A word on the word

Posted: August 17, 2010 in Uncategorized
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OK, its not the word but I had to lure you in somehow.

How many times have you witnessed a scenario like this…

You are enjoying (or maybe enduring) the preliminary stuff at a worship experience.  The musicians are talented and at least seem dedicated, the people are friendly, you are comfortable and ready to be taught.  Then it happens.

Perhaps this is the first person you have actually heard talk at the gathering you are attending.  He gets up in front of people for the ubiquitous greeting and announcements.  The greeting is warm and heart-felt but the announcements…shoot me now.  He drones on and on about the upcoming youth ministry trip, the dedication of the new mop heads, the unfortunate misadventure involving the tepid tea and stale scones at the last ladies meeting, meetings upon meetings, the nominees for church officers, the weather, the current price of kangaroo pelts in Australia, the…you get the idea.  No too long after the 20 minute reading of the bulletin begins – you check out.  Come on, I know its happened to many of us.

So what is the point?  Announcements are not just about announcements! In the four to seven minutes we have to say something (remember this might be the FIRST something someone hears and will decide if they want to come back right then!) we want to leverage that resource the best we can.

Here are some ideas of what that time is:

- One more chance for all of us to be reminded about the mission and why our doors are open that Sunday (or Saturday night)!

- An initial verbal challenge for all of us to be ready to engage with the teaching and take that next step in faith.

- The opportunity to share information about all church events (picnics, baptism, work days, prayer meeting, etc)

- A time for a member of the pastoral team to help us all remember where our focus should be for the next 40 minutes.

- Public prayer – which sometimes involves the sharing of special needs that the entire body should be aware of and wins that we can celebrate together.

What this is time is not:

- A laundry list of all the possible ministries and activities in any given week

- A public reading of the bulletin or PowerPoint announcements

How you can help:

- Ministry leaders should utilize both digital and print media to announce ministry initiatives.

- Prepare handouts for the bulletin.  We can make sure you know where the copier is.  That is what it is for!

- Make PowerPoint slides for advertisement.  You can find people to help you with this too.

- Utilize the web.  Use Facebook, email, Twitter and texts.  You can still call people too. :)

- Use small group leaders to get the word out about your ministry.

- Be proactive in communicating about your ministry!

- Send me an email with your announcement and we will put it out there on Facebook!

Ok, ok.  Let’s slow down.  Does that mean we will never make ministry specific announcements?  No! From time to time we need to make a public announcement about particular wins and needs.  These will be strategic and special not utilitarian and dull.  We (the pastoral team at New Life) need some lead time when that happens.  Get us the info as soon as you can so we can help figure out a way to best get it out there.

We have roughly 60 minutes a week to say something!  Let’s make it count.

Running From Hope v.2

Posted: August 10, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Running From Hope is the current teaching series on Malachi at New Life Baptist Church.

I don’t think I would ever make it in a culture that required me to barter.  It never dawns on me to make an offer for anything other than the asking price when I am at a garage sale or flea market.  I do, however, like you, like to make deals.

Its like playing Monopoly.  I really don’t care about winning.  I am far more interested in getting people to agree to ridiculous deals with me for the exchange of property.  Thrilling!  This concept and skill starts in each of us at a young age.

A few weeks ago, at the camp where I was speaking, we saw it again.  Everyday the campers were required to clean up their cabins during the time between breakfast and morning chapel.  The boys and girls were in fierce competition to be the winning team for the week and a good cabin clean up score could move enough points into the win column for those willing to work hard enough.

Here is the variable.  The deciding factor in a good vs. bad score is the camp nurse.  She wields the power of a Greek goddess for the time she is inspecting these cabins.  She is like a Greek deity in one particular way.  She can be swayed by the cunning of people; in this case Junior high students.

These kids will find out what kind of candy, treat, or hand-craft the nurse likes and leave for her ‘offerings’ at the altar which is their cabin.  This lady can expect to come back to her office with her arms full of candy bars, candles, flowers, and drawings in the hopes that someone will be able to push her in one direction or another. EVERY camper (and counselor for that matter) knows what the standard is but they will work all the harder to work the system.

The hearers/recipients of Malachi live out this illustration in great detail.  The second discussion God has with Israel via Malachi in 1:6-14 goes like this: “You know I am your Father, right? You know I am your Master, right?  Then where is my respect? Why do you show contempt (‘sniff in the air’) for my name?”  Incredibly, the priests respond with, “how?”.

If God told you or I we didn’t give him proper respect or honor wouldn’t we stop everything until we figured out how to fix it?  I would hope that would be my response but I am afraid I would (and DO) what the priests were doing – cheating God.

Spend some time and read those verses and understand what is happening.  The priests (those who know better) are promising God one thing and giving him something else, something cheap.  Instead of bringing God the best of their sheep, as they were instructed and KNEW, they were bring him lame and diseased sheep.  Picture that!  Here comes the priest dragging along this lame little animal with a runny eye and a hacking cough.  “I am here for sacrifice!”, he might proclaim with great fanfare.  Meanwhile his best is back home being prepared for he and his family to eat.

What does God call this? Cheating.  In fact he says, “cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king says the LORD Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations” (1:14).

All this begs the question: do we cheat God?  Perhaps a better question is “HOW do we cheat God”?

Let us not reduce this issue to world of the ridiculous.  I have heard plenty of really bad arguments for dress code or music ‘standards’ based on this passage.  All garbage.  This passage has absolutely nothing to do with your particular comfort level for worship music, your proclivity to wear a tie in “God’s house”, or preferred Bible translation.

A sacrifice is the giving up of something you actually need.  It is certainly not any of the examples listed above nor is it having an abundance of anything and giving away the portion you don’t need, want, or care about.  How often do we promise God more time and make time for everything else except Him?  Have we not done that with other resources too like finances, talent, leadership, or just raw compassion?  Honestly,  I cheat and try to get away with it.

OK, so let’s take a look at our “flocks”.  Got anything in there that God deserves?  I do, and I bet you might as well.

Running From Hope v.1

Posted: August 6, 2010 in Uncategorized
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Running From Hope is the current teaching series on Malachi at New Life Baptist Church.

There is nothing more pathetic than a heart broken Junior High student.  We are not talking about the kind of hurt that is the result of injury, tragedy, violence, or misdeeds.  This is the kind of brokenness that is experienced in those times when a student is separated from their ‘true’ love.

When I was a youth pastor we took our junior high students to camp.  Every kid ought to have the chance to go to camp and did our best to take as many as possible.  That particular summer one of our students invited a friend of his to go along.  Everyone was enjoying the week and all the great things that go with that kind of experience.

It happened on Thursday night.  Chapel was over and the campers were steadily getting hopped up on sugar and caffeine from the snack shop.  Darkness was closing in and there was great anticipation for the night game that was about to begin.

Becky and I were spending time with the students and making rounds when we saw something out of the ordinary.  My student’s friend was sitting all by himself, his face buried in his hands, and he was sobbing uncontrollably.  This kid was in full-on body spasm mode wailing.

We sat with him to try to figure out what was going on.  Through his gasps and tears he looked at us and said, “my girlfriend just broke up with me.”  Girlfriend?  That was news to us.  We didn’t know this guy even had a girlfriend.  Well he did up until about 5 minute before we found him.

I couldn’t figure it out.  Did he get a phone call from home?  Did the mail come late?  How in the world did he learn his girlfriend broke up with him at 9:00 PM on a Thursday night at camp?  The answer was simple.  He had just met his ‘girlfriend’ Wednesday! The relationship was not even 24 hours old and it was over, and he was a mess.  I managed to hold it together enough to make the effort to help him feel better.

Junior high students, senior high students, college aged, and adults all face the same dilemma in one form or another somewhere in their lives.  We have all found ourselves asking, “how is it that he/she doesn’t love me anymore, what went wrong?” The moping and malaise can last for weeks.  You know what I’m talking about.

We find stories just like that in Scripture.  We can read about the agony of a lost personal relationship and humanity’s broken relationship to God. The difference is the broken ties with God will have eternal impact.

Israel (the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah) find themselves in an awkward position in history as Malachi begins.  Here is the situation.  Cyrus the Great (by some accounts the greatest leader of the ancient world) of Persia has made a good decision.  He is allowing the captives of the former Babylonian empire to go home.  He is letting them go back and rebuild their homes, walls, and places of worship.

Not long after getting home, Israel starts up with all the stuff that got them in trouble in the first place.  They are pretty much ignoring God and falling into the sinful practices of worthless worship, intermarrying with the locals, and simply grieving the heart of God.

Malachi (who’s name means God’s messenger) is brought forward to be the voice of God and to have 6 pointed discussions.  A prophet is a ‘covenant enforcer’ who bears the responsibility of directing people back to God and the covenant.

The first discussion God has with the people is tender at its heart.  Chapter 1 verse 2 is God giving a direct address.  He tells Israel, “I have loved you.”  Perhaps not the first message that would come to mind when we think “covenant enforcer”.  This theme is not, of course, limited to Malachi.  It is found throughout the entirety of Scripture.  God loves people!  Yes, He is a God of justice but He is a God of love.  John 3:16 is pretty clear, “For God so LOVED the world that he sent his only Son”.

The response that escapes the lips of Israel is shocking to me.  They ask, “how have you loved us?”.  What?  Really?  How can anyone ever ask that kind of question?

Yet, we do.

Somehow Israel forgot to remember that God indeed loved, loves, and will love them (the word has a meaning of timelessness).  They were in the malaise of life and just got lazy.  Pretty bad memories.  Today we do the exact same thing.  We find ourselves in a place that is neither fearful nor exciting and we forget that God loves, loved and will love as well.

When we say, “how have You love us? what is the response?  Where have/do we see the love of God?  The answer is simple.  Besides ALL the blessings that God gives to people remember this: Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.  Boom! Enough said.

Option 636!!!

Posted: August 5, 2010 in Uncategorized
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We have just a little less than two and a half months to the launch of Option 636!

A few things to remember and be praying for:

- We need help to distribute door hangers in different neighborhoods.  We have 5,000 to hand out!

- We need prayer regarding the logistics of the worship team.  Mike and I have been working closely on this challenge and your prayer is needed!

- We need prayer about how to best have refreshments after the worship gathering.

- We need prayer that God would use this ministry tool for his glory and the cause of the Gospel here in Scranton!

- We need people to step up for ministry opportunities.

We will be giving out a copy of the door hanger this Sunday.  You don’t want to miss it.

Just to remind you…Option 636 is a Saturday night worship gathering that we will begin October 16th.  The night is dark, light it up!

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