BECKY PIPPERT - 5 REASONS CHRISTIANS HESITATE TO SHARE THEIR FAITH

IT'S FRIDAY, BUT SUNDAY'S COMING

An outward-focused church is a church living in expectation that God's resurrection power will be demonstrated as they live on mission for Jesus out in the community. An outward-focused church never dwells on the bad news that pervades the present, but on the good news of the Kingdom.  An outward-focused church is an Easter people and "Hallelujah!" is their song.

Many years ago I heard Tony Campolo share a message that he has often repeated in many settings.  It's a message that should remind us of the tremendous power of the Spirit that is at work in and through us.  Every once in a while, we just need to be reminded.

STEVE SJOGREN ON GETTING STARTED

THE IMPORTANCE OF AFFIRMATION

A while back my Elders at the Church of God of Landisville proposed a special Staff Appreciation Day.  It was during the planning of our annual Pastor Appreciation Sunday (a well-established tradition for us, thankfully). It was also after staff reviews and annual budget talks intersected and it became obvious that despite an A-Prime Staff, no raises were going to be given in 2011.  The elders felt that the church should focus on those staff members (all part-timers with us) who are integral to our work and critical to our success as a church.  (I say as Lead Pastor, "They make me look better than I am.")  Someone, however, felt that was inappropriate, especially when the suggestion was made that encourage congregation members to feel free to give gifts of appreciation if they felt prompted by God.  The worriers worried that not everyone would get the same gift(s) (Barry and I never even know what the other received during Pastor Appreciation.) The zealots declared, "We should all just do our work without any appreciation or expectation of it. After all, we are just doing this to the glory of God."  The Lead Pastor, mindful how hard they work and how often they do not even received a word of thanks or are included in someone's prayer, was exasperated.  The elders were firm.  In January we held a Staff Appreciation Sunday.

The staff appreciated it.

The members appreciated the reminder that we are a culture of affirmation.

I think some gifts were given.

God was glorified.

BASICS TO GET YOUR MISSIONALK SMALL GROUPS OFF THE GROUND

Felicity Dale regularly blogs at SIMPLY CHURCH

Hear is a post from Felicity by way of AMP Planting's blog FUEL. (AMP is a ministry of church planting and extension sponsored by the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God. Justin Meier is its director.)

The church landscape in this country is changing. According to the Pew Forum, 9% of Protestants "attend services" in a home. This figure varies according to the definition of house church, and some helpful math by Ed Stetzer brings the number to around 4 million Americans who attend only this kind of church--a significant number. Many more would say their primary form of spiritual or religious gathering occurs in a group of 20 or less, as they attend both simple/organic church and legacy church. Even the secular media is taking notice of the social impact.
It appears that the Holy Spirit is the initiator of this current move--there is no center one can visit, no superstar's conferences to attend. Rather, all over the country, intentionally small churches are starting in homes, coffee shops, schools, everywhere life happens.
What's going on is far from perfect--some simple churches have started out of reaction to perceived hurts or injustice by the traditional church. Many more are doing "Honey I shrunk the church"--exchanging the pew for a sofa but failing to change their DNA. (Neil Cole defines organic church DNA as Divine truth, Nurturing relationships and Apostolic mission.) However, there are increasingly large numbers of healthy simple/organic churches focused on making disciples in the harvest.
God is leading His people in similar ways right across His body. Some traditional (legacy) churches are adopting more organic ways of being church. Mega-churches, such as Austin Stone here in our city, are deliberately sending out their members to start missional communities (small groups that function as simple churches) to reach out into the community. Other legacy churches are seeking to liberate themselves from institutionalism, and focusing on many of the same principles as organic church.
Here are some simple/organic church principles:

• Church is relational: People frequently refer to church as either a building or an event, as in, "I'm going to church." One of the main pictures of church in the New Testament is that of family. You don't go to family--it's something you are. Obviously, healthy families get together frequently, but that isn't what defines them. In the same way, church isn't defined by meetings but by relationship together with Jesus at the center. "Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst (Matthew 18:20)."

• Jesus is King of His Kingdom and Head of His church: The core skill within simple/organic church is that of listening to God and responding to what He says. (The Word is our yardstick here.) Christians often live as though Jesus is a constitutional monarch--head in name only. God delights to communicate with us, and our response is obedience. As we listen to Him, both individually and corporately, community and mission will result.
• Church is missional: For centuries, church has been attractional ("Come to my church!" "Come and hear our special speaker!") But God has always intended for church to be missional--we go to the world with the Good News of the Kingdom. We can reach into every crack and crevice of society this way. Jesus told us to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), and He would build his church (Matthew 16:18).

• Ordinary people can make disciples and gather them together: Jesus was content to entrust the expansion of His Kingdom to ordinary, untrained people (Acts 4:13). People with no formal Bible school or seminary training are able to gather a few people over a meal to share life together, to delve into the Word of God, to pray for one another (Acts 2:42) and to seek to make disciples of those they come in contact with.

• Luke 10 provides principles for reaching out. In many nations, rapidly multiplying, intentionally small churches led by "lay people" are having a major impact (church planting movements). They use Luke 10:1-9 as their pattern for crossing cultures and making an impact for the Kingdom. Finding a person of peace and starting church in their home rather than inviting that person to join our church, enables us to influence a new circle of people with the Gospel.

• Simple is reproducible: Multiplication is more effective than addition but things need to be simple--simple is reproducible, complex is not. We can start a church by working with not-yet-believers, making disciples from the harvest. If these groups are to multiply, they need to be based on simple patterns.

• Church is participatory: First Corinthians 14:26 states that when we come together, each person has a contribution to make. All of us are important to the functioning of a healthy body. If every member is to take part, we need to model simplicity, whether in our prayers, our pattern of teaching (participatory Bible study is a very effective way of learning and applying truth) or our meals.
• Kingdom is a 24/7 lifestyle: God has written his laws on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10), so living in the Kingdom means living from the Life within rather than according to a rulebook. There is no sacred/secular divide. All of us are meant to be full time in the Kingdom; it is often easier to be effective in reaching out from a secular position.

• Christ modeled servant leadership. Jesus said that we are not to use the world's hierarchical models of leadership that lord over others, but we're to live as servants (Matthew 20:25-28). The CEO model of church leadership is not biblical; church is not a business. The function of Ephesians 4 leadership is to equip others to do the work of ministry.

God is working across His whole body. My prayer is that God will increasingly lead all of us, both legacy and simple/organic churches, to work together for the sake of the Kingdom.

SUPER COMPETENT

Productivity expert Laura Stack entitled SuperCompetent.  Laura has identified six key attitudes or mindsets of people she says are 'supercompetent'. I have been learning and re-learning these lessons for more than 35 years in ministry.  For the leaders of outward-focused churches, these are an excellent reminder. - Steve


Key 1: Activity. They are driven by intense focus on priorities and have a clear sense of direction.
Action: You need to determine what you should be working on.

Key 2: Availability. They control their schedules.
Action: You need to make time for it.

Key 3: Attention. They develop the ability to pay attention to the task at hand.
Action: You need to focus on those tasks.

Key 4: Accessibility. They are organized and can locate the information they need to support their activities.
Action: You need to organize the information you need to complete your tasks.

Key 5: Accountability. They are self-disciplined and don’t blame others.
Action: You need to be responsible for your results.

Key 6: Attitude. They do what needs to be done to make things happen. They are proactive decisive and fast.
Action: You never give up.

Read more ...

HOW ARE YOU USING THE INTERNET?

LifeWay Research finds churches divided on website usage

Written by David Roach

NASHVILLE, Tenn., 1/21/2011 – Though most churches have a website, there is a divide between congregations that use their sites only for one-way communication and those that maximize their online presence with interactive technology.

That is the finding of a new LifeWay Research study sponsored by Axletree Media, one of LifeWay’s partners in the Digital Church initiative.

The survey of 1,003 Protestant churches found that while 78 percent have a website, less than half of those congregations use their sites for interactive purposes like obtaining and distributing prayer requests (43 percent), registering people for events and activities (39 percent) and automating more church processes (30 percent).

A majority of congregations with a website use it for one-way communication, the survey revealed. A full 91 percent provide information to potential visitors online and 79 percent provide information to the congregation. Fifty-seven percent encourage increased attendance and involvement among the congregation and 52 percent solicit interest in ministry or volunteer opportunities.

“Many churches are using their website like a Yellow Pages ad characterized by basic information and infrequent updates,” said Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research. “This is in sharp contrast with churches that use their website like a bustling church receptionist registering people for upcoming events, collecting prayer requests and obtaining volunteers.

“There is nothing wrong with using a church website to simply give directions to the church or state the church’s beliefs,” McConnell added. “However, we must realize that more and more people expect to be able to interact online without having to drive or make a phone call to the church.”

Larger churches are more likely than their smaller counterparts to use their websites interactively. Among churches with a website, 69 percent of churches with 500 or more in average worship attendance register people for events or activities online, but only 25 percent of churches with one to 49 attendees do the same. Fifty-two percent of congregations with 500 or more attendees seek to use their website to “allow more processes at (their) church to be automated,” compared with 15 percent of churches with one to 49 attendees.

In contrast, large and small churches are about equally as likely to use their websites to provide information to potential visitors. There is also little difference between large and small churches using their websites to provide information to their congregation.

The study also found differences in the frequency of website usage. Forty percent of churches with websites update their sites once a week and 15 percent update more than once a week. But nearly half of churches with websites (42%) update them once a month or less. That includes 7 percent that update once a year or less.
Among the factors that keep churches from providing more content and services online are limited time among church staff (46%), limited financial resources (41%), limited time among volunteers (39%) and little interest expressed by the congregation for more online content or services (35%).

Bill Nix, CEO of Axletree Media, lamented that more churches do not take advantage of online ministry resources.

“With the low cost of online technology today, any size congregation can build and maintain a helpful website,” Nix said. “Plus, updating a website has become so easy that no church needs to feel like it lacks the technological savvy to have a presence on the Internet.”

Digital photos are the most common technology utilized among churches with websites and the only technology used by a majority of those congregations. Eighty-two percent use digital photos in their online ministries, 47 percent use digital audio files or podcasts, 31 percent utilize digital video files, 26 percent use text messaging, and 26 percent of congregations use blogs.

Methodology: LifeWay Research conducted a phone survey among a stratified, random sample of Protestant churches Sept. 8-20, 2010, interviewing 1,003 staff members most responsible for making decisions about the technology used in their church. Responses were weighted to reflect the natural size distribution of churches. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed ±3.2 percent.

Check out the Ed Stetzer link in our Blogroll for more Lifeway Research.
The School of Evangelism operated by the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God has an elective course called "Internet Evangelism and Social Networking Tools" which addresses some of these issues. Go toe the website ercevangelism for details and to register. Class is February 19,2011 in Harrisburg PA.