In a world filled with bad news and prophets of doom on Christianity and the Church I am taking a stand for something different. I am going to be thankful for the blessings in my life.

Today I am thankful for …

1. Sunday Worship. It was another great day of worship yesterday. I also enjoy the weekly opportunity to see my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am always encouraged, challenged and blessed by being together on Sunday mornings. Thanks to God for everyone who attends and is a part of this group.

2. My Church. I am a part of a Church of people who treat me like family. A little over a year ago I did not know anyone from Adrian Missouri and now they love and care about me. They laugh at my stupid jokes and they are understanding my struggles as a pastor, husband and spouse. I am blessed by being a part of the Church.

3. Our Youth Group. 21 teenagers and 3 sponsors headed out to the Christ In Youth Conference (CIY) yesterday. I am praying God will touch each of their lives for good. Then I pray they will have an impact on this Church and community. I am especially thankful for the people who took them (Ike, Jaron & Emily).

4. Air Conditioning. If you live around here that is “enough said.”

5. My family. I am blessed with great parents, a great wife and pretty good children. Everyday they make me smile, laugh, think and feel in a powerful way. I love them all.

6. God providing everything I need. Sometimes the money is tight but I have never had to go without food, clothing or shelter. So often I forget the little blessings.

7. The Power of the Holy Spirit. Each week He somehow takes the words from my mouth and touches someone’s life. Every week at least 1 person feels that God has spoken to them. Quite often it comes in conjunction with something they have already been studying, talking about or praying through. I am not smart enough to put everything together this way, it is truly the power of God.

8. Healing and Recovery. It is great that some of you have seen the hand of God in your life through times of personal struggle. Personally, I have watched my dad continue to get better and better since his stroke. It has been a blessing. I know some of you have told me of improvements in your health and current situations and I praise God for those.

9. People who willingly give their time to serve. Each week our Church is able to have a worship program, children’s Church, nursery, Sunday School, Greeters and a host of other activities because of people who donate their time to serving the Lord. I am deeply thankful for any person who gives their time in the service of the Lord.

10. Forgiveness through Jesus. I can never be thankful enough for all God has done for me through Jesus Christ. Each week I fall short of the glory of God. Every day my attempts at righteousness are like dirty rags. I need God’s grace and mercy every day and every week. I am so thankful that I am not held captive by guilt and shame. I praise God for his work in my life through Jesus.

This is a short list. I could go on and on. I am truly blessed and I thank God for all he has done for me.

What are you thankful for?

Here are some more good articles from the Internet that are speaking to me. Enjoy.

Faith

What A Semicolon Mark On Someone’s Body Really Means

Homosexuality and the Biblical World View by Jack Cottrell

Church

Membership Matters: 3 Reasons for Church Membership

Pastors: 7 Hard Truths You Need to Tell Your Church

How to minister as an introvert – without burning out

THREE QUESTIONS TO ASK AS YOU DISCERN THE CULTURE OF YOUR NEW CHURCH

Five Things that Keep Churches from Growing

It will break. And you’ll need to fix it. (a great card over at indexed)

God encourages us in His word to “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” [Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)] As Church leader this is part of my job description. I am continually trying to motivate people to live the life God desires for them. A life filled with love of others and doing good deeds for them. In fact, just this morning my wife and I had a discussion of how we could get a couple to change their ways for the better.

The “how to” is usually the easy part. The hard part is getting people motivated to make the changes they need to make. How do you get people to do love and good works? The verse says we are to “spur” them. Usually we picture this to its western equivalent and try to motivate people by digging in our heels and making them surrender in mercy. I would suggest this is not exactly what the passage means or at least it is not limited to this one type of motivation. There are a variety of ways to motivate people whether you are a church leader, a parent, a coach or a boss at work.

1. Encouragement – As a parent I continually find myself telling my children, “You can do it.” As a church leader I am required to encourage people to step out in faith. A simple and kind affirmation of some people’s potential is all they need to motivate them.

2. Rewards – “If you do this you will receive this.” Sometimes it can be, “Since you have done this good thing I am now going to reward you.” Very frequently you can motive people to do almost anything just by giving them a simple reward.

3. Praise – Once a task has been completed a moment of applause can be the best feeling in the world. The words “thank you” are two of the most special words in the world. I can last for a week on a simple word of praise for a job well done.

4. Punishment – First you tell the person the punishment if they fail and then they live in fear of that consequence. Also, you punish the person for their wrong behavior so that they do not do it again. This can often be born out of anger over wrong behavior.

I know I could list a few other ways to motivate people but my bigger question is, “What motivates you?” What pushes you to do or even redo some good action?

The follow-up question is equally important; “What do you use to motivate others?” All of us have some basic tools that we go back to again and again. The hard part is that other people may be motivated by something different from you. Because of your background and personality you may be motivated by fear, but the people you are trying to motivate are challenged by praise. This gets difficult because you get angry and try to instill fear into people who are looking for praise and it is as if you are speaking different languages.

So I ask again, “What motivates you?” and “What do you use to motivate others?”

What is it like to visit a Church for the first time in your life?

What is it like to visit a Church if you have not been since you were a child?

What is it like to visit our Church for the first time?

These are vital questions all of us need to ask ourselves if we are serious about reaching people with the gospel through our Church.

I have an extremely difficult time answering any of these questions because I have attended Church my entire life. Now, I do have some insights because I have walked into 6 congregations in my life as a new minister. I have set in the crowd feeling the awkward moments of being unsure what is going to happen next. I have felt what it is like to not know where to go, when to sit or stand and should I participate or not?

As a result of my experiences and my desire to reach out to new people I have come up with three questions I need to be constantly asking myself.

1. What am I assuming the other person knows? I was talking to a visitor to our Church and I told them our nursery is attached to the fellowship areas. Sounds simple right? Then they asked, “What is a fellowship area and where is it?” Take time to explain everything in as much detail as possible. Many people have no idea what we do in Church on Sunday morning and I need to remember their unfamiliarity.

2. Am I using Churchy language? Inside the doors of a Church our vocabulary can become oriented for insiders while forgetting we are not all insiders. A “fellowship time” being done after the “invocation” that is followed by the “Doxology” can be confusing for the people who just walked through the “narthex.” Why can’t we just shake hands after we pray and before we sing a song of praise to God? It can be far less confusing to the new family who just walked through our lobby.

3. Will I choose clear or clever? Churches love to use clever names. Once in Iowa our new Church was given an old Church building. We tried to call it by all kinds of clever names only to discover people liked it most when we just called it “our building.” Calling the nursery, children’s ministry or teen group something clever is popular to Christians but it is not very clear to non-Churched people. Calling a part of your physical campus by a religious name sounds Godly but it can simply be confusing. Always choose clear over clever.

I believe one of the simplest things a Church can do to help reach new people is to continually try to think like a non-Churched person. This will help us eliminate boundaries and open up our faith to new people. The questions are not easy, but helpful.

I am not the world’s best communicator and I am affected by my introvert ways, but lately I have had a couple of conversations that were difficult. I do not mean they were full of difficult content; rather the person I was talking to was not a very good communicator. In fact, while they were babbling on and on I thought up a blog post that offers a little help in everyday communication.

1. Watch Body Language – When someone crosses their arms their guard may be going up against you and your ideas. When the other person starts moving toward the door the conversation is over. When the person leans in toward you that means they are listening.

2. Remove Distractions – This is not a rant against technology, but please put down the phone. When someone is talking and the other person picks up their phone and looks at it, they are basically saying I am not listening anymore. “But I can multitask!” Really? “Can you tell me anything that was just said 30 minutes from now?”

3. Listen Closely – One of the biggest communications problems all of us have is trying to think of what we are going to say in reply. Listen to what the other person says and worry about a reply later.

4. Ask questions – All of us have been in conversations where the other person clearly only wanted to talk about themselves. In those moments I cannot wait to get away from that person. A good conversation is a give and take. You listen, you ask and maybe you share.

5. Be Honest – Say what you mean and mean what you say. You do not need to exaggerate. You do not need to gloss over tough ideas and concepts for me. Just tell me the truth.

6. Go Old School – My teachers said repeatedly, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” It is still a good rule.

7. Drop the Useless Phrases – “You Know” or “Like” are conversation fillers that contribute nothing to good communication. Yesterday I heard a lady use the phrase “you know” after every sentence. Two thoughts kept coming to mind. One, someone please shoot me. Two, “No, I don’t know. That is why you are telling me this.”

8. Learn to tell a story – All of us know some bad storytellers. They take too long with the set-up. They focus on unimportant details. They have no resolution or conclusion. The ability to tell a good story in a powerful way is a tool that can fuel all conversations.

This is not an exhaustive list of ideas, but hopefully it will be of some help. Most of us think we are great at communication but the reality is that we all need some work – even me and yes, even you.

I know of a few people who love to quote scripture. They usually preface each statement with “Like it says in the Bible” or “As Jesus said one time” or some other set up to let you know that this is not their own idea. It usually sounds like a great addition to a conversation about spiritual things.

Through the years I have noticed a few problems I want you to consider.

1. Quoting the Bible in English is difficult. There are so many English translations that it is easy to mess things up. I used to tell people that my Sunday school teachers used King James Version, then my first Bible was New American Standard, and when I got to college they told me to use the NIV. As a result I can’t adequately quote a verse in English from one translation.

And while I am on this topic, I have to admit that after years of study most English translation have verses that are terribly done. This happens for several reasons ranging from theological presuppositions to just wanting things said for ease of understanding. This alone makes quoting scripture very difficult to do accurately.

2. Make sure you get the quote right. Jesus did not say “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” Paul did not say “Charity begins at home.” I have heard people say all kinds of things they thought were in the Bible and simply were not. If you are not 100% sure who said what and where simply do not claim it is in the Bible. Saying something is in the Bible or from Jesus and then getting it completely wrong is embarrassing.

3. Context is King. This is what my theological professor at college used to say. His point was that we can pull a passage of scripture out of its original context and completely miss the intended meaning.

For example, I once had a couple of teenage brothers who took the audio track from my sermons and cut them up on their computer and then pieced a bunch of random things back together. They took sermons about divorce, abortion, homosexuality and prayer and put them into a scary collage of me saying I was praying about cut up babies from my divorce to a homosexual. The sad part was that I said every word, but when taken out of their original context and put back together corruptly ended up saying something different than what I meant.

This may be a poor example but it is one of thousands that exist. Quoting a single verse of scripture can be a trap since we do not know the context. This can allow me to quote something completely wrong.

4. Search for deep meaning and not quick quotes. To get the most out of the Bible I encourage people to read large section and look for big meanings. If you want to quote the Bible then open an actual Bible and read a large section with another people. This is definitely more difficult but it is also far more productive.

I love the Bible. I love the fact that God communicated with us through an unchanging book of truth. I just don’t want to be guilty of misusing it to further my own thoughts and agenda. I don’t want you to uses it that way either.

This is from Thom Rainer and is a great graphic of possibilities for outreach

It didn’t take long for a couple of people to contact me about my blog post on being an introvert from yesterday. These people all had the same thing to say, “That describes me,” or “That describes someone I know.”

The world is full of introverts and yet I believe God called us all to live in community. He commands us to love our neighbor and not ignore them. Being a Christian is not about my relationship to God alone, but also my relationship to other people. I clearly understand that to follow Jesus puts me in connection with all others who are following Jesus.

With that said, here is how I am trying to overcome my introvert ways:

1. I continually remind myself that I have to connect to other people. When I am standing quietly in the back of the crowd and not interacting with other people I have to purposely step out and talk. If God wants me to care for other people then I have to follow his will and connect to other people. I have to purposely make a decision to get out of my own head.

2. Focus on one or two people and not the whole group. I do not have to run to the front and shout, “I am here. Talk to me.” I do not need to have everyone’s attention. If I take the time to have one or two solid conversations each week, then I am doing okay.

3. Put meetings on my calendar. Someone showing up at my house unexpectedly can freak me out. But if I invite someone over for next Friday I am much more at peace. I can focus my mind and pray before they show up at my door. This allows me to meet people in a more controlled setting that I need.

4. Pray, Pray and pray some more. Before events I have to ask God to give me courage and strength. I ask him to remind me of his will. Being with people is not natural for me and I will need supernatural help to get through it.

5. Find a balance with people and away from people. Every Sunday morning pushes me to my maximum people limits. To balance that I need time to myself on Sunday afternoon. In fact, I often take a nap and quietly watch TV. If I have people over to my house on Friday night then I need to be alone on Saturday. I desperately need balance.

I have been preaching almost every Sunday for 22 years. I wish I could say that I do not still struggle with personality issues, but I would be lying. The truth is that I have to push myself and make a conscious effort to become, not an extrovert, but more like Christ.

Honestly, I would rather be alone. I love my wife and kids and time with them fills me up emotionally. All other people are draining. You need to understand that I am an introvert by nature. I prefer to be alone and live in the quiet shadows of life beyond the public eye. This might work for some people but not for me, because God called me to preach. I didn’t really choose this life, instead God gave me a gift of public speaking and I am trying to use it for Him. This has made my life a constant contradiction of personality and vocation.

Here are some of the realities of my life:

1. Being with people exhausts me. Last week we had Vacation Bible School that ended with a full Church on Sunday and a party after Church. Then I had a couple of meetings to start this week. I have been with people for the last 9 days and I am exhausted. People wear me out rather than fill up my soul.

2. I would rather avoid people. Sunday evening I had a break in my schedule from Church and I slipped away to quietly metal detect by myself. Within a few minutes I looked up and a neighbor was standing there and wanted to talk. I almost cried. I see people in town and find myself avoiding them, not because they are bad people, but because I naturally don’t want to connect with people. People misunderstand my heart and my nature.

3. People issues are my biggest criticism. Through the years I have had people praise my preaching and teaching but I have never had one person compliment my people skills. I struggle to talk to people, I hate going to the hospital because I know it will lead to hours of conversation and I would rather not have people in my home. It is not that I don’t like you rather it is more about my difficulty with people.

4. My personality is a source of marriage conflict. My wife wants to have people in our home. She enjoys talking to people and being outgoing. She says what needs to be said when I hide in the other room. As a result people will talk to her about issues instead of talking to me. We disagree with how to handle situations that involve people. We have learned to handle most of my issues but it is still a source of tension.

5. I would rather serve in the background than out front. I enjoy taking out the trash during an activity because no one ever wants to join me. I like to hang in the back and get involved in whatever needs to be done as a way to avoid people. I have to continually tell myself that I need to step out and talk to people.

6. Deep Relationships are difficult for me. As an introvert I long for only a couple of deep relationships. Those are hard to come by for me. I am extremely slow to open up my life and invite people to connect with me. Through the years I have only a couple of close friends that really knew and loved me. As a side note, I find this to be true of all introverts, especially males.

I do not tell you these things to get your pity. I tell you these so that you will know your preacher better. Maybe it will explain a little bit about me and answer some of your questions. This is how God wired me up and I have spent my life trying to deal with it in the best way I possibly can. I find that most of my struggles are shared by other people who are introverts and maybe this will help you to understand them.

God has been gracious to me and I have had some success as a preacher but I give full credit to God. I would not be doing this if it was not for Him.