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Why My Church Doesn’t Share Prayer Requests

By
Nicole Cottrell
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Ah, the prayer request. The quintessential Christian experience—sitting around in a circle, sharing often benign, usually safe, terribly tame “prayer requests” with one another.

They usually sound something like this: “I really need a new job or a pay raise. So pray for that please.”

Or, “My fiance and I are trying to figure out when to get married. Please pray that God would tell us.”

(Let me also preface this post by stating that I am not anti-prayer request. Of course not. I have been a part of many groups, be it Bible studies or women’s groups, where prayer requests were a welcome and important part of gathering. But God has also shown me something different…)

It’s funny because, after becoming a believer, I just went right along with the whole “prayer request” model. I didn’t know any differently. I certainly didn’t know any better. Why would I?

Except that when I look in scripture, I see no prayer request like model.

Now, I’m not one of those people who says, “If it ain’t in the Bible, don’t do it.” Please, no. The Bible isn’t exhaustive because God is an infinite God. I don’t try to squeeze Him into a few hundred pages.

All that to say, just because prayer requests aren’t in there doesn’t mean scripture says nothing about prayer in general. It says a lot about prayer, in fact. But, don’t worry, I’m not about to give you an overview of what the Bible says about prayer (zzzzzzz…).

What I am going to give you, however, is a glimpse into how my church family prays for one another, which does not usually include prayer requests. Hopefully, you’ll be encouraged to read about another way to pray.

How to Fight Through the “Preaching Hangover”

By
Brian Croft
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

You may call it something different, but every pastor knows about it. It is the mental, emotional and spiritual crash that takes place the next day (Monday) as a result of pouring your heart and soul out in the proclamation of God’s word to God’s people the day before.

Personally, it has affectionately become known as “The Preaching Hangover.”

There is no easy remedy, medication or quick fix that can prevent it. There are, however, several practical efforts I make every Monday that are tremendously helpful to fight through the fog. Here are five suggestions for your consideration:

Pray and read Scripture

I know this seems like a “no brainer” for a pastor. The fact is sometimes on Monday morning…I don’t feel like it. Yet, this is still what gives life to our weary souls and we must make ourselves continue to engage, even if we are struggling to want to think about anything, even God and his word. I find pushing through the fog by reaching for the bread of life is what gives a helpful kick start as we begin the weekly grind again.

Know your limitations

Many pastors take Monday as their day off. For those of us who choose a different day off to spend with our family, we have to proceed with Mondays carefully. I am in no condition to deal with any heavy, thought-provoking, emotional counseling or conflict situations, at least until after lunch. You may be different, but the “hangover” affects us all in some way that requires discernment as we plan the day. Be careful you don’t put yourself in a position in your day that requires you to make a big decision when you are not nearly as sharp as you need to be to make it.

Exercise 

I exercise four to five times a week, but if there is a day when it is especially important to do so, it is Monday. If you only exercise one day a week, I recommend it be Monday. It hurts…many times more than normal following a Lord’s Day, but a good 30+ minute cardiovascular workout is exactly what I need to help shake the preaching hangover.

Assign achievable tasks

The preaching hangover is by no means an excuse to be a sluggard and unproductive. Give yourself attainable tasks and make sure you push through to achieve them. If it is your day off, make sure you are working hard to perk up and engage with your family so your wife and children do not get your “sluggard day.” If you are trying to be productive in the office, but have a hard time studying for very long as I do, schedule other tasks that are within your frame of mind to accomplish.

For me, Monday is full of checking emails, simple administration, running errands and meeting with folks that I know will be more light, encouraging and less likely to be a blind-side confrontation. You may be able to handle more than I typically can. Just make sure they are tasks that are reasonable for you to accomplish in the day.

Silence

Do whatever you must to provide some silence and solitude for yourself. Sometimes I will combine this with my exercise in the morning. I like to go to a park, run, then sit in silence for a little while away from people, just you and God. Silence can be life-giving when we are often bombarded with words and people the day before. This has become essential for my personal soul care and my ability to work through the Monday fog.

I hope in some way these suggestions will trigger ideas that will be of help to you to clear the cob webs of the “preaching hangover.” Just remember, when you do have to face a long, weighty, conflict full Monday because the needs of the congregation demand it…God’s grace is sufficient to walk through it.

This article originally appeared here.

On the Cutting Edge of Leadership: Willow Creek Announces Bill Hybels’ Successors

By
Megan Briggs
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Willow Creek
Screengrab Youtube @DailyHerald

Bill Hybels, founder of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, has been in the process of ensuring his megachurch will be able to survive his leaving the pastorate for several years now. On October 14, 2017, the seasoned pastor announced the church has identified two people—a man and a woman—to take his place.

“When we saw this shaping up, we had to ask ourselves, ‘Can our congregation have a lead pastor that’s a woman?,’” said Hybels. The answer, said Hybels, speaking at Willow Creek’s central campus in South Barrington, Illinois, was “No problem.” Hybels cited the church’s “deeply held value” to encourage people to pursue leadership based on their character and gifting rather than their gender.

Meet Heather and Steve

According to Christianity Today, Heather Larson will step into the role of lead pastor and Steve Carter will take on the lead teaching pastor role. Larson will oversee the 400-person staff that constitutes the hands and feet of Willow Creek, as well as oversee its $77 million budget. Carter will preach most weekends.

Larson has worked at Willow Creek for 20 years, taking on various roles before she became Hybel’s right hand in 2013 when she became the executive pastor. Carter is somewhat of a newcomer—joining the staff of Willow Creek five years ago. Prior to this, Carter served at Rock Harbor Church in California and Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan.

Willow Creek’s Emphasis on Men and Women Serving Together

While male-female co-pastors are not a new phenomenon in the church world, typically these couples are married, like Joel and Victoria Osteen of Lakewood Church in Texas. Larson and Carter represent the first non-married couple to share the role of executive pastor at a church the size of Willow Creek.

“It is a model of leadership that is deeply scriptural, built not on personality nor an individual’s personal charisma, but on partnership,” says Halee Gray Scott, a researcher dedicated to the topic of women in leadership in the evangelical world. “It is a model that reflects the fullness of humankind, both male and female.”

Willow Creek has a long history of appointing women to leadership positions, which is in line with the church’s official position on the topic. The church’s policy outlines their reasoning behind this stance, taken from Scripture. “We believe that, when the Bible is interpreted comprehensively, it teaches the full equality of men and women in status, giftedness, and opportunity for ministry,” the statement reads. Further, “old divisions and hierarchies between genders and races are not to be tolerated in the church, where all are ‘one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3:28).”

However, Larson is not likely to argue with those who may disagree with Willow Creek’s stance. “I’ve never wanted to be on a soapbox about the role of women. I would rather build influence and lead where God has placed me, and let that speak for itself,” she told Christianity Today in 2015.

On Splitting the Position into Two Roles

But even more than this decision being significant for its egalitarian implications, it is also a step toward a different kind of leadership structure for the church. “For the last 150 years or so, the leadership structure in the local church has been oriented around basically one senior pastor,” Hybels shares In a video released to the church. By splitting Hybel’s role into two positions, Willow Creek is doing something Hybels feels will increase the quality of executive leadership and preaching the church is capable of giving.

Hybels explains that over the years, “the demands of preaching quality…have gone way, way up, and usually it takes a minimum of 30 hours a week to put a decent sermon together. Then add rehearsals, and actual service times, and greeting people and praying for people after services, and then add to that weddings that need to happen and funerals and baptism and membership classes, holiday services, and so. Pretty soon, somebody who’s just preaching can easily put in 40 to 45 hours a week. It’s very demanding work.” He then goes on to explain the demands on a senior pastor “on the leadership side of the equation,” which involves leading a staff and making ministry programs happen within the confines of a finite budget. This role ends up taking 40 to 45 hours a week as well. Added together and you have a job that is too big for one person to manage.

Looking to the future

Speaking of his two successors, Hybels says “[Carter is] one of the most gifted, pure teachers that I’ve ever known. Better than that, he is coachable and has an insatiable desire to get better.” And speaking of Larson, Hybels says “she owns the values of this church all the way down to her toes. She has the pure Romans 12:8 gift of leadership.”

This announcement is the latest step in the broader transition plan that Hybels announced was in the works during the 2012 Global Leadership Summit (GLS) that the church organizes and hosts yearly. Hybels will transition out of his current role of Founding and Senior Pastor in October 2018. After this transition period, he will maintain his Founding Pastor role and continue to have a role in the Willow Creek Association and the GLS.

The church made the announcement during its 42-anniversary celebration services on October 14 and 15, 2017.

Live a Life Worth Preaching

By
Brandon Hilgemann
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

It’s a long week and there’s not enough coffee in the world. You have exhausted your preaching, but another sermon must come.

So you stare at the screen as the blinking cursor mocks you. Come on. Think!

The words come slow.

Do you ever struggle with the blank page in your sermon preparation?

Honestly, most pastors would admit they do.

It gets overwhelming creating fresh material week after week.

Sometimes it’s because we need a better sermon preparation process. And if that’s what you need, you can get that here.

But what if the words aren’t flowing is because you haven’t lived them?

You found a Bible verse to preach, but the verse has yet to be found in you.

Your life is overstuffed with Bible studies, emails, hospital visits and board meetings—not exactly the makings of a captivating story.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the busy work of ministry that we don’t allow the ministry to work on us.

But the best sermons are birthed from experience living the Word. You need to slow down and let it soak in.

Has the text penetrated your heart? Has it changed you?

Really, how?

If you struggle to find the words to say, you need to stop looking and start living. Live a life worth talking about.

HOW TO LIVE A SERMON BEFORE YOU PREACH IT

When you live a verse, you’ll never be short on words.

For example, if you know you are going to be preaching about generosity in a month, go do something uncomfortably generous. Let the Word convict you. Then, get out of your office and do the Word.

Observe what happens. Note your fear, hesitations and how you felt. Write about your experience.

I guarantee that you will have a story to tell and plenty to say about what you learned in applying the message to your life.

Maybe you have a sermon about forgiveness planned. Who do you need to forgive?

Maybe there’s someone in your past who hurt you a long time ago. Reach out to them and have that long overdue conversation.

Now write about what happened when you applied Christ’s principles of forgiveness.

But what if you are preaching about a topic like addiction?

Obviously, I don’t advocate buying heroin to give it a try. But you could talk to people at a drug rehab center or a recovery group.

Listen to their story and empathize with their struggle for freedom from their self-inflicted chains.

APPLY THE WORD TO YOUR LIFE BEFORE YOU PREACH IT TO YOUR PEOPLE

The goal isn’t so you can be the hero of the story. It’s not about you.

The goal is to confess, “This passage challenged me. I struggled with this too. So this is what I did. Here’s what I learned. And here’s how we can all live this out.”

Now that has the makings of a good sermon. I want to listen to that pastor.

Plus, you will become a better preacher and pastor.

You will tell a better story because you are speaking from experience. You’ll know how to talk to people wrestling with a topic because you have wrestled with it too.

The sermon will come from your heart and touch the hearts of your audience too.

So put an end to the blank-page blues. Don’t write a sermon until you live the message.

Don’t just preach it. Live it.

You will never run out of material to preach. You won’t just be preaching ideas; you’ll be talking about real life. And that is exactly what people crave.

People want more than your theological platitudes from ivory towers. They want the nitty-gritty details of how the Bible works down here in the real world.

Study the Word.

Live the Word.

Then you’re primed to preach the Word.

This article originally appeared here.

The Most Misinterpreted Verse About Faith in the Bible

By
Paul David Tripp
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misinterpreting the bible
Lightstock #874522

We need to beware of misinterpreting the Bible, particularly one verse about faith.

I enjoy a comfortable, predictable and pleasurable life. How about you?

If I could experience a life free from difficulty, pain, inconvenience and struggle…sign me up!

This includes silly, unrealistic wishes, like wanting to drive on roads paid for by other citizens who choose not to use them. Or chocolate at ready reach, without the consequence of weight gain.

It also includes hard-hitting realities: a life-altering illness, a tragic accident, the death of a loved one, the breakdown of a relationship or the collapse of a lifelong dream.

In many ways, these are God-honoring desires. The Creator invented pleasure for us to enjoy, and prior to The Fall, there was no pain, suffering or loss.

But we have to be careful.

Beware of Misinterpreting the Bible 

There’s a false theology out there preaching that if you have faith in God, life will go well for you. If you read Romans 8:28 out of context, it makes sense: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”

To protect our hearts and minds, we have to read Scripture in its proper context, and we also have to use Scripture to interpret Scripture. In its proper context, Romans 8 is discussing “the good” of our spiritual redemption, not our physical comfort. But what I really want to write about today is how Hebrews 11 properly interprets this verse.

At the end of this famous passage about faith, we’re presented with a list of Christians who had to endure hardship, suffering and loss: and they were commended for their faith in God.

We must reject a theology that teaches that Christianity is an automatic ticket to a comfortable, predictable, pleasurable, healthy and wealthy life.

That’s the easy part, at least intellectually with our mind. What’s harder is not judging God in our hearts when he doesn’t deliver your definition of “the good life.”

We must remember that our vision is sometimes short-sighted, and our desires sometimes selfish. So what God deems as good, we may view as bad.

Lead Like Jesus

By
Daniel Fusco
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

You can’t really talk about leadership unless you talk about Jesus. Even if you aren’t a follower of Jesus, it’s undeniable that Jesus is the greatest leader who ever lived.

Are you skeptical about that statement? I don’t blame you. But if the definition of a “leader” is someone who has followers, then Jesus comes in first place. For more than 2,000 years, no single person has had more followers than Jesus.

Unfortunately, the greatest leader who ever lived is often given only a cursory look when it comes to leadership wisdom.

So let’s change that, starting now: I want to share with you a few ideas about Jesus-style leadership. To get at that, I want to draw from the Greatest Commandment. Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and he said, “Love God, love yourself and love others.” (That is my paraphrase of “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself”).

In other words, we’re about to look at the Greatest Commandment of the greatest Leader who ever lived.

Lead in Three Directions

In the Greatest Commandment, Jesus tells us that we all live in three directions: Upward, Inward and Outward. That’s why I wrote the book, Upward, Inward, Outward: Love God, Love Yourself, Love Others. We live upward by loving God. We live inward by loving ourselves. We live outward by loving others.

But we don’t only live in three directions; we also lead in three directions. We lead others and ourselves upward, inward and outward.

Here’s the key: You need to lead in ALL three directions, and in that specific order, all at the same time.

Let that sink in for a moment.

We can all recall leaders who only led in one direction. Were they life-giving leaders? No. Did their glaring deficiencies create havoc? Yes.

It’s not enough to be a great one-directional leader and leave the other directions to languish. Two out of three directions is better, but not best. We must learn how to lead in all three directions.

The Art of Leading Is Loving

If the art of living is loving (and according to the Greatest Commandment, it is), then it should come as no surprise that the art of leading is loving, too.

As we lead in all three directions, we are actually told to love. Now the word “love”  has a number of different words used in the original languages in which the Bible was written. But the word used here means self-sacrifice. The most simple example of this is the love of a mother for her child. A mother literally gives of herself for her child’s well-being. This is exactly the message of Jesus, that he loved people so much he gave his own life.

Talk about leadership gold! Jesus invites leaders to love self-sacrificially. This flies in the face of most of our ideas and expectations of leaders. Most leaders are trying to get what they need from the people that are on their team. Jesus says, in effect, your team members are there for you to give of yourself for their well-being.

You see, Jesus doesn’t want us to see people as commodities, who exist simply to fulfill a service. Jesus wants us to see people as individuals created in the image and likeness of God, who have intrinsic value. Jesus wants us not just to make people productive. Jesus wants us to love people into their God-given potential. That is Jesus-style leadership.

12 Ways to Really Love Your Children

By
Dema Kohen
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

If you are in children’s ministry, it’s probably because you love your children you work with. Yes, you may complain about their bad behavior or sour attitude. You may even get frustrated with their lack of interest, manners or respect, but they’re the reason you stay up late to prepare, show up early to teach and miss out on the many good things your church has to offer (like Bible study groups for adults that happen on Sunday or even a church service).

I don’t doubt that you deeply and genuinely love your children, however I do wonder how much they feel your love? And even more importantly, do you love your children in a way that makes the love of their Abba Father tangible and real?

In other words, is your love offering them a rich taste of God’s incredible goodness? When they look into your eyes, do they see the face of God looking back at them with eyes of delight, with eyes that see the treasure that lies beyond their failings? When they hear your voice, do they get a taste of Christ taking pleasure in them? When they’re in your classroom, do they catch a glimpse of God’s heart that beats wildly with excitement over who they are and who they will become?

YOU SEE, EVERYTHING WE DO IN CHILDREN’S MINISTRY SHOULD BEGIN AND END WITH ONE WORD—LOVE.

Really, we have only one reason for everything that we do. To make God’s love real to kids. If we don’t get it right, all our creativity, all our cutting edge methods, and all our enormous efforts will amount to nothing.

When we forget or neglect our primary calling—to help children discover and experience God’s love—we settle for a dangerous counterfeit: the way of moralism. Simply put, moralism is instructing children in biblical principles and exhorting them to do what’s right. It certainly has the appearance of godliness but it leads to one of two dead ends—pride (feeling good about my own righteousness resulting from doing what’s right and good) or despair (feeling shame over all the ways I messed up and failed to keep God’s commandments).

It’s time to find a better way (a more excellent way—1 Cor. 12:31) to disciple the next generation. It’s time to free our sons and daughters from the pressure that moralism creates. It’s time to put a smile on God’s face and laughter in His voice, and teach the children the most important lesson:

JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW.

It’s time that we release the power of God through the way we relate to children, so they can experience God’s love and in turn, love God back so completely and with such consuming passion that they would hate anything that comes between them and Jesus and eagerly give it up.

Apostle John put it this way, “we love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Notice the order—first, we experience God’s love for ourselves, then we are able to love others like He does. It is God’s love and God’s love alone that produces any lasting change in boys and girls. Only after they’ve been convinced that God delights in them, celebrates them and accepts them, warts and all, will they want to love Him back and live a life of obedience.

Since loving children is such a powerful force that joins them with the heart of Christ, I offer you 12 ways to genuinely love them and as a result, incline their hearts toward God.

NOTE: Even though I present this material primarily to the people involved in children’s ministry in a local church setting, parents will be able to use it too. After all…parents are teachers and shepherds of their children’s souls, aren’t they? If you’re a parent, you might also want to download this poster I created specifically for moms and dads.

1. Love your children by praying for them.

In John 17, Jesus gives us example of what this may look like. First, He acknowledges that while He was with His disciples, He protected them and kept them safe. But now that He’s going away and leaving them behind, He is entrusting them to God: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.

The world in which our children are growing up is increasingly uncertain, unstable and hostile. While we cannot hide our children away from the world, we can be proactive in guarding them. We can shield them in far greater ways than wrapping them in a plastic bubble or locking them in their rooms for the rest of their lives. You and I can pray. We can intercede for our children, praying for wisdom, protection, peace, and strength. Your prayers are the biggest weapon you have to protect and raise up a godly generation.

The second part of the prayer that Jesus offered for His disciples has to do with their future: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message.

When we pray for the protection of our children, our prayers are defensive in nature. When we pray for their futures, the nature of our prayers is offensive; we are praying for the impact their lives will have. Both kinds of prayers are important. Here are some starting points to help you craft prayers for your students. Pray for their…

  • SALVATION—that they will trust Christ as their Savior. (See Psalm 63:1 and II Timothy 3:15.)
  • COMPASSION—that they will have tender hearts and show compassion on those in need and who have less than they do. (Ephesians 4:32.)
  • HOLINESS—that they will have a hatred of sin. (See Psalm 97:10.)
  • COURAGE—that they will be brave as they face the challenges that are before them. (See Joshua 1:9.)
  • PROTECTION—that they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives: spiritual, emotional and physical. (See John 17:15 and Matthew 6:13.)
  • RESPECT—that they will respect those in authority over them. (See Romans 13:1.)
  • FRIENDS—that they will desire the right kind of friends and be protected from the wrong friends. (See Proverbs 1:10–11.)
  • WISDOM—that they will grow in wisdom and understanding. That they’ll be more than “smart” and embrace what is good and right. (James 1:5)
  • PEACE—that their hearts will be calm and peaceful as they go through their day and in their sleep at night. (See Philippians 4:6.)
  • DIRECTION—that God will lead them as they begin to make more and more decisions as they get older. (Proverbs 3:5-6.)

2. Love your children by being honest with them.

One of the best things we can do for our students is to be open and honest about our journey to and with God, about our struggles and failures, and how our mistakes and blunders have shaped us into the people we are today.

We have to be real. Genuine. Ourselves. Students can sense hypocrisy a mile away, and it will turn them off faster than anything. We are not perfect. And we don’t always have it all together. When we’re authentic about our own struggles, we show them that our faith is real and we model how God can work in us to change us and mold us into His image. (Of course, we should exercise discernment and make sure that our honesty is age-appropriate and harmless.)

Here are several great benefits of being honest with your students:

  • If you’re open and honest with your students, they’ll be more likely to be open and honest with you. It would be pretty difficult to expect your children to be real and truthful when you don’t do the same.
  • If you can honestly admit your mistakes and talk about the embarrassing incidents from your life, your students will see in you a relatable authority figure; someone safe and understanding that they can go to when they need someone the most.
  • If your students see that you have made mistakes, survived, learned from them and were made a better person because of them, they will realize that to make a mistake is to be human, and that even the worst of mistakes isn’t the end of the world. Your students will build self-confidence from your honesty, and that’s so vital.

Bottom line… Admit mistakes. Laugh. Apologize. Let your students prove you wrong. Let them know what makes you happy, scared or angry. Let the students see that you are human. Crazy thing, students like imperfect humans more than flawless teachers.

3. Love your children by discovering them.

Your students, like all human beings, long to be known. They desperately want to feel that they and their life stories matter. That’s why it’s so important that you take every chance you get to enter into their world and explore it as if it were a treasure island. The best way to discover your students is by asking them questions.

Ask about their family, their pets, their dreams, their video games and sports teams, anything about them. Let them know you’re interested in them. If they don’t come out and tell you what’s going on in their lives, take the initiative. Show them that you are sincerely interested in what is going on in their lives.

As you get to know your students and the lives they live, you will develop a deep awareness of their challenges and needs. This information will give you ideas for making the curriculum more relevant to their lives. Your efforts to get to know them will prove to them that you see them as people, not students. They’ll love you for that.

Here are a few questions to help you get to know your students better:

  • What has been the happiest day of your life?
  • If you could change one thing in the world what would you change?
  • If you could change one thing about yourself what would you change?
  • What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?
  • What is your favorite movie of all time? Why?
  • What is the worst thing about being ____ years old?
  • What is the best thing about being ___ years old?
  • What job would you like to have when you grow up?
  • Who is your best friend? Why are they your best friend?
  • If you could take a family vacation any place in the world, where would you go?
  • If you had three wishes, what would they be? (You can’t wish for money or another wish!)
  • Do you believe in God?
  • Is there something about God that doesn’t make sense to you?
  • What is the one thing you would like to learn how to do and why?
  • What are five things you wish I knew about you?
  • If you could ask God one question, what would it be?

Another great way to discover your students is by talking to the experts. Who else can give you more insight into your students than their parents, right? So why not ask them? Here’s a five-question survey we ask the parents in our church to fill out in the beginning of each school year. Their answers provide us with the greater understanding of the students and specific ways we can care for them and serve them. Feel free to adapt this questionnaire and use it in your ministry.

Continue

Are You “Struggling” With Sin?

By
Russell Moore
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Yesterday I noted on social media how frustrated I am with the common evangelical lingo of saying, “I’m struggling with…” fill in the blank with some persistent sin, anything from gossip to jealousy to pornography. I suppose there’s probably been someone out there who has said, “I’m struggling with serial killing,” or “I’m struggling with sex trafficking,” though I haven’t met that person yet. Here’s why this language is starting to wear on me.

I’ve noticed that way too often “I’m struggling with…” language seems to really mean “I don’t like the fact that I like doing this sin that I’m going to keep doing it, no matter what.” In that sense, “I’m struggling” becomes a more spiritual sounding way of saying what a woman once told me about her explosive anger fits, “Well, that’s just how I am.” Often, this language comes up in discipleship settings with believers caught in some pattern or in marriages in crisis. When confronted with a pattern of disobedience, someone will say, “Well, yes, I struggle with addictive gambling,” or “I struggle with straying from my wedding vows.”

There’s something really right with the impulse here. “Struggling” is a good biblical metaphor. After all, “Israel” is a word that comes from Jacob struggling with God by the riverside. The Apostle Paul tells us we “wrestle” not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places. The language of fight is all over Scripture. What’s also right is that God tells us that we should never see ourselves as free from sin. We should know not only that we are sinners but also that we should know where our specific points of vulnerability are.

It does me no good to spend a lot of time studying how to manage fits of anger, unless I’m doing so to help someone else. My anger runs cold, not hot. I’m tempted not to combust in fury but to harbor bitterness. If I were to spend a lot of energy thinking about how to rein in an out-of-control temper I would just end up with a smugness about how easy it is to do that. It’s easy for me, but maybe not for you. Likewise, it might be easy for you to forgive, when that’s where I am really, really vulnerable to sin and to self-deception. Saying “I’m struggling with” something could be a confession of an area that needs constant guarding in someone’s life. It might be the equivalent of Johnny Cash’s “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine; I keep my eyes wide open all the time” applied to some area of life.

But I’ve noticed that too often that’s not what we mean. We use “I’m struggling” often not as a sign of brokenness, or a cry for help, but as a conversation-stopper. It becomes the equivalent of a cable company telling the family without service, “Yeah, we’re working on that,” just to get the complainers off the phone, or a robber telling the police with the search warrant, “Move on along; there’s nothing to see here.”

If you use the language of “struggling,” you should actually be struggling. That should mean that you are seeking the way of the Spirit to escape from your sin (1 Cor. 10:13), that you are removing every possible obstacle to your overcoming this pattern (Matt. 18:9), and that you are relying on others in the Body of Christ to hold you accountable and to shepherd you out of it (Gal. 6:1-4). “I’m struggling” shouldn’t be a way to end interrogation but to ask for it.

“Struggling” is good biblical language. We’re all either struggling with sin or surrendering to it. But we should use the language the way the Bible does. Instead we want all too often to use spiritual language for carnal ends. We should resist such temptation.

We should “struggle” with that.

This article originally appeared here.

The Secret Productivity Weapon Almost Nobody Has the Guts to Use

By
Kem Meyer
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Recently, I worked with two churches who broke protocol. One moved the communications team to the connections department and the other put the director of guest services in charge of the communications function.

In both cases, it freaked people out. When they didn’t show up under the heading they were comfortable with on the org chart, they felt threatened and uncertain. They either found too much identity in the title “creative” or “arts” or they were intimidated at the thought of being responsible for a “creative” or “arts” function because they didn’t see themselves as creative. Both perspectives are flawed and incomplete.

“Great leaders are able to find small pieces of friction within an organization, and remove them.” Jeff Rosenblum, Author of The Naked Brand

Once they got over themselves, they realized this structure change opened the road to creativity at a holistic level. They were able to annihilate silos, rally around a shared win, solve nagging problems, take advantage of cross promotional opportunities and actually get more done—better. Creativity wasn’t diluted, it was unleashed.

“What defines a person’s creativity most is their ability to make connections others don’t see.” Mike McHargue

So, do it. Break protocol. Make sure your people and activity are actually aiming in the same direction, going to the same place, working together all along the way.

  • Connect your title to a desired outcome, not a vanity plate.
  • Disrupt old department segments to promote new thinking, not preservation mentality.
  • Instigate conversations with questions to discover buried gold, not impose restrictions.
  • Help with projects outside your swim lane, not just the ones on your turf.
  • Prioritize efforts around the success of the team, not a personal to-do list.

“When you call it a marketing team, no one knows for sure what you’re supposed to do. But, when you call it a growth team, everyone knows exactly what the goal is and what you need to do every day.” Craig Miller, CMO of Shopify

Get gutsy. Break protocol. Be more productive.

This article originally appeared here.

Why Do Some People Love Jesus, but Do Not Like the Bible?

By
Shane Pruitt
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love jesus but not the bible
Adobestock #294003692

Have you ever heard people say they love Jesus but not the Bible? Here is an illustration of what I think about that statement.

My wife, Kasi, and I have five children. Our oldest two are both girls, 11 and six, and they both love to play with Play-Doh. They have all the colors and all the tools necessary to mold, shape and build anything their vivid imaginations can come up with. OK, now for a moment of confession. I love to play with them and create as well. It reminds me of my childhood, but my daughters often will put me in time-out when I mix the colors to create new ones. It’s what I always did as a kid, but they can’t stand it. “Daddy, you’re ruining it!”

The reason we all liked Play-Doh as children is because we believed we could create anything we wanted. We’d mold, shape and bend. Plus, if we didn’t like how it was turning out we could pick everything up, roll it in a ball and start over.

Why People ‘Love Jesus but Not the Bible’

I believe this is the same reason why so many people love to talk about Jesus, but don’t actually read the Bible. In fact, we’ve all heard people say such things as, “I love Jesus, but not the Bible. I have a deep respect for Jesus, but I don’t agree with the Bible.”

Is it possible that we are worshipping a Play-Doh Jesus? Meaning, the main reason we don’t have an issue with Jesus is because it’s a Jesus that we’ve created by our own imagination? We’ll shape, mold and bend him to be what we want him to be. Then the very moment that particular Play-Doh Jesus no longer appeases us, we just roll him up and start over; we create a different Jesus more to our liking. When we do this we are not worshipping the Jesus of the Bible, but rather, a “Jesus” that we’ve created in our own minds.

The Jesus of the Bible will regularly disrupt our lives, call us to difficult things and stand in opposition to our personal preferences. He often does the opposite of what we think he should. Let’s be honest. His holiness, His demand upon us to deny ourselves and His commandments to love others can all get pretty annoying in our pursuit of happiness. The Jesus of the Bible challenges our indulgences. He contests the egoistic fine art of “Looking out for #1.” So, our natural inclination is to shape Jesus into something more palatable to our personal opinions and preferences.

Left to our natural devices, we don’t want to be created in God’s image; we want him to be created in our image. We don’t want him to be the one in control; we want to be in control. We don’t want him to be the potter and for us be the clay; we want to be the potters and for him be the clay our hands. We want to shape and mold our god to care about what we care about. We want to label him as a Republican or Democrat. We want to picture him as white, black or brown. We want him to be passionate about what we’re passionate about. We want him to be angry about what we’re angry about. We think he should tolerate what we tolerate. And then we end up fooling ourselves into thinking we can have Jesus, but not the Bible.

If this idea of what you’ve created Jesus to be is what comes to mind when you worship, pray, sing, lift your hands, give, serve and live, then ultimately that is idolatry. It is the worship of some created idol. You are worshipping a misrepresentation of the God of the Bible—one to whom you’ve simply attached the name “Jesus.” It’s sinful on our part because it’s not the true Jesus of the Bible that we’re worshiping. If you truly love the Jesus of the Bible then you will also love the Bible that tells us all about him. We know nothing about the person and the life of Jesus apart from the Holy Scriptures. The extra-biblical things we think we know about Jesus are simply inventions of man.

Jesus said himself that we must worship in “spirit and truth” (John 4:24). An accurate view of him is absolutely necessary to authentic worship! So, who is this Jesus of the Bible? According to Colossians chapter one, he makes the invisible God—visible (v. 15a). He is the first-rank over all creation (v. 15b). All things were created through him and for him, and he is the One who sustains all things (v. 16 – 17). He is the head of the church (v. 18a). He is the first-rank over death by his resurrection (v. 18b). In all things, he is preeminent (v. 18c). This means that Jesus surpasses all, ranks above all and deserves first place in everything. We’re not the boss. He is. We’re not the creator. He is. We’re not in control. He is. We’re not the potter. He is.

This is the Jesus of Scripture, so let us dive into his Word to discover who he is, and not rely on our own understanding by saying we love Jesus but not the Bible.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). In knowing the real Jesus of the Bible, we’ll begin to be passionate about what he is passionate about. We’ll be angered by what angers him. We’ll tolerate what he tolerates. We’ll view things the way he views things. We’ll live how he lives. This is the only kind of worship that transforms lives because it directs us toward the true and living Jesus!

At the end of the day, our opinions about him do not change who he is: ”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). We cannot say we love Jesus but not the Bible. Our faith in the real Jesus will absolutely change who we are.

This article about why people love Jesus but not the Bible originally appeared here.

The Temptation of Youth Ministry

By
Brooklyn Lindsey
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

I walked through an apple orchard in Kentucky last weekend. Experiencing a true fall moment where the leaves were vibrant colors of red and orange is rare for me, I was soaking it in. It was a gorgeous day and I was excited to pick a few apples to take south to my lovelies.

But wouldn’t you know it. I couldn’t find any apples to pick. Two brave college students drove me to the orchard from the campus where I was staying. They walked with me, row after row. Looking into trees but seeing nothing. Where are they? Did we miss it? Everyone else had the same idea we did…maybe weeks before we arrived?

We saw plenty of rotten apples on the ground. But who wants to make pie with those? Grody.

I started to feel disappointed, but the occasional spider web walk-thru would encourage me to want to return to the barn to buy apples straight from the bins. An easy out. At least I tried. Right?

We gave a row of trees one last chance. I’ll walk down the lane. I’ll swipe away the gnats  I’ll get apple guts on my Toms. It might just be worth it.

Then we saw it. An apple.

It looked like it had been dipped in the wicked queen’s special hypnotic juices for snow white—straight out of a movie looking. It was that desirable. I wanted to pick it. And eat it. Before buying it. It was there for us to eat, God gave it to us right?

And I wondered. If I were given everything in the whole world but couldn’t have this one thing, could I resist it?

Eve’s conundrum.
Adam’s demise.
Humanity’s curse.

Wanting something that may be good for us but maybe wasn’t intended for us? Maybe it’s for another time. Maybe it’s worth waiting for?

I thought about my own temptations. There are a few that I could think of right away, but one that sat quietly in the corner of my mind hoping to go unnoticed stared up at me, arrested.

The temptation of youth ministry is that we would take and eat the things that aren’t ours to enjoy. Or at least aren’t for us right now, in this very moment. That we would be premature in our attempts to enjoy the fruits before they are ripe for the picking. Or to hoard them for our own when God deserves the praise.

  • We strive to be known by other youth leaders.
  • When God calls us to make Him known among teenagers.
  • We want to know other known youth or ministry leaders.
  • When God calls us to set an example for believers.
  • We want our names to be recognized and we seek affirmation.
  • Our work is for God’s glory and will to be done.

Every person who ever begins work in youth ministry understands that teenagers aren’t the ones standing in line to thank us. There will be some who do and when they do it’s beyond rewarding. But most don’t. So we turn to those whom we admire and look up to. We hope that they’ll tell us that we’re on the right track and doing awesome. We want them to thank us and encourage us and give us esteem. None of that is bad. In fact, it’s biblical to edify each other, spurring one another on in love and good deeds. Mentoring is a critical and important thing and I would be less of a person and a pastor without it. What isn’t biblical is when the striving becomes our focus.

When we strive to become known, to attain some sort of Christian celebrity, we have to pause to remember that the glory isn’t for us. It’s for our King. And that we are already deeply and wonderfully known by the creative God of the universe (Psalm 139).

When we desire relationships that fill our need to be desired, recognized, affirmed, lifted up, God will remind us that he longs for us, see us, has our worth tattooed on the palms of his Son’s hands. And the things Christ inherits, we will as well. But it’s not because of anything we’re doing. It’s because of what He has already done.

The temptation of youth ministry is to forget who we serve and why we serve.
The temptation of youth ministry is to get it backward. To love God and others if it benefits us.
The temptation of youth ministry is to make a little god of it and worship it in our own strength.

The remedy is the knowledge that God knows us already and we can know Him.

God knows our names.

When we get close to the “burning—but not burning—bush” moments we can hear him saying our names and giving us instructions (even if we are pushing 80 and talk with a heavy tongue, God knows better than we do and has given us everything we need to accomplish what He asks).

And when we answer back with our big “buts,” God speaks life and truth and reminds us that “I AM” has sent us and if anyone doubts that, we are to just tell the questioning that “God is with us.”

God told Moses.

“I am with you.”

God tells us today.

“I am with you.”

A fearless yet humble approach.
A listening ear.
A hopeful heart.
A willingness to say yes to the stuff God puts in our hands. (For Moses, God gave him Aaron and a staff.)

And when we do. We submit to the greatness of God and the ministry born in the possibilities of grace. We guard our hearts from the temptation to be selfish and self-sufficient.

We say, “You know me, and I can know you God. Thank you for giving me this office to be a part of making you known wherever I go and wherever I serve.”

When is the last time you read the Exodus narrative? What is your typical response when God says your name, asks you to do something, or wants to express his sovereignty over your limitations?

This article originally appeared here.

3 Bad Excuses for Avoiding Leadership Development

By
Eric Geiger
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Great leaders intuitively know they are responsible for future leadership, and all leaders have heard these catch phrases: “There is no success without succession” and “Work yourself out of a job and you will always have a job.” Yet few leaders plan and prioritize developing others. There is always something else to do, always an email inbox pulling leaders away from the importance of development. So instead, leaders can offer excuses rather than take the task of development seriously. Three common and very bad excuses are:

1. Those I develop may leave.

There is a fear that if you develop someone for leadership, that person will long to be deployed somewhere else, that there may not be a spot in your organization for the developed leader. In response to “If we develop our people, they may leave,” someone quipped, “If we do not develop our people, they may stay.” Much better to deploy people you have developed than to labor alongside indefinitely those who have not been developed. A group of stagnant people, people who are not growing and learning, is a miserable team to be a part of.

2. Things are so busy.

Yes. Yes, they are busy. And they will not be less busy in 18 months. But 18 months from now, you could have better leaders on your team carrying the burden with you IF you would develop them now. Developing others takes time, but it will take less time if you start now instead of six months from now.

3. It is not on my job description.

Sadly, though it should be, developing others may not be on your job description. But all the functions on your job description would be better fulfilled if you raised up other leaders. Developing others widens the influence of the ministry or organization. Developing others equips more people for the important work that is being accomplished.

These are really bad excuses. Don’t use them.

 This article originally appeared here.

The Introvert Leader’s Survival Guide

By
Peter Haas
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them I’m an introvert. I tell people that I’m actually a naturally quiet guy and they all laugh—probably because they hear my super-passionate messages and humor every Sunday.

I’ve spent years burying the introverted me…but it’s still there. According to the Meyers-Briggs, I’m actually a very strong introvert (INTJ). And if you don’t know what you are, here’s a link to a free Jung personality test.

Part of the reason people are surprised is because they don’t really understand the definition of an introvert.

Some automatically think it means you’re shy or never talk (and yes, those people do have a higher likelihood of being introverts). But it’s actually a measurement of where you get your energy and clarity.

For extroverts, social interaction brings energy and clarity; whereas for introverts, energy comes from solitude or through a small numbers of intimate friends. And a large part of it has a genetic basis (about 40 percent). Research can actually determine introversion in newborn babies (as they are more sensitive to external stimuli, like lights/sounds/etc.). Indeed, research has even shown that introverts subconsciously tend to listen to music at slightly lesser decibel levels! It’s not so much that it’s painful; rather their physiological reaction to things is stronger; therefore, to focus they need space.

To complicate things, America is one of the most “extrovert dominated” nations in the world—where business models have been obsessed with rewarding and elevating extroverted values. Global research has even proven that Americans (unlike the rest of the world) actually perceive fast talkers and gregarious people as more intelligent—even better looking!

Not surprisingly, Americans are also irrational advocates of “extrovert-biased” leadership techniques (like group brainstorming, and open office floor-plans and meeting formats) even though research is now finding all of these practices to have a devastating effect on both the morale and creativity of an organization. Yet, even still, people keep cranking out business books advocating these things.

Don’t get me wrong, there are, in fact, a lot of advantages to extroversion. Extroverts are statistically better at ignoring unjust criticism. They’re better at injecting confidence into a group of people.

Of course, there’s a flip side to this “gift.” They’re also less likely to learn from their mistakes…less likely to listen to “justified” criticism…and they’re more likely to have extra-marital affairs. (Ouch!)

And, for years, I started to believe all of the bias. I’ve seen my introversion as a liability…a thing that hinders my influence. And, especially as a senior pastor, I’ve always felt like a fish out of water.

After all, I’ve never had the natural ability to schmooze in the church foyer, or glad-hand in public forums. Don’t get me wrong: I still do it. In fact, in the beginning of our church, we hosted dinners for over 80 people/week. We replaced all of the carpets in our humble home because we couldn’t afford to keep professionally cleaning them. We essentially lived communally for several years.

And finally, when I decided that I’d rather quit and die than continue to pretend to be an extrovert, I asked God why he had made me this way. Thankfully, he opened me up to a massive amount of flattering research about introverts.

What Kind of Church Leader Are You?

By
Daniel Im
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

In order to grow and multiply your church, you have to start with yourself.

I’m not talking about picking up a self-help book to learn how to get your best life now. I’m talking about figuring out why it is that you lead the way that you do.

But Daniel, that means I need to slow down and reflect…I don’t have time for that! Sunday’s coming, and I need to…

Yes I understand that Sunday is coming and that you have things to do! But here’s the thing…

If you don’t take the necessary time to learn why you lead the way you lead, disciple the way you disciple, and teach the way you teach, you will never be able to grow and multiply your church.

In my book No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry, I start the first chapter with a self-assessment to help you discover why it is that you lead the way you do.

Here’s a portion of it. I hope you’ll slow down and take a moment to work through each of these questions:

1. Who do you look up to as a pastor and church leader?

Who has shaped your view of church practice and practical theology? Is it Eugene Peterson? J.I. Packer? Tim Keller? It could be someone you know personally, or someone you’ve admired from a distance.

The people you look up to hold the greatest power to shape you.

In other words, the ones you follow are the ones you model. Write down the names of the pastors, missionaries, theologians, leaders and thinkers that have shaped you most.

2. How have others shaped you?

How have the individuals above shaped the way you approach church practice and practical theology? Is it the way you preach? Or the way you approach discipleship? Perhaps it’s the way you cast vision, or your view of church planting, multisite and multiplication?

Write down the ways that your church practice and practical theology have been shaped by the previous list of individuals.

3. What type of leader are you?

Let me paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from the Chinese general, military strategist and author of The Art of War, Sun Tzu:

If you know your enemy, you’ll win half of the battles. But if you know yourself, you’ll win the other half.

We too often model our ministries after the ones we follow—sometimes intentionally and other times unintentionally. As a result, their influence on us inevitably leaves a mark on the way we view and do ministry.

THIS IS NOT A BAD THING PER SE, BUT IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO TURN INTO A BAD HABIT IF LEFT UNCHECKED.

So going back to Sun Tzu’s wisdom on war—are you only winning half of your battles? Do you know what type of leader you are? Are you more task-oriented or people-oriented? Do you like solving problems or finding solutions? Do you like starting things, improving them or maintaining them? Do you know your strengths? Are you managing your weaknesses? Do you like to do everything, or do you develop, delegate or dump?

Take a few personality profiles and write out your results (I recommend StrengthsFinder, Kolbe, and any of the numerous versions of DISC, just to name a few).

4. How do you view accountability?

Is it your direct responsibility to grow those in your church as disciples? Or rather, is it your responsibility to create an environment in which they can grow? Do you have someone that holds you accountable as a leader?

These questions are important because your view of accountability from a systems perspective directly influences the way your church measures growth (this is what I cover in chapter 1-2 of No Silver Bullets).

Take the time to work through each of these questions.

Next week, I will address the other aspect of leadership that we often neglect—staff and team development.

This article originally appeared here.

Greg Stier: 5 Reasons I Love Youth Ministry

By
Greg Stier
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

I’ve been involved with youth ministry in one form or another (volunteer, intern, leader) for over 30 years. Even when I was a lead pastor I still considered myself a youth pastor with a bigger budget and a tad more authority.

I love youth ministry. As I’ve said before, you can get into youth ministry and get out. But once youth ministry gets inside you, you can never leave…even if your job role changes.

Here are five reasons I love youth ministry:

1.  Teenagers

There’s something about those Red-Bull-fueled, adrenaline-filled young souls that smack of danger and potential. I love the fact that Jesus most likely chose teenagers to be his disciples (Matthew 17:24-27) and that he entrusted the reaching of the world with men who could barely grow a beard.

2.  Youth Leaders

Most youth leaders I know didn’t get into youth ministry for the pay, but for the pay-off. They want to see non-reached teenagers reached and believing teenagers grow in Christ. Their starrry-eyed idealism to make a difference continues to inspire me.

3.  Activism

We live in what some have dubbed “The Cause Generation.” From stopping human-trafficking to feeding the hungry to providing wells for the thirsty, this generation gets that it’s not about sitting around playing games but going out and making a difference. When teenagers turn that activist gene toward the Gospel, then not only is the world made a better place through need-based activism, but souls are saved and disciples are multiplied!

4.  Worship

Teenagers today know how to worship. Like no other time I can remember in youth ministry, worship has been mainstreamed. More and more teenagers don’t just sit there and watch…they participate! There’s nothing like a group of teenagers singing at the top of their lungs about how much they love Jesus! This re-kindles the coals of a technologically-addicted, social media-filled, homework-packed week back on Jesus.

5.  Potential

There are one billion(ish) teenagers worldwide. What if? What if churches around the world inspired, equipped and unleashed their Christian teenagers to reach them all? Between teen activism and technology it could happen. Fueled by prayer and the power of the Spirit it could happen! And I am convinced it will happen!

By God’s grace let’s energize the church to mobilize this generation to Gospelize their world…until every teen in the world hears the Gospel from a friend.

By the way, on September 23 teenagers will have an excellent opportunity to do just that. Dare 2 Share Live, held in almost 70 cities across the nation, will inspire, equip and mobilize up to 50,000 teenagers to share Jesus from coast to coast in one day!

Check out what Doug Fields and Josh Griffin have to say about it…

Click here to find the closest host site near you and sign your teenagers up!

I love youth ministry. I love youth leaders. I love teenagers, their sense of activism, awe in worship and sheer potential.

Why do you love youth ministry?

This article originally appeared here.

Is Your Kidmin in Survival or Creative Mode?

By
Karl Bastian
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

I love Minecraft. For those who don’t know what it is, it is basically virtual Lego. I run an online community for my son and other kids to play in (details). It’s fun!

When you play, you get to choose between two basic game modes: Survival and Creative. In CREATIVE: You get access to all the pieces and can build whatever you can imagine! In SURVIVAL: You start out with nothing, and must find or build what you want/need. In Minecraft, the process and making things from other objects is called “Crafting”—you combine certain items to craft new items. For example, sticks and coal can be used to craft a torch.

What does this have to do with Children’s Ministry?

In ministry, we often start out in Survival Mode—we have to start from scratch. Nothing exists! We need to find volunteers, leaders, resources and supplies. We need to create spaces where ministry can take place…and as we build (craft), better options become available. We build upon past successes, learn from mistakes, all while watching out for Creepers and Zombies! These are roaming creatures that are constantly needing to be dealt with and repairs made to what they destroy.

We’ve got our Creepers and Zombies in Kidmin too! Creepers blow up and cause small but annoying damage…you know who the Creepers are in your ministry. (Don’t you?) Zombies attack you. You don’t have to be in ministry long to learn that attacks will come. Not only is it painful, they cause ministry set-backs.

The danger is that we can get so busy building, fixing and dealing with the interruptions that we never make it into Creative Mode. In Minecraft, switching to Creative Mode requires an intentional command…but everything changes. The Creepers no longer explode, the Zombies ignore you and you can build whatever you want with unlimited access to resources. It’s time to get amazing!

What’s the secret to getting into Creative Mode in Kidmin? It takes intentionality too, but you can do it. You have to STOP what you are doing. You need to get away. And then you need to dream. Pray. Plan. Prepare. Do the things you can’t do in Survival Mode.

But here is a warning. You can’t stay in Creative Mode permanently. In Minecraft and in Ministry, you’ll soon get bored and you’ll start to miss the challenge of Survival. You feel more significance with things you build in Survival Mode, because you built in the midst of challenges.

You need both.

If you haven’t been in Creative Mode for awhile…if you feel stuck in Survival Mode…perhaps it is time to change modes for a bit. Dream and pray about what you would do if you could do anything. What if space, volunteers and money were limitless, what would you do? Amazing things never happen that weren’t first dreamed or imagined. Get in Creative Mode regularly. Schedule it. Go nuts!

Then return to Survival Mode…and address the challenges of your ministry. The key is that you need to keep a healthy balance between Creative and Survival. Survival will provide challenges and opportunities for God to work, and Creative will open doors to new possibilities and opportunities.

Or maybe you are actually stuck in Creative Mode—and not addressing things that need to be dealt with. The ministry is slowly being undermined by things you aren’t monitoring as you should. You are focusing mostly on the things you enjoy and hoping “those other things” will just go away or resolve themselves. (They won’t.) At some point, you need to deal with them directly and decisively.

What mode are you in today?  

This article originally appeared here.

7 Ways Smartphones Have Changed People at Your Church (and What to Do About it!)

By
Rich Birch
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Do you remember the world before the smartphones came and invaded all our spaces?

I have a hard time recalling how we got along before these little rectangles of glass, metal and plastic lodged themselves firmly into our everyday lives.

These devices have had simultaneously a profound and subtle impact on our people. Analogous to shifting sands under our feet, although the change is very minimal and hardly evident at the beginning but over time it becomes increasingly obvious.

I’m not adopting a “technology is bad” point of view in this article. In fact, I’m not taking a “technology is good” point of view either. Rather than debate the value of the smartphone in our people’s lives I’m asking us to consider the impacts these instruments are already having today on our people and suggest ways in which our churches need to respond.

Here are seven ways in which smartphones have already changed your people and what you can do about it.

Hundreds of Friends Within Reach at a Moment’s Notice

The development of smartphones has been equally matched with the rise of a rewiring of the very social fabric of humanity. I know that may sound overly dramatic but it’s simply the truth! We take for granted that people are able to instantly like, share and comment with their friends both near and far. This hyper-connectivity is redefining friendship and changing the way that we interact with people.

One doesn’t need to search long for examples of how this new level of interconnected relationships have impacted the world around us.

  • Remember the 2014 social craze “the ice bucket challenge”? Only made possible with the ubiquity of smartphones and pervasive social networks. In the end the challenge raised $220 million toward A.L.S. research that is continually making new discoveries! [ref]
  • During the next natural disaster, watch closely how the people on these social networks care for each other in amazing innovative ways. This was evidenced after Hurricane Irma decimated parts of Florida; it was heartwarming to see people turn to their phones to help others and offer comfort. [ref]

Ultimately, when you combine smartphones and social networks together, you have people more connected with the fringes of their social circles. Today we’re more aware of what is happening in the lives of people who we are loosely connected with compared to a generation ago. This is a great opportunity for your church because it’s these loose connections that drive the growth and development of your church. Here are some examples of how to leverage these opportunities for your church:

  • Develop sharable social content…that people want to share! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat and other online social networks that might be developed in the future aren’t designed as another place for you to share announcements about your church. These networks are essentially driven by people sharing content that is humorous, intriguing and thought-provoking, so you need to release content which the people are encouraged to share online. The primary goal is to create sharable content while the secondary goal is to drive results for your church.
  • Encourage your people to develop content. The ice bucket challenge is the high water mark for seeing masses of people develop content that spreads to their friends thereby driving an organization’s outcomes. How can you encourage your people to check-in, take photos, film videos and generally generate their own content about their connection to your church? Ask them to take out their phones during your services and go online to tell their friends they are with you or share a quote from the message. Find the people in your church that are the most active online and take them out for a coffee to pick their brains on how you can encourage more people to share and like the church-oriented messages online.
Continue

What’s Stopping People From Joining Your Groups?

By
Tommy Carreras
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

We’re all dying for a place to belong. But for many of the people we serve, it’s hard to believe that authentic and safe community actually exists.

The radically inclusive and welcoming nature of Jesus’ life and ministry was confusing, challenging and frustrating for the religious people around Him. How strange to see this man who claimed to be the son of God live so closely to the undesirables and the outcasts.

Jesus invites us, His body, into the same uncomfortable mess. Many churches claim “all are welcome here,” but do their small groups reflect the same sentiment? Are those brand new to faith welcome? How about the single mom whose life is chaotic right now? What about the addicted wild card? Is transformative community available to those who need it most?

Jesus invited outsiders into His life, even though they weren’t “good enough” to be there, and we can too. Here are three main problems that prevent those who are new or “messy” from joining groups, and solutions for overcoming them.

PROBLEM: Most people don’t think they’re good enough to be “in.”
SOLUTION: Excessively invite people in so they believe they really are welcomed.

We all go through life with a sinking suspicion that we are on the outside. Authentic community can sound too good to be true to those who haven’t experienced it. It can also strike them as one of those things saved exclusively for those who have it all together. It’s our job as a church to weave the invitation of community into everything we do. Position community as the destination for anyone who engages in your church with clear next steps for getting into a group at every turn.

PROBLEM: “Christian-ese” is confusing and scary to those who don’t speak it.
SOLUTION: Do the hard work of communicating in a way that makes biblical community enticing for anyone, even the non-Christian.

Jesus carefully customized his communication to the audience he was trying to reach. He told stories that related directly to the normal life experiences of those he led. It takes more time and effort, but careful communication and translating is necessary to make community accessible.

Don’t be so focused on communicating the lofty goals of discipleship that you make that very discipleship a foreign concept to those who need it.

PROBLEM: The material we study in groups can be intimidating.
SOLUTION: Make groups accessible to all.

Imagine being brand new to a group and learning that they’re studying the book of Revelation for the next 32 weeks. Guaranteed no-show in week two! It’s our job to make sure that what we study in groups is accessible enough for people to feel qualified, but still challenged. That’s why we try to focus in on weekend message-based groups, interest groups and short-term topical groups that anyone can be a part of without going to seminary first.

As trust in a group grows, and people are more relationally locked in, it’s easier to push each other toward studies that are more challenging and even rigorous. But in our efforts to “raise the bar,” we can’t accidentally “raise the bar of ENTRY.”

Invite excessively, communicate appropriately and make it accessible. Celebrate more people experiencing the life-changing spiritual community that’s waiting for them.

This article originally appeared here.

Two Lesbians Walk Into a Church—Was Jesus Shocked?

By
John Burke
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

“Two Lesbians in Church” is Excerpted from Mud and the Masterpiece: Seeing Yourself and Others Through the Eyes of Jesus by John Burke.

Two Lesbians in Church

“Let’s just go for fun! We’ll see how much we can push their buttons,” Amy teased her girlfriend, who didn’t like the idea of two lesbians in church hanging around a bunch of Christians.

“Come on,” Amy insisted. “I hear their motto is ‘Come as you are.’ I just want to prove that they’re ‘come as you are’ … unless you’re gay.”

Amy had been in a nine-year lesbian relationship that had broken up, leaving her wondering why her deepest longings could never be satisfied. She and Rachel had just started hanging out when they decided to attend one Sunday morning and see how people would react to seeing lesbians in church.

“I came on a mission to shock people,” Amy admits. “Rachel and I would hold hands in front of people, but instead of the disgusted looks of contempt we expected, people met eyes with us and treated us like real people. So we started coming to church weekly. We kept moving closer to the front each week, trying to get a reaction so that we’d be rejected sooner rather than later. When we couldn’t shock people, we stopped trying and started learning.

“Not long after that, Rachel and I stopped seeing each other, but I kept coming to church because I was searching for something,” Amy admits. “I definitely wasn’t looking to change. It wasn’t my lesbian lifestyle that I was bringing to God, but I wondered if God had answers to my deeper longings. Problem was, I didn’t trust God at all!

“The more I listened and learned about the teachings of Jesus, the more I started to actually believe that God really did love me. I heard more and more about being his Masterpiece, and in time, I actually started to believe it. The more I believed God actually could see something of value in me, the more I trusted him.”

Over time, instead of worrying about how people would react to seeing lesbians in church, Amy slowly opened her heart and struggles to Christ. “It took several years, but as I moved closer and closer to Christ, he gently took me on a very surprising journey. First, I found out my father had nine affairs while I was growing up—a secret that rocked my world. Jesus began to show me how the roots of my sexual issues tie together with my dad’s—I was just like him, using people to find comfort, life and love outside of God.”

Amy continued to grow in her knowledge of the Scriptures, falling more and more in love with the Lord. The following year, God had another surprise for her: “I went to the seminar called ‘To Be Told,’ hosted at Gateway. I wanted to see how God could put closure to my brokenness, but what he showed me shocked me,” Amy recalls.

“As Dan Allender was telling a story of a bully, I suddenly had a flashback of getting off the school bus. I lived down the street from Jimmy, a boy who had bullied me all year. But this particular day, Jimmy acted nice to me as I got off the bus,” Amy recalls.

“He apologized for being so mean, and he invited me to come to his house.”

That day in the seminar, all else faded to black as this vivid nightmare crept back to life. Amy saw herself walking through Jimmy’s front door, noticing all the shades pulled down. Startled, she spied two teenage boys eyeing her with a ravenous look as the door slammed shut. Her screams never escaped the evil darkness that enveloped that house. They pinned her down and raped her.

She was only nine!

4 Innovation Inducing Meetings Every Church Staff Needs to Have

By
Kevin Lloyd
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

I have never been fearful of scary movies or sharks or clowns or any of the typical phobias many people have. Unless you’re talking about snakes. Snakes don’t count. The devil was a snake. We should all run from snakes!

While I am not afraid of much, one thing always struck terror in my heart when I was young: Parent-Teacher Conferences.

When I saw those meetings on the calendar, my heart was seized with horror. I just started apologizing to my parents weeks before they even suffered the disappointment of those meetings!

My theory is most people loathe meetings as adults because of nightmarish parent-teacher conferences!

Seeing a staff meeting or board meeting on your calendar may strike a childlike terror in you as an adult.

One reason many church leaders hate meetings is because they’re meeting about the wrong things. 

Most church meetings are designed to maintain what is instead of move forward to what could be.

I want you to introduce four meetings to your team that will help you look ahead, keep you fresh and spur your ministry toward innovation.

Technology Meeting

Netflix is nearing 100 million subscribers.

YouTube has 1 billion viewers each month.

Forty-two million Americans listen to podcasts weekly, five times more than go to movies.

How people consume information and ignite relationships has evolved drastically in the last five years. Most local churches look exactly the same as they did five years ago. That’s bad stewardship of the gospel.

A meeting church teams need is one to explore how to leverage technology in a better way. How do we reach people who don’t make it to church every week via social media? How do we do digital discipleship? Is there a way to leverage technology to help the weekend message live on during the week? 

Next Generation Meeting

Millennials are the largest living generation in the U.S. at 79.8 million.

The Millennial generation is expected to continue growing until 2036 due to immigration.

These statistics should shape how the local church should look and feel. Ministries should evolve to reach the generations to come rather than guard the preferences of the generations that have come before. Honor what was by building for what could be. Worship experiences should be interesting to a high school student, community should be aware of the needs of recent college grads, church missions must nod toward social causes that are easy to engage in for the next generation.

Church leader, actively engage in a meeting focused on the next generation. Wrestle through questions like: How does kids ministry create a desire for kids to want to come to church? What are the needs of the students in our city and how is it informing our weekend worship experience? Does student ministry belong in the church building or in a high school auditorium? How does the idea of “framily” reshape our structures of community? 

Manliness Meeting

Can I be honest? It feels so awkward to type the phrase “manliness meeting”; let me explain. Most men hate going to church. Most churches are simply not designed with men in mind. Reaching men with the gospel will aggressively reshape families and culture. Sadly, even when churches focus on men, it is shaped by the perspective of men already in church rather than those in the community.

Have a meeting focused solely on how to create an environment that is appealing to men. Ask questions like: What makes attending church painful for men? At what point does a man hate standing and singing songs they don’t know? Is humor intentional and natural in our sermons? Do we actually challenge people to act or just play on their emotions? Are the people on our platform the type person men actually want to follow?

Connectors Meeting

As a church staff member, it is easy to live and work in a bubble. That small world is shaped only by what is happening in church culture. Instead, church leaders need to engage in what is happening in their city’s culture. The best way to do that is to connect with connectors. To know people who know people. Be in relationship with influencers.

Schedule what I call a “connector meeting.” This is a gathering of people in your church who have influence or connection outside of your church. Ask questions like: Who do I need to know that I don’t know yet? Who is someone under the radar that we will all be talking about a year from now? Is there anyone in our community who started a business two years ago that’s doing well? 

Schedule these meetings this week. Put it on your calendar! You will move closer to innovation and growth because of these meetings. And hopefully they are a lot less painful than those parent-teacher conferences!

Keep Leading Bravely!

This article originally appeared here.

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