Our Church’s Softball Outreach Is Almost Underway!

This is a post I wrote last year, which is slightly adjusted for updated content, but my thought behind it is the same.  I’m excited for the new softball season that begins this Friday.  Here’s my thoughts from last year:

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Our church put together a softball team and entered our city’s co-ed rec league.

I love:

• that we are in a city rec league instead of a church league
• that someone from the other team last year said, “We’re playing a church. We can’t cuss.”
• that our team shirts have our church logo and phrase “where the cross is central” right on the front, along with our website address
• that every player’s shirt will have 1 Tim. 4:7-8 on the back (written out)
• that we pray before and after every game
• that we have great fellowship with people in our church outside of our church
• that there is a good number of our younger people coming out to play
• that we are encouraging each other during the entire game
• that we are able to develop some new relationships with new players who can find encouragement in the church.

I think being part of our city’s rec leagueinstead of a church league is a great way of making an impact on people who don’t know Jesus.  Instead of isolating ourselves with Christians in the church league (and I know that not every player in the church league knows Jesus!), we are shaking hands with people who saw a Christ-like attitude during the game (that’s our goal at least).  We are standing on the base talking with an opponent who reads our shirts.  We are showing people that cursing doesn’t have to accompany a strike out.

I consider our team to be an outreach.  Every Friday night we are able to be with people who might not know Jesus and show them a Christ-like example.  My hope is that throughout the season, we’ll get to know some of the people on the other teams, and have a chance to talk to them about faith and maybe even invite them to a worship service or community group.

So even on a baseball diamond, we can glorify God and help others see that glory!

Post-Easter Thoughts

I hope you had a great resurrection celebration!

Some initial reflections on yesterday’s services:

-The gospel was simply, clearly presented. Preaching on Easter is an interesting activity because you have to fight the inclination to “complicate” the sermon. Many who gather in churches are familiar with the resurrection story, and in an effort to not disappoint them, many pastors try something fancy and out of the norm. That can be effective at times, but this is also the one Sunday when people gather who are not as familiar with the gospel message. No matter the familiarity, the gospel message has power for the saved and unsaved, so on a resurrection celebration, you just preach the “old familiar story” and pray it changes lives. I felt we did this yesterday through the different elements of the service. I thought it was clear how one can be saved.

-The elements of our service were effective in exalting Jesus! Everything we did was intentional, not just something we put in for the sake of doing something special for Easter. It was special, but it was planned to intensify the message of Jesus in an intentional way. Thanks to everyone who participated! The music, choir, drama, special instrumental, and even those who purchased lilies to decorate the platform– it all went together to make a special day.

-The sunrise service was a great start to the day with cooperation between churches. I might have heard the best rendition of His Eye Is On the Sparrow sung by two young ladies at this service, and the opportunity to worship with people from other churches was great. not to mention the breakfast was incredible!

Pre-Easter Thoughts

Last night, our church had a great Good Friday service focusing on the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. We used an adaptation of the Stations of the Cross in our service, having many different participants doing readings that pointed out some of the details that some people don’t always remember.

Here’s what I’m really looking forward to for tomorrow (Easter Sunday):

-Celebrating the risen Savior, Jesus! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:14 that without the resurrection, our faith is in vain. It is the most significant event in all of history.

-Cooperation between churches. We are teaming up with Fite Memorial Baptist Church and Grace Brethren Church for a Sunrise Service in the morning followed by a breakfast together. It will be a great time to be together with other believers, setting aside denominational and “church pride” issues (if there are any even) to just focus on Jesus!

-Some effective different elements in our Resurrection Worship service at Central in the morning. Our 10:30 service will have some special elements that should help make our service very effective at getting the message across.

-Getting my children up and out the door by 7am for the sunrise service!!!

Have a great day celebrating the resurrection of Jesus!

Back Online!

I'm committing to start writing again here.

If you ever look at this blog, you will have noticed that I have not posted anything since last October.  Partly that was because of changes happening to our church’s website.  There was an initial thought that I could integrate my writing there to have everything in one place.  But staying with WordPress like this gives much more flexibility and features.

There is much happening in our church and denomination, and I think this website can still be helpful for communication.  So bookmark this site, add it to your RSS reader, or do whatever else you need to keep checking back to find new information and how it pertains to the church and you!

Keep the church’s site available still so you don’t miss anything!

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Essentials for Effective Established Churches

I am making these points after thinking about established churches from Thom Rainer’s recent post.  While there is purpose and value in church planting, Rainer is right in thinking that we cannot give up on the established churches, even though leading them poses difficult challenges.  Pastoring a church of any age will be challenging, so instead of complaining, let’s just remember some essentials of leadership as we strive to keep ministry effective. These are my thoughts, and I’m certainly no expert.  What did I miss?  Leave a comment.
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1. Preach the Gospel. The gospel message is needed because it has the power to save people. Established churches sometimes don’t preach the gospel and so they don’t see any transformation and become stagnant country clubs. If we want to see peoples’ lives changed and making a difference in our community, we must proclaim the Gospel, which is the very reason Christ established the church.
2. Love people. People want their pastor to care about them.  The challenge for young pastors especially is that we are often stereotyped into wanting to build up a huge church and do things for our own glory or like what we’ve seen somewhere else. I’m not sure why that is, but I know I’ve run into that. People think the pastor will care more about their ministry and plans, and will forget about loving and actually shepherding people.  I spent the majority of my first year at Central going out and being with our people. Just getting to know them and praying with them– showing them that I genuinely care about them.  As challenging as they can be sometimes, people are the reason God put pastors in place!

Gadgets in the Church? Some Pros and Cons

Technology has greatly aided the church.  

• Pianos are electronic, so the volume can be controlled and different sounds can be used.
• Words can be displayed on screens so hands are free to worship without holding books.
• Dropbox lets everyone who works on files for Sunday’s service to put them in one place to be accessed at one time to prep the screens for a service.
• Computers allow for videos and other media to enhance the message during the service.
• Sermons can be recorded and uploaded online to be listened to whenever someone wants to.
• Church Management Systems allow office workers to handle data and serve people more effectively.

While all of these are great, I am focusing in this post on the use of phones and tablets during a church’s worship service–is it okay?

The reason it’s on my mind is because I’ve had a few conversations recently about this.  So I thought I’d share some pros and cons as I see them, and then suggest some nice resources.  First, let me say that I’m not at all opposed to using phones and tablets in worship because I know how helpful these tools can be.  But there definitely can be some down sides to it.  What I’m sharing here is a mixture of my thoughts and different opinions I’ve read at different times in different places.

Church Tailgating Party- Incredible!

This was our church’s Facebook page status yesterday afternoon:

So last week Pastor Ryan asked in his sermon why we don’t get as passionate about church and Sunday school as we do for ballgames. He said he didn’t see anyone tailgating outside before church talking about the big sermon and all fired up for church. SOOOOO we got the hint and we all decided this week it was time for a tailgate party! We are excited for Sunday School, for worship, for preaching, fellowship, and God’s Word!!! What a great time had by all!

I honestly couldn’t believe what I saw when my family pulled into the parking lot next to the church for our routine Sunday morning.  As we turned in, Nikki said “what are all these people standing outside for?”  My first thought honestly was that there was a fire inside of our building!

But then I realized that a good number of our church people acted on my joking statement in last week’s sermon about our being passionate about Jesus and what we do together on Sunday mornings.  I couldn’t stop talking about this tailgating party with Nikki most of the day yesterday!

This was absolutely incredible for a number of reasons.  Here are a few:

• People listened to a sermon!  Even if it wasn’t the most spiritual part, they still heard
• People kept it a secret all week from me.  Being surprised made it even better.  I’m really surprised that Camma didn’t let it out while working around the office all week!
• It was awesome to see young and old gathering like this holding up signs and wearing church apparel and simply being united together in their excitement of Jesus and our church.
• This was put together in a week and was really well done too.  Seriously.  The signs, the sound system set up outside with music playing, the grill for sausage, the crock pots with breakfast casseroles, the “Jesus Loves Me” stickers everyone seemed to have on their faces.  It was just a lot of fun because everybody took it seriously.
• Nikki and I both agreed how much we appreciated that our church family would do something like this.  They’re a bunch of fun people.
• The morale yesterday morning going into Sunday School and then worship was so great!  There really seemed to be more energy and excitement to be there, just like tailgating at a football game.
• Most people were wearing t-shirts, jeans, and stickers on their face all morning.  It’s nice to relax together.

Pictures of the tailgating party are at the church’s Facebook page.  To my church family– what an incredible way to kick off yesterday!  Thank you for putting the effort into this event and for uniting together for something special like this.

Since I didn’t get the email this week, next week– I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt to preach in…