So I am at a conference to learn about church planting. The entire conference is not focused on church planting, this is just the conference track I am a part of. So some of what I am going to share is not directly related to chuch planting, as the Plenary speakers are focused on more ministry issues in general.
So here are some highlights from Day 1: (in bullet points)
Some Points on Leadership & Church Planting:
Can’t wait to start!
“You shall not murder.” –Exodus 20:13
Murder is: “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” Unlawful has come to be defined by our laws not God’s law. Which is why I don’t like this definition because then society creates the standard by which murder takes place. I say this because in our society it has become acceptable to practice abortion as a means of birth control and or to utilize death row as a means of punishment and in neither case is it ever considered “murder” because by definition it is “lawful.” Who decides what is murder though, a law made by man or God. When men feel it is in their right to decide who gets to live and who gets to die, we are walking a fine line between being human and playing God. And when we begin to play God, things can go terribly wrong.
Our starting point in discussions regarding abortion should not be a woman’s right to choose. It should not be convenience. It should not be the economic situation of an individual. Roe v. Wade. These all may be a part of the conversation, but they should not be the starting point of the conversation. For the Christian the starting point should always be: God values ALL life!
Our starting point in discussions regarding the death penalty should not be humaneness of lethal injections. They should not be retribution for the family. They should not be the combined criminal record of an individual. These all may be a part of the conversation, but they should not be the starting point of the conversation. For the Christian the starting point should always be: God values ALL life!
“You shall not murder” based on God’s definition of the immense value of life, not the laws of men trying to play God.
I received an e-mail tonight from one of my members and in that e-mail it prompted some questions about the phrase, “I am not convicted yet…” in my mind. Would you please discuss and let me know what you think about my following thoughts:
I hear people say a lot, “I haven’t been convicted on that yet.” Or “God hasn’t convicted me.” Most the time we as Christians accept these statements as a legitimite position for an individual to hold, but I wonder have we taken these positions to far? I know in scripture there are a few texts when Paul talks about being “convinced,” and this is a synonym to conviction. But is there ever a story in scripture where someone is clearly presented truth and they say, “yes I see that, but I am not convicted.” ? It seems in scripture when folk are confronted with truth, they either reject it or accept it, the area of gray seems to be minimal compared to what we accept now. And also our acceptance of this answer in regards to conviction seems to be based more on certain areas rather than a universal position of all of scripture. An example: When it comes to the Sabbath, if we teach someone that 7th day is the Sabbath and we show them from scripture this truth. Now if the person responded, “I see where you are coming from, but I am not convicted on this yet.” Most of us…at least I know I have…would say, “That is okay God will convict you in your own time.” If we were presenting to the exact same person and we showed them from scripture that adultery is wrong, if said person responded by saying, “I can see where you are coming from, but God hasn’t convicted me on that yet” I believe we would be much less likely to accept that position, and we would begin to think that the person was just making an excuse for sin. It is the same with “tithe” if people don’t feel “convicted” to tithe we say, “ok.” But if they don’t feel convicted to “love their neighbor” we wouldn’t accept that position.
If truth is truth. When it is presented and understood. Should our conviction even be an issue? It is in scripture. Period! Wouldn’t this nullify a lot of those, “I’m not convicted” statements and wouldn’t this force us as Christians to be more real with ourselves and with God and more honest and just admit, it isn’t about conviction, it is about my unwillingness to follow truth?
Am I making any sense? Am I off base in what I am saying? Have we gone to far with the idea of “conviction” and what subjects of the Bible this can or cannot be used for?
Please share?
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Greetings Y’all–
Just wanted to share with you a link on itunes to a single that was recently released by a friend of mine from Southern Adventist University, Joey Tolbert. This is just the single, her album is being released March 1st. Joey and I got to know each other and became friends our first year at Southern because we worked for the same couple, her cleaning the house and me doing the yard work. Later Joey’s future husband, Matt, and I toured around the country for 4 1/2 months, with 5 other gents, doing ministry. Then Matt and I were flat mates and Rook competitors. I know a lot of information you didn’t care about, but if I personalize this you may go pay .99 cents to buy her song 🙂 And hopefully after that the album.
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” –Exodus 20:12
I was just thinking about this text last night. My Dad and I went to an individuals house to give a Bible Study, which is really awesome that I get that experience with my Dad. After the study we sat in my driveway for about an hour just talking. I came inside and this text popped into my head, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long…” I didn’t think about it because I had been disrespectful or dishonoring to him. I realized my dad is a lot smarter than me, not intellectually though probably that too, but experientially. That text popped into my head and I felt God impressing upon my heart to listen to honor my Dad’s counsel because his wisdom would help me avoid some pitfalls in life, thus reducing my stress, and thus hopefully I will live longer as a result. Suddenly I realized honoring is not just about being kind and respectful. It is more than just being obedient while a child. It is a lifelong commitment to honoring their counsel, the legacy God is using them to help direct us into.
I know that not everyone has a Dad or Mom. Or not everyone is blessed with the relationship with their Dad or Mom that I am. To those folk I would encourage you to do this, go seek out someone that is older than you someone with more life experience. Even if you are 40 or 50 I am sure there is someone that is 60 or 70 that could throw some counsel into your life. I think you would be surprised at how many great people are out there willing to speak words that we need to honor into our lives, if we would just listen!
I am blessed beyond words to have my Mom and Dad as two of my best friends. But I also have a significant number of other folk that I ask and invite into my life to give me counsel that will help me to live a long and blessed life.
Our church has recently faced two challenges, challenges that are a sign of God’s blessing, but challenges none the less. The first challenge our sanctuary was reaching the 80% capacity and in church growth that is a dangerous number. The 80% rule of church growth is that, if your church reaches 80% capacity rather than growing all the way to 100% a church will in fact begin to decline. Our second challenge was that we were having a number of families that were attending our church and looking for a place to put their kids while they attended the main worship service. These families were typically unchurched and or from Sunday churches that provide child care during the worship service, either way we saw the need to minister to these families and to remove all barriers that would keep us from doing so.
So what did we do to meet each of these challenges? At first we were only focused on the challenge of space. We went back and forth debating the need for a second service. We prayed about this, planned for it, then backed off. We prayed, planned, backed off. We just didn’t see that we were quite ready to make this leap! It was during one of these planning sessions that we looked at model where one service was “family style worship” (meaning the entire family attends the worship together) and the second service provided a children’s church so that there would be options for families. As we were looking at this model we began to also think about our second challenge, ministering to families who were not comfortable or acquainted with “family style worship.” We realized at that point that on any given Sabbath (Saturday) we have roughly 50-80 kids attending our church, if we began a children’s church to meet our second challenge this would also meet the needs of our first challenge.
Well at the beginning of February we began our new Children’s Church. What has happened? Both of our challenges have for the time been met and removed. About 30 kids have been in our children’s church (ages 2-8) along with our nursery this has met the needs of about 40 kids each week, and the families that desire to take advantage of these ministries. One of our members contacted me this week and shared with me that a colleague of his was wanting to visit our church, but was wondering what they could do with their kids. This member was wondering what week we were going to have children’s church? I was happy to tell him that his co-worker could come on any week and find a place to send their kids.
Our second challenge is being met because we have now gone from bumping up against the 80% capacity mark to being closer to 56% of capacity, which means we can continue to grow without worry of beginning to decline.
We have killed two birds with one stone. What challenges does your church face and are you proactively looking for ways to overcome those challenges so that the Kingdom of God will grow and be glorified?