Three Hacks to Feel Better Fast

By

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February 26, 2020

The day after Thanksgiving, I found myself in a panic. For a moment, I couldn’t figure out why. The oven was off; the dogs were inside. All loved ones were accounted for.

Then, I remembered: I was giving a major talk that night. And, a part of me was terrified.

Sure, I knew what words I was going to say. I had written my talk out weeks ago. But I hadn’t prepared myself mentally. I had really wanted to enjoy Thanksgiving, so like any skilled avoidant, I had done my best to erase the pending event from my mind.

Unfortunately, that compartmentalizing part of me had done its job a little too well. I hadn’t given myself time to think, pray, and acknowledge feelings of excitement and nervousness. As a result, on the morning of the event, those thoughts and feelings ambushed me all at once. “Oh, no!” I thought, “How can I feel better now?”

Thankfully, there are a few quick hacks to help you feel better fast.

Have you ever felt ambushed by anxiety or a backlog of pent up emotion? Maybe you’re facing a stressful evaluation at work or a posse of challenging relatives just arrived on your doorstep. You might have deployed your favorite avoidant activity, instead of planning out how to navigate the emotional landmines in advance. Or, maybe you’ve faced your fears head-on, and you STILL find yourself with sweaty palms and your heart beating fast.

You start to feel overwhelmed and anxious, when what you really need in that moment is to keep your mind steady and your heart strong.

Take heart. And, don’t beat yourself up. Here are 3 hacks to help you feel better fast.

If you notice stress, anxiety or panic start to mount, try these 3 hacks to help you feel better fast:

1. Breathe.

It may sound cliché, but breathing deeply for even a few minutes is one of the quickest, most effective ways to shift into a healthier mental state; it’s a simple way to slow your heart rate, relax tension in your body, and send oxygen to your brain. If you find yourself worrying, panicking, or scrambling mentally, start by taking 4 deep breaths all the way down to your abdomen. Keep going for a few minutes if you can, until you notice the tense parts of your body start to relax. Read here to learn more about how.

2. Pray.

By pray, I don’t mean a tension-laced “God help me NOW” whispered through clenched teeth. I mean, as you take that deep breath in, simply invite Jesus to draw near. Or, to be more precise—simply remind yourself of his presence. (He’s already there. ) You don’t have to do long-winded penance at this moment, nor do you have to beat yourself up. You might simply open the palms of your hands as a reminder you’re not alone. Or, look up and breath in, “Lord Jesus, I need you.” As you breathe in that simple prayer, you remind yourself you’re not doing this all on your own. (James 4:8).

3. Move.

Move your body in whatever way that you can. It might be that you excuse yourself and walk into the other room to take those deep breaths. If you are able, take a slow walk around the house, your office, or the block. Do this with intention. Notice what it feels like to move your limbs, roll out your shoulders, or feel the ground underneath your feet. Maybe you reach down to touch your toes or stretch out your arms. Regardless, moving your body is one of the best things you can do to feel better fast. Like deep breathing, it sends oxygen and good chemicals to your brain. It helps calm your mind.

Breathe. Pray. Move.

When your mind is racing, it’s hard to “will yourself” to get it together. That’s when you need to rely on your breath, movement, and the power of God to support you. When you’re tense, anxious, or overwhelmed, these 3 simple hacks provide relief: Breathe, Pray, Move. Try them this holiday season, and let me know how it goes!

This article originally appeared here.

Mom, I Want to Be a She

By

Jonathan McKee

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February 26, 2020

Retired NBA Player Dwyane Wade has been in the spotlight for the last couple months, not for his basketball skills… but for his parenting. His 12-year-old boy wants to be a girl, and whether or not we agree with his decision, his response (and I know I might take heat for even saying this) is admirable.

No, I don’t agree with everything he said, and rarely will any two people agree on everything in this messy issue, but I love two facets of his response that I think we can all learn from:

His ability to pause and gather more information before reacting
His unquestionable unconditional love he has expressed to his child

Before I dive in let me confess, our family dealt with this in the last decade and it’s the toughest thing we’ve ever gone through. And I can tell you firsthand, it has driven me to Jesus like nothing ever has, and He has changed how I respond to people.

Even if you haven’t had this happen in your family, in today’s world you most likely know someone who identifies as LGBTQ+, and the struggle Christians always battle with is our response. How do I love someone like Jesus did without changing my theology? In other words, does loving require affirming? Or is there a way to love someone unconditionally without also consciously or unconsciously affirming the world’s philosophy of, “Just do what feels right.” Or sometimes we wonder, is just loving and saying nothing worse than saying anything at all?

That’s why if a kid we love comes up and announces, “Oh, and I’m bisexual,” our first response might feel like the proverbial Admiral Akbar, “It’s a trap!” We honestly don’t know how to respond.

Gender Identity

But how much more difficult is this when it’s our own child announcing their feelings of gender incongruence (the term the World Health Organization now uses to describe “a discrepancy between a person’s experienced gender identity and their body.”)

Let’s be honest. This is yet another one of those situations where Christian parents tend to “freak out.”

So let’s try to unpack this issue a little bit by unweaving two questions that tend to intertwine so much that it’s hard to differentiate which is which:

Whether or not it’s right to affirm our child’s gender or sexual identity
How we respond so our kid has no doubts we unconditionally love them no matter who they are

For Dwyane Wade, everything became public when internet trolls and critics began questioning his family about his son Zion’s feminine appearance in a Thanksgiving photo. “Why are you encouraging this at such a young age?”

“We will continue to be us and support each other with pride, love & a smile,” Wade responded. It wasn’t long before Dwyane decided to refer to his son as “she” for the first time. Then just a few days ago Dwayne told the whole story to Ellen on her show.

Dwyane shared that Zion came home and said, “I think going forward I want to live my truth. I want to be referenced as she and her.”

Imagine if your own child told you that.

How would you respond?

Here’s that moment we should be ready for as a parent. No, not just gender identity, but also, “Mom, I don’t know if I believe in God,” or, “Mom I’m pregnant”… the list is endless. But the question is, how do you respond in that exact moment?

Here’s where I would encourage parents to consider four helpful practices.

When Gender Identity Comes Into Question:

1. Press Pause.

Yes, you’ll hear this advice from me on countless issues perhaps because it’s the parenting advice I needed more than any other. Buy yourselves some time!

Practice this moment. Memorize a response if you must.

“Thanks so much for trusting me with this. I’m so glad you shared this with me. Give me some time to process this and think about this. I love you so much.”

Don’t discount the impact of your nonverbal. Don’t distance yourself physically if your kid drops a bomb on you. At these moments become even more proactive about holding their hand, sitting next to them and embracing them.

Just don’t freak out. Get yourself out of the temptation to handle it right there on the spot. Most of us will do far better when we have time to pause, pray, and even gather wise advice from scripture, friends and experts.

And let me emphasize again: gather wise advice.

This article is literally loaded with helpful links (over 20 of them) to articles and studies on the issue and how we can respond or how we shouldn’t respond (see, there’s another two). But if your child announces his or her desire to change their gender identity, my guess is you’ll probably want to do as much reading as possible. Here are several books I have on my shelf I personally found very helpful, and I’ll list them in order of relevance to this particular issue.

Books Addressing Gender Dysphoria and LGBTQ

Understanding Gender Dysphoria (Christian Association for Psychological Studies book), by Mark A. Yarhouse
Living in a Gray World, by Preston Sprinkle
Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, by Christopher Yuan
Gay Girl Good God, by Jackie Hill Perry
Messy Grace, by Caleb Kaltenbach

All these books are conservative in theology, but err on the side of grace, love and acceptance for those in the LGBTQ community.

These books and articles bring such a wealth of perspective and knowledge to the situation. You’ll be so glad you pressed pause and educated yourself rather than just responding on the fly.

This is one of the things I loved about NBA player Dwyane Wade’s response. He told Ellen that his job as a parent now was to reach out and get information.

I can’t say that I agree with all the information he’s gathered. And you will discover an abundance of heated opinions on the subject, but while everyone is still debating about this hot issue…

2. Avoid Irreversible Decisions

Personally, when I’ve seen someone identify as transgender today, I think the best thing to do is show unconditional love and “wait it out.” If most parents just paused, resisting the urge to freak out, the majority of kids would end up choosing to stay with their own biological sex…emphasis on the word “majority.”

That’s actually why Dr. Paul McHugh, chair of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, halted sex reassignment surgery at Hopkins back in 1979. Because the majority of young people will actually sort it out, as in 80 to 95 percent “came to identify and embrace their bodily sex.” Hopkins eventually changed their position, attempting to distance themselves from McHugh’s politically incorrect position, and now people in the LGBTQ+ community commonly call McHugh and anyone who disagrees with the surgery a “hater” despite the fact that recent studies still show that 61% to 98% of children will outgrow the condition by adulthood.

Sex-reassignment Surgery Statistics

Sadly, young people who get sex-reassignment surgery have a much higher rate of mortality, suicidal behavior and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. In fact, a study following 324 transgender-identified adults found that after surgery they were nearly 20 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population.

This isn’t a lone study. UCLA embarked on a study recently examining the prevalence of suicide attempts among transgender persons (which was conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality). Researchers found that 41 percent of transgender persons attempted suicide compared to 4.6% of the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide attempt. Here’s where this study (note: which was conducted by the LGBTQ community) gets really eye-opening. Their data showed that if a respondent experienced rejection by family and friends, or experienced any kind of victimization or violence, then those percentages go up. If family rejected them, then 57% attempted suicide. If they were harassed or bullied at school, then up to 54% of them attempted suicide. If their doctor refused to treat them, 60%. The list goes on.

I find this intriguing for two reasons: one, because this is a huge wake-up call to how serious this issue is and how much this group needs love and compassion; but also because the LGBTQ community often will argue that the reason so many people identifying as transgender commit suicide is because of bullying and harassment, and as you can see, 41% attempt suicide even if they are not bullied or harassed, hinting at some other inner torment they are dealing with.

If you dive into research on this subject, you’ll see emotions spewing on both sides and opinions as heated as politics. It’s difficult to navigate.

When I shared my personal story of having a transgender family member, I was caught off-guard how mean people could be. I was actually told from someone in the LGBTQ community that I “might as well physically abuse my family member” because I accidentally used the wrong pronoun. My own family member was actually much more patient with our pronoun “slip ups,” probably because we had been trying so hard to demonstrate unconditional love and acceptance. These critics knew nothing of my life or my situation.

If your 12-year-old son wants to wear crop tops, be called she, or get surgery… definitely wait on the surgery. Yes, it will be very difficult for you to navigate discussions about wardrobe and pronouns. Ask yourself if those are hills to die on (and honestly, different families are going to come to different conclusions on how to handle these specifics). Understand, if you refuse to use a desired gender pronoun, that might just end the relationship.

But hormones and surgery are some of those decisions you definitely can wait for.

You aren’t “hating” them for making them wait. It’s okay to say, “It’s always wise to wait on these kinds of big permanent decisions. So let’s give you some time to think about this so that your adult self doesn’t look back and question why you let a 12-year-old make this decision.”

And in the meantime, …

Helping Wayward Friends

By

Jared Olivetti

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February 26, 2020

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1-2

(Thanks to the Purdue students, whose recent discussion helped me formulate some of these thoughts.)

“How can I help a friend who seems to be falling away from the faith?”

“How should I minister to Christian friends living in sin without any repentance?”

“How do I do this without pushing them away from me or God any further?”

Any Christian who loves Jesus and people will ask these good questions sooner or later. The Savior we love has called us to love each other and shown us what that love looks like. He’s also given us plenty of warning that there are always going to be unconverted people in the church (Mt. 13:24-30) and that Christians can “fall into grievous sin; and, for a time, continue therein…” (WCF 17.3) So most people who are connected well to their church family will be called at some point to the ministry of restoration.

The Bible has lots of help, both in examples and direct teaching, for this important ministry. I think we can summarize the ministry of reconciliation in three points, three legs of a stool which collapses when any one leg is taken away.

3 Ways of Helping Wayward Friends

1. Relationships

If you want to help a fellow Christian be restored to Jesus, building and maintaining a relationship with them is ground zero. Influence comes when relational capital is built. Without a relationship, words of rebuke will almost always fall short. If you meet with a friend to challenge them about a particular sin, but you haven’t shown them any other attention in months, it is highly unlikely your ministry will bear any fruit. If your friend hasn’t seen or felt your love in a while, your first act should simply be to reach out and begin rebuilding the relationship.

This means the ministry of restoration ought to begin well before backsliding comes into the picture. If you want to be used by God to help other Christians return to their Savior, it is absolutely vital to be building relationships with them now. We might put it even more strongly: only those who are living in close friendships with their church family will be used by God in the incredible ministry of restoration. This is part of what Paul means when he says that only “you who are spiritual” should be involved with those wandering from the faith.

Some are right to point out there are times when the spiritual danger is so great we can’t wait to build a relationship strong enough to handle a rebuke. This is one of the reasons God gives spiritual authority to the elders of the church, so they can exert a different type of influence (still clothed in love, of course) in times of spiritual emergency. But even with the influence of authority, godly elders know the effectiveness of their ministry often depends on the depth of their love for the sheep.

2. Prayer Restoration is, ultimately, a work of Jesus and His Holy Spirit.

The shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to pursue the one missing sheep (Lk. 15:3ff) isn’t you or me, but Jesus. At best, we are simply the crooks used by the shepherd to reel back in the wayward lamb.

Thus, the ministry of restoration must be one of prayer. Trying to help a backsliding Christian without being devoted to praying for them is a canoe playing tugboat to an ocean liner. Pray often for them and follow the apostles’ example in letting them know that you’re praying for them and what you’re praying for them.

Pray, too, for yourself. If Paul needed prayer to speak clearly the gospel mystery of Christ (Col. 4:4), how much more ought we to pray that we would be spiritual enough (Gal. 6:1), have words “good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29), have lips that “feed many” (Pro. 10:21), and that we would know so much of the love of Christ, being filled with the “fullness of God,” so that love couldn’t help but pour out into our conversations (Eph. 3:18). Finally, pray for the log to be taken out of your eye (Mt. 7:3-5)—nothing else will help you approach your Christian friend with sincere humility than knowing you are every bit the sinner they are.

If you aren’t going to be committed to prayer as part of your ministry of restoration, just stay home. More positively, the more you give yourself to pray for wandering Christians, the more you can expect to have a front-row seat to the amazing work of the Holy Spirit.

3. God’s Word

The final, vital part of ministering to wandering Christians is the Bible. God’s Word has power we don’t have. We need Scripture, not only to inform how we do the ministry of reconciliation and restoration but also as the main substance of that ministry.

With shame, I think back on how often I met with someone in spiritual danger, tearfully pleading with them to return to Christ, giving them spiritual insights, promising help, developing ideas…yet how I forgot to open the Bible. Or how I tried to end the conversation with a Word from God rather than putting that Word at the beginning, middle and end.

Jared’s words might be good and right, but there’s no power in them. There’s also no promises attached to them. God’s Word, however, is not only good and right but powerful. Not only powerful but comes with great promise:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11

If you want to help a wayward friend be restored to Jesus, be ready to bring Jesus’ Word to your friend. Study the Scriptures, learn the gospel backward and forward, memorize helpful passages, plan what Bible stories you might read with them, and be bold – the gospel is God’s power for salvation and His Word is the Spirit’s sword to get into the parts of the soul completely inaccessible to us. (I recommend reading and using David Helm’s excellent One to One Bible Reading as an outline of what it looks like to minister God’s Word to someone else.)

These are the three pieces of the ministry of restoration: build a relationship of love, pray like it all depends on the Spirit’s power (because it does), and make God’s Word central to each conversation. May God bless our meager efforts on behalf of the sheep Jesus died to save!

This article originally appeared here.

7 Questions to Help Develop Strengths, Not Weaknesses

By

Mike Mack

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February 25, 2020

Ask someone to name their weaknesses, and they fire off a laundry list of shortcomings without hesitation. But ask what they’re good at, and many tend to struggle for an answer. People struggle to identify their strengths for two reasons:

1. They’re embarrassed. Insecurities can keep us from admitting when we’re good at something.

2. They don’t recognize it as a strength. It’s easy for to see others strengths, but it’s not always easy to see our own. Sometimes we’re good at something naturally, and for that reason we’re unaware that they are good at it. A few months ago a friend mentioned a strength he had observed in my leadership. It caught me off-guard, because it was a behavior I knew it was something I did, but never considered to be a strength. Because he pointed it out, I now try to develop and practice this more intentionally.

It’s tempting when doing leadership development to identify weakness and try to help them grow from a three to an eight. But your time will be much better invested if you help the leader develop his or her strengths.

Try this exercise next time you meet with one of your staff members or someone you’re developing. Ask the following questions:

Name 5 to 7 projects or goals you’ve been working on for the past four weeks. Write a list on the whiteboard.
Where have you felt surges of energy during the past four weeks? What were you doing when you felt it?
What fruit or results have you seen in the past four weeks? What are the specific things you did to contribute to that outcome?
To what do you attribute those results, be specific? What response have you seen from others as you did this work?
Reverse engineer what you did well. Think about what you did well and why. Write down the skills you used to accomplish those things.
What do you learn about your strengths from these observations?
What are two or three things that you can put into practice over the next 30 days to sharpen that strength?

When you take someone through this process, there are three outcomes.

- They will develop their strengths
- They will begin to use the strengths with more intentionality.
- It will increase their ability to develop others in that particular strength area.

7 Reasons Your Church Isn’t Reaching the Lost in Its Own Backyard

By

Greg Stier

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February 25, 2020

For a decade of my life I was privileged to lead a church that was very effective at reaching the lost. Through prayer, hard work and a relentless Gospel focus, we experienced strong growth primarily due to new believers being added to our church roles. During that time God taught me many hard and valuable lessons that have stuck with me to this day.

In the 15 years since being a pastor, I’ve been blessed to lead a ministry called Dare 2 Share, a ministry that focuses on equipping teenagers to share the Gospel with their peers. In this time, I’ve talked to thousands of youth leaders and preached at many churches, both big and small, across the nation. And I’ve noticed a pattern in these churches … most of them are not effectively reaching the lost with the Gospel in their own communities.

Sure, many of them are effective at other things … teaching God’s Word, taking care of the poor, supporting overseas mission work, creating opportunities for believers to use their spiritual gifts, etc. But most are not truly effective at reaching the lost in their own backyards.

After countless conversations with church leaders and firsthand observations of innumerable Sunday morning services, I’m convinced there are seven reasons why this is the case …

1. They’ve lost their “Gospel urgency.”

In the average church, there is not a “whatever it takes” mentality when it comes to reaching the lost with the hope of Jesus Christ. There is not a sense of urgency that flows from the reality of hell for those who don’t hear and believe the message of the Gospel.

Sometimes this lack of urgency flows out of a theological construct that causes some church goers to conclude that “it’s all up to God anyway.” Sometimes it flows out of a lack of understanding of the mission and mandate Jesus left for us all in Matthew 28:19when he commissioned his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

Whatever the reason for this lack of urgency, church leaders need to help their congregations hear the call from above (the Great Commission), the whisper from within (compassion) and the scream from beneath (reality of hell) so that the Holy Spirit can re-ignite their people’s passion to reach the lost.

2. The leadership doesn’t model it.

As someone once said, “No tears in the eyes of the writer, no tears in the eyes of the reader.” What’s true of writing is true of evangelism in the local church. If the pastor, associate pastor, youth pastor and the rest of the church leadership don’t have broken hearts for the lost and aren’t engaging in Gospel conversations with family, friends, neighbors, baristas, etc. then neither will their congregations.

Jesus said in Luke 6:40: The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. Bible studying pastors have Bible studying congregations. Program driven pastors have program driven congregations. Evangelizing pastors have evangelizing congregations.

This begs the question that if someone does not lead people to Christ should they be a church leader at all? To follow Jesus, according to Jesus’ own words in Matthew 4:19, will inevitably result in “fishing for people” (aka “evangelism“). So if we are not fishing for people through evangelism, are we really following Jesus? Hmmm …

Preaching Advice You Don’t Often Hear: “Make ‘Em Laugh”

By

Bob Hostelter

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February 25, 2020

I enjoyed two fine sermons yesterday, one by my pastor, Rob King, at Cincinnati Vineyard Church, and the other via podcast by Erwin McManus of Mosaic LA. Both made me laugh numerous times, and both got their points across splendidly.

Those two preachers’ highly effective use of humor reminded me of this recent post from one of the blogs I subscribe to, the Junia Project, on “5 Reasons Not to Use Gender-Based Jokes in the Pulpit”—you know, jokes about women spending money or men being clueless, that sorta thing. Read it, please. It’s an excellent post.

Humor is a must for good preaching. It disarms, engages and reinforces a good preacher’s points. But only good humor. What do I mean by “good humor” (insert ice cream joke here)?

Humor that clarifies (rather than confuses)

I love wordplay. I enjoy humor that makes me think. But some humor can be so “sophisticated” (or obtuse) as to confuse or—even worse—make the listener feel stupid, which is always a failed attempt at humor. Inside jokes (that only someone in your denomination or someone who’s been around your church for a while would understand) almost always confuse rather than clarify.

Humor that builds bridges (rather than burning them)

This is why self-deprecating humor is the best. It helps people identify with you. It helps them like you. And, at its best, helps them laugh at themselves because they are a little bit like you.

Humor that unites (rather than dividing)

I once used a metaphor in a message, saying that something was as “rare as a Baptist in a liquor store.” I thought it was a safe reference, as most people could appreciate that Baptists don’t (or shouldn’t) frequent liquor stores. But one woman in the room took offense at the mental image of a Baptist in a liquor store. Upon reflection, I had to admit she was right. I wasn’t a Baptist; she was (though attending my church … perhaps until that moment).

Humor that respects (rather than ridicules)

This is another reason self-deprecating humor works. However, even when telling stories on ourselves, there is a limit. “Good” humor in a sermon is that which doesn’t ridicule or disrespect anyone—including the preacher, if he or she is the butt of the joke.

Humor that makes the point (rather than the joke) the point

In both of the sermons I heard yesterday, I took notes. And I didn’t note the humor, I recorded the excellent points—and supporting scripture and ringing statements—the preacher made. As the Junia Project blog post said, if people talk about your humor on the drive home or around the dinner table, your humor failed; you want them to talk about the life-changing truth you shared, not the momentary laugh they enjoyed.

What do you say, preachers? What have I left out? What would you add? Or subtract? Or improve?

God’s Instruction Manual to the World

By

Toni Ridgaway

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February 25, 2020

Derwin Gray shares a powerful challenge to the church about living and loving as an example to the world.

Tech is Benign, Right? (Well, Not So Fast)

By

James Emery White

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February 25, 2020

Tech is benign, right? Wrong. As an article from The New York Times put it: “The medical profession has an ethic: First, do no harm. Silicon Valley has an ethos: Build it first and ask for forgiveness later.”

As a result, Harvard University and M.I.T. are offering a new course on the ethics and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s about time.

Tech is benign, right? Wrong. As I wrote in an earlier blog this year, when it comes to AI, almost all agree that the goal should not be undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence. The main concern isn’t with robots, but with intelligence itself — intelligence whose goals are destructive. As Max Tegmark, author of Life 3.0: Being Human in an Age of Artificial Intelligence notes: “we might build technology powerful enough to permanently end [social] scourges – or to end humanity itself. We might create societies that flourish like never before, on Earth and perhaps beyond, or a Kafkaesque global surveillance state so powerful that it could never be toppled.”

Inherent within this is outsourced morality. Is tech benign? Here’s a simple example: a self-driving car faces a life-and-death situation. Swerve away from hitting a pedestrian or save the life of the occupants in the car. It can and will decide, but on what basis? As we grow in our dependence on AI, we will increasingly allow it to make our decisions for us, and that includes ethical ones. The more AI is able to think independently, the more we will have to face where we limit its autonomy.

If we are even able to.

The progression is frightening:

Step 1: Build human-level AGI (artificial general intelligence).
Step 2: Use this AGI to create superintelligence.
Step 3: Use or unleash this superintelligence to take over the world.

Again, Tegmark: “Since we humans have managed to dominate Earth’s other life forms by outsmarting them, it’s plausible that we could be similarly outsmarted and dominated by superintelligence.”

Tech is benign, right? Wrong.Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told the National Governors Association last fall that his exposure to AI technology suggests it poses “a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.” Cosmologist Stephen Hawking agreed, saying that AI could prove to be “the worst event in the history of civilization.” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, however, calls such talk “irresponsible.”

No wonder it has been called the most important conversation of our time. Whether it proves to be or not, it is certainly a conversation that has Christian minds informed and engaged.

And thinking.

Let’s welcome Harvard and M.I.T. to the party.

This article originally appeared here, and is used by the author’s kind permission.

5 Ways to Shorten Your Sermon

By

Peter Mead

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February 25, 2020

When you’re preaching, the clock is ticking. In one setting, you may have 20 minutes; in another, you may have 45. The reality is, though, that messages expand to fill the time available fairly easily. So it is important to think carefully about what to include. Perhaps more importantly, what to exclude. Where can time be trimmed?

Introduction – Sometimes, a message needs a longer introduction than hard and fast rules allow. The problem doesn’t come from a long introduction, though, but from an introduction that feels long. If you need to go long, give a sense of relevance and a hint of Bible so that the fussy won’t get worked up (sometimes, just reading the first verse of a passage switches off the introduction monitors in the congregation!). However, often the introduction can be trimmed to avoid making the message play catch up.

Illustration – The problem with good illustrations is that you know them well, and listeners will resonate. When they do, you sense it, and before you know it, the illustration has grown. Beware of expanding illustrations.

Historical and Literary Context – Some preachers never include either, and their preaching suffers significantly. However, choose to include what is pertinent and helpful. Don’t give an extended background to the entire Roman occupation when you need to press on with the message. Enough to make sense of the passage is usually enough.

Conclusion – The end of a message can often be far punchier if it is tightened up. See if time can be saved by nailing a specific conclusion, rather than waffling to halt.

Post Sermon – It is easy to add five minutes to the end of a meeting by having a full song and a longer prayer than necessary. Why not let the sermon soak and leave people pensive rather than switching off with a closing volley of church ammo?

If you rein in the message at every place possible, you’ll probably finish on time. If, by some miracle, you finish five minutes early, absolutely nobody will mind at all! All of this, of course, has to be balanced with achieving your aims. The goal of preaching is not the early finish; it’s the transformed life.

How do you edit/shorten your sermons? Please share your secrets with us:

5 Attributes Every Small Group Point Person Needs

By

Steve Gladen

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February 25, 2020

Before you enter the “fall season” and wrap up the end of the year, take some time to reflect on your leadership. For me personally, monthly I look at my personal spiritual health planner and see where I’m at with personal spiritual goals, course correct, and push into the next month. It’s kind of like my spiritual tune up. The same is true for my leadership. I regularly take a deep breath, pause, and evaluate. I like to look at five attributes of my leadership that affects our Small Group Ministry.

Am I taking a risk? Comfort zones can be stabilizing times, but they can also be a barrier to the next level of ministry for you and your team. A good question to ask yourself is – Where are you taking a risk in ministry? When I use the word, risk, I mean, is there a new way you need to do ministry that may be better? If money wasn’t a barrier what would you do? Once you answer that, what are different ways to accomplish that goal with the funds you have? If you added a zero to your goal, how would you accomplish the goal? For example, if your goal is to add ten groups new groups this fall, how would you accomplish this if 100 groups was the goal? So often the mother of invention is found in a lack of resources or personnel. What is a risk you want to take this fall?

Am I working our plan? This seems to be an oblivious question in leadership and prerequisite to accomplishing anything. But I have worked with many small group point people who have no plan other than surviving the week or month. Or if they do have a plan, it sits in a pretty notebook on a shelf. If you don’t have a 12 to 18 month plan for your small group ministry, I would highly encourage you to go to www.smallgroups.net/12 and register for our Global Small Group Online Conference September 14 and 15 called Twelve. If you act now, it will only cost you $25 as an individual or $125 for your church. A small price to pay for a huge investment. So, do you have a plan this fall to connect your people, grow your people, get them serving, see them apply evangelism and to worship unconditionally? What is the playbook your people are working off of? In my new book, Small Groups with Purpose, I outline Saddleback’s plan and playbook.

Am I inspecting what we have?
Proverbs 27:23 tells us to know the condition of our flocks. What I have learned in doing fulltime ministry for 29 years is that people only do what you inspect. Rick Warren taught me a great phrase, people don’t do what you expect, they do what you inspect. For me, this is the hardest part of leadership. I hate meeting with people and making sure the ministry is going as we planned in the playbook. But you know what? Everything drifts unless you keep it on course. No one intentionally tries to not do what you want them to do, Satan just is a pro at getting people to stray from what the most important thing is to do. Question: How are you helping your people stay focused on your playbook?

Am I looking at the horizon? At Saddleback we have a saying – the shepherd picks the next pasture, not the sheep. What is out there in the future for your small group ministry? Your vision can generate the next wave of ministry to help build healthy individuals and healthy groups. Every ministry we are doing in our small groups, and the overall small group ministry, was dreamed and prayed about years ago. What are you dreaming about for your small group ministry? If you can’t answer this leadership question, get some people around you and spend a day to dream. Some aspects may happen sooner than you
think!

Am I trusting God? The biggest part of leadership starts with you! You may say, “Well of course I trust God.” If you say that, the next question is, do your actions reflect that? Do you tithe 10% because you trust God can do more with your 90% than you can do with your 100%? Do you take a Sabbath because you trust God can do more with your 6 days than you can do with your 7 days? Do you trust God by putting His Word in your heart because He said to? Do you trust God to do spiritual disciplines because He said to? What area do you need to work on and improve on trusting God more? At Saddleback, we have an individual Spiritual Health Assessment and Planner to help people work on growing spiritually, thus trusting God more. Want to be used more by God? Work on this area.

I pray you can get your Small Group Ministry team (paid or volunteers) together and etermine how you can build on these leadership attributes and minister better to your area!

Good Worship Music, Bad Worship

By

Tom Lawson

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February 25, 2020

“So, you got your wife a diamond ring for your 25th anniversary?”

“I sure did. Two and half carets.”

“That’s great, Bill. One thing though, I thought you said she wanted a new SUV?”

“She did. But, where was I going to find a fake jeep?”

Accidents and Substance

Gifts of love are wrapped in marvelous subtlety and nuance that dramatically change them. The change is more fundamental than the fabled curse of King Midas, turning ordinary cheap tableware into solid gold with a touch. To employ the Aristotelian language Thomas Aquinas brings to play in his teachings on the Eucharist, we can wholly change the substance of a gift, while leaving the accidents untouched.*

Of course, in my opening story, the joke is that both the physical nature and the meaning nature of the “diamond” were changed in your mind as you hear the husband’s last line. That is, you suddenly thought of the diamond ring as an inexpensive fake (physical characteristics), but you also shifted instantly in your view of the ring’s symbolic nature as an anniversary gift (meaning characteristics): it is a cheap trick void of genuine romantic love. If some man mutters something about it being just “good stewardship” at this point, women have a moral obligation to have that man flogged until he comes to his senses.

The incredibly fluid nature of how this works can be illustrated if we consider the same basic story and change just one element (sadly, it also loses its humor in the process). In this version, Bill does not know the ring was fake.

Bill was fooled by an unscrupulous online jeweler whose website has since shut down. He paid thousands of dollars for the ring that he gave as an anniversary gift to his wife. Only months later, when Mary took it to a local jeweler to be cleaned, did she discover it was not a real diamond. In that instant, the ring also changed for Mary.

In its physical nature, she no longer saw it as a diamond. She could not look at it and pretend it was. She knew and could not un-know the ring was a cheap imitation. But, follow me here, Mary still sees the ring as a sacrificial gift of her husband’s love. The meaning-nature of the ring has not changed. It remains an ongoing symbol capable of both holding and bringing her husband’s love to her.

So powerful is this unchanged perception that Mary’s knowledge of it’s true physical nature cannot rob the ring of its power to embody Bill’s love. In fact, Mary might decide out of love never to tell her sweet husband that he had been duped. In that, she will return his gift of love held in a fake ring by one of her own: the precious gift of not telling her husband the truth about the ring. A fake ring balanced by dishonesty with both serving as conduits of amazingly real love. I told you it was marvelously subtle.

So, in this revised story we keep the ring fake, but change the husband’s beliefs and amount of sacrifice. And, oh my, the husband’s belief and sacrifice transforms the fake without changing its monetary value. Faith trumps the fake. Junk transformed into treasure while still, at the level of sterile reality, remaining junk.

Let’s play with the story one more time. Let’s make the diamond real. Real and very valuable. Worth many tens of thousands of dollars. But, in this version the husband bought it to try and patch up a failing marriage. His wife told him the night before that she had proof of his dozens of ongoing sexual affairs with housemaids and women from work. She announced her intention to see an attorney and get a divorce in which, by prenuptial agreement, she will keep much of the wealth of their marriage. Desperate to keep his affluent lifestyle, her philandering husband rushed out of the house that morning and bought the most expensive ring he could find at the nearest jewelry store.

There you have it in reverse. The husband’s so-called gift has managed to physically be a true treasure while being transformed by the circumstances, into a pathetically self-serving act that does not hold a drop of love.

Unreliable Links

Junk as junk. Junk as treasure. Treasure as junk. Kind of overwhelming, isn’t it? We hold within us the ability to separate nature from meaning, accidents from substance. Because it is so automatic, we easily assume the two are linked.

So strong is this assumption that jewelers can advertise a diamond ring shows a man’s love for a woman. But that’s not always true. The link is not absolute. Change the circumstances, particularly as they reflect the husband’s intentions or the personal cost of the ring for the man, and the same gift no longer communicates the same love.

Now, think about the real subject of this post: the quality of the worship music we present to God when we gather. That’s a relatively objective measurable reality. Great music sounds like great music. Poorly played and sung music, painfully out of tune, is universally recognized as bad music.

In the worship of God, we are all guilty of linking great worship music with great worship. Spectacular praise music well sung by an enthusiastic congregation worships God better than poor praise music badly sung by a small group of people seemingly void of musical tastes or abilities. We know great worship when we hear it.

Maybe. Or, maybe not.

If we think of circumstances where a church hires talented musicians who don’t love God but love performing in church or a church with beautiful-sounding worship coming from hundreds of self-satisfied rich corporate executives who mistreat their employees and will not make the slightest personal sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom, the link is broken. It would be physically great sounding and great looking worship, but, at the level of meaning, it would be bad worship. Every year at the Grammy’s, some awards are given for gospel music. As a part of this, the planners will bring a gospel group on stage to sing a gospel song. Gospel music sung to a whole theater full of performers and professionals in the recording industry who stand, clap and move with the music, and often sing joyfully along. Great worship? You’re kidding, right?

When the Spirit Moves… Isaiah’s Take.

By

Stewart Fenters

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February 25, 2020

When the Spirit of the Lord moves, here is what happens:

The Good news is preached to the poor.

The brokenhearted are comforted.

Captives are set free.

Prisoners are released.

Hope is given to those who mourn.

Our ashes turn to beauty.

Our mourning turns to gladness.

Our spirit of despair is replaced with a garment of praise.

Justice happens.

Joy happens.

People see God has blessed them.

And they are thankful.

We are clothed in salvation and robed in righteousness.

That’s powerful. And mostly verbatim from Isaiah 61. When we let God have His way by letting the Spirit reign, it is good.

Awesome.

-SHF

At Challenge from Pastor, Church Pays Off $46.5 Million in Medical Debt

By

Jessica Lea

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February 25, 2020

A church in Ohio has paid off $46.5 million in medical debt for 45,000 families by working in partnership with a non-profit called RIP Medical Debt. Pastor Brian Tome of Crossroads Church in Cincinnati announced the giving campaign last November, and it turned out to be the largest campaign conducted by RIP Medical Debt to date.

“We’re here to bless people,” Brian Tome told WLWT 5 News. “We’re not here to have huge meetings. We’re here to have an impact in our local communities.”

Brian Tome Has a Challenge for Crossroads Church

Last November, Crossroads Church concluded a six-part sermon series called “The Blessed Life” with a sermon called “The Marks of Multiplication.” In the sermon, Brian Tome elaborated on various financial principles that he drew from the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in Mark 6. One of Tome’s goals was to encourage people who were not tithing to start and to challenge current tithers to trust God more with their giving. Around seven percent of Crossroads Church members, said Tome, were tithing before the sermon series started. To those people, he said, “I want to give us the opportunity to multiply our impact.”

The pastor explained that 25 percent of all credit card debt is medical debt. And something significant about medical debt is that when people accrue it, it’s not because they’re spending money they don’t have on material possessions. People don’t just carelessly waste money on MRIs or chemotherapy. “When there is medical debt,” said Tome, “it’s because there is legitimate true hardship and pain that’s come somebody’s way.”

“Do you realize around Cincinnati, there’s $65 million worth of medical debt that’s coming due?” he asked. Tome then said the church was going to partner with RIP Medical Debt to attempt to pay off all of that money. Those who wanted to help eliminate the debt could, right then, pull out their phones and text the word “MULTIPLY” to 313131. The pastor emphasized that this was an opportunity for people to be aware of, but that if God was not prompting them to give that was fine—it was “just an idea.”

About RIP Medical Debt

Founded in 2014 by two former collection agency executives, RIP Medical Debt is a non-profit that will buy debt for pennies on the dollar. Says co-founder Jerry Ashton, “Our only goal is to see that that debt is taken off the backs of our fellow Americans.” Medical debt can drastically change people’s lives, causing them to go bankrupt and even become homeless. Says Ashton, “You could walk in [to a hospital] having a great job, perfect credit, lovely home, and eight months later, you could qualify for charity.”

The organization has currently eliminated over $1.3 billion in medical debt, but as their website says, “there’s still a long way to go.”

While Crossroads did not raise enough to eliminate the total $65 million, the church members still accomplished a significant feat. They raised $465,000, which was enough to pay off over two-thirds of their goal. Around $43 million of the $46.5 million of debt they erased went to families in the Greater Cincinnati area and the rest went to people in other states.

Rebecca Alcorn was one of those in Cincinnati who benefited from the church’s generosity. She told WLWT 5 that she had forgotten she even had medical debt until she and her husband began the process of buying a home. They were about to start paying off the debt when she learned that Crossroads had paid it in full. “We felt so blessed that the church did this,” said Alcorn.

Brennan Hill, the director of marketing for Crossroads, told a USA Today affiliate in Cincinnati that the church did not announce the campaign on social media: “We really [wanted] it to be about people in our community…who are currently giving.” He said the church also offered debtors resources such as prayer and the chance to connect with medical professionals. Said Hill, “We don’t want this to be the last interaction that we have with them, but there are no strings attached. We just hope that they understand who Crossroads is, what our heart is for the community, maybe set foot in one of our sites.”

What Crossroads has done, said Tome, is live as an example of what Jesus himself has done for everyone. Said the pastor, “This is actually the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ pays our spiritual debt.”

Shincheonji Cult Church at Heart of Coronavirus in Korea

By

Stephanie Martin

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February 25, 2020

As the COVID-19 coronavirus and fears of a pandemic continue to spread, South Korean officials have zeroed in on a doomsday cult, including one member who was a “super-spreader.” Health officials say more than 60 percent of the nation’s 977 confirmed cases involve members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Its founder, self-proclaimed messiah Lee Man-hee, has given authorities the names of all 200,000 church members so they can be tested for the virus.

Lee says the church, based in Daegu, is “actively cooperating with the government,” which reportedly agreed to protect members’ identities. On Monday, after a lead health official there was diagnosed with COVID-19, he admitted he belongs to the church.

Daegu’s 2.5 million residents are being asked to stay home in efforts to contain the outbreak. So far, 11 people have died from the virus in South Korea.

Worship Style at Shincheonji May Have Played a Role

Some people point to Shincheonji worship and proselytizing practices for COVID-19’s rapid spread there. “They are packed together like sardines in one area,” says one former member. “They are forced to sit line in line, and your knees will literally be touching the other person’s knees.” Plus, he says, being sick wasn’t an excuse to miss worship, and wearing masks was considered disrespectful.

Shin Hyun-uk, a longtime Shincheonji member who now directs a cult counseling center, says worshipers sit on the floor, packed like “bean sprouts.” He tells NPR: “A bigger problem is that they shout out ‘amen’ after every sentence the pastor utters, pretty much every few seconds. And they do that at the top of their lungs.” Saliva is a likely culprit in virus transmission.

Shin also points to church evangelism practices as potentially problematic health-wise. “Because Shincheonji members cannot reveal [their identity],” he says, “they make it impossible for others to be cautious and self-quarantine themselves.”

The cult’s 200 members in Wuhan, China, worshiped together until December. “Rumors about a virus began to circulate in November,” one member says, “but no one took them seriously.” Officials are looking into reports of travel by Shincheonji members between South Korea and China.

Cult Members Say They’re Being Unfairly Targeted

Though the group “deeply regrets” the outbreak, Shincheonji leaders say they’re the victims of “false information.” Worshipers must pack together on floors, they say, because the group hasn’t been “allowed our rightful building permit.”

A Shincheonji member in Wuhan says it’s “quite unfair to pin” the illness on the church because “there are so many Chinese traveling to South Korea.” She adds that members are “aware of all the negative reporting” about their ties to the outbreak, but because they’ve been labeled as a cult, “we do not want to defend ourselves in public because that will create trouble with the government.”

In a statement, the church says it has halted all activities and is sanitizing all meeting spaces. Because of the group’s suspected role in the outbreak, more than half a million South Koreans have signed a petition to have it forcibly disbanded. Shincheonji spokesman Simon Kim says, “We’re the biggest victims of the Covid-19 epidemic [and have] become a target of hatred.”

9 Reasons Our Families and Friends Don’t Believe the Gospel

By

Chuck Lawless

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February 25, 2020

Southeastern Seminary, where I teach, is emphasizing “Who’s Your One” this semester. We want all of our administration, faculty, staff, and students to seek to pray for and share the gospel with at least one person during the next couple of months. Based on my years of sharing Christ with family members and friends, here are my thoughts about why folks struggle with believing the gospel.

They’ve never really heard the gospel. The more I speak to people in North America, the more I realize this truth. Within the shadows of our church buildings are people who have never heard the truth.
They struggle understanding the Bible. Even for those who are willing to read the Bible, the content is often new – and challenging. If genuine believers wrestle with interpreting the Bible, it shouldn’t surprise us that non-believers face the same battle.
They fail to recognize their lostness. “I treat people well, and I try to help my neighbors,” they say. “Let me tell you some of the good things I’ve been doing.” “I don’t do anything that’s just evil.” Folks who see no need for forgiveness seldom seek it.
They see the gospel as too good to be true. The story of the gospel really is quite astounding. That the one and only creator God would forgive our sins, make us whole, place us in His family, and indwell us is hard to fathom, especially if the story is new.
They see hypocrisy in the church. “I don’t expect people to be perfect,” a friend told me, “but if _______ represents what a Christian is, I don’t want to be a part.” We may defend the church all we want, but we must not forget that watching unbelievers see the reality in our lives.
They hear other messages more loudly. Even if a non-believer hears three one-hour Christian sermons per week (which seldom happens), he still hears dozens of hours of other messages throughout the week – and the gospel gets clouded in the process.
They’re enjoying their sin. Sin can be fun (at least for a while), and some of the people I know are having a good time. Following Christ, they assume, would cost them too much fun.
They believe time is on their side. Some of my older family and friends are now more willing to talk about eternal matters, but those who are younger have been more interested in delaying any consideration of Christianity. No urgency drives them to consider life and death matters now.
They cannot understand the preaching. A family member told me, “I like hearing _______ preach, but I don’t really understand him.” The Spirit of God helps us to understand the Word; however, we who preach the Word are not there to impress but to communicate the life-giving message of the gospel. Clarity is a must.

I suppose there are few new findings here, but I needed this reminder. Obstacles to the gospel have not changed much, at least in my experience.

What other obstacles have you found?

This article originally appeared here.

God’s Extraordinary Work in the Ordinary Family

By

Nicholas Batzig

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February 25, 2020

Over the past decade, a barrage of articles and blog posts have been blanketed across the landscape of the internet–promoting and counteracting the idea of radical and extraordinary Christian service. Those who have emphasized radical Christian service have done so in an attempt to thwart the complacent, materialistic, self-focused, inhospitable, and unmerciful lifestyle of so many in middle and upper-class suburbia. Those who react to an emphasis on living radical lives of Christian service have focused on faithfulness in the mundane and ordinary aspects of life. They have fought to remove what they perceive to be undue burdens, subtle self-righteous agendas, and visions of grandeur. Tim Challies has rightly explained that there are downsides to an over-accentuation of aspects of either radical and ordinary Christian service. He writes,

“The trouble with radical is that it can foster discontentment in people who are already living God-honoring but ordinary lives, perhaps unfairly convicting them that suburban 9-to-5 life cannot be good enough for God. It can also foster the works-righteousness of people who are convinced God will be pleased with them to only the extent that they do grander and harder things. Of course, the ordinary can foster complacency or the notion that God doesn’t much care what we do, what we give, or how we live. As usual in the Christian life, the way is narrow and there is peril on both sides.”

Book of Ruth

This past week, while reading through the book of Ruth, I was struck with the fact that God worked in an extraordinary way through the ordinary relationships, actions, and interactions of the members of the family of Elimelech. Ruth is the story of Naomi, the recently widowed wife of Elimelech–who, together with her two recently widowed daughters-in-law, decides to return to the people and to the land of God. Naomi is not acting in radical zeal. Rather, she is acting out of desperation, need, and a sense of longing for the provision of God. We read,

“She arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah” (Ruth 1:6–7).

Naomi then urged her daughters-in-law to return to their own families and to the land of Moab: “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me^.The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband” (Ruth 1:8–9). Naomi knew that she had no provisions or sons to give her daughters-in-law. She urged them to go back to their own families. The author noted the response of the daughters-in-law in the most summary manner: “Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her” (Ruth 1:14). After Naomi tried to convince Ruth to also return to her family, Ruth makes that illustrious profession of faith,

“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

And, the rest is redemptive history.

Ruth returned and showed Naomi loyalty, care, respect, and faithfulness. She wasn’t doing anything radical or extraordinary. She wasn’t seeking great things. She was gleaning grain in a field at the counsel of her mother-in-law. She put herself in a low position––both with regard to her person and mindset––in another person’s field. She wasn’t seeking to forge a movement. She wasn’t seeking for social advancement. She simply committed herself to the Lord, cared for her widowed mother-in-law, gleaned in a field, married a godly man, and had a child. Yet, in all these ordinary details about ordinary life in an otherwise ordinary family, God was doing extraordinary work.

Isn’t that the point! So often, God does His most extraordinary works through ordinary individuals in ordinary families–and often begins that extraordinary work through them long before they can see the full fruition of it. The book of Ruth ends with this summary statement, “Ruth…bore a son [and] named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David” (Ruth 4:13–17). The book of Ruth teaches us that what happens on the ordinary family level may have implications for the national and global purposes of God. In dealing with Ruth, God was preparing to put King David over Israel, and King David’s greatest son, Jesus Christ, over the nations.

The book of Ruth has massive implications for how we live our lives in our ordinary families.

Fraught with all of the frustrations and hardships of life, God calls us to be faithful to Him, to one another, to our everyday work, and to instruct our children in the truths of the Christian faith. He calls us to work six days and week and to rest and worship with His people one day. He calls us to be generous, merciful, and compassionate. He calls us to live biblically faithful lives in our physical families, as well as in the family of our local church. As we do, we may not receive accolades. We may not forge movements. We may not see the full fruition of the extraordinary work God is doing in our ordinary families. But God is working out His purposes for His own glory; and, we should rest content to trust Him to guide and provide for us along the way. It should be enough for us to live faithful and ordinary lives in our families and leave any extraordinary results to Him.

This article originally appeared here.

How To Get Kids To Pay Attention

By

Dale Hudson

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February 24, 2020

Wondering how to get kids to pay attention? Child development experts say that, on average, a 4- or 5-year old child should be able to stay focused on a task for two to five minutes times the year of their age. So, young kids should be able to focus between 4 and 20 minutes, possibly more depending on the task. So, please don’t have the expectation that a child can pay attention to you speak for 30 minutes straight. Use these different strategies to break the monotony.

12 Ways of How To Get Kids To Pay Attention:

Ask them to repeat what you just said.
Show a short lesson video.
Have them get up and move.
Have them color pages related to the lesson.
Remove distractions.
Place kids in groups and let them talk about a question.
Let them make up the classroom rules. Here are some essential strategies for classroom discipline.
Play a game.
Create an incentive or reward for listening. The Bible clearly teaches that good is rewarded, so why shouldn’t we be using this approach to motivate our children to action and obedience?
Take them outside of the classroom to a different location for a change.
Let them help teach the lesson.
Have a call or signal they repeat after you. Some call-and-response suggestions include: “One, two, three, eyes on me…One, two, eyes on you!”
“What are we here for?… To learn!”
“Can I get a…whoop! whoop!”
“Are you ready, kids? … Aye, aye, captain!”
“God is good…All the time!”

It’s been said, if the kids are bored, it’s because the teacher is bored. Engaged students pay attention. With a little creativity, you can make Sunday school fun and exciting for kids and a time that they look forward to.

What are some other things you do to help kids pay attention? Share your ideas with us in the comment section below.

Ed Stetzer: “There’s a New Urban Reality”

By

Andrew Hess

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February 24, 2020

The Church vs. the Kingdom

By

Jim Botts

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February 24, 2020

Too many followers of Jesus put the work of God into a box called the church with its services and programs.

Today, I’m launching a series of posts titled, Out of the Box and into the Kingdom. My goal is to stimulate Kingdom vision for church leaders that enables them to dream, think, and lead their people beyond the church-box paradigm.

THE SIZE OF THE VISION = THE SIZE OF PEOPLE!

There’s an old myth that claims that a goldfish will only grow to the size of its tank. What may not apply to goldfish definitely applies to people. People will only grow to the size of the vision that frames their lives.

Church leaders: God has called you to cast a macroscopic-panoramic-Biblical vision for your people that grows them into Kingdom people, not just church people. Which begs the question, “what’s the difference between church and Kingdom?”

THE KINGDOM IS BIGGER THAN THE CHURCH!

Jesus was the first Person to utter the word, “church.” Yet, He framed His ministry in terms of God’s Kingdom breaking into our world, not into a church building. Just look at how Jesus introduced His ministry:

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-15 ESV

Jesus framed His ministry in terms of the Kingdom of God, not the church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not downing, dissing, or dismissing the church. The church is the Bride of Jesus (and we should love her – Eph 5:25), the church is the Body of Christ (and we should build it up – Eph 4:11-12). Yet, it was Jesus who framed the gospel as good news about a new reality (God’s Kingdom) through the presence of a new King (Jesus).

KINGDOM PEOPLE OR CHURCH PEOPLE?

Though the church and its activities can fit into the Kingdom, you cannot squeeze the Kingdom into the Church. When we try to fit the Kingdom into our church-box, we create church people, instead of Kingdom people! And there is a huge difference between the two:

Church people – have reduced ministry vision and can’t see past church-bound categories for ministry (i.e., usher, greeter, children’s worker, inviter-of-lost-friends, etc.).
Kingdom people – have Kingdom vision to think/dream/act outside the box (read church here). They want to heal the wounds in their neighborhood, workplace, and community (fatherlessness, addictions, marriages).

Church people – see the gospel in terms of good news about the afterlife (it’s how you can be sure you’re going to heaven after you die).
Kingdom people – see the gospel in terms of good news about Kingdom life (it’s about life in God and with God, both now and forever).

Church people – understand discipleship as primarily about enjoying a closer relationship with God that grows me to spiritual maturity.
Kingdom people – understand discipleship as the call to lose their life for Christ’s sake so they can participate in His family for His mission.

The Kingdom is not a means to a bigger church; the church is a means to demonstrating the Kingdom!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll post on the following topics: Jesus as King, Jesus and the Kingdom, the already-and-not-yet of the Kingdom, Kingdom Life, Kingdom Leadership, the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the Intersection of Kingdom/Church/Mission.

So let’s get OUT OF THE BOX and INTO THE KINGDOM!

Until next time, chew on this quote from NT Wright:

“It is clear that Jesus as Kingdom Bringer has been screened out of the church’s dogmatic tradition. Again and again, from the 3^rd or 4^th century onwards, the church managed to talk about Jesus while forgetting the thing that the Gospels kept on saying, the He was inaugurating God’s Kingdom.” – Wheaton Theology Conference – 2010.

The Dirty Truth About Honoraria

By

John Stackhouse

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February 24, 2020

The way some Christian churches and other organizations pay their speakers, it makes me embarrassed to be a member of the same faith.

A friend of mine is a gifted staff worker with a well-known Christian organization on a university campus. He is married, with three young children, and works hard and long at his job. Frequently, he is asked to speak at churches’ youth retreats or special events sponsored by other groups. Rarely is he paid well for what is, in fact, overtime work—for audiences other than the one that pays his regular salary.

One weekend, he left his family to speak at a retreat for more than 100 young people, each of whom paid to go away to a well-furnished camp for three days. My friend gave four talks and participated in a question-and-answer session—a typical, and demanding, schedule. But his work didn’t end there, of course. Retreat speakers are “on call” all weekend: for impromptu counseling, offering advice over mealtimes and modeling what they preach on the volleyball court or around the campfire. Make no mistake: There is very little relaxing in that role, however restful the retreat might be for everyone else.

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So at the end of this tiring weekend, at the close of the Sunday luncheon, the leader of the group thanked him profusely at the front of the dining hall (he had gone over very well). Then he tossed the speaker a T-shirt emblazoned with the group’s logo while everyone clapped. It took my friend several minutes to realize that this shirt was his total payment for the weekend’s work. He got in his car, without even a check for gasoline, and headed back to his waiting family.

An isolated and extreme example? Not at all. Every professional Christian speaker has stories like these.

A widely respected author was asked to headline a fundraising banquet for a women’s organization. She prepared a talk on the subject requested, left her husband and children at home, drove herself in the family car across the city to the site of the meal, chatted with her tablemates, and then delivered her speech. Again, it was apparent from the applause and the warm remarks that greeted her when she took her seat that she had done her job well.

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