As director of ministry placement, I've made my share of mistakes. Here are some of the biggest I've made. I share them so you don't have to repeat them!
1. Don't pray about it.
If God gives the vision for a ministry, He always prepares the players to make it happen. Successful ministries grow in God's own timing.
2. Assume everyone you ask to serve will stick it out automatically.
"Over the years," writes pastor Roger Barrier, "I have developed a checklist to help me distinguish when God is speaking to me. It is not complete or foolproof. No one point, of course, is sufficient in itself to prove or disprove the voice of God. But these principles have helped me discern more accurately the voice of God."
God tends to speak gently. Remember how God spoke ...
In the area of leadership training, I found out a lot about church leaders in 2003. Here are a few bits of wisdom I gained that you may also relate to:
Church leaders are interested in assessment tools that help them address strengths and weaknesses of certain aspects of their ministry. They want to see potential areas of improvement and be given steps to do that.
Handouts that provide a simple How-To on common overlooked areas of the church are popular. Leaders want resources they can copy and pass out to their new volunteers. In 2004, we'll be adding more Practical Skills handouts on hot topics for churches.
ARTICLE Worshiping to Distraction With all the crazy things that happen in a church service, it's amazing that anyone can actually worship! John Beukema
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I still can't figure out what the ushers were thinking when they let the dog into the church. Granted, the door was open. The dog assumed he was welcome, but they didn't even try to stop him. At least they didn't offer him a bulletin. Things really got exciting when the beast scurried under the pews to avoid capture.
I thought for a few minutes we would witness the Massachusetts version of the 'Mississippi ...
Several years ago, a generous church member invited me to go with him to watch a heavyweight fight in Las Vegas. I couldn't help but notice the signs. They're everywhere: big signs, little signs, blinking, flashing, moving signs, even talking signs. It was dazzling.
They don't have a lot to say, but they definitely know how to say it, I thought.
It's just the opposite in the church. We have everything ...
Though church leaders spend extraordinary energy preparing for worship, many do not evaluate whether the energy was well spent.
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Yet if we've been given the ability to plan worship, we can evaluate at some level what we've done. The following tool, prepared by Leadership's editors and advisers, can help. It does not cover all the bases (for example, sermon evaluation is left out), and not all questions ...
ARTICLE Answering the Call Before taking a call as a pastor, ponder these three considerations. Doyle Tunnell
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My calling to pastoral ministry came unexpectedly enough. I labored eagerly as an itinerant preacher for four years and as a church volunteer in nearly every capacity, but a pastor I was not.
The visit came while I was at work. It was from a timid, elderly man whom I recognized from the small church I had minister at more than a month prior. To say his words were direct would be an understatement. ...
Tuesday morning and I feel great. Why? We had an elders meeting last night! These days, I look forward to our meetings. We get things done, tackle tough issues, laugh, and afterward, "shoot the breeze." I appreciate our elders, and depend on them.
But I admit, I haven't always felt like that. Not until one night when I asked a question and really stopped to listen.
"Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the Tent of the Testimony. They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the Tent…I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the Tent of Meeting."—Numbers 18: 2, ...
Money magazine annually rates the 300 best places in America to live. The ratings are based on climate, affordability, amenities, crime rate, public transportation, medical care, and other factors.
A similar approach has been taken with churches. Several major metropolitan newspapers regularly review churches. A religion writer makes an unannounced Sunday visit and analyzes everything from the sign ...
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