“Small” is a mindset, not a size

David Foster, one of my pastor-heroes, slams one out of the park with another great post on his blog.  He is writing about what is meant by “little church” or “small church,” and points out that it really isn’t about size.  Megas get most of the attention, but 80% of U.S. churches are under 200 in attendance - and the truth is that any size church can be “small.” 

“Small” is an attitude, a way of looking at ourselves and the world around us that doesn’t allow us to see past some very high walls of our own construction.

An excerpt:

Let’s just think about what a little church is.

• A little church is a church inwardly focused thinking only about the needs of the Christians who are already there.
• A little church is a church that develops endless programs for the care and feeding of their own people, necessitating more time at the church and less time out in the real world engaging people who are far from God.
• A little church is a church that does the same thing in the same way today that it did 3, 4, or 5 years ago.
• A little church is a church that let’s its buildings and grounds fall into disrepair, failing to realize that how we treat the spaces in which we meet has a lot to say about what we believe.
• A little church is a church that doesn’t want difficult or broken people because they’re too messy – We only want nice, clean, acceptable people who won’t be a bad influence on us.
• A little church is a church that replaces the gospel with a long list of do’s and don’ts.
• A little church is a church that hires a pastor to lead them and then fires him when he does.
• A little church is a church that feels they’re in competition with the other churches across the street or across town and seeks to impugn or diminish the ministry of other churches so they themselves can look better.
• A little church is a church in which information is constantly disseminated but no lives are changed.
• A little church is a church that carries on its ministry week in and week out, year in and year out and has absolutely no impact with its surrounding community or its needs.

If you are a pastor or a leader of a church, be careful if you judge it as a little or small church by its budget, or whether or not its pastor gets to speak at a church growth conference. God judges it very differently than we do.

You can read the entire post and see the complete list HERE

Sunday Replay 07.27.08

The last Sunday of the month always seems like such a long day – having the kids in worship with their parents… celebrating family communion… church leadership meetings and the “Love and Respect” small group that is meeting on Sunday nights this summer… It all adds up to a “supersized” Sunday!

We staggered just a little out of the gate with some techno difficulties – but the worship band held it together and worship was outstanding!  I thought the new – to us anyway – song at the end was incredible!

We finished “The Jesus Questions” message series by looking at the most important of Jesus’ 180+ questions, the most crucial question ever asked: “Who do you say that I am?”  The was no shortage of opinions about who Jesus was – He was “accused” of being every significant, historical Jewish figure of the previous 400 years at one time or another.  But His question was focused on His disciples, those who had followed Him and knew Him best.  Jesus wanted to know what they thought.  “Who do you say that I am,” is a question that forces us to choose, to declare, to state in no uncertain terms where we stand in relation to Him.

Next Sunday we will begin the “Church on the Move” message series.  We will focus on “Fellowship” as a part of the mission of the church.  Please remember the 3 day fast beginning on Thursday, and there’s still time to sign up for the 77 hour prayer vigil that will take place at the church.

I’m so excited about what’s happening at Jubilee!  We are “clearing the decks for divine action,” and some important ministry in the days to come, service to our community and strategic ministry planning.  The time for sitting in the stands or even standing on the sidelines watching ministry unfold is long past… It’s time to get in the game!

Have a great week!  Fast and pray!

Friday Remix: Signs of Life

The same signs that are indicators of life in the physical body are also signs of life in the Body of Christ.  This is beautifully described in the article below, which was passed on to me a long time ago and whose original author is unknown to me.  Here is my adaptation:

Signs of Life… in bodies and Bodies

1. Breath: Just inhale, then exhale and hold your breath …. Breathing is essential for life. It is interesting that in Scripture that the word for “spirit” is interchangeable with the word for “breath”. The work and ministry of the Holy Spirit must be active in a church for life to be present. 

2. Movement: Living things move. We generally say that if there is no movement visible in a thing that it is dead. A church also needs to be moving, going somewhere, with a sense of direction.

3. Sensitivity: If a thing is unresponsive to touch (feeling) it is often considered dead. A church also must be sensitive to the direction and leading of God through the Holy Spirit.

4. Intake: If we don’t eat or have intake, we will soon die. The church feeds itself on the Word of God. The baby Believers are to drink the milk, and the mature ones are to eat the meat.

5. Refuse: Where there is life, there is also waste. Removal of waste is essential to the health of both the physical body and to the church. Life in Christ is always new and being renewed.

6. Purpose: When people lose purpose, death soon follows. Young people without purpose begin to look at suicide. Older people without purpose just give up and die. A church must also have a sense of purpose – an understanding of the reason they exist and how they will live that reason out.

7. Growth: It is only natural that a living being grows. A lack of growth in a church is an indication of impending death. Conversely, growth in a church is an indication of life. Sometimes, a church must go through a death experience before it can experience new life and growth.

8. Reproduction: Reproduction is not only a sign of life, it is also an indication of fulfillment. A church will not find fulfillment until it begins to see its member multiply – Believers leading others to Christ.

And this keeper I first heard from James Ryle seems to fit in here…

“Healthy things grow. Growing things change. Change challenges us. Challenges cause us to trust God. Trust leads to obedience. Obedience makes us healthy. And healthy things grow.”

Sunday Replay 07.20.08

It seems strange to come on here each week and say “we had a great Sunday”…  BUT WE DID!  The house was full – made me think, “What ’summer slump’?” – and we had quite a few guests… The worship band was simply ON IT!  Great song choices, vocals, musicianship – guys you did an incredible job!  Annette and Anita did a great job on “When My People Pray” – which fit in perfectly with the end of the service, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

We continued the message series, “The Jesus Questions,”looking at Jesus’ encounter with the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years – when Jesus asked, “Who Touched Me?”  We noted this woman’s extreme circumstances: she had been sick for years, isolated by force of law from any family she might have had, and destitute because she had spent all she had on medical treatment of dubious value (If anybody wants to try that “barley-corn picked from the dung of a donkey” thing, let me know how that works for you…).  She was exactly where she needed to be to experience Jesus’ extreme compassion.  She touched Jesus while He was on his way to the home of a religious VIP whose daughter lay dying.  And Jesus did an amazing thing – He stopped what He was doing and ministered to this unclean, outcast woman.  Most of us find God most often at the end of the rope… The result of this woman’s determination to touch Jesus was much more than the healing of her physical body, she received extreme salvation.  She needed spiritual healing more than anything, and that’s what Jesus gave her – “Daughter, your faith has saved you…”

It was a privilege to minister to those who wanted to move beyond touching Jesus to allowing Him to touch them and transform their lives.  I’ve prayed again for all of you this week.

At the end of the service we rolled out our plans to focus in August on the mission of the church and how we plan to fulfill it at Jubilee.  I have called the church to do two things in preparation:

• A 3 day fast, Thursday, July 31st through Saturday, August 2nd.  I realize that those with health concerns will not be able to fast from food.  Other appropriate fasting ideas are: the internet, television, soft drinks, etc.  Some may wish to combine a couple of things, maybe fasting at lunchtime and not watching television.  Please let the Holy Spirit lead you in this, and use this time to focus on God’s will for the church and our lives.
• 77 Hours of Prayer – from 5 AM Thursday, July 31st until 10 AM Sunday, August 3rd we are asking folks to sign up in one hour increments to be present at the church to be in prayer for God’s guidance and direction, as well as other urgent prayer needs.  We will provide a secure facility, prayer resources to help us stay focused, and continuous praise and worship music.  Please sign up to pray – we believe this will be an important time of breakthrough for our church and community.\

Beginning August 3rd, I will be preaching a 5 part series of messages, “Church on the Move,” that I sincerely believe will be among the most important messages I have ever preached.  Please plan now to be here for these messages, or reserve your CD if you have to miss a Sunday.

Our church has a fantastic future – one that will impact and benefit our community in so many ways, but most importantly for eternity and the Kingdom.  We’re fond of saying, “We’re here for good…” and we mean it! 

Have a great week!

“Unedited” remix

I remember when we got cable TV when I was a kid living in Dothan, Alabama… Now instead of getting 3 channels  – two and a half really, because one of them was only on part time – we got TWELVE!  Of course, one of the channels was some kind of rotating wheel that showed a clock, a thermometer, and an advertisement, but we also got channels from as far away as Montgomery and Panama City, Florida! 

There were a lot of movies on “regular” TV back then – five or six year old Hollywood blockbusters would be shown on Saturday nights, Sunday nights, and usually a weekday evening as well.

When a movie came on there would often be a graphic superimposed on the screen for a moment that said “Edited for television”. I once asked my dad what that meant, and he explained that some parts of the movie were cut out to make it suitable for television or to fit a time slot.

I felt so cheated! I wanted to see the whole movie, not just the parts some censor or clock-watcher thought were “appropriate.”  I always imagined that some grand, thrilling scene had been cut out in order to sell more Jiffy-Pop or Aqua-Velva.

Are we sometimes guilty of ”editing” God?   Do we sometimes we cut out the parts of Him we feel might not be suitable for the audience – “No thanks, Lord, we really don’t go for that around here…” We try to contain Him, predict Him, by controlling the time frame in which He is allowed to work, by setting boundaries we’re not comfortable with Him crossing. We reduce Him from the omnipotent creator, healer, deliverer, to a doctrinal set of more predictable actions.

And we feel cheated – because our tame, sterile, manageable God is not the God of the Bible.  And that predictable God is not the God we need…

I once heard Jack Taylor say that what we need is “Jesus, on the scene, unedited.”

We don’t need a life-sized God – we need God as big as we can get Him.

BBQ Enlightenment

This is a direct steal from my good friend Buck Wardle’s blog

Just a brief word of correction for Rhett and Link:  That “white barbeque sauce” in Alabama is indeed mayonnaise based, but it is mainly a north Alabama sauce used primarily on chicken.  ‘Bama is one of those barbeque melting pots, with lots of pulled and chopped pork and a variety of sauces – tomato based sweet or spicy, mustard based, and vinegar based.  

Every state and region thinks their barbeque is the best – but in Alabama you can stand just about anywhere in the state, draw a 1 mile radius circle from where you are and inside that circle will be half a dozen barbeque joints with food so good you’d knock down your grandmother to get to it.

“Barbeque is one of the ways God shows us that He loves us and wants us to be happy”  (a somewhat loose paraphrase of Benjamin Franklin)

Sunday Replay 07.13.08

Yeah, I know this one is late, but here goes…

The worship band was missing 3 of the regulars – out of town, on vacation, etc., but Chris did a fine job filling in on keyboards and everything else went well.  The song Anya wrote is so good, and the band does a great job with it – tough to do with an unrecorded original.  I thought worship seemed a little shorter than usual, but some others have told me I must be imagining it…

The second week of “The Jesus Questions”had us focusing on the question Jesus asked the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, “Do you wish to get well?” It was a strange question and could even be seen as cruel if we didn’t know what we know about Jesus.  But it was critical for the man to honestly reflect on whether he wanted everything in his life to be changed. Initially, he offered Jesus excuses – “I have nobody to help me” – and missed the truth that Jesus was the only ”Somebody” who could help him.  But when he obeyed Jesus’ direct command – “Get up and walk!” – he was transformed.  How much could our messed up lives and circumstances be changed if we would simply try a little obedience?

We’ve been having a blast at the County Fair!  We’ve given away anywhere from 125 to 150 bottles of cold water each night.  Interestingly, several of the vendors in the Merchants building have jumped on the bandwagon and are also giving away water!  I think we have the most well hydrated fair in Indiana!   What is puzzling me is that the popsicles are not flying out of the booth like I thought they would – my theory is that we’re competing with lemon shake-ups, elephant ears, cotton candy and all kinds of ice cream and kids are suffering from “treat exhaustion” by the time they get to our booth…

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When the fair ends Friday, we will get a chance to catch our breath before school starts back – no big events or projects on the calendar, BUT – this fall is going to be full of exciting things!  We’re going to find ourselves stretched and challenged in ways we may have never thought possible!  To set the stage, in August I will begin a series of messages – “Church on the Move” – focusing on our mission statement and the scriptural foundation on which the church is built and from which the church discovers it mission.  If you are excited about the future of our church, you seriously will not want to miss a single one of the five messages in this new series.

Come by the fair booth and have a popsicle – I don’t think they’ll keep until next year’s Bible Beach Club!  Have a great week!

Walk Remix

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NASB)

Right after one of the most familiar verses in the Bible (“saved by grace through faith”…) is the little gem above. Several thoughts come to mind…

We are created in Christ for good works and not by good works. In other forums I’ve expressed this idea by saying we don’t do in order to be, we do because we are. This is more than just word-play. We can exhaust ourselves trying to do things for God, hoping that we can earn a little love and acceptance. Or we can rest in the fact that we are already loved and accepted – as much as we could ever be – and let that motivate us to serve with joy and gladness.

God prepared the works we are to do ahead of time. Think about that… Omniscient and eternal God knew all about us – personality, appearance, relationship style – and prepared good works for us ahead of time that would not only serve others, but also teach us, stretch us, and fulfill our purpose in this life.

We “walk” in the good works. Stay with me on this… When God looked for language to describe the outworking of those good works in our lives, He used a word that described one of the most natural things we do: He chose walking. If I want a book that’s on a shelf on the other side of my study, I don’t say, “O.K. what did they teach me in that ‘Walking in 7 Easy Steps’ class?  Man, I hope I can do this! Do I have on the right shoes? Now, I stand up and extend my right leg before setting it down 14 to 16 inches in front of…” Instead, I just get up and go get what I need, without thinking about it.  Our good works should be a natural extension of who we are in Christ.

Too many believers approach “good works” with a “saving the world” mentality – We think our good works must be bold, risky, and exciting, and certainly some of them should be… But I think most of our good works – the kind we can walk in naturally - are things like loving our spouse and kids, showing kindness to a neighbor or stranger. In other words, every time we treat another person with respect and dignity, and extend the same helping hand we would want extended to us in similar circumstances, we are walking in good works.

Sunday Replay 07.06.08

At the risk of sounding like a scratched CD, we had another incredible day in worship yesterday…

The worship band did a nice job on that old, gospel favorite, “Living on a Prayer.”  It was rockin!  And the snippet of “Sweet Home…” after the service almost brought a tear to this pastor’s eye…  Seriously, you guys did a great job, again.  I hope we never take for granted how far we’ve come in worship – just since the first of the year!

UPDATE: I’ve had a couple of inquiries, and yes, I know “Living on a Prayer” is not an “old, gospel favorite.”  It was written by Jon Bon Jovi, and it’s about a young couple sticking together through hard times, hanging on even when the going gets tough, when they have nothing to hold them together except prayer.  Oh, and we didn’t play it during worship, but before church started.  Oh again – it sounded really good.

We began a new message series, The Jesus Questions, focusing on some of the questions Jesus asked others in the gospels.  We looked at Mark 12, when Jesus asked His critics, “Are you not in error, not understanding the scriptures and the power of God?”  We saw that the truth is critical in our lives – it keeps us on track and out of trouble, and it’s absence leads us to be “greatly mistaken” and in trouble.

We had a great turnout for the first installment of the “Love and Respect” small group.  If you weren’t able to be here last night, you can still jump in next week.  The material – the conference led by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs – is hands down the best marriage enrichment stuff I’ve ever seen or experienced.  Last night we saw two important things: 1) Regardless of what’s going on in our relationship now, there was something that drew the two of us together at one time, and 2) No relationship, no matter how good it is, is perfect!  So, no matter if your marriage is healthy or not, you can benefit from being part of this small group!  Sunday evenings, 7 PM, in The Dome.

The 4H Fair starts Friday night, and we’ll be there in the Merchants Building, handing out cold bottles of water and popsicles for the kids.  Be sure to stop by and say “Hi!”

Have a great week!

July 4th!

We had a great time on the 4th!  The Branded Bluegrass Band put on a terrific show!  The dogs and burgers were tasty, and as usual, the fireworks display was awesome!

We had lots of guests and fed lots of people – we lost count over 100, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  Thanks to all our volunteers – those who cooked and served, helped with the band, clean up and traffic direction, and those who donated items.

We’ve already booked the band for next year, and we’re talking about setting up the volleyball net, horseshoes, and cornhole!  It’s going to be a blast – in more ways than one!