Truth In Advertising

I used to work for the world's biggest advertiser. We spent more money in more ways that anyone on the planet to get our products in front of people. When you combined that with the fact that in most cases our products were the best in their particular market segment, it made for some good selling for folks like me who called on stores and warehouses. If you couldn't sell Crest toothpaste, Pepto-Bismol, Folgers coffee, Crisco, Charmin etc. with all that going for you, well... there were people waiting in line to get your job who would.

Going to a supermarket or drugstore chain headquarters I could truthfully say we had the best product with the most support for them to sell it to the consumer. There were times when I convinced the retailer to sell my product to the consumer for LESS than the retailer paid for it. Why would they do that? Because people would make a special trip to buy my product, and once they were there they would buy other items too.

Those were the days.

Now as the pastor of a church I am working on an advertisement for our local newspaper. It's been a while since we advertised at all. We preferred spending the money on orphanages, wells, water purification, or HIV meds. But we need a greater presence in the area, and we have a couple who wants to see us get that so much they have paid for the ads. So now the dilemma arises - what do we say in the ads?

Unlike in my previous advertising experience, I can not confidently say that we have the best "product with the best support." That'd be wrong in a couple of ways. I really don't want to think of what we do as a "product." And when I think of what support we have here, I think of God. We have amazingly generous people who give of their time and money sacrificially - but it's all God's time and God's money - so it doesn't feel right to brag about that. And when I look at what we have to offer, lots of churches have more.

So now what?

I think we make our case by what we do.
We admit that we are imperfect.
Incomplete.

And that we can do anything through Jesus Christ if it is His will.

I'm deeply in love with the people God has placed at New Hope and with the community God has given us to serve. I expect we'll never be everything everyone wants. I accept that I will, that we will - disappoint people.

But I will follow Jesus and encourage people in my care to do the same. We will not hoard. We will not fear or worry about the future. We will love, we will give sacrificially, we will serve the least of these.

So if you see an ad for an "Imperfect Church", come see what it looks like in person. :)

A Week In the Life

Was sitting here thinking about last week at New Hope and wondering if anyone else realizes just how different we are. Most churches now are employing large staffs to be able to get things done and then hiring professionals to take care of their facilities. Many also employ outside help to staff the nursery or pay their musicians. The New Hope family does all that and more.

Just in the past week -

Monday we had several women take on cleaning up the kitchen. They did an awesome job. If you aren't involved in the fellowship meals you might have missed it. Thanks Carol, Diane, Jimmie, and JoAnn.
Scott did his usual great job at making sure our finances were in order.

Tuesday the band met to rehearse Sunday's music. They are putting in a couple extra hours a week trying to get better at leading in worship. Thanks Amy, Pam, John, Sean, Taylor, and Bunny.

Wednesday night we had several people helping make sure everyone was fed and that everything was cleaned up. Oh and Allan's birthday was taken care of. Thanks Carol, Diane, Frank, Joe, JC, Brenda, Mack, and Larry. The praise team rehearsed with all the band plus Jessica, Danielle, Emily, and Jamie - oh and JoAnn helped with the power point. Then Hector and Jessica helped clear the stage for the memorial service Friday. Thanks everyone.

Thursday - Jim Quinnell was going on vacation the next day, but made sure his church's yard was cut and trimmed. Thanks Jim. John Anderson came and programmed the A/C for the memorial service Friday. Scott came up with Sean and they began working on filling holes and low spots in the fellowship hall floor. It took several trips as they had to let it dry between coats. Thanks John, Scott and Sean.

Friday - Craig and crew (don't know who else) made sure the materials were ready for Saturday's work day. Craig cleaned the fellowship hall to make sure the flooring would meet no problems.

Saturday - At 6:30 AM, the work crews were at it in the fellowship hall as well as outside. Both crews did an amazing job. Thanks Carol, Joe, JC, Frank, Larry and Brenda, Scott and Sean, Craig, Mack and Hector.
Sunday - at 5:15 AM, John Anderson comes up to double check the A/C. At 9M, Larry and JoAnn, and Mack show up to open the buildings and provide the donuts that New Hope loves.

That doesn't include the preparation and teaching time that all our teachers in RAs, girls ministry, Kidmo, youth and adult Bible study put in. Thanks Joe, Larry, John, Bunny, Mary, Harriet, JoAnn, Pam, and Jessica. Or the service in the nursery done this week by Frank and Diane. It also doesn't include the folks taking care of Robert and Jewel, checking on Evelyn Brown, and who took food over or helped Thelma Rhinehart through the loss of her sister.

With all the above, I've still probably missed something and someone. There's so much work that goes on behind the scenes.

But what I am trying to help everyone see is that New Hope is unique and special because of people who give their time, talents and resources to make her all God is calling her to be and to do. I have never seen a church like ours. I think there need to be a lot more like her though. Did you realize just how much your friends did for God and His church last week? Give thanks to God.

Would you do one thing more for me?

If you are one of the people listed above - keep doing what you are doing. You matter to our mission - to God's plan.

If your name isn't listed and you'd like to find a place to serve, see me. We've got more we could do if we had more people to serve. Maybe you'd like to make followup calls to visitors or send cards to people we've missed seeing. Perhaps you are a keyboard wiz who could help input data for Scott. Or maybe you can cook and would be interested in helping out one week a month with the meal. If you want to serve alongside others, we'll find a place.

And if you have a friend whose not serving in their church but wants to make a difference, invite them to come and visit. The only way to grow a spiritual muscle is to use it. We can help them with that. :)

I thank God for you.

David

So, About the Mega Church

As the pastor of an average sized church, I feel the effects of the mega church on a pretty regular basis. The immediate temptation is to push back. And that's wrong. We need every functional community of faith we can find. Well actually we need a bunch more. Go plant one. Or two.

But I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge a tendency to try and find fault with things the local mega does. As a marketing professional for many years, it is easy to see how well they use the tools of that trade. And as an amateur student of culture, it is apparent that they do seem to replicate along homogenous lines. Lots of programs, lots of buildings, lots of lots of things.

Personal preference, and personal belief in what a church should look like runs in the opposite direction for me.

But I am open to instruction from all.

And in the clip below, Erwin McManus, "futurist" (his term) at Mosaic in LA works through the mega church issue. It starts about the 8:15 mark. He gets a wee bit aggravated, is a bit disingenuous concerning what a mega is, but makes some good points. But then at the end, "he shoots... He scores!"

He says that if you disagree with what the megas are about, then render them irrelevant by creating communities of beauty and authenticity.

My take-away - Don't spend any time thinking about what they are doing, spend your time listening to what God wants you to do. Then do it.

I'm all over that.


The Idea Camp - Erwin McManus and Eric Bryant from The Idea Camp on Vimeo.

Church Matters

Love cannot exist in isolation: away from others love bloats into pride. Grace cannot be received privately; cut off from others it is perverted into greed. Hope cannot develop in solitude—separated from the community, it goes to seed in the form of fantasies. No gift, no virtue can develop and remain healthy apart from the community of faith.-Eugene Peterson

The longer I'm a pastor, the more I see the value in the community of those who fell and were restored to wholeness through Christ.

If that community is focused and attentive to Jesus, it can do incredible things - things that can only be attributed to the supernatural power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Lord, keep us close to You.
Lord, let us see Your Way and give us the courage to follow it.
Lord, fill our hearts to overflowing with the same love you have for us.
Lord, let us be Yours together and gather others for the glory of Your Name.
Lord, make us one.

I Want It Now

I want the works
I want the whole works
Presents and prizes and sweets and surprises
Of all shapes and sizes
And now
Don't care how
I want it now
Don't care how
I want it now - from the Oompa Loompa song

Earlier last week, I was cleaning up in the closet and noticed that there was a copy of "Civilization II - Test of Time." It's an old, old game for the PC that lets you pick a people group and build a civilization. That's right, you get to RULE THE WORLD!!!!

So I began the game and decided to be the Ancient Greeks. I figured I had a depth of knowledge about them, knew the geography, and might get to show Alexander how a REAL general would handle those pesky Persians.

But it's so darn slow, this empire building. You have to convince people to settle, and farm, then build cities and defend them. There's danger of loss from outside forces and from treachery within. Even if you make yourself supreme ruler (they actually have a "despot mode" of government mode) people will be - people. Everything just takes so long.

That prospect of making things happen NOW! is most appealing to the pastor of a small church, friends. There's so much of what happens here that can best be described as incremental gains. You cheer when a couple more guys join the men's group. You're ecstatic when a couple of families seem to be fitting in. And have someone cross over to faith in Jesus, and it is as if everything you are doing is paying off.

This is not the place of giant leaps, or miraculous growth. No Beanstalks - more like centipede grass.

In the game, they have "cheat codes" you can use to speed up the process - to advance beyond what you could have expected to normally.

Ever hear of anything like that in the church? Or ever think about how easy this would be if only *those* people got out of the way or *those* people would come and join you?

I'd be surprised to meet a pastor who didn't want to see God glorified in His church. Or who didn't want it to happen sooner rather than later.

It's that "Don't care how" part that worries me.

I'll let God be the judge of other people's ministry. But I'll answer for mine. So if you'll pray for me to keep my desires in line with God's plan, I'd be grateful.

What Do You Want Me To Do For You?

I've been working these last two weeks on some ideas about what we could be doing in the weeks and months to come to see God glorified here at New Hope. Some I've shared openly on here for feedback (and I appreciate all I have received so far) and some I've kept close to the vest. In my heart, really.

Times like this, when instead of giving us a "put tab a into slot b, now stand back and watch it happen" sort of direction, God gives us stillness - don't really sit well with me. Yet I have learned over the years that some of the best things God has ever done came at the end of one of these "sessions."

As I've been working on a series on "Big Questions" to begin next week, I've tripped several times over a question that Jesus asked in the Scriptures. "What do you want Me to do for you?"

I chose "tripped" there to indicate that I'm a little uneasy about what I would answer. There's a tendency to want to wrap your own ambition up with a God honoring request. Here's a quote that might help you understand what I mean.

Something has happened in the past thirty or so years that has shifted our pastoral ethic from one of faithfulness to one of productivity and success. I believe this has stirred the fires of ambition. Given the nature of our American culture, this doesn't surprise me. It also doesn't surprise me that the battle with ambition will be a ferocious one, for the tendency toward self-absorption plagues every one of us.

For more than twenty years I have attended church conferences. I have observed as we sized each other up to see how quickly we could find out who had the highest attendance, the largest staff, the biggest budget, the most property. The secret that hardly anyone talks about is that most of us want to win the "largest church game." Or at least make a good showing. I am convinced from first hand experience, as well as from paying close attention to the darkness of my own heart, that if all-of-the-sudden thought bubbles appeared over all our heads, we would all fall to the ground in repentance.
- Kent Carlson writing in Leadership Journal

It is so darned easy to get caught looking at the numbers and deriving your worth to God from them. If they are great, you inflate your importance in God's plan. As I look back over the years, I'll confess to having done both. Someone pointed out once that in farming, 95% of what happens - success or failure - is out of the farmer's hands. A farmer only has a 5% impact on the outcome. Well, pastoring a church has to be much like farming. The successes you may have may very well have occurred through other people's faithfulness, and are always initiated by God in His grace and mercy.

So as I head off to bed tonight, I am thankful that God saw in me something He could use to illustrate His grace and mercy. And I pray that through my efforts in love of Him, He might find Himself glorified through changed lives who then go on to change other lives.

I am fighting the good fight. I am keeping the faith. And one day I'll receive the evaluation, but for now it is enough knowing that God loves me and has chosen me to serve His purposes in this generation.

When the cheering stops

The last couple of days, I've watched the frenzy of college basketball conference tournaments play out. I even found myself earlier today in a sort of basketball twilight zone, where a rabid Georgia Tech fan finds himself rooting for the hated Georgia Bulldogs playing on the GA Tech home court. I've seen young men hit incredible shots to win big games, and I've seen some young men miss shots that could have won games. In the first, the cheering will be with them forever, I'm sure. For those who missed, I hope they can remember the thrill of competition and overcome the bitterness of loss. Because for most people, it's what you do when the cheering stops that is the key.

We are on the cusp of a very special week as I write this. Sunday will begin Holy Week in Christian churches all around the globe. In thousands of languages and dialects, the story of Jesus' Passion will be told. Don't miss it.

John 12:17-19 (Msg) The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, was there giving eyewitness accounts. [18] It was because they had spread the word of this latest God-sign that the crowd swelled to a welcoming parade. [19] The Pharisees took one look and threw up their hands: "It's out of control. The world's in a stampede after him."

If Gallop, Barna, or Harris had taken a poll, Jesus would have been proclaimed king in a landslide that Palm Sunday, as even his enemies admitted that His popularity was at an all time high. People thronged to see Him enter Jerusalem.

But within a few days, people in Jerusalem were crying for Him to be executed as a criminal. And so He was. How did Jesus handle not just a change in popularity, but intense rejection? How can we learn from what He did?

No, we'll never enter Jerusalem at the head of thousands of our followers. But we enjoy being praised, and we like being liked. What happens to our convictions when we aren't? What principle can we look at to guide our way?

What did Jesus do?

John 12:27-28 (Msg)
"Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? 'Father, get me out of this'? No, this is why I came in the first place. [28] I'll say, 'Father, put your glory on display.' "

Knowing that this celebration would end, and that the week would find Him bruised, battered, and crucified, Jesus looked not to His circumstances for direction, but to God. It was God's will that He used like a homing beacon. It was His passion to please God and glorify His name that kept Him going.

What are you here for?

Glorifying God. That's why you were placed here in the first place.

Take the next week and use it to redirect your focus off the things of this life. Use the lens of Jesus' Passion to help you push toward deeper things - toward God. People aren't going to always be cheering your efforts you know. Sometimes you will miss that shot at the buzzer. Sometimes you'll dribble off your foot.

But God will always be in your cheering section, encouraging you. The cheering may stop here, but heaven will raise a ruckus when you come home.

Grace!


David Wilson