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A Few Links You Need To Check Out!

July 28, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church with 0 Comments

I am still processing some of the things I heard last week at the National Worship Leaders Conference and will write a bit about it later this week.  Until then, here are some great links to other blogs with some great content that is well worth your time to check out:

  • Tony has a sneak peek at a video from the New Hillsong recording that is due out August 4th.  Love their music and passion for worship!
  • Brian’s post about divorce really hits a soft spot in my heart.  I wrestle with questions about this often.
  • Rob hits the nail on the head with this post about Christianity and its relationship with “going to church.”
  • Are you a Worship Pastor that is not getting along with your Lead Pastor?  Tim writes about the tension that brings.
  • Perry talks about Preparation H (Yes, I write that correctly) and how it relates to confession.  Gotta read this one!

Hope you all have a great day!

Responsible "To" or Responsible "For?"

May 8, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, leadership, mission, people, the church with 0 Comments

A couple of months ago I was at Granger Community Church for a couple days of workshops that they were holding.  I took Mark Waltz’s classes both days, and a statement he made in that class has stuck with me and keeps replaying itself in my head (Yes, I hear voices! – JK).  That statement was this, “We are responsible ‘to’ people, we are not responsible ‘for’ people.”

As I have mulled that over in my head for the last couple of months, and used it as a lens in which to do ministry, it has helped to to focus on what I need to do for others, and leave the rest up to God.  As I was reading in Acts this morning, I came across Paul’s goodbye to the church in Ephesus.  As he writes to them, he says in verse 26 “I tell you today that I am no longer responsible for any of you!” A few verses later (32) he says, “I now place you in God’s care.” He says that after he tells them all of the things he has done to help them take their next steps and after he tells them, “Ok, now it is up to you to go on from here.”  Paul knew he had come to the end of what he could do, and that the rest was up to the work that God wold have to do in their lives.

Many people in churches today have this idea that we must push people along the same route, and that it all takes the same amount of time for everyone to get to the next step.  They treat the journey in Christ like it has a cookie cutter design to it that everyone should follow.  That breeds image rather than true spiritual growth.  It breeds Pharisees rather than disciples.  But that is what happens when we think we are responsible for people rather than to them.

Being responsible for people brings a pressure and responsibility that God never designed into a person’s life.  If someone does not take their next step, then I feel like I have failed.  Being responsible to people means that I am sharing what I have to share, leading people to the table, but they have to make the decision to eat, I cannot force them. That is up to them to decide and for God to work.

Mark illustrated it so well.  Let me just cut and paste here:

  • If we understand that are are responsible to people, then I understand they have a choice… if I feel responsible for people, I think I should choose for them.
  • If we understand that are are responsible to people, then I know they must figure out their next step… if I feel responsible for people, I think I should tell them what there next step is.
  • If we understand that are are responsible to people, then I understand they must bear the consequences of their actions… if I feel responsible for people, I assume the guilt, or worse yet the shame for them.
  • If we understand that are are responsible to people, then I share their journeys, offering encouragement and teaching… if I feel responsible for people, I try to direct their journeys, never allowing them to wrestle or mess up.
  • If we understand that are are responsible to people, then I talk to God a lot on their behalf… if I feel responsible for people, I tend to talk to people a lot on God’s behalf.
  • “If Jesus trusts the Holy Spirit, maybe we should too!”
  • “It is God that does the growing, we just get in the way.”

So, how do you do ministry?  Do you feel responsible for people or to people?  What do you think about the difference?

"The more I am around 'Christians,' the less I want to be one."

March 30, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, mission, people, the church with 5 Comments

“The more I am around ‘Christians,’ the less I want to be one.” I have heard that statement many times coming from those who are not Christ followers. There are many reasons given.  Many times it is a general characterization of everyone who claims to be a Christ follower and is certainly not true of everyone who is.  That is kind of like a “throwing the baby out with the bath water” thing.  There are many times where there is a legitimate reason.  Jesus Himself had more critical words for the “religious” crowd of the day than he did for the “publicans and sinners.”  My friend Jeff Miller said in his blog post todaypharisee2, “The longer I live, I’m less and less surprised by the fact that non-believers live and act like non-believers.”  I feel the same way. Non-believers are suppose to act the way they do.  They have no spiritual truth in which to guide them, so it should not surprise us at all.  But many churches act more like the Pharisees, who wanted people to become just like them before they accepted them.  They placed high priority on ritual rather than a relationship.  They valued conformity rather than confession and image over integrity.  They dealt with matters of the outward while Jesus concentrated on the inward.

I think many Christians (and churches) have fallen into this as well.  We come to church, sing a few songs to make us feel good, tip God when the offering plate is passed, try to stay awake during the talk (which is another blog post in itself) and then go out and have very little concern for people around us.  Nothing that happens inside the church affects how we live outside the church.  If that last statement is true, why do we even go to church?  Why do we even call ourselves Christians?

God expects more from us.  He expects us to live like our relationship with Him makes a difference… because it does.  That is not to say that we will not have times of failure in the way we treat people, we will.  But that will be an exception, not the rule.   A pastor that I once worked for used to say “your beliefs affect your behavior.”  If that is the case (and I believe it is), there are not many people that call themselves Christians that do not believe very much about what Jesus taught.

And before you ask me if I am perfect, no, I am not.  I struggle every day being the man God wants me to be.  But at least I am struggling with it, many are not.

Anyone else feel like this?  Maybe I am being to tough?  What do you think?

"If we build it, they will come!" Uhh… yeah right!

March 24, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, the church with 2 Comments

calendarI love when we do a series on the Church!  My passion in life is to see the Church be what God intended it to be, so when we start discussing things about the Church, I get all fired up as I think about the potential that is locked up in each local church to make a huge impact for the Kingdom where God has planted them.  Every now and then someone will make the comment that we talk about the church a lot.  My answer to them is, “Yes, and we do and we do not apologize for that.”  Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for her.  The Church is God’s plan for reaching people and introducing them to Jesus so they can experience life change.  We NEED to talk about it often!

This last weekend at our church, we specifically talked about the health of a local church.  I think for many years, people thought that if a church had a lot of ministries and kept people busy nearly every night of the week that the church was healthy.  I believe the opposite is true.  I know, some may stop reading this post right here.  And that is ok, I used to think that being busy equated to being Spiritual.  We have been so conditioned to see the church as what it has been, or as what we have made it that seeing it change has become something many have actually preached about.  Many churches today are filled with leaders and church people that worship their methods rather than the God that they say they love and follow.  We have made people so busy doing churchy things in our churches that there is little or no time left to actually be the Church to those in our community.  We tell people we are to be salt and light and to reach others for Jesus, but there is little to no time to do that because we have ladies meeting Monday night; visitation on Tuesday night; of course we have to be a “Wednesday night Christian” (a guilt statement intended to get people to come to something that is dying); Thursday night is a small group or Children’s ministry; Friday night is a youth activity and then Saturday we are suppose to go to bed early so we can be rested up and ready to spend 8 hours at the church on the “Lord’s Day.”  And then on Sunday a preacher will get up and say that we ought to be in church more “as the day approaches” (taken totally out of context).  What is wrong with that picture?

Most churches are in a Christian bubble, and if you suggest ways to pop that bubble (or even say that it may exist) many will call you ungodly or worldly and maybe even question your commitment to God.  I am not sure where we got this way of “doing church.”  Jesus certainly did not stay in a bubble as He ministered to people.  He rubbed shoulders with the most vile and wicked people of the day.  He went out of His way (remember the woman at the well?) to reach people where they are at.  He did not sit with His disciples and say, “Ok, we have my healing ministry in place, our feeding ministry in place and I have a handful of sermons that I have preached already that I can regurgitate, now they will come to us because we have everything in place.”  It just does not work like that.

Where did we get this idea that “if we build it, they will come?”  Where did we get the impression that secluding ourselves within the walls of the church was a Godly thing to do?  What does that produce?  Nothing!  Well, actually, it produces inbreeding, where we just give birth to and raise others with the same mentality (we have seen that in denominations and “fellowships” too!).

I for one am sick of the typical “if we build it (or have that ministry), they will come”thinking.  Jesus did not pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that we would be protected in it.  I think we would do good to remember that.

Am I making too much of this?  Should we just program ourselves to death and keep people busy? Are the unchurched drawn to programs or relationships that are created before they ever step in the doors of our church?  What do you think?

Interview with Jeff Bell, Campus Pastor of Granger Community Church: Elkhart

March 13, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, leadership, mission, multi-site, passion, the church with 0 Comments

The last of the interviews I was able to do while attending Granger Community Church’s workshops was with Jeff Bell.  Jeff is the Campus Pastor of Granger’s first expansion site in Elkhart, Indiana that was started six months ago.  Jeff’s passion for GCCE is so contagious!  Jeff sat down and discussed multi-site planning and philosophy.


Interview with Jeff Bell – Campus Pastor of Granger Community Church: Elkhart from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

Thanks again Jeff for the time you took to talk multi-site! I cannot wait to see where Granger is headed next to reach people and help them take their next steps!  You can follow GCCE and Jeff on his blog.

Interview with Jason Miller, Pastor of Worship at Granger Community Church

March 12, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church, Worship with 2 Comments

Jason Miller serves as Pastor of Worship and College Age Ministries at Granger Community Church.  When you see Granger’s services, you cannot help but notice the creativity and excellence in the arts that are presented week in and week out.  Jason is a big part of that.  If you have not seen any of their services, GO HERE and watch some of them.  I was able to sit down and spend a few minutes with him last week while attending some workshops that were hosted by Granger.


Interview with Jason Miller from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

I appreciate Jason giving up some of his time to do this interview.  You can read more about Jason at his blog, commonjason.com.

Interview with Kem Meyer: "Less Clutter. Less Noise."

March 11, 2009 in books, church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church with 1 Comment

meyerbook

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was able to spend some time at Granger Community Church last week.  While there, Kem Meyer (Granger’s Communications Director) was gracious enough to give me a few moments of her time to talkabout her new book,  “Less Clutter. Less Noise.: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures and Bake Sales.”  I loved her passion as she spoke about how churches make things WAY to complicated!  (Sorry for few seconds of fan noise and the phone interference… I think Kem’s new iPhone and laptop were sitting right next to my camera!)


Interview with Kem Meyer from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

Read Kem’s blog here. Thanks again Kem!  I cannot wait to read your book!

Interview with Tim Stevens: "Pop Goes The Church"

March 10, 2009 in books, change, church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church with 0 Comments

pop_goes1Last week I spent some time at Granger Community Church as they hosted their workshops.  It was a time of great encouragement, and I learned a lot that I am hoping will help me to serve Jesus better at my church.  It was also an honor to be able to spend time with some of the leaders of the church.  I interviewed a few of these leaders, and will be posting them over the next few days.

Today, we will start with Tim Stevens, who is the Executive Pastor of the church, and author of the book, “Pop Goes The Church.”  It was a very influential book in my own journey, but more influential when I met Tim was the passion and drive that he has to reach people where they are at, and to help them take their next step towards Jesus.  Enjoy the interview, and come back over the next few days to see who else had to endure my questioning!


Interview with Tim Stevens from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

I appreciate Tim and all the rest of the Granger staff for giving up some of their time to allow me to meet with them!

Gratitude.

March 9, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, gratitude, the church with 0 Comments

grangerpicI had the opportunity to go to Granger Community Church last week and participate in some of their workshops.  I have followed their church closely over the last several years.  The church is right next to my hometown of Mishawaka, so I have had the opportunity to visit it a few times.  That has always been a treat.  But last week, I was blown away by the genuine humility and love that was shown to me and a couple hundred other guests as we attended the workshops.  It is not often that you meet people that are in position to have great influence that are totally selfless and humble about it.  In fact, I have experienced the exact opposite over the last few years.  It was so refreshing to see people that would be considered very successful and maybe even to have “arrived” (in some people’s eyes) to take the time to pour themselves into other people; to take the time to discuss their failures as well as their successes.  Some of them even took the time to meet with me personally.

Over the next few days, I am going to post some of the interviews I was able to do with some of their staff.  I hope you can see the passion that these people have for Jesus and for helping people take their next step.  Thank you Granger.  I am thankful we are on the same team. I am better for spending a few days with you!

Tony Morgan on “The New Traditional Church”

March 2, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I love much of what Tony Morgan posts about!  I happen to be reading his book “Killing Cockroaches,” and will post a review of the book here shortly.  Today though, I wanted to share a post that Tony made on his blog last week.  Great insight, and the discussion that follows his post has some great stuff in it as well!  Here is just a bit of what he said:

I’m wondering what would happen if rather than focusing so much on transferring knowledge, we focused on helping people love God, love others and make new disciples. What would happen if we asked people to spend less time at the church and more time in the lives of people who need Jesus? What would happen if we offered fewer gatherings to transfer knowledge and more tools to help people study the Bible on their own? What would happen if there was less emphasis on church activities and more emphasis on reaching the world for Jesus?

You can read the full post here.  It is well worth the time!  Thanks Tony!

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