The enemy of success

One day while I was serving as a Regional Minister in our denomination I was attending our monthly staff meeting. We began to discuss how ministry was changing and the problems many of our pastors were having with those changes. I commented that I felt that I had enjoyed a good 20 year ministry in my previous church, but I was certain that if I returned to pastoral ministry, I could not repeat doing what I had been doing and have a successful ministry. I also shared that I wasn't certain I could make the changes necessary to have an effective ministry in today's climate.

John Maxwell reminds us that "the greatest enemy of tomorrow's success is sometimes today's success." We think we can just keep repeating what has worked in the past or is working now, and it will work in the future. That's not always the case. Ford no longer only offers its cars in black. Families no longer watch television programs in black and white. Things change. People's expectations change. New and better ways of doing things are constantly being developed, and, yes, this even includes the church.

There is nothing especially wrong with traditions unless they block progress. Many churches are driven by their traditions, and any attempt to circumvent the traditions is often met with great resistance. What we forget is that many of our traditions today were challenges to the traditions of the past. Those older traditions had to be replaced by new ways of thinking and acting for the church to move forward in its culture. The same is true for today's church.

One of the great needs of today's church are people who are willing to think outside the box. Instead of just learning what the traditions of a church are we need people who will ask why those traditions exist and do they continue to serve any purpose. Do they help or hinder the church in fulfilling its purpose in today's world? When we find traditions that hinder we then need to have the courage to replace them with new ways of doing things.

I realize how scary that sounds to some people, even leaders. Many pastors like church traditions because they know what's expected of them and they don't have to learn new ways of doing ministry. But, this is not a mindset that leads to successful ministry. This kind of thinking does not lead to changed lives.

Someone once said the seven last words of a dying church are "We've never done it that way before." In 14 years of regional ministry I have seen those words played out in too many churches who would prefer to die than change. We used to hear people say that if something wasn't broken, don't break it. A better saying might be "If it isn't broken, break it, because it will soon be obsolete anyway." Not all traditions need to be discarded, but most churches would be well served to take a look at their traditions and determine if they are helping or hindering your ministry. Boldly replace the ones that hinder ministry and prepare for a greater harvest than your church has perhaps seen in years. 

Thinking bigger

 The median size church in America is 75 people. This is the size church I've spent most of my life attending and leading. Don't be fooled; these smaller churches can accomplish much if the people have a mind to minister. Unfortunately, many of them have been stuck in ruts of their own making. In fact, many of them may have been larger churches at one time but have now been reduced in size because of faulty thinking and systems. In talking to many of the churches of this size, most of them claim they want to grow larger and are frustrated they are unable to do so. What can a smaller church do to grow?

While there are many things such churches can do, one thing is critical. They have to stop thinking like a small church. As long as they think like a 75-member church they will remain a 75-member church. They need to start thinking like a 200-member church, What might this look like?

A church might consider starting new Sunday school classes or small groups. In one church I attended the young adult SS class had about 40 people in it. The pastor and I started a new young adult class and within a short period of time had about 20 people attending it without taking anyone from the other class. Church growth people say a church should add a new adult Sunday school class every 18 months if they want to grow.

Another way to think larger is to add staff. The mindset of many small churches is that they will add a youth minister, children's minister, or some other staff person when there are enough people to make it feasible. Guess what? It will never happen. Without the right leadership the youth ministry, children's ministry, etc. will never grow to make adding a staff person necessary. Find the right person for the position, and the desired growth is more likely to happen. (Yes, I know. You don't think you have the finances to do this. I assume you think God is broke.)

Program for the people you want to reach. This one is tough. We keep programming for the people we already have, and every year that number gets smaller and smaller. If we do nothing to reach the next generation we will eventually have so few people left that the church closes. Depending on whose figures you read, that happens to about 100 churches in the US every week. We don't ignore or neglect the ones we have now, but we also have to do ministry that will impact new people for the Kingdom of God as well. Yes, this also includes our worship and the music we use in worship. Like I said, it's tough to minister effectively to 4-5 generations of people at the same time.

Thinking larger requires that we think about technology. Regardless of the size church, it needs a website. As one church growth person said, if your church does not have a website you do not have a church. When people start looking for a church, they begin that search on the computer. Quality video and sound systems are a must, and even more important is training people to use them properly. Larger churches use computer systems to do everything from tracking finances to sending church newsletters to sending out mass messages to their members to uploading their worship services to their webpages, to virtually everything else they do. If you are going to start thinking like a larger church, you need to do the same thing. Invest in good computer systems.

One final thought: consider the decor of the church. Just like homeowners may remodel every few years to modernize, churches need to look at the decor of their church. If nothing in the church has been changed since it was built in 1895 it probably is not very appealing to younger people. If no one remembers when the sanctuary carpet was installed, or even the last time it was cleaned, it probably needs replaced. If you're still parking on gravel you may want to consider blacktop. Fresh flowers and brighter colors can do much to make attending church more pleasurable. And, please, take a long, hard look at your restroom facilities.

Is it a sin for a Christian to doubt?

Most, if not all, Christians have times when they begin to doubt some aspects of their faith. They may even doubt if they are really Christians or even if God exists. Are such doubts sin? I do not believe so. I know there have been times in my own life when I've doubted some aspects of Christianity. I've questioned some things God was or was not doing in my life or the lives of others. Working through those doubts actually strengthened my faith as I believe it can for all believers.

The best well-known doubter in the Bible was the apostle Thomas. Because he was not present when Jesus appeared to the other disciples he refused to believe it happened. Unless he could personally see Jesus and feel the wounds He had experienced on the cross he would not believe. Jesus appeared to them again and presented Himself to Thomas who then believed. Tradition tells us Thomas was later martyred due to his Christian beliefs and preaching. When his doubts were answered his faith increased to the level where he willingly gave up his life proclaiming the Kingdom of God. I think it is important to note that Jesus did not criticize Thomas for his doubts but responded to them in a way that erased them.

What do you do when you begin to experience doubts? The first step is to acknowledge them and begin to talk to others, such as a pastor or other mature believer. Seek out books that can answer the doubts. Begin to doubt the doubts. You can probably list a number of reasons why your doubts are not credible. Do so, and carry that list with you. When the doubts begin to trouble you, pull out your list of why those doubts are not credible and voice them out loud. Ask God to help remove those doubts from your mind. Recognize that those doubts do not come from Him but from the enemy of our soul. You are engaged in spiritual warfare. Use the shield of faith and sword of truth to attack the doubts.

Because our doubts can help us grow in our faith accept them for what they are and find ways to overcome them. Do not let the enemy cause you to believe that God is angry at you because of your doubts or that your doubts are sin. There will be times when every Christian will have doubts, will question something they have been taught. Use those doubts as stepping stones to a more mature faith.

The burden of proof

Many Christians are intimidated by those who question or doubt our beliefs. One reason many never share their faith with an unbeliever is because the person may challenge their beliefs or ask questions they cannot answer. This is one reason Christians should be growing in their knowledge of what the Bible teaches and how to defend their beliefs. There is another effective way to address those questions and doubts, and that is to shift the burden of proof to the doubter.

Let's use evolution as an example. As Christians we believe that God created the universe and all that is within it. However, you meet someone who does not accept the creation story and insists that the universe came into existence due to a big bang and then evolution took over to create all living things. You feel challenged to prove this person wrong but do not know how to do so. What can you do?

One, is to begin studying everything you can about the fine tuning of the universe. Once you learn that life exists on this planet we call earth due to numerous factors that, if they varied by a marginal amount, would not sustain life as we know it, you will be ready to counter the attacks against creation.

The other thing you can do is to refuse to allow yourself to be put on the defensive and assume that you must prove your belief in creation. Ask the critic to share the titles of four or five books they've read that defend the Christian viewpoint on creation and what did they find to be the best three or four arguments that opposed their beliefs. Chances are you will find they've never read anything that challenged their views on creation vs evolution. They are simply repeating what some college professor taught them or the author of some article that wanted to denounce Christianity. Place the burden of proof on them. Make them defend their beliefs. Few will be able to do so.

The best response is a combination of both. Christians need to be able to defend their beliefs; this is called apologetics. Scripture teaches us that we are to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you. That word hope in the Greek is apologia which is where we get the world apologetics. The fine tuning of the universe is an excellent way to defend your belief that God created the world in which we live. I should note that such an argument does not prove the existence of God; it makes it more likely that God exists and that He did, in fact, create our universe. The uninformed arguments most people will make opposing creation will not stand up to the fine-tuning of the universe. If your friend still refuses to accept the creation theory it will not be based upon actual facts but because he or she does not want such a God to exist.

Never allow the burden of proof to be placed on you, and never be afraid to share your Christian beliefs with others.  

Achieving your potential

 I recently read something I found quite interesting about former basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins, John Wooden. In forty years of coaching he only had one losing season - his first. He led UCLA to four undefeated seasons and ten NCAA championships. While that's impressive, it was not what I found interesting. What was interesting to me was that he never scouted his opponents. His focus was on getting his players to reach their potential. He knew that if each of his players reached their potential, the wins would take care of themselves.

How does this relate to leading a church? While I hope we do not view other churches as opponents that we feel the need to scout, I believe the focus Wooden had on developing his team does have application for church leaders. How many of the people sitting in our pews are living up to the potential God gave them? If we're honest, the answer would probably be pretty disappointing. The few churches I know who have done discipleship studies of their congregations were all disappointed in the results.

The Great Commission calls us to share our faith with those who are not Christians and to lead those who respond into a life of discipleship. Not many churches live up to the first part of that call, and even fewer are successfully leading people into a deeper life of discipleship. It's no wonder so many in our churches lack understanding of even basic biblical theology, struggle to live a Christ-honoring life and are growing in their faith. Many of us in pastoral leadership need to take a serious look at our priorities and find ways to address the lack of discipleship in our churches.

But, before we do that, we need to examine our own lives. Are we achieving our God-given potential? We cannot take someone further than we are going ourselves. We cannot ask people to do something we are not doing. We have to show growth in our own lives before we can ask people to begin to grow in theirs.

Let me ask you some questions. What are you reading? Whose tapes or podcasts are you listening to? Who are you spending time with? How much time do you spend each day in prayer and devotional reading? When was the last time you read through the entire Bible?

What priorities have you set for the remainder of 2024? How much time do you spend sharing your faith with pre-Christians? How many non-Christian friends do you have? What specific steps do you plan to take to help people grow in their faith?

These are important questions. Before you can challenge others to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, you have to demonstrate that you are growing as a disciple. Years ago when I was serving as a Regional Minister in our judicatory our Executive Minister told me he had never seen anyone so committed to lifelong learning as me. I'm 75 years old, and I have the same commitment I had back then. I haven't achieved the potential God gave me, and I doubt you have either. As long as I have breath, I will continue to strive to grow and reach that potential. I pray you will make the same commitment. Only then, can you lead others to reach theirs. 

Is your church ready to minister to the world of today?

The book publishing world has changed a great deal in the past few years. It took me about three years from the time of writing to the publication of my first book. After that one was released, it was much easier to find a publisher for my next books. In fact, one publisher even asked me to write a book for them to publish. This is not the case today, at least for many authors.

Few publishers will even consider a manuscript or book proposal that comes to them from the author. They require an agent representing the author to present them with a book proposal. Despite contacting virtually every agent who represents Christian authors, I could not find anyone who would consider a book proposal for my latest book. It seems the content is not as important as the number of people who follow you on social media. One website offered two boxes in which you could contact them. One was for people who had social media followers over 10,000 and the other was for those who had less than 10,000 followers. Needless to say, I never heard from that organization when I checked the one with the fewer number of followers.

I share this with you because I decided to self-publish the book on Amazon for the Kindle platform. The problem with doing this is that the books get lost in the tens of thousands of other self-published books that are published on that platform. So, I decided to market the book through this blog.

The title of the book is Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?. We live in a time of cultural change that has never been seen before in the history of mankind. Values and beliefs are changing rapidly, and the church must understand these changes and speak to them if it is to have any relevancy to this current generation. The book includes 12 chapters that address some of the pressing issues of the day and offers a biblical response to each of them. Among the topics discussed are racial issues, mental illness, poverty, sexual issues, suicide, gender dysphoria and more. It is the aim of the book to present an understanding of each of these issues, why they are important for the church to address, and how to do so in a loving, non-judgmental but biblical manner. 

The book is only $6.95, and you can order it here.

If you do so, and find it helpful, please let others know about it. I believe it will help your church better minister to the issues that are causing people today so much pain and difficulty.

Leadership 101

 This evening I decided I would start re-reading John Maxwell's book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In my opinion, it is the best book on leadership available today. I attended a conference he led when the book was first released, and it changed my life and ministry. He began discussing the first chapter which was "The Law of the Lid." What he said about that law impacted me so much I don't think I heard anything he said about the next two laws.

As a bivocational pastor who owned a business, I was often frustrated. I complained the church wasn't doing enough because I couldn't get people to do what needed to be done. I had the same complaint about the business. When Maxwell said that the lid of the leadership is what enables an organization to thrive or decline, I realized I was blaming the wrong people. It wasn't the congregation or the people who worked for me that was limiting our growth; It was me! My leadership (or the lack of) was holding both the church and our business back. I realized I had to grow as a leader if I wanted our business to succeed and if I wanted to see our church more effectively minister to our community.

This is a book that I believe needs to be read by every pastor because many of us do not see ourselves as leaders. Many seminaries do not teach pastors to be leaders; they teach us to be managers. There is a huge difference. Many pastors have responded to surveys that they do not see themselves as leaders. They do not believe they have the gift of leadership. Worse yet, they do not realize that anyone can grow as a leader.

The majority of our churches in the US are in decline, and the reason for the decline is the lack of leadership from pastors. Before you argue that some churches won't allow the pastors to lead, I recognize that, and I would also argue that, as a pastor, you either lead or let that church continue its slide towards death, and go somewhere where you are allowed to lead the church to grow and effectively serve its community. 

I also realize that some pastors take leadership to an extreme and become bullies in the pulpit. A number of mega-church pastors in recent years have been forced to resign or terminated due to the way they began to bully staff and congregational members. That is certainly not the kind of leadership to which I am referring. I believe Jesus modeled the type of leadership that should be practiced by ministers today. When He needed to be firm, He was, but He never stopped loving people even to the point of giving His life that they, and we, might have our sins forgiven.

If you've not read this book, I encourage you to do so. If you don't see yourself as a leader, I would ask that you begin to pray about that. Our churches will never rise to their potential if the pastor does not grow as a leader.