Best Practices
| May 5, 2010
|
|
A Best Practices webinar featuring Elder Paulsen
 Spend an hour with the President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Pastor Jan Paulsen. Listen to his heart as he encourages the pastors of the NAD. With the GC Session just around the corner here is your chance to ask whatever question is pressing on your mind. This Best Practices webinar is limited to the first 1,000 people who register - so reserve your place now!
Reserve your webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/216950289
|
|
|
|
Editorial
| Toward Consumer-Friendly Giving
By Loren Seibold, editor, BP/Ministry
When I first came to Ohio, a new member came to me with the tithe envelope that is supplied by the conference office. "What all does this stuff mean?" she asked. "Which of these should I give money to?" I could see why she was confused. Listed were ten funds and projects, starting with tithe, and then some blank lines to write in your own. Furthermore, the names on some of the lines (like "ingathering") probably wouldn't mean much to anyone who didn't have a history in the church. To make it even less friendly, the conference had placed their internal accounting line numbers at the beginning of some of the items!
It was an insiders document. It wasn't designed to make giving easy. Our local treasurer admitted to me that a few members just put $10 on every line every week! (We finally printed our own somewhat simplified envelope.)
An additional complication, from a pastor's point of view, is that in Adventist culture (if not doctrine) the tithe is the important part of giving - what God insists that you pay. Offerings, though they're also mentioned in Fundamental Belief #21, aren't as crisply defined as tithe, and so are often considered optional.
During my time with this congregation we've built a $5.5 million church and a $2 million school. If I didn't promote local giving, we'd go under very quickly. But when I do ask people to give to the church budget, I feel like I'm suggesting a competition with the conference for the money - and the conference part is what pays my salary!
That's assuming people are aware that there's a difference. I've heard church members say, when I'd mentioned the local church budget, "Pastor, I'm doing my part for the budget. I pay my tithe on every paycheck." I'm pleased they're paying tithe, of course. Yet it's clear that as hard as we've tried to communicate it, we've apparently not been able to make some understand that there's a difference between giving to the local church and giving to the denomination.
A few church members take the list of choices to its logical extreme. Using those blank lines, they direct their gifts only to items they're interested in. It's more fun to give to a specific project you like than to chip in for the water bill or the pastor's salary.
Of course, we'll need to continue to educate people. But my point is that consumer-friendly organizations avoid making too complicated and arcane the process of parting with your money. Imagine if it were as complicated to buy something at Target as it is to figure out the tithe envelope! (That may be one reason our parachurch and independent ministries do so well. You don't have to be an accountant to figure out how to give to The Voice of Prophecy. You just send a check.)
It may be dangerous to open this conversation. We run the risk of sharpening the competition between local giving and denominational giving. We'll have to be very careful lest we stumble over what is undoubtedly the third rail of Adventist policy: the distribution of tithe.
But we can make giving simpler than we do - and we should!
Discuss this article on the Best Practices Facebook page  |
|
Reading For Pastors
|
AU Seminary Dean Denis Fortin has added another great piece about women in ministry - this time focusing on Phoebe. Quote: "If men and women could be diakonos in the New Testament, why
couldn't men and women serve in the same capacity today?"
From Dan Serns at NPUC.adventistpastors.com, "Three Ideas for Integrating New Members"
More about the emerging church? One point of view from Monte Sahlin. Quote: "Those who speak negatively about the emerging church, including both
the more reasoned evaluations and the name-calling nonsense, need to
admit that
they have a basic agenda: To fend off any significant change or growth
in the Adventist Church or Christianity in general."
How do you identify a leader? Here are four signs you're working with one.
Is pornography only a problem for men? Apparently not, according to those who are ministering to female addicts.
Here's an excerpt from EXPONENTIAL:How You And Your Friends Can Start A Missional Church Movement: The most important coaching questions. Quote: "Remember at the heart of effecting coaching is a relational
investment. It may sound cliché, but it's still true: 'People don't
care how much you know, until they know how much you care.'"
|
| Featured Media | The final installment of the Stained Glass Documentary Series featuring the Hollywood Blvd church is now available for viewing. Watch as the arc is completed as Hollywood Blvd finds fulfillment in its new found mission.  Next up will be Oakland Grand Ave and Sunset Oaks documentaries. However if you simply have to see the entire Hollywood documentary series ASAP you can order it on DVD from AdventSour ce.
In preparation for the Best Practices in Ministry Webinar with Pastor Jan Paulsen you may wish to watch some of his public statements that he has made on the About Life site on YouTube. You can react to his opinion about Racism, the Second Coming, Scripture, Poverty, The Environment, and Integrity. You may also be interested in the speech he made on his recent trip to Haiti. The Webinar will be held May 20 at 2:00 pm EDT. Seating is limited to the first 1,000 who register.
 Does your church need some ideas on how to get involved in the community? Pastor's DVD Volume 17 focuses entirely on stories aobut churches that are making a difference in the community. PDVD17 entitled Compassion Ministry, also includes resources for community involvement from the Adventist Community Services and Hope for Humanity. The Pastor's DVD is available to every pastor in the NAD and distributed through the local Conference Ministerial Association. Click the thumbnail to the left to learn about how your church can be prepared to assist with a disaster.
|
| To the Point
| No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But grateful, take the good I
find,
the best of now and here.
- John Greenleaf Whittier
There is no music in a
"rest," but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life
melody, the music is broken off here and there by "rests," and we
foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. God sends a time of forced
leisure - sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts - and makes a sudden
pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be
silent and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the
Creator. How does the musician read the "rest"? See him beat time
with unvarying count and catch up the next note true and steady as if no
breaking place had come in between. Not without design does God write the music
of our lives. But be it ours to learn the time and not be dismayed at the
"rests." They are not to be slurred, not to be omitted, not to
destroy the melody, nor to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will
beat the time for us. With the eye on Him we shall strike the next note full
and clear.
- John Ruskin
The more we live by our
intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life.
- William James
A book is a garden, an
orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude
of counselors.
- Henry Ward Beecher
As surgeons keep
their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate
treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine
and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the
bond that unites the two.
- Marcus Aurelius
The first and best victory is
to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful
and vile.
- Plato
Truth above all, even when it
upsets and overwhelms us.
- Henri-Frederic Amiel
Cheerfulness means a
contented spirit, a pure heart, a kind and loving disposition; it means
humility and charity, a generous appreciation of others, and a modest
opinion
of self.
- William Makepeace Thackeray
Great
God, I ask thee for no
meaner
pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself,
That in my action I may soar as
high
As I can now discern with
this clear eye.
- Henry David Thoreau
|
News, Ideas & Reminders
|
- From Dave Gemmell at CRC: "Thanks to you for joined us at the
April 14 Best Practices webinar about iFollow. At that event we promised you a beta copy of
the
first book in the iFollow Discipleship Series by Dan Day entitled Getting it
Right. Unfortunately, we had a manufacturing delay so the book is only
now coming off the press. Your copy should be shipped out next week
Thank
you for your patience."
- Don't forget IMPACT Atlanta [iATL], June 23 through July 3, 2010 at the
Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia. "Converging Seventh-day
Adventist young adults from around the world to sharpen leadership and
compassion skills through training and community service to the
neighborhoods of greater Atlanta. Adventist collegians through young
professionals age 35 are invited to apply and register to participate
in iATL."
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
