The importance of worship

 John Maxwell once talked about one of his early Sundays in a new church. As he was preparing to deliver his message, the organist was playing a special. He found it especially sad and felt it set the wrong mood for the message he was about to deliver. As best as I remember the story, he invited the organist to lunch that next week and asked about the song he had played. He learned it was an 18th century funeral dirge. He then asked the organist if it would be possible for him to purge the urge to dirge.

Maxwell understood that worship and music sets the stage for everything else that happens in a worship service. I often define worship as that which allows people to encounter God in a way that is meaningful to them. Assuming that definition is correct, it presents a problem. In many churches there are usually four generations represented, sometimes five. Can each of those generations encounter God in a way that is meaningful to them in one worship service? I sometimes ask the question this way: How many people listen to the same music their grandparents listened to? The grandparents may have enjoyed Lawrence Welk; their grandchildren are asking Lawrence Who? Another question I often ask is how many people today are downloading pipe organ music from their Apple account?

Every Baptist church I know of in the area where I live have hymn books in their pew racks. They may not use them and instead project the words on a screen behind the pulpit, but it's the same songs that are found in the hymn books. Songs written in the 18th and 19th century filled with King James English, often with archaic words that have little meaning to postmodern people. For example, how many people know what "here I raise my Ebenezer" means? Yet, we sing it.

I struggle writing these words because I was raised singing the great songs of the faith. These great hymns are filled with sound theological teaching. I enjoy singing some of these great hymns, but I grow weary when they are sung with little to no feeling, when they are sung with no passion, no power. I remember once in a church where I was leading the worship that morning. We were singing "We're Marching to Zion," and the singing was so lackluster that I stopped after the first chorus and told the congregation we would never get to Zion at this pace. I urged the pianist and the congregation to sing with more enthusiasm.

As much as I love the old hymns of the faith, I also recognize that many younger people do not. They do not help that generation encounter God in a meaningful way. Rick Warren was correct when he noted that once we determine our music we will have determined the people our church is going to reach. He is correct. If your church is serious about wanting to reach a younger generation it will not do so by only singing the songs in your hymn book.

What is happening with bivocational ministry?

 A friend recently asked if I had any new thoughts on the direction of bivocational ministry. I'm not sure that I do, but I do believe that the thoughts I've proposed in the past are even more valid today. The need for bivocational ministers is growing across denominations, and many denominations remain unaware of this need or have no idea what to do in light of the need.

In 2008 I took a sabbatical and questioned a number of denominational leaders about what was happening with bivocational ministry in their denomination. One leader confessed that the need was growing, and they didn't know what to do about it. I fear that has not changed. Nor has it changed in the seminaries. Few offer programs specifically designed for bivocational ministers. They continue to crank out graduates prepared to manage mid-size churches ignoring the fact that the median size church in the US has 75 in attendance. Many of these churches are struggling to find pastoral leadership, and few will be able to afford a fully-funded pastor in today's economic climate.

It appears that Lyle Schaller's prediction in his book, Innovations in Ministry, that by 2018 churches averaging under 120 in worship would be served by bivocational ministers or teams was correct.

One of the things that troubles me is that God is not surprised by this situation. I am convinced that He has called people to fill the role of being a bivocational minister in these churches. Why are more people not answering that call? One reason might be that no one is challenging them to consider such a call.

As a new Christian, I had only been a member of a church for a couple of years when our pastor asked me if I had ever felt God was calling me into the ministry. The fact was that I had felt that calling even as a young boy but had never pursued it. The fact that someone challenged me made me rethink that calling. I would suspect that most ministers reading this would affirm that someone challenged them to consider if God might be calling them into the ministry at some time in their lives. About a year went by before I asked the church if they would license me into the ministry which they did.

How often is anyone challenged to consider that God might be calling them into ministry today? We can't call someone into ministry. Only God can do that, but we can encourage people to consider that He might be calling them to do that. What they do with that challenge is up to them. There are a number of persons serving in bivocational ministry today because I challenged them to consider such a calling, and they are doing a great job leading their churches.

Regional and denominational leaders need to begin talking to their pastors about persons in their churches who might demonstrate gifts fit for ministry and begin talking to them about the possibility that God might be calling them to serve as a bivocational minister. Instead of automatically looking outside the church for a bivocational pastor, why not start the search by seeing if someone already a member of the church might serve that role. Seminaries need to recognize that today's church does not look like it did in 1950 and begin to prepare their pastors accordingly. Churches must take the initiative to seek qualified pastors themselves and not wait for or depend on their denomination to do this for them.

Those reading this post need to ask if you might be one God is calling to this ministry. Pray about it. Talk to your pastor, spouse and other mature Christian leaders. A church right now may be waiting on you to say yes to God's call on your life.

Sermon planning

 When I served as a pastor I began planning my sermons out at least a month in advance. I had a title and a text which I would give our pianist who selected the music for each service. This gave her time to prepare a worship service that complemented the message. I am now serving my third church as the Transitional Pastor, and I have done the same thing in each of these churches. This allows for a better worship service because everything is connected.

Notice I said I have a title and a text. I know where I am going with the message, but I usually don't have the message prepared yet, but I can tell you it's much easier to prepare the actual message when you know what you are going to preach compared to when you get to Saturday night and you still haven't decided on a sermon for the next day. I've preached a few "Saturday night specials," and they aren't fun.

Eventually, I was able to plan out my sermons at least a quarter in advance. Again, this was just with a title and a text, but this helped me be even better prepared. For instance, when I pastored I would preach through a book of the Bible or a major section during the summer months. Knowing in advance which book or section I would cover enabled me to purchase needed commentaries or other Bible helps well in advance. This strategy also gave me an opportunity to explore a section of Scripture in more detail which, in turn, helped the congregation become better informed about what the Bible taught. An additional benefit was that it prevented me from skipping over the "hard" teachings of the Bible. Let's face it, there are some passages many preachers would just as soon avoid, but when you are committed to preaching through a biblical book you can't avoid those passages. (For total transparency, I still have not preached through the Song of Solomon.)

There are still some ministers who insist they never prepare their sermons in advance but depend upon the Holy Spirit to direct their words when they stand to speak. I've heard a few of those sermons, and I would not want to blame the Holy Spirit for them. Listen, He can lead you in preparing your messages a month in advance the same as He can lead you in preparing them on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

While I am a big advocate for planning your preaching in advance, I recognize events may require the minister to change the schedule. For instance, the Sunday after 9/11 I did not preach the message I had planned for that Sunday. Instead, I prepared a new sermon that addressed the events of 9/11 and tried to speak to the fears and concerns many people had at the time. Here is where the Holy Spirit can lead us in a different direction, and it's important that we are sensitive to that leading.

Whether one is a bivocational pastor or a fully-funded pastor, he or she struggles with time constraints. Planning your sermons in advance is a great way to save time in your busy schedule. While it takes time to plan a preaching schedule, you will save much more time by doing so.

Churches just need to say no

 While serving as a Transformational Pastor of a church I did a walk though of the building one day. During this walk through I think I counted about 8 pianos in various rooms, none of which were being used. In countless churches I've seen numerous couches "donated" to the youth ministry. Perhaps the worst thing I witnessed in one church was a Sunday school room with shag carpet that had been donated by a family who had replaced the carpet in their home. Rather than disposing of the carpet, they had "donated" it to the church.

Churches need to say NO to such donations. No, we don't need your piano that you cannot sell. (I do not accept pianos in my auctions because no one will buy them.) No, we don't want our young people to have to sit on your old couch that you have decided to replace because it's broken down and dirty. Let the furniture company take it and dispose of it. No, we definitely don't want your shag carpet! And, no is a complete sentence.

I cannot tell you how many churches I've seen cluttered with "donations" from well-meaning church members. These out-of-date, dirty "donations" make the church look trashy. Can you image what a new guest will think when they walk into their Sunday school class and see orange shag carpet on the floor? There's a good chance you won't see them again.

Many churches need to bring a commercial dumpster on the property and have a major spring cleaning. Toss the pianos, the flannelgraphs, the craft items from 1984 VBS programs, and all the other clutter that has accumulated since the Civil War into the dumpster. And when people come wanting to "donate" their unwanted items to the church, just say no.

You can thank me later. 

Don't quench the Spirit

I recently had an interesting thought the other day. How would most of the churches I know handle an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the early church did in Acts 2? I would imagine many of them would call an emergency meeting of the pastors and deacons to discuss how to control this unprecedented event in the life of their church. Surely, they would reason, people must understand that God doesn't do things like this any more. This is nothing but pure emotionalism. The age of miracles is over. Speaking in tongues ended when that which is perfect had come. Everything must now be done decently and in order.

I've heard all these arguments all my Christian life. I've heard it from pastors, from denominational leaders, from seminary professors and from lay leaders. I've heard all the proof texts that "prove" this is not the way God works today. What I've not seen is 3,000 people saved in one day as a result of the Holy Spirit moving in a powerful way. I've not seen the church adding daily all those who are being saved. I have not seen a bold church that would not be stopped by the political forces that are determined to stop the spread of the Gospel.

My tribe (Baptists) do not spend a lot of time focusing on the Holy Spirit. I think we're afraid of Him. I think we recognize that He cannot be controlled. He might disrupt the order of our worship service as it's listed in the bulletin. Heaven help us if someone wanted to get saved before the pastor gave an invitation. (I'll help those who might be wondering: that was sarcasm.) 

Actually, that fear is real. The Holy Spirit cannot be controlled. He can be quenched. The Spirit will not come where He is not welcomed. He will not force Himself on anyone. But, once He is invited into our midst He will not be controlled. He is God. We do not tell God what He can and cannot do.

I often pray that the Holy Spirit will have free reign to do whatever He wants to do in our church. I invite Him to move throughout our congregation and address every need anyone might have. I am not afraid of an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in our church. I welcome it. I can preach the Word of God and invite people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but the Holy Spirit is the one who truly transforms lives. He is the one who brings people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the one who brings real transformation.

I want to see lives transformed, and only God can transform lives. How incredible it would be to see 3,000 people saved in a single day, and only God can do that. Come Holy Spirit. Fill my life. Fill our church with your presence. Come in all your power, touching and transforming lives.

Reaching people for Jesus Christ

Across denominations we know baptisms are down. Churches are dying. We are told young people are no longer interested in attending church services, and people in general have little interest in Christianity. This, despite the fact that we are also told that people in the 21st century tend to be more spiritual and are seeking spiritual truth. The problem is they do not believe they will find what they are seeking in the traditional church.

Wait a minute! Churches are actually growing in South America, the Philippines and Africa. In fact, they are growing at an incredible rate. Here is the US there are churches that are experiencing tremendous growth, not by stealing sheep from other churches, but by regularly helping unchurched people find a relationship with Jesus Christ.

A church I sometimes watch on You tube announced at their New Year's Eve celebration that in 2023 they led over 2,200 people to faith in Jesus Christ and baptized 381 individuals. I have attended this church while on vacation and, like I said, I sometimes watch the services online. I am amazed at  the number of young adults and teens in that church. The number of small groups overwhelms me. The energy in their worship services is unlike anything I've experienced before. Why are they able to reach young people, celebrate with joyful worship each week, preach doctrinally sound messages each Sunday and lead so many people to faith in Jesus Christ when we are constantly being told none of this is possible today in America? I've decided the answer is really quite simple: They intentionally plan on doing each of these things.

They recognize their mission is found in the Great Commission. They do evangelism on purpose. Not by knocking on doors or passing out tracts, but by demonstrating Christ in everything they do. Their worship calls people to faith in Christ. In fact, the pastor often invites people to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, not at the end of his sermon, but at the close of the worship time. When many churches are moaning about how it's impossible to reach teens and young adults, they are doing it. When churches go for years without seeing one person come to Christ, this church is seeing over 2,000 people a year come to faith. When some church's baptisteries have cobwebs growing in them, this church is baptizing several hundred people each year. Again, they are intentional is sharing the gospel, and they expect people to respond.

The great pastor Charles Spurgeon was once confronted by one of his students who was concerned about his lack of converts. He admitted to Spurgeon that he had been preaching for months and had not seen a single conversion. Spurgeon asked the young man if he really believed that God was going to save souls every time he opened his mouth. The young man responded, "No sir." Spurgeon then responded that was the reason the young man was not seeing people saved. If he had believed, the Lord would have given the blessing.

Until we believe that people will respond to the Gospel and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior it probably isn't going to happen in our churches. Until we become committed to fulfilling the Great Commission we will continue to lose this current generation. Until we become intentional about sharing our faith with those who do not yet know Christ, we will never see souls saved.

Knowledge of the gospel

 I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine that eventually began addressing the spiritual understanding of many who call themselves Christians. He and I both shared a concern that many Christians lack an even basic knowledge of God, the Gospel and basic doctrines of the faith. We were not questioning their love of God or their salvation experience. We were concerned that their understanding of Christian teaching seemed to be shallow. I agreed it would be very difficult for many Christians to explain to someone else what they believed which is why a majority of believers are reluctant to share their faith with others.

Why is there such a lack of awareness of basic Christian doctrine? Certainly, there is no shortage of material available to explain biblical teaching. Churches continue to dot the landscape. Although many of them have abandoned the faith, there are still many who remain faithful to preach and teach the truth. So, what's the excuse?

As noted above, some churches have abandoned the teachings of Scripture and now teach the philosophies of men. They offer little more helpful suggestions about life. Other churches, even holding to sound doctrinal beliefs, fail to teach those beliefs to their congregations. These churches seek pastors who will tickle their ears (2 Tim. 4: 1-4) with encouraging messages. These churches continue to provide milk and not meat to the congregations resulting in them remaining babes in Christ (1 Cor. 3: 1-3).

However, even in those churches that do provide sound doctrinal teaching, the typical church member often isn't present to hear it. According to the Pew Research Center, only 36% of adult Christians attend church services once a week or more while another 33% attend once or twice a month. A typical sermon may last 30-45 minutes with many pastors preaching shorter messages than that. Many churches see fewer and fewer adults in their Sunday school classes. How does one expect to learn sound biblical doctrine when they are exposed to it for 30 minutes a month?

In some parts of the world it is illegal to own a Bible, and being found with one can lead to one's death and the death of his or her family. Forget about owning Bible commentaries or other books to help one learn more about God and Christian teaching. Yet, in this country many homes have multiple copies of the Bible which are never read. We have access to tens of thousands of resources to help us understand our faith better which also gone unread by the majority of believers. 

People leave churches with the excuse that "the pastor isn't feeding us." That may be the case, but it also may be the case that they never show up when it's feeding time. And, how about feeding yourself? Adults should not have to depend on someone else to feed them.

Receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is only the first step in our walk with God. The next step is becoming a disciple of God, and when we can only grow in our discipleship when we begin to grow in our knowledge of Him, His Word and His will for our lives.

Jimmy Carter

Last night I read an article stating that Jimmy Carter had been in hospice care for one year and was alert, aware of events going on and doing as well as could be expected. He is now the longest living president at 99 years old. His wife of 77 years passed away just a few months ago.

Carter was, in my opinion, not one of our strongest presidents. The country suffered under his leadership, but historians will have to decide how much of that was due to his leadership and how much of it was beyond his control. Presidents get blamed for a lot of things that they really do not control, and they often get (take) credit for good things that happened in spite of their leadership. A hundred years from now historians will be in better shape to point out the positives and negatives of Carter's presidency. We do know that the country begin a quick turn-around when Ronald Reagan became president limiting Carter to a one-term presidency.

However, Carter was a much more inspirational leader after he left the White House. His work with Habitat for Humanity inspired many people to pick up a hammer and make a difference in their communities. He received a statesmanship award for his work in improving relations between the US and China. He established the Carter Center which monitored elections around the world. I have no doubt that historians will find that his greatest accomplishments occurred after he left the White House.

Jimmy Carter was also probably the most religious and moral president this nation has ever had. Perhaps one of the reasons his presidency wasn't more effective was that he refused to play the political games common in Washington. He couldn't be bought, and, to my knowledge, he refused to compromise his religious convictions. That alone sets him apart from the corrupt and immoral politicians that thrive in Washington, DC. In this age of compromise in which we live he should be an example to us all.

Jimmy Carter continued to teach his Sunday school class in his home church after leaving the presidency. I wonder how many ex-presidents became Sunday school teachers after leaving office. He may be the only one. During his campaign he was not hesitant to talk of his faith, and he certainly lived it during his presidency and afterwards. If someone seeking the highest office of the land was not reluctant to speak of his faith, why are we so hesitant to do the same?

America would be better off with more people like Jimmy Carter, a man unashamed of his Christian faith, a man who not only spoke of that faith but lived it every time he swung a hammer building a home for someone else. He not only followed the Prince of Peace, he worked for peace both inside and outside the White House. His life should be an example to each of us who name Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  

Turn your life around

 Dr. Tim Clinton was one of my doctoral professors at Liberty Theological Seminary. He is a professor of counseling and pastoral care and the president of the American Association of Christian Counselors. The class I took under him focused on family care. About half-way through the first class day I asked if this material was offered in any other degree program than the DMin. He answered it was not, and I said that was a shame because I had learned more in two hours about ministering to families than I had learned in my entire life. I have since bought several of his books and found each of them very beneficial.

In Turn Your Life Around Clinton discusses about how our past can and does keep us from enjoying life to the fullest. We all know that life does not always turn out the way we had hoped. Marriages fail, people lose their jobs, the economy falters, illness takes over one's life, and the list goes on. At these transition points in a person's life they have to make some choices. Some will choose to rise above them and move forward with their lives. Others will fall into addictive behaviors that can have destructive consequences.

We have become an addictive society. We usually think of addictions that involve drugs, alcohol, sex,  pornography, gambling and the like. But in today's world people also can become addicted to technology, shopping (retail therapy), work, power, the pursuit of success and wealth, and this list goes on as well. Even religion and serving in a church can fall into this line-up of addictive behaviors. Clinton notes that each of these are often attempts to replace the God who disappointed us by allowing the bad things to come into our lives.

The good news is that anyone who finds themselves in this path of destructive behavior can be set free. This freedom, Clinton believes, can only come when we develop healthy attachments to God and to other people. Just because one is a Christian does not mean that he or she enjoys a healthy attachment to God. For many Christians, God is Someone they think about on Sunday mornings but seldom at any other time. What marriage would work if a spouse only thought about his or her partner one hour a week? That relationship would surely not survive, or, at least, it would not be the kind of relationship that would help one through difficult times. Clinton offers some helpful suggestions for how to grow in our attachment to God.

There's more good news. Clinton writes, "I should warn you that true transformation usually occurs in the middle of pain and life's adversities." True change in one's life is often found in the painful times in our lives. I don't know about you, but I do know this is true for me: I have grown much more during hard times than I ever did when everything was going well. 

The church as missionaries

 The church in North America, as we know it, is currently involved in a major transition. For the past two or three decades we have believed that we were still at the center of life for most people. That wasn't true, but we preferred to believe it was. As a result of our confusion, we were surprised that our numbers were decreasing as well as our impact on society. Many were challenging our mistaken beliefs by pointing out that the traditional church was dying, but many of us refused to listen. Our refusal to listen has resulted in approximately 100 churches in the US closing its doors every week.

We failed to recognize that God was calling His church to once again become missionaries into its community. America is no longer a Christian nation, if it ever was. We are a rapidly emerging pagan society (my favorite way of looking at our nation today) that desperately needs missionaries to proclaim the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that connects with our current generation.

This will require that we explore new ways of understanding the life of the church in today's postmodern world. We can no longer hide behind the walls of our "sanctuaries" singing our hymns and praying the same prayers we have prayed for years and believing we are doing the work of the Kingdom. I am convinced that in 2024 God is calling His church to become missionaries to the communities in which it serves. This means that today's church must reinvent itself.

First, we must stop thinking of ourselves as simply churches that gather once a week, listen to a sermon, sing a few songs and return home inspired to eat lunch. Churches today must begin to see themselves as mission stations placed in the midst of this rapidly emerging pagan society to proclaim the saving message of Jesus Christ. Likewise, church members can no longer be content to view themselves as just members of a church but to recognize that God has called them to be missionaries in their community. God has given them spiritual gifts that are to be used to minister to others, and every member of every church must begin to use those gifts as missionaries.

Secondly, we must recognize that the culture we are called to reach is often much different than the one in which we were raised. The music is different, the worldview is different, the beliefs about truth and morality are different, the way they pursue spirituality is different. We can complain about these differences or we can adjust how we minister to this younger generation in a way that recognizes these differences.

Throughout church history the music has undergone many changes. Most traditional churches that sing from their hymnbooks fail to recognize that some of those songs were quite controversial when they first appeared. Many traditional churches today want to protect traditional hymns from being replaced by more contemporary music and fail to realize that these traditional hymns were once viewed as a scandalous attempt to replace "true" Christian worship. That fact is that there are many great worship songs today that will speak much more to today's culture than the ones written in the 1800s found in our hymn books.

Any time a missionary enters a new mission field, he or she must adapt themselves to that culture. That is not compromise; it is a simple acceptance that they have entered a new culture. They must learn to eat new food, listen to the music preferences of the people, learn new languages, identify the cultural practices of the people and learn how to best present the Gospel to this mission field in light of what they have learned.

The church in North American can do no less if we are to be faithful to our calling to reach this current generation.

Training for bivocational ministers

 About the second or third month of my time as a Regional Minister in our Region our Executive Minister notified me that we had a training program for lay leaders, and it was part of my portfolio responsibilities. He further said, "It's broke, fix it."

I scheduled a meeting with the committee that oversaw that program and soon learned why it was broken. After a couple more meetings we determined it was broken beyond repair and needed to be replaced with something new. Some of the people left the original committee, and I was able to bring new people on board. After several months we developed the Church Leadership Institute, a two-year program of study for anyone in a church leadership position. We set a date for starting the program, and decided if we had 10 people register we would consider it a success. That first class began with 30 people registered!

When the first group neared the end of their two-year program they kept asking, "What's next?" We went back to the drawing board and designed another year of classes making 15 classes total if someone wanted to complete all three years.

Although the program was originally designed for church lay leaders, we found many of our bivocational pastors began taking the classes as well. In fact, for those who completed all three years we awarded them a Diploma in Pastoral Ministries. Many of the bivocational pastors in our region received their training through our CLI program. We even had the occasional bivocational pastor from adjacent states attend our program driving three hours each way to attend classes. By any measure, CLI was a tremendous success for our region. But, it has ended.

Our region has entered into a partnership with Kairos University-Sioux Falls Seminary to provide leadership training for our pastors and lay leaders. A former colleague of mine is the dean of this program so I know it will be highly successful. I don't know why the region made the decision to switch from CLI to this opportunity, but I know it was done for the right reasons.

It's been an interesting few months since learning that CLI, which was such an important part of my ministry when I served as a Resource Minister, was being replaced. While I know all things come to an end and need to be replaced by something better, I also know how it feels when changes are made in a church that makes the current members uncomfortable. I'm currently serving as a Transitional Pastor in a church that needs to make a number of changes. I know exactly how some of that congregation will feel when changes are made because I know what I felt seeing CLI ended.

I want to make something very clear. All things must come to an end. CLI served its purpose for its time, but when something better came along it was right to make the change. For anyone invested in something, that change can be hard. We pastors who want to come in and change things need to understand that. We sometimes complain that people are being difficult when we try to make needed changes; we need to understand they are not being difficult, they are hurting. Something meaningful has been taken from them. While they may understand the need for the change, that doesn't make it any less painful.

The good news is that our region continues to provide training for its bivocational ministers and lay leaders. While I have not talked to anyone from the region, I assume this is open to anyone who wants to enroll in this training. I could encourage you to check out that web page for the American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky to learn more about the program. There are also a number of schools such as Campbellsville University that also offers an educational program for bivocational ministers. 

When I began as a bivocational pastor in 1981 these types of training opportunities were very limited. Now that many of these are online, there is no reason that every bivocational pastor doesn't take advantage of the oppotunties.

Don't rest on your success

 I recently read a quote from John Maxwell that said "Don't rest on the best - build on the best." That is a powerful thought for every church leader. Several years ago a small church completed a building project that exceeded what many outside that church thought possible. It was a great accomplishment. At the dedication service they were challenged to celebrate their achievement today, but tomorrow they needed to discern a fresh vision from God. It appears they did not as they have remained stuck ever since. Had they built on the momentum they had from completing the building project there is no telling what else they could have accomplished.

Go into many smaller churches in the area in which I live and you might find a wall covered with pictures from the past of large crowds who attended church homecomings or other special events. One has to wonder how that many people could have fit in that small building. Now, there may be no more than two or three dozen people attending the worship service. Those pictures are a reminder of the glory days of the church. They are something to celebrate, but those days are long past. They are no more than a memory to a handful of people. Rather than building on those best days of the church, they remain stuck in the present circumstances of being in a dying church that long ago ceased to have the impact it once had.

My advice for any church that is stuck and uncertain what to do is to begin seeking a vision from God. From that vision, identify some goals that will help you achieve the vision. If your church has not enjoyed much success lately I encourage you to set some small goals at first. Help the congregation get some wins under their belt. Celebrate those wins! I've often said we Baptists don't celebrate enough. Celebrate, but then begin to set a new goal, one that will stretch you just a little bit more. When that goal is reached, celebrate some more. Continue to repeat the cycle. Suddenly, you will find that you are achieving more than you possibly might have thought possible. Let every victory stretch you and your congregation a little more, and every time you achieve something, build upon that.

Will every goal be reached? No. Will you enjoy success every time you set out to do something? No, and that's OK. I would rather fail occasionally trying to accomplish something for God that sit around doing nothing but complain about how great it was in the "good old days." Failure gives us an opportunity to learn. Just as we should build on our successes, we should also build upon our failures.

I firmly believe that unless a church gives up and decides to remain in the rut, that the best days of every church are yet to be lived. The church belongs to God, and it is the instrument He has chosen to use to further His kingdom here on earth. It might look like the church is in trouble today, but I will tell you that the world has yet to see what God is going to do through His church. If you want your church to be greatly used by God, don't rest on your successes but build upon them. If you do, you will be amazed at how God will use your church.

The post-pandemic church

 Nobody really knew what to do when Covid began to spread like wildfire. Hospitals around the world were overflowing with patients. Morgues were set up in refrigerated trucks due to the many deaths attributed to the virus. First, we were told that masks were not helpful in stopping the spread of Covid; later they became mandatory to enter a public building. Businesses were shut down, and some never reopened. The CDC changed its recommendations so many times that many people quit listening to them. Nursing home residents died with no family present due to the strict restrictions in place that prohibited family visiting their loved ones. People were quarantined in their homes requiring family members to leave groceries near the front door so their loved ones could get them without exposing anyone to Covid. Not only were businesses forced to close their doors, so were churches and many other public institutions.

Because of Covid many pastors found themselves almost overnight becoming televangelists. Churches that had no media presence scrambled to create a Facebook page or a Youtube account so a worship service, or at least a sermon, could be viewed by the congregation. Some pastors hoped the crisis would soon be over, not only to spare more people the impact of Covid, but so the church could return to normal. Normal never happened, nor are we likely to ever return to a pre-Covid normal. What we must do is to adjust to a new normal.

Thom Ranier wrote a wonderful little book titled The Post-Quarantine Church that lists six challenges and opportunities for the church post-Covid. Among the helpful thoughts he presents is a discussion that churches are now dealing with three groups of people. He calls them the digital-only, the digitally transitioning and the dual citizens.

The digital-only are those folks that will never return to in-person worship services. Some are physically unable to do so; others remain fearful of Covid. I recently spoke to someone who remains concerned about Covid, especially since it seems to have re-introduced itself although in a milder form. I know people who continue to wear masks in public even though it is now admitted that the masks never did protect anyone from Covid. If churches desire to include these folks in their worship services, they will have to continue to provide an online presence.

The digitally-transitioning continue to connect to the church primarily through social media. They may be a part of a small group, but they typically do not attend in-person worship services. However, they are open to doing so in the future. It is necessary to keep them connected to the church until they decide it's safe to return to live services.

Dual-citizens are connected to the church both through the media and through attending live worship services. The church may find that these folks are not regular in attending in-person worship services, but they are faithful in viewing those services online. I served one church as their Transitional Pastor  that offered the service live online and later downloaded it to their FB page. One member was a truck driver who often found himself on the other side of the country on Sunday mornings. Every time that happened he watched the service on his smart phone and faithfully attended the service when he was home. He stayed connected to the church through social media.

The challenge for the church is how will it relate to each of these groups? If the church does not have a digital presence, it will be unable to relate to any of these groups. The reality is that some people will never return to in-person worship services but will be faithful in watching those services online. Will your church choose to ignore those persons?

Lead by example

 Several years ago our denomination had a capital funds campaign to raise money to increase our mission presence around the world. I was chosen to be one who would contact a certain number of churches and encourage them to support this effort. We were trained and had monthly meetings to determine our progress. If I remember correctly, I had about a dozen churches and only had a couple who refused to participate. (That's not bad for Baptist churches!)

After the campaign started we had one of our monthly meetings, and the national coordinator was asking each of us to share how we were progressing. Most of us gave a fairly positive report, but one said that not a single church he had was willing to support the effort. The coordinator asked how much money the church he pastored was giving, and he replied they would not support it. The coordinator then asked how much he personally was giving, and the man admitted he wasn't giving anything either. The coordinator then explained to him, and to all  of us, that if this pastor gave anything, his church would be on record as a participating church, but if he wasn't personally willing to support the effort he should not expect any of his churches to support it either. The room was very quiet! My report came after his, and I was glad to report that nearly all of my churches had pledged to support the campaign.

When the campaign was first announced each church received a recommended goal to consider. Our goal was rather high for our church, but I asked our church to adopt it. We did so, and when the final figures came in we had surpassed that goal nearly four times! I was so proud of my people!!

When one accepts a position of leadership, he or she takes on major responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is that we are expected to lead by example. The pastor I mentioned above failed to do that. I do not know his reasons, but because he was not committed to the campaign, none of the churches that had been assigned to him felt any need to support it either.

I was tickled when I heard that at a finance committee meeting in our church when they were discussing my salary one of the members of the committee remarked that, "Whatever we give Dennis we know we're going to get 10 percent of it back." She was right. Every Sunday when the offering was taken I placed our check in the plate rather than letting my wife do it. I wanted the congregation to see that we were doing exactly what I was teaching when I spoke about stewardship.

Shortly before I left that church to accept another ministry position we began building an addition to the building. I was there every Saturday to help with the work. I am the first to admit that I am not very skilled at building anything, but I am a good go-fer. For me, it was important that I be there doing what I could even if was just sweeping up the dust. I never want to ask anyone to do something I won't do. We had very talented men and women willing to help build this addition, and I wanted to be there to help anyway I could.

We lead by example.

Supporting mission work

 When I began serving a small, rural church as their bivocational minister I soon learned they did not have a lot of money. Their budget was very small, and they weren't meeting it. But one thing I learned surprised me: they gave 10 percent of their offering to our denomination's mission fund to support mission work around the world. I was not only surprised; I was elated. One of my firm beliefs is that God supports churches that supports missions. Even when money was tight, we tithed our offering to the denomination's mission work.

God did bless us financially, and a few years later I asked the congregation to consider increasing that support to 15 percent of our offering. We would do it one percent a year over five years so it would not be such a big jump at one time. They agreed to do that, and when I finally left that church to begin serving in a judicatory role that little church of 55 people was giving over $12,000.00 a year to mission work plus we were supporting all four of the special mission offerings our denomination had. In fact, a year after I left, the church gave $14,000.00 to mission work while building a $200,000.00 addition to the building without borrowing a dime! Before you decide that this church must have consisted of a few wealthy people let me assure you that was not the case. The majority of our congregation were retired or blue collar workers. Few had a college education. To my knowledge there was no one in the congregation that would be called wealthy.

I might add that we also supported local mission work. We gave money each quarter to the Salvation Army for their food pantry. That made more sense than us trying to offer a food pantry where we were located. As I told the congregation, I will be comfortable recommending people to the SA food pantry if we are helping support it. We also made a quarterly contribution to the local youth shelter which provided a place for troubled youth rather than sending them to jail. We saw that as an important local ministry.

If a church is going to teach tithing, it must model tithing. I can think of no better way to do that than to support those who serve in mission fields around the world and the US. While our denomination still takes mission offerings, it also requires our missionaries to raise their own support. Many churches now support individual missionaries which makes a lot of sense. When they come home on furlough they are available to speak to those churches who are supporting them. That can make an important connection between the missionary and the supporting churches.

As I close, I am going to challenge you. If the small church I served can tithe its offerings each week to their denomination's mission work, so can every church. Does yours? Are you teaching your people to tithe but not tithing what your church is receiving every week? Our missionaries deserve our support, and I would encourage you to provide it. Remember, God blesses those churches who honors missions.

Reaching a younger generation

I received my auctioneer license 11 eleven years ago. Like most people starting a new business, the first few years were rather slow. When Covid shut everything down I began conducting my auctions online, and it is amazing how the business has taken off! We offer an online auction every two weeks, and we struggle to keep up with the items that are brought to us to sell. We ship to buyers all over the US, and my consignors bring me some of the most interesting items to sell. It's a lot of hard work, but it's fun especially when I have to research something just to find out what it is!

One thing I hear often from my sellers is that they asked their children to come and get what they wanted and were told that they didn't want anything they had. These are people who are downsizing or moving into assisted living. They may have beautiful glassware, antiques and other items they have collected for decades, but now they learn that their children have no interest in those items. I've read many similar stories from across the country. Many younger people are simply not interested in the things their parents and grandparents have. As a result, many auctioneers report that the prices for antiques and vintage items are down as much as 80 percent from just a few years ago.

This mindset among the younger generation also impacts how we do ministry today. Churches that continue to function as if it was 1950 will reach few of the younger generations. Styles of music and worship that were meaningful to their parents and grandparents do not have the same impact on younger generations. I sometimes tell churches that, if we still had record stores, you would not likely to see young people going in to buy pipe organ music. The taste of music has always been different for different generations, and this is no different for worship music. 18th century hymns do not speak to younger people like they do to those of my generation. Younger generations are also more visually oriented so simply having a talking-head on a platform doesn't really appeal to them either.

A few years I saw this played out at a conference I attended at a Christian university. The middle-age speaker pointed out that while many of us in the audience was watching him as he spoke, the college-age students sitting on the front role were watching him on the screen. Even though they were the closest to him, they still were watching him present his material on the screen above him.

For a few decades now the church has been involved in a worship war. Some have tried blended services, but many of them simply made everybody mad half of the time. Many went to two services with one offering a traditional service and a second serving which was more contemporary. Many traditional churches refused to do anything different than what they had done for the past 100 years and wondered why their attendance kept dropping.

Let me make a very unpopular statement that some churches will not want to hear. We either have to change the music and worship in our churches or we will lose this younger generation. Some churches that offer a blended service provide an excellent worship experience. I was fortunate to serve one such church as their Transitional Pastor and was greatly blessed every week by the worship service.

But, I am convinced that it is time for many churches to put away their hymn books and change both the music and format of their worship services. I can hear some of you complaining now that Dennis is wanting to offer entertainment to try to bring people into the church. NO. It's not about entertainment; it's about worship that is meaningful to those we are trying to reach for Jesus Christ.

My daughter attends a church in Florida when she goes there for 2-3 months every fall. This past year we spent a week with her and I attended this church. The numbers I'm about to mention are not exact, but they are close: in 2023 they saw over 2,000 decisions for Jesus Christ and baptized nearly 300 people. The message that was presented the Sunday I was there was theologically sound, and over a dozen people gave their lives to Christ that day. The worship was energizing, and the service reaching a large number of  teens and young adults. And that was just the first service! 

Either we are serious about fulfilling the Great Commission or we are not. If we want to reach the current generation we need to speak their language, offer them a worship experience that allows them to connect with God and present a clear Gospel message that points them to Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation.