Favorite reads of 2021 1-6

 Today I want to continue my list of my top 10 favorite reads in 2021. Yesterday I covered 6-10; today we will look at the top five.

5. Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church by Kenda Creasy Dean is a fascinating if somewhat disturbing read about the faith of American teenagers. This book relies on the National Study of Youth and Religion study that looked deeply into the faith of our teens. What was found in that study is that, while these teens are mostly positive about Christianity, they are mostly apathetic about its practices. Fortunately, Dean provides guidance for teen workers, pastors and parents who want to help their teenagers experience a more robust, and biblical, faith.

4. For some reason I resisted buying Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory for a long time. Written by Tod Bolsinger, this book describes how Lewis and Clark were so certain they would find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean they never dreamed they would need anything but their canoes. They were shocked when they encountered the Rocky Mountains and realized their canoes were worthless. They could either return home defeated or they could seek new ways to reach their goal. Sounds like the church today doesn't it? We are facing new challenges today that our old methods can not resolve. We must choose whether to find new ways to achieve our mission or give up and abandon the purpose God has for us. This turned out to be an excellent book.

3. Don't let the title scare you. Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Mere Molinism: A Biblical, Historical, Theological, and Philosophical Analysis by Timothy A. Stratton is an important read for those who are trying to understand how human freedom can exist in light of a sovereign God. This is not a book you will read quickly nor are you likely to agree with everything the author writes, but you will profit from the time you invest in this book. In much of the book Stratton discusses the theological thinking from Augustine to Edwards and compares them to Scripture and philosophy. He then introduces the concept of middle knowledge and looks at the significance of Molinism to this discussion of free will and predestination. Again, this is not light reading but one that will be very profitable.

2. Where Do We Go from Here?: How Tomorrow’s Prophecies Foreshadow Today’s Problems by David Jeremiah examines some of the issues in our culture in light of biblical prophecy. Some of the issues discussed in the book are the growing cries for socialism in our nation, the pandemics that threaten to overtake our world, cancel culture as well as many others. However, this is not a book of despair nor is it written to inspire fear in the reader. Rather, it reminds us that God is in control and is working out His will for our lives. Jeremiah writes to inspire hope in the reader, and I found that it did that very well.

1. Drum roll, please. My #1 pick for 2021 is We Will Not Be Silenced: Responding Courageously to Our Culture's Assault on Christianity by Erwin W. Lutzer. As we watch American moving further away from God and biblical teaching many Christians find themselves silenced due to fear of facing condemnation, ridicule and even physical attacks. Those who demand freedom of speech refuse to allow those who hold opposing views the same freedom. Lutzer pulls no punches as he points out the dangerous trends impacting our culture today. He addresses the hypocrisy of the left and the lies we are fed on a daily basis. He then challenges the church to speak boldly to those issues while at the same time showing compassion to those who have views that differ from our own. This is a serious book for our time and one that every Christian leader should read.

Here is my annual list of my ten favorite reads of the year. I encourage you to check them out and let me know what you think.

Favorite reads of 2021 6-10

As I've mentioned before in this blog, my goal is to read 50 books a year. I reached that goal again this year. Last year I reported I had more than doubled my goal due to Covid restrictions, but I had also began reading books from the Star Wars series. I continued that trend this year and read a number of books from that series. With over 250 Star Wars books available to read, and more being published every year, I'm not apt to run out of any to read for a time. However, it is time that I report on my top 10 favorite reads of 2021. Today I will go through the bottom five and share the top five tomorrow.

10.   Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World by Craig Groeschel is a book I read a few years ago when it was released. This year I read it for my devotional reading early in the year. Let's face it, life can get confusing. No matter how long one has been a Christian, we can allow bad things to enter our lives and begin to contaminate us and our witness. In this book the author challenges us to identify the false beliefs that often hold us hostage, to uncover the hidden sins in our lives, to deal with unresolved anger and many other such issues. This is a great book to use to check your heart and the way you live your life.

9. Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life is another book by Groeschel. This is another book I used for devotional reading, and it is another re-read. The first words in the introduction hooked me: "Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. What we think shapes who we are." How true this is, so what we think about ourselves, God and life will determine the person we will become. This book will challenge the way you think about these things. Zig Ziglar used to call negative thinking "stinkin' thinkin'" and he always pointed out the ways such thinking damaged us as God's creation. If you struggle with such thinking, this book can help you.

8.    Does anyone need another book on how the culture is impacting the church? Yes, if that book is Positively Irritating: Embracing a Post-Christian World to Form a More Faithful and Innovative Church by Jon Ritner. The author believes that the church needs to learn to embrace the challenges our churches face in this present culture. He served as pastor of a megachurch and left feeling called to plant a new church in a very unchurched region in Europe. He then returned to lead a church in Los Angeles. His experiences help him bring a perspective that church leaders need to understand. 

7. Pastoring a church during the Covid pandemic has been a challenge.  Thom Rainer helps us understand how to survive this challenge in his little book The Post-Quarantine Church: Six Urgent Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation (Church Answers Resources). He identifies six challenges for the church and suggests how to best address them. This little book is only 111 pages, but I encourage you to slow down to absorb what Rainer is suggesting. I think this is a valuable book for the time in which we live.

6. Side Door: How to Open Your Church to Reach More People by Charles Arn is a book I've used a lot this year as I encouraged our church to begin small groups to provide side doors into the church. In a time when people are reluctant to attend church services it's possible to encourage them to enter through side doors. These side doors enables the church to connect with people and begin to introduce them to the person of Jesus Christ. I believe such evangelistic efforts are necessary today, and Arn does a great job of detailing how to do it right.

Tomorrow I will share my top 5 reads for 2021.

Bivocational pastors are needed

 In the past few weeks I have talked with a number of people from various churches that are seeking a pastor. Many of them are in smaller churches who need a bivocational minister. Some have been looking for a long time, and they are beginning to wonder if there is anyone for their church. They often call me hoping I might know someone seeking to lead a church from my days as a Resource Minister in our region. Unfortunately, I retired in 2015, and I am completely out of the loop. I don't know who is looking, and even if I did, their names need to go to the church through their Region Minister, not me.

One thing I tell these churches is that God has someone to lead them. The fact that they are without a pastor and struggle to find one does not catch God by surprise. They need to be patient and work within God's timing. Most do not want to hear that and feel it's important to find someone as soon as possible. No, it's not. It's important to find the person God has prepared to lead that church.

So what do these churches need to do in the meantime? Pray as they have never prayed before. In the last church I served as the Transitional Pastor the deacons called for a 24-hour prayer vigil at the church during the search process. People signed up for a 30 minute time period in which they would be at the church praying for the search team and the person God wanted to bring to the church. The deacons rotated in 3 hour shifts to provide security at the church during this prayer vigil. Every Sunday for months people would come to the altar during the invitation to pray specifically for the search process. That is not something you often see in a Baptist church! Members would line the entire pulpit area praying that God would reveal the person to them He had prepared for the church.

I would also encourage a church to look at itself during this transition time. How have previous pastors been treated in the church? Does the church have a history of short-term pastors? If so, why? Be honest. Some churches struggle to find a pastor because they don't deserve one. One of the churches that was in my area had ran through dozens of pastors during my 14 year service as their Region Minister. When they called asking my help in finding another pastor I said, "I am not going to sacrifice any more good pastors on the altar of your dysfunction. If you want me to help you become a healthier church, I will be glad to work with you. If you merely want the names of more pastor candidates, I will not give them to you." I never heard from that church again.

While there is much more I could say, I will close this post with this. You may want to look within your church for your next pastor. In a few cases churches in my area  called a lay leader to serve as their pastor, and these individuals did a fantastic job. Think about this. These are people who are already well-known to the congregation. They enjoy a level of trust that a new person will spend years earning. They are invested in your community so it's likely they will stay for a longer period of time. There are numerous ways a person can grow in biblical knowledge and learn pastoral skills. Your best candidate may already be sitting in your congregation.

The opportunities and challenges of a new year

 As we approach a new year many of us wonder what it will bring. This past year has brought increased inflation, a growing divide between Americans, a new strain of Covid, a Federal government with some of the lowest approval ratings in modern times, new threats coming from Russia and China, a rising distrust of the media and our political leaders, and a rejection of the church and traditional biblical teachings from many Americans. Since no one has a crystal ball or is able to predict with any certainty of what the future holds, I guess we'll have to wait and see what transpires in the coming year. But, there are some things we can know with certainty.

First, God is already there. While we may not understand why He allows some things to happen, we can be certain that nothing that will occur will catch Him by surprise. He remains the omnipotent, omniscience God. Whatever the future holds, we can trust Him. Our God is sovereign over all.

The second thing we can know with certainty is that the church has a role to play in the events that will take place. Our role is to continue to speak God's truth to a world that wants to reject that truth. Our role is to offer hope to a world that will find hope in no other place. Our role is to invite people to become part of God's family. Our message may not be a popular one in the time in which we live, but we are called to faithfully proclaim it regardless of its popularity.

A third thing we can be assured of is that people are going to be looking for something to believe in as this world continues to implode all around us. This is the opportunity. As we are inundated with lies from the media and our political leaders, people are going to be seeking truth. As some churches abandon the biblical teachings of Scriptures, people are going to want to hear a clear message of hope and salvation. This is not a time to be timid. God has called the church to such as time as this, a time to speak boldly about the the Kingdom of God and to invite people to enter that Kingdom.

I am not a prophet, but I can see people growing weary of the pain and confusion of living in a world that offers them no real hope of a better life. The church has been given such a message to proclaim. We sometimes hear that the time of the church has ended. Don't you believe it! Our time is now! This is the time for the church to step up and be the church God has called it to be. Many are ready to hear a clear message of salvation. Preach it! Let 2022 be a year when many will come to Christ through the faithful ministry of your church.

Merry Christmas

 I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas on my last blog before the holiday. As I look back on the past year it has been one with many challenges and many victories. As we go into the Christmas season I am thankful for the Child for whom we celebrate this holiday. I can truthfully say that without Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior I could not have survived the past 40+ plus years since I invited Him into my life.

For the first 27 years of my life I lived for myself. I spent four years in the Navy, was married and had two children during that time. Life was good in many ways...until it wasn't. As I hit a major roadblock in my life I realized that I needed the faith I once knew in my early childhood but had turned away from. As the pressures of that time intensified it drove me to my knees one day in our home where I asked Jesus Christ to become my Lord and Savior. My life has never been the same!

A few years later I became the pastor of a church, and this year I celebrated 40 years as an ordained minister. I have served as a pastor, a denominational minister and an Intentional Pastor of two churches. During that time I have spent time in both the valleys of life and the mountaintops, but not once has God ever left me. He has allowed me to publish 10 books and lead conferences and speak at seminars for many denominations across the US and Canada. I have enjoyed opportunities I never thought possible while growing up on dairy farms in southern Indiana.

As He promised in the Bible, he has forgiven me of every sin, and there have been many. He has saved me and assured me when this life ends I will be with Him for all eternity. I have many more years behind me now than I have before me so that is a promise I receive gladly.

My prayer for everyone reading this post is that you know the Savior as I do. I pray that you have invited Him into your life as your Lord and Savior and received the gift of eternal life that only He can give. Frankly, if you've not experienced that for yourself, you really cannot celebrate Christmas as you should.

Let me ask you the most important question you will ever be asked. Do you know for certain that if you were to die today that you would go to heaven? Please don't answer with "I hope so," or "I think so." This is too important to not be absolutely certain. The follow-up question is "If you were to die today and God was to ask you why He should let you into heaven, what would your answer be?" Many would point to their church membership, their good deeds, their baptism or confirmation, or many other things they have done, but these would all be wrong answers. The only right response to that question is that you have received Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior. 

My final question: Have you done that? Your answer to this questions will determine your eternity so it's vital that you get it right. I invite anyone who may have questions or doubts about this to contact me. 

My prayer for each of you is that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2022!

What is truth?

 This was the question Pilate asked Jesus as He was being questioned by Pilate. As a lifelong politician Pilate struggled to recognize truth when he heard it. I would imagine many struggle with the same problem today.

Last week we visited our son and his family in Texas. One of the things I immediately noticed at many of the places we went was a sign near the cash register stating that due to a national coin shortage they were requesting that people pay with other methods, of course, meaning by debit or credit card. Such signs were fairly common during the pandemic when it first hit, but I had not seem many of them since. One place refused to accept cash claiming it was company policy. At the airport my wife was going to buy a bag of candy to take on the plane but left when the store required a credit or debit card before allowing her to enter the store. 

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting tired of being lied to every single day. There is no national coin shortage! If you doubt that, go to the webpage of The Federal Reserve which states that there is an adequate supply of coins in the economy. Yes, there was a disruption in the flow of coins during the 2020 pandemic due to businesses and banks closing, but this is a year later. To address that disruption, in 2020 14.8 billion coins were minted, a 24% increase over the number of coins minted in 2019. These are the facts, and a computer printed sheet of paper claiming a national coin shortage isn't going to change that.

Some argue that avoiding the use of cash is necessary because of Covid. People don't want to handle dirty money that might be infected with disease. Well, the fact is that money has always been dirty, and nobody was that concerned about that before. And, how is using a plastic card more sanitary? In many cases, you are handing the card to the cashier, and even when you are putting the card into the machine yourself, you are then required to punch in your access number on the same keys that countless other people have used just before you. You are handing your merchandise to the cashier who is touching it before placing it in a bag that other people have touched. Plus, let's not forget the numerous people who shipped your purchase to the store, those who removed it from the boxes and stocked the shelves with the items you purchased. Anyone with the ability to think for themselves will recognize that using plastic is not more sanitary than using cash. So, what is really going on?

Some people believe that this is an attempt to move us towards a cashless society in order that Revelation 13:17 might be fulfilled. Others think it is just another attempt to manipulate the public to give the government more control over our daily lives. I'm not going to speculate on what the purpose of claiming a national coin shortage is. I'm just tired of being lied to every single day by people who should be concerned about the welfare of our nation and its people.

Even though Pilate questioned truth, he seemed to recognize it in Jesus because as soon as he asked the question he went to the public and claimed he found no fault in Him. The church needs to follow the example of our Lord. In a time when many of us cannot trust our government leaders, the media, or businesses to tell us the truth, the church must be the one place that stands upon the eternal truths of Scripture. Many will not like to hear the truth because 2 Thessalonians 2: 11 tells us that they will believe the lie and reject the truth. Paul further told Timothy that the time would come when people "according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned to fables." (2 Timothy 4: 3-4)

As we plan our preaching for 2022 let's determine to preach the truth of God's Word.

Ministry today

 In 1981 I was called to be the pastor of a small, rural church. For several years I functioned much like the pastors I had growing up. Our challenges were about the same as the churches in which I was raised. My sermons were probably very similar to those I had heard growing up. In time I began addressing some of the social issues that my pastors would have avoided, and when 9/11 occurred I realized ministry, like the rest of life, would be forever changed. However, at the time I could not have realized how much it would change because at the time I doubt that many of us understood how much our world would change. Today's churches must be able to speak to issues previous generations never faced. Failing to do that makes us irrelevant to the culture in which we live.

A few months ago I published an eBook that addresses some of those issues. In Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? I focus on some of the challenges today's church must address if it is to reach our generation. Some of these are not new, racism, poverty, mental illness, for example. While these are not new, they are issues much of the church has largely ignored. Other issues I write about in the book are newer challenges for the church such as gender dysphoria, sexual issues, the rising number of suicides, the growing violence in our society, and several others. In the book I try to help the reader understand why it's important for the church to understand each issue and suggest ways to address them in a positive, biblical manner.

These issues are tearing families apart and causing untold damage to individuals. Society presents its worldview to each of these topics; the church must present a biblical worldview to them as well. Yet, studies find that many churches never speak to any of them. We often act as if these issues don't exist. Even thinking about preaching on many of them makes pastors uncomfortable. The worldview of our culture is being heard. Do not the people in our congregations and communities deserve to hear what the Bible has to say about each of them even if it makes us uncomfortable?

The problem with publishing an eBook is it can get lost in the tens of thousands of such books published every year. This book is finding an audience because it is helping pastors and individual Christians understand how to speak to these difficult issues. You can order it for your Kindle device for only $6.95.

Church guests during the Christmas season

 Many churches will see new faces during the Advent season. Parents and grandparents may attend the service where their children will perform in a cantata or program. Some who were raised in church but drifted away over the years might return simply because it's Christmas. Others will be there because a friend invited them to see the church's Christmas program. There may also be a few who feel that God is satisfied with them attending church services on Christmas and Easter. Whatever the reason for their appearance, your church is likely to see higher attendance during the next couple of weeks. The question is what will you do with this opportunity?

This first suggestion isn't very spiritual, but it's important. Make sure the church is ready to have guests. If you had invited someone to your home you would work hard to make sure it looked good. Everything would be clean and in the proper place. You would want your guests to think well of you and your home so you would spend time making sure it was guest-ready. The same should be true of our churches. It is true that we only get one chance to make a good first impression. If we want to increase the chances of our guests returning we need to make sure that everything is looking good when they arrive.

It's important that church members introduce themselves to their guests. Most of us do not enjoy going someplace new and not having anyone speak to us while we're there. Depending on what the pastor needs to do before the service begins, he or she should greet every new guest and introduce himself to them. I think this simple gesture sends a message to your guests that you are glad they are with you, and it gives them a sense of comfort knowing before the service who the pastor is.

Of course, it's vitally important that your guests hear a simple gospel message while they are in your service. This is an opportunity to plant some seeds that God can use later to speak to them. This is not the time to be using big theological words and speak in Christian-speak. The key word here is simple. Take them from the cradle to the cross and explain why Christ died on the cross. While some churches have done away with the altar call, that is a mistake especially when we know we are likely to have many unchurched people attending our services. An invitation gives them an opportunity to respond to the message they just heard.

If possible, this is a good time to give them a gift for attending, and I'm not talking about a mug or pen with the church's name engraved on them. Give them a book or something they can take home and learn more about Christ and the hope He brings into people's lives. Some churches give The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Case for ... Series) or something similar that can help draw them closer to Christ.

Finally, it's important that the church capture the names and addresses of their guests when possible. Follow-up is important. When you follow up you have the opportunity to answer any questions they might have about the service they attended and to learn their impressions of the church. You can invite them to another service or a major event your church might be planning. But, without that contact information you will lose them unless they decide to return sometime in the future.

Overcoming failure

 There is no one who has not failed at something in their lifetimes. Most of us have failed at many things. The only way to avoid failure is to never do anything, but the minute you begin something new you stand the chance at failing. Sometimes failure makes us afraid to attempt new things in our lives. Perhaps a failed relationship makes us fearful of entering into another relationship. A failed business may keep us from starting another one. Sometimes churches try something new that doesn't work well, and this makes them reluctant to try anything else new. In order to succeed in life we have to learn how to overcome failure.

Perhaps the best way to overcome failure is to not take it personally. Zig Ziglar used to say that failure was an event, not a person. Failing at something doesn't make you a failure; it means you are human. If we can learn to separate the event from the person the failure can be less damaging to us personally.

It's also important to recognize that failure is not permanent. Failure is simply one attempt at doing something that did not work out as you thought, but that does not mean that there may not be other ways to accomplish the thing you want to do. Failure is only final if you refuse to learn from it and quit. Failures can teach us many things if we are willing to learn them, and then we can apply those lessons to the next thing we attempt. I learned many things from a failed business a few years ago which I'm applying to a current business. I will not make the same mistakes again.

One of the lessons we can learn from our failures is that we do not know everything. Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Dave Ramsey and his financial advice. You don't have to listen to his radio program long before you realize that many people keep making the same financial mistakes over and over again. When a person calls his program they are admitting they don't know how to manage their money and want to learn how to do it right. But, think of the millions of people who continue to struggle financially who never consider there might be a better way to manage their money. Recognizing that you do not know everything you need to know about a problem is a good first step in solving it.

Some of our failures come in our personal lives. We fail to be the people we know we should be. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That reminds us that we have all failed at different points in our lives. The good news is that God is the God of second chances, and third chances, and fourth chances. He never gives up on us. He is always ready to forgive when we ask for His forgiveness, and He can help us overcome those areas in our lives that gives us the most problems. Don't ever give up on yourself because you've failed at some aspect of your personal life. God hasn't given up on you, and you shouldn't either.

Traditions

 I can't remember when we first watched The Grinch on television. It may have been in 1966 when it first came out. I do remember my wife and I sitting in a motel room around 1968 watching it on the TV. I was in the Navy and could not come home for Christmas. She flew out to California for a week to spend Christmas with me, and we watched the Christmas specials together. We've never failed to watch The Grinch since then. When it came on the other night our daughter called to make sure we knew it was on so we quickly changed the channel to watch it.

At one point I mentioned to my wife that there was one scene that used to be the spot for the commercial break, but they had taken the commercial break a little sooner. Another point in the show I noticed that one scene had been cut out. We laughed at how we had watched this show so many times we recognized the small changes between this presentation and previous ones.

We are thankful for the traditions that our family has developed over the years. Those traditions are special only to our family, but they serve to remind us of the years we've spent together. Traditions become glue that binds a family together. They are the memories one has of the past that brings a smile to the face and become the stories that are told when a loved one passes.

My wife's family had a tradition on Thanksgiving morning. The men in her family went rabbit hunting on her father's farm. That tradition is no more. I am the only one still alive from that tradition, but I can assure you that early on this past Thanksgiving morning I thought about those mornings we would all gather for our annual hunt. It brought back a lot of happy memories.

I hope your family has some traditions that you observe on a regular basis. Even the ones that seem rather insignificant can result in some great memories and become part of your legacy. While some traditions will change over time, new ones can be created to take their place.

One tradition that every family needs is to attend church regularly. While Christmas specials and rabbit hunts can become wonderful traditions, nothing will impact your family's life more than being involved in your local church. A loving congregation committed to a relationship with Jesus Christ and to one another will be a source of comfort and transformation.

If attending and being involved in a church is not part of your family's traditions, I encourage you to consider making it so in the coming year.

2000th blog post

 This article marks the 2,000th post I've made on this blog. For many bloggers that is not a huge number, but I'm sure there are many people who cannot believe I would have 2,000 things to discuss! Frankly, I didn't realize I had written that many posts until I happened to see the number on my screen.

While the posts have covered a number of different items, most have focused on challenges and opportunities facing the small and bivocational church and those who lead these churches. I have always been, and always will be, an advocate for the smaller church. While there is nothing wrong with larger churches, I am convinced the smaller church can offer things that may be missing in the larger ones. For many people, a smaller church is simply a better fit. There is a sense of family and community commonly found in the smaller church that many are looking for. It is easier to provide personal pastoral care to individuals in the smaller church. Often, people are more engaged in ministry in the smaller church than they might be in a larger one. After all, it's pretty hard to hide in a smaller church. The list of things the smaller church can offer would include much more than I have space to list here.

With my commitment to the smaller church I am also committed to those who lead such churches, especially those serving in bivocational roles. For much of my bivocational pastorate there were few good resources available. I'm excited that has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Books, journal articles, doctoral theses are now available that focus specifically on bivocational ministry. Some schools and seminaries now offer programs especially developed for persons planning to enter bivocational ministry. There are also a growing number of ministers who do plan to serve in that capacity. I cannot tell you how rewarding this is to me.

I've now served in ministry for 40 years. Not everything I've seen change in ministry has been good, but some have. As I continue to view the church world I see many more changes coming, and I am certain there are far more I cannot see. I do believe God is doing a new thing in His church, and as we make the transition to whatever that might be it will be a glorious thing. After all, this is God's church, and no power will prevent it from accomplishing His purposes for it.

Addicts in the church

 Many of the stories one hears about addicts and the difficulties they have seem to focus on those who are homeless, without families, living in poverty and usually outside the church. However, it is likely that there are people sitting in our congregations every week who are addicts. They go to work every day, they are involved in church activities, they appear to have solid families, and it seems they have their lives together. However, they are still addicts. What can your church do to minister to them?

When you first hear the term addict you may immediately think of someone addicted to drugs or alcohol. Yes, you may have some of those folks in your church, but we need realize that a person can be addicted to many things that, in themselves, may not be harmful but still present a challenge to live a God-honoring life.

For instance, many people are addicted to shopping. They practice what I often call "retail therapy." I know one faithful Christian lady whose house was overflowing with things she had bought late at night on a TV shopping channel. She didn't have one of something; she had 10-12 of the same item, all in the original package. A family member told me they had hauled several dumpsters of things out before selling the rest at auction. I do not know what battles this lady had, but it seems she was trying to overcome those battles with a shopping addiction.

A very common addiction today is to social media and electronics. The amount of time people spend on social media and their electronic devices is staggering. In my book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? I share some statistics that demonstrate how prevalent this addiction is. While it might be found more in younger people, it affects people of all generations.

The list of potential addictions is endless and would include many things which are not harmful in themselves. One of the dangers of addictions is that they take our focus away from God and place it on the things we desire more. In effect, these addictions become our gods. We bow down to them and worship them. We become devoted to them. They take over our lives. The rob us of the best God desires for us.

I included a chapter on addictions in the above mentioned book because I do not find many churches addressing the problem except as it relates to alcohol, drugs, pornography and other harmful behaviors. Yet, studies indicate that there are many in our churches who have no problem with those things but are addicts nonetheless. We need to offer these individuals help as well. Satan uses these addictions to pull people away from God, and we need to let them know that and help them break those addictions.

The book includes several other ministry needs that are taking on more importance as we continue through the 21st century. It is available only as an eBook and is being well received by church leaders. As we enter into a new year it's my hope the church becomes more intentional about addressing the challenges people are facing and helping them find biblical solutions to those challenges.

Young people have questions the church needs to answer

 Many reasons are given as to why many young people leave the church. Each young person has his or her own reasons for walking away from the church if not the faith, but one reason seems to come up quite often. No one was willing to answer their questions. As I was discussing this with one group a young teen spoke up and said that was her experience in her youth group. She's a pretty sharp young lady who is not afraid to ask questions, but she said her questions were mostly ignored by the youth leaders which made her feel like she was being ignored as well.

Some pastors and leaders seem to take the approach that because they say something further discussion is unnecessary and unwelcomed. In such an environment, young people might decide it's not safe to ask their questions, but they are also planning to leave that environment as soon as possible. In the past we often focused on the number of young people who left the church when they went to college and thought that experience was the reason. Recent studies have found that young people who left the church made the decision to do so during their high school years if not earlier. Perhaps for family reasons they could not do so, but they had decided long before leaving for college that the church was not in their future plans. For some of those young people, the fact that they could not safely ask their questions about the Christian faith and the church was the determining factor for that decision.

Some of these questions revolve around science. Some studies have found that over half of young people in youth groups plan a career in a science-related field. There has been a long history of distrust between science and faith, and in too many churches that distrust has been heightened by statements from the pulpit and from other church leaders and from many in the science community. Yet, there are many, many well-respected scientists who are strong Christian people. The church needs to hear those voices, and especially the young people planning a career in science needs to hear those voices. We do not need to fear questions about science. In fact, we should welcome them if we want to help our young people be able to connect their faith with their careers.

Other questions might concern lifestyle choices. Many today have questions about authority which would naturally lead to why we should accept the Bible as authoritative. In our pluralistic society there will be questions about some of the exclusive claims of Christianity. Is Jesus truly the only way to God? Again, we should welcome those questions, and many more, and be ready to engage in discussions with those raising them.

We cannot refuse to answer the questions our young people are asking without risking them turning away from the faith and the church. We've already lost too many for this reason. Such questions will help both the questioner and the ones providing answers grow in their faith and as disciples.

The impossible ministry

 Several years ago while serving as a regional minister for our denomination we found ourselves in a financial pinch. The economy was down, many of our churches were struggling financially and were contributing less to the denomination. As our staff retired they were not being replaced. Those of us who continued to serve were given the responsibilities of those who had retired. As this began, I had less than 90 churches in my area, but this grew to over 130. The geographical area I covered doubled causing me to spend a lot more time on the road. As this began, a member of our personal committee told me that I had been given an impossible task but to do the best I could and not get discouraged when I couldn't do everything I had done before.

I think about this as I read about the numbers of pastors who are frustrated with ministry and thinking about leaving. Ministry was already tough in our postmodern world, and the challenges of Covid made it even more difficult. One young pastor told me he had just gone to his first church when Covid happened, and nothing in his training had prepared him for all the decisions that needed to be made. That would be true even for those of us who have been in ministry for a number of years, but I'm sure it was even more challenging for him.

Ministry is difficult, and in many ways, impossible. Every pastor faces expectations that can never be met. Most of us do not get into trouble for not meeting the requirements of our job description. We get into trouble when we fail to meet the expectations of the people in our congregations. As I've told many pastor gatherings, in a church of 50 people there will be 50 different unwritten job descriptions, and in many of our churches there might be 51 because we'll have at least one person somewhat schizophrenic! It is impossible to meet everyone's expectations. So what do we do?

First, we have to remember that we are called by God to do His work. While the church's expectations are not to be ignored, our first responsibility is to the task God has given us. We may not be able to do that if we are running around like a stray dog at a whistler's convention trying to satisfy everyone's expectations.

Secondly, we have to work as much as possible within the areas of our giftedness. Notice I said as much as possible. I know the areas in which God has gifted me, and I am much more effective as long as I work within those areas. However, there are times when I must step outside those areas to handle necessary tasks. I try to minimize that as much as possible, but every pastor will find times when it necessary.

Thirdly, we have to stay true to our priorities. Some churches still expect pastors to ignore their family needs to be available to them 24/7/365. We need to be very clear about our priorities and make sure everyone else is clear as to what they are.

Finally, we must realize that everything does not depend on us. The cemeteries are full of indispensable people, and somehow life went on even when they were gone. This is God's work. We partner with Him for the time He gives us with our particular ministry. Horizontally or vertically, one day we will leave our current ministry, and if the Lord tarries another will take our place. While we are there we are simply called to do the best we can do with the Lord's help.

That period of denominational ministry was often impossible. There were times of frustration when it seemed overwhelming, but one can only do what one can do. When I retired from that ministry I did so feeling good about what had been accomplished. New people were called in to continue the work, and they have done very well. God is working with them just as He did with me, and good things are happening.

Don't let ministry beat you up. Stay faithful to the work God has given you. Do the best you can do and leave the rest to Him. One day you'll be rewarded when you hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant...."

Where did we lose Thanksgiving?

 Many of the houses on our street are decorated for Halloween. Some have much more elaborate decorations than they put up for Christmas. This weekend hundreds of children will walk down our street asking for treats. Some will be wearing cute costumes while others will try to look as scary as possible. I don't know if it's possible, but I think Halloween has become even more commercialized than Christmas. But, we don't hear much about Thanksgiving.

Yes, families still may gather for a big dinner and watch football games between naps, but there's not much emphasis given to Thanksgiving. Many stores begin putting out their Christmas decorations for sale about the same time as they promote their Halloween items, but try to find a section dedicated to Thanksgiving. Unless you're looking in the meat department at the frozen turkeys you won't find many items for Thanksgiving. I wonder where we lost Thanksgiving.

I think it reflects the general lack of thanksgiving that people have today. We spend more time complaining about things than we spend expressing our gratitude. We have become a very selfish, self-centered society that believes we are entitled to more than we have. Our greed for more keeps us from being grateful for what we do have.

The apostle Paul said he had learned to be content in whatever state he was in. That's something many of us have not learned. It's also important to note that it was something he learned. I'm not sure that gratitude is something that is natural to many people. We need to learn to be grateful, and we need to learn to express that gratitude to God and to others.

I'm 73 years old and in mostly good health. My wife and I have been married for 55 years. Our children and grandchildren are healthy. We have food to eat, a roof over our heads, and a God Who loves us more than we can ever imagine. I am thankful for each of these things. Each Sunday I gather to worship to express that gratitude to God. I try as often as possible to make sure my family knows how much they mean to me and how grateful I am that we are a family.

Even though we are still almost a month away from Thanksgiving I encourage you to begin thinking about the things in your life for which you are thankful. You may want to make a list and share it with family and loved ones as you gather around the Thanksgiving table.

When leadership fails

We recently spent 10 days in Panama City Beach to celebrate our anniversary. We've done this almost every year for probably 20 years now. We have found many great restaurants that serve fresh seafood dinners, and most evenings we'll go to one to eat. I was surprised this year to find that many had closed permanently. Some might say that the Covid shut-down caused that, but you'll never convince me of that. The ones we went to were packed out every night with long lines waiting to get in. These restaurants certainly survived the Covid shut-down. How are they doing so well when other good restaurants down there did not? I think it is leadership. I told my family one evening that any restaurant that can't make it in that beach environment has nothing to blame but poor leadership. 

As I've written here many times, everything rises and falls on leadership. Even with all the competition from other excellent restaurants in PCB, with the millions of tourists who go there every year there is no reason that a well managed restaurant cannot do well in that environment. 

I look at our nation today and see all the problems that we have. I don't need to list them; you're aware of them. How has this great nation found itself in this condition? The answer is the same...poor leadership. I don't even refer to those holding national office as leaders anymore. They are office holders. They couldn't lead a two person parade let alone a nation. They get re-elected to office because people are too lazy, uninformed, or apathetic to vote them out of office and replace them with people who are truly interested in this country. The same thing can be said of many state and local people holding political office. Look at the states that are struggling and compare them to those that are doing well. The difference will be in the quality of their leadership. The same thing is true of cities. Don't say that the solution to the problem is term limits because we already have term limits. Every two years we have elections so there are plenty of opportunities to vote out those that are taking this country down the drain. All people have to do is study the candidates, see what they've done and vote for those that will be lead this country. If we took our responsibilities as citizens seriously few of those currently in office would still hold that office after their next election.

John Maxwell tells the story of having dinner with the president of a company that bought failing hotels. He asked the president what they did when they bought one of these hotels, and the response was that the first thing they did was fire the managers. Maxwell said he was surprised that they didn't try to talk to the managers or offer them training. When he asked about that the president said if they were any good their hotel wouldn't have failed. They fired the managers and brought in people who would provide the leadership needed to make the hotel successful. Remember this story during our next election.

Churches are no different. Many churches are struggling at the same time that some are doing very well. Again, the difference is in leadership. Leaders who have a vision will effectively lead their organizations. Those without a vision will not. Pastors who are committed to the Word of God and to ministering to their communities will have churches that will follow their example. God will bless such churches. Pastors and church leaders who are stuck doing the same things that haven't worked in 5 decades, who have little commitment to the Scriptures and who lack vision will see their churches continued to decline until they eventually close.

It must also be noted that there are some excellent pastors with great leadership abilities and vision who will find it impossible to lead their current churches out of decline. No matter how hard they work, they will find nothing but resistance from the congregation. Such pastors should realize that the seeds for failure were planted in those churches years earlier, and it is unlikely that those churches will survive. When pastors find themselves in such situations they need to seek God's guidance. Sometimes, given enough time even the most resistant church can be turned around. At other times it might be best to follow the advice Jesus gave His disciples and shake the dust off one's feet and move on to a healthier place. Only after much prayer can that decision be made wisely.

No church will ever close because it lacks ministry opportunities. We are told that a minimum of 80% of every county in the United States is unchurched. We have a huge mission field in our back yards. Whether we reach that mission field is a matter of leadership. Too often, churches get comfortable with the status quo. We may complain occasionally about the lower number of people attending our services, but we don't get upset enough about it to actually do anything. Things will only change when the leaders want it to change and are willing to capture a fresh vision from God for the church which will be supported by the church. 

The missing generations

Go into many churches, especially if they are older and smaller churches, and you are likely to find some generations missing.  You will often find in these churches senior saints and smaller children who were probably brought to the church by their grandparents. You are likely not to find many in the 18-39 age range. These generations have been lost to many churches. Many in this age range attended church when they were younger, but for various reasons they have withdrawn from the church.

Some people believe they left the church because they found the music and/or the worship services boring. This is probably true for some of them. Others point to college as a factor in many of them walking away from the church or even their faith. No doubt this is also true for some. But these may not be the primary reasons we have lost our young people and continue to do so.

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, has studied young people for a number of years and believes there are other reasons we see young people walking away from the church. He writes about what his research has taught him in his book You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith.

One of the interesting reasons he has found is that the church is overprotective. Many children today are raised by what has become known as helicopter parents who want to protect them from anything that might harm them. Certainly, no parent wants their children harmed, but it's possible to go overboard with trying to protect them from every possible danger. I'm surprised some kids are not sent outside to play covered in bubble-wrap!

As these children grow us they find many churches doing the same thing. They are constantly warned about the dangers of the world. Again, such warnings are necessary as there is much evil in the world. But they wonder how the church can influence our culture if we are to avoid it.

Jesus always spoke of the risks associated with following Him. He never promised life would be easy or even safe when one became a Christian. He challenged us to be in the world but not of it. We are to be salt and light to our evil world, not avoid it. Young people want to make a difference in the world, and they are frustrated that the church's teaching often discourages that.

Kinnaman wrote, "For many young Christians, there is a realization that they want to follow Christ in a way that does not separate them from the culture. They want to be culture makers, not culture avoiders." When they see their church merely condemning the culture without trying to redeem it, they will try to do that without the church.

The author points out that this is especially true for young people who are creatives and artists. Christian musicians are sometimes condemned by the church for performing for secular audiences. Christian filmmakers also may not receive much support from the Christian community if their movies are not overtly Christian. The music and films may contain positive Christian-inspired themes, but some in the church will still not be satisfied. 

If we want to keep our young people the church must become willing to support them in their efforts to transform the culture in which they are going to live. That could get messy at times and it may be uncomfortable for some people, but this is the risk we must take. We've often heard people say that young people are the church of the future, but these people are wrong. Young people are the church of today if we will help them in their efforts to transform the culture in which we all live.

Reaching a digital audience with the Gospel

 Back in the late 1970s I had a personal experience that helped bring me to the Lord. As I was struggling with some issues in my life at the time I frequently worked overtime, sometimes 6-7 days a week. One of the things I remember from that time was that on Sunday mornings as I would drive to the factory I would listen to a program on the radio called the Mull Singing Convention hosted by the Rev. J. Bazzel Mull and Mrs. Mull. Southern Gospel groups were regularly featured on their program. Even now I remember hearing The Old Ship of Zion sung by the Kingsmen with tears running down my face as I drove to work. The songs and the messages shared on that program helped me understand how badly I needed Christ in my life.

Years later I was working in the same factory on third shift. I was now a Christian and a bivocational pastor of a small, country church. I kept a radio near my work station where I was able to listen to another broadcast called Unshackled by the Pacific Garden Mission. These stories told how struggling people found hope in Jesus Christ, usually through a ministry of a Mission. These stories inspired and blessed me every night.

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of serving our digital congregations and the challenges churches will face in doing this. My radio experiences occurred long before social media was available, but I think they demonstrate the importance of reaching out to people where they are rather than insisting they walk into our buildings to be introduced to Christ. That old radio program was just one of the ways God was reaching out to me during that difficult time in my life, but it was an important part. Unshackled was one of the tools God used to disciple a young Christian and minister. Our digital ministries will also impact the lives of other young people who are dealing with difficult times in their lives. Who knows how many lives were impacted through these radio programs, and who knows how many lives can be transformed today through the social media tools we now possess.

The Mulls began on radio but began broadcasting on television in 1959. In the earliest years the music groups had to perform live in the station, but later the Mulls began using black and white film and later switched to color video tape. I share this history to remind us that we cannot be satisfied with doing what we had to do quickly when the pandemic closed our churches. Yes, we can celebrate that early success on social media, but we have to keep improving what we are doing if we want to effectively impact people's lives. What was good enough when we first started won't continue to be good enough later. 

God is giving the church some new tools to use in evangelism and discipleship, but it is up to us to maximize their effectiveness. Many of our churches rose to the challenge to be able to offer their services online. Now we are being challenged to raise the bar even higher and offer the best possible ministries online that we can.

The church isn't likely to ever return to "normal"

 In 2008 I was serving as a regional minister for our denomination. As the recession deepened and many people found themselves unemployed and losing their homes and retirement savings many churches experienced greatly reduced offerings. As a result, denominations saw giving to their various mission agencies reduced as well. Our region was no different. Some of us, including myself, believed giving would return to previous levels when the economy improved. Our Minister of Finance felt otherwise and said very clearly that he did not believe our giving level would return to what it was prior to 2008. He was proven correct. In fact, it continued to decline well after the economy recovered.

Many in our churches still believe that if we ever get Covid under control our churches will return to normal attendance and ministries. While Covid is still with us and impacting many areas of our society, it is not having the impact it did in the midst of the original pandemic, but few, if any, churches would claim they have returned to pre-Covid normal. Most church consultants and other leaders do not believe things will ever return to normal. 

What we are finding is that many people have reinvested their lives in other activities on Sundays other than going to church. When churches were shut down some people found that they really didn't miss it that much. They found their lives had not changed much, if at all, by their not attending church services. Others found that watching online satisfied their spiritual needs. While some churches were closed, others were open, and some people who craved attending live services began attending those open churches and won't return to their former ones.

Most churches today need to define a "new normal." How will they minister in a post-pandemic world? We first need to recognize that digital ministry is here to stay. It was refreshing to find so many churches make the move to offering their worship services on social media. Many of those churches would have never made that change if they had not been forced to do so by the pandemic. But, this now presents these churches with four different congregations. As Thom Rainer points out in his book, The Post-Quarantine Church: Six Urgent Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation, three of these congregations are the digital-only, who are unable to return to the worship service or remain afraid to do so due to Covid, the digital-transitioning, who are mostly connected to the digital worship service but will attend in person occasionally, and the dual citizens who relate to the church both in person and digitally. Add these three those who only attend in-person gatherings and you are now challenged with ministering to four different congregations. Rainer gives some tips on how a church might do that, but most of us are going to find it difficult to do it well.

The good news is that none of this caught God by surprise. This is not a time for church leaders to despair but to pray and seek God's guidance for moving forward. We are being presented with an opportunity to do ministry in new ways that may prove to be just what we needed as our world becomes even more digitally connected. No doubt we will make some mistakes along the way, but the biggest mistake we will make is if we wait for things to return to normal again.

Vision Statement

I currently serve as the Transitional Pastor of Westport Baptist Church in Westport, Indiana. It is a great church with a rich history. We recently completed a process by which we were seeking to discern God's vision for the church as it moves forward. A number of people participated in the process. We had some great discussions as we sought to understand what God wanted us to be and do in the years ahead. As we came to the end of our discussion and discernment process we identified the following vision statement. "Our church will be a vibrant, inviting place to be. The congregation will have opportunity to fellowship with and learn from each other as well as other community members through small groups, outreach and other ministries based on community needs."

This seems like a simple statement, but it is packed with a lot of depth and challenges to our traditional church. I plan to spend several weeks addressing the various components in this statement to our congregation and invite them to begin living into this vision. If we will do so it can have a tremendous impact on our church as well as the community around us.

One of the key items in the statement is its focus on the community. There is definitely a discipleship element in the statement, but it has a major focus on those in our community who are hurting and do not yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We will be looking for those existing ministry opportunities that are not being addressed by other churches in the area and seeking how we can bring God's healing to those opportunities.

The challenge for us, as for all churches, is to not allow this to just become another statement of things we should do. Some churches have gone through the process of vision discernment, and when it was completed they had a statement that sits on a shelf gathering dust. A vision only impacts a church and community when the church lives in that vision. My prayer is that we will take this vision and use it as we make decisions regarding ministries, staffing, finances and all other decisions that affect the church. We must come to the place where if something is proposed that fits into the vision it is automatically given a green light. Conversely, we must be able to say no to those things that are outside the vision.

Living into a vision can become very messy. Organizations will always attempt to revert back to the comfort of what they know, and the church is no different. It is vital that churches not allow that to happen. God is doing a new thing today, and churches need to be a part of that. I do not pretend to know what this new thing is going to look like when we come through the other side, but I know church ministry is much different than it was when I began 40 years ago, and I'm excited to be allowed to be part of this transition.

Does your church have a sense of God's vision for your church's future ministry, or are you stuck doing the same things you've been doing for decades? Discerning a fresh vision is not easy, and it's even more difficult to begin living into it, but if we want our churches to have a future ministry it's imperative that we identify His vision. 

Adaptive leadership in the church

 Church leaders are asking why the changes they are attempting to make are not actually producing results. One reason is that we are trying to make things happen that are not going to happen. A church consultant shared something online this week that goes along with what I've been writing about for some time. We have been lying to ourselves saying that people will come back to the church. We said that when our young people started leaving the church. We said it when Covid kept people from attending the services in person. At least then we could point to the numbers of people who began watching online, but many churches now report they are seeing those numbers decrease, and it's not because these folks have returned to the live service. Some have learned they can get by very well without attending church very often, if at all. Most of them will not come back. We can keep trying to make changes in the hope that people will return to the church, but the likelihood is that they won't. 

The second reason our change efforts are failing is that we continue to make technical changes when adaptive changes are required. We make technical changes when we try to tweak a system we already have with things we already know. We might change the times of our worship service, change our committees into teams, change the music in our services, change the format of our services, make changes in the way we present our sermons, etc. In other words, we do what we already know what to do but we dress it up a little different. Technical solutions are fine if our problems are technical in nature, but the challenges I'm referring to are not technical. As you may have already learned, you can do all these things and nothing has really changed in the church.

If we want to respond to the challenges facing today's church we have to adapt to the reality of today's culture. We have to be willing to go on an adventure we had not planned on taking and find new ways to be the church in a new world.

Let me give you an example from outside the church. Last year our state banned public gatherings for about 3 months or so due to Covid. Even when that was lifted limited numbers of people were permitted to gather. When I resumed having auctions it was not uncommon for there to be no more than 20 people attending. That is not good for an auction! A friend of mine told me he was making a shift to doing his auction online. At first I was not interested in doing that. I love auction day. There is an excitement associated with auctions that I felt was not possible online. But, the people were not coming back. Prices were lower than they should be which wasn't good for me or my sellers. Something had to change.

I could have made technical changes. I could have changed my auction day from Tuesday to Thursday to see if people would come back. I could have increased my advertising or held special promotions. However, none of those would have made a difference. So, I adapted to the new reality and began conducting my auctions online. I signed up with an online company and had to learn their program. I had to learn new ways of presenting the items I have for sale at auction. I had to convince some sellers that online auctions were a good way to sell their items. I had to learn new marketing methods and how to effectively ship those items that were not purchased locally. The truth is we are still learning. The adaptive changes I made worked, and this year we will do more auctions than we've done the previous three years combined and new people from across the country sign up for every auction. It has been very successful.

Churches can beat their heads against the wall trying to get the people back who have left or we can accept the fact that most of them are not coming back and renew our focus on fulfilling the Great Commission in our communities. We can become worshiping, praying communities reaching into our neighborhoods to offer healing and hope to those who have been broken by life.

What will this look like? I don't know. What will the adaptive changes we need to make look like? I don't know. I don't believe anyone knows. Let's not wait until someone finds out and offers us a conference. I don't think there is time for that. Instead, let's take risks, let's trust God and launch out seeking to be on mission with Him. No doubt there will be some failures on the way doing that, but it's better than trying to do the same things that haven't been effective in decades.

The joy of pastoring a church

 As I've shared many times in this blog, for 20 years I had the privilege of serving as the bivocational pastor of a great little, rural church. After a few years serving there I was driving out to the church praying when it hit me that God had given me that community to pastor. I was not there just for that congregation but for the community around it. It was my parish, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude that God trusted me with such a responsibility.

My working title for my first book was The Joy of Bivocational Ministry. The publisher changed it to The Tentmaking Pastor: The Joy of Bivocational Ministry. As you can see, I convinced them to at least leave my title in as the sub-title. Some asked me how there could be joy in serving as a bivocational pastor with all the responsibilities I had to juggle. There was joy in that role, and those 20 years were some of the most fulfilling years of my life. I wrote the book so others could hear of that joy and, hopefully, find that same joy in their own ministries.

During my 40 years in ministry I've met many pastors who felt no joy in ministry. After leaving that church for denominational ministry I found many pastors struggling with the challenges of ministry. Their initial excitement and sense of calling had been lost years earlier in the midst of church fights, changes in the culture, lack of volunteers, lack of financial support, and the pressures often found in pastoral work. More than a few were just trying to hold on until they could retire, and some gave up before reaching retirement to take other work.

I've faced my challenges in pastoral ministry, both as a pastor and as a denominational minister, but I have never done anything as rewarding and satisfying as the ministry. People have disappointed me at times, but God has never disappointed me. On the other side of that coin, there have also been people who have blessed me beyond measure. What could be more exciting than to see a person give their life to Christ? What greater privilege could anyone have than to baptize someone into the faith? There are few things in this world that can bring greater joy than to hear someone say that my ministry had touched their lives.

I want to encourage every minister reading this blog to fall in love again with the calling God has placed on your life. There are some challenging times ahead for the church, and I believe that pastors are going to find themselves dealing with issues they have not been trained to address. It's going to require courage and boldness to ride out the tidal waves that the church is facing, but God called you to this role because He knew you could do it.

Love your calling. Love your people, even the difficult ones. If you're struggling as a minister, rediscover the joy your first felt when you began. Don't focus on the difficult circumstances. Keep your eyes looking above when your strength lies and allow Him to empower you for the challenges you face. Thank God every day for the ministry He has given you.

There will come a day when my ministry will end. I do not look forward to that day. If I had my life to live over again, I would not hesitate to return to pastoral ministry. There is no greater calling a person can commit his or her life to. If you are struggling to believe that right now, I encourage you to begin to ask God to help you find that same joy in your ministry.

Seminary didn't prepare me for this

 At gatherings of pastor meetings one will often hear it said, "Seminary didn't prepare me for this." It's usually said out of frustration at the growing number of challenges church leaders face today. Although some claim much higher numbers, actual research indicates that about 250 pastors leave the ministry each month for reasons other than death or retirement. For many of these pastors, the demands and the ever-changing face of ministry made them decide to make a career move. Other data indicates that 29% of pastors considered leaving the ministry in the past year. Some of that may be due to the challenges they faced dealing with Covid, but for many, that challenge was just one more on top of the many other challenges they faced.

It's been said, "What got you here won't get you there." That's certainly true of ministry. Think of all the churches that once saw large crowds, growing ministries and successful programs that are now struggling and even facing closing their doors. They thought they could just continue doing what they had always done and continue to see the same results. Even some larger churches that have known tremendous growth over the past decade are now beginning to sense that things are not well and their effective ministries are no longer providing the results they once did.

Those pastors who pointed at their seminary education were right: seminary did not prepare them for ministry today. Seminary taught them how to preach, how to manage the church structures they were in, how to provide pastoral care and to be the theological and church history experts in their churches. All necessary things to know and sufficient for churches during Christendom, but we now live in a post-Christian world, and it is in this world that we are called to do ministry. The things we learned previously will not be sufficient in this new world. New skills are needed. New ways of understanding ministry must be learned.

One of the problems is that there are no experts to teach us. We are in a completely new, uncharted territory when it comes to doing ministry. I've written before about how the church is in a time of transition, and no one knows what it's going to look like on the other side. So what do we do?

We explore. This is a time when bold leadership is needed that seeks creative ways to do ministry in our world as it exists today, not as we remember it. We take chances and try new things. Each church and its leadership must look for ways to do ministry in the communities in which they were placed by God. We recognize that we are now missionaries called to reach a pagan world. Our churches are not merely places in which to meet but are mission stations where people worship God and then are taught how to do ministry as missionaries. 

Some church leaders and the churches they lead will be unable to adapt to this new way of thinking. They will be convinced that if they just try harder doing the things they've always done that things will improve. They won't. What got you here won't get you there. What you learned in seminary will not be sufficient for ministry in the 21st century. We face too many new challenges that our education and past success did not prepare us to address.

I challenge you to begin to look at ministry with fresh eyes. Ask God to help you with that. Are there new ways of doing ministry that will be more effective? How can you lead your congregation to explore those new ways? What needs to be transformed for your congregation to become willing to take the necessary risks these times require? As a leader, are you willing be transformed first before asking your church to be transformed?

>

How elastic is your church?

 When Jesus talks about the problem of putting new wine into old wineskins He is referring to the way the wine expands as it ferments. An older wineskin is rigid and won't expand as the fermenting wine expands.  The result is that the old wineskin breaks and becomes useless. A new wineskin is still flexible and elastic allowing it to expand with the wine. 

For decades the church has operated with an attractional model. We invited people to attend our worship services and tried to provide incentives to get them to come. We might have changed our musical styles, offered new programs, changed the name of the church, and a host of other things that we thought might attract people to our church services. Unfortunately, what happened more often than not was that we were just swapping people with other churches. Our programs often did little more than entice someone to leave the church they were attending to come to ours. When another church began to offer a newer program or ministry, these same people often left to attend that church. There was little impact on reaching persons who were not yet Christians.

People who are not Christians have little interest in our programs or ministries. They could care less what name is on our signs or our musical styles. They are not interested in our branding. They are living their lives without the church and see no reason to add it to one more thing they need to introduce into  their lives. The attractional model of church is seldom going to be effective as we continue into the 21st century. We have to find new ways to minister to people where they are both physically and spiritually.

One of the lessons learned from the Covid pandemic is that organizations have to be flexible if they want to achieve their mission. Schools have had to adapt to online learning forcing teachers and administrators to scramble to provide that education to their students. Many businesses have struggled to have employees, and many have reduced their hours due to manpower issues. Churches who never thought they would have an online presence had to take crash courses in Facebook and YouTube to provide worship opportunities to their congregations. This same flexibility will be required if we want to reach our communities for the Kingdom of God.

If people won't come to our churches, we must go to them. Incidentally, this is what Jesus told us to do in the Great Commission.  We are to go into all the world, not unlock our church doors and ask people to come to us. The question for each church is where do we go? Who are the people God has given us to reach? How do we take the Gospel to them in a way that is relevant to their daily lives, and how do we earn the right to speak it to them? Is our church elastic enough to move from an attractional model to a missional model?

Some churches will be like old wineskins. They are simply too rigid to allow the necessary changes to occur. They will continue to function as they have in the past until the day comes when their doors are locked. Other churches will have the elasticity to allow the expanding changes to occur that will permit their ministries to be more effective. They will find new ways of relating to people who do not yet know Jesus and learn new methods of sharing the Gospel with them. They will try some things that may not work, but rather than becoming discouraged and quitting, they will try other methods of reaching those God has given them.

Your structure is perfectly designed for the results you are getting. If you are in a rigid structure, you will keep getting what you've been getting. If you are in an elastic structure, you can accomplish far greater things than you can imagine. How elastic is your church?

How will your church choose to minister?

 My latest book is titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?. It addresses some of the cultural issues that the church is facing. Many churches have tried to ignore some of these but to continue to do that is to abandon a lot of hurting people. Most of these are not new challenges, but they are ones a lot of churches are not prepared to address. It's tempting to think that only those persons outside the church are dealing with these issues, but that it not the case. The truth is that many within our churches are dealing with the same challenges. I wrote this book to help church leaders and their churches be better informed about how to serve those in our congregations and communities.

How will your church minister to the individual who may be dealing with gender dysphoria? While this is not a new issue, it is one that seems to be increasing as we continue into the 21st century. How much do you know about the difficulties people face when they believe they were born the wrong gender? While many in our society today encourage those persons to live into the gender they prefer, is this the best solution for them physically, emotionally and spiritually? How do you minister to the other family members? The book provides a chapter to help provide an overview of what science, and more importantly, the Scriptures say about this challenge. You will also find some helpful resources there to further your understanding.

How will your church minister to the person considering suicide as a way to end their pain? More people think about suicide than you may realize, and it is a growing problem among young people. Do you know the signs of someone who is thinking about ending his or her life? How do you minister to the family of someone who has taken his or her life or the loved ones who live each day in fear that the person will? Again, I think this book will help you find some answers and point you to more helpful resources.

Despite what our culture says about same-sex marriage and relationships, what does the Bible teach? Just as importantly, how does the church share that information in a way that is helpful. For too long the church has been seen as hostile towards people in same-sex relationships. Many people today believe the Bible teaches that we are to hate those in such relationships, but that is not what it teaches at all. All persons, regardless of the choices they have made in life, are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with respect. This book tries to remind us that the Bible teaches us to always speak the truth in love.

If your church is like most, you want to help those who come to you with financial needs. But, how much of that money actually helps them? Are we enabling bad behavior and/or bad choices? Are we helping people remain dependent upon others? How can the church provide help in a way that respects the dignity of the person and helps them become financially wise?

Other chapters focus on different challenges the church currently faces and will likely face even more in the future. If we want to be relevant to the needs of this generation, as well as future ones, we must learn how to best respond to these various challenges. My prayer is that this latest book will provide church leaders with some of the tools they will need to do that. It's only available for your Kindle devices from Amazon.

Covid and family emergencies and change

 I haven't posted anything lately as we've been dealing with health issues and other family emergencies over the past few weeks. I had Covid first, and on the day I was out of quarantine my wife came down with it. She actually had to spend one night in the hospital. After being home for a few days, she became ill again last week and went back into the hospital for three days with some complications they believe is related to Covid. On top of that, another family member contracted the disease and was later diagnosed with some after effects. To say the past month or so has been challenging would be an understatement, but we are pressing onward and upward.

One author recently wrote that the challenges that will face us in the future will be unlike any that have been seen before. In the past, a challenge would arise and we could address it with things we had learned from similar past events. That may not be the case in the future. Just like Covid forced everyone to find new ways of dealing with everyday life, the new challenges that will come will require us to change in new ways to address them. I think of our educators who do know one week from the next what decisions will have to be made to educate our children. I think of employers who are struggling to stay open never knowing if their employees will suddenly be quarantined for two weeks. And who knows what new challenges are out there for us?

Another author I recently read said that churches continue to spend much time trying to get people to attend their services and programs, and the reality is that isn't going to happen. This is an unexpected change for many churches and church leaders to consider. After spending several years pastoring a megachurch in the US he resigned to spend three years ministering in Europe. There he learned how most of the people consider going to church to be irrelevant to their lives. The majority of people there are totally secular with no sense of any need for God in their lives. He warned that the attitude towards church and God in America is fast becoming the same as in Europe making most of our outreach efforts ineffective.

For the past few years we've heard about the "nones," those people who report they have no religious affiliation. There are also the "dones." These are people who are done with the church as it currently exists. They may have been hurt by the church or they may just find it to no longer be relevant to their lives, but they are not going back. The "nones" and the "dones" are raising a generation who are not in church, know nothing about God and the church, and will grow up completely secular in their thinking and their worldview.

Unfortunately, although we know this is the case, much of our Western church world has continued to function as it always has. We keep doing the same things we've done for decades with diminishing returns. We cannot continue to address new challenges with the same tired programs and remedies that haven't worked in decades. We must find new ways of ministering to the world as it is, not as we remembered it. We must become missionaries to our ever-growing secular world and find new ways of connecting people to Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.

For years I have been telling churches and other gatherings that the church is in the midst of transition. I do not know what the church will look like when we come through that transition, but I am quite certain it will be much different than it is today. The question each of us must ask is are we are willing to make the necessary changes to be part of what God is doing, or will our churches become like the empty religious monuments in Europe that used to be healthy vital churches?

Mental illness and the church

In my latest e-Book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? there is a chapter that discusses the church's response to mental illness. The chapter begins with a quote from one who has studied how mental illness is addressed in churches. She writes, "If your church is typical of the US population, on any given Sunday one in four adults and one in five children sitting around you are suffering from a mental illness." That is a startling statistic for many to consider, and some may choose to not believe it could be true of their congregation. That may be a naïve assumption because many struggling with such illnesses often attempt to hide it unsure how the congregation would respond if they knew the challenges the person had.

Some churches do not respond well to those with mental illnesses. Some believe such illness is due to unconfessed sin in the person's life, and they take the attitude that until the person is willing to confess that sin there is nothing the church can do to help them. Other churches believe mental illness is the result of demon possession and want to cast out the demon. Some churches teach that if a person takes medication or seeks counseling for mental illness it is a sign of a lack of faith in God. These churches often do no more than encourage the person with a mental illness to trust in Jesus or spend more time in prayer and Bible reading. Such advice may be beneficial, but it is unlikely to help someone whose mental illness is due to biological or genetic issues or those who have suffered a traumatic event in their lives.

Many church simply choose to pretend that mental illness is not a problem in their church. In one study 98.4 percent of pastors responded admitted they knew persons who had a mental illness. Yet, 12.5 percent said is is rarely discussed in their churches, and 20 percent reported it was never discussed.

As I've shared before in this blog, in the mid-1980s I suffered from clinical depression. For a year I took medicines and saw a counselor each week until the depression left. I have spoken openly about my struggle in numerous churches and leadership conferences I have led. As a result of my openness I have had dozens of church leaders, both pastors and lay, confess to me that they too struggled with depression. After mentioning it in one church a pastor's wife came to me and whispered in my ear, "Thank you."

If the numbers in the earlier quote are correct, mental illness is a serious problem in our society. Personally, I feel the numbers might be a little low as many with such illnesses never seek help. This means there is a large group of people the church is ignoring if it does not speak to this issue and offer help. This includes both persons within our congregations and those in the communities God has given us to serve.

The chapter in the book offers several things churches can do to minister to those dealing with mental illnesses. What we cannot do is continue to ignore the problem or pretend it doesn't exist. The church was always meant to be a place where people could find healing, and this is an area where many are hurting.

When someone asks your church for financial help

 There are times when every church is approached by someone who needs financial assistance. Because the church exists to serve and minister to people's needs, we usually try to provide that assistance. But, what if we are enabling bad behavior? Are there times when it is more compassionate for a church to refuse to provide financial assistance? Would a different response be a better way to meet a person's needs? That is one challenge I address in my new book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?.

Each chapter of the book looks at major challenges the church will face as we continue into the 21st century and some ways to respond to these challenges. Addressing poverty is one such issue, and it's one that every church will deal with many times. It is possible to harm those we seek to help financially, and it's not always easy to know when we are truly helping and when we are doing harm. I believe that chapter in the book helps shed some light on that issue.

Other chapters focus on some of the troubling issues facing people in our congregations and communities, and unless we can address them with compassion and courage we will fail those individuals. For instance, there is much confusion today about sexual issues and gender identification. Church leaders can not ignore these types of issues but need to think through how they will respond when confronted with them. Studies indicate that a significant number of people in our congregations deal with mental health issues or have a history of such illnesses, but what is the church's response to that. Too often, it has been silence.

In the book I also address addiction problems, the growing number of suicides, the racism that continues to exist in our nation, the growing violence in our society and other issues confronting the church. We cannot afford to be silent on these issues. We need to educate ourselves so we can reach out to a hurting world to offer hope, healing and transformation. My prayer is that this book will help church leaders be able to do that.

The book is only available as an eBook for Kindle at this time. You can order it through Amazon by clicking on the link above. I hope you'll check it out.

Covid and the church

When I was editing my book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? Covid seemed to be slowing down and things appeared to be returning to a new normal. The number of new cases had dropped way down, many were getting the vaccine, mask mandates were being dropped in most places. Churches reported that people were starting to return to worship services. I didn't address Covid in the book because I mistakenly thought it would not be one of the major challenges churches would need to face. Obviously, I was premature in that assessment. The numbers are back up, a new variant strain is causing havoc, hospitals in many cities are reporting shortages of beds and Covid is back in the news.

I'm sure many churches will begin to reassess their ministries for the coming months to see what impact Covid will have on those ministries. We must be wise in the decisions we make, and we should not expect a one-size fits all response to the choices we make. It will be important to factor in at least two considerations: the well-being of our current congregations and the ministry needs of our communities. An important task of church leaders is to decide how much weight to give to each consideration.

 One of the chapters in my book addresses how the church ministers to the mental health needs of its congregants and communities. Another chapter addresses the suicide problem in our nation. As we saw in the previous response to Covid where so many people were isolated from one another, the mental health of many were negatively impacted by that isolation. I suppose it is also possible that the isolation resulted in some people taking their lives. If we go into another lockdown, it will be important to remember the mental health needs that some will have.

Even if we do not have a lockdown, those impacted by Covid may struggled emotionally and mentally. I know one mother who has been largely isolated from her family for over two weeks, and she has shared with me how emotionally difficult that has been. Texting and calling people has given her some release, but it has been a very challenging time for her. Many of our churches will have people similarly impacted, and we must be aware of them and continue to minister to them.

Addressing the mental health issues affecting so many people makes up just one chapter in this eBook. Other chapters speak to other ministry needs that are growing greater as we continue into the 21st century. I've written the book to give church leaders insights to how prevalent these problems are and some possible ways to respond to them. I hope you'll check out the book and consider adding it to your library.