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Christian Children’s Book Author Announces He’s Gay; Getting Divorced

By
Jesse T. Jackson
-
Matthew Paul Turner
Screengrab Facebook @Matthew Paul Turner

Christian author and former CCM magazine editor Matthew Paul Turner announced on Facebook last week that he is ending his marriage of 16 years to his wife Jessica Turner because he is gay; the couple have three children together. Turner is the the author of over 16 books and is most known for his 2019 release “When I Pray for You“ which is a Today, Publisher’s Weekly, and Wall Street Journal bestseller. His bedtime family favorite “When God Made You“ was an Evangelical Christian Publishing Association Bestseller and was endorsed by Grammy Award winning artist Amy Grant.

Matthew Paul Turner Says Being Gay Isn’t a ‘new discovery’

Turner explains in his Facebook post that “Being gay isn’t a new discovery for me. However, as someone who spent 30+ years in fundamentalist/evangelical churches, exploring God through conservative theologies, I’ve lived many days overwhelmed by fear, shame, and self-hatred. Though my own faith evolved long ago to become LGBTQ+ affirming, my journey toward recognizing, accepting and embracing myself took much longer. He says that, “for the first time in my life, despite the sadness and grief I’m feeling right now, I can say with confidence that I’m ready to embrace freedom, hope, and God as a gay man.”

Matthew says that he wouldn’t be able to say any of this without the “undying” grace and support from the mother of his children, Jessica, who is an author and the founder of the popular blog the Mom Creative. He says, “Jessica is and always will be my hero,” and expressed that coming out to his children as gay was one of the hardest, yet most beautiful things he’s ever done. In her Facebook post Jessica says that their children have taken the news remarkably well.

Turner’s desire is to continue to write Children’s books; he says “[I] am grateful for the support of my publisher Convergent Books. Writing books about wholeness, hope, and God’s love for children is an honor and privilege I do not take for granted.”

In his statement, Turner emphasizes that he will block anyone who criticizes his family, theology, or choices. Jessica repeats the same in her statement and adds, “Please don’t DM or email me right now. This announcement is hard enough and I cannot manage hundreds of messages.”

Dear friends, I have difficult news to share. After much thought, prayer, and counseling, Jessica and I have made the…

Posted by Matthew Paul Turner on Friday, July 17, 2020

9 Signs You Might Be an ‘Information Idolator’

By
Chuck Lawless
-
communicating with the unchurched

If we’re honest, even believers wrestle with letting go of our idols. In many cases, they’re lusts for position, power, or prestige. In other cases, the idol is a controlling desire to be “in the know.” It’s more than simply being a leader in the church who’s aware of stuff, though; it’s finding value and self-worth in knowing more stuff than others do. Use this list to determine if you might be an “information idolater.”

1. You simply delight in being on the inside of leadership discussions. You can’t necessarily explain why it’s so important to you, but you find satisfaction—glee, even—when you know stuff others may not know.

2. You intentionally and strategically develop relationships with the people who are most likely “in the know.” You might even be slick about it – others don’t quickly realize what you’re doing – but you know the information holders by name.

3. You get angry at somebody when you have to learn something only through the grapevine. After all, you surely deserve to know before others do—and someone apparently failed to keep you in the loop.

4. You get jealous when others seem to be more “in the know” than you are. You may not recognize your jealousy, but your feelings toward others are clear; indeed, you might even “righteously” condemn them as busybodies and gossips.

5. You quietly, but clearly let others know that you know stuff they don’t know. You purposely say things like, “I can’t give you the details, but I know that’s not the case,” “The pastor and I talked about that last week,” or “I know, but I can’t tell anyone yet.”

6. You gossip what you know under the guise of asking for prayer. You might, in fact, genuinely want others to pray—but part of your reason for sharing the request is to let others know something you already knew.

7. You want to know what’s going on not only in your church, but also in other churches. That is, you’re aware of the controversies, conflicts, and chatter of more than one congregation—and you’re glad you do.

8. Other church members see you as an information idolater. They’re not likely to use that language, but they still know you want to be the “go to” person if they need to know anything. They watch you work the system to stay on the inside.

9. You’re angered by this post. That’s not my intent, but I realize some readers won’t like these thoughts. If any of them hit home to you, I encourage you to take your thoughts to the Lord.

That’s what I’ve had to do as I write this post, as I see myself in some of these descriptors. I want to guard my heart, though, so please pray for me.

This article originally appeared here.

The One Type of Question That Boosts Discussion in Your Small Group

By
Ken Braddy
-
communicating with the unchurched

Today’s teaching tip is about helping you to ask a better kind of question of your group members. If you lead a Bible study group for kids, students, or adults, there’s one type of question you’ll want to master. It’s the kind of question that can help a group member clarify his or her thinking while at the same time generating more critical thinking on their part while boosting discussion. I’m talking about the one type of question that boosts discussion in your group: the follow up question.

If you ask your group members to respond to a question, it’s a matter of time (probably a short period of time) until one of them responds with an answer that is not quite on target. Or is short. Or shows a basic understanding that could be enhanced.

To help the group member who responds to your question with enthusiasm, but offers a response where you sense there is more learning that could take place, use a follow up question like one of these to help them continue to think about their answer. You can even aim these follow up questions to the group:

  1. “Tell me more about that…” (this is one of my favorite follow up question)
  2. “I hadn’t thought of it in that way…help me understand your thinking.”
  3. “I like that answer. How does it reflect the Bible’s teaching on that subject?”
  4. “Class, you’ve heard Johnny’s response. What do you have to add to his answer?”

By asking a person (or group) to continue responding to an answer will boost discussion and it will also help you refine answers as people begin to think beyond surface responses. Follow up questions won’t shut down discussion, but will take them to new levels. Nor will you become guilty of “leading the witness” questions and making the person or group feel like you are trying to elicit a particular response. Follow up questions can truly help a person think more critically about their response and how it does or does not align with Scripture.

This article originally appeared here.

The Ultimate Sermon Outline That Lets You Speak on a Moment’s Notice

By
Ken Collins
-
communicating with the unchurched

There are two types of sermons—prewritten and extemporaneous. There is no particular value in one type or the other, but there are occasions when it is handy to be able to preach a well-organized sermon off the cuff. So if you write your sermons in advance but you want to learn to speak extemporaneously, here’s a sermon outline that will help you get started.

First, you must develop a simple sermon outline that you can memorize and adapt to any occasion. Assuming that you want to preach a simple sermon with only one point to convey, you can use my favorite outline:

The Simple, Single-Point Sermon Outline

This simple outline easily produces a 15-20 minute sermon. It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that you can certainly develop your own outline, but I’ll use this one as an example.

The Example

The example consists of one or more anecdotes that either demonstrate the point you are trying to make or have a strong parallel to the Bible quotation that is the occasion for your sermon. Begin with the example to awaken the congregation’s interest and to draw them into your chosen topic unawares. This also makes it easier to get started, and many times your congregation will have difficulty figuring out exactly where in your discourse the sermon formally began.

The Thesis

The thesis is a single sentence that summarizes the truth you intend to convey in your sermon. Since the example leads into the thesis, the congregation regards your thesis as topical, relevant and probable.

The Body

The body consists of all your reasoning why the thesis is true. This is where you bring in the context of the Bible verse, the exegesis of the verse, the original linguistic and cultural setting of the verse, and the believability of the biblical story. Draw parallels between your opening anecdote and the biblical situation. This makes the biblical story more immediate, credible and historical in the congregation’s ears. The body of the sermon consists of logical argumentation with an emotional appeal. Since you began with a contemporary example and stated your thesis quite succinctly, you have essentially used the beginning part of the sermon to put yourself in the proper frame of mind for the body, and the words flow freely. The logical argumentation occurs easily and naturally to your mind and becomes persuasive for your congregation as well. When you have finished listing all your reasons, briefly summarize them. This can give the appearance of greater organization than is actually present, and it makes your argumentation more persuasive.

The Conclusion

The conclusion is the same as the thesis except it may be worded differently. Your conclusion essentially vindicates your thesis. It says (in effect), “So we see that thesis is true after all.”

How to plan an extemporaneous sermon

Plan an extemporaneous sermon in the order of thesis, body, example, conclusion.

First, think of what you want to accomplish with your sermon; that is, what truth you wish to derive from the biblical text. Reduce it to one sentence. That is your thesis and draft conclusion.

Second, think of all the reasons why your thesis is true. Talk them out as if you are trying to convince an imaginary listener of your point of view. Try placing your reasons in different sequences to see which order of argumentation is the most effective or dramatic. You should have more reasons than you can use in your sermon: You may forget some of them, you may decide to illustrate one with an example, or you may expound on one or two of them longer than you had planned. Or you might zip right through and have time left over, and the extra reasons will come in handy. You may even decide at the last moment that certain reasons are not usable and must be discarded. The expressions on people’s faces may cause you to expand, contract, discard or add things at the last minute. In any event, you must have more argumentation prepared for the sermon than it can possibly contain to allow for all these possibilities.

In the course of figuring out your reasoning (the body), you have come up with lots of modern-day illustrations which prove you right. Now consider which is the most interesting, intriguing or insightful; or the one which has the most emotional impact. If possible, the modern illustration should parallel the biblical text as strongly as possible. Use this as your example.

Now that you have your thesis, your body and your example, practice preaching to an imaginary listener in the order of Example, Thesis, Body, Thesis. Note that the thesis is repeated at the end in the place of the conclusion. The exact wording of the conclusion will come to you in the actual preaching, but you will be excited at how the sermon takes shape.

You may find yourself inventing aphorisms that you can use in your sermons. People tend to remember and believe something if it is stated aphoristically rather than in free prose, so this is a good technique. For example, you could inform your congregation that all the wisdom in all the seminaries in all the world does no one any good until it is applied, but you’ll get the point across more effectively with an aphorism:

What good is dry theology?
It does not set the captives free!

If you use aphorisms, they will enhance your message, increase your effectiveness, build your reputation for wisdom and edify your congregation. But to be truly effective, they must be repeated several times in different contexts, like the refrain in a song.

How to preach an extemporaneous sermon

Now it is Saturday evening, and you’ve been practicing your sermon since Wednesday. If you have done it right, the sermon came out differently each time your practiced it—because you practiced the thought and not the wording. It is OK to find really neat ways of saying things and memorize these for use, but it is not necessary to memorize the whole sermon.

Before church, practice your sermon in the shower or the car. Pray about the sermon, and specifically that your message may be conveyed. Psyche yourself out for the sermon!

How the sermon turns out

The example is casual, anecdotal and breezy, but as you approach your thesis, your tone becomes deadly serious. The thesis is presented as an important matter, and the body is performed first with rigorous logic, then with growing exhilaration as you become convinced of your reasoning and its glorious ramifications. The congregation senses that you are just realizing the full impact of your thesis and shares your feelings. The conclusion is triumphant and obvious. This emotional dynamic is not appropriate for all sermons but is helpful for most.

All aspects of the sermon should be incorporated into your prayer life, but I have left that out to showcase the discipline involved. You should pray about each step that I have outlined above. Before long, you will be preaching well-organized extemporaneous sermons with little apprehension.

The problem with extemporaneous sermons

I have to warn you, if you are not used to preaching extemporaneously, there is a severe drawback to this technique. One Sunday, you will preach a superb extemporaneous sermon. The response is overwhelming. People congratulate you as they file out of the church. Then a little old lady says, “That was an excellent sermon! Could I have a copy to send to my nephew?”

Replacing a Long-Term Leader: What to Do When You’re the New Guy

By
Evan Doyle
-
communicating with the unchurched

Replacing a long-term leader is rarely easy.  Especially, if you’re the new guy replacing the person everyone is used to.

However, living by the following principles will help you to navigate through the transition of replacing a long-term leader.  The fact of the matter is, you’re not the other person.  This is the problem.  The problem is not that you’re you.  And the problem is not that the leader was who they were.  The problem is that you are not that person. Consequently, if you’re the new guy, you’ll be compared to the previous leader.  It’s natural.  And, it’s ok. Everything from your leadership style, personality, to the way you communicate will be stacked up against the previous leader.  While this may not seem fair, it is completely normal. We are all creatures of habit.  Most people adjust, adapt and get comfortable over time with leadership.  It’s not necessarily that what you’re doing as the new guy is bad, it’s just different.  Different isn’t always easy.  Different means uncomfortable.

A year ago, I was the one replacing a long-term leader.  I’ve learned some things through this transition.

Before I share the tips, I want to share a story to help set the stage. During the first couple of weeks of me replacing a beloved pastor, the gym that I go to was also undergoing new leadership.  The guy who owned the gym sold it to a new group of owners. Without any prompting, I began thinking about possibly going to a new gym down the street. The guy I knew and liked was no longer there. That week in the locker room another member came in and was ticked off because his credit card had been hacked. Coincidentally, he had also used his credit that week to pay his bill at the gym. He, without any proof, linked his card being hacked to using it to pay his bill with the new gym owners.  In disgust the guy said, “If that’s how it’s going to be around here, I’ll take my membership elsewhere.”

Almost instantly, I could sense God speaking to me.  “If you feel this way about your gym and this guy is upset because of his gym how do you think those people feel about their church?”

That question has shaped ministry for me this past year.

By the way, I love what the owners have done with the gym.  Their style is different.  Their personality is different.  Actually, I love the direction they have taken the gym.  In addition, I expressed to one of them how much I appreciated what they were doing and that I knew that it isn’t always easy to be the one replacing the long-term leader.

Here Are Five Tips For Successfully Replacing A Long-Term Leader As The New Guy:

1. Conversations Are Better Than Rumors.

If you’re the new guy, decide right now that you’re going to talk about things.  Plan on having conversations.  Realize that giving others the opportunity to ask questions and share their feelings about you is better than them sharing them with others.  Plus, engaging in conversations gives you the chance to share your heart.  Getting to know each other is a big deal. If you stay secluded and avoid difficult conversations, people will form their own opinions and share them with others about who you are and why you’re there.  However, having healthy conversations will help ensure that the narrative is healthy and that rumors are avoided. Carl George and Warren Bird discuss the importance of knowing who you’re talking to and building relationships with the right people.  They go so far as describing some of these relationships as “allies”.  You need to understand the people that are there have been there longer than you and have made contributions that you haven’t.  They have been a part of paving the way for where the church currently is.  Therefore, do not see them as enemies but as allies.  Value these people. Conversation is the only way for building a bridge between what they’ve done and where you want to go next.

2. Build Trust Instead Of Walls.

What is trust?  Ultimately, trust is confidence.  People may trust that you’re not a bad person, or that you have good morals but they’re also asking, “Can I follow you as a leader?”  “Will you let me down if I put my confidence in you to lead?” I’ve heard it described this way: trust equals consistency over time.  Therefore, you need to be patient and understanding that building trust is a process.  If you’re insecure as the new leader, you’ll demand trust immediately and become frustrated when people don’t convey trust.  In addition, both sides will begin building walls that you can’t see but that you can feel.  You know the walls are there.  It will become a you vs. them scenario.  Avoid this! Instead, do everything you can to build trust.  I outlined five ways to build trust within your team in this POST. If trust equals consistency over time, you must do what you say you’re going to do, repeatedly.  Building trust also goes back to having conversations with people.  Conversations not about people, but with people. The quicker trust is established the faster progress can be made and everything can continue moving in the right direction.  In conclusion, do everything you can to build trust and tear down walls.  When you’re replacing a long-term leader, you need trust.

3. Questions Lead To Understanding

I know, I know, you have vision.  You see the areas to improve.  There are changes that you want to make… And believe it or not, people want to hear about them.  But, they want to be heard too. If you’ll be willing to ask questions and listen, people will be willing to listen when it’s your turn to talk. Carey Nieuwhof put it this way, “when you listen first and speak second, people are far more interested in what you have to say.” Questions can be scary though. What are they going to ask? How will they respond? When someone answers a question, they are revealing what they think and how they feel.  As leaders, we want to know these things.  Allowing others to ask questions creates opportunity to reinforce your vision and values. But, if you’re an insecure leader, you will confuse being asked a question with being questioned.  However, valuing questions can help you solve problems and discover the right answers. To understand what people are thinking you have to ask them.  If you’re interested in asking better questions check out the post, How To Ask Questions That Lead To Better Conversations. Asking questions gives you the opportunity to see things from another perspective.  While what you’re saying make sense to you, it may be taken the wrong way by someone else.  Maybe you’re coming across differently than you think.  Very few people will approach you to tell you when you’re doing this.  Therfore, you need to start a habit of asking questions during this transitional time to ensure that both sides are understanding each other.  If you’re replacing a long-term leader just know that people will have questions about you as the new leader.

4. Process Helps Ensure Stability.

A process is a series of steps taken to achieve a desired outcome.  One of the things you and those you are now leading need, is stability. If you’re curious about how to create process check out Four Steps To Create Effective Church Systems. We have a saying at the church where I pastor, Change is our friend.  We try to always remain open to change and to avoid becoming too comfortable with things the way they are.  However, when changes are made questions naturally arise.  Why?  How come?  What’s the reason? Most of the time things seem to be working fine the way they are.  People get comfortable and used to things working a certain way.  Therefore, when change happens it disrupts what has become normal.  Having a process behind the change will help you to provide answers to people’s questions.  Using a process can guide you in decisions, help you to understand why decisions were made, and how the change is going help. Defining a process for how your church or team is going to move forward while replacing a long-term leader provides security and helps people feel safe in unstable times.

5. Don’t Take Preferences Personal.

Out of all the tips, this may be the one that you need to hold onto the closest.  Don’t neglect the other four, but definitely don’t forget this one either. To illustrate what I mean, I need to ask you some questions: What’s your favorite ice cream? What toppings do you like on your pizza? How do you like your steak cooked? Who’s your favorite communicator? My point is, what you like and prefer is probably different than me. Some people like chocolate, some like vanilla.  I like bacon and pineapple on my pizza, my wife likes sausage and banana peppers. Not everyone is going to like you.  Most people will be kind to you.  Some will become your biggest fans.  Others will prefer some things about the other leader or pastor. When you’re replacing the long-term leader, you will probably hear things like: He did things this way… Her personality was like… His preaching has a way of speaking to me… All of this is normal and ok.

Everyone has preferences and so do you.

The differences between you and the other leader are not determining factors of if you and the new congregation can work together.  The determining factor is if you’re willing to get to know each other. Are you willing to try? Will you work to stay positive? Can you stay open to having conversations? Are you willing to see things from someone else’s perspective? Some people are not willing, you need to let them walk.  Love them. Pray for them.  Be there for them if they come back, but understand some people are not willing or wanting to work together. If you take other people’s preferences as a personal insult, you’ll begin to harbor unhealthy thoughts about yourself and them.  This will halt progress.  You’ll feel paralyzed.  And, carry a chip on your shoulder. You’ll feel tempted to put the previous leader down to make yourself look better.  Always choose to honor the other leader.  Take the high road. The other temptation will be to feel less than because you’re not the other person. Both are wrong and unnecessary.  Both traps can be avoided if you’re intentional to remind yourself that preferences are not personal.

God has uniquely gifted you to lead.

You are where you are for a reason.  You’ll always have room to improve but always trust that God will give you everything you need to lead. Are you the new guy?  Could you use a little encouragement?  Listen to this podcast about transitioning a church. If you’re replacing a long term-leader, hang in there.  Apply these tips and encourage your people that the best days are ahead.

This article originally appeared here.

3 Great Approaches for Engaging Your Church Online

By
Abbey Mahoney
-
communicating with the unchurched

This is such a challenging time as we navigate engaging with our communities online. Below are some pointers to attain consistent and relevant online engagement as you create the best experience for your church and the community you serve.

Consistent

It may seem impossible to be consistent as things seem to be changing by the hour, but the more regular you are with your communications, the easier it is for online engagement.

This could include…

  • Developing a consistent streaming process that will help your congregation feel comfortable and willing to share it and invite others. If you are switching between platforms, it can cause frustration and confusion.
  • Maintaining a fully integrated and consistent message week to week. Parents and kids are all living and watching videos together. How could you create devotionals, spiritual exercises, and crafts or activities with content that prepares families for the main message on Sunday?
  • Creating a weekly email that you send at the same time every week with a rundown of all you’re offering that upcoming week with links and a recap of the previous week.
  • Having one landing page where all of this content lives. This can serve as a one-stop shop. It will help people find what they need and save you from creating multiple links for different calls to action throughout the week.

Relevant

People’s lives are completely different right now and there is an opportunity to adjust your content and serve them with online engagement. Although the statements below are generalizations, they are meant to help you rethink and reframe the types of content you are sharing.

  • People may have more time. Instead of just quickly scrolling, people may have more availability to read further. You can take this opportunity to go deeper with your content.
  • People might be sick of video meetings. Although face to face meetings and services are crucial during this time, some people may not want to watch that daily devotional video. They may prefer to read or meditate on a few passages instead. Creating a written blog post from your video devotional with a few verses could allow users to engage with the content in whichever way they prefer.
  • People are looking for advice. This is uncharted territory and people are looking for practical tips for navigating this time. Your church can offer advice and ideas or link to outside articles and resources on topics like online activities for kids or how to effectively work from home. You could make this more interactive by asking your community to join in on sharing links and helpful resources.

Online Engagement

Engaging your audience might look like…

  • Asking for their feedback. Invite them to share what they would like to see in your weekly services or resources.
  • Sharing community members’ stories. What a great time to virtually get to know the people in your church. Ask your congregation to share a photo and short blurb or fun fact about themselves and you can share on a weekly basis.
  • Building anticipation. Post leading questions and short descriptions of the upcoming message. Use quotes or scripture to help encourage your followers to tune in. People want to know what to expect. Instead of posting, “Don’t forget to tune in this Sunday at 10am” Maybe you can change that to, “Wondering how you can invite God’s resurrection power into your home and relationships? Join us tomorrow.”
  • Responding. There is a lot of online noise right now and lots of things competing for our attention. Don’t just share content, but respond to others by commenting on people’s posts, encouraging them and saying the church is praying for them. This personalized response can really help people feel hopeful and part of the community  through online engagement.

I am praying for all of you and your churches during this time! I hope you are able to see this as an extraordinary opportunity to engage your community in a time where they are actively looking for hope and belonging.

 

This article originally appeared here, also at our sister site, ChurchPlants.com, and is used by permission.

Blessed Are the Influencers

By
Gary Molander
-
communicating with the unchurched

I love the Beatitudes. I love them because they’re rich and thought-provoking and surprising. I love them because they have the aroma of wisdom, whether my heart recognizes it or not.

When I was 16, my friend David accidentally introduced me to the Beatitudes when he told me to listen to the beginning of Rush’s “Temple of Syrinx” on his truck’s in-dash eight-track tape player. I thought it was cool that the girl who was singing would begin a song with “And the meek shall inherit the earth”. Once I graduated from my teenage years, I learned that this line was from Matthew 5. I also learned that the girl who sang it was a guy.

So with high regard for that Canadian power trio, and with higher regard for Matthew the Tax Collector, I’ve written some beatitudes of my own.

I’m writing these toward anyone who has a Kingdom influence over a group of people.

For pastors and bloggers and worship leaders and authors and small group leaders and keynote speakers and breakout speakers and filmmakers. If you have any influence among any group, then I’m writing these beatitudes with you in mind. Each of my beatitudes is part encouragement, part blessing, and part plea.

As you read them, I hope you’re encouraged to be more fully human, knowing that the Divine life of Christ already indwells you richly.

 _________________

Blessed are you when you give a voice to deep questions where any answer seems hidden, for your flock needs your honesty more than they need your answers.

Blessed are you when you speak not just your truth, but His truth, for there is freedom waiting for those who receive it.

Blessed are you who write words from the weariness of your own souls, for in your words that feel like death, you offer readers a taste of authentic life.

Blessed are you when you refuse to take the bait of becoming a pulpit actor, for your authenticity and vulnerability will not soon leave the hearts of your hearers.

Blessed are you when the Gospel strips you bare, for this is the only way it can clothe you again.

Blessed are you when you become less concerned with conjuring up God in your weekly gatherings, and more concerned with pointing to the God who is already fully present; for in this, people are given the only Vision they truly need.

Blessed are you when you serve those who should be serving you, for the heart of Christ is experienced in the water that pours over their unwashed feet.

Blessed are you when you pen words of grace for normal people, for you will then discover how poor and bare and naked and heavy-laden they truly are.

Blessed are you when you discover how poor and bare and naked and heavy-laden you truly are, because those admitted spaces provide fuel for grace and peace to burn brightly.

Blessed are you when you rise up and act upon the God-stirrings that won’t leave your heart, for your actions hang flesh onto a God who is spirit.

And finally, blessed are you when you love and allow yourself to be loved, for this is the only thing that changes even the most calloused heart.

I pray that you go and become as fully human as you can become, embracing all the intricacies that make your personality your personality. The very best thing you can give the people in your care is the in-process version of you. And when you openly offer them this flawed and intimate weakness, God will show His strength in ways you’ve never dreamed of.

10 Tips on Becoming a Great Worship Band

By
Jamie Harvill
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communicating with the unchurched

Worship bands generally rely on developing their song arrangements organically. Even with a proper chord chart, it’s left to each player to determine their specific parts. Listening skills and musical discipline is a learned trait for most players, and unless we as leaders promote excellence of musicianship within our worship teams, the result will be confusion, and we will continue to dog paddle in mediocrity.

To get to the the next musical level, the following paragraphs contain very helpful information, beginning with the all-important 100 Percent Rule, and concluding with a list of 10 helpful tips to launch your worship band into the realm of the sublime!

The 100 Percent Rule

It’s important to set a proper goal or standard for each player to maintain dynamics and musicality. This is best illustrated by using the 100 percent rule.

Using the diagram, we see that when a single instrument plays a song’s accompaniment, the player can make use of 100 percent of the musical landscape: rhythm, bass, chordal movements, etc. But when another instrument joins the accompaniment—such as an acoustic guitar with a piano, for instance—each must adjust their playing to 50 percent of the musical landscape.

When a bass player joins the band, the keyboardist can now focus less on their left-hand playing (bass), and the guitar can now focus on chord placement higher on the neck, away from the range occupied by the keys. Now 33 percent musical space is given to each of the three instruments.

When a drummer joins the band, the other players can relax even more to make room for the new instrument. It’s no longer necessary for the piano, acoustic guitar and bass to carry the bulk of the rhythmic responsibility. Though the rhythm is still somewhat shared, each player must be careful to avoid wandering into the other players’ territory. As a result, each person can play even less: 25 percent each, and so on. The successive addition of instruments will result in each person having to play less.

To hear examples of “building block” playing, listen to the complex harmonic and rhythmic construction techniques of groups like Earth, Wind and Fire and Coldplay. Paying close attention, one can hear that each individual instrumentalist is playing relatively simple parts. But by pulling back and listening to the big picture, interactions between the elements create an intricate, but satisfying, sum total. In other words: A big sound can be created by interweaving smaller, simpler parts.

In all of my experience playing live and in the studio, I find that the three “Ls” of good musicianship are: Listen. Listen. Listen. When a musician pays close attention to what the others are doing, and conceptualizes that playing in a band is more about creating a conversation than each person making a speech, the music benefits tremendously.

Sonic Space and the Frequency Spectrum

Every instrument fills a sonic space within the frequency (or tonal) spectrum. Keyboards and guitars share similar characteristics of tone, so it’s easy for parts to become “blurry,” or covered up when everyone plays in the same space. For instance, when a piano part is centered around mid-keyboard (middle-C), the guitarists will do better to find parts that occupy another tonal space in another octave.

Also, when using more than one guitar, it’s important that each player decide where on the neck to play; one guitarist can play chords high on the neck, while the other takes a lower position. Sometimes an electric guitar can make a huge musical statement by playing a simple part on a single string with a creative effect like a delay or tremolo. Two keyboardists can choose between two patches and create complimentary parts to play.

It’s important to be creative and experimental in choosing unique sounds for each instrument’s part. This will help to diversify the tonal palette, making it easier for each part to be heard in the mix. (Sound techs constantly battle while attempting to mix a band that plays indiscriminately, whose players don’t carefully select well-chosen parts).

‘Knowing God’ Author James Innell Packer Has Died (1926-2020)

By
Jesse T. Jackson
-
communicating with the unchurched

James Innell Packer, more widely known as J.I. Packer, went home to be with Jesus on July 17, 2020 at 93 years of age.

J.I. Packer was one of the most influential evangelical theologians of the twentieth century. Over his lifetime he published over 160 books, and was best known as the author of the 1973 best-selling book Knowing God, that sold over 1.5 million copies and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Packer was born in Gloucester, England on July 22, 1926 and grew up in an Anglican household. At the age of seven he was struck by a truck that resulted in a serious head injury, and gave him an everlasting dent in the side of his head. But more life-changing event happened while he was attending an evangelistic service hosted by the InterVarsity as a Freshman while at Oxford University and committed his life to Christ in October of 1944.

He sat under the teaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones while at Westminster Chapel who influenced his thinking greatly.

Packer was the general editor of the English Standard Version Bible (ESV), and the theological editor of the ESV Study Bible.

A ChurchLeaders.com article entitled J.I. Packer’s Beautiful Explanation of Salvation and Repentance reveals what might be the best couple of paragraphs Packer ever wrote. In his book, A Quest for Godliness, Packer addressed the question “What must I do to be saved?”

To the question: “What must I do to be saved?“
The old gospel replies: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
To the further question: “What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”
Its reply is: It means knowing oneself to be a sinner, and Christ to have died for sinners; abandoning all self-righteousness and self-confidence, and casting oneself wholly upon him for pardon and peace; and exchanging one’s natural enmity and rebellion against God for a spirit of grateful submission to the will of Christ through the renewing of one’s heart by the Holy Ghost.

The entire article can be read here.

Due to macular degeneration, Packer’s eyesight declined so badly that he was not able to read or write and therefore halted his public ministry in 2016 at the age of 89.

Ivan Mesa of the Gospel Coalition interviewed J.I. Packer shortly after the announcement was made that he’d have end his public ministry. Mesa asked Packer to share any final words to the church. Packer replied: “I think I can boil it down to four words: ‘Glorify Christ every way.”

Ministry Leaders Remember J.I. Packer

Greg Stier: I read this morning that #JIPacker died. His book, Knowing God, had a profound impact on me when I read it at the age of 20 while @my_ccu . It’s in my top 10 books of all time. Now Mr Packer no longer sees through a glass darkly but face-to-face. Now he truly knows God.

Michael Horton: Having just heard about the home going of J. I. Packer, I am filled with mixed emotions: joy for him, sadness for us. I first met him when I was about 15. I can’t calculate how much I owe to him, not only his teaching and writing but his godly example. #jipacker

Mark Dever: J. I. Packer passed away today. He was a dearly loved mentor and teacher by many people, including me. His books Knowing God, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God and ‘Fundamentalism’ and the Word of God, & various of his essays are among the most formative readings in my life.

Albert Mohler: I just heard the news of the death of Dr. J. I. Packer, 1926-2020, one of the most important figures in English-speaking evangelicalism. His book, “Knowing God,” came to me as a lifeline when I was an 18-year-old Christian. He introduced me to the Puritans and far more.

John Piper: Why would one of the greatest pastor-teacher-theologians of the 20th century tell me to sneak up behind my wife and whisper in her ear? My tribute to J.I. Packer.

Sam Allberry: Why I’m grateful for J. I. Packer — some thoughts for ⁦@TGC ⁩

My First Sermon As the New Pastor

By
David Swanson
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communicating with the unchurched

I was recently installed as the pastor of New Community Covenant Church in Bronzeville. As a church planter, I’ve functioned as the pastor, but the church decided this was an appropriate time to affirm their call to be their pastor. It was a special service, and I was reminded of God’s faithfulness and this church’s commitments to following Jesus.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. –Ephesians 4:11-13

Thank you for calling me to by your pastor. I wouldn’t be a pastor had you not called me; not simply a pastor of this church but a pastor, period.

I never wanted to be a pastor. I grew up with a mild appreciation for the church but it wasn’t where the action was and it wasn’t what I wanted to give my life to. But during the fall of 2000 I began to realize God’s purpose for the church. (I say began because I doubt I’ll ever fully comprehend God’s purpose & love for his people.): The new temple, where heaven & earth are brought together; The reconciled people of God; The presence of Christ. This I could be excited about. But pastors? Not so much. Why?

At the same time I was being convinced of the purpose and importance of church, I was also coming to understand consumerism as one of the main forces at work in shaping the American landscape. To be American is to be a consumer. We are defined and valued by what we purchase & own. We are marketed to so constantly that we are usually unaware that it’s even happening. We are trained to be dissatisfied because content people don’t buy stuff they don’t need. One of the most devastating effects of consumerism is that we see come others as consumer goods, objects that can be used to satisfy a need.

Here’s the point: Within such a crassly consumerist culture, a culture where people’s insecurities & desires are exploited for profit, within this culture it is almost impossible for pastors to avoid conforming to consumer expectations.

And so, at the same time God was teaching me to love his church, I was observing pastors succumb to the needs & expectations of people who had been formed not by the sacrificial love of Christ but by the selfish & empty promises of the American Dream. These pastors experienced the incredible pressures of our consumer-driven society: pressures to entertain; pressures to market a relevant message; pressures to fine-tune the spiritual sales pitch and close the religious deal; pressures to command respect like a business leader, to heal dysfunctions like a therapist, and inspire happiness like a self-help guru. I have known these pressures and succumbed too many times to count. So while I learning to love the church, and was beginning to discern a call to serve the church, it was increasingly hard to imagine being a pastor.

So what happened? Well, I had some important examples of faithful pastors who helped me imagine a different way to sever the church. And through God’s grace, I came to some understandings that have allowed me to answer the call to pastor. Allow me to share three of them now — summarized in three different words, though you’ll notice that these have less to do with being a pastor and far more about living as disciple.

First: Gift. Paul writes, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers.” Like the other spiritual gifts, the role of pastor is a gift. Paul makes it explicit that the role of pastor, just like every other gift, is for the building up of the community. And here’s the thing about gifts that can be hard to swallow: a gift has nothing to do with worthiness. Imagine giving a thoughtful, expensive gift only to have the recipient, upon unwrapping the present exclaim, “I totally deserve this!” No, gifts say far more about the generosity of the giver than the worthyness of the receiver.

We are given spiritual gifts simply by virtue of our identities as children of God. Some of you have the gift of prophecy; service; evangelism; faith; healing; generosity; hospitality. You have these gifts only because you are loved & accepted by the giver of all good gifts. And this undeserved gift is meant for us to then give away for the flourishing of our community. For the gift of pastor this looks like equipping the church for service & unity as we grow toward Christ.

The beautiful thing about God’s gifts is that they subvert our consumer culture. They are given freely and are free from the market forces that generally confine and define us. I am free to pursue my call as a pastor because the call itself is a gift.

Second: Pastor. The Greek word for pastor is used eighteen times in the New Testament, but only one of those is translated as pastor. The other seventeen refer to shepherds, often to Jesus Christ as our shepherd. The author of Hebrews calls Jesus “that great Shepherd of the sheep” and Peter refers to Jesus as “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” In other words, every person who has been gifted and called to pastor must be incredibly clear that we serve the one perfect pastor.

But it’s not simply a matter of hierarchy, making sure Jesus is in charge. Listen to how Jesus talks about himself as our shepherd, our pastor: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” [John 10:11, 14-15]

There are different words for Jesus could have used for good; this one has the idea of beauty. This is Jesus the compelling; Jesus the beautiful; Jesus the attractive; Jesus the captivating. And why? Because this good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Here is the most good, the most beautiful, the most compelling, the most attractive, the most captivating idea in all of history: The all-powerful creator God laying down his life for his creatures. The strong, faithful shepherd leaving the flock behind to find the one lost sheep. The majestic King of the universe, stepping down from his throne, replacing royal robes with a servant’s towel, trading the crown of heaven for one of thorns. Is there a more beautiful thought than one whose love is so perfect, so complete that death itself is overwhelmed? Evil itself is overcome by the wild beauty of this Good Shepherd.

As a pastor I am called to point to this Good Shepherd. I am not a therapist, an entertainer, a marketer, or a salesperson. No- the purpose of my ministry is to simply point to the only one powerful enough to gather up all of our needs — not the insatiable needs fed to our fickle hearts by a culture of consumption; no, this Good Shepherd gathers up our deep and secret needs — the sin, rebellion, and selfishness that shadows & splits every one of our relationships, including the friendship we are meant to know with the God who made us, with the Shepherd who cares for us.

Our burden became his, as he took it onto himself, the good & beautiful One taking our bad & ugly; the giver of life submitting to our death, even death on a cross. This story is my call. In fact, this is our call. We together, as the flawed, foolish, but reconciled people of God are called to make clear the beauty of our Savior. Our words and actions are meant to serve as a passionate cry to an overly entertained, overly medicated world: Isn’t He Good! Isn’t He beautiful!

Third: Called. I said before that I am a pastor because you called me. And it’s true. I am the wrong person for this job: I don’t like people enough. I watch obscure documentaries that make horrible sermon illustrations. I’m an introvert who gets ornery without regular alone time. I’m not from Chicago. My skin is a handful of shades too light for this neighborhood and my privileges & prejudices to many for a multi-ethnic church.

And yet you’ve called me. You have been the voice of the Gospel of Grace to me: stark reminders that my usefulness to the Kingdom comes not from my strength or knowledge, but from my weakness and foolishness. Your call has reminded me more often that I’d care to remember that the Good news of the Kingdom is displayed not through my by supposed best, but through the insecurities, failures, doubts, anxieties, and fears that are the stuff of my actual life.

We are called to contribute our gifts for the good of one another now; as we are, not as we hope to be. The idol of consumerism tells us that we will be useful and worthy some day — after we get that thing, possess that person, accomplish that dream, fix that personality trait, clean up that addiction.
But God’s call — the call you have voiced to me — is a call to come as we are. It is a call to be known, loved, accepted, and commissioned today. It is a call to reject every false measuring stick, every twisted logic, every deceitful story that leaves us feeling inadequate, unlovely, and not quite worth-it.

God’s call remains despite ourselves. God’s call remains despite unjust laws and stolen lives. God’s call can be heard through the clatter of consumerism, the noise of injustice, and the incessant blare of our own sinful rebellion.

Jesus said that the sheep follow their shepherd because they know his voice. May we hear our Good Shepherd’s voice and follow where he may lead.

Thank you for calling me to be your pastor. Even more, thanks be to God for calling each of us out of the valley of the shadow of death and into the green pastures of life. May we live our lives together, giving the good gifts of the Spirit, so that a grieving world may turn to the Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for us.

How the Fear of Death Forces You Into Binary Choices and How the Gospel Rescues Us

By
Mike Leake
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communicating with the unchurched

“And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery”. –Hebrews 2:15

Here the author of Hebrews is showing how Christ became a man, identified with humanity, and died such a death that the one who held the power of death was ultimately defeated. He delivered us not only from the devil’s reign but also the fear of death which leads to slavery. This leads to a question. How does fear of death lead to lifelong slavery?

I think we get a clue in the Old Testament passages the author quotes right before this verse. He pulls two quotes from Isaiah 8, which is in the context of Isaiah’s “Book of Immanuel.”

The Story of Ahaz

In Isaiah 7 we meet King Ahaz. He’s a young dude at this point, likely in his twenties and he’s leading the nation of Judah. The season in which he was called upon to reign certainly wasn’t a cake walk. Assyria was the big dog at this point in history and they were moving westward. This westward expansion caused Israel (the northern kingdom) and Syria to get antsy. They encourage Judah to join them…but their way of encouragement was to move their troops to the border an flex their muscles and say, “join us or you’re going to have problems”.

We read in Isaiah 7:3, “the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” It’s a scary decision and one demanding the king’s attention. You HAVE to do something Ahaz! On to the scene comes Isaiah the prophet with a word from the Lord for Ahaz. “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint b/c of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands.” What God is saying to him is, “trust me. Don’t do anything. Don’t fight them. Don’t cater to them. Don’t join with Assyria. Just do nothing but trust me.”

Let’s put ourselves in Ahaz’s sandals for a moment. What do you think his fears are in this moment? The big one is likely death, right? Or at least that he’ll follow in the footsteps of other kings who end up getting their thumbs cut off and have to become slaves of another nation.

But there are other fears in there too, right? You know that his legacy has to be rumbling around somewhere in the background. The pressure of him being the leader is huge. Others are depending on him. And he has a reputation to uphold. Does he want to be the guy known for being defeated by Syria and Israel? There’s all those common things present in his heart, I can almost guarantee it. Shame. The things that pride makes you do. Fear of dying. Fear of the unknown. Fear of suffering. Desires for comfort. Desire for reputation. All of that weighs on this decision.

“Trust me,” says the Lord.

What is happening to Ahaz in this moment is that the national question is driving him into a binary choice. Do we join with Israel/Syria? Do we join with Assyria? He can only see those two options and his fear of death is the barometer by which he weighs his options. It is this fear of death which leads to the lifelong slavery the author of Hebrews is talking about. This type of fear cuts off hope because it keeps your eyes on the binary choices of now and blinds you to the gospel’s third way.

You can see this with how Ahaz’s story plays out. God offers Ahaz rest, rule, and relationship and Ahaz rejected it and went after the tangible power of Assyria. So he went into alliance with them. Paid a hefty tribute to them—that means sent them lots of money and valuables. And in doing this he also restructured the temple. Took out elements and put in stuff to the Assyrian gods. He even ended up sacrificing children to the gods of the Assyrians. Cause..safety.

It was fear. We’ve got to preserve Judah. We’ve got to stay in comfort. We’ve got to keep our power. It’s him trying to run from death and he sees that Assyria can help him do it. And Ahaz has the same stuff within him that is present in our hearts as well. That same fear can drive you and I to do similar things. Assyria didn’t look all nasty and have horns growing out of it. It seemed wise. It seemed politically shrewd. He likely even glossed it over with some religious language…we see him doing that later in Isaiah 7. Here is Ahaz trying to get back Psalm 8 rule but it does the opposite. I don’t know if he even consciously realizes that he’s saying, “we don’t want your kingdom, God.” But he does. And he ends up enslaving himself and his people.

How the Gospel Rescues

This is, however, the lifelong slavery that Hebrews 2:15 says Jesus has rescued us from. And so we ought to be people of profound hope because our no longer fearing death rescues us from binary choices of the present.

When we realize that death is no longer something to fear it allows us to have hope even in the present. It would have allowed Ahaz to consider simply trusting in the Lord—even if somehow it led to their death at least he would have been obedient to God. He could still have had hope because he would realize that God’s presence would be with him in Assyrian captivity or if Israel/Syria attacked. God’s presence and pleasure would have been the barometer rather than fear.

We would do well to learn this lesson. We are so often driven by the national questions of each day—and they are gauged by the barometer of fear. Fear of death doesn’t simply mean the fear of no longer having oxygen. It’s also fear of my way of life being taken away. But the accomplishment of Jesus has rescued us from this slavery.

We should live free.

—

And the possibility that many will read this and think I’m talking about wearing a mask (or not wearing a mask) and social distancing and such shows just how far beholden we are to the national question of each day.

This article originally appeared here.

Do Pastors Have Blind Spots?

By
Charles Stone
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communicating with the unchurched

Bill Hull, one of the most prolific writers on discipleship, shared a profound insight that stirred my heart. “At age 50 I found myself successful but unsatisfied. I was hooked on results, addicted to recognition, and a product of my times. I was a get-it-done leader who was ready to lead people into the rarified air of religious competition. Like so many pastors, I was addicted to what others thought of me.”[1] Sometimes I’ve found myself struggling with those same unpleasant struggles Bill described that are often blind spots. I’ve learned the concept below that has helped me ferret out what may be behind those feelings.

A counselor friend helped me understand how our hidden areas influence what we think, feel, and do. He drew a diagram on the white board in my office that psychologists use to help people become more self-aware in their relationships. It’s called the Johari Window pictured here.
pastors - gain self-awareness

You can see that the blocks in the right column picture areas in our lives about which we are not aware. The ‘blind spots’ are known by others yet not by us. The ‘unknown’ is hidden both to us and to others. The lower left hand block represents those areas that we know about ourselves, yet others don’t. If we honestly and appropriately disclose our struggles (the ‘hidden’) and if we humbly seek to become more self-aware (the ‘blind spots’) we will lead and serve more effectively.

Unfortunately, we pastors don’t do so well with self-awareness and awareness of others. As an example, a 2006 Barna research report discovered that pastors believe 70 percent of adults in their churches “consider their personal faith in God to transcend all other priorities.”[2] A contrasting survey of church people revealed that less than one in four (23 percent) named their faith in God as their top priority in life,[3] a large awareness miss for pastors.

Russ Veenker, an expert in pastoral health, told me in an interview with him that lack of self-awareness tops the list of pastoral problems he has seen in the hundreds of pastors he’s counseled. He said pastors should pay more attention to the truth in Romans 12.3, Be honest in your estimate of yourselves. (New Living Translation) He also stated that those who are more self-aware become much more healthy pastors.

Another survey on body care reinforces our apparent lack of self-awareness. The vast majority of us pastors describe our health as good, very good, or excellent. Yet the data from the same body-mass index survey indicate that 78 percent of male pastors and 52 percent of female pastors are either overweight or obese.[4]

Finally, in a study by Ellison Research of 870, Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, noted the difference between how pastors see their own family health and how they see the health of other clergy families. “Ministers apparently have a much more optimistic view of their own family than they do of the families of other ministers,” Sellers stated. “When one out of every twenty ministers feels his or her own family unit is unhealthy, but one out of every seven ministers believes the family units of others in their denomination are unhealthy, there’s a disconnect.”[5]

So, blind spots are something every pastor must honestly face. What is a step you can take to discover your blind spots?

[1] Bill Hull, It’s Just Not Working, LeadershipJournal.net, 7/1/05. http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2005/summer/6.26.html.

[2] The Barna Group, Survey Shows Pastors Claim Congregants are Deeply Committed to God, The Barna Update, 1/10/06. http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/165-surveys-show-pastors-claim-congregants-are-deeply-committed-to-god-but-congregants-deny-it.

[3] The Barna Group.

[4] Rev. Dr. James P. Wind, The Leading Edge: A Fresh Look at American Clergy, Congregations, May/June 2002. http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?q=printme&id=3290, 2.

[5] Ellison Research,  New research shows pastors may not have a realistic view of the health of their own family, July 19, 2005. http://www.ellisonresearch.com/ERPS%20II/release_17_family.htm.

This article originally appeared here.

10 Ministry Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started

By
Brady Boyd
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communicating with the unchurched

I have been a pastor for about 15 years now, and it has mostly been a fantastic journey with some of the best people on the planet.

I did not attend seminary or have much formal training when I started out, but I sure wish someone had told me these ten things in the beginning.

1. Sheep bites can’t kill me, but the gnawing will make life miserable a few days each year.

2. No matter how hard I try, I will always be tempted to measure my success by attendance numbers.

3. The best thing I can do to build and grow God’s kingdom is to be myself and not compare myself to others.

4. It takes a long time to become old friends, so nurture and cherish the old friendships God has given me.

5. I will only have as much spiritual authority as I am willing to submit to myself. Independence will destroy me, but there is power in submission.

6. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Challenge people to go deeper even when the message is unpopular.

7. My brain will always feel like scrambled eggs on Sunday afternoon, so don’t make any major decisions until Tuesday morning.

8. Some people will only trust you after a really long time of proving yourself, and another group will never trust you no matter what you do.

9. Don’t feel guilty about taking a Sabbath. It was not a suggestion.

10. I will never regret spending time with my family instead of saying yes to a church meeting that someone else could lead.

I hope this is helpful to other young leaders who are launching out into ministry.

What are some of things you wish someone had told you before you started ministry in the local church?

Ben Arment: The Cost of Influence

By
Ben Arment
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communicating with the unchurched

Influence is an interesting animal. You can have it with people in certain spheres but absolutely zero in others.

Like how Malcolm Gladwell probably goes largely unrecognized when he walks through the streets of New York.

I once went into awe-paralysis when Chuck Colson walked into my Reston, Virginia, Starbucks. But to everyone else in the store, he was just an old man with glasses from the 1970s.

If you want to increase your sphere…you can.

But there’s a cost.

When I worked at a certain company that owned a certain thought leader’s abandoned properties, we were constantly being approached by suitors who wanted to buy the brand’s dormant influence. They were willing to spend ungodly amounts of money to be the next said thought leader.

And maybe you can buy some influence with money. Like how you’re treated at a casino just before you blow your life savings.

But eventually, you can’t get around the true cost of influence.

It’s the cost of starting from the beginning in some circles.
The cost of not being big man on campus in certain places.
The cost of lunches and coffees and phone calls.
The cost of spending on rather than being spent on.
The cost of lower attendance in new markets.
The cost to your pride of being an obscurity.

Liberty Is Suing The New York Times for $10 Million

By
Jessica Lea
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communicating with the unchurched

Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, is bringing a $10 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, reporter Elizabeth Williamson, and photojournalist Julia Rendleman. The university’s complaint concentrates on an article the Times published on March 29, entitled, “Liberty Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus, Too.”

“When there were no reported cases of COVID-19 in the Lynchburg area yet,” said university president Jerry Falwell, Jr., “the New York Times sent a reporter and photographer from actual virus hotspots to violate our campus containment zone and make up a completely false claim that we had created a hotspot on campus.” 

Falwell believes the paper targeted Liberty because it is Christian and politically conservative (Falwell is an outspoken supporter of President Trump and his wife is a member of Women for Trump). He said, “We are holding the New York Times accountable for their malicious and false reporting and their violation of the measures we took to protect our students.”

Liberty Files Defamation Lawsuit Against The New York Times

“On March 29, 2020, defendants published an article that intentionally misrepresented that Liberty had ‘reopened’ its campus after spring break and suffered a COVID-19 outbreak as a result,” said the university. 

When preparing her report (which is copied at the end of Liberty’s complaint), Williamson spoke to Dr. Thomas W. Eppes, Jr., and described him as “the physician who runs Liberty’s student health service.” According to Williamson, Eppes said that “nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggested Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate.” This information, combined with the article’s headline, is enough to bring a defamation lawsuit in the eyes of the university since it implies that multiple Liberty students had contracted COVID-19 when in fact they had not.

“Not a single campus resident student had been diagnosed with COVID-19 at the time the defendants investigated and published their story,” said Liberty. “Not a single campus resident ever tested positive for COVID-19 after spring break, let alone one [sic] returning from spring break.” The only person in the student population who tested positive for the virus was an online student who was not on campus “before, during, or after spring break.”  

Williamson’s article also reported that Falwell had led Lynchburg’s mayor and city manager to believe that he would close the campus “to virtually all students,” but then decided to remain open. Liberty alleges it is a mischaracterization to say the university closed and then decided to reopen. Rather, the university says it continued hosting some students during spring break and then gave other students the freedom to decide whether or not to return to campus after the break. The university claims it never violated any public health directives and that its position on allowing students on campus did not change. 

It should be noted that the mayor and city manager did publicly express that Falwell had been unclear and that they had understood the university would not permit students to return after leaving on break. Mayor Treney Tweedy said, “I was very surprised and disappointed to later learn of President Falwell’s most recent decision to allow students back.”

In addition to how Williamson reported Eppes’ words, Liberty took issue with her talking to him at all, the reason being that he is not the doctor over the university’s student health services and has no “official role at Liberty.” Rather, Eppes is “the president of Central Virginia Family Physicians, which runs both the health clinic on Liberty’s campus as well as a health clinic off campus.” Eppes allegedly directed Williamson to Dr. Joanna Thomas, the physician who is actually over student health services. 

Williamson reportedly never spoke to Thomas, nor did the reporter make “any meaningful effort to confirm the information with anyone at Liberty.” Instead, Liberty says Williamson belatedly sent university official Scott Lamb 12 questions at noon on Sunday, March 29. Even though Williamson informed him the story would run the next day, it was published online later that afternoon before Lamb could respond.  

That same day, Lamb, as well as Liberty’s general counsel, demanded the Times retract the story. The paper refused and continued to do so in the following weeks, including after the university’s general counsel sent a letter with corrections on April 8.

Churches in Northern Ireland Free to Perform Same-Sex Weddings—Or Not

By
Megan Briggs
-
communicating with the unchurched

Starting on September 1, 2020, clergy in Northern Ireland can officiate same-sex weddings, if they so choose. They can also choose not to officiate such weddings, per the recently enacted Marriage and Civil Partnership (Northern Ireland) Regulations. 

“In line with our calls, we are pleased that the law will protect religious freedom, and that churches will neither be compelled nor prevented from offering wedding ceremonies to same-sex couples,” Patrick Corrigan, director of Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland branch and part of the Love Equality Coalition, wrote in a statement. 

The move to allow church leaders to officiate same-sex weddings follows the passing of a law in January of this year allowing for same-sex civil marriages in Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom. Organizations who led the campaign to legalize same-sex wedding ceremonies in houses of worship include Amnesty International, Love Equality, and the LGBT community in Northern Ireland. 

The Reverend Chris Hudson, pastor of All Souls Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, says the law is “great news for couples who wish to celebrate their marriage in church, embraced by family, friends and the love of God.”

Presbyterian Church in Ireland Will Not Be Officiating Same-Sex Weddings

However, not all clergy members and churches will be exercising their new found right to perform same-sex marriages. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), the largest Protestant denomination in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, issued a statement saying they appreciate that the new law acknowledges the church’s right not to “undertake such ceremonies.”

The new law protects religious institutions and clergy members who do not wish to perform same-sex ceremonies from legal backlash. The law states religious organizations cannot be “compelled by any means” to perform such a ceremony on their property, and that provision extends to any property a church owns, such as church halls or other buildings—not just the sanctuary.

However, PCI is concerned that these provisions do not extend to people in other institutions, such as government workers or service providers who may wish not to be involved in facilitating a same-sex marriage. Writing on behalf of PCI, the Reverend Daniel Kane said:

We therefore regret the fact that these regulations prevent local businesses, such as florists and photographers, from separating their business practices from their right to manifest their religion in practice and observance – protections provided by the European Convention on Human Rights. The same could be said of those employed by local authorities and other public bodies.

In an increasingly pluralist society, creative ways should surely be found to facilitate reasonable accommodations that properly value the role of conscience in the public square. I am thinking, for example, of a civil registrar, who may not wish to officiate at a same-sex marriage ceremony. If such a case arose, surely a local council could provide alternative arrangements to protect that employee’s freedom of conscience, whilst not frustrating the legal right of individuals to avail of the new legislative provisions.

In addition to adhering to a traditional view of marriage, PCI also prohibits LGBTQ persons from becoming members of the church or baptizing their children.

Meanwhile, marriage equality advocates are still pushing the government in the U.K. to allow civil partnerships to be converted into marriages—a move they believe indicates full marriage equality between heterosexual and same-sex couples.

In the Republic of Ireland, same-sex marriage was legalized about five years earlier under the Marriage Bill 2015. That law contains a similar provision for religious bodies that do not wish to perform same-sex weddings.

Ireland, once a bastion of conservative values, has seen some dramatic changes these last several years. In 2018, for instance, voters in the Republic of Ireland decided to overturn a referendum in Ireland’s constitution that protects the life of an unborn child, thereby legalizing abortion.

Protecting Our Kids From Digital Heroin

By
David Murray
-
communicating with the unchurched

Did you know that the most tech-cautious parents are tech designers and engineers?

Nick Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance, pointed out in a recent article that “Steve Jobs was a notoriously low-tech parent. Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers enroll their kids in no-tech Waldorf Schools. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page went to no-tech Montessori Schools, as did Amazon creator Jeff Bezos and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.”

What do they know that we don’t?

It’s that iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug.

  • Recent brain imaging research is showing that they affect the brain’s frontal cortex—which controls executive functioning, including impulse control—in exactly the same way that cocaine does.
  • Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels—the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic—as much as sex.
  • This addictive effect is why Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls screens “electronic cocaine” and Chinese researchers call them “digital heroin.”
  • Dr. Andrew Doan, the head of addiction research for the Pentagon and the U.S. Navy—who has been researching video game addiction—calls video games and screen technologies “digital pharmakeia” (Greek for drug).
  • Hundreds of clinical studies show that screens increase depression, anxiety and aggression and can even lead to psychotic-like features where the video gamer loses touch with reality.
  • According to a 2013 Policy Statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 8- to 10-year-olds spend eight hours a day with various digital media while teenagers spend 11 hours in front of screens.
  • One in three kids are using tablets or smartphones before they can talk.
  • The handbook of “Internet Addiction” by Dr. Kimberly Young states that 18 percent of college-age Internet users in the U.S. suffer from tech addiction.
  • The immersive and addictive world of screens dampens and stunts key developmental processes.

An ounce of prevention

Kardaras has worked with over 1,000 teens in the past 15 years, and has concluded that the old axiom of “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is especially true when it comes to tech addiction. He says:

Once a kid has crossed the line into true tech addiction, treatment can be very difficult. Indeed, I have found it easier to treat heroin and crystal meth addicts than lost-in-the-matrix video gamers or Facebook-dependent social media addicts.

He noted that “once a person crosses over the line into full-blown addiction—drug, digital or otherwise—they need to detox before any other kind of therapy can have any chance of being effective.”

With tech, that means a full digital detox—no computers, no smartphones, no tablets. The extreme digital detox even eliminates television. The prescribed amount of time is four to six weeks; that’s the amount of time that is usually required for a hyper-aroused nervous system to reset itself. But that’s no easy task in our current tech-filled society where screens are ubiquitous. A person can live without drugs or alcohol; with tech addiction, digital temptations are everywhere.

That’s why the key is prevention, pre-emptive action to stop our kids getting hooked on screens when they are young.

That means Lego instead of Minecraft; books instead of iPads; nature and sports instead of TV. If you have to, demand that your child’s school not give them a tablet or Chromebook until they are at least 10 years old (others recommend 12).

Kardaras challenges parents to have honest discussions with their children about why they are limiting their screen access, and also to “eat dinner with your children without any electronic devices at the table—just as Steve Jobs used to have tech-free dinners with his kids.” Don’t fall victim to “Distracted Parent Syndrome”—as we know from Social Learning Theory, “Monkey see, monkey do.”

And just in case you think it’s impossible to rescue your digital junkie, Kardaras concludes with:

We also know that kids are more prone to addictive escape if they feel alone, alienated, purposeless and bored. Thus the solution is often to help kids to connect to meaningful real-life experiences and flesh-and-blood relationships. The engaged child tethered to creative activities and connected to his or her family is less likely to escape into the digital fantasy world.

Four Barriers We Create That Keep People From Jesus

By
Scott Sauls
-
communicating with the unchurched

According to Scripture, the work of Jesus is complete. Because of his life, death, burial, and resurrection, the good work of securing us as his beloved, forgiven, delighted-in daughters and sons is “finished,” just as he said. His sinless life secured for us a new and irrevocable status—holy and blameless in God’s sight. His sacrificial and saving death fulfilled the requirements of God’s justice toward our sins. His death-defying resurrection has secured our future, and the sure promise that we will experience the same.

We are summoned by Scripture to make much of Jesus for these and more than a billion other reasons.

It is stunning that Jesus makes much of us, too.

Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and he died the death we should have died. Because of this, we are free. What a wonderful and humbling reality—God does not treat us as our sins deserve, because Jesus was already treated as our sins deserve in his life, death, and burial.

And because of his resurrection which followed, there is also much work that Jesus intends to get done…through us.

Luke the Evangelist writes in Acts 1:1, “In the first book (the Gospel of Luke), O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.”

Began to do and teach? How could there be more for Jesus to do than what he has already done?

That’s where we as Christ’s “ambassadors” come into the picture. According to Scripture, we are now his chosen ones, sent into the world on his behalf, filled with his Spirit to represent him in the places where we live, work and play.

Indeed, the work of Jesus continues in the world through Christians.

Our calling is to labor, in every possible way, to mirror his ministry and message in our own. We are to live as those who are “full of grace and truth” until our churches and ministries attract the types of people who were attracted to Jesus, and, by unfortunate necessity, draw criticism from the types of people who criticized him.

Gandhi is quoted as saying, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Do We Have to Resume Our Breakneck Speed?

By
Mark Loughridge
-
communicating with the unchurched

Years ago I went to see a film called Koyaanisqatsi. It was like Ecclesiastes without the resolution of chapters 11 & 12. It consists of slow-motion and time-lapse footage from natural landscapes and from cities, accompanied by a carefully crafted score. It opens with shots of deserts, rivers, waterfalls and progresses through images of power lines, to aircraft and traffic patterns during rush hour, to people sorting mail and manufacturing electrical goods, to circuit board patterns and telecommunications wires, to space travel. Wikipedia says: “The frenetic speed and pace of the cuts and music do not slow as shots of modern leisure are shown. People eat, play, shop and work at the same speed.”

As the pace builds and builds the film ends with a rocket’s flaming booster engine slowly spinning earthwards and the word which had been chanted at points during the film ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ appears on screen with its definition:

ko.yaa.nis.katsi (from the Hopi language), n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.

Life at a Breakneck Speed 

I’ve thought of it several times over the last number of months: Life out of balance—that’s what life was before the Coronavirus slowed us all down.

One of the things that I have really enjoyed over the last few months has been the fact that people have time—time to talk, to chat, to catch up.

Even in our own family it has been nice to have everyone round the kitchen table at lunch and at tea—and for meal times not being hurried for me to get out to meetings or the girls to ballet.

Life has been lived at a different pace. And it has been good. More balanced.

I don’t know if you have found that too—but I suspect that many have. (I know for some it has meant working extra hard as you have had to cope with far greater demands. Thank you.)

We have lived life at an increasingly breakneck speed over the last decades. Allegedly labour-saving devices have only allowed us to cram more in. Social media has fueled the need to be insanely busy—for fear of missing out. Stress and stress-induced depression, and a whole new raft of anxieties have been afflicting us.

We weren’t made to live at breakneck speed. And I think we’ve found that life doesn’t need to be lived at it either. We were designed to work and rest: to work—because we are made in the image of a creative, working God; to rest—because we are only image bearers, and not God. We read that after his work of creation he rested—not because he was tired but to set the pattern for us to follow.

Work or busyness aren’t to be gods to us. Yet somehow they are. No one admits to not having much to do. We all like to impress others with how busy we are. Toxic patterns of being the last to leave the office plague work environments.

How do you know when work has become a god to you? When your identity and happiness come from it. Or when your sorrows and despair are dictated by it.

How do you know when your family has become a god to you? When you feel you have to cram their lives so that you feel a success. Or when their success/failure dictates your happiness or identity.

We weren’t made to live like this. Out of balance.

You know how it is with technology—the best thing you can do is hit reset or restart, and all the clutter and files that have been clogging up the system disappear and the device runs smoothly. Well, we have been given a God-ordained reset. Let’s be careful what clutter we bring back into our lives. And let’s not resume at breakneck speed.

One of the things I have appreciated during lockdown is going for a walk on a Sunday afternoon or evening—and what specifically I’ve appreciated is the quiet, the calm, the restfulness of it all. I’ve appreciated that there is no sport on, no shops open. In fact, our gods of sport and the temples of retail have been taken from us, and people are doing what God, in part, intended them to do. Rest.

And so when we resume normality, one of the things I long to see is the continuation of that restful Sunday—to see people keeping the Sabbath as God intended as a day to rest. And to do more than rest, to turn their eyes from the gods of sport and retail and work and family to the true and living God. Because to know him is to find rest for our souls. That’s where life finds its balance.

This article originally appeared here.

Don’t Look for Contentment Like You Used To

By
J.D. Greear
-
communicating with the unchurched

Before you came to Christ, your life aspirations arose from a wrong way of looking at the world, what the Apostle Peter calls the “desires of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14 CSB).

You thought, for instance, that romance was the key. But at some point, you realized it wasn’t quite as fulfilling as you’d hoped. Hip-hop star Drake put it well:

There was a point where I felt like I needed to keep the company of a different woman every night. I was trying to fill a void. But in [those moments after sex,] I’d know it wasn’t working. Those quiet moments are the realest moments a man will ever have in his life. The next day I’d convince myself to do it again. But during that time, I knew it wasn’t working.

So you moved on, thinking making lots of money would make you happy. Then, perhaps you noticed that the people with the most money didn’t seem to be the happiest, either.

You thought you’d find “it” by being the best. But that’s a fool’s errand, too. Just look at Michael Jordan, a guy who is the best basketball player there ever was. I’ve been watching his documentary, and as inspiring as his story is, it’s also clear that achieving everything didn’t lead him to happiness—but to emptiness and an unsettledness.

You assumed that life with you in charge would make you happy, but something woke you up to the fact that it just wasn’t true.

Or maybe you just considered the cross and discovered that if Jesus Christ is true, then the way of rebellion against God leads only to death, and real life is found only from the resurrection. And so you turned your back on your self-willed way of living and surrendered to Christ. You showed that by being baptized, declaring that you were being buried to your old way of living and raised to new life in Christ.

But Peter is recognizing how easy it is to fall back into those old ways of living. You sense some unhappiness or discontentment, and you slip into thinking you just need more money or a different living situation or to get vengeance on someone.

If you’re in Christ, you know that doesn’t work! So don’t go back there. Those old desires come out of ignorance.

About 10 years ago I developed an acid reflux problem that kept me up throughout the night with a really upset stomach. I didn’t know it was acid reflux at first, and I assumed I was eating too much meat or spicy food before bed. I didn’t want to stop eating meat or spicy food, of course, because what kind of life would that be? So I thought I’d counter-balance the spicy stuff with something more anodyne, like popcorn or yogurt. So I had a popcorn or yogurt snack every night for a few months.

It didn’t work.

Eating popcorn and yogurt didn’t help the problem. It was just making me gain weight. Later the doctor told me what the real problem was and gave me a prescription for it. That helped it immediately.

Now, if I feel like I have an upset stomach at night, I know better than to go back to the popcorn and yogurt. My old self didn’t know better (He should’ve, but he didn’t), but now I have no excuse. I am no longer ignorant of the real problem.

In your old life, you had desires that came from wrong ways of dealing with the emptiness in your heart. But now, as an obedient child of God, you don’t have to go back to your old way of ignorance (1 Peter 1:14). You don’t have to believe the lie that you need more money or a different spouse or a better circumstance to feel content.

If you are unhappy, press into the hope of knowing Christ, being like Christ, and being with him one day.

This article originally appeared here.

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