Just thinking

As a pastor, I have noticed that many wonder why there is not more done for those who in need. Plus, some debate from time to time why the church does not grow. Is it because many of us, Christians, focus more on legalism than doing the will of God which is showing true religion by taking care of widows and orphans? Here is what I mean. One issue that makes me tired all over is whether or not churches should switch to contemporary, or stay traditional. It used to be that we were all fighting against dress codes, or versions of the Bible that are not KJV. Now, it is about traditional music or modern music. Or, it is about a production stage instead of a pulpit. I like it all! I just don't understand why these issues have to have anything to do with whether or not someone attends a church. Or, whether or not someone actually places his or her self in a position to help the poor, if this person does not attend church. What ever happened to allowing the Holy Spirit, if you are a Christian, to lead you to the church that He wants you in? Instead, people travel around looking for a place that fits their taste. In other words, people are looking for a culture instead of allowing God to use them to create His culture (Kingdom) on earth. What about the fighting that goes on within the church, at the local level, about the style of worship? I think there are legalists in the tradional worship camp. Likewise, I think there are legalists in the contemporary worship camp. Depending on the church, you may feel that you better think that traditional music is the right way to worship or people will look at you in disgust. The same goes for contemporary. If you don't agree that modern music is the best way to worship then you are looked at as someone who is out of touch with the Spirit. I can't win. Jesus can't win. The whole time that this debate is taking place people are going to bed hungry somewhere, or someone is waiting to hear about Jesus Christ. For example, I just took a grocery store gift card to a lady who didn't have any groceries. All she wanted me to do was pray for her. We don't realize that people just want Jesus. All of this other stuff is a distraction. My question is how many churches, that God wants to use, do not ever get used because of the overwhelming "Me" factor?

The Positives and Negatives of Pure Focus Conference

We had our Pure Focus Conference Saturday. It was a success! Our youth pastor delivered a quality conference that challenged teenagers to embrace abstinence. Praise the Lord that most made commitments and many were challenged to maintain previous commitments; and many were told about the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and His ability to make all things new. Again, I praise the Lord because He helped our small congregation to step out on faith by praying and giving so that we could minister to the teenagers in our community and district. Pastor Jon hired quality speakers, teachers, and musicians who were used by God to encourage those who attended to live lives focused on purity. Unfortunately, there was a downside to things. We were disapointed that many who were supposed to be there were not. There were verbal commitments made to our youth pastor who promoted this conference in our district. Our church strives to be a part of something bigger, The Wesleyan Church, who strives to be a part of the Universal Church. Yet, attendance was off. I have thought a lot about what could have been more important than rounding up our teenagers for one more Saturday event that was designed with them in mind. So many times church services are not really designed with teenagers in mind, but this conference was. Therefore, where was everybody? My hope is that those who follow Christ are committed to Him and each other. Our church is committed to ministry to young people and all people, but it continues to baffle me why some never consider taking part in this with us.

Finding a way to be fruitful in ministry with God pt. 1

There are many volunteer ministers and bi-vocational ministers that might identify with my experiences. While working as a youth pastor and working another job, I was continually left asking myself how do the other guys and gals get teenagers to come? How does everyone else connect with teenagers? I asked these questions because nothing was happening for a long time. I should tell you that my wife and I were able to answer these questions later, and that we ended up with a fruitful ministry. Until this point, I felt like a failure and that may be God did not call me to do ministry. If you are in ministry and think this, don't believe it! It took about 4 years to get to what I thought a successful youth ministry should look like. I have been thinking about how we went from point A to point B lately so here it is. One thing was I hung in there. There are times in our lives when we just have to be stubborn and/or tenacious. One night, I was the only one in the room for 40 minutes! Finally, one teenager came in. Boy, he really got preached too. When this happens, this when we should seek God in prayer, but also LISTEN. One thing that led to one teen showing up that night was that I was focused, up to that point, on doing all sorts of ministries in the church. My attention was divided in several different directions. This meant that I was not productive in any those directions. I needed to realize that I am not the Savior, there is One better qualified for that named Jesus. I felt that God revealed to me that if I am going to be His servant that I should focus upon being the best that I could be. Notice, I did not say being the best, but the best that I could be. In other words, reaching my potential. I must point out that I wanted to use the excuse that nobody was helping me and nobody showed me how to do it. After I went through those emotions, I began to read books on how to do youth ministry. Guess what? Most of those books are for people who actually have budget. Instead, I began to read books on how to care for teenagers. Thank God for Josh McDowell. The Lord led to "Disconnected Generation," and instead of finding out how to raise money, God showed me how to raise teenagers up spiritually and emotionally. When you are ready to quit, God will step in if you allow Him. He will salvage a ministry when you are broken. We can run around doing, doing, and doing. We can find many how-to books. We can find a lot of programs. We can raise money; but it won't work until we practice loving and caring the way God has called us to do. I will post more later on this subject.

The Cost of Ministry

Here are some things that my wife and I learned after I became a youth pastor. In my mid to late twenties I accepted a part-time position at Mecca Wesleyan Church. My wife and I have two children and at that time we were not financially sound. We learned that there was a cost to serving Jesus Christ.

1. As a youth pastor, I found out that ministry cost personal money to do it.

2. Pursuing ordination cost money. Correspondence courses cost just under $200 a class.

3. After doing homework by hand for several classes I realized that I needed to save for a computer which was a great struggle.

4. Youth ministry required a type of committment that was a struggle to give and maintain. There was much spare time put into working with teenagers.

5. While pursuing ordination, Flame classes were developed by the Wesleyan Church. These would cost a couple hundred dollars too. However, vacation time from the my job was required as well as money, when available, for a hotel room.

6. A great amount of friction was experienced between my secular job and my ministry on behalf of the church.

7. Eventually, it was obvious that God wanted me to step-out on faith and be a full-time youth pastor. This was a 6 or 7 thousand dollar pay cut. Plus, it also involved giving up other benefits and scaling back on other benefits.

8. My family, parents, grandparents, and sisters, thought I was crazy. I did too.

9. After ordination, God called me to quit that position and move to SC and attend Southern Wesleyan University to obtain a Bible degree.

10. Attending college at 34, demanded that I give up $21,000. And that I uproot my family too. My wife gave up her job too.

God has always taken care of my family. God rewarded every one of these sacrifices. It has been a journey. Many consider ministry, but there is a cost.

Why must we attend Church?

This was an email I got back from Rev. Wade Rogers. We have been disgussing the book Revolutionary, by George Barna. It is an insightful book that demonstrates much trouble with today's Church.

There was a lot I liked in Revolution but I totally disagree with his premise that you can be missional and absent from the local church. And my reasons are biblical (imagine that!). First of all, Jesus set the standard: "He [Jesus]?went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom". Luke 4:16 It was Jesus' custom to attend the synagogue service every Sabbath. If Jesus practiced this, He must have thought it was important. Second, Church attendance is a profitable habit, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. [25] Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching". Hebrews 10:24-25 It sounds to me like the writer of Hebrews was addressing this to some "revolutionaries" in his day. I tell my people all the time that their very presence at the worship service is an encouragement to thier brothers and sisters in Christ. It reminds us that we are not alone and there are people of like mindedness who share our values and faith in Christ. Third, the first day of the week has a multi-faceted significance in Scripture.>>Jesus rose on the first day of the week. (Luke 24:1) Jesus appeared to the disciples in the upper room on the first day of the week (as they were "gathered together"). (John 20:19)>Paul spoke to a gathering of believers on the first day of the week. (Acts 20:7) Paul? instructed the believers to set aside a portion of thier income on (you guessed it) the first day of the week. (1 Corinthians 16:2) Fourth, we cannot forget the issues of mutual accountablity, integrity, and service. "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector". Matthew 18:17 Fifth, Paul's mission in life was to plant churches where he met with them regularly for teaching and instruction. Was he not a revolutionary? "So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch". Acts 11:26 I could go on and on, but? here's the? thing. The Church was God's idea, not man's. Yes, some of the structures of church today are man-made, but the ideas of meeting together regularly for mutual encouragement, worship?and accountability are God's plan for His Church.

10 Things I would do if I were a mega-church pastor

1. We would have creative paid staff.
2. We would spend time with helping churches to become turn-arounds.
3. We would seek out small churches who are one staff person away from a breakthrough and pay for their staff person for two years.
4. We would have fund drive that would allow my church to develop an extreme makeover for a small church with a big vision. Imagine the fun that could be had by showing video clips of pastors and lay leaders who would pitch why they deserve the makeover.
5. We would help Hephzibah Children's Home in better ways.
6. We would concentrate on planting churches for the kingdom.
7. We would offer free counseling to the community.
8. We would offer free tutoring to children and teens.
9. We would offer scholarships to our people who want to better than their lives.
10. We would have food and clothing to those who are need.

10 Fears about Summer 08

Not necessarily in this order

1. People will not keep Jesus Christ the number one priority in their lives.

2. Those who attend church 3 times a month will drop to one or two attendences a month.

3. Those who are struggling to remain committed to church attendence will eventually find reasons why they cannot come and fall out of church. Most will struggle to ever start attending any church again.

4. Some think summer break from school, means summer break from church. Some have actually asked, when I was a youth pastor, "Do you still meet in the summer?"

5. Tithing will drop off because money will be spent to have a good time instead. Some people actually think that the government pays for the church to stay open. While others think that what they give cannot be that big of a deal. Besides, tithing is returning to God what we owe; it is putting Him first. This will turn into a spiritual problem. Many will have to save their tithe money for vacation so giving will have to come from another source.

6. More time will be spent entertaining others than spending time alone with Christ. There will not be any time for spiritual development because cookouts will occur almost every weekend. In addition, there will be weekend getaways every other week.

7. Community activities will increase and that means church will take the backseat to those events. Softball, baseball, and etc. will be more important on Sundays than attending church. As a result, many will be too tired to attend church even though night services are offered.

8. Some will decide to look for a new church since the one they were attending was not able to keep them interested during the summer. Instead, they will fail to realize that lack of interest was a result of failing to remain faithful in attendence because they chose to find something else to do that was more fun.

9. After summer, when fall comes, some will wonder why the pastor did not visit or pursue them since they have not been to church for some time. After all, they were not in church for 3 months and he, and others, should have cared. Naturally, this thought does not include those who are shut-ins.

10. People will say, "I will go to church next week." But next week will never come. Furthermore, others will say, "We need to spend more time with our family instead." As a result, "Jesus who?"

Ash Wednesday and Lent

I want to point out to everyone that observing Ash Wednesday service and taking part in Lent may be misunderstood. Some may not feel comfortable taking part in an Ash Wednesday service, or taking part in Lent. Likely, this is because these times are just uncomfortable for many. In other posts, Ash Wednesday was written about in regard to its purpose. However, Lent has not been written about; at least on my blog. Lent is a time of observing repentance and suffering for those who follow Christ. It is a time to repent of sin that may be plaguing a Christian. Further, it is a time to reflect upon the suffering of Christ on our behalf. We do this by giving something up during the 40 days prior to Easter; excluding Sundays. When people have trouble participating in this type of observance, I cannot help thinking that it is because most do not want to sacrifice anything from their lives. Consider, that most today, in the Christian ranks, desire to figure out how to use God in a way that He will give us something that we want. Yet, Christianity is based upon giving something up. If we do not ever participate in these observances then how do we participate with the Universal Church? Last time I checked, the Universal Church is the Bride of Christ. I encourage all of you to participate during this season of Lent with us. For those of you in my church, I ask you to participate. Remember, if I did not think it was beneficial to our worship of Christ, I would not have asked everyone to take part. God bless you all.

Ash Wednesday

Here is another link for everyone to check out in reference to Ash Wednesday. It comes from a blog I like to look at. Enjoy.

More Evangelicals Value Lent Disciplines

More are recovering the observance of Lent. Here is an article that may interest you all.

The Church should show the way to reconciliation with God

As a former youth pastor, I still get upset when teenagers make the mistake of falling into the sexual traps that tempt them throughout junior high and high school. This is why I am so excited about our Purity Focus Conference February 23rd. This conference is our opportunity to push back at a society who believes that sex before marriage is ok. You see, I also get upset when Christians consider those teens who have fallen to temptation to be written off. In other words, "You reap what you sow." Some Christians will ignore teens who have messed up; even teen Christians will do this, instead of trying to lead them to restoration. Instead of holding out the olive branch to one who has fallen, a big club is shown to them. What is the job of the Church? It is to spread the gosple; you know, the gosple that says that God is willing to forgive sin. He is willing because Jesus Christ gave His life that we might live. Someone might say that this should not be a concern for me, but I am concerned for the person who has made a mistake, for the Christian who is handing out punishment instead of telling those who are in sin how to be reconciled to God, and for how the Church appears to the world. I want to see Christians fighting for our teens because there is an urgency to see them rescued from Satan's clutches. I want to see our young teens showing someone who blew it how to find forgiveness.

God is stirring our church

Even though we are up and down in attendence, we are seeing several spiritual victories that I am excited about. It feels like we are at a growth point and that we are becoming more useful in ministry as a church. I am starting to see a heart for ministry from our people. After a couple of years as senior pastor, I am seeing opportunities for our church. Our people are stepping up because their faith compels them. Another praise the Lord is that I recieved a unanimous vote today by our church to remain their pastor. It is an awesome blessing to have that type of a vote. God is good all of the time. I am wondering as we prepare for our Purity Focus Conference for teens what God is going to do. Likely, there will be great victories won in the name of Jesus. It is important that even though we are small that we continue to fight the enemy. We are only the size of a mustard seed compared to other churches, but I know what the Bible says about mustard seeds. I am preparing myself for a great ride with God, and if you go to my church, I hope you are too.