Synergy Church Consultants

Sometimes, the Senior Pastor or church staff just need an outside look to maybe just confirm what they already know. An outside set of eyes and ears can see and hear what the resident staff no longer sees because of familiarity.

So, an experienced church consultant can be very beneficial in assisting the team to formulate their vision and strategic plan.

When Synergy consultants come in, we generally look at the following issues:

- Is the senior pastor confident in the vision and direction for the church?

- Is this vision communicated clearly, understood and embraced by the congregation?

- Are the paid pastoral/ministry staff members unified and productive?

- Are the official non-paid key leaders of the church unified and productive?

- Are new leaders are being cultivated and developed?

- Are the current leaders are being trained on a regular basis?

- Are the primary leaders of the church open and receptive to change?

- Are committees and or teams well organized without any "bottle-necking" blockages from primary leadership?

- Does the organizational structure allow the important issues to be resolved and implemented quickly?

- Do the key leaders, paid and non-paid, place a heavy emphasis on prayer?

- Does the primary leadership hold Biblical leadership as a top priority?

- Does the primary leadership model servanthood with a joyful spirit?

- Are the primary leaders trustworthy?

- Are the primary leaders courageous and willing to take risks?

- Does the pastoral/ministry staff communicate genuine care and concern to the people?

- Are the primary leaders positive and full of faith?

- Is there an intentional effort to identify and include new leaders?

- Do the primary leaders freely empower others to lead and do the work of ministry?

What would we find in your church or state?

Pastors With A Sixth Sense - Discernment

In consulting with a pastor or a church, we look at tracking rhythms in the life of an organization. The first move is to look at trends (people in groups, # of people serving, # of leaders, attendance, giving levels, # of guests, etc…).

But also, God puts something in a leader akin to a sixth sense or a gut-level awareness of the movement of the organism. It is an area where natural and supernatural co-exist, contradict, and compliment.

Sometimes, you have to wipe away the data and listen to the sixth sense, the gut, or that internal pause that is speaking. The Holy Spirit can speak through data and trends and realities. But, how often does He speak through that still, small voice? I’d say pretty often. The bothersome thing is when that gut is checking you to do something that doesn’t make sense or is inconvenient.

Listening to that counter-intuitive voice doesn’t always make sense. But, developing an ear to recognize it is key to strong leadership.

An even bigger challenge to hearing it is articulating that gut intuition so that others can understand and follow.

[Idea from Travis Johnson]

We Can't Find It In The Bible

According to a CNSNews.com article, in her Earth Day news release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) attributed this quote to the Old Testament: "To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us."

However, many biblical scholars cite a problem with that quotation: it doesn't exist in the Bible.

It was not the first time Pelosi has used this alleged biblical passage. The California Democrat has used it on several different occasions, and has even attributed the passage to the Old Testament Book of Isaiah.

Dr. Raymond Bohlin is president of Probe Ministries, a non-profit apologetics ministry. He offers his findings. "You're just not going to find that kind of statement anywhere in Isaiah, let alone anywhere directly in scripture at all -- Old Testament or New Testament," says Bohlin. "So, you know, it's hard to know where something like that gets started. But it's unfortunate that she's referring to it as a scripture quotation because it's not."

Although Bohlin agrees that Christians need to be good stewards of the environment, he believes Pelosi and others share a twisted view of that biblical principle. "[Sometimes] they may put ... a sort of Christian caring and compassionate view to things," he notes. "But ultimately, down deep, I think they're operating within the context of a naturalistic worldview that's looking to be concerned for all of life, and for all of earth -- and that becomes the primary value." As a result, he concludes, "what happens to human beings becomes a secondary value."

Speaker Pelosi has used the quote while defending her stance on issues from the environment to the budget.

Discipleship Truisms

[From Ministry Best Practices by Bill Reichart]

1. Information doesn't guarantee transformation. Information alone doesn't change people. If it does, what's our excuse? (Never before has the church been so resourced.) There's been a big disconnect between the head and the heart. Very true, discipleship isn't merely about information download. Too often we have treated discipleship like a classroom. But Jesus didn't disciple in a classroom. It was life on life. With life on life spiritual investment comes true, meaningful and real spiritual transformation.

2. Never equate longevity with maturity. It is possible to be in the church a long time but not have increasing evidence of Jesus' indwelling. Any congregation can become a spiritual club, where graytops are merely infants in diapers. I heard a friend say that too many people in the church suffer from the Sponge Bob problem - they just come to church to sit and soak. If that is all people do, they will never grow. Spiritual transformation is never passive.

3. The measurement of discipleship is obedience. Nothing more, nothing less. I would add this qualifier that we don't want obedience stemming from legalism, but rather a person whose heart and life is captured by the love of the gospel. It is true that discipleship isn't merely about "knowing," but we must be "applying," otherwise it falls short.

4. Personal charisma doesn't guarantee transformation.You can be a nice guy and still be a Lost nice guy. Having spiritual manners -- even some spiritual sensitivity -- doesn't make you mature. Nice people are adept at fooling others. Of course it is true that external niceness doesn't necessarily indicate internal heart transformation. People can wear masks and be posers. Discipleship demands that we are willing to delve beyond external behavior and manners and get deep into matter of the heart.

5. Disciples aren't made effectively in classes. There's no way around it: time, time, more time. Coffee, coffee, more coffee. One conversation, then another. Classes are components but shouldn't be the main method. Disciples are made within the messiness of real life. There is no substitute for it. People want to see how faith intersects real issues, struggles and challenges in life. You can't teach that in a classroom.

National Day of Prayer

Synergy Ministries

Where do we go from here?

In Church Identity and Change (Eerdmans, 2005) Roozen and Nieman offer a study of the major denominations in North America. They conclude that all are struggling to transmit a positive, significant doctrinal identity to their constituents - in other words none of them are doing a good job of discipleship that is theologically grounded in the scriptures.

Add to this David Olson’s groundbreaking The American Church in Crisis (Zondervan 2008). In using a data base of over 200,000 churches, he concludes that overall weekly attendance is not, as previously taught, 43% but closer to 17%!

New church development is far behind population growth and new churches are short-lived for lack of properly trained and persevering leadership. ⁽¹⁾

The time is now for us to strive to renew and expand the church in our day. We must be devoted to transmitting a strong Pentecostal Christian identity which is radically missional.

We must give priority to leadership development and church planting which will make us evermore centered on practical ministry. The church will rise or fall on the work of local churches, which will be led by pastors. Thus, the key person in the future of the church at large is the Pastor.

I predict that strong local churches will become stronger, and weak local churches will become weaker. ⁽²⁾

___________________________________
(1) Dr. Steven Land, President, Church of God Theological Seminary, The Seminary Story, Spring 2008.
(2) Don G. Brock

Top 5 Volunteer No-No's

[From Ministry Best Practices by Bill Reichart]

Volunteers are the life blood of any church or ministry. Without those who generously give of their time, talents and energy - nothing would be able to be accomplished by the church (humanly speaking of course). Here are some volunteer no-no's and pitfalls to avoid when working and communicating with volunteers.

1. Never ask a volunteer to help “YOU.”

Ask them to help the church, or help in a classroom. Don’t make it a personal favor to you. Personal favors won't stand up over the test of time.

The focus shouldn't be about YOU.

2. Never thank a volunteer for helping “YOU.”

Remind them of your overall vision and purpose when saying Thank You.

For example, "Thank you for helping us reach all these kids this morning. You’ve been a great help to all of us!” vs. “Thanks for helping me out. I don’t know what I would have done without you!”

And ... the church name should be prominently displayed on any thank you correspondence. Make it about the Church or organization, not me!

3. Don’t ask the same volunteer to do the same thing over and over.

Don’t abuse the willingness of one person to ALWAYS help when needed. Mix it up! Don't go to the same "well" all the time.

You want to avoid not giving others in the church the opportunity and privilege to serve.

4. Never show any displeasure with church leadership to Volunteers.

Teach the Power of Buy-In! Representing our leader’s choices as our very own. This shows our volunteers that we are a strong team, and are working together for a common goal.

Even if it is someone else’s fault, make it our fault (this is where the power of the Gospel comes in - we can own fault when we know that we are SECURE in Christ). If everyone would do this, then rumors and displeasure with leadership would be stopped early and often!

5. Never ask "How did it go today?"

“How did it go today, or this morning?” is an unhelpful question. The question is too vague, and you are certain to get merely a one word answer, "fine".

Ask questions that are directed toward the specific outcomes you and your volunteers are working toward. When you do this, it will give you and your volunteers a real and concrete sense of how they are doing, and it will provoke with them a real discussion of issues or concerns that perhaps need to be addressed.

[ht: littlepastor]

Rick Warren - Exponential Green Room Interview

Are You Burned Out?

According to a London Daily Mail poll, more than half of those reading this right now are completely burned out on the job. How can you tell if you're burned out? If you have lost that satisfied feeling at work and don't even revel in your own job accomplishments, there might be a problem. Are your coworkers asking if everything is okay with you? Have they noticed you acting depressed or even moody on the job? Have you been snapping at everyone?

Here's a telltale sign of work burnout: the minute you return from a vacation, the joy, happiness, and relaxation you felt are instantly gone, and you can't even manage to come back from lunch on time.

Another sign: procrastination is your new middle name.

Dr. Alan Shelton, author of Transforming Burnout, studies worker burnout. He notes that you shouldn't feel alone if you're feeling this particular burn. Some three-quarters of all workers are hit with this feeling from time to time. According to Dr. Shelton, vacations, days off, new hours and outside interests don't always help. Professional counselors can help, especially if you're a workaholic who is stressed out by a desire for everything to be perfect all of the time.

The important thing is to find balance between work and other pursuits. Then work isn't the only focus. Dr. Shelton also suggests the following:

• Get a physical to rule out more serious health problems.
• Take care of the spiritual side of life. It will give you focus. Meditation and prayer can help with burnout because they take the focus off work. Make relaxation a priority in your life.
• Remind yourself that each morning is a new day to be appreciated. On the way to work find two or three things that make you happy, even if it's just a beautiful forest preserve on the side of the road or watching your kids.
• Exercise helps beat job burnout.
• Sleep helps beat job burnout.

[Research by John Tesh]

Church Planting Keeps Christianity Alive

[By Audrey Barrick - Christian Post Reporter]

Church planting is hard, many pastors would say. But it's where much of the church growth is happening in America at a time when most churches are dying.

"Two-thirds of all churches in America are plateaued and declining," said Pastor Rick Warren after speaking Thursday to thousands of church planters at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, "and if it weren't for the growth that's taking place in church plants and megachurches, Christianity would be declining."

Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., says the growth in church plants and megachurches has helped keep the Christian population in the United States from dropping.

His comments come as the latest statistics from the Southern Baptist Convention, of which his church is a part of, show baptisms have dropped for the third straight year in 2007 and total membership dipped. Some say membership has plateaued and is on a trend toward decline unless change happens within the 16-million member denomination. Southern Baptists are now being seen as one among many major Protestant groups that are declining.

News of the denomination's decline was released during the April 21-24 Exponential Conference where over 2,700 church planters and leaders attended to analyze the DNA of successful reproducing churches. The annual conference has been touted as the "mother of all church planting conferences"

Today, church planting has reached an all-time high with approximately 4,000 new churches planted every year in the United States, according to the "State of Church Planting USA" study. Church plants are also starting out with larger crowds with hundreds joining the first worship service, and the survival and success rate of church plants is at 68 percent.

One of the biggest trends in church planting today is the multiple venue church, or the multi-site church. The idea is that one church meets in multiple locations which are fed video satellite preaching from the main church campus.

Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church, is expanding outreach and already transitioning from a multi-site church to a "poly-site" church – reproducing different kinds of campuses to reach different kinds of people – where the mission becomes the priority rather than just reproducing the same church, he said.

While some believe the large church trend will soon die out, Warren says the next generation of churches is going to be even bigger.

"They're going to be far larger than the boomer generation of churches because they're not limited to one campus anymore," he said in an interview featured on the Exponential Conference Web site.

Warren's Saddleback has planted over 40 independent "daughter churches" in Southern California and it recently launched a multi-site initiative with a goal of 10 campuses by the year 2010. According to Saddleback's multi-site church blog, its new campuses in Corona and Irvine drew 490 and nearly 2,000 attendants, respectively, to the first service.

"Reproduction is the mark of health," Warren commented.

Meanwhile, Alan Hirsch, co-founder of Shapevine and the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network which focuses on developing missional leaders in western contexts, believes church plants in America need to adopt a more missionary stance.

"I think here in America, I think church planting is still very bonded to church growth methodology and ideas," Australian-born Hirsch said in an interview featured on MondayMorningInsight, a Web site for pastors and church leaders.

"It (America) hasn't really thought through ... the nature of the church as a mission agency. We simply have to adopt a missionary stance in relationship to our culture," he continued. "We've got to break the monopoly that church growth thinking has over our mindset. Because unless we do that we'll never become a truly missionary agency."

The Exponential Conference featured other well-known speakers, including Tim Keller, founding and lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian; Ed Stetzer, former church planter and director of Lifeway Research; and Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point Community Church.

Church Shooting

[By Malcomb Daniels -- The Birmingham News]

An Hispanic man of about 45 years of age was shot and killed today during an argument in the parking lot of a St. Clair County Alabama church.

The man, whose identity is unknown, was shot multiple times in the parking lot of church on Pinedale Road in Ashville, Alabama according to St. Clair County Coroner Dennis Russell. He was pronounced dead at 4:20 p.m.

The man was shot during an argument with someone who lived in the area, Russell said. The dispute started after the homicide victim ran off the road and hit some mailboxes, Russell said.
Church was not in service at the time.

United Methodists Continue In Decline

United Methodists, at their General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, are being urged to reverse the denomination's decades-long decline in membership.

Lyn Powell, a church lay leader from Georgia, told delegates the United Methodist Church has been bleeding membership for years. "The United Methodist Church in the U.S. lost 55,000 members last year, 70,000 the year before that, [and] 60,000 the year before that. In fact, we have lost membership every year since the 1970s," Powell contends.

Meanwhile, transgender Methodists at the conference held a news conference seeking broader acceptance. Among them was Drew Phoenix, who pastors St. John's United Methodist Church in Baltimore. Phoenix was a woman named Ann Gordon before she had a sex-change operation.

Some analysts believe the reason for the declining membership is the abandonment of scriptural teaching on sin within the United Methodist Church.

Mart Green Attempts To Balance ORU Budget

Layoffs and other budget cuts are possible for debt-ridden Oral Roberts University, as the tiny evangelical school looks to regroup from several financial scandals and keep enrollment from sliding further, the school's trustees chairman said.

"We can't spend more than we bring in," said Mart Green, an Oklahoma City businessman who recently donated $70 million to the school. "Let's find out where we're fat, where we're thin and make this place strong, and not just going hand to mouth year after year."

Green's comments on Friday came days after a tense faculty meeting where administrators braced professors for the possibility of job cuts as a way to make budget ends meet. Professors were also implored to persuade students thinking about transferring to return to the school in the fall.

"The message in the faculty meeting was, 'Hey, we're not on easy street just because we've got $70 million,'" said ORU interim president Ralph Fagin.

In an interview with The Associated Press, neither Green nor Fagin offered specifics on how many positions or programs might get the ax, but said the school is exploring all options as it reviews each department, a process that could take several years.

Already struggling to keep enrollment numbers up, ORU was rocked by a financial scandal last fall that led to the resignation of Richard Roberts, who had been school president since 1993. He left amid accusations of misspending school funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle at a time when the school was more than $50 million in debt. He has denied wrongdoing. In the past eight years, the school has lost 500 students, and projected enrollment for the fall 2008 semester could be 150 students fewer than the 3,166 who attended last fall, Fagin said.

Even with Green's donation, the school is $25 million in debt and has deferred maintenance costs between $50 million and $60 million. Green, founder of Mardel, a Christian bookstore and office supply chain, declined to comment on the status of several lawsuits the school still faces in the wake of the scandal from former professors, students and a former accountant.

The two professors, Tim and Paulita Brooker, whose Oct. 2 lawsuit claims they were forced out after alleging financial and ethical wrongdoing on the part of Richard Roberts and his family, have asked the school for $2.5 million to settle. Attorneys for the professors and the school declined to comment this week on any potential negotiations, citing a judge's gag order. "We're doing the best we can to go through the legal process," Green said. "Let the legal process take its course."

Rick Warren Video Interview

CLICK HERE to watch an awesome new video interview with Pastor Rick Warren on the subject of discipleship, church planting, and other pastor secrets.