In the video below, Heber Ticas, national coordinator for GCI Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM), addresses GCI regional pastors and other leaders. He explains how our participation in mission with Christ includes three important, interrelated denominational and congregational missional initiatives: church renewal, church re-planting and church planting.
On YouTube at http://youtu.be/ZbIV57XhAtM.
In GCI, most of our pastors are bivocational—pastoring churches while holding down other jobs. Doing so is quite demanding, as noted by Northern Seminary professor David Fitch in a blog post entitled, “5 Tips on Keeping Bivocational Ministry from Imploding.” He writes:
Bivocational ministry has a bad name.
This bad name was bequeathed upon it by Christendom. Because within this Christianized world, where everybody is a Christian, the pastor is looked upon as a professional carrying out all of the numerous tasks of the church to offer services to Christians to sustain them in their Christian life. This model of ministry (I call it the Superman/woman model) is ordered for efficiency. It is a top down chain of command that gets things done. One person basically does all the gifts of the body, including preaching once a week, pastoral care, visiting the sick, running the business end of things, managing conflict resolution, and engaging the community with new and innovative ways to get people to come into church. Frankly this job is impossible even under the best of circumstances. But as a bivocational pastor? It will kill you.
To read the full post, click here.
Here are excerpts of interest from the December 2014 issue of ChurchPulse:
ChurchPulse is a publication of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (EFCA). To read the whole December issue, go to http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=1e36026eade3dfd2f66499153&id=50fe6699ea&e=2f2821a1b1.
As the new year begins, many church leadership teams will meet to prayerfully clarify their vision concerning the road ahead. For assistance in preparing (or updating) your vision statement, click here. To learn about a creative vision clarification process used by one church, watch this:
On YouTube at http://youtu.be/x_iEUwLO3J4.
Looking for assistance in preparing Advent/Christmas sermons (or sermons any other time of the year)? GCI-USA regional pastor and CAD communications coordinator Ted Johnston reports that one of his favorite resources is Working Preacher—a website from the faculty at Luther Seminary that provides commentary and sample sermons related to the Revised Common Lectionary readings. As with all of such resources, what is found at Working Preacher will need some adaptation. However, it is a generally reliable resource that typically is Trinitarian in its theological perspective.
Working Preacher is found at www.workingpreacher.org/.
For additional ideas about using online resources for sermon preparation, go to www.lifeway.com/article/pastor-using-online-resources-sermon-preparation?emid=Content-PastorsToday-OnlineSermonPreparation-20130408. For suggestions about sermon preparation for bivocational pastors, go to: http://philipnation.net/2013/07/sermon-prep-for-the-bivocational-pastor/.
Following (with the author’s permission) is text excerpted from a post at The Walking Green blog. Given that many of our congregations seek to assist the poor, this post provides some helpful guidance. My wife Vicki met the author, Liz McEwen, through a local ministry that serves pastors’ wives. She and her husband are raising their children in an economically depressed neighborhood in Cincinnati. So she writes on this topic with in-depth, first-hand knowledge. The original post can be read online at https://ejmcewan.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/how-your-church-can-strengthen-the-hand-of-the-poor/.
– GCI pastor George Hart (Cincinnati, Ohio)
by Liz McEwen
If any of my Christian friends want to know what their churches can do to address the issue of poverty right now, I have a few suggestions.
Address poverty at its root. Poverty is not as simple as a lack of money or consistent employment. It is not always (or not only) a result of personal error. It is a complex cultural paradigm and often generations in the making. Solving the problem of poverty means tackling it at its root, in the systematic injustices and personal failures that perpetuate it. If you really want to pull someone out of a cycle of poverty, you have to get strategic and address a few key issues. Find an issue that you can (or your church can) personally address and commit to it. You may not be able to address it all, but you can certainly do something.
Educate. Without a proper education (at least through high school), the opportunities available to young men and women are limited. Something as simple as after-school tutoring could be a place to start, but perhaps you are capable of more. Other ideas: Start a community school or a co-op; become a teacher at a struggling school system; sit on the school board; become a high school academic counselor; create a college scholarship program.
Promote Strong Family Systems. There is a strong relationship between the stability of a family structure and poverty. In 2013, of the 11% of the American population living in poverty, 31% of them were households with a single mother. According to the statistics that same year, a married couple is much more likely to avoid poverty in the first place. Seeing as we are now entering an era in which almost half of the babies born are born into unmarried households, this might be an issue that the Church can address. Not by shaming unwed mothers. Not by ousting unmarried families. Not by coercing marriage. But by strengthening existing couples and encouraging healthy relationships, teaching basic conflict management skills, marital counseling, and by encouraging young women to abstain from sex (crazy, I know) to avoid becoming another “poor, unwed mother” statistic. For women (and men) currently parenting alone, churches can provide training in parenting skills and support in the way of daycare and counseling. For children who have already become victims of broken families, foster and short-term respite care, as well as adoption (open or closed, through public or private agencies) are great opportunities.
Improve the Quality of Life and Housing Opportunities. Have you considered the environmental and lifestyle issues that make it difficult for people to move out of a cycle of poverty? The availability of healthy food, access to public transportation options, clean, safe, and well-maintained neighborhoods—they all matter. What if your church started a housing ministry that rented or sold decent homes to low-income families without the mess of government subsidies? Or started a community housing co-op that enabled lower-income members to build equity in shared property? What if you started a community garden that provided fresh produce to local families in need or organized a block watch to promote community-led policing? You can plant trees for increased safety and air quality; you could provide free medical care or health education.
Teach Job Skills and Provide Employment. What would you do if you wanted to find a job that would provide for your family, but had a minimum education, few employable skills, or possibly even a felony on your record that (in an employer’s eyes) disqualified you from hundreds of available jobs? You or your church can help teach important skills that help secure employment for the otherwise unemployable: computer and technical skills; handyman, carpentry, or maintenance skills; cooking or cleaning. You could also take it one step further and start a business that employs those who have a difficult time finding employment or hire an under-employed person in your community to do odd jobs (at your church or your home) for extra cash to help make ends meet.
Give Financial Guidance. There are financial skills that some wealthier people take for granted—things they learned from their parents or peers about how to manage their money, how to save money and stay out of debt, or how to make smart investments. Don’t take for granted that other people know these things. Things as simple as how to open a bank account, balance a check book, or pay a bill online might be a mystery to some folks. Without basic financial knowledge and wisdom about managing wealth, a sudden increase in income that comes with new employment can destroy a family’s financial future. Your church can provide something as simple as free financial counseling or as complex as interest-free personal or business loans.
Fight Institutional Injustice. Sure, plenty of people living in poverty are victims of their own bad decisions. But, many are not. Regardless of how they got into the mess they are in, there are mountains upon mountains of institutional injustices that can make it feel impossible for them to climb out. Christians should be in the business of pleading the case of victims. Either find a way to advocate for those who are in danger of being further victimized and left with no resources and no support, or use your skills and influence to work within the system to bring justice on an institutional level. The judicial system, banking, legislation, urban planning and community development, immigration—take your pick. Globally, nationally, or locally.
Soothe the symptoms of poverty. Emergency assistance will not stop the cycles of poverty, but it can soothe the symptoms. Christians should not be afraid to meet a need where an obvious need exists. Educate yourself about what resources exist in your community, but also consider how you can step in with a more personal touch. A lot of us are afraid of being taken advantage of or being made fools, but churches should be places of hospitality and generosity. You can be wise about the help you offer while still being generous and merciful. Keep healthy boundaries, but keep your doors open—physically, spiritually and emotionally. Pray that God refines your discernment to know where the real needs are.
You may have noticed that I didn’t list “Provide Spiritual Guidance” on the list above. The reason is that I take for granted that Christians understand that they have a responsibility to preach the gospel to all people whether poor or wealthy. Spiritual poverty knows no economic boundaries, so providing spiritual guidance should be a given, at all times, to all people. “Strengthening the hand of the poor,” however, is a particular command given to the church in relationship to a particular group of people and can be discussed with spiritual realities presupposed.
GCI Church Administration and Development, USA recommends the book Tradecraft for the Church on Mission, by Caleb Crider, et al. It provides practical information that helps churches participate actively in mission with Jesus. The book in print and Kindle versions is currently offered at Amazon.com. Go to www.amazon.com/Tradecraft-Mission-Larry-E-McCrary/dp/1479300918/ref=tmm_pap_title_0.
Several leaders from GCI-USA recently attended a meeting in Dallas, Texas of the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship (CPLF). These meetings are hosted twice a year by LifeWay to advance church planting in North America and beyond.
Here are excerpts from a meeting report by LifeWay leader and meeting host, Ed Stetzer:
What could happen if we gathered together a large room full of the most significant and influential church planting leaders in the country? That was the question I asked myself a few years ago. It occurred to me that leaders who lead church planting efforts at the denominational and network level do not have a peer learning community. There is not a safe place for them to gather together, learn from one another, be friends with each other, and seek ways to see the gospel advanced as churches are planted.
Our topic for [the recent gathering] was Church Planting Networks. We wanted to understand what made the most effective networks function so well. What systems were in place to help them prosper? What theologies and ideologies undergirded their success? How was their leadership structured and what vision did they share? These and a number of other questions were answered by some of the great church planting leaders of our day.
Presenters included several leaders with extensive experience in leading church planting networks: Dave Fergusen (at right in the picture with host Ed Stetzer), Matt Chandler, James MacDonald and Bob Roberts. GCI participants were GCI Church Multiplication Ministries coordinator Heber Ticas; and GCI-USA regional pastors Randy Bloom, Mike Rasmussen and Ted Johnston.
The CPLF meeting was of particular significance for GCI in that we are actively forming church planting networks in the United States. As shown in the diagram at right, these networks are made up of several GCI churches that partner to support church planting within their area and beyond through providing prayer, encouragement, financial support, assessment, coaching and training.
To learn more about GCI’s church planting networks, click here, and watch this video:
On YouTube at http://youtu.be/8bD_FaBbh2g.
We consulted recently with worship minister Ross Jutsum, asking for his recommendation of resources to assist worship in small churches. Here is what Ross recommends:
In the video below, GCI pastoral resident Carrie Smith shares with a GCI 2014 regional conference audience what she has learned about community outreach. To learn more about Carrie and her journey as a GCI intern and pastoral resident, see the article linked at left under “Up Close and Personal.”
On YouTube at http://youtu.be/KVd-9Sc3psM.
