“People who fear they will be hurt by a change speak up immediately, loudly and without regard for the odds or reality. People who will benefit from a change don’t believe it (until it happens), so they sit quietly. And that’s why change in an organization is difficult.”

Translate that to the church:

• You get push-back about making change from those who fear that it will replace what they like and are comfortable with (Usually based on a preference).  They will push back immediately, loudly and without regard for the reality that their church needs to change or it will die.
• You get inaction by those who want the change.  They will not help or give to make it work. But they will let you know their opinion about it.

And that’s why change in a church is difficult!

You see, on Saturday, my oldest son decided to do a little work on his 1998 Mustang.  Those models are plagued with seat belt retractors that wear out in short order, and that bothered my son.  He inherited his annoyance of insignificant things that do not work from me.  Little squeaks and noises I hear  while driving my car drive me nuts.  So much so that I have been known to pull off the road and find the source of the annoyance and irritation, or walk to my destination if I cannot find it.

He has more ability than I do when it comes to mechanical things, and decided to pull the seat belts apart to fix them.  In the end though, he was not able to fix them (to his credit, he worked on them several hours and it was a tuff job).  We were left with two seat belts that were broken and in need of replacement, which was expensive according to the dealer.  So, after church my son was off to the junkyard.  Over an hour later he called me to let me know he was stuck and unable to get a couple of seat belts off of a deceased Mustang sitting in the yard, so off I went to assist (remember, I suck at this).  I got there, and tried using the tools that he had brought with him to remove the bolts that were holding it all together  (these were my tools… and I have very few of them, so his choices were limited).  There was no way the tool I had was going to work.  It was just NOT the right one for the job.  We ended up leaving to go and get the proper tool for the job, and 20 minutes after we got back to the junk yard we had the two seat belts removed and left to go home to install them.  The right tool made all the difference.

I used that last line to teach my boys a life lesson.  Get the right tool for the job, it will make it easier and is more efficient at getting the desired result.  Lesson learned.  But I just want to mention an application for the church as well: use the right person for the job to be done.

From the very beginning, God designed the church to have many parts, or many “tools” to use to build His Church and His Kingdom.  The Scriptures teach us that each tool has its place or task, and that all the tools are necessary for the church to be effective and to be efficient to achieve the desired result.

Having the right person in a staff position is key.  Most people in the church realize this.  Andmost churches think that hiring the right staff is all they need to do to get the job done.  We tend to overlook that when it comes to filling volunteer positions, but it is just as important to have to have the right people in those positions.  They will make or break your program or ministry.  After all, the only thing worse than having no one in the position is having the wrong person in the position.  You are asking for trouble when you get up and announce from the platform that you need someone to step up and lead a program or ministry.  You will likely end up with someone who is not gifted in that area of ministry or someone who does not have the ability as far as skill or leadership is concerned.  We have all seen that happen, and it never ends well for either party.

Having the right tools made a world of a difference in getting my sons car fixed.  It also makes a difference in this world having the right people leading and doing ministry in the church.  You have to have the right tool for the job!

“…I’m afraid we’ve turned church into a spectator sport.  Too many of us are content with letting a spiritual leader seek God for us.  Like the Israelites, we want Moses to climb the mountain for us.  After all, it is much easier to let someone else pray for us or study for us.  So the church unintentionally fosters a subtle form of spiritual codependency.”

This is why it is so important for the church to encourage and equip people to be in the Word for themselves.  It is also important for people to know that the church can provide opportunities for growth and equipping, but it is still up to the individual believer to take next steps in his relationship with God.  The church cannot make anyone do that, and the church is not responsible to do that.

What do you think?  Has the church made people spiritually codependent?

“The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday.”
- R.T. Kendall, pastor of Westminster Chapel

This had two implications for me:

1. A lot of the people that I was taught to revere and respect as I was growing up were actually fairly progressive in their approach to ministry (for their time). What they did may not be considered progressive today, but it was then!  In fact, today most churches have been there and done the things that were considered progressive back then.
2. I am still just under 40, but I never want to be the opposition to God’s moving in this (or any) generation.  Who has the right to say that God was done working in the 50′s. 60′s or 70′s?  Who has the right to say that the 90′s Praise and Worship music was the ultimate sound that God wanted.  None of us do.  We need to allow God to work today just as He did in those decades.  Creativity did not reach its pinnacle. Evangelism and preaching did not reach its final end.  Things continue to progress. Things continue to change.  They will until Christ returns.  In fact, we will even sing a “New Song” in heaven.  Some of you will not like that song either!

more staff = fewer volunteers

lack of planning = financial challenges

more meetings = less ministry

unclear vision = packed ministry calendar

packed ministry calendar = volunteer burnout

same methods = same results

Read more of them on Tony’s blog. Good thoughts or not?  What do you think?

Today we celebrated Communion together. I love to partake of the Lord’s Supper with my church family.  It is always  special time, and today was no different.  We purposefully set a more reflective atmosphere.  We started out with a slower, yet powerful choir song and we also only used an acoustic in our music today.  It was a nice change to make, and went with the atmosphere we were trying to create.  It was a very nice service and there was quite a buzz about the service afterwords. Now, on to the setlist!

Choir Special – Reveal (way to go choir!)

Baptism (It never get sold seeing people take steps towards Christ)

Drama -  A short skit on prayer (Everyone did a great job!)

• The Wonderful Cross – Mason/Reeves/Tomlin/Walt/Watts
• At The Cross – Hudson/Watts

Special Music – The Old Rugged Cross (Lesley did a fantastic job!)

Message – Part 1 (Our pastor spoke about the meaning of Communion today so that our new people knew what we were doing)

• Nothing But The Blood – Lowry
• Once Again – Redman

Special – Lead Me To The Cross (one of my favorites! Wonderful job Randi!)

Message – Part 2

Time of response and receiving the elements

Offering

• How Great is Our God – Tomlin

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week!  We have more than we deserve not only in possessions, but as recipients of God’s love and mercy also!  This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Today was the last day of our Missions Celebration, and it was a great finale!  I am so proud of all of the people that were involved in making everything happen over the last several weeks!  It is such a blessing to work with such creative and talented people!  We had a lot of elements involved in the service again this week, including a dance by some of our kids as the grand finale!  I will try and post a video if the dance later.  Here is the set list and order for the week:

• Glory To God Forever – Beeching/Fee
• Mighty To Save – Fielding/Morgan

Choir – End of the Beginning

• A New Hallelujah – Smith/Smith/Baloche

Video intro for speaker

Speaker: Jerry Thorpe (former pastor of Crossroads Fellowship in Odessa – Jerry preached a terrific evangelistic message.  We had several raise their hands to give their lives to Christ.  That NEVER gets old!)

Offering

Drama finale – Won by One (Written by some of our own people)

I want to says thanks again to all of our people that were involved over the last several weeks to make our missions celebration such a success.  It took all of you using the gifts you have to make it all work!  You are awesome!

I am looking forward to wrapping up the Missions Celebration next week!  This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Week three of our Missions Celebrations was absolutely a wonderful day! The energy and excitement that we had last week carried over to today and was just contagious. Everyone that was involved did such a good job! Way to go Glenville peeps!  Here was our service schedule for today:

Choir – Pass It On (Tommy Walker tune)

Testimony about giving to missions

Video intro and drama – written and directed by some of our own people!  (Way to go team, and thanks Ludwigs for heading this up, you are doing an awesome job!)

Special Music – By Our Love (Christy Nockles) (Great job Randi!  It was beautiful!)

• God Of This City – Bleakley/Aaron/Comfort/Jordan/Kernaghan/McCann

Bi-lingual special (since we focused on a Hispanic field this week, out Hispanic pastor and worship leader did this for us)

• Your Name – Baloche/Packiam

Message – Jim Smith from BBFI missions office/Missionary to Ecuador

Time of response

Offering

Video promo for Guest Services team

Glory To God Forever – Fee/Beeching

I am looking forward to wrapping up the Missions Celebration next week!  This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Today was the second Sunday in our Missions Celebration.  A couple of quotes that stuck out to me were these: “Missions exists because worship does not; ” and “Missions will end, but worship will never end.”  Those are not statements that belittle or make missions less important.  in fact, I think that those statements actually make missions even more important.  After all, the goal of missions is to make worshipers of God.

As far as our setlist goes, we had a wide variety of elements involved in the service.  It all flowed really well!

• All Because of Jesus – Fee
• Let Everything That – Redman

Choir – Our God Saves (Baloche)

• Glory To God Forever – Fee/Beeching

Video intro to drama

Won by One Missions Drama (Written  by a couple in our church.  This will be a reoccurring drama for three weeks. Great job by everyone!  Thanks Fred and Patti!)

Special to end the Drama – Yours (Steven Curtis Chapman – Ashley, you did great!)

Message – Jeremy Jones

Offering and announcements

Baby Dedication (seem to be doing a lot of these lately!  That is always a good thing!

What a great day today!  It was nice having everyone in the auditorium together in one service!  That always brings extra energy and excitement! This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Take-away #5 from Chuck Swindoll

“You will have people that worship you and those that criticize you.  Neither deserve much of your time.”

• The first thing I thought of was a statement I heard in my first ministry; “Praise is like perfume, it smells nice, but you don’t want to drink it!”
• Praise from people is something we all like to hear, but none of us like to admit.  It is good to get a pat on the back once and a while.  We all need that, and as a leader, I should make sure that I do that regularly.  But, the end results of the day are not how many atta-boys we get, but how many lives are changed.  That is all that matters.  How well we did or did not do is of no consequence.
• That does not excuse proper preparation.  We need to prepare as if it is the last message we will ever speak or sing.  But the results are up to God, not us.
• The praise of man can be dangerous, almost intoxicating.  But it means nothing if we are not speaking what God tells us to speak.  We should never prepare a message for the atta-boys!  We should prepare it for life change in people.
• In the same way, criticism can not the strength out of you.  It can take away any motivation that you have to serve people and make you think that you are making no difference or very little impact for the Kingdom.
• The difference in critiquing and criticism is this: criticism is based on a preference that someone has and a motivation to make you what that person wants; critiquing is a desire to see someone succeed and become what God wants you to be.  Getting advice and counsel from people is wise.  The wisest man to ever live wrote a lot about getting counsel.
• We must be careful that we do not base ministry direction on the criticism of people.  We must do what God calls us to do.  It is HIS church, not the critics. (That does not discount wise counsel, but wise counsel does NOT come from someone who constantly criticizes, no matter how much they may give or how much influence they may have.)
• At the end of the day, we have to answer for our obedience to God’s plan for our life, not the critics plan and not the plan of the person who constantly praises us.