Revitalize Your Church

"Congregations have two types of customers.   Primary customers are the ones who are not yet part of the congregation because they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Secondary customers are the disciples who are alrady involved in the congregation.  These secondary customers are developed to reproduce more primary customers.  When that order is reversed, of if a congregation loses sight of its primary customers, a leader will passionately do everything possible to right that situation -- even it if costs friends and relationships.  A leader is passionate about what to do, with whom to work and how to expend limited resources."   -- Paul D. Bordon in Direct Hit: Aiming Real Leaders at the Mission Field

"Churches don't make disciples.  Disciples make churches." -- Alan Hirsch

Most people come to church by means the church does not allow, else there would be no need their getting to her at all. . . the operation of the church is entirely set up for the sinner, which creates much misunderstanding among the smug. -- Flannery O'Conner

I swiped this from a great post at TN Rural Church, called "Missional Living in Southern Rural America." The same truths apply up north too -- so I switched the word "southern" to "northern" and am passing it on to you: 1. Northern Rural Churches must see themselves within the context of a vast mission field. 2. Northern Rural Churches must see themselves as missionaries (not just church members) within their own rural context. 3. Northern Rural Churches must begin to see the growing lostness that exists in their very churched culture. The assumption that most people are saved is just wrong. Many have been exposed to the Gospel, but have not yet made decisions for Christ. 4. Northern Rural Churches must figure out how to invest their resources (buildings, dollars, people, spiritual gifts, etc) incarnationally. 5. Northern Rural Churches must get past their “smallness” and realize thier potential in Kingdom Work. We, by and large, are small. Get over it a...

Here's a fabulous statement regarding the grand story of Scripture from my good friend, Mark Jalovick, director of Wisconsin Wilderness Campus. From Genesis to Revelation, God is seeking to rebuild his kingdom through obedient servants for the purpose of world redemption. And here's the translation by Jeremy Mavis, our Children's Pastor: The Bible is about God continually working to fix this world through his kind of special people in order to make his kind of world.

My friend, Josh Johnson, pastor of Hope Wesleyan Church, in Fowler, Indiana recently shared a heartwarming which demonstrates what Christian fellowship should look like. When their church experienced significant flood damage last week, another congregation in town, First Presbyterian Church, opened of their doors, and took them in. Both congregations will meet at the Presbyterian Church until the necessary repairs are made to the Wesleyan facility. This kind gensture made the news , serving as a beautiful witness to the entire community.

Here's the website of my friend, Dr. Hanna Massad's ministry, Christian Mission 2 Gaza. Please pray for the Massad family as they share God's love in a very difficult place.

A great idea from Mount Union Wesleyan Church in Pennsylvania. Kudos to Pastor Josh Rhone and his missional, small town congregation who really get what Jesus meant when he said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." Small Town Church Redefines Potluck Dinners

A great post from my good friend and ministry partner, Heath Davis, at his blog, A Northwoods Life : If we desire to make wide sweeping change in the world, I think we must begin in the small and local. In today's global society we have become so enamored with the elephant-size agendas and global-change that we foolishly dismiss change at the local level as unimportant and insignificant. Nothing could be further from the truth! Read the rest here

"The church does not have a mission. The mission has a church. The crosshairs of God's mission is the world." -- Reggie McNeal (HT Pat Hannon)

The plan for a Christ­ian church is much more than an as­so­ci­a­tion of con­gen­i­al friends who lis­ten once a week to an in­tel­lect­u­al dis­course and mus­ic­al en­ter­tain­ment and car­ry on by proxy a mech­a­nism of Christ­ian work. But ra­ther, it is a church that can be at once: 1. The mo­ther and home of ev­e­ry form of help and bless­ing which Je­sus came to give to lost and suf­fer­ing people. 2. The birth­place and the home of souls 3. The foun­tain of heal­ing and cleans­ing. 4. The shel­ter­ing home for the or­phan and dis­tressed. 5. The school for the cul­ture and train­ing of God’s child­ren. 6. The ar­mory where they are equipped for the bat­tle of the Lord and the ar­my which fights those bat­tles in His name. Such a cen­ter of pop­u­la­tion in this sad and sin­ful ...

The long-standing northwoods snow has begun to melt these last couple of days. It's a welcome sight after the long winter. We've not seen the ground since November, and now glorious patches of brownish green are peeping through. When my dog, Vin and I took our daily stroll this morning, we went "shloosh, shlish, shloosh" rather than the normal "crunch, crunch, crunch." It's melting time. The whole northwoods experiences the melting together. You can't get away from it. Rivers are rising. Snow lines are receding. Neighbors are rejoicing. Roadways are waterways. Every place we step is touched by it. I know, because my socks are wet this morning. And this is my deepest prayer for our church. I am praying for a spiritual melting. I pray that we will pour out from the freezer (Sunday morning church) and permeate the entire community. May we love God and our neighbors in such a way, that a person can't go anywhere in town without stepping in i...

We showed this video in church today

An outstanding post by Brian Mosley: 5 Reasons We are Outsourcing our Faith We live in an extremely consumer-driven culture that tells us that the customer is number one. The customer is always right. I can have it my way. I deserve the best. This consumerism has crept into the church and turned church members into customers. The church exists to serve me and my family. Mosley goes on to address the following questions: 1) How did we get here? 2) How do you and I turn things around?

While working on my book, I did a google search trying to discover the first time the word "missional" was used. Thanks to the Tall Skinny Kiwi -- Andrew Jones, who directed me to this line in The Heroes of African Discovery and Adventure written by C. E. Bourne and published in 1883: " Bishop Tozer, the Missional Bishop of Central Africa" (Link to the page via google books -- my favorite source for old book research.) I guess the good Rev. N. T. Wright isn't the first Missional Bishop after all.

Jason Dukes gets it! I've just finished reading his wonderful book, Live Sent: You Are a Letter, and found myself saying, "That's so true! Amen brother!" the whole way through. Dukes, who describes himself as a follower and a leader, a learner and a teacher, a writer and a dreamer, a pastor and an entrepreneur and someone who tries to live sent daily, has captured the heartbeat of what the church ought to be. Church is not a "what", Duke declares, It is a "WHO!" Church is not a place and time on Sunday morning. Church is the people of God -- sent into the world as letters of grace. Church health is not measured by how many people show up on Sunday morning -- but how the people show up to bring God's love everywhere they go. Dukes advocates a decentralized approach to ministry -- encouraging people to LIVE the mission every day. This does not mean trying to find time in your schedule to fulfill God's mission -- your WHOLE schedule IS God...

Holiness that is not missionary is BOGUS -- Seth C. Rees (a Wesleyan forefather -- founder of the Pilgim Holiness Church)

"Jesus didn't hang out in synagogues. He hung out at wells. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture." -- Mark Batterson Ponder this. Where are the "wells" located in your community? Where's the place where your church can naturally cross paths with your community?

Jim Tomberlin, founder, president and senior strategist for MultiSite solutions, recently shared an insightful list of trends in the multisite church movement for Outreach Magazine . #8 on his list is of special interest to the small town-rural pastor.

"We cannot help the world unless we change our way of being in it." -- Hope & Action, an advent pastoral letter from Methodist bishops