Spiritual Warfare?

"You armed me with strength for the battle (Ps 18:39)." We have learned in our work of ministry for nearly 40 years the enemy will attack when we start to "tear down the strongholds of the devil." Sometimes the attack is subtle, sometime vicious. But the "battle belongs to the Lord."

Many US Christians do not get this.  Why?  Because we have ceased to engage in spiritual warfare by so compromising the gospel that it has no power to transform or by simply failing to take on the bastions of evil in culture or individuals or even our own lives.

So we wander blissfully from Sunday to Sunday unmolested by the devil.  Why does he not fight against us?  Because we have already surrendered.  This is one of the reasons church fights are usually about insignificant things.  I have seen so called Cristian church leaders almost come to blows over the color of the carpet, the placement of the pulpit, the change in the bulletin, the mural on the wall of the nursery, the setting for the thermostat, the layout of the parking lot, the contract for the insurance, and the list is interinable. This is not spiritual warefare. This is just bickering in the family.



War is war!  Bunker Buster Booms dropped into the middle of our lives and ministries make it clear this is not just a family squabble.  An enemy has attacked and seeks to destroy us, our lives, our marriages, our children, or effectiveness, our witness and our ministries. The Bible speaks of this as the "shipwreck of faith."

We learned many years ago when we were about to embark on a new ministry that would transform lives through the power of the Gospel, we better get ready.  Satan would turn from the pussy cat of most mainline church theology and practice, into the roaring lion seeking to devour us. Invariably the attack would come, and usually from the least likely source, but always at the most vulnerable place. We have literally been knocked off our feet from time to time with the spiritual or physical or emotional breath knocked out of us. But God has been faithful: "Greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world."

We have especially seen this vividly demonstrated in Venezuela.  Sometimes it has been so obvious and other times so subtle, yet it has been clear the devil does not want us working there. He has the country and he wants to keep it.  We claim it for Christ and the pastors we are training are reaching it for Christ.  People's lives are being transformed. Homes are being healed.  Marriages are taking place (instead of just procreation). Churches are being planted.  Unbelievers are becoming Christ-followers. Addictions are being broken. Idolatry is being shattered.  Children are being fed and taught the love of Jesus.  Young people are stepping into leadership in the church in remarkable ways.  God is raising up a group of mature leaders for the national church.  The mission of Jesus Christ is advancing as they/we Make Disciples.  And ol' Slew foot does not like it.

Well, he may bruise the foot of the Body of Christ, but we will bruise his head!  The battle belongs to the Lord.


That is why Paul is so clear that we have to be prepared for WAR!  "Put on the whole armor of God..."  This is not an admonition to arm ourselves for the next church squabble about insignificant things.  This is the warning, the gracious warning that if we are going to be serious in our pursuit of Christ, his holiness, his mission and his call upon our lives we better be prepared - not for an election, not for a committee, not for a minor setback, but for WAR!

So whether your battle today is one in ministry or personal relationships or physical or emotional, know the Lord God Jehovah reigns! As Jesus, said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  It is true.  I've seen it.  I am looking for that display of overcoming power in Venezuela and in the lives of those I love. I know I will see it.

This morning I'm suited up ready and armed for the battle.  How how I prepared?  Listen to Paul:

^{Ephesians 6: 10}"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

I would add to that what Paul next said:  " ¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." (NIV)

Effective?

Yesterday we worshiped with the congregation of the Ondas de Paz UMC in Cabudare, Venezuela. This congregation was started by our good friends, and now family members, Efrain and Bethsaida Morales.  For several years it met in their modest home in Cabudare.  When they moved to the US to be with their children Pastor Efrain appointed Alexander and Amaryllis to be the new pastors.  This young couple had very little experience and almost no seminary or theological training.

However, Pastor Morales knew they were people of great faith and good character and would grow into the office.  And how they have grown!  That has been a sheer joy to observe. As they have grown the church has also grown.  First they knocked out the interior walls of the Morales' old house.  They added Sunday School rooms in the back.  But the last time I worshiped there, in March of this year, the sanctuary was full and people were standing outside the doors and windows sharing as best they could in the dynamic service.

Yesterday we gathered in a large "Party Room" as a great crowd gathered for worship. The rented facility is on a main street, has off-street parking (rare in this area) and is sheltered by several very large trees, making it extremely pleasant in the tropical heat. This was great to see after being used to the overwhelmingly cramped facilities of the last 10 years.

Is the description above what is necessary before a church can be called an effective congregation: new people, new/expanded facilities, more money, more attendance?  Well, maybe.  These are not typical of ineffective churches.

However one factor I did not mention in my description of the church is the issue of transformed lives.  Lives are being changed in this congregation.  Just yesterday several adults were converted and made a profession of faith. Homes are being restored.  Lives are being changed.

This is the measurement of effectiveness:  Transformed lives.  Not attendance, not buildings, not new members, not apportionments paid, not number in the choir or Sunday School Attendance, not cell groups or home groups, not mission teams and mission budgets, or any of the other ways we typically measure effectiveness.

My denomination has been content to have no or few professions of faith, little growth, or actually slow decline, aging congregations and dwindling constituencies and impact as long as the one vital sign was healthy: 100% apportionments paid.Other denominations have majored on other single focus issues such as theological integrity or Sunday School attendance or Baptisms, etc. The result:  all mainline denominations in the US are in decline.

Effectiveness is measured by transformed lives, lives transformed, changed, redeemed by the power of the Gospel of Christ.  When a church is effective it will impact its worship attendance and mission offering, its percentage of apportionments paid, its Sunday School attendance, its numbers of baptisms, etc.  However those alone are not the signs of effectiveness.  Our church will be judged by the Great Judge on whether we were engaged with Him in redeeming lost humanity.

Ondas de Paz is doing just that.  Most churches in the US are not.  There is so much we could learn from the church in Latin America! However, that would require at least the following:

1. The honest recognition that what the church in America is doing is failing miserably.
2. The burning desire to reach people with the Gospel of Christ and see lives transformed, the lost found.
3. A teachable spirit - a loss of the arrogance of the American church.
4. Humility. The Latin American church has so little of what the American Church values, but so much of what we need.  Could the church in America change its core values enough to esteem what God is doing in Latin America?

Do you want to be effective?

Church Work or Ministry?

When I started in ministry in the early 70's leadership recruitment in the UMC was basically the task of finding anyone who had some talents and putting them in a job in the church where they could serve.  The "Nominating Committee (usually primarily the pastor)" had the unwelcome task of filling elected offices that neither functioned in the local church or had any use in the Kingdom. But our Charge Conference forms had a space for a name beside every job and we had to fill that space. If you were breathing you were a likely candidate for just about any job in the church.  We just had to talk you into it either by saying, "I am asking you to take an office that really has no function/purpose, but it does put you on the Administrative Council." Or, conversely, "This is a big job, but I am sure you can do it. It will not require much time." 

Either produced unsatisfactory results.  The first left people, often gifted people, feeling guilty about not doing what the Job Description from the UMC said they ought to be doing and putting them in the decision-making/permission giving loop wothout sufficient "skin in the game." The other outcome was burned out church workers who disappeared every year around Charge Conference time. "I have already served my time. Get someone else to do it.  I'm tired.  I just can't take on anything else."  This often resulted on recruiting second tier leadership instead of having the best players on the field.

Thankfully someone taught me about gifts based ministry - spiritual gifts. What I discovered was if I could help a leader discover his or her spiritual gifts, discern their passion and calling and then help them find a way to serve in the Kingdom which fully exercised those gifts, passion and calling, they soared! Avoidance and burnout ceased to be a problem.  They served joyfully and sacrificially.  The complaint department almost closed (although in the church it is ALWAYS open).

This discovery and experience led me to coin this phrase to capture this great truth:

Church Work Kills


Ministry Thrills

What does that mean?  How many good enthusiastic church members have been beaten to death by work in the church that does not fit their spiritual gifts nor passion nor calling? Just because one is a Certified Public Accountant does not mean that she should be on the Finance Committee.  She may work in that field all week but her primary spiritual gift is the gift of teaching. Therefore if she can be helped to discover that gift and employ it in the Kingdom, she will serve in effective and sacrificial and joyful ways that would never be possible on Finance.  Sure, she can do the work of the Finance Committee, but it is just that for her:  work.  It (Church Work) saps one's energy and diminishes one's joy.

Larry was a computer programmer and typical of the sterotype.  But Larry discoverd he had the Spiritual Gift of Teaching.  He began to teach Disciple Bible Study (a brutally long year-long process requiring a great amount of work and perserverance by the participants). Frankly, I was not optimistic. He was a computer programmer and more comfortable with bits and bytes than Scripture and people.  Now over 15 years later he is still teaching and talks about it with excitement and joy in his face.

Glenn came to me one day to tell me she felt her spiritual gifts, passion and call were leading her into prison ministry.  Being the sensitive and perceptive person I am, I thought, "This is crazy.  They will eat you alive in the prisons of Georgia."  Fortunately I did not say exactly that, but I am not sure how encouraging I was.  However, she did not need my permission and just immersed herself in that ministry.  She became a part of a team that developed a model program for the families of prisoners in Georgia and it has been duplicated in other states at the request of state governments.

Church Work Kills - Ministry Thrills. These are two examples of the thrill of serving in one's area of gifts, verses filling a job in the church. Unfortunately, in my work as a District Superintendent and a church consultant, I more often saw the old way I did leadership recruitment.  And resentment, fatigue, "it will never work here." and "I'm not going to do it" attitudes are the result.  Joyless duty and meaningless work is the description of most leaders in most ineffective churches.

Thankfully years ago my friend John Ed Mathison taught me that just because someone said we needed a job filled in the church did not mean God wanted that job filled.  If no one with the right spiritual gift came forward to serve, the church was better off not doing the task and waiting until or if God did call someone.  That was a freeing realization. Of course, being a pastor meant putting names on the charge conference forms (before the Discipline was changed), but we all knew in the local church that was just a show for the DS.  We found ministry occurring when lay leaders discovered their spiritual gifts, passion and calling and were given permission to pursue that. Some things did not get done. But that made no difference to the Kingdom, just like forcing people into church work makes no difference to the Kingdom - except to take away from its power and resources.

An effective process for helping both lay and clergy leaders discover their spiritual gifts, passion and calling is time consuming, but well worth the effort. Death or joy is the the difference. Kingdom work is the difference.  Transformed lives is the difference.

Inward or Outward Focus?

I just finished teaching for a day in a State-wide pastor's conference in Venezuela.  I was asked to teach on the Mission Church.  The invitation came from a pastor who was the Valedictorian of the first graduating class of the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela (www.venezuelaforchrist.blogspot.com). Pastor Wilmer Perez had taken my course on the Mission of the Church and wanted to introduce his fellow pastors to both the concept and the seminary. He stated to them that going to the Seminary had changed his life and ministry, particularly the course on the Mission of the Church.

One of the primary differences between effective and ineffective churches is the primary direction of their focus.  Ineffective churches are inwardly focused - almost exclusively. Effective churches are primarily outwardly focused.  Ineffective churches consume all given to them (leadership resources, finances, location, facilities, etc.) with centripetal power.  Effective churches multiply resources given through the release of centrifugal energy into the world. Effective churches are about "them," those outside the church.  Ineffective churches are about "us." those inside the church.

This simple comparison and contrast is worth much more examination and something I do in the Seminary course.  However, it is enough of a thumbnail sketch for one to begin to understand the basic difference between the Mission Church and the Traditional or "Chapel" Church.

The pastors in the conference in Venezuela demonstrated this simple, but profound truth in an exercise depicted in the following pictures.  I asked for volunteers and 10-12 people quickly stepped to the front. Then I asked them to form a circle and join hands.  They did what I have seen in every case where I have scores of times asked this to be done.

Then I asked them if they could still hold hands and form a different kind of circle. After some discomfort and confusion they eventually moved to the form of a circle pictured here in which they were facing outward. These contrasting ways to be in community (holding hands) are powerfully demonstrative of the difference between the inward focus or outward focus of ineffective and effective churches.

There are many ways illustrate this and/or examine objectively which one best describes our church.  However, simply asking this question is a great beginning:  "Are we primarily an inwardly or outwardly focused church?"  The answers may help us change the focus and move from ineffective, irrelevant church life to transformational ministry in a lost and broken world.

Inflection Points of Critical Decisions and Actions

Today I am teaching a statewide Pastor's Conference in the Yaracuy State of Venezuela.  One of the issues we will examine is the power of vision and how to make a vision of God's Preferred Future become a reality instead of just a dream.

A key concept in this process is the development of a Vision Map, a strategic plan for the major milestones that  must be achieved to move from Current Reality to God's Preferred Future.

Most people who write on this subject say the same things because so much of the reality of Vision and Planning is universally true.  I simply want to bring two more items into the discussion of how leaders move the church from Current Reality to God's Preferred future.

The first item is the concept of the "Lazy S Curve."  This is depicted by the curvy line in the image above.  Churches or organizations do not grow in straight-line or linear progression.  There is no straight-line growth in the real world.  For example, hunters who spend a great deal of time in the woods know if they see something in their binoculars which is perfectly straight, it is not natural, but man-made.  Life does not grow in a straight time. There are times of great growth and times of rest or plateau in every church or organization.

For example, a new congregation begins meeting in the school cafeteria.  Their growth is recorded and displayed on a graph.  There may be a time of rapid upward movement of the growth indicator.  Then something happens.  It could be a lot of things. But one thing is clear, the growth rate has slowed or even stopped and the congregation does not experience the exponential growth they had known in the past.  What happened? 

For the sake of this discussion we will assume the thing that happened is they hit the 80% seating capacity in their worship area. A careful look at their attendance figures reveal that occasionally they exceed that 80% full statistic, but invariably their attendance drops back to the limit set by the space and comfortable seating in that space. (Note: some cultures will experience this at 90% instead of 80% because of their cultural definition of personal space requirements.  80% is generally true in Anglo cultures).

So the leaders are faced with a problem: the growth has stopped and the congregation is not yet strong enough to purchase or lease a larger facility. After much "weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth," they make a decision to add an additional worship service in the same space each Sunday morning.  They add the service, doing all things well, and attendance begins to grow again and the graph of that attendance takes a significant up swing.

The plateaus and the changes in the rate of growth are called "Inflection Points"  An Inflection Point is when there is a change in direction (growth of attendance, number of discipleship groups, giving, missional involvement, any aspect of church life).  These inflection points may arise from within the congregation or may come from the environment around it. 

An example of an inflection point within the congregation is the change in pastoral leadership.  This often changes the direction of the growth of the attendance - either up or down.  But the organizational decision to change pastoral leadership will be an inflection point that will change the direction of the graph of the growth of the church. 

An external or environmental inflection point is something that occurs outside the congregation that changes the direction of the growth.  An environmental inflection point with which most leaders are currently dealing is the economic stagnation and recession in the US and around the world.  The graph of the church's giving may have been showing growth for several years, perhaps even remarkable growth. But for many churches that direction changed and the "Lazy S Curve" graph reflects it as a plateau or even a decline. 

When there is change of direction (growth) that is an Inflection Point and may be internally or externally generated.  The task of effective leadership is to either respond to those changes in direction with proactive and transformational decision making and actions or anticipate those changes in direction and take peremptory actions to change the direction again to a positive growth rate.

For example, the new congregation meetng in the school does not have to languish for years asking why their growth has practically stopped and pointing fingers of blame at any number of characters, especially the pastor and worship leaders..  A proactive leader would look at the rate of growth, project that into the future and determine that in 18 months we will be out of worship space in  our one service and will have to do something to avoid stagnation.  That effective leader will then engage his/her fellow leaders in exploring the options and making the decisions which will proactively change the direction of the growth of the church. This pro-activity is one of the marks of effective leadership - anticipating the Inflection Points and making preparations for them in advance.

Several years ago the Consulting Group I worked with was invited by a large growing church in another state to work with them and help them evaluate their ministry and make plans for the future.  The "pain" or Inflection Point that prompted the call and later action was the fact they had just built a much larger worship facility but attendance had not significantly increased.  A quick look at their facilities determined they were at capacity in their parking lot.  The preaching and worship service was so strong the parking lot was filled to capacity most Sundays and every Sunday people wold drive onto the lot, look for a non-existent parking space and drive away in frustration. This should have been anticipated and addressed in the planing and building stages but had simply been missed.  Therefore, their growth graph reflected by the "Lazy S Curve" above was in a flat cycle.  It took time to get the money and create new and additional convenient parking.,  However, when it was completed, the growth graph immediately took a significant upswing.  The inflection point that slowed the growth was the reality of inadequate and overfilled parking. The inflection point that allowed the growth to increase again was the addition of parking.

Effective leaders respond to environmental inflection point with faith and creative decision making.  Hence some churches have not experienced a decline in giving during the current recession. Rate of growth in giving has declined, but they have at least avoided a giving/funding crisis. 

Effective leaders also anticipate internal inflection points and take corrective faithful action to address them before they occur. An example is the pastor of the congregation meeting in the school sees that in 18 months they will be out of space and invites his/er leadership to find a solution, an inflection point, to change that direction on the growth graph.

Sadly, most churches neither respond proactively to environmental inflection points nor anticipate internal inflection points and they live in a several year spiral of decline and ultimate death.  It does not have to be so. However, for this to be avoided effective, faithful, courageous leaders must come forth to make the hard decisions necessary to change the direction of the decline using those critical inflection points to do so.

Mentors in My Life

Today I am teaching in the International Leadership Institute National Conference in Venezuela.  It is being held on the campus of Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela, an institution I was privileged to co-found and now serve as President.  The sessions I am teaching are all about Mentoring.

As I reflected on the material this morning again, I remembered and listed some of the critical mentors in my life throughout my life.  I will limit this review to those related to my walk with Christ and ministry in the church.  There are critical personal mentors who brought me to the faith, who taught me how to be a husband and father, who encouraged me in seeking an education, who taught me how to handle grief and much more. Perhaps that is the subject for a later article.  However, today I reflect on the following mentors - special people in my life at special times of my life.


Evangelism:  Carl Smithwick.  Carl was a member of my home "chapel" church and was distantly related to us.  He was also the Chief Jailer of the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.  He had a passion for lost people and gave me my first "Sou-winner's New Testament."  It was similar in design to Eddie Fox and George Morris' helpful work.  He led our church in its meager work of evangelism. But daily he carried on the work of lay ministry and evangelism in his work at the Jail.  I was privileged to spend a day with him as he made his rounds to the various wards and cells. Often he would stop to talk to a prisoner and have a prayer.  I knelt with him when I was about 12 years old and he led a death-row inmate in the sinner's prayer.  I expect to meet that forgiven murderer in Heaven.  Carl taught and showed me what it meant to do personal evangelism.  There would be many others to come after him: Jimmy Sowder, Ford Philpot, Charles Davis, Grider Denney, Robert Coleman and others, but they all built on the foundation of personal evangelism started by Carl Smithwick.


Preaching: John Ozley.  John was my pastor for 14 years - and a lifetime.  He came to our church when I was 7 and was there to celebrate my conversion and baptism at 8. He was one of the Campmeeting preachers when I was called to preach at 10.  He secured my first invitation to preach a revival.  He buried most of my family including my father and son.  John  was the best evangelical preacher, "Sunday in and Sunday out," I ever heard.  He taught me how to preach.  He was also the finest Christian I have ever known.  He lived the faith with integrity and passion.  When I see and hear my son preach I see glimpses of John Ozley whose influence on my preaching has been unintentionally passed on to my son.  Any gifts I have for preaching have been greatly enhanced by the mentoring of John Ozley, one of the unsung heroes of the faith.



Pastoring:  Clyde Lancaster.  My first appointment out of seminary (my third appointment) was to a couple of small churches in Toccoa, Georgia. The pastor of the large county seat Toccoa First UMC was Clyde Lancaster.  He was to serve his last years of active ministry at that church.  He embraced me as a colleague and friend and mentored me in so many ways. I have often said I learned how to be a pastor from Clyde. That is, he taught me how to do intentional, effective, systematic pastoral care within the congregation and greater community.  He was a master dealing with all kinds of people in a variety of circumstances.  What made that so meaningful to me is how he brought me into his world of great wisdom, experience, knowledge and influence and freely and lovingly invested himself in me. Not long before he died, I drove to South Georgia where he and Myrtis lived in retirement. I wanted to thank him for his influence in my life.  As was typical, he was so humble he acted as if he did not even know what he had done for me. He needed to know and I hope it was a comfort to him in his last days.

Leadership/Vision:  Kennon Callahan. I first met Ken Callahan when I entered Candler School of Theology and was enrolled in the Teaching Parish program that he had instituted. It had a major role in my development as a minister of the Gospel.  However, I avoided Ken and took none of his courses because I found him to be arrogant and over confident and in my arrogance and over-confidence, I avoided him.  But God was at work. A few years after graduating from Seminary I was asked to be a Teaching Parish Supervisor serving as adjunct faculty at Emory University.  Dr. Callahan still directed the program and I was thrown into his presence. At first I still found him arrogant and over-confident, and sometimes still do.  However, I also found him to be one of the wisest and most trusted advisers in my life.  I have often said, "John Ozley taught me to preach, Clyde Lancaster taught me to be a pastor and Ken Callahan taught me to dream - to seek God's vision for my life and ministry." I am eternally grateful for his careful and insightful mentoring in my life and his consistent Christian witness and passion.

Accounting:  Keith Utterback.  When I moved to Mount Pisgah UMC in 1983, just 6 years out of seminary, I discovered an accounting nightmare in a very small church.  The church had 8 checking accounts and the pastor was the primary signatory on 7 of them.  The only account handled by the treasurer was the modest payroll account. Additionally, the former pastor destroyed all financial records from the 7 accounts so I had no accounting system in place and the treasurer was not ready or willing to assume more responsibility in addition to the payroll account.  I was in a quandary as to what to do. I had never had an accounting course and knew nothing of the subject.  Then one Sunday Keith Utterback and his mother "just happened" to visit the church. They were members of another UMC in Atlanta, but had moved into our community.  As I got to know Kieth, he made it clear they would continue to attend the other church and visit with us on occasion.  That soon changed.  But before it did, after his second visit, I asked him if he would help me. He was a retired Certified Public Accountant with vast commercial and church accounting experience.  He agreed to come talk to me and look at what we had.  He was appalled and embarrassed for the church.  However, he was also appalled and embarrassed for me when he realized how little I knew about accounting.  He found it incredulous that a UMC pastor could earn a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree and never have a course in basic accounting.  So he said, "I will set up your books and help get your records in order on one condition: You give me one hour a week to teach you basic accounting."  I agreed and he invested himself in me and the church in ways that proved invaluable in that and every subsequent ministry experience.

Giving Development: Speed Scoates.  We needed to raise money to bild anew sanctuary.  It was 1985 and I had never been exposed to how to raise money, neither in my home church nor the seminary.  So as God directed, we asked a retired pastor DS and former Giving Consultant to work with our church.  While I had not known Speed previsously, he became an invaluable and trusted mentor and friend.  He also taught me most of what I know about giving development, at least the essential foundations of giving development.  One of the imporant things he taught me was the importance of Pastoral Leadership in developing giving in the local church. While Jane and I had been tithers since our marriage (and before) he helped us learn how to give significantly above the tithe and to share that in helpful ways with the congregation.  He helped me understand one cannot lead where one is unwilling to go or has gone.  I hope in heaven he is retired from his fund raising responsibilities, but I assure you, there are many people there and will be there because of what he taught me.

Next article:

Planning: Don Smith
Little Steps:  Bill Groce
Financial Adminitration:  Earl McKenzie
Theological Education: Wes Griffin
Singing:  Bill Gould.
Prayer:  Essie Turner

International Leadership Institute - Venezuela

Over 25 pastors are gathered at the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela for an intensive week of training trough the International Leadership Institute (www.iliteam.org).  This leadership training is being conducted almost exclusively by Venezuelans who have been sponsored by the Seminary to receive their own training in ILI at other South and Central American countries. The first Venezuelans to receive this training were Carlos Pirona (the leader of this training event), Victor Ramirez and (now) Bishop Juvenal Perez. 

One of the great benefits and multiplied impact of the Seminary is the operation of the Campus during times when the Seminary is not in session.  During its "off" weeks, the Seminary hosts events like this weeklong training for Venezuelan pastoral leaders from various denominations, Marriage Renewal Retreats, Vacation Bible Schools, Bible Camps, Youth Retreats, Retreats for inner city kids, Men's and Women's retreats, Local Church Council Retreats, etc.

Through its Conference and Retreats ministry the Seminary provides a resource for indigenous leaders that was previously unavailable in the central part of the country.  Barquisimeto is the ground transportation hub of Venezuela (similar to Atlanta as the air transportation hub in the US) and as such provides an easily accessible location for nationwide events.  But it is also a city of increasing importance to the entire country and within which is a rapidly growing evangelical Christian community.  The Seminary Campus offers an accessible, comfortable, affordable site for local and national events, a site not otherwise available in the area.

I look forward to being an instructor in the Leadership Institute on Friday and visiting with old friends and making new ones in the evangelical community of Venezuela. Then next Friday the Seminary Campus will host the 4th Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church of Venezuela.  I have been honored to be invited to preach at this conference.  The UMC of Venezuela was organized primarily as a result of the ministry of the Seminary and has had a great part in reaching this nation for Christ.

Please pray for these two national conferences meeting on the Campus of the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela and for the August Seminary Class and Graduation which will meet immediately after the Annual Conference.  Send your financial gifts for this ministry to:
Venezuela Now, Inc.
PO Box 1655
Duluth, GA  30096

I Wish I Had Learned This Sooner

My Grandparents tried to teach me what their parents had taught them.  The saints at my home church tried to teach me this important lesson.  The lay leaders in my first church in West Bend, KY tried to teach me.  Marjorie and Grady tried to teach me in Covington, GA.  Mary and Margaret tried to teach me this lesson in Toccoa.  Frank and Mary Alice tried in Greenville. EC and Charity tried in Alpharetta.

Many others wanted me to know this and worked very hard to teach me.  Some of their names are now even forgotten to me, but I remember the lessons.  They wanted me to learn this in good times and bad, in times of joy or sorrow, in times of clarity or confusion, in times of inspiration and  perspiration. I learned some of it, but these lessons were not heeded as well as they should have been.

The message finally really started to find good fertile soil when Lynn Gibson began the Prayer Ministry at my church over 20 years ago.  I did not know of another UMC which had an organized Prayer Ministry with equal status to the Finance Co. or Children's Ministry.  But Lynn created a prayer ministry that transformed the work of the church and multiplied our effectiveness.

The ministry was begun in a broom closet and moved to front room "Parlor" status.  Those readers old enough or traditional enough to know about church parlors will understand the sacred cow in many churches is the church parlor.  NOTHING touches or changes or modifies its decor, use or space - and certainly not preeminence. 


Yet that is exactly what happened when Lynn started growing our Prayer Ministry. The Parlor gave way to the Prayer Chapel.  That was symbolic and indicative of the changes this prioritization made in the life of the church and in my own personal life. For example, as laity huddled in the Prayer Chapel in prayer during the four worship services, lives began to be transformed in worship at a rate we had never seen.  When a new vision was sought for the church, the process was bathed in prayer and a clarity was known that had never been known before.

I have asked Lynn to write a book or manual on the Prayer Ministry.  In the meantime, I have put together a guidebook for a Prayer Campaign.  This is a great start to leading a congregation into a Transformational Prayer Ministry or enhance the existing prayer ministry.  This book outlines a process that will be especially helpful to church leaders seeking to create and communicate a clear direction or vision for the ministry, who want to launch a new ministry or focus of Ministry, or who simply believe prayer is a transforming work and needs to be experienced by the entire congregation.


"Prayer Campaign - A Transforming Experience" contains some of what these people taught me.  I believe it can be helpful to you. I wish I had learned it in the first half of ministry. (Cost $12 plus $3 s/h.)  Order from warrenlathem@gmail.com or come see more about it by clicking on the cover at the right.. Essie and Aunt Winnie tried to teach me.  I just wish I had been a better student...

How Did I Get Here, Part 4

Holbrook Campmeeting ends today after ten days of effective preaching, gospel singing, praying, youth and children's activities and family reunions. I was invited to share for a few minutes last night in the service regarding the work in Venezuela (visit us at www.venezuelaforchrist.blogspot.com). I sat on the altar about 10 feet from where I knelt in the sawdust in 1962 and said, "Yes" to God's amazing gift of call in my life.

Holbrook was then and continues to be a tremendous influence on my understanding and practice of ministry.  I heard some of the great preachers of the day at Holbrook:  Dr Charles Cochran, John Ozley, Gene Winfrey, Billy Hardeman and many others.  I witnessed the passionate faith of generations of Christians, most of them now gone on to glory: Major Williams, Hambrick Smith, Essie Turner, Winnie Talent, Winnie Lathem, Charlie and Ethel Lathem, Carl and Myrtle Smithwick, Jack White, and so many others.  Oh, how they labored, prayed and sang and witnessed to their faith at Holbrook.

One thing was always clear at Holbrook: people mattered to God.  They (we) matter so much God gave His Son to save us from our sins. God was so passionately in love with us he spared nothing for us.  We are called to do the same.  That truth was lived out in the fervent praying and singing and preaching at Holbrook.

Last night we had finished singing the last verse of "Just as I Am."  A few had responded to the invitation.  Then the preacher asked if there wasn't someone else who wanted to give their life to Jesus.  We sang one more verse and two 12 year old boys almost ran to the altar and were each converted.  I had known one of the families for all of my 58 years.  As he came rushing to the altar these words came to my mind, "I now repent with bitter tears, Lord, I'm coming home."

That young man knelt in the altar weeping over his own lost condition.  He prayed the sinner's prayer and the Lord graciously heard and answered his prayer.  When he stood up he was surrounded by generations of family and they all hugged and tears flowed and his sorrow was turned to joy.

He will never forget last night.  I may not either.  While I have experienced that transformation and have witnessed it thousands of times, it was a sacred moment and indicative of what Holbrook has taught me.

People need Jesus.  They do not simply need to believe in Jesus. They do not simply need to join the church.  They do not simply need to identify with the Christian ethos.  They need Jesus to save them from their sins.  Conviction and repentance precede saving faith.  While much of the church of my generation says little about repentance or conviction, at Holbrook it has been and still is taught and practiced.

More than once the bitter tears of conviction and repentance have fallen from  my eyes into the sawdust on the floor of the Arbor.  Since that time in 1962 I have done about every job possible at Holbrook - except for Grounds and Maintenance - they know better.  I have preached dozens of times and led the singing at countless services, chaired the association and worked with the Youth and done the publicity and re-written the by-laws and... well just about all.

Yet none of that is more precious than what I witnessed last night.  That boy was me so many years ago.  I marvel at where God has taken me since then.  But I hope it is not so far away as to forget what Campmeeting has taught me.  People matter to God and conviction and repentance are necessary prerequisites to saving faith.

Go to www.venezuelaforchrist.blogspot.com

Read about what great things God is dong in Venezuela through the work of the UMC of Venezuela and the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela at:
 www.venezuelaforchrist.blogspot.com.

A Numbers Game

When I was in seminary many churches printed a weekly worship bulletin and a monthly newsletter using a mimeograph machine or an offset printer (big churches had the offset, little churches the mimeograph). One trait of both was if the operator was not careful, images from previous uses could be transferred to the current print job.

One Sunday a friend who served an inner city church discovered to his dismay the local numbers game runner had used the church printing machine to run their numbers and those numbers from the numbers game were accidentally printed on the back of the worship bulletin. It seems the son of the church secretary was involved in the local illegal gambling ring and had taken advantage of his mother's employment to save the cost of printing the numbers sheets. Needless to say, the pastor was not happy.

He reminds me of most of my colleagues in ministry when it comes to any focus on numbers. They retreat to the claim, "It's just a numbers game." "All you care about is numbers. I'm interested in people and just serving in the name of Jesus."

When I was on the Bishop's Cabinet in North Georgia I was able to get inserted into the annual Ministry Review of the pastor a quantitative measurement of effectiveness including membership, attendance, giving and professions of faith. While the conference never really embraced this concept, at least it was there for a while. However, there was significant resistance to it from the cabinet and pastors and local church Pastor/Parish Relations Committees (Personnel Committees to non-United Methodist readers). Had the Bishop not been supportive, it would have never appeared on the form. However, episcopal support was not enough to transform an ingrained attitude that fully resists any quantitative measurement of effectiveness for churches or clergy. Of course the one exception to this is the payment of Apportionments. Then it is ALL about the numbers. Why? Where do you think the Conference and General Church salaries come from?

So much of the ministry of the clergy and laity is not quantitative, cannot be measured objectively. How do you measure the worth of feeding the hungry? Certainly the Gospel writers had no problem with giving an account of the number fed, but the worth cannot be measured solely in numbers. What is the value of holding the hand of a dying saint as they breathe their last? How do you measure the value of a pastoral visit in the time of greatest grief and distress? Measure the significance of a Minister to Children staying up late for several nights planning the activities of the church summer camp and its impact on the life of a single child.

Most of the acts of ministry defy objective, measurable significance. Yet we know intuitively how very important these things are to ministering in the Name of Jesus.

However, since we cannot measure the worth of most acts of ministry, it is vitally important to measure those that can be quantified. In pastoral ministry those include: Number of people served in mission, worship attendance, professions of faith, new members, giving and church membership, each stated in the order of importance.

Why do these numbers matter when most of ministry consists of activities and actions that cannot be measured? They matter precisely because most of ministry cannot be objectified. We must measure what we can in order to give greater significance to that which cannot be measured. To suggest that we EITHER focus on acts of ministry OR on numbers is "Stinking Thinking," to steal a term from Alcoholics Anonymous. This "Either/Or" mentality pervades church life and chokes off healthy engagement and effective measurement of ministry.

Imagine going to the doctor and the nurse taking your vital signs. Your blood pressure is 300 over 110. Your temperature is 106 degrees. Your pulse is 150 beats a minute. They quickly call the doctor who rushes to your aid and you say, "Oh, come on Doc. Its not about the numbers. My life is my family and my job and my golf game (or whatever makes your list)." Your doctor will quickly inform you that if strategic steps are not taken to change your numbers your family and your job and your golf score (numbers don't matter, right?) will cease to be an issue because you will be dead.

Are you a fan of baseball, the great American pastime? The number one sport in Venezuela is baseball. Many Venezuelan love their national teams such as the Barquisimeto Cardinales. They are avid spectators and many play amateur ball well into their 50's and 60's. They also often are great fans of American Major League Baseball and can quote statistics that embarrass this baseball fan. Batting averages, on base percentages, won/loss records, ranking of all the teams in the American and National Leagues. While they love to play baseball, they also know the numbers matter and they both play and evaluate based on the numbers.

When one observes the numbers of most United Methodist Churches and the numerical record of most of its ministers, one can get very depressed. For 40 years we have been losing churches, members, influence and effectiveness. Most UMC congregations are in significant decline and given the average age of the members that decline is going to rapidly increase over the next several years. These numbers are real, measurable, observable facts.

Yet like the proverbial ostrich, we chose to stick our heads in the sand an decry anyone who would call us into numerical account. These "Numbers Games" people "are only interested in feathering their own nests and building up their own egos while the rest of us labor on in the name of Jesus unconcerned with numbers but only concerned about people."

Boy, when you see it in print doesn't it look stupid? Yet I have heard that statement or several variations of the same uttered by Cabinet members, members of the Conference Board of Ministry, clergy colleague and local congregations. And I have heard these statements for all of my 38 years of ministry. And they continue to dominate the church's view of ministry effectiveness.

Therefore, the denomination that gave birth to my faith, that nurtured me in the faith, that baptized me and confirmed me in the faith, that ordained me to "Preach the Word" continues to die a not so slow death. And when called into objective account almost totally rejects the implication that numbers do indeed matter.

They matter so much, Jesus often employed the use of numbers in speaking of the Gospel and God's love for humankind. One out of a hundred sheep was lost. One coin. One son. One...one, Such an insignificant number . . . unless it is your son. Then the number suddenly matters.

To talk about the number of persons served in mission, to look at professions of faith or worship attendance is to talk about people who matter to someone and certainly matter to God. I recently had the great privilege of hatching my own chicken eggs (I used an incubator, I did not sit on them for 20 days). Several new chickens were added to the flock at Arepa Farms (visit us on Facebook). However, one of the baby chicks was born with a significant birth defect and had to be euthanized. It caused me little concern having grown up in a county that raised millions of chickens each year and having dealt with dead chickens every day in my youthful employment in some of those chicken houses. However, my "city-fied" wife was greatly distressed by the death of this one chicken. She actually shed a tear. Since I score "0" on any Spiritual Gifts measurement of Mercy, I did not shed a tear and I was the one to apply the death penalty. But I ask you: Which one is more godly, me or my wife?

Anyone who knows Jane or me knows the answer to that question. She is far more godly. And that is true in this case. The Father knows when a sparrow falls from the sky. He knows and he cares. "Are you not worth much more than many sparrows.'

If God cares about a single sparrow, who are we to decide that numbers do not matter and hide in the false security of "real ministry" versus giving an objective account of the effectiveness of ministry.

I just heard of a retired UM pastor taking a church as a "Retired Supply." His first Sunday there were 12 people in worship. Do those twelve matter? of course they do. But what about the millions in this city that do not know Christ, who have not heard the Gospel in any way as to make an informed decision as to the faith? What about those who live within 5 miles of that church. Do they not matter as much as the 12 in church?

We have decided they do not matter. While we will never express that opinion, our actions clearly reveal our attitudes. We will tie up a million dollar facility for the comfort of 12 people for then next 10 years rather than deploying that resource for the sake of thousands. And that reality is repeated across this denomination hundreds and hundreds of times. Why? Because numbers do not matter.

Every church and every pastor can improve their effectiveness in ministry. One of the necessary tools is an accurate measurement of that which can be objectively measured. These numbers have the ability to break our slumber and jar us to reality. But wait, I feel a nap coming on...

How Did I Get Here, Part 3

Grace.  Prevenient Grace.  Unmerited favor.  Popeye said, "I am what I am."  Much earlier the Apostle Paul said, "By the grace of God...I am what I am."

I Cor. 15:10:  “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not in vain.  No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

I am the recipient of grace. Paul reminded Timothy of the faith that had resided in his mother and grandmother.  As far back as our family information is known, I have been preceded by generations of Christians, both on my Mother and my Father's sides of the family.  On both sides there has been a mixture of Methodists and Baptists with Methodists in the predominance.  However, whether one denomination or the other, preachers, teachers and saints of God reside in my past.  Some were flawed saints, but all trusted in Christ.

Raised in a predominantly Christian family, I was also nurtured in the church.  Its earthly expression was the family chapel of Orange Methodist Church and Holbrook Campmeeting.  Both gave great evidence of the transforming power of the grace of Jesus.  I learned to sing the songs of Zion in those incubators of faith.

The school was also an incubator of faith, beginning with first grade and Miss Kate Smithwick. She was a woman of great faith and openly shared her faith with us, both at church and school.  However, every teacher, grades 1-8, were openly Christian and some were remarkable in their faith.  Only one is still living and recently inquired as to my well-being.  They all encouraged and prayed for me and my ministry as long as they lived, from the principal, Dr.Darrell Brock, to the first grade teacher.

The community was a community of faith.  That is it shared the same values and traditions of the church so that home and family, church and community, school and recreation all taught the same values and reflected, sometimes imperfectly, the teachings of Christ. Yet all helped to shape my life.

And I did nothing to merit it. I would learn later how blessed I had been when I began to deal with the broken and disturbed lives of so many people, many damaged beyond earthly repair by the very people who were supposed to love, nurture and protect them.  I would learn how blessed I was to have the kind of childhood I had.  Was it perfect?  Were the people perfect?  Were there family secrets and brokenness around me?  That is obvious, now.  But for the most part I was nurtured and loved into the Kingdom.  It was not by merit, but purely by grace, unmerited favor.

Gifts are often given in vain.  My Grandfather died in 1975.  When he died he had several brand-new shirts  still in the wrappers.  They  had been given to him over the years by his children and grandchildren.  He was “saving them.”  He was still saving them when he died.  While they were given in love, in fact, they were given in vain. 

Has God given you “grace in vain?”  Or, what have you  done, become, given, as a result of the grace of God in your life? I pray God's grace has not been given to me in vain, but my labors will reflect the measure of grace I have received. If so, I must labor on...

I found the list below to be very helpful in looking at the areas of blessing in my life. The following was written by a very young Matthew Henry (if you do not know him, look, him up), one of the earliest memorials we have of him after leaving seminary. He wrote it on his 20th birthday, thanking God for the manifold mercies he'd received up to that point in his young life:

1. That I am endued with a rational, immortal soul, capable of serving God here, and enjoying him hereafter, and was not made as the beasts that perish.

2. That the exercise of my powers and faculties has not been obstructed by frenzies, lunacy, etc., but happily continued in their primitive (nay, happily advanced to greater) vigour and activity.

3. That I have all my senses, and that I was neither born, nor by accident made blind, or deaf, or dumb, either in whole or in part.

4. That I have a complete body in all its parts. That I am not lame or crooked, either through original or providential want, or a defect, or the dislocation of any part, or member.

5. That I was formed, and curiously fashioned by an All-wise hand in the womb, and kept there, nourished and preserved, by the same gracious hand, till the appointed time.

6. That, at the appointed time, I was brought into the world, the living child of a living mother, and though means were wanting, yet He that can work without means, was not.

7. That I have been ever since comfortably provided for with bread to eat, and raiment to put on, not for necessity only, but for ornament and delight, and that without my pains and care.

8. That I have had a very great measure of health (the sweetness of all temporal mercies), and that when infectious diseases have been abroad, I have hitherto been preserved from them.

9. That when I have been visited with sickness, it hath been in measure, and health hath been restored to me when a brother dear, and companion as dear, hath been taken away at the same time, and by the same sickness.

10. That I have been kept and protected from many dangers that I have been exposed to by night and by day, at home and abroad, especially in journeys.

11. That I have had comfortable accomodation as to house, lodging, fuel, etc., and have been a stranger to the wants of many thousands in that kind.

12. That I was born to a competency of estate in the world, so that, as long as God pleases to continue it, I am likely to be on the giving, and not the receiving hand.

13. That I have had, and still have comfort, more than ordinary, in relations; that I am blessed with such parents as few have, and sisters also that I have reason to rejoice.

14. That I have had a liberal education, having a capacity for the knowledge of the languages, arts, and sciences; and that, through God's blessing on my studies, I have made some progress therein.

15. That I have been born in a place and time of gospel light; that I have had the scriptures and the means of understanding them, by daily expositions, and many good books, and that I have had a heart to give myself to and delight in the study them.

16. That I have been hiterto enabled so to demean myself, as to gain a share in the love and prayers of God's people.

17. That I was in infancy brought within the pale of the visible church in my baptism.

18. That I had a religious education, the principles of religion instilled into me with my very milk, and from a child have been taught the knowledge of God.

19. That I have been endued with a good measure of praying gifts, being enabled to express my mind to God in prayer, in words of my own, not only alone, but as the mouth of others.

20. That God hath inclined my heart to devote and dedicate myself to him, and to his service, and the service of his church in the work of ministry, if ever he shall please to use me.

21. That I have had so many sweet and precious oppurtunities, and means of grace, sabbaths, sermons, sacraments, and have enjoyed, not only the ordinances themselves which are the shell, but communion with God the Kernel.

22. That I have a good hope through grace, that, being chosen of God from eternity, I was in the fullness of time called, and that a good work begun in me, which I trust God will perform.

23. That I have had some sight of the majesty of God, the sweetness of Christ, the evil of sin, the worth of my soul, the vanity of the world, and the reality and weight of invisible things.

24. That when I have been in doubt I have been guided; in danger I have been guarded; in temptation I have been succoured; under guilt I have been pardoned; when I have prayed, I have been heard and answered; when I have been under afflictions they have been sanctified, and all by divine grace.

25. That I am not without hope, that all these mercies are but the earnest of more, and pledges of better in the kingdom of glory, and that I shall rest in Abraham's bosom, world without end.

26. Lastly, thanks be to God for Jesus Christ, the fountain and foundation of all mercies. Amen, Hallelujah.

Church Foreclosure

It was on the news last night, a church in Atlanta was evicted from their facility because they had not made a mortgage payment in over two years and the lender put them out.  This is a nightmare for both the congregation and for the lender. How could this happen?

In the church there is a very simple formula that determines proper or serviceable debt load.  It is the debt service to income ratio. Just like with a home buyer, this ratio should not exceed 25% of the total income going to service the debt. While that can challenging at times, it is manageable.

Certainly there are plenty in the church who believe the church should carry no debt.  One of the most "braggadocios" things uttered by preachers is, "I left the church debt free." Or it is often stated by the laity, "I do not believe the church should have a debt.  We need to pay off this note before we do anything else."  These attitudes easily become matters of spiritual pride and can become divisive and nasty in the church.

We bought our first house in 1983, by the grace of God. Back then it was still rare for a UM pastor to own a home as the parsonage system held over from previous generations dominated the clergy housing scene.  Our children were just starting school. I scraped together a small down payment, had to partner to two other families in order to buy 1/3 of the house and I rented it from the partnership paying the amount of the mortgage, PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance). If I had waited until I could pay cash for a house and avoid a mortgage, my children would never have grown up in a home of their own.  The parsonage next door to the church was not a solution since the church had essentially 'evicted' us in order to convert that building into Sunday School space.  The Housing Allowance paid in lieu of a parsonage was just enough to pay the above payment to the partnership.

I did not then, nor do I now  believe we should have waited until we could pay cash to provide a home for our young and developing family.  Why should the church be any different? If the church has a growing family and needs to provide additional space, should it wait until it can pay cash?  If it does, at least in the experience of the UMC, it will miss years of opportunity for life changing ministry with hundreds or thousands of people. Hence, a mortgage is not an inherinently evil thing. It can actually be a good thing. 

I work in another country where it is virtually impossible to secure a home loan.  Most people resort to building a shelter of sticks and tin and moving on to cement and blocks and over a long period of time, as they are able to purchase materials and provide their own labor, they construct a home.  It is not uncommon to see a family of multiple generations living in a home under construction for over 20 years. And we are not talking about the Winchester home in San Francisco.  These are very modest and often inadequate homes.  This makes me so thankful for the ability we have in the US to purchase an adequate home for families when they are young and need it the most.  This is due to the possibility of securing a mortgage.

This same principle plays out in church construction in that country as well.  In 2002 a US mission team helped along the construction of what has become the largest UMC in Venezuela.  However, this is now 8 years later and the facility is not complete.  While this church has been able to have a very effective ministry, it was so limited for so long by incomplete and inadequate facilities.  How much better it would have been for them in 2002 if they could have secured a small, manageable loan and accelerated the pace of construction and therefore persons served in mission.  But the opportunity was lost because of the lack of facilities.

So for a church to be able to borrow money to build a home for its growing family can be a good thing - if the debt service to income ratio is managed properly. Had that been the case in Atlanta, a congregation would not have been evicted from their church building. Any number of factors could have caused that eviction such as mismanagement, the loss of the effective pastor, a split in the congregation, a decrease in the effectiveness of ministry, the impact of a struggling economy, etc.  While I certainly do not know the cause of the foreclosure, the reality is their debt service ratio was too high when compared to income.

When this occurs in the church, the first thing to happen is the elimination of ministry, then the elimination of staff, then a sense of doom and gloom that scares away even the most aggressive church visitor. As this occurs, a downward spiral continues until one can hear the death rattles in the dying body. 

Therefore, it is critical for church leaders faced with a debt service to income ratio of over 25% to ask these questions:
1. Are we making the best use of our income, spending it in ways that reach the lost, grow the Kingdom and glorifies Christ through the transformed lives resulting from this ministry?
2, Can we restructure our debt to lower this debt service/income ratio?  There are worse things for a family or a church family than having a 20 or 25 year mortgage.
3.  Most importantly, what can we do to increase giving, not cut or underfund ministries? And this will be the focus of another article.

Increasing giving is a never-ending task in the transformational church and can be made extremely difficult in challenging economic times.  But is is possible.  There are too many success stories of churches doing the "impossible" to believe only in what we think is possible. After all, Jesus said, "I will build MY church."

The Seven Day-a-Week Church

Several years ago Lyle Schaller published a book by the above title. In it he described the emerging (then) church which was moving from just a Sunday and Wednesday program targeting only their members to the a church that provided desired and needed ministries to members and non-members six or seven days a week.

At the time of reading that book I was the pastor of a small congregation in northern Fulton County, GA.  Our only weekday ministry was a 2-day a week Mother's  Morning Out with 13 children. We exploited the only room available and which could be licensed and in a few weeks had 39 children enrolled, 13 per day. 26 came two days a week and 13 came one day a week.  Since these children left about 2pm, we next added an After School Program targeting "latch-key kids" from mostly single parent homes generally living in the new apartment complexes in the area. That ministry started with about 30 kids.

Since we had no money, both of these programs had to be self funding from tuition and fees to cover transportation costs, utilities, materials, etc. and the largest item: staff.  They did and provided a cash flow to the church that would prove critical over time.  So in about 9 months we moved from serving 13 children, mostly member's kids, to about 70 kids or families, most of whom were non-members. Many of these children are now leaders in their churches and some are missionaries and pastors.  Several families began to attend church for the first time in their lives through our intentional outreach to them through these ministries.

Over the next several years we added multiple ministries targeting families with children and other target groups and eventually had to purchase a huge event scheduling software program from the hospitality industry just to keep up with where the thousands of persons were meeting each week on our campus.  This was after we maximized the only room we had.

To expand on Dr. Schaller, we actually became a 7 Day-a-Week Church beyond what he described in that good book, programming about 18 hours a day and with janitorial services and kitchen services, operating 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

The ministries fell into three categories as we defined them:
1. Mission.  These were ministries that had to be funded by the congregation or the community since the persons being served in mission (Ken Callahan) were not able to fund the cost.  These included the first Aides Ministry outside the Perimeter of Atlanta in the middle 1980's, The Beacon of Hope Women's Center, Habitat for Humanity, North Fulton Community Charities, Hispanic Ministry, etc.
2. Self Funding, or Fee Based Ministries.  These were ministries that paid the full operational cost out of fees paid by those served in the ministry.The Mother's Morning Out, After School Program, Mount Pisgah Christian School, The Summit Counseling Center, Recreation Ministry, etc, all paid their own way (most of the time -  an occasional miscalculation on or part would sometimes create an negative cash flow that had to later be rectified).
3. Church Ministries.  These ministries were paid for out of the offering and included the traditional aspects of church life and budget.  They served members and constituents who called the church home.  Worship, Sunday School, Youth Ministry, Children's Ministry, AA, Scouts, Music Ministry, Prayer Ministry, Discipleship Ministries, etc. all received funding from the church budget.  Money placed in the offering plate paid for these ministries.

Years ago Dr. Ken Callahan said in my presence at Mount Pisgah, "The church grows directly proportional to the number of people to whom it is in ministry who will never likely join that church." 


That proved true,  especially through our development of the areas 1 and 2 above. This was one of the basic principles that drove our focus and resulted in a congregation growing from 75 in worship to over 3000 in worship in 17 years. I hope to discuss these three areas of ministry more in the future.  Write me with questions or comments or to just dialogue.

How Did I Get Here, Part 2

Having grown up in an evangelical Methodist Episcopal Church, South and hearing the Gospel taught and preached since birth, I developed an early and somewhat limited understanding of some key theological concepts.  Some of them learned before age 8 included:

The Sovereignty of God. Somehow I learned that God was in charge and I was not.  That is a concept I continually have to re-examine as I try to take control of life, especially my life.  I learned that "Our times are in His hands."  That was important to learn very early in life.

The Holiness of God.  I understood that God was entirely pure and holy and good and loving. I understood God desired holiness and purity and goodness and love from God's people.  These traits formed the basis for a relationship between the Creator and the created.

Original Sin.  In contrast to the Holiness of God, I learned that all humankind were sinners, inherited from our ancestors throughout the whole human race and from all time.  "There is none righteous, no not one." I soon discovered that I was included in this group of sinners, separated and alienated from God by our own sinful natures.

Salvation.  I learned that a supremely loving God made provision for the sinfulness of all humankind in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, God's Son and our Savior.

Faith Alone.  I learned that all God required of me in the gift of Salvation was to have faith in Jesus Christ.

Eternity.  I learned that God created us in God's image and placed in us a "never-dying soul."  This life is not the end.  I will live forever, in heaven or hell.  The deciding factor is faith in Jesus Christ.

Now I had a problem.  At 8 years of age I understood all that, perhaps not at the level I do today, but I understood it well enough to know that:
1. I was a Sinner
2. As such I was in danger of eternal damnation
3.  Jesus was the answer
4. I did not know how to receive that answer in my heart and life.

Hence, I was under conviction of the Holy Spirit who was leading me to Jesus.  I did not understand that then. I only understood I was miserable and afraid, in fact, scared to death, sick with fear.

At 8, I experienced the first death that touched me.  Distant great-grand-parents had died, but I hardly remembered them.  Distant cousins had died, but I did not know them at all.  But in December, 1960, Reno Smithwick died.  Reno was probably a distant cousin.  But I knew him as  the old retired farmer who rented an apartment from my Grandfather and lived across the street.  Reno was a devout Christian and was a song leader in our country church.  He always had time for a fat kid hanging out at the family store.  He gave me the first New Testament I ever owned, before I could even read it. He gave me my first pocket knife.  While one blade was broken, it was fantastic.  I was the first kid my age at that time to have his own pocket knife!

This devout Christian, kindly old Grandfather-figure died.  And I was faced with questions of eternal consequence.  I did not like the answers I was finding.  I knew where Reno was: Heaven.  I knew why: He believed in Jesus and trusted in him for salvation.  I knew I was lost and if I died I did not know what would happen, but I was pretty sure it was not good.

The funeral was on a cold and sleeting December Sunday.  I was sick with fear and questions and convinced my mother and father that I was too sick to go to church that morning.  Of course, I did not tell them the source of my sickness, but added to my guilt and sin by claiming to have a stomachache, the malady of every child who wants to get out of doing something.  Mother stayed home with me during church and during the funeral that afternoon. It was during the funeral she recognized what the sickness really was: I was sin sick.  She sat down with me and began to ask me what was wrong.  I finally confessed:  "Reno died and is in Heaven.  I don't know what would happen to me if I died."  She then shared the very simple "Plan of Salvation" and asked me if I wanted to ask Jesus to come into my heart.  I said I did and we knelt in the den floor at my Father's chair and Jesus came to live in my heart.  It was real then and it is real now.

While I have often denied my Lord and neglected his salvation and pursued my agenda for my life instead of his, I have always known that what happened on that cold Sunday afternoon was and is real.  Jesus took my sins away.  He came to live in my heart.  He gave me eternal life.  His Spirit witnessed to this new reality in my own spirit.  I KNEW it was real.  And it is.

In June of the next year I invited the first of many to follow Christ and he began his faith journey that day.  Since then I have been consumed with sharing the Good News.  As D.T. Niles said, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." That afternoon in December I found the Bread of Life and continue to want to share it with others.

How Did I Get Here? Part 1.

I became a pastor in 1972 at the little West Bend UMC in Powell County, KY.  I was 20 years old, had two years of college behind me at Reinhardt College (now University) in Waleska, GA and had just started as a Junior at Asbury College (now University) in Wilmore, KY.  Becoming a pastor at 20 was the culmination of a 10 year process since I had received the call to preach.

I am reminded of this because Holbrook Campmeeting starts this Friday night.  This historic campground is a place where I experienced so much grace and spiritual growth as a child, young adult and adult.  However, in my formative years it had a tremendous impact on my soul.

My ancestors had been associated with the Campmeeting from the start over 170 years ago. My first time to Holbrook was 1952 when I was 3 months old.  We tented (stayed in a cabin) every year after that for the full ten days of celebration and food and fun.  This was first and foremost a religious experience.  I suggest every reader aquaint himself or herself with the Campmeeting movement and its impact on pioneer America.

That heritage of religious and spiritual fervor was well maintained at the Holbrook Campmeeting of my youth.  A typical day started with the Children's church in the Arbor at 9:00.  That was followed by the Prayer Meeting at 10.  The preaching services were at 11, 3 and 8 with a Men's Prayer Meeting in the Cemetery at 7 and Youth service following the 8 o'clock preaching service.

Sometime during my early childhood this Methodist Campmeeting began the tradition of having both a Methodist and Baptist preacher each year. The rural community was almost exclusively Methodist and Baptist.  My family was strongly Methodist, yet like most families in the area, had our share of Baptist cousins.  We all lived and worked together during the 10 days of Campmeeting with rarely any division on denominational-ism or theology.

The Methodists preached Wesleyan theology and the Baptists preached a form of Calvionism mixed with a heavy dose of Pre-millennium beliefs.  However, all were evangelical and declared the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the clear need for salvation and holy living. This early experience with ecumenism (as ecumenical as it could be at the time and place) gave good foundation for my work through the years with other Christians and denominations including many years working with the Walk to Emmaus and the Presidency of a Seminary that is Methodist, but educates more non-Methodists than Methodists.

When I was 10 years old we had two of the best preachers ever to come to Holbrook:  my pastor, Rev. John Ozley, and a pastor and evangelist from Oklahoma, Rev. Dr. Gene Winfrey, the Baptist preacher.  Both men have been life-long mentors for me and even in their 80's continue to encourage and challenge my faith.  That week of Campmeeting they preached with extreme unction.  I listened to their sermons beginning Friday night and continuing twice a day (our parents only required 2 preaching services a day plus either Children's Church or Youth Service) through Thursday. There was a great move of the Holy Spirit during that week and many people came to faith in Christ, many backsliders were reclaimed and homes and marriages were healed.

Then on Thursday night at the Youth Service, 10pm, Carl Smithwick spoke to the Youth about full-time Christian Service. Carl was the Chief Jailer of the Fulton County Jail and a member of my church and a personal mentor and spiritual guide.  This godly man told of his wasted years of indulgence before following Christ and invited us to commit our lives to Jesus as young people and serve Him all our days. He then invited us all to the Mourner's Bench to pray about surrendering our lives to God;s will for us.

It was kneeling there in the sawdust on the left side of the arbor on a dark and cool night that I distinctly heard the Lord call me to preach.  And I said, "yes." I first shared that call with Carl and Myrtle Smithwick, my older sister and my parents. They were all totally affirming, which was important as soon the evil one began to say, "Did God really say...?"  I shared it with the preachers Ozley and Winfrey and received the same affirmation.  At the time that was the whole of my ecclesiastical world: Orange Methodist Church and Holbrook Campmeeting. I would later receive the affirmation of the North Georgia Conference of the UMC and the Bishop would lay his hands on my head and say, "Take thou authority to preach..." but that was never more significant than the affirmation I received from the ecclesiastical authorities in my life in 1962.

I had been converted when I was eight years old (a story for another time) and had always loved the church and felt most at home in worship.  The church was at the center of our lives just after family.  If one were to diagram the world of my childhood it would look like concentric circles with family in the center, the church in the next circle, the campmeeting in the next, the family grocery store in the next and the school in the next and then the larger community of Cherokee and Forsyth Counties.  That was just about my whole world other than the invasion of TV and Radio (WCHK in Canton and WSB in Atlanta).

The call to preach was something I never doubted though was often tempted to do so.  In a rebellious time in High School I attempted to live as if Christ had no claim on my life.  I enjoyed hedonism and self-centeredness, like most youth.  But I could never fully give myself to it as much as I tried - as some friends from those days will testify that I really tried. However, at Camp Glisson, the Conference Youth Camp in Dahlonega, GA. in a local church youth retreat, I made a renewed commitment to Christ and the call to preach and set out to be faithful to the same. That was in October, 1969 and worth another article at a later date.

I really began preaching in February, 1972 after experiencing the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a Friday night Pentecostal cottage prayer meeting (also a story for another time) and found myself preaching an average of 13 times a week from February through September when I moved to Kentucky in September.

No one in my immediate family or ancestoral family had ever been to college so I knew very little about it.  We had no money, but after living at home and working during high school and my first two years at Reinhardt, I had saved enough money for tuition, room and board for the first year at Asbury. My plan was to simply enjoy going to school, being a college student and nothing else.  My plan soon was changed when God revealed an alternative.

I had been invited to preach at two Methodist churches in con junction with a Ford Philpot Evangelistic Crusade in  Powell County, KY.  (Also another article to come.) I preached the early service at West Bend UMC and then preached at 11 at the other church formerly on the circuit with West Bend, El Bethel.  After the service at El Bethel a group of men from West Bend confronted me at the door. I was scared to death. I had heard about the Hatfields and McCoys. I had heard about Kentucky hillbillies and here I was in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, the center of Appalachia and confronted by some very rough looking men, among them the ugliest man I have ever known, Robert. However, they were not there to string me up for some cultural or theological error, but to ask me to come be their pastor.

It seems the pastor at El Bethel had been their pastor, but they were such an contentious church he informed the District Superintendent that he was not going back there to preach and had not since Conference in June.  So from June to October they had been without a pastor, an uncommon experience in  the Methodist church at the time. I was shocked, flattered and scared to death. I told them I cold not give them an answer on the steps of the church, but I would pray about it.  They agreed to pray and asked me to at least come back and preach the next Sunday, which I was glad to do.

I drove the 65 miles back to Wilmore in a state of confused shock. While I was honored to be asked to be anyone's pastor, even if the truth was I was better than nothing, which is what they had, I did not want to assume responsibility of the pastorate.  I had worked since I was old enough to pick up a bale of hay or load a truck with chicken manure. I did not want to work. but I knew I had to at least pray about it.

We got back to campus and that night was invited to a prayer meeting in the adjoining dorm, to the room of someone I did not know.  I went and as we knelt around the room to pray, various ones spoke their fervent prayers.  I did not hear much becasue I was so consumed with this delima that had presented itself to me that day. Deep on prayer and struggling with my soul, I felt a hand laid on my shoulder and heard a voice I did not recognize say, "Feed my sheep."  In case I did not get it the first time, he said it twice more, removed his hand and knelt down across the room.  In spite of my shock, I peeked to see who it was and it was the person in whose room we were praying, someone I had only met 30 minutes before and who nothing of my situation.

So there and then  I said, "Yes."  I returned to West Bend on Sunday and told them if the DS wanted to appoint me to be their pastor, I would do it.  I also asked the student who laid his hands on my why he did that.  He said, "I have no idea.  It was just clear to me the Lord wanted me to do that."  I asked him if he knew what it meant.  Again he said, "I have no idea, but just trusted you would know."  Did I ever!

And thus began my pastoral ministry at the ripe age of 20 with no License to Preach or formal training of any kind and about 4 books in my library:  a Schofield Bible, a Matthew Henry Condensed Commentary, a Young's Concordance and a book of sermon outlines, both of the latter given to me by my pastor, John Ozley.

Therefore, the call to preach which came to me at Holbrook Campmeeting in 1962 became a formal occupation in 1972.  Now, 38 years later, I still love to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ and teach others how to be more effective in the ministry of transforming lives through the power of the Gospel.