It is always refreshing to turn again to the Bible stories of Jesus’ life and ministry. As I was praying about what messages to preach for the next five weeks until Pastor Eric and the team return and are ready with their report, my mind and heart seemed drawn back to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry and the basic truths of the Christian faith. So I have designed a message series for the remainder of August and early September called Essential Perspectives for Disciples. The messages will remind us of the basic outlooks that we need to be successful followers of Jesus. Most of the texts come from the Gospels.
Each week of ours sermon series called Kitchen Table Talks on Relationships I have been making recommendations on my blog for further reading on the topic of this week’s sermon. Here are some annotated recommendations on this week’s topic of personality differences.
Florence Littauer
Christian writer and speaker, Florence Littauer has written a number of helpful books on the subject of personality. All use the classic understanding of the four temperaments that I presented in the sermon.
Your Personality Tree (1989) – The one I have been using
Personality Plus (1992) – Her most famous book on the topic
Personality Plus for Couples (2001)
Personality Plus at Work: How to Work Successfully with Anyone (with Rose Sweet 2001)
Tim LaHaye
Pastor Tim LaHaye also discusses the classic personality types and uses as examples famous characters from the Bible. For some reason LaHaye does not put the types in the same quadrants as Littauer, but his chart of characteristics is excellent.
Transformed Temperaments (Tyndale House, 1971)
David Keirsey
For those who are looking for a more complex contemporary formulation of personality types that correlates to the Myers-Briggs system rather than the classical system, I ran across a very interesting secular book that I think would be helpful. I purchased it for my own further reading and have perused it some already. It contains a quick and easy test too. I like the positive names he gives to his 16 categories.
David Keirsey, Please Understand Me II, (Prometheus Nemesis 1998)
I recently read the above blog article by Heath Mullikin about why pastors should be bloggers. I totally agree with him. I like his reasons but I think I would have listed different ones. Here are my four.
1.A blog makes studies, devotionals, book reviews, etc. available and accessible to people in the congregation who did not attend that particular study, to those connected more remotely with the congregation through a web of relationships either personal or electronic who may become interested in the studies, and to believers around the world, many of whom do not enjoy the resources that you do.
2.A blog helps the pastor to be real. As I occasionally share events from my own life–vacation accounts, hobbies, things that interest me–the people in the congregation see that I am not a one-dimensional “talking head.” I’m always amazed when people see me in gardening clothes, or dressed for fishing; they do not recognize me because they are so used to thinking of me in my Sunday morning role. When the congregation sees the pastor as a fellow traveler on the road to heaven, a person with human interests like their own, it is easier for them to make connection when you speak on Sunday morning.
3.A blog is a great place to take a stand on community and political issues. Often there are issues you feel compelled to speak to when they arise or come up in the news. Or perhaps there is something you want to talk about but don’t necessarily want to dedicate a whole worship service or message to it. A blog provides the perfect forum. It is also a great place to take part in the cyberspace dialogues about issues of our day. It is a way to be part of what is happening in the world rather than isolated within the four walls of your church and the confines of its cliques.
4.Reading a blog is a great way for people who are looking for a church to get to know the pastor before they actually meet him. By reading what you write, they can learn a lot about how you treat Scripture, how you treat those with whom you disagree, what you tend to focus on, the passions of your heart, your family life, and your vision for the church. There is no doubt that people today check out churches on the web before they ever darken the door. They choose churches to visit by perusing their webpages. The pastor’s blog may be your best online advertisement.
So now you have at least eight reasons. Have you started blogging yet?
I’ve heard Mark O. Wilson speak. It’s a great pastor in a medium sized town in northern Wisconsin and he has many very practical ideas. This article is in Wesleyan Life online. I highly recommend it.
Marriage has so much potential yet most marriages also experience a good deal of pain on the way to forging a better way. What are some typical causes of this pain? What can be done to bring healing and find lasting satisfaction and love? I just finished planning the series for Sunday messages in July. When I was at family Camp earlier this week, I felt led to focus on human relationships especially marriages during this month. Since marriage is something we don’t do alone, we need the input of our spouse to get a well-rounded perspective. I have invited my wife to join me on the platform for this series for Kitchen Table Talks about Relationships. Like most couples, we’ve had our up’s and down’s in 42 years of marriage. Our hope is that we have learned some perspectives that can be helpful to others. I invite you to join us for this series.
Over the last several weeks, there has been more than one occasion for our church to join in united prayer as a congregation in various different ways. Some of them have been ways that we do not see very often. I thought it might be helpful for me to address in a blog article some of the practices that were in evidence as we prayed together.
Praying for Eric and Magda
This last Sunday, we had the privilege of praying for Eric and Magda and family as we commissioned them for short-term mission service in Romania. As pastor, I asked for many to gather around them in front at the altar rail as we laid hands on them and prayed for them. One might ask, “Why do we lay hands on them?” The short answer is simply that it was done that way in the book of Acts. For example, when Barnabas and Saul went on their first missions trip the Bible says that the church at Antioch laid hands on them. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (Ac 13:2-3 NIV). IN the NT, the laying on of hands is also done in conjunction with prayers for receiving the Holy Spirit and prayers for healing. Since a successful missions trip can only happen as the Holy Spirit empowers, it was natural also to lay hands on them as we prayed for the coming missions trip.
As we prayed for Erica and Magda I suggested that we all pray out loud at the same time.
At Community Wesleyan Church we have a simple six word motto and mission statement: Love God, Love others, Make disciples. Each of the three elements is taken directly from Jesus’ instructions to us. The first two are taken from the two commandments that Jesus identified as the greatest of all the Old Testament commandments. He also declared that these two summarized all the others. The third part of our motto is word for word from Jesus’ great commission to his church found in Matthew 28:19. During the month of June we will be seeking to understand this part of our motto and mission better. Our message series is titled: Our Mission — Make Disciples.
It was my privilege to attend the graduation ceremonies for Noah’s Ark Christian Preschool this past week. The three year old ceremony was held downstairs and marked their passage to the next grade. The four-year-old graduation was held upstairs in the sanctuary. They dressed in costume to sing songs that go with the Noah’s Ark theme; then they went back to the library and came out with graduation caps to complete their program. Mrs. Maum emceed the whole and I closed in a prayer of blessing upon the graduates and their families. Refreshments capped the evening celebration. I presented flowers to Mrs. Maum to honor her for her leadership for another year and to Mrs. Kraus and Mrs. LaForte for their faithful work as helpers. Mrs. Magda Paashaus also taught in the three year old class for part of this past year until she needed to stop for the birth of her son Andrew. Noah’s Ark Preschool is a great opportunity to help children prepare for school and for life in a loving atmosphere where they also learn basic truths of Christian faith.
During our 50th celebration we received many compliments as a church family. Some were for relatively unimportant things. Others for very significant factors. The highest compliment we received, I believe, was from one person who does not often speak publicly. She rose in testimony time and said that she liked our church and was attracted to it because we not only taught the Bible and preached about it but we lived it too. That has to be one of the key characteristics of every good church. Jesus said it was the description of every wise follower of his. Here’s a great article on how to choose a good church. I think the four ideals this author unpacks describe Community Wesleyan in Kirkville too.
I continue to reflect on what made our 50th anniversary celebration so successful. Our district superintendent gave us a great compliment saying that he could not think of another church that had used an anniversary celebration so well to move the church forward. So I want to write down for the sake of others what I believe helped us to make it happen.
Intercede for the celebration
Looking back, I believe that one reason our celebration was blessed was that we have been praying for it for all these 30 months that it has been in process. It has been a frequent topic on the Wednesday intercessors list. It has been a subject for prayer by the pastors in their weekly meetings. It had been a topic for LBA (Local Board of Administration) prayer times too. Our focus has been that we might lift up Jesus in this celebration, that we might celebrate his faithfulness and grow in faith and expectancy for the future. Our prayer was that the 50th celebration would help to launch the church into its next decade well.
Advertise and Invite
This should go without saying but it doesn’t. So many times in the church we have planned and executed excellent programs but failed to advertise them and generate invitations to them. We seem to assume that if we plan a good service, people will hear about it and decide to come. But that is so not true.
