PREACHING COMMENTS:Preach based on your relationships. Know your people. Know your vineyard. Understand the context. The mark of intelligence is to communicate, not to impress. See people as people who are both blessed and in need of God’s healing and help. Point out both in your preaching.
Tell the story about the young pastor who was taken aside by a loving parishioner to tell him that he preached a good sermon, but also to point out the people exiting the Church building who had deep hurts & needs. From that, the pastor learned to preach with the hurts in mind and offer help and healing hope.
Most important 5 minutes in your service is the 5minutes just before the service begins (the time most visitors show up), and the first 5 minutes afterward when they can be shown hospitality, friendliness, and love before they leave.
EPIC Worship…Experiential, Participatory, Innovative, Connective.
Don’t allow too much detail in presenting prayer requests (especially about body parts, infections, etc.). We moved to asking people simply to call out a name. God does not need information regarding details of what is needed. Just a prayer of faith will do.
CHARACTERISTICS FOUND IN HEALTHY CHURCHES:
1. Problems do not catch them off guard. They expect to have problems.
Growing, healthy churches are changing churches. Change is necessary, but it creates problems that must be dealt with. The question is, “How”? Insight that helps me is to divide them into categories. Each category is dealt with differently.
Incidents
Problems
Crises
2. They deal with problems promptly.
3. They handle criticism well, especially among the leaders. This includes criticism given by others to the leaders, and criticism given by the leader to others.
Make a sandwich out of your criticism. 1)Encourage, 2)Constructive Criticism, 3)Hopefulness and Faith in the one needing the criticism. DO NOT wait until there is a need to correct to encourage and thank people. Put value in every person you connect with. Surprise those you lead with encouragement. Model it.
4. They raise up and rely on good lay leadership.
Acts 6:3. The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said…“Seek out from among you seven men...” (People for today’s Church)
Some things can only be done by you, not because of ability, but because of responsibility…the chair in which you sit carries certain responsibilities which only the person who sits there can do.
5. Choose good and godly leaders.
Acts 6:3. “…seven men (people) of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom…”
In our tradition, the Lay Leadership team is one of the most important groups in the Church. They select and nominate leaders to lead the Church. Men & women who are chosen need training, resources, mentoring, and prayer to become the kind of leaders that can move the Church forward. Give them feedback. Give them a team. Give them a vision. Give them a chance. Give them your blessings.
6. Support the leaders and trust them to do the job. Do not stand over people. Just equip them and release them and offer loving, constructive accountability.
7. It’s not just what you teach by telling, it’s what you MODEL as a leader. Jesus “showed” His disciples what to do. His model for discipleship was more of an apprentice model than an academic model. Learning was accomplished by a life-to-life relationship where teaching was imparted through the relationship.
8. The world is looking to see how we deal with problems (and so is the congregation).
Remind your people that the only way those outside the Church will know of the conflicts there is if those who make up the congregation spread bad news. That is not the task of faithful disciples…it’s Good News we bring. It doesn’t mean we ignore the problems, it means we deal with them appropriately.
9. Other things happen immediately.
Whenever God’s people do the hard thing in the Lord’s way—when we love the unlovely, when we forgive our attackers, when we love our enemy, when we soldier on in the face of adversity, when we maintain our joy in the midst of disaster and retaliate with love—several things begin to happen from that moment.
- God is glorified.
- The Holy Spirit is freed to move among us.
- The enemies are puzzled. You are behaving differently from what they had expected.
- The critics of the church are silenced.
- The church itself is edified and strengthened.
- Church members going through hard times are encouraged and instructed.
- Outsiders are impressed and want some of what they see in you.
- You yourself are blessed.
- Your reward in Heaven is great (Luke 6:35a).
- Your credibility goes through the roof (Luke 6:35b).
