August 12, 2008

Sunday Morning Church Shopping

I have about forty-five minutes between Sunday morning worship services to renew, visit classes, and prepare for the next worship service.  A least one or two Sunday mornings a month.  The telephone will ring in my office.  The callers ask a variety of questions about the church.  Is your worship traditional or contemporary? What do you believe?  When is your Bible study?    Do you have a nursery, children, or youth program?  What time does your service start and how long is the service.  People are looking for a community of faith that offers a variety of benefits.  This idea that people actually wake up on Sunday morning and begin looking or shopping for a place to worship is here to stay. 

I have become accustom to these calls on Sunday mornings.  I now encourage the people serving on Sunday morning to answer the telephone with a smile in their voice.  Answering machines on Sunday morning may not be the best idea for the office.  Eighty percent of the times that I take the two or three minutes to answer these questions people actually attend worship.  Being prepared to welcome people into the faith community may be a willingness to answer a Sunday morning telephone call. 

Questions: What is your experience with people looking for a place to worship? Are you a church shopper?


 

 

 

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July 24, 2008

Is Disciple Making The Preacher's Responsibility?

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  Matthew 28:19-20 NRSV

While teaching a Bible study the subject of “making disciples” entered the conversation.  One of the members of the class said “I was never told that part of my responsibilities as a Christian was to “make disciples. I was taught to attend worship, study the Bible, live a good life, serve in my church and let the preachers and deacons win souls.”  This individual has spent three decades learning how to be a strong Christian believer without learning how or why faith sharing is an integral part of being a strong Christian.  

"Faith sharing” or telling ones faith story is foundational to spiritual growth and is often easy for the new believer.  Long-term Christian believers express discomfort and confusion because “disciple making” is what a preacher, is called, educated, appointed or hired to do.  I admit that as a leaders and pastor I spent the early years of my ministry thinking that I had to be the one always out front witnessing, sharing, and leading people to Christ.  Christ said go and  “make disciples” and to “teach” other what we know about him. 

Question:  (1) Who is Jesus commanding to go into the world and make disciples? Preacher? Leaders? All Christians? (2) Do you feel equipped to “make disciples?

Pastor Monica
JAT

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