Nine Characteristics of Breakout Churches

• Powered by Prayer


• A Culture of Relational Evangelism


• Commitment to Children


• Engaging the Community


• A Proactive Plan


• Inspiring Worship


• Holistic Small Groups


• A Missional Leader


• Obstacles = Opportunities

Been thinking about how these nine characteristics apply to my church, and how we might need to change in order to reach others with the Gospel.

Book #3- The Pastor's Start-Up Manual: Beginning a New Pastorate

Ramey, Robert H., Jr. The Pastor's Start-Up Manual: Beginning a New Pastorate. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Here are the quotes I wrote down in a composition notebook I've been keeping of good ministry truths since 2005.

The first job for every pastor is to accurately define reality in his or her congregation and community. The second job is to exhibit a person behavior pattern that fits the church's needs at this time in its history. The third job is to help people set an energizing vision for the future regarding what God calls this congregation to be and do. The fourth job is to patiently keep on keeping on while people cross the Red Sea of obstacles that always lies between today and tomorrow (Herb Miller, foreword, 9)

the goal for any minister in beginning a new pastorate is to lead the church as the people of God to be a sign, foretaste, and instrument of God's reign. (16)

A collaborative leadership style will result in greater mission accomplishment and also in better personal relationships. (27)

no one ever said that a meaningful ministry could be developed overnight. (36)

Pastoral care is the most important skill ministers need in the context of the small membership church. (40)

Your congregation is an open system. In other words, it has permeable boundaries so that there is a flow between the environment and the congregation. (52)

Particularly in a small church, members will embrace a new proposal if they conclude that the proposal really grows out of who they are rather than constituting a new project. (75)

It is usually prudent to delay major recommendations for change for six months to a year. (77)

The primary key to time management, then, is self-management. If you cannot manage your self, you will never manage time. (84)

Vilfredo Pareto said that 20 percent of the activities you engage in--the "Vital Few" situations or problems--will produce 80 percent of your achievable results. By the same token 80 percent of the activities you engage in--the "Token Many" situations or problems--produce 20 percent of your achievable results.

Whether your dreams ever come true in ministry you need to keep four aspects of ministry in tight focus: a guiding image, an evolving plan, a strengthening fellowship, and a nourishing Center. Focusing on these four aspects of ministry will help you stay the course. More than that, you will become increasingly faithful and effective. (113-114)

Without new learning, however, any professional person soon becomes incompetent. (115)

This is a great, little book. I would especially recommend it for my colleagues still in seminary that are headed out into the pastorate for the very first time, though it is also helpful for those who are leaving one assignment for a new calling.

If anyone wants to buy me Scott Daniels' The First 100 Days, I'd more than gladly read it, review it, and compare it to this book as well.

Book #2- The Hobbit

Tolkein, J. R. R. The Hobbit or There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937.

In reviewing this book, I won't say much since it is being turned into a two-part film and part one is set to release next year. I will just say this--I loved it. It is a much easier and quicker read than The Lord of the Rings, and I found the story to be delightful. The overall story is far more whimsical than the grim undertones of the story of Frodo. I was actually surprised that they encounter with Gollum happens so early in the book. I assumed that was part of the culmination of the story, and the Ring is far less sinister in this story. The back story of the Ring is not hinted at all, which is kind of surprising if you read The Lord of the Rings first.

Overall, absolutely fantastic! I don't think I could recommend it any more highly.

Next book up: The Pastor's Start-Up Manual: Beginning a New Pastorate, Robert H. Ramey, Jr.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book #1- Becoming a Pastor: Forming Self and Soul for Ministry

Hamman, Jaco J. Becoming a Pastor: Forming Self and Soul for Ministry. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2007.

One of my goals for 2011, which I guess you could call my New Year's Resolutions, is to read at least 52 books this year. This will include many of the books I had a summer reading last a few years ago that I never got around to. I now have the opportunity to read whatever I want, and only what I want, which hasn't been the case in my life for quite sometime, especially not in the last seven years.

The first book I read in 2011 was Jaco Hammon's Becoming a Pastor. It was one of a slew of books I got from the local library to try to learn a little more about the practical side of being a pastor. Hamman is a native of South Africa and the associate professor of pastoral care and counseling at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. In his book, he discusses six capacities he feels are necessary for one to be a "becoming pastor":

1. The Capacity to Believe
2. The Capacity to Imagine
3. The Capacity for Concern
4. The Capacity to Be Alone
5. The Capacity to Use Others and to be Used
6. The Capacity to Play

Hammon draws heavily from the writing of Donald Woods Winnicott, and because of this, the capacities aren't as straightforward as they might appear. Winnicott liked to take ordinary language and use it in a slightly different way. Because of this, I found the book to be quite technical and I wish that had been more practical. However, I would recommend it for anyone that in pastoral ministry that has a good background in psychology.

Next book up: The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein

For He Is Like...

Today, I was doing the dishes. It's by far my least favorite chore, so it certainly shouldn't be a time of theological insight, but today, it was.

I was washing out my skillet. My roommate, Matt, has nonstick cookware, and I am slightly jealous of them. Whatever had been cooked in my skillet had been burnt, so I had the joyous task of scrubbing away a layer of black, burnt something.

As I was scrubbing, I realized that in one way, I am like the skillet. The skillet can't clean itself. In the same way, I can't clean myself, in the sense of purifying.

I've never been to a refinery. I should know more about it since my grandfather worked in a steel mill for over forty years. All I know is what I heard from a professor in college. He had heard from a silver refiner that you know the impurities are gone when you can see your reflection in the metal.

That's what I want for my life. I want people to look at me and see the Refiner. For a long time, I thought this could be done just by sheer force of will. I could remove my own impurities if I prayed enough or read my Bible more. I was wrong, however. The only way for me to be purified is by the Refiner's fire.

This is my prayer:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

The Beginning of a Journey

A year ago today, I went to Mr. MVNU with a girl. It probably wasn’t the best idea for a first date. This girl and I had been talking a lot at that time, having grown closer through MVNU’s production of Guys and Dolls. She was playing Sergeant Sara Brown. I was playing Benny Southstreet.

The reason I say it wasn’t the best idea for a first date is because it’s kind of like taking a girl to a movie. There’s no real opportunity to talk. Add in the fact that I was singing in the band for a few songs and you pretty much have us just sitting in the chapel auditorium laughing at the skits.

After Mr. MVNU, however, we drove over to the parking lot of the Kokosing Gap Trail and just talked. We talked and talked and talked. Eventually, I told this girl of my feelings for her and she told me she was feeling the same way, which was a great relief to me. So, I asked her the question I had been longing to ask her for weeks: “Will you be my girlfriend?” Her answer was yes.

The past year hasn’t always been easy. Only four months after we started dating, I moved to Kansas City for seminary. She remains in Ohio, finishing up her undergraduate. There have been times since I moved here that I was willing to give it all up, tired of trying to make a long-distance relationship work. Yet, she was always willing to fight for our love.

I have been amazed at the love, grace, and forgiveness she has shown to me these past twelve months. I love her more now than I would have imagined was possible back then, and I’m still learning what that means. I’m learning what it means to love someone so much that you would lay down everything, even your life, for them. Before, I have always been only interested in my own satisfaction. While I felt feelings of love in some of my prior relationships, it was a selfish love. Now, I am trying to learn to love her in a selfless way.

Audra, you’re beautiful, kind, gracious, funny, and one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Thank you for coming into my life, and thank you for staying with me through the storms…

It's Christmastime

In both the church/chapel services I've attended and in the blogs of my friends, a lot of people have really been knocking on Christmas. Not so much the holiday but rather the consumerism that is linked to this holiday. I was really getting into this mindset and then I read this quote and it really challenged me:

"It might be easy to run away to a monastery, away from the commercialization, the hectic hustle, the demanding family responsibilities of Christmas-time. Then we would have a holy Christmas. But we would forget the lesson of the Incarnation, of the enfleshing of God - the lesson that we who are followers of Jesus do not run from the secular aspects of Christmas just as the early Christians baptized the Christmas tree. And we do this by being holy people - kind, patient, generous, loving, laughing people - no matter how maddening is the Christmas rush ..." (Andrew Greeley)

I find it really easy to poke fun at those Christians who want to separate themselves from the world. I think in my mind that they are actually sinning in a way because they make themselves so irrelevant that they could never reach anyone that was lost. Yet, I found myself in danger of doing the same thing during this Christmas season. How do we engage the world and disengage consumerism at the same time? I guess I'm not really sure. I don't think we should completely abandon the practice of gift-giving. There is something sacred in saying, "I bought this for you because you mean something to me." I hope we don't just buy our families, friends, and other loved ones gifts because it's Christmas so we have to. I hope we buy each other gifts as a recognition that we are meaningful to one another, so buying you a present is just a recognition that you are often on my mind and I care about you.

I'm willing to admit that I could be completely wrong and that the practice of gift-giving at Christmas should be ignored. No matter what on that issue though, let's remember that God gave us the ultimate gift, however cliche that statement is. Jesus was born. He lived, and He died to take away our sins and to bring us freedom from those things we are enslaved to. May we never forget and may God help us point others to that reality.