After Shaking Hands With Your Worship Guests: Officially Following Up

I've often imagine worship guests as gifts from God. How we respond to them while they are with us and how we follow up after their visit is our gift back to God. How are you stewarding the guests that God leads your way? While many congregations work at being friendly while they are with them, I'm often surprised at how many congregations have no organized follow-up system in place. That's like receiving a gift without saying, "Thank you!" And it doesn't have to be terribly elaborate. Let me share with you my top ten ideas.

After Shaking Hands With Your Worship Guests: Training Your Congregation To Welcome Newcomers

I have yet to meet a group of church leaders who said, "Our church isn't friendly." But I have met a lot of people who have visited congregations and reported based on their experience: "This isn't a very friendly church." Why the difference? I suspect that the main reason is that people in a congregation are visiting with their friends - and overlooking the strangers in their midst. While that's a pretty natural thing for people to do, it isn't a very welcoming response if you are visiting a congregation for the first time. Here are five quick things to keep in mind if you want to welcome your worship guests well.

What does Jesus Say to Congregations with Few Resources? (Part 5 of 5) Join Jesus in Ministry Today

Moses was wandering in the desert looking for grass for his flock of sheep and keeping an eye out for predators. He stumbled upon a bush that was ablaze but not burning up. As he approached he heard a voice: Take off your sandals, Moses, this is holy ground. Then God told Moses that he wanted Moses to go to Egypt and confront the Pharaoh about letting God's people, the Hebrew tribes, go free. Moses immediately started back peddling. 'But I can't speak publically.' God said he would send silver tongued Aaron. 'But they won't believe me.' God asks what was in Moses' hand and when Moses responded that it was his staff, God showed him how to use it effectively to do what God was asking. This continues for awhile as God patiently addresses Moses' concerns. But there came a point when God simply said, 'Moses, just do it!'

What does Jesus Say to Congregations With Few Resources? (Part 4 of 5) "What can we do? We have nothing!"

Have you ever wondered why Cleopas and the other disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus that first Easter afternoon didn't recognize Jesus when he fell in alongside them? It was a seven mile trek heading Northwest, so maybe the setting sun was in their eyes. They were talking about the news of Jesus' empty tomb and what it meant, so maybe they were just caught up in their discussions. I doubt if it was because Jesus was wearing a hoody and they just couldn't see his face. No one today knows for sure, but I suspect that Jesus was somehow different, yet still Jesus. They weren't expecting him in the first place and they certainly didn't expect him to be somehow different. Could it be that like Jesus walking beside them unrecognized, that there are God-given resources within the reach of our congregations that are also unrecognized - and therefore unused in ministry?

What does Jesus Say to Congregations With Few Resources? (Part 3 of 5) Keep the Target Ministry?

The first task of congregational leaders is not insuring their congregation's survival, but their congregation's missional vitality. Because we seldom hit a target we can't see, congregations need their leaders to do two things. First: clarify the mission. And second: constantly keep it before the congregation.

What does Jesus Say to Congregations With Few Resources? (Part 2 of 5) God Often Uses the Least?

Our society is in love with BIG. Big universities are popular. People flock to big shopping malls. And when we do one-stop shopping, it is at a Super Wal-Mart. The same seems to be true of attendance in United Methodist Congregations. In 1998 the largest attendance by size was in congregations averaging 200-349. In 2003 it moved up to 350-499 and in 2008 it moved up again to 500-749. Does that mean that God is no longer using smaller congregations to reach persons and impact communities? The point of this post is a modest one: it is simply to say, "Absolutely not."

What does Jesus Say to Congregations With Few Resources? (Part 1 of 5)

Jesus told a story in Matthew 25: 13-20 about a businessman who called his employees together before taking a trip. To one he gave $1,000, to another he gave $500 and to the third he gave $100, each according to their abilities, and instructed them to carry on his business while he is gone. Most of us have heard this story many times . . . and applied it to individuals. But what might Jesus be saying to congregations . . . that, after all, are a constellation of individuals? More specifically, what might Jesus be saying to those congregational leaders that identify with the third employee given only $100?

It's Never Been About the Numbers! Really!

I was with a group of church leaders recently reviewing their congregation's current reality: where they were and how they got there. I asked them what they believed were the specific Kingdom differences that God was calling them to make in the next three to five years.(If a congregation has no sense of what specific differences they are being called to make, the chances are about 100% that they will just continue doing pretty much what they are already doing.) One younger businessman spoke up: "It's all about the numbers. Ours are all heading south and we have to get them turned around. We have to get our Missional Vital Signs up." I wanted to roll my eyes, but refrained. Will we ever get the message across that it is not really about the numbers?

Connecting to your Community (Part 5 of 5) Seven Steps Toward Having a Kingdom Impact in Your Community

As has often been repeated, "A journey begins with the first step." We have been talking about the journey of becoming missionally vital in our communities, of having a Kingdom impact in Jesus' name. It is a destination toward which many church leaders want to move. But how? Where do we begin? In this post, I want to suggest seven key next steps you might consider.

Connecting to your Community (Part 4 of 5) Where are You in The Graduate School of Ministry

There seems to be a rather predicable path that congregations -- and their leaders -- go through, in growing to be missionally mature. Think of it as developmental stages maturing into more Christ-like missions. (Doug Anderson first draw my attention to this, so I want to give credit where credit is due.)While a leader or a congregation can get stuck in any class along the way in the Graduate School of Ministry, here are the stages: (1) Oblivious, (2) Awareness of people's needs and of God's call, (3) Gestures of Mission, (4) Transformational Relationships, and (5) Justice Ministries.

Connecting to your Community (Part 3 of 5) Doing Ministry like Jesus Did: Powerlessness & Proclamation

When Jesus ministered to persons, he did so as a humble servant even while sharing with them God's word. For mainstream American Christians, ministering in ways characterized by Powerlessness and Proclamation can be almost unnatural -- certainly counter cultural. But if we are to join Jesus in ministry in our communities, we must allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to be like Jesus in these ways, too.

Connecting to your Community (Part 2 of 5) Doing Ministry Like Jesus Did: Proximity & Presence

One of the challenges for every church leader is helping people gain a vision of what it means to join Jesus in ministry in the world. Our tendency is to think programmatically and impersonally. Jesus did not. Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways talks about the "4 P's" that characterize ministry done in Jesus' style. In this post, we will look at the first two P's: Proximity and Presence. In the following post, we will look at the second two P's: Powerlessness and Proclamation.

Connecting to your Community (Part 1 of 5) Why is it so challenging?

One of the surest signs of congregational vitality is when a congregation is connecting missionally to their community. That means the members of the congregation are involved in genuine relationships with people out in the community in ways that bless others, extend a merciful helping hand and share the Gospel invitation to explore who Jesus is within the fellowship dedicated to following him. A lot of congregations however gather in a community that they know little about and that knows little about them. They are like an island in the sea of the world. Why is it easier to be a sanctuary from the world rather than a mission to it?

Are You Mentoring Someone to Do What You Do?

I watched my grand children playing over Thanksgiving. They are both under five. Whatever the older one did, the younger one tried to do, too. As the older one learned something new, the younger one picked up on it more quickly simply by following big brother's example. What if we encouraged this normal pattern of learning from those just ahead of us in the church? What if every leader in the church was intentional about helping someone learn to do what they were doing?

Have You Seen Your Congregation's Snapshot?

Looking in the mirror can have a sobering effect for some of us - and a celebrative effect for others of us. I looked at a friend sitting across from me in a meeting this week and noticed how much thinner his face was looking since he has lost some weight. I looked in the mirror this morning and the face looking back didn't tell the same story. Either way, the Bible does talk about looking in the mirror and not forgetting what you see. When talking about congregations, however, that's a lot harder to do - at least it used to be before having the Congregational Snapshot.

Is Pastoral Care Missional? (Part 2 of 2)

At one point, it was all I could do to keep up with pastoral care needs. I was visiting the same handful of needy people regularly; I was doing a fair amount of counseling, too. Funerals, weddings and hospital visits filled up my calendar. I was struggling to have time to prepare well for preaching. In studying for a Disciple Bible Study we read Acts 6 where the Hellenistic Jews complained that their widows were being overlooked on the food distribution.

Is Pastoral Care Missional? (Part I of 2)

Since the mission of the church is to, "Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world," is pastoral care missional? In terms of time spent, probably nothing takes up more of a pastor's time than pastoral care. But is this a missional leader's most important concern? Are hospital visits, counseling, conducting weddings and funerals, and visiting the bereaved, those in nursing homes and home bound missional?

"I'm not being spiritually fed here."

Most pastors or teachers remember the cold chill they felt when they first heard someone say, "I"m not being spiritually fed here." People often say this as they are on the way out of the congregation and on the way to another. A pastor told me about hearing this recently as he blinked back tears.

Is your congregation going on to perfection?

When I was ordained, the Bishop asked us John Wesley's historic question, "Are you going on to perfection?" Of course, we all answered, "Yes," but I remember hearing a few snickers down the line and in the audience. Once when there were similar snickers in a class at Candler, Bishop Harman remarked: "If you aren't going on to perfection, what are you intending to go on to . . . fair-to-middling?"

'And teaching them to know everything I have commanded you.'

What's wrong with this not-quite-a-quote from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:20? What's wrong with it is why people yawn when they hear the sermon is going to be about forgiveness and yet hold a grudge for years towards their family member. Or think "boring" when they hear the lesson is on the 10 commandments, yet can't name all ten and regularly break several of them.