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The Power of Your Story
Earlier this week I was asked to pray for a friend who had a student pass away Christmas Night. On the Facebook post it included a video that was made by the student just a week before he passed away. If you haven’t seen it, take a watch:
The video hit close to home for me with all the things we deal with on a regular basis with our youngest son Jackson. It reminded me just how precious every moment we have is, how short life can be and how powerful our story can be when we share them.
I have always believed in the power of a story. One of the things I love about my job is that I get to hear people’s stories on a regular basis. The Bible says,
“And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” Revelation 12:11 (NLT)
Whether you are a Christian or not, you have a story that needs to be told. So the question isn’t whether you have a story or not, the question is will you share the story you have?
“I’m a Guru” – Gurus 2011 Rap
Sunday’s Coming
The Lost Generation … this isn’t what I meant!
If you missed my post yesterday about The Lost Generation then check it out here. If you think the video above is what needs to be done to have an effective Senior Adult Ministry or a way to help Senior Adults be apart of the Modern Church, then you missed the essence of the post. It is more than just trying to get them to be hip, cool, relevant, or any other culturally relevant term you want to use, it’s about creating a ministry that communicates and reaches our growing Senior Adult population.
However, this background to this video is inspiring. This video was created by a church and used to kick off a student event. This captures the idea of what I said yesterday of Creating Opportunities for Senior Adults to be Involved. Enjoy the video!!!
The Lost Generation
I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now, but I think we might be missing something that will impact the trajectory of the local church if we’re not careful and intentional about reaching and meeting the needs of all generations in our community. Let’s face it, over the last 10-20 years the modern church as we know it has changed. Churches have embraced a more casual, contemporary … which has been termed the “new traditional” style of musical worship, and have focused on reaching a younger generation. Sometimes, well most of the time, we do this with good intentions expecting an older generation to understand and to accept change with open arms. But what happens if they don’t?
I am by no means saying that the church doesn’t need to focus on a reaching a younger generation, but I think the church needs to be careful at reaching a younger generation at the expense of loosing our older generation. Yes there are major difference in each generation. From the style & volume of the music, to the way we dress and talk, to the speed of our walk, we are different. But that’s what makes the church so special.
Throughout scripture we see the importance of an older generation investing in a younger generation with the wisdom they have gleaned from their journey with Christ and life in general. We especially see this modeled in scripture as an older Paul urges and encourage a younger Timothy.
So what can we do? This is a great question, and one I think the church needs to be asking since we are on the embarkment of the Baby Boomers getting ready to enter into what we call a senior adult status. I don’t know that I have all the answers but I think somethings can be done. Here are some suggestions.
1. Create a Senior Adult Ministry
This can be led by volunteers or by a Senior Adult Pastor. Senior Adults, like teenagers “know it all!” That’s not always a bad thing in this sense. They know what they like and what they don’t like, and many of the people they hang out with are like them. Being able to have intentional ministry geared for Senior Adults can create opportunities that the church may be overlooking. Yes, it takes time and effort, but so does the music, children’s, and student ministries of the church.
2. Create Opportunities for Senior Adults to be involved.
The reality for all of us is the this, we are down on the things we don’t know about. Keeping Senior Adults involved in the life of the church creates a healthy dynamic where it’s not an us vs them mentality. Some of my greatest youth workers were Senior Adults, and some of my greatest encouragers as a young Student pastor came from Senior Adults. When we take the time to include them they can and will bless the ministry in huge ways with time, money and resources.
3. Create a Multi Generational Worship Culture.
This isn’t a “my way or the highway mentality”, and this isn’t the only responsibility of the Worship Leader who is picking songs … it is a TEAM effort! Creating environments that reach a demographic or generation is nothing new. As the church worships together on a weekly basis, there should be crossover from each of these ministries sprinkled throughout the Worship Service. Many times when we think of this we think solely about the music, but hopefully there is more to your worship service than music. Sometimes it can be as simple as recognizing an age group during a talk and speaking directly to them during a service. But it could also be a s simple as singing songs that seem to be tied to a generation in style, but beneficial to the entire church in message.
I admit that maybe this is just a mind dump post. But these are the thoughts that have been on my mind lately as I transition into a new role in the church … moving from a Student Pastor to a Community Pastor. I do however think this is going to be something that the church has to address in the near future, or we may just in fact, lose a generation.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas of how we can begin to do this more effectively.
Big News for Youth Specialties
Shallow Small Groups … Yikes!
300 – Will you do your part?
God is blessing us here at Harvester! We continue to grow as we strive to worship, love, and go. We’ve seen over 350 people join our body in the last two years and our average attendance has increased by over 600! We’ve also witnessed 178 people publicly profess their faith in Christ through baptism! We owe all of this to our awesome God.
As we look towards the future, we acknowledge we have a significant barrier to growth: the lack of space in our 10:45 AM Worship Service. Most weeks the room is filled to 90% capacity or more. Market research and our own experience show that this atmosphere isn’t inviting to newcomers. Frequently guests arrive, can’t find a place to sit, turn around and leave without ever hearing the gospel in our services. Something has to change.
We know that most first-time guests choose the 10:45 AM service and so we need to ensure that space is available; it is our best opportunity to share the gospel. As we look towards Easter, we know that many of our guests will attend the second service and some will choose to come back in the weeks following. This will amplify our current problem.
In an effort to eliminate this obstacle to the gospel, we’re asking for 300 folks in the 10:45 AM Worship Service to commit to shifting their Sunday morning routines and move permanently to our identical 9 AM service. We know that this isn’t a convenient change, but if you and your family are able to shift we ask you to bless your church in this way.
Church Stalker
A couple of years ago my wife called me a church stalker because of the time I spend learning from and looking at other churches websites! The name has kinda stuck! Because of this desire to learn it has allowed me to come across some really cool ideas that we can implement in the church.
Recently I have been thinking of ways to make a website/blog/app more personal. Today as I searched, I stumbled across one of my ideas that New Spring church is actually doing and doing very well. It kinda has an I am Second feel to it but it seems to be more relational because it’s the story of everyday people. I’ve only watched two of them so far, but the ones I have seen have literally made my eyes swell. This is the power of Christ at work in the lives of everyday people. It’s real, its raw and unscripted. It brings power to what the Bible says in Revelation 12:11,
“They have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.”
Here is just one of the stories that are featured on the New Spring Church website! If you have the time watch some others while you are there. Powerful stories of what Christ is doing in the everyday life of people just like you and me!
You have a story to tell! Are you sharing yours with others? Would you be willing to tell your story on video?
From the Inside Out by Dan Gould 