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June 6, 2007

 

 

 
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In this Edition:
Thinking Aloud: The Mixed Legacy of a Leader
Backtalk: Comments from You
Cutting Edge Book
Practitioners: Marty Thurber of Fargo, North Dakota
Resources & Ideas
Events
To the Point:
  • "I only wish I could discover the truth as easily as I can expose falsehood." Cicero
  • "The Puritan's idea of hell is a place where everybody has to mind his own business." Wendell Phillips
  • "This world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life." C.S. Lewis
  • "A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin." H.L. Mencken
  • "Sex has become the religion of the most civilized portions of the earth. The orgasm has replaced the Cross as the focus of longing and the image of fulfillment." Malcolm Muggeridge
Got a favorite quote? Send it to BestPractices@ameritech.net. 
Thinking Aloud
The mixed legacy of a Christian leader
by Loren Seibold

This being a newsletter about pastoring in the NAD, we oughtn't let the opportunity pass to say something about one of the most influential pastors in America: the late Jerry Falwell.

I've always been of two minds about Falwell and his ilk. On one hand, I approve of Christian morality and efforts to encourage it. We should oppose the moral slime that is considered normative in American culture. On the other hand, the Religious Right folks sometimes came across as pious windbags who would enforce faith and morals with a much stronger hand than we Seventh-day Adventists (more conscious than most of threats to liberty) should be comfortable with.

Like most powerful figures, Falwell never feared being thought arrogant. His tactless blaming of feminists, the ACLU, gay people and others for 9/11 made even conservative Christians wince (and eventually elicited a reluctant apology). Who are we to say with certainty along what lines God metes out Divine justice? Statements like that made me not want to be in his particular moral majority.

Yet Falwell put evangelical Christianity on the cultural map, and gave it a political power it never had before. At least for a while, we liked seeing a Bible-believing pastor with influence, and Christianity a visible component of American culture. Though I'm not sure that we always liked how Christianity was represented by Falwell and company. Beyond the self-righteousness, the ethical contradictions could be a little jarring (for example, opposed to abortion, but seemingly enthusiastic about war).

William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas argue in Resident Aliens that Christians ought to focus on building up Christian life and community rather than trying to reform the culture. Falwell notwithstanding, I think I agree.

Comments on faith and culture? Write BestPractices@ameritech.net

Backtalk
On change:
"We have spent hours writing mission statements identifying why we exist. [Our mission] has always been identified for us in Matthew 28:19-20. I believe as His mission is taught weekly from our pulpits it will be caught in the pews. Then we make changes in our churches directly related to the communities we serve." Dave Livermore, Upper Columbia

On Best Practices:
"This is the most creative, helpful and encouraging SDA ministerial web based help I have ever used." Randy Mills, Georgia Cumberland
Cutting Edge Book

Point: Family systems theory helps tremendously in understanding the church.
Key word: System - a set of interconnected elements (people, families, groups) that can't help affecting one another for better or for worse - and can be used to do so.
Pros: Very helpful in understanding and leading the church.
Cons: Self-differentiated non-anxious presence can become plain old selfishness if you're not careful.
Why you should read it: It will help you understand the church, why people do the things they do, and why the "issue" is often not the issue - and what you can do about it (and, most important, what you shouldn't do about it).
--Review by David Vandenburg

Got a cutting edge book that informs your ministry? Write it up in this pattern, and send it to BestPractices@ameritech.net
Practitioners:Marty Thurber, Fargo ND
 Marty Thurber pastors in my home state, North Dakota. (I've got a warm spot in my heart for the place, although I'm glad to be somewhere else during the winter.) Marty and his wife Debbie have two college students, Kristy and Michael. Here, Marty tells about his experiments with video in his Fargo church. LGS

There's a visual revolution taking place in our culture. TV started it, but computers and the internet have made it possible for all of us to be broadcasters. I've been experimenting with making my own videos as a way of reaching people.

You may not be aware that your point-and-shoot digital camera has the ability to take videos. Making and posting the video is the easy part. (If you don't know how, ask a 13-year-old in your church!) What takes time is writing interesting, engaging scripts that entertain while they inform. My advice: before you invest in additional equipment, work on getting the message across in a warm and welcoming way. After you master that, you might want a hard-drive video camera.

I've made video for several purposes. First, I'm doing my own Bible study videos. I've done two series so far:
The Travel Agent series uses current cable channel themes, like those on the Home Channel, matched up with texts like John 14, "In my father's house are many mansions," or for the Food Channel, the celebration and feast texts in the gospels.  I've put these on DVD's to give away, offered them free at church, shared them with new members, and so on.  I've also loaded them on to my iPod and my Archos video player so that I can give a video Bible Study at any time.

I'm working on additional series: Bible Topics (the Sabbath, Sanctuary), as well as lifestyle topics ("Things to Do In Fargo, North Dakota.")

I also video special events, like baptisms. People love sharing important life moments, and family and friends who may have missed it can watch it on line, too.

Posting your videos is sort of like having your own TV channel, but on a website. Some good (mostly free) sites are YouTube, Yahoo video, Google video, and GodTube (where you can watch a great Christian parody of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials.)

Advanced media? You can set up a live video podcast, or vidcast.  Post a weekly series to your church website.  Make video summaries of your sermons. Godcast is a good source of ideas. Check out the Florida Hospital church's entertaining YouTube videos, and how they lead you to the church website.

I just baptized a man who had been coming to our church for many years. His wife has been a member, but we never rushed him to join.  He told me after his baptism that watching the Travel Agent series had helped him make his decision to join our church.  I was ready to go for the next 6 months on that one comment alone!

Contact Marty at mdt543@cableone.net. He also has a church blog, a church website, and a blog for pastors.

Are you or a colleague doing something especially interesting and innovative in ministry? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Resources & Ideas

To Read:
  • Especially for young pastors: Check out SDA Seminary student Gio Marin's column at Religion and Spirituality.com. Thoughtful and nicely written.
  • Dan Serns at the North Pacific Union publishes a good e-newsletter for pastoral leadership development. Write his department to get on the list, or find them archived at the NPUC website.
  • Pacific Press is trying to resource pastors more effectively with their materials by means of their Maximum Ministry e-mail. It sometimes contains bargains on stuff you might be buying anyway--worth it for that alone. Request it here.
  • Friday Fax is a communique about NAD news and people. Occasionally interesting.
Got a tool or resource that you like a lot? Share it with us at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Events

Do you have an SDA-sponsored event that you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
NAD Church RESOURCE Center

Best Practices is an e-publication of Vervent
NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER
Editor: Loren Seibold