Church

Overcompensation with My Ankle (And Your Church)

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I am still in crippled status.  After 2 weeks in a hard cast, my ankle is still broken from the infamous basketball game.  I am in the boot for 4 weeks gradually applying some pressure on it.  Still on crutches.  Obie said this morning, “Daddy, your crunches go squeak, squeak like a mouse.”

They sure do.

As you look at this picture above, I will ask you, by the look of it, which ankle is hurt?  Of course you would say, the ankle on the left of the picture is the one hurting.

And you would be wrong.

The ankle in the boot feels fine.  No pain, no real discomfort, it’s just annoying to have it confined to a boot.  The ankle that is hurting more is the ankle on the right side of the picture.  I have experienced a real pain deep inside that ankle not confined to the boot.  When talking to my buddy who is a doctor, he said what I’m experiencing is called overcompensation.  Having to put more weight and pressure on the uninjured ankle oftentimes causes more long term damage than the injured ankle.

I firmly believe the principle of overcompensation is happening in your church right now.  You’ve heard of the 80/20 rule.  20% of the people do 80% of the work.  You look at the other 80% of people as if they are broke and so you start putting more pressure on the 20% that isn’t broke.  The problem?  Overtime, you can cause more damage on the 20% if you burn them out.  From the outside, you still can identify those that are not working in the Body of Christ.  Spotting them is as easy as spotting a broken ankle in a cast.

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10 Things That Will Kill Your Men’s Ministry

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Recently, I was talking to a buddy about why or why not men’s ministries work in certain churches.  I tried to condense what we talked about, so here is a list of 10 things that will kill your church’s men’s ministry:

1.  Hypocritical Leadership – You won’t find perfect men to lead your men’s ministry, but you better find men who are consistently striving towards godliness.  Men can spot fakes easily and provides easy excuses for them.
2.  Getting Too Close and Personal – You need to allow them to get close, but don’t force them to act in a manner against God-given manliness.  Your group can be spiritual without group hugs.
3.  Not Getting Close and Personal Enough – While you don’t force men to be something they are not, don’t also settle for anything less than biblical community.  They need to be close enough to push each other to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24-25).
4.  Cliques – When men come to your church’s functions, you need to remove the clique factor among them.  Make sure to get men with the gift of hospitality (that just means they make people feel welcome) at your doors and get men connected with others in the room.
5.  Trying to Copy the Church’s Women Ministry – Just because your church’s women ministry has a hanging of the greens doesn’t mean you get your guys to decorate the church too.  It works cause it is for women.  Let guys be guys while always challenging them to be men of God.

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Do Buffet-Styled Churches Honor God?

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For years, I have bought into the church growth principle that the more choices you give people in a church, the more successful the church will be.

To agree with that principle, you must gauge a church’s success by the number of people who stay at that church.  But is that true success?

Here are the courses that the American church is serving up:

  • Worship – traditional, contemporary, blended, cutting edge, emergent, ancient future, classic, golden, choir, band, hard rock, country western, southern gospel, chandeliers, go-bos, expensive organ, expensive guitar, etc.
  • Discipleship – Sunday school, community groups, small groups, Bible fellowship classes, on-campus, in-homes, co-ed, single, married, guys only, girls only, by hobby-interest, by age, by life situations, etc.
  • Preaching – coat and tie, jeans and t-shirt, podium, table, old, young, hip, wise, screen, video, sermon, message, talk
  • Family Ministries – discipleship times, creative programs, glorified babysitting, “community” sports programs with a side of Christ, men’s ministry, women’s ministry, single, divorced, newlywed, with kids, with small kids, with fussy kids, for fussy kids, puppets, Awanas, GAs, RAs, children’s choir

And the list could go on.

  1. Is God honored when we explain what church we belong to by describing the type of music we like?
  2. Is God honored when we defend our group’s methods within the church rather than celebrating the diversity of the whole church?
  3. Is God honored when we try to woo members from other churches because this program is better than that program?

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What is the Age of Accountability?

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Much debate surrounds the issue of the age of accountability. When the disciples asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom (Matt 18:1), he sat a child down before the disciples to answer their question (Matt 18:2). It would have been pointless for Jesus to exalt a child to hold the mantle of who belongs in the kingdom if

Bad Church Sign: God’s Last Name is Not…

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I had to pull over on the side of the road years ago to get this one.  This unfortunate church sign states:

“GOD’S LAST NAME IS NOT ‘DAMN'”

I do agree with “the entire congregation.”  That is not his last name.  And probably like this group, I am bothered when I hear people use God’s name in vain by cursing with it.  “GD” bothers me, but so does when I slip up and say, “Oh, my God” and I am not actually calling on him.  Is this sign the best way to combat what people or doing?  Not sure.

Does it bother you when you hear someone breaking the 3rd commandment: “Do not take the LORD God’s name in vain?”

That is one way to break that commandment, but did you know that there is another one that people use much more frequently?

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I Am Not the Best on the Team

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I struggle with pride when I work with others.

Since my mind is constantly evaluating how to improve areas in any level of ministry in which I am even remotely involved, I often lack patience for long meetings with people deliberating over certain options.  My prideful heart wants to inform people that I have a solution that is so grand that no one should even question my ideas.

I know, I have issues.

While I do not verbalize these thoughts, I can easily become frustrated in meetings that I view as time wasters and mentally disengage myself from others.  Even if the improbable chance of my ideas always being the best were true, my attitude needs to be one of service and selflessness (Phil 2:3-5).

As of late, here’s what I am learning:

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Out of the Darkness

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North Side, 2011 has begun – get ready!  What a great day to start off the new year.  While we had a lot of our crew out of town or out of pocket, our team knocked it out of the park.  Woody even called in sick this morning (that’s why I attempted to play bass and keys – boy, I missed him), and we had to change stuff around, but we a great time this morning giving God praise!

Today, we worshiped to:

We started a new series called “This Little Light of Mine” as we continued through our study of Ephesians.

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Knowing His Work

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It was great to worship today in the middle of the great Greenwood blizzard.  We did experience some snow last night which meant the first snow for Greenwood on Christmas since 1963!  The roads were safe enough to come to services, so we posted on the City our plans and we had a powerful time as the church today!

We concluded the Jesus Loves Me series (the first part of Ephesians) with this big idea:

Knowing His Work (Eph. 2:8-10) – We know that Jesus loves us based upon the work of salvation.  Our salvation is all his work, and none of our good deeds influenced it, but once we are saved, our lives should be characterized by good works that emerge from a grateful heart.

Great message!  Such wonderful grace!  For those who had too much ice or snow on the roads to join us, the message will be here online this afternoon.

I was also thankful he made it through it.  He told me that a stomach bug had been going through his house and at 8:30, he was feeling a little funny on his tummy.  So, he told me to be on guard.  A couple of pauses of his caused me to start leaning up in my chair, but he made it through and brought it!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Stop Church Hopping

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There is a growing epidemic in the United States concerning church hopping. More churches’ membership numbers fluctuate not due to new converts but due to revolving membership doors. When someone becomes upset with music styles, church programs, carpet color, differences with another member, frustration with a staff member, or any other reason, people move their church memberships like they would

Worship Wars

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Many churches are involved in what church growth experts have labeled “worship wars.” Not wanting to lose a particular style of music, many churches find themselves in a battle to maintain their preferential style.  It’s more than contemporary vs. traditional.  It has to do with instrumentation, volume, genre, layout, lighting, etc.  Unfortunately, many churches split over such things. Question: how

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