Essential Church by Sam Rainer
Posted by wagardner - 19/03/08 at 04:03:51 pm
If we create fun activities for students they will stay…right? Wrong! Many churches fall into the trap of thinking games and other activities will keep youth in the church. Indeed, these types of events may help attractstudents from the community who do not know Christ, but they do not help to assimilate the students who have been in the church for a period of time. Our research has revealed that the vast majority of students under 18 attended many activities in their local church prior to their departure. But by age 22, 70% of those who will drop out of church have already done so. In general, teens are highly active in their local church – 86% attend worship on a regular basis, 74% go to youth-specific activities, 66% attend some sort of small group, and over half go to Christian camp. But it’s not keeping them from dropping out of church. Why? These students were engaging in many church activities, but they were not necessarily actively involved in growing more spiritually mature. While most students are participating in church activities, relatively few have actual responsibilities in their church. Only 37% of those under 18 have regular responsibilities in their church. And only 25% of teens held leadership positions in their group. Going to Christian camps, attending youth functions, and being present for worship are important for teens in the church. They should be part of corporate worship and fellowshipping with others their age. If they do not take ownership of their church, however, then they are more inclined to leave when life begins to change drastically at age 18. They leave the church at one of the most critical life junctions, going to college and/or graduating high school. Ministering to young adults is difficult. Assimilating them in the church proves even more complicated. Activity alone is not adequate. Participation, while a step forward, will not help keep college students in the church. This age group must be given responsibilities and leadership positions when they are ready. And most importantly, the church should be obedient about teaching them one of its essential functions: reaching outward into the community and the world through giving, service, and missions.
Pastor’s blogging!
Posted by wagardner - 17/03/08 at 09:03:14 am The actual article is posted here The Blogging Pastor
Posted March 14, 2008 in Hot Topic, Web Exclusive, Mar/Apr ‘08 Issue By Greg Linscott—By now many churches understand the importance and value of establishing web presence. For over a decade most congregations have utilized the “real time” benefits of e-mail to communicate with missionaries, members, and more. Churches have found various ways of creating a church website, whether through an in-house volunteer or by spending hundreds of dollars on a polished, professional presentation. However, more recently a new presence on the Internet landscape has become an increasingly important part of online communication: the blog. A blog (shortened form of “web log”) is essentially an online journal. It differs from a traditional website in the sense that it is designed to be dynamic—regularly updated with new information and content—rather than static, such as the virtual brochure that many church websites are designed to be. Blogs also have the capability of facilitating interaction between the author and readers through comment features, creating a sense of community. Should you blog? That depends. Successful blogging will take time and dedication, though it will have its rewards. Good bloggers should be comfortable with personal transparency and candidness. Be prepared to handle criticism and negative responses. And good bloggers should have personal discipline—to make sure that content is regularly updated and that the site doesn’t consume so much of their time that they neglect other, more important areas of life.Because of the capability for interaction, though, blogging can be a much more relational activity than the web technologies that preceded it. Pastors and church leaders can utilize it to disperse information and teaching with the advantages of a broadcasting method, while simultaneously harnessing the benefits of interaction, including the opportunity to field questions from individuals in such a way that many can read and benefit from the responses. Because a blog is readily available over the Internet, this can also be a great way for interested people to find out what your church is about before attending—taking it for a sort of “test drive,” if you will. If your site allows for comments, consider developing a registration or moderation process before comments become available for public viewing.Blog links for pastors who contributed to this article• Will Hatfield• Ken Fields• Don Fields• Mike Hess• Tom Pryde• Steve Svendsen• Greg LinscottSome pastors of GARBC churches have found blogging to be a stimulus for ongoing conversation. Pastor Will Hatfield of Campus Baptist Church in Ames, Iowa, began to blog with that in mind. “I saw the ministry potential of having a regular outlet to let people in my church know what I’m thinking about on a more personal basis.” Don Fields, associate pastor of Daniels Road Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Florida, says, “Some of the people in my church read the blog and then want to discuss what I wrote. This has led to some pretty interesting conversations.”“In many ways, blogging has become a tool for a sort of stealth discipleship,” says Pastor Tom Pryde of Berean Baptist Church, Fremont, California. “A good portion of our church reads blogs, mine included, and the articles often give me opportunity to address topics that would not otherwise come up.”While Pastor Pryde sees the potential spiritual benefits of blogging for his congregation, he also says it is effective only if people are reading and interacting with what is written.“The process of writing out my thoughts is beneficial for the entire congregation, because writing seems to increase the effectiveness of my pulpit ministry,” says Pastor Pryde, noting how blogging seems to help him organize his ideas in a logical, clear, and concise manner.Mike Hess, pastor of First Baptist Church in Roxana, Illinois, sees similar benefits. “Blogging provides for me an avenue to share my views, interact with others, sharpen my own writing skills, confirm or modify some of my theological persuasions, fellowship, fun, humor, and to provide information for either dialogue or debate.”Pastor Steve Svendsen of Rice Lake Baptist Church, Rice Lake, Wisconsin, concurs: “The exercise of writing itself makes anyone a better communicator. In some ways it gives me more to talk about with people from our church who frequent my blogs.”Interacting with others’ thoughts can be an important part of the blogging experience. “I read blogs to learn and to grow,” says Pastor Fields. “I write because I find that it sharpens my thinking and helps me learn more about a subject. It also helps me learn to articulate my thoughts in a clearer fashion. I also retain the information much longer when I write it.”“I think I can more clearly articulate some things I’ve been thinking about,” adds Pastor Will Hatfield, “especially in relationship to specific ministry areas that I’ve worked on and written about.” As he was preparing for his recent ordination, Pastor Will Hatfield posted sections of his ordination paper at theworldfrommywindow.blogspot.com and invited readers to comment on his ongoing study. A common apprehension for someone considering blogging is subject matter—What do I have to say that hasn’t already been said? Pastor Fields offers helpful advice: “Although blogging is a ministry and you will have an impact on others, don’t view it primarily as a ministry to others. When there are few people reading and even fewer commenting, it can become very discouraging. If you view your blog primarily as a tool of personal growth, then it can be beneficial even when there are only a few people reading and commenting.”Pastor Hatfield agrees. “Like Don said, don’t expect the world to come read your blog. Use it more as a communication tool with your congregation or the younger segment of your congregation. Use it for personal growth in writing as well.”Pastor Svendsen encourages budding bloggers to work at writing in an area they are already working. “Rather than add a new discipline, add writing to your teaching, counseling, or community service ministries. I spent weeks preparing for a public debate when we were preparing to vote on a marriage amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution in 2006. Posting part of my presentation on my blog gave me more than just a one-hour audience for all the work. Likewise, I find myself giving the same Biblical counsel to multiple people with similar troubles. Posting Biblical counseling articles may help people I will never meet who are struggling with the same issues.”Some bloggers find that a common theme develops after they begin to blog. “At first my blog was just random thoughts from my own study, but as it went on, a theme developed,” notes Pastor Pryde. “As unapologetic historic fundamentalists, we are naturally concerned with contending for the faith delivered in the Scriptures. However, in writing and interacting with the state of modern Christianity, and specifically fundamentalism it became clear that we needed to answer some hard questions and even address some of the old ones again. So the blog became an exploration of a big idea: ‘Proactive Fundamentalism.’” Whatever focus you decide to address in your blog, it is important to remember basic rules of Christlike communication and conduct. “You should have an ‘others-focus’ to your work,” observes Pastor Svendsen. “You may not get thousands of readers, but your goal should not be notoriety. You never know who is reading (even if you use a stat counter). Write faithfully in obedience to the first and second great commandments.”Publishing consistency is crucial, says Pastor Hess. “If you plan on only posting one post per week or month, then you are going to have a difficult time gaining a faithful readership. Consistently posting good posts with substantial content that both intrigues and engages readers will inevitably draw others to your blog and provide a reliable readership. Even those who disagree with you will be drawn to your blog if you keep it updated with good content.”Awareness of the attention span of your readers is important. “Remember that most blog readers will spend one to two minutes (at the most) on what you have written,” advises Pastor Pryde. “If the topic draws them in, they might spend five to ten minutes, so it is a good general idea to limit my writing to sections that take between two to eight minutes to read. Sometimes long and detailed articles need to be broken into bite-size chunks.”Finally, being a good steward of your time is vital when delving into the blogosphere. “Blog surfing is a great way to burn an afternoon better spent studying,” counsels Pastor Svendsen. “Be careful that you do not become consumed by something good to the exclusion of something better.”Greg Linscott is a graduate of Faith Baptist Bible College and ministers as a pastor in Marshall, Minnesota. He blogs atcurrentchristian.com and greglinscott.wordpress.com
This is an article that I really think is worth your reading! I obviously believe in blogging! I am kidded about it. I think this article explains the reasons why. This comes from a blog that I read every day! Click here to go to SharperIron. I suggest that you set them up in your google reader!
What is a blog, anyway?
Should I be blogging?
What would I write about?
What to avoid
How to have a happy, joyful, and useful life!
Posted by wagardner - 15/03/08 at 01:03:18 pmWhen you go home tonight, eat your supper, and go to bed to the glory of God; and when you get up in the morning, do not think about what you are going to do at night. Do what comes to you when you begin the day’s work, and keep right straight on. If you can see a step at a time, that is about as far as you need to see. Do not begin prying into the future; but just go straight on from day to day, depending on God for the mercy and grace and strength of the day. That is the way to live, and I am persuaded that is the way to die. Mr. Wesley said, “If I knew that I was to die to night, and I had an engagement to attend a class-meeting, I should go to it. If I had promised to call and see old Betty So-and-so on the way back, I should call in to see her. I have then to go home, and have family prayer. I would do that. Then I should take my boots off, and I should go to bed, just as I should do if I were not going to die.” Oh, do not let death be a sort of addition to the program, which was not calculated upon; but so live that whenever it comes if it come while we are sitting here tonight you will be ready for it. Then yours will be a happy life, a joyful life, a useful life. Secularism teaches us that we ought to look to this world. Christianity teaches us that the best way to prepare for this world is to be fully prepared for the next. Why, it elevates and glorifies the secular duties, which else would trail in the mire, if our conversation, our citizenship, is in heaven, even while we are on the earth. God bless you, beloved! Let us praise his name for all the mercies of the past quarter of a century, and trust his grace for all the future. Charles Spurgeon
Books that I am reading!
Posted by wagardner - 14/03/08 at 12:03:43 pmI just got two new books that I am reading and really enjoying–Pastoral Ministry –How to Shepherd Biblically by John MacArthur and his staff and also Preaching –How to preach Biblically by the same people. Just thought I would let you know
Pride
Posted by wagardner - 14/03/08 at 12:03:23 pmPride is without doubt the chief occupational hazard of the preacher. It I has ruined many, and deprived their ministry of power…. In some it is blatantly obvious. They are exhibitionists by temperament and use the pulpit as a stage on which they show off…. Other preachers are not like Nebuchadnezzars, however, for their pride does not take the form of blatant boastfulness. It is more subtle, more insidious, and even more perverse. For it is possible to adopt an outward demeanor of great meekness, while inside our appetite for applause is insatiable. At the very moment when in the pulpit we are extolling the glories of Christ, we can in reality be seeking our own glory, and when we are exhorting the congregation to praise God, and are even ostensibly leading them in praise, we can be secretly hoping that they will spare a bit of praise for us. We need to cry out with Baxter, “O what a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly, subtle and insinuating enemy is this sin of pride!” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, 320-321)
Austin’s writings for a change
Posted by wagardner - 09/03/08 at 11:03:04 pm
God has blessed our little book and sent buyers from several different states. Some have purchased in bulk but mostly individual books. A missionary dropped into Vision Baptist Church this morning and purchased a copy also. If you are a missionary looking for help with deputation then this is the book for you. I remember being so afraid of deputation. How was I to raise my support? I didn’t want to go around from church to church begging. I wanted another way! I talked to every mission board I could trying to find a way around this scary part of the ministry. But God allowed us to learn a great deal as we traveled across the US on deputation, meeting missionaries, preaching in churches etc. Over the next 20 years God did a great work in my life and in this book Tony Howeth and I share with you what God has taught us. It has helped many missionaries and I believe will be a blessing to you.
Preaching?
Posted by wagardner - 08/03/08 at 07:03:23 pm
“The emphasis today is not on the preaching of the Word. We’re told that nobody will listen to preaching any longer, that only images will suffice. Yet Scripture tells us in I Corinthians 1:21 that it is through the preaching of the Word that the Holy Spirit works to convert souls. In our endless and expensive quest for cultural relevance, we are losing the heart of the Gospel message, which is to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Christ. Unlike what many religious broadcasters are airing today, Jesus is not a life-enhancement product.” Dr. Vic Eliason
More Hudson Taylor
Posted by wagardner - 04/03/08 at 11:03:35 pm
We have need of patience, and our faithful God brings us into experiences which, improved by His blessing, may cultivate in us this grace. Though we seem to be tried at times almost beyond endurance, we never find Him unable or unwilling to help and sustain us; and were our hearts entirely submissive to His will, desiring it and it only to be done, how much fewer and lighter would our afflictions seem. I have been in much sorrow of late, but the principal cause I find to be want of willing submission to, and trustful repose in, God, my Strength. Oh, to desire His will to be done with my whole heart.. to seek His glory with a single eye! Oh, to realize more of the fullness of our precious Jesus.. to live more in the light of His countenance, to be satisfied with what He bestows..ever looking to Him, following in His footsteps and awaiting His glorious coming! Continue to pray for me that God will supply all my need, Jesus be all my delight, His service be all my desire, rest with Him all my hope. Hudson Taylor
Hudson Taylor
Posted by wagardner - 03/03/08 at 06:03:26 pmJohn Pearson sent me the following quotes–I think that they are really worth reading: The cold was so great and other things so trying that I scarcely know what I was doing or saying at first. Then, what it means to be so far from home, at the seat of war, and not able to understand or be understood by the people was fully realized. Their utter wretchedness and misery, and my inability to help them or even point them to Jesus, powerfully affected me. Satan came in as a flood, but there was One who lifted up a standard against him. Jesus is here, and though unknown to the majority and uncared for by many who might know Him, He is present and precious to His own.
Henry Martyn testimony
Posted by wagardner - 03/03/08 at 07:03:28 amWhenever Martyn worked among the Europeans he found the same response, a scornful rejection of his message by the vast majority, but a handful of men who, often in secret, came to hear more. There was the corporal who slipped into his hand a letter begging for spiritual help, a request he dared not make in the open; there was the chief mate who, though unable to understand much of Martyn’s theology, stopped swearing, and became the chaplain’s loyal supporter; there were the faithful five who joined him in his cabin for daily worship; above all, there was Mackenzie, an officer of the cadets, who throughout the voyage was a constant visitor to the chaplain’s cabin, and incurred ridicule by attending the hymn-singing which Martyn introduced among the lower ranks.
A few did indeed find a true faith in Christ on that voyage; but the majority grew steadily more obstinate in their opposition. Much as they disliked his message, however, they could not deny the sincere love of [his fellow man]. It was love for the blaspheming sailors which kept him busy trying to awaken their consciences. Such love is not easily recognized by men of the world, but they could not disregard his unselfish care for the sick and dying, who were always to be found in plenty on the troop-ships of those days. From the captain, who died on the way to the Cape, to the merest ship’s boy, all claimed his unceasing care, and only when dysentery attacked Martyn himself was he forced to stop. Imagine it: the sweat and the dirt, the foul smell and the unbearable heat of the lower decks, and the Cambridge don in his meticulously neat black clothes moving from hammock to hammock, from sick boy to dying man, with food and medicine, and always with the Word of God. The men had never seen anything like it; nor had the officers, and they wrote him off as a mad enthusiast.
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