In Need of an Eye Opener in 2014

And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and he arose and was baptized- Acts 9:18 (ASV)

Paul got an "eye opener" after he had his run-in with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Many of us do not even see it that way, though.  

We see Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road as the eye opener.

Nope.

That was just the shocker that got homeboy's attention.  The eye opener did not happen until he had been humbled due to to being rendered dependent on the care of others, particularly the folks around the way on a street called Straight.  That's when things started to come together and make sense for him.

I find that the local church may need more of an eye opener than it would care to admit in such an age of enlightenment and information sharing.  We have websites with plenty of popups and other bells and whistles.  We have lots of folks giving us a thumbs up and liking the pastor's latest status updates and photo mashup uploads.  Yet, we leave a whole lot to be desired right in our own midst.


When was the last time that the church just invited the visitors from the past quarter or the past year just to come and have fellowship with the pastor? I mean like cookies or cake and punch like a party without the dog and pony show.  I am thinking that we could invite some of the folks who just recovered from years of battling alcoholism or imprisonment, even widowers and former battered wives, to share their testimonies of survival and victory through faith and trust.  let those folks and their testimonies serve as the keynote addresses and let the pastor simply invite the attendees to join in prayer, then let them meet with a prayer counselor or elder of the church- however you do it in your church or congregation- to share their decision to join or to seek more answers about salvation, church and being a Christian.

Something like that may be the breakthrough that we have been awaiting.  The sound system and the projected song lyrics on the big screen are indeed impressive.  In fact, I love seeing that.  But the "true riches" that Christ spoke of will not  be reached and placed in our possession (under our stewardship, rather) if we do not stop for a moment and address our own blind spots to get those around us to come to know us as more than holy hypocrites.  They need to see that we are flesh and blood just like them but the we have the favor of faith that is also readily available to them, too.

Imagine if our local churches took on the role of community center and resource center more than simply just worship center.  What would alter and change in your community? Would your pastor still be seen as the guy who talks about Jesus and God? Or, would people in your community come to know Him as a servant of the Lord and a true man of God in their opinion? It is all in how outsiders view us that is considered public opinion.  How we view ourselves is called "self image." We do not get an eye opener from looking in the mirror or leaning over and telling our neighbor on the pew that we are doing great and doing God's work.

Open up your hearts and mind, then begin to open your doors, so that you have a new image in the community where your church is located.  Maybe you won't change the community in one day, but you surely can change the community's perception of you and your congregation.

For more insights on this please read my article on local visitors and the local church.

Fundraising Fun Times

Fundraising includes the word fun in its beginning.

So, why don't we make fundraising more fun?

One reason may be that fundraising is serious business.  People's lives depend on the programs and services provided by nonprofits and similar community and faith-based agencies.  Some are the low to moderate income clients that these agencies serve on a daily basis.  Others include the employees, contractors and vendors of the agencies themselves.  When a family depends on its local food bank for the bread and other goods that keep them going, it spells serious business.

Another reason is that many agency employees are busy as well as their volunteer board members.  Employees have a tough enough time keeping the operation going.  Add the additional responsibility of raising funds primarily through grants and government contracts and you will see one set of overwhelmed and   frustrated folks.  Some boards do not meet frequent enough to truly understand the agency's programming and services to even begin to start tackling fundraising.



Many agencies hire, retain and/ or contract with an outsider for writing grants or developing a fundraising plan.  In many cases, such individuals are freelancers acting as independent contractors or consultants.  They gather data on the organization, research potential grant matches and plug in the data from the agency into a boilerplate or template, awaiting the next installment on their retainer for services rendered based upon an emailed or hand delivered invoice due within 30 days upon receipt.

Put the fun back into fundraising. Go ahead and  let your team gather for chips and salsa or pizza and wings as they devise a fun way to raise money for your cause in general and your agency specifically.  Let your ideas run wild and free.  Spend some time brainstorming and tossing around ideas.  Make note of ideas that resonate with the group, then start researching the possibilities and potential of putting some of these ideas into action.

Maybe a grant would help you out, but a bowl-a-thon might be a little more memorable and you maybe could use a boost in morale around the office if you include staff, volunteers, clients and board members as well as the surrounding community.

Put the fun back into fundraising.

Fish for the Lost of the World

And Jesus said unto them,  Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

- Mark 1:17

Jesus expects us  to become fishers of men.

Have you been fishing lately?

How can you reap if you do not sow?

How can you have an expectation if you do not make an effort?

We are to fish for the lost by seeking them out and sharing the gospel with them.
No one can get saved if you never share.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

-Romans 10:13-15

Read my latest article on Spending Time with God

Finding the Strength to Love

"Evil is stark, grim and colossally real." - Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love

With MLK Day approaching us, I thought it would help to remind us of the prophetic words of Dr. King that still echo from the past.  Through his sermons on Christ-like love, Dr. King offered us a solution for the prevalent evil that exists on earth and among mankind.  In essence, Dr. King urged us all to seek the higher calling of living lives that offered the love of Christ to others.

Imagine if we found the strength to love in ministry.  We would embrace the lost souls who returned to Christ with repent hearts and restore them back into the fold with joy and forgiveness.  Look at how Dr. King took on the example of Jesus Christ.

Picture how it would be if we found the strength to love through our businesses.  We would extend love to our employees and business partners as we held ourselves and those under our authority to a higher standard of customer service.  We would show our customers and vendors how Christians in business could operate a business with God as the ultimate authority over all matters.

Can you find the strength to love? Is it still possible to overcome evil with the love of Christ? You will only know by trying to imitate Christ and His love in all of your ways for all of your days.  Find the strength to love.

The Day of the Lord is Coming

² 

“I will utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,”

Says the Lord;

³ 

“I will consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,”

Says the Lord.

-Zephaniah 1:2-3 (NKJV)

Consider yourself warned.  God will have a day of reckoning.  he prophets spoke of it.  In particular, Zephaniah spoke explicitly about it.  It would be the type of day that no one would want to see in their lifetime.

Think you have had a bad day? That's nothing like what will happen when this day comes about.  The Lord will not be slow to anger on that day.  He will set forth His wrath like it has never been unleashed before.

Take care of business, brothers and sisters.  Know that how you manage your business affairs is part of how you reflect God in your daily life to others, especially those who are not of the faith.

• Are you viewed as shrewd and crafty, ready to cut costs at the expense of the livelihood of your employees and vendors?

• Do you readily examine the bottom line or the heart of the matter when making decisions?

• Do you pray over your business decisions and seek godly counsel from other Christian business men and women?

Consider how you handle your business.  Others are watching you.  Others take into account that you say that you are a Christian.  God is watching.  God will not always be waiting.  One day, and we we do not know when, God is going to call us on what we have done and what we haven't done as His children.

Get Busy Growing

In The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren stated: "If the church isn't growing, it's dying." That is enough to shock and stun some pastors, even petrify others.  Yet, the ones who read those words and take proactive actions to set their church to growing tend to see results.  Others who dare not do anything different seem to be doomed to see their church see very few results.

If you want to see some growth in your church, you need to get growing.  Get busy doing the things that grow the church.  Don't simply pay attention to who you have in attendance.  Get in touch with those who are not in attendance.

What do you do about those who:

• Stopped coming to Sunday school?
• Quit serving in ministry?
• Never signed up for anything at church?

Get a team together to work on reconnecting with such people as soon as possible.  Work with that team on how to reach people in a variety ways.  Develop a plan for getting in touch with these people.  Schedule when to execute the plan.  Start bringing the plan to life.

Once you get that going, bring another team together and see how to reach those within the community.  Plan outreach activities where you can reach people through the Word and your good works. 

Jesus fed folks, healed some, and taught others.  He used parables many times rather than laying out a exegesis of the Scriptures through a sermon. 

Don't trip.  God has already gifted both you and your team with what you need to reach others.  You just got to get busy growing.

Three books that can help you grow:

• The Habits of Highly Effective Churches: Being Strategic in Your God Given Ministry- George Barna
• Twelve Keys to an Effective Church- Kennon L. Callahan
• When God Builds a Church - Bob Russell

Enduring Faith

"I more fear what is within me than what comes from without."

- Martin Luther

Look at the history of Protestantism and you will find Martin Luther looming and lurking somewhere nearby.  See where he confronted the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and faced the challenges of going forward in a faith movement as an enemy of the church.

Imagine the ridicule Martin Luther faced.  Think about the humiliation he suffered at the hands of other religious leaders.  He was considered a heretic.  He was made into an outcast.  Nevertheless, he held onto his faith.
Martin Luther was a man just like any other man.  Yet, he was a man of deep conviction.  He devoured the Scriptures and took them to heart.  He allowed the Word to guide him and direct him, even to the point where he abandoned tradition.

Look at what his enduring faith produced.  The entire Protestant realm of Christianity stems from Luther nailing those ninety-five theses to the doors of the church.  He founded what we call Lutheranism today.  He made history by holding firm to his convictions and not keeping with the status quo.  He made a major difference in religious history.

Let such a legacy influence your walk with Christ.  Live your life with such a degree of faith that you live without regrets.  Live a life full of enduring faith.  Let your faith speak and come to life by the way that you live for the Lord.

History will tell of Martin Luther's storied life.  It will reveal his shortcomings.  It will teach us about his attachment to parts of Catholicism that caused divisions among his own followers.  It will show him just as vulnerable as any other man or any other Christian believer.  It will also share how he made his mark on history by making history by having enduring faith.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_2.html#KklbTLLCHD968kVp.99

Living by Saintly Standards

According to 2008 U.S. statistical data from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), 34,169 people claimed "no religion." That includes atheists and humanists.  That is almost 5,000 more people than in 2001.  In 2008, according to the same survey, over 173,000 people identified themselves as "Christian." That's over 13,000 more than in 2001.

Obviously, Christianity grew and expanded during this period.  That sounds good.  However, the adult population surveyed increased by approximately 20,000 during this period.  We gained 13,000 and the "no religion" folks gained 5,000.  That means 2,000 people became Muslims, Jews or some other religion.  Or, the same 2,000 just did not dare claim any religion at all.  Either that or it is some mix between the two of them.

The world has its own standard.  It may not be one that we, as Christians, desire to follow but it exists.  It is alive and well within the world.  That's suitable for those who do not know the Lord.  It works for those who live in the darkness of unbelief.

It doesn't work well for Christians.

For us, things are just a little different.  We answer to a higher calling in Christ Jesus, seeking to mature in Christ as we walk with Christ.  We are to live by a different standard than the world.

So what is this standard of living for Christians and where does it come from?

• The Lord sets the standard.  He lays it out based upon His supreme reign over all things as the Creator, the Maker and Elohim.  He answers to no one.
• The Lord shares the standard in the Scriptures.  Christians have the upper hand because we have been provided the play book.  We can read it.  We can reference it.  It is for our consumption.  The Lord gave it to us.
• The Lord demonstrated the standard.  The Word became flesh.  He dwelt on earth and dealt with some serious troubles like being born to poor parents and living in a society where foreigners ruled over His people.  He showed us the standard and expects us to live up to the standard.

Live it up.  Live a life of influence that inspires others from interacting with you and your business.  Live up to Christ's standards as you work, as you play golf and as you go to and fro.  Handle your business and live up the Lord's standards.

Extreme Experiences of Edification

Key question: Have you built a ministry that builds up people to be better servants of the Lord?

Take your time.  Think about all of the people who serve under you.  Let things play back in your mind. 

We need people experiencing edification.  We need people being built up within our midst.  We need to get busy building folks up.

Why?

Their responsibility is to equip God's people

to do his work and build up the church,

the body of Christ.

- Ephesians 4:12 (NLT)

We are called to do so.  We have been commissioned to do so.  It is our calling.  Let us live up to it.

Give the people who come to you an extreme experience.  Offer an edifying experience.  Take people to the edge by standing on the cutting edge as opposed to the status quo.  Let people experience Christianity beyond the stuffy, Sunday morning sermonized Savior that seems so distant that He could not have possibly walked on earth.  Give them the real deal when you share about the Savior.  Show them the Jesus who saves.  Share the Jesus who sacrificed for the sinful.  Provide an opportunity to experience Jesus in spirit and in truth.

Look at some examples of radical Christianity. . .

Mentoring as Your Ministry

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

- Titus 2:1-8 (ESV)

Paul shares some sincere instructions with Titus.  He urges Titus to not simply preach the Good News.  He encourages the man of God to teach what accords with sound doctrine.  In doing so, Paul also urges Titus to engage others to teach others by example.  He shares how the church is an intergenerational conglomerate of men and women of various ages who need to show each other and see each other, even their pastor, as a pattern of good works.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us

Let mentoring serve as part of the foundation of your ministry.  People come into the church all sorts of ways.  They accept Christ at special events or during outreach efforts.  They accept Christ as their Lord and Savior on street corners or during worship services.  People come to Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit, but they come to understand their new life in Christ through the mentoring and discipleship provided by the church's leadership and laity.

The Lord instructed His disciples to make disciples.  That was the basis of the Great Commission.  He did not say for them to recruit members or stand in judgment of people.  He said for the church, His body, to make disciples by teaching and admonishing new converts in what He had taught them.  That's what happened after Pentecost.  The people continued in the doctrine of the apostles.  That means that they accepted and applied the teachings of the apostles into their own daily lives.

Let's mentor more.  Let's model more.  Let's make more disciples.

"We do not consider soul winning to be accomplished by hurriedly inscribing more names upon our church-roll, in order to show a good increase at the end of the year." - C.H. Spurgeon

5 Magazines for Ministry Leaders

I have been serving in ministry for nearly 15 years now.  I have served as a ministry leader for at least 10 years.  I have served as a leader on the church staff for just over 8 years now.

In all of these combined years of varied experience, I have learned a lot.  I have learned most from the Bible.  Whenever I find myself off track, I'll go into an intense study of the biblical books of wisdom (Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) or the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  In some cases, I'll go through both sets of the prophets (both minor and major prophets) or the various epistles of the New Testament.

I learn from the Bible, various books by Christian authors like Oral Roberts, Robert Schuler, Andrew Murray and C.H. Spurgeon, and many Christian publications.  As I grew as a Christian and leader, I worked my way through a variety of magazines and journals that make up the list below:

1. Outreach
2. Leadership
3. Relevant
4. Christianity Today
5. Charisma

Only 1 of them doesn't have a one-word title... hmmmm

Going Green for God

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof..." - Psalm 24:1

The church of Jesus Christ can go green.  That makes sense.  It may not be easy to shift from traditional methods, but it is certainly worth the work.

Going green can do more than save the environment.  It can prove to be a cost-effective method for environmental stewardship.

Here is a list for going green with God:

• The Green Church
• God is Green
• 50 Ways to Help Save the Earth
• Green Revolution

Each One Reach One

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. - John 1: 40-42 (NIV)

Imagine if we sought to grow our ministries one member at a time.  What if we sat aside the church growth theories that say otherwise for a moment? Think about what the Bible says about reaching others.  Take a look at Andrew's example.  Each believer can reach someone else.

I believe that everyone is not connected to everyone else, but every one of us is connected to someone.  We all know somebody who we could reach for Jesus and share about our personal experience and encounter with Jesus.  That's genuine growth.  It's based on relationships.

Train your members to reach out to other people.  Challenge each member of your congregation or your small group to reach twelve other people.  Make it doable.  Tell them and train them how to reach another person each month and bring them to your Bible study, prayer meeting or Sunday school class.  That's just one person per month.  That's three people per quarter.  Challenge them to do it based on their relationships.  If you have ten people in your ministry, you could potentially have 120 people touched by your ministry within the first year.  Imagine how much more that you could do through your people once they get comfortable doing such a mighty work.