Reggie related how the folks at one church he was working with began making a habit out of asking folks they met every day: “What can I pray for God to bless you with today?” or, if someone shared a problem they were having they might respond by saying “I’m going to pray for God to bless you”. This simple act of letting folks know they were being prayed for made a difference in the community. The church became known as “the blessing church”, and the members as “the blessing people”.

Reggie said that one time he was standing in line at the local Starbucks talking to another member of the church about God’s blessings and someone turned to him and asked: “Are you one of those blessing people?” The person then began to relate to him a deep need they had in the lives. Reggie prayed for them, and promised to continue to do so.

The church made a difference in the community because the people were “blessing people” – people who shared their relationship with Christ with others in ways that made a difference in their lives. As we live out our faith in Christ, we need to always ask ourselves:

“Am I one of those blessing people?”

“Do I do things that show Christ to others?”

Strive to use God’s blessings to you to bless others.

Why not?
Were they afraid?
Were they enjoying watching it?
Did they just not care?

It baffles me that people would see such a heinous act being committed and not try to stop it. We need to work to make our communities better — and get involved.

You read about the incident and watch videos here.

I’d love to have a discussion on this — so reel free to leave comments.

Here’s several snippets of it:

A young girl was visiting a church one Sunday and was impressed with the stained glass windows of the Saints that were along the walls of the church. The windows were particularly beautiful that day as the sun shone brightly through them — making their colors brilliant. She asked about who these people were in these beautiful windows — and was told these were some of the Saints of the church. That morning in Sunday School she was asked if she knew what a Saint was. Thinking back on the bright, colorful windows that had impressed her so — and the fact that she was told these were of the Saints — she replied:
“A Saint is someone who lets the light shine through.”

You may be familiar with the story of the Emperors New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson. The emperor thought that he was important — and ordered that a special suit of clothes be made for him that would match his importance. The tailor, however, saw through the emperor’s self-importance — and made it possible for everyone to see the emperor as he really was! He presented the “new clothes” to the emperor — but actually there were no clothes at all. The emperor was too proud to ask the tailor why there were no clothes — and he paraded around town thinking that he was so grand in his new clothes — not stopping to think that people were seeing that he actually had no clothes at all — and that what they were seeing him as he really was — naked — not as important as he thought he was — not as important as he wanted others to think he was.

During World War II the town of Coventry, England was leveled by German bombers. The centuries-old Cathedral was destroyed. Some years later, a new Cathedral was built around the ruins of the old. A remarkable statement is made in the hallway that leads to the courtyard where the ruins of the old Cathedral now lie. On one end of the hallway is a giant tapestry the size of a Tennis Court of Christ ruling the universe. On the other end of the hallway the entire wall is clear glass — with pictures of the Saints etched into the glass. On the other side of this glass wall is the courtyard with the ruins of the bombed Cathedral. The Tapestry of Christ shines through the Saints etched into the glass into the bombed-out ruins of the original Coventry Cathedral.

To find out what all these illustrations have in common — and what they have to do with All Saints Day — you can read the sermon here.

These 4 words are the “rallying cry” for many church members — and many pastors fall into the trap of adopting that mantra for themselves. They believe that ministry effectiveness is based on how many attend your services on Sunday morning.

“We’ve got to grow!”

I fall into the trap of believing that the effectiveness of my ministry depends on the growth of the church I serve from time to time myself. My Monday morning mantra from time to time is: “We’ve go to grow!”

The problem is that I am not sure that the number of folks in Church on Sunday is an accurate measure of the effectiveness of a Church’s — or a ministers — ministry. While this may sound like I am trying to justify the trend in many churches of losing instead of gaining members, I believe that God wants us to serve Him in the community instead of simply “packing the pews” to make our ministries look good or successful.

I believe that if members of a Church are doing what they can to reach folks in their community with the love of Christ, they are doing God’s will. Service to the community should be more important than Church growth. Service to others around them may bring folks into a Church — but it may not. Whether it does or doesn’t is not the question — the question is doing God’s work and focusing on being God’s people in that community” instead of just focusing on growth.

Instead of saying “We’ve got to grow!” maybe church members and minsters alike should be saying: “We’ve got to serve!” It seems to me that serving instead of growing is a more faithful focus for Churches and minsters.

All this came to mind this morning as I read the following article at the Ministry Today web site. You can read it here — great food for thought for a Monday morning!

Here are links to the sermons in this series:

1. Mark 5:24b-34 — Are You Touching Jesus — Or Crowding Him?

2. Matthew 6:5-15 — Touch Jesus — Pray

3. John 10:14-18. Listen and Follow.

4. John 13:1-7. Serve Jesus — Serve Others.

5. Matthew 6:1-18. Why Do It?

Here’s a portion of it:

I read about a woman who told her pastor:
“I think it’s wrong for someone to live in a $200,000 home. A $100,000 should be sufficient, and the rest could be given to the poor.” Her pastor found that to be an interesting observation, because, based on the neighborhood she lived in, he knew that she probably paid $100,000 for her home. In other words, she seemed to be saying, “Every one who lives better than I do should come down to my level and give away the rest.” But then, those who live in $50,000 homes could say the same about her standard of living. And those who can’t afford to buy a home could say the same thing about the others. The point is this: instead of worrying about how much those who are more affluent than you give, you need to focus on how much you yourself give. There will always be people who are richer than you, but give less than you. Don’t worry about them, just worry about yourself.

You can read the sermon here.

Here are Johnson’s first 5 theses:

1. “To manifest the Presence of God in our time,the church must respond
to it’s changed context. ”
Culture has changed dramatically in a short number of years — but in many cases how the church does ministry has remained the same. How can the church change it’s style of ministry to reach the current culture — while remaining true to the message of salvation through Christ?

2. “The church today stands at the end of an era — a new day lies before the church.”
The church no longer has the “favored status” in the world that it once had. How can the church respond to this — and find new ways to reach people for Christ?

3. “The church ministers in a rapidly changing culture and if the church does not adapt it’s message, strategy, and structure to these changes it will fail in it’s mission. ”
The church must communicate the message of Christ in a way that the minds shaped by the changing culture can hear it.

4. “The church seeks to carry out it’s mission in a “post Christian” world wherein the presuppositions that have supported the Christian world view, values, and style of life no longer dominate the US culture.”
For centuries the church depended on support from the culture for it’s mission and growth. Now that is no longer the case. How does the church respond to this — and find new ways to carry out it’s mission despite this?

5. The society in which the church ministers is “post Constantinian”, which suggests the church has no favored position with the government and the social structures.”
Society — and the government– do not support the church in the way it was supported for cnturies after the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the “state religion” . What are new things the church must do to present Christ to a society that does not support the church as it once did?

I welcome your comments and discussion. I hope to continue to post these “theses” as I read and think about them.

Here’s a portion of it:

Jesus and his friends had gathered for the Passover Feast – the most special feast of the year for Jews — the feast where they celebrated God giving their ancestors freedom from slavery in Egypt. As they gathered for this special feast, none of the disciples considered a menial – but important – task – washing the dust, dirt, and mud from the streets off their feet. They all knew that it needed to be done – but none of them wanted to do this menial task. They were too busy arguing about which of them was the greatest in the group – and no one dared assume the role of servant and carry out the courtesy of washing feet.
So – what does Jesus do?
Jesus – the one many had proclaimed to be King – the one many hoped would lead them to freedom from the Romans much as Moses had lead them to freedom over the Egyptians – put a towel around Himself and washed the disciple’s feet.

You can read the sermon here.

Ott gives some practical advice for preachers:

Does your sermon faithfully Biblical passage?

Does your sermon bear witness to the reality of God and to faith in the person of Jesus?

Are the truths expressed in the sermon illustrated with story, tone of voice and passion in such a way that the sermon is interesting to hear and the listener’s mind doesn’t wander?

Have you put enough time into rehearsing the delivery of the sermon that you can offer sustained eye contact with the congregation while you preach?

Does the sermon call for any form of response in the listener’s faith and practice of their faith?

Great questions!

You can read Ott’s post here.

Here are the 6 ways:

1. Interrupt a person’s private thoughts (i.e. — barge in when someone is trying to just have some quiet time
2.Slightly agressinve body language
3. Monologue
4. Pick a moment when your audience is trapped
5. Answer questions that are not being asked
6. Ignore body language that says “I’m not interested”.

These are indeed 6 ways to “turn people off” to Christ!

Any other ways anyone wants to add?

Read Chris’ article here.