This Is Me Living

Activate: Book Review

When we set out to begin our small groups ministry at Bell Road Church, we wanted to set ourselves up for success out of the gates. Over a two-year period, we have met with pastors and leaders of churches with small groups programs, have attended training seminars, and have read a huge stack of books, websites and articles to glean information that we could apply to our context.

I stumbled across ACTIVATE quite by accident on Amazon.com, as I usually ignore the website's book recommendations to my account. I've since discovered that this is a useful tool, as it has pointed me to several fantastic books based on my order and viewing history.

Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, written by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, became a foundational work upon which we've built our "Life Process" (our small groups ministry).  Using these principles, we've created a system that seems to be working on a much larger scale, early on, than we had hoped.  As I write, over 75% of our average weekly attendance is plugged into our Life Process... extremely good enrollment for Phase One: Our Beta Phase.

Nelson Searcy is a systems guy, and is extremely practical in his writing. I've purchased 3 other books by him, and am currently reading FUSION, and have LAUNCH and IGNITE waiting patiently in the queue.  

The insight we gained through this one book was more valuable than most of what we learned through all other sources.  On the back of the book, in bold letters, the words "Build a Small-Group Ministry with 100% Participation" jump off the cover.  When I initially read them, I was, of course, skeptical.  With the early success we're experiencing, however, through the beta phase of our implementation, I believe it entirely possible to reach more people on a weekly basis through small groups than our average weekly attendance in services.

The Authentic Christian

In his book Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels writes:

Authentic Christianity is not learning a set of doctrines and then stepping in cadence with people all marching the same way.  It is also not simply humanitarian service to the less fortunate.  It is a walk -- a supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, and communicating God.  The heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God's voice and then developing the courage to do what he asks us to do.

Authentic Christians are persons who stand apart from others, even other Christians, as though listening to the beat of a different drummer.  Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their spirit softer, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine and their convictions more concrete.  They are joyful in spite of difficult circumstances and show wisdom beyond their years.

That's because authentic Christians have strong relationships with the Lord -- relationships that are renewed every day.  As the psalmist said of godly people, "Their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither" (Psalm 1:2-3 NRSV).

Embarrassingly few Christians ever reach this level of authenticity because most Christians allow busyness to rule the day.  Which, if you ask me, is the unrivaled archenemy of spiritual authenticity.  Busyness is akin to something the Bible calls worldliness -- getting caught up with society's agenda, objectives and activities to the neglect of walking with God.  And any way you slice it, a key ingredient in authentic Christianity is time.  Not leftover time, not throwaway time, but quality time.  Time for contemplation, meditation and reflection.  Unhurried, uninterrupted time.

Third Edition, (c) 2008, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 119-120.

A Beggar's Wealth

I ran across this, and used it in my sermon on Sunday PM, October 12, 2008.

 

In his book, How (Not) to Speak to God, Peter Rollins tells this story:

There was once a princess who grew up in a kingdom that had been ravished by decades of famines, war and plague.  One night, as the princess slept she had a dream.  In this dream she was walking through the market that lay by the sea, when a young beggar looked up, but before their eyes could meet the dream ended and the princess awoke.  As the dream faded a haunting voice arose in her mind that informed her that if she were ever to meet this young man, he would shower her with riches beyond her wildest dreams.

This dream etched itself so deeply on the princess that she carried the vision deep in her heart, until one day, years later, as she walked through the market, her gaze caught hold of the same man who had visited her in her dreams all those years ago.  Without pausing she ran up to him and proceeded to relay the whole vision.  Never once did he look up, but when the princess had finished her story he reached into an old sack and pulled out a package.  Without saying a word, he offered it to the princess and asked her to leave.

Once the princess reached her dilapidated castle she ripped open the package and, sure enough, there was a great wealth of pure gold and precious diamonds.  That night she placed the package in a safe place, and went to bed.  But her mind was in turmoil and the long night was spent in sleepless contemplation.  Early the next morning she arose, retrieved the treasures and went down to the water’s edge.  Once there she summoned all her strength and threw the riches deep into the sea.  After watching the package sink out of sight, she turned and without looking back went searching for the young beggar.

Finally, she found him sitting in the shade of an old doorway.  The princess approached, held out her hand and placed it under his chin.  Then she drew his face towards hers and whispered, “Young man, speak of the wealth you possess which allows you to give away such worldly treasure without a moment’s thought.” 

– pg.50-51 (c) 2006, Paraclete Press

Pick Your Battles

I'm reading a book called Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, by John Maxwell.  In it, he offers the following thought which I feel bears repeating.  I can think of countless times that this insight would have been beneficial to me in the past.  As Christians, how we respond to our circumstances speaks loudly about how we view God.  Our actions, more than our words, witness of the reality of Christ in our lives. Maxwell writes:

PICK YOUR BATTLES

Winning is often a battle, and there are times in the life of every team player when he or she needs to fight.  But if you fight all the time, you can wear yourself out. That's why it's important to pick your battles.

To gain a better perspective of when to fight back and when to sacrifice yourself, practice the following disciplines:

1.  Spend Time with People Who are Different From You. That helps you to appreciate others and understand how others think and work.  You will be less likely to judge or battle others.

2.  In Matters of Personal Preference or Taste, Give In. Keep the main things the main thing.  If you don't save yourself for what really matters, you'll wear yourself out and wear out your welcome with others.

3.  Don't Take Things Too Personally.  Always remember; hurting people hurt people.  They are also easily hurt by others.

4.  Practice the 101 Percent Principle.  Whenever possible, find the 1 percent you do agree on in a difficult situation, and give it 100 percent of your effort.

5.  Be a Servant Leader.  If your mindset is to serve rather than to be served, you will likely encounter less conflict.

Book Review: Money Matters in Church

One of the priorities of the administration of the church I found was to gain an understanding of our financial picture.  How is money spent?  How do we prioritize this allocation?  How are we doing compared to XYZ Church?  Where can we improve?

Until recently, I have not ever been involved with anything other than the finances of our youth ministry. 

I'm blessed to have a handful of seasoned pastors in my life who are helping me figure out "the rest of pastoring"... Apparently, there is more to it than preaching, marrying and burying people, and staying fresh.  Who knew?

With my financial background, I like budgets.  Yes, you heard me right.  (I actually call budgets a "spending plan", because budgets can tend to be too reflexive.  A "spending plan" is a tool through which we run our finances... Proactively vs. reactively... but that's for another post.)  In personal finance, for instance, I can tell you the percentages I want you to remain within for your mortgage, living expenses, debt, auto payments, savings, and tithe.  I found, however, that in the church world a "model budget" was not as easy to come by. 

After coming up empty when I asked other pastors for this resource, and after striking out on Google (Can you believe it?), I stumbled across a book at Berean called Money Matters in Church.  In it, I found much for which I was searching.  I found the book to be a handy, consolidated resource, and a remarkably beneficial quick read.

Briefly, the recommended parameters for a healthy church budget are:

• 10% Missions - Models tithing of our resources back into the Kingdom. (I love that!)
• 20% Facilities - Even if your church is debt-free, it is recommended that this remain (or be established) in your church budget to allow for future growth plans, building, remodeling, updating, and expansion.
• 20% Programming - This includes all of your ministries, office expenses, advertising, and the gamut of other things that often get termed "miscellaneous".  (Bad word)
• 50% Personnel - This is a rule of thumb that is flexible depending on the church.  It is recommended, however, that smaller churches (say under 500) allocate up to 55% of their budget in this area, and larger churches allocate no less than 45% in this direction.

Other useful insights included:

• Having an emergency reserve of at least 3 months total income set aside for a rainy day
• How to forecast giving based on attendance
• Methods to use when developing your strategic budget annually
• And, my favorite:  The understanding that it is useless (or at least counter-productive) to develop a budget without first developing your church's mission, vision, and core values.  Without this, your budget cannot be shaped to help your church accomplish God's purpose for your specific body.

The authors, Aubrey Malphurs and Steve Stroope, encourage a church to develop their "Theology of Financial Stewardship" and provide their own as an example for reference at the end of the book.  Questions for personal evaluation and reflection appear at the conclusion of every chapter and would be valuable for discussion to any group that is jointly responsible for creating, monitoring, and managing a budget.

I would encourage pastors, church staff, and anyone who is involved in any aspect of the budget planning process to utilize this book as a resource.