Ministry isn’t much like snowboarding

Check out this great article by Ps Rick Warren. Ministry ain't much like snowboarding - Ps Rick Warren

...Questions asked at Church

I've had a couple of people ask what sort of questions were being asked so I've included a few more below;

• Church is about rules / church is judgemental.
  
• Church isn't relevant anymore.
  
• Is Church is for the weak?
  
• Why don't Christians come across as a bit more normal and what is normal?
  
• Will I ever have a normal good life like those people at church?
  
• Where is God and what is there left to do when you have been abused by leadership in the church?
  
• I don't want to be a Christian if that is what they have done!
  
• Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
  
• How can God be loving & Just at the same time?
  
• Why would God care about me when there are so many people suffering & have more serious problems?
  
• How can God let things like 911 / Tsunami / Haiti happen if He's a God of love? 
  
• How can a good God allow suffering & injustice?  
  

These are some of the questions that were asked last week and some of the ones coming up this week. Looking forward to hearing the answers...

Question and Answer time at Church

This last Sunday in church, the Church leadership took the "unusual" approach of talking about issues and questions that we the congregation wanted answers to. Ps John gave out his own personal mobile phone number and asked people to SMS him questions that they wanted answers to. Some of the questions were really thought provoking, and it was neat to see that they were answered live. John didn't have a couple of days to formulate his answers. He got the question and fired off his answer. Great stuff! Questions that were asked include the following; "Why does a loving God allow suffering?" "What is the Church known for? The good it has done or the evil is has committed?" Can't wait for next week...

Thoughts about church... Pt2

Here are some more thoughts about Church and Ministry...

God uses Dead Dogs 2 Samuel 9:8
I think that too often we look at those people in our churches that have the Midas touch and we clamour to them first to help us out with our ministries. These are often the type of people we can just let loose in our church, not having to put much energy into training them or having to keep a real close eye on what they are doing. However, I remember hearing Mick Duncan's testimony in New Zealand and he described himself as a "dead dog". Someone who was not very appealing to the world, a person who would take immense amounts of time, energy and input to get something worthwhile out of. But that is what someone did... They saw something in Mick and made the decision that he was worth their time and effort as they could see potential in him. Mick went from living on the streets to being one of Australasia's most sought after Christian communicators. How often do we think the "dead dogs" in our churches are not able to contribute much to the life of our church? I think the challenge for us is to look at them like Christ does and see that life can be breathed into them and that they can rise to be awesome men and women of God.

"The Doctrine of Flogability"
Why re-invent the wheel when there's often really good ones rolling by us every day. I think it's important to check out what's happening in ministries that are rocking along and see if some of the principles that are taking off in their context could apply to your context. One of the best things I did as a pastor was to go and check out other churches that we "going places". It gave our church ideas on how we could do things differently, as well as challenging us to think about why we did what we were doing.

There's heaps of great ideas out there in the market place on how we can do and be church and I think sometimes we need to spend a little bit of time checking these out and applying some of them to what we are doing in our local churches. Try out the doctrine of flogability today.

Eat Lamb!

This is the advertising for Australia Day 2010 and the need to eat lamb. Very Funny ad. Enjoy!

Thoughts about church... Pt1

It's been almost two years since I finished in my role as a Pastor in a local church, and as I have reflected on life as a "lay person/pew warmer", I have come up with a few thoughts and ideas I wish I had known when I was Pastoring. There's no particular order to this... but I keep on thinking I should put these thoughts down...

• Church goers want/need to be asked into leadership/serving roles. Don't always expect them to be jumping out at you saying "Pick me! Pick Me!" (It's not like choosing teams in a game of back yard cricket) Church goers often need to be vision cast on leadership/serving roles. Pastors and other leaders need to be like cheerleaders – "Come on – You can do it!"
  
• Parents want to know their children are safe. Sign-in books, easily recognizable children's team (bright shirts of the same colour helps), lots of communication etc. All of these things help to make you know that your children are in a place where they are safe and cared for. Even though it can take more time to get parents to fill out paper work, sign-in etc it helps to create an environment of trust.
  
• Life/Cell/Home Groups. Are they are friendly place where new people are invited along to? The certain fire way to attract and retain people in church is to get them involved with something where they feel like they belong, are wanted and that their contribution matters. I read a stat once that said that if a new person to your church made seven friends in that church there was a great chance that they would remain for the long-term in your church family. Life Groups are a great place where we can get to know each other on a more personal level, building life-long friendships.
  
• I hate paper. We live in a world where we are constantly being bombarded with the message of recycling and not wasting the precious resources the earth has to offer us. I think we need to more creative in how we do things in church that involve copious amounts of paper use. Have you thought about doing your church bulletin on-line or via email? (Only keeping paper copies of it for people who can't access it digitally or for guests) Advertising up-coming events via websites, Social networking sites, PowerPoint and email rather than a noticeboard that not everyone looks at?
  

So... these are just some of the thoughts that ponder through my mind in regards to the church and how I/We can do things differently... and sometimes better (Stay tuned for Pt2)

The Revolution Rolls on...

This clip is a great video on how the Social Networking revolution has taken off and how it is impacting our lives and the way we communicate with one another. Grab a coffee, take 2:35 minutes out from your day and enjoy this clip...