How to Act in Church on Easter and Every Sunday

Dear Friends,

With Easter coming up, we can expect a much larger influx of people than we might normally expect. This is a great opportunity for us to reach out to new visitors, so with this in mind, I wanted to share some thoughts with you about how you can be one of our greeters this and every Sunday. You don’t have to wear a badge to be an official greeter, you just have to have a heart for loving people, and as believers we all qualify. I am indebted to Thom Ranier’s website for much of the information below.

Leadership requires initiative. Healthy relationships require initiative. An attender without initiative will struggle to make friends and feed sheep. In John 21, Jesus gives Peter the three-fold command to “Feed my sheep.” The context of this command is the question of love.  The question is, do you love Jesus? If you do, you will take the initiative to feed his sheep. This is not just the role of the pastor, however, it is the role of each one of us. You must get to know the sheep before you or anyone can feed them, so hear are few ideas as to how to do this, not just on Easter but on every Sunday.

When you don’t know someone, introduce yourself. Wallflowers are not leaders. Take every opportunity to make an introduction with someone you do not know.

Don’t wait for others to invite you to a meal. You should reach out to people. Invite them to Sunday lunches with your family. Have members over for dinner at your home once or twice a month. Meet key leaders for early coffee or breakfast before work. Don’t have an agenda at these meals. Simply get to know people. It will build relational capital. More importantly, it’s biblical. Some of the most wonderful times I have had in ministry are the times I have meet with visitors for breakfast or lunch. Meals are a wonderful time to get to know one another, so why not think about regularly scheduling such times to meet and make new friends.

Be the main greeter before and after worship services. Worship services are the perfect opportunities to build relationships. The majority of the church tends to be on campus for worship. Handshakes, hugs, and smiles are quick but powerful reminders that you care for people. If you don’t know how to do this, watch Bill Roberts or Dave Furniss or Dick Haines or the Marcantonio’s or a number of others in the church who model what it means to be a “welcoming witness.”

Take people with you to the Family Ministry Center. Don’t send them take them, but before you do first stop at the Welcome Center, so your new friends can pick up a Welcome Bag. Encourage them to fill out a visitor card, if they haven’t already done so. Then, go with them to the FMC. Introduce them to others, and make sure they are never left alone. Encourage others to speak to them as well.

Look for opportunities to pray for people. When you are talking with someone, be a good listener. Listen not only to the words, but the feelings underlying their words. If you sense a need, ask the person if they would mind if you prayed for them. Pastors aren’t the only ones who should pray for people. Each of us in the body of Christ should be looking for opportunities to pray with and for one another. And then remember to pray for them during the week, and when you do, take the extra ten seconds to tell them!  Text them or e-mail them or even call them and let them know that you had just prayed for them and you wondered how they were doing. Your initiative could brighten their day at just the right moment of need.   

Hand-write thank you notes. Take time to write a few notes a week to people you meet. There is nothing like a personal hand written note to communicate your care and concern. I treasure the notes I have received from people over the years, and some of them are taped within my Bible. To love Jesus is to feed His sheep. This effort takes initiative, especially within the context of relationships in the church.

New Monmouth family, let’s love on people this and every Sunday. Your love may be the very expression that unlocks one’s heart to the entrance of the Savior, and nothing could be more exciting than that.

Yours in the joy of Easter,

Pastor Tom

Did You Ever Feel Like a Donkey, Ordinary and of not Much Use? 

Dear Family,

God uses the ordinary. When Jesus needed a ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he chose the ordinary. Nothing fancy, or dignified about a donkey. What I know about donkeys is that they are awkward, stubborn, and well, not very intelligent to say the least.

In his well-known poem on the donkey, G.K Chesterton makes the donkey reply to those who might sneer or laugh at him:

“Fools! For I also had my hour;

One far fierce hour and sweet:

There was a shout about my ears,

And palms before my feet.”

Whatever Jesus touches, even if it is a donkey, He gives sacred worth and dignity, and no matter how despised a person or creature might be, Christ has a use for him or her.

Did you ever feel ordinary, maybe like a donkey? You are not exceptional in any particular area. You don’t have any unusual gifts or talents and mediocrity seems to be the measure of your existence. If so, you are in good company. Most all of us have felt like this, or maybe still do, and yet it was through ordinary people that God has done extraordinary things.

John the Baptist never performed a miracle, but Jesus said of him, “Among those born of women there is no one greater” (Luke 7:28). His mission was to be a “witness to the light” (John 1:8), and that may be your mission and mine. All John wanted to do was be a voice and a light that would cause others to think about Jesus. What greater mission could anyone have than that?

Epaphroditus was a giant of a man, but few, outside of the ranks of Bible teachers, could immediately identify his significance.  He brought a gift from the Philippians to Paul while he was in prison, and he stayed to assist him and to meet his needs. He nearly died in carrying out his mission (Philippians 2:20).

How many of us know the name of the person who was used to convert Billy Graham, or the one who entered a shoe store one day and led Dwight L. Moody to Christ?  Do you know who taught Martin Luther theology or who discipled George Mueller, and snatched him from a sinful life, or who helped the great hymn writer Charles Wesley get underway as a composer of hymns? For the most part they remain anonymous, but you better believe that God knows their names.

Think of the ordinary people that God has used throughout history. He used a slave named Joseph to save his family, a shepherd named Moses to lead Israel out of bondage into the Promise Land, a farmer named Gideon to deliver Israel from Midian, and a shepherd boy to be Israel’s greatest king . . . I think you get the point. God can use anyone, no matter how ordinary they appear to be.

God is not primarily concerned about bigness, all-time records, or status. His giants are ordinary people who do their best at whatever God calls them to do because they simply love Christ.

If Christ makes use of a despised animal such as a donkey, he surely can and will make much great use of you or me, and if he doesn’t, the only reason will be because we choose not to let him!

Today God is looking around for ordinary people to do extraordinary work. Most of us are ordinary, so most of us qualify. Now let’s get busy and allow God to use our ordinary gifts and talents to do extraordinary things for the kingdom.

Yours in ministry,

Pastor Tom

A Lesson from “The Darkest Hour” on Dealing with Discouragement

Dear Friends,

The other day I met with someone who was going through the valley of discouragement. He felt like the Psalmist who at one time believed his heart and flesh had failed him, Psalm 73:26.  He was running on empty and there was nothing left in his spiritual tank to address his situation. He wanted out: out of his condition, out of his situation, and maybe even out of his life.

Did you ever feel like that? Discouragement is something that all of us have faced at one time or another.  It is hard to avoid. It seems like it’s always waiting around the corner, ready to dart out and bring us to our knees. 

Winston Churchill knew what it was to face discouragement. Those of you who have seen the movie “The Darkest Hour”, the story of Churchill’s remarkable leadership in World War 2, know that he had every reason to give in to discouragement, as he and England faced such overwhelming odds. Many in England had given up hope that England could be saved from the Nazi onslaught taking place on European soil. But Churchill refused to accept defeat and instead he rallied them to victory and England was saved.

After the War, Churchill was invited back to Harrow, his old school where he had spent his boyhood years. The headmaster had told the boys that Churchill was coming and that he would give an immortal speech that they would long remember. “Bring your notebooks”, he told them and “copy down everything he says. You will want to pass it along”. Well, the day came and Churchill arrived. As he stood there looking at the rough wooden benches in which he had once carved his initials many years ago, he no doubt saw in his memory a little boy who had sat there many years before. He was that boy - a shy, skinny, little kid - named Winston Churchill, who stuttered and lacked self-confidence, but who would go on to become one of the greatest masters of speech in modern history.

He noted how bright they looked, but he realized that life could bring them plenty of trouble and discouragement. So he made his speech. “Never give in”, he said. “Never give in. Never, never, never”. And then he sat down. One sentence. Three words and yet an immortal speech had been made which they and the world would remember until the end of their days.

That is a good message for all of us. It is natural to think that we can outrun our problems, but we can never win that race for sooner or later our problems will overtake us. Running from our problems is like trying to out run our shadow. They are always going to follow us.

Joni Erickson Tada writes “When life is rosy, we may slide by with knowing about Jesus, with imitating him and quoting him and speaking of him. But only in suffering will we know Jesus.” We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn any other way.

God could have kept Joseph out of jail (Genesis 39:20-22), kept Daniel out of the lion’s den (Daniel 6:16-23), kept Jeremiah from being tossed into a slimy pit (Jeremiah 38:6) kept Paul from being shipwrecked three times (2 Corinthians 11:25), and kept the three Hebrew young men from being thrown into the blazing furnace (Daniel 3:1-26),  but he didn’t. He let those problems happen, and every one of those persons was drawn closer to God as a result.

Regardless of the cause, none of our problems could happen without God’s permission. Everything that happens to a child of God is Father filtered, and He intends to use it for good even when Satan and others mean it for bad.

When tempted to grow discouraged remember, like Churchill, to resist retreat, and instead run into the arms of almighty God

Yes, as the Psalmist says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever”. Psalm 73:26

Yes in God we have a present source of help in times of trouble and because we do, we can, as the author of Hebrews writes “Draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:15.

And yes, I might add, “Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.”

Yours in faith and friendship because of Jesus,

Pastor Tom