One of the things I love most about reading is that you never know when you are going to find what you least expected when the book begins. This is what happened to me over the last many weeks when I picked up a copy of “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski.
I picked up the book to refresh and renew myself and fall in love with God all over again. I wanted to read about others who love God so much that it is just crazy to even describe it. I found that and much more as is what God always intends if we will just keep our minds and hearts open. What I found was that crazy love and crazy living are exactly what I want. No leftovers for God. I have no plans to float downstream away from Christ. I will sprint up the escalator rather than ride on its eternal downward cycle.
Chan asks the question: Would you describe yourself-totally in love with Jesus Christ or more halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed? Then begins the “the profile of the lukewarm” and the unexpected…take a good hard, searching, honest look at your life; not who you want to be one of these days but who you are today and how you are living.
Here are just a few notes Chan makes about the profile of the lukewarm and the stewardship of their lives:
• LUKEWARM people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living.
• LUKEWARM people give if they have a little extra and it is easy to give. God loves a cheerful giver, right?
• LUKEWARM people ask, “How much do I have to give? Instead of “How much can I give?”
• LUKEWARM people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, but rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.
Well, you get my drift. I’m not going to spoil the rest of his descriptions of LUKEWARM church people. For every lukewarm description Chan gives is the Scripture which supports it. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t believe Chan intends this part of his book or any part of Crazy Love to be used as ammunition to judge our brothers and sisters. Instead, I think he earnestly hopes we will examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith. (2 Cor. 13:5).
There is credence to what Chan describes that he has found with the American church: “it is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity.” Lukewarm people call “radical” what Jesus expected of all his followers. Warning: To begin the transformation process to crazy love and crazy living, you have to get through Chapter Two of Crazy Love: “You Might Not Finish This Chapter.”
Glad I did.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Whose Offering Plate?
I've always been intrigued by the title of J. Clif Christopher's book, Not Your Parents' Offering Plate. I suppose because my teenagers would think the title should be Not Your Grandparents' Offering Plate. So as I read the book, I kept in mind that if I gave this book to a young adult person in the congregation I serve or recommended the book to one of our young clergy, it would be advantageous to offer some clarification to them about just whose offering plate the author is referring to in his writings.
The book was a really easy and quick read, primarily comparing the church to nonprofit organizations with the church not in the positive light. If you are not in favor of using the terms donor, customers, and fund-raising with regards to the church, you might want to close the book from the beginning. I would tell you to bite your tongue and keep flipping the pages. The terms are used throughout the book because today Christopher works primarily with nonprofit organizations rather than churches through the company he founded, Horizons Stewardship Company.
Having said that, I will say that I found some good counsel regarding communicating with financial leadership teams in your local churches. If you are looking for ways to help a finance committee of a local church understand why it is important for the pastor to be involved in the giving and finances of the church, turn to chapter four. Although the examples used are directed more towards capital giving, you will find nuggets to apply to the general fund giving of the local church. Here are just a couple of reasons highlighted: 1)"Knowing what members give will help you capture the real gift: their soul" 2)"Knowing what people give will help determine the effectiveness of church programs" or more plainly put: Are we changing lives?
Christopher ties the Biblical story of Zacchaeus to these points and his case that all members are not equal when it comes to giving. Christopher states that Jesus had a great concern for the poor and marginalized but for the wealthy as well because Jesus knew how easily money could pull them away from God. (Go back and read the Zacchaeus story in Luke 19:1-10.) He writes "I am convinced that Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house to get his soul, not his money. But when Jesus heard of the gift of money, he knew he had Zacchaeus' soul."
Having experienced difficulty in helping pastors and finance committees of local churches understand why it is important for pastors to have knowledge of the giving within the church they serve, I appreciate Christopher's willingness to step out boldly and provide counsel to pastors who are struggling with this same topic in the life of the church they serve. I believe as Christopher states that when pastors have a glimpse into where the treasure and heart are of a church member and it appears not to be with God, we must help them remove that which stands between them and salvation.
I am a pastor who likes to identify the lessons learned (both positive and developmental) at the end of the day whether it be with myself personally or with a group following a ministry effort. And yes, sometimes it appears that we did more things wrong than right. Yet with that comes our spiritual growth and identifying things we would do today and do differently. That is what Christopher does in the final chapter of his book. Some of us might want to go the last chapter first and read all the lessons learned before we dive into the detail of the book and learn how that lesson was learned. However you decide to read the book, one thing Christopher would do now is "Pray, Study, and Get My Act Together First." Isn't that what we all should be doing?
The book was a really easy and quick read, primarily comparing the church to nonprofit organizations with the church not in the positive light. If you are not in favor of using the terms donor, customers, and fund-raising with regards to the church, you might want to close the book from the beginning. I would tell you to bite your tongue and keep flipping the pages. The terms are used throughout the book because today Christopher works primarily with nonprofit organizations rather than churches through the company he founded, Horizons Stewardship Company.
Having said that, I will say that I found some good counsel regarding communicating with financial leadership teams in your local churches. If you are looking for ways to help a finance committee of a local church understand why it is important for the pastor to be involved in the giving and finances of the church, turn to chapter four. Although the examples used are directed more towards capital giving, you will find nuggets to apply to the general fund giving of the local church. Here are just a couple of reasons highlighted: 1)"Knowing what members give will help you capture the real gift: their soul" 2)"Knowing what people give will help determine the effectiveness of church programs" or more plainly put: Are we changing lives?
Christopher ties the Biblical story of Zacchaeus to these points and his case that all members are not equal when it comes to giving. Christopher states that Jesus had a great concern for the poor and marginalized but for the wealthy as well because Jesus knew how easily money could pull them away from God. (Go back and read the Zacchaeus story in Luke 19:1-10.) He writes "I am convinced that Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house to get his soul, not his money. But when Jesus heard of the gift of money, he knew he had Zacchaeus' soul."
Having experienced difficulty in helping pastors and finance committees of local churches understand why it is important for pastors to have knowledge of the giving within the church they serve, I appreciate Christopher's willingness to step out boldly and provide counsel to pastors who are struggling with this same topic in the life of the church they serve. I believe as Christopher states that when pastors have a glimpse into where the treasure and heart are of a church member and it appears not to be with God, we must help them remove that which stands between them and salvation.
I am a pastor who likes to identify the lessons learned (both positive and developmental) at the end of the day whether it be with myself personally or with a group following a ministry effort. And yes, sometimes it appears that we did more things wrong than right. Yet with that comes our spiritual growth and identifying things we would do today and do differently. That is what Christopher does in the final chapter of his book. Some of us might want to go the last chapter first and read all the lessons learned before we dive into the detail of the book and learn how that lesson was learned. However you decide to read the book, one thing Christopher would do now is "Pray, Study, and Get My Act Together First." Isn't that what we all should be doing?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Ministry in Hard Times
Writing a blog on stewardship has been a passion of mine for the last number of years; yet time and other distractions seemed to prevent this from coming to fruition. Of course it is God's timing and not mine. With the launch of a stewardship blog by the United Methodist Foundation of Western North Carolina, the opportunity to continue my stewardship ministry through blogging has presented itself. With the latest release of new stewardship publications during these tough economic times, I thought I would select a few of these new books and blog.
I chose to blog about Bill Easum's and Bill Tenny-Brittian's new book Ministry in Hard Times.
What caught my eye and influenced my reading of this book was the the statement on the first page of Chapter One, "Wildcards are major events that come out of nowhere, totally unforeseen by the common person, and change everything." Generally I don't use the term "wildcard" to describe major events. I'm all about wildcards in football and playing card games where the value of the wildcard is determined by the wildcard holder, typically a good thing.
I had to work at keeping Easum's and Tenny-Brittian's usage of wildcard in mind as I made my way through the opening chapter of the book. However, from Chapter Two forward, I became engrossed in their message of returning to the basics of what has made our churches great in the first place, sharing the message of Jesus Christ, scriptural holiness, making disciples of Jesus Christ and transforming people and the world. I embrace their message in hard times (I believe all the time) that the church should spend their time, energy, and money on an outward focus into the world and not an inward focus.
Easum and Tenny-Brittian provide a Hard Times Budget Formula, aiming to spend strategically and achieve more with less. The Hard Times Budget Formula: Always Increase: Worship, Children's Ministry, Evangelism, Marketing, Continuing Education, Volunteer Ministries, Small Groups, and Spiritual Formation. Always Cut: Office Personnel, Missions, Youth Program, Nonessential Ministries, and Money in the Bank.
The Formula is fleshed out in detail in subsequent chapters. The detail at first glance appears to be directed to church Finance leaders. However, Easum's and Tenny-Brittian's reasoning and their lessons shared should drive Finance leaders to connect broadly with leaders of all ministry areas to pray, reflect, and "strategically dream." They believe that strategic dreaming vs. strategic planning is what is needed in a "wildcard world." If you've had to ditchd all strategic plans during these hard times, we might need to be reminded what a strategic plan is: "drawing up plans before you begin the journey, based on information at hand." So what then is strategic dreaming: "starting out on the journey with a general idea of where you want to go, yet being flexible enought to take detours, reroute, or even start over again if that's what it takes to reach the destination."
I thought immediately of Acts 16:9-15 in which the Apostle Paul is on the move proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Throughout his journey, Paul confronts detour after detour without a precise destination. Luke reports that the “Spirit of Jesus” both prevented Paul from going in one direction and allowed him to advance in another. Paul would not have been guided to his meeting of Lydia were he not first of all at God’s disposal, open to being guided, sensitively attuned to being steered in one direction and away from others. Routinely in Acts, the Spirit intervenes to guide, assist, and inspire.
The Hard Times Budget Formula is not a one size fits all solution for the church in order to journey through the hard times and come out on the other side as a stronger church. The Formula is a practical tool, which gives churches an opportunity to read, pray, reflect, and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit as to where their focus should be while journeying through these hard times.
I chose to blog about Bill Easum's and Bill Tenny-Brittian's new book Ministry in Hard Times.
What caught my eye and influenced my reading of this book was the the statement on the first page of Chapter One, "Wildcards are major events that come out of nowhere, totally unforeseen by the common person, and change everything." Generally I don't use the term "wildcard" to describe major events. I'm all about wildcards in football and playing card games where the value of the wildcard is determined by the wildcard holder, typically a good thing.
I had to work at keeping Easum's and Tenny-Brittian's usage of wildcard in mind as I made my way through the opening chapter of the book. However, from Chapter Two forward, I became engrossed in their message of returning to the basics of what has made our churches great in the first place, sharing the message of Jesus Christ, scriptural holiness, making disciples of Jesus Christ and transforming people and the world. I embrace their message in hard times (I believe all the time) that the church should spend their time, energy, and money on an outward focus into the world and not an inward focus.
Easum and Tenny-Brittian provide a Hard Times Budget Formula, aiming to spend strategically and achieve more with less. The Hard Times Budget Formula: Always Increase: Worship, Children's Ministry, Evangelism, Marketing, Continuing Education, Volunteer Ministries, Small Groups, and Spiritual Formation. Always Cut: Office Personnel, Missions, Youth Program, Nonessential Ministries, and Money in the Bank.
The Formula is fleshed out in detail in subsequent chapters. The detail at first glance appears to be directed to church Finance leaders. However, Easum's and Tenny-Brittian's reasoning and their lessons shared should drive Finance leaders to connect broadly with leaders of all ministry areas to pray, reflect, and "strategically dream." They believe that strategic dreaming vs. strategic planning is what is needed in a "wildcard world." If you've had to ditchd all strategic plans during these hard times, we might need to be reminded what a strategic plan is: "drawing up plans before you begin the journey, based on information at hand." So what then is strategic dreaming: "starting out on the journey with a general idea of where you want to go, yet being flexible enought to take detours, reroute, or even start over again if that's what it takes to reach the destination."
I thought immediately of Acts 16:9-15 in which the Apostle Paul is on the move proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Throughout his journey, Paul confronts detour after detour without a precise destination. Luke reports that the “Spirit of Jesus” both prevented Paul from going in one direction and allowed him to advance in another. Paul would not have been guided to his meeting of Lydia were he not first of all at God’s disposal, open to being guided, sensitively attuned to being steered in one direction and away from others. Routinely in Acts, the Spirit intervenes to guide, assist, and inspire.
The Hard Times Budget Formula is not a one size fits all solution for the church in order to journey through the hard times and come out on the other side as a stronger church. The Formula is a practical tool, which gives churches an opportunity to read, pray, reflect, and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit as to where their focus should be while journeying through these hard times.
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