Before Christmas my wife and I made the trip that every grandparent of year-old twins must make. We went to Toys R Us to look for some fun presents. I hadn’t been in a toy store since our son, the twin’s father, was the toy receiver in our family. When we entered the store, someone asked us if we needed help, which was to be expected. Soon another employee offered to help us. I began to think we must have looked lost, which we were, but we declined the help. Not two minutes later someone else asked us if there was something she could show us. A minute or two later another employee, I think it was the manager, asked if they could help us find something in particular. This happened about 10 times in the 40 minutes or so we were in the store. Frankly, I was impressed. The store was not jammed, but it was busy. (There were about 10 shopping days until Christmas.) They clearly wanted our business.
A few weeks after Christmas, I went to a post office in a neighboring town to mail a few packages. I send packages often, so I had everything needed and ready and I thought I would be in and out of there pretty fast. But I had never been to this particular post office. I stood in line (I have never been a patient line stander) while the two clerks moved at what seemed to me to be a glacial pace. There were only four people ahead of me, and their transactions didn’t seem complicated. The clerks simply moved slowly and made a lot of small talk. At one point a man who looked like a supervisor came out to the counter area, and I thought he was going to step up to one of the unused workstations and help serve the line of people, which had by now reached out of the door. Instead, he just stood there. He didn’t say anything to the clerks, he didn’t help them, and he didn’t help us. Then another man came out and stood next to him, joining him in looking at the line of impatient customers. None of the post office employees seemed to care that their customers were dissatisfied.
What is the difference? I think it is primarily this: the people at Toys R Us were very aware that they were not the only place that this grandpa could buy gifts for his grandkids. On the other hand, the post office personnel were just as aware that they were pretty much the only place in that town where I could send my packages. Toys R Us wanted their customers to be happy and satisfied. The post office (at least that particular post office) didn’t care if the customers were happy or satisfied.
Some churches act like the post office. They act like they are the only place people can go to worship, and don’t seem to care if new people come. Their concern for visitors and prospective members is very low. They have their church and their salvation. “Let the others find their own,” is the attitude they project. People can’t find a place to park? Who cares? The toilets are dirty, ugly, out of style, and /or hard to find? Let them use the bathroom at home. The nursery is inadequately staffed? Who cares? I took care of my own kids. I didn’t need a nursery?
Other churches are like Toys R Us. If people come anywhere near their church they do anything they can to make them feel welcome and do whatever they can to serve them. Visitor parking is near the door and clearly marked. The bathrooms are clean and easy to find. The nursery is beautifully decorated and staffed by competent, smiling people. They have people who actually talk to newcomers and are interested in seeing newcomers become members. The whole church makes it easy for a new person to decide to make that church their home.
Take a look at your church this Sunday. Remember this, the things that bug people at a place like the post office, like lack of attention and apathetic service, also bother people who are looking for a church. Watch what happens at your church. If you are the pastor, get somebody to be your spy. Try to get the feel for what it would be like to come to your church for the first time. Take note of how welcome you would feel if you were the newcomer. Then, declare yourself a committee of one to do what you can to make people feel welcome at your church. Asking to help me was not the primary job of everyone at Toy-R-Us, but they certainly knew it was important, and all of them did what they could to make sure I had a good experience. What are you doing to make sure your church visitors have a good experience when they visit your church?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
A Winning Strategy
I recently heard a teacher of church consultants who seemed to me to be saying that older, established congregations are doomed. They will cease to exist within the next fifteen to twenty years, because they are aging and becoming irrelevant to the next generation. I agree that many churches are on this track, but I don’t think their doom is a foregone conclusion. I think some of these churches can refocus and begin reaching the next generation. I know for sure that there is at least one path that can return a church to relevance, lower its average age, and help it to grow.
Children’s ministry in itself is a vital part of the church’s arsenal of weapons to win the world. Most people who choose to follow Christ do so before the age of 13 (estimated at 75%). Effort, dollars, and imagination that are invested in children guarantee future benefits for the Kingdom of God. In addition, the effects of children’s ministry can be more immediate. If a church is willing and prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that come from an effective children’s ministry, the kids’ ministry can lead them to refocus and to grow, spiritually and numerically.
Visit established churches today and you will find lot of gray hair and very few children. There are often rooms set aside for children. Many of them are furnished, some even decorated for Sunday school classes that don’t really exist. It’s eerie and sad. These churches don’t have young adult classes either. People have said things like, “Why don’t younger people come and bring their children to church. I used to make my kids sit right with me and behave, too.” The answer I give is, “If you have an excellent children’s ministry, then the kids will bring their parents.”
It’s true: If you love kids consistently and seek to do excellent children’s ministry the kids will get their folks to come. Can a church that has few or no children do this? I’ll give you a simple answer. The simple answer is; yes, it can be done. There are seven steps that a church will need to take. You may find some of these steps not so simple. To do it a church must be committed to doing whatever it takes to share the message of God’s love, hope, and salvation with the next generation.
Some steps:
1. Find some people who love kids and want to share Jesus with them. Start them praying and planning.
2. Identify someone to be the leader. This should be a person, not designated to do the ministry, but to lead a team to do the ministry.
3. Get some training. There are a lot of very good children’s ministry training opportunities available.
a.) You can spend a lot of money, send your leader, and maybe some of the other interested people to INCM’s Children’s Pastor’s Conference, the Orange Conference, D6 or a host of others.
b.) Better yet, you can find a trainer (perhaps someone who teaches at one of those big events) and have her/him come to you church to train everyone from your church who is interested for the cost of one person going to a big event.
c.) Or you could take a group to a training event in your area.
(For full disclosure, my wife, Tina, is a great children’s ministry trainer. There are others, but in my biased opinion, she’s the best.)
4. Plan some special events for kids in your community. Many times churches have special events for the kids of their members, but if you want to grow, you must put the emphasis on kids in the area. Whatever you do, do it so well that kids will want to come. For example: Vacation Bible School is not a new idea, but it can make a splash in your community if you make it excellent. To impact community kids, have it in the morning, so you don’t have to compete with Little League in the evening. Use your imagination, and make it fun. Go over the top with your decorations. If you use a VBS that comes in the box, be creative and don’t limit yourself to what’s in the box.
Other Special Events:
Christmas Craft Making Day
Trunk or Treat
Easter Egg Hunt
Sports Camp or Clinic
5. Keep careful records of everyone who comes. (Tip: offer a door prize so that you can get everyone’s information.) Get the name of the parent or guardian they live with, their address, phone number and e-mail address. Send the kids a thank you for showing up and with some information about the next special event, as well as the ongoing stuff at church. Add their parents to the regular mailing or e-mailing list. This is critical. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Kids may come to several special events before they ever show up on Sunday, so be persistent. That first special event plants the seed, the follow-up waters, the next special event fertilizes, then eventually the fruit of seeing them in church will blossom.
6. Make children’s church excellent. Give the kids that come to the special event something super to participate in at church on Sunday morning. A good way to do it is encourage the kids to sit with their parents in adult worship until the message; then, dismiss them for children’s church. The workers will have them about 30 to 45 minutes, and they should make it exciting. Teaching kids at church is different than teaching them at school. At school they have to come back the next time,; at church, if they don’t like it, they don’t have to return. Make them excited about coming.
6. Develop your Sunday school so kids will want to come to see what else is going on. When you do this, make sure you are ready to start a new class for their parents. Get their class started with a subject that is important to them, i.e. parenting, marriage, or a beginning Bible study.
7. The church needs to expect young families to come and design the church to make them feel comfortable enough to not only become members, but also invite their friends. This will mean looking at the décor, the worship style, and the preaching topics. You will probably have to make changes, perhaps some major changes. Changes are not comfortable, but so what? Is the purpose of your church to make you comfortable, or to win people to Christ? Do you really want to reach the next generation, or do you just want to complain because the world is going to hell? I am much more uncomfortable about the fact that young families don’t know the love of Jesus than I am that I will have to learn to like a different kind of music, or a different church schedule, or that the building may be used a different way.
If you do these steps you will not only have an effective children’s ministry, you’ll find that your church has become more relevant to the current culture. You’ll not only win whole families to Christ, but you’ll find entrances to parts of the community that you never before imagined.
Check out Tina Houser’s web site: tinahouser.net
For a full step-by-step description of how to build or rebuild a children’s ministry, see her book "Building Children’s Ministry". (available at the website)
Children’s ministry in itself is a vital part of the church’s arsenal of weapons to win the world. Most people who choose to follow Christ do so before the age of 13 (estimated at 75%). Effort, dollars, and imagination that are invested in children guarantee future benefits for the Kingdom of God. In addition, the effects of children’s ministry can be more immediate. If a church is willing and prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that come from an effective children’s ministry, the kids’ ministry can lead them to refocus and to grow, spiritually and numerically.
Visit established churches today and you will find lot of gray hair and very few children. There are often rooms set aside for children. Many of them are furnished, some even decorated for Sunday school classes that don’t really exist. It’s eerie and sad. These churches don’t have young adult classes either. People have said things like, “Why don’t younger people come and bring their children to church. I used to make my kids sit right with me and behave, too.” The answer I give is, “If you have an excellent children’s ministry, then the kids will bring their parents.”
It’s true: If you love kids consistently and seek to do excellent children’s ministry the kids will get their folks to come. Can a church that has few or no children do this? I’ll give you a simple answer. The simple answer is; yes, it can be done. There are seven steps that a church will need to take. You may find some of these steps not so simple. To do it a church must be committed to doing whatever it takes to share the message of God’s love, hope, and salvation with the next generation.
Some steps:
1. Find some people who love kids and want to share Jesus with them. Start them praying and planning.
2. Identify someone to be the leader. This should be a person, not designated to do the ministry, but to lead a team to do the ministry.
3. Get some training. There are a lot of very good children’s ministry training opportunities available.
a.) You can spend a lot of money, send your leader, and maybe some of the other interested people to INCM’s Children’s Pastor’s Conference, the Orange Conference, D6 or a host of others.
b.) Better yet, you can find a trainer (perhaps someone who teaches at one of those big events) and have her/him come to you church to train everyone from your church who is interested for the cost of one person going to a big event.
c.) Or you could take a group to a training event in your area.
(For full disclosure, my wife, Tina, is a great children’s ministry trainer. There are others, but in my biased opinion, she’s the best.)
4. Plan some special events for kids in your community. Many times churches have special events for the kids of their members, but if you want to grow, you must put the emphasis on kids in the area. Whatever you do, do it so well that kids will want to come. For example: Vacation Bible School is not a new idea, but it can make a splash in your community if you make it excellent. To impact community kids, have it in the morning, so you don’t have to compete with Little League in the evening. Use your imagination, and make it fun. Go over the top with your decorations. If you use a VBS that comes in the box, be creative and don’t limit yourself to what’s in the box.
Other Special Events:
Christmas Craft Making Day
Trunk or Treat
Easter Egg Hunt
Sports Camp or Clinic
5. Keep careful records of everyone who comes. (Tip: offer a door prize so that you can get everyone’s information.) Get the name of the parent or guardian they live with, their address, phone number and e-mail address. Send the kids a thank you for showing up and with some information about the next special event, as well as the ongoing stuff at church. Add their parents to the regular mailing or e-mailing list. This is critical. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Kids may come to several special events before they ever show up on Sunday, so be persistent. That first special event plants the seed, the follow-up waters, the next special event fertilizes, then eventually the fruit of seeing them in church will blossom.
6. Make children’s church excellent. Give the kids that come to the special event something super to participate in at church on Sunday morning. A good way to do it is encourage the kids to sit with their parents in adult worship until the message; then, dismiss them for children’s church. The workers will have them about 30 to 45 minutes, and they should make it exciting. Teaching kids at church is different than teaching them at school. At school they have to come back the next time,; at church, if they don’t like it, they don’t have to return. Make them excited about coming.
6. Develop your Sunday school so kids will want to come to see what else is going on. When you do this, make sure you are ready to start a new class for their parents. Get their class started with a subject that is important to them, i.e. parenting, marriage, or a beginning Bible study.
7. The church needs to expect young families to come and design the church to make them feel comfortable enough to not only become members, but also invite their friends. This will mean looking at the décor, the worship style, and the preaching topics. You will probably have to make changes, perhaps some major changes. Changes are not comfortable, but so what? Is the purpose of your church to make you comfortable, or to win people to Christ? Do you really want to reach the next generation, or do you just want to complain because the world is going to hell? I am much more uncomfortable about the fact that young families don’t know the love of Jesus than I am that I will have to learn to like a different kind of music, or a different church schedule, or that the building may be used a different way.
If you do these steps you will not only have an effective children’s ministry, you’ll find that your church has become more relevant to the current culture. You’ll not only win whole families to Christ, but you’ll find entrances to parts of the community that you never before imagined.
Check out Tina Houser’s web site: tinahouser.net
For a full step-by-step description of how to build or rebuild a children’s ministry, see her book "Building Children’s Ministry". (available at the website)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Calling the Church to Repentance
Question 1: Right after Zacchaeus announced the change he would make in his life, what did Jesus say was the reason He came to the world?
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10 (NIV)
Question 2: What were the last words that Matthew records Jesus saying?
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
Question 3: According to Luke what is the last thing Jesus said before he ascended to heaven?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8 (NIV)
It is apparent from these passages that God’s will for Jesus’ followers is to seek the lost as He did and make disciples by bearing witness of his love, hope and salvation. My personal observation and the surveys I have seen recently trouble me deeply because they show that few Christians and few churches make this their first priority.
Instead of seeking the lost, Christians tend to run from them. Many view their churches as fortresses in which they are safe from the awful people doing awful things out there. A reading of history shows that the first century Greco-Roman culture into which Jesus sent his first disciples was even more depraved than ours. Jesus expected his followers to go make a difference in that culture, not by dominating it, but by influencing it with His love. It is pretty hard to influence people with love from the safety of a fortress. Rather than a fortress, a church should be a rallying point where Christ-followers get refreshed, re-equipped and restored to return to the world Jesus loves so much.
I believe it is time for Christians and churches to repent. For too long we have put our own needs, our own comforts, even our own preferences ahead of Jesus’ command to make disciples. Some pastors find themselves in trouble when they propose changes intended to reach the lost that may cause discomfort for the members. Some churches hold their preferences in worship style, building use, and financial priorities as more important than doing what needs to be done to share Jesus message in a relevant way to a dying world. As a consequence, literally millions of people are living hopeless lives, and facing a hellish eternity. Some churches that are conscious of the need to share the message of Christ tend to make evangelism a program of the church, or a project, or a special weekend. For them evangelism is something they do, if they can find the time on their calendar, money in their budget, and enough people who are interested. These churches, too, need to repent. Evangelism, sharing the good news of the new life Jesus brings, and helping people become fully devoted followers of Him, is not something the church does; it is what the church is. It is the primary reason the church was called together.
The biblical purpose of the church is to glorify God, reach out to those who don’t know Him, grow up to be like Christ, grow together in Christian love, and lift up those in need. (I will blog about this purpose and its Bible roots another time.) While all of this purpose is important, it hinges on the reaching out element. There are two reasons for this: 1.) the greatest glory we can give God is to obey Him. He commanded us to make disciples. If we are not doing that we are not obeying Him, and therefore not glorifying Him. 2.) The other parts of purpose depend on the reaching out. We lift up those in need to earn the right to share the Good News with them. We learn so we can reach out more effectively, and we teach those who are new. We grow together in love because we need each other’s help to reach out, and we need to comfort each other when it gets hard.
As I said, it is time for Christians and churches to repent. We need to turn from the selfish, self-serving brand of Christianity we have fallen into, and turn toward the world changing brand to which Jesus has always called His people. I really wonder about the Judgment Day. People who have long called themselves Christians will stand before God. They may stand confident in the knowledge that they have asked Jesus to forgive their sins, have paid their tithes, have resisted temptation, and have been pillars of their churches. What happens if God then asks them what the fruit of their lives is, why they disobeyed Jesus’ command, and, perhaps, why they stood in the way of their churches reaching sinners? I am not the judge. God is. I am truly glad of that, but I can’t help wonder what God will do. Ephesians 2:8-10 makes it clear that salvation is a gift of the grace of God, not something we earn. It also makes it clear that God has works for the saved which he has prepared for them. What will happen if they haven’t done the things Jesus made clear his disciples must do? My advice to every Christian and every church is to repent now from disobedience. Do everything in your power to seek the lost and make disciples by being a witness of Christ’s saving love. Then, organize your churches with this as the main goal and greatest joy.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10 (NIV)
Question 2: What were the last words that Matthew records Jesus saying?
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
Question 3: According to Luke what is the last thing Jesus said before he ascended to heaven?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8 (NIV)
It is apparent from these passages that God’s will for Jesus’ followers is to seek the lost as He did and make disciples by bearing witness of his love, hope and salvation. My personal observation and the surveys I have seen recently trouble me deeply because they show that few Christians and few churches make this their first priority.
Instead of seeking the lost, Christians tend to run from them. Many view their churches as fortresses in which they are safe from the awful people doing awful things out there. A reading of history shows that the first century Greco-Roman culture into which Jesus sent his first disciples was even more depraved than ours. Jesus expected his followers to go make a difference in that culture, not by dominating it, but by influencing it with His love. It is pretty hard to influence people with love from the safety of a fortress. Rather than a fortress, a church should be a rallying point where Christ-followers get refreshed, re-equipped and restored to return to the world Jesus loves so much.
I believe it is time for Christians and churches to repent. For too long we have put our own needs, our own comforts, even our own preferences ahead of Jesus’ command to make disciples. Some pastors find themselves in trouble when they propose changes intended to reach the lost that may cause discomfort for the members. Some churches hold their preferences in worship style, building use, and financial priorities as more important than doing what needs to be done to share Jesus message in a relevant way to a dying world. As a consequence, literally millions of people are living hopeless lives, and facing a hellish eternity. Some churches that are conscious of the need to share the message of Christ tend to make evangelism a program of the church, or a project, or a special weekend. For them evangelism is something they do, if they can find the time on their calendar, money in their budget, and enough people who are interested. These churches, too, need to repent. Evangelism, sharing the good news of the new life Jesus brings, and helping people become fully devoted followers of Him, is not something the church does; it is what the church is. It is the primary reason the church was called together.
The biblical purpose of the church is to glorify God, reach out to those who don’t know Him, grow up to be like Christ, grow together in Christian love, and lift up those in need. (I will blog about this purpose and its Bible roots another time.) While all of this purpose is important, it hinges on the reaching out element. There are two reasons for this: 1.) the greatest glory we can give God is to obey Him. He commanded us to make disciples. If we are not doing that we are not obeying Him, and therefore not glorifying Him. 2.) The other parts of purpose depend on the reaching out. We lift up those in need to earn the right to share the Good News with them. We learn so we can reach out more effectively, and we teach those who are new. We grow together in love because we need each other’s help to reach out, and we need to comfort each other when it gets hard.
As I said, it is time for Christians and churches to repent. We need to turn from the selfish, self-serving brand of Christianity we have fallen into, and turn toward the world changing brand to which Jesus has always called His people. I really wonder about the Judgment Day. People who have long called themselves Christians will stand before God. They may stand confident in the knowledge that they have asked Jesus to forgive their sins, have paid their tithes, have resisted temptation, and have been pillars of their churches. What happens if God then asks them what the fruit of their lives is, why they disobeyed Jesus’ command, and, perhaps, why they stood in the way of their churches reaching sinners? I am not the judge. God is. I am truly glad of that, but I can’t help wonder what God will do. Ephesians 2:8-10 makes it clear that salvation is a gift of the grace of God, not something we earn. It also makes it clear that God has works for the saved which he has prepared for them. What will happen if they haven’t done the things Jesus made clear his disciples must do? My advice to every Christian and every church is to repent now from disobedience. Do everything in your power to seek the lost and make disciples by being a witness of Christ’s saving love. Then, organize your churches with this as the main goal and greatest joy.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Stopping Time
As we turn the calendar page to a new year, some of us think we would like to stop time. Perhaps, if 2010 was a great year for you, it would be great if 2011 was just the same. For the rest of us, the possibility that 2011 will be different, and maybe even an improvement, makes us anxious for it to begin. I think there are times when everyone would like for time to stop. Each of us have years, months, weeks, day, even moments, that are so sweet we want them to go on forever. Like when she said, “I do”, or you hit the game-winning home run.
I can think of times like that for me: college days when there was so much to learn and more pretty girls than there were Saturday nights; when my wife and I set out on the great adventure of life with nothing but dreams; those wonderful summers I got to teach my son to love baseball and to play it with all his heart; the day the new church building opened, signifying not only the culmination of many dreams and lots of work, but also the potential for many, many lives to be changed. I could go on, but that would be fun only for me.
The fact of the matter is that time doesn’t stop. No matter how much we wish it would. Sweet, inspiring, important times can never be caught and held on to. We get to keep the memories, but time moves on. It is easy to forget that as it moves, it can bring more amazing moments which we would miss if time was held back.
As I get older, I find the temptation is greater to try to hold back time. (I prefer listening to the classic hits radio stations, and I sometimes find myself watching old TV shows and movies on Hulu.com.) But as great as the old times seem, they are passed, and it is dangerous to let them get in the way of new and wonderful things God wants to do in and through me. He isn’t done with the world, or with me, or with the part I am to play in it. So, I will do my best to approach 2011 with great anticipation, high expectation, and courage. That is the choice I have made. Not always easy. If I choose to live as if time were stopped, I am taking the reins of my life out of God’s hands. That is something I never want to do.
That brings me to a most troubling observation. I am seeing many evangelical churches doing their best to stop time. They have determined that there was a golden age for their congregation and they want to stay there, or go back to it. This is disturbing because the world that Jesus assigned us to reach is moving headlong into the future. Surveys of young people (Unchurched by Kinnamen and Lyons ) are finding the church to be irrelevant to their lives and to their futures. They see the church as something for old people. I think this is largely due to the fact that churches do their best to stop time.
I have seen this happen over the years of my ministry. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. I thought the church was trying to guard the purity of Christianity. As I became older, and, I hope, wiser, I began to realize that what was being guarded was most often tradition, and/or the good old days, at the expense of doing the mission of the church.
I knew one church that had an open road to become a very influential beacon of God’s love and hope in the community, but it decided that it was big enough at about 120 attenders. They chose to spend their money to pay off their rather small mortgage rather than invest in timely opportunities for the future. As a consequence, 28 years later, the church sits in its paid-off building with a congregation of 25, looks back to the days when the sanctuary was full and wonders what happened.
Another church was considered a very large church in the 1960s when a great man was the pastor. He retired and moved on, but the church wouldn’t move on and tried to preserve the 60s. The 120 people that meet there now are taught about the greatness of the old days.
A friend of mine who oversees about 150 churches in a state ministry told me that most of the churches in his adjudicatory are all ready for next year, if next year happens to be 1955. How sad. How heartbreaking it must be for the God who is always contemporary, whose name is “I am.”
Many congregations in His beloved church have chosen to fall behind. Perhaps those churches would feel more comfortable worshiping a God named, “I was.” I could go on, but it would only serve to bring depression. The point I want to make is that the future is open. Wonderful times are ahead, if we are alert, if we are willing, if we are living in time as it comes. This is true for individuals, and it is true for congregations.
Join me in 2011. May it be a year so great we wish it would last forever!
I can think of times like that for me: college days when there was so much to learn and more pretty girls than there were Saturday nights; when my wife and I set out on the great adventure of life with nothing but dreams; those wonderful summers I got to teach my son to love baseball and to play it with all his heart; the day the new church building opened, signifying not only the culmination of many dreams and lots of work, but also the potential for many, many lives to be changed. I could go on, but that would be fun only for me.
The fact of the matter is that time doesn’t stop. No matter how much we wish it would. Sweet, inspiring, important times can never be caught and held on to. We get to keep the memories, but time moves on. It is easy to forget that as it moves, it can bring more amazing moments which we would miss if time was held back.
As I get older, I find the temptation is greater to try to hold back time. (I prefer listening to the classic hits radio stations, and I sometimes find myself watching old TV shows and movies on Hulu.com.) But as great as the old times seem, they are passed, and it is dangerous to let them get in the way of new and wonderful things God wants to do in and through me. He isn’t done with the world, or with me, or with the part I am to play in it. So, I will do my best to approach 2011 with great anticipation, high expectation, and courage. That is the choice I have made. Not always easy. If I choose to live as if time were stopped, I am taking the reins of my life out of God’s hands. That is something I never want to do.
That brings me to a most troubling observation. I am seeing many evangelical churches doing their best to stop time. They have determined that there was a golden age for their congregation and they want to stay there, or go back to it. This is disturbing because the world that Jesus assigned us to reach is moving headlong into the future. Surveys of young people (Unchurched by Kinnamen and Lyons ) are finding the church to be irrelevant to their lives and to their futures. They see the church as something for old people. I think this is largely due to the fact that churches do their best to stop time.
I have seen this happen over the years of my ministry. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. I thought the church was trying to guard the purity of Christianity. As I became older, and, I hope, wiser, I began to realize that what was being guarded was most often tradition, and/or the good old days, at the expense of doing the mission of the church.
I knew one church that had an open road to become a very influential beacon of God’s love and hope in the community, but it decided that it was big enough at about 120 attenders. They chose to spend their money to pay off their rather small mortgage rather than invest in timely opportunities for the future. As a consequence, 28 years later, the church sits in its paid-off building with a congregation of 25, looks back to the days when the sanctuary was full and wonders what happened.
Another church was considered a very large church in the 1960s when a great man was the pastor. He retired and moved on, but the church wouldn’t move on and tried to preserve the 60s. The 120 people that meet there now are taught about the greatness of the old days.
A friend of mine who oversees about 150 churches in a state ministry told me that most of the churches in his adjudicatory are all ready for next year, if next year happens to be 1955. How sad. How heartbreaking it must be for the God who is always contemporary, whose name is “I am.”
Many congregations in His beloved church have chosen to fall behind. Perhaps those churches would feel more comfortable worshiping a God named, “I was.” I could go on, but it would only serve to bring depression. The point I want to make is that the future is open. Wonderful times are ahead, if we are alert, if we are willing, if we are living in time as it comes. This is true for individuals, and it is true for congregations.
Join me in 2011. May it be a year so great we wish it would last forever!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
At Just the Right Time...
When the right time came, God sent his Son.
Galatians 4:4a (Living Bible)
Jesus came at the right time, God’s time, for the Jewish people. For centuries they had been told by prophets to watch for the special one, the Savior/Messiah from God. Each day they prayed for him to come, and some of them tried to get themselves and the Jewish nation ready for him. The Pharisees thought that if they obeyed the law of the Old Testament thoroughly enough God would send the Messiah. The time Jesus was born was a time of great expectation. Because the Jews had languished for centuries under the control of the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans, their desperation grew; every year they were even more sure the time was right. The stage was set in the Jewish community for the entrance of God’s Son. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Jesus also came at the right time, God’s time, for all the rest of mankind. The Jews tended to think the Messiah would be theirs exclusively, but the Old Testament taught that he would also be a light to all the world. This was never easy for Jews to understand, not even for Jesus’ first disciples. They realized that Jesus came for the whole world only after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the time of Jesus’ birth has long been recognized as a pivotal time in world history. Some of the historians and observers of the day spoke of a general feeling of expectation in the entire Roman world. The Bible even gives evidence of this. The wise men were not Jews, but they must have been looking for something great to happen as they studied the stars and discovered the star that led them to Bethlehem. The Roman world was looking for something to believe in. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Jesus came at the right time, God’s time for me. I was only twelve years old when God, using two friends just a couple of years older than me, brought Jesus into my life. Of course I knew about him before that, but that’s when he came to live in my heart. It was just the right time for me. I was trying to figure out who I was and what my life would be like. My future could have gone a lot of ways and many of them not very good. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Jesus is still coming at the right time, God’s time, for people today. There are people around us who God has been preparing for the coming of His Son to their lives. Look around. A lot of people have been shaken lately by the economy and the terror situation. The divorce rate indicates to me that a lot of people are starved for love. People are lonely, and just plain scared of dying. God wants to use us to reach them the same way he used my two friends to reach me. Even though we are by no means perfect, God wants to use us. We are his hands and feet. We are what people see of his heart. He has chosen us to be the way he loves the world. At a literally crucial (the root of “crucial” is cross) time for them as at the crossroads of their lives, they can choose a life with meaning or a meaningless existence. They can choose life or death.
This is the right time for us to share what we know about Jesus. This is a time when people are finding that other things they have trusted in are not trustworthy. Many people feel that their world has been turned upside down. This is a time when they need God’s Son to be born in their hearts. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Galatians 4:4a (Living Bible)
Jesus came at the right time, God’s time, for the Jewish people. For centuries they had been told by prophets to watch for the special one, the Savior/Messiah from God. Each day they prayed for him to come, and some of them tried to get themselves and the Jewish nation ready for him. The Pharisees thought that if they obeyed the law of the Old Testament thoroughly enough God would send the Messiah. The time Jesus was born was a time of great expectation. Because the Jews had languished for centuries under the control of the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans, their desperation grew; every year they were even more sure the time was right. The stage was set in the Jewish community for the entrance of God’s Son. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Jesus also came at the right time, God’s time, for all the rest of mankind. The Jews tended to think the Messiah would be theirs exclusively, but the Old Testament taught that he would also be a light to all the world. This was never easy for Jews to understand, not even for Jesus’ first disciples. They realized that Jesus came for the whole world only after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the time of Jesus’ birth has long been recognized as a pivotal time in world history. Some of the historians and observers of the day spoke of a general feeling of expectation in the entire Roman world. The Bible even gives evidence of this. The wise men were not Jews, but they must have been looking for something great to happen as they studied the stars and discovered the star that led them to Bethlehem. The Roman world was looking for something to believe in. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Jesus came at the right time, God’s time for me. I was only twelve years old when God, using two friends just a couple of years older than me, brought Jesus into my life. Of course I knew about him before that, but that’s when he came to live in my heart. It was just the right time for me. I was trying to figure out who I was and what my life would be like. My future could have gone a lot of ways and many of them not very good. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Jesus is still coming at the right time, God’s time, for people today. There are people around us who God has been preparing for the coming of His Son to their lives. Look around. A lot of people have been shaken lately by the economy and the terror situation. The divorce rate indicates to me that a lot of people are starved for love. People are lonely, and just plain scared of dying. God wants to use us to reach them the same way he used my two friends to reach me. Even though we are by no means perfect, God wants to use us. We are his hands and feet. We are what people see of his heart. He has chosen us to be the way he loves the world. At a literally crucial (the root of “crucial” is cross) time for them as at the crossroads of their lives, they can choose a life with meaning or a meaningless existence. They can choose life or death.
This is the right time for us to share what we know about Jesus. This is a time when people are finding that other things they have trusted in are not trustworthy. Many people feel that their world has been turned upside down. This is a time when they need God’s Son to be born in their hearts. At just the right time, God sent His Son.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Growing Up or Getting Old
Christ-followers are to spend their lives growing up to be like Jesus. Check out Ephesians 4:11-13, if you don’t think so. We are to become mature. For me, that means I need to grow into my gray hair. What does it mean to become mature? How can I tell if I am getting there? First, let’s tackle that by looking at what maturity isn’t.
Maturity Is Not:
Age – adding years makes you old, not mature
Appearance – as lovely as gray hair is, it does not mean that you are mature
Achievement – neither making money, nor being famous make you mature. Watch any program on the E television network, and find out.
Academics – maturity does not come automatically with diplomas and degrees
Maturity is determined by attitude and approach to life. Maturity has to do with how you are when other people aren’t paying attention, in the moments when, and in the places where, no one else sees. What others think of you is recognition. What God and you think of you is your character.
So how can I tell if I am growing into my gray hair? How do I measure my maturity? Our measuring stick is the Word of God, and the book of James gives us five ways to measure maturity.
Five Measures of Maturity (from the Book of James)
I. A mature person is positive under pressure
"Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4
How do you handle problems? Do you persevere through them and learn from them?
II. A mature person is sensitive to others.
"If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, `Love your neighbor as yourself' you are doing right." James 2:8
Mature people are empathetic, they help those in need, and they are not snobs (see James 2:1-6).
III. A mature person has mastered his mouth.
"We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." James 3:2
The self-control that indicates maturity begins with tongue control (See James 3-11). Mature people praise and encourage others. They use their speech to build up, not tear down.
IV. A mature person is a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor?” James 4:11-12
Truly mature people refrain from gossip and judging. They know how destructive such talk can be and they refrain from it.
V. A mature person is patient and prayerful.
"Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming ... As you know, we consider blessed those who persevere." James 5:7, 11
Patience is a mark of maturity and is learned only by waiting. (Annoying, but true.) A mature Christian has learned that waiting is often part of the answer to his prayer.
So how are you doing with these marks of maturity? Are you maturing or just getting old? Are you ripening or rotting on the vine? It’s up to you, because you get to choose your attitude. Make the choice to grow up and become more and more like our big brother, Jesus.
Maturity Is Not:
Age – adding years makes you old, not mature
Appearance – as lovely as gray hair is, it does not mean that you are mature
Achievement – neither making money, nor being famous make you mature. Watch any program on the E television network, and find out.
Academics – maturity does not come automatically with diplomas and degrees
Maturity is determined by attitude and approach to life. Maturity has to do with how you are when other people aren’t paying attention, in the moments when, and in the places where, no one else sees. What others think of you is recognition. What God and you think of you is your character.
So how can I tell if I am growing into my gray hair? How do I measure my maturity? Our measuring stick is the Word of God, and the book of James gives us five ways to measure maturity.
Five Measures of Maturity (from the Book of James)
I. A mature person is positive under pressure
"Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4
How do you handle problems? Do you persevere through them and learn from them?
II. A mature person is sensitive to others.
"If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, `Love your neighbor as yourself' you are doing right." James 2:8
Mature people are empathetic, they help those in need, and they are not snobs (see James 2:1-6).
III. A mature person has mastered his mouth.
"We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." James 3:2
The self-control that indicates maturity begins with tongue control (See James 3-11). Mature people praise and encourage others. They use their speech to build up, not tear down.
IV. A mature person is a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor?” James 4:11-12
Truly mature people refrain from gossip and judging. They know how destructive such talk can be and they refrain from it.
V. A mature person is patient and prayerful.
"Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming ... As you know, we consider blessed those who persevere." James 5:7, 11
Patience is a mark of maturity and is learned only by waiting. (Annoying, but true.) A mature Christian has learned that waiting is often part of the answer to his prayer.
So how are you doing with these marks of maturity? Are you maturing or just getting old? Are you ripening or rotting on the vine? It’s up to you, because you get to choose your attitude. Make the choice to grow up and become more and more like our big brother, Jesus.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Who is Served and Who Serves in the Church?
To put this in business terms, the church has both internal and external customers. (Customers are people the church needs to serve.). The external customers are the people who are not actively involved in the church. They include (1) so-called “fringe people”, former members, relatives of members and friends of members who attend from time to time and would call on church in a time of personal crisis; (2) seekers, people in the community who are actively searching for something the church can provide, ie. the message of forgiveness and new life, or a caring fellowship of believers; and (3) folks who have no current interest in the church and do not yet know that the message of the church is for them.
The church’s internal customers are its members. They need the resources and training to be able to deepen their personal relationships with Jesus and to determine and execute the ministry God has for them to do. All members of the church should be active growing Christians who minister to the church and community in some way. It is important for the church to provide the members with opportunities to develop deep, rich relationships with each other.
The internal customers of the church are also the workers. Their work is voluntary. The problem that many church members have is that they act like the church exists to please them. Though the church, unlike businesses, is financed not by external customers, but by the generous contributions of its own workers, the purpose is to make new disciples. If the church is to accomplish its purpose, it must be focused on bringing more and more people to know Jesus, and serve all its customers—those who are members, workers, and givers, and those who are fringe, inactive, and not yet interested. If the mission of the church is carried out, external customers become internal customers, and become part of the workforce and income base of the church. Actually, this is a way of saying the church seeks to make more and more people part of the family, so they can share in the work and support it with love and fellowship. As they grow and become grounded in the Lord and the church they should take on more responsibility for the mission of reaching others.
All this is to say that church planning must take into account both the needs of the members (internal customers) and the needs of the community (external customers). Sometimes, this is problematic for churches. If all the church is concerned about is its current membership, it easily becomes a little island of Christianity in the sea of the world. However, Christ commanded the church to reach out to those who don’t know Him. So, it must stay relevant to the predominant culture without watering down the message Christ gave it to proclaim. The task is not only to celebrate the fact that her members are going to heaven because of what Jesus did for them on the cross, but also to take as many other people with them as they can. The church has to work hard to show the world that what it proclaims is important, life changing, and a better way for those in the world. The architecture, the maintenance of the building, the style of worship, especially the music and the sermons must be attractive to non-members. The church must be ever mindful that the impression it makes on people may well be the only impression those people have of Christ.
The church’s internal customers are its members. They need the resources and training to be able to deepen their personal relationships with Jesus and to determine and execute the ministry God has for them to do. All members of the church should be active growing Christians who minister to the church and community in some way. It is important for the church to provide the members with opportunities to develop deep, rich relationships with each other.
The internal customers of the church are also the workers. Their work is voluntary. The problem that many church members have is that they act like the church exists to please them. Though the church, unlike businesses, is financed not by external customers, but by the generous contributions of its own workers, the purpose is to make new disciples. If the church is to accomplish its purpose, it must be focused on bringing more and more people to know Jesus, and serve all its customers—those who are members, workers, and givers, and those who are fringe, inactive, and not yet interested. If the mission of the church is carried out, external customers become internal customers, and become part of the workforce and income base of the church. Actually, this is a way of saying the church seeks to make more and more people part of the family, so they can share in the work and support it with love and fellowship. As they grow and become grounded in the Lord and the church they should take on more responsibility for the mission of reaching others.
All this is to say that church planning must take into account both the needs of the members (internal customers) and the needs of the community (external customers). Sometimes, this is problematic for churches. If all the church is concerned about is its current membership, it easily becomes a little island of Christianity in the sea of the world. However, Christ commanded the church to reach out to those who don’t know Him. So, it must stay relevant to the predominant culture without watering down the message Christ gave it to proclaim. The task is not only to celebrate the fact that her members are going to heaven because of what Jesus did for them on the cross, but also to take as many other people with them as they can. The church has to work hard to show the world that what it proclaims is important, life changing, and a better way for those in the world. The architecture, the maintenance of the building, the style of worship, especially the music and the sermons must be attractive to non-members. The church must be ever mindful that the impression it makes on people may well be the only impression those people have of Christ.
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