Come to the Quiet – A Struggle for Discipline
Delaware Pastor Jay Baines has written a nice, short piece on his personal struggle with learning to get alone with God. He writes:
…it is, many times, in my own personal office that I allow precious time to evaporate all because of the lack of discipline at the time to make the best choices. I admit that I am very much a people person and love the busyness and noise of any given day and can feel right at home in large crowds.
You can read the rest of Jay’s thoughts by clicking here.
For many of us, this tension of “busyness” and solitude are a constant battle because our culture tells us solitude equates with laziness. They have to managed for certain but BOTH are quite necessary.
Young Adults & Megachurches
The “Leadership Network” recently released a report claiming more young adults are flocking to megachurches than has been reported in the past. As with any of these types of reports, it’s hard to gauge hard numbers because it really depends on who you talk to. If these folks stopped by many of the coffee shops I’ve visited in Denver and spoke to the young adults there, it might be another story entirely. However, their report can’t be ignored and it’s worth looking into. Some initial observations from this report include:
The study, Scott says, shows that people who attend megachurches aren’t radically different from those who attend Protestant churches of all sizes. “But the complex organizational structure, multiple programs, and large scale social formats often create the possibility for interaction and involvement in ways that are different from smaller churches,” he says.
This is something that caught my eye. Many young adults I talk to disdain the “complex organizational structure” of most mainline protestant churches they’ve attended. In fact, I’ve recently had one young family tell me that the polity of such a structure is what is driving them away from their church because they feel they cannot get involved because of having to take so much time to get “in the system” of leadership. While scripture is adamant about not putting a neophyte believer in leadership until they have grown some in the faith, this family isn’t that type.
As for the “multiple programs and large scale social formats”, I could see this one easily. There’s a tension to manage when a new church is starting because there isn’t enough people to start “multiple programs” and yet, new attenders are conditioned to believe that’s the driving force of the church. Social interaction can happen at any level but we as a culture have come to expect customized programs based on our ages, wants, and desires. This isn’t just the case in church circles either. Look at the long list of specialized programs offered at places like recreation centers and larger shopping malls. Fast food operations tout in their advertising “Have it YOUR way”. With this as a standard, it’s only natural to expect that the mentality of “my way” would carry over into church.
Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how.
(Matthew 16:24 MSG)
I wonder how many truly take this verse to heart? Another key comment in the report summary was this:
..Attenders report a considerable increase in their involvement in the church, spiritual growth, and needs being met at the megachurch. Yet, 45% of megachurch attenders never volunteer at the church, 41% don’t participate in small groups, and more than 30% give very little money.
This part baffled me. If you read the first part, it just doesn’t jive with the second does it? If you’re not helping others and learning more about God’s Word, how can you grow? Tithing is one of those issues that new Christians like to debate but the reality is the practice is more about obedience than money. Once I embraced the fact that nothing I had was truly mine but given to me by God then I realized that I needed to be a better steward of my resources. The financial crisis we are in now highlights the fact that money isn’t the end of all things but simply a resource that has be managed. But according to this report summary, many will not give anything and probably a larger percentage give sparingly.
When it becomes more about the programs than the Bible, when serving OUR needs becomes more important than serving others, and when OUR wants are more important that Jesus’ we will have an unsettled heart and never be satisfied. We will search endlessly to fulfill our desire not knowing that it could possibly be the wrong desire.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. (Psalms 42:1 NLT)
When our heart beats in unison with God’s all the other things fall into place and our perspective is changed. When our desires focus on us rather than Him, then we will search for a “copy” that satisfies us…
For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear.
(2 Timothy 4:3 NLT)
So I take reports like this to heart. It’s sobering to see the reality of what the 21st century church is becoming. We must seek to engage the culture but we must balance that with a rock solid commitment to never waver on the doctrines of our faith. The balance is harder and harder to find. And it’s not about megachurch versus small church. This report summary focused on megachurches but I dare say this battle is being waged in churches of all sizes.
What do you think?
Twitter Ego?
Do we need “X” amount of followers before “Tweeting”? Apparently, well known worship leader Louie Giglio does. As I’m reading blogs and tweets during a quick break today, the band “Fee” tweets this:
I have discovered that @louiegiglio won’t tweet
until he reaches 5000 followers..
he’s almost there..EVERYONE FOLLOW and RT…TODAY
Say What?
Well, looking at @louiegiglio reveals over 5300 followers, (as of this post) and Fee’s post was earlier this morning. I guess I can stop my Twittering. I’m barely under 200 followers. If 5000 is what it takes, than I doubt I’ll ever get there. This begs the question: Has the cult of personality so enveloped the church that we have viral marketing for “celebrity” worship leaders? Maybe this is all a big joke but I truly doubt it. Is 5000 viewers more important than a few hundred?
Something to think about…
Interesting Conversations…
There’s not much for me to write about today.. In the past few hours I’ve had some interesting conversations about church.
When a church isn’t growing is it the pastor’s fault? If it grows, should he get all the accolades? Surely the Pastor must LEAD. He has to. But in the same vein, people have to be willing to get their hands dirty. Real growth comes from real sowing.
When a church baptizes more folks than they average in attendance in a month, is it really growth? Where they really changed? I was asked my thoughts about a real situation involving a pastor. For the sake of discussion I will use a hypothetical. Pastor Whizbang averages 75 in service but yet he claims to be baptizing 15-20 a month when he meets with other pastors. The question then becomes, why isn’t his average attendance climbing by AT LEAST half of that? Are these people coming to worship? Or are they just notches on a bible belt? My take on this and this is what I told my friend…I don’t consider it a “conversion” of any kind until that person has shown by his or her fruit that they are committed. I’ve baptized many folks but many of them fizzle out and aren’t involved. Are they really converted?
Should we play secular “rock” music in our worship service? This one’s a hot button topic I’ve heard recently. Some churches use a secular song with a message that ties to the message series or message itself. Is it right or wrong? Ah, the buttons that could be pressed. I see it this way…I have about 20-22 minutes of music each week. I want that music focused on the Cross and on Jesus Christ. And more than that, I want the music focused on what HE has done for us and our response to that, not about ME or I or anything self-centered. You can tie in songs to work with your message or series if you take a little time. I know others will disagree with me on this one, but I figure those that want to hear Green Day or U2 will tune it in on their car radios when they leave worship. We only have a few minutes to get their attention and focus on the main thing. Maybe I’m old fashioned…
I had a good friend who reads here regularly comment to me that I might give off the impression I’m being negative and critical of others. I respected his words and have taken them into account here. I have in no way meant to be critical of these practices..but I do believe we can question them. That’s what real learning is about right? These are my convictions. Your mileage may vary!
Now on to the rest of my day…I wonder what conversations lie in store next.
Social Network Addictions?
Overwhelming isn't it?
Are you addicted to your social networks so much that it’s robbing you of valuable time with your friends or loved ones? There’s a good medium ground for such activities. As a pastor, I’m always monitoring my time on line (I use mee-timer) to make sure I’m making the best use of the time as scripture commands. It’s easy to get caught up in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all the other networks that are cropping up.
This week, Ibrahim Husain shared some great tips on how to manage your on-line life and balance it with your real-life:
Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Friendster, Tumblr, Xanga… the list goes on and on. And if you are any sort of tech savy, there is good chance you are a member of multiple social networks. Even I have accounts with at least 5 of these. While there is a lot to be gained by using these services, there is also a lot to be lost.
Read the rest of this well-written article…
How do you feel about your on-line life? I’d like to have some feedback on how you manage your social networking both for good and for increasing your productivity. Comment by clicking the comment link at the top of this post…
Have a great day!
The Cussing Pastor!
Ed Young nails it good here. Those of you that visit my Facebook page would have seen this a few days ago. Thought I’d share it here too. It’s worth a watch!
Marketing Discipleship
Pass the cheddar if you want your church to grow!
I’m all for free market capitalism but I have to ask, why are some well known pastors charging a small fortune for their “kits”? If you are in church work, you know what I mean. There are kits on how to grow your church, kits on how to retain visitors, kits on the biblical discipleship of others, and soon I’m sure we will have kits on how to make kits!
I don’t begrudge someone for selling an idea they came up with but how am I going to benefit by spending $200-$300 (or more) on a “kit” to retain visitors? Aren’t their some good books on this topic already available for under $20? If these well-known pastors were truly wanting to grow the kingdom this way, wouldn’t the kits cost under $100 so that any church could afford it? If I were offering my stuff that I wrote myself, I would likely go the Anthony Coppedge way and charge under $10 for an ebook or something of that nature. I guess I’m just thinking out loud as I read my blogs. One pastor whom I’ve followed for years has gradually built up his “brand” and is now selling his stuff while his name is hot. Good for him. I really mean that. I just wish that we could see a more “open source” type of market for this stuff. I mean really, it was all drawn from the bible anyway so who gets the royalties there?
I write many bible studies, discipleship studies, and follow up lessons for new converts. I’ve looked at others’ materials for this and have written and adapted my own unique sets for each area. I guess I could fancy these up on CD and provide full-color graphics and sell them as kits but it seems they wind up on my thumb drive and I give them away to other pastor friends while loading up some of their stuff. This “open source” sharing is ideal for spreading ideas. Even on this site, I have a limited copyright for my writing as long as it’s not repackaged for profit by somebody else.
Better still is the work it takes for you to research and write these types of materials yourself. Read your bibles daily. Pick up a guide like Jerome Smith’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible and use it thoroughly to research topics and write your own material. That’s what I did. This July, I will be taking a few weeks away from the pulpit to focus my writing (no vacation!) on new lessons we will be teaching on how to use our bibles and related study tools more efficiently and effectively so that our congregation’s collective biblical literacy will rise. Along with this, my church and a few of my friends’ churches are meeting to consider the idea of a “Bible Summit” day long conference that will focus on this very issue. Our hope is to offer the material and seminar for free or a love offering only so that we can share ideas, build relationships, and grow our churches without paying a small fortune.
What kinds of materials could we put together if we worked collectively on such ideas? I would be willing to hear your ideas on an “open source” site to share such “kits” and help each other. Perhaps “thinking out loud” has its benefits. I’ll be looking forward to your response.
Review: Piccadilly’s “Sundial” Agenda
A Sample Page from the Sundial Agenda
The geek in me never stops when I see new designs in day-planners. On Thursday I was shopping at my local Borders Bookstore when I ran across Piccadilly’s “Sundial Agenda” day planner. Earlier this month, I shared with you my fondness for a 24/7 planner since my days do not end at 5pm. The fact that this agenda used a simple sundial layout immediately caught my eye. As you can see at left, the day is laid out in a “clockwork” style fashion. You simply add your tasks at the bottom and your scheduled appointments around the dial. There are bigger samples of this planner at the Piccadilly site so you can check it out for yourself if you like.
The planner itself is bound in a faux leather cover with silver foil stamping, measures 8.5 by 5.5 inches (classic size), and uses two pages per day (one for the morning hours and one for the afternoon/evening hours). The planner comes with enough blank pages for more than a three month period of tracking your days. The design looks professional and will definitely be different from that of your friends’ who use such tools.
The best part was the price. I actually found this in the “bargain” section at Borders. Like the Piccadilly notebooks which are clones of the higher priced Moleskine books, this journal was affordable at $6.99 which is cheaper than Piccadilly’s direct web site charges. I picked up two at that price just to try them out.
I enjoy more abstract designs in tools like a planner. I routinely mind map my projects and outcomes and a day planner which is intuitive like this one is ideal for the way I see my day. For the price, this is a nice planner if traditional lined planners aren’t your cup of tea. The cover and binding are good for the price paid. I did see one of the journals with it’s cover split which could possibly happen with hard use but your going to be using a new one every three months or so anyway. For $7, it’s a nice, professional looking cover that will compliment rather than take away from you. It’s minimalist style is very appealing to me since I can craft my day any way I please. There’s plenty of blank space for notes, phone numbers, and other small details that hit you each day. After I’ve used it for a while, I’ll let you know my impressions then. For now though, I like this planner and wanted to tip you off on where you could find one if you’re interested to check it out!
Another Pastor Falls
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
(Proverbs 16:18 ESV)
Last week, another high profile pastor was forced to resign his church due to sexual indiscretion with his personal assistant. I say “high profile” lightly because I think the “rock star” mentality many of us in ministry give certain peers is unwarranted. The very attitude such idol worship can create ultimately leads to the destruction of the person as witnessed in this case. In fact the pastor himself admitted his ego had gotten in his way and he was selfish. I am thankful that his public admission was written in a humble tone and acknowledged the path that led to his tryst and subsequent resignation.
My purpose here is not to criticize nor is it to point out one man’s sin. The reality is each of us in ministry is not worthy of the banner we hold high each weekend. We ALL have sinned and without God’s gracious forgiveness, we would get what we rightly deserve. I feel for this man. I have followed his ministry as a pastor and church planter because I’m doing the same thing and am always curious as to what works when you are trying to reach people. Some of my ministry friends elevated him to a much higher pedestal than I would think even he would be comfortable with. That’s the danger of being a church planter. We can get quite caught up in numbers and how many we “baptize” each month/week/year and forget why it is we do what we do. The pressure to sustain that kind of momentum can get dangerously high and force us to take our eyes off the one thing that WILL sustain us and that is our personal relationship with Christ. In those moments of high stress, high pressure, and low quiet time with God we leave ourselves open to attack and a pretty woman is always hard to ignore if you are red-blooded man.
I write this as a warning to all of us to beware. My brother who fell here has already asked forgiveness, has already been forgiven by God, and is on the road to repairing his relationship with his family. My prayer is for their family first. The church he led is hurt and rightly so but it will recover. I pray for that too but first and foremost I lift my brother up to God and ask for peace for him. I ask for quiet place alongside a stream where God can meet with him and fill his soul with the good things of the Lord. I pray for a strong arm on his shoulder from God to get him back on the path of service to others. I pray also for the assistant in this story. She has been wounded also. I pray that God restores her and that she will allow His forgiveness to flow in. In the process, I pray for the community of faith in the blogosphere who knew this man to join collectively and pray for him and not berate him for a mistake that all of us have the potential to make.
When I was getting ready to leave for Denver, I had a pastor friend of mine in Missouri speak to me about such “accidents”. It was there, he gave me some imperatives in ministry that I’ve never forgotten…
- Do not EVER meet with a woman privately or publicly by myself. Always have my wife and/or her husband (if married) with them.
- Do not EVER travel with a woman unless there are peers with us (so you are never alone).
- Never discuss family problems (and they happen in pastor’s families too!) with a member of the opposite sex.
- Date your wife!
- Romance your wife!
- ..and never EVER say you wouldn’t do something because you do not know what you would do if the circumstances were just right (in other words, read the proverb I posted at the beginning and apply!)
Can I ask you, my reader, to take a moment and life up this man, his family, and those involved? You do not need to know his name although I’m sure many of you do. But as a body of believers, let’s not shoot our wounded but rather, join in prayer as best we can to ask for his restoration and for him to be made whole again.
Thank You.
Why Do We Need Church “Consultants”?
In the past few weeks I’ve read of some high profile Christian leaders who are leaving their church positions as “pastors” to enter the world of consulting. Apparently, there’s enough money to be made telling other churches what works and what doesn’t then I thought. I do not say this flippantly because I have the utmost respect for some of these men I’ve read about. Many are well known authors who’ve used social media to build a near “rock star” persona that has led to high profile positions in some of our country’s best known churches (at least to those who follow this sort of thing). Now it appears the next step in that process is to leave their positions by “stepping out in faith” and entering this new, uncharted land.
Church consulting has been around for a while though. It just wasn’t as chic as it is today. When I arrived at the church I now pastor I began sifting through all the old paperwork that was left behind by the original church that had closed a few years prior. Our denomination’s church planting department wisely elected to hold on to the church property that was left (especially with land prices at a premium in the Denver, Colorado market) and wait a few years before planting a new work that would start from this place. Among the items I found in the old paperwork was a consulting report from some person I had never heard of but who apparently had a reputation for doing well in this type of endeavor. Among his recommendations were to change the name of Sunday School classes to something more modern and to add a bit of contemporary music to the worship singing. He also thought it would be a good idea to market to younger families with a series of events designed to encourage them to get involved and volunteer in the church. He also included some demographic material that outlined the median age, race, and income of the surrounding area near the church. I shook my head as I read his summary. Coming from the business world I knew that most of this was just semantics. The demographic information he provided was just as easily accessed by a quick trip and a few bucks at the local chamber of commerce office that has data unparalleled in this area. Their entire sustenance is by providing this information to prospective businesses and they are usually pretty nice to churches if you approach them with a professional attitude. There IS value in some of this information but much of it can be gleaned by a few quick phone calls to others and a deep commitment to prayer. What I saw as sorely lacking in ANY of this consultant’s reports was the need for the congregation, led by its pastor, to seek God’s will for their church in prayer. I understand the value of what some of these church “consultants” can provide but if I’ve read their books and I know their philosophy do I really need to pay a premium for them to come to my church just to tell me the obvious?
It helps to know who your audience is. It helps to know a bit about the people you are trying to reach. But it’s most important to seek God’s will for your specific ministry. His will for your church might be drastically different from what the “market” says it is. My fear with this CEO “consulting” mentality is that we will build churches bases on market need rather than on spiritual need. Preaching the blood of Christ doesn’t register well on surveys but it’s exactly what the people need to hear. Admitting our total depravity and a need for a Savior isn’t going to show up on a demographic report but I can tell you no matter your race, it’s the greatest message that needs to get out. I don’t write these words as one who’s never been in the business world. I have been. The radio business is all about surveys, demographics, and reaching the masses with what THEY want. In the church world though, it’s about reaching the world with the life saving message of Jesus Christ and for many, it is NOT what they want to hear. Sure, we can find ways to make our church appealing to others so they will want to come but at some point, the unsaved will have to collide with the fact that they are lost, caught up in sin, and in need of salvation. You do not need a consultant to tell you this. Only through genuine love, care, and a generous dose of God’s grace will the life-change they need come about. How you get to this point is open for many to discuss but let’s be honest, you HAVE to get to this point at some time and if you don’t, you don’t really have a church. You have a social club.
I would love to discuss this more with many of you who stop by here to read this. Feel free to contact me through the comment section and leave an email address and I will get back with you. Do we need this type of service in our congregations? Am I off base with my thoughts here?
Thanks for reading!
