Tag: RHMA

Healthy Small Town Church

On By BrianIn Church Life

At the RHMA Small Town Pastors’ Conference, Ron Klassen suggested the following six key health indicators from Colossians for a healthy small town church:

1. Respected People’s Commendation (1:1-6) – Do other Christians look at our church with high regard?

2. Twin F’s: Faithfulness and Fruitfulness (1:2, 6) – Are we faithfully doing the right things so that we are fruitful; that is, so lives are being changed?

3. Healthy Relationships (1:4, 8) – Do the people love one another in the Spirit?

4. Faithful Leaders (1:7) – Are the leaders faithful in their service?  Marks of a faithful leader include: making the teaching of the Word a priority (1:6-7), being a servant (1:7, 4:12), being a prayer warrior (4:12), being a hard worker (4:13), and being committed to doctrinal purity (4:12).

5. Commitment to Discipleship (2:6-7) – Is the church committed to going, baptizing, and teaching?

6. Commitment to Progress (1:28) – Is there a desire for the church and its people to mature?

How well does your church meet these key health indicators?  In which indicator does your church particularly need to grow?  Of course no church is perfect, but is your church moving in the right direction?  Regardless, what steps might you take to help it move in the right direction?

 

Bless One Another

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

Heard Calvin Miller again last night.  With great stories he illustrated his main point to bless one another.  Praise someone when you see them doing a good job.  Thank people.  Encourage people.  Pray with people.  And do all of these things even when they oppose you – blessing one another draws us together.  Keep blessing people until it becomes so natural you don’t even realize you are doing it. 

Think about what our churches could become if we all lived this way!  Think of the witness to Christ if people thought of Christians and His church this way!  May we grow in compassion for people and so see the love of Christ formed within us.

Community of Redemption

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

Heard Calvin Miller speak last night.  He is a great storyteller, but one phrase stuck out to me – the church is to be a “community of redemption.”  I started thinking about that phrase:

Community – not just a collection of individuals but a community, a family, a group.  Think relationships.  Think loving one another, caring for one another, encouraging one another.  Compassion.  Community.

Of redemption – not just a social club or a holy huddle.  Rather a people who have been redeemed that go out to share that redemption with others in great need of it.  Again, there is compassion as we share that redemption with others.

May God help our churches (and may we do our part) to be communities of redemption.

Revival Lessons

On By BrianIn Revival1 Comment

Just attended a seminar  by Jeff VanGoethem on the Welsh Revival and the Layman’s Prayer Revival.  Here are a few takehome thoughts:

  • We ought to be seeking a deepening relationship with God.  Too often we are seeking success as defined by the world.
  • We need the power of the Spirit.  Too often we minister according to the flesh.
  • We need to get serious about prayer and evangelism.
  • We need to challenge our young people to draw near to God – revivals often begin with them.
  • It is easy to listen to a seminar (or read a blog) about revival, but how will we respond?

500 Years Later

On By BrianIn Revival

At the RHMA conference on revival, John Hannah gave us some history of revivals.  But before doing that he noted where we are today, and its similarities to 500 years ago before the Reformation.  He noted three similarities:

  1. Lack of confidence in the Word of God
  2. Sin’s seriousness not understood
  3. Minimized glory and efficacy of Christ’s cross

Certainly this is true of our country.  As he walked us through these three points, it struck me that this was a pretty good description of the emergent church too.  But what concerns me is that I think it is true of much of the evangelical church too.

  1. Do we really believe the Bible is sufficient, and then live that way?  Do we really seek to live according to God’s Word?  Are we regularly studying God’s Word?
  2. Do we really take sin seriously?  Are we striving to overcome sin?  Are we weeping over our sins?
  3. Do we glory in the cross?  Are we awestruck at the implications of the cross for our lives?

Revival Thoughts 3

On By BrianIn Revival1 Comment

Here is another nugget from the conference – this time from Jeff VanGoethem:

He started his first session with us by pointing us to Isaiah 8:17 which reads: “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.”  The context of this verse is Israel’s sin; that is, God had turned his face from them because of their sin.  So Jeff’s question to us was:  Have we turned God’s face from us?  And if so, how?

(My thoughts for a minute: Don’t apply this to America – that is too easy and would miss the point.  Each of us needs to personally ask the question, and then we need to ask it as local churches.  Have we turned God’s face from us?  And if so, how?)

What should we do?  Jeff’s answer was to point again to the verse.  Wait for the Lord – not just wait around, but wait for the Lord; that is, turn or re-turn our focus to him.  And our wait focused on God should be a hope-filled one, filled with expectation that God will act as we return to him.

Are we waiting on the Lord with expectation?

Revival Thoughts 2

On By BrianIn Revival

The conference is over and I’m still trying to process everything.  Last night Walter Kaiser shared 4 ways to renew the work of God from Haggai 1.

First: Refuse to offer excuses – especially time excuses (v1-4)

Second: Set priorities – God’s ways and work first (v5-6)

Third: Get involved in God’s work – obey God for his glory (v7-12)

Fourth: Receive God’s enablement – God is with you (v13-15)

How often do we make excuses and give God the leftovers of our time and talent?  Are we obeying God by doing his work or are we sinning?  (Those are our two options)  Are we seeking God’s enabling?

Revival Thoughts

On By BrianIn Revival6 Comments

If all goes well, I will be attending the RHMA Small-Town Pastors’ Conference Monday through Wednesday this week.  The conference focus is “Seeking Revival in Rural America.”  Assuming the hotel has a computer in the lobby to use, I will be writing thoughts about revival from the conference while I’m there.  Since I’ll be using a public computer, I will be adding comments to this post rather than adding new posts.  So watch for comments on this post during the week.  And if you have thoughts on revival, please add your own comments as well.  May the Lord revive his church!