Charity Begins at Home????

There is no question God calls us to care for the needs of our personal family, but he also calls us to care for the needs of the members of our local congregations. Theologically that is called being “communal” or caring for the needs within the Body of Christ.

Often church Deacons organize and deliver meals to homes, offer financial assistance in times of crisis, stay in touch with college students via gifts during the school year, and offer tangible support to those in the armed services and those in prison.

Health Ministry teams keep in contact with members struggling with illness and offer support and guidance. The Stephen Ministry provides one on one compassion and care during times of stress, loss, or illness.

Small groups frequently offer the most comprehensive support and care!  Small groups support each other in so many practical ways: ...Showing up with chain saws to clear fallen trees … helping someone pack up for a move … meals shared and prayers offered! Charity {compassion and care} is indeed extended and available to each of us in our local congregations.

However, God not only calls us to be "communal” but also “missional” {offering God’s compassion and care to those outside our faith family.} We are sent into the world to bring God’s healing to people’s lives and society in general.

It is not a question of being either communal or missional.
 We are called to both!

When I hear someone say, “Charity begins at home.” …I must admit it sounds selfish with the underlying message - “Charity not only begins at home, it stays at home.” 

Oh, yes, we must care for the needs of family, but we care at home for the purpose of making us stronger for ministry outside our walls!

Maybe this is a better way to say it,

"Charity begins in the heart of God, flows through us for each other, and streams into the world!"

                                        

 Grace and Peace in Jesus,    

Linda Jaberg

A Missional Metamorphosis

I’ve always liked the word metamorphosis!  It means much the same as the “in” word transformation, but it provides such a visual picture.  I find it hard to hear “metamorphosis” without thinking about butterflies – and their life-changing moments in their cocoons.  My father used to catch and mount butterflies when he was a teenager.  I remember seeing boxes with glass viewing tops containing hundreds of butterflies.  Only one of those boxes remains today.  Yet it is precious to me with its mounted butterfly beauties that are now over seventy-five years old.  It reminds me at the same time of my Dad’s love of the outdoors and of the wonderful work of our Creator God.

Metamorphosis is a useful concept when considering how to move a congregation from an inner to an outer or missional priority.  Whereas the word “missions” tends to be identified with missions programs we give money to or to perhaps to a few short-term mission teams, the word “missional” is identified with a way of thinking about ministry as fulfilling the Missio Dei, the mission of God.  

Missional is more than a missions program.  It is how every person and program and ministry in the congregation is to engage their community and world on behalf of their Lord.

To instill an effective missional mindset throughout the culture of the entire congregation can be a complex undertaking.  We might get an activity here or there to make a missional shift in focus but for the whole church to get serious about engaging its community – that will mean metamorphosis – because most church activities today are inward in their focus.

Essential to a genuine missional metamorphosis is a growing clarity concerning what it means to be “missional” and its implications for leaders and participants.

Some questions to consider:

          

1.   What does a missional Christian look like in terms of faith and action?

2.   What does a missional congregation look like?  An increasing number of publications address the idea of missional identity and activity in the congregation.  As missional thinking takes root, individual congregations need to consider how such thinking inspires a missional lifestyle among the people and how it affects their actual programming such as ministry to children, youth, men, women, singles, families, and so on.  How are programs structured to implement missional ends different from the programs already in existence?

                          

3.   What does a missional denominational regional area “look like” in terms of its vision, organization, and implementation and how does that contrast from a present or “non-missional” vision and operation?  What is the regional area’s role in leading its congregations into missional endeavor?

        

With Joy - E. Stanley Ott

Seeing New Possibilities

While in South Africa, my wife and I spent a week visiting the JLZwane Presbyterian Church in Guguletu.  The pastor there, Rev. Spiwo Xapile, had begun a ministry that, in hindsight, doesn’t seem all that trendy, or fresh, or whatever new things are called in the Church today.  And yet, it is incredibly effective.

Here it is:

• Gather pastors together for several days,

• Ask them to articulate their faith journey -  including their struggles and joys, both personally and as a pastor

• Then, in a time of mutual discernment, and in the midst of much discussion; ask them to pray to the Holy Spirit to reveal the next “Chapter” in their lives.

What Rev. Xapile had realized was that pastors in South Africa were defined by their past to the point of being hostage to it.  The issues they faced  -  Apartheid, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and the frustration, anger, and pain these things engendered, blinded them to the new life the Lord was calling them into as both a brother of Christ and leader of His Church. 

Rev. Xapile's work has proved fruitful in helping pastors create a space in which the Lord can help them write the next chapter in their personal life and ministry.  Instead of the next chapter being almost entirely determined by haunts from the past, new possibilities are revealed.  

 

It has become clear to me, that for pastors and elders in our churches, the Acts 16:5 Initiative can be an effective “space” for helping to hear the Lord and to recognize the next chapter in our personal lives and ministries.   It is a process that puts meat on the bone for so many pastors, who contemplate their lives and ministries and really have no idea what to do next. 

I recently visited a Presbyterian Church that was thriving at levels I honestly had no idea were possible within the PCUSA.  I mean, this place is going bonkers.  People’s lives are being transformed by the grace of Jesus.  Being there, opened my eyes to the possibilities for the next chapter in my own ministry. 

Likewise, Acts 16:5 can be the process that begins to open our eyes to new possibilities.

With Grace - Chris Bullock

Momentum

Momentum is a powerful word. It’s all about oomph! 

You may (or may not) remember the formal definition of momentum from high school physics.  Momentum is a way of expressing something’s level of energy.  I learned the meaning of momentum in a rather more direct way.  When I was in college I was on a crew that mowed county parks and the median strips. One day I was standing by our truck when a huge self-powered mower rolled off the back of the truck before I could get out of the way. Believe me, when I put a hand up to stop it, I learned all about the concept of momentum! I only survived, because the handle bars were curved and created a space between the mower and the ground where I was trapped but alive!

So, one way to think about momentum is to ask, “What does it take to stop something?”  Church programs that have been in operation a long time, much like long-standing personal habits, have a lot of momentum. They aren’t easy to stop or change.

The concept of momentum has a positive application in the world of congregations and of various ministries.  A congregation in its entirety, or any individual church program such as a ministry to women or men or children, has some level of momentum, some degree of energy, and impact.  Such a program or congregation may have an increasing momentum as it grows in magnitude of fruitfulness, a decreasing momentum as its energy slowly dissipates, or a constant momentum as it keeps chugging along.

I find it helpful to think of momentum in two parts:  institutional momentum and transformational momentum.

Institutional momentum is the tendency of an organization to keep on going.  Congregations have a tremendous amount of institutional momentum.  Like the flywheel concept Jim Collins refers to in his book Good to Great, once it gets going it has a way of keeping going.  Even congregations that are losing membership, dealing with aging facilities, and diminishing impact in their communities are hard to stop!  Like the Energizer Bunny they just keep going and going- even if that “going” is a slow decline.  Of course, healthy congregations that are growing and thriving also have an institutional momentum that helps sustain their work.

Transformation is all about change.  A congregation with a positive transformational momentum isn’t static just doing the same things over and over; but it is developing with new initiatives, new approaches, new ideas even as it finds ways to show honor and dignity to the people and programs of the past and present. A congregation (or any ministry) with a positive transformational momentum is making a sustained impact in its community and world with the word and deed of the gospel.

Ministry is exciting when the momentum is growing - the degree to which our ministries increase in transformational fruitfulness (the degree to which we are making a helpful difference in people’s lives as they grow in the image of Jesus) and missional momentum (the degree to which we are reaching people in our community and world with the word and deed of the gospel).

By the way, institutional momentum can work against transformational momentum, and it can work for it.  If the organization, be it congregation, individual ministry, or denominational judicatory, is stuck in neutral, committed to maintaining its present structure and approaches, then little that is genuinely transformational and missional in focus is likely to germinate.  On the other hand, the institutional momentum sustains “transformissional” momentum once a ministry:

• embraces the transformational and the missional, 
• has permission-giving leadership,  
• desires to change lives, 
• vision to engage its world, and 
• the missional and transformational focus is part of the DNA of the leadership and structure of the organization.  

The door to new adventure stays open!

Some questions to consider:

What is the nature of your ministry’s momentum - increasing, declining, staying the same?

What is the result of that momentum in the lives of people?

With Joy - E. Stanley Ott

Transformation Fueled by the Acts 16:5 Initiative

Reflections from an Acts 16:5 Pastor                                         Part Three

Thomas Presbyterian Church is celebrating a renewed passion for "Glorifying God and Serving Others".   It took fourteen years to transform a "social" congregation based on friendships to a Christ centered congregation united to serve Christ by making disciples, loving each other and serving the greater community around us.

This transformation has been shaped and fueled by our participation in the Acts 16:5 Initiative training four years ago. Furthermore, the principles taught in Stan Ott's materials continue to mold and direct our leadership and 300 member congregation.

Because of the energy from new emerging leaders, we launched  a new outreach event - The Thomas Day of Caring.  We set a goal of engaging 50-75 volunteers in a one day effort to make significant changes in people's lives and homes.  God blessed the vision with a volunteer planning team of eight and 78 volunteers working on eight community projects.  The planning team held to the vision of reaching homeowners that were not members of Thomas Church.  To layer evangelism with meeting human need, we added the following aspects to the day:

1.     At the kick off breakfast, participants were given simple tools for sharing their love of Jesus Christ with the homeowners they helped.

2.     Each participant wore a tee shirt with not only the PCUSA symbol but also our mission statement… "Glorifying God and Serving Others."

3.     Signs were placed in the homeowners' lawns with our vision statement.

4.     Homeowners were invited back to our facility for dinner with the whole team, and one homeowner is now attending worship regularly

There was so much energy and enthusiasm during and after the day, we are making plans for the 2012 Thomas Day of Caring.

v There are Acts 16:5 Principles Just Beginning to be Utilized.

1.     Leaders beginning to  "layer"  REACH aspects of all present programs.

2.     I am launching a new emphasis on faith sharing ... "saying your faith story in 2 minutes."

3.     Hosts with "people-eyes" are now recruited for major outreach events.

By the way, we emerged  from our leadership conflict with renewed strength and faith in God's healing power.  Yes, we lost some members and leaders in the process, but God's renewal has touched every aspect of congregational life.  In 2010-2011 we-

·       Added 27 new members

·       Launched another round of Lenten small groups

·       Increased giving to all time new levels

·       Added new leaders to planning teams

·       Started a parish nurse ministry

·       Renewed Stephen Ministry

·       Started our own Christian preschool

·       Expanded the use of our facilities by the community at large

Jesus Christ has used the Acts 16:5 Initiative to bless his work in and through Thomas Presbyterian Church!  

In Christ - Reverend Linda Jaberg

Emerging from a Leadership Meltdown

Reflections from an Acts 16:5 Pastor                                         Part Two

Thomas Presbyterian Church was on the incline by all measurable standards until conflict within the leadership core boiled over into a win or lose dynamic.  Over a ten-year period, I had indeed made several administrative mistakes that had caused conflict within a small leadership group of the congregation.  With Stan Ott's assistance and the Presbytery's active intervention, we came through this painful three-year period healthier and stronger than before the conflict.  Indeed, we lost 100 members for various reasons; but we emerged wiser and more focused on being a congregation that glorifies God, makes disciples, and serves others in the name of Jesus Christ.  As a byproduct of that focus, our financial health has soared well beyond what it was before the conflict.

Though the conflict interfered with our progress to make additional transformational changes, we emerged ready to implement additional Acts 16:5 principles. Here are a few of those changes:

1.     Our Acts 16:5 Vision Team adopted and adapted the "Personal Discipleship Plan " ...organized it according to our Vision Statement and provided copies for the whole congregation to take a more focused approach to becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.  We are still using this resource in new member classes and at least annually as a congregation wide emphasis.

2.     To promote leadership training, I taught a Methodist course, "Leadership from the Heart”. I recruited seasoned and new emerging leaders for the 8-month long class. Of the class of ten, eight new leaders have stepped into positions of leadership within the last 2 years.  Presently, I am using Stan's "7 Circles of Leaders" as a yearlong study at Session meetings.

3.     In addition to VBS, we launched another major community "Reach" event - the Thomas Summer Fest ...pig roast plus... The focus is on reaching the community beyond our congregation. This year we hope to partner with a local High School Band ... they will receive the profit from the festival and provide entertainment for the day.

4.     The Evangelism Planning Team has been renewed with new people added to the team.  They are sponsoring a community wide Dave Ramsey Financial Planning seminar this fall; and we have a team planning "Girlfriends" events {a Group Publishing program} as a Reach ministry.

5.     We updated our vision statement to "Glorifying God and Serving Others". 

6.     Our Youth Ministry Team completely made over their ministry built upon a defining vision rather than "just what is fun for the leaders to do."

7.     Implementing a Lenten Small Group / Large Group strategy has engaged the congregation far beyond my expectations! Last year, I recruited a small group to dream of ways we could immerse the congregation in a study of Psalm 23 for Lent 2011.  Their dreaming resulted in an Art Show, video, special music, nine small groups, and a study guide.

Our Thomas Church congregation is once again on the incline by, not only adding new followers of Christ, but also with renewed leaders. 

In Christ - Reverend Linda Jaberg

See tomorrow's conclusion - Transformation Fueled by the Acts 16:5 Initiative

Reflections From an Acts 16:5 Pastor - Part 1

Fifteen years ago Thomas Presbyterian Church was a midsized congregation, settled into the countryside of southwestern Pennsylvania.  This group of social friends had fun together, worshiped together and had begun stretching into missional outreach. Since then we have become a Christ-centered, disciple-making, welcoming, and mission focused congregation. From 1996 to 2006, we grew from 240 members to 398, and our annual income grew from under $100,000 to over $240,000. An ambitious building expansion and renovation project was also completed. We developed new ministries and added part time staff to not only bring growth but to provide for the spiritual needs of those God added to our faith family.

When the Acts 16:5 opportunity was presented to Thomas Church, we were at the tail end of a 2 year visioning process and at the beginning of a three year "all hell breaking loose" era.  The time to make deep systematic changes coming out of Acts 16:5 materials coincided with a volcano of deep conflict boiling over within Thomas’ leadership core.   The source of the conflict was totally unrelated to the Acts 16:5 process or materials. Instead, like most congregational conflict, the underlining issues were around who held power and influence. More about this dynamic in part two of this article.

  

There were several transformational changes already happening that Acts 16:5 affirmed and expanded.

1.     We moved from "committees" to "Planning Teams"...85% of them have developed their own Vision statement, Goals, and Team member "job" /ministry descriptions

2.     The "With- me" principle birthed a whole new set of Christian Education leaders (With-me principle based on Mark 3:14)

3.     We launched four rounds of startups for new small groups

4.     We "blessed" a long standing ministry to senior adults and "added" a new ministry....{the former has since ceased while the latter continues}

5.     VBS is seen and planned as a major outreach to the community and not just providing for our own kids.

6.     We have strengthened our "communal" ministry by a layered approach to caring for the needs of our congregational by implementing or using:  Small groups, Deacons, Stephen Ministers, Prayer Chain, Healing services, Pastoral care.}  An article describing these layered ministries is published regularly, so people can see where help is available.

The Thomas' Acts 16:5 Vision Team not only faithfully participated in the training seminars but also worked to make Stan's teaching materials work for Thomas. 

The Presbytery Clergy Support groups were especially helpful to me in changing established congregational norms in a way that honored both Christ and the traditions of Thomas Church.  My colleagues asked excellent questions that helped me clarify my goals and they held me accountable to follow through on my established next steps. 

In Christ - Reverend Linda Jaberg

Tomorrow read Part 2 – Emerging from a Leadership Meltdown

Incarnational Ministry

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”

Incarnation - God, the infinite creator of the universe with neither beginning nor end, the invisible and holy One, became finite, visible, and common.  Think about that!  To make a quick point of this, the preacher of Hebrews said, “But we see Jesus…”

This theology of incarnation - of a visible God - is an important one.  This concept of incarnational ministry is needed in the church.  However, it is too often ignored.  Incarnational ministry is ministry that is both ancient and modern; grounded yet relevant. 

Here is what I mean.  Jesus didn’t come to earth in general.  He came specifically.  He was born into a real family.  He grew up in a real culture.  He spoke real language in a real dialect.  And yet, he was God.  The divine attributes of the Almighty never changed.  God was not diminished in his becoming common.  The truth of God in Genesis Chapter One did not change in Matthew Chapter One.  It just became plain to see.

Therein is the challenge and beauty of incarnational ministry.  As the church, we hold on to the never changing truths God gave to us in his timeless word - and it is those truths alone we share with the world.   However, as the church, we learn to speak the language of the culture that God has placed us in. 

Too often the modern church attempts to change what it professes in order to fit the culture.  They become a reflection of the culture rather than a redeemer of it.  This can be true in its theology as well as its praxis.  On the other hand, there are churches who don’t take the culture seriously enough.  They have remained so ancient that they are not speaking the language of the people.  They have lost touch with what it means to be common. 

In his incarnation, Jesus did not abandon the reality of his deity or reject the confines of the culture in which he was sent.  Paul was a man who got “incarnational ministry.”  We would do well to embrace his model…

^“Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews… To those not having the law I became like one not having the law… so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.”  1Corinthians 9:19-23        

The Vital Churches Institute promotes ministry that is not afraid to live in the tension of holding tight to an unchanging God while speaking the common language of our changing culture.  Churches walk a razor’s edge when they strive for this kind of incarnational ministry.  The only way to not fall off on one side or the other is to make sure that we fix our eyes on Jesus, because in Him alone did God become flesh and make his dwelling among us.

Grace and Truth,

Rev. Scott Castleman

First Presbyterian Church, Ocean Springs, MS

Hang Ten

Ready for a surfing lesson?  Disclaimer: I've never surfed.  Also, I was raised in the corn and soybean fields of the upper Midwest where on Lake Michigan the largest wave is seldom more than a foot or two.  Let the surfing lesson begin.

The term is "hang ten."  Most of you reading these words, if you take off your shoes and count the phalanges or more familiarly your toes, you'll count to ten. To "hang ten" is a surfing technique. It seems that when you're on top of the surf board to control to the speed and direction of the surf board--I believe it is actually to slow down the board--the surfer scoots to the front of the board whilst shooting down the face of the wave and slows down by hanging ten toes over the front edge of the board.  That is to "hang ten."  In other words, it's a surfing control technique.

Surfing, church leadership--connection?  Yes, there is a connection.  No one will argue that management requires staying on top of things.  For example, how does one keep track of one's finances without balancing your checkbook balance, etc?  Why do we understand this concept regarding our money, but take lightly to hanging ten on leadership?  Whether or not you discriminate between the meanings of management versus leadership; please, I insist that leadership requires staying on top of the surfboard, ergo, to hang ten.

Leadership in the church is not so much happening by preaching a sermon and running committee meetings.  But it is hanging ten, on top of the board.  So what does hanging ten look like as it relates to church leadership?  Let me offer just a few ideas:

--In between the meeting, do you ever hang out and share with key leaders in your church and ask “What's going on?” and “What you're trying to get done?”

--MBWA--"ManagementByWalkingAround" or in this case, leaderhsip by walking around.  Check in routinely with your key leaders.  Ask “How's it going?  What's the struggle?  How can we help one another?”

--Ask people what are they doing, and how what they're doing connects with your purpose or mission?

It's not enough merely to cast a vision, but to hold the team in contact with the vision, and accountable to the vision.  That's staying on top of the board, that's hanging ten.  No warning or alarmism intended, but surfing is all over if one doesn't stay on top of the board.  So it is with leadership.  It's being just as intentional about what we're doing as the surfer is to be on top of the board.

Joyfully - Dale Patterson 

Gut Values Connections and the Missional Church

I find an interesting analysis of American culture, with all sorts of implications for ministry, to be Applebee’s America by Sosnik, Dowd, and Fournier.

The authors reflect on the second presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush that won against the odds, the success of the Applebee’s restaurant chain, and the fruitful work of Pastor Rick Warren. They draw from these very different figures some intriguing insights about what it takes to connect with American’s today.

The authors identify what they call “Gut Values Connections.”  They argue that people want authenticity and community (not surprisingly two core values of the emerging/emergent church movement) as well as empathy, optimism, belonging, and purpose among other values. When a politician or a business or a church connects with people at an emotional “gut values” level, the authors contend that people will respond in positive ways.

For those of us who imagine that people should respond first to our convictions and our understanding of truth and its consequences, Sosnik, et al are merely showing that their research at the present time suggests we have to reach America’s gut at the same time we speak to its mind and heart.

Applebee's America offers countless implications for the vibrant church in its transformational and missional initiatives.  Obviously values such as community, belonging, purpose, and many of the values Sosnik et al identify are very much a part of our understanding of what a healthy, vital transformational and missional congregation is all about.

Some questions to consider:

What “gut values” do our present congregational ministries connect with?

How can we shape our emphases in order to make effective “gut values connections” not only with our communities but with our own participants?

With Joy - E. Stanley Ott