Are Programs Killing Your Church?
Filed under: Church Revitalization, Direction, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, Vision, leadership, ministry, volunteering
In the church world, there are so many great programs/events/studies/classes that can help your church. At what point do they become a detriment? One question to ask is, “How many staff and volunteers do we have?” and then secondly, “What is the very best use for these people?” If we try to do everything, we will accomplish nothing well. There are traditional programs like Choir, Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Special Music, Men’s & Women’s ministries…each of these take someone to lead them and people to be involved in them. Each of these serve a purpose and can be good for the church. Sometimes though, it is important to choose between them so that a smaller number of programs can be done with the excellence that is due worship presented to the King of kings and Lord of lords! If you are having trouble getting volunteers for an area of ministry in your church, you could berate the congregation about why they aren’t serving the Lord…OR you might take another look at that area of ministry and ask if it is really vital to the core mission of the church? It might be time to kill it before it dies a long painful death.
Something is Missing!
Filed under: Church Revitalization, Direction, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, Vision, church growth, community, leadership, ministry
Today, my wife left for Seattle. The house hasn’t changed any. Life around me is more or less the same, but there is a little something missing. She is only one person, but in my life, she is a VERY important person! Are you a part of someone’s life enough that you would be missed if you disappeared for a while? Someone other than your spouse/kids? In church leadership we can ask that question both of ourselves and our church. If I disappeared from this ministry, would anyone care? Would it affect anything? The same with our church! If my church disappeared off the face of the earth today, would anyone outside of the staff & maybe the members even notice? Are we making a difference in the community? Do people outside see the life change that is going on in people’s lives because we are here? Or are we just that building on a hill that has a few cars outside it on Sunday mornings for an hour or so? Tough question to ask, but one we should be asking regularly. Just because you would be missed today, doesn’t mean you have that status forever. We must constantly be seeking the Lord and HIS vision and direction for our churches. When we step outside of HIS will, we are just a community club that will soon lose members and die off. Seek God’s grace that your church will be one that would be missed if you weren’t there!
To Plan or Not to Plan?..That is the Question.
Filed under: Direction, Encouragement, Theology, Vision, creativity, leadership, ministry, structure
Some people feel that not planning out their sermons is somehow more spiritual. You confuse that pit in your stomach on Saturday night because you don’t know what you are going to preach in the morning with the work of the Holy Spirit. Try this and see if it works for you. Take a day or two away from the church. Sit down with a calendar and a Bible somewhere that will not distract you. Pray over the dates in the calendar. You might get ambitious and give a rough plan to the entire year. If not, try for at least a quarter. Note that there may be certain holidays like Christmas, Easter/Passover, Ascension Sunday etc. for which you may want to plan a special service. You will also want to plan sermons that remind the congregation of the vision that is particular to your church at least once a quarter. Having a plan allows you to tackle jobs in bite size pieces. It allows you to have more creativity. Like if you want a prop for a sermon, it is much easier to acquire if you have a few months to get it than if you have from midnight Saturday evening until Sunday morning to get it. If you have a staff, it gives them a heads up about what they need to be doing as well. If you are worried about too much planning and not enough Holy Spirit, remember, HE can still change the plans at the last minute just like before…but there is a plan for HIM to change. HE can and should be part of the planning. If you have never tried this before, you might do something basic like dusting off one of those systematic theology books from bible college or seminary and work through the table of contents in a year or two. That way, you don’t preach on your pet doctrines every week while leaving your congregation ignorant of others. Have fun! I hope you will find that this approach relieves stress from your work. If not, after a quarter, go back to agonizing on Saturday night for a Sunday morning sermon.
What to do with those college students!
One of the great things about working with college students is that they are so very full of energy and great ideas! I sometimes feel like I could give them a class project to “change the world” and they would figure out a way to do it. If you are a pastor or church leader, remember this group. They don’t often give much monetarily, but they have very much to give to the church! You might find your church busting wide open with creativity and energy if you can harness their creative powers and help them find how GOD wants them used! And remember that most of the great revivals began when students got on fire for GOD! I am constantly inspired in my own walk with the Lord by the college students in my life.
If you are one of those students, thanks for all you guys do to make this world a better place and for everything you do to make Jesus famous!
Are you ready to go the extra mile?
Filed under: Encouragement, Marketing, Random Thoughts, Vision, church growth, leadership, ministry
Before you can go the extra mile, you first must know what the first mile is. Do you know what the vision is that God has given you for your ministry? Can you see it? Taste it? Recognize it when you see it? If someone else offers to help, can you tell whether their “help” fits into the vision plan for the ministry God has placed you in charge of? If you do know the vision, are you willing to go beyond just trying to create adequacy? To be a great leader, are you ready to make sure that the bathrooms are sparkling clean? Are you asking the right questions to find out what would make things run more smoothly? At the core, we must constantly be in prayer before God to know what HIS vision is for the ministry he lets us work with. To quote Dave Ramsey, “We must pray like it all depends on God, and work like it all depends on us.” It does depend completely on God, yet we must be willing to do all that we can to do our part to create an environment in which success can happen. When our church or ministry gives people MORE than what they expect, then they will be much more open to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that can really change their life!
Mixed Messages?!
Filed under: Body of Christ, Church Planting, Direction, Encouragement, Vision, church growth, leadership, ministry
As a Christian leader, are you clearly identifying the goals that the Lord has placed on your heart so that those who God has given you to lead can work along side you to acheive those goals? Are people in your church just trying to guess what the purpose of the congregation is? Having been both a lay person and a church staff person in various congregations in my life, I have noticed two leadership traits that can stifle church health and church growth.
1. No clear plan! If the pastor and church staff don’t know what the goals are for the church, then how can the average person in the pew hope to know and be a part of achieving the goal.
2. Goals that change too often. Many pastors and leaders are visionaries, this is a great quality as long as the vision is sustained. The problem comes in when the leader has one great plan after another with no time in the middle for implementation! We see this issue when the church attempts to start too many ministries…the result is that none of them are carried out well.
God has uniquely qualified each person in the body of Christ to carry out a mission for HIM. Pastors and Leaders help others plug into that mission and unite people of similar mission to carry out the goal of being the Hands and Feet of God here on earth. There are many vital ministries in this world, each of them is important. Remember that no one person or even one congregation can do them all! Beg GOD for THE MESSAGE that your church needs to hear and carry out. It won’t be the same as the church down the street…if it is, there is no need for your church to exsist-Just go join them. It will be something that God impresses on you that is specific for the congregation HE has allowed you to lead. Have an awesome day! I hope you found some encouragement and direction in this post.
Becoming a great church/organization!
What separates the good or lousy groups/organizations/churches from the truly great ones? Geoffrey Bellman and Kathleen Ryan say we need to dig deeper into the wants, needs and motives that cause people to work together. Bullet points that I admittedly did not come up show us the traits that great groups exhibit:
- A compelling purpose that inspires and stretches members to make the group and its work a top priority
- Shared leadership that encourages members to take mutual responsibility for helping the group be successful
- Just-enough-structure to create confidence to move forward, but not so much as to become bureaucratic or burdensome
- Full engagement that results in all members jumping in with enthusiasm, sometimes passionately and chaotically, regardless of role
- Embracing differences so that group members see, value, and use their diversity as a strength
- Unexpected learning that translates into personal and group growth
- Strengthened relationships among members characterized by trust, collegiality, and friendship
- Great results, tangible and intangible
We have all been a part of groups that just seemed to exist with no purpose. If your church is that way and you are in a position of leadership or are willing to step up to a position of leadership, then help them find a purpose! Remember, Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
What is your goal?
Filed under: Direction, Random Thoughts, Staff Pastors, Vision, leadership, ministry
So you are a church leader or pastor; What is the goal that God has given you for the ministry you are over? Are you just marking time til you can “move up” to a bigger church or a position with more clout? God tells us in Matthew 6:33 to ” seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” If we don’t take the time in prayer to seek out God’s plan for our area of ministry, then we will NEVER be all that HE intended for us to be. Not all ministries are created equal, yet God created each of us perfectly to fulfill our part in HIS plan. If we try to add our plan into the mix, it usually results in failure and at very best mediocrity. Following HIS plan may not always bring us happiness, but it will fill us with Joy! It may not bring us money, but we will be rich! It may not bring us a huge following, but we will be leading people to follow HIM, which is much more important! Seek God first in all that you do and find HIS goal before starting on your goal.
Missions…
Filed under: Church Planting, Encouragement, Vision, Wonderment, church growth, leadership, missions, planting, praise, salvation, worship
This morning, I had my usual spot on Monday and Wednesday mornings. In a seat in chapel at North Greenville University. As with any institution that has chapel services, some services are better than others. This morning’s speaker was a guy named Dr. David Garrison. Don’t let the “Dr.” fool you. He was very in touch with his audience and with the message the Lord had laid on his heart. His text for the message was Habakkuk 1:5 “Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” The stories of what God is doing in traditionally tough mission fields were incredible! God is doing amazing things around the world in ‘our days’ that seem to defy reason. Missionaries in muslim and hindu nations reporting hundreds of thousands of people accepting Jesus as their Lord and savior! I see God working here in the USA on a regular basis. We however usually don’t face being beaten or killed for our faith when we tell someone about Jesus. These men did face that, and GOD showed that HE isn’t scared! HE can overcome any obstacle! And HE is doing things that utterly amaze us! He is doing them in our day! And they are things that seem almost impossible! Praise the LORD!
Viral Marketing for Churches?
Filed under: Body of Christ, Encouragement, Marketing, Random Thoughts, Video, Vision, creativity, leadership, ministry
There is a term that has taken off in the marketing world. “Viral Marketing” It is what happens when something becomes popular and is passed around by customers rather than being advertized by the corporation’s dollar. My workstudy has a video clip of a Nascar race that he posted on youtube. It has had thousands of hits…even though there is nothing special about the video. We as believers in Jesus Christ have the most incredible story ever written! Shouldn’t we be putting together video clips that will become “viral marketing” tools for Jesus? lifechurch.tv has done a great job of this, but they are one church in Oklahoma! Think what would happen if churches around the world would join hands with them in what they are doing to change the world for Jesus Christ. (I have no affiliation with lifechurch.tv or Craig Groeschel other than that I enjoy the videos they produce.) Can your creative team make a video that will be viewed over a million times on Youtube? Consider that a challenge!
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