28 Monday Jan 2008
Posted in Uncategorized
As I was pondering today’s Day of Learning, I remembered the one question that has stuck with me. It was asked by Mark Gorvette:
What does our church need to do to get healthly so that we can plant a church in five years?
28 Monday Jan 2008
Posted in Uncategorized
Today I had to be up especially early because our district was sponsoring a Day of Learning for its pastors. First, let me applaude Pastor Greg Reynolds for doing this. I love the fact that we as pastors are going to get together several times a year. Yes, the continuing ed is great, but so was the fellowship. I caught a ride with the other Wesleyan pastor in town. We had a great team come in for this first of many days of learning. Our guests were Dr. Wayne Schmidt of Kentwood Community Church, and Pastor Mark Gorvette, the District Superintendent of the West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Church.
It was a great day. Wayne gave us his testimony of how God called him to plant KCC and how both he and the church grew. He also spoke on his book, “Ministry Momentum.” It was great stuff.
Pastor Mark presented information on church multiplication. In 1990, there were 51.3 million worshipers in churches across the USA. In 2006, there were 51.8 million worshipers in churches across the USA. In the same 16 year period, the USA netted a gain of 52 million more people into its culture. While we often talk of church growth, it appears that we have been ineffective of assimilating people into our churches. Forty years ago at the merger of the Pilgrim Holiness and Wesleyan Methodist churches there were 2000 in North America. Only 1,400 congregations remain. We have closed 600 churches. Now, we have planted 300 congregations, but we are not keeping up with the closed churches. Mark is a big church plant advocate and you can sense his passion for it.
After both pastors talked we had an opportunity for a question and answer session. It was great and it was an encouraging day. It gave me lots to think about.
28 Monday Jan 2008
Posted in Uncategorized
Here is the lead article from our bi-monthly newsletter:
Several days ago, Pam and I were on our way home from doing some church business. As we pulled into the driveway, I noticed something that I have rarely seen here in the South. No, I’m not talking about snow and yes, we haven’t seen much of that either. But what I saw was how dead and grey the world was this week. Part of that is because we have had some real cold weather with lows bottoming out around 10, combined with the fact that we are in one of the harshest droughts ever on record. The grass didn’t get much nourishment this fall and that caused it to die this winter. Now, to Pam and I this is the way winter should always look-dead and grey.
Sometimes our spiritual lives get like that. Hopefully that should concern us as it should, but we also need to remember that some of the greatest Christians in the last two thousand years went through spiritual dry spells. I know it’s a tough thing to go through. I’ve been through them as well. Sometimes you feel as cold, grey, and dead in your spiritual life as the winter around you. That’s when we need to remember that spring is just around the corner. Most of you know the gospel song, “Joy Comes in the Morning.” The chorus goes like this:
Hold on my child,
Joy comes in the morning
Weeping only lasts for the night
Hold on my child,
Joy comes in the morning
The darkest hour means dawn is just in sight.
When we come to that place in our spiritual life – that cold, dead, grey time – that is a time that we can turn to God. Just because we feel spiritual dead, doesn’t mean we are, especially if we are concerned about it. That means there is life in your soul – a life that is waiting to spring forth.
This year, we will once again have our SpringLife emphasis, which coincides with Lent and Easter. It is a time of preparation and reflection for the upcoming Easter season, much like Advent prepares us for Christmas. If you are going through one of those spiritual dry spells, use this time to help water and nourish your soul. We try to keep our bodies in physical shape. We must keep our souls in great shape as well.
