Newsletters
Home Blog Page 918

Is There a Place for Me? Equipping Women to Thrive

By
Jenni Catron
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

“Until I saw you, I didn’t know there was a place for me here.”

I had just finished hosting our services on Sunday morning, and a young woman came rushing up to me in the lobby to share this thought. I was a bit caught off guard. After all, I was simply facilitating the transition moments within the service. I wasn’t leading worship. I wasn’t preaching the message. I was for all intents and purposes doing the announcements.

Later that day her comment was still echoing in my mind. Something about a female being present on stage, sharing information, leading the congregation through something as simple as announcements spoke to her.

A few weeks later, I invited her to coffee because I needed to better understand what was resonating with her. Why did my presence on stage matter? As she drank her latte, she expressed that although she grew up in the local church, she never really felt like her gifts had a place. Her experience with church suggested that the opportunities for women to serve were limited to children’s ministry or hospitality. While she respected and valued those ministries, they weren’t areas where she felt like her gifts were a great fit. As a young professional she loved communicating and leading. She flourished in sales presentations and leading teams. While she loved her local church, she had grown comfortable with attending regularly but found herself less and less involved.

She expressed to me that seeing another woman serving in a different capacity within the church helped her envision a place for her beyond her past experiences. This gave her hope that there was a place in church where she could contribute and thrive in her gifting.

Over the years I’ve heard countless stories like this one. I’ve also heard stories of women who didn’t see opportunities for them to serve inside their local church, so they devote their time and energy to other organizations in their community where their gifts are more visibly valued.

A PLACE FOR ALL

These stories all point to the same reverberating question: “Is there a place for me?” As network and church leaders, this is a question we must address.

Do the women in our churches and in our communities know there is a place for their gifts and their talents to be unleashed in the local church?

Have we made it obvious in our network or church that every individual, male or female, is valued and vital to the church family? Can someone walk in on any Sunday and see women serving and flourishing in various areas within your church? Is your network incorporating the gifts of women to maximize the efforts for Kingdom growth?

Today’s modern young woman does not see her place inside the church or church planting.  Her talents, gifts and God-given calling are walking out our doors and into the hands of businesses and other non-profits where all her gifts are welcomed and celebrated.

CREATING A CULTURE OF VALUE

Are you creating a culture at your network or church where women feel like their gifts are welcomed and valued? I want to challenge you to be intentional and create a plan to more actively involve women in ministry.

Young women operate under the assumption that hospitality and kids’ ministries are the only areas for them to serve. These were the opportunities they saw when they grew up in the church, and so they assume that those are still the acceptable options.

Waiting for Revival: What Not to Do and What to Do

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

Churches are waiting for revival. As I travel extensively across America I use this opportunity to ask pertinent questions to pastors and leaders questions concerning their local church ministry. One of my first questions deals with the process they are following in their churches to make it balanced and healthy. I am blown away by most responses. In short, if a church had a working process, the pastor could easily articulate it and excitedly explain the functions when asked. If they have not designed a process, they usually didn’t understood the question, or began to fumble, trying to make it up along the way until finally, I already knew the answer: They did not have one.

I was sitting at a table with a pastor at a nice restaurant one day. He requested this meeting to discuss the practical ways of developing a healthy church. “We need a move of God, and we need it now” was the way he approached the subject. His statement made me uncomfortable because I knew where this would typically take us. I asked the pastor, “What is your congregation’s vision?” Without flinching, he said, “Our vision is revival; we are desperately seeking revival!”

It felt as though the blood drained out of my head. Of course, I understand we all desire a move of God, but if all we want to do is sit back and wait for something supernatural to happen, it may never come. After all, Jesus never told us we should wait for people to come, He said we should Go, and make disciples. To do that, we should begin by training our members in evangelism, organize substantial prayer, and start getting a process in place for when the people come. Revival does not just happen, but when it does, we should be ready to accommodate the harvest and provide the essential care for them to develop personally and grow spiritually.

I’m afraid that too many pastors and churches are operating without a proven system of discipling people and caring for people. You cannot build a healthy church without having workable systems in place.

Waiting for Revival: What to Do

When the church I pastored experienced a divine visitation of God’s Presence we saw more than 4,000 people make a commitment to Christ over only nine weeks. This was the result of an extensive prayer process among the church members and not the mere desire of the leadership. Among several other things, our prayer initiative included a 24-hour prayer room—168 hours of prayer, non-stop every week, led by my wife. I realize God can do whatever is needed, whenever He wants, but prayerful preparation has always been a prerequisite for a move of God.

A few years ago, I made it a point to involve pastors in engaging conversations regarding the state of the church in the 21st century. The knowledge I gained from these many discussions caused me think intensely and made me dig deeper into what churches are facing. Often, these discussions became distressing. I was quite frankly shocked to discover so many well-meaning pastors and churches who were merely going through the motions and being seemingly content with where they were regarding managing their churches. In many cases, they could not remember when they last saw someone saved. Those who were still winning the lost could rarely give any account of those who accepted Christ. Questions concerning discipleship were responded to, in many cases, as though it belonged to a by-gone era. And let me be clear: This was not the case in all churches, and neither was it the case in only small churches.

It’s amazing how history tends to repeat itself, even for the church. Just like during the first reformation, there is once again a swelling tide of restlessness in the church-world. I believe God is preparing us for another transformation, another grave, but necessary, makeover. Something new is about to be birthed. And just as a newborn child entails significant adjustments in a household, so this re-applied truth requires some of our traditional thinking to change. Among the qualities we will most certainly have to restore at-large, is the fact that ministry is meant to be a shared effort between vocational ministers and church members alike. And this means more than people just volunteering in some minor role. It refers to actual functions of ministry, which in the past, for the more significant part, were exclusively held by credentialed ministers. Through involving people in ministry-partnership, incredible enthusiasm is going to be released, which will become the catalyst for significant numbers of individuals participating in building the church.

The sleeping giant called the body of Christ is rising to take its rightful position. This breath of fresh air we are talking about is God’s intentional means of having the saints arise and letting the church be the church! We can already see positive results through churches building community through developing meaningful relationships and strategically bonding people with each other. Developing relationships is becoming the catalyst for restoring strong interconnection among church members that will result in new life. It’s starting to surface more and more as the experts of church strategy are referring to a vacuum in churches and enthusiastically recommending how we could get back to basics and pay attention to the principles Jesus taught.

Something is stirring, and we have the glorious opportunity to respond.

This article is an excerpt from The Care Revolution: A Proven New Paradigm for Pastoral Care by Dr. John Bosman.

New Job in Church Communications? 6 Ways to Start

By
Owen Scott
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

It’s your first day of your new job in church communications. You sit down at your desk ready to share Jesus with the world and wonder for all of thirty seconds what you should do with your time. Then the requests start.

Kids ministry needs a graphic. Youth needs 25 Instagram stories for their retreat. The Board wants a marketing and advertising plan tomorrow morning. You need to post something on Facebook. Oh and you were told, “since we hired you, we’re going to do Instagram too.” The preschool needs a newsletter sent out, and can it please not be in comic sans?

Very quickly this job could kill you. And it wouldn’t be because of one big colossal failure, or a massive disagreement. It will be a death by a thousand cuts.

This job will slowly but surely bleed you dry unless you’re careful and intentional about not letting that happen. The pace is frenetic, the demands are massive. You need to set yourself up to not only survive in this ministry but thrive.

Here are a few things that will help you thrive in church communications.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS OF TRUST

You need to be able to build healthy relationships to survive in any career, and it’s especially important in church communications. Invest in your staff relationships so that your team will trust you and your [judgment].

CREATE CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

Unclear expectations will cut you. A lot. This is a two-way street. You need to know the expectations your team [has] on you. And you need to make clear the expectations you have of them. Establish reasonable timelines so that you don’t get as many “Can you just design this series artwork in the next 2 hours?” kind of requests.

BUILD A TEAM

Jesus built a team. So should you.

But seriously, you are one person and the demands on you will be more than what you can manage on your own. You need a team to multiply your impact and spread your workload out. You will then have to learn to delegate well and release work to others. But you can do it.

HOLD YOUR IDEAS BESIDE YOU

“Hold your ideas beside you, not in front of you, so when they’re shot down the arrow doesn’t go through your heart.”

I was given this advice from my good friend Jonathan Carone. I wish I had received this advice sooner in my career. As creatives, our work is often incredibly near and dear to our hearts. We pour our souls into our art. But communications is not art.

Whether you’re freelancing or on staff at a church, you are making work for a client who has taste ([debatable] at times), preference, and ultimately, authority on their needs. So eventually they’ll shoot one of your ideas down. In those moments, if you associate your work with your value, you’ll receive a deep wound that will contribute to an early death in ministry.

REST

Jesus rested. So should you.

Resting is important. The hamster wheel of communications never stops, but you weren’t built to run endlessly. You need to schedule regular times of rest.

Make sure you’re taking your regular days off during the week. Keep a regular Sabbath, and take your vacations. Like, actually vacation — leave the phone at home.

FIND COMMUNITY

I can’t stress this enough. You need a real, like-minded community who will support and encourage you in your ministry. They don’t even have to be in-person friends.

I’ve been lucky to be a part of an incredible small group of communicators that has been transformational. It started as just a group for design feedback but shifted into a small group for us. This crew of friends [has] seen me through some of the darkest days of my life, and we’ve been able to support each other with feedback and pastoral care.

If you don’t have a supportive community, a good place to start is the Church Juice Community on Facebook. There are good people in there who would love to support and encourage you.

I DON’T WANT YOU TO DIE FROM A THOUSAND CUTS.

I want you to thrive in communications ministry. If you need a hand, harass me on Facebook. But more than that, take some of these steps to make sure you last. You’ve got this! We’re all rooting for you.

 

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.

Thanks to Craig Gross, Christian Cannabis Is Now a Thing

By
Jessica Lea
-
craig gross
Screengrab Youtube @Craig Brain

Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com, has made a bold move: He’s decided to start his own company selling weed, and he’s calling it Christian Cannabis.

“I know that some will hate me for it, and I know that others will thank God that someone finally said something,” said Gross in an announcement on his company’s website. “I know that there will be both constructive and destructive criticism. Whoever you are, and whatever you think, I’d love to open up a public dialogue. This is a conversation. May all of us feel free to talk. May we also have the humility to incline our ears to listen.”

Announced on 4/20

On April 20th (fittingly), Gross filmed a video at the Coachella music festival announcing his company and the beginning of this conversation.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

The conversation starts now. This message wasn’t just for the @Coachella crowd. It’s for Christian leaders, it’s for people in the church, and it’s for people that follow Jesus. Founder @CraigGross desire isn’t to be controversial, shocking, or have opponents. His true desire is to have a conversation about a plant that has helped him. The same wife for the past two decades stands by his side. His two children enjoy the father he’s becoming thanks to the very medicine he talks about. Craig stands at peace before the Lord, and in the end, that’s all that matters. Welcome to Christian Cannabis. Read more about the announcement by hitting the link in our bio!

A post shared by Christian Cannabis (@christian.cannabis) on

In an Instagram post featuring the video, Gross says that his message is not just for people attending Coachella, but also for “Christian leaders, it’s for people in the church, and it’s for people that follow Jesus.” He knows that marijuana is controversial and that people might think he’s “fallen off the deep end.” But he wants to dialogue about this issue because of how much the drug has helped him.

The Backstory

Gross says that 2013 was a very difficult year. His father passed away, his wife, Jeanette, was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis, and he started having a series of debilitating headaches with no discernible cause. He went to multiple doctors trying to discover the source of the headaches, but with no success. He also tried psychiatry.

Gross decided to try medical marijuana after watching a documentary on weed one night and eventually discovered that mints infused with THC effectively helped his headaches. Then in 2017, while attending a convention in Las Vegas, Gross says he encountered God “in ways more powerful than I have ever known in my 42 years on this earth,” all while taking the mints.

But he hid his use of cannabis from people because of how taboo the drug is. Something else that happened in 2017 was that Gross realized how imbalanced his life had become. His marriage and family were suffering because of how busy he was with work and side projects. Gross believes that God led him to slow down during that time period and that weed was something God used to get his attention.  “Call me crazy,” he says, “but that little green cross pointed my eyes toward the real Cross.”

Gross also reached a point where he realized that keeping quiet about his marijuana use was inconsistent with the values he has promoted through his work with XXXchurch. Craig and Jeanette co-founded XXXchurch.com in 2002 for the purpose of helping men and women break free from porn addiction and pursue a healthy view of sexuality. The site offers community, accountability and resources for those who struggle with sex addiction or know someone who does. Gross writes,

I’ve been involved in everything you can imagine related to accountability—from creating software to writing books and organizing groups—and am a huge advocate for living life together. And yet, in full contradiction to all that I’ve dedicated myself to throughout the course of my adult life, I have somehow felt as though [my experiences with cannabis] are things that I can’t share publicly.

But now he is. Gross also believes that Christians tend to be “late to the party” culturally speaking and only willing to have conversations about issues after society has made up its mind. Marijuana use is a topic Gross hopes Christians will be willing to discuss now.

The Christian Cannabis Website

One of the ways Gross is trying to encourage dialogue is by having buttons on his site that people can click to share their opinions about weed. Interestingly, out of the roughly 2,000 people who have responded as of this writing, they are relatively evenly divided in their opinions. Over 800 agree with his position, over 600 disagree, and almost 600 are not sure.

Introverts and Church: 9 Reasons Introverts Can Do Well in Ministry

By
Chuck Lawless
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

I write this post with some reticence since I’m an introvert—and I don’t want to imply that I’ve done well in ministry. I know so many things I could still do better that I feel no right to claim success.

At the same time, though, I have students who are surprised to learn that many ministers are introverted. Extroverts can be great ministry leaders, of course, but so can introverts. Based on my experience with other introverts and my own study, here’s why I affirm introverts in ministry:

  1. Introverts tend to be intensely thoughtful. We take things in and consider them deeply, even if no one else knows how deeply we’ve done so. We tend to think about things before doing them—generally a good trait for all gospel ministers.
  2. We care deeply for those closest to us. Our deep friendships may not be many, but the friendships we do have are genuine and long-lasting. These solid friendships often give us the courage and gusto we need to hang out among the crowds when we must—like, fellowship dinners and church picnics…
  3. We enjoy being alone. I grant that aloneness can also get people in trouble, but we don’t mind spending time doing things like prayer and study. We may still struggle with doing those things, but it’s not because we’d rather be “where the action is.” Private time with the Lord can be quality time.
  4. We tend to keep our emotions inside us. Again, that trait can be negative, but ministry often demands that we listen and lead while dealing with our internal emotions and frustrations. We reflect before we respond—a trait that could protect us from creating disunity in a church.
  5. We’re good listeners. We may seem to be on the sidelines at times, but that doesn’t mean we’re not paying attention. We listen and watch—and those same tendencies make us good listeners, counselors and pastors.
  6. We can focus on a task. Typically reflective and analytical, we can give devoted attention to a task. Seldom will anything—including critics—distract us from reaching the goal.
  7. We often don’t mind teaching groups or speaking to large crowds as long as we’ve prepared well. In fact, we often enjoy those opportunities more than we enjoy hanging out with a small crowd. Many of us regularly speak publicly, but we do it only with much preparation.
  8. We notice those most like us. That is, we don’t miss other introverts hanging out in church. Because we trust that God is using us as introverts, we believe He will use others like us.
  9. We ask a lot of questions. It’s one way of controlling a conversation and protecting our space, but it’s also a way of showing genuine interest in somebody else. We want to learn about others.

I know we’re not all completely alike, but fellow introverts, what have I missed? What would you want to add?

This article originally appeared here.

Memorizing Scripture: One Encouragement and One Warning

By
Logan Walter
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Memorizing Scripture: One Encouragement and One Warning

In my 20s, I spent a lot of time sleeping in camp motel rooms, eating powdered eggs, and leading youth camp worship services. At one such event, I was on stage, getting ready to lead the post-sermon worship, when the camp speaker—Afshin Ziafat—asked the students a question about memorizing Scripture. Jesus saved Afshin out of a Muslim background, so this is how he phrased the question: “If I was still a Muslim, how many of you could walk on stage and share the Gospel with me, using only the Scripture that you have memorized?” I remember standing behind Afshin and thinking, “Lord, please don’t let him call on me.”

Up to this point in my life, I had put a lot of time and effort into my craft. I led worship three times per week, I learned how to take care of my voice and project to an audience, I memorized every song on that first Jars of Clay album (even the ones in alternate tunings), but I had not given much time or effort to scripture memory.

It was in this moment that I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit to devote myself to hiding God’s Word in my heart. From my perspective, this is when my real ministry work began.

One Encouragement: Make Scripture memory part of your daily routine.

My daily to-do list includes three non-negotiables: Bible reading, prayer and Bible memory. There’s no “day off” to rest FROM these disciplines. 

Trust me, I’ve tried that. If I spend my “day off” watching college football, drinking Dr. Pepper and reading sports blogs, I will end up feeling irritable and restless by the end of the day. The Bible tells me (and experience has shown me) that true rest is found in Jesus (Matthew 11:28), and I encounter Jesus through Scripture memory, so even vacation days and lazy Saturdays should include time spent hiding God’s Word in my heart.

The Bible doesn’t prescribe a method for scripture memorization. It simply encourages us to do it (Psalm 119:11). For me, the “Bible Memory” app has been helpful.

I usually (not always) start my day by reading a passage from a Bible reading plan, and when a verse sticks out during my time of reading, I add it to my Bible Memory app. Then, I simply make sure that I’ve spent time working through the verses that are assigned to me on the app each day. The app makes sure that these verses are in good rotation throughout the year. If I add a verse on Monday, it’ll make sure that I review it a few times that week. If I get the verse correct each time, the app will put it into a weekly rotation (then monthly, then bi-monthly, etc.).

Because the app is on my phone, I can use it while waiting on an oil change, during commercial breaks of a basketball game, in moments when I would otherwise be looking at Instagram, etc. I start my day with Bible reading, but this discipline of Bible memory happens throughout the day, whenever the opportunity presents itself.

One Warning: Never quote scripture for the sake of quoting scripture.

My first Sunday at the Austin Stone was January 6, 2013. I must have quoted 10 or 15 scriptures from the stage that day. Later that week, Aaron Ivey took me out to lunch to share some encouragements with me. He also gave me a critique. In the kindest way possible, Aaron told me that my scripture quoting was distracting.

What? My scripture quoting was distracting?

Through Aaron’s gracious feedback and through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I realized that people walked away from the worship service thinking, “Wow, that worship leader really knows his Bible verses.” Aaron didn’t say it in those words, but I could sense that this was the case. As a worship pastor, I never want the congregation to walk away thinking about my abilities as a musician, public speaker, scripture memorizer, etc. I want them to walk away thinking about Jesus, so I should only quote scripture in such a way that people would leave the service impressed by Jesus.

In response to this conviction, I began to read directly from the Bible during my call to worship. Yes, I could quote the scripture from memory most Sundays, but who am I trying to impress? I want people to see that I am reading this passage straight from the Word. There are plenty of other ways that Scripture memory can affect my ministry. It comes out in pastoral conversations and prayers. It affects how I think and act and speak to others. Put simply, Scripture memory should make me look more like Jesus. So, there’s no need for me to dramatically quote a large portion of scripture from memory in front of a large group of people, unless I am convicted by the Holy Spirit to do so.

Even without a public platform to display my scripture memorization, I can trust that my time spent hiding God’s Word in my heart will not return empty (Isaiah 55:11).

This article originally appeared here.

7 Indispensable Elements Necessary for People to Grow Spiritually in Your Small Group

By
Mike Mack
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

7 Indispensable Elements Necessary for People to Grow Spiritually in Your Small Group

The following post is excerpted from my new eBook, Small Group Leader Toolbox. See more information about this resource at the end of this post.

Just as a plant needs a number of specific elements in its environment in order to grow, Christians need at least seven vital factors or influences to grow spiritually. Each of these plays a significant part in helping people mature in small groups. Be sure you know your place as a leader with these factors (for instance, you are not the agent of life change!).

Goal: Christlikeness

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Agent: The Holy Spirit

“God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood” (1 Peter 1:2).

“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23).

Method: Shepherding

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care…” (1 Peter 5:2).

Environment: Authentic Biblical Community

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13).

Means: By the Renewing of Our Minds

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).

Instrument: Application of Scripture

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

Time Frame: Lifetime Process

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

Question: How have you seen these factors at work in how people are growing spiritually in your group? Please scroll down and click to comment.

I wrote Small Group Leader Toolbox to provide small group leaders with the resources they need to help them and their groups be effective, grow spiritually and live out God’s mission for them. This 54-page eBook provides scores of ideas, tips, checklists, how-to’s, assessments, planning templates and, well…pretty much everything a leader needs to lead a dynamic small group or class.

Reclaiming the Prophetic Mantle

By
James Emery White
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Here’s a conundrum:

According to a new report released by the Barna Group, 9 out of 10 Christian pastors say “helping Christians have biblical beliefs about specific issues is a major part of their role as clergy.”

Yet half feel they can’t. According to the study, they feel “limited in their ability to speak out by concerns they will offend people.” Specifically, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion and sexual morality.

Translation: They know their responsibility as a pastor to speak truth and help those they pastor embrace and embody that truth, but the risk of offense silences their voice.

Friends, it’s time to reclaim the prophetic mantle.

Biblically, there are three primary voices you can use when speaking into culture: the prophetic, the evangelistic and the heretical.

The prophetic voice, such as Jeremiah’s, was clear in its denunciations and warnings. The prophetic voice is an admonishing one, a “thou shalt not,” a clarion call to turn to God and get right with God.

No, it is not a popular voice for culture to hear. But it is an important one.

The second voice is the evangelistic voice. It is the voice attempting to build bridges across cultural divides, to explain things, to make apologetic cases. The evangelistic voice is focused on calling people into a relationship with Christ as Forgiver and Leader. It’s more invitation than admonishment.

The final voice is the heretical voice. Heretical voices in the Bible are never celebrated, but they are noted as existing. This is the voice that not only speaks against the gospel but, more specifically, attempts to distort the very content of the gospel in its presentation to culture.

In light of these voices, there are three ways we’re failing to speak effectively into culture.

The first is speaking the prophetic voice without the evangelistic voice. That comes across as just judgmental and even hateful. It’s condemning without redeeming. It’s all truth without grace. Even at its best, they know what we’re against, but not what we’re for.

The second is speaking the heretical voice in the name of the evangelistic voice. This is watering things down to try and get a hearing, or to be liked or accepted. That’s not a good voice. The “relevance” of a church is not found in its capitulation to culture, but its transformation of culture. We do not gain the world’s attention through a compromised voice, but through an alternative voice.

The third mistake is speaking the evangelistic voice without the prophetic voice. This is different than the heretical without the prophetic. This isn’t denying orthodoxy as much as it is burying it; avoiding it. This is all grace and no truth.

Today, few want to use the prophetic voice. In fact, it is often seen as undermining the evangelistic voice. I’ve often heard pastors, particularly of large churches, say that they do not want to speak out on the issues of the day for the sake of keeping their focus on the gospel and not alienating people on the front end.

But that’s not the full gospel.

So what kind of “voice” should we use?

The evangelistic with the prophetic.

If I may be so bold, this is the “Jesus voice.” I’ve always marveled at how Jesus could proclaim absolute truth without compromise to those far from God, and then have those very people invite him to their parties. It’s because He wed the prophetic with the evangelistic.

He spoke truth and grace.

Jesus accepted the woman at the well in what can only be deemed by any careful reader in (then) culturally scandalous ways, but followed the acceptance by challenging her directly about her serial promiscuity. He also stopped the stoning of a woman caught in adultery, made it clear He was not going to condemn her, but then pointedly admonished her to turn from her adulterous ways.

Grace and truth flowed from Jesus in a way that can only be deemed inextricably intertwined. Jesus offered neither a feel-good theology that airbrushed out any real talk of sin, nor legalistic attitudes of harsh condemnation and judgment.

Now, about that offense…

Yes, you will offend with the proclamation of the truth. But it’s a necessary offense if you are going to present the full nature of the gospel. In the past year or so, we’ve dealt with everything from racism to #MeToo, gay marriage to living together. We don’t focus solely on social issues; we just don’t avoid the elephant in the room.

I am reminded of an early adherent to the Protestant Reformation who, in 1526, said:

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace to him, if he flinches at that one point.”

Yes.

Sources

Griffin Paul Jackson, “Half of Pastors Worry Speaking Out on Social Issues Will Offend People,” Christianity Today, April 5,2019, read online.

“If I profess…” This is often attributed to Martin Luther, but erroneously. It is said to actually come from a follower of Martin Luther, April 2, 1526, quoted in Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family (New York, 1865), p. 321.

This article originally appeared here.

A Pastor’s Sabbath: What to Do When Sabbath Is Sporadic

By
Josh Weidmann
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

“You need to take some time off soon,” Donna said. She runs our HR department at the church.

“I know. I am not good at taking time off. I have never been,” I retorted.

Taking time off is not something that I despise. I love downtime. I don’t look for work just to stay busy, avoid homelife or to “escape” reality by feeling accomplishment. In fact, I have often said, I am not a workaholic—I just have a job that demands me to work all the time. And while the role of pastor never seems to end, it can be controlled and doesn’t have to take over our every-waking-moment. Being a pastor is what we do but it doesn’t also have to be who we are.

We have a family.
We have hobbies.
We like to read things that are not commentaries.
We like to hang out and laugh.
We need sleep.
We like really good food.
Pastors are real people too.

Maybe you have been where I often find myself—the email never stops, the requests for meetings could take you months to fulfill, there is always a sermon to write, a counseling session to prep and a person to call (among other things). In this role, there are always many people asking for our time and they are unaware of the other many people that are also asking for our time. So how are we to find rest in a world of demands that never seems to end?

3 Ways to Find Rest in a Busy World

First off, we have to remember the command is to “Watch over ourselves first”—and THEN the flock of God of which we have been given responsibility (Acts 20:28). If we are not healthy physically, spiritually and emotionally, then we will not be able to help people gain health either. God was clear through Paul—take care of yourself first. I can be terrible at caring for myself first because I would gladly give over and over, denying my own physical, spiritual or emotional needs, just to serve others. I don’t do this to get a prize or the accolades of men. I just love and live for people. But I have been reminded that if I am not caring for myself first, I will have nothing good to give to anyone else. Tim Keller said it well—“Leadership is stewardship.” That starts with stewarding ourselves and then stewarding the calling to serve others.

Second, taking time to care for ourselves helps us regain perspective on the work of God in us and through us. The reason that rest and the Sabbath was originally created was to enjoy results of our work. Exodus 20:9-10 says, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” As Pastors, we miss the power of what is said here. There is one day when we sit back and regain perspective of who God is and who we are. Working non-stop may cause our hearts to believe that we are God and He is not. We do our work for God, but we do the work with and by God’s gracious power in our life.

Third, be realistic about what is needed for you to get rest and regain perspective. I believe that we all have different “Responsibility to Rest” ratios. Some people are 1 for 1—they need equal amounts of work and downtime to feel healthy. Others are 1 to 2 or 1 to 10. You can look around your life and see, we all are made different with various capacity levels. That does not mean that a person is better because their capacity for responsibility or work is greater than the others. Nor is a person who has a higher working capacity to be judged for not resting enough. We are all different. So whatever your work capacity is, you need to be realistic about it and strive to rest at a level that will keep you healthy. I would even say that you should pray and ask the Lord to reveal to you what the right “responsibility to rest ratio” is for you. I would guess this won’t take a lot of thinking to figure out.

4 Questions to Consider

Once you know what kind of rest you need, I encourage you to consider the following:

  1. When will you rest on a weekly basis?
  2. What are some rhythms of rest you would like to maintain monthly and quarterly?
  3. Is your rest more about contemplation, relaxation or aesthetics? Do you need to sit in a coffee shop or be hiking a mountain?
  4. What part of your “Rest” is with family and/or friends and what part is alone?

Resting for me doesn’t always come on the same day each week. For the most part, I take Saturday off as my “rest” day. But the truth is, it is very full of family stuff, house stuff and usually an hour or two of sermon rehearsing. Therefore, I take about a day a month to just “unplug” in addition to that Saturday. This is a day that I lay in the grass at the park while the kids play; work in my basement; or go write, walk and pray. Then about once every two or three months I take an entire week to stay at a cabin across town and write. I still go home in the evenings, but I don’t go to the office for a week just to break the norm. This is still a “work week” for me (I usually get the most work done that week), but it is extremely restful and refueling for my soul.

Balancing Rest and Responsibility

If you are a pastor, you know, our “sabbaths” are not like everyone else’s. On the weekends when others are getting refilled, we are getting poured out. So we must plan a specific time each week, month and quarter to get refueled. I’ve also learned that I have to let go of the pressure I feel from everyone wanting something from me all the time. I am always disappointing people and I’ve had to learn that comes with the job. I strive to love them endlessly, but that doesn’t mean I can please them continuously.

Finally, when it comes to balancing rest and responsibility, I have accepted that I live only to please God. He knows when I work, how hard I work, how long I work, and how intentionally I work. I work only to please Him. On the flip side, He also knows if I am stopping to ‘give Him my rest’ as Exodus points out, so I live to please Him in the moments I can do nothing.

Failing to rest is failing to lead myself well and this will result in failing the people God’s entrusted to me. I am in this calling for the long-haul. I will strive to keep my priorities, peace and control while pouring my life out for the Lord and the joy of His people.

This article originally appeared here.

Want to Improve Your Sex Life? Read the Bible and Pray With Your Spouse

By
Stephanie Martin
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

According to a new study about religion and sex life, couples who engage in faith-based activities at home (like read the Bible) and view their marriage relationship as sacred report higher sexual satisfaction in their sex life than couples who aren’t religious or who merely attend religious services together. The findings, published in the academic journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, are from surveys of more than 1,300 U.S. married couples, ages 18 to 45.

“Religion helps encourage people to improve their relationships overall, and a better relationship leads to higher reports of sexual satisfaction. That is really important,” says co-author Jeffrey Dew, associate professor of family life at Brigham Young University. “In a hyper-sexualized culture, sex has almost become an end in and of itself. Well, religion is one of those things that will help people improve their relationship, which will lead as a byproduct to better sex.”

The study, titled “Joint Religiosity and Married Couples’ Sexual Satisfaction,” is groundbreaking for several reasons, according to Dew and his co-authors. Previous research into sex and religion has mainly explored nonmarital sex life, and those studies that have focused on sexual satisfaction within marriage tend to define that mainly in terms of sexual frequency. In addition, most research delves into the religiosity of individuals, which “is problematic because within marriage, religion is both an individual-level and couple-level phenomenon,” the study notes.

At-Home Practices Like Reading the Bible Result in Satisfied Couples

Although attending worship services together certainly can contribute to marital unity and happiness, this study found no correlation between churchgoing and a couple’s sexual satisfaction. “There’s a little more likelihood one spouse is sort of dragging the other: ‘I am sitting in the pew with you for an hour, but I am not really engaged in this activity,’” says study co-author Brian Willoughby, also an associate professor of family life at BYU.

What proved significant in terms of sexual satisfaction for husbands is private time engaging in religious activities, such as praying together and reading Scripture together. Such activities “indicate more of a joint value system,” Willoughby says, compared to sitting in church together.

“It makes sense that when you’re doing things together as a couple in the home, religiosity makes a difference,” adds Dew. “When you’re doing that, you are establishing at some level a spiritual intimacy.”

The research team, which also included Baylor University sociology professor Jeremy Uecker, proposes that mutual religious activities may increase “opportunities for emotional closeness,” which “may help foster improved physical intimacy and sexual satisfaction.” In turn, that nurtures the marriage bonds and may “shift…how spouses both think and act toward their spouse in ways that potentially enhance multiple aspects of the relationship.”

It’s especially interesting to note the impact of joint in-home religious activities on men, Dew says, because they’re “traditionally less religious than women.”

Another key point is that spouses must have similar levels of religiosity, or religious “homogamy,” in order for religion to lead to increased sexual satisfaction. “Indeed, the heightened religiosity of one partner can be problematic for marital well-being if it is not matched by the other partner.”

“Sanctification” Boosts Sexual Satisfaction

Another key to the sexual satisfaction of religious couples is sanctification, which researchers define as “the process of attributing divine meaning or importance to an element of one’s life.” In other words, when a husband and wife believe their union is blessed by God, who wants them to remain united, they devote more time and energy to the relationship and practice good “maintenance” habits such as conflict resolution.

The study notes: “When religious married couples view their marital union as a divinely appointed relationship, various aspects of that relationship, including sexual intimacy, may take on spiritual characteristics. This may create a sexual sanctification mindset wherein sexual intimacy itself takes on divine importance and may help couples feel more satisfied with their sexual relationship.”

It’s impossible to define—or, as scientists, to control for—“good” sex, researchers point out. But it’s possible that religious and nonreligious couples may have different perceptions of what feels intimate and satisfying. Many things contribute to sexual intimacy, Willoughby notes. “It’s not just behavior; it’s not just frequency,” he says. “It’s reflective of how we feel about the relationship.” Sexual dysfunctions or dissatisfaction may be caused by other problems with the marriage, Willoughby adds.

This Woman Is Showing Us the Women of the Bible in a New Way

By
Jessica Lea
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Dikla Laor is an Israeli photographer who has embarked on a fascinating and ambitious project: creating “interpretive images” of all of the women in the Hebrew Bible, whether or not they are mentioned by name.

“There are so many female figures in the Bible,” Laor told Israeli news outlet, No Camels. “Each one is a figure with a story; even seemingly secondary characters who are only mentioned by name or by the name of their father, are granted a place in the stories of our sages, where they are given body and context. There are no ‘wasted’ words in the Bible; if it was mentioned, even if in name only—it has meaning.”

‘A Project of No Compromises’

Laor says Women in the Bible on the Golan Landscape is “the largest and most significant project of mine, as if all my loves have combined together in a project of no compromises.” She started the endeavor in 2013, getting the idea from the character of Job’s wife while working on another series.

Laor puts a significant amount of thought into each one of her creations. It can take her months or even years to decide what she wants a particular scene to look like. As she considers how she wants an image to look, she not only uses the biblical text to inform her idea but also does research by reading commentaries, modern literature, poetry and “midrash,” that is, ancient commentaries on Hebrew scriptures.

When she does a shoot, Laor has a plan for every detail about how the scene will look, from the appearance of the women and what they’ll be doing to what time of year will be best for the background. Laor says she is not concerned with portraying the women of the Bible “entirely accurately,” meaning she does not aim for a literal depiction of what the women of the time must have looked like. Instead, she uses Israeli women of all backgrounds. These women are typically her friends and relatives, but some are women she meets by chance. The woman who portrayed the Queen of Sheba was someone Laor met because they got in a fender bender.

Laor styles and makes all the costumes the women wear, typically creating them while on set. She prefers to create a “Renaissance aesthetic,” which Laor says she feels a “deeper connection” to. And despite living in Israel with easy access to many of the locations described in the Bible, Laor shoots her work entirely on the Golan Heights, which is her home.

Laor’s first 42 photographs have been published in a book titled Women in the Bible on the Golan Landscape, and she estimates that she has created portraits of about a third of the women in the Bible so far.

Laor says that as she has studied the women of the Bible, she’s found that “they determine the essential destinies of men and the families in their lives. Behind each man there is a ‘small’ female figure pulling strings, swaying and influencing.” But even though right now she is focusing on women, once Laor finishes photographing the women of the Bible, she plans to photograph the men as well.

One of Laor’s goals for these women is to “retell their biblical story, this time through them, front and center, and to illuminate them through the camera as saviors, women who were historically vital.” Another goal of hers is to help make the Bible more approachable for people: “I want [the photos] to make people read the stories. I want it to make people curious. I want it to help people return to read the Bible. It’s been forgotten at this moment in time.”

There Are Actually 4 ‘Billy Graham Rule'(s)

By
Megan Briggs
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

You can’t spend too much time in the evangelical church without hearing about the “Billy Graham Rule.” This was a personal conviction America’s Pastor held that compelled him not to travel, meet or eat alone with a woman other than his wife. While the efficacy of this rule and its implications for women are the subject of several articles, did you know that this rule was only one of four Graham and his ministry team followed?

“[The rules settled] in our hearts and minds, once and for all, the determination that integrity would be the hallmark of both our lives and our ministry,” Graham wrote in his autobiography Just As I Am.

The four rules would later be dubbed “The Modesto Manifesto” by Cliff Barrows. Graham’s ministry team was composed of Barrows, Grady Wilson and George Beverly Shea. The four men came up with the rules in 1948 while they were in Modesto, California, for a series of evangelistic meetings.

According to Graham, he called the team together to discuss common problems that “evangelists and evangelism encountered.” He asked the men to go to their rooms for an hour and list all the problems they could think of. When the men returned with four very similar lists, they made “a series of resolutions or commitment among ourselves that would guide us in our future evangelistic work.”

Billy Graham’s 4 Rules of Integrity for Evangelists

The first rule involved money. Since most evangelists at that time were supported by “love offerings” that were taken at church services or evangelism events, Graham says the temptation was there to “wring as much money as possible out of an audience, often with strong emotional appeals.” To combat this temptation, the group decided to “downplay” the offering at their meetings and “depend as much as possible on money raised by the local committee in advance.”

The second rule is the one we are all familiar with. Graham writes everyone in the group knew of evangelists that had fallen to sexual temptation during their travels away from their families. Taking a cue from 2 Timothy 1:22, the group decided their form of fleeing youthful lusts would be to avoid traveling, eating or even meeting alone with a woman who was not their spouse. Graham seems to acknowledge the intensity of this commitment by stating they were overtly trying to avoid even the appearance of “compromise or suspicion.”

Rule three concerned the team’s relationship with the local church. The team recognized the tendency among evangelists to “criticize local pastors and churches openly and scathingly,” a tendency they felt was counterproductive and even antithetical to the Bible. They determined to eschew an “antichurch or anticlergy attitude” and to work with anyone who shared their common goal of publicly proclaiming the Gospel.

The final rule involved publicity. Graham writes some evangelists were in the habit of exaggerating numbers and success, which caused the press to be suspicious and thus choose not take notice of their work. The team committed to “integrity in our publicity and our reporting.”

The Modesto Manifesto Still Applies Today

While it’s been a few decades since 1948 and our world has changed drastically, these rules speak to issues the church is still battling today. It seems whenever a big ministry leader “falls” or gets into trouble, the trouble almost always involves one (or any number) of these four things.

What do you think? Could your ministry be helped by following these same rules or drafting your own? What would you add to this list?

Charles Stone: What You Need to Know About Mindfulness

By
Jason Daye
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Charles Stone is the pastor of West Park Church in Canada. Charles is passionate about the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and Biblical truth. Charles is the author of numerous articles and a handful of books, including Holy Noticing. He and his wife have three adult children and two grandchildren.

Key Questions for Charles Stone

– Our culture seems to be taken with mindfulness lately. Is mindfulness just a fad or is there evidence suggesting it is helpful?

– You talk about mindfulness as compelling us to action vs. being purely contemplative. How does that work?

– How can mindfulness help leaders lead better?

Key Quotes from Charles Stone

“Holy noticing is noticing, with a holy purpose, God and his handiwork, our relationships, and our inner world of thoughts and feelings.”

“If I can understand what’s going on inside of me—my mind and my emotions—I can be more present for you, the person I’m discipling, the person I’m leading, my wife and my kids.”

“Jesus is the prototype for what it means to be a holy noticer.”

“In our moments of reflection, we tend to go negative.”

“The Apostle Paul was the neuroscientist before neuroscience ever really was.”

“Many research studies have found that practicing mindfulness, just during the day…can actually put a brake on anxious moments.”

“Attention is a really important skill as a leader, as a Christian. Paying attention to God, paying attention to your friends, paying attention to your spouse and your kids.”

“Mindfulness actually has tremendously positive benefits in helping us reduce anxiety, the effects of stress, and depression…. Mindfulness is more effective than medication.”

“As leaders…our emotional condition is caught by others–both good and both bad. So we actually have a responsibility to steward our emotions.”

“As we learn to be more mindful of our emotions, our thoughts, and learn to submit those to the Lord, change them, beware of them, not let them control of, we’re flat out going to be better leaders.”

Mentioned in the Show:

Holy Noticing

HolyNoticing.com

CharlesStone.com

Other Ways to Listen to this Podcast:

► Listen on Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-churchleaders-podcast/id988990685?mt=2

► Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/churchleaders/the-churchleaders-podcast

► Listen on GooglePlay: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/churchleaders/the-churchleaders-podcast

► Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NOo1CepdPQog17rmL7DuT

Do You Have a Mutual Fund Faith?

By
J.D. Greear
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

When God promised to make Abraham the father of a great nation, there were a lot of discouraging things Abraham could have thought about as he considered his future. But according to the Apostle Paul, Abraham didn’t think about those things. Instead, he chose to focus on God’s power: “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19 CSB).

Do You Have a Mutual Fund Faith?

Depending on God alone like that can be scary, but Abraham did it.

Unlike Abraham, most of us prefer a faith where we depend a little bit on God and a little bit on us.

If God’s promise to Abraham was made to us (“You’re going to have a baby at 90 years old!”), we might say, “OK, God. Thanks.” Then we’d head right to the Internet to search for home remedies: “How to have kids when you’re 90.”

I’ll save you a minute and tell you that Google returns zero search results.

We want to hedge our bet. We’re hoping God keeps his promise, of course, but we’ve got other ways of getting it done if he doesn’t.

It’s what Pastor Tony Evans calls “mutual fund faith.” If you’re in the stock market at all, you know ESG vs impact investing is a way of spreading your investment risk. It’s a really big fund where people have pooled their money and you invest in a lot of different companies instead of just one. Your risks are spread out, so if one company fails, the risk is mitigated.

There’s wisdom in mitigating your risk with a mutual fund. But that’s toxic when it comes to God. And yet that’s precisely what many of us do. We hedge our faith.

We hedge our faith by refusing to embrace our new identity in Christ.

Many of us walk around with a vague sense of guilt, disapproval and fear, feeling like we can’t forgive ourselves and still need to prove ourselves. We refuse to believe what God has said he has done.

Friend, according to the gospel, you are forgiven. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more than he does right now, and there’s nothing you’ve done that could make him love you less. It’s time to embrace that and worship God for it.

The moment you accepted Christ, you became a chosen, adopted, cherished son or daughter of God (Ephesians 3:20).

You have been appointed to walk in victory (Romans 6:2).

All your needs will be supplied (Philippians 4:19).

You will reign forever with Christ (2 Timothy 2:12).

No weapon formed against you will prosper, and all those who rise against you will fall (Isaiah 54:17).

Do I need to go on?

Nothing can separate you from his life (Romans 8:38–39).

Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life (Psalm 23).

In every earthly trial, he is working in you an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Here’s my question for you: Is this how you walk through life? If not, it may be because you’re hedging your faith.

We hedge our faith by failing to face tomorrow in the confidence of God’s promises.

We think our past failures define our future. But faith says our future is not determined by our past but by the promises of God.

Many people think of the Christian life like a wrestling match. You’re in the ring with the world, the flesh and the devil. But you know that the world, the flesh and the devil will whip your tail every single time. So just when you’re about to get pinned, you reach out and smack Jesus’ hand, tagging him in.

Then, Jesus jumps off the top rope and takes out the world, the flesh and the devil while you sit on the sidelines and catch your breath.

He tags you back in. You flail around for a while until you need his help again. The cycle continues: you, then Jesus, then you, then Jesus, and so on.

The Christian life is not you for Jesus, but it’s also not you and Jesus. The Christian life is Jesus in you (Galatians 2:20). It means you stay in the ring and fight, but always in Jesus’ power and not your own.

We hedge our faith by refusing to fully obey.

We often want to do things God’s way, but we are not confident enough in him to go all the way.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians, “I’ve risked everything on the truth of the gospel. If God’s promises aren’t true, then I’m a fool.” In contrast, most of us say, “I hope the gospel is true. But I’m still making choices that I think will bring me happiness if it’s not true.”

For example, dating couples won’t wait for God’s choices or follow his plan for sex and marriage. Couples that are living together might be scared of God’s wrath, but they don’t trust him enough to submit to his wisdom. They’re hedging their faith.

Married couples that are frustrated and unhappy might seek divorce or romance outside of marriage instead of sticking with their marriage and trusting God with their problems. They’re hedging their faith.

Teenagers and college students want to belong to Jesus, but not enough to fully surrender. God has told some to leave their careers and go to the nations. Instead, they’re hedging their faith.

Some people even do this in relation to the church. They know they need Christian community in their lives, but they don’t want to join and commit because it’s too messy. They’re hedging their faith.

Others think money is essential for happiness and security, so they can’t give to God what he asks. In hedging their funds, they’re hedging their faith.

When our focus begins to drift from God to us, it doesn’t usually start with us rejecting God. It starts with us hedging our bets. Take a close look at your own decisions, motivations, fears and hopes. Where are you hedging your faith today?

This article originally appeared here.

What’s More Important for Your Church: Growth or Control?

By
Rick Warren
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

The church has been on the front lines of some of the greatest humanitarian crises of the past few decades. The church has 2.3 billion people worldwide and is the biggest institution on the planet.

You might look at those numbers and ask yourself, “Why isn’t the church making a bigger impact in the world?”

I believe one reason is because the most creative people in our congregations must go outside of the church to start new ministries.

Why are they doing this?
Because the church wants to control them.

What’s More Important for Your Church: Growth or Control?

Instead of working within a church, many of these leaders form a 501(c)(3) to tackle the pressing issues of their communities. Today, there are tens of thousands of nonprofits in America doing what the church did for generations. We’ve structured these ministries right out of the church.

To broaden the ministry impact of your church, you will need to make the difficult choice to give up control.

You can choose control, or you can choose growth. But you can’t choose both.

Choosing growth over control means looking for ways to say yes when someone wants to start a new ministry. I believe most churches need to make it easier for people to start and serve in ministries, but this doesn’t mean I don’t believe there should be standards. I simply believe we shouldn’t bury new ministries with procedures and policies, or committees.

At Saddleback, anyone can start a ministry as long as:

1. They don’t expect the staff to run it. I call this the “You’re it” principle. When someone suggests we start a new ministry at Saddleback, I tell them, “Great. You’re it!”

You’re looking for people to own the ministries they’re suggesting; you’re not looking for people who expect someone else to do it. If a person has an idea for a ministry but doesn’t want to lead it, ask them to pray for God to inspire someone else to lead it. You won’t have a ministry without a minister.

2. It fits our church’s goals, strategy and culture. Some ministries just won’t fit. If someone wanted to start a political ministry at Saddleback, it wouldn’t fit our culture or strategy. It’s not that we don’t believe elections are important. It’s just that a political ministry doesn’t fit our culture. You can give your people freedom without giving them a free pass.

3. It doesn’t harm the witness of the church. Failure happens in ministry. I don’t want to say no to a ministry just because it might fail. That’s choosing control over growth. In fact, a church without failure probably has too much control.

But failure that damages your church’s witness is a problem. It would confuse the people we’re trying to reach about what we believe and who we are. We can’t let that happen.

4. They don’t do any fund-raising for the ministry. We don’t allow any independent fund-raising for ministries at Saddleback. You simply don’t want every ministry in your church sending out appeal letters to your members. It’s chaos, and it’ll wear out your congregation.

You can’t have a unified church without a unified budget. You’ll have the best-marketed ministries getting the most funding, rather than the worthiest ones.

A huge reason why Saddleback has grown through the years is that we allow people to be as creative as they want to be when starting new ministries.

I could tell you story after story about the ministries started at Saddleback. Most of our 800 ministries weren’t started by staff members. They were started by people who saw a need and had a creative idea to meet it.

Celebrate Recovery® is probably our best and most well-known example. No one on staff started it. Instead, we received a 13-page letter by John Baker, a layman in our church. He told us about his own journey with alcoholism and his vision to start a Christ-centered recovery ministry.

Today that ministry reaches far beyond Saddleback. There are more than 35,000 churches around the world with Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery step studies have helped more than 5 million people worldwide.

All of that has happened because God inspired a layman to start a ministry in a church where we choose growth over control.

What could happen if your church did the same?

Questions for Self-Evaluation

  • Do you have more volunteers now than you did a year ago? Why or why not?
  • How many volunteer-led ministries does your church have?
  • Do your volunteer leaders have the freedom to fail? When was the last time that happened?
  • If a volunteer wanted to start a ministry, how long would it take? Have you defined a simple process?
  • Specifically, how is your church caring for—not just equipping—your leaders?

This article originally appeared here.

Parents and Kidmin: 4 Ways to Help Parents Want to Engage With Your Children’s Ministry

By
Greg Baird
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

One of the most important things you can do in your ministry is to engage parents.

In our last post, Why People Aren’t Excited About Your Children’s Ministry, we talked about five reasons why there may be a lack of enthusiasm about what you are doing in your Children’s Ministry. Perhaps the most important people you want enthusiastic about your ministry are parents. But if these five things are characteristic of your ministry, forget about it. Fix them first!

Likewise, and deeply related to those five things, there are things that we can do to proactively help parents want to engage with our Children’s Ministry. Here are four ideas:

4 Ways to Help Parents Want to Engage With Your Children’s Ministry

Cast a clear and compelling vision.

In other words, there needs to be a good reason to engage. Most parents are selective about what they invest their time in. If they view your Children’s Ministry more like childcare, forget about engaging them.

Instead, shape a clear and compelling vision and be prepared to cast it is a short and memorable manner (see 6 Ways to Share the Vision for Your Children’s Ministry). Also, be sure to equip your key leaders to share your vision, as well. When your clear and compelling vision for Children’s Ministry becomes the language spoken by you and your team, you are far more likely to engage.

Try it!

Create Community.

Community matters on every level in our church. Community means social engagement—yes, people want to be where their friends are! Community means safety—creating places where people can share who they really are without judgment. Community means being part of something bigger than yourself—people want to contribute, which leads to the next way to engage parents…

Communicate value.

Why should they engage with your ministry? Because they would be doing something of great value.

  • Value for them (like all of us, our natural inclination is to consciously or unconsciously evaluate “what’s in it for me?”). So what is “in it” for parents?
  • Value for their children. Almost any parent is willing to engage if they know if will benefit their child. So how does your ministry value their children?
  • Value for others. While this may be a distant third (yes, we usually think about ourselves and our families first, even in the church), it still carries weight in the eyes of most of us. So what value will parents provide for others if they engage?

All of these values of engaging are important. Are you communicating them to your parents? Can you easily answer these questions?

These values naturally flow from a clear and compelling vision, so wrap it into your vision message to help parents understand just how important it can be for them to engage.

Clean up your program.

As I’ve visited church while consulting, coaching or evaluating with their ministry, I am often astonished at the seeming chaos that I encounter. It might be terrible (or non-existent) signage (see What Are Your Communication Standards for more on this) or it may be a lack of systems and processes that help parents engage easily. It could be simply that parents are made to wait for their kids well after service is over (yes, starting and stopping on time is important!).

It could be any number of things about your program that keep parents from engaging. So evaluate often (here are 5 Ways to Evaluate). As you walk around your ministry on Sunday morning (or any other time), think like a parent. What are things which make it difficult for them to engage? Clean them up!

When we cast a clear and compelling vision, create community, communicate value, and clean up our program, we help parents want to engage with our Children’s Ministry.

What do you do to help parents want to engage with your Children’s Ministry?

This article originally appeared here.

Can Our Songs CAUSE Worship?

By
David Manner
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Can Our Songs CAUSE Worship?

Cause and Effect is a relationship in which a person, action or thing makes another thing, action or event occur. A cause must always precede an effect in order for that effect to occur. So the effect is then a consequence of the cause.

God’s revelation (cause) is when He offers us a glimpse of His activity, His will, His attributes, His judgment, His discipline, His comfort, His hope and His promises. Our response (effect) is the sometimes spontaneous and sometimes premeditated reply to that revelation…worship.

A model for this cause and effect worship understanding is found in Isaiah 6:1-8. The holiness of God is revealed (cause) to the prophet Isaiah and his natural worship response is contrition (effect), “Woe is me, for I am ruined” (Isaiah 6:5). God revealed his mercy (cause) and Isaiah’s worship response is service (effect), “Here am I. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

If our worship responses are the effect, then it is not possible for those worship actions to also be the cause. What we sing or how we sing it can’t cause a response because it is the response. The cause…God’s revelation can’t be generated by the effect since the effect is a response to the cause. So as good as our various worship actions are, they still can’t cause worship to occur because those worship actions are the effect.

Our worship actions may prompt, remind, exhort, prod or encourage more effect but they can’t cause cause. We can acknowledge the cause but we can’t generate it. We can respond to the cause but we can’t initiate it. We can celebrate the cause but we can’t create it.

He has called us (cause) out of darkness into His marvelous light that we may declare (effect) His praises (1 Peter 2:9). The Father is seeking (cause) the kind of worshipers who worship (effect) in spirit and truth (John 4:23). God Causes…We Effect.

Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. It is kindled within us only when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit. Forms and rituals do not produce (cause) worship, nor does the disuse of forms and rituals. We can use all the right methods (effect), we can have the best possible liturgy (effect), but we have not worshiped the Lord until His Spirit (cause) touches our spirit.[1]

 

[1] Adapted from Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1978).

This article originally appeared here.

5 Things You Should Never Say During Church Announcements

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

Church announcements don’t have to stink.

This time in your service doesn’t need to feel like a miscellaneous catch-all for things that don’t fit elsewhere in the service flow!

When done well, announcements can be the part of the service that moves people to action. Every weekend you have five minutes to move people toward engagement with the church’s mission. What an incredible opportunity!

Often the musical worship at your church is about a transcendent connection to God. During that portion of the service, we are attempting to help people live in full awareness of the fact that they are loved by the creator God! Also, in most churches, there is an opportunity to be engaged with some practical teaching that applies to people’s lives. During that portion of the service, we hope to equip our people to live out their faith during the rest of the week. However, the announcement time needs to be seen as the purest form of leadership during the entire service. You are asking people to take steps toward community and engagement during those precious five minutes. Don’t waste that time because what your church is doing is incredibly important!

Over the years, I’ve had the chance to host innumerable services and coach a lot of pastors on how to leverage their announcement time for maximum impact. Here are some common things that pastors say during the announcements that we need to take out of our vocabulary! As always, I’d love to hear your feedback on what else you would add to this list.

“Wow! It’s a nice day out there today!”

The problem with this statement is that it’s a lazy way to drive connection with your community. Yes, people experienced the weather as they came in this morning, just like they do every other day. Unless the weather is actually of historic note, avoid this statement at all costs. This phrase is particularly dangerous because it’s a verbal crutch for many leaders and they say it every week. The human mind is a pattern recognition machine, so when you lead with this every week you are helping people tune you out.

Other filler phrases similar to this one could be things like:

  • “How about those [insert sports team here] that played again this weekend?”
  • “Did you see the traffic on the way in? Wowsers! That’s life in the suburbs!”
  • “Welcome to First Church! Our mission is to help irreligious people become fully devoted followers of Christ.”

In the first moments of your announcements, you need to grab people’s attention and let them know you are headed somewhere. Think of your announcements like an airplane ride; the take-off and landing are the most important part of the experience. Craft the first sentence or two as a way to intentionally connect with your community and communicate that you have something important to tell people. Don’t get caught in the verbal crutch of starting the same way every week but look for new ways to grab people’s attention.

Some alternative openings to your announcements could include:

  • “You are going to be so thankful you came to First Church today because our team has crafted an amazing experience to help you and your family”
    • People are inherently interested in themselves. Leading with how they will personally benefit from the experience will pique their interest.
  • “Good morning! If you’ve been around for a while, then you’ve no doubt heard us say that we’re trying to create a church that unchurched people love. I want to tell you a story I heard this week about this mission being lived out…”
    • Two ideas in one for this one. Humans are drawn to stories and they want to hear about other people. Also, when you can tease info as “secret” or for “insiders,” people will listen.
  • “Wait, stop. Did you listen to what we were just singing? Do you believe that? Some of us here think it’s an amazing truth, but what do you think about it? Our hope is that the music every week makes you think about what you believe.”
    • Being slightly provocative after a shared musical worship experience and asking people to consider their own participation pulls them in. Also, the use of halting, short language can punctuate the flow and force people to slow down and consider what you are saying.

“In just a moment, our team is going to collect this morning’s offering.”

This one gets on my nerves…big time.

People are being generous and choosing to give to your ministry, and you’re talking about it like it’s a “collection”! We aren’t the Internal Revenue Service collecting taxes for God. We want to guide people toward generosity, not pass the plate and demand payment. While it might sound like a small, subtle difference, people are hyper sensitive in the area of finances so language matters here. In fact, we know that people who don’t normally attend church have their radars on high alert during this portion of your service. They are looking for reasons to push back on what they are hearing and seeing. This is a simple change to make your services more welcoming to those who might be skeptical.

Some other ways we word this one:

  • “Our ushers will be coming forward to get your tithes from you.”
  • “As our team prepares to gather this weekend’s offering… “
  • “We’re going to take up this morning’s donations from you.”

Our language should be a response to our people’s generosity. Our people are generous, so therefore we receive the donations that people are choosing to give to the church. The people who attend our churches are the first movers in helping advance our mission and we need to acknowledge that. They are choosing to be generous to God through our church and our role is to be thankful for what they are doing.

Try these alternatives when introducing this part of your service:

  • “In just a minute, our team is going to receive this morning’s offering from our community.”
    • It’s subtle but the language of “receive” is so much more powerful (and reflective of what’s happening) than “collect.”
  • “We know you have a lot of places you could choose to give, so we’re honored that so many people choose to give here!”
    • Sometimes just being honest about generosity is the best option. People have options and they are choosing to give to you. It really is amazing.
  • “As a church, we don’t want you to feel any obligation to give. This part of our service is for people who call our church home and want to give to back to the ministry here.”
    • This is a fantastic phrase because in a kind way it lets guests off the hook from feeling pressured to give, while at the same time not telling them not to give. It also subtly reminds people who call your church home that they should be giving.

Sin: Whatever Happened to the “S Word”?

By
Nicholas Batzig
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

“The word ‘sin,’ which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and life style. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared—the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?”1 Such were the words of psychiatrist Karl Menninger in 1973. Menniger’s provocatively titled book, Whatever Became of Sin, drew attention to the sociological push to remove the word sin from the vocabulary of our culture. Now, 46 years later, Menniger’s sociological forecast has become a tragic reality.

A number of years ago, Piers Morgan interviewed Kirk Cameron. In that interview, Morgan pressured Cameron to state his views on gay marriage—something upon which our society had not yet capitulated. Morgan then asked Cameron directly, “Would you tell [your kids] that gay marriage is a sin?” Instead of answering the question directly, Cameron spoke of the unnaturalness and the harmfulness of gay marriage. When I first saw this interview when it aired, I thought to myself, “I really wish that Cameron would turn the table on Morgan and asked him to define sin.” After all, we only hear the word sin on television or in movies today when someone is mocking the concept in the Christian worldview or trying to snare a Christian on a moral issue. If someone wants to corner a believer on calling an unethical act sin, then we should answer them according to their folly and get them to admit their presuppositions about what the Scripture calls sin. Sadly, it seems that the only times we hear about sin in our culture is when one groups wishes to demonize another group for believing some particular act is sin or for not agreeing with their own cultural agenda. By way of contrast, the Scripture teaches that sin is “any want of conformity unto or transgressing of the Law of God.”

Sin is a much more comprehensive concept than we readily recognize, because sin is more vertical than horizontal in its nature. Cultural discussions about what may be thought of as sin tend to fixate on the horizontal and cultural side of things. However, biblically, the vertical dimension gives shape and form to what sin is and what it deserves. When David finally repented of his adultery and murder, he turned to God and said, “Against You and You only have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight” (Psalm 51). David was not intimating that he had not sinned against Uriah, Bathsheba, both of their families, his family or the nation as a whole. Rather, he was rightly prioritizing the offense. A reappropriation of the word sin and all that it includes involves a right assessment of the directional nature of it.

Sadly, the tendency to shy away from the word sin has also become a norm in evangelical churches. It is altogether common for professing believers to use the language of the secular world when speaking about their own actions and the actions of others. Many are quick to appeal to language drawn out of the DSM when seeking to categorize what is, in many cases, a sinful heart issue. This is not to say that there are not real medical concerns that have been wrongfully disregarded by biblical counselors in the past. It is, however, to note that just because we can tack a medical label on something doesn’t mean that we are justified in doing so. Scripture must be our ultimate guide in determining what is happening in our hearts, minds and lives. If a believer has a sinful addiction to any particular substance, we should resist labeling it as a medical condition. The mantra, “Once an addict, always an addict,” cuts against the biblical teaching about the believer’s status as a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:14-17). If I am constantly anxious, it may not be a medical issue at all. It may simply be that I am sinfully not trusting the Lord (Phil. 4:6-7). Similarly, if I am in a constant state of despondency, it may not be that I am clinically depressed. Rather, it may just be that I have allowed sinful anxiety to take the driver’s seat of my heart and I am, therefore, not resting in the good news of the Gospel (Prov. 12:25). This goes for the constant appeal to self-esteem issues as well. What is often framed as the result of low self-esteem is nothing other than a sinful mentality of entitlement or self-pity. The underlying problem is not that he or she has too low a self-esteem; the root problem is that he or she has too much sinful pride.

Many have tried to defend a psychology of self-esteem by appealing to the criminal system in America. In her 2002 New York Times’ article “Deflating Self-Esteem’s Role in Society’s ills,” Erica Goode explained how a simple self-esteem test served to debunk the secular psychological theory that the cause of crime in America was directly related to the problem of low-self-esteem. She wrote,

“Researchers gave tests of self-esteem and narcissism to 63 men serving prison sentences for rape, murder, assault or armed robbery in Massachusetts and California.

They compared the prisoners’ scores to those found in other studies for groups of men the same age, including Vietnam veterans, college students, dentists, recreational dart throwers and problem drinkers. The violent offenders, Dr. Bushman said, did not differ from the other men in self-esteem. But they scored much higher than the other men on narcissism.”

Sinful pride, rather than low self-esteem, was the common factor of violent criminals.

10 Indicators You Have No Margin in Your Life

By
Charles Stone
-
thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Although I posted this recently, it’s worth a re-read. In Richard Swenson’s seminal book, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, he defines margin this way. Margin is the space between our load and our limits.

He says it is related to our reserves and resilience. He calls it a buffer, a place where we can recharge our batteries, and a space where we can focus on what matters most. I highly recommend the book. Unfortunately, those in ministry often lack margin. Here are 10 signs that may indicate you lack margin and five steps to gain more of it.

  1. I’m always mentally and physically exhausted.
  2. Small things more easily get under my skin. I can’t turn my anxious thoughts off.
  3. I don’t seem to have the joy for ministry I once did.
  4. I count down the days until my day off. Yet even on my day off I’m still anxiously thinking about ministry stuff.
  5. Those who love me most tell me to slow down yet I always have a comeback excuse.
  6. I often worry about what others think of my performance.
  7. I too easily take things personally.
  8. I find that I can’t focus as well as I once did.
  9. I get easily distracted and try to multi-task more often.
  10. My devotional times with God are mostly dry.

If a few of these are consistently true of you, you may need more margin in your life.

If that’s so, what should you do?

When I’ve found myself with little margin, it hasn’t been easy to change things, but these steps have helped.

  1. Admit that your life is too full and that it’s not good, pleasing to God or healthy for you.
  2. Learn the art of mindfulness, being aware of and in the present moment without being harsh on yourself or worrying about what happened yesterday or fretting about what might happen tomorrow. Meditate on the words of Jesus in Matthew 6.
  3. Take a day off, really. Turn off your phone and don’t check email. Do something that refreshes your soul.
  4. Turn your mind off earlier in the day than you do now. Perhaps you need to decrease night meetings. Maybe you need to establish hard stops for those evening meetings.
  5. Remind yourself that if you don’t take care of you, you can’t take care of others.

After all, Jesus did say something about loving yourself.

What has helped you gain better margin?

This article originally appeared here.

1...917918919...1,182Page 918 of 1,182
855,266FansLike

New Articles

Bible verse Mother’s Day prayer

Bible Verse Mother’s Day Prayer and Worship Ideas To Honor Moms

Stephanie Martin -
Want ideas for a Bible verse Mother’s Day prayer or service? Use this Bible-based inspiration to love and honor moms.
Mother’s Day craft

Mother’s Day Craft: Bible Bookmarks Are in Full Bloom

Mother’s Day sermons

Mother’s Day Sermons & Resources: 20 Ways to Honor Women

preschool praise and worship

Preschool Praise and Worship: Helping Little Hearts Worship in Big Ways

New Podcasts

Joby Martin

Joby Martin: What Happens When Pastors Finally Understand Grace

Jessica Lea -
Joby Martin joins “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast” to discuss what happens when a church leader has truly been run over by the “grace train" and understands the profound love and grace of God.
Jennie Allen

Best of 2024—Jennie Allen: Why Church Leaders Need To Pay Attention...

Jon Acuff

Best of 2024: Jon Acuff—How To Pursue Success Without Destroying Your...

Libin Abraham

Libin Abraham on God’s Surprising Job Description for the Pastor

ChurchLeaders.com is dedicated to resourcing, informing, and connecting a community of church leaders for greater Kingdom impact worldwide.
Contact us: support@churchleaders.com

Company

Trending

Popular Categories

© ChurchLeaders