Our Church ADVENTure
for Christmas 2023
Composed by Pastor Rande Smith
Daily Devotions
to #ReimagineCHRISTMAS
nppn (5)
NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR PASTORS/MISSIONARIES:
Getaway at The Grahams'
From Freddie Steel - Mercy Gate International
Hello Pastor Phil,I'm writing on behalf of my wife who has recently taken the position to manage the oversight of Billy and Ruth Graham's home as a sanctuary/getaway for pastors and missionaries.The home is in beautiful Montreat, North Carolina and sits among a setting that is restful, quiet and heart-warming. There is no charge for the week's stay.The only criteria to be met in order to stay in the home of Billy Graham is one must have been in the pastorate for twenty years and does not comfortably have the means to enjoy such a timeof rest and renewal.I am asking for your assistance in getting the word out. The next step would be to fill out the application and e-mail it to my wife~ www.BillysHomePlace.comBilly's Homeplace was the idea of Daughter, Ruth, and actor Kirk Cameron whom, together, make this wonderful treasure available to the Lord's tired and weary soldiers.Respectfully,Freddie & Mary Gaye Steel,Mooresville, NC
Guest Post ~ #Reconceive Future Church
The Future Church
By Mike Glenn, Pastor of Brentwood Baptist in Brentwood Tennessee.
The age of the mega-church is over.
We won't be building church campuses like we used to.
Churches will be centered in neighborhoods and communities. They will be central to community life seven days a week.
The rising generations won't financially support the construction of large facilities. Future facilities will be integrated into the neighborhood by providing everything from ESL classes to daycares for children and senior adults.
More and more people will be brought into the church through weekday engagements than Sunday mornings. The ministry now comes before the message. When people see the church loving the community, they will want to know what motivates that love.
Because churches will be smaller, they will be run by co-vocational staff and volunteers.
More and more, successful pastors will be those who can piece together full-time programs and ministries with a patchwork of "employees" with limited hours.
More and more of the pastor's time will be spent training, assigning, and overseeing volunteer and part-time ministers.
In some congregations, everyone in attendance during Sunday worship will have some kind of job in the church's ministry. What used to be forty-hour-per-week jobs will be broken up into ten four-hour-per-week or eight five-hour-a-week positions.
Leaders will train leaders.
We'll finally get Ephesians 4 right. Instead of "Training God's people -- comma -- for the work of the ministry," we'll get back to "Training God's people for the work of ministry."
Instead of visiting the hospital, pastors will be training those who go to the hospital. Instead of teaching small groups, pastors will train leaders of small groups. Effective leaders will multiply their ministry by developing leaders who will do the actual ministry.
While the rising generations give, they give very differently than the builders and boomers before them.
If you need a well dug in Africa or school supplies for orphans in Moldova, you'll find that millennials, Gen X and Gen Z will give sacrificially and generously.
But if you need to pay the light bill on your church building, well, not so much. Remember, every institution in our current culture is undergoing a crisis of trust.
We no longer trust the government, the medical profession, the judicial system, our academic institutions, or our churches.
Sexual and financial scandals have made everyone suspicious of the church's motives. Trust has to be earned every day. When it is, financial support will flow to whatever ministry is personally impacting the person or their family.
Trauma is the new reality.
For years we've been discussing the breakdown of the nuclear family without fully understanding the long-term ramifications.
Now, those ramifications are being lived out in front of us. Few people you know, especially young adults, are stepping into their futures with a solid base for their lives.
People get married hoping their partner will fix them. Couples have children hoping the child will make their marriage complete. Most people are walking around with a giant hole in their heart waiting for someone to validate their existence.
This means that when we're dealing with people, the church isn't dealing with a clean slate. There's a lifetime of pain to deal with before any healing and growth can begin.
This means that the gospel is needed now more than ever.
The good news that we are loved and forgiven is amazing news in and of itself, but the invitation to live a life that we've always wanted -- a life of purpose, meaning, joy, and hope -- that's almost too good to believe. And a lot of people don't believe....and that's why we have to find a way to our best preaching. In a world this dark, we can't be shy with the light we have.
#ReimagineMINISTRY... through Transformational Coaching
6 reasons coaching is the best investmentBy Robert E Logan on Jan 04, 2023 You are likely doing things very differently than you used to.
Whether your mission is to provide for your family, live into your gifts and talents, and/or make disciples,
even if you do everything differently your mission has stayed the same.
Coaching is more important than ever. For you. And for those you work with.
Here are 6 reasons that coaching may be the most important investment you make this year.
6 Reasons to Invest in Coaching in 20231. Change is now a constantThere has always been change, the speed of change—the rate of change—has accelerated dramatically. With so many things constantly in flux, how do you get your bearings? How can you get perspective? Coaching is an investment in increasing your effectiveness during rapidly changing times. As people are coming out of crisis and looking for their new normal, it’s not the same world out there. To the degree you can get your bearings, you can help other people get theirs and move forward effectively and confidently into whatever changes come next. 2. Change is sudden, transition is notChange can happen suddenly, but our adjustment to that change is what requires time and energy. Transitions move slower. A volcano can erupt suddenly and without warning, but coping with the damages left in its wake can take years. Regardless of whether the change is good or bad, it takes time to accept it and adjust to it. Coaching helps you strategically consider how to best adapt to whatever changes are affecting your ministry—as well as how to help your people adjust in healthy ways. As a leader receiving coaching, you can step back to see the forest for the trees—as well as the trees for the forest—so you can implement your action plans wisely, involving the right people and considering the best steps to move things forward. 3. Fragmentation is a credible threatWe live at the interface of the analog world and the digital world. We have so many devices and programs and apps to structure our lives and ministries that we can get lost in them. As a leader, you are pulled in different directions, and everyone seems to have access to you all the time. Everything vies for your attention. If you want your ministry to span generations, you’re going to need to deal with that fragmentation. You’re going to need to cut clearly through all the clutter to maximize your work so it’s laser-focused toward the fulfillment of your calling. Coaching provides a place to feel centered and focused. A coaching relationship is a place to slow down and see the bright spots and assess the progress in order to gain the perspective necessary to see the windows of opportunity that exist. 4. In spite of everything, you’re still in the game.You have hung in there through an unprecedented season of ministry, and you’ve probably taken more than a few hits along the way. The stressors have been significant and the world has become ever more isolating, even as it’s gotten louder and more crowded. Coaching provides you with the encouragement you need to recognize that you’re really not in this alone—because it can feel like that sometimes. You need to feel like someone has your back and is invested in helping you keep making progress and moving forward. Because you’re still in the game, you need a coach. 5. Your goal is better over biggerSure, you want to grow. But you also want to improve. You want to take the ministry to the next level, not just moving forward, but moving up, outward, and all around. And to do that, you need to not just be a doer of ministry, but a developer of other doers of ministry. You need to move beyond leading personally into the investment in helping others to lead. That’s what a coach can help you achieve: the next level of magnitude. You know if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll get the same results. And even if you’re successful right now, you want to go beyond that. You know new barriers will arise that you’ll need to tackle, new opportunities will arise that you need to be prepared to meet. Coaching helps you shift and reset your course before you hit your ceiling and plateau. Maximize your learning and stay ahead of the curve with coaching. 6. You want to do less with greater impactNo one can do everything. You know you need to zero in on the few really important things that will make a difference. But do you really know what those few things are? And when you do know, how can you free up the time and energy to really dig in and work on them? The important things are rarely the urgent things. Coaching helps you sort your priorities, determine what will provide you with the most leverage, and then free up the time and energy you need to get the work done. It’s an investment in helping you use your limited energy in the most strategic way possible to release ministry. Get excellent coachingEven if you’re already getting coaching, take this time to reevaluate. The new year is a good time to focus your coaching agenda to maximize your own development as a leader and also to maximize the potential of your ministry. Take stock. Do you need to reproduce what you’re trying to work on? Are you working on the one thing that will really make the greatest difference? Bob and Gary are currently taking on new coaching clients. Whether you are looking for coaching or a coach-mentor you can work with some of the best! Contact us to learn more. Invest in excellent coach trainingWith coaching, people can move from surviving to thriving. Ministry is more than just about keeping your head above water. Take leadership to the next level. Take your people development to the next level. You’re not just running a program—you’re biggest investment is in the development of people. In doing so, you’re increasing the capacity to fulfill the mission. Upcoming Coaching Training OpportunitiesJan 2023- The Coaching Excellence CohortYou are seeing some traction in your coaching ministry but feel like if your skills were more honed, you could be more effective. The Coaching Excellence Cohort is an investment in growing your effectiveness as a coach. It combines assessment with one-on-one mentoring and group webinars. Learn how to get $500 off tuition HERE. April 2023- The Christian Coaching Essentials CohortLearn and practice the coaching essentials with Bob and Gary. This cohort is designed to give you a solid foundation in coaching principles and get you coaching with confidence. Learn more HERE. AND MORE…Your situation is unique. That is why we offer several roads to becoming a coach and becoming the best coach you can be. Check out our GrowthTracks to find the best fit for you. Cover Photo by Wynand van Poortvliet on Unsplash Photo by Edge2Edge Media on Unsplash The post 6 reasons coaching is the best investment appeared first on Christian Coaching Tools. |
GUEST POST ~ Scot McKnight
Churches, through its pastors and leaders and volunteers, can form into a culture of success. Such a culture then forms the pastors, leaders, and churches to fit into that culture. That is, the various measures of victories, winning, achievements, progresses and advances – getting caught up in these measures creates a culture of success.
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Photo by Mark Neal on Unsplash
Pastors can get snagged in the pull of success, prosperity and fame. That pull is formed by comparison with other pastors and churches, comparisons give birth to competition, and competition gives birth to expectations, and unmet expectations – they are inevitable and eventual – give birth to frustrations, and frustrations to denigration of other pastors, churches, and fellow workers, and denigrations turn into personal and church depressions, and together these are the treadmill to disillusionment.
When a pastor with such ambitions gets snagged he or she discovers the thrills of glory and acclamation, but such glories are themselves a never-stopping and rarely slowing-down treadmill. Losses, declines in giving and attendance spur the pastor to work harder and to “get back to where we once were.” That past is past; the present doesn’t return to the past. Yet another treadmill of going forward while looking back.
What to do?
I’ve talked to enough pastors in the last two decades to put forward a kind of “Wisdom of jumping off the treadmill of success.” Pastors, especially during Covid, have been run ragged. As they come out of this long winter of discontents, may they find the tranquility of what they were called to be and do.
Three commitments transformed the pastors I’ve talked with, and in most cases such pastors have had to sit down with the elders, deacons, co-ministers, boards — whatever — for a talk about stepping back to core commitments. Mind you, some of them have been hard conversations. All of them have yielded wiser pastoring.
Faithfulness
Instead of the ambitions of success, wise pastors commit their days, their homes, their work, their gifts, their pastoring, their preaching, their teaching, and their walk with the Lord toward being faithful to God, faithful to Jesus, faithful in the Spirit, faithful to the Scriptures, faithful to the great traditions of the church, faithful to their own calling to pastor people (not run the world), and faithful to themselves. And, yes, faithful to their spouses and children and family.
Pastoral Care
Instead of the ambitions of “bigger is better” and “more is magnificent” wise pastors commit their lives to pastor – catch this fave of mine – who they’ve got not those they’ve not got. In other words, they care for those in their care – parishioners and co-ministers and staff and family – instead of striving for more people and more givers and more filled pews/chairs and more buildings and more of this and that and here and there. Such persons care for those they know instead of looking through them to the newest visitor and the next big giver.
Personal giftedness
Instead of the ambitions of being everything to everyone, which can mean preacher, teacher, leader, entrepreneur, visionary, manager, chaplain, overseer, community worker, networker, conference attender, book reader, DMin-er, PhD-er, author, conference speaker, Zoom yacker, blogger, Substack-er, columnist – and, oh yes, husband/wife and mother/father, brother, sister, daughter/son, neighbor, friend, fellow pastor…. let’s start this sentence again: Instead of the pull of being everything for everyone, the wise pastor commits her or his life around what she or he is called to do, gifted to do. Yes, working on weak areas, but only because those areas are areas in need of shoring up for the calling. Wise pastors know their limitations and renounce the temptation of “no limitations.” They know their time constraints, their body, their psyche, their family’s capacities and health. They know their gifts enough to empower others to do their calling, to do what that pastor can’t do well, and to be given credit for their contributions to the Body of Christ.
Someone needs to hear this today. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.
Thank you for hearing me out.
