Better Than One

At our Mission Board Meeting in December, our Church Development and Evangelism Committee asked our assigned  mission board members to share “needs that needed to be addressed in future training”.  One person said “the biggest problems for pastors are discouragement and discontentment with their lives”.  While I was at KBC Convention in Florence back in November, a pastor sat down at my breakfast table and shared about a book that had recently transformed his life.  I was interested in the book and have since bought it and read it.

“Grace Walk” by Steve McVey is the book and Steve starts the book on the floor of his office crying, discouraged, disgusted, and discontented.  It is a good book to start a New Year 2012!  Let me share just a few points from the book:

RESTING – Steve looks at Mary and Martha.  Martha was stressed out while Mary was resting.  People for whom Christian living is strictly service-oriented often get impatient with those whose level of measurable activity is not as intense.  Luke says that Martha was “distracted.”  Distracted from what?  From Jesus!  What was it that caused her attention to be distracted from Jesus?  Serving Him!  It was a startling revelation in Steve’s own life when the Holy Spirit showed him that he had become more preoccupied with the work of the ministry than with the One who called him to it.  Busyness in serving Christ can block intimacy with Him.  One thing is needed – resting in Him.

PEACE – Self-sufficient living always produces conflict.  Steve never would have been satisfied with life if the focus of his Christian experience had remained on doing what he believed was necessary to please God.  Steve experienced peace only after he learned to focus on the person of Christ, instead of on what he should be doing for Him.

BROKEN – Steve told his congregation that their need was not for a new and improved approach to ministry, but rather for a more intimate knowledge of God Himself. – He was bringing us to the place of brokenness.  God put us together and allowed circumstances to develop in such a way that He brought us to the end of our own resources.  He kept on until all we had left was Him.  And that’s not a bad place to be!

NEW – Steve saw things new.  Understanding the truth that Christ is my life hasn’t just changed Steve’s mind:  it had transformed his life.  It is simply a new awareness and appreciation for the life of Christ that resides in every Christian.

It is:  KNOWING HIM           ABIDING in HIM          EXPRESSING HIM

“I asked the Lord that night, “What do You want from me?”  What does He want from us?  He wants us.  Not our promises.  Not our good intentions.  Not even our Christian service.  Everything else takes care of itself when we just rest in His arms, allowing Him to act through us.  What a joy and a relief.  It isn’t a passive lifestyle, but a peaceful one where we actively rest in Him and He does it all.  It is a walk of grace!  – Steve McVey

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”  Philippians 3:10

What a trade off:  From Discouraged, Disgusted, Discontented to JOY – PEACE – GRACE…….  Find the book, read it, then live it!

As the church begins a new year 2012,  will you be the same or different?  Many individuals find this a time to try to shape-up and lose weight.  Just as  department stores wait for the big holiday season, weight loss business or centers see their volume explode during the New Year Resolution period.What is happening at your church?  Are you shaping -up or checking-up?

How many will you baptize this year?  Will new people join your church this year?  Will you start new classes in Sunday School this year?  Will you impact your community more this year?  Will your church be more of a House of Prayer this year?  “Blessed are those who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed”

Alan Nelson and Stan Toler created  a survey called “The Secret Church Shopper Survey” from issue:  May/June 2001 Who Wants to Grow a Church  ( rev org:  The Secret Church Shopper Survey)

The Ministry Toolbox from KBC is a good evaluation tool. www.kybaptist.org/toolbox

LifeWay has a church assessment with Transformational Church (Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations) www.transformationalchurch.com

If we do not know where the church bus is going, any where will do!   Make 2012 a different year not because of what you can do but what God wants to do through you and your congregation.  In the next blog, I will talk more about that.

Last week, Bob Young, DOM in Whites Run Assoc.iation sent me a link for a new Christmas song.  It really hit my heart.  A girl goes shopping in the mall.  People are waiting in line to see Santa and standing in line to buy stuff at different stores.  A young boy pulls at the girl’s sweater and asks “Where’s the Line to See Jesus?”  She says, What? and the boy repeats his request, “Where’s the Line to See Jesus?”.  It is his birthday!.

That is a haunting question.  We stand in line for many other reasons but “Where’s the Line to See Jesus?”.  We stand at the mall, at the school, at work and even at church.  You say if Jesus was here, you would stand in line to see Him.  But the trouble is that He is Here!

Waiting to make a difference – Waiting to heal the hurt – Waiting to bring peace to all – Waiting to make all things new….  Waiting to be invited in  – Is there room in the Inn?  We have time for everything else.

There is no better time to celebrate, enjoy, and share the boldness, freshness, intimacy, and love of this God/man named “Jesus”. Christmas will be over before we know it.  Take time to make the most of Jesus’s Coming!  Show people where the line is to see Jesus!

“Where’s the Line to See Jesus?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch popup?v=OExXItDyWEY&vq=medium

Where’s the Line to See Jesus?”  performed by Becky Keller

Thanksgiving is the noblest expression of the noblest sentiment of the heart.  It is gratitude flowing through the lips.  It is gratitude looking up with all it generous and swelling emotions, and giving out those fragrant sacrifices to God, the author of all good, by fitting acts, and by a fitting service.  (E.M. Bounds in E.M. Bounds:  Man of Prayer by Lyle Wesley Dorsett.

While playing handballs, the discussion at Thanksgiving was how you presented your dressing?  Balls or Casserole?  It was so much fun to hear the women describe how they created dressings that they had learned from Mom or Grandma.  It is often that we get lost in the food discussion or description.  You can almost taste it!

Being the most affluent era in the history of the world, we seem to be the least thankful.  A generation has emerged to which the word “Depression” is an unknown quantity.  They have always had plenty, so that they take it for granted.  Many seem to feel that the world owes them not only a living but luxuries as well.  Quite often those who receive the most appreciate the least.  They are all too ready to bite the hand that feeds them.  One man severly criticized a benefactor.  Hearing it, another said, “I’m surprised to hear you say that.  I thought that he had done alot for you.”  To which the critic replied, “Yes, but he hasn’t done anything lately.”Such an attitude is one of sefish pride.  Selfish in that he wants always to be on the receiving end.  Pride in that he refuses to admit that he is the beneficiary of another’s benevolence.  Henry Ward Beecher reminds us that “pride always slays thanksgving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturlly grow.  A pound man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks that he gets as muych as he deserves.”

Ingratitude toward man is bad enough.  But ingratitude toward God is without escuse.  Paul listed ingratitude toward God among the gross sins of men.  Romans 1:20-21 says, “they are without excuse:  because that , when they know God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.”

Thursday, November 24, is Thanksgiving Day thoughout the United States.  This day stems from the thinsgiving of the Pilgrim Fathers.  After a hard winter of hunger and privation there came the seedtime and harvest of 1621,  It was then that the pilgrims gathered with friendly Indians to thank God for His bountiful care.  (Thanks to Jim Chavis , former pastor of FBC, Tallahassee for some of these Thansgving thoughts)

We need not lose our spiritual emphasis to the food channel football, or travel.  We need to take time to pray and praise.  It is all HIS!

It is time for not only THANKSGIVING but THANKSLIVING!

From the CUMMINS Family:  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Kentucky Baptist Convention messagers voted in November 2010 to begin a special three-year emphasis called “More for Christ.”  The purpose of “More for Christ” is to engage Kentucky Baptist to an intentional time of repentance, renewal, and redirection for the future.  The challenge is for individual Christians, churches, and a a convention to increased service for Christ in fulfilling the Great Commission as well as Acts 1:8.

The strategists and many others at KBC are visiting churches that are in the top 1000 Cooperative Program giving in amount or percent.  We share a “More for Christ” folder that includes a personal church CP giving background, 3 ways to increase CP giving by KBC President, Floyd Paris:

1. $3 More for Christ is a way to challenge adults in your congregation to put just $3 more in the offering plate each week.  Most of these funds will be used locally.  For instance, if you church presently sends 10% of its undersigned’s gifts to support missions and ministries through the Cooperative Program, $2.70 of each additional $3 will stay at home to support the work of iyour congregation while 30 cents will go to the Cooperative Program.  If just $100,000 Kentucky Baptists were to give $3 more per week to their local church offering, it would result in more than a million additional dollars going to missions through the Cooperative Program!
2. Children Changing the World is an opportunity  fo the children of your church to lead the way in supporting missions thorugh the Cooperative Program.  The plan is simple.  Enlist the children of your church to collect change for missions for a period of time set by your church.  One suggestion is to begin with Cooperative Program Sunday inn April and continue through your Vacation Bible School.  Your VBS offering can be a part of the Children Changing the World campaign.
3. A Million More for Missions encourges youth groups to set aside 15 weeks to raise funds for missions through Cooperative Program.  I youth groups in just half of Kentucky Baptists’ 2,400 congregation participate and raise an average of $835 each, the effort will produce more than $1 million.

I also share a “More for Christ” Sermon Series that would highlight this emphasis throughout church for at least 4 weeks.

• More for Christ – Loving  (Hearing, Listening, Knowing, Abiding)  Colossians 1:15-23, 3:1-4; John 15
• More for Christ – Giving (Becoming a Generous Giver – Faithful in our Stewardship)  Matthew 6:19-21,24; Luke 12:48; John 6:5-13; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
• More for Christ – Serving (The Right Person in the Right Place doing the Right Thing)  Deuteronomy 10:12; Psalm 100:2; Matthew 22:36
• More for Christ – Going  (Missions – Ministries – Evangelism)  Isaiah 6:8-10; Matthew 28:28:19-20; Acts 1:8

Why is “More for Christ” needed?  It is needed because people need the Lord – in our communities, in our state and nation, and around the world.  Here in Kentucky, nearly 1 million people are unchurched, according to a 2005 Barna Group study commissioned by the KBC.  In the United States, the North American Mission Board reports that more that 259 million American are without Christ.  Worldwide, out of a population of 6.7 billion people, more than four billion are part of people groups where less than 2 percent have co0me to know Christ, according to the International Mission Board.

He Must Increase…..I Must Decrease.   John 3:30     www.moreforchrist.com

Thom Rainer recently wrote a blog entitled the above.  It is a good question that he addresses and I will put my 2 cents in also.

Dr. Rainer mentions Elmer Towns’s book that he wrote in 1969 about “The Ten Largest Sunday Schools”.  “This top list included eight independent Baptist churches, one Southern Baptist church, and one independent church.  Today, non-denominational churches are commonly ranked among larger churches.  Only a relatively few independent Baptist churches make the list.  Many of the largest churches today did not exist in 1969.”

“Thom Rainer continue to try to understand the ‘why’ of a church’s life cycle.  Why do most churches seem eventually to move toward stagnation or decline?  The matter for me is not about a church’s size, but its effectiveness in making disciples.”

Larry Baker, KBC Missions Growth Team Leader mentioned that the average resident church membership size is 237 and average worship attendance is 71.  Average Sunday School enrollment is 134 and average SS attendance is 71.  SBC church to population ratio in Kentucky is 1 church for every 1,600 Kentuckians.  How Are KY Churches Doing?

As part of the Church Development Team at KBC, we discuss this question often.  Dr. Rainer asks the questions:  ”Do congregations have a natural tendency to focus more inwardly over time?”  “Do church move away from a biblical focus and thus fail to make disciples?”  What roles do sociology and demographics play in a church’s life cycle?”  “And how strong is the level of influence of leaders in congregations?”

Two key church ingredients:

PASTOR:  Is he a visionary leader?  Does he know where he is (culture), where he is going (vision) and what he is going to do (strategy).  The focus is Jesus and the Word.  A Passion to reach the lost and community.  A Priority to Make Disciples.  Prayer is the foundation.

CONGREGATION:  Ready and Willing to follow Jesus and His Shepherd.  Flexible and Open to Change.  Growing a Passion for those Ouside the church.  Reproducing themselves at every opportunity.  Pray without Ceasing.

Where Have All The Churches Gone?  We believe in God doing a work in an individual that we call “Transformation”  (the catapillar into a beautiful butterfly).  Why not in churches.  Have we cut Jesus out of our churches?  Is it all about us?  or HIM!

Oh, How He Loves You and Me!

I have talked to several pastors during this month who have mentioned how they are moving outside the church.  One pastor mentioned at last year’s Super Saturday, someone mentioned that the church needed to move outside the church walls.  He took that to heart.

During the last year, his church has delivered over 40 stoves, refrigerators, washers and dyers to needed people in their community.  Did it cost money?  Yes, but there are many young adults coming and more who saw the church care and not just criticize, judge, and stay isolated from sinners, lost, hurting, searching people.  Many people are looking for someone to love them.

Another church decided to connect to a nearby elementary school.  They put food in backpacks so children will have something to eat over the weekend.  They also provided drinks and snacks for teachers in the school system on test days.  When the church asked if what they could in any other way, the school principal mentioned they had no money for their orientation dinner that they had done for years.  The church volunteered to take over the dinner – provide it, serve it, and clean up after it.  Community people are starting to see the church in a different light.  The light of kindness, love, giving, caring, and “others”.

“The question is simple:  What impact is the church having on the community?” 

“Without its own bridges to the world (community), church life – in time – fades into isolation, self-congratulation, and finally, irrelevance.” 

“Jesus was a daring builder of another kind.  Against his own overwhelming odds, he imagined a bridge of unprecedented spiritual influence. ”     Quotes from “The Church of Irresistible Influence” by Robert Lewis (great book)

One of my concerns is the number of congregation disciples that are giving.  Some say about 6-20% of members tithe.  Yesterday, I heard the number 2.?% and that somewhat explains why finances are a struggle for churches, associations, KBC and even Cooperative Program.  My mother-in-law receives the “Thrivent” magazine from the Lutherans.  I want to share some tithing testimonies from this magazine.

“I feel it is a spiritual discipline that is worth a try.  When my husband and I were first challenged to do so, it was a scary decision.  We were struggling, but heard the message that 10% of our gross income was really God’s money.  Since then, we have continued that practice and feel blessed.  Maybe our blessings did not always come materially, but the blessings have been in knowing we were in this journey with the Lord.”  NANCY ROWE – Baldwin Wisconsin

“A wise pastor once told me that in the New Testament, Christians are challenged by Chrsit to go beyond Old Testament laws.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ did not only say murder was wrong; He said hating your brother was nurder.  In the same way, Christians demean their Lord by giving only 10% of their time, talents, and treasures.”  BETTY HERMANSON – Wells, Minnesota

“It is my belief that all Christians should tithe, but it doesn’t have to be 10%.  If you feel you cannot afford that, start with 1% and work up to 10% or more.  You will be making an agreement with the Lord, so to honor a promise is more important than the amount.  Being generous with your time is just as important.”  CONNIE MARBURGER – Palmetto, Florida

“Anyone not tithing is missing the point.  What does not go around does not come around.  All things come from God, cycle through us and return to God.  Not tithing inhibits the flow.  If we truly give and let go, we can be assured the benefits will come around.”  RICHARD WOODS – Port Huron, Michigan

“I adjust the first question to, “Do you think every Christian is blessed?  If not, why not?’  The blessings and promises of God dictate our faith response.  Tithing is an Old Testament concept and the lowest percentage mentioned in the Bible (10%).  Jesus says 100% to the rich man.  St. Paul suggests we give generously and joyfully.  as to the question, ‘gross income or net income,’ I think, Al Housh for teaching me, ‘I don’t know.  Are your blessings from God gross or net?’”  MARTHA WARD – Seattle, Washington

“If you are not sharing, you are not caring….and if you are not giving, you are not living.”  (Anonymous)

To read more testimonies, go to Thrivent.com/magazine/links

WOW!  All football coaches are getting ready for the start of their season.  Many high school teams have played one game already.  Most college teams are one week away from their new season.  As a pastor, associate pastor, Sunday school director, teacher or leader, your season is about to start.  Are you ready!  Will you win or lose?  Yes, your new team can be a winning or losing team.

Sue Brage in Church Volunteer Daily and Inspired gives 5 key goals:

1. To come prepared and ready-body, mind, and spirit – to serve  – Do we pray before we teach or preach?  I had a teacher who sat in every chair and prayed for each person before they came.  Another training teacher said we have to come before the Lord before we come before our students.  We don’t have to teach, we get to teach!
2. To be flexible and clam if things get off track – Goals keep us moving toward our destination.  Make sure we are not on a detoured road and heading for a crash.  Be still and know that God is in charge!
3. To bring fresh, creative ideas to their ministry area – If you always do what you’ve always done –  you will always be, what you always been!
4. To build real relationships with the children, youth, and adults that you serve – People are waiting for love and encouragement.  If it is to be – it is up to me!
5. To have as their main goal at all times, to help others grow closer to Jesus – Are we just teaching the Bible or are we making disciples?  I need to be less like me and more like Him!

A coach is a leader.  Most teams will not go further than their coach.  Be a leader – know where you are going, how you will get there, and who is following you!  Have a Winning season!

We used to say the first 12 minutes for a guest at a church is the most important.  Now it is down to 11 minutes.  We often think that the sermon and music is why people come back or not.  But before that happens, people decide what they think.   Will Mancini gives 7 checkpoints to help guests have a great experience at church and I added #8:

1. Before Departure:  Are directions and service times immediately accessible to guests from your church website, phone recording and yellow pages?  This is so important.  You do not know how many times I have searched for service times and church location.  When we change times, we often do not change every search location.  Therefore we get multiple options.  Phone recording should be accurate and checked regularly.  If at all possible, have a church website but it has to stay current.
2. Travel to Location:  Do guest know where to turn into your church location?  Signs are easy and cheap.
3. Parking Lot:  Do guests know where to park?  Every church needs parking people who are there to help, guide, care, and love.
4. Building Entrances:  Do guest know which door to enter?  For some churches this is easy and others need simple signs.
5. Children’s Ministry:  Do guests know where to take their kids?  Young families need attention and help.  Be on time!
6. Welcome Center:  Do guests know where to go for more information?  This can be a rolling station or just a desk.  Have someone responsible and standing with it.
7. Worship:  Do guest know which door to enter?   I was at a church last week where the front door led to the front of the sanctuary.  We need to help people.
8. Greeter Ministry:  Are people at doors ready to greet, give directions, and show love and excitment that they have come?

None of the above fnformation matters if we are not inviting others to our church.  This has to be a priority for staff and others.  If we never mention it, people tend to forget and not invite.  Ed Stetzer says that 83% of the people you invite would come but only 2% of us are inviting.  Ken Hemphill and Mike James have finished a book relating to the Velcro Church.  The above information will help guests stick to your church and not slide away.