Drawing People to Your Church and Ministry

In his book, Sticky Church, Pastor Larry Osborne (Zondervan, 2008) says that the best way to “Velcro” people to your church is to “Velcro” them to the two things they need most to grow as disciples:  the Bible and other Christians.  We have found VCI’s Pray Daily devotional booklet to be a simple yet significant way to Velcro people to the Word of God and to each other.  Which has the added bonus of Velcro-ing them to our church’s mission and ministry.

It’s simple:  groups of three people commit to the 90-day adventure in prayer, reading a short passage of Scripture each day, reflecting on some aspect of their life in the light of that passage, and then lifting to God whatever is on their heart that day.  Each day’s reading, reflection, and prayer can be completed in about 15 minutes, but can fill as much time as one wishes to devote.  Sounds like any other devotional book we might recommend, right?  But here’s the difference:  once a week, the triads commit to meeting face-to-face for one hour.  In that hour they:

·       share which was the most meaningful Scripture from that week’s readings and why

·       share one blessing they experienced that week and one prayer request; and

·       have the opportunity to pray aloud for each other, though no one is required to pray out loud.

It is these face-to-face meetings that have been so significant.  Here are just a few comments I’ve received from our folks: 

“I have found the weekly meetings to be so special as I get to know my partners a little bit better and we get to pray for one another.  When one tells you that they almost didn’t come the week before because they were feeling down and then come back and tell you that after that get-together their whole week fell into place and they feel so much better it makes it so worthwhile.  It’s amazing how many of the Scriptures are just what you need on a particular day!”

“Pray Daily has been good for me, as I am doing a much better job at being disciplined.  It probably would not have happened otherwise.  Plus, it is wonderful getting to know your partners better and having them specifically pray with and for you.  All in all, it is terrific!”

“This 90 day adventure has been most meaningful because of the sharing and praying with each other and discussing the scripture passages as they relate to our relationship with God and one another. We also act as accountability partners in our faith journey as a result of being together each week.”

We used Pray Daily coming out of our annual Leadership Retreat with our elders, deacons, and staff.  We just had people count off by threes and put them together in groups. The only rule was that they must not be related to each other or already in another face-to-face group, like a LIFE Group or ministry team.  Some of the groups include people who might never interact with each other on this level in any other way in our church.  What a simple way to get people reading and reflecting on Scripture, discussing it with one another, and praying with and for each other.  This 90-day adventure in prayer engages our folks in the principles of Witness-Prayer-Care-Word and With-Me.  Then each week, they Send one another into their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods with prayer and blessing.  Simple, but oh so catalytic for spiritual growth.

In Christ, 

Kathi Busch

Care

"Nobody cares about me." It's not uncommon that when disgruntled members in a church leave it's because they claim no one cared." 

It's a sad truth.  

However, it is also true that Small Groups can be the best antidote to overcome this complaint. Small Groups are the place where true friendships are established; people nurture those friendships; and members experience listening to one another and even caring for one another. 

If a church is serious about caring for one another, there is no substitute for involving people in a Small Group.

Now, it's also true, someone may want to be cared for, but not want to establish relationships or get involved in a Small Group. But that brings up the old proverb: You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Our job is to make sure there is water to drink. 

The caring waters of your Small Group help people connect with the water of life.

Joy,

dale

Transparent Leadership?

In the 21st century, leadership styles have changed.  Not long ago, the leader was the captain of the ship, and the captain stood stoically on the bridge, a rock of courage, with unflinching determination and decisiveness.  But times have changed.

Today we live in a much more transparent world.  The captains, the leaders, are considerably more open, revealing their thoughts, concerns, fears...but how much transparency is too much?

A WWII movie of not long ago, U 571, had a scene that always rattles around in my thoughts when I ponder what is the wisdom of transparency for the church leader of the 21st century.  In the movie, a young executive officer takes charge through a series of peculiar events; he is now the captain of the ship.  Yet in the midst of a terrible crisis, the entire ship looks to the new captain for a command decision.  However, the rookie captain doesn’t know what to do;  clearly he is unsure, maybe even afraid to make a call, and even appeals to the other sailors at the helm?

 "What do you think we should do?"  

In that moment a grizzly ol' swabbie petty officer interrupts, "Captain, could we meet in your quarters?  We need to talk."  

Moments later the veteran old salt asks the unsure captain, "Sir, permission to speak freely."  

Then he speaks freely.  "Captain, if you don't know what to do, or are not sure, there's one thing a captain must never do.  You can be unsure, but you can never let the crew know that.  You must look like you know what you're doing even when you don't know what you're doing!"

Admittedly, church leadership is not the same as commanding a ship of war.  But in our day of team leadership and transparency, how much is too much?  How much self-revelation leads to disheartening the team, and the church at large?

So, how much?  In truth, I don't know, and I'd answer with the famous, "It depends."  

Maybe the answer comes from the example of Jesus.  Those closest to Jesus got a deeper peek into his thoughts than those more toward the periphery.  For example, the 5000 didn't get much explanation or exposition, but The Twelve often got deeper insights.   Peter, James and John, more than anyone else, received even deeper insights.

By analogy, in these days of transparency, a leader is often wary of too much transparency to the congregation at large and large subgroups.  Yet as a minister's circle of leadership narrows to the closest few, I am convinced that the stoic lone commander on the bridge and no one knows what's going on inside her/him—this model of pastoral leadership is not necessary, and more than likely is not wise.

Even the "supreme leader" needs a closest few, to live out "bearing one another's burdens," not only to fulfill the mind of Christ, but to exercise faithful leadership in the Body of Christ.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson

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

A Discipleship Tool

For a number of years I’ve known of Greg Ogden’s book, Discipleship Essentials, but until last year, I had never used it.  It consists of 25 chapters on the basics of living the Christian faith.  Each chapter is a mix of Scripture and readings on the given topic with study questions included.  Scripture memory is also a part of each week’s lesson.

The content is solid but the real impact of the book comes by following Greg’s pattern for its use.  He suggests the book be used in a group of three, and then following the example of Jesus who invested his life in a few others, when the group of three finishes the study, they are each charged to find two others to begin their own group of three.  So, by the second year nine are involved in the study, the next year, twenty-seven, and so on.

A year ago, I started the study with two other men—one person who was mature believer, and another who was relatively new to the faith.  We met once a week for 90 minutes unless one of us was out of town.  I was amazed at how rich our fellowship was week-after-week!  By the end of the year we had become close friends united in a growing faith.  But more importantly, both men by year’s end were eager to start their own group of three.  So, this year we have three groups of three using Ogden’s study, and two other groups of three women each preparing to launch.  We’re discovering these studies are a wonderful complement to our existing small group ministry.

If you are longing for a tool to help your people develop a heart to come alongside each other with a common aim of growing in faithfulness to Jesus Christ, take a look at Discipleship Essentials. 

With Joy - Steve Ebling