https://vimeo.com/129489153

Great video by Bishop Wayne Miller of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA. He has some great insights regarding the future of the church.

In the Lutheran Church—Pentecost kind of seems like a minor holiday. It is not as important as Easter or Christmas, but it should be remembered. It is more on the lines of Epiphany or Reformation Sunday. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, just read on. . .) I am not saying Pentecost isn’t important so much as we treat it like a second tier church holiday.

For the record, I think we should really celebrate AND believe in the promise given at Pentecost. God gives the Holy Spirit to earliest believers and they did some pretty amazing things. Not only were miracles performed but also more importantly (I believe) those earliest Church members experienced a boldness to go tell others about Jesus.

None of this happened under their own power. God gave the Holy Spirit to spur them into a wildly abundant life! It is nothing they could have ever planned for or even imagined, but God knew.

Even when Jesus was preparing to die, he said this, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7 Can you imagine? Jesus is telling the disciples that it is good for him to go away so the Holy Spirit can come. I doubt they felt that way at the time but we all can see what happened when the Holy Spirit was given. There was a divine power that inspired people risk everything to tell others about Jesus.

What does this mean for us? This is not a “what a great story from the past to think about” moment. THIS PROMISE IS FOR US AS WELL! We as followers of Jesus are given the Holy Spirit. The question becomes this: Will we ask for a greater portion of the Spirit or just muddle through?

Life is a struggle, more for some, less for others. There is no doubt about that. Who are we living for? Only you can answer that. God already knows. I have learned that living for myself doesn’t really work out most of the time… ok, all the time. I want what God wants for me. I don’t want to muddle through life. I want God to shine through me and use me for His purposes. I want more of the Holy Spirit so that I can be bold for Jesus.

Pentecost Sunday is the reminder that we too can have that same power to live an abundant life… completely surrendered to Jesus.

I have always been intrigued by the dedication of missionaries of the 19^th century. When they left their home for another country it usually meant they were never coming back.

That reminds me of the conversation between a chicken and a pig:

The Chicken says: “Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!”

Pig replies: “Hmmm… maybe, what would we call it?”

The Chicken responds: “How about ‘ham-n-eggs’?”

The Pig thinks for a moment and says: “No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved.”

Missionaries were not just involved in ministry they were completely committed!

I just recently read about Ludwig Nommensen who was a German born Lutheran missionary. He traveled to Sumatra to begin mission work with a tribe of people.

The village chief welcomed Ludwig and said, “You have 2 years to learn our customs and convince us you have a message worth hearing.” After 2 years, the tribal leader asked the missionary how Christianity differs from the moral rules and traditions of the tribe.

“We already know what is right,” the chief explained. “We too have laws that say we must not steal, or take our neighbor’s wives, or tell lies.”

The missionary replied, “That’s true. But my God supplies the power needed to keep those laws.”

This startled the chief. “Can you really teach my people to live better?”

“No, I can’t,” responded Ludwig. “But if they receive Jesus Christ, God will give them the strength to do what is right.”

The chief invited him to stay another 6 months, during which Ludwig preached the gospel and taught villagers how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of Christians.

“You can stay as long as you want,” the chief finally announced. “Your religion is better than ours, for your God walks with men and gives them strength to do the things He asks.”

Believe it or not, we are in a “post-Christian” society. What does that mean? We are not the dominant religion that we once were in the United States. Many people mourn and lament that the Church has a lot less influence today than it did 30 years ago.

However, I don’t see that as a bad thing at all. Why? Because it forces us to evaluate everything we do as a church and the same situation calls every Christian to assess what they truly believe. (Or at least it should.)

Although Jesus promises us that “the gates of Hades will not overcome” the Church, he does not guarantee that individual churches will always remain open. Many churches are closing their doors because they are not willing to see that the world is changing quickly and our methods must change to meet the needs of a broken world. (Notice: I did NOT say that our message changes.)

So what does that have to do with Ludwig Nommensen? We are missionaries in our own neighborhoods and community. We can no longer assume the people around us share the same trust in God. We don’t need to go to the ends of the earth to share Jesus with people.

The tribal chief gives us some GREAT advice. Get to know people first. Get to know what they value and what is important to them BEFORE sharing the love of God. Why is that important? Pr. John Maxwell said it this way, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Maybe you never thought of yourself as a missionary before but maybe you should. Exciting things happen when you trust God to be His spokesperson. . . but only after you have spent time getting to know someone first.

Pr. Ben

Are you as busy as I am? I think a lot of you are. If you are not working, then you are working around the house. When God commanded that we take a “Sabbath day of rest” it was meant for us. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God wants us to take a break at least once a week because it is good for us.

I found another article kqed.org that expresses this better than I can. . .

Lost Weekends

By Richard Swerdlow

“Have a nice weekend,” the checkout clerk said on a Friday afternoon.

Her casual comment got me thinking about my weekend plans: laundry, clean the garage, deal with the piled-up mail, car oil change. Return library books, wash windows, put out the recycling, get a ladder and change that burned out light bulb. Gym, fix the leaky faucet, bank, haircut. Not to mention answering the 200 emails in my inbox, picking up the dry cleaning.

So, much as I’d like to follow her advice, I’m just too busy to have a nice weekend.

And I’m not the only one. Everyone I know crams too much into their weekends. Between a full-time job and a part-time life, weekends end up filled with errands there’s no other time for. But even so-called recreational activities are high-pressure. Binge watch all those TV shows I need to catch up on, work up a sweat at the gym, plow through the ginormous Sunday New York Times, make a dent in my Netflix queue. Honestly, it’s a statement about our culture that running in a marathon can be considered a leisure-time activity. Weekends are so tiring, I’m beginning to feel relieved when Monday rolls around.

When did weekends become the new weekdays?

That clerk’s comment has me realizing what I’m forgetting to add to my ever-expanding, never-checked-off, must-get-done-this-weekend list: relax.

So, this weekend, for once, I might just blow off both the laundry and the laundry list of errands. And I’ve decided it’s OK to let that bulb stay burned out a little longer, if it prevents me from burning out. I am letting go of my need to schedule every last scrap of time, that nagging feeling if I’m not squeezing something out of every single second, I’m wasting my precious weekend.

I picked up an item at the store that Friday that wasn’t on my shopping list — but it was something I needed. The realization I’m allowed to rest.

A little down time isn’t a waste of a weekend — it’s what weekends are for. After all, even God rested on the seventh day.

So, this weekend, I’m following the advice of the check-out clerk. I’m going to have a nice weekend. I feel more relaxed already.

Have a nice weekend.

With a Perspective, I’m Richard Swerdlow.

Richard Swerdlow works for the San Francisco Unified School District.

That is sound advice, not only from Richard Swedlow but also from God. On Monday, Rachel and I went to Point Reyes. It was the first “Sabbath day” that I have had since moving. No dishes, no projects, no taxes. Just a day off. It was very relaxing. . . the way God intended days off to be. Try it sometime!

God bless,

Pr. Ben

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all people.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead!”   1 Corinthians 15:17-20

Paul of Tarsus wrote those words to a church he “planted” in Corinth. He wrote this letter to people he knew and worried about…a lot. However, these words are important for us too.

Without the resurrection, we are following a dead teacher. There is no forgiveness and we are to be the most pitied people on the planet. Why? Because we would be professing our trust in a long dead human.

For those of us who were not there to witness the resurrection, it is a leap of faith! But let me tell you if you take that leap. . . I promise Jesus will be there to catch you.

As we remember Jesus’ steps from entering the city on Palm Sunday… to the upper room for Passover…onto the cross and tomb… and finally at the empty tomb; I pray that you experience the love of God more fiercely than you ever have in your life this Easter.

God bless you,

Pr. Ben

I stumbled across this article by Pr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. This is a wonderful approach to team ministry.  The picture is my own addition.

8 Values of TEAMWORK That Keep a Church Healthy

By Rick Warren

The success of your ministry depends largely on developing a strong team with a deep sense of team spirit. I’ve witnessed the incredible power of a unified team to create growth and have counseled many churches who weren’t growing because their team members worked as individuals and not as a team.

A team spirit is never accidental; it is always intentional. Teamwork is built on three factors:

• a compelling purpose,
• crystal clear communication,
• and a code of commonly held values.

At Saddleback Church, we express the eight values of teamwork in a simple acrostic, T.E.A.M.W.O.R.K.:

T – Trust

Trust among your team is the emotional glue that binds them together; it’s essential to producing true confidence in each other. There are three factors that create trust within a team:

1. Consistency – People will trust you if, time after time, they see you responding in a consistent and reasonable manner. You also need to be readable, in the sense that they need to know where you are coming from in your decisions and responses.
2. Loyalty – Defend members of your team when they’re criticized and then check the facts later in private, always assuming the best until there is concrete evidence to the contrary.
3. Delegation – When you delegate to your team the power to make decisions, you’re essentially telling them: “I trust you!” People trust leaders who trust them.

E – Economy of Energy

Even a thoroughbred horse can’t run at a full gait all the time. The quickest way to burn-out a team is to never let them relax. The book of Proverbs teaches: “A relaxed attitude lengthens a man’s life.” (Proverbs 14:30, LB) If you want the people on your team to last, they must have some down time.

Here are some ways you can promote an economy of energy within your team:

• Anticipate and compensate for personal and family energy drains, such as illnesses and new babies. Your team has a life outside of their area of ministry.
• Allow people to work at different energy levels on different days. Some days, everyone must work fast and energetic. Other days, it is important to slow the pace a bit. In the long term, slow and steady always outlasts the fast and furious.
• Plan your year in energy cycles. At Saddleback, we always build in rest periods for consolidation between major growth campaigns and initiatives.
• Allow flexibility in schedules when possible.
• Make the work fun!

A – Affirmation

Everybody is hungry for affirmation. When they don’t get it, they get cranky. It’s amazing how a smile and a simple word of encouragement can change a team member’s entire day. Four practical ways you can affirm your team would be:

1. valuing their ideas
2. appreciating their uniqueness
3. commending their efforts
4. praising their loyalty

M – Management of Mistakes

The Bible teaches: “Even though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” (Proverbs 24:16, NIV) I love that saying because it points out that even righteous people make mistakes and stumble occasionally. Mistakes are not failures, because you’re never a failure until you give up. Mistakes teach us what doesn’t work. If you’re not making any mistakes, it means you’re playing it safe and not trying anything new. I tell my staff that I want every one of them making at least one new mistake a week – as long as it isn’t the same old one! Mistakes are how we learn and get better.

W – Weekly Staff Meetings

For years, I asked my team to bring me a brief weekly report on a small 3-by-5 card. This kept the reports short and to the point. Then those cards became our weekly meeting agenda. Today we use email. Here are the four things you want to know as a leader:

• “I’ve made progress in ______________________________________”
• “I’m having difficulty with ___________________________________”
• “I need a decision from you on ________________________________”
• “I’m thankful for ___________________________________________”

O – Open Communication

Open communication is the cornerstone of great teamwork. Proverbs 13:17 (LB) says “Reliable communication permits progress.” There are three common barriers to great communication:

1. Presumption – How many problems have been caused by the phrase “But I assumed…”? Here are some fatal assumptions: assuming that there’s only one way to see a problem; assuming that everyone else feels just like you; assuming that someone will never change (they do); assuming that you can know someone else’s motives (you can’t).
2. Impatience ruins open communication because we are more interested in what we are going to say than listening to what others say. Impatience causes you to jump to conclusions.
3. Pride – When you think you know it all, you are resistant to feedback, and you become defensive instead of really listening to others and learning.

R – Recognition and Reward

The more credit you give to others, the more you develop team spirit. It’s that simple. The Bible says, “Give honor and respect to all those to whom it is due.” (Romans 13:7, LB)

K – Keep on Learning

All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop being a leader. As I consult with churches, I’ve seen that growing churches require growing leaders.

Another proverb says “The intelligent man is always open to new ideas. In fact, he looks for them.” (Proverbs 18:15, LB) Do you do that? Do you encourage your team members to keep on growing, developing, and learning? At Saddleback, our staff is constantly reading books and listening to tapes to sharpen their skills and develop their character.

If you practice these eight T.E.A.M.W.O.R.K. values with your team, you’ll experience a new level of teamwork in your church that will take your ministry to new heights.

A “sign” like this often freaks people out because we have been trained to tell people what our “religion” is when asked by others. However, Christianity is different. It is not a religion (a set of religious rules), Christianity is a relationship with Christ. Lent (for us mainline protestant types) is a time to reflect on our relationship with the one who gave his life as a sacrifice for sin so that we may be: 1) forgiven, 2) see the consequence of sin, 3) know that God takes sin quite seriously and 4) experience the extent of God’s love.

When Jesus rises on Easter morning and appears to the disciples, he doesn’t proclaim to his disciples, “OK, I cleaned the slate of sin this one time. From now on, be good and follow the rules of our new religion.”

Jesus died knowing we need lots and lots of forgiveness throughout our life. He knows we aren’t very good at being good. Jesus isn’t just a dispenser of forgiveness or even a cosmic law enforcement officer. Jesus became one of us so that we can know Him and love Him the way God knows and loves us. Religion can get in the way of relationship if we start to values rules over loving God and others.

Christianity isn’t about following our own rules (and advice). It is about knowing and following the One who brings hope to hopeless situations. By the way, Jesus is good at that. He brought divine hope on Easter morning when everyone who knew Jesus felt the hopelessness of His death.

Satan Is a Theologian Who Doesn’t Love God

By: Stephen Mattson

Satan is a master theologian. He’s talked to God, interacted with God, believes in God’s existence, and knows more about God’s attributes and abilities than most…and yet Satan doesn’t love God.

Knowledge about God doesn’t equal faith in God.

Just because you have a vast understanding of God, expert knowledge of Biblical Law, intimate comprehension of Biblical History, and an encyclopedic grasp of all scripture still doesn’t mean you love Jesus—Satan certainly didn’t.

Satan isn’t frightening just because he’s so evil, but because he’s so similar to us!

We crave power, control, recognition, fame, success, and the authority to judge others—obtaining them via religion, often under the false pretense of holiness.

We attend church, participate in spiritual activities, pretend to love others, and even talk to God, but sometimes we’re just fulfilling our sinful desires—appearing to be very “Christian” in the process.

Meanwhile, we accuse others of being sinners. We condemn our enemies to eternal damnation for not believing the right things, not holding the correct theology, attending the wrong churches, participating in the wrong lifestyles, voting for the wrong politicians, having wrong opinions, and not perfectly complying with our perception of holiness.

Maybe this is why God instructs us not to judge others—because we’re often completely wrong.

Even though Satan looked the part, the Fruits of the Spirit were non-existent.

We have no idea. Even when we think we do—we don’t.

Our faith isn’t dependent on correct theological beliefs, intellectual knowledge, or even our ability to interact with God—these things are important but utterly useless without a loving relationship with Christ.

If you don’t have all the answers, don’t worry, because you never will. Christianity isn’t about a quest for answers. Theology is really meant to reveal the Divine truth that God is love, ultimately helping us love God better, and love others as we would love ourselves.

Humility, grace, peace, hope, patience, kindness, and love have everything to do with a desire to passionately follow Christ and emulate His life.

It won’t be a perfect. We’ll have our ups and downs and will often fail. But the point is to keep trying to love. Loving God and loving others—this is what Christianity is all about.

Let’s be less like Satan and more like Jesus.

Structuring Your Church to Grow and Not Plateau

By Rick Warren

You must develop an unshakable conviction about growth.

First and foremost, you need to settle on the idea that God wants his church to grow. And he doesn’t want it to stop growing!

You don’t ever need to apologize for wanting your church to grow. God wants his church to grow; it’s his will and his command. The reason churches must grow is because people are who don’t know Jesus Christ. As long as there is one person within driving distance of your church that does not know Jesus Christ, you must keep growing.

You must change the primary role of the pastor from minister to leader.

You can grow a church to 300 with pastoral skills or ministry skills, but growing beyond 300 will require leadership skills. As a leader, you must learn to communicate your vision in very personal and practical ways. You must also learn to motivate your church through your messages, and understand that it’s easier to motivate a group than it is to motivate individuals.

A leader also equips others for ministry. Otherwise, you’ll burn out and the church won’t grow. An expanding ministry also demands you learn how to raise money. Those who write the agenda must underwrite the agenda, and you must learn to manage your time. Effective leaders know where their time goes.

You must organize around the gifts of your people.

The team God gives you will show you how to structure. Organizing around the gifts of your people will allow the church to focus on ministry, not maintenance. A gifts-based ministry encourages teamwork. It also makes better use of the talent around you (and why do you think God brought this talent into your church?).

Building your structure on the gifts and talents within the church promotes creativity and allows for spontaneous growth. Ministries bubble up, rather than waiting on a board meeting to dissect every possibility. And decision-making becomes more efficient while the structure grows more stable.

You must budget according to your purposes and priorities.

Obviously the budget of the church shows the priorities and the direction of the church. I’d suggest you take the budget items and ask of each item, “Which purpose does this fit under?” This will help your people visualize what you’re trying to do, and what you’re doing with God’s money.

You must add staff on purpose.

Build your staff by first adding generalists and then specialists. First, you want to add people who can do lots of things because you’re only going to have one. Then as you go down the road, you can add more and more specialists.

When do you want to add staff? As soon as you can … immediately, if at all possible. You want to build as many volunteers as quickly as you can and also add staff as quickly as you can. Anytime you add a staff member, that’s a faith step and allows the church to grow to the next level.

You must offer multiple services.

Obviously to expand the structure, you will have to multiply, and to multiply, you have to offer multiple services. Why? Because more hooks in the water mean you can catch more fish.

At what point should you add a new service? I would say when you can have at least 75-100 people in that service. If you’re trying to reach new people, you have to have a large enough crowd so that the new people who just walked in don’t feel like everybody’s looking at them.

You must create affinity groups to enhance community.

The more affinity groups you have, the more ways you have to connect with people. You want to avoid your church becoming a single-cell amoeba, so deliberately structure your church so it won’t become one big group that doesn’t reach out to other people.

You must intentionally break through attendance barriers with big days.

Crowds attract crowds! People like to be around crowds. When you have big, special days – maybe Easter, maybe a Friend Day – there’s something about seeing an extra 100 people (or an extra 1,000) that expands your congregation’s vision. They see what the church can be, and they see what it can look like. These special days help the church to see itself as bigger and growing and vibrant.

Now you know this is coming (Ha!), but this seems like a good time to mention again how a special 40 Days emphasis could energize your church. For more information, visit www.PurposeDriven.com.

You must add surplus seating space and parking.

When it comes to building a facility, most churches build too little and too soon. And then the shoe begins to tell the foot how big it can get! You want to build as big as you can, which means having more than enough seating and more than enough parking. Sometimes that means you’ll have to wait to build until you can build big enough. We didn’t build at Saddleback for years because we knew we wouldn’t be able to build big enough – we were growing so fast. So don’t limit yourself by building too early.

You must continually evaluate your progress.

Take a regular and honest look at what is going on in your church (and where your church is going). If you try to study everything you’ll end up with the paralysis of analysis, so decide to track three or four significant numbers, such as attendance or small groups.

Then compare the numbers of where you are now with where you’ve come from and where you want to be. Don’t compare yourself with a church down the road. Frankly, that won’t help evaluate the health of your own church.

Finally, decide on a standard for measuring the health of your church and shoot for it. The process is constant; you may hit the mark you’ve set today, but tomorrow is a new day. Continually evaluate your progress and make the necessary adjustments to grow healthy while growing larger.

Editor’s Note: This article was adapted, by popular demand, from the Purpose Driven Church Conference.