Best Practices
| August 31, 2011
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 "Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."
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News from NAD Ministerial
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NAD Ministerial Mission: Part One
by Ivan Williams, Director NAD Ministerial
 "The North American Division Ministerial Department of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) focuses on ministerial leaders and their families through the service and work of the Ministerial Department. This focus includes the support of more than 4,500 pastors and 108 ministerial directors throughout the territory that covers nine union conferences and 58 local conferences in Bermuda, Canada, and the United States.
The Ministerial Department sees pastoral ministry as the lifeblood and backbone of all that takes place within its territories. Supporting and equipping the ministry and role of the local pastor in the congregational setting is our number one focus because Spirit-filled, effective, healthy, pastors and congregations have an enormous impact for the kingdom of God."
Please pray for the NAD Ministerial team as we seek to know how to serve you best. We will be meeting September 20-23 to flesh out our dreams. Please feel free to email your best ideas for ministry and we can bring them to our retreat.
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| Editorial | |
 Is Membership Still a Meaningful Metric?
by Loren Seibold, Editor, Best Practices for Adventist Ministry
Recently I sat down with leaders from each of my congregations to go through their membership lists, name by name. Any of you who have done this won't be surprised that about half of those listed were inactive. (To their credit, the church leaders with whom I did this task had maintained some level of relationship with many of the missing, and I'm now in the process of visiting them.)
At the same time, I noted that a significant number of people I'd met in church weren't on the membership list. They were baptized Seventh-day Adventists, but had never joined our congregation. Mostly these were people from other countries, occasionally students. Our congregational leaders overlook their not being official members, and give them church offices anyway.
Membership, which was such an important measurement in times past, seems less meaningful today. It may be used for some conference calculations, such as insurance, staffing or ingathering goals. But in most congregations I know, the membership roster corresponds poorly to the people you'll see in church on Sabbath. In our conference, and perhaps yours, too, we've replaced membership with church attendance as the primary measurement of participation.
Is membership important? Should we get busy removing names of members who aren't participating? (I trust none of you use the phrase "pruning out the dead wood", nor that you would remove people from the list without trying to contact and reclaim them first.) And should we be telling attendees who aren't members that they can't teach a Sabbath School class until their membership transfer comes through?
The conventional wisdom is that resistance to joining organizations (of any kind) has been steadily growing through the last several generations. At one time every town and city had dozens of clubs, from gardening to chess to photography - and everyone was part of a church. Now even the VFW, whose members have in common the life-wrenching experience of having risked their lives in service to our country, can't get young veterans interested, and the organization is dying.
Joining once gave us a sense of security and opportunity. In addition to learning and mentoring, clubs and organizations provided venues to make friends. But attitudes have changed, and nowadays joining feels to people like entrapment. (Which explains another phenomenon of modern church life: why a church job that was once done by one person now has to be diced up among four or five, not one of them willing to be called the leader.)
When Luke writes that "the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47), did he mean they kept a written list, people voted in and out? It isn't clear. Most accounts suggest that early believers were defined by their experience with Christ, leaving the impression that participation was fluid, the group having few boundaries, and so wide open to new people. Yet I can't imagine running a congregation without some who declare unequivocally that they belong in the group - people who are proud of being members and are willing to support the organization.
What do you think? How do you manage church membership in a non-joining age? Let's discuss it on our Facebook page. 
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| Media |
Are you bothered by the distraction of mobile devices during the worship service? Should people be scolded in to shutting them off? Should they be checked at the door? In the next Adventist Media Summit presentation Delwin Finch, Pastor for Web Ministries at Forest Lake Seventh-day Adventist church, shares how mobile devices are becoming part of the interactive worship experience. And believe it or not, its not always the young people taking the lead.
 Rick Anderson, Worship Pastor for New Hope Adventist Church, launched a Facebook group for Adventist Worship Leaders that is starting to take off. He writes: "Hey Everyone! Please help me expand this network by inviting some of your friends that you think should belong to this group. The point of this group is to be far-reaching and include SDA Worship Leaders from a variety of regions.
 Logos software is tantalizing the worship world by dreaming up a new approach to presentation software by pushing the data to the cloud and allowing multiple people to collaborate on the same project without needing to email files or pass around CDs or USB thumb drives. Being cloud based and multi-platform makes it possible to deliver a consistent look on everyone's computer-removing last minute surprises. Proclaim is still in the beta testing phase and a release date has not yet been announced.
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| Reading for Pastors | Here's one way to expose false teachers: post them on your website! (Rick Warren and Harold Camping made the list. Rob Bell hasn't - yet.)
Did you come into a church excited for the first few years, and then lose interest? Here are 6 signs that you're coasting on past momentum. Quote: "#5. You don't hear younger generations say anything that resembles the vision as it was previously expressed."
If you're new in a church, you're probably still on a honeymoon. From The Church Executive: how to make the most of your honeymoon period in a new church.
Do husbands lead, and wives submit? That's how the apostle Paul made it sound. The debate still rages in some Christian churches, highlighted recently by remarks by presidential candidate Michelle Bachman.
We keep hearing about the end of printed books. But Christian publishers aren't complaining: religious book sales are strong.
A psychologist discusses the impact our fear of death has on civilization, and wonders about the downside of immortality. Quote: "So far, their results consistently support a thesis - known as Terror Management Theory - that particular aspects of our outlook are governed by our need to manage our fear of death. In other words, our cultural, philosophical and religious systems exist to promise us immortality."
About a third of the world's population lives in places where religious restrictions have increased. according to this report. Quote: "As other reports on religious freedom have found, it is scarcest in the Middle East and North Africa. But Europe, the study noted, has the largest proportion of countries where social hostilities related to religion rose. In France, for example, women are barred by law from wearing face-covering veils. More than other groups, Muslims and Christians suffered harassment based on their religion."
Interesting piece about Pacific Union College: "Where Conviction Meets Cabernet". Quote: "Angwin might be thought of as a community in flux - one that is attempting to balance a budding wine culture with an older community whose Seventh-day Adventist roots spurn the consumption of alcohol."
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| To the Point | These quotes are from Christian writer and apologist G.K. Chesterton:
It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.
The classes that wash most are those that work least.
Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
If there were no God, there would be no atheists.
Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.
We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man's terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.
All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But... if you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.
Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it. |
| News, Ideas & Reminders |
- Scripture Detective Agency is a new series of meetings for children, designed to coordinate with the nightly topics of Prophecies Decoded NET 2011 series.
- Facts with Hope are evidence-based health messages that may be used in a church bulletin, newsletter, or during the "Health Minute" as part of church service to motivate people to choose a full, abundant life.
- From Saddleback Church Leadership Academy: Commissioned, a church-planting conference. Quote: "We are making it super affordable. You can register this week for $99. Your spouse can come for free. We also have space for a few church planters to stay here, our beautiful Ranch in San Juan Capistrano for $20 a night. (email me for details)."
- Author and international evangelist, Dr. Matthew Gamble will be featured for the 2011 GODencounters Conference, September 15-17, at the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church, 4409 Pleasantview Drive, Arlington, TX 76017. Free and open to the community, all are invited to the 7:00 PM evening meetings on Thursday and Friday, as well as the closing session, 9:00 AM Saturday morning. For more information go to www.YGchurch.com.
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| Upcoming NAD Events |
Do you have an event you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Send details to BestPractices@Ameritech.net. Men's Ministries Day of Prayer. Sep 3, 2011, North American Division. Across the North American Division churches rally their men to pray for their families and churches. For more information, email: mlabrador@carolinasda.com Nurture Periodicals. Sep 4, 2011 - Sep 10, 2011, North American Division. Adventist Review, Insight, Guide, Primary Treasure, Our Little Friend. Festival of the Laity 2011. Sep 7, 2011 - Sep 10, 2011, Sheraton Dallas, 400 N Olive Street, Dallas, TX 75402. Come for training and strengthening your ministry capacity in the areas of: Bible Instructors, Children, Christian Education, Communication, Community Service, Deacons & Deaconess, Disabilities, Elder, Family & Singles, Greeters & Ushers, Health, Hospitality, Information Technology, Pastors, Pastors' Spouses, Personal, Prayer, Prison, Sabbath School, Stewardship, Women, Young Adult, Youth. Phone: 301-680-6430. For more information, email: carol.barron@nad.adventist.org. 7th Annual National Conference on Innovation: where provocative thinkers collide and engage in meaningful, unexpected conversations. October 2-4, 2011, Crowne Plaza - 33 East Fifth Street, Dayton, OH 45402. Presenters Include anna Lappe, Gabe Lyons, Ron Stout, Diana Fleming, Sid Lloyd. Online registration here. |
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Best Practices is a Vervent publication of NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER. Editor: Loren Seibold, Ohio Conference. 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. |
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