Dangerous Church

Kicking off a new series entitled "Dangerous Church".
Speaking about what it means to be a missional church on the edge...drawing from some stories in the book of Acts.

Church Multi Media

"movie screens (in churches) are the churches modern-day stained glass"

(Mark Batterson, pastor at NCC)

Conflict Resolution

"Thirty percent of a senior pastor's job is conflict resolution; unfortunately healthy arbitration does not guarantee a healthy response" - Jim Jackson

Power of the pulpit

"Many pastors do not understand the power of the pulpit.
Like a rudder on a ship,
it will determine the direction of a church
either intentionally or unintentionally."
Rick Warren

Ed Young Blog

Pastor Ed Young has a lot of good stuff to say,
check out his blog.

http://www.edyoungblog.com/

One Prayer

Recently Craig Groeschel from Life Church has announced a month of One Prayer. Different church leaders have got together and are preparing messages. The idea is that churches unite for a month, giving to projects within their community, and sharing messages with each other. I have nothing but respect for Craig. His church gives away, for free, all their excellent resources. They are so kingdom minded. Great concept.

"LifeChurch.tv is partnering with hundreds of churches globally to do a series simultaneously called One Prayer. The series will begin on the weekend of June 7-8 and run for a total of four weeks. The premise of the series is, "If God would answer 'one prayer' for the church at large, what would you pray?"
One Prayer
Here is the list of churches participating.

On another point, many of the larger churches are going multi site.
Messages are piped in via DVD.

I read a good reason and strategy for this...how about going into inner city, or dying areas...dying churches, and larger churches helping smaller ones to replant?
Now that is a good idea.

A Website That WILL Suit Your Budget

There are a plethora of Christian and general web hosting and creation packages out there. If your budget is really tight, like 'I need it free' tight, Advanced Ministry might be what your after. They give churches and Christian non-profits a fully functioning web site for FREE. They also have pay-for services ranging from US$9.95 up to US$149.95 month.

OK, so the free version doesn't include audio and video file upload, or any file uploads for that matter. Here's a workaround. 

Sign up for a free Wordpress account, shell out for a US$20.00/year 5Gb space upgrade and you can offer audio/video file streaming or downloading. There are other (sometimes free) options as well, but this is one I've found to be clean and simple to use. 

Presentation

This is a seriously good explanation of communication to a modern audience.
Pastors...watch, listen and learn!!


PresenTired: "The Voicemail" from Scott Schwertly on Vimeo.

2gether Pastors Conference Audio

All the audio from 2gether pastors conference will be available on this site within a week.

Off to meeting 2gether conference

Record number of delegates at this years annual Pastors Conference 2gether.
I help organise it...had to rush off and get 40 more delegate bags...and all that entails.
Looking forward to it.

190 Baptist and Church of Christ Pastors from all over Western Australia coming to the Mandurah Atrium.

Tim Hannah our speaker...worship led by Colin Battersby. Can't wait...food, fellowship, fun and reflection. And a chance to catch up with a heap of people I only see every few months.

Prayer Retreats

I've taken a few prayer retreats over the years, both alone and as part of 'Prayer Summits'. Recently, for the first time, I went with a friend - a guy I trust and went through seminary with, but who isn't currently in ministry. 

The experience was inspiring. 

We spent a little bit of time praying together then off by ourselves for an hour or two. Back together for a short while to debrief, then off again. Spend some time together in intercession... and so it went for a little over a day (one night). Although my friend is Pentecostal at heart, he led us through liturgical communion service that went for an hour - you know you're with a good friend when you can sing together without being embarrassed - and was a meaningful time.

I'm eager to get my Board along for a similar experience. I know it won't have the same dynamic, but we've discussed a retreat anyway and I'm confident it will be a growing experience for all of us. Actually, I'm keen to get away with pretty much whoever will come in the future. It's spiritually refreshing, God speaks, and relationships grow.

I had a guest preacher the weekend after this retreat, but one of the things I've found from past experience is that my preaching goes up a level after a couple of days with the Lord. People comment on an authority and conviction beyond what I normally have.

I didn't get away last year, I was too busy. In reality, I'm too busy not to go.

I'd be interested in hearing your experience of prayer retreats.

Ways to keep church hoppers from staying...

Here is point seven of a 7 point of post by Pastor Brian Jones....excellent, excellent, excellent!!


#7 Sing Non-Christian songs in your services on occasion
This past weekend we opened our service with Jet’s “Are you Gonna be My Girl?”
On Monday I promptly received an email about it…
This past weekend, I could not believe my ears. When worship opened up, I heard the opening chords for Jet’s- "Are you going to be my girl?" I was expecting the Apologetix parody version, “Are you gonna be Ike's girl?”
But in listening to the lyrics it sounded like they were covering the actual Jet Song – a song about figuring out how to get a one night stand, for a girl who came to some club or party with another guy.
I am hoping that I was mistaken and they were playing the Christian Parody version because I am having a real issue with wrapping my head around why it would be remotely ‘OK’ to play this content in a worship service.
There is a line between having a light fun service to reach the new/non-believer and cheapening the value and truth that the gospel can stand alone to reach out to someone. This may have crossed it.
Frustrated…
Name Withheld

Here was my response…
Frustrated,
I got your email and appreciate you taking the time to shoot me your thoughts.
I must say that while I appreciate your concern, this is certainly not the first nor will it be the last time we sing non-Christian music in our worship services.
We do this because we are trying to reach both non-Christians as well as Christians in the same service, and playing a non-Christian song up front in the service, we have learned, puts people far from God at ease.
Our philosophy has always been that Christians should be the ones that should be made the most uncomfortable in church, not the non-Christians. The way I put it is this -- we will always choose to offend the Christians before the non-Christians.
Seeing that you are frustrated, and given the fact that I talked with a bunch of people far from God on Sunday who loved the energy of the song and felt connected to the service because of it, it appears that we have achieved our goal.
My suggestion is this -- weigh carefully whether or not you want to be a part of a church that sings music like this, and plays difficult to watch video clips, and a host of other things to reach people far from God. If not, then now would be the time to look for another church before you put down roots too deep.
If on the other hand this is the kind of church you want to be a part of, I would welcome you to join in with everything you have and start reaching out to people far from God.
I hope this helps.
Thanks!
Brian

Go here for more