I want to invite every person (pastor, staff, volunteer) who has a passion for and questions about discipleship to set aside October 24-25, 2013, to be a part of the DiscipleShift: 1 conference at Eastside Community Church, 2010 Catalpa Loop, Richmond, Kentucky.

DiscipleShift: 1 is a unique two-day experience that will both challenge and stretch you. This is not the usual conference or seminar. Practitioners from Eastside and from Real Life Ministries won’t be talking at you for two days. Rather, they will challenge you through interactive relational small group experiences to evaluate and re-think how you do church.

I personally attended this conference in Idaho and experienced a major shift in my discipleship thinking and strategy. The DiscipleShift: 1 strategy will help you focus on being an intentional discipling leader, creating a relational discipling environment, and designing a reproducible process.

In order to prepare for the conference, you are expected to read the book, Church Is a Team Sport by Jim Putman.

Cost is $345 per person. And space is limited due to the interactive nature of the experience. You can register for this great conference on this website:

• http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5954268377/eventful/r/eventful#

Another great discipleship resource is Real-Life Discipleship Training Manual by Jim Putman, Avery Willis Jr., Brandon Guindon, and Bill Krause.

For more thoughts about discipleship, check out these blog posts:

• Make Disciples Who Make Disciples…
• Discipleship Then and Now
• Discipleship Is Changing
• Jump Starting Your Discipleship, Part 1
• Five Ways to Make Disciples, Part 3

1. Healthy churches are led by healthy pastors, staff, and leaders.  Take a day off, read God’s Word for you not just to get another sermon or lesson prepared, and don’t get so focused on being busy doing God’s work that you forget why you are doing it…His Glory!
2. The best assimilation strategy is a good discipleship strategy!  We must help new believers and new church members get connected to our churches thru relationships and serving.  This does not happen by accident.  The key word is “intentional.”
3. Spend an equal amount of energy getting guests to return after their first visit as you do getting them there for the first time.  Statistics show that the more a person visits a church the higher the rate of salvations and joining by those folks.
4. Closing the back door will not happen if we do not place people in small groups like…Sunday School, LIFE groups, discipleship groups, where relationships are formed.
5. A compelling vision moves people to invest their time, talents, treasures, and testimony in the work.  Without a vision from the Lord, churches plateau and cease to be affective for the Kingdom.
6. The Bible, not our traditions should be the primary source for not only our message but our methods of ministry.  The reason many churches are dying is because they think it is 1975 or 1989 instead of 2012 in their styles, approach, and methodology.
7. The best pastors, staff, and DOM’s I have worked with across the state have been folks who are teachable.  When we think we know it all is when we don’t know it all.
8. Verbalize the Gospel.  Each day seek to have some Gospel conversations with people that you meet.  We cannot expect our congregation to do what we as leaders refuse to do.  Have you noticed that people don’t get saved without someone sharing the Gospel!
9. Don’t be a lone ranger in ministry or life.  God made us to work and live together so network with other people and other churches.  Iron sharpens iron.
10. Lighten up!  If you know me you know I am the belly button in the body of Christ.  I like to laugh and not take myself too seriously.  As a matter of fact I think God has a sense of humor.  If you don’t believe that look in the mirror. (just kidding)  The Lord is more willing to bless us and lead us and smile upon us than we are to receive His blessings, smile, and guidance therefore trust more, worry less, and follow Christ daily.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

None of us can predict the future. Often someone will have a minute of fame by being on the news or on the internet with a prediction of the end of the world. When their projected date arrives and the world does not end, then they re-calculate or make some excuse.

As followers of Jesus Christ we must trust the Lord for the future and attempt to be faithful today, which is actually the only day we have to serve Christ. We must be careful about predicting future events or trends even in church life because we could be totally off base. Here are a few predictions that did not actualize.

“Everything that can be invented has been invented,” declared Charles H. Duell, the U.S. Commissioner of Patents. That was in 1899.

Horace Rackham was advised by a president of the Michigan Savings Bank not to invest in the Ford Motor Company in 1903. “The horse is here to stay,” he predicted, “but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.” Fortunately for Rackham, Henry Ford’s attorney, he ignored the banker’s short-sightedness and bought $5,000 worth of stock. He sold it several years later for $12.5 million.

In rejecting an aspiring band in 1962, Decca Records made this fearless prophecy about its future in music. “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” Thus the company passed on signing the Beatles.

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home,” said the president and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation in 1977.

Life is an adventure. As a Luke 9:23 disciple it is a “daily adventure” of following Christ and seeking to be at the center of His will. As the song says we may not know the future but we know who holds it in His hand. We should have great confidence in the future because we know Who is in control. We also have some great promises to hold onto from God’s Word.

Here are a couple of promises to keep in mind during times of change and uncertainty.

“Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you through it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The future for our economy, who will be elected president, changes in musical styles, and all the cultural changes are beyond our complete understanding. I am sure there will be new breakthroughs in astronomy, medicine and science but the thing we possess that is absolutely certain are the promises based on God’s Word.

Those promises take the uncertainty and fear out of today and the future helping us move forward with great confidence and faith in God.

As I depart from serving the Kentucky Baptist Convention in a few short weeks and anticipate where the Lord may lead me in the next chapter of ministry, I have a strong inward confidence that the Lord is going to provide. I don’t know where or when or what or how but I do know the Who and that my friend makes all the difference anyone ever needs.

If we are really concerned about the future then we should focus our total attention on the One Person who actually knows something about it…JESUS.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

I just finished my devotion and began to think about the decisions made in this very room where I slept last night. I did my home work in this room, stored all my stuff, talked on the rotary phone (ok I am old!), and read my Bible most nights.

One strong memory took me back to my senior year of high school. On a cold December night I was reading a devotion magazine and read a quote that God used to rock my world. The quote said this, “The world is far more ready to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ than Christians are to hand it out.”

The Holy Spirit took that quote and nailed me. I was vice president of my class, involved in lots of clubs, first trumpet player in the band, attended church every week, but I had not intentionally shared the Gospel with my high school friends. I was so convicted by this that I got on my knees by my bed and asked the Lord to forgive me for not sharing and promised not to pass up any opportunities the remainder of my senior year.

The second part of my senior year was phenomenal. I did not know that the Lord was also speaking to several other friends in my high school. A group of us started to carry our Bibles each day to school and began to meet to pray and share testimonies and soon we received invitations to lead worship services at various churches throughout our county. About the same time this was occurring, the Asbury revival broke out in Wilmore, Kentucky. You can read about that in the book, One Divine Moment. Three of us from my high school actually drove over to Asbury and witnessed firsthand this great move of God on that campus.

It was an amazing year that carried over as I went off to college and got involved in Baptist Campus Ministry (back then it was the Baptist Student Union) where I got to use my spiritual gifts, serve as president one year and met my wife. That experience so long ago taught me many things that I seek to practice today. The main life lesson is this, “when we share our faith we grow spiritually.” As I made the commitment to intentionally share my faith, my spiritual life grew exponentially.

Church members often share with me that they feel they are not growing much and are stuck in their spiritual growth. I always ask, “Are you attempting to verbally share your faith on a regular basis?” The most frequent answer is “no.”

If we step out on faith and allow the Holy Spirit to use us as His witnesses, we will grow. If we choose not to share, we will stagnate spiritually. God wants to use you today to share Christ with people you meet. He has some “divine appointments” already made for you. Will you keep those divine encounters and share Christ? If you do get ready for some new spiritual growth in Christ! Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” NKJV

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

Church leaders need to be aware of these five significant facts about first-time guests looking for a church home. It has been my experience that churches that are growing pay lots of attention to folks who come through their doors. It is not an afterthought. They also have a strategy that focuses the church outward not inward. They know that their church will not grow without new guests.

Here are Rick’s 5 facts.

1. Guests make up their minds regarding a new church in the first ten minutes of their visit.

Often, before a first-time guest has sung an inspiring song or watched a compelling drama or viewed a well-produced video vignette or heard a well-crafted sermon, they have made up their mind whether or not to return. Most pastors would rather not hear this: The church’s ability to connect with first-time guests is not dependent on you but on those first lines of people who represent your church.

Are parking attendants in place?

Is there appropriate signage?

Are your ushers and greeters performing the “right” job?

2. Most church members aren’t friendly.

Churches claim to be friendly. In fact, many churches put that expression in their logo. The truth is that most church members are friendly to the people they already know, but not to guests.

Observe to see if your members greet guests with the same intensity and concern before and after the worship service as they do during a formal time of greeting in the worship service. A lack of friendliness before and after the service sends a mixed, if not hypocritical, message to new people.

The six most important minutes of a church service, in a visitor’s eyes, are the three minutes before the service and the three minutes after the service, when church members introduce themselves, offer to answer any questions, introduce them to others who may have a connection, or any number of ways to demonstrate to the guests that they as a church member care.

3. Church guests are highly consumer-oriented.

“If Target doesn’t have what I need, I just head to K-Mart.” “If the Delta airfare is too high, American might have a sale.” Capitalism has taught us that if we don’t find what we want, someone else down the street or at another Web site will have it. If your church building is too hard for newcomers to navigate, if they have to park in the “back 40,” if your people are unaccepting and unfriendly, another church down the street may have what they’re looking for.

Pastors and church leaders need to look at their churches through the eyes of a first-time guest.

4. The church is in the hospitality business.

Though our ultimate purpose is spiritual, one of our first steps in the Kingdom business is attention to hospitality. Imagine the service that would be given to you in a first-class hotel or a five-star restaurant. Should the church offer anything less to those who have made the great effort to be our guests?

Hospitality is almost a forgotten virtue in our society. When was the last time someone invited you to their home for a meal? But it needs to be reawakened.

Church members can extend hospitality to guests by offering to sit with them during the church service, giving them a tour of the church facilities, inviting them to lunch after service, or connecting with them later in the week.

5. You only have one chance to make a good first impression.

First impressions are lasting ones. Your first-time guests have some simple desires and basic needs. They decide very quickly if you can meet those criteria. The decision to return for a second visit is often made before guests reach your front door.

• Are you creating the entire experience, beginning with your parking lot?

• Are you consciously working to remove barriers that make it difficult for guests to find their way around and to feel at home with your people?

• Do newcomers have all the information they need without having to ask any embarrassing questions?

• Are your greeters and ushers on the job, attending to details and anticipating needs before they are expressed?

• Does anything about your guests’ first experience make them say, “Wow!” and want to return?

You may be the most skilled preacher, and your church may have excellent small groups or the best children’s ministry in the city. Your first-time guests will never know unless they make a second or third visit. Will they come back? It all depends on the impression you’re making. Make it the right one the first time.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

There are some really good assimilation strategies available.  Recently KBC sponsored two PLACE ministries workshops on this very subject. PLACE is a great process for assimilation.

Any assimilation strategy works better than no strategy at all!  

All of them involve a process or a strategy that takes some time and work for it to be successful. There are no short cuts to involve people in the life and ministry of your church.

I believe that the very best way to assimilate someone is to disciple them.  Yes discipleship is the most effective method of assimilation.  It could be one on one or one on three or one on 12 but never the less discipleship is the New Testament model for assimilation.  Helping people grow in their faith and journeying with them as they grow is what discipleship is all about.  If a new person is connected to a disciple maker for a period of time they will stick.  How long?  I would suggest that for a brand new member or a new Christian it should last between 6 months and a year.  Of course discipleship does not stop after a year is up but in a year you can lay a solid foundation on which a member can be productive in kingdom work.

Remember…the key to discipleship is relationship. To attempt to disciple people without a relationship is hollow and ineffective.   People stay and stick to a church because of relationships formed thru small groups.

What does assimilation look like at your church?  If you are drawing a blank maybe you should spend some time in prayer, asking for the Lord to give you a vision for not only reaching people but also making disciples.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

An interesting side note is that this style originated in Western Kentucky by a coal miner named Mose Rager in Muhlenberg County. Merle Travis heard him play and developed that same style of having the thumb play the rhythm part while the other fingers play the melody, thus a one man band. Chet heard Merle play and copied his style. So there you have it. Great music always has some Kentucky roots!

Back to my story, yes I, Mike James played guitar with the great Chet Atkins. It happened while we served in Nashville. Several years ago they decided to build a brand new country music hall of fame so they wanted a few guitar players to march from downtown Nashville to the new location of the Country Hall of Fame building while picking guitar with Chet Atkins. Ok, there was more than just me. I did have to call and audition for them but I am a man of the cloth so I must confess something else to you.

I was not the only guitar player who marched in the parade with the great Chet Atkins while we all played, “You Are My Sunshine” on our guitars. It really wasn’t just me and Chet. It actually was @ 75 guitar players from all over Nashville who auditioned and had the opportunity to pick with Chet that blessed day. Now you know the rest of the story. What in the world does this have to do with discipleship or assimilation or anything spiritual? Well here is my point.

Sometimes our words do not tell the whole story. The title of this blog is accurate and absolutely true but very miss leading. When we do not tell the whole story on any issue it can get us in lots of trouble and shatter friendships.

Also, as we share Jesus with people let’s make sure that folks understand that this is a lifetime commitment of radical obedience that will change the course of their lives forever! Don’t soft sell the Gospel because then it’s not the Gospel. As we share with people let them know that following Jesus is dangerous and costly. We should make sure that the person we are sharing with knows that this Savior is also Lord. Jesus cannot be your Savior if He is not your Lord and He cannot be your Lord if He is not your Savior. Yes He wants to save you but that is only the beginning step in following Jesus for the long haul or as the writer Petersen phrased it, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.

I still joke with people that I picked guitar with Chet Atkins and it was a highlight of my guitar life, but the best news I can share with people is the change that Jesus has brought into my life. I did not get to know Chet personally but I do know Jesus personally and that relationship continues to guide, change, and bless my life and that my friend is the whole truth.

Step #1: A readiness to admit past mistakes.

Probably the best example of this is the three-year study at one of America’s largest churches, Willowcreek. Pastor Bill Hybels said, “We made a mistake.” The church published its findings in the book “Reveal: Where Are You?”

I find many churches refusing to study and research their ministry in order to see where they are. So the first thing leaders should do is a thorough evaluation of all ministry. (Note: Kentucky Baptist convention offers a tool to do this called, “Ministry Tool Box.”)

Step #2: A willingness to change.

According to a recent survey of the congregations whose leaders strongly agreed that their congregations were “willing to change to meet new challenges,” 46% experienced the highest levels of attendance growth. There is a connection between growth and willingness to change. New ministries reach new people. New Bible study classes (Sunday School, small groups, discipleship, etc.) reach new people. My experience in consulting churches across our state is that growing churches do new things which usually involves some type of change.

Step #3: More preaching on obedience based discipleship.

Preach and teach challenging messages and raise the bar for membership. This always proves to be effective. One of the largest churches in our state recently did a series that had messages entitled… complete surrender; repentance; denying self; giving everything up; taking up your cross daily; and daily death. These may not seem seeker friendly but these types of messages need to be preached.

Step #4: Cross-generational cooperation.

In a blog post following the 2008 Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Chuck Lawless reminded young Southern Baptists of how much they were needed and challenged them to be involved in all aspects of SBC life. After the 2009 convention, he called on older Southern Baptists to love and listen to the younger generation; to labor in prayer for them; to continue leading the younger leaders. “They still need us, and we still need them,” Lawless said. Not only is this needed on an associational, state, and national level but also in our churches we need to bridge the generational gap and work together for the Kingdom.

Step #5: Use of consultants is on the rise.

Churches are turning to consultants to help in every area of church life, staffing needs, stewardship and building needs, conflict resolution, vision planning, evangelism training. The Leadership Network attributes the rise of consulting to the complex nature of leading in this time of unprecedented cultural and organizational change.

Step #6: Accelerating use of media and technology.

I don’t know how I did ministry before computers and my smart phone! I think I used a yellow note pad and lots of index cards. Churches should not shun technology but use it to communicate the gospel. Along with traditional media, new media technologies are making it possible for churches to very quickly and with little cost publish and broadcast the gospel. Blogs, websites, webinars, e-mail blasts, twitter, podcasts, texting, facebook, downloading sermons are just a few of the ways churches are leveraging this powerful tool.

The 85% stat can be reversed if we trust the Lord and seek His will for our ministries and stay open to new ideas. “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” (Proverbs 31:24)

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

1. Disregarding the 80% rule

If your worship or Sunday School class is averaging 80% attendance you will not move beyond that barrier. I have seen this principle proven true over and over. I am a big advocate of multiple worships and multiple Sunday Schools. You don’t have to build a new worship center or educational building to grow, just use your facilities more than once a week. In one church I pastored we went from one to three worships and each time it produced new growth.

2. Sporadic Follow Up with Guests

It’s not enough that your church has guests each week but what is your strategy for follow up. This is one of the most important things a church can do. It requires forethought, time, and energy but brings great dividends as these guests return to your church, trust Christ, and join. Handle those guest cards prayerfully and with great care.

3. Not enough parking spots

At one church I served we got on top of the building and watched cars drive away one Sunday because they could not find a parking spot. It is easy for us to judge people and say, “why don’t they just park away or car pool” but the truth is guests do not think that way. We must do all we can to make it easy not difficult for people to get into our parking lots and then into our facilities. Make sure you have plenty of handicap, guest spots, parents with preschoolers, etc. places reserved.

4. Boring worship

This is not a question of musical style in worship or as we commonly say, “worship wars.” It is about a worship that is well thought out, connected, prayed over, and has a good flow. Put some energy into your worship! God’s Word is not boring. We may be boring but our message is anything but boring so teach, sing, serve, and preach with passion and energy. Use new illustrations, humor, object lessons, video or live testimonies, drama, tag- team preaching, music, visuals, art, and other creative ways of communicating the truth.

5. Not connecting to your community

We have all heard the phrase, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Today we must win the right to be heard and to present the Gospel and our testimonies. That means we must show our community in tangible ways that we are serious about meeting needs and making a difference. It is not enough to just have a good message (the talk) we must walk the walk and demonstrate that our faith is the real deal.

Study your community and discover what the needs are, then strategize to meet those needs. Clean up the local park, adopt a local school to provide tutoring or supply needed supplies for teachers, give away smoke alarm batteries door to door. Any way we can provide that cold cup of water that Jesus talked about in Matthew 10:42 will help get us outside the walls of our churches and into the fabric of our community. After all that is where the harvest is!

Look closely at your church and determine the walls that need to come down in order for healthy growth to take place. Trust in the Lord to provide the steps and process necessary to remove those walls.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James

The company is trying to re-invent itself over the past decade. They have moved into digital printers.

To me it is sort of odd that their future is now in printers which may have caused them to decline in the first place.

As you know the company dates back to the late 19th century and the technical and marketing genius of founder George Eastman. The estimate is that the company is worth $5.1 billion but has debts of $6.75 billion. It does not take a financial genius to figure out that they are on deep trouble.

So what can the church learn from the Kodak company that would help it stay healthy?

1. Don’t forget what you do best.

At some point it appears that Kodak may have become a little sloppy with their product while other companies were producing the same thing with a cheaper price. What does the church do best? We have something to offer that no other entity does…the Gospel! We must not get off track from teaching, preaching and sharing with people what we have discovered…salvation through Christ. The church must become very careful that we are not doing so many other good things that we miss doing what we do best.

2. Keep the Mission in mind.

Many companies who get off track have become complacent and lose their mission and purpose. Their success actually is actually the cause of their downfall. Matthew 28:16-20 is our purpose as a church. We are to “make disciples.” How an individual church fulfills that mission will look different from church to church because of the location, people, resources, etc. The mission is the same but the vision and steps for fulfilling that mission will need to be contextualized in each church.

What is Vision? “A clear mental image of a preferable future, imparted by God to His chosen servants…based upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstances.” George Barna, The Power of Vision

3. Continue to do new, innovative things.

Somewhere along the way the Kodak Company got passed up by other companies doing new, creative things. Churches should always be open to find new ways to reach and disciple people. If we continue to do the exact same methods we will continue to get the exact same results. Actually we usually will get fewer results. A new ministry usually reaches new people and adds excitement and energy to a congregation. Start a new men’s group, Sunday School class, outreach event, new worship service opportunity, mission project, or home Bible study.

Look around your community and find a need no one is meeting and then your church develop a plan to meet that need for the glory of Christ. This will open doors to share the Gospel.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes,

Mike James