Using volunteers in ministry

Some pastors struggle giving away ministry. That struggle may come because people in his or her church don't want the responsibility. They believe that ministry belongs to the pastor. He or she is the one "hired" to do the ministry. Their only responsibility is to sit back, support the church with their tithes and evaluate how well the pastor is doing what he or she is supposed to do. If this describes your church, you are in a very dysfunctional church. Unfortunately, this mindset probably exists because former pastors taught the church to think this way. Dr. Phil reminds us that we teach people how to treat us.

Many pastors struggle to give away ministry because they want to be needed. In fact, they need to be needed. Their ego requires it. It's what they've been trained to do, and some believe that no one can do ministry better then they can, at least not a volunteer. This is a very short-sighted, and unbiblical, approach to ministry.

In the Bible we see Jesus consistently giving away ministry to His disciples. I'm sure you would agree that He certainly could have done it better, but He also knew that to deprive the disciples of the opportunity to minister would have also deprived them of opportunities to grow. Sometimes they got it wrong, but even those were growing opportunities. As they served others with His guidance, they grew in their ability to minister. Later, when Jesus was gone, they became known as the people who turned the world upside down.

Isn't it interesting that in Acts 6 we find the disciples following Jesus' example. They gave away part of their ministry to those we often now refer to as deacons in the church. The apostles recognized that they could not do it all so they chose others to be responsible for some aspects of the ministry. Later, as the church grew they appointed pastors and elders to serve the churches in various locations. As more and more people were involved in hands-on ministry, the church continued to grow.

John Maxwell has said that one is too small a number for greatness. If you want your church to have a great ministry in your community, it takes more than the pastor doing ministry. His or her role is to equip the saints to do the work of ministry. The more people in a congregation who recognize their responsibility to do ministry, the more the church can grow and influence their community.

Don't be afraid to give away ministry. It's not your ministry anyway; it's God's. Jesus wasn't afraid to give God's ministry to volunteers. Be like Jesus! 

Life-Long learning

 In a survey I did in 2004 among bivocational pastors in the American Baptist Churches, USA I learned that there were a variety of educational backgrounds. Some had a college education, usually in the secular field in which they worked, a few had master's degrees and even fewer had doctorates. Many had no education beyond high school. That was my category when I began as a bivocational pastor.

Every so often in this blog I have an article about life-long learning because I believe it is essential for bivocational and fully-funded pastors as well. Even though I now have a masters degree and a doctorate, I do not necessarily believe they are required for ministry. But, even with such degrees I am convinced that every minister must be committed to life-long ministry.

Our world is constantly changing, and if a minister does not keep up with those changes he or she will soon find themselves irrelevant to the culture they are trying to reach. Exegeting Scripture is important, but so is exegeting our culture. I began my pastoral ministry in 1981, but if I was to try to repeat what I did then now my ministry would be mostly ineffective. Our world has changed, and our ministries must change as well if we hope to reach this current culture.

Please don't misunderstand. Our message does not change, but our methods must change. Some churches and denominations have decided they must become "woke" if they are going to be relevant to our culture. These churches and denominations are rapidly shrinking in size because they have abandoned the Word of God and substitutes the accepted politically correct views found in today's culture. I predict they will continue to decline until they no longer exist. God will write "Ichabod" (the glory of God has departed), and they will one day fade from existence.

Our methods of sharing the gospel must change. There was a time in my ministry when it was acceptable to go door to door inviting people to church. People today consider that an interruption. Quite honestly, so do I. I don't like people I don't know ringing my doorbell trying to sell me something I don't want. There was a time when churches held one or two revivals every year. The problem was few people after the 1960s ever got "revived." Churches still had their revival meetings because that was all they knew to do. Today, most churches understand such meetings are largely ineffective.

I could go on about the changes that have taken place since I began my ministry, but if we don't learn what doesn't work we will keep doing things that are not productive. Life-long learning is essential if we are to understand our generation.

I urge each reader to commit to being a life-long learner. Attend conferences. Read books. Find a mentor or coach who can help challenge you and answer your questions. Believe me, it will make a difference in your ministry.

Leadership is key

I written repeatedly in this blog that everything rises and falls on leadership. It's true in the business world, it's true in families, it's true in personal achievements and it is certainty true in churches. Every success can be traced back to good leadership; every failure is the result of poor leadership. I wrote an e-book  a few several years ago called Mistakes: Avoiding the Wrong Decisions that Will Close Your Small Business. A friend who read it said I was too hard on myself, but I don't think so. I was solely responsible for the decisions that caused our business to fail.

Success in any endeavor is directly related to the ability of the leader. That small business I managed failed due to many reasons, but the primary one was my failure as a leader. Churches succeed or fail as a direct result of the leadership of the pastor and lay leaders the church has selected. That may sound harsh, but it is true. If the leadership does not possess a fresh vision from God about the future ministry of the church and lead the church to fulfill that vision, the church will fail.

As a regional minister in our denomination I saw too many pastors simply going through the motions hoping to survive to retirement. It's not that they were doing anything wrong; they simply were not doing enough things right. Some were in difficult churches that refused to move forward, and they had grown weary in trying to move them. I compare such churches to a rope, and everyone knows how difficult it is to try to push a rope. These pastors have given up and just want to hang on until they can retire. I can understand their frustration, but it's a shame regardless.

When I retired I was responsible for 133 churches. A few of those pastors simply had little leadership ability, and didn't want any. They had been trained to manage churches and were quite content to do so. They possessed little vision for ministry and had no idea where God wanted to lead their churches. They simply followed what they had been taught in seminary. Manage the system, keep everyone happy and be willing to move every 3-4 years. If it sounds like I'm being harsh, perhaps I am, but I am sharing what I've seen in many pastors.

I have three degrees. I am not against education as some claim, but I am against the management of churches instruction that is taught in too many seminaries. Pastors are not called to manage churches; we are called to lead them in ministry. The fact that the majority of our churches are declining should point out that failure of our educational system for pastors. We need leaders; not managers. We need men and women who are not interested in climbing the ministerial ladder to bigger churches but are interested in pursuing God's will for their churches.

Let me say this as kindly as possible. If your church is stuck, it is because your church is being led by managers, not leaders. You need someone who will help you get unstuck. You need a leader who has a vision from God about where your church is to go and the courage to help you go there. Without such a leader, you will remain stuck and of limited use to the kingdom of God. 

Knowing God

 How well do you know God? Can you describe His attributes? Perhaps more importantly, do you know what His attributes mean to you? On September 8 we will begin a new series of messages at North Madison Baptist Church to help answer some of those questions.

Numerous studies over the past several years has shown that many Christians have a very incomplete understanding of God. Many Christians cannot answer even basic questions related to biblical teaching, and many struggle to explain the nature of God to others. As a result, many Christians have a very shallow faith and are unwilling to attempt to share their faith with others.

In this six-week series starting September 8 we will explore some of the attributes of God. Obviously, we cannot cover all His attributes in only six weeks, but this will be a start. Not only will we explain particular attributes, we will show what those attributes mean to us. For example, one of His attributes we will examine is his omniscience. This means He knows all things, but what does that mean for us? Actually, as I will point out in the message, it offers us hope and comfort, but it also serves as a warning.

We are making the start of this series a Big Event and asking our members to invite their unchurched friends to attend our worship service during this series. Each person or family who attends on September 8 will receive a copy of the excellent book In Search of Christ by Lee Strobel. Strobel wrote this book after his wife became a Christian. As an atheist he wanted to find evidence that Christianity was not true. He was an award-winning journalist at the time and felt his skills in journalism would lead him to the truth. It did, but it wasn't the truth he sought. After interviewing people about the claims of Christianity he discovered that the evidence was overwhelming that Christianity was true and became a Christian. He is now a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church. It is an excellent book for anyone wanting to honestly explore the claims of Christianity.

We want to help people want to help people experience a meaningful, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. We want to help people grow in this faith, and this series of messages on the attributes of God is just one step in this process. Please mark your calendars for the six weeks starting with September 8 and plan on joining us for these special messages. Our worship service begins at 10:30.

When Life Knocks You Down

 Nobody goes through life without getting knocked down a few times. Financial reversals hit. A simple medical test reveals some potential problems that require further testing. Relationships fail when someone you loved walks out. Companies downsize and you're no longer needed. Sometimes it seems like we get knocked down by one thing, and by the time we get back up, something else knocks us off our feet. I know I've been knocked down more than once. But, there is something else I know.

God has always been there to help pick me up. Sometimes I stayed down longer than necessary, but that was a choice I made. There's been times I was ready to give up, but He wouldn't let me. I'm thankful for that. A passage of Scripture has become my personal mantra. Jesus said, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." I have repeated that to myself many, many times when I've been going through difficult times. Believing that to be true has been the one thing that has brought me through some tough times.

I recently read about a one-legged skier competing in the Paralympics. She was competing against another one-legged skier who fell down during her run. The second skier was confident she would win until she also fell. The other person took the gold. When the silver medalist was told the other person was a faster skier she responded, "No. She just got up faster than I did."

Victory in life comes to those who get up quickly when they get knocked down. It's easy to have a pity party when life knocks you down, but that doesn't gain a person anything. Few people want to come to your pity party, but when you get back up and continue to live life to the fullest, people will cheer.

Three things have helped me when I've been knocked down. One, is the promise I mentioned earlier. I know God will never abandon me. The second thing is the church. Some people today think the church is irrelevant, but I have found in my seven decades of life that it is one of the most relevant things I've ever known. The third is my wife of almost 58 years. She has been my greatest cheerleader.

I would love to tell you how God can help when life knocks you down. Contact me.

Evangelicals on the decline

 There have been several reports lately about the decline in numbers of evangelicals. This should not be a surprise! Mainline Christians and denominations have been in decline for many years, and now this decline is impacting evangelical churches. The Southern Baptist Convention has been reporting fewer baptisms for a few years now, and I'm not aware of any evangelical denomination that has seen an increase in baptisms or church growth.

What we are seeing is an increase in new churches, many of which are not connected to any denomination. Just yesterday I saw a new church that was meeting in a rented facility just a few blocks from my home. Another newer church in our community has just completed a very nice worship facility just outside the city. In the building where I have my auction center there are currently two churches meeting on Sundays on opposite ends of the building. There have been several new churches started in our small community in the past few years, and I know of only one affiliated with any national organization. It is a Calvary Chapel church. I doubt that many of the persons attending these churches identity as evangelical Christians. If someone asked, they would probably just say they are Christians.

There are numerous reasons why such churches are being started, but one of the reasons goes back to my post of yesterday. Most traditional churches do a poor job of reaching out or appealing to young adults, and these are the ones these newer churches seem to be reaching. Lately, I've been watching a lot of praise and worship videos on YouTube. The venues are filled with young adults worshiping God. Many of them have uplifted hands, they are dancing and jumping, laughing as they worship. Where are they on Sunday mornings? Most are not in our more traditional churches. These young people will pay $50.00-$200.00 a ticket to attend one of these praise events, but many will not be found in our traditional, evangelical churches on Sunday morning. It might be easy to criticize them or question their faith, but it might be time to question ourselves. What is it that keeps them from our churches? Why do many of them find the newer churches so attractive?

I know these are difficult questions, but how long will we continue to kick this can down the road? As I've written before, if our traditional churches are not going to do what it requires to reach our current generation, God will raise up churches that will. It appears He is doing just that.

Six religious types

 I recently mentioned a book I was reading called Souls in Transition by Christian Smith and Patricia Snell. It is not a fast read as it describes an ongoing study of teens and young adults and their religious beliefs and practices. There are a lot of statistics, but there are also numerous stories that bring life to those figures. It is an excellent book for anyone working with young adults or churches wanting to reach persons 18-23.

The authors have identified six different types of young adults when it comes to religion and spiritualty. I believe they describe people of all age groups and found the chapter very interesting. You'll have to read the descriptions for yourself, but the types are

• Committed Traditionalists
• Selective Adherents
• Spiritually Open
• Religiously Indifferent
• Religiously Disconnected 
• Irreligious

There is no majority type in this list. The two largest minority types are the Selective Adherent and the Religiously Indifferent. Except for the first group, the remaining groups simply give little, if any, thought to Christianity or religion. This is one reason it is so hard to reach this age group. Christianity and the church is seldom even on their radar screen. There is too much else to do that seems more pressing. Some admit when they get married or older they may give more thought to faith issues and the church. However, by then their secular worldviews may prevent that from happening.

Why have persons in this age group developed such a disinterest in religion? There are many reasons, but I think one is that many were never exposed to religious teaching when they were younger. My parents took me to church almost every Sunday. I attended Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, morning worship service, and, often, the evening services. We went to revival meetings. As a teen I began to drift away from that, and as a young adult the age of this study had mostly abandoned the church and the teachings I had learned as a child. However, those teachings didn't leave me. In my later 20s I came to realize how much I needed God in my life and returned to Him and my earlier faith.

Unfortunately, many Boomer parents (my cohort) didn't take their children to church. They were not exposed to the teachings I learned as a child. Most haven't walked away from their faith; they never had a faith to begin with. I knew what I needed to return to; they don't know where to go when life starts crushing them.

It will take very intentional actions on the part of a church to reach this age group. Simply doing what the church has always done in the past probably won't get the job accomplished. I'm not sure many churches will be willing to give up their traditional practices in hopes of reaching an age group that shows little interest in God or Christianity. Perhaps that is why God is raising up so many new churches. They don't have to worry about traditions. They can simply do whatever they need to do to reach an age group that most of our churches are not reaching. If your church wants to reach this age group it will have to decide what it is willing to do to make that happen. As one pastor has said, their church will do anything except sin to reach new people for Jesus Christ.

A Committed Church

 Rick Warren once wrote "A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church." I agree with his comment 100 percent. He proved it to be true in his own ministry as he led Saddleback Church from a Bible study group of less than 10 people to a megachurch with nearly 20,000 attending each weekend.

Churches spend a lot of time trying to figure out their mission. They're not sure exactly what they are supposed to do. Should they focus on justice issues? Should they be involved in social change? Should they be advocates for political change? Unfortunately, since many of them can't decide what they should do, they do nothing. They simply repeat what they've done each Sunday for years.

As I've spoken to many pastor groups over the years from a variety of denominations, I've explained that the mission of the church is very simple. They don't have to spend months in committee meetings to determine a mission statement. They don't have to bring in outside consultants to lead them in determining their mission. Jesus has given every church its mission. It's the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. That mission does not change whether the church is a megachurch or one that has an average attendance of 12 people each week. That mission does not change for churches of different denominations. Any church that is not committed to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment has ceased being a New Testament church. BTW - A commitment to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment will, by their nature, also address the other questions posed in the paragraph above.

Every decision a church makes should be filtered through the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. Regardless of the size of church, we all have financial and manpower limitations. Some may have more resources at their disposal, but we all have our limits. Anything that we might do that takes away our ability to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment should be removed from consideration.

Most, if not all, communities have population growth that far exceeds church growth in those communities. That means we are reaching fewer and fewer people for Christ. Even if our church is growing, it probably isn't growing as fast as the population around us. That is why a greater commitment to the Great Commission is so important. We are told a minimum of 50 percent of every county in the US is unchurched. That means our small county of 32,000 people has a mission field of 16,000 souls minimum to be reached. What about the county in which you live? What mission field exists right outside your church doors? Does your church have the commitment to the Great Commission necessary to reach that mission field?

Understanding the Life Cycle of a Church

In many of the conferences I've led for pastors I address the life cycle experienced by churches. Using a standard bell curve, I explain how churches go from birth to maturity to plateau to decline to death. I show how each of us personally are on a similar life cycle, and there isn't anything we can do about it. It's a natural process of life. However, churches can do something if they find themselves on the declining side of the life cycle. They can begin a new life cycle. 

The best place to begin a new life cycle is when it's still on the left side of the bell curve during the maturing or growth stage. However, many churches are not eager to change anything at that stage because things are going so well. The church is growing, new people are attending, baptisms are strong, the giving is up and people are excited about the church. Why change anything at that stage is a question often asked.

Well, for one thing, churches don't stay at that stage forever. It's great while it lasts, but at some point the church will begin to plateau or feel stuck. From that point the church enters a decline period which can soon lead to a survival mindset. When that happens the church becomes very risk-averse. They are protective of their finances. They circle the wagons fearful that they may be forced to close. Too often, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One of the problems is that many churches enter the decline side of the life cycle and never realize it until they are far down that right side of the bell curve. Drastic action may have to be taken if the church is to survive, and that doesn't include circling the wagons. It involves becoming more aggressive about outreach and discipleship. It requires the church to become much more intentional about its ministries and forces them to eliminate those ministries that no longer produce results (which they should have done much sooner). It also forces people out of the mindset that if they just doing the same things that used to be effective, and do them harder, everything will be OK.

How do you start a new life cycle? You do it by starting new ministries. You seek God's vision for your church and begin to live into that vision. Your church may be 100 or even 200 years old, but essentially you are starting over again. You identify the persons God wants your church to reach, eliminate anything that will keep you from that and begin new ministries that will reach those individuals.

I live in a county of only about 32,000 people, but I keep seeing new churches pop up in rented spaces and business centers. While many of the churches in my community are dying, these new churches are thriving. God is still interested in seeking and saving those that are lost, and if the existing churches are not going to do that, He will raise up new churches that will.

Your church leadership should look at a bell curve. Start at the left side and write birth on the bottom. As you move up the left side write growth. When you get to the top write plateau. As the curve begins to move downward, write the word decline, and at the bottom write the word death. Where is your church on that bell curve? Where is it in it's life cycle? Be honest. What are your next steps?

When ego gets in the way of ministry

Several years ago I submitted my name for a ministry position that had become available. Prior to doing so I spoke with a couple of people familiar with the position to ask if this was something I could do and if it was wise for me to consider it. Both gave me a green light, so I sent in my resume. I never got an interview. Later, I spoke with someone involved in the search process and asked why I was not at least interviewed for the position. Those are the only three people who even know I was interested, and I explained to each of them that I had absolutely no ego involved in my application. 

Ego is something that can do great damage to a minister. We have seen ego destroy CEOs of great organizations. One book in my library addressed the downfall of some CEOs of major companies, and in most of those cases the person's ego was at least partly responsible. Ego has also destroyed the ministries of more than one pastor, especially those who were serving in megachurches, although small church pastors are not exempt. Their ego convinces them they are entitled to things or take actions that eventually lead to their downfall.

Those with ego problems are people who believe their press clippings. They listen to others tell them how special they are and indispensable to the company or the church. I'm often reminded that the cemeteries are filled with indispensable people. When ego becomes a problem for a leader he or she needs someone to burst their bubble. I heard about a pastor who was feeling really good about a sermon he had just delivered. On the way home he asked his wife, "How many really great preachers do you think there are?" She responded, "Probably one less than you're thinking." 

Ego becomes a problem when it gets in the way of ministry, and this is not limited to just pastors. People who have held roles in a church for some time may be convinced that no one can do it better than they can. Sometimes, that role becomes unnecessary, but the person fights to keep it because their value as a person is wrapped up in that role. Their ego causes them to fight any change that would eliminate their role or the ministry in which it exists.

Don't let ego damage your ministry. If you are the pastor of a church, unless you are the founding pastor, that church had many pastors before you and, if the Lord tarries, will have many more after you. Don't think more highly of yourself than you should. You are just the person God has called to serve that church at this time. Take pleasure in that fact, but do not allow ego to creep in and tell you that you are more than you are. God should get all glory and honor for anything accomplished during your time there. If you will give Him that, you will not have a problem with ego.

Clarity in preaching

 I'm currently reading Souls in Transition by Christian Smith and Patricia Snell. The book describes their findings about the religious and spiritual lives of young American adults 18-23. The book is filled with statistics from their research, which makes for slow reading, but it also includes comments from personal interviews conducted with many of the ones they studied. Among the many interesting findings is that many of the young people struggle to know what they believe about religion, Christianity and their faith, if they profess having faith. Among the more common statements is that it's probably important to believe something, but it doesn't matter much what a person believes since all the major religions essentially teach the same thing. I couldn't help but think of a popular phrase among people in that age group: whatever.

Of course, anyone who has done even a brief study of the various religions know that all religions do not teach the same thing. They hold doctrinal beliefs that differ in many ways from other religious groups. What these young people are doing is simply parroting things they have heard from their peers, college professors, liberal pastors and entertainers without taking the time to study the issue for themselves.

This is also a reflection on the preaching they may have heard as children growing up in church. Too many churches focus more on entertaining young people in an effort to keep them coming and not enough time teaching them biblical truths. As these young people grow older they enter young adulthood without a clear understanding of God, Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation and other doctrinal truths. This makes they an easy prey for anyone interested in undermining their faith.

Like many young people, I was raised in the church but became less involved in my teen years. As a nineteen year old I went away to the Navy and became even less involved in church. It wasn't until my mid-20s when a crisis hit my life that I became more interested in returning to the faith of my childhood. Fortunately, I had a childhood faith to return to. Many young adults today don't which accounts for their spiritual confusion.

Churches need to make discipling children and young people a priority. Pastors need to be unafraid to preach clear, biblical, doctrinally-sound sermons. What I'm reading about young adults is equally true for many of our older members as well. Many who have sat in our pews for years struggle to articulate an understanding of biblical truth. They also need clarity from the pulpit about the Christian faith and its beliefs.

If we don't want our young people growing up with a "whatever" belief about God and His teachings for our lives we must commit to preaching clear messages each week that helps our people better understand God and what He has to say about our lives, both here and in eternity.

Friends invite friends to church

 When a sports team is doing poorly one of the first things owner's often do is to replace the manager. It costs too much to replace all the players who are doing poorly, so they replace the manager hoping to shake things up and improve the team's performance. Some churches take the same approach. If the church isn't growing, the obvious solution to some is to replace the pastor.

I once sat in a meeting with the deacons and pastor of a church. Some people wanted the pastor fired because the church had not grown during the two years he had been there. After listening for some time I asked one of the church members how long they had attended that church. I forget his exact number, but it was over two decades. I then asked how many people he had led to Christ during that time and brought to the church. He dropped his head and admitted he had never led anyone to Christ nor had he ever even led someone to be a member of that church. I then asked why he was upset the pastor had not done in two years what he had not done in two decades. The meeting ended soon after.

Studies find that the pastor is responsible for about six percent of the growth of a church. When the pastor invites someone to the church people believe he is just doing his job. They typically are not impressed. One church that tracks the reasons first-time guests attend their worship services found that 87 percent of them were invited by a friend. This is in line with national studies that tracked the same thing. The people in the pew are the ones who determine whether a church grows or not.

The pastor's responsibility is to equip the members to share their faith and guide them in the process of inviting others to faith in Christ and to the church. This is in line with Eph. 4: 11-12.

If your church is not growing first look at the number of first-time guests you have. If that number is low, the problem is not the pastor. It is that the members are not inviting their friends and family members to visit the church. Growing a church is not a solo game for the pastor. It is the responsibility of every member in the church.

Transformation of the church

Did you know God is in the transformation business? One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 2 Cor. 5: 17 -"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, our old nature is gone, and we become a brand new creation. You and I can rejoice that the persons we were before we invited Christ into our lives no longer exists. The Spirit of God has entered our lives which enables us to become brand new people. The last verse in that chapter, v. 21, explains how this happens. Paul writes, "For he made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." God provided everything necessary for our transformation. We only have to receive it.

But, God doesn't stop there. There is still more transformation He wants to do in our lives. In Romans 8: 28 we find these words, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." In other words, God wants us to become like Jesus. Talk about transformation! First, God takes us from our old lifestyles and makes us brand new creatures, and then He wants to continue that transformation process by shaping us into the image of Jesus Christ. The first transformation happens the moment we invite Christ into our lives to be our Lord and Savior. The second transformation is a life-long process that will never be fully completed this side of eternity. But, the more we yield to God's desire to shape our lives the more we will become like Christ.

What God wants to do in our personal lives He also wants to do in our churches. Unfortunately, many churches are uninterested in transformation. They are content to drift along keeping the stakeholders happy. While they may voice a desire to grow or to see changes occur in their church, many of them will resist any real change that is proposed. The ones eager to see transformation begin to drift away to other churches tired of fighting a losing battle. The church continues its decline until one day someone realizes there is no one left, and another church closes. When I served as a denominational minister I once worked with a church that had three members left. I don't they ever understood what happened.

Max Depree is considered a leadership guru, and I find great value in much of what he writes. He reminds us that "We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." You might want to read that again. That is a powerful statement for churches, families, businesses and individuals. Unless we are willing to be transformed we will never be able to move up.

God has been challenging His church to allow Him to transform them into something new. This has been going on for several years now. There is a shaking going on in the church in North America. I believe he is pouring new wine into the church. Old wineskins are bursting because they are inflexible. Those churches that are flexible are able to receive that new wine and experience the transformation He is bringing. These are the churches that will experience a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in these last days.

Pastors, church leaders, are your churches ready to experience the transformation God is bringing to the church?

Ministry change

 For most of the past year I have served as the Transitional Pastor of North Madison Baptist Church in my hometown of Madison, IN. Yesterday, at a specially called business meeting, the church voted to call me as their pastor. This is a great church that will celebrate it's 175th anniversary in November, and we are already working on that celebration. It is a church with a rich history, but I truly believe its best days are still ahead. I am excited to be a part of that future.

I will remain as a bivocational pastor as I will continue to operate my auctioneering business. We offer an online auction every two weeks with an occasional live auction. This alone keeps my wife and me busy, but it has not interfered with my pastoral ministry.

These past few months at the church have been exciting. Our mission offerings have increased substantially over past years. Our offerings have remained strong. We have introduced some videos for our specials that are not found in traditional Baptist hymnals, and these have been well received. We have a new website that will be released online any day now that will give us the opportunity to post our services and keep the community informed of special events at the church. We held a "Big Event" on Mother's Day that was well attended. At that event we passed out copies of The Case for Christ to every family present. We are installing new carpet for the steps coming into the church with plans to replace those steps perhaps next year and add a new ramp at the same time. A number of people have returned to the church who have not been attending since Covid. Our Leadership Team and I have been discussing some new ministries that will allow us to minister to more people in the Madison and Jefferson Country community. As you can see, this transitional time has been productive. We give God praise for this!

We want to invite all our members to join us for worship each Sunday at 10:30. Some have not been back since Covid. Others have left for other reasons. It's a new day at North Madison Baptist Church! God is leading us forward, and we want you to be a part of it.

We also want to invite everyone who does not have a church home to check us out. I think you'll like what you'll see. We are still growing in some areas, but you can help us with that growth.

Finally, I have been in the office most Tuesday mornings from 9:00 - 12:00. I plan to continue that and to add Friday mornings to that schedule as well. If you want to meet me at those times, please call me at 812-599-5599  to make sure I'll be there.