Archive for Personal Thoughts
Hey Brother, what's your numbers?
Posted by: | CommentsI have spent a few hours the last couple of days checking out some pastor’s and church planter’s blogs just to see what’s going on and it makes me sad to see that the numbers thing is a reoccuring theme:
- “We just hit 7,893 people and had to turn people away.”
- “I just met with an incredible dude who grew his church from 0 to 1500 in one year; he is amazing!”
- “This church in the middle of timbuktu is running 1800. It’s incredible!”
- “We are striving for and focused on hitting the 3000 mark”
(I did paraphrase and change the stats somewhat as I don’t want to point out any particular dude or appear to be bashing just a few churches. BTW – Thanks Cory Miller for your post on why you don’t bash others.)
Are numbers so important that pastors must incessantly drone on about it? Is the only way some of us value our existence on the earth by the number of church attendance one has, how many are following us, the number of best-sellers we have sold, or how popular we rank on Google or Technorati?
Many of the blogs I have been scoping say nothing about changed lives, baptisms (unless there’s a big number involved), or how the community is being impacted by the servants in their churches. I also keep seeing a bunch of church planting and pastor groupies following a few of the”big guys” and kissing the ground these stars walk on because these guys have huge numbers in their church and are getting all kinds of press. Should we not boast in the Lord instead?
We are a worldly people…and yes, I include myself in this camp! We must turn away from our focus of pride, arrogance, and fruitless fancies and turn towards the qualities of Jesus Christ or I fear that many churches in the future will not represent Christ, but the world and its values.
I have been gaining many insights from people in my community that are not believers and the consensus is that Christians hurt Christianity more than anything. If they see (or read) pastors as only trying to hit a magical number they might think that they are only a number. Brothers, please be careful. Growing a healthy church is important – but growing a church for the numbers is not.
Thumbs Up to Enterprise Car Rental
Posted by: | CommentsI always like to recommend companies that I feel take care of people and meet their needs so I want to give a thumbs up to Enterprise Car Rental. I arrived in Florida on Sunday for the Global Church Advancement Church Plant Conference and originally planned on taking a cab to my hotel but thought it might be cheaper to rent a car (which it was). One of the great things was that I was able to call and confirm a car rental in 10 minutes. When I dropped it off today they immediately rushed me back to the hotel for the conference.
I think that companies and churches who put the real needs of people first will make a difference and have healthy growth whether that is in profits or people.
Jethro, I think it's the end of the world!
Posted by: | CommentsThis may be my last post ever! The media in Oklahoma has alerted us that an ominous situation is on the horizon and impending disaster is upon us – it’s called The Big Chill or Winter Storm 2007. The last week the news has warned us to get to the stores to buy generators, gas, food, and whatever else we would need for several days of being without power. And guess what? It worked. Thursday evening was chaos and pandemonium as last minute survivalists overtook the stores to get prepared for the end as we know it. I am sitting here waiting for total anarchy to begin.
I am not downplaying the seriousness and consequences of an ice storm. My family and I were stuck in bed with a really nasty flu and defenselessly listened as trees fell and hit our house in the Winter 2002 Storm. Many people were without power for weeks and unfortunately some people died. But the media and weather people in Oklahoma are starting to get out of control. (As I was writing this they broke into regular programming to let me know that some sleet was taking place and to give me a play by play where the reporter was observing this sleet for 10 minutes). For several days the weather people blogged and got on TV to warn us of impending danger. Yesterday they were on TV ALL day! Plus, should I really listen to news people who warn me that an F5 tornado is bearing down on my house and I can only survive underground – yet keep their camera crews in the field so I can watch it live on TV???
It’s almost embarrassing for me to write about how our weather people behave in Oklahoma.
My riff is this; the media should be careful how they sensationalize and play up what is going on. They should choose their words wisely and not paint an inaccurate picture. They will loose the little trust that they have and I wonder what would happen if this was really a huge disaster in the making – like an F10 tornado or Rosie and Donald making up! To be fair it did sleet and it is cold…but I still have electricity and an Internet connection. Starbucks still exists and Jethro is still driving his pick-up truck down our residential street at 55 mph.
Life continues on and we have survived the “Big One” for now, but I am going to go load my shotgun and trade my money for gold just in case.
(This was a post on my personal blog but thought it would be fun to place here too)
Children Are Not Free to Join
Posted by: | CommentsI had the opportunity to spend time over Christmas with some family from Minnesota. They moved there for a job and have been seeking a church to attend. The told us about a church they visited that billed itself as kid friendly but then found out that this church actually charges money for any children that come on Sunday or other events. You must pay for them to participate. Inconceivable! It is also sad to note they tried a completely different church for a few weeks but decided against being involved there because each week the children’s ministry lost their son’s information and they had to do the “paperwork” on each return – on top of not being able to enter the coveted sanctuary right after the service started in order to keep the service “professional”.
Please read that again and think about the consequences. These family members are great people who are authentic, passionate, and serve 100% (I would love for them to be a part of our church plant!) but they will never return to those churches and may even share this heartbreaking experience with others around them. Many churches are dying and some of the reasons are because of stories like this. I pray that we use every opportunity to tell the right story.
Do It Yourself vs. Contracting It Out
Posted by: | CommentsI wrote a post yesterday about Should You Pay Thousands of Dollars for a Website and had a great response from Tim Bednar of Turtle Interactive. One of the ideas that Tim asked was do church staff members or church planters have more important things to do than noodle around with CSS or a WP plug-in?
There are many tech savvy people starting churches or serving on a church staff – and if they really know what they are doing then having them do the work is not a bad idea. But there are people like me who know enough about websites to be dangerous and that’s what it can end up being – dangerous! I have also known passionate planters or leaders who could do some coding, graphic design, and multi-media but then they end up spending a majority of their time creating instead of building the church or ministry.
My two cents is that if you can afford to hire someone who is a specialist or is an expert in their field this will make your life and ministry a lot more effective, have better results, and save time and money in the long run. I love branding and design but I would rather see church leader’s focus more on preaching, teaching, mentoring, and loving others than noodling with WordPress or Adobe Illustrator.
