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BestPractices
October 7, 2009
Loren in cap Two questions I received via email this week:

#1: "Are any other of you pastors thinking about the possibility of an H1N1 pandemic, and what it might do to public worship? Should we require surgical masks, abolish handshakes and hugs, pass out antibacterial hand cleaner - or cancel services?"

#2. "I'm talking with someone who has a background in Judaism. Can you recommend some book or pamphlet, accessible to a layperson, that explains the completion of the atonement at the cross in such a way that would be meaningful to a Jewish person?"

If you've got any ideas, write me a note and I'll pass them along.

Hope to see you at Innovative Impact in Nashville next week, October 11-13.

Blessings
Loren Seibold
IN THIS ISSUE
Pastor: Christopher Thompson tries basketball evangelism
Reading: Violence, Illness in church
Resource: A review of IC5
Quotes: "If you don't know what your nonnegotiables are, you won't negotiate anything."
News & ideas: SimpleChurch offers newsletter
Events: BP Webinar on strategic planning
Practicing Pastor
ChrisThompsonThe Rec Center Support System
Christopher C. Thompson, Allegheny East Conference

One day, about a year ago, I went with a friend of mine to play basketball at a local outdoor court.  He wanted to be sure we'd get to play one-on-one so he took me to a court that not many people go to.  It's almost in an alleyway so you could drive by it without even knowing it's there. It wasn't long before I noticed that there was a youth center attached to the basketball courts and park. When I inquired, he told me that he, "grew up at The Rec."  I was totally blown away.  I remember thinking to myself, "All this time our church was sitting just a few blocks away from this ministry goldmine!"  He later took me inside where I met the unit director, introduced myself, and offered my support.

I started visiting frequently to play basketball with the kids and just to hang out with them.  I later shared with the unit director that I would like to start coming to the center to volunteer my time.  I shared my idea with our church members and invited them to join me.  Although our members have not been as consistent, I volunteer at the youth center every Wednesday, playing games like Uno and foosball with them in an effort to build lasting relationships.

This summer, our members were able to do something on a larger scale for the youth center.  We organized a couple of 3-on-3 basketball tournaments, with a skills challenge, three point shoot-out, and slam-dunk contest. Over 40 kids came out and enjoyed themselves, and we gave away trophies, gift certificates, and basketballs to winners. A lot of people just noticed something was going on and stopped to watch. All of our members and volunteers who helped wore t-shirts representing our church and Adventist Community Services.

Since the basketball tournaments, I have used the addresses and phone numbers we collected from the kids to visit their parents and offer them Bible studies.  I have yet to visit every family, but where I have the response has been very positive. I will often make cold calls near our church and be amazed to see one of "my kids" from the Rec Center come out and say, "Hey Pastor Chris!"  It's a great way to get in the door.

Christopher Thompson pastors the Rock of Faith church in Pittsburgh. He is the author of My Savior and My Lord, a small group study resource available from AdventSource. Chris blogs at http://blogs.myspace.com/pherochristos.
Reading For Pastors
I've been struggling with some personal issues with forgiveness recently, and so this essay by Seth McBee at Contend Earnestly hit the spot. Quote: "It's cool when God and others forgive me, but I hate it when I have to forgive others. I hate when I have to forgive others even when they don't feel they have done anything wrong and I know will never change or seek reconciliation. My flesh takes over on these parts, and I also hate that about myself."

Crime, illness, and violence in churches:
A sad story: a Christian Wisconsin couple is charged in the death of their daughter, whose diabetes they chose to treat with prayer rather than medicine. Should people have the right to trust only in Divine power for heaing - and expect the same of their families?

Forewarned is forearmed: New movie, "The Invention of Lying," humorously blasts Christianity as a lie.

Are you familiar with Belief.net? You should be. Although not exclusively Christian, it often has marvelous presentations on practical life problems that are encouraging in themselves, and could be adapted to presentations. The presentations aren't scholarly, but they're occasionally profound. Here's a sampling:
Resource Review
IC5: The Fifth Annual Conference on Innovation
Reviewed by
Rachel Davies

On October 4-6 approximately 180 Adventist clergy and lay members gathered in Columbus, Ohio for the fifth annual Conference on Innovation (IC5). The Conference on Innovation is organized by the Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in partnership with various other individuals, church, and para-church organizations. It seeks to initiate round-table dialogue among missional thinkers and doers in Adventism.

michael lindsayNoted sociologist Dr. Michael Lindsey kicked off IC5 by presenting the need for a "culture of innovation" within denominational structures. Although it's true that institutions often squelch the spirit of innovation, lone individuals rarely carry enough momentum to implement creativity by themselves. Dr. Lindsey closed the evening by sharing his research into the spiritual lives of high-profile people of faith. Such people are often masters of innovation due to the limited evangelistic freedom inherent in their positions. (Lindsay has written a book based on his research.)

Margaret Feinberg is a popular author and speaker in the young adult world, and on Monday morning she shared some startling illustrations of how culture is changing and how the church must also change if it wants to remain relevant.

David NeffAfter lunch, Christianity Today editor-in-chief David Neff challenged participants to embrace the long historical narrative of Christianity needed to guide believers more effectively into the future.

Suzy WelchIn the evening business journalist Suzy Welch (wife of long-time General Electric CEO Jack Welch) talked about her personal faith and how it has impacted her relationships with successful people in the business world.

Dr. Samir Selmanovic told us on Tuesday about his interfaith work in downtown Manhattan - a cogent and deeply compassionate presentation. Selmanovic invited participants to embrace the good news that our God is present in neighbors of different faiths, and that through interaction with "the other" we come to experience the full reality called God's Kingdom. Selmanovic just published a book called It's Really all About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. The conference ended with a wrap-up session by Dr. Gaspar Colon, Dean and Professor at Washington Adventist University, who reminded participants once again that ministry must adapt to meet the needs of differing contexts.

IC5 was a tremendous success. The conversations will happen again next year at IC6, October 3-5 in Columbus, OH. If you are a pastor, church administrator, teacher, scholar, theology student, or active lay person, you owe it to yourself to attend. It might just revolutionize your ministry.

Recordings of IC5 will eventually be available at the Innovation Conference website.
Featured Media
October 31 provides a unique evangelistic opportunity for Adventist Congregations. Listen to Pastor Kumar Dixit share how New Hope church put together a fall festival for the families of their community.

GC Ministerial has proclaimed October 24 to be Creation Sabbath. Go to CreationSabbath.net for ideas, articles, children's stories music, and other related resources. Vervent has also created follow up curricula that wrestle with the complexities of origins. "In the Beginning" is 13 half hour videos that chronicle the journey of two college students as they travel the country looking for clues as to the origins of the universe. The series makes a great small group discussion class. Download discussion guides written by Pastor Stan Hudson at Inthebeginning.tv.
To the Point

Very much of prayer is to be highly commended for its reverence, but it has in it a lack of childlike confidence. I can admire the solemn and stately language of worship that recognizes the greatness of God, but it will not warm my heart or express my soul until it has also blended therewith the joyful nearness of that perfect l0ve that casts out fear and ventures to speak with our Father in heaven as a child speaks with it's father on earth.
  - Charles Spurgeon,

If you don't know what your nonnegotiables are, you won't negotiate anything. You're afraid to let go of anything because later you might discover that was a nonnegotiable. When you don't know what's really important, you treat everything the same ... Don't confuse being rigid and unchanging with having convictions.
 - Erwin McManus

We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
 - Paul Bowles

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.
 - George Dennison Prentice

I'm afraid one actually has to allow for the denial and self-delusion that make it possible for people to be both self-righteous and sleazy at the same time. We are all capable of fooling ourselves in a grand variety of ways.
 - Molly Ivens

A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines.
 - Simone Weil

There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I am old there is no respect for age-I missed it coming and going.
 - J.B. Priestly
News, Ideas & Reminders

  • Pastor William Colburn is a book reviewer for several publishers, and writes excellent summaries of current Christian books at his blog called Segue.
  • To Firefox users, here's a great add-on tool that I use all the time. It's called Interclue, and it lets you see a miniature of an upcoming page just by hovering over the link, saving you from having to open the whole page. It's especially good for checking links on pages you're making.
Got a tool, resource, site, article, idea or seminar that you like a lot? Share it with us at [email protected].
Upcoming NAD Events

Do you have an event you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Send details to [email protected].
Best Practices is a Vervent publication of NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER. Editor: Loren Seibold, Senior Pastor, Worthington Ohio Seventh-day Adventist Church. E-mail: Best Practices. You are free to republish pieces from Best Practices in your own newsletter or blog, with attribution to the Best Practices newsletter and the author of the piece.