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BestPractices
November 6, 2009
Loren in capI'm writing to you from the NAD year-end meetings. Like most church business meetings, a mix of things: some interesting and encouraging news, and some dull by-laws changes. Always enjoy Elder Schneider's stories, and seeing old friends.

Friday morning the NAD Women's Ministries department unveiled a great program to end violence to women, called "End It Now". It's a wonderful program. You can get connected with it all here.

Monte Sahlin tells me that nearly a hundred people signed in to the Strategic Planning webinar last week. Thanks for the great response, and it encourages me to do a few more webinars. We'll let you know.

Blessings
Loren
IN THIS ISSUE
Pastor: Tom Glatts transplants Peru
Levite Praise, by Cheryl Wilson-Bridges
Reading: Depressed pastors
Media: Delwin Finch
Quotes: ".When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything."
Dan Day on discipleship
News & ideas: Tithing for our youth
Events: Westpoint of Evangelism
Practicing Pastor
Tom GlattsBehaving like Peru in Vancouver
Tom Glatts, Vancouver, BC

Awhile back, Tom Glatts told me he was taking a Sabbatical to Peru. He wanted to find out how the church was growing so fast there, with so few clergy. I asked him for a report, and here it is. LGS

You asked me to let you know what I learned on my Sabbatical in Peru.  Sorry for taking so long, but I've been in transition.  I've now landed in Vancouver, BC and am now beginning to put into practice what I learned.

The reason the church is growing so fast in Peru is two words, "grupos peque�os."  Small groups is the basis for their growth. The commitment to small groups is so strong that when conference leaders wanted to have a meeting in Iquitos, they arrived two weeks early and visited all of the small group leaders in a city of 500,000.  I went to a training session for small group leaders at 5:30 a.m. on Sabbath morning and found people already waiting.

I attended a meeting in Cusco, where the conference president held a meeting with the small group leaders. They were there to prepare for satellite meetings in November. They plan to baptize 100,000 in the South American Division. Their plan was simple.  The SAD has 93,000 active small groups. (They are always birthing new groups. They expect to have 100,000 by November.) Each member was to be praying for 7 people. That's about 50 prayers per small group (average of 7 members per group). Each group was given 10 sharing books and they were to target 10 people out of the 50 they were praying for. Of those 10, on average 3 would accept Bible studies.  Out of the three, one would be baptized. Look at these numbers.

Praying for: 5,000,000 people
Target: 1,000,000 for sharing books
Bible studies for: 300,000
Baptisms : 100,000

In Peru and all of South America, you reap what you sow.

What am I doing about what I learned?  I'm starting small groups and a college of evangelism at my church to train the members of those small groups. I found 5 young men who have gone through Mission College, Amazing Facts and Arise. I'm going to put them to work as teachers in our local church college. We are going to see if you can behave like Peru in Vancouver, BC.  It could all fail, but I'm expecting great things from the Lord who is gracious.
Resource Review
Book review
Levite Praise, by Dr. Cheryl Wilson-Bridges


Levite PraiseGetting right to the point, this is a book that senior pastors and worship leaders should read. Instead of planning worship by market research, Wilson-Bridges believes worship should be planned by principles found in the Old Testament and in Revelation.

To lay the framework for her work, the author has organized the book into three sections. What does God desire? What does God require? How should we aspire?

The first chapter contains twelve principles of heavenly worship. These are based on Revelation. Of special interest to the reviewer were
  • God alone is the audience and sole object of adoration and praise; therefore, His parameters define mankind's worship reality.
  • God seated on His throne is the centerpiece of true worship.
If one read only the first chapter, one's time would be well spent. However, there is much more. In the third section of the book, Wilson-Bridges draws the parallels between the ministry of the Levites and the ministry of the worship leaders today. She includes twenty-one premises of Levite praise. Here are just a few.
  • Worship singers and musicians are called of God for service.
  • This sacred office of the Levite is a priestly role.
  • Worship singers and musicians who are called into service are Levites-priests and leaders in the church.
  • The Levitical priestly order is for today and must be implemented in the contemporary church.
  • To please God with our praise and worship we must follow His guidelines on musical worship in the church.
  • Under the inspiration of King David, God outlines the components of true praise and worship for the Levites.
  • God does not take this Levitical service lightly. There are severe consequences for the priests if these godly instructions regarding the Levites are not followed.
While some may question the imperatives, one must still must consider the thoughtful questions and concepts Wilson-Bridges presents. If you desire worship to focus on the majesty and worthiness of God and not merely on the foibles of the sinner's daily troubles, then you need to read and contemplate deeply this worthy book.

Reviewed by John Wheeler Boyd. Boyd is a lifetime music educator. He chairs the music department at Southwestern Adventist University.
Reading For Pastors

Does e-church have a future? Apparently.
Here's a new twist to religious liberty: an employee claims discrimination about his "green" beliefs. Quote: "In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Barton found in favour of Tim Nicholson, who was made redundant by the property company he worked for.  The judge argued that a 'philosophical belief which is based on science' should receive the same protection as religious beliefs." Chesterton was right.

La Sierra president Randal Wisbey shared with me this piece called "Nurturing the Adventist Mind." Quote: "While we at times make mistakes, I am convinced that the church would be well advised to see higher education as friend - not to be feared because of the questions that we at times ask, but embraced because we are willing to ask these very questions."
 
Depressed clergy?
Featured Media
Internet. Cell Phones. iPod. Text Messaging. Facebook. Technology invades every part of our waking hours, including our worship services. Instead of trying to shut cell phones down Forest Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church is leveraging interactive technology to enhance their corporate worship. Delwin Finch is a full time web pastor and is leading a team of 70 lay leaders to help support this booming ministry.  Watch how interactive technology plays an important role in this young adults worship service. Then listen to the full length uncut interview with Delwin as he gives a candid report on technology is used at Forest Lake and where it might be going.

To the Point
When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything.
 - G.K. Chesterton

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four, unless there are three other people.
 - Orson Welles

If once God's electing love rises upon the soul, it never sets.
  - Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity

We never feel Christ to be a reality until we feel him to be a necessity.
  - Austin Phelps

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.
  - Peter Ustinov

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
  - Paul Fix

You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.
  - Sam Levenson


Discipleship
Dan DayDiscipleship: if we saw it would we recognize it?
by Dan Day, Director, NAD Church Resource Center

Discipleship: what is it? If we were walking along the street and discipleship fell on our heads would we: a) wipe it off; b) call the paramedics; or c) fall to our knees and begin to pray? In other words, if we saw it, would we recognize it?

In this and subsequent issues of Best Practices we're going to dig at the answers to these questions, leading to the introduction of a remarkable new resource for discipleship that will be really cool. Just wait and see.

First of all, though, what is discipleship? For some people, discipleship is only about spiritual disciplines. It's about learning how to pray better, how to meditate, how to resist temptation. All those are good things, of course. But something inside has to change before the outside stuff gets a whole lot better, right?

For others, discipleship is about teaching people to do "the right stuff." It's about getting people to tithe, to go out witnessing, to attend services regularly. Discipleship is about making better church members. But, again, is this something we can accomplish merely through more extensive training?

For still others, discipleship is what we do after we hold an evangelistic series. The evangelist gets them into the church, and discipleship is the process by which we indoctrinate new members into the detailed beliefs and practices of the church. It's how we fill in the gaps the evangelist didn't cover, sort of like "boot camp" for new Adventists.

For discipleship to "take" in an Adventist congregation, though, it must encompass all these and much more. It's about all the stuff that enables us to follow Jesus more closely-and have fun doing it. It's about our life, our faith and our church.

The rest is yet to come...

News, Ideas & Reminders
Are we really doing all we can for youth and young adults? A. Allan Martin from the AU-SDATS has written an open letter to church leaders that I found challenging, and thought you might, too.

Several have mentioned
this website by Liberty Mutual, with film clips about responsibility - some useful for sermons, perhaps?

Re Michael Campbell's birthday phone calls, from last BP, Einar Rom writes,
"If you have pastoral access to your church's membership account, you can see a list of all birthdays at www.eadventist.net. This is a great practice and have seen how members appreciate the calls."

From Terry McComb. "If you missed out on Creation Sabbath, October 23-24, why not host a Creation weekend on November 27? November 24 marks the 150th year since Darwin published his Origin of the Species. Go to www.creationrestoration.org for resources that will help in your planning. (Creation is a common ground belief of both Muslims and Jews. Invite them to join you in your Creation event.)"

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.