We have so many Sunday only Christians because we have so many Sunday only churches

Michael Lukaszewski of Oak Leaf Church tweeted.

Maybe we have so many Sunday only christians because we have so many Sunday morning only churches.

Then Bobby Williams wrote this blog, Sunday Morning Churches, about it.

Student Ministry 101: Student Ministry Must Be Your Passion Not Your Stepping Stone

Youth pastors are infamous for using their position as an entry point to church leadership. It makes sense. You want to be senior pastor or church planter, but you don't have any experience. Therefore you take a position as a youth pastor to get a foot in the door. Then you take a position as a family pastor or associate pastor. From there you make the jump to senior pastor or church planter or whatever your passion is.

There's nothing wrong with following that path, if you're actually passionate about your ministry all along the way. However, if you're simply using your ministry for personal gain, you've got a serious problem.

The idea for this entry came this quote from Ed Stetzer's "Comeback Churches."

Too many pastors love someone else's community

While he's talking about literal geographic communities, the same principle applies to positions in the church. Ask yourself...

• Is that you?


• Are you enduring your current position until you can move onto something closer to your real passion?


• Do you have a greater heart for a position down the street than you do for the people you're actually responsible for?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, you need to either start working on your heart or get out of there. No ministry needs a leaders who's heart is bent towards something else.

Student Ministry 101 - There are no good outreach events for girls

My first year I interned at a church I was given a big stack of student ministry books. Most of them were awful books of curriculum from the 80's. As I was searching through the books I found a chapter titled, "Program for guys, girls will follow." At first I repeated it as a joke, but as time passed, I started to realize it's true.

There are no good outreach events for girls. I can think of some activities which girls would enjoy doing, but I wouldn't call them outreach events.

In the book "Why Men Hate Going to Church," the author discusses how women will do manly things, but men won't do feminine activities. When girls do masculine activities, it's often praised. But when guys do even remotely feminine activities they're ridiculed. One of the big jokes in the movie "Meet the Parents" was that Ben Stiller's character was a male nurse. The pattern holds with outreach events. Girls will show up for events aimed at guys, but guys won't show up for events aimed at girls (and there aren't any good ideas)

Last fall I put these theories to the test in my student ministry.

We asked our students what kind of event they would invite their friends to. The guys unanimously said they wanted an air soft war. The girls said they wanted a baking party. I joined the two ideas together, and threw a massive air soft war which would end with a feast of cookies cooked by the girls.

My wife and I named it, "Guns N Goodies." Normally I'm not into Christian knock-off logos, but for this event I made my own. It was a cookie with two crossed air soft guns in front of it. We promoted it with a creepy promo video and bribed students to invite friends.

It worked. It was the largest event the student ministry had thrown up to that point. We even had an impromptu shaving cream fight. There was one problem...

...no one was inside baking except the leaders. All of the girls were outside ready for war. And the impromptu shaving cream fight was initiated by the girls.

Moral of the story - Any good idea you have for an event for girls, there is a better idea which is "guy" oriented.

Student Ministry 101: Teens are Part of the Body, Not the Backpack

I don't know where this idea came from, but it seems like a lot of people have the idea that the point of student ministry is to babysit a bunch of teenagers, make sure they don't commit any really bad sins, and teach them a bunch of apologetics so they don't leave the faith when they go to college. Thus, lots of students ministries keep their students busy with safe fun stuff, have parent teacher conferences, and fill their heads with lots of knowledge.

If that's student ministry, count me out.

The fundamental problem with treating student ministry that way is that you treat Holy Spirit empowered saints like out of control animals instead of productive parts of the Body of Christ. They aren't a target which we merely minister to. As Spirit empowered saints, they NEED to be serving along side the rest of the Body. They aren't a weight on the back of the church. They are important piece of the church.

1 Corinthians 12
12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ...27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Teenagers may be weird, often gross, and unrefined, but they are still a part of the Body of Christ. Their youthfulness and dumb behavior doesn't cause them to cease to be part of the body. Each of the them (assuming they're believers) serve a vital role in the Body.

Really, they should be some of our most prized works. They have tons of energy, fresh ideas, and free time. I need workers like that.

I recently visited Elevation Church while on vacation. As my wife and I walked towards the meeting area, we were assaulted (her word not mine) by dozens of greeters who were telling me where to go. We got three personal, "Welcome to Elevation Church" comments before sitting down. Two of those comments came from teenage greeters. While we waited for the service to begin, I was looking around and saw so many teenagers I briefly thought we might have gone into the wrong room (I'm not kidding). Eventually things evened out. During the service, Steven Furtick asked all the volunteers to stand up. At that moment over half of the teenagers stood up (including the kid next to me with a mohawk. They were serving in the exact same capacity as the adults, and they were excited to do it.

Student Minsitry 101: Don't Program for the Disinterested

I don't program for apathetic and disinterested students. I don't program to fill the time of bored teenagers. I don't throw events "to get them off the streets."

Really, how could I possibly create a church program which will interest the disinterested?

I started off stating my position strongly partly for shock value, but mostly because I'm very serious about this. Let me be clear who I'm talking about. I'm NOT talking about dis-interested non-Christians. I'm not talking about people who are going through a crisis of faith. I'm talking about people who have heard the truth, claim to believe the truth, but are simply lukewarm towards the faith.

Yesterday someone asked me who's responsibility are the disinterested students. I would say that they're responsible for themselves. Depending on your theology, it's dependent on an act of their and/or an act of the Holy Spirit. The problem with the alternative position is that it leads to a place where we're not only responsible to preach the gospel, we're also responsible to force people to respond. Scripture seems to clearly put that responsibility on the Holy Spirit.

There are, of course, things in place to connect disinterested kids. And it's not that I don't make any effort to connect students who are disconnected. It's good to have some leaders who have a heart for disconnected kids. What I can't do is program to engage them. I can't make it my job to motivate kids who simply won't be motivated.

Here's the problem: There are roughly 2,000 teenagers in the area I'm responsible. If statistics hold, only about 400 of them regularly attend church. That leaves 1,600 teenagers I need to reach. If I'm going to reach the 1,600 I can't dedicate my resources and time to reach a handful of church kids who have been reached but who have chosen to be lukewarm towards the faith.

Adults don't have anyone dragging them to church (well some passive men do). Adults have to choose to be an active part of the body and an obedient disciple. I can mobilize and equip a bunch of teenagers who are choosing to be part of the body and follow Christ. I can't mobilize a bunch of kids who show up each week expecting to be entertained.

If someone has some ideas for what a good program for disinterested church kids would look like, I'm open to the idea.

Student Ministry 101: Treat Them Like Adults

I recently attended a meeting for local youth pastors. All we did was discuss the question, "How do you mobilize and equip students to go share the gospel?" The only answer which came to mind initially was, "I treat them like adults." I don't have any clever programs or gimmicks to convince students to go live on a mission.

The only thing I can think of that I do which I think is unique is that I try to treat them like adults. I preach to them like they're adults. I ignore all high school curriculum and only look to material written for adults. I program as if they were adults. I talk to them the way I talk to adults. I expect them to act like adults.

When you treat them like adults, they start acting like adults. When I saw they're acting like adults, I mean they volunteer to serve, step into leadership, and take responsibility for their spiritual growth. This looks different for 16 year old than it does for a 45 year old.

When I made a shift in how I was running our high school ministry, literally with in a month a group of students started showing up to help me setup. I didn't even have to ask.

Treat them like adults and you may lose a bunch of apathetic and disinterested kids who just want entertainment (more on this tomorrow), but you'll be left with a group willing to reach out.

John Piper Responds to John MacArthur About Mark Driscoll

Hear it here

Kris Allen - God of the City

This is a quality recording not a bootleg from a video camera.

Normally I'm not one to talk about American Idol on my blog, but hey, the current winner of the most popular talent contest in the history of the world just happens to be worship leader. He likes to sing to Jesus. That seems to be something worth celebrating.

4 Reasons to Cut Church Leadership Conferences: (4 of 4) $200 Can Get a Lot of Resources

Two days ago, Off the Agenda posted a blog titled, "4 Reasons to Not Cut Conferences." I'm not a big fan of conferences for several reasons. So I write this blog not as a rebuttal to Off the Agenda or in disrespect, but more so to give a different perspective.

1) They're All Over-Priced
2) They've Said it Before
3) Free Online Resources
4) $200 Can Get a Lot of Resources

$200 is a randomly selected number. If the conference is in town, $200 is probably a good average for how much it will cost for an individual. However, if you're looking at a conference out of town with a full staff, you're talking about spending well over $1,000.

Think about it: With the money you're going to spend on attending a conference...

• How many books could you buy?


• How many conference CDs and DVDs could you buy?


• How many college/seminary credits can you obtain? - In district community college can be dirt cheap while some out of state conferences can cost you $1,000s after air fair, hotel, and food costs.


• Could you hire a consultant?


• Could you visit a church? - Elevation Church offers a free service, called Elevation: Backstage, where they walk you through the setup, service, and tear down on an average Sunday. I know North Pointe has something similar. I guarantee you that you will gain more from a visit and conversation than you'll learn from a one hour lecture.

4 Reasons to Cut Church Leadership Conferences: (3 of 4) Free Online Resources

Two days ago, Off the Agenda posted a blog titled, "4 Reasons to Not Cut Conferences." I'm not a big fan of conferences for several reasons. So I write this blog not as a rebuttal to Off the Agenda or in disrespect, but more so to give a different perspective.

1) They're All Over-Priced
2) They've Said it Before
3) Free Online Resources

One of the primary purposes for attending a leadership conference is to be exposed to new and innovative ideas from top Christian leaders. I completely understand the desire, but there's a cheaper option: the internet.

Instead of writing about free online resources, I thought I'd just compile a list.

Online Conference Audio and Video:

Acts 29 Network Conference Media - Over 40 Conferences

Desiring God Conference - 40ish Conferences Covering 20 Years

Unleash 2007, 2008 and 2009 - With Perry Nobles

The Gospel Coalition - With Mark Driscoll, D.A. Carson, Joshua Harris, Tim Keller, John Piper, and 100 more

Next Conference - Four years worth of conferences - C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, Josh Harris, Wayne Grudem, and others

Practically Speaking W/ Andy Stanley

Q Conference - Rick Warren, Don Miller, and more.

Innovative Church Conference 2008 - Rick Warren, Ed Stetzer, Chuck Colson, and others.

Church Leadership Blogs

Acts 29 Network

StevenFurtick.com

PerryNobles.com

Swerve With Craig Groeschel

Off the Agenda

CodyPope.com

Mark Driscoll at TheResurgence

Innovative Ministry Leader

Church Relevance

Dave Ferguson

Tony Morgan Live

Access Elevation Church

Other Resources

Online Books From DesiringGod.com

The John Piper Sermon Library - Over 1,000 sermons from the past 25 years


Once you've gone through all of that, then you can spend $500 to hear some new ideas.

4 Reasons to Cut Church Leadership Conferences: (2 of 4) They've Said it Before

Two days ago, Off the Agenda posted a blog titled, "4 Reasons to Not Cut Conferences." I'm not a big fan of conferences for several reasons. So I write this blog not as a rebuttal to Off the Agenda or in disrespect, but more so to give a different perspective.

1) They're All Over-Priced
2) They've Said it Before

Most conference speakers are either giving canned talks over and over again or they're pastors who speak at conferences as a side gig. In either case, their conference material is normally quite similar to their latest book.

I have heard Josh McDowell live twice in the last two years. Once in chapel during Bible college, and once at an apologetics conference. He gave the same talk both times (chapel was 15 minutes shorter due to time constraints). Based off of the description, he was delivering the content of this book.

The fundamental problem with going to a top dollar leadership conference to hear your favorite pastor, author, or blogger is that you already know what they're going to say. That's why you're excited to go hear them. In the words of my friend Cody Pope, "I've read the book. I know what they're going to say."

I'll do my own rundown.

• I read Swerve and I own It, I know what Craig Groeschel is going to say.


• I've got all of Andy Stanley's books and podcasts. I know what he's going to say.


• I read SteveFurtick.com. I know what he's going to say.


• I've got The Shaping of Things to Come. I know what Alan Hirsh is going to say.


• I've got Crazy Love. I know what Francis Chan is going to say.


• I've watched the Nooma videos. I know what Rob Bell is going to say.


• I've read some Erwin McManus. I know what he's going to say.


• I've been to the Acts 29 website and YouTube. I've heard his rant about men in church on YouTube. I don't need to pay $100 to hear it live.

What am I missing? Are we Gnostics; hoping that if we go to a conference we can get the secret knowledge?

I know I'm over-stating my position a bit, but the point remains. All of these guys are top level conference speakers because they're putting out lots of great resources. And none of their other resources cost $100 for every hour of content. It would take me way longer than an hour to read all of Swerve, and I can do that for free.

Now sure you're going to get some additional information at the conference, but is $100 worth of additional information?

4 Reasons to Cut Church Leadership Conferences: (1 of 4) They're All Over-Priced

Two days ago, Off the Agenda posted a blog titled, "4 Reasons to Not Cut Conferences." I'm not a big fan of conferences for several reasons. So I write this blog not as a rebuttal to Off the Agenda or in disrespect, but more so to give a different perspective. Also, I do understand there are benefits to conferences besides learning new ideas.

1) They're All Over-Priced

If you've ever looked into going to a church leadership conference, you know they're all expensive. I don't think I've seen one that's under $100.

Just recently, there was a Saturday only conference, and it cost $100. Given the size of the church they met at, it's safe to assume they were expecting 1,000 people to come. Some simple math shows that that's $100,000 gross for a one day conference at a church with only two speakers. Let's say each person received $20 worth of food and supplies. That leaves $80,000 to pay the speakers (two pastors) for one day of their life, a church for use of it's facilities, and the promoters. That's a whole lot of money going to just a few places.

Someone is getting rich off of these things.

This past month, there was a conference in town which was several days long, but it cost $500 per person. It was loaded with speakers and promised plenty of interaction time, but $500?

You can support a Compassion child for 3 years with $500. $500 can go a long way in the mission field. $500 can help a lot of people in your community.

I understand that growth is important, but there are many ways to grow as a leader and as a group. I'm also wary of choosing to support institutes which appear to be greedy or wasteful.

One reason I've heard for the high prices is that, when it comes to conferences, higher prices lead to higher ticket sales. People assume that if it costs more, they're getting a better quality product. Therefore, some of these conferences jack up prices simply to get more people to show up. I understand wanting to get more people to show up, but with these prices, it seems more like greed and waste to me.

I'm not going to lie. In this day and age where the internet makes it easier to access additional resources, I'm highly skeptical of any high level, high dollar conference which doesn't post their sessions on the internet. If your heart is for church leaders and the gospel, I can't fathom charging $200 for an event and then an additional $50 to get access to the sessions. And I do have some specific conferences in mind.

40 Leadership Tips for Young Pastors

As a new pastor, this has been helpful. It's like 40 nuggets of wonderful, concise leadership wisdom.

Craig Groeschel's 40 Leadership Tips for Young Pastors

5 Reasons You'll Want to Leave a Church But Shouldn't

Is it really time for a ministry change?

Here's an interesting blog by Off the Agenda.

5 Reasons You'll Want to Leave But Shouldn't:

The system you are using is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting. - Patrick Morley

The system you are using is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting. - Patrick Morley

• Are you happy with the results you're currently getting?


• Are you fulfilling your ministries purpose?


• Are you moving towards your churches vision?

If you aren't happy with your current results, something needs to change. People frequently like to define insanity as doing the same thing but expecting different results. Churches are often guilty of this form of insanity.

If you're unhappy with the results of your ministry, it's time to reevaluate what you're doing. The results you're getting are due to the system which is in place. If you don't like the results, change the system.

Today's quote was introduced to me by Tom Albers.

Simplified Missional Living

I've primarily been involved with outreach focused churches. I've been apart of huge events, small events, and various service projects. There have been thrown events which I literally spent months planning due to the complexity. We spent months recruiting volunteers and training them on how to connect with the community.

Then I read an article like this: Simplified Missional Living by Jonathan Dobson. His thinking seems so simple and obvious. Yet, it makes perfect sense. It makes me rethink so much of where I'm putting my effort.

Nine Suggestions for Simple Missional Living (summary from Catablog)

1) Eat with non-Christians
2) Walk, don't drive ,around your neighborhood when possible.
3) Be a "regular" at your local coffee shop, restaurant, market, hair cut, etc
4) Hobby with non-Christians
5) Talk with your co-workers
6) Volunteer with a non-profit organization
7) Participate in city events
8) Serve your neighbors
9) Talk to people in your community

Epic Fail: Godwitter.com - The Christian version of Twitter

Why is there a Christian version of Twitter?

This is not a rhetorical question. I'm a pretty smart human being, and I have no clue why something like this exists. Why someone would create it? Why someone would sign up for it?

I get the idea behind Godtube and Christian knock-offs of MySpace and Facebook (though I still don't agree with their existence). But why would you have a service which exists just for Christians to update each other on their status?

It feels like this should be a joke, but it doesn't look like it is.

EPIC FAIL!

The Four D's of Leadership

Craig Groeschel's Four D's of Leadership - From a blog series at http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/

1) Phase 1 - Dream - What are you dreaming about?
2) Phase 2 - Decide to Pursue Your Dream - Deciding to pursue a dream means stepping out from the safe into the uncertain. When did you make a big faith decision toward your dream? Or… Do you have a decision to make?
3) Phase 3 - The Delay - You may feel like your dream is on hold. God may be doing something in you during the delay to prepare you for what God will do through you.
4) Phase 4 - Destiny

You can put up with anything if people meet Jesus - Mark Driscoll

As Christians we've been commissioned to go and make disciples. Since the heart of God is for people, it's not surprising that Spirit-filled Christians are motivated by people coming to the Lord. It's also not surprising that when the stories life-change start to dry up and our schedules get filled with meetings and formalities, we start to get burned out.

It almost seems like if we fill our schedules with things which aren't biblical or necessary, we're asking for burnout.

From this talk.

Are You a Member of the Body or Just a Backpack?

I stole the title of this blog from a tweet promoting this blog entry. Unfortunately, the blog did not go where I was hoping it would go. This is my attempt at writing the blog I was hoping to find when I clicked on that tweet.

The New Testament repeatedly uses the analogy of a body for the Church.

Romans 12
4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

1 Corinthians 12
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many...17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ...20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Ephesians 4
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The principle is simple, if you're member of the church, you're supposed to be part of the body. Body parts serve a function. They help and serve the rest of the body. When a body part is missing, the whole body suffers.

Some very personal questions arise when you apply the analogy to individual members of the church.

• Do you serve a function at your church?


• Are you helping your church?


• Are you serving your church?


• When you're gone, does the church suffer?


• Are you dead weight which gives nothing to the church, but which the rest of the church must carry?

A backpack is a thing strapped to someones back. They're heavy and uncomfortable. If you carry it long enough, your shoulders will start to hurt. No one enjoys carrying a heavy backpack. The body does all the work, and the backpack gets a free ride.

Are you the backpack of your church? Are you sitting on the back of your church getting a free ride?

Five Questions Andy Stanley Asks While Preparing a Sermon

From Andy Stanley's podcast on effective communication (he's also written a book on the subject). I've heard him talk on communication many times and read his book, but every time I read these simple questions I feel the need to radically change the way I construct my messages.

A) What do they need to know? (Information)

• What is the simple idea?


• What is the one thing they need to know?


• What one statement summarizes the message.

B) Why do they need to know it? (The motivation)

• The key developing tension in the introduction


• Give them a reason to listen


• Why should they care?


• Make them beg for the answer to their question


• Show how society has gone wrong and give God's answer to societies problems


• If they aren't convinced they need to know they will consider what you have to say irrelevant

C) What do they need to do? (Application)

• Assign homework


• What can we do to help them do it?

D) Why do they need to do it? (Inspiration)

• What would it look like if everyone in our church did this?


• How can you inspire people to act?

E) What can I do to help them remember? (Memory)

Is Your Church Serving the Community or Looking to be Served by the Community?

Jesus' disciples had a bad habit of trying to make themselves great. As much as preachers like to pick on them for bickering over who would get to sit next to Jesus in His Kingdom, ironically, most of us are guilty of doing the same thing.

This is what Jesus had to say about our attempts at self-promotion.

Matthew 20
25 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Greatness doesn't come by sitting next to Jesus in the kingdom or by having the largest or fasting-growing church in town. Greatness comes by service.

A trip to the leadership section of a Christian book store will indicate that a lot of church leaders are really into growing their churches. If you look at the schedule for any church leader conference, the word "growth" is almost certain to appear on multiple occasions. If you look at the leaders of church leaders, conveniently they almost all have large congregations and/or experienced rapid growth.

What does that say about our focus?

• Are we looking to serve the community or for the community to serve us?


• Are we looking for the best ways to grow our church or the best ways to serve the community?

Jesus tended to run off the crowds when they got too big. If your measurement of success is numbers, that's a really bad idea. But if your focus is somewhere else, that might be a really good idea.

What would church look like if we started measuring success based off of service rather than numbers?

22 Essential Words for Writing Cheesy Christian Pop Songs

By Joshua Harris guest blogging on Abraham Piper's blog. Find the 22 essentially cheesy words here.


I'm completely and totally not into Joshua Harris' books on courting. I can even get pretty worked up describing all the reasons I don't like them (particularly to his rabid fans), but everything I've heard from him from the last several years has been pretty good. As it turns out, judging someone based off what they did over 10 years ago may not be the best idea.