Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 197

Pray for Cross Pointe Ocala

Location: Ocala, Florida

Pastor: Mickey Graves

Weekly Worship: 10:30 AM, Eastern

Fast Facts: Cross Pointe launched nearly a decade ago at a local area community college. It was planted based on the idea that the church should exist primarily “outside of the walls,” reaching un-churched and de-churched for Jesus. Cross Pointe has adopted more than 100 international students through a partnership with the College of Central Florida, holds a yearly backyard Bible club at a low-income apartment complex, and is connected to a wide variety of local ministries.

Cross Pointe recently moved into its own rented space, which has allowed them to exponentially serve their community through a Fall Festival, Easter Egg Hunt, and, for the first time, a VBS at their building. Please pray for their upcoming Vacation Bible School. It will be their first one for the surrounding community, and first one in their facility. There are tens of thousands of people living in close proximity and few churches. A number of non-churched families attended their recent Easter Egg Hunt and are very interested in bringing their children. Finally, pray for wisdom for their leadership teams and the right people to come alongside who genuinely want to get involved and reach Ocala for Christ.

Website: CrossPointeOcala.org

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, fill out this information form..

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: April 29, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

Five Common but Unreasonable Requests Church Members Make of Pastors
Finding Unity in Worship Styles featuring Mike Harland – Rainer on Leadership #322
15 Really Strange Reasons Not to Attend Church
Four Elements of a Successful Podcast
How to Make Your Ministry Résumé Stand Out – Rainer on Leadership #323

 

5 Major Reasons Church Giving Declines — Art Rainer

God has designed us, not to be hoarders, but conduits through which His generosity flows. And this generosity should be evident by the way we give to our local church. Unfortunately, churches often experience a reduction in giving. Their members and attendees withhold or reduce their giving. Why does this happen? Here are a few reasons to consider:

 

7 Commandments For Every Young Student Pastor — Danny Watterson

For many young student pastors, this might be your first or second full-time role in ministry. There are so many things that you’ll face in this role that will challenge your faith, test your patience, and inspire you to be all that you can be as a leader of the next generation. Here are a few tips that will help in the earlier stages of your ministry path.

 

Strategic Reasons to Starts a Second Service — Cody Deevers

Our church launched on January 8th this year in an elementary cafeteria. We spent the previous eighteen months incubating at our sending church, meeting new people, building a core team, launching three community groups, letting our service teams practice at a sister church, and holding three preview services. This Easter we launched our second service. We have multiplied our services long before most would expect and here is why:

 

3 Indications of Really Bad Leadership — Eric Geiger

While David was the king who was a man after God’s own heart, his predecessor was a king after the people’s heart. God’s people, living in the land the Lord had graciously given them, wanted a king because every other nation had a king. They rejected God as their true King to trade Him for an earthly one. So after their continual begging, God said, “Fine, here you go. Here is Saul” (1 Samuel 8:18-22). As expected, Saul proved to be an unfit and an unfaithful king who disobeyed God and continually led for himself in the power of his own self. Living under his leadership was painful. With Saul in mind, here are three indications of really bad leadership.

 

8 Ways the Internet Can Hurt the Church — Chuck Lawless

I’m grateful for the Internet. Via it, we can find available resources, communicate with missionaries, train international believers, and evangelize the global lost. On the other hand, here are some ways the use of the Internet has hurt the church:

 

13 Truths for the Congregation of a Fallen Pastor — David Murray

It’s not a time for beating around the bush, for denial, for forgetting, for “putting it behind us,” or for “moving on.” Instead God’s all sufficient and all-suitable Word should be applied skillfully to the specific wounds inflicted by this sin. A series of sermons should touch on the following subjects:

 

How to Make Your Ministry Résumé Stand Out – Rainer on Leadership #323

Podcast Episode #323

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

Ministry résumés are a frequent topic for questions. So on today’s episode we discuss all the details that go into a good résumé.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Want to make your ministry résumé stand out? Do it well.
The most common grammatical mistake on résumés is the use of random capitalization.
Use appropriate fonts on résumés.
If you’re going to put a photo on your résumé, make it a good one.
Do not inflate attendance numbers on your ministry résumé. You will be found out.
When applying for a job, follow the instructions for applying.
Résumé hyperbole will lead potential employers to question your character.

The nine résumé qualities we discuss on the episode are:

A highly qualified person proofread the resume for grammar, style, and appearance.
There are no gaps in dates of employment.
The resume had a great photo.
The resume presented statistics clearly and truthfully.
The applicant only sent what was requested.
The resume included a narrative of accomplishments, rather than just positions with dates of employment.
The order of the details on the resume reflects the priorities of the organization more than the applicant.
Most of the resume uses the active tense.
Good resumes avoid “cutesy” attempts to stand out.


Episode Sponsors

The Timothy Track, from Midwestern Seminary, offers select residential M.Div. students placement in internship positions in a local church in the area. Now you can complement your studies with in-the-field ministry experience. In addition, all Timothy Track students will receive up to 12 credit hours for the internship and a 50% tuition scholarship for the first year.

Find out more at mbts.edu/TimothyTrack.

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Nine Ways to Make Your Ministry Résumé Stand Out

Four Elements of a Successful Podcast

By Jonathan Howe

In the past two weeks of the Rainer on Leadership podcast, we have experienced two of our top three days ever on the show in terms of downloads. For this, we are obviously grateful to our listeners.

As we begin year five of Rainer on Leadership, it feels like the proper time to look back over the past four years at what has made the podcast (and other popular podcasts) work. The “Religion and Spirituality” section of iTunes is by far the most populous category in the app, and Rainer on Leadership is consistently in the top 150. I’ve identified four elements of the podcast that I believe contribute to this.

Content. I jokingly called Dr. Rainer a content monster earlier this month. After working with him daily on the blog since January 2012 and the podcast since April 2013, we’ve never run out of content. That’s 325+ podcast episodes and nearly 2,000 blog posts. That’s a lot of content. And while there is some overlap from time to time with posts or themes, we’ve published volumes of original content in the past few years. And that doesn’t include the hundreds of books, speeches, sermons, and video resources Dr. Rainer has created content for during that same timeframe. Content matters. If you have good content—content that interests your audience—you can sustain a podcast.
Consistency. If you listen to Rainer on Leadership, you know the schedule. You’re going to get a new episode every Tuesday and Friday. If you’re like me, you have a routine of when you listen to podcasts. And when one doesn’t drop on time, you find yourself confused. Dr. Al Mohler’s podcast, The Briefing, is another example of the importance of consistency. His audience expects—and receives—new episodes daily. Consistency has been key to The Briefing’s rabid popularity. Consistently providing good content creates fans who are hungry for your podcast.
Chemistry. Rainer on Leadership is fun for Dr. Rainer and me to record. We tell jokes, share stories, and cover church leadership lessons—all in around 22 minutes. Often, those recordings are the most fun we have at the office all day. We truly enjoy talking about church leadership. That comes across to listeners. It’s taken some time for us to figure the chemistry out, and it will take time for you to figure out for your podcast, but it makes a difference. There is a better flow to the show when the chemistry is good, and it creates a more enjoyable listening experience.
Quality. Podcasts are audio mediums. It’s imperative that you have good quality audio. When we started the podcast, I was using a different audio editing program than I do now. The audio was poor, so I found a way to improve it. We also invested in quality microphones early on. Our audio quality isn’t to studio levels (because we don’t have one yet), but it’s not distracting to the listener. If your podcast audio quality is distracting to your listeners, they won’t be listeners for long.

Again, thanks for those of you who listen to Rainer on Leadership. And for those of you who have a podcast or want to start one, these are four most important things to focus on with your show.

What would you add to this list? Do you have a podcast and if so, do you struggle with any of these?

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources as well as the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.

15 Really Strange Reasons Not to Attend Church

What do peanut butter, girlfriends, and Rambo the dog have in common?

They were all used as reasons not to attend church services in a Twitter poll I conducted. I asked church leaders and churchgoers to share some really good excuses they’ve heard from people who choose not to attend church.

Some of the responses were common (hypocrites at church, worshipping on the lake or golf course, pastor preaches too long or short, etc.).

And I received the expected lectures of why we should not see the church as a place to go, or why church is no longer relevant.

But I also got some fascinating responses.

Have you heard these reasons not to attend church? The italicized comments that follow each are my own.

“We were out of peanut butter.” Of course, no one can worship without his or her peanut butter fix.
“I was too drunk, so I went soul winning with my dog, Rambo.” I hope Rambo was sober.
“Both of my girlfriends attend church there.” I think you might have other challenges.
“The worship leader pulls up his pants too often. It’s distracting.” What are we going to do with those worship leaders?
“My kids take naps during that time.” Bring them to church anyway; they can nap during the services with our deacons.
“Gas prices are too high.” Have you been outside lately?
“The pastor is too attractive. When I see him preaching, I have impure thoughts, and I am distracted.” I never heard that complaint when I was a pastor.
“My wife cooked bacon for breakfast, and our entire family smelled like bacon.” Bacon aroma is always welcome at our church.
“The pastor stays in the Bible too much.” I’ve noticed that too. Just who does he think he is?
“I couldn’t get the lid off the peanut butter.” I never thought there would be a peanut butter theme to avoiding church.
“We got burned out at church and have been taking a break the past seven years.” I think you broke the world’s record for length of time to cool down.
“The church is too close to drive, and too far to walk.” If you like, we could move our church to the next state, and you could fly in.
“I always get hemorrhoids on Sundays.” I understand. Sunday is a terrible day for hemorrhoids.
“Someone called me ‘brother” instead of using my name.” At least he didn’t call you “sister.”
“I was constipated.” Is that a Sunday-only occurrence?

I am sure you have heard some good excuses as well. Let me hear from you.

Finding Unity in Worship Styles featuring Mike Harland – Rainer on Leadership #322

Podcast Episode #322

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

Mike Harland is back to talk worship and this time we discuss labels of music styles and if it’s possible to have a congregation unified about worship styles.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

“The lack of unity in worship is an indictment on the worship that’s happening in our churches.”
“You cannot build unity in a church around a music style.”
“Because of music style trends, we’ve seen a generational segregation in the church.”
“By naming a service after a style of music, you’re setting it up to disappoint the attendees.”
“When you name a service based on stylistic worship, you’re painting yourself into a corner.”
“When planning musical worship, instead of thinking music genres, think worship moments.”
Worship planning is spiritual preparation, not just musical preparation.
Worship is our response to God’s revelation.

The five points we discuss about unity in worship are:

Carefully select your language
Aim for atmosphere & moments, not music style
vary accompaniments/voicing
avoid template worship planning
Focus on what doesn’t change



Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.

Midwestern Seminary, one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America, exists to train leaders For The Church. The local church is God’s “Plan A” for the proclamation of the gospel, and there is no Plan B. And this is Midwestern’s vision and heartbeat—equipping pastors and other ministry leaders who are called to expand God’s mission in the world through the local church. At Midwestern Seminary: they train leaders ‘For The Church.’

Visit them online at MBTS.edu and start your ministry training today.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Worship Life Conference

Five Common but Unreasonable Requests Church Members Make of Pastors

“I need you to do a funeral for my cat.”

Yes, that is a request made to a pastor by a church member. And here’s the stranger reality. I have heard from dozens of pastors who have had this very request.

I assume the cats in question were dead.

Though I have heard hundreds of strange and unreasonable requests made to pastors, five of them are common. In fact, most pastors will encounter all five of these requests in the course of their ministries.

Ask certain people to leave the church. The common theme is the request to get people who are not like us to leave the church. A church member asked one pastor to have a separate church service in the trailer park for “those people coming to our church.” Yes, really.
Accept a gift with unreasonable expectations. The most recent was the offer of a $10,000 gift if the church signed a document agreeing to keep fresh flowers on his grave in perpetuity. I assume he meant the request to be posthumous.
Do a pet funeral. A recent example was the request to do the funeral of a turtle. Can we really know if the turtle is dead? I guess our olfactory senses will confirm its death.
Travel out of town to minister to a distant relative. I lead a pastors forum called Church Answers and get a lot of great input and questions. One pastor in the forum asked me about a request a church member made for him to visit a cousin in the hospital. But the surgery was minor and outpatient. The one-way distance was 225 miles. And the cousin was active in a church in her hometown. The church member left the church because the pastor declined.
Leave the church. Many pastors are asked to leave the church for the most outlandish reasons. I remember the first time a church member asked me to leave the church. She said, “God told her” I was supposed to leave because I was bringing too many unbelievers and new Christians to the church. And then she said the cringe-worthy words, “They are just not like us.”

Keep in mind, these five unreasonable requests are common. These are not the outliers. In fact, they are so common that I am now suggesting seminaries add a course for every one of them (tongue in cheek, of course).

You just have to love pastors. Their lives are often stressful, but never boring.

Pray for The King’s Chapel

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Pastor: Dustin Battles

Weekly Worship: 10:00am Sunday School; 11:00 AM, Eastern

Fast Facts: The King’s Chapel was founded in 1971 and is located in the booming northern suburbs of Cincinnati, OH. In the fall of 2015, The King’s Chapel called Dustin Battles to be the pastor of the handful of older members that remained. Please pray for their upcoming annual missions conference, April 22–23, where members and visitors will hear about God’s work throughout the world. Also, pray for God to bring growth from two 2016 outreach events, both of which had about 100 people in attendance. Please pray for believers to be strengthened and unified, the elderly encouraged, new souls to come to faith, and Christ’s name to be made known in the community. Also, pray for the weekly Bible study held at the pastor’s home, as this is a prime opportunity for the unchurched to hear the Bible explained and have questions answered in a less formal setting.

Website: KingsChapelBaptist.org

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, fill out this information form..

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: April 22, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

Five Ways Pastors Can Reverse Negative Sentiments in a Church
The Need for Church Replanting featuring Mark Clifton – Rainer on Leadership #320
Ten Common Sentiments Pastors Wish They Could Express
Churches, Social Media, and Customer Service
Four Keys to Creating a Healthy Staff Culture featuring Bryan and Shannon Miles – Rainer on Leadership #321

 

What if Your Kid Doesn’t Have Any Friends at Church? — Jenny Funderburke

Friendships between kids can be challenging regardless, but church is a different dynamic because of the limited amount of time kids spend there each week. It can be hard to make significant friendships in an hour or two a week. There are, however, things that you and I can do as parents that can better or even worsen the situation. If your child is expressing these thoughts, here are some tough questions to ask yourself as the parent:

 

5 Mistakes More Likely To Be Made By Small Churches Than Big Churches — Karl Vaters

Small churches are not just smaller versions of big churches. Every size has value, but different sizes serve different functions in the body of Christ. They also have different challenges and they tend to make different kinds of mistakes. Here are 5 mistakes that are more likely to be made by small churches than by big ones. The smaller, the more susceptible they are.

 

8 Reasons Church Conflicts Often Burn Out of Control Quickly — Chuck Lawless

As a pastor, I sometimes felt like I spent all my time putting out fires in the church. It might have been right for me to deal with the fires, but I seldom caught the fire before it started burning more brightly than I wanted. Here’s why the fires of church conflict often burn out of control quickly:

 

2 Ways Boredom Destroys Ministry Leaders — Eric Geiger

The apostle Paul challenged the young pastor Timothy to “pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16). We must watch both our lives and our teaching. Boredom in either can lead us away from the Lord.

 

5 Questions Leaders Should Be Asking All the Time — James E. Ryan

I believe there are some essential questions that are useful across a variety of contexts, including, and perhaps especially, the workplace. In fact, I gave a commencement speech last year on this topic, suggesting to students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education that there are really only five essential questions in life. Although the audience was future educators, I believe these questions are equally valuable for anyone in a position to lead or influence others.

 

When to Stop Chasing Your Dream — Michael Kelley

Dreams are wonderful things; they fill us with hope and optimism; they make us view every day with new possibilities and cause us to spring with joy at the prospect that “today might just be the day.” They are wonderful, that is, until they aren’t any more. It’s at that moment when you come face to face with the reality that maybe it’s actually not going to happen for you. But I want to propose that there is a time when it’s not only necessary but actually appropriate to stop chasing your dream. Here’s the reason why:

 

Four Keys to Creating a Healthy Staff Culture featuring Bryan and Shannon Miles – Rainer on Leadership #321

Podcast Episode #321

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

Staff culture is important for healthy churches. Today, we talk with Bryan and Shannon Miles who lead the #1 staff culture in the U.S. according to Entrepreneur magazine.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

“You can’t ask others to do things you’re not willing to do as the leader.”
“As a leader, you can’t force or create a policy that you’re not willing to live and die by as well.”
“Not everyone carries the same vision for the church that you do.”
Sometimes we take leadership so seriously that we don’t have any fun.

The four keys for healthy staff culture we discuss on the episode are:

Lead by example
Invest in your culture
Share common values
Focus on the people

About Bryan & Shannon Miles and BELAY
Bryan Miles is CEO & Co-founder of BELAY. Bryan (alongside his wife, Shannon) lead a US-based virtual solutions company that has over 550 people on payroll … all working from home, virtually. Additionally, his company has been named to the Inc 500 list in both 2015 and 2016.

BELAY provides business-grade virtual services such as assistants, bookkeepers, copywriters, and webmasters – to leaders and fast-paced organizations and churches across the country. Their robust selection of services allows your organization to scale when and where you need it most.

Episode Sponsors

The Timothy Track, from Midwestern Seminary, offers select residential M.Div. students placement in internship positions in a local church in the area. Now you can complement your studies with in-the-field ministry experience. In addition, all Timothy Track students will receive up to 12 credit hours for the internship and a 50% tuition scholarship for the first year.

Find out more at mbts.edu/TimothyTrack.

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

BELAY

Team members acknowledge their weaknesses to one another
Team members voice their opinion even at the risk of causing disagreement
Team members offer unprovoked constructive feedback to one another


The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni
The Levity Effect by Adrian Gostick