ConvergeUSA Blog

Lessons from the book of Jonah by Mark Doebler

Last Sunday, I spoke on the book of Jonah.  It’s a familiar story, but like some of our favorite movies, it’s worth going back to on a regular basis.  One of the primary elements of the story of Jonah is the unwillingness of Jonah to pursue the mission God had given him.  Those of us familiar with the story like to throw Jonah under the boat on this one, but most of us are doing the same thing.  God calls EVERYONE into mission.  But most of us run the other way.  There were two reasons that I mentioned that cause us to do so:

1. We don’t want what God wants… if anyone has a track record or being right…it’s God…just sayin.
2. We are afraid… the “what-ifs” start multiplying rapidly, the excuse of “I can’t” is heard by everyone we know, the fear of failure grips us.

It’s number two that I want to focus on with this article.  Most of us feel ill-equipped to do the things God has asked us to do.  Honestly, we’re not sure we have what it takes…God must have confused us with someone else.  Heck, we’re not even sure that it was God speaking…probably just that burrito from last night, right?  But over and over again, the Bible tells us stories of how God brings all the resources to bear to accomplish the task for someone willing to give themselves to the pursuit of his mission.

That’s where this business book review comes in.  Tony Morgan is a church leader and strategic thinker I’ve come to admire and respect from a distance.  He frequently reviews current business books and shares his review on his blog.  The most recent review is of a book titled Ten Steps Ahead.  Tony shared a list of his top ten ideas from the book.  Here are two that caught my eye:

1. “People frequently make better decisions with less information.”
2. “Visionaries almost always work at the edge of our understanding, where information is scarce or nonexistent and where intuitive decisions are often the only choice.”

I don’t know about you, but this sounds a lot like “walking by faith” to me.  And this is the part that really scares most of us and keeps us from following our divine GPS (God’s Positioning System).  We don’t know where we are, we’re not sure of where we’re going, and we don’t have enough information to get there.

So, here’s my question to all of you…. does the idea of being a “VISIONARY” help you sort out the challenges of walking by faith?  Does it inspire you to follow Jesus to places you don’t know by thinking of yourself this way?  In a way, visionaries are nothing more than people who walk by faith, and not by sight.  Does this inspire you to quit running and embrace the mystery of what you cannot see…of what God is calling you to pursue?  Does this help you stop running and start pursuing?

Jonah didn’t start as a visionary, but God turned him into one.  Whale gastric juices can do that to you.  What will it take for you?

Mark Doebler is the church planting pastor of Second Chance Church in Peoria, IL

When Shepherds become Wolves by Steve Mizel

I wrote here a while back on the importance of protecting the church from wolves.  My thinking was stirred on this subject again a couple weeks ago when I attended Scott Thomas' Gospel Coach training.

Scott compared the process of gospel coaching to the biblical mandate to shepherd the flock.  To coach, then, is to know, lead, feed, and protect individual sheep in the flock.  Since wolves are an ever-present danger to the sheep, we, as Christ's under-shepherds, must be always ready to use the staff to fight off these predators.

Scott led us to consider again Paul's warning to the Ephesian elders in his farewell address:

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:28-30)

I have read this many times, but something grabbed my attention this time that I didn't see clearly before.  Paul's first admonition isn't to protect the flock, but to pay careful attention to myself and the other leaders around me.  Why?  Because, Paul says, wolves will rise up "from among your own selves ... speaking twisted things, to draw away disciples after them."

This was a new thought to me.  I have to pay careful attention to my own heart - not just because I am a candidate for burn out or because I might slip into performance-based ministry or into some familiar sin - but because I might become a wolf.  While I am diligently protecting the flock from all those idiots "out there" who want to come in and steal influence away to themselves, I have the potential to become the chief danger to those whom I lead.

Pastor, you have the potential to become your people's greatest danger.

Sometimes we, the leaders in Christ's church, forget we are under-shepherds and try to steal God's glory for ourselves.  We preach not to point people to Christ, but to gain an audience and hear applause.  We lead not to spread the influence of Christ's kingdom, but to build our kingdom and expand our influence and to make our names great.  Even as we open God's word we are thinking more about our words and how we can use the Bible to further our agenda.

Instead of being being faithful under-shepherds, leading the sheep to Jesus the Great Shepherd, we are in danger of using Jesus as a way to pridefully draw disciples away after ourselves.  If I allow this pride to creep in, how long will it take before I start twisting God's word to my own agenda without even realizing it?

This is why I need to coach others in the gospel and why I need to be coached.  This why I cannot afford to become isolated in leadership.  This is why I can't look at guys who have done stupid things and lost their credibility to lead in God's church and think, What were they thinking?  I know what they were thinking - and I am in danger of thinking the same thing.

I need to "pay careful attention" to my own heart.  I need others around me who will help me and challenge me to do that - and I need to do it for them.

Steve Mizel is the church planting pastor of Trailhead Church in Edwardsville, IL

Financial Dos and Don'ts for Church Planters by Steve Smith

All new church pastors have to deal with the setting up of financial systems, which is often their least favorite part of the planting process. Because of their need to be involved with the finances in the early stages of the plant, there is a danger of not acting with integrity in all financial matters - to cut corners - so that they can move the plant forward. Some of these corner cutters are illegal and all are ungodly. Here are some of the most common issues of which the planter should be aware.

1. Not carrying liability insurance: All places you rent require you to carry liability insurance, as a protection to themselves. To fail to carry insurance is both dangerous and endangering to the landlord.

2. Giving yourself a raise: The quickest way to lose credibility with a core group is to take charge of your own salary increases. Always submit these decisions to your coach and oversight team until you have a leadership team in the church to oversee salaries.

3. Counting the money by yourself - and taking it home: An ethical no-no by IRS standards which can open you up to legal charges if known. And do not say they will never find out, make sure you have a back-up plan instead.

4. Failure to keep your obligations: Second quickest way to lose credibility with the launch team. Pay bills on time; keep all commitments that you made, especially in the Expectation Interview process.

5. Lying about housing allowance: It is normal to underestimate housing allowances, but it unethical to adjust them after the bills come due. If you misjudged, you have to accept it. Also, make sure that you adjust your housing allowance on your tax forms if you overestimated it. If you are audited, you will be glad you did.

6. Not tithing yourself: Never say that the hours you spend in ministry are your tithe to the church. You were called of God to this ministry. Never ask the people to be obedient in this if you are not, as they will come to find out (they always do!) and they will lose respect for you.

7. Donating stuff to yourself and taking a tax write off: This is illegal, period. Do not donate to your or your children’s college expenses or anything else that is sidestepping IRS regulations in this matter.

8. Writing checks on next week’s offering: It is better to pay for stuff out of your own pocket than take a chance that someone is going to bounce a check on the church plant. Further, if you are not able to handle a budget at this low income level, beware.

9. Not reporting income: If people pay you for a wedding or funeral, you must report it on a Schedule C as income. Do not see it as free money. Remember, God knows about this.

10. Paying people under the table: We are teaching people by what we do how much we respect authority that God has set up in the government. When we ignore this fact, we will find people will ignore our pastoral authority as well at some point

11. Using tax exemption for personal purchases: You are not the church, so do not jeopardize the church’s tax status by using its exemption for yourself. Furthermore, those that do this are revealing a moral lapse in their character.

12. Failure to control your budget: Budgets are guides to help the church people know the priorities of ministry. It is impossible to always know what will be needed in the first years, but, as the leader, you need to show that you value the other ministry volunteers by not spending money budgeted for their ministries on your own priorities.

Steve Smith is the Executive Minister of Converge Southeast

Spiritual Warfare: Blinding People by Gary Rohrmayer

This week is our final post in addressing the question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

14. Blinding People

“A leaders gentle reaction and sound instruction are their greatest weapons” – Gary Rohrmayer

Text: 2 Timothy 2:26 - Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Problem: “Satan blinds people to truth”. J. Robert Clinton

Antidote: “Gently persuade people winning them over by manner as well as truth”. J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

• What are some of the natural responses to opposition?
• How can the enemy use our natural responses to add to the problem?
• How can the enemy use youthful passions to derail leaders?  (II Timothy 2:22)
• How can the enemy use quarrels to deceive people? (II Timothy 2:23-24)
• How can the enemy use quarrels and controversies to distract the church?
• Why is gentleness so powerful in these situations?
• How many of the qualifications of elders have to do with emotional maturity? (I Timothy 3:1-7)

Prayer:

Father in Heaven, Gentle Savior, sanctify our hearts through trusting You rather than our own inclinations. May we be empowered through the spirit of gentleness and our trust in the truth of God rather than the force of our personalities.  Father, save us from the temptation to trust our natural inclinations and overreact under pressure.  As we humbly trust You, set people free who are captive to the enemy's will, break the bonds of spiritual death and divisiveness.  In the strong Name of Jesus, Amen.

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare: False Teachers by Gary Rohrmayer

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

13. False Teachers

“No man is exempted from the subtle deception of doctrinal drift – the man of God expects this temptation.” – Gary Rohrmayer

Text: 1Timothy 4:1-2 – “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”

Problem: “Satan uses demons to influence teachers to give false doctrines that appeal to people. They are actually described as seducing spirits, hypocritical liars with no conscience.”  J. Robert Clinton

Antidote: “A Bible centered leader like Timothy should teach the truth about these evil doctrines countering these heresies.” J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

• Where could the enemy attack your personal theological convictions?
• Where could the enemy subtly influence your churches theological framework?
• What is Paul’s strategy in protecting the church from false teachers?  See I Timothy 4:4-16
• What is Paul’s strategy in combating personal doctrinal drift?  See I Timothy 4:4-16
• How does theology drift potentially affect missional drift?

Prayer:  Holy Father, Beautiful Savior, God of all truth, we seek your light and your love to protect our lives from the delusions of the enemy.  Help us to cherish and nourish the deep truths of the faith.  Fill our lives with good teaching that ignites passion for God and missional hunger.   May we be leaders who watch our lives and doctrine closely; who live what we teach and set examples in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.   Teach us how to preserve the truth for ourselves, for our hearers and for the Glory of God.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Next Post: Blinding People

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

11 Keys to an Explosive Easter! Part 2 by Gary Rohrmayer

A record-setting 106 million people watched last year's Super Bowl.  Many believe that this record will be smashed this year.  The Super Bowl has become a focal point for fans and advertisers of all types.

One pastor said, "Easter is our church's Super Bowl."  This attitude is probably one reason why they have grown significantly each year since their church's existence.

In light of the fact that Easter falls later on the calendar this year, April 24th, you have an opportunity to have one of your largest Easter attendances in the history of your church. In my last post we looked at the first five Keys to Having an Explosive Easter.  Here are the rest of principles that you can apply in planning your explosive Easter this year.

6. Start recruiting help for Easter early.

Here is the principle, "The more people get involved the more likely they are to invite people to attend." Recruiting, deploying, and encouraging volunteers at all levels is vital to the success of your Easter Outreach.

Generate a list of Entry Level Service Opportunities

• Set Up
• Take Down
• Nursery
• Greeter
• Usher
• Hostess
• Sound Tech
• Musician
• Food Preparation
• Choir
• Children’s Ministries
• Video Production
• Audio Ministry
• Small Group Host
• Office Assistance
• Event Production
• Marketing Team
• Website Production

7. Write a personal letter to every member of the church about the Easter Service(s).

Leaders lead and sending a letter to your congregation shows initiative and leadership.  Make a heart felt appeal to your people to make this the best Easter ever in the life of your church.  The letter should contain the following:

• An enthusiastic vision: Why I am excited about this Easter Service?
• Encouragement & ideas for inviting friends: What invitational tools can I encourage them to use?
• Invite them to get involved: What serving opportunities do I need to specifically promote?
• Get the specific details: What logistical details do I need to share with them?
• Remind them of the reality of the resurrection in their lives: How can I encourage them to experience the victorious life promised in the resurrection?

See Sample Letter

8. Reach out to the fringe people of your church.

Send a special invitation or a personal note to all your visitors from the last two the years. There is nothing like a personal touch when it comes to outreach.  In may cases the most receptive people you can reach have already attended your services at some point.

9. Cast seeds of awareness to the community at large.

This principle is that you will always have to cast more seed than you think to get a significant impact. I encourage churches to spend 5-10% of their budget on marketing outreach.  If you are facing a certain growth barrier you will need to kick that up to 10-15%.

Here are a couple of posts on the various ways to sowing seeds of awareness through relationships and throughout the community.

• Sowing Seeds Through Your Webs of Relationships
• Sowing Seeds of Love in Your Community
• Sowing Seeds Through Servant Evangelism #1, #2, #3
• Sowing Seeds Through Marketing #1, #2, #3

10. Preach a message on personal evangelism the Sunday before Easter.

Laying a biblical foundation and creating a heightened awareness for personal evangelism with the immediate application of inviting someone to Easter will really pay off in the long run. In recent years evangelism training in local churches has really been neglected. In making this part of your strategy you create a new discipline so that great commission living becomes infused into the life of your church.

11. Deliver the best Easter Service(s) to date. 

You will need to communicate throughout the staff and volunteers that we want to put your best foot forward in this Easter Service. By creating a sense of urgency and taking steps to raise the quality of your service will have a lasting impact on your church.

It is important that you raise the quality of the service, not dramatically change your service or try to create an over-the-top experience. Turning your service into a Easter Extravaganza can back fire on you. 1) It does not represent who you are on a normal Sunday. 2) It can create a let down in your first time attender who returns the next week. 3) In bringing outside speakers or worship leaders you don't improve.  Nelson Seacy writes, "Make your Easter service excellent, but keep it normal. If you are the one who usually preaches, preach on Easter. Have your regular worship leader lead worship on Easter. The goal with your Easter service planning should be this: To provide a great, quality service that reflects what attenders will see the rest of the year. When you get too fancy in your efforts to capitalize on Easter, you step out of the realm of reality and that can only lead to disillusionment." 

 

Here are some other resources to help you have an Explosive Easter.

This Easter Outreach Idea Works by Chuck Warnock

Maximizing Easter Report by Nelson Seacry

18 Easter Factors by C Michael Johnson

Marketing Your Church for Easter by John E. Squiric

Free NextSteps Webinar on Missional Alignment by Gary Rohrmayer

Announcing the NextSteps Webinar Series! The NextSteps Series interprets the research from the Natural Church Development Paradigm by Christian Schwarz in a missional context.

The next event in the series is scheduled for Wednesday March 9th at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific.

Presented by CoachNet Global, Gary Rohrmayer is leading a free webinar series for pastors, church planters and leaders.  The goal of this session is to bring some theological and practical clarity to the issue of vision, values and systems alignment within the context of a missional paradigm.

Some practical questions:

• Does your vision breathe the mission of God?
• How easily measurable are your values?
• How well are your systems achieving missional outcomes?

The bottom line is:  How do you bring missional alignment to vision, values and systems?

In this 60 minute webinar--where you don’t have to travel or spend any money--Gary Rohrmayer will be joined by Jonathan Reitz of CoachNet.  You will:

• Discover what vision is and isn’t
• Learn how you can make you values measurable
• Gain a better understanding of how systems work in the local church

You can expect to learn:

• How to articulate you vision in light of the great commission
• How to measure the operational values that your church teaches
• How to bring alignment with your vision, values and systems

Learn more about the NextSteps for Leading a Missional Church

Register Here

Ignite 2011 National Church Planting Conference - Sign up Today

IGNITE - Promo from Cornerstone Chandler on Vimeo.

Register Here

11 Keys to Having an Explosive Easter Pt-1 by Gary Rohrmayer

"Overall, 31% of active churchgoers said they would definitely invite someone they know who does not usually attend a church to accompany them to a church service on Easter weekend this year."  Barna Group

In light of this research, if you have an average church attendance of 300, I believe that you could easily see 30-50% (100-150) increase at your Easter Service.  But what if you put some effort into it?  What if you spent 3 months planning and preparing your congregation for an explosive and transformational Easter this year?  I really believe that healthy churches can double their average attendance on Easter which will have a residual impact for the rest of the year.

With Easter falling later on the calendar this year, April 24, you have an opportunity to have one of your largest Easter attendances in the history of your church. Here are a few principles that you can apply in planning to have an Explosive Easter this year.

1.  Believe it can happen.

Leading a congregation can be a lonely and discouraging assignment. Helping pastors keep their heads in the game is one of the things I do all the time. It is so easy to get caught up with the negative distractions that ministry brings that we can get our eyes off the thousands of people who are so far from God but really close to us. Jesus said to his distracted disciples, "Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (John 4:35)  What do you do as a leader to keep your eyes on the harvest? What do you need to do to keep your staff, leaders' and church's eyes on the harvest? God is at work in your community! Do you believe it? Can you see through the eyes of faith the lives of families and neighbors who can be changed by the power of the gospel?

2. Have a record setting mentality.

What has been the largest Easter Service in the history of your church? What is holding you back to see it happen this year? The previous point deals with your belief in God and His redemptive work in the world. This point deals with your belief in your church, your team and God's work within and through your church. If you don't think it can happen as a leader then you and the church are in trouble. If you don't believe it then no one else will. What is keeping you for setting new Easter attendance record in the life of your church? 

3. Get your key influencers involved.

Getting key influencers involved in the process is vital to building positive momentum. Getting these individuals involved in planning and promoting your service is critical. Filling these individuals excitement about setting a new record and touching lives with the gospel is key, because it will spread infectiously throughout the congregation.

Too many pastors try to carry the load all by themselves, which is an unbiblical notion. Christianity is a team sport. Team building is one of the skills successful pastors need in their tool belts. Learning to pick the right players on your team is crucial. Guiding and leading the team is imperative. I encourage pastors to use short-term task forces with a specific task along with a starting and ending point.  If you build a task force for each of your major outreach initiatives for the Fall, Winter and Spring, your team building skills will improve each time and the impact on your congregation will dramatically improve. HT

4.  Put some effort into planning for before, during and after your Easter service
I call this the "three month rule" which is to begin the detailed planning process at least three months before launch of the outreach campaign.  Here is an overview of what would happen in those three months:

Three D's of Event Planning

• Develop a punch list - generating a complete list of 'to do's' with due dates that that need to be completely to insure a successful event.
• Determine a time line - listing major objectives 3 months before the event and 1 month after the event.
• Delegate assignments to your team - empower your team to own the tasks that need to be completed.
  • Here are the major areas that need to be covered
    • Intercession
    • Communication - Membership Awareness
    • Marketing & Promotion to Community
    • Worship Service Planning & Preparation
    • Follow up & Come back events

  5.  Promote prayer & fasting for friends, neighbors and family.

It is a must to incorporate a church wide prayer project for before and during the campaign. One example: Call the church to "pray for five neighbors, for five minutes a day, for five weeks" before the outreach campaign. Tim Beavis of The Orchard Church in McHenry developed a "Who is my neighbor?" campaign with this concept. Check out the card he used to encourage his church to pray for their neighbors.  You might consider using 2 identical cards in your church, one for the individual to hand in to the church for the prayer team to pray over and the other of the individual to take home with them.  In addition to this you could also call the church to a season of prayer and fasting.

Stay Tuned for Part 2

Spiritual Warfare: Immaturity and Pride by Gary Rohrmayer

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

12. Immaturity and Pride 

“There is nothing worse for a young convert than to be thrust into leadership without mentoring and ongoing coaching because the devil relishes these vulnerable souls.” – Gary Rohrmayer 

 Text: 1 Timothy 3:6 - He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 

Problem: “Satan can take a young leader out of ministry due to pride.” J. Robert Clinton

 Antidote: “Potential young leaders should not be placed into leadership responsibility too soon.”  J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:  

• How would you and your church define spiritual maturity?
• How would you and your church define spiritual leadership?
• What are the avenues for spotting potential leaders in your local church?
• What are the pathways for mentoring new converts into leadership roles?
• Do you have a training process for equipping and mentoring deacons?
• Do you have a training process for equipping and mentoring elders?

Prayer Response: Father in Heaven, protect our church from thrusting recent converts into leadership roles carelessly.  Show us how to nurture, equip and mentor these recent converts in the areas of spiritual, emotional and relational maturity.  Raise up an army of leader makers, like Barnabas, who will invest countless hours into the lives of potential leaders.  Lord of the Harvest, grant us success in spotting, engaging, and mobilizing these workers into Your mission field.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Next Post: False Teachers

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare