is an honest one for a generation raised in local churches that often themselves exhibited little denominational connection or loyalty.
  6. “How do I know if this whole ‘religion thing’ isn’t just manmade?” They hear that thinking from others at times, and few believers have taken the time to try to answer that question.

Maybe these questions aren’t so new after all. Perhaps they’re simply a reminder of an important truth for church leaders: Just because we tried to answer the questions in one generation doesn’t mean they won’t come around again. And, if we aren’t willing to hear and tackle the questions, we’ll lose another generation.

What other questions are you hearing from young people?

This article originally appeared here.

4 Old School Communication Tactics Your Church Should Still Be Using Today

By
Rich Birch
-
communicating with the unchurched

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Is your church leveraging chatbots to reach people? Are you leveraging a social media listening tool to understand the sentiment toward your church? What’s your Instagram story strategy to engage people in your community? Is your church ready for augmented reality and the impact that will have people attending your services?

STOP!

Too many church leaders are running too quickly to optimize the latest communication tools to reach people in their community while they are ignoring “low hanging” fruit with “old school” technologies with proven abilities to do the same. Before your church figures out the latest tool or trend, you need to make sure that you are leveraging existing channels.

In January, Facebook announced its latest changes to the news feed, which means organizations like ours are going to see even less “organic” reach on that channel. In fact, many brands are reporting a 50 percent drop in traffic from the social media behemoth in just a matter of weeks. [ref] This underlines that no church communications strategy can be single source dependent but needs to employ a wide variety of channels to reach your people and your community.

3 Reasons Church Leaders Are Drawn to the Latest Communication Technologies

  • Shiny Object Syndrome – Too many of us are drawn toward the “latest” thing because it’s the latest thing. We hear some tech blogger talk about the latest whiz-bang service and we’re convinced that will solve our communication issues. The act of jumping from one shiny object to the next means that we don’t take time to dig deep and optimize any given channel.
  • FREE is in our Budget – Most of us are trying to figure out how to reach more people with little or no financial investment. Lots of digital marketing solutions start out using “free” as a marketing tactic to get businesses using their platforms, and we’re drawn to that pricing! Over time, these platforms end up charging for what they were giving away, which means, we need to move on.
  • We’re Aware Consumers – Lots of church leaders I know are actively engaged in the world around us. We spend time not just floating through life but are curious individuals. This is a great way to be! We see other organizations and businesses communicating with their communities and wonder what would happen if we applied those lessons to what we do in our church. In the end, we can be left bolting on one new strategy after another and ignoring legacy approaches that are still highly effective.

Your Church Should Be Sending More Emails

The industry’s average open rate for email for churches is 25.62 percent, and the average rate that people will click on links in those emails is almost 8 percent. In fact, in a recent study it was found that as an industry, religious organizations have the highest open rates among dozens of tested industries. [ref] In a world where less than 1 in 100 people will see a post on Facebook that your church publishes, the fact that 1 in 4 people will open an email you send them starts to seem like a great opportunity!

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with email. In fact, if we’re honest, most days we hate email. However, don’t allow your stress around managing your inbox drive assumptions about how your people think about receiving emails from your church. Well-crafted emails need to be at the core of your communications strategy. Regardless of how many emails your church sends on a regular basis, you need to increase the frequency. Email isn’t going anywhere and continues to be the go-to channel for driving engagement with people.

6 Emails Every Church Should Be Sending on a Regular Basis

  • “New Here” Guest Welcome – When guests arrive at your church, you need to acknowledge that and send a quick email to them. Ideally, this email is received within hours of them visiting your church.
  • Saturday Emails Before Series Launch – In my book, Church Growth Flywheel, we talked about using email in some ways to grow your church. One important way is through sending an email to your people the day before you launch every new series.
  • Donor Acknowledgements – When people give to your church they are doing an incredibly special thing. Ensure the emails you send to them not only thank them for giving to the mission of the church but also point toward how their giving is fueling the mission of the church.
  • Volunteer Reminders – Send your people a reminder about the fact that they are serving with your team. Use this email to reinforce the vision of why they are serving and give them vital information so they know what to expect.
  • Sunday Recap Emails – Not everyone attends your church every weekend, so why not tell them what they missed. Give them insights about what the message was about. Tell them what the big “call to action” announcement was.
  • Year-End Giving Email – Ten percent of all charitable giving is done in the last 48 hours of the year. You need to leverage that opportunity through a well-crafted email asking people to give to the mission of the church. Read more about this here.

4 Ways to Increase Open Rates on Your Church’s Emails

  • Pay Attention to the “Sender” – Experiment with who the emails are sent from to see what increases open rates. People are more likely to open emails from the lead pastor than a generic inbox.
  • Write to Real People – Don’t overdo the graphics and fancy stuff. Lots of studies show that the best responding emails are underwritten as if they are going out to just individual people.
  • Ask Questions in Subject Line – As a rule of thumb, when you use a question as the subject of an email it will see higher open rates. Humans can’t help but click on that to see the answer.
  • Email Is a Mobile Tool – Remember that most of the people who open your emails will do so on a phone or other mobile device. Keep your email short and to the point!

What’s the open rate on a postcard mailed to someone’s house?

Your church isn’t leveraging the postal service enough. This is about as “old school” as it gets when it comes to communication strategies. However, there is a great opportunity here because there are only two types of mail that most people get at home anymore:

  • Junk Mail – stuff they don’t want.
  • Bills – bad news they wish didn’t exist.

When you send any form of direct mail to your people, it’s received as an oasis amid that desert. Your direct mail gets their attention and can drive deep engagement with your church. Often the mail that you send to people’s homes has long lasting staying power as people will put it up on the fridge or the coffee table.

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5 Direct Mail Pieces Your Church Could Try This Year

  • Series Invite Cards – Instead of just handing out invites to the next series coming at your church, you could mail two copies to all your people and ask them to invite two friends.
  • Volunteer Thank You Cards – Everyone loves a handwritten note. It brings a smile to people’s faces when we take a minute to write out a few kind words to people who serve in our ministry.
  • First-Time Donor Gift – A tool something like “What Happens When You Give” is a perfect way to acknowledge people who choose to fuel the mission at your church.
  • Recall Letter – If someone comes as a “first-time guest” at your church but you don’t see any evidence that they’ve been back in the last two months…send them a letter with a coffee shop gift card and ask them to join you again!
  • Annual Report – Taking time to celebrate what is happening through an annual vision report is a perfect thing to mail out to your community. A well-crafted vision report reinforces that people are making the right decision being a part of your community.

Like most forms of communication, direct mail needs to be regular and high quality. You won’t see an immediate response from one single print piece that you send to people’s home. However, over time as you submit pieces to people’s homes, you’ll notice that your people will respond to what you’re sending their way.

Calling People Still Works

Perhaps one of the greatest ironic twists of technology’s fate is that as the “phone” became ubiquitous and went from being used for calling the homes that people live in, to calling people directly, we call people a lot less than we used to. In fact, lots of people seem to be allergic to talking on the phones that they carry around in their pockets all the time. The availability of this technology is a tremendous opportunity for churches.

…like really calling people.

Your church could organize a small team to ask people who they are inviting to the upcoming “big day.” A few years ago, we assembled a team to call 2,500 people connected to our church to ask them to come to our Easter services, and in the end, it was part of us setting an attendance record that year. [ref] With a little organization and motivation your team can make hundreds of connections at scale and see people more plugged in with what God is doing at your church!

…or at least texting people.

The “open rates” on texting are nearly 100 percent because people are reflexively answering those little notifications that happen when someone texts them. A well-timed text can be received by your community as a small gift on their phone. Texting is also a perfect tool to drive “calls to action” like registrations because you know it’s being received on a phone that can open online forms and registration systems.

…the 1% factor.

Experience shows that about 1 percent of your audience will be annoyed by this personal approach to communication. Be ready for a tiny group of people that will think you’ve stepped over some line and are invading their privacy. You have just reached into their pocket or purse and asked them to pay attention for a moment, so it’s somewhat understandable. Don’t be put off by this group though…the clear majority of people you reach out to will be thankful that you reached out to them!

Why don’t more churches blog?

This one baffles me. Why doesn’t your church have a blog where you’re communicating with your people and your community regularly? This free communication channel continues to provide considerable benefits to churches who invest the time to make content and share it on a regular basis.

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5 Benefits to Churches Who Blog

  • Google Sees You – We all know that if people can’t find you when they search online, you practically don’t exist. Regularly and thoughtful blogging makes your church more “search engine friendly” and ultimately makes it easy for guests to connect with you.
  • Content for Social – Rather than another graphic square that tells people your service times for this weekend, your blog content is a fantastic fuel to feed your social media channels.
  • Make Your People “Famous” – People love seeing their names in print. Posts like “volunteer of the week” and “small group profiles” are great ways to celebrate people in your church.
  • Test Content – Blogging is a fantastic channel to work on ideas that you are going deal with in other venues in your church. This could be through passive channels of merely sharing ideas that you’re thinking about or effective methods like polling & surveys.
  • Extend Learning – Prevailing churches are looking for ways to extend the learning beyond just the weekend and into rest of their people’s lives. Blogging gives the church an opportunity to take what you’re talking about on Sunday and push those lessons into the rest of the week.

NewSpring is probably the most beautiful example of church blogging around. They provide helpful articles on a wide variety of topics and are committed to creating regular compelling content. In Church Growth Flywheel, we pulled their strategy apart and looked at how you can apply lessons to your church.

Maybe it’s time to go old school?

When it’s all said and done, it’s about being effective. Rather than jumping just to the latest trend, you should be looking for what is an effective approach to ensuring that the right message is getting to the right people at the right time at your church. As we’ve shown above, oftentimes the solution is right under our nose and we just need to apply it. I’d love to hear from you about what you’ve done that seems kind of “old school” but has worked well in your community!

This article originally appeared here.

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A Simple Strategy to Rescue the Next Generation

By
Greg Stier
-
communicating with the unchurched

This article was originally published on churchleaders.com in 2014. Considering the most recent school shootings, its message still rings true and necessary today.

In light of the recent school shooting in New Mexico, last month’s school shooting in Colorado and the long string of school shootings which have buffeted this nation since April 20th, 1999 (the Columbine massacre), it’s time for the church to act decisively, strategically and effectively.

We need to work together to save the next generation, not just from school shooters, but the more subtle (but no less dangerous) enemies of suicide, drunk/drug driving and bullying.

But how? What can youth leaders, parents and pastors do to stem the rising tide of evil that is waging war against our young people? While there are no quick fixes, I would like to present a simple strategy to save the next generation. But before we talk about strategies, let’s take a glance behind the curtain to remind ourselves of the real enemy, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

Our battle is ultimately a spiritual one because behind many if not all of these school shootings, bullying incidents and teen suicides, there is some sort of demonic activity. Sure there are other issues involved, but at the deepest level, these problems are spiritual in nature. That’s what Ephesians 6:12 reminds us of in a clear and eye-opening way. And a primarily spiritual problem requires a primarily spiritual solution.

Thoreau put it this way, “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil one strikes at the root.” Only prayer, love and the gospel of Jesus Christ can strike at the root of the evil that lies at the heart of all of this violence.

The church has a simple solution to a complicated problem. When I use the word “simple,” I don’t mean simplistic and I sure don’t mean easy. It may be simple to understand, but it will take Spirit-fueled sweat to make it happen on middle school and high school campuses across the nation.

The plan is this: Pray, Pursue, Persuade.

1. Pray with Passion.

“Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.” Romans 10:1

Don’t underestimate the power of intercessory prayer (like I did for years.) It is the bazooka in the closet that breaks spiritual strongholds. It is the surgeon hands that restore broken hearts. We need to pray as families, youth groups, men’s groups, small groups, women’s groups, youth groups and campus groups for the next generation. Because 85 percent of those who trust in Jesus do so by the age of 18, wouldn’t it make sense to focus at least 85 percent of our evangelistic “knee grease” there?

When I drop my kids off at school in the morning, we drive by Arvada West High School and we pray for revival on that school campus. We pray for lost teenagers to be rescued by Jesus and that the Christian teenagers would be mobilized for loving, bridge-building, prayer-driven evangelistic action.

However you choose to pray for the next generation (and mobilize the Christian adults and teenagers in your world to do the same) is up to you. But do something. Do something now. Do something from now on.

2. Pursue with Love.

“When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” 1 Corinthians 9:22,23

We need to train teenagers to reach out to the lost starting with the bad, the broken and the bullied … like Jesus did! What if we equipped them to pursue deeper relationships with teenagers already in their circle of friends and then inspired them to build their circle, starting with “those kids.”

This may mean encouraging teenagers to sit at a different seat in the cafeteria once a week, training them in listening skills and demonstrating how to ask good questions. When teenagers are loved and listened to, they are valued. This should be the case regardless of how someone views Jesus or responds to the Gospel. We are called to love people period, and we must help our teenagers be the ambassadors of Christ’s love at their schools.

3. Persuade with Truth.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

We, like the Apostle Paul, are called to the ministry of reconciliation. We do this by gently persuading others to respond to the message of the gospel. The Greek word for persuade is “peitho” which means “to make friends of, to win one’s favor, gain one’s good will or to seek to win one.” It is used at least 8 times in the New Testament in direct connection with evangelism.

Teenagers must be equipped, not to coerce others to convert, but to gently and lovingly persuade others to embrace Jesus as their Savior. This takes training and practice. This takes prayer and patience. This takes you leading the way.

5 Reasons the Children’s Minister Is the Staff Position in Greatest Demand

By
Thom Rainer
-
communicating with the unchurched

The following scenario illustrates why you might want to consider getting a children’s minister at your church.

It was not an unusual question at Church Answers. For those of you not familiar with Church Answers, it is a 24/7 resource where you can ask any church question and get a response within a few hours.

Here is the context. The pastor was the only paid staff member at the church, but now funds were available to bring on another full-time staff person. So he asked us in the 2,000-member Church Answers’ community to offer input on what his first hire should be.

I was blown away.

The responses, at least as I write these words, were 100 percent in urging him to get a children’s minister. There were no divergent opinions. One church leader after another exhorted him to go this route.

Why the Demand for a Children’s Minister?

So why is the children’s minister position in such demand? The Church Answers community let us know, with most of the responses fitting in one of five categories.

  1. Millennials have a lot of kids. The Millennial generation is the largest generation in America’s history (though they may be surpassed by Gen Z). There are 78 million young adults ranging in ages from 18 to 38. And they have lots of kids. If they visit a church, one of their highest priorities is the quality of the children’s ministry.
  2. A healthy children’s ministry usually results in a healthy student ministry. It makes sense. If there is quality teaching and ministry for the children, these children are more likely to move to student ministry better prepared for life and better discipled for God’s work.
  3. A quality children’s ministry requires a large volunteer force. Indeed, this rationale was one of the key reasons the leaders at Church Answers responded in unanimity for calling a children’s minister. Leading the volunteer ministry can be a full-time job by itself.
  4. If churches desire to reach families, they must be prepared to reach children. If the Boomer generation acted like helicopters and hovered over their kids, the Millennial generation is acting like sidecars, and want to go wherever the motorcycle/child goes. You can’t reach a family with kids unless you are really prepared to reach the kids.
  5. Parents insist on safety, security, and hygiene for their kids. We live in a nervous time heightened by the greater awareness of sex abuse, shooters, and germs. Parents want to know the church is a safe place for their kids. The presence of a quality children’s minister is a huge positive statement for these parents.

We saw this trend five years ago. It is now a reality. The staff position of the greatest demand in congregations is the children’s minister.

Let me know what you think about this issue.

This article originally appeared here.

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