12 Words to Transform Your Life

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September 18, 2017

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

On Monday nights this summer, I hosted middle and high school students from my church at my house for hamburgers, Mario Kart and a discussion of the book of James. We walked through a chapter of James each week. We read the chapter together, discussed questions or confusions we had about the text, and discovered how the words may affect our lives in the day-to-day.

As I prepared for our study each week, alongside reading the chapter to be discussed, I read a commentary on the book of James called Be Mature by Warren Wiersbe. In his chapter on James 3:1-12 and controlling the tongue, Wiersbe shares 12 words that, he believes, can transform our lives.

I happen to agree with him—these words can transform lives.

Words are important to me. In everything from my favorite school subjects growing up, to how I best express and receive love, to my present job, words are everything.

With people I love, I am more likely to share an encouraging affirmation than I am to hug them. With people I hate, in my sin, I am more likely to deliver a destructive word of discouragement than I am to throw a punch.

So, what are the 12 words? They’re quite simple:

“Please” and “Thank You”

The power of these words is sort of underrated, and I think it’s because using them has become so routine that they don’t carry much meaning sometimes.

We’re taught and reminded to use these words from the time we can speak, and we’re rebuked when we don’t use them. But, when is the last time we used “please” or “thank you” beyond as a matter of course in the grocery store checkout line or passing through the Starbucks drive thru?

Make it a goal of yours this week to look someone in the eye and give them a heartfelt “thank you,” perhaps even elaborating on how they blessed you or encouraged you in some way.

It is tragic that we lose the power of these three words because of their ubiquity.

“I’m Sorry”

This phrase tends to get thrown under the bus because “I apologize” communicates a more powerful feeling of remorse in the eyes (or ears?) of some.

I really think either phrase will do because the real problem isn’t that we use the wrong one, but that we don’t use either enough!

In our pride and often out of fear of shame, we withhold these two little words and forsake friendships as a result.

Wiersbe says, “These two words have a way of breaking down walls and building bridges.”

Indeed, out of love for our neighbor and faithfulness to Christ, we need to put aside our pride and be better about acknowledging when we’ve messed up.

“I Love You”

Too many of us refrain from using the words “I love you” with anyone outside of our significant others because we wrongly assume the phrase has to carry romantic meaning. Guys should be able to tell their brothers in Christ they love them without having to feel weird.

You can show love to your brothers and sisters in Christ all day in a variety of ways, but words matter.

You can help a couple in your community group move, but if you never tell them you love them, they may just think you want to be nice.

You can set up a meal delivery plan for new parents in your church, but if you never tell them you love them or if you never spend time praying with them when you deliver the food, how will they know you aren’t just begrudgingly trying to be a good friend?

There is no reason we, as a church, cannot be more explicit about our love for one another, using our words.

“I’m Praying for You”

This phrase, like the others in this list, gets tossed around so often I sometimes wonder how much meaning it still has rattling around inside of it.

Here in the South, especially, saying “I’m praying for you” can be as common of a courtesy as “Please” or “Thank you.”

When we use these words, which we should, we need to be sure we mean them. I am ashamed at the number of times in my life I have told a friend or family member I was praying for them and then neglected to do so. We’ve all done it.

About “I’m praying for you,” Wiersbe writes, “We say it in an encouraging way, to let others know that we care enough for them to meet them at the throne of grace.”

There are few acts of love as great as being willing to walk with a friend into the throne room of God in order to petition on their behalf.

Our words matter. God help us when we use our words to sin, and may God give us the grace to use these 12 simple words to transform the life of our local churches and communities.

This article originally appeared here.

Dear Teenager: An Open Letter Teens Need to Hear

By

Dawson Cooper

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September 18, 2017

Dear Teenager,

I hope this isn’t too blunt or really, perhaps, too obvious: Life hurts.

But surely you know this by now? Have you been excluded from a dinner with friends, only to see it posted later on Instagram? Have you not made a team for which you worked hard to make? Have you had a parent disappoint you? Has an illness affected you or your family? Have you struggled under the pressure to perform at school and to uphold your reputation?

When I think of what I want you to know, I want you to know that Jesus is in it all. He is with you in all of it. There isn’t a place that the Lord your God cannot reach, does not know and does not desire to redeem.

When it hurts, it’s hard to imagine a God who is really in the hard places of life. But this isn’t about the “why.” This is about the “who.” Whether or not we understand why life is hard, understanding the Who can bring more comfort than any kind platitude from a friend.

The God who created the universe, strung the stars across the sky, told the oceans to stop at the shore, formed your parts in the womb, who went so far to save His people that He gave His only Son for you, who sent His Holy Spirit to be within you, that God—He is in it all.

Jesus teaches his followers in Matthew 6:26 saying, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” If He feeds the birds, we can trust him to feed His people.

Throughout scripture we read story after story of God’s faithfulness and presence with His people. He clothes Adam and Eve after they disobey Him in the Garden of Eden; He parts the Red Sea for Moses; He chooses a simple shepherd named David to save his people from the Philistines and then be King; He sends Jesus to pay the price for our sins; and Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within those who believe in Him.

In the Psalms, David writes, “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” When we look throughout scripture, God’s steadfast love, his faithfulness is truly before our very eyes. This does not mean, however, that those people were without pain or hurt. They, like us, lived in a broken world. The many examples of God’s faithfulness remind us that God was present, caring for his flock while orchestrating sin, misdeeds and missteps into a redemptive story.

Where has God been faithful to you in the past? Where has he cared for you? Put that in front of your eyes, and remember it. See where God walked with you in the good and the bad. When we remember, we gain strength, through God’s faithful work that has already begun in our lives, to move through the hard parts of life with Him. As Paul writes in Philippians, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

This article originally appeared here.

How to Turn a Meltdown Into a Breakthrough

By

Meagan Moore

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September 18, 2017

Meltdowns. The arch nemesis of a Children’s Ministry service. We’ve all seen them. We’ve all heard them. We all know them. But why do they happen? And why do the loudest meltdowns always seem to happen during the quietest of prayer times?

Meltdowns begin with an expectation not being met. A child can have an expectation to play video games, but instead, it’s time to listen to a lesson. A child can have an expectation to run around during service, but instead, the rule is to sit on our pockets. Expectations unmet lead to overstimulation. In this little child’s mind, the order of their day and their mental processing just got turned around. They are confused, they are disappointed, they are stubborn…they are having a meltdown.

Step one is to remove them from the stimulation. Get them to a quiet spot, whether it be the corner of the room or going to a different room. Allow them time to gain control of themselves.

Step two is to acknowledge and explain. Acknowledge that you hear what they are saying. We know it can be so much fun to play on the Nintendo Switch, and it’s a bummer that they didn’t get to. But we also want to explain our rules. We need to sit on our pockets so our friends behind us can see the video. We need to stop playing video games otherwise we are going to miss out on the fun lesson for the day. Because we care about them, we are going to help them follow directions.

Step three is to correct. We don’t want to let this moment pass without letting the child know there was a better way to handle the situation. Crying, throwing a fit, yelling are not the way we let our teacher know we are upset. We use our words. We use self-control.

Meltdowns are going to happen. We have to remember we are in children’s ministry. Rather than fearing when the next one is going to take place, look at every moment as an opportunity to help a child grow. That’s where the breakthrough happens.

This article originally appeared here.

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

By

Tim Challies

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September 18, 2017

One mark of a successful sermon is that it satisfactorily answers some questions while provoking still others. On Sunday I visited a little church in an eastern-Ontario village and heard just such a sermon. The pastor preached on Ephesians 4 as part of a series on the Christian’s identity in Christ, but as he continued through the text he was only barely able to speak to verse 30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” I later found myself asking, What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit? My initial reaction to the word grieve in reference to the Holy Spirit was a negative one: Surely the Spirit of God does not actually grieve, does he? Perhaps this is a poor translation. Isn’t sorrow a too-human reaction to ascribe to the holy God? Doesn’t it diminish the Spirit to suggest that my sin can make him feel genuine sorrow?

What It Means to Grieve the Holy Spirit

Thankfully I take my entire theological library on the road with me thanks to the magic of Logos, so I was able to first meditate on the text and then to research it a little bit. What I found is that grieve is actually a very faithful rendering. It is, in fact, the preferred rendering of the word for every major translation, new or old, with the exception of the NLT which prefers the synonymous bring sorrow to. The Bible dictionaries agree: the Greek word ??p?? indicates grief, sorrow and distress. So somehow our sin really can bring grief to God and, according to the immediate context, this is especially true for the sins of the mouth that cause disunity between believers.

Still, I was glad to see that Bryan Chapell sympathizes with my immediate, negative response to divine grief: “The words challenge our theology as much as they encourage our hearts. We are not accustomed to thinking of our thoughts and actions affecting God’s heart. There are even aspects of our theology that make us question whether it is proper to think this way. Yet the apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaks with wonderful intimacy about the nature of our God and his heart for us.” We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is not a distant, abstract deity and certainly not an impersonal force. No, the Holy Spirit is a person, for only a genuine and personable being is capable of this kind of thinking, feeling, and emotion. In fact, when we understand that the Spirit is a person it should surprise us only if he would not or could not feel grief in the face of our sin. “There is some poignancy in the consideration that the Holy Spirit, the One who is our Comforter (John 14–16), is himself grieved by our sin.”

We do well, then, to consider the magnitude of our offences against God that they could move him to such sorrow. Sins that bring disunity to the church also bring grief to the Holy Spirit. Again, Chapell says, “The same Spirit who convicts my heart of sin, generates in me love for God, gives me new birth, provides my apprehension of the beauty of grace in the world, and seals my redemption until the coming of my Lord—this same Spirit who loves me so intimately and perfectly, I can cause to grieve.”

It is also worth noting what Paul does not say, for there is comfort to be had here. Paul does not threaten abandonment. Clinton Arnold makes this point and concludes, “Under the new covenant, the Spirit does not depart when sin is committed. Instead, the Spirit deeply grieves over it. Paul presents this as a truth that should motivate believers not to indulge their sinful desires—whether this might be filthy talk, stealing, uncontrolled anger, lying or any other vice.” The true believer does not need to fear that God will respond to sin by giving up and moving out. We are sealed by the Spirit for all eternity.

We grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin and we especially grieve the Spirit when we sin in ways that cause discord, perhaps because unity is a special work of the Spirit (see John 17). The obvious and important application is this: “Not wanting to hurt [the Spirit] is strong motivation for not intending the harm of his people or purpose” (Chapell).

This article originally appeared here.

7 Indicators Your Team Is Dysfunctional

By

Ron Edmondson

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September 18, 2017

Chances are, if you’ve served on very many teams, you’ve served on one that is dysfunctional. It appears to me we have many to choose from in the organizational world. There are no perfect teams. We are all dysfunctional at some level and during some seasons.

In case you’re wondering, my definition of a dysfunctional team—in simple terms—is one that cannot operate at peak efficiency and performance, because it is impacted by too many negative characteristics. There’s more going wrong than right more days than not.

In my experience, there are commonalities of dysfunction. If you have been on a dysfunctional team you’ve probably seen one or more of of the common traits.

See if any of these seem familiar.

Seven indicators of a dysfunctional team:

Team members talk about each other more than to each other. The atmosphere is passive-aggressive. Problems are never really addressed, because conflict is avoided. The real problems are continually ignored or excused.

Mediocrity is celebrated. Everything may even be labeled “amazing.” Nothing ever really develops or improves because no one has or inspires a vision bigger than what the team is currently experiencing.

It’s never “our” fault. It’s the completion or the culture or the times in which we live. No one takes responsibility. And, everyone passes blame. Will the real leader please stand up?

Communication usually brings more tension than progress. There may be lots of information, but it’s not packaged in a way that brings clarity. No one knows or recognizes a win.

The mention of change makes everyone nervous. Either change is rare or it’s been instituted wrongly in the past. Any real progress has to be forced or controlled.

Only the leader gets recognition or can make decisions. Team members never feel valued or appreciated. No one feels empowered. The leader uses words like “I” or “my” more than “we” or “our.”

There are competing visions, goals or objectives. It’s every team member for his or herself. The strategy or future direction isn’t clear.

According to my observations, have you served on a dysfunctional team?

Granted, every team goes through each of these during seasons. Again, there are no perfect teams. But, if there are at least two or three of these at work currently, I’d say it’s a good time to evaluate the team’s health and work to make things healthier.

How many of these can you currently see on your team?

This article originally appeared here.

The Overcommitted Church

By

Thom Rainer

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September 18, 2017

Many churches have become too busy for their own good.

They have so many activities, programs, events and services that they are wearing out their congregations.

Here is the irony. Most of the activities in these churches were started with a noble cause to make a difference in the congregation and the community. But the members became so busy they don’t have time to connect with people in a meaningful way.

The overcommitted church has become the ineffective church.

So how did our churches get in this predicament? The causes are many, but here are seven of them:

Our churches equate activity with value. Thus busy churches are deemed to be churches of value. And busy, exhausted and frustrated church members are deemed to be Christians of value.
Programs and ministries became ends instead of means. I recently asked a pastor why he continued a ministry that had dwindled from 220 participants to 23 participants. “Because,” he said, “this program is a part of the history and heritage that defines our church.” Warning: If a program defines your church, your church is in trouble.
Failure of churches to have a clear purpose. Even the best of churches can only do so many things well. Once a church has no clear and defining purpose, it has no reason to start or discontinue a program or ministry. That issue then leads to the next two reasons.
Church leaders have failed to say “no.” Some church leaders can’t say “no” to new programs and ministries because they have no clear or defining purpose on what they should do. Others leaders simply lack courage to say “no.”
Fear of eliminating. Once a program, ministry or activity has begun, it can be exceedingly difficult to let it die. Sometimes leaders lack courage to kill programs. Sometimes they are blinded to the need to kill programs. Sometimes they hesitate to kill a program because they don’t know a better alternative. We need more churches in the program-killing business.
Church is often defined as an address. As long as we think “church” means a physical location, we will try to load up that address with all kinds of busyness. Many churches are ineffective at reaching their communities because their members are so busy at the building they call the church. That’s both bad ecclesiology and bad missiology.
Churches often try to compete with culture rather than reach culture. A church in the deep South had a dynamic basketball ministry where they fielded community basketball teams comprised of church members and nonbelievers. But once the church built its own gym and recreation center, the church members started spending all their time playing at their new facility. In an attempt to have a gym as good as those in the community, the church ironically became less effective reaching those in the community.

Busy churches. Activity-driven churches. Overcommitted churches. Ineffective churches.

In my next article, I will share some ways churches are becoming less activity-driven and more effective.

In the meantime, let me hear from you.

This article originally appeared here.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: A Colossal Misrepresentation of the Bible

By

Christine Yount Jones

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September 18, 2017

If you hadn’t seen or heard of The Handmaid’s Tale until the recent Emmy Awards, here’s what you need to know about the Hulu series that won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama. The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, is a dystopian view of a United States ruled by a cruel religious regime. As a church leader, you need to know that your people and your community are having their views of who God is and what the Bible says shaped by The Handmaid’s Tale.

What Fans Are Saying About The Handmaid’s Tale

“The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the finest dystopian novels ever written, and it is, inescapably and fundamentally, about women’s oppression under an ultra-conservative regime,” according to themuse.jezebel.co.

TV critics have hailed Atwood’s futuristic story “eerily timely” as a social commentary on a woman’s right to control her own body.

According to litcharts.com: “Gilead is a strictly hierarchical society, with a huge difference between the genders. As soon as the Gileadean revolutionaries take over after terrorism destroys the U.S. government, they fire all women from their jobs and drain their bank accounts. Soon Gileadean women find all liberties taken from them, from the right to choose their clothes to the right to read.”

The Handmaid’s Tale fans see in the show pointed critique of the political environment in the United States today. According to an article on slate.com: “There’s no doubt that The Handmaid’s Tale became the cultural phenomenon it was thanks to President Trump. The hierarchical dystopia of Gilead, in which fertile women—‘handmaids’—are forced to bear children for upper class couples, resonated with those horrified by the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties and the Republican party’s ongoing attempts to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood.”

Extremist Bible Interpretation in The Handmaid’s Tale

The premise of The Handmaid’s Tale is that environmental pollution has rendered most women infertile, and those who are still able to bear children are forced into sexual slavery as “handmaids” to powerful families. This is obviously based on an extremist interpretation of the biblical account of Rachel and Bilhah.

“Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die!’ And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’ So she said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.’ Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.” (Genesis 30:1-4 )

The characters in the movie actually read this Scripture in a ritual before the husband has intercourse with the handmaid—at the “knees” of the wife.

More Extremist Interpretations of Bible Verses in The Handmaid’s Tale

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.”(Matthew 18:9 )

Janine’s eye is gouged out for her sin.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.” (Numbers 15:35-36 )

The handmaids stone to death a man accused of rape in one episode.

Other Religious Terminology in The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in theocratic Gilead with a government in which there is no separation between state and religion—and its official vocabulary incorporates the following religious terminology and biblical references.

Marthas – Domestic servants in reference to Martha who served Jesus in the New Testament.

Guardians of the Faith – the local police

Angels – soldiers of the regime

Commanders of the Faithful – the men who rule the regime

Loaves and Fishes, All Flesh, Milk and Honey – Biblical names for stores

Behemoth, Whirlwind, and Chariot – Biblical names of vehicles

The Eyes of God – Gilead’s secret police. In Gilead’s theocracy, the eye of God and of the state are assumed to be one and the same.

Is The Handmaid’s Tale Biblical?

Absolutely not! But this is one of those times in culture that the Bible is misrepresented and misappropriated, resulting in negative views of the church.

Even author Margaret Atwood acknowledges that her novel is not genuinely Christian so much as “purportedly Christian.”

“I don’t consider these people to be Christians because they do not have at the core of their behavior and ideologies what I, in my feeble Canadian way, would consider to be the core of Christianity,” Atwood told Layton Williams with Sojourners. “And that would be not only love your neighbors but love your enemies. That would also be ‘I was sick and you visited me not’ and such and such… But they don’t do that either. Neither do a lot of the people who fly under the Christian flag today. And that would include also concern for the environment, because you can’t love your neighbor or even your enemy, unless you love your neighbor’s oxygen, food and water. You can’t love your neighbor or your enemy if you’re presuming policies that are going to cause those people to die.”

You can be sure that people are going to be talking about The Handmaid’s Tale. What can you do to initiate conversations and help people know the grace and truth of God’s Word instead?

Nabeel Qureshi: A Legacy of Love and Peace

By

Megan Briggs

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September 18, 2017

Nabeel Qureshi, Christian apologist and author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, passed away Saturday, September 16, 2017. After a year-long battle with stomach cancer, Qureshi is now home with Jesus.

Qureshi, a Pakistani-American, was raised by devout Muslim parents. His conversion to Christianity was documented in his best-selling Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. Qureshi was also served as a speaker with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and was mentored by Zacharias himself. In a tribute published on Christianity Today (CT), Zacharias said, “I have seldom seen a man with such deep conviction and proportionate passion and gifting. When he spoke, he held audiences spellbound.”

Conversion to Christianity

In an article on CT, Qureshi briefly shared his experience of conversion to Christianity. A fellow student at Old Dominion University in Virginia, where Qureshi earned his first of many degrees, befriended the young Muslim. It was David Wood’s investment of time and friendship that caused Qureshi to seriously consider Christianity and start to question the faith he had defended and practiced along with his tight-knit family. He began investigating the origins of Islam as critically as he had Christianity.

After graduating from Old Dominion, Qureshi’s desperate plea was for God to reveal himself to him. While he was attending medical school, Qureshi experienced a vision and three dreams, all pointing him toward Jesus. While he found comfort and truth in Jesus, his conversion caused Qureshi pain as it felt like a betrayal against his family. It was this understanding of the complexity of conversion for some people that eventually formed him into a zealous evangelist who spoke with compassion and understanding toward those who believed differently than he did.

His Ministry

Ravi Zacharias, Qureshi’s mentor, encouraged him to pursue apologetics and “to do it with gentleness, respect and learning” when he joined RZIM. This instruction guided Qureshi’s approach to apologetics and the words he spoke and wrote.

The concern for respect and gentleness was on Qureshi’s mind as he recorded the final video to the vlog he kept documenting his journey with cancer. “When we talk to people about our beliefs, that should be undergirded by love and peace… The whole point should be to bring people together through the truth.”

Qureshi explained his concern that some people have used the information he’s shared about Islam and Christianity to “undercut one another.” Clearly distressed by this use of his work, Qureshi explained this was never his intention and he didn’t want this undercutting to be linked to his legacy.

In May, 2017, Qureshi asked Zacharias if he could join him for one last ministry trip, saying he missed being on the road with his mentor. Zacharias recalls the zeal Qureshi had for connecting with people one-on-one and leading them to Jesus.

“Nabeel came like a streak of lightning, brightened the night sky, and has returned to the One who gave the power to do what he did,” Zacharias says.

The world will not likely soon forget this hero of the faith. Love and peace will be integral to his legacy. Qureshi leaves behind his wife, Michelle, and his daughter Ayah.

5 Qualities of a Small Church That Have a Big Impact

By

Dan Reiland

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September 18, 2017

The size of a church never limits the scope of God’s power. God does big things in small churches. The size of your church is not as important as what God wants to do through your church. With that in mind, you’ll want to focus on five important qualities of a small church.

Here are four important questions for all pastors:

Is your church culture healthy?
Is the gospel being taught?
Is there a vision for reaching people?
Are lives being changed?

If yes, then keep doing what you are doing! We all want our churches to grow larger, but I believe that ultimately the size of your church is up to God. Your job is to serve and lead well with all your heart and leave the rest to him.

I love the saying, “Work like it’s up to you and pray like it’s up to God.” That sums it up well.

Leaders of small churches often get stuck in the struggles and difficulties of ministry. It is easy to get discouraged, but it’s vital to focus on what is good. I’m offering you five important qualities of a small church to lean in to.

Important Qualities of a Small Church

You don’t need to work on all five qualities of a small church at once. In fact, you could spend about 15 months working on them—three months each.

1. Uniqueness

There is a reason that 68 or 92 or 130 people have chosen to attend your church over all the other choices in the area. There is something that makes your church special; it’s your “secret sauce!” It’s part of your unique DNA, and you need to know what it is and lean in to it.

It might be wonderful worship, a compassionate culture, or perhaps a particular ministry that God is blessing in your community. You can’t make it up or force it. You can’t sit in a meeting and decide what you want it to be. It’s already there, and you need to discover it and leverage it as a force for good in your city.

2. Agility

A big church is something like an aircraft carrier. It’s powerful and can do much good, but it can’t move or turn fast. It can get bogged down in the complexity of its own systems.

A small church is more like a speedboat: It’s fast and can turn on a dime. That’s a powerful feature in a local church. You can make decisions faster and respond to the needs of people and your community more quickly.

You can sense what God is up to and jump in. It’s easier to experiment with a new ministry for a short time. If it gains traction, you keep going; if not, shut it down and ask God for the next endeavor. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but do keep your list of ministries very short.

3. Intimacy

Among all the other qualities of a small church, this is one of the most common things that people love about small churches. The closeness, connection and fellowship are fantastic. It helps people feel at home and cared for in your church. Enjoy all that this brings.

Leaders: What You Should Know About Your Team

By

Phil Cooke

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September 17, 2017

Whenever I consult with a church, ministry or nonprofit, I always begin by looking closely at the team. The employees are the ones that make an organization work, so learning as much as we can about them is critical—and I’m often surprised at how little pastors and other leaders actually know about the personal side of their team. If you’re not taking the time to know your people well, you’re shortchanging your vision. Having studied teams over the years, here’s a starting list of issues leaders need to know about their teams:

1) Purpose is just as important as talent.

Talent is important, but know why your people are there in the first place. Find out who’s there just for a paycheck, and who’s there to change the world. Knowing motivations is critical for team chemistry to work.

2) Make sure they’re in the right seats on the bus.

You know the Jim Collins concept—get the right employees on the bus, make sure they’re in the right seats, and then get the wrong ones off the bus. Brilliantly simple, and yet you’d be amazed at the number of organizations that make serious mistakes in all three areas. The church and ministry world abounds with employees in positions that conflict with their talent and gifts. That disconnect damages morale, because everyone else knows that employee is failing and everyone else becomes more frustrated by the day.

3) Know which ones are locked into the rules and which are more flexible.

I’ve worked at organizations who are crippled because employees are so bound by the rules that they can’t think outside the box. Rules and policies are important, but you also need a team that knows when to step outside the rules for a bigger purpose.

4) Be careful of employees who are building their own empire inside your organization.

These are team members who will do anything to protect their turf. You want a team that is generous with their ideas, time and talent, and knows how to work with others in the organization.

This article originally appeared here.

7 Powerful Ways the Apple Store Can Teach Hands-On Faith

By

Dema Kohen

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September 17, 2017

It was Friday afternoon. My wife and I were in the mall, and I was doing the nice husband thing and following her from one store to the next.

As we were approaching yet another shop, I saw a bright light and I heard angels singing…

Well, not really…but it was close enough. I saw an Apple store for the first time in my life.

IMMEDIATELY I THRUST MY CREDIT CARD INTO MY WIFE’S HANDS, ASSURING HER SHE WAS ACTUALLY BETTER OFF WITHOUT ME AND MADE A BEELINE TO THE DOOR.

Inside the store, I was instantly captivated by all the computers, tablets, phones and media players; all of them were in the open, begging me to hold them, push the buttons, swipe my finger across the screen, listen to music, watch videos and browse the web.

Everywhere I looked, people were interacting with devices. There were no passive onlookers. Everyone was engaged and everyone was having a very personal experience.

The iMac jumped out of the box, the iPhone came off the shelf, the iPod sneaked from underneath the glass counter and into my hands—all giving me a chance to explore them and really know them.

That is when it occurred to me,

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT LIFE WITH GOD SHOULD BE LIKE—INTERACTIVE, ENGAGING AND PERSONAL.

My experience at that Apple store caused me to think about the faith we hold dear and the way we pass this faith to the new generation. I started asking myself,

“Is the Jesus I talk about safely boxed and neatly placed on the shelf of history, or is He out of the box—close and accessible to the children I teach?”

As I reflected on these questions, I realized that over my years in children’s ministry, my classroom experiences more often resembled that of a museum.

In a museum, everything is pointing to the past. Everything is protected by glass or red rope. Every 10 feet you see another sign urging you not to touch anything.

I wonder if that is the impression of God our children get sometimes—that He is someone who belongs to the past, someone you can only learn about, someone far removed from the lives we live?

Are we unknowingly keeping our children from experiencing Jesus in their daily lives by presenting Him as a museum artifact—significant yet removed from our present reality?

That is exactly what the well-meaning disciples did when they told the children to stay away from Jesus.

They tried to rope Jesus off and make Him inaccessible. This made Jesus furious.

He commanded them, “Let the children come to Me and do not forbid them.”

Next, Jesus opened the “apple store” by inviting kids to climb all over Him, by placing His hands on them and speaking words of life over them.

Jesus didn’t feel comfortable being a museum exhibit then and I don’t think He wants to settle for that role today.

Since that memorable visit to the Apple store, I have become more intentional about “letting children come to Jesus,” making sure they regularly have a chance to interact with Him and invite His power into their lives.

I am afraid that often children’s ministries are guilty of being a museum.

This happens when we merely teach Bible content.

While stories about Jesus are absolutely necessary—they reveal to us who He is and give us reason to believe—if we only pass stories, we risk giving our children just half of Jesus, the Jesus boxed as a historical figure.

Continue

Before You Hold a Title, You Should Be Doing This

By

Brandon Cox

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September 17, 2017

Some of the best advice I received when we first started planting Grace Hills came from Todd West, who planted Oasis Church in North Little Rock. Todd said, “Don’t give people positions. Give them a project. Then, give them another project. If they’re faithful with enough projects, they might earn a position.”

In the first year or two of a new church plant, people drop in who want a position. You don’t have a (youth, music, small groups, missions, etc.) leader and I’m here and willing. Sign me up!

I’ve come to believe, over time, that positions should usually be the result of a job well done.

In other words, before you hold a title, before your name is on a roster of ministry leaders, before someone offers to pay you to do something in a church, you should already be actively doing what you dream of doing on a volunteer basis.

One of the things that impressed me about serving at Saddleback Church was the number of people on staff who started out as volunteers, and the number of volunteers who were practically on staff but didn’t need a title to show up at the office.

One of my good friends, Jeremiah Goley, moved from Kentucky to southern California with his wife, Jen, and joined Saddleback as an intern. He worked faithfully and was rewarded with a spot on the Missions team. Now, he’s the Campus Pastor at Saddleback Anaheim and he’s doing an amazing job leading a ton of other volunteers and they’re growing like crazy!

This is a scriptural principle. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25 about the master who left town and entrusted his resources with three different stewards. Two made a profit while one just sat on his hands. To the two who earned the profit the master said, “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”

This doesn’t mean you should never seek a position. It simply means you should, as some business leaders advise, “dress for the job you want, not for the job you have.”

There is plenty for a Christian to do without a title. Titles just create more expectations and complications. And the one big thing every Christian can be doing, right now, with our without a title or a position is this…making disciples.

Before you express a desire to lead in men’s ministry, are you actively and faithfully discipling other men?

Before you share that God has called you to women’s ministry, are you actively and faithfully discipling other women?

Before you talk about leading worship on stage, have you led others to be worshippers and developed as a personal worshipper yourself?

Before you seek funding for planting a church, have you been gathering people into discipling relationships lately?

The list goes on. I often ask people the question, if you could do anything you wanted to do knowing that money isn’t a problem and failure isn’t possible, what would it be? It’s a great question for getting to the bottom of someone’s desires.

But another great question that should probably be paired with it would be, what are you currently doing now that you’d love to do more of and do better?

So here’s my challenge to any bored believer waiting for an assignment…

Make a list of two or three people you can pour yourself into.
Text them and ask about meeting for coffee.
Share Jesus, do life together and invest yourself in their spiritual growth.

If you’re bored, it isn’t because you don’t have a position. It’s usually because you’ve forgotten the assignment already given—to go and make disciples of all people.

This article originally appeared here.

Should Leaders Take Credit for Their Written Songs?

By

Bob Kauflin

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September 17, 2017

Recently someone wrote me and asked:

A young woman in our church has written a few songs that we have taught but she doesn’t want to let anyone know she wrote them. I think she feels she is being humble but I also see how it can encourage our church to know one of our young adults is doing this. Your thoughts?

I appreciated the question. I also appreciated a songwriter is even thinking this way. Social media tempts us to believe it’s our duty to broadcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or our blog that basically we’re doing a bunch of cool stuff, saying some awesome things or eating some incredible food. How refreshing for a songwriter to think God alone needs to know what she did! It’s similar to John the Baptist’s comment about Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). I wonder how many songs we’d actually finish if our names were never attached to the songs we wrote. Certainly would be a motive tester!

But. I don’t think what she’s doing is necessarily humble. And it may not be the best way for her to honor God and love her church.

Humility Defined Biblically

We often think humility is hiding what we’ve done from others, and there’s certainly biblical precedent for that (e.g., Mt. 6:3-6). But in essence, humility is recognizing who we are in light of God’s greatness. It’s having a realistic view of our gifts, talents, abilities, etc. It’s what Paul is encouraging in Rom. 12:3: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” He’s not saying not to think of ourselves at all, but to think realistically, accurately.

Likewise, Peter counsels us: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:10–11). Peter doesn’t tell us to avoid being seen. He says we’re to do what we do with the strength and ability that come from God, not ourselves. The very fact that God is using weak and fallible people to bless others highlights how good, powerful and wise he is.

Jesus sounds the same note when he tells us to let our light shine before others so that they “may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). No one can give God glory for what he’s doing through us if they never know we did it.

Missing Out on Grace Received

There’s one kind of grace that comes to us through humbling ourselves (1 Pet. 5:5). But there’s another kind of grace that comes through the encouragement we receive from others (Heb. 3:13; Prov. 16:24). Of course, we don’t make it our aim to garner praise from those around us. But when I try to keep others from knowing that I served in some way, my very awareness of what I’ve done can be a sign I’m putting too much value on it and thinking of myself too highly. Like when I clean the dishes and take pains to make sure no one knows. Not only do I get points for serving, but I’m also being humble about it!

God is bigger than our attempts to “look” humble. He actually humbles us so that we might receive grace. One of the ways he does that is by using what we do to encourage others, even when we aren’t aware of it. Because ultimately, we’re in charge of faithfulness, not fruitfulness. It’s humbling to be aware of our failings, inadequacies and sins, and suddenly be reminded by someone else that God’s grace has not only covered our sins but is producing fruit through our lives. That’s why Paul writes, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Including our name on something we wrote also gives others the opportunity to give us feedback that could help us grow. In other words, happily embracing our “jars of clay-ness” allows others to see the treasure is in us and not us. And this leads to a final point.

Missing Out on Grace Given

God typically uses means to accomplish his work. And the more “ordinary” the means look, the greater the praise God receives. So hiding the fact that I wrote a song can rob people of the joy of seeing God’s Spirit at work through an ordinary person. What a blessing it would be to this girl’s congregation to see how God is raising up songwriting gifts in their church! And actually, if there’s no composer listed when he songs are projected, it might cause people to wonder who it is, and draw more attention to her!

It’s always good to fight our pride. As the Puritan John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” But fighting pride should eventually lead us to a place of being unconcerned about how others perceive our gifts. Then we’re able to use them freely in front of others, trusting that God will do what he wants to with them, all for our joy and His glory.

For some helpful thoughts on pursuing humility I highly recommend The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy by Tim Keller and Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney.

This article originally appeared here.

Tattoo Parlor Church: Bad Idea or Responsible Mission?

By

Michael Beck

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September 17, 2017

Would you start a tattoo church?

“Preacher…this is a really bad idea.”

The woman standing in my office stating these words was a matriarch of our congregation; a person of influence, whom I normally looked to for guidance and support. Being that I am a person with a fairly high risk-tolerance, it is insight like hers that often helps me see things from a different, more grounded, perspective.

“You do know what the Bible says about tattoos don’t you? Do you understand that people will leave our church for this?” she admonished. All valid cautions, yet this time there was something really stirring in my soul—a stirring I recognized as the Holy Spirit.

Tattoo Church: A Risky Expression?

You see, the issue at hand was a new fresh expression we were preparing to launch that we now call Tattoo Parlor Church. In the ideation stage, the concept was simply to be an incarnate presence for Christ in local tattoo shops.

We came to the idea through discovering what God was doing in a micro-culture within a micro-culture. At Wildwood United Methodist Church, where I serve as the senior pastor, we have a large recovery community, and a worship experience geared toward that population. I observed that almost weekly, folks were coming in with fresh ink, ranging from favorite sports teams and Chinese lettering, to portraits of loved ones or lyrics to a song.

While I do believe in the marvelous nature of the body, male and female, created in the very image of God, and I don’t take lightly permanently decorating it, I also take very seriously our call to be the embodiment of Jesus’ mission to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and follow the incarnate way of Christ as we do so (John 1:14). If we, as the body of Christ, are an extension of his mission in the world, we have a responsibility to go after the lost one (Luke 15:4). As Christians we are called to engage and transform the culture for Christ, not ignore it.

Grandma’s New Ink

Let me share a story from a recent gathering of our tattoo church.

Tattoo Parlor Church has grown now to a full Bible study, a little music, Holy Communion and, yes, all in a local tattoo parlor in downtown Ocala. In the “loving and serving” stage of the fresh expression process, we began to go out in teams on the downtown square where we would pray and minister to those experiencing homelessness.

At this particular gathering, not only did one of our artists accept Christ and receive Communion (a man who hasn’t been in church since he was 12 years old), but guess who got some ink? Yes, the matriarch herself, in fact two of them, 70+ years old getting their first tattoos, cross and flames to be exact!

Not only did they get tatt’d up with Christian symbols, but one of them took radical incarnation to a whole new level. As we were praying with folks and explaining and offering communion, we encountered a gentleman with a horrible foot wound. You could literally smell the infection when you got within 10 feet of him.

I consider myself a fairly bold disciple, but that day, our matriarch, 70+ years old, surpassed me.

Leadership Slinkies

J.R. Briggs said “leadership is like a slinky going down stairs.” You may lead one move, but you are following the next. That day Sandra became the leader.

When It’s Okay to Not Chase Happiness in Marriage

By

Rashawn Copeland

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September 17, 2017

I can remember being a few months into my marriage with Denisse, I said these words, “I want you to be happy. If leaving me will make you happy, then leave. It hurts, but I want you to be happy.” To a certain degree that may sound loving and sacrificial, but in reality, it’s neither. Real love seeks what’s best for the other person at all times.

Quick side note: So thankful we serve such a loving, sacrificial God who knows our needs and always seeks out what is in our best interest.

The Bible says, breaking the marital covenant is not good.

“To the married, I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”

–1 Corinthians 7:10 -11

Righteousness > Happiness

The greatest good we could do for ourselves and others is found not in “Happiness but in Righteousness.”

When we choose to do what makes us happy rather than choosing to do what’s right in God’s eyes, we find ourselves falling into a lot of confusion, depression, and we find ourselves ultimately walking through a short-lived fantasy land. – Hebrew 11:25

The encouragement I have for you today: The one thing I desire to leave you with today doesn’t encourage divorce in a selfish pursuit of happiness. Instead, encourage each other to righteousness.

Real Biblical Love means following God’s commandments, and living righteously.

This article originally appeared here.

The Top 25 Reasons Leaders Fail

By

Brian Dodd

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September 17, 2017

It is always disappointing when a leader fails. This is because many times it was avoidable. Therefore, to protect organizations and the leaders themselves from an unnecessary transition, the following are The Top 25 Reasons Leaders Fail:

It was a bad hire or placement in the first place.
The leader was ill-equipped for the job.
Once there, the leader was never empowered.
The leader does not build a healthy relationship and establish open lines of communication with the organization’s top producer(s).
The leader does not build a quality inner-circle.
The leader has a personal agenda and does not put the team and organization first.
Top producers do not trust the leader.
Decisions are being made and roles are being defined without the leader’s input.
The speed of the team exceeds the speed of the leader.
The leader has low emotional intelligence.
The leader is not thankful for the team’s efforts.
The leader insults the members of his/her team.
The leader is constantly insecure and must defend their resume and/or actions.
The leader is constantly blindsided.
The leader is passive. There is no sense of urgency.
The leader does not put the team in positions to be successful.
Issues are not addressed head-on.
The leader cannot deal with adversity well. They either over-react or go into a shell.
The leader does not inspire the team.
The leader takes credit for the team’s success.
The leaders does not have the respect of the team or others in the organization.
There is a bloodless coup.
Incompetence. The leader continually makes poor decisions during critical moments which harm the organization.
The leader continually blames others, circumstances or bad luck for the team’s failures.
The leader has severe character issues which result in disqualification.

Does anything on this list describe your leadership or a leader in your organization? If so, the problem is now identified and now a performance improvement plan can be put into place. A leadership transition does not have to happen. You do not have to fail.

This article originally appeared here.

Thom Rainer Reveals the Secret Pain of Pastors

By

Thom Rainer

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September 15, 2017

Not all the news about pastors is discouraging, but there is a secret pain of pastors that we need to address…because being a pastor is hard.

Pastors feel privileged to be called to their places of ministry. They have a deep love for those they shepherd. Most of them could not conceive of doing anything else.

But please hear me: Many pastors are hurting.

Why Being a Pastor Is Hard

LifeWay Research conducted a national survey of Protestant pastors. Among the questions they asked were two related to the hurts I noted above.

Secret Pain of Pastors: Discouragement Factor

One of the key symptoms of the pain experienced by pastors is discouragement. More than one-half (55 percent) of pastors are presently discouraged.

I suspect that if we surveyed pastors over just a few months, we would find almost all of them experience deep discouragement.

Some interesting facts we discovered in our study:

There was no pattern of discouragement related to the geographical location of the church.
There was no pattern of discouragement related to the size of the church.
There was no pattern of discouragement related to the educational level of the pastor.
There was a significant pattern of discouragement related to the age of the pastor. The younger the pastor, the more likely he was to be discouraged.

Secret Pain of Pastors: The Loneliness Factor

Most pastors experience intense loneliness at times.

When we conducted our survey, more than one-half again (coincidentally the same number, 55 percent, as noted above) said they were lonely. Again remember that this survey was for a specific point in time.

Which pastors experience the greatest amount of loneliness? Our study noted some discernible patterns:

There was no pattern of loneliness related to the geographical location of the church.
Younger pastors were more likely to be lonely than older pastors.
The larger the church, the greater the likelihood the pastor was experiencing loneliness.
The greater the education level of the pastor, the more likely he is to be lonely.

Why the Pervasive Discouragement and Loneliness?

Why are so many pastors struggling today? In an earlier article I wrote on pastoral depression, I noted the following possible reasons why being a pastor is hard:

Spiritual warfare.

The Enemy does not want God’s servants to be effective in ministry. He will do whatever it takes to hurt ministers and their ministries.

Unrealistic expectations.

8 Truths of Hiring Church Staff

By

Rich Birch

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September 15, 2017

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”

– Larry Bossidy (Retired CEO & Author)

One of the facts of leading a growing ministry is that you are going to have to get really good at hiring a great team. In fact, as the church grows, often the core leadership team will spend a large portion of its time in simply acquiring a fantastic team to push the mission forward. Ministries that scale their impact end up requiring a team of people to get the work of the church done, and therefore, you need leaders who think carefully around the hiring process.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of hiring some amazing ministry leaders. These leaders pushed the ministry forward and took us to brand new levels. There is a deep satisfaction in surrounding yourself with a team of people more qualified than yourself to help make the ministry grow. As I reflected on what went right during the hiring process for the top leaders (and what went wrong on people that didn’t work out), I’ve pulled together eight truths for you to reflect on in your ministry hiring.

8 Truths When Hiring Church Staff

1. Past performance is the best indicator of future reality.

When we’re hiring people for roles at our churches, we’re usually in a blissfully euphoric mood that can impair our judgement. The candidates we’re talking to are on their best behavior, saying what we want them to say, and since we feel the pain of the open role we tend to believe them. Church leaders are typically optimistic and hopeful individuals, compounding our ability for self-delusion when it comes to any particular candidate’s qualifications for the role.

Simply put, we imagine skills and abilities that aren’t present in the candidate because we want them to work in our organization. We need to force ourselves to look closely at what they’ve actually done and accomplished in their past roles and graph those results onto our church.

Use performance-based questions to explore what they have actually done and soberly consider if that exact level of performance was achieved at your church, would it accomplish what you’re looking for. Development and growth are a bonus, not a guarantee! In fact, their performance will drop in their early days with your church because new relationships and culture take time to acclimatize to.

2. Anybody is not better than nobody.

I’ve made this mistake more than once and the pain has stung every single time. We had an open position that we needed to fill for a long time. We struggled to find the candidate from a number of people who applied. After a while, we started to think that the type of person we needed didn’t exist in the world. Slowly our standards for what we wanted to hire started to erode. Eventually, we got to the point of convincing ourselves that anybody is better than nobody. We begrudgingly hired a candidate that we knew didn’t have all the past experiences we were looking for, but we told ourselves that it would be OK and that they would be a quick learner. However, this logic never works out!

Your church is surviving without the role currently filled, but a bad hire can actually do a lot more damage than an open role. Resist the temptation to prematurely fill open positions at your church with candidates who would not excel in those roles.

The pain of extracting a misplaced staff member is multiple times worse than the discomfort of an open role in your organization.

3. Internal to consolidate culture. External to change culture.

When you hire a member of your team from within the church, you reinforce the culture that already exists. However, when you hire someone external to your church, you push the culture in a new direction. Over the years, I’ve heard church leaders claim with pride that they just “hire from within” as if that is the badge of honor we’re all driving toward. This is a sure sign that the church will simply perpetuate its existing approaches and systems. If we’re honest though, there are areas of our ministry that need a new sense of life and vision, and those areas should be considered for “external” hires.

The degree of change required in the area that needs change is an indicator of how “external” a hire should be. If you are looking to make tweaks to an area, possibly bringing in someone from a different department within the church would be the best; however, if a ministry needs a complete overall change, you need to go and find the best person from anywhere in the world and get them into that role.

4. Staff expands.

In 20 years of ministry, I’ve never had a manager come to me and say that they believe the next best move for their area is to reduce the total number of staff in that ministry.

Staff generates the need for more staff. Managers who can keep a close eye on their “head count” and resist the urge to just expand their staff are rare, but a vitally important group in your church.

This is related to the “Parkinson’s law” that states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. People find a way to make jobs more complicated and time-consuming, which in the end requires more staff to get the same amount of work done.

Time stewardship is a real issue in most church staff teams. We need to find ways to get more done with the same number of staff members as a stewardship and care for the time that the Lord has given us.

5. People move toward where they are from.

Hiring people “from away” can be a source of richness in the life of your community. Team members from another state or even country can add a tremendous amount to your ministry because, by definition, they add cultural diversity to your organization.

However, over time people will generally move back toward where they are from. Family is a strong pull for people over the long arch of their lives. In fact, on average people live only 18 miles away from their parents during their adult years of life.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be hiring people from far away, but just be aware that the stress these individuals put on themselves is abnormal behavior and might result in them opting to move closer to home in the long run.

6. Hire chemistry and character. Develop competency.

You’re going to spend at least 2,000 hours a year around these people; so, ensuring that these are solid relational fits is important. Although you don’t want your staff team to feel like a “frat house,” it should be a fun and enjoyable experience to be a part of.

Moral failures because of character flaws are a more common reason for ministry implosions than ineffective or incompetent leadership. Make sure that through the hiring process you probe the character side of the candidate. Find ways to explore the subtler side of what it means to work in a ministry.

What we “do” in the ministry isn’t rocket science and can be developed while someone serves with your ministry; however, chemistry and character are typically more fixed traits and will settle out over time.

7. “Really wanting to work at the church” isn’t a qualification.

I’ve been easily flattered (and ultimately fooled) by candidates who are really excited to work at our church. Their enthusiasm is infectious when I’m meeting with them and I find myself wanting to work with them simply because they want to work with me. Please resist this pitfall! Enthusiasm for the mission and community of the church is needed, but it’s not an overarching qualification that should blind you to the other aspects of the candidate’s background.

Often times, this sort of enthusiasm will be even more evident in candidates who are considering joining your church from marketplace roles. You need to explore this particular enthusiasm closely because often it’s rooted in a love for what the church “does”; however, working within the ministry is a much different experience than benefiting from the ministry. Everyone loves the sausage but not particularly the sausage factory!

8. Hire ministry leaders, not ministry doers.

What are you actually looking for your staff to accomplish in your ministry? It’s important that you are crystal clear on the objectives you are looking to fulfill through this role. My firm conviction is that every staff member needs to be leading the ministry and not just directly doing the ministry. We’re hiring people who can mobilize, train and release volunteers into the ministry rather than them doing the work directly. You are hiring ministry leaders, not ministry doers! Paul said it clearly in his letter to the Ephesian church:

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[a] and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

– Ephesians 4:11-12

As you are interviewing candidates, focus on the information they provide about the teams they built and leaders they equipped rather than what they did personally. You’re looking for leaders who can scale their impact through leading teams of people to reach the ministry goals and objectives. Don’t get caught being overly impressed with people who tell you harrowing personal stories of their one-on-one impact on the people your church is serving.

This article originally appeared here.

3 Church Leaders Share their Testimonies of Deliverance from Same-Sex Attraction

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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September 15, 2017

There are many reasons why church leaders fail to reach out to folks who struggle with same-sex attraction. We may be afraid of being labeled hateful, we may feel out of our depth, or (and this is the most painful reason) we may have bought into the lie that same-sex attraction is something a person can’t overcome.

Rosaria Butterfield, Sam Allberry, and Jackie Hill Perry have all struggled with same-sex attraction—or still struggle with it today. But instead of being defined by their struggles, these leaders are now known for their commitment to Jesus Christ and the advancement of the gospel. Each of them has a powerful testimony of God’s deliverance.

Rosaria Butterfield

Rosaria is a writer, a pastor’s wife, mother, and a former professor at Syracuse University. She is the author of “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into the Christian Faith”. She engaged in a lesbian lifestyle from the age of 26 to 36 and worked to advance LGBT rights. God saved her in 1999, and she testifies that while her heart and her mind were changed immediately, her struggle with same-sex attraction did not. Butterfield explains that she wasn’t converted out of homosexuality, she was converted out of unbelief. Her story is a powerful display of the gospel of Jesus Christ and gives insight into how a church can reach out to those struggling with homosexuality.

Watch more here.

Sam Allberry

Sam is the author of “Is God anti-gay?”. He is a pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Maidenhead, UK. He lives a celibate single lifestyle, but also currently struggles with same-sex attraction. Allberry’s testimony can help church leaders who don’t know what it’s like to face this struggle on a daily basis. Sam’s powerful and open testimony gives Jesus all the glory in keeping him from succumbing to temptation.

Jackie Hill Perry

Jackie is an artist, writer, wife, and mother. Her writing is featured in the Washington Times, The Gospel Coalition, and Desiring God. Jackie was molested at a very young age, which led her into a lifestyle of homosexuality. Knowing it was a sin because of her cursory knowledge of Scripture, she explains that she still made a choice to live a life that pursued other women. While she was watching television one day, Jackie heard God tell her that “She [her partner] was going to be the death of you.” In her testimony, she says that “God wasn’t just convicting her of homosexuality but sin…period.” Her story is a powerful example of how God pursues His children. He is just waiting for us to answer Him.

Watch more here.

This is just an introduction to these three important Christian leaders. The hope is that it encourages you to dig deeper into their testimonies of how Christ has saved their souls. All three of them recently signed the Nashville Statement, which speaks directly against a lifestyle that is and was more real to them than it will be to most of us.

Brothers and sisters, I share these testimonies to encourage you, as you lead congregations and evangelize your community, to reach out to those who struggle with same-sex attraction. Don’t be afraid to love them and invite them into the Kingdom. You never know what a simple act of kindness may do or the offer of friendship may give.

After hearing so many negative stories, we can be tempted to think that same-sex attraction is an insurmountable thing that one just can’t overcome. As we see in Allberry’s testimony, it may be something a person struggles with for the rest of his or her life. But here is the point: It’s much better for someone to face that struggle with Jesus than without him. As Allberry says at the conclusion of his testimony, “It’s never bad deal to follow Jesus.”

Who can you reach out to today?

Megan Briggs contributed to this article.

How to Help Rookie and Veteran Group Leaders

By

Mark A. Howell

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September 14, 2017

HELP YOUR NEW AND EXPERIENCED SMALL GROUP LEADERS THIS FALL

There are a few things you can do to help your newest leaders and your most experienced leaders this fall.

Help them choose the right study for their group.

Obviously, if you’re launching a church-wide campaign you’ll be encouraging all of your group leaders to use the study that goes with it. Keying on getting the most out of the weekend series and the importance of having the same conversation as everyone else will help them say yes to setting aside any previous plans and joining in.

If your church isn’t doing a church-wide campaign, give some thought to a few well-selected titles and point experienced leaders in the right direction. (Three to five is a good short list. The more you add the harder it is for them to choose.) It’s easy if you use RightNow Media. It’s just as easy to put together an email with a list of three to five ideas.

Remember, the newer the group, the fewer choices the better (I choose the launching study and the follow up study for our new groups). When they get to their third study, I begin to give them three to five to choose from.

Bring your coaches into the loop on the studies you are recommending. They can be much more helpful when they’re recommending the same studies.

Help them add new members to their group.

While I don’t recommend match-making or taking responsibility to resupply experienced leaders with new members to fill up their groups, I want to do what I can to help experienced leaders and new leaders learn to “fish for themselves.”

Our new leader orientation materials include the handout, Top 10 Ways to Find New Members for Your Group. We also send the article out to experienced group leaders on an annual basis.

This is also an area your coaches should be trained in, as it is one of the most common skills new leaders need to learn.

Help them think logistically about when to start new studies.

This may not come naturally to all of your group leaders (new and experienced), but it should at least be an acquired skill for you. In light of holidays, school schedules, and the natural rhythms of your church and community, there are often train wrecks lurking that are avoidable.

Give them ideas for group serving opportunities.

Serving together is a great community-building activity. If your church already has a set of local partners (shelters, food banks, etc.), take advantage of it. If you don’t, you might recruit a team to investigate opportunities in your area and build your own list.

Many churches establish an expectation that groups would find two to four serving opportunities every year and build that into the normal activities of their groups.

Give them ideas for fun things they can do together.

Some groups will come up with fun things to do together without any help from you. Others? They just need a little help.

Providing a short list of fun activities they can do together and then teaching them how to build it into their routine will help keep things fresh and give them built-in opportunities to invite unconnected friends to join in.

This article originally appeared here.

“Please” and “Thank You”

“I’m Sorry”

“I Love You”

“I’m Praying for You”

What It Means to Grieve the Holy Spirit

Seven indicators of a dysfunctional team:

What Fans Are Saying About The Handmaid’s Tale

Extremist Bible Interpretation in The Handmaid’s Tale

More Extremist Interpretations of Bible Verses in The Handmaid’s Tale

Other Religious Terminology in The Handmaid’s Tale

Is The Handmaid’s Tale Biblical?

Conversion to Christianity

His Ministry

Important Qualities of a Small Church

1. Uniqueness

2. Agility

3. Intimacy

1) Purpose is just as important as talent.

2) Make sure they’re in the right seats on the bus.

3) Know which ones are locked into the rules and which are more flexible.

4) Be careful of employees who are building their own empire inside your organization.

IMMEDIATELY I THRUST MY CREDIT CARD INTO MY WIFE’S HANDS, ASSURING HER SHE WAS ACTUALLY BETTER OFF WITHOUT ME AND MADE A BEELINE TO THE DOOR.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT LIFE WITH GOD SHOULD BE LIKE—INTERACTIVE, ENGAGING AND PERSONAL.

“Is the Jesus I talk about safely boxed and neatly placed on the shelf of history, or is He out of the box—close and accessible to the children I teach?”

He commanded them, “Let the children come to Me and do not forbid them.”

Humility Defined Biblically

Missing Out on Grace Received

Missing Out on Grace Given

Tattoo Church: A Risky Expression?

Grandma’s New Ink

Leadership Slinkies

Why Being a Pastor Is Hard

Secret Pain of Pastors: Discouragement Factor

Secret Pain of Pastors: The Loneliness Factor

Why the Pervasive Discouragement and Loneliness?

Spiritual warfare.

Unrealistic expectations.

8 Truths When Hiring Church Staff

1. Past performance is the best indicator of future reality.

2. Anybody is not better than nobody.

3. Internal to consolidate culture. External to change culture.

4. Staff expands.

5. People move toward where they are from.

6. Hire chemistry and character. Develop competency.

7. “Really wanting to work at the church” isn’t a qualification.

8. Hire ministry leaders, not ministry doers.

Rosaria Butterfield

Sam Allberry

Jackie Hill Perry

HELP YOUR NEW AND EXPERIENCED SMALL GROUP LEADERS THIS FALL

Help them choose the right study for their group.

Help them add new members to their group.

Help them think logistically about when to start new studies.

Give them ideas for group serving opportunities.

Give them ideas for fun things they can do together.

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