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Thoughts on a missing part of church worship, with some possibilities for a reinstatement

It is not that a worship time for a church does not work without a planned worship and request prayer. Many churches do very well without it. And no one complains. But…

…All of us who follow God’s ways are clearly commanded to pray. And Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

…Spontaneous prayers by a guitarist are not very worshipful, and they do not model prayer for families or individuals, though they are often good examples of praise and heartfelt love. (Sometimes they are just indicators that the leader liked the previous song :-). Continue reading “A Plea For Public Prayer”

Surely a lot has changed in church work. No kidding. When I began to pastor, some leaders had a wood plaque on their desks, “Visitation is Church Builder # 1.” Oh yes. Try that today and you will get, “What are you doing here?” Or, “What happened? Is everything all right?” Continue reading “Second verse, same as the first”

First responsibility: Live in connection with Christ Jesus, Lord of all times and the universe.

Second: Love His people with actions and words.   Show what it looks like to be connected with Christ.

Think of and practice ways to get word of God’s grace and love out to people who do not do church.

Study the Word of truth and wisdom and teach it to the church every week with passion and application.

Help to organize and manage the church volunteers and groups and activities so all the above happens a lot.

Get paid for all this,  so you can give it strong attention!

Whoa — I’ll take it!

Enjoy!
Knute

You know it is true:  many people float at their work instead of swim. Some of them even practice “the dead man’s float” — a maneuver  a Navy pilot taught me.  You can float in onespot for a might long time. But that is not what we want.  We shall swim.  Make progress.  Cover some distance,  make progress in loveand grace and more at this church. And that is what these notes are about: pastoring with joy,  making progress, headway, and seeing good happen. They are what others and I have learned and are learning about doing this wonderful gift called church, and seeing people grow in their faith and their “combination life” with Christ our Lord. See what helps you swim better.
Trying to avoid the float, Knute

Suggestions for a way to pray in public, and especially for prayer in Sunday and home groups  — to get more involved and attached.

Because so many group prayer times are really request times,  with little time left to pray….
Because so many group prayer times are only about “surgeries and accidents”…..
Because sometimes one or two people pray long prayers in group prayers,  inhibiting others …..
Crucial for this to work well:  there is a leader who moderates the whole prayer time,  instructing as needed,  and modeling what a short prayer is!

Praise/  Repent (and about character)/ Ask/ Yield Continue reading “PRAY”

Why do we make it hard

1. Because it is. We learned very little about it in school, and very few of us had strong leaders who deliberately built skills and desires into our lives. And we do not get much time to travel together like Paul did with Timothy or Titus.
2. We use books too much. A lot of them make it complicated.
3. Maybe we should just have two subjects to impart: character and church.   CE National has discussion guides from Bible verses on these two subjects, by the way.
4. We forget it is just TLC – time with men in a group of 4 to 6 others, Love shown and said, and Content of the scripture that hits the heart.
5. We do not ask ourselves and all staff to lead a group of 4 to 6 others to develop in character strength and church leadership.

Continue reading “Leadership Development”

Most of us love the preaching responsibility,  and many the shepherding responsibility.  These are two of the main circles of responsibility of a pastor,  and the third is that of leading.

There are many resources available to help us be more accurate in preparing to preach the Word.   And while some shepherding is just plain about showing righteous love, there are many clues from the experience of others that can benefit us.

But the main issues addressed here on this site are about leading (and changing) the church that has been here for a while.  Here on earth.

I hope the proven ideas and the suggestions help.  Consider them,  please.

I would be glad to answer questions about any of them,  or to tell why I think they are better than many traditions I have seen.  Please take a look!