4 Important Themes for a Christmas Liturgy

Most churches, for better or worse, have already settled into their liturgy so that they work within those forms and formulas. And then Christmas rolls around ... and now what?

Most churches emphasize the birth of Jesus Christ during the season of Advent. Some are well organized in graphics, themes, or campaigns. Others are more casual in their approach. But for all of those who are pointing to the birth of Christ this season, it is critical that we are working a theologically robust Christmas liturgy.

Of course the Incarnation is the theological emphasis, but while many push the doctrine it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. I’d like to offer four principles that will help to guide and guard our Christmas worship gatherings, while allowing for our differences in lesser matters.

Vision From God and Finishing Well

Paul 

His vision helped him overcome his past. He was responsible for people’s deaths and persecution. (Phil. 3) It freed him from guilt and shame. He pressed into the vision the Lord gave him. You can’t change your past, but you can pursue your vision. Principle: keep your eyes on the vision.

“You can’t change your past, but you can pursue your vision.”

Five Relationships to Help You Finish Well

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about relationships that help us finish well. There are five that I can think of right away that have been extremely meaningful to me.

1. Spiritual mentors – who develop us.
We need people who are further along than us in the race of life, people who keep us on track, ask us pointed questions, and raise concerns with us. Our responsibility to our spiritual mentors is to come to mentoring times well prepared, to have a list of 3-4 questions that are well thought through, and to be transparent without expecting our mentors to be responsible for us. When you anticipate being with them, draw them out in the area of their strengths. Ask them what their expectations or desires are for your mentoring relationship with them. Tap into the books they are reading. If we are to finish well, one major reason is we paid attention to our mentors.

Fifteen Signs of People Who Don’t Finish Well

There are approximately 100 biographies in the Bible, and of those, only 30-35% of the people finished well. Why does it happen? To answer that question, we need to understand what it means to not finish well. 

The 15 characteristics below explain why people don’t finish well.

Don’t Empower People Too Quickly in Your Church

Church planters, fight the urge to empower people too quickly.

Some planters, desiring to expand their plant team and move ahead in their mission, will dole out leadership responsibilities to people they barely know. Many even counsel this: “Give ’em a job, and they’ll stick around,” as the logic goes. Yet that “logic” is suicidal.

Good versus Great Leader

Good versus Great Leader (10 things to consider!)

8 Most Dangerous Leadership Traits

There are no perfect leaders…except for Jesus. For the rest of us, we each have room for improvement. Most of us live with flaws in our leadership. Good leaders learn to surround themselves with people who can supplement their weaknesses.

There are, however, some leadership traits, which a leader can never delegate away. If the leader can’t work through them, in my opinion, his or her leadership will be crippled. With these traits, the best the leader has to offer will never fully materialize.

Four ways to create an evangelistic culture in your church

I recently wrote an article that offered ten questions to help you diagnose the evangelistic health of your church. A couple of the readers asked insightful questions related to the culture of a church. Specifically, they wanted to know how a church could create a culture to become more evangelistic.

While the creation of an evangelistic culture cannot be reduced to a simple formulaic approach, I can offer four suggestions of a more practical nature.

5 things we do today instead of preaching the Word

I wish I could tell you that most pastors are preaching the Word. I can’t - some are not. Here are five things we may choose to do instead of preaching the Word.

1. Entertaining

“Music, drama and video, felt needs, topics, more stories”

Seven Keys to Preventing Pastoral Burnout

I have the incredible opportunity to interact with pastors regularly. In recent conversations, I asked two questions. First, have you ever experienced burnout in your ministry? Second, what do you do to prevent pastoral burnout?

Interestingly, every pastor with whom I spoke had experienced some level of burnout. And so they spoke from the voice of experience when they shared with me what they do to prevent burnout today. I aggregated their responses to seven keys to preventing pastoral burnout, not in any particular order or priority.

We do not lose heart

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

2 Corinthians 4:16–17

10 Reasons we have not reached the Unchurched (2)

Part 2 (Reasons 6 - 10)

In last week's post, I covered the first five reasons we, as Christians fail to reach others for Christ. Today I conclude with the final five reasons.

10 Reasons we have not reached the Unchurched (1)

Part 1 (Reasons 1 - 5)

Though much of this information could be regarded as dismal, my ultimate assessment is not that pessimistic. I believe in the God of miracles. If my conclusions focused on human ability and goodness, I would have little hope. But my conclusions presume the God of creation is on His throne.

Five step strategy for church planting

A successful strategy has to be biblical and simple. We have formulated it in five easy to follow steps: 1. Pray – 2. Meet – 3. Make – 4. Gather – 5. Multiply

The 9 Seasons of a Church’s Life

There are many seasons of a church’s life. Knowing which season your church is in is crucial to its health, longevity, and most importantly, the forward progress of the gospel.

The following nine seasons of church life come from my observations with planting Mars Hill Church and assisting hundreds of other church plants through Acts 29.

Five Tests to see if You are a Great Plan B Leader

The Leadership Aversion to “B”

Strong leaders don’t like the “B” concept. We want to make a grade of “A.” We want “A” players on our team. We demand “A” quality work. Anything below that mythical “A” is just not acceptable.

But sometimes we must deal with “B” plans.

Five Secrets Pastors Refuse to Tell

By their very nature, pastors are a confidential lot. They counsel numbers of people who share their deepest secrets and problems. They know things about families that could hurt and embarrass them if they shared information freely. So pastors tend to keep secrets and confidential information well. In most cases, you can feel comfortable that your confidence will not be breached when you talk to a pastor.

But most people don’t realize pastors have their own secrets. These spiritual leaders refuse to share their thoughts or pains for fear that their own ministries will be damaged.

So they keep the secrets.

And they hold the pain to themselves.

You are not Your Ministry

When I pastored in a church, I made the mistake of making my ministry and my identity the same thing. I allowed my job to become my heart. I suffered through this mistake until the day I resigned. Because when I stopped being a pastor, the false identity I had created was also stripped away. Seventeen years of living with a false identity blew up in a heartbeat.

I am a Leader

My first and foremost priority is to do what is right. I have an obligation to my God and to those whom I lead to do the right things first. I cannot put my own career or my own future before those decisions that are clearly God’s plan.

I am a leader.

The "Insider Movement"

An astounding phenomenon, though not exclusive to ministry to Muslims, is overtaking much missionary work among Muslims.  A growing number of professing Christians involved in witness to Muslims are a part of what is called, “Insider Movements,” or the “Insider Movement.”

This controversial approach to ministry has resulted in many of its proponents to affirm that Muhammad was a prophet from God, the Quran is at least partially-inspired Scripture, and it is possible for Muslims to retain their Muslim identity as “Muslim followers of Christ.”

Five Keys to Innovation in a Non-innovative Organization

The organization I lead is 121 years old. The organization has experienced many successes in its history but, like any company with a lengthy history, it tends to gravitate toward status quo. Innovation thus becomes the exception rather than the norm.

The past six years have been a journey toward greater innovation. I am still learning many lessons, but I have five key lessons I have learned thus far.

Seven Traits of Breakout Churches

I have been a student of American churches for thirty years. In those thirty years, one of my most fascinating learning ventures has been the discovery of breakout churches. Simply defined, a breakout church is a congregation that has experienced at least five years of decline followed by at least five years of growth. While numerical growth is not the inerrant barometer for church health, we researchers must use numerical gauges for much of our objective data.

Why the Church and the Community need Shepherds

What do you see when you walk around your city? What do you feel? How will you respond? In Matthew 9:35–38, we get a glimpse of what Jesus saw and felt, and how he responded.

Jesus saw the harassed and helpless crowds of people wandering aimlessly like a sheep without a shepherd. They were harassed and they were helpless.

Every Leader needs a Coach

Every leader needs a coach. Paul was a coach to a young disciple, leader, and protégé named Timothy. From a prison, Paul wrote what is regarded as his last public letter to Timothy. It is a treatise on leadership development. Paul proclaimed the gospel and God saved Timothy. Timothy grew in his faith and Paul took Timothy under his care and they ministered together for many years.

The Idolatry of Individualism

Through our relationship with him and our relationships with other believers, God is in the process of restoring his image in us. He is making us like himself.

He does this by his Spirit, as his grace and Word are applied to our lives through the incarnational ministry of believers one-to-another. God uses means to inform and transform us, and the primary means that he uses to do this are relationships in the local church.

An Open Letter To Leaders

Dear Leader,

Leadership matters!  It is listed in the Scripture as a spiritual gift (Romans 12:8), there are books in the Bible dedicated to what happens when God empowered leadership is embraced (Ezra, Nehemiah, Judges, Esther) and God has called you and raised you up for the purpose of making a difference.

3 Temptations Leaders Face

One of the most challenging issues when it comes to leadership and ministry is dealing with people (other than that, it's quite simple).

AND, if we are not careful we will allow ourselves to become so distracted that we will actually begin to care for other things way more than the people that Jesus died for and has called us to take care of.

How to pray for revival

Revival is a gift from heaven. We don’t work it up. God sends it down. When Jonathan Edwards described the awakening in his church, he had to use words like "surprising," "extraordinary" and "astonishing."  The Bible says of the early church that "awe came upon every soul" (Acts 2:43).  We can’t program that into our worship: 10:45 AM – Awe comes upon every soul.

Since revival is of God, we should pray for it. But how? The Bible teaches us how to pray: Isaiah 63:15-64:12 is a biblical prayer for revival.

Movement, Monument or Mausoleum?

Some years ago a friend of mine used these three simple categories to objectify the stages of a church’s rise and fall:

1. Movement
2. Monument
3. Mausoleum

When Faced with Gospel Opposition

Recently I wrote an article here about tips on how to talk with your neighbors about Jesus, where I shared a story of someone I encountered becoming a Christian through those tips. Right after I wrote the article, I was in a situation where I was verbally opposed for my sharing my faith.

Inevitably, we will face opposition in talking to neighbors about Jesus, and in fact, if we’re consistent in doing it, we will face consistent opposition.

How do you disciple new believers?

Discipleship is truth transferred through relationship. Discipleship involves a lot, but one of the most important things you can do with a new believer is read the Bible with them, teaching them how to read, understand, respond to, and apply God’s Word.

7 tips for talking with your neighbors about Jesus

We met in the elevator of our condo building.

Instead of the classic stare down at the ground and avoid eye contact bit, I said hello and introduced myself. I asked him a few non-awkward, basic questions. How long have you lived here? Do you like it? Have you met any cool people?

11 Gospel-centered ways to love your city

Jesus calls us to “go and make disciples” and to love our city so that we might clearly communicate the gospel and see more people come to know him.

But what does this look like practically? What does it mean to love our city? Here are 11 practical, gospel-centered ways you can love your city.

Dangers Leaders Face

Being in leadership is dangerous.

The Bible is full of warnings and examples of this truth. The devil is always lurking in the shadows to sidetrack, plateau, neutralize or flat out destroy Christian leaders.  It is at times overlooked that 1 Peter 5:8 is in the middle of a passage directed to leaders. Leaders are often the first target of the enemy of our souls and the ministry.

Picking the right people

It is a truism that the more people you lead, the more leaders you need.

As the size of your group, organization, church or company grows, so does the need for more character-filled, Christ-centered, and competent leaders.

Defining the Center

I have recently noticed a trend of churches giving up on the notion that community is an essential component of church life.

Many are deciding that community is an optional experience that is helpful but not elemental to being a healthy disciple of Jesus. I think this is a significant mistake. There is no biblical support for personal, autonomous Christianity. If we want to truly make disciples who advance the gospel, we must not only see the importance of community, but we must understand it to be essential to the church.