Word of Encouragement

Today’s word of encouragement comes from Rick Warren’s Monday Encouragement, which is part of the Pastors.com ministry, whose passion is driven by the desire to see healthy pastors leading healthy churches.

Pastors.com is a place for Christian leaders to connect, so they have put together a flowing stream of content to nourish and enrich the lives and leadership of Pastors worldwide. They’ve also created a dynamic community where church leaders can draw encouragement and wisdom from one another.

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The Bible says in Mark 12:30, “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (New Living Translation).

Another way to say this is, love God with all your words, all your feelings, all your thoughts, and all of your actions. God shaped you to primarily be a talker, feeler, thinker, or doer.

“Doers” love God with their strength. They are the energetic activists of life—the achievers, the accomplishers, the workers, and the people who push things forward. They make things happen in the practical sense of life.

What is the purpose of “doers” in the world?

The world needs contribution. We don’t just need communication, compassion, and consideration. We’ve got to get to work and do it! We need people with initiative, energy, action, and a bias for achievement.

But we all have flaws, and for doers, it’s overworking. Doers are always working. They never stop to think, and they certainly don’t stop to feel. They are always busy!

God says in Psalm 127:2, “It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?” (The Message). If you are a doer, that is a good verse to put up on your bathroom mirror. God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.

Some of you need to do less. Not less for God, but doing less in other areas so that you’ll have more time to do what matters most.

The Bible says that when you become a believer, God makes you a new person on the inside: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
(New International Version).

When you become a believer, your past is forgiven, you have a reason for living, and you have a home in Heaven. Let me tell you something that doesn’t change when you come to Christ: Your personality doesn’t change. God doesn’t slow you down when you go to him. He just simply changes your direction. He wants to empower you. Remember that he created your personality.

God doesn’t want to make you a clone of everybody else in the way you worship, serve, and love him. He wants you to serve him with your personality and character. Not only that, but he will strengthen your personality, not dampen it. He’s going to make you more you than you’ve ever been before.

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I don’t know about you, but I relate to being a doer – I’ve been a doer most of my life, in fact some people may even say that I am an over-achiever, as I strive to attain certain things in life and have a high capacity to do so.

Yet, all to often these days I find myself in situations where I have no other option but to rest because my body tells me to. 

Maybe God is teaching me something in this moment, to stop striving and trying to achieve and instead go deeper in His word and draw closer to Him.

So, today maybe you too can relate to this quote like me as we all tend to “wear our busyness like a badge of honour, like an identity or proof of worthiness.
But we’ve got it wrong!“

I’ve come to acknowledge this – How about you?

Blessings ’til next time 🙂

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Be the Church that Embraces Children, Not Just Tolerates Them

The following article was written by the president of Church Answers, Sam Rainer and was posted on the Church Answers blog during this past week.

Sam is the lead pastor of West Bradenton Baptist Church and is the co-host of the Est.Church podcast.

He has also co-founded Rainer Publishing and serves as the president of the Revitalize Network.

There are two kinds of churches—those that embrace children and those that tolerate children. Most churches are not rude towards kids, and I’ve never seen a church sign stating “No Kids Allowed.” However, the families visiting your church will know whether you embrace their kids or not. The churches that welcome children have a higher likelihood of families returning—not just once but often!

Embracing children means understanding that messy is healthy.
Children do not learn to eat cleanly. They turn dining room tables into abstract impressionist works. More food ends up in the hair than in the mouth. You’ll need a hazmat suit to serve spaghetti. Children learning to take in God’s Word, worship, and love Jesus are just as messy. The dirt line on church walls about two feet high is there because little hands are dragging as kids walk the halls. Messy is healthy.

Embracing children means valuing noise over perfection.
Children make noises in worship. Children make noises in classes. Children make noises in the parking lot. They cry. They laugh loud. They scream and yell. Some churches tolerate the noise. Other churches value the noise. I’ve heard of churches not allowing children below a certain age in the worship service. It’s ridiculous.

Embracing children means protection at all costs.
Child security is a discipleship issue—and one of the most important! If you believe in the Great Commission, you will create robust security measures for children. Jesus says, “I am with you always.” A low-security church teaches children, “I am with you sometimes.”

Embracing children means consistent promotion in multiple venues.
Check your worship guide. What is in there about children? Check your social media feeds, email newsletters, and worship service announcements. If kids are not there, then you are not embracing children.

Embracing children means investing in Children’s Ministry.
Is your children’s minister the lowest-paid ministry team member? Does your children’s budget match your worship budget? A church that embraces children will invest in the ministries supporting children. A church that tolerates children will give the monetary leftovers to them. If it is easier to cut your children’s budget than your technology budget, then you likely are not embracing children in your church.

Embracing children means understanding church at their level.
A lot of churches will seek out the perspective of parents. You should! Helping parents create God-centered homes, not child-centered homes, is one of the core elements of family discipleship. However, you should not neglect the perspective of a child. Ask about their experiences, their feelings, and their opinions. When you understand church at a child’s level, you are better positioned to guide the child towards Christ.

In Luke 18:16, Jesus invited the children. “[He] called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”” (New International Version)

In Mark 10:13-16, Jesus embraced the children. “People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.” (New International Version) 

Churches that welcome and embrace children are like Jesus. Jesus becomes angry at the disciples for discounting the value of children. The next time a child cries out in church, don’t get angry at the child. Instead, get angry at the person who is angry at the child. Children are a blessing, so churches should make them a priority. Be the church that embraces children, not just tolerates them.

The above article has been adapted from Sam’s book, The Church Revitalization Checklist: A Hopeful and Practical Guide for Leading Your Congregation to a Brighter Tomorrow.

This book is a tool to help you start afresh, leverage your strengths, and discover hidden opportunities for church growth; providing a step-by-step path to a hope-filled future for both you and your church.

Sam will walk us through a seven-point checklist – everything from reconsidering your priorities to evaluating your location and facilities. It is an extremely practical tool to unleash your congregation and help them step into God’s unique purpose for them.

The book is available through any good Christian bookstore, Amazon, and Tyndale House Publishers. 

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1:1 Discipleship

If you’ve been following my blog over the past month or so you will have noticed that each week I’ve envisaged to raise the awareness (up the ante) on the critical area of discipleship, and the importance that discipleship has on many other areas of church ministry and service.

This is in part due to that fact that many Officers, pastors, church teachers and leaders around the world have become increasingly aware that Discipleship is one of the key aspects of the church that has sadly fallen by the wayside over the past few decades or so – even though there’s a plethora of material out there both online and in good Christian bookstores.

And it could be argued that this is something that has been identified as a key issue as we have had to adapt, morph, pivot and change aspects of our methodology due to the pandemic that has affected much of our world, especially worship ministry and service due to restrictions placed upon us as faith communities.  

But as I’ve noted this is not necessarily the case, as quite a number of Christian authors prior to Covid have raised concerns over the past decade or so and if we look at the history of our faith there are numerous instances from heroes of the faith over the past couple of centuries that have also pointed out the importance of discipleship.

In 2016 Matt Rogers wrote on the Gospel-Centered Discipleship site an article (9 Reasons to Prioritise One-on-One Discipleship) in which he outlines the importance and rationale why he believes that a return to the practice of one-on-one, life-on-life discipleship is one of the most critical needs for the church today.

He identified back then that the gap between the mission of disciple-making and the actual practice of most Christians had grown wider and wider – and that many Christians knew that they should be making disciples and wanted to do so, but they simply didn’t know how. 

Quite possibly this is a sad indictment of the health of many of our churches and Christianity at large, in that we have drifted quite some distance from the Great Commission (which can be found in Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:14-18, Luke 24:44-49, John 20:19-23, and again referred to in Acts 1:8) and compromised on one of the key aspects of our faith (teaching, journeying and discipling others) and our willingness to share our faith with others.                   

In the story of the two followers who were walking to the village of Emmaus (Luke 24:13-53) we see that not only did Jesus provide a way to broach the subject of who Jesus was and what He did with and for others, but also encourages us each to be witnesses of what God has done in our lives.

For many churches around the world the most effective and proven way to build healthy Christians is through one-on-one discipleship. And Matt Rogers in his article provides nine reasons why we need to prioritize 1:1 Discipleship.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for every member of the church to carry the weight of expectations around sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

One-on-One Discipleship allows for honest conversations.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for personalised application.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for evangelism and discipleship to unite.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for ongoing accountability.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for burden bearing relationships.

One-on-One Discipleship allows other ministries to thrive.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for mutual growth.

One-on-One Discipleship allows for healthy relationships.

The thing is, “One-on-One Discipleship relationships are not one of a host of options on the buffet line of spiritual formation alongside Sunday sermons, small groups, Sunday School, men’s or women’s ministry or a host of other good activities of the church.“

It is absolutely essential for each and every one of us that claims to believe in Christ to partake in. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer is quoted as saying; “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ”.

So who is your one? Who are you discipling and doing life with? Who are you journeying this thing called life with? Imagine the impact if every Christian had one person that they not only prayed for, but also shared the gospel with! The challenge of the Great Commission is yours to pick up and run with – are you up for the challenge?

Why not check out this resource which is available through The Salvation Army about 1:1 Discipleship.

I hope and pray that you have found these reminders on the Importance of Discipleship beneficial, that you will be enthused and inspired to step out in faith, and start developing discipleship relationships with those that will only know of Christ through your interactions with them.   

If you’d like to check out the other posts that I have written about the Importance of Discipleship check out the following links:

Discipleship: Multiply

Discipleship = Relationship

Effective Discipleship

The Importance of Discipleship

Next week we will start looking at the importance of Small Groups.

Blessings ’til next time 🙂

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