The stage actor has said those lines precisely 568 times before audiences and an untold number in rehearsal and in front of his bathroom mirror. He has to really work at his craft, lest he “phone it in.”

The teacher has gone over those lessons each year for the last two decades. She could do it blind-folded while making a grocery list. If she’s not careful, she’ll “phone it in.”

Our Lord warned of religious people using “vain repetitions” in their prayers. Putting the mind in neutral and the mouth spouting out those words and phrases we’ve all learned, as though the Lord hears and answers based on sheer volume. Phoning it in.

You’re a retired pastor and travel a good bit. You get invited to guest-supply in various pulpits and speak to congregations that have never heard any of your best stuff. By the third year of this, you’ve boiled your preaching down to a solid one dozen messages. You’re having more fun than you’ve had in a lifetime of ministry.

And no deacons meetings to attend, no church business conferences to moderate, no angry church members to deal with. You preach, accept a check from your host, pray the Lord’s blessings on him and his ministry, and go back home. Next week, another drive to another church to deliver a similar sermon.

Question du jour: How does a minister keep from robotically and mindlessly mouthing the same platitudes over and over in a sermon he has preached ten, twenty, fifty times?

It’s Sunday morning, three a.m., and that’s my challenge for later this morning. Fortunately, I know the answer. (What, you ask, are you doing up at this hour of the morning? Answer: I’m a preacher and I’m delivering a sermon in a few hours. That’s what I’m doing up at 3 a.m.)

How to keep the sermon fresh and alive.

1. Pray.

These twelve sermons are not concoctions I whipped up in a seminary library one Saturday afternoon. These are messages which God gave me in embryonic form many years ago and has continued to add to, improve on, develop, and strengthen through these many years. (How many years? Next December will be exactly 50 years since my ordination. Forty-two of those years were spent leading churches, five as the “director of missions” for the SBC churches of metro New Orleans, and nearly three in retirement work.)

As soon as an event goes on my preaching schedule, I begin praying for the Lord to prepare me and to prepare those who will be hearing me. “Lord, I do not want to waste your time, their good will, and my opportunity. Please show me what to preach and prepare the hearts of all who will hear.”

2. Love.

I love the Lord, am committed to the work to which He has called me, and–even though I’ve not met anyone in this congregation where I’ll be preaching in eight hours except the pastor and his small family–I honor the Lord’s church. My heart’s desire is to honor the Lord, bless these people and be used of God in their lives, and acquit myself well.

3. Rehearse.

Driving from our home in suburban New Orleans yesterday to this sweet little community in South Central Georgia, a jaunt of 520 miles, several times I went over sermons new and used. I talked to the Lord about what to preach and went over familiar ground, seeing if this was still the right thing to say.

A generation or more ago, Professor and Pastor Clyde Fant made me aware in his book “Preaching For Today” that preaching is an oral art, not a written one, and that some of the best preparation the preacher can make is to speak the sermon out loud. Until that moment, I would sit at the typewriter (anyone remember those?) and compose the best message I could, go over it time and again, and then think I was prepared. But I wasn’t.

Saying the words out loud activates the mind in ways that staring at printed words on a page can never do. And, even though I have quoted this text a hundred times before, this scripture is God’s living Word which means it never gets old or trite or stale. Even though I have preached this sermon multiple times, the challenge is to keep it fresh.

4. Experiment.

Is the way I’ve been delivering this sermon the best way? What if we moved that story from the first to the end? Perhaps one of the scriptures to which we refer in the body of the sermon would be a better beginning text from which to launch the message. What if I tried that.

So, in going over the sermon while driving, I’ll try various ways of preaching it. In deciding which is best, my only guide is the Holy Spirit within. That is, having asked the Lord to show me His way, as it comes out of my mouth, I pretty well know if this is working or “pushing it.”

5. Living It.

Professor James Taylor told our class of young seminarians this very thing nearly a half-century ago at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, but it didn’t “take” with most of us since we were just beginning in the work. The way to keep a sermon fresh after preaching it numerous times is to experience it anew along with the congregation each time.

The Word of God is alive. And if the message I preach is His Word, then these will be living words too.

God help me to do it well. To be faithful. To be strong and courageous, to look these people in the eye and tell them the truth in love. To extend Heaven’s invitation with all the force I would if the Lord Jesus were in the audience–He is!–and to expect people to respond as though He were preaching it.

I hope He is.

Source: http://www.joemckeever.com

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Preaching a Sermon for the Umpteenth Time: The Temptation to “Phone It In” is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Both types of change are rippling through the Arab world.

It’s been a little over a year since massive demonstrations began Jan. 25, 2011, in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, ultimately toppling longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. In the days before and after that turning point, nearly every country in the region experienced social and political shifts of greater or lesser magnitude.

It started in Tunisia, where the first uprising of what would become the “Arab Spring” began in December 2010 after a young protester burned himself to death. The old authoritarian regime there has been replaced by a democratically elected one, dominated by Islamic political parties promising moderation.

Things are a lot murkier in Egypt, but a similar result seems likely — if the military-backed caretaker government hands over power after elections are completed later this year. Parties representing Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the even more conservative Salafists won the majority of seats in the new parliament.

In Syria, the collision of a protest movement and a long-ruling regime determined to crush it is mutating into civil war. In Libya, the civil war is over and a dictator is dead. What happens next is unclear, but secularists and returning Libyan exiles hope to share power with Islamists as they build a new society from the ground up. Turmoil in Yemen rages on as the long rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh staggers to an end. Other movements for change continue in Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan and elsewhere.

“The political uprisings that have swept the Arab world over the past year represent the most significant challenge to authoritarian rule since the collapse of Soviet communism,” declared Freedom House, the human rights monitoring group, in an introduction to its just-released annual survey of global political freedom. “Yet even as the Arab Spring triggered unprecedented progress in some countries, it also provoked a harsh and sometimes murderous reaction, with many leaders scrambling to suppress real or potential threats to their rule.”

It’s a mixed bag, in other words. Discouragement, anger and fear have descended on many protesters, particularly in Egypt, who believe their revolution has been hijacked by forces hostile to real reform. Even so, Freedom House President David J. Kramer insists “the past year’s trends give reason for hope. … We are at a historic moment. …”

Veteran foreign correspondent Robin Wright, who has covered the region for more than 30 years, is even more optimistic. Her 2011 book, Rock the Casbah, explores changes brewing not just in Arab lands but throughout the Muslim world.

“The most important story of the early 21st century is the epic convulsion across the Islamic world,” she asserts. “Rage against geriatric autocrats is only one part of it. Most of the region … is also actively rebelling against radical ideologies. … (F)rom mighty Egypt to Islamic Iran, tiny Tunisia to quirky Libya, new players are shattering the old order. Uprisings in the Middle East — breathtaking in their scope and speed, if unnerving in their uncertain futures — represent the greatest wave of empowerment” currently breaking across the world.

Some might call that view naïve or premature. But the thirst for change across the Arab world is real, and it transcends politics alone. The “unseen” revolution is unfolding in different arenas: the hearts and minds of people. Especially young people, who want the freedom to think for themselves.

“There’s a large number of people who, in their heart and mind, have seen a glimpse of what they want,” says an American Christian worker with extensive experience in the Middle East. “They do not want to go back. You have a group of young people who are empowered. We see this across the region — whole countries where young people, 24 or younger, make up a large percentage of the population. And they are saying, ‘We’re not going back.’”

To the worker, that new mindset represents an answer to prayer — and a window of opportunity.

“We [U.S. Christians] often want to back off because it is working with Muslims,” he says. “We want to back off because these are difficult areas to go to. And yet right now the opportunity is so great. We’ve never seen an opportunity like this. Across Northern Africa and the Middle East, we’ve seen a sweeping of these revolutions where we have been able to go in and do things now that we’ve never been able to do. We’ve been able to pass out materials door to door. We’re able now to go into communities and have a clinic when before the government said we couldn’t do that.

“It is a window of opportunity that could close so quickly. We need to walk alongside our partners and help them so that if and when we have to leave, we have partners on the ground who can pick up the baton and continue on. This is an opportunity that we weren’t expecting, and yet we should have been. We have been praying for revival in the ‘10/40 Window’ [region containing most of the globe’s unreached peoples]. God has opened up the window. This may not have been the response we were thinking of in that prayer, but right now we have the opportunity and we need to respond to it.”

Conditions for Christians in the region are difficult and may get worse, he acknowledges. Some believers are leaving for friendlier, safer nations. Those who remain are facing new challenges and uncertainties or the return of pressure and persecution. Many fear what may happen if Islamists consolidate political power. Yet churches are stepping forward to minister and proclaim the Gospel in ways he has never before witnessed.

“It is critical that we know that God is at work, that this is His,” the worker says. “He raises up rulers and kings and He takes them down. This is not happening in a vacuum. If it doesn’t go the way we think it should, that doesn’t mean God has stepped away from it. We need to stay with it. It’s going to get hard for believers in some of these churches. We need to be praying specifically for these countries and these peoples daily. God sent his Son to die for these people and we cannot lose the eternal big picture. We just have to see what door He is going to open because of this, and then walk through it.”

Source: Worldview Conversation

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Missions: The Unseen Arab Revolution is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Leaders can harm or heal.

Whether you’re a pastor, parent, coach, or CEO, creating organizational cultures where people thrive, rather than simply survive, is our calling.

Here are four ways to create a thriving organizational culture:

And with every great vision, the people who carry out the vision are then themselves TRANSFORMED by it.

Source: Just Marinating

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Four Keys to Creating a Thriving Organizational Culture is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Working outside of the confines of seminary kept me grounded, though.The ivory towers from which I peered onto the ground below came crashing down in the middle of a real-life conversation with a broken co-worker. Hard-line black-and-white issues revealed themselves in deep shades of gray when shared in 5-minute breaks between customers on a busy Friday morning rush. The lessons I learned making lattes, serving customers, and building relationships with coworkers marked me then, and continues to do so today.

1. Hard work never hurt anyone.

Going to class was stimulating for my mind. But being on my feet, doing physical work was good for my soul. Laugh all you want, but standing on your feet for 10 hours is exhausting, considering that includes hauling new products, gallons of milk, cleaning up spills, toting massive trash bags, leading coffee seminars, etc. Doing physical labor left me feeling like I’d actually accomplished something for the day. Listening to a lecture rarely did.

2. People want to be led…not “told” what to do.

I was a manager, and quickly learned this truth. It’s astonishing how many people like to micromanage…but how few people enjoy being micromanaged. Leading my coworkers to understand the “why” before the “what” propelled me relationally further than demanding obedience ever did. I started out demanding obedience, because those types of expectations were placed on me. When I translated those to other team members, I realized that demanding and micromanaging weren’t a viable long-term solution.

3. People want to feel like they’re on a team.

Whether that’s through inside jokes, shared experiences, or similar goals…nobody wants to be alone. Nobody. The quicker I incorporated “team members,” and not just followers, the quicker my leadership “worked.” The same is true whether you’re serving lattes or leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

4. People and textbooks are not the same thing.

Textbooks make sweeping black-and-white statements that translate well in the classroom. Working in a coffee shop, though, I realized that regurgitating those slickly-worded, catchy phrases did very little to build relationships. And without relationships, truth matters very little.

5. Consistency matters.

I learned that giving people a consistently high-quality product was of high concern, building trust across a brand. Consistently producing a high-quality product builds relational capital as well. People want to know what they’re about to step in to. Offering consistency sets clear expectations up front.

6. Customer service matters

It doesn’t matter how slick your Sunday morning worship services are. Nor does it matter how well-worded your mission and vision statements are crafted. If you neglect customer service, making people feel warm, welcomed, and invited…then you’ll forever have a wide-open back door. The moment you neglect “customer service” is the moment you realize that those you long to hear the Truth are the ones least likely to hear, or receive, it.

7. Everyone wants to feel like an insider

Whether it’s through new information, key relationships, or strategically partnering with others, make sure to keep people in the loop. Let them know what’s coming, that they can pitch ideas, that their voice matters, and that you care to keep them informed. If you want to recruit and maintain leaders on your team, you’ve got to do this.

8. Even the best ideas have a shelf life.

Don’t think that the way you’ve always done something is the way it should be done now. A good idea 50 years ago is likely not still a good idea. Be willing to reinvent, change directions, and kill programs for the sake of reaching more and more people.

Source: Life and Theology

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8 Leadership Lessons I Learned from Working in a Coffee Shop is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

• Jesus was a disciple-making discipler who discipled disciples, so the church should be all about making disciple-making discipling disciples as well. Let’s disciple some more disciples.
• Soul-winning is the main thing! And we need to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s soul-winning. Let’s win more souls! How many have you baptized this week?
• The church needs the Word. We should be taking people deep into the Word through a historical-grammatical hermeneutic and expository preaching. Let’s start another in-depth expository Bible study.
• It’s all about the worship, man. Let’s feel the music, experience the excellence, and sing all night.

You get the picture. We tend to go to seed on our favorite issues, and sometimes unwise leaders pursue their own passions to the neglect of other areas of concern for the local church. This is the reason I still think one of the greatest books on church leadership ever written is Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church, and I long to see an up and coming generation read it afresh for insights into the issue of balanced church health.

The fact is, God has expressed five distinct purposes for His people and for every local church.

1. God wants every church to grow larger through evangelism.
2. God wants every church to grow deeper through discipleship.
3. God wants every church to grow warmer through fellowship.
4. God wants every church to grow broader through ministry.
5. God wants every church to grow stronger through worship.

I’ve seen these packaged a little differently by different leaders and different churches. The mission statements vary, the terminology changes, but I love to see a balanced church moving forward in God’s purposes. Avoid going to seed on one issue and be all that God meant for you to be.

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Be a More Balanced Church is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Giving as a percentage of Americans incomes to the church has fallen from 3.11% to 2.38%.  Could one reason be that we are not taking the offering seriously?  For most churches about the only thought that goes into the offering is who will lead the prayer and perhaps where in the order of service it will go.  To increase giving to your church you need to change how you approach the offering.  Here are some thoughts.

First, stop treating the offering as an intrusion to worship and see it for what it is meant to be, worship.  My belief is that most church staffs see the offering as a necessary evil.  We know we have to pass the plate to get money but it takes valuable time out of our order of worship.  If you have that kind of thinking it is no wonder giving is challenged.

Next give time each week to making your offering time meaningful and worshipful.  The offering does not need to be boring.  To spice up your offering time takes very little.  It does however take some thought and planning on your part.  You and your staff get paid for your brilliance and creativity.  So apply some of that God given talent to the offering appeal.  If the only time you think of the offering is right before it is taken up don’t be surprised if the plate is not as full as you would like it to be!

Change it up!  Some of you have never changed a thing about how the offering is taken up.  Maybe once in a blue moon you might put the offering in a different place in the order of service.  Yet most simply ask the ushers to come forward and then pray something like, “God please bless what we have spent no time preparing for.”   Ok, so you don’t actually pray that but if you have not put any thought or plans into the offering that is essentially what you are asking God to do.

Use the Elevator Pitch approach in your offering appeal.  The elevator pitch arrives from the idea that you are riding in an elevator when a big shot company executive enters in. You have maybe thirty seconds of time with him or her. What you say in those thirty seconds of riding the elevator will mean the difference of whether you get a full hearing later or are simply forgotten. The idea is to comprise the key information about you into a thirty second burst of energy that will “sell” your idea or you.

The “sell” for you every Sunday is to convince those in your services that they should give your church what they view as their hard earned money.  The best way to motivate people to give is to show them what their gifts accomplish.  Here is a sample from my e-book entitled, “Elevator Pitch Your Offerings.”

There Are No Atheist Hospitals

From time to time people complain that all the church talks about is money. It is true that every week we give our members and attendees an opportunity to give. As our ushers come forward this morning I want to ask you a simple question, how many atheist hospitals have you seen? I don’t know about you but I have never driven by Atheist Hospital. However, I have driven by scores of Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and even Catholic hospitals. Who do you think gave the money to start those hospitals? Christians like you and I gave that money once upon a time.

While we here at Name of your church are not planning to start a hospital any time soon I want to assure you that your gift today will be used for good causes. Consider that a portion of your gift goes to…

• List percentage or amounts your church gives to missions
• List local aide work and social services you provide
• List any other positive things funded by gifts donated to the church

So while you might never drive by Your Church Name Hospital your gift today is needed and helpful in extending the Kingdom of God. Every gift matters and will be used responsibly and strategically to extend the love of Jesus around the world.

Today, by your gift, you are making an investment into the future for the Kingdom. Let’s pray.

Simple, easy, appealing and direct.  Why not try that kind of appeal this week.  While I want you to start your own planning and thinking about the offering I have just given you for free an idea of how to make your offering more meaningful.  If you want more, then you can go here for the other 51 offering appeals that I have written.  http://thecharisgroup.org/ebooks/elevator-pitch-your-offerings/

Source: The Charis Group

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Four Key Ideas For Your Offering Time This Weekend is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Pastor Rick shared these practical reasons during his weekly webcast for pastors involved in 40 Days in the Word. You can hear the whole message at http://40daysintheword.com/webcast/.

In order to keep growing, you have to have a biblical statement, a biblical strategy, and a biblical structure.

Every building has a structure. Without the right structure, the building will fall over. With the right structure, the building will stand a long time. Unfortunately, most churches are structured around events or programs instead of processes. Programs and events eventually die out; processes go on and on and on.

At Saddleback, we bring people into membership, build them up to maturity, train them for their ministry, and send them out on their mission. That’s a process we’ve been doing for 32 years. Every year, we don’t have to wonder, “What are we going to do next year?” Programs and events change, but the systemic, sequential development of discipleship just keeps on going.

A lot of churches will have a process for one or two years, and then they’ll stop. To be a purpose driven church, you have to keep doing the same thing Jesus taught us to do over and over again, and you have to have a structure for it.

All living organisms have a structure. Did you know that no animal grows above seven inches without a skeleton? Without the proper skeleton, your church will not grow beyond its current rate. As the growth changes, the structure has to change to let the growth happen. Until you get a bigger pot for a root-bound plant, it’s not going to grow anymore.

In order to keep growing, you have to have a biblical statement, a biblical strategy, and a biblical structure. Luke 5:37 says that you can’t put “new wine into old wineskins.” If you have new wine or new growth, you have to have a new structure. If you’re going to have growth during 40 Days in the Word, you’re going to have to be structured for it, or you’re going to lose it all.

Structure is also what usually keeps churches from growing past 200 people. The kind of structure we had at Saddleback when we had 15 people was not the structure we used when we had 50 people. The kind of structure we had when we had 50 people didn’t work when we had 95. And, even, what worked at 20,000 didn’t work at 22,000. We are constantly changing structure. Peter Drucker once told me that an organization needs to change its structure every time it grows 45 to 47 percent. During the first 10 years of Saddleback, we actually grew 47 or 48 percent every year, which meant that every year we were revising how we made decisions, how we structured our team, and how we did small groups.

How do you know you’re structure isn’t working? There are three telltale signs:

• Plateaued growth. Structure does not cause growth, but it does limit it. It controls the rate and the size of growth. Changing your structure will not cause you to grow; it will allow you to grow.
• Internal conflict. It is a sign that you have outgrown your structure.
• Discouraged leadership. When people get discouraged, it often means the structure is not allowing them to be creative.

The number one hurt I’ve discovered among pastors is the conflict that comes from inadequate structure. They get tired of fighting the bureaucracy. It drains their enthusiasm, and it kills their vision. This is very dangerous territory — you don’t just go out and change your structure. You have to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. Minor changes are major victories.

There are five levels of church renewal and change:

1. Personal Renewal. When God wants to work in a church, it always starts with the heart, and it always starts with the leader. 40 Days in the Word is about personal renewal. It’s when Jesus becomes real to you again and you fall in love with him all over again.
2. Relational Renewal. First you get right with God, and then you get right with each other. There are two ways you know a church has had relational renewal: The singing gets better because people like each other better and they are genuinely worshipping. Also, people stay longer after the service because they just want to hang out and talk with each other.
3. Missional Renewal. Many times a church will grow after the first two renewals, and then growth hits a plateau because they never reach missional renewal. This is when you discover the purpose for your life and your church family. Once you reach this point, you cannot keep a church from growing.
4. Structural Renewal. As the church continues to grow, it will realize that it cannot put new wine in old wineskins.
5. Cultural Renewal. When the first four renewals line up, the church starts impacting its community, and this is cultural renewal. I think we would all agree that America needs cultural renewal. You know that the sun is setting on a culture when small men cast long shadows. But cultural renewal will not happen without personal, relational, missional, and structural renewal.

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Five Ways to Know You Are Structured for Growth is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Many are moving away from having this as a part of their service for a variety of reasons from not capitalizing on emotional responses to the message, to not wanting ‘seekers’ to feel uncomfortable or pressured.  But if we close the door to the freedom of the Spirit we actually hinder the growth of our people and the movement of God.  Because I do value the ‘invitation’ or ‘altar call’ portion of the service, I recently was able to develop a Prayer Team that is available to help minister during this time and continue throughout the week.  Some of this ministry is described below:

Overview of Ministry
The purpose of this team is to pray with, direct, and love people.  It is to show comfort and consideration to others.  Having a burden to help people is one thing. Actually acting on that burden is something else. John 12:8 says there will always be people who are hurting and who need help and encouragement.

That’s why this ministry is being formed.  We will be available for people to seek us out during the invitation.  But we won’t just wait for others to seek us out; but rather seek them out. Pray for, look for, and act on opportunities to comfort others. If we don’t, who will?

What will you do on this team? You will…

• Lead people into a personal relationship with Christ.
• With new salvations we make sure they understand what they prayed and believe, reinforce and encourage them, invite them to meet the pastor and sign up for the next baptism. Move them towards the next session to introduce our church. (We will follow the New Believer Process to accomplish this.)
• Give guidance to those who receive Christ at the altar.
• Support those who want to rededicate or strengthen their walk with the Lord. When someone comes forward to rededicate their life, always explore whether they have had an initial dedication. (Is there a time in your life when you made Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life?)
• Pray for the prayer needs of those who come forward for prayer. With prayer needs, we let people talk for a few minutes but then ask them to be specific as to how we can pray for them. We ask our prayer team not to give counsel but to offer prayer. Many times people will ask important questions like “Should I quit my job?” Our role is not to make decisions for people but to pray with them as they make the decision. Afterwards, they’re invited to a small group if they’re not in one. If someone comes forward asking for the elders/pastors to pray over them for healing (according to James 5:13-16), direct them to one of the pastors.
• Equip others by presenting opportunities for them to grow in their faith (directing to small groups, quiet times, missions, etc).
• Help those in the prayer ministry understand what they believe, and how they can most effectively help others.
• Encourage those who have matured in the prayer ministry to step out as soul winners.
• Work with People interested in membership.
• If someone comes forward and wants to become a member of the church, start here: Has there been a time when you accepted Jesus as your Savior? … If yes, explore that with them.
• If no, present the gospel … If yes, explore and then sign them up for the next session to ‘Introduce our church’.
• Direct people to resources or counseling (we have a handout available in the prayer room to help with this: You can use this as a guide for creating your own: Prayer Team Reference Guide).
• Pray throughout the services.

Follow Up after Sunday
It’s important to fill out a Decision Card on each person you speak with so that you can continue to pray for those requests through the week.  Additionally, the team that serves on Sunday will need to do a follow up phone call at the first part of the week to anyone they counseled.  Also, there will be a letter or email sent out from Pastor/Staff on Tuesday to these people letting them know we’re praying for them and reinforcing the decision that was made.

Requirements to serve on this ministry team:

1. Must have a personal relationship with God that is being maintained through daily times with Him.
2. Must be an active member of our Church who has been baptized by immersion and completed the Membership group.
3. Must be trustworthy, knowledgeable and personal.
4. Must have a Pastor’s heart. (caring, loving, concerned, bold)

Committing to Serve in this Ministry
Taking the first step to join this ministry might be the hardest part. It’s easy to allow your flesh to refuse to be used by God because of fear: fear that you don’t think you’re ready, fear that you’re not good enough, or fear that you don’t know enough.  I want you to remember that the disciples were ordinary men, but they were available.  If you are available and you want to grow, God will use you. When we face a situation that creates fear in our hearts, we need to remind ourselves of how great our God is and pray that He will grant us courage to overcome our fear.

Every day God gives us opportunities to create meaningful moments where we can reach out and comfort others–close friends, relatives, or complete strangers.  We often miss those opportunities because we fail to open ourselves to those “God moments” each day.  By serving in this ministry, you will not only be able to minister during the invitation, but you will become more aware of other opportunities (“God moments”) daily.

It’s my prayer that this has been helpful to you.  I will be posting a follow up post later this week with the guidelines and principles for this ministry. You can sign up for email updates to get this or check back soon.

Source: Inside Ministry

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Developing a Worship Service Prayer Team – Part 1 is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Having made several major changes over the last couple of years I’ve settled on these principles for making a big move:

• If some people think you’re crazy to make the change, don’t worry about it. There will always be a group of people who don’t understand. Some people thought I was crazy to leave Seacoast. Some people thought I was crazy to leave Saddleback. Some people thought I was crazy to believe the Cardinals could win the 2011 World Series. All of those people were wrong. I may be crazy, but not for those reasons.
• If everyone else thinks you’re crazy to make the change, then you probably are.
• If your spouse thinks you’re crazy, then it isn’t time to change. You are a team and a team works together. If quarterback calls a screen left and the running back decides to run a dive over left tackle things are going to go horribly wrong. The same principle is at work if you are dragging a reluctant spouse along because “you have heard from God”. If God is really in the change, he’ll talk to your spouse as well.
• God seldom provides the kind of skywriting, audible voice sign we would all prefer. He has given us a solid set of principles to follow in the Bible (and if you don’t follow his principles in making a change you’re an idiot), but as for specifics he offers a still small voice at best.
• In many situations God’s will for your life is for us to choose. When I was wrestling with leaving Seacoast, John Ortberg (yes, I just dropped a name) referred me to Dallas Willard’s book Hearing God. The last chapter says that God’s will for us in making a change is often to use the intelligence and discernment he gave us to make the choice.

So how do you know for sure its time to make a change? Do your homework (Ask God, study his principles, confide in a few wise friends, pray with your spouse), and if you still think this is the time make your move.

The reality of leadership is that most big decisions are made with imperfect information; often it is only after you have left the diving board that you know you’ve made the right decision.

Source: Inner Revolution

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Change Will Do You Good (Knowing When to Take the Plunge) is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

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Gallup: Life Better Than Year Ago Among U.S. Americans is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

During those days, one of my heroes was Andy Grove, the former chairman of Intel. I once heard Andy say something that stuck with me as I matured and left the business world for ministry: “None of us is as smart as all of us.” He couldn’t have been more right. You can’t underestimate the power of synergy—especially in your worship planning.

As the lead teaching pastor or the worship pastor in your church, you are ultimately responsible for the worship planning, but that doesn’t mean you have all the wisdom or that you are capable of doing things on your own. The idea of being able to create life-changing worship services alone is a fallacy. None of us is as smart as all of us. God put a team of staff and volunteers around you for a reason. He wants you to tap into the stores of resources they have to offer as you plan your teaching and worship.

Many teaching pastors I’ve worked with over the years don’t buy into this idea. They see message planning as something they are supposed to do alone in their office, something that is strictly between them and God. End of story.

Now don’t get me wrong. Your independent study and prayer time are critical to your message preparation. They are the genesis, if you will. God has given you authority and ultimate responsibility for connecting with him concerning what he wants you to translate to your people. But at the same time, it’s not all about you.

You have to acknowledge that God speaks to many other people on your team who can help expand your teaching exponentially. The same principle applies to the music and artistic elements in your service. Don’t be afraid to let other people speak into your area of expertise and offer ideas, illustrations, and different points of view. Your message, worship, and outreach will be stronger because of it. Never limit the sources of God’s inspiration.

TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More

You’ve probably heard the acrostic for TEAM: together everyone achieves more. Cliché though it is, it’s spot-on. I have a friend who put a slightly different spin on things by changing the last word to miracles. Together everyone achieves miracles.

That’s true at The Journey, and it will be true in your church if you are willing to invite other people into your planning process. As Pat MacMillan wrote in his great work on leadership, The Performance Factor, “Leadership today requires leaders who are able to tap into the resources of the group—leaders who can release the initiative and leadership in everyone.”¹ As you learn to become that kind of leader, the previously untapped potential of your team will help take your worship planning to a whole new level. Teamwork makes the dream work.

This article is excerpted from Engage: A Guide to Creating Life-Transforming Worship Services by Nelson Searcy, Jason Hatley, and Jennifer Dykes Henson. The book is published by Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group (copyright 2011). Used by permission. All rights to this material are reserved. Material is not to be reproduced, scanned, copied, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from Baker Publishing Group.

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Don’t Underestimate Synergy in Worship Planning is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

The best pastors can’t get enough of people, concepts, ideas, theology. They want to know how things work, what makes things tick, how to take things apart, what happens inside, where things are going, and why things are the way they are.

Many times pastors wonder why their church or ministry is in a rut, and many times they fail to realize they themselves are facilitating it by getting into a rut themselves. They are not on the outer edges of the pasture, climbing the hills to scan the horizon, drinking from the streams, or frolicking in the field. Instead they just go about their regular business, a routine that has resulted in stagnation and a stuck flock. When a pastor gets mentally lethargic, that pastor’s congregation gets dull and ineffective.

It’s not too late to begin sharpening your ministry. Here are some ways leaders can begin loving God with all their minds by exercising them.

Keep asking questions

The best pastors don’t settle for competency or bare familiarity. The inquisitive mind is the mind that will communicate life-changing truth, because it’s always asking questions. The more questions you ask, the further you go in your curiosity, the better equipped you will be to captivate the spiritual imaginations of the people who come into your ministry. An ever-inquisitive mind results in an ever-interesting message.

Read, read, read. Books and magazines, journals and blog posts. Big heavy theological ones and short light applicational ones. Venture into new genres and listen to new voices.

The best pastors can’t get enough of people, concepts, ideas, theology. They stretch themselves. They test the boundaries of the “same old same old.” They want to know how things work, what makes things tick, how to take things apart, what happens inside, where things are going, and why things are the way they are. They don’t take information for granted but squeeze information for all the juice it can give.

This isn’t about getting puffed up with knowledge but rather keeping one’s mind sharp to better communicate and minister. The best leaders do the heavy lifting necessary to keep their brains from atrophying.

“Your job is more important than just gathering information. You lead people to know who God is and how to engage in his mission.”

Continue your education

If a leader has the opportunity to continue his/her academic education, they should. The reason is this: When a leader is on their own for a while, the leader tends to get into an intellectual rut. The leader reads what is found to be of interest. Even if his or her reading taste consists of the typically challenging writers, the ones pushing the envelope, that itself can become an educational rut.

But in educational course work, you are required to read things you might normally read. You have to read books and consider perspectives you either have never heard of or wouldn’t read or consider even if you had. You end up studying things you never would have studied. And in the classroom setting with a qualified instructor, you get to learn new things in the context of dialogue and oversight. Learning in community is the best way to learn.

Learn outside your comfort zone

Unfortunately many leaders don’t have access to continuing formal education, either because of lack of proximity, lack of funds, or lack of time. If you don’t have access to continuing education or seminary, how do you stay intellectually fresh?

You have to become more intentional about learning outside your comfort zone. We will drift into comfort, but schedule discomfort. Sign yourself up for a book club people wouldn’t expect you to join. The weekly or monthly obligation to attend will be your pre-determined reminder to get out of your rut. Subscribe to a magazine that stretches your thinking and exercises your mind. Ask Christians who aren’t exactly like you for book recommendations. Subscribe to intellectually stimulating blogs with your RSS reader so they automatically come to you.

Learn from life

It is important that you understand you can’t do what the experts do. It is their job to accumulate information. They have much more time than you do to just absorb and collect.

Your job is more important than just gathering information. You lead people to know who God is and how to engage in his mission. If you are deliberately and conscientiously and passionately doing that, you will be learning from the hard knocks of ministry itself. The frontlines of life in ministry are a school all unto themselves.

The great irony, actually, is that many leaders, in their zeal for testing boundaries and engaging innovation and leveraging technology and absorbing knowledge, actually become ineffective in the work of Spiritual wakefulness.  They become students of their books, podcasts, laptops, and PDAs to the neglect of their students of people, service, sacrifice, and mission.

Leaders, stretch your minds, but don’t become information addicts. It is less important to be up to date than to live in the calling of God on your life—and learn as you engage in faithful ministry.

Copyright Ed Stetzer 2012. Used by permisson.

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Leadership Means Loving God With All Your Mind is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Every business, every church, and every institution is now a publisher, and those who publish with the most gusto win. It’s the age where people with few connections and little resources can grow their voice in the marketplace in inexpensive and creative ways.

I’m writing this post for those who haven’t jumped in yet. I’d love to dialog about the latest developer’s beta version of WordPress or Google’s search algorithm, but my goal is instead to reach out to those who are on the verge of blogging and push you over the edge to take the dive. If you need to read no more, head over to WordPress or Tumblr and get started! If you’re still looking to rationalize your decision, read on…

Why Blog?

Still with me? Let me give you some reasons to jump in.

1. Everybody is doing it. This is normally a stupid reason to do anything, but in this case, what I mean is that everybody is talking and conversing about everything, and your voice matters.
2. It’s easy. There was a time when you needed to know html or write the code for your own blogging platform. Now, with a few clicks you can sign up and from your smartphone, you can blog.
3. It’s cheap. In fact, it’s usually free, or costs peanuts, to get started.
4. You can earn some income. Don’t plan on getting rich off of blogging. It’s been done before and will be done again, but don’t assume you’re going to be the next John Chow, who makes money online by telling people how to make money online. Most of the “six-figure bloggers” were in the game early, but you can still earn a bit of an income if you’re patient and consistent.
5. You can expand your influence. Ideas change the world, and today, ideas are shaped by the conversation online.

In other words, this isn’t just for geeks and nerds anymore. It’s for you too (assuming you don’t fall into either of those categories).

What To Do

Convinced? With me? Good. Now what in the world are you going to blog about? What does “blogging” look like for you? You can make blogging a time of personal journaling, but I want to challenge you to think a little harder than that. Let’s re-define blogging as putting your passion into words for the world to experience.

Your passion.

If you are passionate about underwater basket-weaving, blog about it. If it’s vintage and retro living, go for it. If you’re all about the latest flip-flops coming out of the fashion scene, blog about it. The blogs I read are those written by people who are passionate, whose passion spills out in a contagious way.

In words.

Blogging can include video and other forms of media, and will more and more as time goes on. What I’m getting at is that blogging is the act of allowing your passion to escape your heart and find expression online in a form others can consume.

For the world to experience.

I talk a lot about the experience of reading blogs because I’m a design and communications nut. For me, content is highly important, but so is its aesthetic surroundings. I’m not drawn to mere words. I’m drawn to the experience of reading them in their creative context.

Blog On Topic

So blog about what you know, what you love, and what you can speak authoritatively about to the world. Stay focused. I blog about an array of subjects, but they are mostly related to each other. If I started blogging entirely about weedrat recipes, I’d lose my readers, no matter how good weedrat stew might be.

Network With Others

Writing is good, but reading is better. Speaking is great, but listening is even greater. Blogging isn’t simply the dissemination of information. Rather it’s the joining of an ongoing, developing conversation about a niche. The more people you help, connect with, and pour into, the more you and your blogging influence will ultimately benefit.

Read Great Blogs on Blogging

Don’t read them all – you’ll go nuts. There are too many of them. But some of my own favorites are:

• WeBlogBetter.com (I started this one, but Kiesha Easley has taken it beyond my wildest dreams).
• ProBlogger (A lot about earning money, but a lot about powerful networking too).
• Copyblogger (A whole lot of longer posts about writing, communication, and marketing).
• Fuel Your Blogging (I used to be the Editor, but Christopher is much better!).
• Kikolani (She gathers together some of the best resources on the web).
• Social Media Examiner (Not all about blogging, but the broader topic of social media, of which blogging is one part).
• Chris Brogan (An expert who blogs his expertise rather freely).
• Danny Brown (Few understand blogging activism like Danny).
• Michael Hyatt (He understands blogging from the perspective of a respected publishing executive).
• For Bloggers By Bloggers (A steady stream of great tips).
• Blogussion (Another great site with great tips).
• Hubspot offers another list of great blogs too.

Jump In!

Here’s my step-by-step guide to getting started with blogging in a half an hour or less. Understand that if you can get hosting, a domain, and a custom-designed WordPress theme, you’ll be better off in the long run. But this isn’t the long run. This is the moment of taking the plunge. So here’s my challenge:

1. Sign up for an account at WordPress.com.
2. Pick a nice theme that reflects the personality of your blog. You can change later, and even move your WordPress.com blog to a self-hosted platform. For now, pick something pretty.
3. Create an “About” page where you tell the world whom you are and other ways to connect with you (link to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social profiles).
4. Write a blog post. No, “This is your first blog post.” doesn’t count. Craft a catchy, attention-getting title and briefly pour your heart out.
5. Post the hyperlink on Twitter, Facebook, and wherever else you hang out online. Don’t be shy. Do it!

Oh, and below, in the comments, tell me where you blog! What would you add to what I’ve said (for the soon-to-be newbie bloggers)?

Image credit: Kristina B

Source: BrandonACox.com

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The Basics of Blogging and Online Publishing is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

The Mentoring Luncheon was comprised of their youngest staff members from all three locations.  It was both an encouragement to me and a shock to my system.  It was encouraging to see nearly 50 young committed Christians giving their lives to full time service.  It was a shock to my system as they keep calling me sir.  I was one of the oldest guys in the room!  At any rate they listened as I shared The Top Stewardship Mistakes Churches Make.  That is the working title of my next book.  I listed five major mistakes churches make when it comes to stewardship.  Here is my list..

Failing to Ask.  It is not that churches talk too much about money we don’t talk about it enough!  One study found only 32 percent of American church members reported that they had heard a sermon on the relationship between faith and personal finances in that previous year.  When was the last time your preached this topic?

Asking to fail.  When we ask we often do it in a manner that leads to failure rather than success.  Most “asks” are driven by guilt.  Effective “asks” are driven by vision.  Good vision trumps bad economy.  Give your donors a reason to give!

Lack of planning.  Churches have plans for everything why not a stewardship plan?  If you don’t have a plan you are planning on failure.

Continuing business as usual.  Times have changed and your approach to giving has to change as well.  Cash and checkbooks are disappearing.  The world is moving towards electronic means of commercialism and business.  The Church had better change to meet the changes or we might find ourselves out of money to fuel our ministries.  Think about it, you pass an offering plate  asking for people to give who have little to no cash on them and no checks.  Is it any wonder giving is declining?

Lack of pastoral involvement.  The buck stops with you!  Churches that are financially successful are the churches that the pastor is involved in the process.  There is simply no other person who can and should set the pace for stewardship in a church.  The Senior Pastor can’t pass this baton to anyone else and see his finances be successful.  What about you pastor?  How involved are you in the stewardship of your church?

All of the above mistakes can be easily avoided.  You have to recognize them first and head them off before they become issues at your church.  My hope and prayer is that the next generation coming up will avoid these mistakes that my generation has made.  After meeting the men and women of Cross Church’s Mentoring Group this “old” guy has renewed hope for the future!

PS.  To find out more about Ronnie Floyd and Cross Church visit his blog at http://www.ronniefloyd.com/  You can also follow him on Twitter at @ronniefloyd

Source: The Charis Group

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Spiritual leaders are not made by election or appointment, by men or any combination of men, nor by conferences or synods. Only God can make them. Simply holding a position of importance does not constitute one a leader, nor do taking courses in leadership or resolving to become a leader. The only method is that of qualifying to be a leader. Religious position can be conferred by bishops and boards, but not spiritual authority, which is the prime essential of Christian leadership. That comes often unsought to those who in earlier life have proved themselves worthy of it by spirituality, discipline, ability, and diligence, men who have heeded the command: “Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them.” and instead have sought first the kingdom of God {and His righteousness}. Spiritual leadership is a thing of the Spirit and is conferred by God alone. When His searching eye alights on a man who has qualified, He anoints him with His Spirit and separates him to his distinctive ministry… (Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, pp 18-19)

In every generation God’s people are given the opportunity to respond to His invitation to be a distinct people used to demonstrate and proclaim hope in the midst of their generations’ present crisis. In each generation, God calls out individuals who will take up the reins of leadership.

On my sabbatical in 2000, I sensed the need to intentionally develop spiritually qualified board members. It seemed that every year as we sought nominations for board members, I was pulling teeth to get anyone to serve. In the fall of 2000, I invited six men to join me in a monthly four hour training session. We shared a meal together and prayed for one another. We also discussed an assigned book and I taught a lesson on spiritual leadership. This process bonded us together and was invaluable in preparing two of these men to serve as deacons and one to serve as an elder the following year. I realized that I had to be involved first hand in the leadership formation process at our church.

And yet, I can’t be the only one concerned about leadership development. As we continue to grow as a church, all leaders must embrace the responsibility for leadership multiplication. Just as all disciples of Jesus ought to be disciple-makers, so all leaders ought to be mentoring leaders.

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” This process of leadership multiplication won’t just happen in your church. Spiritual leaders are developed over a lifetime and they need the input of godly leaders on the one hand, while continuing to invest in the mentoring of the next generation of church leadership.

An intentional process of leadership development that strengthens the local church’s leadership base must be initiated with non-leaders who are faithful followers of Jesus. And this process must continue through identifiable phases that equip emerging leaders with ongoing ministry assignments and responsibilities.

Learning to lead won’t happen in the classroom, but in the context of ministry. Commit yourself to the process of both developing as a leader, and developing others to lead!

Source: Missional Challenge

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Embrace a Leadership Development Process is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Being a transformative leader is not about telling people what to do; it’s about embodying what you’re asking someone to do.

The second way to kill your leadership potential is to surround yourself with weak “yes” people. If there’s no one on your leadership team with authority to rebuke, correct, or challenge you, you‘ll become a self-absorbed, insecure dictator.

Everyone has blind spots, except Jesus. He is the perfect leader. You are not. And neither am I. That’s why your leadership team and mine must be comprised of strong, courageous, gifted, humble leaders who will speak the truth to us.

The third way to kill your leadership potential is to stop learning and developing as a leader. As leaders, we replicate who we are in those we lead. If you don’t like the ethos (culture) of your organization, whether it’s an NFL football team, your family, or your church, don’t look around at others to blame. You as the leader have created, through your leadership, what you perceive as a problem. As you expand and develop as a healthy leader, your influence will go viral throughout the organization you lead. The opposite is true as well. Unhealthy leadership goes viral throughout the organization just as easily.

Source: Just Marinating

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3 Ways to Kill Your Leadership Potential is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Preachers do it all the time.

Not all preachers, but some of us make a practice of finding a weak spot in our targeted sinner, one undefended, in his most vulnerable area, and letting him have it.

We had a case in point the weekend of Super Bowl Sunday.

A friend on Facebook messaged me privately about his intended sermon. He was going to let the congregation have it that day about their addiction to sports, football in particular. He was upset and wanted to accuse his people of a form of idolatry.

I did not accuse him of hitting below the belt–the very essense of a cheap shot–but I could have. (We might say I avoided a cheap shot myself by not doing that.) Instead, I suggested an alternative approach.

“Instead of choosing to pour cold water over your people’s enjoyment of this day’s festivities,” I said, “what if you took a different route. There are so many positive things that sports teach us, and football in particular.”

I suggested he reflect on teamsmanship–all members of the squad having to work together as a unit. Football demonstrates this as well as any activity I can think of.

I suggested he consider how a superior talented athlete will sometimes be out-done by a lesser talent with greater drive, greater “heart.” The Bible says much about serving the Lord with a whole heart.

Finally, I suggested that if he still wanted to preach that sermon against the idolatry of sports in America–no one argues the point–he consider doing it the week following Super Bowl Sunday.

It just seems fairer.

You see it all the time on Facebook. Someone will post a note on, oh, let’s say, the search for a missing child. Friends add their comments on various aspects of the subject. Invariably, however, some cheap-shooting Christian almost has to jump in and say, “If we would search for the lost as diligently as those people are searching for that baby, we’d reach the world for the Lord.”

Is it true? Sure. And it leaves someone somewhere with the intended impression that the writer is a superior Christian with a great love for the lost.

The impression it leaves with this preacher (moi!) is that the writer is a cold-water-pourer-on-er, one who delights in moving the conversation off a good subject into spiritual realms where he can inflict guilt on one and all.

Here are a few of the ways preachers take cheap shots in their preaching.

1. By attacking celebrities who are not there to defend themselves.

2. By taking a single sin someone did and ballooning it to represent the entirety of fallen humanity.

3. By taking one slip by a well-meaning person (whom he does not know but has heard of) and banishing them to hell for such a wrong.

4. By erecting a law God never got around to making, then crucifying his people for breaking it.

We legalists are great at this. A legalist, they say, is someone who says, “I know the Lord never said this, but He would have if He’d thought about it.”

For instance. The Super Bowl takes place on Sunday night, usually the first Sunday of February. But that’s church night. So, you decide that all who skip church that night to watch the game are violating a law of God.

The only problem is it isn’t so. At no point in Scripture is anyone commanded to attend church on Sunday nights. If they choose to go and if they actually worship Him, God will honor it. But why should He hold His people to a command He never uttered?

When I mentioned that to a friend–Facebook again–he came back with Hebrews 10:25, the verse reminding God’s people not to forsake to assemble themselves together. Wrong verse to make this point.

Same thing when preachers harangue our culture for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Show me where we are commanded to say “Merry Christmas” in the Bible, and I’ll retract this. Otherwise, it’s a cheap shot.

The problems with taking cheap shots….

1. We hurt people.

2. We lose the respect of outsiders.

3. We lose the support of our people who still have a sense of right and wrong.

4. We misrepresent God.

Source: www.joemckeever.com

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4 Ways We Take Cheap Shots, Pastor! is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

You are not alone.

Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is one of the smartest guys in the world. He contemplates stuff like cosmic string theory, gravitational singularity and the density matrix of the universe. Yet when he was asked in a recent interview what he thinks about most often, he replied, “Women. They are a complete mystery.”

Tell me about it, Steve. A lot of men don’t have the guts to admit that, but we’re thinking it. Women, likewise, struggle to find their way through the bewildering (to them) maze of the male psyche.

A former missionary speaking to a group of men about improving their relationships with their spouses compared the mental and emotional differences between the sexes to the chasms missionaries must cross to reach other cultures. If anything, that underestimates the challenges men and women face in understanding each other.

I’ve been married for nearly 28 years to a wonderful Korean woman. Sometimes people ask us if coming from different cultures makes communication more difficult. Occasionally, yes. But my wife and I agree on one thing: Compared to the light years separating planets Male and Female, the culture gap is a hop, skip and a jump.

Let’s be thankful, then, that love does not always require understanding. Love requires love. And time.

“I will love you if I understand you” is conditional, like every other “if” qualifier. God’s love sets no conditions. Love first; understanding will come. Sometimes it takes a lifetime. That’s why marriage is hard. So is real friendship — with anyone, regardless of gender. We are worlds unto ourselves until we choose to cross the chasm toward another.

In a crucial sense, the same applies to our relationship with the Lord. Christ crossed a huge chasm indeed to love us. No questions asked. Our reasonable service of worship is to love Him back with our whole hearts. But we can never fully understand Him in this life. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I have been fully known,” the Apostle Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 13:12, NASB).

Until we know God as He knows us, we must trust and obey. His thoughts are infinitely higher than ours, yet His heart is fully available to us if we love Him. The church is the bride of Christ, but Psalm 25 tells us that the “secret” — or intimacy — of the Lord is reserved for those who truly seek Him (verse 14).

Seeking God takes time and quiet. We also can practice our love for Him by loving one another. But true intimacy is hard to find in the age of rush. And rushing has become a global disease.

“I’m a speed walker,” writes a missionary in Eastern Europe. “Hurry is my everyday tempo — hurry here, hurry there, hurry, hurry, hurry. But today,  stopped me dead in my tracks. With a small, withered old hand lifted, reaching, beseeching me. I almost dashed past it. Almost. In my mad scurry to my next destination, I was nearly past her before my heart caught up with my legs and made me stop.

“She was old, gray, disheveled, feeble. She stood there on the sidewalk, a doll-print sack hanging from one arm, lifting her hand to me and murmuring ‘Young lady?’ so quietly that I almost didn’t hear her. I thought for a second that she was a beggar.  I realized that the little hand she was raising was not cupped upward to receive money, but reaching for me, for help. As this fact and her voice reached my brain, I came back to her. She pointed at the icy sidewalk and the curb before her, mumbling out a request for help to cross the unmanageable terrain.

“’Of course,’ I responded, reaching for her hand. Oh, that old, gnarled hand in mine. … And to think I almost missed this. I almost missed the chance to love Him by helping a dear, aged soul cross an icy street. Just in front of me, other people had pushed right past that helpless woman, disregarding her as if she was no more than a dried husk of a thing…. I almost rushed past the King of Glory on the side of the road. Praise Him that His quiet voice reached my ears and my heart. I don’t want to miss Him.”

I call that a love note from God. Have you received one without noticing it?

Source: Worldview Conversation

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Love First, Understand Later is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

Steve Gladen, the Small Group Pastor at Saddleback Church and Brett Eastman, Founder and President of Lifetogether give an overview of this weeks episode covering different ways of connecting people in small groups. Watch the overview of this exciting episode.

Training

Multiple Ways of Connecting People.
Different people find different ways to get into groups.

By Michael Moore (Pastor of Small Groups at Grace Community Church in Fulton, MD)

Tip

The Power of DVD Curriculum.
A simple and powerful way to lead your small group.

By Alan Danielson (independent small group ministry consultant and leadership coach)

Testimony

Getting Involved in Small Groups
Spence shares how he got involved in a small group and how it changed his life.

By Spence Shelton (Small Groups Pastor at the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC)

Trend

Creating Your Own Custom Curriculum and Church Campaign
On location with Max Lucado and Randy Frazee.

Together

Bring everybody together
Tom and Todd talk about the importance of small groups in the church and how they bring people together and change lives.

Tom Crick (Community Leader at Saddleback) & , Todd Olthoff (Pastor to Couples and Small Groups at Saddleback)

Tool

Interview with “The Story” project with Bob Rogers from Zondervan Publishing
Brett Eastman interviews Zondervan Publishing about Max Lucado and Randy Frazee’s project “The Story”.

Check out these great articles:

• Face to Face – Shoulder to Shoulder - by Heather Zempel
• Making Your Small Groups Models of Fellowship - By Steve Gladen

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7 Ways to Connect Everyone In Small Groups is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.