Leadership

2 Deaths, 2 Different Legacies

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I lost 2 of my heroes in the recent week.  It’s rare that 2 leading evangelicals over significant ministries would pass in one week, but it’s true.  One of those leaders was Chuck Colson.  The headlines have read “Nixon’s Hatchet Man Dies” or “Watergate’s Culprit Passes Away.”  Chuck Colson was deep in the scandal of President Nixon’s scandal years ago.  Before being sentenced to prison, Colson claimed he was converted to Christianity.

While many saw this as an attempt to lower his sentence, his time in jail, and his time after jail displayed remarkable fruit and he never backed down from his Christian commitment.  He started an international prison ministry that has impacted countless men and women for Christ.  He has written some amazing books filled with great intellect concerning a Christian worldview and a humble disposition concerning his previous way of life.  While he started very poorly, he finished strong.

The other man won’t make as many headlines, but he was still a strong ambassador in the Kingdom, but his death is more tragic.

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When God Does the Most With the Least Expected

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In my life, I’ve learned that God often does the most with the least expected.

We often think we’ve got it all figured out.  In our estimation, we have enough knowledge to map out God’s plan for our lives.

But that rarely happens.  Oftentimes, God uses things in our lives that we never ever saw coming.

I said “yes” to the ministry when I was a teenager.  I really didn’t know what area I wanted to serve, I liked doing so many different things.

And yet, if you look at what God is using me the most in right now, I never would have seen this coming.

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There Are 2 Travis Agnew’s…

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There are 2 Travis Agnew’s.  No, for real.  There are 2 of us.  I’m not doing some type of preacher illustration, there are two of us out there.

So, let me explain.  Years ago, when I decided to start blogging, I tried to get a domain name and realized that travisagnew.com was taken.  By whom, I wondered.  I went ahead with the .org and continued upon my trek through life’s uncharted waters.  Then I was talking with a college student one day who said he heard me speak somewhere.

He then tried to find me on the world wide web.  He said I had changed my appearance a lot.  He then asked me when I lived in Wisconsin.  I was perplexed.  I was pretty confident that my looks have not changed that much and that I had remained in South Carolina in recent years.  Curious, I began to do research and I was shocked at what I found.

Here’s what I discovered:

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Newspring Coming to Greenwood

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dI’ve been asked by a few people lately: “So what do you think about Newspring coming to Greenwood?” Normally, it’s also been followed by other phrases to express their thinking.  I’ve heard: “Do you think ya’ll will lose members?”  “What kind of church do you think it will hurt the most?”  “I heard they take your bank routing number when

North Side Would Fail Church Growth 101 Class

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Saturday morning, leaders from North Side gathered together to continue on this journey God is leading us.  We talked about discipleship.  We celebrated the lives that are being changed, and yet we also focused upon those people who are still struggling to follow Christ.

We laid out a strategy that is a little different for a church our size.  In fact, North Side would fail Church Growth 101 class if we were taking it.  Let me explain:

Church growth these days is all about the large groups.  Get more people in the seats and that means that you are winning.  What we are finding is that it is easy to fill seats, it is hard to disciple people.  And in our current church culture in America, people are church hopping, filling out commitment cards, getting baptized, and then dropping off the face of the earth!  The parable of the Seed and the Sower should scare us enough to realize that we might be giving people false assurance of their salvation that way – they need to be discipled!

Here’s some things I took away from Saturday:

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God Did NOT Tell You to Do THAT

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Recently, I was made aware of a situation involving fellow ministers of the gospel.  Someone told me a piece of a conversation, and before I jumped to any conclusions, I decided to go to the source directly.  Sure there had to be a reasonable explanation or a miscommunication, I assumed all would be cleared up with one simple phone call.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t cleared up.  Justifying his thought process, he explained to me what went down between them.  I thought that a brother confronting him would be enough to show some type of remorse, but that’s not what happened.

Actually, he informed me that God told him to do what he did.

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“Why Isn’t Your Name on the Cover?”

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As Courageous has been making headlines around the country for the success in the box office, I have been rejoicing at all that God is doing through it.  I’ve kinda been surprised that my small role in the ministry aspect of it has caused me to be interviewed by a few different sources.  The Bible Study book that I worked on is available now, but the whole kit with the DVD and extras won’t be available until Feb. 2012.

In a phone interview last week, someone had already picked up the book and asked me this question: “Why isn’t your name on the cover?”

As you can see by the picture, the  leaders for Sherwood Baptist Church and Sherwood Pictures names are on the cover, and this inquiring mind on the other side of the phone wanted to know where mine was.

Well…

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Preachers’ Kids

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Our culture has a stereotype of pastor’s children that is the complete opposite of this biblical expectation.  When people mention a “preacher kid,” they are normally referencing some rebellious hellion bent on tarnishing his father’s reputation in the community.  This stereotype reveals more than an unfortunate circumstance, it shows unbiblical perspectives and qualifications present in the church today.

Repeatedly, many preacher kids reveal a father who took care of the needs of everyone else except for those living in his own house.  In attempts to appease this member or that family, he neglected his own wife and children.  As the years went by, not only does the minister’s family resent the man of the house, but they also resent the church and many never return once they leave home.

Your pastors need to care for their own children more than they care for your children.

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Why Many Student Ministries Are Failing

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Since the inception of student ministry (not that many years ago), the growing belief is that parents should aid and assist the student pastor to evangelize and disciple the students.  By serving in either assistant teaching roles or crowd control, parents are expected to help the student pastor in his ministerial work focused on their children.  I cannot begin to tell you how many parents describe that situation and say that the student pastor spiritually “raised my child.”

If we were to follow the biblical example, we would reverse the trend.  Parents should not aid and assist the student pastor.  The student pastor should aid and assist the parent to evangelize and disciple one’s own child.

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“So, How Did the Change REALLY Go?”

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In the recent weeks, I have learned that there have been 3 people very interested in the changes going on at North Side.

  1. North Siders – This group has been interested in how all of it would look when the dust settled and the new day was here.  What would worship be like?  Where would their families go?
  2. Other Greenwood Churches – We also have heard that it’s been quite the conversation among other churches, and even in some churches, people have attempted to lure people to their congregation because their worship style was something they would enjoy better (that’s on both the contemporary and the traditional side).  I guarantee if someone leaves one church because of music and find refuge in another, those are the type of members who leave the 2nd church one day as well.  It’s like young ladies who feel like they have to advertise to get a man.  Whatever it takes to get him will be what takes him one day.  The same is true with churches.
  3. Other Church Leaders – Along the way, I’ve been contacted through this blog, Facebook, or email with questions how we are going about these changes.  It seems there are a lot of churches who desire unity as well.  Many congregations are tired of the church buffet lines, but we served as the “guinea pig” to many of them.  If it works here, maybe it could work there too was the thought process.

So, I posted on Sunday that Sunday was a great day, and it was.  I believed it was going to be a great day, but I didn’t think it could have gone that smooth.  But many people emailed me on Monday morning and said, “OK, you can tell me, how did the change REALLY go?”  As if Sunday everyone would be all smiles, but then Monday morning, our inboxes would be overflowing with hate mail.

So, how did the change REALLY go?

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