“Unctuous.  Could you give me the definition?”

“Excessively or ingratiatingly flattering; oily.”

She stood nervously in front of the crowd.  Though it was not a crowd, really.  More like a gathering.  Or, she mused silently, a gaggle maybe.

And speaking of gaggle, why couldn’t she have gotten that word?  Billy had gotten catastrophe.  And who couldn’t spell catastrophe?

Billy, for one, couldn’t spell catastrophe.  Which meant, if she could just make her way through ‘unctuous’, she had this thing all locked up.

“c-a-t-a-s-t-r-o-p-h-e,” she thought, almost out loud.  Just on the backside of her teeth, she realized ‘unctuous’ didn’t start with a ‘c’.

Unctuous, she was sure, started with a u.  That part was easy.  Those other letters, not so much.

“There has to be something silent in there,” she thought again, this time fully to herself.

No giving up now, she’d come this far.  Time to shoot for the moon, time to do something galactic (which, she remembered, was another word she had to spell).

Here goes…

“U-n-c-t-u-o-u-s. Unctuous.”

Silence filled the school library.  At that moment, she was all alone in the middle of Madison Square Garden in her mind.  Seconds passed like hours, and pounded in rhythm with her heart.

“That’s correct.”

Spiders?

I had so looked forward to this day, anticipated even the feel of the mouse as I clicked the link.  This would be the day!  The day I continued down the path of a new direction.  I was ready.

But there, staring back at me, in all it’s glorious ugliness, was the one thing I so despised.  I’d feared them for most of my life.  Never sure why, really, but I just couldn’t stomach them.  Perhaps it was the thought of an attack, or how an encounter would feel.  Maybe it was visceral.  Maybe something happened that I’ve repressed for years since.  Who can say for sure.

No matter now, I had to face it.  No more putting it off.  No more avoiding the inevitable.

I mean, I guess everyone has to face their fears someday, in some way.

And isn’t that just how it works?  Life is going along swimmingly, and there, out of nowhere, appears what you never thought would be.  You’re not ready for it.  You’ve often thought of how you’d handle it if it happens, but you never truly prepare.

Then, there it is in front of you.

And you state it over and over in your mind, to yourself.  “Well, here it is”, you think.  “I guess now’s as good a time as any”, you say.

But you don’t mean it.  You don’t want to face that fear.  You’re just killing time.

Deep down, you knew, and you know, that’s true.

Are we still talking about spiders?

No matter how tightly he squeezed his eyes shut, he couldn’t get the image to go away.

Over and over he replayed the scene, each time trying to justify why it wasn’t his fault.

The problem was, it was his fault.  The whole thing was his fault.  For months, maybe even years now, he had worked to create the false reality of his life.  Everything he had done, everything he had become, everything that everyone knew about him — it was all a facade.  Piece by piece he had delicately constructed a world of his own making.  And now, in the split second it took to hear the dull thud of leather against drywall, it had all broken down.

Somewhere in his mind was an air of invincibility.  He knew he wouldn’t be caught, knew he was good enough to pull it off.  So, as if creating the antidote to a poison, he wrote it all down.  Every last detail of his fictional world was chronicled in a series of bound journals, stored safely behind lock-and-key in his office desk.  Occasionally, when he was feeling less than mighty, he’d pull one of them out.  He’d re-read of his own conquests or trials, and he’d find himself back on top of the world.  But, he would also realize that for this to work, he could never stop.

He was so far into his own creation that even he could no longer see the lines that separated reality from fiction.  It was all pseudo-real.

And, as I’ve said before, this amazing Kindle “highlighting” feature has allowed me to easily pull some of my favorite snippets from the text and share them with you here.  Since I’ve gotten better at clipping notes since my last post, there are more this time.  (Around 100 highlights in all.)

Please remember, what follows are not my thoughts.  They’re simply complied clippings from some writers who are much better at this than I.  If you like these, go buy the book.

Comment and enjoy!

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“The truth of the matter is that with or without a goal, they’re going to work hard to get somewhere. That’s the thing about leaders—they lead. The question is, Are they getting where you want them to go?”

“The tendency in business, or in church work for that matter, is to mistake activity for progress. We think that just because people are busy and doing a lot of stuff that we are being successful. The fact of the matter is, if all that activity isn’t taking you where you want to go, then it’s just wasted time.

“So what makes a good step?” “It has to be easy, obvious, and strategic,”

If a program isn’t a step that is part of a strategy, then it can waste a lot of time and money and, in your case, life.”

Narrow the Focus. By that I mean you shouldn’t try to do everything; you should do a few things well.”

Every step you create needs to do what it does best and nothing more. Focus allows you to pursue excellence, to zero in on the target.

“And that leads to one of the primary reasons that you have to listen to outsiders: If you don’t, you will be driven by the complaints and demands of the insiders. And ultimately your market share will dwindle. And in your line of work, there’s more at stake than business.”

Don’t be so concerned about keeping the folks you’ve got, that you neglect the folks you’re trying to reach.”

The church should be more determined than any other kind of organization to “clarify the win” simply because the stakes are so much higher: Eternity hangs in the balance.

do attendees feel comfortable inviting their unchurched friends? Are members recognizing the need to give a percentage of their income? How many individuals are successfully connecting to small groups? Do our people understand how to apply the scriptural truths we’re teaching in their daily lives?

problems occur when the volunteers try to score runs in foggy conditions: Without clear direction, they are forced to chart their own course or follow whoever seems to have the best plan at the moment.

Volunteers need to know that their investment of time is going to make a difference. They will work hard and make incredible sacrifices as long as they know what the goal is and that what they’re doing actually counts; they simply desire to find meaning and significance in their work.

But having a blank page advantage is not nearly as important as having a same page advantage. When you clarify the win, you help your team stay on the same page.

Effective leaders constantly hold up clear pictures of what the church is supposed to be, so that everyone understands what it is not supposed to be. When you clarify the win, you can manage your resources more effectively.

1. Sum up the Win in a Simple Phrase

“What do we want people to walk away and do?”

2. Keep the Win as Specific as Possible

When you clarify the win, it is like marking a specific destination on a map—it’s easy to know when you win because you arrive at your desired destination.

3. Restate the Win Frequently and Creatively

communication is a key to winning. Good teams communicate during every play of the game, so everybody knows what they must do at any given time.

There are a number of ways a church can continually restate the win for its staff and volunteers: •  Post it on creative boards and in planning rooms as a constant reminder of what they are trying to accomplish •  Establish strategic questions that you ask at every meeting to help leaders keep thinking about the win. •  Use creative videos to document a specific win and illustrate it with comments from those who attended the program. •  Script it into your announcements and promotions so everyone can hear it. •  Brand it into an environment by creating taglines that reinforce it. Strive to say the same thing over and over in different ways. You can’t establish the win one time and expect it to stick. People need to see it and hear it constantly.

4. Meet to Clarify the Win at Every Level

•  Encourage every department in your organization to plan an off-site gathering to clarify the win for each of their programs.

It’s always difficult to have a good strategy if you don’t know where you’re going.

The question they should be asking is not Are we hitting the ball? But rather Are we getting on base? Are we going in the right direction? Are we getting closer to home plate?

“Think Steps, Not Programs”

When you “think steps” there is a fundamental difference in your perspective. Now the primary goal is not to meet someone’s need, but rather to help someone get where they need to go.

When you think steps you start by asking, “Where do we want people to be?” That question is followed by a second, more strategic question: “How are we going to get them there?” The result is a ministry that works as a step—it has been created to lead someone somewhere. This way of thinking makes a lot of sense in the light of what the church is called to do.

Starting Point, a twelve-week small group study for seekers and new believers that answers the hard questions and teaches certain foundational truths of Scripture.

we began to categorize every environment as a Foyer, Living Room, or Kitchen Table.

The relational goal of a Foyer Environment is to make sure that people walk away and feel like guests. There’s also a sense in which the environment strives to change their minds about the role of the church and, potentially, Christianity in their life.

When you are setting up the furniture in a living room, you want to make sure that people can sit facing each other. You want them to be comfortable and have an opportunity to get to know each other at a casual level. Our goal is for people to walk away and feel like they are friends with someone.

Community Group is where people should begin to feel like they are family. It’s a place for someone to experience authentic and quality friendships. Our experience also suggests that this environment is an optimal place for a person’s faith to grow.

for a step to be effective it had to be easy, obvious, and strategic.

Group Link, an event that organizes into a temporary group people who are not yet involved in one of our regular small groups. It’s sort of a short-term “turbo” group designed to make the process of getting connected a little easier. Group Link has served as a critical step, helping us to nearly double participation in group life in just one year.

People need to understand where they now are and where they need to go next. In order to make the next step obvious, leaders need to consistently explain what’s important and what’s next.

Whether it’s a small group, a worship service, or a classroom, once you have defined the optimal environment where you think people can be discipled, then everything else you do should be positioned to help them get there.

is, leaders who are more focused on the mission than on the program are extremely valuable to an organization.

Where is the ultimate destination in your organization for adults to experience life change? What about students? Children?

If you really want to make a lasting impact, then you need to eliminate what you do well for the sake of what you can potentially do best. As Andy would say, “Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing.”

It’s always dangerous to confuse activity with results. Churches may be doing more, but they are not reaching more people. Churches are notorious for sacrificing long-term growth for short-term progress.

Programs need to change; a mission can last a lifetime. When leaders give their heart to a mission, they hold whatever they create with open hands. Why? Because the value of a program is linked to how well it helps accomplish the mission. And a good leader is always more passionate about the mission than about the program.

When a leader lacks the courage to make necessary changes, the future potential of the entire organization is put on hold.

So we require extensive documentation and layers of meetings before a new program can be started. We have mostly just said no and instead encouraged key leaders to take their ideas and start organizations outside our church. We cannot afford to implement competing systems that could make our organization unhealthy.

Just because something is working doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. Too many ministries are spending their best human and fiscal resources on mediocre programs. A skilled gardener learns which branches to prune and which ones to keep.

We believed that if we allowed Sunday school and small groups to coexist in our organization, it would diminish the potential of both.

Narrowing your focus means creating environments as distinctive brands.

And most people are not looking for a church; otherwise, churches would be full of visitors every week. What people are looking for is something that is relevant to their marriage, their family, their personal lives. What they are looking for is something that works for them as individuals. And that is something specific, not general.

When your priority is creating environments instead of marketing your church, you will make a greater impact on what your community thinks about your church.

But if you hope to start making an environment a distinctive brand you must do two things: 1. Identify a primary target group. 2. Design each environment to do one thing.

InsideOut—small groups for students Rush Hour—a place for students to bring unchurched friends Starting Point—small groups for seekers and new believers 7:22—a worship experience for single adults Community Groups—small groups for married couples or singles KidStuf—a shared experience for parents and kids UpStreet—small groups for children

When you create distinct brands, you let people know what to expect, and you help leaders to meet their expectations.

Narrowing your focus means developing a team of specialists who may not do everything well, but are experts in the areas assigned to them.

When you reduce the responsibility and activity of your church, you enable your staff to become individual specialists.

The more you focus each environment, the greater the relevance.

The more you focus each environment, the better the connection.

The more you focus each environment, the higher the quality.

The more you focus each environment, the stronger the impact.

We are not in the business of education, social reform, or political revolution. Any of these issues can potentially dilute the effectiveness of the church.

Our business is to provide hope and salvation for the human heart. And face it, that’s a mission that definitely deserves your undivided attention.

•  Identify any programs in your organization that are providing the same step. Which one has the greatest potential to become more effective if you eliminate the other?

•  Try to attach a word or short phrase to each of your environments to “brand” its distinctiveness in the minds of your leaders.

Most people don’t learn just so they can know more; they learn when they need to know something. So communicators and teachers have a critical responsibility: They must make sure they know what people really need to learn.

If you are responsible for training in your organization, you must learn to prioritize information. You have to take a look at what your target audience needs to know and separate what is most important from what is just interesting.

When you have established a vision for each stage of a person’s life, you have established a way to measure what you teach.

Every class, every teacher should be equipped with a master plan that specifically identifies what they want someone to become as a result of what they teach.

we have determined that three specific issues are critical to helping a child become a healthy believer: 1. The ability to make wise decisions based on the truth of Scripture. 2. A willingness to put their faith in God through every situation of life. 3. Their demonstration of love and kindness to the people in their world.

We identify a set of essential truths for every age group. We then give our leaders and staff permission to teach these principles over and over again for the sake of learning and applying them.

1. Decide What You Are Going to Say

2. Decide to Say One Thing at a Time

In preparation for Sunday morning, creative planning revolves around a “written brief,” or the main point we are trying to get across to the audience.

3. Decide How You Are Going to Say It

4. Say It Over and Over Again

In fact, the context should become secondary to the content. Everything about your environment—the songs, the décor, the video, the signage—should reinforce the content.

From time to time, people ask us, “What curriculum do you use?” A better question is “What do you teach your kids?” If you don’t know the answer to the second question, it really doesn’t matter what curriculum you choose.

People attend churches every week and listen to someone teach Shakespeare when what they really want to know is how to dance.

•  Identify a handful of must-know, can’t-be-without, age-appropriate principles (irreducible minimums) for each target group in your church—married adults, high school students, preschoolers, etc.

•  Evaluate a recent worship service and identify which elements (e.g., music, drama, announcements) did not complement the focus of the message. Remember, the goal is for everything to reinforce the bottom line. If you were approaching the same service this Sunday, what could you change to effectively teach less for more?

Some of us have been in church for so long, we’ve forgotten what it’s like to never attend. We have believed what we believe for so long, we don’t know how an unbeliever thinks anymore.

George Barna claims, “If all of the unchurched people in the United States were a nation of their own, they would be the eleventh most populated country on Earth.”

There is a massive potential audience being sacrificed because many churches are desperately trying to keep a handful of traditional customers satisfied.

“What would be something that if it ceased to be true about us as a church would make us want to quit and go work somewhere else?”

We strive to make North Point not only a safe place for outsiders, but also a safe place for insiders to bring outsiders—a place for believers to bring their unchurched friends

“invest and invite”

Why do you make it so difficult for someone to trust Christ, when the Bible makes it so simple?”

We have discovered that inviting outsiders effectively keeps us aware and sensitive to how they think and what they need.

If you are deaf long enough, it affects the way you speak.

•  Which environments in your organization have been specifically designed with outsiders in mind?

Learning to effectively hand off leadership to the next generation is vital to the longevity of any organization, especially the church.

When you applaud leaders who push others into the spotlight, you send a message to everyone about what is really important in your organization.

One of the reasons we keep getting great volunteers is that we have volunteers who replace themselves.

As God blesses your ministry, you may have to duplicate yourself as often as you replace yourself.

When you are focused on the scope of God’s kingdom, you realize there is something more important than your personal dream or agenda.

Identify the leaders in your organization. What is your plan for replacing these leaders?

The point is, no matter how good the system, a consistent time of evaluation can produce tremendous benefits. We call this creating margin.

At one of the first of these off-site events, Andy challenged the six of us to develop a staff organizational chart for a church of five thousand people.

“What did you see, hear, or experience this week that makes you feel we have successfully fulfilled our mission?”

A key thing to remember about creating margin in your organization is that it isn’t enough to evaluate. You also have to celebrate.

If you want a behavior repeated then you need to reward it. Few things are more rewarding for a volunteer than hearing his or her name shared as part of someone’s life-changing story.

The critical question that we all must ask is, Am I consistently carving out the time to work on the ministry?

•  Does your present meeting structure allow time for sharing learning experiences? What percentage of your meetings is spent simply downloading information?

•  Make a list of issues your team needs to discuss that don’t directly impact what happens in your weekly programs—for example, how you reach outsiders, increasing small group participation, identifying what’s not working, developing a hiring philosophy, etc.

Your ministry is perfectly designed to achieve the results you are currently getting.

Whether you have identified them or not, your organization has established some practices of its own. There are certain assumptions and rules that govern your decision-making processes.

I’ve always taken comfort in the fact that Jesus said He would build His church. I find this comforting because He promises to do the heavy lifting, while my responsibility as a local church leader is simply to keep in step with the Savior.

Truth in my words, truth in my motives, truth in my commitment to God, and to honoring Him in the things I say, no matter the medium.

All those words said, here’s what I need to say.

The church is not a building.  It’s not a place.  It’s, well, us.  Those of us who choose to follow the way of Christ the best way we know how.  And this is the problem, really.

It would be much easier if the church were the building.  Because they would be strong, they would be varied but identifiable, they would be less-intelligently designed, and we could comprehend the church as we would like.  We would have problems with the church, but we could call a technician, or an expert, and have the problem fixed.  We could put a pricetag on it, raise the money, and pay the problem away.

Brick-and-mortar problems aren’t problems at all, really.  They’re, at worst, projects.  They take our time and our attention, but they are finite.  A solution will be found, and the problem will be fixed.

Now for the famous line used throughout the Bible…

But God…

But God didn’t set up the brick-and-mortar buildings to be His people.  He just had the people.  And this should tell us something. God’s focus for His church (<– HIS church) was the people.  And there’s the problem.

People are designed so intelligently (I’m speaking here of the Creator’s intelligence, which is never as often questioned as that of the created) that we have a hard time understanding them.  We often don’t “get” why people do what they do.  We have a hard time relating to them because they were built differently than we were.  Their experiences, their interactions, their abilities, strengths and weaknesses, build them into completely different creations than we’re used to.  The process they’ve gone through to be “built” is so foreign to us, that we often choose to defend our own creation rather than expand to understand theirs.

And, end metaphor.

Here’s what I’m saying.  People are complicated.  Throw in their past, their present opinions and interests, our misunderstandings and theirs, and a little conflict, and before long you’ve got a nice start on a HUGE destructive fire.

Or, you’ve got a fire that, if directed properly, can provide essential elements to the continued growth and sustainability of the community.

At this point, there’s a decision to make.  That decision is simple in word, and hugely complicated in execution… We must decide if we trust the Creator, or the creation.

When we arrive at an answer to that elemental question, we’ve got a place to start.  It’s one of those “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” moments.  And we, we chose ______________________________. (Fill in the blank.)

It seems simple, because it is simple. Then, in the next moment, it seems infinitely complex, because in that next moment we took our eye off the ball.  We starting thinking about how we could damage control the situation.  Or how we could handle the PR campaign that was coming.  Or maybe we just thought we could do this a lot better than God.

Now, you’re thinking, I’d never think that.  I know God has a greater plan than I have.  I know He’s got it all figured out.  And you’re right, He does.  And you’re right, you know that.

Every believer knows that — individually.  Every group of believers, given enough time and Kool-Aid, will make the decision to drink said Kool-Aid.

From that point on, Hell breaks loose in the midst of Heaven.  We panic.  We must FIX what is broken.  We must not lose people, property, or pride.  We must be in charge because we’ve set up this system that has us in charge, and if we lose it then we’ve failed.  And if we’ve failed, then God has failed.  Because we created God.

OR

We could read the story that’s already been written.  We could stop, just in that first moment, when our eye is still on the ball, and realize what we’re looking at.  What is in front of us is the Creator.  The all-powerful God of the Universe.  Who is He?  He’s “I AM”.

And He knew that we were gonna mess it up.  He knew that after just a second, we were going to look away from Him.  And we would need Him to fix it.  So, you know what He did?  He talked to us.  He communicated.  Honestly.

He didn’t tell us everything was going to be ok, all the time, butterflies, marshmallows, and unicorns, because we knew Him.  He told us the truth.

And the truth is, sometimes it’s hard.  Sometimes everything we thought was right, wasn’t.  Sometimes the thing we’ve defined our lives for, for generations, just isn’t what we thought it was.  Sometimes, we take our eye off the ball, off the savior, and focus on something else that looked really really like Him.  It sounds right, felt right, but is just a security blanket for a really scary place or time.

The truth is, we have to stop, regularly, and look at the roadmap.  And if we’re not headed straight toward the Cross, we have to be strong enough to admit it boldly, and turn around.

As leaders, we’re especially held to this truth.  If we choose to let our own pride keep us from giving the whole story to those who follow us, we are blazing a path toward destruction not only of buildings and programs, but of souls.  Often we, or at least I, think that I’m protecting those who follow me by keeping them on a “need to know” basis.  This is just, plain and simply, wrong.

There is no call to provide details as we see fit.

God Himself didn’t do that.

He told us exactly what life would be like if we followed Him.  Pain, suffering, self-denial, even death may lie ahead for a Christ-follower.  I know this because God thought I was a strong enough creation to handle knowing it.

What are we doing to our people if we don’t have the faith in them that their Creator had?

Here’s the truth.  I do believe that love wins.  Which I why right now I couldn’t really care less what Rob Bell wrote.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Rob’s work, and have grown as a Christ follower from many of his teachings.  But right now, at the place God has put me in ministry and life, I just don’t care about some debate.

I’m much, much more interested in how we can show God’s love, and introduce people to Jesus.  Because love wins when we show love.  That’s why God told us to do it, I think.

Enough about that.

The book I just finished was Ministry in Hard Times by William Easum and William Tenny-Brittian.  I don’t agree with every single thing they say, and you probably won’t, either.  But they make HUGE strides in moving the church in the right direction.  That is, moving us toward the people who aren’t coming in droves to us.

Essentially, their premise is that the world has changed, things move faster, and this inevitably has an effect on how we lead and function as an organized Church.

What follows are 50 short “clips” from the book.  This made possible by someone finally explaining to me how a Kindle works.

So, here goes.  Read this “Cliff’s Notes ‘Cliff’s Notes’”, and weigh in.

Perhaps, though, don’t give too many opinions unless you read the whole book.  We Christians wouldn’t want to be accused of rushing to judgment ill-informed, would we?

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The Highlights (all copyrights, ideas, and quotes belong EXCLUSIVELY to the authors.  I make no claims to intellectual property.  That last statement is true pretty much all the time.):

Declining churches are afraid to talk passionately about Jesus Christ. They are afraid of not being inclusive. They don’t want to invade anyone else’s space. As a result, they say little or nothing about Jesus and the fire goes out of their ministry. Without offering Jesus the church has nothing to offer and the church ceases to be a church.

It is not unusual for key leaders to spend most, if not all, of their time working within the church’s premises, attending committee meetings and membership functions. Too many church members find their sense of “belonging” within the church building instead of the community called the church. Going to meetings and preserving church facilities is the number one rival to the First Commandment, let alone the Great Commandment.

Whatever else we can say about the church, every church must be a “sent” church if it’s going to be an authentic church rather than a club.

The role of the church is to be a witness to Jesus Christ-everywhere.

Strategically adjust your budget on a quarterly basis rather than annually.

Cut out all the fluff such as outside groups using your facilities for free.

Put a leader, not a committee, in charge of a ministry, and you’ll get lots more done.

It’s far more important how you spend your money than how much money you have.

If you’re not collecting the cell phone numbers of your under-thirties, you’re missing out on their primary communications tool: text messaging.

Cleaning services can be replaced with organized and coordinated volunteers. Fellowship and belongingness is the upside of such a decision.

Organize as many groups as you can to alternate doing the custodial work around the church.

It doesn’t make sense to send money away to help some other mission when the mission at home is in jeopardy.

Besides, the national park trick of taking youth on an extra-special youth trip to somewhere far away to do some kind of service project they could do in their own backyard no longer grows youth groups.

The whole world is locked in the grip of the Hard-times Beast: fear.

The moment leaders quit demonstrating fearless, compassionate leadership, fear creeps into the church.

If fear is allowed to remain the central focus of the church, the congregation will become so traumatized that total stagnation will set in and no one will have the capacity to strategically dream. Without a dream, the church falls into a downward spiral.

What is the most significant word/message you heard from God in your listening time this week?

In hard times, the church has to engage in heroic efforts to create adult spiritual formation opportunities.

People return to your church for a second visit depending on what and who they experienced at worship.

The problem is, when a guest drops into this service, it’s likely to be the most irrelevant offering the church has. This is especially true if the guest is a member of the fast-growing “never-been-to-church” crowd.

How likely do you suppose it is that someone who doesn’t understand the liturgy, is unacquainted with the traditional customs, and is clueless about the language, will manage to walk away inspired and fulfilled from this service?

The need for direction is the primary reason we don’t think effective churches can be run by consensus.

The first is to address the spiritual issues they are facing, and the second is to offer practical tips for surviving in this new world.

Parents have enough worries without adding one more to their list because your children’s area is not safe or does not look well kept.

Another major change is the increasing legal implications of children’s ministry. It’s imperative that your children’s workers, both paid and volunteer, be screened for abuse charges and even allegations.

Pastors, as well as the congregation, need to be connecting with unconnected people.

However, the gradual, looking-back, Emmaus experience gives us a better way of describing conversion today. As recounted in Luke 24, Jesus joined two men on the road to Emmaus. Along the way they had a conversation. Later they realized they had been with Jesus.

Therefore, churches should consider forming “contextual pools” from which to bring together people with similar backgrounds.

If the unconnected don’t know who you are and what you’re about, when hard times (and the Spirit) bring them to a place where they’re willing to overcome their prejudices or bad experiences with organized religion in order to walk through a church’s doors, it won’t be your doors they’re walking through.

Do you assume everyone “knows” the Lord’s Prayer by heart?

What if every person in your church was trained to welcome “angels unaware” when they pop in at your church? What if every person who visits your church left knowing that the people were glad they were there? Would it change the way your church achieves its mission?

What would change in your church if every leader understood that they were a cast member in the great drama of divine intervention into this world? Would it change the way your leaders came to church and responded to the guests? Consider how it would change the stranger’s view of your church if every person they asked “What is this church all about?” was able to give them the same response.

“God, what will it take for your people to care as much about sharing Jesus with strangers as Disney cares about making a profit?”

If they’re going to invest their time with your congregation, they need to know two things: (1) they’ve been noticed and appreciated, and (2) there’s something worth coming back for.

If you want your guests to take note, to remember, and maybe even to attend your handoff event, your invitation is going to have to be both substantial and significant.

Historically, the reason most churches have been declining since the 1960s is because from 1960 to 1990 the world fundamentally changed in the way it does everything, but most churches didn’t change. In order to effect a change, the leaders needed to be retrained.

A marvelous website to find thousands of ideas for significant and free servant ministries can be found at Servant Evangelism, http://www.servantevangelism.com.

The cornerstone of any effective small group is that there is enough proximity and time spent to build grace-filled, transparent (open and honest) relationships. Small groups are designed to facilitate meaningful relationships more than teach the Bible (although Bible study/discussion can be an integral part of a small group).

(Keep in mind that all the prevalent and historic heresies came from trained theologians, not laypeople who were honestly searching for answers.)

So, church leader, you must get your spiritual house in order and build a spiritual foundation in your congregation.

It’s important that lay leaders in the church be spiritually grounded in good times, but it’s critical in hard times. This is not the time to try and activate the uncommitted church member by naming them the chair of some committee. First, it almost never works, but second, this is how churches end up with a board filled with spiritual babies.

The primary question to ask before someone is invited into any leadership position is “Do they reflect the fruits of the Spirit in every aspect of their life?” (see Galatians 5:22-23). You’re not looking for perfection, but you must insist on a “preponderance of the evidence.” If they don’t, do not make the mistake of putting them into leadership. Remember, if you’re going to build a spiritual foundation in your church, it begins with leadership.

Leaders should also be expected to be faithful participants in worship and in a small group. And it should go without saying that leaders should be expected to show up and lead the ministry they’ve committed to lead.

How long did it take your church to make its last major decision? If it was more than a week, your church is in danger of being left behind in today’s crises.

If your church knows something isn’t working, how easy is it to stop doing it?

The actions of leaders determine the spiritual climate of a church. If the leaders overreact to crises by becoming paralyzed, it filters through the congregation. If the leaders appear to be frightened, the congregation will become frightened. If the leaders lose their cool, the congregation will begin to come apart.

Conflict that is unresolved clouds the congregational climate worse than fog covers the Thames.

We’re here to tell you that conflict management is not the Christian response. Jesus was pretty clear that we’re not to manage conflict-we’re to resolve it.

Congregations that are embroiled in conflict, that lack a rock-solid spiritual foundation, that tolerate mediocrity, that are unwilling to make changes in their own traditions to communicate the gospel effectively to the unconnected are on the road to destruction. There’s hardly room for churches like these in good times. There’s absolutely no room for them in hard times.

Helping Others Cope With Cancer Explored at Lifetree Café

Practical tips for helping loved ones cope with cancer will be explored at Lifetree Café on Tuesday, January 25 at 7:00 PM.

The program includes filmed interviews with a cancer caregiver and a cancer patient.

“Most people today are affected by or know someone who is struggling with cancer,” says Lifetree Café representative Craig Cable. “But people often don’t know the best ways to deal with someone who is battling cancer. In this program we’ll explore how to cope as caregivers and head home with practical tips for supporting those in our lives who are struggling with cancer.”

Admission to the 60-minute event is free. Snacks and beverages are available. Lifetree Café is located on Cedar Creek Road in Pikeville.

Lifetree Café is a place where people gather for conversation about life and faith in a casual coffeehouse-type setting. Questions about Lifetree may be directed to Jeremy Tackett at 606-437-4578 or jtackett@pikevillefpc.org.

So often, we focus heavily on the external needs of our ministry.  We want the program to be great, we want the kids to have fun and still learn about Jesus.  These are all huge needs, and shouldn’t be forgotten.  But we can also not forget that our own souls need to be nourished.  We have to recharge, and reconnect our own lives with the One who gives life.

This is why I’m so excited to be a part of Group’s new KidMin Conference.  This new conference, to be held this October in Chicago, takes a different approach than many of us are used to seeing at “ministry conferences”.  Yes, there are still great speakers.  Yes, there will be breakout sessions and opportunities to learn tons of new techniques and tips.  Yes, there will be resources available.  Tons.  Yes, there will be naps.  (That last one is a personal “must” for conferences.)

But the larger aim of this conference is on renewing the KidMin worker as a whole.  From the ground up, this conference has been designed to rejuvenate ministries and ministers.  Speakers taking part in the conference have all agreed to be available outside of their sessions, just to connect with, pray with, and encourage attendees.  Nothing about the conference is a performer/audience relationship.  It’s all about connections, and doing ministry together.

I get the chance to experience ministry conferences across the nation each year, and I’m yet to find one that doesn’t have a great benefit for the people who attend.  I’m sure this year will be no different, and that every conference out there will have attendees that God has put in the right place.  But this year, I’m especially excited to see what God’s going to do in Chicago this October.  I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be revolutionary.

Have you signed up yet?  Visit www.childrensministry.com/conference and reserve your spot today!

Recently, Craig Cable, the national director for Lifetree, asked those of us who worked as cafe directors to answer a few questions about our experience with the ministry, and to give some words to those who might be thinking about bringing this fantastic new ministry to their communities.  I thought it might be helpful for me to share this conversation, so below I’ve listed the questions Craig asked, followed by my responses.  Hope this helps anyone out there looking for a new way to revitalize your ministry.  If you’d like more info, please feel free to contact me!

Will people really come Lifetree?

People absolutely do come to Lifetree.  And it’s definitely not always those you’d expect.  Most of our first-time attendees come for a particular topic that has caught their attention (ie. “What Muslims Really Think of You”), but they come back because they connect with the people and the atmosphere at Lifetree.  For us, one of the most exciting things to see is where someone we didn’t expect to ever see in a church setting not only comes, but comes back — and brings a friend.

Will volunteers really step forward to serve?

Lifetree has been a great place for us to plug in church members who haven’t seemed to find any other place to connect and serve.  They love that we give them a chance to take ownership in something so alive and real, and at the same time they’re not so busy “serving” that they don’t get to experience the ministry. Our volunteers, referred to as our “Friendship Team”, have nearly a 100% attendance rate at our weekly gatherings.  They arrive early, and stay late, not only to set up and take down the room, but to engage in the conversations that are taking place each week.

Do people find their way from Lifetree to the church?

In our experience with Lifetree, the path between Lifetree and church has gone both ways.  We have church members who are looking for something new and fresh, and they find that in what Lifetree offers.  At the same time, we have had community members who weren’t involved in the church who have made their way into the doors of Lifetree.  From this first experience with our community, they have begun to develop relationships that will lead to greater involvement not only in our church, but in the church as a whole.

Should I host a Lifetree at my church or at a coffeehouse?

I would say that where you host Lifetree depends on who you want to target with the ministry.  For our church, the original plan was to host Lifetree at a location away from the church site.  We have chosen to use the ministry as a way to target college students and young adults, so we felt that an off-site location would be best.  But, God seemed to have another plan and we are now hosted within the walls of our church.  We’ve found that promotion and targeting change based on the location, but either place is perfectly suitable for a successful café.  Again, my advice would be to seek God’s plan for the ministry, and go as He leads you.

What benefit is there to bring several people to training?

Not only is outstanding material offered in training, but the experience itself is worth the trip.  We were blessed with the ability to bring our entire leadership team to training, and we grew together as we grew the ministry.  The three days we were on-site for our training were some of the best team building days we’ve had.  There’s a great mix of intensive training sessions and relaxing time to grow in your own faith, and I would recommend that the whole leadership team take part if at all possible.

Why wouldn’t we just do this ourselves?

The resources offered not only in the weekly topics, but through the support you get from the entire Lifetree staff, is world-class.  Even if we were somehow able to develop the list of topics covered in Lifetree on our own (a task for which I do not possess the creative ability), we would never be able to match the production quality that we get week in and week out from Lifetree.  The exclusive videos, along with the host scripts, are always fantastic.  These topics and high quality materials are no small part of why attendees keep coming back each week.  Our church simply doesn’t have the capability to create these types of resources on our own.

What will Lifetree do for my existing church members?

We’ve seen Lifetree become a place that existing church members can get involved in ways they’ve maybe never been involved before.  Volunteers who always wanted to share their faith, but had trouble starting the conversation, now have a place where that discussion comes naturally.  Those who love to serve by just being a smiling face also find a home at Lifetree.  It’s quickly become an adopted member of our church’s family of ministries.

Conspiracies Considered at Lifetree Café

An hour-long program at Lifetree Café will examine alleged conspiracies on Tuesday, January 11 at 7:00 PM.

The program features a filmed interview with a premier conspiracy theorist. Audience members will be invited to share their thoughts about alleged conspiracies, including the origin of HIV/AIDS, the Roswell, New Mexico alien incident, and the cause of global warming.

“Some events defy explanation,” says Lifetree Café representative Craig Cable. “They continue to fascinate—and refuse to go away. What’s behind them? Who’s behind them? We’ll dive into those questions and compare notes.”

Admission to the 60-minute event is free. Snacks and beverages are available. Lifetree Café is located on Cedar Creek Road in Pikeville.

Lifetree Café is a place where people gather for conversation about life and faith in a casual coffeehouse-type setting. Questions about Lifetree may be directed to Jeremy Tackett at 606-437-4578 or jtackett@pikevillefpc.org.