Liberating you from bad ideas about God
Want to plant a church? Forget the books, seminars, and conferences. Just watch this video and follow the simple instructions. Thanks to Steve Addison for posting this.
To see a similar video about How to Invite Someone to Your Church, see the post at GraceGround.com.
If you ever need statistics and facts on churches, church attendance, megachurches, and numbers of people who attend church in the United States, I posted some demographic sites here. One of the sites was the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Here are some of the statistics I found:
-There are about 300,000 protestant churches in the US.
-The median church size is 75 people (the average is 186).
-50% of people who attend church attend the largest 10% of churches (350 people or more).
-There are 600,000 clergy members in the US.
-The average pastoral salary is $31,234. But if we only look at pastors in churches of more than 1000 people, the average salary is $81,923.
There are a lot of other statistics there as well.
Just for fun, do the math on these last two statistics. If the average salary for 600,000 clergy is $31,234, then this means that every year, $18.7 billion goes toward pastoral salaries in the United States.
I’m not necessarily saying this should happen, and I believe the worker is worthy of his wages…but I wonder what the church could do with $18.7 billion if we were not paying our pastors?
In one of my posts of infamy, I mentioned that I knew my thinking was changing because I started agreeing with authors I used to despise. Donald Miller was one of those authors. He is most known for Blue Like Jazz, but one of his other great books, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is also a great read.
One of the things I am also looking forward to is Blue Like Jazz: the Movie. It is directed by my favorite musician of all time – Steve Taylor. But I will have to talk about this in a later post.
For now, check out this video from Donald Miller about choosing which story you will live, rather than just letting your life story happen to you. It is a principle I first heard from him about four years ago, and am trying to live it out in my own life. If what he says in the video tugs at you, you can read more about it in his book.
Henri Nouwen worked among AIDS victims in San Francisco. He writes of young men who are dying, many of them banished by their own families, forced to hustle on the street. Many of them have had hundreds of relationships. But they are dying. Cast off from society. Rejected.
Nouwen says that all they want is to be loved. They want a safe place. A safe relationship. A place to call home. Someone to accept them. Someone to love them.
Henri Nouwen has also worked among orphanages in Peru. Here is what he writes:
How little do we really know the power of physical touch. Those boys and girls only wanted one thing: to be touched, hugged, stroked, and caressed. Probably most adults have the same needs but no longer have the innocence and unself-consciousness to express them. Sometimes I see humanity as a sea of people starving for affection, tenderness, care, love, acceptance, forgiveness and gentleness. Everyone seems to cry, ‘Please love me.’
Lonely? Welcome to the Crowd
I don’t know about you, but that is my own cry. I believe that is the cry of my wife, my children, and pretty much every person I have ever met. Also, I think nobody is more lonely than the person who gets into a relationship to quench their need for love, only to find out that they are still just as lonely. It is not really comforting to realize this, but we are all lonely together. We all feel lonely, but knowing this doesn’t help us feel any less lonely.
So I believe that one goal in life should be to find someone to be lonely with; to find someone who can hopefully take the edge off the loneliness. Marriage can be good for this, and so can children and friends. But some of the loneliest people I know are married with kids, and have lots of friends.
As for myself, I am married to a wonderful woman, and have three beautiful children. But they cannot always be there for me. Even when they are, they do not always know everything I am thinking or feeling. And so sometimes I feel separated from them. I feel lonely.
Lonely? You Don’t Have to Be
Call me crazy, sappy, or just plain weird, but one person I have found who is always there for me, who listens when I yell and scream, who doesn’t judge when I fail, and who loves me no matter what, is Jesus. I try to converse with him throughout the day, talking to him as I drive to work, as I face problems, encounter joys, eat my food, or whatever.
Back in a period when I experienced great doubt and fear, I yelled at Jesus almost every day. I said some very bad things to him. Looking back now, I am so thankful I yelled at him instead of my wife and children. I think they would have forgiven me, but it’s possible I would have damaged them forever. But not Jesus. He took it all in. Suffered through it with me. He never left. He never said, “That’s it! I’m outta here!” Why? Because he understood.
A French proverb says, “To understand all is to forgive all.” Jesus understands, and so he forgives all, which means he will never leave us nor forsake us. If we have Jesus, we will never be alone. We can converse him with him, talk with him, and walk with him.
I think this is what Brother Lawrence described in his classic, Practicing the Presence of God. Jesus is not somewhere out there, sitting on a throne, listening to our prayers from the other side of the universe. No, I believe that he is right here, with us and by us. Though we cannot see him or feel him, we can interact with him as with any other human. He knows my deepest secrets and blackest sins. He sees all, knows all, and forgives all.
I am fully known by him, and yet he loves me still. That is why he helps remove my loneliness when no one else can.
What is your experience with Jesus? Is it something like this, or do you think I am just crazy?
I posted another article over at GraceGround.com today called, “Bible Study or Church?” Once criticism people sometimes have of house churches is that they are nothing more than a Bible Study.
I take a stab at answering this question in that article. Head on over there to weigh in on the subject.
By the way, if you already have a blog, and want to start another blog at GraceGround.com just so you can repost some old articles of yours or provide “incoming links” to your blog, feel free. The only thing I ask in return is that you put GraceGround.com on your Blogroll.
The next edition of the New American Bible, the preferred translation for millions of Catholics, is removing the booty from the Bible.
And just when people were beginning to think the Bible was fun to read…
Actually, all they are doing is updating their translation to more modern wording. According to NPRs News blog, here are some of the swaps included in the new Bible:
Ironically, a woman named “Mary” reported that “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 should no longer be translated as “virgin” but as “young woman.” Mary Sperry, who oversees Bible licensing for the bishops, told Reuters that “The bishops and the Bible are not signaling any sort of change in the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus. None whatsoever.”
So I guess Mary is still a virgin. There was no midnight booty call.
A while back, I picked up a free VHS tape called “The Pastor’s Guide to Church Growth.” I still own a VCR, and so was able to watch it, not becuase I was all that interested in what was on the tape, but because I figured that if it was on a VHS tape, it must be about 10-20 years old, and I wanted to see what they were saying about church growth back then.
As it turns out, the tape was nothing more than an informercial for Kingdom Tapes. So I know the guy had an agenda, but still, what he said on the tape was amazing. The whole point of the tape was to tell pastors that if they wanted their church to grow, all they had to do was start a tape ministry!
According to him, if you can have a dozen duplicating machines in the back of your church, and a few volunteers to duplicate and label the tapes, then you can have the tapes ready for sale (or to give away) as the people leave the church service. This is when they are most likely to buy the tapes, not only for themselves, but also get one or two for a friend or neighbor.
Can’t you just hear it? “Pastor, what a great sermon today!” “Thanks. If you want to hear it again, it’s on sale at the tape table for only $3.”
This, according to the guy from Kingdom tapes, will lead to more people coming to your church.
First of all, I seriously doubt that there was ever a time in church history that a tape ministry contributed to any kind of substantial church growth. But even if there was, those days are long gone. If someone were to hand me a cassette tape and say, “After listenng to this, you’ll want to come to our church!” I would stay as far away as possible.
A church that still does a “tape ministry” only proves that they are operating about ten years behind the technology. Even CD’s are almost too archaic now. The current techonology requires MP3 Podcasting, but even that is almost totally unwieldy since audio files cannot be properly tagged or searched. (If somebody could figure out a way to couple search software with voice recognition software, they would become instantly rich.)
But the point in all this is that most church growth gimicks are nothing more than gimicks…someone trying to sell you something: Their book. Their consulting services. Their construction company. Their tapes. And none of it “works.” If we want true church growth, we’ve got to start by focusing on the church, which is the people that make up the church, and investing our time and energy with them.
So you want to grow your church? Years ago, when I began pastoral ministry, my father said: “Jeremy, there are three keys to pastoral ministry: Love God, Love His Word, and Love His people.” I still think that is good, timeless advice.
Want to know what kind of church facilities people prefer most? Back in 2008, Dave Ferguson posted the results of a study done by the Cornerstone Knowledge Network. Here is what he reported:
Note: The answers do not equal 100% because I only listed the top answers and the survey allowed the respondents to give multiple answers.
I think that Dave Ferguson was trying to provide guidance on what kind of church buildings we should construct, but I think that if we begin with the question, “Should we construct a building?” rather than the question “What kind of building should we construct?” the survey results indicate that church buildings might only get in the way of people connecting with God and each other.
What do you think?
I was going through my “Post Drafts” this morning (I have over 100 of them), and found an old draft from 2007. It was a list by Gary Lamb about Ten Things he wished he had known when he started out in church planting.
I decided to see if the post was still there. It wasn’t. So I searched Gary’s site, and found out that in 2009, he had an extramarital affair.
I am not judging or condemning him, but it did make me wonder: Would Gary’s list of Ten Things still be the same?
Note: If you want to read the list, I posted it over at GraceGround.com.
You have heard the saying, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” The same is true for many Christians. They are always at training, but never get trained.
Train Tracks
The fault is not all theirs. Churches love to train people. We hold evangelism training, discipleship training, Bible study training, and small group training. I have even seen churches that offer trainer training. They don’t call it that, but essentially, they are training people to train people.
And what happens with all this training? We end up stuck on the train tracks. There is lots of noise, lots of commotion, and even lots of movement, and generally, it is all in one direction.
This isn’t all bad, of course. Such training helps a church get from Point A to Point B. But it doesn’t do a whole lot of good for people who aren’t on the train. And if someone tries to get off the train at times other than the designated stops, well, things get very messy and painful.
Train Traps
So training is helpful, but only to a point. How often have you talked with people in the church who say they want to go out and serve people, but they simply don’t have the time. But as you talk further, you find out they are involved in two or three different training sessions and Bible study groups every week. And they are convinced that while they will eventually help and serve people, right now they just need a little bit more training.
They often view these training programs as open doors, as opportunities that were sent from God at just the right time to fill in a void they were experiencing in their own life before they had the confidence and knowledge to go out and serve.
We have all seen it happen. You see a need in a certain part of town, but you are too nervous to start doing something because of lack of training, or some fear about how to handle a certain type of person you might meet, or question you might encounter. And just about that time, you discover a seminar, conference, or training session that will meet that specific need in your life. So you pay the money and attend the training.
But that’s where it ends. You wasted dozens of hours and the $129 registration fee, and ended up no closer to actually accomplishing anything in the world.
On the Job Training
This is why Jesus never really did any formal training with His disciples. It was all “on the job training.” Sure, He taught and instructed them, but it was almost always on the way to something Jesus was going to do, or as a debriefing for something He had already done. Eventually, He just kicked them out the door with a pair of shoes and a shirt, and said, “Come back in a few weeks and we’ll talk about how it went” (Luke 10).
I wonder what Jesus would have said to some of the common objections:
Disciple: “I don’t know what to say!”
Jesus: “You’ll figure it out.”
Disciple: “But what if I say the wrong thing?”
Jesus: “So what if you do?”
Disciples: “Well, their eternal soul is on the line.”
Jesus: “Let me worry about that.”
…and so on.
So what about you? Do you feel like you need some more training? Good. Jesus is waiting out there on the road.
