Scary Statistics

A story on USA Today’s website quotes some scary statistics collected from LifeWay Christian Resources about the beliefs of 18- to 29-year-olds.

• 72% say they're "really more spiritual than religious.”
• 65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.
• 65% rarely or never attend worship services.
• 67% don't read the Bible or sacred texts.
• 50% are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven.

If this is true, then what does the word “spiritual” even mean?

Of those who "believe they will go to heaven because they have accepted Jesus Christ as savior":

• 68% did not mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was "really important in life."
• 50% do not attend church at least weekly.
• 36% rarely or never read the Bible.
• 40% believe evangelism is their responsibility.

So my question is how did the church become so irrelevant and how can we see a reverse in these trends?

Get Your Hymns Here!

The new album from Page CXVI is out now and you can buy the CD or download at their site. Hurry over to their site and get their first album for free this week as well.

Bonhoeffer on Justification

I’ve been rereading ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and was struck by this statement:

“The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.”

9 Great Great Things About Themelios Journal

The new issue of the Themelios Journal is out today. Here are 9 great things about this incredible resource.

1. The journal is a resource made possible by The Gospel Coalition.

2. General Editor and contributor D.A. Carson.

3. Three available formats: HTML, iPaper, and PDF.

4. Lots of good book reviews in each edition.

5. Cool name.

6. A variety of great contributors such as Wayne Grudem, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Robert W. Yarbrough, Tim Keller, Philip Graham Ryken and more!

7. Old issues are available archived on the website.

8. Available RSS feed to keep you up to date.

9. It’s free!

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Just Preach It.

It’s inevitable. That 8 week sermon series seems like it’s going to go on forever from the perspective of that first week. But sooner or later that seventh week is upon you and you realize you only have one week of cushion before you are forced to do something new.

I am usually pretty good about knowing where I’m going next when it comes to my preaching. Typically I map out the year starting with major events on the calendar such as Easter, Christmas, perhaps Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, vacation, and so on. Then I try to fill in the gaps with series.

For some reason I think in terms of 8 week blocks. I’m not bound to it; sometimes it’s a couple more, sometime a few less. Even when I’m preaching through longer books of the Bible I try to stick to those 8 week blocks even if it means having a few sets of 8 broken up by something unique.

The hardest part isn’t the mapping process, it’s the selection process. Will this next series focus on a theme? Is it time we return to the Gospels, or the OT, or do we need to dive into an Epistle? What if I choose X and my people are in need of hearing from Y?

Here’s what I’ve learned so far in the 5 short years I’ve been preaching:

It’s not so much about what you preach as it is about what you preach.

What I mean is that most of the time finding the perfect topic or the perfect series isn’t really all that important. What is important is that God’s Word is being handled correctly and is being expounded faithfully. Since I have zero control over who happens to be in the chairs on a particular Sunday morning, why should I think for a moment the series that I designed is guaranteed to accomplish what I set out for it to do?

It’s funny how many times I’ve planned a series, often times preaching through a book of the Bible, and on a particular Sunday which I had mapped out months prior, the sermon I preach happens to be the exact thing needed to be said at the right time. I had no way of predicting the future or knowing what would need to be said months later. Under God’s mysterious, sovereign direction that sermon just came together at the right time.

Of course I plan, and of course I prayerfully ask the question “what next?” But in the end the right choice simply seems to be to just preach it.

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No Strings Attached

The other day I read an interesting post from Anne Jackson at flowerdust.net. Anne was actually commenting on a friend’s post about how churches can be more involved in their communities. The reason the post caught my eye was because this has been a recent topic of discussion at our church.

The other night at our leadership team meeting we spent some time brainstorming ideas about how we as a church could show the love and mercy of Christ to people living in our communities in a way that left people with a favorable impression of the church.

Too often churches leave people with a negative impression, many times making news because of something they proclaim to be against. The question is can we the local church love our communities in such a way that we become a positive presence among our neighbors? Can we be involved in doing good in our communities with no strings attached?

Time is(n’t) on my side

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that finding balance is one of the keys to cultivating one’s call to ministry. Of course finding balance isn’t a challenge unique to pastors; all people struggle to prioritize their days. But with all of the demands on our time, many of them good, we must find out how best to use the time we have.

I came across this post from Thom S. Rainer on how pastors tend to use their time. The statistics cited in his post were taken from a survey of 200+ pastors. Rainer divides the group between pastors in what he calls “effective churches” (i.e. churches that have high rates of conversion growth) and the remaining number of “comparison church” pastors. Here’s what Rainer found:

• Pastors of effective churches sleep slightly over six hours per day. Pastors of comparison churches sleep almost eight hours per day.
• Pastors of effective churches spend twenty-two hours in sermon preparation each week versus four hours for pastors of comparison churches.
• The effective church leaders spent ten hours each week in pastoral care compared to thirty-three hours for the comparison group pastors. Pastoral care included counseling, hospital visits, weddings, and funerals.
• Effective church leaders average five hours per week in sharing the gospel with others. Most of the comparison church pastors entered “0” for their weekly time in personal evangelism.
• Comparison church leaders spend eight hours a week – more than an hour each day – performing custodial duties at the church. The typical custodial duties included opening and closing the facilities, turning on and off the lights, and general cleaning of the building.
• Leaders of effective churches average 22 hours a week in family activities. The comparison church leaders weren’t too far behind with 18 hours of family time each week.

It seems that “effective” pastors are actually spending more time in preaching prep, less time in direct pastoral care, and less time doing the day-to-day tasks of “running” a church. Of course “effective” is a subjective term; I doubt many of those “comparison” pastors would admit to a commitment to ineffective ministry.

In light of this survey here are three observations I would like to make about pastoral balance:

1. Preaching the Word effectively is priority number one.

Good preaching preparation takes time. I’ve never kept a log but if I had to estimate I would guess that the time I put into preparing a sermon each week is right around that 20 hour mark. I do think that the relationship between hours put in and value returned has it’s limits; I doubt 40 hours of preparation would equal a twice as effective sermon. I would actually like to reduce my prep time eventually. Not so that I could get the work done faster, but that I could complete it more efficiently. I think doing so would free up time for more spontaneous ministry.

2. Delegation goes hand in hand with identifying spiritual gifting in the church.

The first lesson most of us pastors need to learn is that we can’t do it all (see #3 below). Scripture teaches that all believers are spiritually gifted, but that doesn’t equate to being fully gifted. I am the first to admit that my gifts are more in the areas of preaching, teaching, leadership, vision, and administration and that the care giving and mercy gifts are not my strongest. Therefore, I lean heavily on others who posses the gifts that I lack to work with me and to teach me.

3. It is so easy for pastors to take a “nobody does it better” attitude.

As a solo pastor I struggle with this all the time. If a light bulb burns out at church and I’m the only one in the building until Sunday, do I change it or do I call a Trustee? I know it’s a silly example (and yes, I change light bulbs) but multiply out all those 2-minute tasks that need to happen in any given week and you soon find yourself doing more than what you’ve been called to do. I think that’s the key: do what you’ve been called to do. That doesn’t permit pastoral snobbery, that just means that we need to employ delegation and boundaries if we are going to effectively cultivate our calling.

 

That’s what I think anyway. Maybe you have a different take on the survey. If you are a pastor, how do you divide your time during a typical week? What priorities have you established in your ministry? If you are a solo pastor (like me), how have you worked to equip others at your church to share the work of ministry?

9 Branches Every Pastor Should Cultivate

By way of introduction to this blog, here are nine areas of emphasis or ‘branches’ that I plan to help cultivate with my posts.

1. Cultivate the Ministry of the Word

I’m a preacher, therefore I preach. I am always looking for ways to improve my preaching. Great preaching is more than acquiring great skills, but I don’t think it is less. I will be on the lookout for examples of good preaching wherever I can find them.

2. Cultivate a Good Library

I love books. To me books supply an unending source of information as well as inspiration. If there is one thing that I learned in seminary it was the value of a good library. Expect to find much mention of books that I am reading as well as numerous postings of book reviews here at ‘one new branch’.

3. Cultivate a Heart for the Flock

The Apostle Peter said that we pastors are to shepherd God’s flock that is entrusted to our care (1 Peter 5:2). Peter goes on to say that shepherding isn’t a duty, it is a matter of the heart. If your heart is anything like mine then we will need to break up some hard ground first if we are going to see any growth. Watch for posts that may break your heart for the flock.

4. Cultivate Healthy Leadership

Whether you are a solo pastor like me or you are a part of a staff team, the temptation often is to go it alone. Big mistake. Cultivating healthy leadership involves surrounding yourself with healthy leaders. It also involves cultivating your own leadership style. There is a world full of examples out there of both good and bad leaders. I plan write posts that take these examples into consideration.

5. Cultivate Discipleship Opportunities

Pastors serve a unique role in the church. However I am pretty sure that doesn’t excuse us from Jesus’ call to all believers to make disciples. Of course one of the greatest challenges to making disciples is coming to an agreement about what it means to make disciples. I hope that some of my posts will spur on discussion as to what disciple making is to be all about.

6. Cultivate a Strong Family

When ministry begins to deplete my tank often family time refuels me. Yet it seems everyone in full-time Christian work struggles to find that balance between the call to be at home and the call to ministry. I don’t think balance has to be an elusive pursuit; I plan to write posts to help us cultivate that balance.

7. Cultivate Deep Spirituality

We who pastor are always being called upon to give and to serve. The reality is we can not give away that which we do not posses for ourselves. I want my Bible to be more than my preaching text. I want to encourage pastors in their pursuit of spiritual discipline to help us deepen our own walk with Jesus Christ.

8. Cultivate Solid Theology

Paul once wrote to Timothy with a warning that said there will always be people for whom solid theology and doctrine will be unwelcome (2 Timothy 4:3). Little has changed since then. I believe the best pastors also need to be great theologians. Look for posts here that encourage the study and discussion of solid theology.

9. Cultivate Cultural Engagement

It is very easy for churches to become inwardly focused. That same danger can be true of pastors. Our attention can be so captivated by what is happening internally that we can forget about and become irrelevant to a whole world outside of the church. I plan to post on topics related to engaging the culture we live in with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And another makes 10

That’s my list; now it’s your turn. What would you add to round this list up to ten? What other areas do you believe pastors and ministry leaders need to cultivate? I look forward to reading your comments and dialoging with you.

Thanks for reading and subscribing to ‘one new branch’.

one branch at a time, one step at a time

Welcome to 'one new branch' my new blog. "New?" you say? Yes, the old blog has run its course. This is a new blog with a new look and feel and a new purpose.

I'm just getting started, so if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into why not check out my 'about me' page (I just posted it).

While you're here go ahead and subscribe to the RSS feed in your favorite reader or at least bookmark 'one new branch' as one of your browser favorites.

More from me is on the way but be patient. These things take time. One branch at a time, one step at a time.