Pastor Paul Chappell | The Pastor's Perspective

Tech or Touch

Paul Chappell — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:04:07 +0000

One of my pet peeves is email. More specifically, it is email that is used as a substitute for a personal touch.

Ministry is people work. It involves building real relationships and nurturing spiritual growth. Hebrews 10:24 instructs us to, “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.”

Emails, text messages, and other tech tools can augment ministry relationships, but they should never be the sole facilitator of them. There is a reason local church ministry is local. It involves two-way communication that involves seeing the whites of someone’s eyes!

Face-to-face communication allows for so much more than mere words. For instance, I can ask you whether or not you are coming to a Sunday school class activity via email, but I can’t very well discern the spirit of your response. If all I need is a yes or no answer, email may be fine; but if I want to strengthen a discipling relationship, I probably need an opportunity to communicate directly to your heart.

Sometimes email is a cop-out for us as leaders. It’s faster, easier, and frankly, more comfortable. (I don’t make myself as vulnerable to your rejection when I shoot you an email saying that I missed you on Sunday evening, rather than seeking you out and reminding you that you need to be faithful to church.)

Biblical leadership requires a willingness to put ourselves in an uncomfortable position to encourage growth in others. It requires extending ourselves to provoke others to spiritual maturity.

Email is an incredible asset for administration. (I send and receive hundreds each day.) But it’s a lousy substitute for face-to-face discipleship.

Before you send your next ministry-related email, pause to ask yourself if this conversation would be more successfully fulfilled face-to-face.

Growth Points 008—Keep it Real

Paul Chappell — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:05:35 +0000

(If you cannot see this video in your RSS reader or email, you can watch it here.)

This past week, I was encouraged by spending time with one of our college graduates who is personally investing in lives—leading people to the Lord and nurturing new Christians in their faith.

Acts 4:13 tells us that non-believers could observe the lives of the early disciples and know that they had been with Jesus. In a similar way, those to whom we minister—whether they be our own family, our church, or unsaved people in the community—should be able to see in our lives genuine substance of our walk with the Lord and witness for Him.

Make sure you get all future Growth Points videos by subscribing to the Spiritual Leadership Podcast

What Are Growth Points?

Paul Chappell — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:03:03 +0000

Several weeks ago, I began recording weekly “Growth Points” video blogs. These videos were initially birthed from a desire to stay in touch with our West Coast Baptist College graduates who are now pastoring and in ministry. But they are also a greeting to our pastor friends and Christian servants around the world.

My heart as a pastor and the president of a Bible college is to mentor and train the next generation for the cause of Christ. Specifically, I want to do it on a personal level. The Growth Points videos are brief and often consist of me simply clicking the “record” button on my computer webcam. They are a quick, often unedited, sharing of what is on my mind and heart.

Whether you’re a WCBC alumni or a friend from another state, I hope you will find these helpful and encouraging as you serve the Lord. I’m thankful for the opportunity to strive together with you for the Gospel!

Lunch? Today?

Paul Chappell — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:23:25 +0000

Christian hospitality is one of the most fruitful of ministry disciplines. Over the years, my wife and I have made a habit of having people over on a regular basis, and we’ve found that opening our home for fellowship often opens hearts for discipleship and mentoring.

No wonder the New Testament emphasizes hospitality as a Christian grace:

Use hospitality one to another without grudging.—1 Peter 4:9

Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.—Romans 12:13

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;— 1 Timothy 3:2

But Terrie and I still laugh at one of our early attempts at opening our home. I was teaching a Sunday school class for young married couples, and one Sunday, a visiting couple, the Matthews, attended the class. I met them at the door and learned they had just moved to the area. Eager to encourage them in the Lord and demonstrate hospitality, I invited them to our home for lunch.

As the morning church service concluded, I remembered to tell Terrie that the Matthews were coming.

“Today?” she gulped.

“Yes, what’s wrong with that?”

“Mainly that we don’t have any food in the house.” By now, she was crying.

We didn’t have much money either, but we scraped together a few dollars and picked up a few items at the convenience store down the street.

We hurried to beat the Matthews to our apartment, and Terrie graciously served a lunch of buttered pasta with ice cream for dessert.

I learned two lessons about hospitality that day:

1) Ask your wife first. My wife has always been a servant, but we did have a discussion after the Matthews left about the proper procedure in inviting people over!

2) Hospitality makes a difference in people’s lives. You might think that a lunch of spaghetti noodles would turn people away. (Terrie was sure it would.) But, it didn’t. The Matthews were back for the evening service at church and became faithful members. In our experience through the years, the very action of opening your home to others is far more important than what you feed them.

Hospitality is vital to ministry. But it’s pretty easy to put it off thinking you can’t afford it or don’t have time to prepare.

Christian hospitality need not be a full buffet of the best cooking or a showcase of the cleanest house. While at least a minimum standard of palatability and cleanliness are obviously important, don’t put off extending hospitality until the time is perfect.

Who needs your hospitality? A new Christian? Someone who would visit church if you invited them for lunch afterward? A lonely widow? A family going through a trial?

Just invite them over for lunch today.

But ask your wife first.

Growth Points 007- Helping People Become Rooted

Paul Chappell — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:30:02 +0000

(If you cannot see this video in your RSS reader or email, you can watch it here.)

As parents, pastors, and teachers, our call is to help people become grounded in something far more secure and stable than our church system or our structure. God wants us to lead others into a grounded and settled relationship with Jesus Christ. So how can we help people stay grounded and get rooted in a society that is constantly uprooting?

Make sure you get all future Growth Points videos by subscribing to the Spiritual Leadership Podcast

The Danger of Templates

Paul Chappell — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:32:16 +0000

I use a template document for typing my sermon notes. But I guard against a template philosophy in preparing my sermons. My church deserves fresh sermons that are prayed over and thoroughly studied for—not cycled through.

Templates are great for saving time. But they’re not so great for encouraging growth. Sometimes when we think we are working smart, we are actually working lazy.

One of the challenges of ministry—especially as you stay in one place through the years—is maintaining a fresh eye and a commitment to fresh growth. Yes, it is easier and faster to reuse materials, repeat events, and recycle lessons. But it can also be lazy.

Every event on the calendar, every piece of literature, every ministry activity, every lesson or sermon, every service and class should be prayed over and handled with an excellence that honors God and those He has called us to serve.

Use a template when helpful, but don’t let the template dictate your ministry. Keep it fresh.

New Podcast Posted: Reigniting Soulwinning Fervor in the Local Church

Paul Chappell — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:31:18 +0000

This lesson speaks to the very heart of local church ministry. Jesus Himself came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). But in so many of our churches today, I see pastors fervently reading books and attending conferences, but never really settling in for intentional soulwinning—building the church the way God designed.

If you want to reignite the soulwinning fervor in your church and in your own heart, this lesson is for you. You may not need to read another book or find another conference. You may need to simply take some time with the Lord and ask Him to stir your heart once again with a passion for souls.

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Podcast: Download

Before and after this lesson, I answer the following in-studio questions:

Are you aware of pastors who have recently seen soulwinning reignited in their church?
Are there factors in fundamentalism that are contributing to a philosophical decline in soulwinning?
What do you do when you sense the soulwinning fervor declining in a church?
What is your philosophy for staff members providing soulwinning training?

The Spiritual Leadership podcast is a free resource from Striving Together Publications (a ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College).

You can subscribe to this podcast through iTunes and listen on your computer or iPod. You can also receive the complimentary outline with each lesson. Click here for more information about subscribing to the outline.

Book Review: 10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

Paul Chappell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:53:27 +0000

How would you assess your spiritual health? Is it related to how busy you are for the Lord? How good your intentions are toward your wife? How much outward fruit is evident in your ministry? Although there are outward evidences of a rooted Christian, I don’t believe any of these are the best measuring sticks for spiritual growth.

In 10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, author Donald Whitney suggests convicting and probing questions to help you gauge where you are spiritually.

Every one of these ten questions gripped my heart:

Do you thirst for God?
Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?
Are you more loving?
Are you more sensitive to God’s presence?
Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
Do you delight in the bride of Christ?
Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
Do you still grieve over sin?
Are you a quicker forgiver?
Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

These pointed questions help us scope out our own walk with the Lord, probing deeper than outward appearances.

The book is not long (112 pages), but the author deals with each of these topics biblically and thoroughly, providing practical instruction on growth for each area. This book was so helpful, in fact, that this past Sunday I asked the men of our church to read it. (While the author uses multiple Bible versions and quotes a few authors we would not endorse, for those who are willing to “spit out the bones,” there is helpful meat here.)

If you want to increase your spiritual vitality and intentionally strengthen your spiritual health, this book will be a friend to you.

Growth Points 006—Religion, Grace, & the Local Church

Paul Chappell — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:15:31 +0000

(If you cannot see this video in your RSS reader or email, you can watch it here.)

Perhaps the subject most near the heart of Christ is that of the local church. He gave His life for the church (Ephesians 5:25) and purchased it with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

So what should be our response when people suggest that religion is void of grace and may be discarded?

Make sure you get all future Growth Points videos by subscribing to the Spiritual Leadership Podcast

How to Prepare for Revival

Paul Chappell — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:57:07 +0000

I was saved in 1972, and since then, I’ve been to more revival services than I can remember. Over the years, I have found there to be a common delineator between the revivals when I sense God’s mighty work in my heart and the revivals when I haven’t. The key? Preparation.

I suggest three ways to prepare before revival services.

Pray

Before the first sermon is preached, earnestly seek God’s face. Sometimes we forget how desperately we need revival. Without even realizing we’re doing it, we excuse away our own carnality and the distance that has grown between us and the Lord.

Ask the Lord to use the revival to make your heart thoroughly right with Him. Ask Him to search your heart and try your ways. Ask Him to convict you of sin or spiritual apathy and to stir your heart for Him. Tell Him that you want to hear from Him in the meetings and that you intend to obey in any area that He convicts or directs.

Plan

From a strictly practical standpoint, attending four evening services isn’t part of most Christians’ normal week. If it is going to happen, it requires a little advance planning to cover all the bases. Think through your schedule. Plan quick evening meals (a good ol’ peanut butter sandwich may be what you need). Plan and prepare the clothes you and your children will need for the week. Put gas in the car in advance. Refuse to allow small, easily anticipated details to keep you from the services.

Another aspect of planning is to choose ahead to willingly accept the inconveniences of several nights away from home. You and your family may be physically drained at the end of the week, but the spiritual benefit more than compensates for it. Second Corinthians 4:6 reminds us, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

Prepare your heart

Far too often, a preacher has to take the first several minutes of his sermon time just to pull the congregation into a spiritually receptive frame of mind. Before the service even begins, focus your heart toward hearing from God. Resist the distractions that come to your mind, and tune your attention to God’s Word.

Our church’s revival services have shifted over the years—intentionally. In our early years, we spent more time before the service in singing, announcements, and fellowship. Now, we include just a few revival-focused songs and get right into the preaching. This allows for more time of preaching, but it also requires people to come with already-prepared hearts.

It seems that regardless of the service schedule or the preacher’s ability, there will always be some who leave saying, “I didn’t get much out of that service.” In every case when someone has said that to me, I have found on closer questioning that it wasn’t the preacher’s fault. There is no substitute for coming to church with a hungry, expectant heart.

Many churches have given up on scheduling revival services. It seems that busy schedules and spiritual apathy have won over earnest Christians seeking the face of God.

I’m thankful we still have revival. I’m thankful God still speaks to my heart in the meetings. And I’m looking forward to our church’s twenty-sixth annual revival with Dr. John Goetsch beginning this Sunday. (If you can’t attend, I hope you can catch the live stream at lbclive.tv.)

Sunday
8:30 & 11:00 AM – worship service
5:30 PM – evening service

Monday – Wednesday
7:00 PM – evening services

“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?”—Psalm 85:6