Too many times we talk about what we want to do - to add to our church ministry. But what about talking about what we will not do. When we add something - something needs to be removed or at least moved onto other leadership. There are only 24 hours in a day and pastors and staff also - like each of us - have families and other duties. Let's talk about what we will stop doing as a church.
A picture to think about is - are we a river or a flood? Both are bodies of water, but would rambles all over and does damage and the other is focused and can be harnessed to accomplish great things like giving electric to an entire city.
Your thoughts?
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When Quoting Scripture Inflicts Harm
6 years ago
11 comments:
We should do
1. Worship
2. Small Groups
3. Fellowship
4. Outreach
Don't do all other stuff we do
Haha; I agree with "anonymous 8:31pm"
I guess I'll try and take it a step further.
Worship - Let's not interrupt it so much; Let's not be so churchy; it comes across pretentious and fake.
Small Groups - Let's not have groups that aren't actually based and created to focus on Christ. All other of those groups are just... groups lol.
Fellowship - Let's not do anything that compromises the Bible, ethics, and Christ's example. Let's not forget the reason why we are "fellows" in the first place.
Outreach - Let's not do it for the sake of the church, for our build-up; Let's not do it for the sake of doing it.
And of course let's not do all "the other stuff". lol. I am not sure what it means but it sounds awfully good.
A comment for Josef and all who read this thread.
Our worship is powerful and meaningful. Unless Josef is looking for all song and sermon, announcements, Scripture readings in between songs, prayers, encouragements, communion prayers, praises and more are part of corporate worship.
Josef, are you on one of the praise teams? If not, maybe you could join, when school allows, and help them focus more on what you believe to be true worship.
Pretentious and fake are strong words my friend. There are folks that pour themselves into worship prep and sharing each week. Not to say we couldn't do a better job, but those are strong words.
I do not believe that we worry about growth when we do ministry. I believe we do ministry to please God and growth may be a by-product of that ministry.
I believe all of our adult ministry would be best designed as small groups. It is in the small groups that people connect.
I also believe that we should be more outreach focused. We spend a lot of money and time on the saved and not enough time or money on the lost.
My two cents.
Sorry I wasn't clear. "Churchy comes across pretentious and fake" Not necessarily OUR worship. It's something we should not do.
I don't necessarily understand what you mean by the second paragraph of your response Pastor Ray but I got the last part!
There's no doubt we have dedicated people that pour themselves into the worship ministry at Mt. Oak; most of which have a significant part of the worshipper I am today.
I hope I didn't come across pretentious with my first comment! That'd a definite don't!
I agree that if we are to add new things for the church family to do we should reduce the other things we ask them to do.
I'm a little confused as to what we would need to stop asking the church family to do. Could someone please enlighten me?
-Sedge
Sedge, there are only so many hours in a day and in a week, etc. When we add things to our plate, normally we need to remove things from our plate. If I add a task for my staff that takes five hours a week, unless I expect them to work five more hours each week I must find things that they can stop doing to counter-balance things.
Does that help?
A church that does everything may not be doing some things well. Unless of course their time and resources are limitless.
I completely understand the need for time management and dropping one thing for another that is more important to the overall mission. I was just curious as to specifically what things the church family would drop. Wasn't that the original idea behind this post? "Let's talk about what we will stop doing as a church." I've seen, "Don't do all other stuff we do" but nothing of substance yet. I'm not finely tuned-in to everything the church is involved with so I'm not sure what we could drop without too much impact on the church .
-Sedge
Pastor Ray, in regards to corporate worship I think it would be really great to do announcements before we begin any singing. We've tried getting rid of them completely before and that didn't work, so wouldn't it be a good compromise to simply make them the first thing we do in the service? I only say this because I've found that when announcements come in after the first couple songs, it breaks the continuity of worship--interrupts our focus, if you will. I'm not saying the announcements are bad; just that they've been placed at an awkward moment in the service.
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