Category Archives: Ministry
Creating More SENDING Capacity
“The greatness of a church is not in her seating capacity, but in her sending capacity” ~Rick Warren.
Seating & sending capacity are necessary for growth and Acts 1:8 kingdom expansion. And in a day of declining attendance and loss of Christian influence we desperately need both. More seems to be made by example and information of “The How” related to seating capacity than sending capacity. In a previous post about sending capacity, I talked about why? And here’s a bit of my personal exploration of the How behind SENDING.
The HOW is really found in the practices of Jesus & the early church & the truths of the Gospel:
1. Share the Gospel – Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 3:5-7
Going/Sending/Serving/Obeying is an affect of people being transformed & regenerated by the gospel. The Bible says that Christians who are transformed are created “for good works” (Ephesians 2:10) and that one of the purposes of the Gospel was that God would have a people who were “eager to do good works” (Titus 2:14). The Holy Spirit gives power to serve and share the message to those transformed by the Gospel.
So if we’re sharing the Gospel & people are being saved then we will always have capacity to send these people who are being shaped by God and the Gospel to obediently Go in His power.
2. Listen to God – Acts 13:1-5
In Acts 13, the church was fasting, praying, and listening to God and guess what He said? “Go/Send.” Actually, he said, “set apart for me Barnabas & Saul for the work that I have called them” (Acts 13:2). This made since to the believers because the Lord had already told them to “Go into all the world…” Mt 28:19 and that they were to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). His instructions for the church haven’t changed. If we listen to God the call to obey, go, send will still be heard within every church. This call will make sense to believers who are listening.
3. EQUIP the Saints – Ephesians 4:11-12
In Ephesians 4, Paul the Apostle, teaches us that God gives to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers and their job is “to EQUIP God’s people to do His work” (NLT). So two separate roles develop: Equippers and Ministers. Several attitudes in today’s church hinder these roles:
- A “hire it done” mentality. Sending for us, means hiring a new staff member, so I can send him/her to the hospital or to the lost, etc.
- A Mere Volunteer. Some leaders hinder sending by downplaying the power of God’s people doing his work. They are mere volunteers, that can’t really be depended on or trusted. To that I say, maybe that’s all you’ve equipped them to be.
- Fear of Releasing. Sending is not desired by some leaders, because their end goal is to have more people this Sunday than last Sunday at any costs and to give opportunities for people to be sent may require people being elsewhere some or most Sunday’s.
Dennis Watson of Celebration Church says for a church to grow, the people have to give the leadership to the Pastor(s) and the Pastor(s) have to give the ministry to the people. For multiplication to happen, we must not fear equipping, releasing, sending people to fulfill their God given roles.
4. Lead like Jesus – Sending was part of his strategy – Matthew 9:35-10:5
“They’re just not ready yet.” This is a common refrain that I’ve heard and said about people in churches. But if you observe Jesus’ ministry, you’ll see him sending the “not yet ready” at a steady clip. Sending was part of his strategy to grow people and grow the kingdom. They weren’t ready, they made mistakes, but they learned, they developed faith, they were ready at the right time to multiply the church exponentially. If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be stuck in a holding pattern while the world’s population passes us by. Is that where we are today?
What is your ministries sending capacity? How are you intentionally releasing people to ministry? Does your attitude about ministry or people hinder sending capacity for your church?
Creating More SENDING Capacity
“The greatness of a church is not in her seating capacity, but in her sending capacity”
I’ve heard this saying over & over again for the past 15 years or so from Pastors and church leaders from all different perspectives of ministry. But I haven’t seen much about how to expand the SENDING capacity of a local church or a real change in strategy to developing SENDING capacity. Both are necessary for a missional movement. How can we understand the difference & add real SENDING capacity to our strategies?
- Seating capacity is about managing the movement of people into relationships. Sending capacity is about managing the movement of people into mission.
- The mission that Jesus gave the church was a SENDING strategy. The Great Commission & the Acts 1:8 Challenge are foundational
- Matthew 28:19 (NLT) – “go and make disciples of all the nations…”
- Acts 1:8 (NLT) – “you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- Seating capacity is easier. Not cheaper, but easier. It’s easier to draw a big crowd than to send a lot of people into missional roles in the world. It takes longer & requires different things from the leaders.
- Seating capacity is INSIDE. Sending capacity is OUTSIDE. Serving inside the church is great, but if the only mission opportunities we give people are inside, we fall short of a true Acts 1:8 SENDING strategy.
- Being SEATED is much more comfortable than being SENT. Going to church is for the majority of people, very safe, sanitary, & can be enjoyable. Being SENT requires sacrifice, risk, & a sometimes delayed reward for effort.
- I can be SEATED in my own strength. Being SENT requires the power of the Spirit.
- Being SEATED tends to make much of the leaders. Being SENT makes much of the mission. We hear a lot about the churches & leaders with the most SEATING capacity.
- SEATING capacity is easier to track and clean up after. It’s more static. SENDING strategies are hard to control and can get messy.
Do you see any difference between SEATING capacity and SENDING capacity? How does your church include SENDING in its strategies? What resources do you know about to aid SENDING capacity and SEATING capacity?
On Mission Kids Ministry
Ever thought about taking your churches children’s ministry to the streets? I think we should. Most children’s ministry is focused
on reaching/teaching/discipling kids that show up at my church on the weekends or midweek. Some of the questionable outcomes of this:
- Can teach kids that church is all about them & most importantly, about them having fun, falling just short of disciple-making.
- Wanting to grow our churches, we sometime start talking about kids as only a hook to get their parents “butts in the seats” (to quote Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act). “If the kids have fun, the parents will come back” ~ church growth quip.
- Children’s facilities can cost mega bucks.
- Can cut the rug out from under parental responsibility for discipling kids as they become more and more dependent upon the “professionals” down at the church.
AND the big one, that our team has been grappling with: WHAT ABOUT THE MAJORITY KIDS THAT ARE NOT COMING TO THE FULL COLOR KIDS MINISTRY EVENTS AT OUR CHURCH EVERY WEEK?
In my region of 345,000 people, demographic reports show that around 21% of the population is age 14 or below. That’s around 69,000 kids!!!! In my denomination, which is one of largest in the region with 11,500 worshipers on any given Sunday, approximately 18% of that number are children under 14. Meaning on any given week only 2,500 or so kids are attending, which is only about 4% of the population in the 14 and under age bracket. We average about 7,000 each year for Vacation Bible School, which is a 1-week, 4-hour overdose of Sunday’s Kids Ministry. That gets us to 10%. Add the other evangelical groups to the mix and best figures, after consulting with other church leaders, give me a number of 4,500 kids in an evangelical church each Sunday for faith & fun. That’s only 7% of the kids in our community. And many of these kids are growing up with absolutely no access to the Gospel story or a Christian witness in their lives. Are we losing a generation as we strategize on how to improve our children’s facilities? (& considering the # of kids that need to be reached, can we even build a big enough facility to do what’s needed?) & preach loudly about God being taken out of schools? & order next years Vacation Bible School curriculum? & continue to think of kids ministry as a facilities focused ministry?
A New Vision for Kids Ministry
What if we began to consider the 93% in our Kids Ministry strategy? Not neglecting the 7%, providing faith & fun on Sunday’s as we are, but also thinking of new ways to get God’s story into the lives of kids in our community. When you think of it like this you’ll realize there are more opportunities then you might imagine. Here’s a few ideas:
- Encourage your congregation to get involved in schools on their terms, not yours. There are a variety of mentoring, tutoring, encouraging opportunities that will equal relationships with unchurched families in the community & opportunities to invest in kids. Our church recently provided free popcorn for an area schools open house & met several families in need.
- Partner with local kids organizations that are serving children & asking (if not begging) for volunteers. In my community, there’s the Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, local multi-housing complexes, private schools. And we’ve found many of them are open to you sharing THE story as part of your work.
- Multiply what you do on-site, off-site. You’ve made great backdrops & costumes, produced cool videos & posters, you’ve bought expensive curriculum, & prepared awesome crafts, & you’ve trained volunteers who are loving it. Why not look for an avenue to multiply that in the community? Do the VBS at a local multi-housing complex or another church that would not be able to do it for the kids in their neighborhood on their own. Do a one day kids ministry event at a local park or multi-housing complex utilizing all the stuff you’ve done over the past few months.
- Local Festivals provide opportunities to show kids & families that faith is fun by providing some of the crafts or games or other elements you do each week. This is a great way also to build trust with community leaders & parents. And you can say, “if you like what we do here, you’ll love our Kids ministry at ______ Church on Sunday.”
- Get the Kids involved. Instead of seeing them as hooks to get more “butts in the seats.” See them as missionaries who can invest in their friends & demonstrate that faith is fun & meaningful in the community. Teach kids that it’s important to serve & that faith is not just about them but others, by taking them on a local mission trip to the park or festival or multi-housing complex for Kids Ministry Day.
- Start or get involved in a mentoring program for children without dads, grandparents raising grandchildren, foster children, etc.
- Instead of VBS. I heard of one church that instead of VBS they encouraged neighborhood Bible Clubs during the summer & trained & empowered people to reach the kids & families around them, utilizing the same curriculum sets & production quality, but in yards & subdivision common space all around the city.
- Other ideas?
We’ve reached a point where we can’t keep preaching about culture decay, God kicked out of schools, & bad parenting. We’ve got to get involved. The doors are open in our communities. It won’t be easy, but salt is no good left in the salt-shaker. Could our churches add salt by taking your kids ministry to the streets?
Just thinking. Please share other ideas, opinions, corrections, smart remarks, etc. in the comments.
Reading: Easy #OnMission Opp
“The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.” ~ US Justice Dept
Over 70% of inmates in America cannot read above a fourth grade level.
Want to be On Mission? Get involved in a tutoring/reading program at the local school, Community Center, or start one at your church.
Our Association is working with STAIR (Start the Adventure In Reading) which targets 2nd graders in at-risk communities. Hoping to open several sites this fall. Message me to get involved.
Could one hour a week of our time save a life?
#OnMission Summer 2012 #Crossover
Not much time for blogging lately. Getting ready for a furious few weeks On Mission 4 Others in our region. Here’s our church’s & my personal lineup for Crossover/SBC 2012 in Greater New Orleans:
- Mon, June 11 – Wheelchair ramp going up in Madisonville for an elderly widow & 2K homes get bags on their door inviting them to participate in our annual summer can food drive. Info meeting for a Bridge Church Fall Mission Trip to Haiti to work with respirehaiti.org.
- Tues, June 12 – Serving a local Mobile Home Park in various ways, concluding with a Big Ole Block Party, 5-7pm.
- Wed, June 13 – More ramp, porch, hand rail building. And another Block Party at a local Multi-housing complex, 5-7pm.
- Thurs, June 14 – Final Meeting for our Spring Recovery & Re-entry Class at our local jail. 88 registered, 38 men will be Graduating. Honored to have done life with these friends for the last 26 weeks. Pumped to send many of them out as new men.
- Sat, June 16 – Block Party at Ames Blvd Baptist Church on the Westbank, 10-2pm. Painting @ the Covington Boys & Girls Club to get their new building completed, 9am-4pm. Backyard Bible Club in a Madisonville subdivision, 5-7pm. Family Movie Night at Lakeside Baptist Church in Metairie, 7-9pm.
- Sun, June 17 – Father’s Day Pancake Breakfast at Bridge Church, 10:30am @ the West St. Tammany YMCA. Father’s Day Block Party for Inmate families at our local jail, 1-4pm. Entertainment provided by Jim Chester. Graduating 38 men from our Recovery & Re-entry programs, Baptizing 20+ men who have found Christ through our church & ministry at the jail.
- Mon, June 18 – More porch, ramp, handrail building. Block Party & VBS Kickoff at a Ponchatoula Apartment complex.
- June 19-20 – Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting 2012 in New Orleans. I’ll be working the Unlimited Partnerships booth, voting for Fred Luter to be the next Pres of the SBC, & making connections & re-connections w/kingdom partners from around the United States in the SBC tribe.
Our partners for the next few weeks:
- FBC Chesnee, SC – First trip to NOLA for these guys. Bruce Jennings on point.
- Ford Park Baptist Church, Shreveport, LA. Fellow Northwestern St. Alums, Tate Miller & Heather Tolbert annually bring a group to work with us through Mission Lab.
- FBC Winnsboro, TX – Pastor David Rose is a fellow Northwestern St. & Southwestern Seminary Alum.
Here’s a bit of a photo dump of flyers for next week or so. Prayers appreciated.
Discipling Tool: How to Get A Grip On the Bible
Use this tool to get to know and begin or help others get to know and begin to use the Bible for the purpose of spiritual growth:
Email me for a copy of the booklet.
“Isn’t that in a bad part of town?”
The little phrase “the bad part of town” needs to be removed from the Christian vocab. Why?
- It’s another phrase we use to rid ourselves of ownership and responsibility for needs of places and people. We can excuse and recuse ourselves so easily by throwing out “the bad part of town” qualifier.
- It speaks of places and people that I’ll go out of my way to avoid. Avoidance of a certain kind of people can usually be traced back to a heart issue. Fear, Racism, Anger. “Jesus had to go through Samaria” (John 4), when others would walk further to go around because of their heart issues.
- It communicates fear and risk that we’re not willing to take. Is there really “a bad part of town” or are they just places that Christians are not willing to go? I’m not ignoring crime rates, etc., but are we who carry the power of God within really supposed to be afraid to carry the Gospel of light somewhere? In my reading of the New Testament, I don’t see fear and risk aversion as part of the DNA of New Testament Christians.
- Is the Gospel only meant for safe neighborhoods? “God, here I am, send me! And here’s the places I’ll be willing to go.” Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
- If it’s so dangerous out there, who’s going to be afraid for the kids growing up there?
- By avoiding and labeling certain parts of town are we condemning people who live there to never have opportunity to change because of our self-protection.
Christianity is about others! And it’s about others with needs. And it’s about transformation. I don’t want to allow any stereotypical statement or mindset to keep me from being a part of what God wants to do in my community. There is no US and THEM. It’s just US. This is our town, our community, our city, our responsibility…
“I am UNDER OBLIGATION both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you… For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” Romans 1:14-16.
Tweets:
- It’s easy to talk about “the bad part of town.” Harder to pick up a hammer or paint brush, mentor a child, volunteer at a school.
- It’s easy to talk about “the bad part of town.” Harder to become a sponsor for an addict, teach a class at the jail, foster a child.
Heaven’s Heroes
Got the chance to meet some amazing people recently that I just can’t get out of my mind. They spent 30+ years in a foreign country as missionaries. Then, moved home to pastor a church in a forgotten small town. Lost everything during Hurricane Katrina. Stayed. Have led the small church in the forgotten small town to rebuild & continue reaching out to a now broken population. As I talked with them, I notice how freely they laugh, I hear their heart for their community. She talks about the back yard Bible Clubs they have planned for EVERY Tuesday during the summer in an area housing development. He breaks away to talk with a young passerby about faith. I’m trying to listen as she’s telling me about Block Parties planned & the unwed mothers in town that need mentoring. They’re hungry for leaders to share the load with, BUT they’re not waiting. They’re missionaries.
I think these will be heaven’s heroes. We don’t know their names. They’re so common we wouldn’t remember them anyway. They’re in forgotten towns & villages that others deem as too hard or too small. They step out of a rice field to take the gospel to the next village. They walk 15 miles one way to teach a new congregation about life in Christ. They talk openly about faith in Christ & intentionally teach others to live for Him. They see all of life – home, work, play, even retirement – as an opportunity to glorify & witness for God. They see needs & they do all they can to meet them in the name of Christ. They would like to have more resources for the mission, BUT they’re not waiting or complaining. They’re missionaries. They’ll be heaven’s heroes.
In amazement at this couple that could say we’re too old, we’ve already served so much, we don’t have enough people, or a dozen other excuses, I say something to her like, “Thank you for the work y’all are doing. And for not just retiring.”
She says, “We can’t just sit here and do nothing!”
But many times I do. I make excuses. I wait for “the right time.” Or for “God’s call,” as if I haven’t heard it already. I complain about lack of resources. Or I put my time & energy & resources into personal pleasure more than in the mission of God.
O God, forgive me & give me the strength & passion of these Your heroes.
The New, Old Way of Movement Making
Recently traveled back through the book of Acts in conjunction with reading Thirty Years that Changed the World by Michael Green. A lot of work, volumes of books, rants and raves, doctoral dissertations, op eds, and more are being produced about the decline in American Christianity. I’m always struck by the simplicity of early Christianity. Here’s 4 things that jumped out at me that I want to personally lean in on in the coming months:
1. Disicpling: Relationships being built around an open Bible. It all started/starts with people gathered around the Word of God.
2. Faith in Action: Relationships being built around a ministry/mission or the needs of others. Growing Christians in Acts and today are others focused and mission driven. Follow the lives of early Christians in Acts and the first decades beyond and you’ll be struck by the incredible capacity for meeting needs. From pastoral care within to church planting in other regions, evangelistic campaigns, responding to disaster.
3. Apostolic Networking: New Relational tracks being established for the Gospel to run on. The big “A” Apostles established networks for the Gospel to take root. Today, with the declining influence of “the Church” and “the Bible says it” not being a good enough answer, we need new apostolic leaders to establish relational tracks with community leaders, neighborhood “elders,” Christianity’s critics, government agencies. Deeper than invitations to invocate at events, but to establish beach heads for the gospel to spread. More on this must be developed. Alan Hirsch’s newest book The Permanent Revolution: Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century is a long look at this. Also, check out his Christianity Today article from a few years back, “Where have all the APE’s gone?”
4. Multiplication: More people in more places doing 1, 2, & 3.
And they did it without manuals, conferences, podcasts, computers. May the Holy Spirit stir such simplicity in us.
The Crux: Christ vs. Human Emotions
Defined as the essential point requiring a resolution or resolving an outcome. Crux is latin for Cross. Every time we use or hear hear this phrase we’re referencing the essential point of God’s plan for the world that demands a resolution from each of us.
What do you emphasize as the essential point of your spiritual life? When it comes to spirituality there’s a few things I think I’ve made the CRUX instead of the cross:
Last post we dealt with Christ’s Cross vs. our Human performance.
Here’s another: Human Emotions. We often let our feelings tell us what’s true or false about God, the Gospel, ourselves, and others. God made us emotional beings and emotions can be a very positive force in our spiritual growth and fruitfulness as we experience God and the needs of others. But if allowed to be THE CRUX they can send us on roller coasters and hard crashes and ups and downs in relationships with God and others. Emotions drive our decision making in today’s world. Our modern ethic is based on three emotional pillars: 1) It seems right at the moment. 2) Everyone else is doing it. 3) It feels good. The common refrain today is “Follow your heart.” But the Bible says that the heart is easily deceived, wicked, and unkno//,wable (Jeremiah 17:9).
Here’s what happens if we allow our feelings to be the point:
- We feel unvalued and cared by God and others. “Where was God when…?” “Everybody is so unfriendly at the church.” “Everybody talks about me.” The way we feel becomes a lens by which we see everyone and everything.
- We live inconsistent spiritual lives, because discipline and consistency of action seldom feels good to the flesh. There has to be more to motivate you than warm and fuzzy feelings if you’ll grow and continue a certain way of life. Imitation is what Jesus desires, not just inspiration. “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” Luke 9:23.
- We’ll be often defeated by temptation because we’ll choose the easy way instead of the right way.
Here’s the Crux: The Gospel and it’s events (the death and resurrection of Christ) remain unaffected by whatever you’re feeling at the moment. And Jesus died to give us more than the warm fuzzy’s. He died that we may know REAL LIFE, POWER OVER SIN, AND LOVE THAT KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES. The cross of Christ stands as a constant reminder of HIS value and love and desire for us, no matter what. If Christianity is about what others think, what I feel, or what someone else may say, we miss the point.
Bridge Church is in the midst of a series of sermons on the Cross called The Crux. Gather with us Sunday’s, 10:30am at the West St. Tammany YMCA.
Lane Corley 