Sunday in Retrospect

Well....another great Lord's Day!  

This was not without its challenges; but we had a great day in the Lord.  It has been refreshing (as I've probably said before) to witness some of the things I have envisioned for our congregation come to fruition.  For the laymen's understanding, the experience is akin to witnessing your child become responsible and make wise decisions without your stern direction at every turn.  It is God's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.  

My experience has been quite challenging yet quite rewarding.  Pastoring is hard work!  Yes, it comes natural when you're called to do it.  But it is hard work!  Those who've said it is not hard work, I will not say they are doing something wrong; but will simply argue they are in the minority.  Most would contend.....pastoring is hard work!  However, it is the most rewarding experience in the world.  Going from a congregation I started to a congregation over a century and a quarter old is about as contrastingly distinctive as it comes.  But it has been good for me.  I'm learning a lot, about patience, vision, preaching, inclusion (nothing to do with Carlton Pearson!), balance, Pastoring everyone, and so much more.  

I am really excited about the meeting we had today with those involved in Worship service.  We have been looking on ways to improve our worship experience, and also to flow better in our services.  I envision planning our services, as do some congregations now.  Shout out to Derrick Garrett.  This guy, who is also one of our Deacons in Training, has been a Godsend.  Joining our church about a year ago, he come from a congregation who worked monthly in planning their services.  Glad to have him as our Director of Worship & Fine Arts.  

This past Lord's Day, I also announced our congregation's very first Media Director, Erikka Murphy.  This is a major milestone in our congregation; and it is necessary if we plan to do effective ministry in the 21st century.  Erikka, one of our recent college graduates, will help us bring interactive media to our services, including mid-week; and also assist us in the process of the audio and visual recordings of our weekly Sunday services.  Please pray for us.  This is a huge step; and a necessary challenge for a 141 year old congregation.

I continued our series through 1st Peter.  Here is my outline...

This Joy That I Have

1 Peter 1:6-9

Big Idea: Believers rejoice in the midst of suffering

I.      There is a Joy that comes through Faith (Verses 6-8)

                 a. The Ground of Faith

                 b. The Growth of Faith

                      1. Tests and trials are temporary 'for a little while'

                      2. Tests and trials are tailored 'if necessary'

                 c. The Goal of Faith

                     1. God wants our faith to grow in value—“greater than gold.” Verse 7

                     2. God desire our faith to grow in validity—“proved genuine.” Verse 7 

II.      THERE IS A JOY THAT COMES THROUGH HOPE (Verses 7b & 9)

                 a.     The Hope of Comparison

                 b.     The Hope of Completion 

                           1. We have certainty of Christ’s return.

           a.“Praise”—Christ will say “well-done.”

           b.“Honor”—Christ will give us honorable positions of authority.

      c.“Glory”—Christ will give us glorious bodies and place us in glorious   offices.

                             2. We have the assurance of salvation’s results, verse 9

III.      THERE IS A JOY THAT COMES THROUGH LOVE (Verse 8)

                a.     There is the Joy of Loving

                b.     There is the Joy of Being Loved

Thank God for the one who made a decision to unite with our congregation today.  Glad to have him.  Also glad to get a few gifts this week for my birthday.  That was great!

Sunday in Retrospect

This past Lord's Day happened to simply be one of those Sunday's where practically everything went right.  While I am not naive to the realities of 'tomorrow', it was a good refresher for me and us as a congregation.  Attendance was great, all seemed to have a great attitude (if they did not, they didn't let me know), God smiled on the morning Sermon, people responded to the message, choir sang like they rehearsed, liturgical ministry danced in a way that I believe was pleasing to God, and the people were receptive throughout the entire service and day.

Of course, moving to being an experienced Pastor, this has both been Spirit-led and directed, along with premeditation on my part.  This past week we had a Mid-Year Tune Up 2-night revival.  One of my old preaching mentors, Rev. James R. Miller, shared with us last Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Monday night.  Our congregation was tremendously blessed.  More than this, God sent us just what we needed, both in terms of encouragement (as we seek to move forward for the rest of the year) and instruction.  Rev. Miller has blessed me and us in more ways than I am sure he even knows, as Pastor and people.

I began a series yesterday in First Peter.  I've been flirting with the idea of going through this great Petrine epistle for over a year; and I just decided to finally 'jump'.  Typically, I don't start a new series like this in the Summer; but it started off great.  I pray that it grows our congregation, as it has and is growing me personally and devotionally.

My greatest challenge has been to grow in the area of my study of the Word of God, as well as my private devotion.  In my sermonic preparation, I am trying to glean from what I've learned several weeks ago at the E.K. Bailey Preaching Conference, and trying to have the bulk of my sermon done by Tuesday, and written out in manuscript form by Wednesday.  While this has been only a slight change (last year I've tried to complete my sermon manuscript by Friday morning, 8am), it has been a challenge because my preaching has moved entirely to working harder to frame and construct as much of my own sermon skeleton and content, with utilizing a plethora of resources, documenting my sources.  Over the years, I became 'lazy', and utilized some 'sources' that really gave me time to simply deal with the surface elements of textual study, without digging deep in the wells of the Word, FOR MYSELF.  With this change, and wanting to publish, much of my preparation and manuscript writing is now being  re-framed and re-formed.

Here is my outline:

Subject/Title: When Following Jesus Seems to Wreck Your World
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1-2
The Big Idea: How God's people stay on course when following Christ brings pain and calamity, conflict in this world.

I.  REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE IN THIS WORLD OF CONFLICT

1.    You are Special to God – “elect”

a.    Israel, the chosen people of God (Isa. 43:20-21)

b.    Church, the chosen community (Gal. 6:16)

2.    You are Strangers to the World – “strangers” or “exiles”

a.    The example of Abraham (Heb. 11:8-13)

b.    The experience of Christians (Heb. 13:13-14)

3.    You are Scattered to Serve – “Diaspora” or “Dispersion”

II.  LEARN HOW TO HOLD YOUR HOPE IN A HOSTILE WORLD

1.   The Word of the Father

a.    Choosing to reveal Himself as Father

b.    Choosing to redeem His people as Children

2.    The Work of the Son

a.    The shedding of His blood

b.    The sprinkling of His blood (Exod. 24:3-8)

3.    The Work of the Spirit

a.    Sanctification—an accomplished fact (1 Cor. 6:11)

b.    Sanctification—a progressive necessity (2 Cor. 3:16-18)

III.  KEEP STANDING RIGHT SIDE UP EVEN WHEN YOUR WORLD IS UPSIDE DOWN 

Thankful for the souls who came forward.  And I am looking forward to continuing on with 1st Peter 1:3 this coming Sunday.

Musings from Osborne's "Sticky Church"

We've discovered lots of ways to reach people.  We've offered the high-powered programs and slick marketing of attractional churches, the cultural savvy of missional churches, and the relational intimacy of small churches.  But we've often become so focused on reaching people that we've forgotten the importance of keeping people.  Pg.13

Stickier churches are healthier churches.  They not only draw in spiritual window-shoppers and lead them to Christ; they also grow them to maturity.  Pg.13

Everything we do is aimed at helping the Christians we already have grow stronger in Christ.  But everything is done in such a way that their non-Christian friends will understand all that we're saying and doing.  Bottom line: We've tried to create a perfect storm for come-and-see evangelism while velcroing newcomers for long-term spiritual growth. Pg.20

...a sticky church offers the perfect environment for come-and-see evangelism, because while every service is designed to help Christians become better Christians, it is always done in a way that non-Christians can understand evyerthing that's said and takes place. Pg.32

Most of our discipleship programs are very linear.  Unfortunately, most spiritual growth is not. Pg.41

Most spiritual growth doesn't come as a result of a training program or a set curriculum.  It comes as a result of life putting us in what I like to call a need-to-know or need-to-grow situation. Pg.42

Another spiritually crippling falsehood that began to lose its grip on our congregation was what I call the Holy Place myth.  It's the idea that God's presence is somehow greater in some places than in others.  It's why some Christians will tell a joke at the office they'd never think of repeating at church.  It's why others don't think twice about lying on a loan application but still swear they live by the Ten Commandments.  The Holy Place myth fosters a false dichotomy between secular and the spiritual by leading us to believe that there are some places where God hangs out and lots of others he seldom frequents. Pg.50

...transparency is hardly the hallmark of most churches.  So much so that for most people, the stereotype of a church is a place with lots of plastic smiles.  Pg.54

One reason I want my messages to be memorable is that I want people to apply the important spiricual truths and doctrines of the faith.  I know that if I can change the way people think, it will change the way they live. Pg.63

While I understand the desire to remove the intimidation factor, something seems wrong with a world where we remove all the adults from the nursery.  Pg.69

Assigning people to groups by neighborhood sounds great on paper, but it seldom works well in real life...That's because one of the poorest predictors of a potential deep friendship is the neighborhood we live in.  In most cases, it doesn't indicate anything other than shared economic status.  A much stronger likelihood of future friendship exists when we build groups around share interests or a common station in life. Pg.79

It all starts with our mission.  We describe it this way: Making disciples in a healthy church environment. It's our way of expressing that when it comes to ministry, both task and health are equally important. Pg.101

An easy-out philosophy doesn't mean a lower commitment level.  It actually creates more opportunities for greater commitment.  Pg.111

As important as it is to know what to look for, it's equally important to know where to look.  Some fishing pools yield far more of a catch than others. Pg.128

When we at North Coast Church began our small group ministry, we fell into a common trap.  We overtrained.  Pg.134

Despite the rhetoric, most small group programs and methods don't work very well.  They haven't for a long time.  There's a huge gap between what we claim they do and what they actually accomplish. Pg.140

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make when it comes to either launching or reengineering a small group ministry is a failure to carefully align both vision and methods. Pg.149

Sticky Church, Larry Osborne, c2008

Children's Ministry

Effective children's ministry has never been more important to the life of the church than it is today. In my generation children went to church because their parents told them to. My parents were not particularly concerned whether I was having a good time at church. When I would ask my mother if I had to go, she would always respond, "No, you 'get' to go to church.' That dynamic has completely reversed; parents now go to church if their children want to go. In a growing congregation, ministry to children cannot be a back-burner issue.  Not only do children often determine if and when the family goes to church; the reality is that most people who commit their life to Christ do so before they are eighteen years old. When we focus on the adults and hope for the best for the children, we are missing the major opportunity of the twenty-first-century church. - Geoff Surratt, Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing, pg. 78