Conversations

I bet you thought this post was about Love Wins, huh?

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.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 2:30 pm and is filed under book reviews, ministry, random thoughts about ministry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.