Here are some of the steps we have taken to do what you have told us to do.

1. Our missionary staff is going virtual. We have been moving in this direction for some time. Now, we have taken the plunge. When complete with our mobilization, we will have BCM/D staff on the field connecting with you where you are with very little time spent in Columbia. We are also being intentional in seeking to locate staff in every region of our geographical area to facilitate more face-to-face connection.
2. We are expanding our networking of leaders bringing together peers in best practices, affinity, and spiritual development networks. State staff will be integrally involved as participants and potential resources for these networks.
3. We will continue to focus and even expand our emphasis on providing support for ministers and their families facilitating opportunities for ministers and families to connect with one another.

What do you think? I am open to other ideas and ways to connect. We want to hear from you! Leave us a comment below.

The other day, a friend sent out this message: “The ERC of NAMB will be highly important to GPS 2010! Churches get involved…NOW!”

What’s his message? Who’s his audience? And how effectively does he communicate his message to his audience? I work in Southern Baptist life everyday, I’m surrounded by the language (nomenclature, if you will). I know the meaning behind every one of those anagrams, and I still have difficulty reading that statement. His heart was in the right place, but insider language muddled the message and hampered the connection. My friend ended up excluding the very audience he was trying to communicate with.

Buzzwords can be common among Christians, but they ultimately prevent us from connecting with those we’re trying to reach. Take the word “lost” for example. Christians call those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, “lost.” But tell a non-Christian they are “lost” and they’ll look at you like you’re crazy, and may get offended. The message is lost and there is no connection.

My point: to connect with the world, we need to speak in terms that everyone and anyone can understand. Otherwise, we might as well be talking to ourselves.

Let’s consider Jesus. He created the universe and yet when he came here, he used simple language. He didn’t use words that we can’t understand, words that we can’t figure out. Why do you think he did that? If anyone, Jesus, the creator of the world, could have talked circles around the most philosophical of professors. But he didn’t. He could have spoken at a level that was indecipherable by the most educated of theologians, but he didn’t. He could have closed himself up writing dissertations on the science of black holes and quantum mechanics but he didn’t.

Instead, he spoke in terms even my 7 year-old daughter can understand. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to God the Father, but through me.”

When Jesus spoke, his words were CONNECTIVE. He made a conscious choice to tell us what we needed to know in a way that allows us to hear it, understand it, and apply it in our own lives.

Why? Because Jesus valued connecting with us. Us! He purposely communicated with us in a way that showed how much he values us. So, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say there’s no place for insider speak among followers of Christ.

When we value what we have to say and how we want to say it more than we value communicating in a way that invites connection we are no longer communicating like Christ. The more buzzwords we use, the greater chance we have of being DISCONNECTED from the life conversations going on around us, everyday.

And yes, it makes us look arrogant and condescending to those left on the outside looking in.

You might say there’s a time and place for the use of insider terminology. It’s faster, convenient, and/or more comfortable. But are speed, convenience, and comfort words we would use to describe how Jesus communicated?

You might say discussion of popular buzzwords (think of the modern/post-modern debate) facilitates higher-level conversations and the discernment of deeper truths. But what good is uncovering these “deeper truths” if we can’t communicate them to the people who need to hear it in terms they will understand?

And as we become more immersed in the “language” of buzzwords we create more barriers to understanding. Let’s take a look at my friend’s note one more time:

“The ERC of NAMB will be highly important to GPS 2010! Churches get involved…NOW!”

Here’s a Christian trying to communicate with other Christians, but buzzwords had become so much a part of his vocabulary and his way of thinking, that he could no longer communicate without them. His message full of insider terms doesn’t make sense unless you’re a church who already knows what GPS, ERC, and NAMB are, but he was trying to reach churches who didn’t know about ERC (which by the way, stands for the Evangelical Response Center, an 800 number persons can call to get a listing of Southern Baptist churches in their area).

Truthfully, avoiding insider language is a struggle. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Do you know what this means? If we aren’t purposeful about communicating in a connective way, then we’ll find that we’re only talking to ourselves, kind of like my friend.

So here’s our challenge: In our conversations today, let’s be purposeful about speaking in terms that are CONNECTIVE to everyone, not just our insider group.

At first I just shrugged off the question.

I considered my friends and family and what adjectives I would use to describe their personalities. When I tried to describe Jesus, Paul’s passage on Love came to mind (1 Corinthians 13). After all, Jesus is Love, so it was easy to substitute Jesus’ name for the word Love and get an accurate description of Jesus’ character.

“Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. Jesus is not rude, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered…”

But when I tried to substitute my own name, the description didn’t fit, and I felt the need to make excuses for why. Once I realized how far I was from the model that Jesus provides, I felt ashamed that I was the representative He had sent to reach and connect with my community.

Now try substituting the word “Christians.” Think about how society views Christians and the church. Would they agree that Christians are not proud? Not rude? That we don’t keep a record of wrongs? What do they think of those charged with the “Good News” needed for a lost and dying world.

You can imagine my surprise later that day at the meeting when the woman I was speaking with referred to herself as a “Christian” and then quickly corrected herself saying, “I mean, ‘follower of Christ.’” Twice! Was it Mahatma Ghandi who said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”?

As “followers of Christ” who reach and connect with our communities we need to do our best to live a life that is modeled after the One we claim to follow. That is a life that is patient, kind, never arrogant or rude, never rejoicing in wrongdoing, bears all things, a life of Love.

What adjectives would your friends, family or community use to describe you? How would they describe your church family? What happens when you substitute your name in 1 Corinthians 13?

When difficult times arise, here are three things to remember:

1. You must remember the promises of Jesus.

• Philippians 4:6-7
• Romans 8:28

2. Remember the presence of Jesus (Mark 4:38)

• Jesus was in the same boat with the disciples
• the enemy will try to tell you that God has forsaken you
• in difficult times, we easily forget the good times and what God has already shown us.

3. Remember the power of Jesus (Mark 4:39-40)

• “Why are you so fearful? Do you still have no faith?” – Jesus
• remember that there will be an end to this time – “This too, shall pass.”
• The disciples were rebuked by Jesus because they had forgotten what He had done in the past

“If God brings you to it, he’ll bring you through it” – Fred Luter

As you look across our convention, our churches are all uniquely and divinely placed within different cultures and contexts…different communities. Since each local church context is different, the strategies to ‘connect with our communities’ will need to be different. If you hear of a wildly successful outreach event at a church in the next town, there are no guarantees that following their formula will yield the same results for your church. If your community has a different culture with different needs, your strategy must also be different.

Although there may be significant differences from one community to the next (sometimes even within the same town) there are some fundamental strategies in Scripture that every church can apply when trying to connect with their community:

1. People, not programs—

   Luke 19:10 tells us that “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus didn’t come to develop outreach strategies, to create curriculum or to tour the Christian conference circuit. Jesus cared about people, He came to seek out non-believers and to save them. We’re given The Great Commission in Matthew 28, commanding us to make disciples of all nations. Programming, planning and strategizing are important…but loving people is vital.

2. Partnership, not competition—

   Jesus was the ultimate community organizer. He hand-picked key leaders and motivated people to action by focusing on issues that they cared about. My home church, Calvary Baptist of Bel Air, MD partnered with First Baptist of Aberdeen, MD to provide backpacks and school supplies to over 70 children in Aberdeen. The supplies were donated by children attending VBS at CBC/Bel Air. The backpacks were packed by volunteers from CBC/Bel Air, then distributed by volunteers from both churches during a block party at FBC/Aberdeen. By meeting a need, over 70 families had a positive experience with FBC/Aberdeen that day. Are you willing to overlook ‘territory’ and find common ground with other believers for the greater good?

3. Give it away, for free—

   Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Every fall in Bel Air, one block from our church, is the Bel Air Festival of the Arts. Thousands of people swarm to town for the event and parking is difficult to find. This year we contacted the festival organizers and offered our parking lot to them. We provided free refreshments, a comfort station, moon bounces and free shuttle service to and from the event. People couldn’t understand why a church would do this, for free. We gave out a gift bag to every car that left our lot, over 450 bags! More than 450 people had a positive experience with CBC/Bel Air that day.

Do you spend more time talking about connecting with your community than you do actually interacting with them? Do you see other churches as a threat or as partner in our shared goal of making disciples? Do you demonstrate Christ to your community by serving them, with no strings attached?

How has your church succeeded in connecting with your community? How has your church failed at connecting with your community? We can all learn a lot from each other’s experiences, let’s talk about it in the comments section!

Wally Yocum
Minister of Youth and Contemporary Worship
Calvary Baptist Church, Bel Air, MD
Follow on twitter at @WallyYocum

That had been my experience until God called me to start a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) ministry at my church two years ago. I was reluctant to take on starting a new ministry since I already had two preschoolers and a baby on the way, but I talked several other moms into helping and we agreed that together we might be able to do it.

The heartbeat of MOPS is community and connection with moms who are experiencing the same stages of parenthood. This year MOPS is focusing on reaching as many moms as possible to insure that no mom is alone.

According to MOPS, International President, Naomi Cramer Overton, research is showing that moms who are not connected have higher rates of depression, suicide, child abuse, and children who are failing to thrive. Those findings challenge me as a MOPS leader to do all that I can to reach as many moms as I can through any means that I can.

Personally, I know that MOPS is the place where I will be accepted with spit-up on my shoulder, bags under my eyes, and no diapers left in the diaper bag just when one is needed. I know that the mistakes that I have made in my mothering journey just might alleviate another mom’s guilty conscience caused by her inability to be “perfect.” But most importantly, I believe God’s promise that “where two or three come together, there I am with them” (Matthew 18:20).

God is a God of connection and community and in our MOPS group He is working in the midst of us to bring salvation, healing, and hope that will have eternal benefits for each mom and family represented. We are developing moms into ministry leaders, community servants, and mentors.

My prayer is that pastors and ministry leaders will encourage, support, and come alongside the growing population of young mothers to equip them to reach their God-given potential during the mothering season.

We were made to live in community with one another, to love one another as Christ loves us. But we live in a world where it’s easier to fall into the temptation of treating others on the standards of humans rather than God’s standards. We are supposed to clothe ourselves in kindness, gentleness, humility and patience like Colossians 3:12 says. But oftentimes in church-family settings we fall prey to ugliness.

What does ugliness in the church look like? I’ve seen too many people in Christian communities treat each other without the kind of love Jesus commands for us to have for one another. I’ve witnessed the ugliness that can happen to a body of believers. It could be as simple as choosing only to look at someone’s faults and shortcomings or as serious as passing harsh judgment instead of showing accountability and grace. We’re not immune to the gossip, fighting, anger, misrepresentation, or hiding our feelings. In fact, sometimes those things can become intensified in churches. But it should be the opposite.

If you read on in Colossians 3 you’ll find that Jesus calls us first to live these characteristics of God and secondly to be forgiving of our fellow brothers and sisters. He knows we’re going to fall. He knows that even though this list of actions we’ve been given looks pleasant on paper, we as people are going to stumble. So He gives us the recipe to fix that. It’s called forgiveness.

The problem with grace is that even though we know we don’t deserve it, we expect it. We expect people to forgive us faster than we are willing to forgive others when they have wronged us. When we are unwilling to forgive other believers, the world takes notice. The world sees how we treat one another and the world starts to form their own opinions on what it means to follow Jesus.

We have to take back the message of Jesus and help people to understand what it’s truly saying. We have to start by connecting to one another with the only thing worth basing relationships on, and that’s Jesus. If we share nothing else, we share His grace and His sacrifice.

How have you witnessed ugliness in the church? What reactions have you seen within non-believers as a result of ugliness? How can we start loving one another better?

My challenge today is for you to examine those relationships in which you have not forgiven, or where another follower has not forgiven you. What is stopping you from showing them grace? How can you reconnect based solely on your shared fellowship in Christ?

But before you write this off as yet another plea for you to join up, switch your phone over to unlimited texting, and spend countless hours pouring through the shallowness of the mundane, let me assure you that this is merely how Twitter and Facebook has changed, and even enhanced, my life. I no longer beg or plead with others to join up.

A Global Front Porch

Two years ago I set out to attend a conference called Re:Create. It’s founder, Randy Elrod, one of the most forward thinking Christians of our time, encouraged all who were attending to sign up for Twitter in order to enhance the dialogue at the conference.

While at the conference, many, myself included, were taken back by the cool factor of such a service. The long-term benefits were yet to be realized.

What started as a simple gathering of creatives in Franklin, TN, quickly blossomed into a world-wide network of worship leaders and creative thinkers that had a quick and easy tool to share resources, ideas, prayers, and encouragements. Almost all of the attendees operated a blog on some level and through the use of Twitter, we were able to let each other know when we had found helpful resources or deeper insights that would benefit the greater Kingdom of God.

This opened up a new door of retaining communication with people who were a part of a very special time of worship, renewal, and growth in my life. It was as if Twitter became our front porch and the sharing of ideas and thoughts began to flow.

A Dialogue Planted

What took place over the twelve months after Re:Create in February of 2008 was nothing short of a modern miracle of communication. Many colleagues who attended the conference experienced personal crisis. My friend, Paul, from north Georgia, learned of his mother’s diagnosis of cancer and shared specific prayers, updates and praises throughout the process. Others shared of family sickness or tragedy in their church and received immediate prayers and encouragements.

Several of us, including myself, celebrated the birth of children with friends all around the world. And speaking of celebrations, birthday greetings were enjoyed by all.

Countless conversations about worship, theology, technology, and surviving ministry poured out. The wealth of knowledge from such a diverse group of men and women was not limited to only one week – we continued our think tank conference on for an entire year. Having attended many conferences in the past, Re:Create was the only one where I actually kept up with the new friends I met. And it was largely thanks to Twitter and Facebook.

A Handshake Now Deeper in Meaning

Last February, we reconvened in Franklin, TN. People came once again from all over the United States, Canada, Egypt, and South America. The reunion on the first day was filled with deeper conversations because for the last twelve months, we were all in touch with each other in real time. We all knew of each other’s ups and downs and were able to go on to a deeper level in relationships because there was hardly any catching up required.

Since then, I have had many of my local church family join these services. There are countless testimonies of how these online connections have enhanced my face-to-face relationships.

Most of my friends in ministry agree that in today’s landscape of ministry, people give their money quicker than they give their time. With so little time for face-to-face contact, the relationship connections made online can only help us stay connected with our congregation, family, and friends from the past. It’s a band-wagon I’m willing to ride and use for the glory of God until it’s over and something new takes its place.

I’m Challenging, Not Begging

So what about you? If you’re in ministry, do you feel as though you’re getting deep connections with your congregation? Do you feel as if you’re in a bind for resources you can’t afford? Let me suggest that you give Twitter and Facebook a try. What could it hurt? It’s likely that many in your congregation already use these services. In less than an hour, you could be setup and connecting online to make your Sunday handshakes even better!

-BP

As a pastor or other minister at your church, have you ever made one of the above statements or asked one of those questions? Sure you have! We all do. Admit it.

Now let’s do something about it.

Just a few weeks ago, my family got to spend a few days at the newly remodeled Shepherd’s Rest at Skycroft Conference Center in Middletown, MD. It turned out to be one of the greatest five days of my life.

Shepherd’s Rest is a beautiful, three-bedroom home in it’s own little corner of Skycroft. If you are a minister on staff at a BCM/D church, you can sign up to spend either two separate three-night stays a year or a consecutive six-night stay within a year. It has a really nice kitchen stocked with utensils if you wish to cook, or if a group is using the cafeteria at Skycroft, you’re allowed to eat there.

Did I mention this is ALL FREE?

No, I am not a paid endorser of Shepherd’s Rest. Can’t be. It’s FREE! And this article is one hundred percent unsolicited. I’ve just spent an amazing time of reconnecting with God and my family and I want you to have the same opportunity. Here’s how my stay went:

I arrived at Shepherd’s Rest on a Wednesday and spent the next two days in solitude. During that time I experienced a renewal in prayer and personal communion with God. It was also during that time that God pointed out several areas of my life in need of improvement and I returned with a long list of to-do’s.

On Friday of that week, my wife picked up our oldest from school and joined me there. We spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the gorgeous natural surroundings, visiting some tourist spots, and worshiping together as a family. It was one of the best weekends our family of five has ever had together.

Shepherd’s Rest exists largely because of the efforts of David and Sherry Lee. Their vision to minister to pastors and their families is carried out in this mountainside house. You can see Mrs. Lee’s loving touches in all the furnishings and experience the truth of God’s Word with walls that are adorned with scripture. Thank you, Dr. & Mrs. Lee for providing such a place.

I personally believe the ground at Skycroft to be hallowed. Life change has occurred there. Countless teenagers have found new life in Jesus there. Lay leaders have found significance in ministry there. And God, on His Mountain, has a purpose waiting for you there.

Just to answer the questions above: you can’t get much cheaper than free; your church will survive; the time is now. Click here for pictures, and booking information.

Go and connect with your Creator.

-BP

The other day I decided to take a look and see if God had a Twitter account, and sure enough, He does, as a matter of fact, more than one. If
you do a person search for God, you actually find someone (@god) claiming to be God who tweets seemingly random things as if he were HIM. There is another account @WWGT, (What Would God Tweet) that goes about retelling Bible stories in 140 characters or less. While both are pretty humorous, neither is actually God, not that you needed me to tell you that. It does make me wonder, what would God tweet?

I think the reason social media has taken off the way it has is because we are all hungry for connections with other people and especially God. I have to admit that I went through a time where I felt far from God. It felt like there was a wall between God and me. We were disconnected. I didn’t feel like praying and didn’t feel like reading my bible or going to church. Maybe some of you can relate to feeling that way. Maybe you’re in that place right now.

For me, I’d allowed apathy toward spiritual things and some bitterness to take root in my heart and also some unforgiveness towards some people who hurt me. They were people I trusted which made it even harder. After a long dry spell in my life, I allowed God to come in to my bitter and broken heart. The first step for me was forgiveness. Forgiving those that hurt me, asking God’s forgiveness and finally forgiving myself. Then, it felt as if that wall between God and I was finally taken down and I was able to reconnect. I truly had a desire to change. God brought Philippians 2:13 to play in my life. It says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” After surrendering all my feelings to God I finally got the “want to” back in my life.

What I’ve found is that maintaining a constant connection with God leads me to true contentment, peace and joy in my life. I also realized that I needed to spend more time connecting with God than I was with the culture (including social media).

One way you can feel more connected to God is to figure out what helps you feel close to Him. For me, it’s praying out loud while I am driving in my car. I know it sounds crazy, but it does. For one of my friends, it singing worship songs, while he plays worship songs on his guitar. For
someone else it might be listening to a good sermon, spending time in nature, being silent, etc. We are all different, so connect with God the
way that works best for you.