26 Aug How Does God See the Future of Your Church?

Vision involves seeing your church’s future through God’s eyes rather than your own. We easily focus only on what we can see and do. We look at what has happened at our church in the past, and we assume the future will be the same way. As a result, we frequently repeat history.

But vision provides a brand new picture for your church. It gives you hope that transcends the image that past history paints. It shows you what could be, even if you can’t touch it or totally figure it out. It opens a window in front of you that is different from anything that you have seen before.

As we embark on the journey of life that God has placed before us, I challenge you to seek God’s heart for your individual church. Look beyond the limits you have always seen in the past. Catch a glimpse of what God wants to place deep in your heart. Give birth to the vision of what God wants to do.

Find the foundation for your vision through studying his Word. When God’s truth and the vision connect, then run toward the picture that is there. We then should praise our God for allowing us to see the reality of the vision that he had in mind for us all along.

25 Aug Praying for UB Church and Missionaries

On Monday and Wednesday mornings, the Healthy Ministry Resources staff starts the day at 7 a.m. with a devotional time. We share updates from our lives, and from things we’ve heard across the church. The persons who travel a lot usually bring back stories from the churches and mission fields they visit. Phone calls and emails bring additional information.

We read from a devotional book, which this year has been Robert J. Morgan’s “From This Verse.” Then we pray.

Each day, we pray for a United Brethren church or missionary. This week it happens to be two churches in Maryland:

• Brooklyn Park UB in Baltimore (John Christophel, pastor).
• Bethany House of the Lord in Cumberland (Michael Mudge, pastor).

We’ve been doing this for over a decade. The national office staff exists for our churches, and praying for you is one way we keep that mission central.

24 Aug 10 Legal Issues Facing Churches

Church legal expert Richard Hammar talks about the 10 greatest legal issues facing today’s churches. Here’s the list. The article, on the Brotherhood Mutual site, gives brief explanations of each, along with good links for additional reading.

1. Negligent selection of youth workers.
2. Registered sex offenders.
3. Same-sex marriages.
4. The duty to warn (giving employment references).
5. Child abuse reporting.
6. Church security.
7. Church computer policies.
8. Employment liability: the ministerial exception (staff classified as clergy).
9. Discrimination based on morals or religion.
10. Automatic excess benefit transactions (taxable fringe benefits for pastors). 

20 Aug A Movement of Believers Sold-Out for Christ

The reason Healthy Ministry Resources exists is found in the success of each of our local churches. I want to be a lead cheerleader in encouraging each of our churches to be engaged in the harvest that God has for us. We are here for you. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and the United Brethren in Christ Church in this capacity.

I believe the local church is the vehicle that God uses to reach a hurting world and to grow people up in their personal journey of faith. I believe that God wants to create in us a movement that shows our communities the love and compassion that is born out of the lives of believers who are sold out to follow hard after Christ.

18 Aug Getting Started in a New Role

My wife Sandy and I moved to Huntington on July 27. Our belongings followed us a few days later. Since then:

• I have officiated at 3 weddings back at Colwood, the church I pastored in Caro, Mich..
• I have visited 4 different churches on Sunday mornings in 3 different states.
• I have been involved in stationing committee work.
• I met with a group of pastors.
• I have been appointing people to serve on various teams.
• I have begun meeting individually with each member of the fine staff here at Healthy Ministry Resources.

As I write this, I am at the end of my first official day as bishop. I am glad that I have had a few days over which to stretch all of that activity. But it raises a flag to me of the importance of making sure I do what is needful and productive. Staying busy is easy, but working God’s plan is where we all need to focus.

17 Aug How Satan Views Christians

I came across this article, “Quoting Satan,” on SermonCentral.com. It is by Chad McCallum, pastor of Compass Point church in Byron Center, Mich. While we often kick ourselves for not being effective Christians, this article imagines how we must look to Satan–a strong, flexible, resilient force that he’s been unable to stop.

14 Aug Speaking to Money and Power

I know a church where people have strong opinions about what their church should be, but their opinion has no relation to what God says the church should be. They are people of power. And in the UB church–probably all churches–people with power tend to be people with money.

Nobody will say to them, “We’re going to build a church here, and we don’t need you or your money. We could use you and your money, but if you’re just going to be an obstinate person used by Satan to create problems–no, we don’t need you.”

I’ve had those conversations. It’s not easy, not something I relish. But it’s necessary.

14 Aug Advice for Mission-Minded Singles

David Datema, UB endorsed missionary who is director of the US Center for World Mission, wrote a blog post called, “My Unsolicited Advice for Mission-Minded Singles.” He offers three pieces of advice, with explanation. The second one include:

Instead of stopping to look, look while going. I wouldn’t expect anyone to stop looking for someone. But don’t make it the main thing. Go after the vision of the kingdom before you. If someone gets in your way and you like them, by all means marry them. But the Kingdom waits for no one. Get on the Kingdom train and you’ll be surprised who else might be on board.

11 Aug People Yearn for Leadership

One thing Bishop Ron Ramsey has emphasized is, “Lead!” Get out from underneath your wussiness and lead. Guys, it’s time to stand up and take a leadership role. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

I believe most of our churches have people who want to be exposed to some empowering leadership, and want to be part of an effective church. But they need some good leadership.

When I go into churches and start talking about principles of leadership and church health, I almost always see a couple people who are like wilted flowers that got rain water on them. You can see it in their faces: “Yes, that’s what I’m looking for!

Where leadership is exercised, we find people waiting in the shadows to step up and get involved. People who previously stayed on the sidelines decide they now see a situation in which they’re willing to invest themselves. When people see things change, resources that have been sitting there the whole time get unleashed.

10 Aug In Search of Leaders

My greatest concern is finding leaders to assign to churches. I get resumes nearly every week, but few of them I believe would be the kind of people I want to assign to one of our churches, because their experience shows that they’ve never led or grown anything. I think our single biggest need is to have enough of the right quality of people when we need them.

Years ago, if you started in a small church and kept your nose clean and didn’t ruffle feathers, you got promoted to a little nicer church. Then, if you continued to keep your nose clean, you got promoted to another church.

I think that kind of approach to assigning churches is terrible. But it’s all we knew and what everybody was doing, so I don’t condemn anyone for doing that. But to find people who are leaders, you really have to do some recruiting. It’s something I didn’t take the time to do as bishop–go to seminars, talk to professors, see who the top students are, build a relationship with them, see if they’re interested in doing something with us.