Revitalize Your Church

Cathy and the boys returned yesterday from Bible Quizzing Nationals. They all had a great time. It's inspiring to see hundreds of young people excited about memorizing God's Word. Our top team (Cathy coached) nearly made it to stage (which is the championship competition) but fell slighly short of the honor. Still, a good finish! Ryan took fourth place individually, and received a scholarship! Way to go Ryan!!

“If you can’t tell the difference between fleece and fur, you’re going to lose your spiritual arm right up to the elbow.” -- Dr. Walter Martin

A while back, while traveling out of town, I talked with a grumpy sales clerk. "How are you today?" I asked. "Terrible!" she replied, "This is a rotten day. It started out bad and has been going downhill ever since."I noticed that it was only 9:00 a.m. and said, "I think it's a little early to say the whole day is going to be bad. I'll bet the worst is over and that things will start getting better from here!"The guy behind me in line chimed in, "It'll probably get better for a little bit - but then it's gonna get worse! That's the way life is. It always gets worse." Yikes! Only 9:00 in the morning, and I was stuck with a pessimist in front of me, and another doom and gloomer behind me. Surrounded by negativity! My feeble attempt to spread some cheery optimism went over like a lead balloon, but I didn't let it hold me back. Exiting the store, I smiled and said, "Well, I hope the rest of the day goes bette...

From time to time, I write Sunday School Lessons for Wesleyan Publishing House. Right now, I'm working on a study of the three churches in Revelation 3. Jesus has a special message for each church. . . 1. To the Sardis Church -- Wake Up! 2. To the Philadelphia Church -- Cheer Up! 3. To the Laodicean Church -- Warm Up!

Now, this is fascinating! Could there be a lesson for the church here? Seth Godin reports on the phenomenon of the Dabbawalla. These men deliver thousands of lunches every single day in Mumbai... from the person's home to their office, hot and fresh. The reported error rate is one in six million. How is this possible? How do you create and run a service with thousand of employees, no technology and a poorly-educated workforce and have better than six sigma quality? Simple: the dabbawallas know their customers. If they rotated the people around, it would never work. There's trust, and along with the trust is responsibility. By creating a flat organization and building relationships, the system even survives monsoon season.

My friend, Joy, recently shared the following story from Ministering Cross Culturally There was a man who wanted to have some of his friends come over and help him do a task. Only a few showed up and so they sat on the porch and talked until more men showed up. Not enough men showed up to work, so they just sat talking and called it a day later that afternoon and decided that they would try it again next week. Now, I would have been frustrated by this. Frustrated that the few that were there didn't at least start on the task. Frustrated that nothing got done. Frustrated at what seems to be "wasted" time. But....they didn't see it that way. To them, work isn't worth doing at all if it isn't accompanied by relationship. If you can't enjoy your time together, then what is the point of working?

Cathy and the boys are all at Bible Quizzing Nationals in the Missouri Ozarks. Hannah and I are keeping the fires tended at home. Wednesday, we drove to Minneapolis and made a surprise hospital visit on Lori, a parishioner who had a major surgery. Hannah and I prayed over her, and Lori beamed. After the hospital, we went to the Art Museum for about an hour before returning home. On the return trip, Hannah said, "I really liked praying for Lori, but I didn't enjoy the museum very much. It was boring -- just a bunch of old paintings you can't touch -- and they had all those statues of naked people!" So much for the grand introduction into the fine arts. Returning home, we dropped in at youth group for an hour. It was "Messy Night" for the Junior Highers, reminding me why I "retired" from youth ministry! Yesterday, I was "Teacher Dad." Between Math lessons, Reading assignments, and Science experiments, I gave Hannah a sampling of the grea...