Category: Church Leadership

Encouragement for leaders

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Church Leadership Journal

A surprisingly effective way to mark in your Bible in color

Children's large size colored pencils

Write in your Bible

I am always encouraging people to personalize their own Bibles by marking verses that have special meaning for them.   Most people who do this soon want to categorize their marking by using some kind of color system.    Many people also want to use a marking system that does not obscure the words as one often accidentally does when using ink.   The method must also not bleed through.    Several years ago I happened to try something very simple but also very effective–children’s colored pencils.   They have fatter colored “leads” than normal colored pencils.   They act like a highlighter but do not bleed through like a highlighter will.   Because they are thicker, many fewer strokes are required and there is no danger of torn pages as with sharp smaller ones.

The only problem is that they are seldom available.    I have literally looked for years for a second set to have at home.   Well, this week I found one.   They are currently available again.  I found mine at Staples.

A simple colored pencil system

I highly recommend a simple color scheme using colored pencils to mark your Bible.  I use orange for promises and special verses.   If I can’t figure out what color to use, it gets orange.  Blue is for salvation; verses related to what Jesus has done for us and what gifts God has given us through his Son.    Yellow is for verses of praise to God; verses that adore Jesus Christ.   Green is for spiritual growth. Red is for stewardship verses that encourage me to use what I have well.  Purple is for verses about heaven.   That’s about it.   I keep it simple.

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Church Leadership Forward Look Journal Joy Notes

Celebrating a Unanimous Decision

 

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

What a joy it was to lead the special church conference this evening in the consideration of the 50th Anniversary Project.   I had felt that there was a positive feeling about the various parts of the project but one always wonders if everyone is speaking up.   There was good attendance at our meeting.  This was gratifying since I had postponed it due to weather one time.  But sometimes good attendance means sharp division of opinion.   In this case, however, it quickly became obvious that good attendance signaled a strong excitement and a unanimous enthusiasm for the project. 

Continue reading “Celebrating a Unanimous Decision”
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Church Leadership Forward Look

A key idea behind the two service system

I’ve written a new essay explaining a fundamental change in thinking that is needed in smaller churches if they are to successsfully fulfill the great commission in the area of service to which God has assigned them. I am excited to share this insight.  It is really a distillation of things I have learned over the years. I hope it is helpful.

Because it was a docx document containing smart art, diagrams and tables, I have saved it as a pdf and am experimenting with a new way of embedding it here.

http://learntobewise.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Viewpoint-for-Moving-Forward-Beyond-One-cell-Church.pdf

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Church Leadership Journal

Blessings to Peter and Susan Moon and Family as They Lead at Chambers Camp

Chambers Camp - a fun place, a sacred place

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” (Acts 13:2-3 NIV).

What exciting news to learn that Peter Moon, one of our members, has been tapped as the new Camp Manager for Chambers Wesleyan Camp and Conference Center.   Peter will be responsible for maintenance and promotion of the camp and will play a role in planning as well.   Peter is taking a big cut in pay but believes that it is more than made up for by the tremendous incentive of working full-time for a higher purpose.   He feels called to this ministry.   The family will be relocating to Chambers very soon. 

Of course, this causes a tinge of sadness for us as we will miss seeing the Moon’s as often, enjoying their laughter and friendship, and we will miss their many and varied contributions to the ministry here as well.   But in another sense, we can think of it as an honor when God chooses those from our church family to press into service in his wider vineyard.   It means the Lord of the Harvest has trusted us to disciple, encourage and prepare servants for his work, just as he used the church at Antioch to prepare Barnabas and Saul.   That is an affirmation to the ministry of our church.   Now it is up to us to take the next step too, which we began to do this past Sunday; that step is to pray for them, and send them off with blessing even as the church of Antioch did.

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Church Leadership

Building up people power

As I move through the senior years of my ministry, I find I am blessed and my ministry is truly enabled by remembering and putting into practice a basic principle of leadership; the networking of people resources.

1.    Accept ideas: 

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Church Leadership News Commentary

Answering a call for clergy leadership

 

Letter writer, David C. Ashley, in today’s Post Standard opinion page decried a lack of obvious clergy leadership in changing the climate of political discourse in our country.   I have good news for him.   Just such a leadership move has been in the works for awhile and at this crucial time has just begun to be publicized http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100326/conservative-liberal-christians-vow-to-model-civility/.  

This initiative is authored and signed by many prominent clergy of various denominational backgrounds.  It is called A Covenant for Civility: Come Let Us Reason Together.    It is inspiring to read and is very Biblically based.  If implemented, it would bring the Golden Rule back to American politics, something we haven’t seen since politicians discovered that slander via advertising works in election campaigns.    I have personally joined those signing this important document and encourage others to do so.  I found a signable copy and list of many of the chief signers at http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.display&item=100308-civility-covenant.    I intend to honor it (I hope I already have been) as I blog and as I preach.

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Church Leadership Journal

Reflections on a Very Significant Change in My Job over 30 Years.

I have been reflecting recently about how some key changes in our culture have affected pastoral work over the 30 years.  Particularly, I have been documenting lately the decreasing number of natural connection points for a pastor with the families in the community surrounding the church.     Many different cultural trends have joined together to have one giant cumulative effect.

When I first started as a parish minister, there were three sources of contact with folks living around the church that were very reliable, that is these dynamics consistently connected me as a the pastor with people I would otherwise not have had communication with.    

1.  The most frequent dynamic was hospital visitation.  Whenever a friend or neighbor was in the hospital, someone in the extended family would usually request that the pastor visit the sick one.   Since hospital stays were then several days long, often this grew into several contacts with the family of the sick person as well, since I would meet them at the bedside in the hospital.    Now hospital stays are comparatively rare as even major surgeries are performed as day surgeries at in/out facilities away from the central hospital.    If the person is from our church and I find out ahead, I frequently pray with them on the phone ahead.

2.  Secondly, there were many weddings that I performed for people in the community.   Between required pre-marital discussions, rehearsals, and conversations at the reception, I would meet many people in the community.    Now, many fewer people get married, opting to live together instead.   Of those, that do marry, some use destination weddings which are often performed by a cooperating minister there.  Also, it is more popular to ask family members to perform the ceremony.  The overall result is that the local pastor meets many fewer people through wedding ministry than before.

3.  The third avenue for connecting with the community was by officiating at funerals.   When I first became a pastor, I performed many funerals for people I did not know and for whom I did not even know someone in the family.   Then I was new in the community and if the family had never attended the church, often their request to the funeral director would be the only inkling I would have that they felt any connection to our church.   In those days, also, nearly everyone had a minister of some kind officiate at their burial.   Now many are buried without services, a trend that I find very unhealthy for the grieving process.   Because of cremations, there are fewer burials too.  Again, the by-product is less contact with the community for the pastor.   

It is no wonder that many pastors and parishes are feeling more isolated and insulated from their communities.   The conclusion is that I as pastor and we as churches have to be very intentional about replacing these contacts with new avenues of connection.   What are they?  How effective are they?  Who do they reach?

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Church Leadership Journal

New Page Series Created called Visuals

I continue to be challenged by the way our society has become so visually oriented.   The new page series – Visuals – is meant to respond to this need by presenting visual sketches of messages in a readily accessible spot.  

The story behind this decision is this.  November 7, I preached a message called “Walk Humbly with Your God.”  To be homiletically sound, it had way too many sub-points – five!   But I was inspired to illustrate it visually by having six people (one point required two people) come up to the platform and mime the point.   I had all the five points mimed at the beginning.  Then I reviewed them and had the congregation repeat them while looking at the mimes.   The surprising result was that I had people telling me that they were repeating all five points to people at work that week.   Research says that usually most people can’t tell us much about the sermon by the time they get to the parking lot.   What a difference.

At the beginning of the work week, unknown to me, my administrative assistant was inspired to download silhouettes similar to the mimed figures and make a bulletin board of the five points.   So the visual impact was increased.

As I discussed that result, I decided to try something new.  Each week I will make a visual summary of the message for my blog.   Sometimes some of it will be used in the Sunday message time and sometimes not.  

This is a work in progress.  On this first one, the second and third files are auxiliary files.   For all the files,  I have some technical work to do.  The plug-in loads them fine but when you try to view them, the computer wants to open them with Internet Explorer rather than Powerpoint.   I worked around it by saving them and then using “open with” to force the computer to use the right program.   I’ll work on this.

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Church Leadership Forward Look

Plans continue for Community Wesleyan Extreme Makeover 50th Anniversary projects

Tonight the Local Board of Administration (LBA) at its regular monthly meeting voted unanimously to recommend to the upcoming semiannual church conference that our church undertake an Extreme Makeover project as a part of our 50th anniversary celebration.  Such unanimity on such an important item is a sign of blessing.  We are already well on our way toward our first 50th anniversary goal of 50 4 50—that is 50 outreach and service ministries accomplished in the 30 months prior to our 50th anniversary at Easter 2012.   Now we would like to add to that a goal of updating our facilities in crucial ways to be ready for the next decades of the new millennium.  The four sub-projects chosen by the board to be recommended to be included in the overall Extreme Makeover project are as follows:

  1. Finish the kitchen makeover project
  2. New carpet for the sanctuary & adjacent rooms (possibly including some small alterations to the vestibule and platform)
  3. Improvements to sanctuary lighting
  4. Repaving the entrance driveway and paving the unpaved section of the parking lot including a new area in the back extending behind the pole to give added space.

The recommended idea is that these projects would be completed in this order as the money is raised.  While the last one might not be finished before the anniversary, the idea is that it will be made possible by this Extreme Makeover project.   The board has had sub-committees working on each project for some months.

I am personally very excited about this Extreme Makeover combined project.  We will be discussing it at our semi-annual meeting but do not plan to make final decisions then, but rather at a later special conference.   I believe that just as we are already seeing with the kitchen makeover, the other projects also will enable ministry excellence for years to come.

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Church Leadership Journal Joy Notes

My Results of Fasting and Prayer through Pray & Act

I have been participating in the national Pray & Act emphasis led by Jim Garlow and Chuck Colson.  October 30 marked the formal end of this forty-day fasting and prayer effort on behalf of sanctity of life, sanctity of marriage and religious liberty.   While some key leaders such as Jim Garlow were on a liquids-only fast for the entire 40 days, everyone was asked to fast in some way as health requirements and God’s leading dictated.   Daily emails and attached video clips have edified and inspired participation.

Prayer & Action

My fasting commitment was one 32-36 hr fast (water/apple juice/tea only) per week.    I have completed that and have decided to continue it until the week before Thanksgiving.  I have not talked about my fasting, but have decided I needed to write about it for an example. Other actions included signing the Manhattan Declaration, praying much in public and private about marriages and our country, becoming more knowledgeable on political candidates, blogging about issues such as sanctity of life and sanctity of marriage, standing up in the annual Life Chain demonstration, speaking for the causes in public messages and prayers, and voting with them in mind tomorrow, God willing.  

Deeper Renewal

I have found some things happening that I did not expect from my prayer and fasting commitment.   First, I have felt a greater closeness to God in prayer and a stronger identity with his cause in the world.  At the same time, I am hungry for more of Him.  Second, I have found myself praying more at times that were not particularly scheduled times of prayer – just talking to God about the issues on my heart – crying out to him for needs that came to my attention or that were impressed upon me to pray for.   Third, I noticed as I and we as a congregation and people across the nation prayed for God to uphold the sanctity of marriage in our nation, God moved mightily during these forty days to expose deep needs in marriages in our own church.  We felt the fruit of this overall effort.  I have had multiple opportunities for counsel and correction.  These are opportunities for me but especially for the couples involved.  That is one reason I am continuing the fast.  I see the need for much more healing of relationships by God’s power.  I believe this period of prayer and fasting was a big part of why these breakthroughs are happening.   God is answering prayer for the sanctity of marriage.