Barna Report: Economy Impacts Churches

The Barna Group has released a multi-part series on the economic crisis of the last year and how this impacts the church. These reports contain insightful and valuable information as you pray and plan for the year ahead. As a reminder, though research can serve as an indicator and prudent action is always advisable, we walk by faith.

Per the study, the implication is that church and non-profit leaders should prepare for another lean year. Response to this reality suggests avoiding high-risk and untested fundraising efforts and communicating effectively with constituents. In addition, consider proactive financial management, including adjusting income expectations. Avoid using traditional financial projections as reluctant donors are likely to cut back on the number of organizations and frequency of their support.

Action Items You Can Address:

1. Operate your ministry as efficiently as you possibly can.

2. Cast and re-cast your ministry’s vision so that people rally behind the significance of your ministry.

3. Communicate the priority and need of your ministry.

4. Nurture personal relationships with those who actively support your ministry.

5. Preach and teach on real case studies: real-life transformational testimonies are inspirational and remind people of God’s awesomeness.

6. Personally involve those who contribute to your ministry. Nothing serves more effectively than a “hands-on” approach.

Source: Barna Report

Jelly-filled kids

American children are physically obese and spiritually starved. And yet, we continue to serve up unhealthy food at home, school, and church.

I’m no nutritional expert, but let’s do the math:

• Junk food + inactivity + no accountability = jelly-filled donut

We are what we eat.

Back in the day before social media, I remember climbing trees, biking with friends, all-night camp-outs, sword drills, and actually going door-to-door to visit with people face-to-face. Comparatively, seems our kids today are addicted to electronic media and adrenaline-producing-rollercoaster-events and popcorn diets.

5 Church Growth Strategies

Want to go where few churches have gone? Want to become more effective in making disciples? Want to become a New Testament church in the 21^st century?

Starting with your new member’s class, manage expectations by clearly and simply presenting a Biblical discipleship model. Communicate the following expectations:

• Every member must read and study their Bible every day.
• Every member must attend a corporate worship experience every week.
• Every member must join and regularly attend a home fellowship group.
• Every member must be involved in at least one meaningful Bible study each year.
• Every member must be involved in at least one mission activity each year.
• Every member must be in a meaningful discipleship group with two or three others of the same gender.

What do you think? What are you going to do about it?

Jesus’ last command. Your most important mission.

Regardless of denomination, research says that the church is losing 70% of church-raised kids.

One recent attempt to curb this alarming trend has been to assign the job and responsibility of spiritual influence entirely to dads and moms (based on Deuteronomy 6:5-7). And though I believe that parents do have the greatest opportunity as “spiritual influencers” in their children’s lives, I see this as only partially remedial. Recall that Moses plainly and simply taught the law to Israel so that parents could then instruct their children. As such, we see the church in partnership with parents and parents in partnership with the church. Discipleship is not to be relegated solely to parents; it is the job and responsibility of the entire church.

The Great Commission has three participles: “go,” “baptizing,” and “teaching” and one imperative verb, a command: “make disciples.” The main idea is to make disciples. The participles tell us how to do that: we make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching. So the goal of discipleship is to make disciples, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-19).

If I am a born-again believer, it does not matter whether I am a dad working full-time as a plumber or employed 40-hours each week by a church; making disciples according to Jesus is MY job and responsibility and is accomplished right where I am today (first participle “go”). As I “go” I am to initiate people into the life of discipleship by ‘baptizing’ (second participle), and through the use of my gifts, teach them (third participle). Teaching is the continuous obligation of the church in the life of a new believer as they develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Teaching is the process of getting him/her to know Jesus in a life-long, deeper, and more intimate way – teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. Scripture is an absolute essential element in the process of Holy Spirit-inspired transformation of knowledge, conduct and character. Discipleship is the corporate responsibility of the church and the personal privilege of every believer as they are gifted. Discipleship is a life-long process, beginning at the point of salvation, and participated in and contributions made by a variety of believers throughout the life of a disciple.

Being a disciple and making disciples is a direct command from our Lord Jesus and the primary responsibility of the church and every born-again believer. Everything we do in church or ministry should have discipleship as the ultimate core goal — our going, baptizing, and teaching needs to be discipleship-centered. What we do each time we gather, whether church services, Sunday School, children’s ministry, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, VBS, outreach, etc., should all be filtered through the question, “How will this help us make disciples?”

If you want to establish a long-term, life-transforming, disciple-making process in your church, prayerfully consider the following:

1)    The senior pastor must personally champion discipleship in EVERY church ministry and department – this cannot be delegated and he/she must be personally involved in a discipleship group. Whether at home or when we gather together to worship, accountability begins with leadership.

2)    There must be a strong vision to make a disciple of every person in the church – the church must embrace Jesus’ command to “make disciples” as their vision and the vision must be used as the “filter” for every activity. Believe the vision, preach the vision, teach the vision, and live the vision.

3)    Develop a sustainable discipleship ministry. We have a tendency to build big plans and we oftentimes are overwhelmed because it is so big. Carefully and thoughtfully consider the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Pray. Share your vision with two or three others. Start small and then dream big. Allow God’s Holy Spirit to lead and develop. Remember, in God’s economy His big things always started out in His small ways.

Loving God Passionately – Part 1

If you’re like me, you want to love God passionately. After all, when a scribe pressed Jesus to identify the greatest commandment, He summed up the entire law in two all-encompassing statements—love God with your entire being, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). Nothing in life is more important than these!

Expressing Adoration

All believers agree that loving God is a worthy goal, yet what does it really mean and how can an individual truly accomplish this? In my efforts to obey this command through the last three decades, I dissected the passage and scrutinized the key words. To sum up my research and experience, I have determined that loving God passionately is essentially “expressing adoration and delight in unbroken communion with Him.” But this is still pretty nebulous. Let’s drill down further.

First of all, loving God is a matter of communing with Him. Through Christ, God gives us the wondrous privilege to walk beside Him and to respond to the promptings of His Spirit. When we love God passionately, we keep one eye on our heavenly Lord and one eye on our earthly circumstances. In other words, loving God includes both a vertical component (our relationship with God) and a horizontal component (our relationships with people).

Vertical Connection with God

As soon as a branch is severed from the vine, it stops growing and dies. It can no longer produce fruit of any kind. That’s why maintaining our vertical connection with God is absolutely nonnegotiable. If we neglect times of intimate interaction with the Lord (primarily through Bible reading and prayer), we dry up and become worthless. Christians simply cannot afford NOT to meet one-on-one with God. To ignore this is spiritual suicide! So, if you’re looking to jump-start your vertical connection with God, I recommend J.I. Packer’s Knowing God. As you digest each chapter, meditate on God’s individual attributes.

Horizontal Connection with People

When our vertical connection with God is intact, we automatically produce fruit. Spiritual fruit helps to nourish others. It leaves a lasting impact on the people who are close to us. Years ago, as I read Chuck Colson’s book, Loving God, I was very disappointed. I had anticipated mining amazing insights that would catapult my vertical connection with the Lord to new heights. Instead, Colson focused almost entirely on the horizontal connection—establishing and nurturing loving relationships with other people. I wrestled with my disappointment and finally realized that the truths in this book were exactly what I needed. In some ways, I had been so heavenly-minded that I was not much earthly good. Ouch!

As with all of life, the Scriptures hold the key to understanding what it means to love God passionately. Next time, we’ll dig into the Old Testament and identify what communing with God meant to pre-Christian saints.

-Mark Steiner, DiscipleLand

Children’s Ministry Online Resources

These new resources for children’s and family ministry will greatly help you in your ministry!

Publishers – With so many resources available, look for a curriculum and publisher committed to Jesus’ Great Commission discipleship and whose primary purpose is in providing children’s ministry curriculum; a provider who not only provides resources, but provides hands-on training.

• DiscipleLand

• David C. Cook

• Gospel Light

• Standard

• Cokesbury

• Group

• Augsburg

Websites – these websites offer incredible resources – check them often for new ideas, resources, tips, and more!

• Kidology

• DiscipleLand

• Childrensministry.com

• Homeword

• One Way Street

• Free CM Stuff

• Dick Gruber

• Chidrens Ministry Talk

• PreTeenMinistry

• Elemental

Magazines

• K! Magazine

• Children’s Ministry Magazine

10 Online Church Tools that can help your children’s ministry – Check Them Out!

1. Volunteer Scheduling
For volunteer scheduling, allows scheduling around peoples preferences and availability, which is key. It also has a web-based portion for accessing and updating the scheduling once it has been produced. If you are managing a lot of volunteers it is definitely worth a look.

2. Basecamp – online project collaboration

3. Donor Tools
Donor Tools is simple, inexpensive, and online donor management software for non-profits.

4. Unifyer
Unifyer is a web-based application that unites online communication, online networking, and dynamic media content for your ministry community. Like having a custom social network for your church.

5. ConnectionPower
Here is a way to find out who is missing from small groups and offers follow-up.

6. Jarbyco
Jarbyco is a customizable mobile application built around text messaging that lets you (1) quiz, poll, and survey the congregation, (2) message people, (3) create audience interaction, (4) leverage your website, and even more.

7. Children’s Church Training & Curriculum Great resource for children’s ministry resources, training, and more.

8. SermonPlayer.com
Free online media player for churches.

9. Wufoo
Build online forms (WYSIWYG).

10. ChurchMetrics
Just released from beta testing, this new free web-based application helps you keep tabs on attendance, giving, salvations, and baptisms at your church.

Great Commission Resurgence

The lordship of Christ and the centrality of the Gospel in Christian ministry must be the foundation of a Great Commission resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, Daniel Akin declared April 16 in a chapel message at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

Akin outlined 12 “axioms of a Great Commission Resurgence.”

However, I am concerned with the definition of the “Great Commission” and more specifically, how the church goes about “making disciples.” In the past believers have been good at making converts but we have failed in making disciples.

Can this “Great Commission Resurgence declaration” help? What do you think?

Children’s Church Curriculum: What are the kids learning?

Once upon a time, Christian parents asked their children after church, “What did you learn about God?” Today, the question is often, “Did you have fun?” Not too long ago, wanting to fully equip children to serve Christ, churches offered extensive Bible training for all ages. Today, wanting to keep kids happy and to make recruiting easy, many churches offer high-energy, entertainment-based programs. Children rarely use their Bibles. What’s needed is a comprehensive children’s discipleship system that helps equip kids to reach their peak potential as Jesus’ disciples, a children’s church curriculum that partners with teachers and parents to transform children into dynamic disciples of Jesus Christ. Kids need to learn to Know God intimately, love God passionately, and to serve God selflessly.

Waitress Changes Church Beliefs

A church is defined by what it teaches, believes and stands for. You might think, “Well our church is known for its love.” Perhaps, but if you really want to know how your church is perceived, ask a waitress. On any given Sunday, these hardworking servants serve the servants.  Get ready for a gut-check. They may tell you that your organization is only interested in political or social issues. They may tell you that the Sunday crowd is large, noisy, demand everything and leave nothing in return. Or they might say that your church is defined by the core objective and prime directive Jesus gave us: loving God – loving others and making disciples.

Want to really change things? I would suggest that you humbly ask your church leaders to focus on the same mission and commission that our Founder gave us. Is your church really known for its love and making disciples? Ask a waitress.