Ministering to Different Generations

As leaders of the church, we are concerned about reaching the different generations. Several years ago, a concerned church would try a more contemporary worship service to reach the younger generation or "baby boomers". Today, that contemporary service is attended by older people, and the younger generation wants a loud rock service (to which some of the congregation need to wear ear plugs to worship). Our desire to reach people for Jesus Christ leads us in all kinds of directions in order to relate to the various cultures of our generations. 


Someone who greatly understands ministering to different generations is Craig Miller, staff person at the General Board of Discipleship of the Methodist Church. Miller has written several very helpful books on generations, including Baby Boomer Spirituality, Culture Shifts (with Liz Icaza-Willetts), NextChurch.Now, PostModerns, Contemporary Worship for the 21st Century (with Danile T. Benedict), and Forty-Sixty (with Richard H. Gentzler, Jr.). 


I have asked Craig Miller to be one of our keynote speakers at the 2012 Leadership Conference: Reaching the Peak of Excellence, that Leadership Nexus is doing in Colorado Springs on July 31^st, August 1^st, and August 2^nd. Miller will be speaking about generations as a part of his leadership training, primarily, on the last day of the conference. I would recommend that you attend this conference, not only for the leadership teaching that will be fantastic, but to hear Craig Miller explain about how to understand and reach the different generations. Go to our event page or to the GBOD website to find out more about Craig Miller.

Raising Money for Ministry

Pastors continually struggle with the issue of how to raise money. In seminary, we were taught about stewardship and giving, yet, in a difficult economy, we were really never prepared for the struggle we find the local church in today. We desperately need help in being effective in stewardship, fundraising, and church financial management.

Bob Crossman has served as a leader in the Methodist Church in Arkansas and other places. He has written a new stewardship program titled, Committed to Christ: Six Steps to a Generous Life. I would encourage you to get his materials if you are struggling with this coming year’s stewardship program. 

Bob Crossman will be speaking at the 2012 Leadership Conference that Leadership Nexus is doing in Colorado, July 31- August 2, 2012. If you are interested in enrolling for this conference, please visit our website. The teaching that Bob will be doing is worth the trip!

What Are We to Do?

The General Conference of the United Methodist Church met this Spring to 
deal with many proposals on dealing with a multitude of crisis and 
significant needs that the United Methodist Church is facing today. With all 
the proposals and hard work that was done, very little was passed. Leaders 
in the church, across America, are asking questions about why our 
denomination could not respond to the obvious needs and crisis that we 
are facing. Most of the answers have to do with simply resigning to the fact 
that it takes a lot of time and a lot of discussion to make radical changes, 
as necessary as they may be.

In the midst of this time of need for significant change, leaders are 
critically important. One of the people who provides leadership for the 
church, as a whole, particularly for the United Methodist Church, is 
Lovett Weems. His talk on the Methodist Tsunami has become a necessary 
one to watch for any concerned United Methodist and is extremely helpful 
to anyone who wants to understand what is happening in the mainline 
Protestant Church, today. See the online video, here.

Lovett has served as Seminary Dean and now is the Director of the Lewis 
Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in 
Washington, DC. He is among the leaders across the United Methodist 
Church who is offering significant leadership at a critical time. If you’d like 
to hear Lovett Weems speak in person, he will be speaking at First United 
Methodist Church in Colorado Springs on August 1^st at an evening meeting. 
It is free and open to the public. This is part of a three day conference that
Leadership Nexus is doing to provide training in general leadership. Lovett will 
be not only teaching, but he will also be leading in workshops, along with many 
other noted leaders across the Church.

We need each other’s help. 

You are invited to go to our website for more information on how to enroll. 
We have half-off scholarships available today. We would love to have you 
join us for this powerful conference!

What About Children's Ministry?

Every pastor has found the occasion to use the famous quote by Jesus, where He said, “Let the little children come to me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) Certainly, Jesus was being very directive to those of us who would lead His church today.

One of the tragedies of the church today is that children’s ministry across the church is so easily neglected. When budgets are cut, we cut out of the children’s ministry. When we are looking for staff, we staff first, the choir, then finance office, then the youth director, then a personal secretary for the pastor and maybe, sometimes later we hire one of the parents to do a little part-time work for the children’s programs.

It is so easy to neglect the children. We would not call it neglect, because we know there are parents who will take care of the needs or there will be some kindly grandmother who will teach the third grade Sunday school class. Maybe we can find someone who will do the children’s sermon. With a lot of persuasion and arm-twisting we recruit the workers for Vacation Bible-School and the Children’s Christmas Program. It seems that in the work we do in the church, it is so easy to put children’s ministry near the bottom of our priority list. This is ironic because most pastors have spent a good part of their lives trying their best to be good parents to their own children and to see that they had a good Christian education.

Most pastors realize that to have young families as a part of your church, you must have an effective children’s program. Yet, we as pastors, along with the partnership of older lay leaders of the local church, often put children’s ministry as our last priority.

I believe that Jesus’ advice about children is to the church today. It’s time for us to change our priorities and make children’s ministry at the top of the list!

*Note* Leadership Nexus Foundation will be presenting “Leadership Conference 2012” at First UMC of Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 30 – August 2, 2012. This is going to be a powerful training event for clergy and lay leaders. The event features topics, such as “Leadership in Children’s Ministry”; “Youth Ministry”; “Social Media and Worship” and more! Speakers for this event are experts in these areas and include:  Author and Professor, Dr. Lovett Weems; Director of New Church Starts and Author, Bob Crossman; Rev. Dr. Leanne Ciampa Hadley; Associate Pastor and Author; Speaker, Professor and Award-Winning Writer, Bob Whitesel; Craig Miller; Director of Evangelism, NCD, UMC GBOD and Author; plus many more.... For more information please email us or visit our event page.

Single Again Workshop

Single Again Workshop
http://www.singleagainworkshop.com/

Weekend workshop for people who have experienced divorce will be held at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Tulsa Campus on March 30^th – April 1^st, 2012. The seminar will provide opportunities for persons to work through some of the major issues faced in dealing with divorce. The conference is being led by Dr. Robert Pierson, former senior pastor of Christ United Church in Tulsa and is a part of the OWU program of service to the Tulsa community. Subjects to be dealt with as a part of the conference will be: anger, disappointment, grief, self-esteem, finances and re-planning life. We will also discuss single-parent issues, financial issues, and understanding singleness today. All of this will be dealt with in the context of the Christian faith, prayer and understanding of God’s support and help. The opening session begins at 6:30pm and concludes at 9:30pm, on Friday evening, March 30^th. The second session is Saturday, beginning at 8:30am, continuing until 5:30pm. The final session is on Sunday afternoon, from 1:30pm until 9:00pm.

People who have experienced this workshop have said, “This seminar truly saved my life!” and “It gave me the tools I needed for rebuilding.” One attendee commented that this event “Provided me with a new direction and confidence about the future.” Most have described this conference as a place where participants sense God’s direction through a troubled time.

The cost is $30 per person. Childcare will be provided for single parents. Seating is limited. Scholarships are available on request. To reserve your seat today click here or for more information, contact Dr. Bob Pierson at 918-809-7489 or email. Visit us on Facebook Events and invite your friends.

We hope you will join us for this encouraging and life-changing experience!

Hospitality for this event is provided by the Tulsa Christyle Community, a fellowship of Christians committed to vigorously placing Christ first in their lives. For more information about the Christyle Community, please visit our facebook page.

Effectiveness

We just finished holding a Creativity Conference in Orlando; it’s the sixth time we’ve done this conference. We do it in partnership with a group of very committed Christian Disney employees, creative pastors, and church leaders. It is a very helpful event. You can visit our our website to read some of the conference evaluations.

I studied the Disney Company extensively over the years and certainly all of us are impressed with the creativity of Disney World and the Disney movies. So much of our culture has been influenced by the excellent entertainment, experiences and stories. Disney has influenced the world’s culture in some very positive ways. In the midst of all the excitement of Disney productions, movies, and stories it’s easy to miss one of the most significant contributions of this organization in our society.

That is - simple effectiveness. The church needs to realize that our purpose is to be effective.

• We need to lead worship that is effective in leading people to the presence of God.
• We need to provide education that really works in teaching children values to live by.
• We need to provide an understanding of prayer in a way that can be effectively used in people’s daily lives.
• We need to be an effective church, an excellent church.

In studying Disney I’ve realized that Disney is effective because of their clear goals, high standards, rules, and disciplines. For instance, if you work at the Disney theme park as an employee (a.k.a.“cast member”), whether you’re in a good mood or a bad mood you’re required by Disney to perform at your best and to present a mood that serves your customers and accomplishes the goal.

As a pastor, many times I would excuse a poor job in preaching, neglected pastoral care responsibility, or a failed church program on the lack of dedication of my church members, the bad mood I was in, or the family issue with which I was dealing. Disney expects their employee to put those things aside and do their best to accomplish the goal. Working for Jesus ought to be as important as working for Disney. It should demand our complete loyalty, our willingness to put aside our own cares and problems with the determination to do the best we can for His church.

Effectiveness has to do with discipline, loyalty, clear goals, and the desire to do things right. After being around Disney employees, I am impressed with their loyalty and determination to be effective. Sometimes I am ashamed that I have not been as loyal and determined in working with Jesus as they seem to be working for Disney. Effectiveness is our goal.

The Great Commission

We’re not doing what He told us to do. The mainline Protestant church is declining and has been for years. Jesus in Matthew 28 told us clearly to reach more people. We’re not doing what Jesus told us to do. It’s as simple as that. It’s the great commission, not the great excuse. It’s what Jesus told us we must do.

Any study of statistics of the mainline Protestant church today will make it clear that in the next 30 years we will not exist because the majority of our members will have died. This is scary and ridiculous that we cannot do the mobilization to reach new people that the leaders of our various denominations have done in starting the denominations. It is ridiculous that we have put other things as priorities and not followed Christ’s clear direction to make disciples. It’s time for us to mobilize our efforts to do what Jesus said.

Go to our website to find more information about what you can do. I’ve published two books on how to reach new people for Christ: Needs-Based Evangelism (The Good Samaritan Church) and TELL: How to Share Your Faith. I’m going to be doing training all over the country. I’d love to come to your area. Go to our Facebook  page and join in sharing comments about our lack of evangelistic effectiveness today and what we can do about it.