In my last hours of my last day as a Pastor serving at the pleasure of The Central California Conference,
The Visalia Seventh-day Adventist Church, and The Ark Community Church
Thank you!
I love you!
I will miss you!
For the past 12 years I’ve had the privilege of working for The Seventh-day Adventist denomination. My prayer is that I continue to work for them until Jesus comes back or I die, whichever comes first. I truly love this global community of faith; that said there are occasions that I become flummoxed by some of the things I am seeing and hearing within my church.
Recently I’ve been reading the biography of J.N. Loughborough by Dr. Brian Strayer. I have thoroughly enjoyed the read, it might be my favorite of the Adventist Pioneer Series thus far.
As I’ve read almost two-thirds of the book however I have found myself getting sideways on an issue…
The lack of inclusion of young adults at the highest levels of leadership within our church!
I have heard, ever since I accepted Jesus and started hanging-out around Seventh-day Adventist leaders the statement, “We need to make sure our young people have a voice within their church.”
Here is what I would say to how well that has gone: if young people truly had a voice in this church, a voice that anyone was listening to, a voice with a vote, then there would be a more diverse spectrum of ages amongst our church leadership at every level.
As it stands now though, at the highest level of leadership, The General Conference, there are currently no administrators under the age of 50…and I would venture to guess that there are not even any under the age of 60, if any of you are I apologize :). But it is not just at the General Conference level, The North American Division has the same problem; we have some leadership in their 50’s, but no one at a significant leadership level is below the age of 50 to my knowledge. The same is true within our Union leadership.
I got sideways as I was reading the Loughborough biography because I am reading stories about young adults that are in great positions of influence within our church…oh and when I say young adult, I’m not talking about 40’s and 50’s, I’m talking about 20’s and 30’s, even a few in their late teens. Presidents, GC executive committee members, top theologians, General Conference sent evangelists.
Reading these stories makes me so proud of our early church and so disappointed with our current church.
Young in leadership is just something that is not seen anymore…
Something that is not even given a chance to be seen or experienced at any level other than the local church and maybe, just maybe a local conference or two, at least here in the United States.
There is much talk about giving the young a voice, but folk the young need more than a voice they need to be in on the decision making process, they need at times to be the actual decision makers.
Let me ask what I believe is a very logical question: If the church is trying to figure out ways to retain the youth and young adults of our church would it not make sense for the young to be deciding what actions are going to be taken to reach & retain those demographics? Every successful business in the world has figured this out, why can’t the church?
Hear what I am not saying. I am not saying that we should put those of the older ilk out to pasture. We are a multi-generational church, so we should have multi-generational leadership…AT EVERY LEVEL!
People like Pastor Rodlie Ortiz should be sitting at any table at the highest levels of this church that are visioning and strategizing for church growth, if you don’t believe me ask Pastor Dwight Nelson. Pastor Anthony Wagenersmith I believe would be an asset to the Biblical Research Institute. He has a brilliant theological mind, before we were even out of seminary he was a grad assistant that was delivering lectures to other graduate students. Gina Creek, is a gifted writer, that writes in a unique voice; she should be at the Adventist Review or Signs of the Times or writing copy for The GC. Pastor Taj Pacleb is one of the most gifted traditional evangelists I’ve ever heard, why aren’t we tapping him for global evangelistic events or media posts? Pastor Benjamin Lundquist is in my opinion the most innovative youth and young adult leader out there right now. Every youth and young adult leader should spend time with him. These are just a few, the list could go on and on!
My point is the young adults are out there, out there ready to lead at the highest levels. Just like they were in the first 50 years of our church.
But their church isn’t inviting them to even consider such a step.
Their church, our church, my church just keeps talking about giving them a voice…
but what good are their voices if they are not being heard in the rooms making the decisions?
If their voices don’t actually have a vote when the decisions are made?
Please church that I love, be a church that truly represents ALL of us! Give us more than a voice!
It is hard to reduce church growth down to one thing. In fact it probably should almost never be done; but in this post I am going to do just that…
I want to give y’all just one method to grow your church.
Yes it will grow MORE with many other things involved.
It will of course grow MORE if prayer is the driving force behind all the things you do.
Your church will grow MORE if it is a healthy church…
If the music is inspiring…
The Preaching is alive and Biblical…
If there are friendly greeters…
But I am not talking about MORE growth…
just SOME growth!
And so for that I want to give the ONE thing that you can do, that every church member can do to grow their church.
INVITE!
Yep, invite!
Maybe the saddest reality about the lack of church growth in North America is that every church could grow but most aren’t and the primary reason…
NO ONE is inviting folk to come visit their church.
This is truth!
Thom Rainer reports that in their research of the unchurched 45% of all unchurched would say “NO” if someone they knew invited them to church. 5% said they would probably be hostile in their rejection of the invitation.
Wait a second…
Do you see what that means?
It means, 55% of all unchurched people would respond positively to an invitation to church by someone they knew…and guess what? They don’t even have to know the invitee well!
55% indicated they would still respond positively even if the invitee was just an acquaintance! WOW!
We spend time focusing on the 45% that would say, “NO” and more than likely we’re scared to run into one of the 5% percent that have a burr in their saddle…yep I just used that idiom like the old man I’m becoming…
But we should be spending time focusing on the 55% that would say “yes!”
Picture a church of 100 members.
If each of those members invited one person per week that would be 5,200 invitations in a year.
Now applying Thom Rainer’s research we would surmise that 55% of those invitees would accept the invitation and attend church at least once.
That means a church of 100 members inviting 100 people each week by the end of a given year would have 2,860 guests pass through the doors of their church. Not only that but 55 new people would be in church every single week! Can you imagine how exciting that would be to have 55 NEW people worshiping with you each and every week? That would be awesome in a church of 200 or 300, much less 100!
Now I want y’all to pause and think about a couple other statistics very quickly. These statistics come from Pastor Nelson Searcy.
The average church loses 3 members per 100 members each year due to death, a move, apostasy, or just becoming inactive.
So let us go back up to our church of 100 members; in order for that church to maintain it’s membership of 100 people all they would have to do to not decline is win the hearts of 3 of those 2,860 guests that attended their church in a given year.
3 FOLK!
I didn’t say 300 or 30 or even 13…just 3! (Contact me on Twitter @chadnstuart and I’ll share with you just a couple things that you can try at your church to turn three guests into members).
But this blog post isn’t about maintaining, although that would be a huge step for many of our churches since 80% of all our churches are plateaued or declining, no this blog is about growth.
So let me share with you how many guests you need to retain in order to grow your church at a steady pace.
Are you ready for this huge number?
5 per 100 members.
So in a church of 100 members, if every member is inviting 1 person per week, roughly 2,860 of those invitees would become a guest at that church, and if that church retained FIVE individuals per year they would grow at a steady pace.
Because the next year 102 people would be inviting 1 person per week (remember there is an average of 3 members lost per 100 a year) and that means 2,917 people would attend the church as a guest (based on Rainer’s 55% percent rule of thumb) and with more guests there would be more chances of guests becoming members…and so the next year if 5 more joined, the membership would now be up to 104 and 2,974 guests would attend…
And maybe within a few years, because everyone wants to be a part of a growing church your church would start retaining 7 guests or more a year and then your church, believe it or not, with just the retention of 7 guests a year would be considered a rapidly growing church in North America.
So will you make a commitment right now? Will you commit to help grow your church? It takes just ONE thing…
The ONE thing: Love Jesus enough to invite someone to come hear about Him at your church just one time per week!
Have you ever felt God calling you to something and you wondered if it was really Him calling you to do that something? Have you looked for evidences of His calling? If so may I suggest a few evidences based on scripture that may not be the evidences one often looks for when desiring to know if something is the will of God or not.
The call of God is never to a place (literal or figurative) you think you want to go:
The Call of God ALWAYS requires leaving something behind:
The Call of God usually involves doing something that seems ridiculous/impossible/or makes no sense:
The Call of God usually comes with just enough evidence to build your trust, but not enough to give you all the answers:
God’s Call sometimes leads to prosperity after tragedy:
Of course God’s call can ultimately result in death too:
Evidence of God’s call in summary:
The Call of God cannot fit neatly on a list of pros and cons, or in a box defined by humanity.
The Call of God is however the only safe place ultimately for the Christian to walk in!
This is a wonderful video short illustrating the value of the moderate view, on what has been the most hotly debated issue in The Seventh-day Adventist Church over the last three years. There have been some (like myself) that have been staunchly in favor of women’s ordination. There have been others that have been staunchly opposed to women’s ordination. Then there is a group that has a preference and believe the ideal is male leadership within the church, and it is from within this group I believe the largest contribution to the entire debate has been made. A contribution that if embraced will hopefully end the debate, or at least tone down the rhetoric, but more importantly will move us forward as a church FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL!
Oh and Nate Dubs I’m proud of you for using your gifts in this way!
Watch and see what you think:
I am saddened when I see anti-abortion signs as I drive down the freeway. Yes, as a pro-life individual I am sad about all the abortions in the world. I find the idea of abortion cruel, but this is not why I’m sad about these signs. I’m sad about these signs because they are tools used to inflict guilt on young ladies that have or are considering an abortion. Because not only do I find abortion cruel, I also find guilt cruel!
I’ve had three close friends that I know of that have had abortions. In two of the three cases, I found out about their abortions after they had already happened. In each case, as they shared with me the decision they had made and the action they had taken there were tears in their voices. In the one case that I knew about prior to the decision, I urged against abortion. I prayed for her to decide against abortion. But in the end, she still chose to have the abortion. When I spoke with her after the fact, just like I had experienced with my other two friends there were also tears in her voice. In those moments I did not feel my Christian duty was to express my great opposition to abortions, they already knew I felt that way. Rather, my responsibility was to affirm my love for them, more importantly, to affirm God’s love for them and assure them that God does forgive (Yes this was a question they all had).
Would it not as Christians be far more beneficial to use our resources to come around these young ladies that have gone through these experiences and love them, to use our resources to provide counseling that will help them as many of them deal with the regret and grief of what they have just gone through? Could we use the resources we use to put up signs and picket abortion clinics to do more preventative training in our communities on the front side of an abortion decision? It seems like proactive work within a community will go a lot further than the last-minute guilt trip of a freeway sign that says, “Abortion will leave you feeling empty inside.” Yes, I’ve actually seen that sign, and yes that “empty” feeling you have about that sign is the recognition that guilt is cruel!
I hear people say, “well the unborn need a voice.” Let God be their voice. Our voices should be used to minister and love on those who are still living. Love is not the condoning of an action. Love is the expression of the value of each individual no matter how much we may disagree with their decisions.
Abortion is cruel, but so is guilt. Please Christians I appeal to you: tear down the signs and spend your money, your time, and your voice loving the living. Christian love will have a far greater impact on reducing the number of abortions in this world than any freeway sign ever will!