Social Media and Evangelism

It’s clear that social media is becoming big in churches these days. For a lot of churches, it’s been mainstream for a few years. So I am not going to provide any links to websites about “how churches can be effective with social media” or pages similar to that. One can simply do an internet search to find all the resources about social media and churches. I have my own views about the use of Facebook, twitter, vimeo, YouTube, Google+ etc. when it comes to churches. I am of the opinion that social media can be better utilized to reach nonbelievers. Below, are some of my thoughts on the use of these tools in the area of evangelism.

Social media is mainly used by churches to communicate what is going on within a given faith community. We like to tweet pithy comments during the sermon. The youth minister likes to post when the youth group plans to make it back to the church. We like to retweet this week’s sermon to our followers (unfortunately for some this is about there only form of evangelism). And all these things are great. They are great for Christians. But how do we use this technology to reach nonbelievers? As effective as these tools are to get information to other Christians, how effective are they to reaching nonbelievers? Is it even possible to reach nonbelievers using social media like Twitter and Facebook?

I am of the opinion that if a congregation has a ministry, it (the ministry) should be focused on nonbelievers as much as possible. Whatever the ministry is, it should be constantly asking, “how does this look to nonbelievers? What can we do to make them feel more welcome in our faith community?”

Take worship as an example. How should a nonbeliever perceive any given worship service on a Sunday morning? What are they going to think when they hear phrases like, “let’s all stand and worship…” and “…give it all to Jesus…”? Should a given congregation expect a nonbeliever to worship something they have no belief in? Now granted, a lot of churches see Sunday morning as more for “themselves” than for those outside of a church community. But, if a church considers itself open to nonbelievers, then it should consider the feelings of someone who doesn’t necessarily believe what Christians believe when they are planning the worship experience. It may be that worship band is warming up to a few secular songs while everyone is getting to their seat. Maybe they start with songs about God’s creation, and His love. Then they progress to more personal responses in the lyrics such as, “I raise my hands…” or “…You are my only God….” Simply taking a few minutes and asking how something is going to be perceived from a nonbeliever’s stand point has the potential to be truly welcoming to those questioning Christianity. Look, we can acknowledge the obvious: they actually made it to the church building, and should therefore expect some type of religiosity, but that is no excuse for churches to not be a little bit accommodating….

Back to the topic at hand: How does this look when it comes to social media? How does a church use social media in a way that potentially attracts nonbelievers? I think it requires being as open as you can, accepting some risk, and allowing for grace while not altering truth. Here are a few examples of how I believe a faith community can use social media outlets for evangelism.

Facebook – Most churches these days have a Facebook page. And like most churches, these pages are closed to members of that faith community. But what if the page was completely open, where anyone could post anything? This would be the digital way of saying, “the church doors are always open.”  True, this can provide a situation where you may see some colorful language, or inappropriate links. But managed well, a Facebook page can provide an avenue for those seeking answers to tough questions, that would normally not walk into a church service. And another thing: maybe it’s just me, but having a closed page, but saying you are “seeker friendly” sends the wrong message. Sure, you are going to get “that guy” that wants to argue about the seemingly conflicts in the gospels. But how you treat him is much more important than proving him wrong. How does blocking him out of the group because he can defend his beliefs as well as you show evangelism? 

Twitter - tweets about church are usually about the preaching from that Sunday. Sometimes it is about the speaker’s clothes. Sometimes it is about the weather! Some churches are even keeping you informed of the parking situation. Did you know that pictures are more likely to be retweeted than that awesome comment the speaker said?  But whatever it is, it should reflect the overall tenor of the population. A nonbeliever should be able to follow the church’s account and figure out pretty quickly what a “normal” Sunday morning looks like. Retweets from members help them understand the types of people that attend regularly. Posting links about local mission support helps them understand how they can get involved before signing up for Christianity (topic for another blog: people tend to serve before they start believing). Post links to job openings in the area. Hopefully you get the idea: make it more about the faith community, not so much about just the sermon.

Blogs – Most churches have someone blogging. Blogs are probably the best way to understand someone’s personality and their interests. Although a lot of churches blog these days, churches could have members who have their own personal blogs (even better). A church should consider designating an area on their webpage that provides a list of all the known bloggers that attend their congregation. This way, a person could gain a better understanding of the type of people that attend a given congregation. Maybe they come across someone that appears to think a little like them, and they are compelled to ask that person a question. People are far more likely to be intimidated by an official church blog, than by someone who appears to be approachable.

Other ideas would be:

• ·        Lists of books that staff members recommend or are reading.

• ·         Favorite music (band, songs, venues, etc.) from members

• ·         Conferences that staff attend
• 
  
• ·         A list of small business owners that attend a given church
• 
  
• ·         If some members are musicians, where they are playing locally
• 
  
• ·         Projecting tweets during worship services
• 
  
• ·         Answering questions from tweets, Facebook posts, etc.
• 
  
• ·         Using video services like Vimeo and YouTube for more than just posting the sermon.

My point is that churches should make it as easy as possible for a nonbeliever to find what he/she is looking for. Maybe it’s allowing them to post a question. Maybe it’s pointing them to someone that sounds a little bit like them. Maybe it’s helping them find a job. Maybe its allowing them to connect with someone who is a little more outgoing that can speak in a way that attracts them to the teachings of Jesus. 

Building a Healthy College Ministry

For the past four years I have been the college minister for Farragut Church of Christ. Last month, I resigned. It’s not as dramatic as it sounds. I was a volunteer staff, which basically means I didn’t get paid, but was still responsible for the ministry. Over the years, I have had a lot of compliments on how the ministry has grown. I did all I could to seek God’s advice on decisions (prayer, meditation, seeking wise counsel), but I also had the help from my wife Michelle. Below are a select few that I think are worth mentioning on establishing and maintaining a healthy college ministry. 

From Saloon to Church Buildings

I grew up with Vacation Bible School (VBS). This is attributed to the fact that my dad was a preacher, and therefore I grew up in church. I have always been involved in some form of VBS, and so never really gave it much thought. I just assumed everyone did it as well, and that it had always been around! Seriously, I think there was time when I thought Jesus and The Twelve led the first VBS! Of course, that would bring on questions like, “What is the drop off policy for Levites? Who plays Jesus in the skit? And other very confusing questions.

If you hang around Farragut Church long enough, you will hear this phrase about VBS: “it’s for the kids”. And that is absolutely true. We do almost everything that we can to get the kid’s attention. We want them to walk away from the week with a solid foundation that Jesus loves them very much. But I find myself asking, “where does the CONCEPT of VBS come from?” It’s really an interesting story….

As the Christianity Today reported a few years back, VBS originated at the turn of the century in New York City’s East Side. Although Methodists offered “summer Sunday School institutes” as far back as the 1870s, the term VBS is attributed to Mrs. Walker Aylette Hawes, of the Epiphany Baptist Church. Mrs. Hawes was the wife of a doctor who specialized in medical ministry to children. During their initial stay in New York, Mrs. Hawes noted the numerous injuries from the children, and that they more than likely came from playing in the streets. She believed that they “needed something safe and fruitful to occupy their time.”

In 1898, after a near exhaustive search of places that would actually allow her to rent space for such a thing, a saloon (i.e. bar, a place that sells beer) agreed to rent her space for 6 weeks during the summer days. Mrs. Hawes designed her program around music, Bible stories, scripture memorization, games, crafts, drawing, and cooking. By the time of her retirement in 1901, Mrs. Hawes was overseeing seven separate schools in the New York City Area. An interesting fact about her original location, the bar: “Her pastor insisted that the school in 1900 move to the church, Epiphany Baptist Church, located about a mile from the East Side beer hall. After two weeks of meeting at the church, it became clear to Mrs. Hawes that children from the East Side would not attend at the church. She returned the school to a location near the beer hall for the rest of the summer”. It seems, even to this day, that location is everything!

After Mrs. Hawes retired, Dr. Robert Boville took over for her. By 1903, the movement had grown to 17 schools. Over the next four years, schools were opened in Philadelphia and Chicago. In 1911, Dr. Boville established the Daily Vacation Bible School Association as a national organization.

So now that you know where VBS comes from, does that change how you think about it? Do you drive across town to a church’s VBS? If they held it in a bar that was really convenient to you, would you take your kids? Do you participate in another denomination’s VBS? What do you look for in a VBS? Do you hang around, and get to know the staff that are working the VBS? In your opinion, what is the purpose of VBS?

You know you are having a successful VBS when:

1) Your 3 year old expresses his or her ability to spell J-E-S-U-S on the ride home. Of course, it will probably start out with something like: “Give me a J! Give me a J! Give me a J! [undecipherable humming and mumbling] Give me an E! Give me an E! Give me an E!....” The shaking of the head and simulated dance moves while strapped in the car seat are obviously optional….

2) Its day three and workers are still showing up at 7am when VBS doesn’t really start until 8:30.

3) You had to run to the store for MORE water balloons.

4) The word “pyrotechnic” came up in conversation, and no one looked surprised.

5) There was a brief discussion about the possibility of getting a jetski on stage. And again, no one looked surprised….

6) Your 9 year old sleeps in his “next day clothes” so he doesn’t have to “waste time” getting ready to go to VBS.

7) Spouses stop by the church building for seemingly random tasks, and “have to” check the quality controls in place for the food dispositioned for the staff.

8) The youth minister puts in 20 plus votes for his pick on The Voice^© backstage before performing the skit for the morning, and then brags about it on Twitter^©, while referencing his church and the hash tag #vbs. OK, so that one may be a little random, but it still sounded cool!

9) Its day three and the college students are still showing up.

10) Your smoking hot wife who just happens to be in charge hasn’t lost her marbles yet. Figuratively and LITERALLY.

Prayer Circles

I was recently at a prayer meeting. Its been a while since I had been to one of these things. Imagine, 12 people sitting around a table, holding hands, and going around the circle praying about what was on their hearts.

Pray circles are interesting. You get the email that invites you to some location so we can just pray. The email will usually have something about “you are in no way obligated to attend…blah blah blah.” The invite will also usually have something about the invitee being “moved by the Holy Spirit to invite you and others.” And, interestingly, the invite will usually include some type of declaration from the sender stating they “have no reason why they are inviting you, other than the Holy Spirit told them to.” Now, how do you turn that down??? How on earth do you turn down the Holy Spirit?! And yet at the same time, why can’t I just pray here, at my desk? Why do I need to be surrounded by others if we all we are going to do is pray? Why couldn’t this be one of those forwarded emails to tell me to pray right now so that I get a bazillion dollars but I will need to forward it to my entire contacts, and if I don’t then I must not be that great of a Christian…. I already pray for my ministries and others. Why do I need to go somewhere to pray?

This recent experience was amazing. We had a couple of elders, ministry leaders from various ministries, and our pulpit minister. The gentleman running the meeting asked us, “Why are you here? What were you thinking on your way here?” I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting that. I was geared for the more traditional, “let’s circle hands and start praying!” However, the reason I was there was to pray for my college group our church, and my family. Others were there to pray for the church, someone was sick in their life, someone wanted to pray that our church would be open. Someone wanted to pray about a job. So, before we started praying, we just talked.

Probably the most common example of prayer circles I have been associated with would be the kind from youth groups. Teens do them real well. They have no issue circling up, someone starts the prayer, and it goes around the circle. If you don’t feel like praying, you just simply squeeze the hand next to you and you can skip. The person getting the squeezed hand can tell your aversion to praying to how hard you squeezed his hand. Squeezing multiple times is the international sign for, “please pray! I do not want to pray publicly! I have an aversion to praying!” Your only worry in a teen youth group prayer circle is continually thinking about how clammy that other hand is, Of course, if you are a guy, you are trying to strategically place yourself by the hot church chick. This guy will probably never ask her out, but at least he gets to reminisce on holding her hand until the next prayer circle. Of course, if you are the hot church chick, you are trying to strategically place yourself as far away from the amazingly awkward guy during the prayer circle time….

Small groups do prayer circles to. In these situations, usually the small group leader takes prayer requests, everyone then circles up, then the leader gives the prayer. . You don’t have to worry about saying a prayer, just holding someone’s hand who is not your wife! If you plan your initial sitting right, you won’t be holding a man’s hand during this. Hey, you know you are thinking it, at least if you are a guy! Be honest; your are thinking to yourself right now: "boy, girl, boy, girl, ...."

Interestingly, there is no example of prayer circles in the bible (well, at least where they call out “holding hands”). Probably the most familiar example of group prayers is when Jesus takes his students off to pray right before he is arrested, and he comes back to find them sleeping. I am quite certain if they were circled up they would have stayed awake. Think about it: John is holding Peter’s hand and John starts to nod off. Peter would know by feeling John’s grip start to give. Peter could instantly put the death grip on him to wake him up! Problem solved. Jesus wouldn’t be lowering His expectations as he does when comes back finding them asleep!

Seriously, there is something about holding someone’s hand when you pray. I love it when my wife reaches for my hand when we start to pray. I can look at an order of worship on a Sunday and think to myself, “yep, she is going to grab my hand right there (pointing at the line that says ‘public prayer’)”. Even if we fought all the way to church, yelling at the kids to act appropriately; I know she will grab my hand for the prayer. It might hurt like hell, but she will still grab it.

I knew this elderly couple who had held hands to pray ever since they met. That’s a lot of hand holding! I really respected this couple. The gentleman was a mentor of mine. I can remember sitting in church across the aisle from them. I stole a peek one Sunday, and watched as they silently closed hands while some guy prayed. It was beautiful. Their hands looked like they were made for each other! It was like there were indentions on the hands that would only fit the spouse’s hand!

Holding hands brings us comfort. It gives us peace. But let’s face it: in a prayer circle it keeps us on our toes! Who do I sit by? Is it knuckles opened? Do I cup the hand? How hard do I squeeze? Will they look at me the same after an hour long hand hold?

This current prayer circle started this week. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. I really felt like we were just going to talk out loud to God then go on home. Man, was I wrong…. The Holy Spirit came into that room! We plan to meet every week until God provides what we are needing. I was truly at peace in that room, and yet my spirit inside was being stirred as well. We all had very similar prayers: church growth, church healing, openness in communication, etc. There was a feeling the Spirit was providing guidance, but not necessarily answers, yet. I’ll keep you up to date on how it goes. I think Michelle is going to go next week.

By the way, is there something I can pray for you?

Excuse me sir, do you know where your soul will spend eternity?

I got witnessed to yesterday. It wasn’t the first time, and I am sure it won’t be the last. I was at a local mountain bike park, putting my gear on, when this guy came up to me, “hey man how is it going? You come here often?” I’ll be honest, the initial conversation kind of threw me for a loop. It sort of sounded like the beginnings of a pickup line! I was a little nervous; I’m not going to lie! Anyway, we exchanged names, then he hit me with it: “brother, can I give you a tract that shows how the bible is the absolute truth and that we should do exactly what it says?”

“Sure, man,” I responded. “I am a college minister, and I am always looking for new material!” Amazingly, he looked a little dejected and yet, relieved at the same time. It’s like he was thinking, “oh you’re a Christian? I wasted all that energy building up the nerve to come over to a total stranger to share my faith, something that is the most important part of my existence, and you already are saved?! I sure wish you had a ‘I’m a Christian, save your energy for someone else T-shirt’, but now that I know you are ‘one of us’ we can go share something that is very special and dear to my heart: bike riding!” Well, maybe that wasn’t exactly what he was thinking, but I am sure it was close….

Witnessing is one of those things us Christians do that a lot of non-Christians just don’t understand. And for us Christians, a lot of times its just plain awkward. Think about it: you go up to a complete stranger, ask them how their day is going, wait the proverbial (and polite) 5 seconds and then because we are so nervous about witnessing to a total stranger we interrupt their answer by blurting out something like: “if you died right now, do you know where your soul would spend eternity?” THERE!!!! I said it! And not only did I say it, I said it to a total stranger!!!! Here, have a tract with strategically orchestrated verses that are probably taken out of context to scare you into going to church 5 days from now….The other guy is thinking, “dude, I just want to pay for this latte!” Somehow, we Christians think that we can get into a deep conversation with someone by “going all the way”: eternal salvation. Sharing your faith is a great thing, but starting at the end of the Story is not the Gospel.

I think my most unusual experience with being witnessed to was sitting in an airport in Shanghai, waiting to come home after 3 weeks in China. This particular trip was actually the second trip in the course of two months. The first one went pretty good, until the day I was heading to the airport. There was an issue at the plant I was working at, and I had to return the following week. So its at the end of this second trip that this Caucasian lady comes up to me. I’ll admit I was rather grumpy, and wanting nothing more but to be home. But she decides to come over and talk to me about Jesus….

Think about that for a moment……

A Caucasian lady comes up to a Caucasian man, in the SHANGHAI AIRPORT (that’s china for you geologically challenged public schoolers) to give a testimony that is supposed to be the most important thing in her life!!

It turns out that she was at the end of a mission trip where her group had “witnessed” to hundreds of Chinese peasants out in the country, handed out hundreds of bibles, and prayed for all kinds of things with these new converts. I’ll be honest, I was quite impressed with her story. But then she chooses me to tell the Good News one more time, before going home?!? What was it about me that led her over to me? Was it my shirt? The book I was reading?

I responded that yes I know Jesus, and He and I are pretty close. Amazingly, she responded with almost a half hearted, “oh. Well…. That’s great. Just great.”

A couple of years ago Michelle and I were involved with a church that decided it would be a good idea to hand out “business cards” with “the message” on them. We were convinced they were not tracts! They were business cards! Surely people would be more accepting of a business card! Can’t you see it now? “excuse me sir, how is your day going?”

“its going…”

“great. Glad to hear. I have this business card here with the story of Jesus on it. I was wondering if you would be interested in taking it and learning about how to save your soul.”

“…uh, sure. Man, I’m glad that you weren’t going to hand out a tract. But a business card, well that’s different! I’ll see you at church next Sunday!”

“Sweet.”

What is it that tells us we can put the story of Jesus on to a business card, give it to someone, and everything will be OK? The book of John clearly tells us if everything was written down about what Jesus did, there wouldn’t be enough space on the earth to hold them all. Its almost like we use the tracts (sorry, business cards) as a “get out of evangelism card”. If we hand them out, then we don’t have to get close to them….

I have to confess that I actually left one of these business cards with a tip at a local restaurant. I felt pretty good about myself. It was a subtle gesture. We had been to the restaurant a couple of time previous, and coincidentally knew the waitress didn’t go to church. So that SUNDAY, I dropped my own bomb in the way of a “business card” along with my expected 15.7% tip. Hey, she was late on the drink refills a couple of times! Give me a break…..

A year or so later we were at another restaurant. I am not sure how it started, but we found ourselves in the middle of a conversation with the waiter. He was a really cool guy, who was very interested in what we were doing. We found ourselves talking to him about almost everything. He asked about our kids. Where we were from. We asked about his life. He was married, no kids. Then out of the blue: “…blah blah blah…our church…blah blah blah… God has blessed me so much…. Blah blah blah.” It just flowed like water. It took me a minute, but he was telling his story of Jesus, but it was in a way that it was just a part of his life! So, I decided to drop my bomb on him, “do you go to church?” His face answered the question, before his mouth did, “yeah, man. But I work a lot, and sometimes I work on Sundays. But it’s cool. God is with me all the time.” I was waiting for the tract, but it never came! Michelle and I spent a few more minutes talking with him, and in the middle of talking to him, he mentioned something about getting some “business cards” as a “tip” recently. He wasn’t real pleased with that….

It’s not that I am opposed to tracts. I think they can be effective. But if all you do is hand one out, you are missing the true Message of Jesus. To reach someone, you have to build a relationship with them. You have to show them Jesus through your actions: being positive in thinking, using God’s name in a complimentary and respectful manner, giving Him the credit. You have to be genuinely interested in someone’s life. You have to be patient, and being patient is hard. I think one reason why the earth couldn’t hold all the books of Jesus life is because if it did, we would find some way of handing it out to people. Jesus wants us to get know people. He wants us to express Him through our actions. When we know people and express Him through our actions, we are spreading the message of Jesus. I wonder if that would fit on a business card……

Things (not) to Say in Church

Michelle introduced me to a book this weekend: “Permission to Speak Freely” by Anne Jackson. It’s a book that was inspired by Anne’s blog, when she asked the question: “what is one thing you feel you can’t say in church?”

When I first heard what it was about, I was immediately skeptical: “How could there possibly be something you can’t say in church?” Church is a place where one should feel safe, able to think openly, is accepted for who you are, feel surrounded by other believers with a common goal, etc….

But then I started thinking about this question…. Is it possible that there are things that we (Christians) are NOT supposed to say in church? Maybe another way of looking at it is, “are there things others in our own congregations PRAY we never say?”

Are there certain topics that we know we don’t discuss? Demanding justification for financial aid comes to mind…. Are you worthy for the money we can offer you? Yes, you are only asking for us to pay your heating bill this month, but how do we KNOW you will actually use this money for the heating bill, and not alcohol or the lottery, or…..? We require a signed declaration of where the funds are to be used (our approval obviously), and in the event that we find out that our funds have been used for other services or purchases without the written consistent of us, the leaders, you are required to pay back in full plus 50%. I mean, come on! People have actually asked for food for their children, then turned around and used that money for gas in their car. Who knows where they went using our money for gas! We can’t trust people these days!

Are there individuals that we shouldn’t question? The preacher is always right. The elders know what is best. They have been leading that ministry for decades now! They know what they are doing. The personality of the church is driven by the personality of the leaders.

Are there questions we don’t ask, because we don’t want to hear the answer? Why didn’t I pick up that homeless guy on the way to our church’s Family Meal time? Because he would lower the average net income of our congregation. He smells (it would cost so much to clean the interior of my SUV, so I am actually being a good steward of God’s money by NOT picking him up….) He looks scary and w are trying to attract DINKS (dual income no kids ) into our church family! We need their (the DINKS, not the homeless man!) “tithing” to meet our budget! How do you expect us to attract upper class families when we have lower class individuals among us? Quite frankly, I don’t want to associate with him.

Are there sins we don’t confess, because of the retribution they will bring? Growing up, the fastest way to get you kicked out of a congregation was to confess adultery, divorce, or struggling with homosexuality. It seems back then, Christians were perfect in all respects and demanded no less from anyone who even might be considering becoming one. Heaven forbid you were a preacher or considered to be a leader in a congregation and get caught up in the drama of an illicit affair! That immediately won you an “open letter” (thanks to John Acuff for this thought!) sent to all surrounding churches (within the proper denomination of course) explaining in gross detail the facts of your sin, verses to backup why you were dis-fellowshipped, and what could possibly happen to a congregation that would even cherish the thought of accepting you(supporting verses included obviously). We are so fortunate that situations like this don’t happen anymore!

Whoa….. Maybe there is more to this topic than I originally thought.

Well, I am going to give credit to Anne Jackson for sparking this particular blog. But now I am going to ask the question: what is something you feel you can’t say in church? And why? Don’t worry! It’s not like I am going to publish them! You can trust me. Only responses that include your full name, place of residence, and church membership will be considered legitimate.

What Could be

Recently Michelle finished a book by Frank Viola. I’ll be honest: I probably agree with about half of what he writes about. He comes across very emphatic about a lot of his beliefs. This bluntness rubs me the wrong way. It’s almost like, “if you don’t believe what I believe then you are wrong.” Kind of like how I am at times. Oh, wait a minute…. I am sure he is a decent guy, and if I knew him personally, would probably think completely differently. It’s really hard to get your views down on paper and then have them come out exactly how you expect them to. I should know: I am constantly pulling my foot out of my mouth…. I am almost certain that I am going to get a talking to from my ministry buddies after they read this blog.

Anyway, back to the stuff I actually agree with that Viola wrote in the book that Michelle was reading. He made a comment that he believed that ministry leaders (pastors, preachers, children’s ministry leaders, college ministers, etc.) should NOT be paid full-time by their local congregation. He made some very impressive arguments some of which included: 1) where is the book chapter and verse in the bible for full time staff? 2) Think of the money that could be directed to missions, benevolence, etc. 3) tends to stifle the Holy Spirit in other members because they (the members) subconsciously look to the “leader of the church” (full paid staff) for guidance, along with a few more.

However, this blog is about a specific reason for not having full paid staff. You see, Michelle and I have been running into a particular issue for years now. It didn’t matter what church we attended, because I am almost certain that it is universal. What I am talking about is the concept of “what could be”. I have heard numerous conversations about “what the church could be”, if we _____________, and we (members) do tend to look toward the full time staff to fill in the blank. Unfortunately, full time ministers tend to NOT be as blunt about the direction, focus, vision, whatever you want to call it, with their ministry and/or congregation. Full time ministers, in general, can feel they need to make sure everyone is happy, for the sake of their job. They know what needs to be done. They are fully aware of the personalities and dynamics within their own congregation. They understand how the Holy Spirit works in their particular congregation. Unfortunately, they can be resistant, because if an idea is too “out there”, then they could very well lose their job. This is an unfortunate situation.

I am almost certain that in every congregation Michelle and I have been a part of, there was at least one minister that was an “out of the box” thinker around the coffee table, but could revert to safer waters when they spoke in public. And seriously, do you blame them?! If one’s job was HIGHLY dependent on what you said on a weekly basis, do you blame them?

It absolutely amazes me how many conversations I have had about “vision casting”, “what the church should be”, “where the focus of our money and time should be”, and a host of many others. I would be a part of these conversations, get really excited thinking that our church leadership was going to give a clear and concise direction on ministries, funding, growth opportunities, outreach, how accountability was going to work, etc. only to be gravely disappointed to hear yet another budgetary summary coupled with why we are not meeting budget, yet again. Or maybe it would be an anticipated sermon about the “direction of the church” and how members were going to be empowered, only to be met with a mundane, scripted discussion of how the church body just “needs to get out there” and show Jesus.

For centuries, mankind has followed great leaders who were able to vision cast their beliefs in a way that created followers. More often than not, these leaders were not afraid of the opinions of their followers. It amazes the amount of talent that is in church leadership these days. God is good, all the time! All around the country, there are men and women in leadership roles that are gifted by God to direct local congregations to spread the Good News in the unique ways that their particular congregation is designed for. But, we need leaders who are not afraid of the status quo. We need leaders who understand what changes need to be made in order to reach believers in the 21^st century. We need leaders who are able to express their passion for a ministry in a way that makes others beg to follow them. We need leaders filled with the Holy Spirit and can see that we are filled with the Holy Spirit as well. In my opinion, the MAIN way of doing these things, is to remove the barrier that so many ministers stand behind. Free them from their salaries, stop paying them full time, and start helping them get part time to full time jobs so that they can be released from thinking they have to say and do things to please everyone in a congregation. With that freedom, I truly believe we would see a growth in the church like what we see in the book of Acts. We need leaders, but more importantly, we need leaders who are not afraid to step on toes, hold people accountable, and blaze a trail with the Holy Spirit.

Giving talks

I recently did a talk on “Defining Moments”. This was done as part of our Men’s Gathering Series at Farragut Church of Christ. After the weekend, I asked the men for a critique, and what they got out of the weekend. Below, is a collection of thoughts from them.

- Obviously you are sincere about your faith and you attempt to walk it each day – that is the most important element that gives you credibility.
- I liked the props and your use of them in the “backpack” session. Many of us could identify with your points. I also liked the personal examples and self-effacing approach.
- I prefer a limited use of PowerPoint presentations and, when possible, use images on them instead of words.
- I had trouble connecting all of the sessions with the theme. It may have been obvious to others, but it would have helped me if you had consistently reminded us of the theme of the gathering and how each talk addressed the theme (you may have done this and I missed it due to my state of mind)
- I would have preferred shorter lectures and more discussion. To illustrate, I liked your golf ball lesson. It seemed to take on even greater richness when people made observations about what they saw (like the observation about how the turbulent water became calm once God’s Spirit completely filled the voids in our life – Wow). Someone else observed how the sand changed in quality (color) as God’s Spirit filled the voids.
- I don’t know if was possible in this setting to circle the seats and create a discussion “pit.” There probably was not space for that, but that is also my preference.
- You quickly engaged the audience by putting up the Twitter visuals. They were funny and entertaining.
- The hiking and camping equipment and personal story drove home the points using objects you pulled from the back pack.
- You shared a part of you that others never knew; this helped give credence to your story making it more applicable to our lives as well.
- The audio/visuals kept the audience focused up front.

- What I got out of the lesson:
a. God has a plan for me, for you, and all men at the gathering.
b. My plans are immaterial to God’s plan.
c. God’s plan will prevail no matter how much interference I run.
d. There are definitely going to be some setbacks in my life.
e. Our relationships with friends and family will get us through the rough spots.
f. I have marker stones in my life, and how I view those stones determines the future course of my life.
- What I liked:
a. You allowed the audience to speak up during the presentation.
b. You made it fun!
c. There was lots of true laughter and fellowship (not the kind of “forced” laughs that most presentations elicit).
d. You hit on some tough topics that all men in the room could relate to.
e. You were well prepared, which meant that if questions or comments came up, you could respond to them, then return right back to where you were without appearing to be lost or confused.

- Don’t read your power point slides.
- Put less on your power point slides.

My (Judah's) take away
- Remember the Holy Spirit is in charge.
- Use humor
- Provide time for comment, and talk in a way that lets the audience know they can ask questions/provide comments during the presentation.
- Use different styles of teaching. For example, the first talk was more lecture, but it had humor, power point, and props. In short, I pulled out all the stops! Also, we had a talk right after lunch on Saturday. This period is a good time for naps, so to keep everyone awake I had some guys stand up and act out a passage in the bible. This seemed to really keep people in engaged.
- Its important to continually emphasize what the series is about. This is where I dropped the ball. The discussion was around Defining Moments in a Man’s Life, and we used the concept of “memory stones” from different passages of the bible to help reinforce this thought. I did this at the beginning of the first talk, but only highlighted it afterwards. Different men mentioned the concept as well, but we didn’t do a good job of tying the two together.
- Remember the Holy Spirit is in charge.

Dude, you got something on your forehead

Yesterday, I visited my buddy’s office. He has some coworkers that are also acquaintances of mine. I don’t see these guys that often, but when I do it’s generally a nonchalant “how’s it going? How are the wife and kids? What’s new in the job?” There is also the preverbal handshake for good measure. We are all good red blooded American men, who think conservatively, love women (our own wives), proud of our children, love our country, thankful to God for our jobs, and recognize that He is in control, not us.

Anyway, I was slightly distracted yesterday, as I am preparing a talk for next weekend. I was at my buddy’s office to get some ideas, suggestions, opinions, etc. about what I was speaking on. Well, one of his coworkers (acquaintance) turns around, with a genuine expression of “glad to see you” on it. He holds his hand out for the preverbal hand shake, and I say, “dude, you got something on your forehead.” His response? “Ash Wednesday,” in an expression that he has probably said it that way quite frequently throughout the day. It seems his ash cross may have turned into a smudge. Very unfortunate. My response went something like, “my bad. That’s pretty cool. Ash Wednesday? Really?” I look at the nearest desk calendar in a manner that would make someone think I (the Protestant) was trying to prove him (the Catholic) wrong. “well, yes. I guess you are right…..”

And that little conversation reminded me that Michelle and I usually give up something for Lent. I am going to go on and admit that I am not real happy about the concept of giving something up for Lent. Most of the reason has to do with my upbringing of not celebrating any religious holiday, let alone performing any kind of religious ritual. I won’t go in to how absolutely ridiculous that last sentence sounds, as I do a lot of things ritualistic presently, as well as, celebrate the religious holidays for what they are. I also won’t bring up the idea that I like my routines, and giving them up is very uncomfortable for me. But the truth is, she and I have always been changed after the 40 days. It’s really kind of strange….

Michelle and I have given up everything from computer games, to cable TV. We gave up eating out all together one year. However, we did have a loop hole: If someone asked us to eat we would go. We didn’t want to make them “uncomfortable” with our sacrifice. I gave up coffee one year. Since I had started drinking coffee a few months back, it wasn’t that big of a sacrifice. I recall giving up Fox News a couple of years ago, but since I spent the majority of lent in China, and China doesn’t have Fox News, I probably wouldn’t consider that one a big sacrifice either. There was one time I gave up sweet tea. If you are not from the south, you probably won’t understand. If you haven’t had Michelle’s sweet, you definitely don’t get it.

I did some research on what others have given up for Lent. I thought I might share.
1) Alcohol – no brainer
2) Smoking – ditto
3) Soft drinks – that’s cool
4) TV – whoopee….
5) Meat – that could be painful
6) Chocolate – ok, I can see that
7) Sex – Now hold on! Let’s talk about this….
8) The internet – that‘s interesting.
9) Make-up – huh?
10) Shopping – that’s a good one

Some others I found included: stress, gossip, road rage, “the rat race”, dealing with “the man”, fear, sarcasm, etc. A good friend of mine said he was going to give up sobriety. I want to say he was joking, but the more I think about it, I am not really sure… ;) I also found where some were adding things for Lent. Some of these include: exercising, stretching in the morning, sending positive text messages on purpose, reading the bible each day, working in a soup kitchen, etc. I have to admit; I am impressed with the creativity that some have about sacrifice.

You see the purpose of giving something up (or adding something) for Lent is to experience a little bit of the pain and agony that Jesus suffered while dying on the cross. I like the idea, but I have a hard time getting over the concept that me giving up “solitaire” on the computer even comes close to Jesus bleeding on a cross. I mean, come on: do we really think we can compare to Jesus’ agony by giving up a cup of coffee? The irony is I think our little sacrifice can make a difference. For each of us its different, but giving things up, or adding things to our lives on purpose helps us to focus on why we are doing that particular thing. For that period of time our schedule changes. We are uncomfortable with what is going on in what is usually our normal routines. And for many of us, that little change is all we need to have that “I am going to change my life for the better” moment.

For Michelle and I we notice that we talk more. We play with our kids more. We read our bible more. We pray together more. Granted, initially we are trying to just fill time that is usually being filled by what we have given up. But inevitably, our normal routines have changed to more quality time. We generally, do “something” more that is productive and adds a positive experience to our life. So, as much as I am disgruntled about Lent, that is why I continue to do it. If you practice Lent, what are some things that you give up, and why?

A New Approach to Church

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently. Some of the podcasts I have been listening to have been talking about what the original church looked like. I have also been reading a lot of blogs from church leaders that have been writing about what the church should look like in the 21st century. I have had conversations with other Christians that freely admit that the way we do “Sundays” is not how the early Christians would have done it. In fact, some of these conversations discuss how meeting during the week for bible studies seem to be more in line with what the original Christians had in mind than what we do formally on Sunday mornings.


There seems to be a growing number of people who look at our Sunday morning rituals and are starting to see that they are not conducive to building relationships. We come to a church building, sit in pews facing forward, sing songs to God, but rarely engage in meaningful relationships with those around us. Is it any wonder that churches all across the country are decreasing in attendance? At the same time, this is why home churches, and small group ministries are growing. Let’s face it: one of the main reasons the early Christians met was to foster closer relationships.

I like the concept of home churches and small groups, because these environments allow relationships to grow. But I can’t abandon the thought that we can do something with these multi-million dollar buildings. There is all this SPACE that can be utilized! Some have gymnasiums, cafeterias, preschools, coffee shops, etc. Some churches are massive. Some have their own exit ramps from interstate systems. There is something about church buildings that still draws us to them. Then there are the smaller churches. They may not have a gift shop, but they were still a million dollar investment. And all across the country there are a lot of these churches that sit vacant. It seems such a waste of money to see a church building just sitting there, empty.


And yet, when I talk to people that attend smaller churches, most talk about the relationships they have fostered. It seems, smaller congregations are much more suitable to creating strong relationships than larger ones. That is why many congregations (mini and mega included) have small group ministries. People develop strong relationships in small group settings.


So back to the my original statement: I am hearing lot about how the way we do things on Sunday mornings isn’t the way it was originally intended, and this environment isn’t good to develop strong relationships. So I started working on something that is designed for smaller churches, that is modeled after the mega church environment where there is a lot going on because there are so many people. What if we could create an environment that felt like it “flowed”? What if we could create an environment that allowed individuals to choose when they worshiped, when they went to class, provided time to fellowship, and offer periods of counseling? Below, is what came out of a late night discussion with a great friend of mine.



I was thinking of how the Jewish temple was always open. People did not always arrive at the same time, although they did have some set hours for prayer, etc. Something was always going on. People “flowed” from one aspect of the temple to the other. Jews wanted to go to the temple. To them, that was where God was. For us today, we know that God lives inside of us, but there is still this strong desire for us to “get together”. We have this deep desire to come together, but when we do and sit in a pew, or don’t talk with any one, we sometimes don’t feel fulfilled. We “checked a box”, or did our part by showing up on Sundays, but there was still something missing. Let me try to explain each of these time frames and how they interact with each other.

Communion – Why do we come together? The purpose of Sundays gets its roots from Acts 2:43-47 (one of only a few passages) that mention the believers coming together to take the Lord’s Supper. Communion is an extremely important event to a Christian. It is a meal where we are to discuss, reflect, teach about, etc. what Jesus did for us. This part of Christianity can actually be dated back to the Passover, which God instituted with the Israelites in the book of Exodus. It is one of the most important aspects of being a Christian.
This time could be started with songs as a large group. We would be sitting around tables where discussion could be easier than in pews facing forward. Maybe some would get up and congregate with other families. Maybe, background music would be played. This would also be a time where parents could discuss more openly about why Jesus died, and go back to the command given by God in Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, “…repeat them [commands from God] again and again to your children…”

Worship Experience – As you can see, the worship experience continues for almost three hours. This a period where people can gather and sing, have a prayer, read scripture, play a video, give a declaration, etc. The beauty of this time is that it is not scripted. It would also be a smaller group setting (depending on the number in your congregation). This type of environment would lend itself to parent’s encouraging their children to lead a song, give a prayer, etc.

There would be facilitators who could start songs, prayer, play a contemporary song, etc. but they were not doing this the entire time. If someone felt moved to lead a song, they would do that. It’s important to note that the same facilitators would not be there the entire three hours. This time would be managed by multiple facilitators that could be scheduled at different times. The entire church body could come and go as they pleased. According to how they were participating in the other areas of the building would dictate when or how long they stayed in the worship experience. And without a scripted order of worship we would actually be giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to do his job and lead worship. The body would be lifting itself up instead of having a small number of people being overworked and somehow being promoted into a ‘higher’ level of Christianity.

Classes – each of the classes are in 50 minute blocks. It’s important to note that these classes in the diagram above are examples. They could be any number of classes, arranged in any number of orders. The point of the diagram is to show that multiple classes are going on. Members can choose how many classes they want to attend, depending on the topics and the needs they have on their lives.

Family experience – This aspect of the Sunday morning worship is important as well. This is the time where parents and children are being taught and engaged as a family. For us, family experience is when we do our high energy music, skits, videos, audience participation, etc. It’s a production and is designed to introduce the bible story to be focused on for the week. It is very high level, and it is very entertaining. This way, it is more memorable. That is why it is important that parents of these children are present and involved. The children are going to be asking questions about characters in the skit, and the parents should know what is going so they can answer their children’s’ questions appropriately.

Large group – This is a period where the children are in a large group setting without the parents. The bible story is reinforced one more time, and there is possibly a video or multimedia presentation to compliment the bible story.

Small group – this period is when children are broken into groups of 5 – 8 where the small group leaders can go over the bible message one more time, while also fostering relationships from child to child.

So what would a typical Sunday look like? I created a couple of examples of how I think different types of families could participate in this form of coming together.

Example #1 – A typical family would show up at the church building around 9am. They would go to the worship part for about an hour, and then head to Family experience. During this time, mom and dad would be engaged with their children as they start to focus on the bible story of the week. When the children go to Large Group, the parents can then go to a class that is available. In this particular example, it could be a class on handling money responsibly, or a study of the book of Acts. After this 50 minute block, the family would come back together to have communion with other families. There would be songs sung as a large group. During this time, the parents would talk to their children the importance of remembering what Jesus did. It’s also possible that other families would migrate from table to table, having conversation and fellowship with each other.

Example #2 – An empty nest couple could attend this congregation by showing up around 8:30. They like the idea of getting their morning started early. Again, this communion period would be started with songs, a group of families would be gathered, and the focus would be on taking a meal together, remembering what Jesus did for them. After a period of time the empty nesters decide to go to the class on The Beatitudes. They like this class, as it is a lecture style class. It is very similar to sermons they have experienced at other churches. After this class, they meet some friends, and fellowship with them for a few minutes before going off to the worship part of the congregation. After a period of worship (the length of which is their choosing), they decide to leave, going about their Sunday. (Or in a radical way of thinking – they finish with their personal worship by 11:00 and can now lead a small group of children and participate in growing the next generation as well)

It’s important to note that the focus is being fluid from one aspect of a Sunday morning to another. We should not get hung up on the schedule. There are many ways this type of Sunday morning can be scheduled. This is not just a three service church – the worship experience is fluid and nonstop. The classes would change over time and potentially the time your family arrives/departs would change as you attend the portions you need, in theory allowing you to mix more fully with the entire congregation instead of early and late service attendees never overlapping. There is no more early and late sessions. The worship experience is dependent on those in the room at the time – if it isn’t what you like, you played a part in making it that way. I recognize that this change would take A WHILE to get used to, but should encountering God be such a habit that we no longer have to think about it to do it?

So my question to you is… would you attend a church like this?

Knowing God

This post is mainly for the guys in our Men’s Wednesday morning bible class. I wanted to have some follow up on John 17. We had some really good discussion, but I felt like taking some of those thoughts a little further. Below, is a compilation of notes from this chapter.

In John 17: 3, Jesus is pretty clear what eternal life is: Knowing the father, and Jesus Christ, His Son. The next question is, how do we know the Father and his son? The amazing thing, is that this chapter explains this. In short, to know the Father is to have a relationship with Him where any desire or temptation we should have would be quenched. In other words, we would be tempted, but we would not give in to that temptation, because the relationship we have with God is satisfying. So, how do we have that relationship with God?

I believe one way we have that relationship is to know what truth is. Vs. 6-8 Jesus mentions that He “has given them the words that God had given Him”. This is the bible. I believe that Jesus sees this as a very important part of knowing God. He even mentions it again in vs. 17. Part of a relationship with God is to study the bible, and to understand what it says. This knowledge of the bible also helps to strengthen our moral compass. It provides what is right and wrong. Our brain will establish what is right or wrong on its own, if we let it. But to study truth, as God would have it, helps to solidify what is truly right and what is truly wrong. When we desire a relationship with God, we will try to do what He says.

We are also to “live in the world”. I believe this helps in understanding where the world is heading, and how it works. God does not call us to move into isolation, and focus on ourselves. We are to be a beacon of light to the world. Our actions should be such that they are a positive impact on those around us. I think we can also better reach the world by understanding how it works. Science has shown in numerous disciplines that there is a creator, and He is active in different aspects of life, environment, and social structures. We can show, through chemistry, biology, mathematics, physics, etc. that God exists. This “knowledge of God’s creation” can also satisfy that voice in our head that may say, “where did I come from?” I don’t believe that we all have to be researchers, but I do believe that God wants us to recognize His creation around us. We see this in the plants, the blue skies, the water cycle, and the stars, just to name a few. When we look on God’s creation, we see His foot print.

Another way of knowing God is through relationships. Vs. 20 – 24 discusses Jesus’ desire that, not only the apostles, but us as well, are unified. It’s interesting that Jesus mentions that “the world will know You sent me” by the relationships we foster. Of course, these have to be healthy relationships. The relationships we have must be positive in nature. Being unified does not mean we focus on ourselves. We can’t be selfish in a unified relationship. We are focused on others. We want what is in their best interest.

So how do we do that? How do we know God through relationships? I believe we do this through sharing hardships, through fellowship with others, celebrating our successes with each other, and even supporting each other during our failures. In other words: we know each other, we trust each other, we share with each other. When we know those we associate with, we are that much closer to having a relationship with God. Again, God does not call us into isolation. He wants us to have relationships with others. He wants us to be united in our beliefs.

We cannot have meaningful relationships with others JUST ON Sundays. I am sorry, but it just won’t work. Having meaningful relationships with others is dirty business. Think about it: If you are married, do you always get along with your spouse? Maybe you have a best friend. Do you always agree with them? Now, it may be that you know your spouse or best friend so well that you can usually answer for them, but that is different from “never fighting”. Having a true relationship with someone means that you know everything about them. It means that when there is a disagreement, “going your separate ways” is not an option because it is not even in your dictionary. Neither of you would know what that means. You cannot see yourself separated from them. You disagree about a certain topic, yes, but you know that eventually there will be a resolution. Having a meaningful relationship with someone takes work, and it is two sided. It’s funny, being unified is a “two way street”….

I believe that positive relationships are addictive. If others see me in a relationship that is healthy, then they want one as well. As others experience healthy relationships, it spreads like wild fire. I believe this is what God intended. We all desire a close relationship. God made us that way. It’s His way of bringing heaven to earth, and He wants to experience eternal life.

So, eternal life is knowing God. Knowing God is studying His word (and following His commandments – evangelism, helping others, being a positive influence in the world, etc.), studying His creation, and having positive, meaningful relationships with others.

What are your thoughts? Would you add anything to this list?

Forgiveness

Not sure where this one is heading.
Recently, I have been teaching a class on forgiveness. For me, teaching a specific topic seems to have more meaning than I really expect at the time. Events happen that seem to be random, but are associated with the topic. I hear things through podcasts or people’s conversations that are completely relevant to what I am teaching. I tend to plan to teach the topic in a certain direction, and then these events happen that steer me in another. It seems to always happen that way! Not really sure what that means.
Anyway, back to forgiveness. A couple of Sundays ago I talked about revenge. I’ll be honest, revenge movies are some of my favorite. As soon as I started talking about revenge, the movie Taken came into my head. When this movie came out, I took Michelle to see it. I could truly relate to the character played by Liam Neeson. There is just something about being able to relate to the characters in these movies! Problem with revenge, is that it’s a cycle. When is enough, enough? It also escalates. It is also a personal problem with me and God. It says, “God, in this instance, I will be the judge. Your justice is not good enough.” Revenge also justifies heinous acts that we would “normally” say are wrong.
This weekend I taught on Matthew 18: 21 – 35. I usually hear this story in relationship to how we have to forgive people all the time. I taught from the point that if you want to live by the book (tit for tat), then God will let you. It was a different approach to a bible story. We had some good discussion, and I think it opened a few eyes on how we handle relationships. Do we treat our relationships like a positive and negative column? Positive column would be when people say good things about us, include us conversations, invite us to dinner, etc. Negative would be excluding us from lunch, not getting us a present on our birthday, pouting when someone hurts our feelings. How we treat that person is related to the sum of the positive and negative results. God tells us, “if you want to live by the book, I will let you.” He however, threw out the book when His son died for everyone. He wants us to do the same.
We were eating lunch with some friends this weekend, and the topic of a high profile trial came up. Somebody asked me if I could vote for the death penalty, and I immediately answered, “yes”. I didn’t even think about it too much. My head was killing me, and all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. Later that day, the thought hit me, “how come I answered so quickly”? Is it so easy for me to write off someone’s life? Just because someone did such a terrible crime does not negate the fact that they were created in the image of God. But still: I can’t disregard the acts I would go to for my wife, or my children….
Yesterday, the talk radio show I listen to, talked about capital punishment. The host had one of his buddies from college on, who happened to be a high profile radio host in another market. The point: they were friends, good friends, and they had completely polar opposite views on the death penalty.
I just finished listening to a podcast on “Blessed are the Peacemakers”, one of the Beatitudes. Some of the points are: 1) Do we project our deepest fears and place them on others (homophobia, government conspiracies, racism, etc.)? This creates a “they are evil, we are good” situation. 2) The podcast mentions the story of Joshua when he comes in contact with the leader of the Lord’s army (Joshua 5:13-15). Joshua asks him, “are you for us, or against us?”. The angel replies, “neither”. What?!? I mean, he is Joshua! He is one of the spies that says with God on our side no one can defeat us! The angel of the Lord is not on Joshua’s side? What is going on here? He then tells Joshua to take off his sandals for he is on holy ground. The story then goes into the Fall of Jericho. That’s it. Nothing else. It’s the weirdest story….. We look at life as, “you are either on my side or on their side.” God sees life as “everyone is my creation. If you come at them with hate and fear, you are not showing them My love that I have for them.”
It seems forgiveness is more than just a topical discussion to be taken up on Sunday mornings. I guess, God is trying to tell me something.

More or Less, Catalyst09 continued

Rob Bell is one of those guys that I really like to pay attention to. He speaks the way he writes. I like that. For some reason, I get lost in a dialogue when I start to listen to an author for the first time, and he doesn’t “sound” like what I was expecting. Rob isn’t like that. If you have ever read any of his books, be assured that he speaks about the same way.

Rob’s lecture at the Catalyst conference really got me thinking. Again, you have to remember that he is speaking to 13,000 ministry leaders. His initial question was, “is bigger better?” For the majority of those in attendance the initial reaction (and mine included) was, “YES!” Every ministry I have been a part of had always had a bullet in the goals and objectives section that had to with growth. That is just what you do. Ministries are supposed to grow. If they are not growing, then they are not healthy. And for reason, I have always put a numerical value (attendance) on this action. Rob doesn’t do that.

He said things like:
Sometimes crowds thin. John 6:60 - “…this is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” John 6:66 -“…many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him.” I don’t like this teaching. I want my ministry to grow, numerically. Rob used this scripture to show that God is more interested in healthy ministries, than ones based on numbers.
Do what God asks of you, NOT based on popularity. Sometimes, being right is not very popular. And when that happens, the crowds will thin. Guaranteed.
God will never ask, “Why were you not more like Moses?” He is going to ask, “Why were you not more like you?” We forget this sometimes, don’t we? We know the teachings, but for some reason we still compare ourselves to prophets, elders, teachers, preachers, etc. God wants to know what I did with my life. I need to stop worrying about how I don’t measure up to whom ever, and use that wasted energy on doing His will through me!
God tells us to do this; this thing right here, right now. We shouldn’t get focused on growing it. When He is ready, then He will give us something else. That is what we need to be focused on; understanding when He says, “here try this now.”

Whatever it is that you are doing right now, focus on that, and do it well. That is what you were made for.

Not Right Now....

I plan to post about our experiences from Catalyst09 over the next week or so. Below, is one of the more impactful talks I heard.

One of the speakers asked this question: “Does your family get your best, or what is left over from ministry?” His point was that sometimes we use ministry as an excuse when we recognize we are neglecting our families. Ministry leaders are amazingly susceptible to putting families second, third, or even fourth. This is not how it is to be. Family is only second to God. We sometimes forget that, or at least assume that the family understands what the priorities are when it comes to “saving souls”. It’s so easy for us to go off thinking that “only we can save that person”. The whole time, God is looking down on us going, “really? Only you can save that person? Please….” Here is another question the speaker asked that really punched me right in the face: Has your child ever SEEN you say, “No, I cannot do that now. I am playing with my son or daughter right now. It will have to wait until I am done.” Our kids need to SEE what is important in OUR lives.

The hard part about ministry is balancing family life and "ministry" life. If you really know Michelle and I, you know we "try" to solve this problem by combining them. Our children are with us as much as possible. Michelle and I do a lot of ministry work as a team. We will also periodically balance out the kids by having one of us at home when the other needs to do some type of "ministry" thing. Let's face it: Michelle is usually the one who stays home while I go off trying to "save someone". So when the speaker asked the question if my kids ever saw me turn down a ministry role for them, it really hit me hard. Because the answer is no, or at least I can not think of one. What this tells my son or daughter is that"ministry is more important than him or her". Whoa....

As "the man of the house", my first priority is to God, my second priority is to my wife, the third priority is to my children, and then the next is everything else; even if i am a ministry leader. I'll be honest: that is a hard statement to write out. If our children continually see that they are put second when it comes to ministry, this will have negative impacts down the road. More than likely, they will turn away from "church", because of resentment from me always putting ministry first in their lives. The same could be said for spouses as well.

I sometimes assume that doing ministry is putting God first. But that is not necessarily so. Putting God first is having that relationship with Him where you know where you stand. You know He is with you and is for you in all things. You see Jesus in everyone you come in contact with. You work hard every day at your job, performing at it as though God was your direct report. You wake up every morning asking God, "make it obvious who You want me to impact today."

If we are not careful, we begin to think that we are the only ones who can help that person. "I know them better than anyone else", we might say. Or we are the only ones who can grow this church. Our plans are the only thing that are going to help this ministry to succeed. When this happens, we are not doing ministry, because we are not including God in our plans.

Being a ministry leader does not give us a free pass from the responsibilities of our families for the sake "of the Kingdom". So here is my question: If you are a ministry leader, how do you balance time with your family, with your spouse, with your children, with your given ministry?

John ch. 5, Do I want to be healed?

Well, I didn’t get through both chapter 5 and 6 of John this morning. We only finished chapter 5, and that’s OK. Chapter 6 is challenging enough all on its own. Below, are only a few excerpts from our study.
Our group this morning spent a lot of time on discussing the thought, “do I want to be healed?” In the first part of chapter 5, Jesus heals a man who has had some type of illness for 38 years. Jesus asks the man, “do you want to be healed?” Initially, one could ask, “well, who doesn’t want to be healed?? Especially if I have been sick for long!” And I’ll be honest, that is how I took it. My gut reaction to this passage, is “why does Jesus ask Him the question?” The discussion this morning centered around this thought.
Do I want to be healed? There are things in our life that we put in front of God. For some, we even worship aspects of this world, and these are a sickness to us. So the question is then raised, do we want to be healed from these sicknesses in our body? I think part of the reason why the question is so powerful has to do with the result if we say yes. If we allow Jesus to heal us, then we actually have to get up and do something, just like the man in the passage. It would no longer be expected for him to beg for his daily living. He would now have to get a job. He would have to work. There would now be expectations from others of him. Do we want to be healed of our sicknesses, and have expectations placed on us? This line of thought is part of what it means to know Jesus.
We also talked about Jesus’ declaration of who He was. This is mainly from the passage of 5:31 – 47. We see where the religious leaders sent messengers to John, and John told them about Jesus. Jesus himself did miracles in front of them. God, written in the Old Testament, testifies about Jesus. These leaders of the law would have known this. They searched the scriptures, and those scriptures would have told them about Jesus. So the thought in our discussion this morning was raised, “they knew Jesus, they just didn’t believe Him.”
For Christians today, this should be eye opening. Do we believe what we say about Jesus? We are taught, even from an early age who Jesus is. But when is it that we actually believe Him? Belief requires action on our part. At some point we have to confront this concept. We either believe what Jesus says, and try to change our lives accordingly, or we don’t and keep living our lives the way we always have, without any attempt to become better people. If we are not careful, we will busy our lives with “good things”, and over look Jesus in our lives. We try to distract ourselves from this inevitable confrontation.
Knowing Jesus also means seeing Jesus in others. By this, I mean understanding that every person is a unique creation from God. This morning, I used the example of having to see Jesus in someone who may have abducted my child. What I mean by this is that my initial reaction should take me back to the fact that everyone is created by God. Evil exists in this world. That I truly believe. But every human being was created by God. When we look at people (EVERYONE) in this light, if nothing else, it allows us to stop and think, even for a split second, about who this person is. I am not saying I am perfect. I am saying I think that is how true Christianity starts.

Book of John

I have been studying the gospel of John recently. Its actually pretty cool. It doesn't necessarily "fit" the other gospels, and in some circles is not considered a synoptic gospel. It seems to be written to counter the teaching that Jesus was only Spirit, and not also flesh. It also has evangelistic under tones to Greek Jews. There is also some debate as to who actually wrote it. In other words, some believe the author was not the apostle John, but another "John" in later formation of the early Christian faith. In any event, the gospel of John is really quite amazing.

I am presently studying chapters 5 and 6. I have to teach on them in the morning for a men's bible study I am a part of each week. These two chapters have some really weird stuff in them. Look at what I have to deal with!

John 5:1 - 13 - Jesus heals a lame man.
Why does't Jesus heal others at the pool?
Why does he ask the man if he wants to be healed? Who doesn't want to be healed?!?

John 5:24 - "...those who listen and believe...will have eternal life."
Is there a difference in knowing and believing?

John 6:1-14 - Jesus feeds the multitude
Why doesn't Jesus just create the food? Why does He use the bread and fish from the little boy?

John 6:16-21 - Walking on water
He walks on water! How cool is that!?! Who wouldn't want to do that?!!
"...immediately the boat arrived at the their destination!" - WHAT?!?!

John 6:35 - He declares Himself the Bread of Life.
Where is He going with this?

John 6:53-58 - To me, this part is a little weird. I'll be honest. I dont' think I get it completely. "eat my flesh"? "Drink my blood"? Even if you look at the original Greek, and I am no Greek scholar, supposedly John uses verbs that are defined as a "chomping" or "chewing" action..... What?

Well, as you can see I have my work cut out for me. It seems, I may need to chew on the Word for a little bit....

Attention

A couple of weeks ago Michelle and I were doing our thing on Sunday morning. This consisted of us leading our Kidzone Family Production, teaching the college aged, and then teaching the children's worship during our congregation's normal worship time. In general, this is a normal Sunday morning for us.

I guess I need to fill in with a little background information:
1) Our congregation was doing something a little different for 4 consecutive weeks where instead of meeting in the auditorium, we met together in our fellowship hall. We sat at our round tables, singing, praying, discussing, taking communion, listening to the sermon.
2) I just got back from a 2 week stint in China. I was a little foggy in the head....
3) We did not have all the multimedia that we usually do for children's worship.

Anyway, back to the story. Michelle and I are setting up for the kids to come back. I am focused on amping the teens up, so that they are good examples for the kids: "this is a ministry. don't be texting, sleeping, etc. focus on the kids. Even when it looks like they are ignoring you, they still look at you and think, 'that is what I am supposed to do when I am a teenager'". Michelle was getting her notes together, music files in order, and power point slides together. All of a sudden, the kids start rolling in. Needless to say, we were caught off guard. Why so soon?

A little more background: usually, we teach the children for about 30-40 minutes during our congregational worship. This particular Sunday, we had them for over an hour. It seems the worship minister, in his attempt to try to get other families to sit together decided to send the kiddies our way at the beginning of our worship service, so that there would be space for multiple families at one table. In other words, big families (multiple kids) can easily take up one table. When it is announced for the kids to go to children's worship, the kids stand up and leave, and then the parents are sitting by themselves at these very big tables. Don't get me wrong: I think this was an excellent idea. It just seems that we may have been victims of a series of unfortunate events.

Needless to say, that was a very long Sunday morning. We didn't have the proper media stuff, so we ended up doing a lot of things multiple times. I got frustrated for it taking so long (what time zone was I in anyway???). The teens were not to thrilled as well (when are we leaving to go eat???!!!). The kids could feel the tension, and they began to spiral into a state of disorder. And that got me thinking..... What is it about attention that it drives our lives so strongly?

We stand in lines for hours to see the next blockbuster hit. Movies these days go for 2.5 hours usually. We take our kids to practice. I hear the coach say, "focus!" We read books for hours at a time. We can surf the web for what it seems like days. Facebook stalking is quickly becoming a fine art. But we can easily blow a gasket when the download speed isn't mach 3. I found out last night that my cable service has a feature that lets me watch 8 football games at the same time, for free. I take my wife to a really nice restaurant and the hostess says, "it will be about 45 minutes", and I think to myself, "that's not too long...." However, I stand in line at chic-fil-a for more than 5 minutes and its like I am going to lose my religion!

Attention is very powerful. Let me explain. What we are attentive to, is where we are going to gravitate to. If you like movies, then you will set your calendar around when the blockbusters are coming out. If you love football, then you will plan your wedding (and others for that matter) around home games. if you enjoy eating out, then waiting in line for a considerable period of time for a good meal seems OK. If you are a workaholic, then sacrificing time with your family is part of providing for them. What we give our attention to, or what grabs our attention, is what is going to drive us in a particular direction.

But for some reason, I have to work at giving God my attention. I don't see myself standing in line for sermons. I don't find myself waiting in line for the next update of the NIV. Seriously. We don't have a waiting list for volunteers in our benevolence program. We have to "market" church ministries. Again, attention is a powerful thing. We decide what we are going to give our attention to.

Michelle and I have chosen to work with the children at our congregation for an indefinite period of time. This means we don't get a lot of worship services. And I'll be honest, that's OK with me right now. But at any given Saturday evening, after the kids have gone to bed, you will find us sitting in the floor of our living room listening to a podcast given by some ministry leader. While we are listening, we are editing slides for our skits the next morning, organizing media material for children's worship, or writing notes for our college class. We have forced ourselves to take in the gospel in the way that works for us presently. And let me say, I love it. A great friend of mine talks about something very similar while he drove to work the other day.

Because of our schedule, Michelle and I are finding ourselves teaching our kids while we drive down the road. We are seeing opportunities more clearly to interact with our kids with real world, up to the minute events instead of putting things off until Sunday to answer their questions. My little girl wants to know why she can feel the wind but not see it..... Discussions about bugs, turtles, pink ponys, princesses, and bionicle wars don't frustrate me. I am starting to look forward to the time right after I yell, "bedtime!" when I sit in my son's bed. Its at this point that he starts talking about God, asking me questions about stars and planets, what does "cool" mean, what does "hell" mean How does God see everything when we are on one side of the world and others are on the other side of it? I am finding I am more patient when my little girl asks if she can help hold the garbage bag while I put the cut grass into it.

What is it that is grabbing your attention right now? What would it take for you to give your attention to God? Or Give your attention to someone else in a Godly manner? What form would it look like? Maybe its more sermons, a new bible, joining a bible study on Mondays, closing your office door at lunch, learning to download podcasts to your ipod, choosing to eat lunch with someone you respect once a week, waking up an hour early, going to bed an hour early....

Right now, Michelle and I have found something that seems to work for us presently. I can't really put my finger on what "it" is, but I know that "it" is working. I am sure it will change over time. I am not concerned about it changing, as long as my attention is focused on God.