Dear pastors and ministry leaders:
[caption id="attachment_21" align="alignright" width="150"] Greg and Susan Williams[/caption]
LifeWay Resources President Thom Rainer is pretty good at predicting trends in the North American church. He's been analyzing those trends for years, and recently shared his take on what lies ahead in an article titled "The Top Ten Major Trends for 2017." I've reproduced his list below (with minor edits) and then provided comments concerning how these trends might impact us in GCI. I encourage you to discuss these with your leaders as you consider together how they might impact the various ministries in your congregation.
[caption id="attachment_3316" align="aligncenter" width="496"] Used with "Leadership... Read the article
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Sermon for March 26, 2017 (fourth Sunday in Lent)
Scripture readings:
1 Sam. 16:1-13, Psalm 23: 1-6, Eph. 5:8-14, John 9:1-41
THE MIRACLE OF SEEING JESUS (John 9:1-41)
By Ted Johnston
Jesus performed many miracles by which he met human needs while conveying truth concerning his identity as Son of God and Messiah. One of the biblical signs of the Messiah was the healing of blindness, and in John 9, Jesus fulfills that sign. John also is using this miracle to say something about the human condition, for in John "to see" physically is a metaphor for understanding spiritually. And so John 9 is about spiritual blindness as well as physical blindness, and about how Jesus heals both.
The man we meet in John 9 was both physically and... Read the article
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Sermon for March 19, 2017 (third Sunday in Lent)
Scripture readings:
Ex. 17:1-7, Psa. 95:1-11, Rom. 5:1-11, John 4:5-42
REJOICING IN OUR JUSTIFICATION (Romans 5:1-11)
By Ted Johnston
In Romans 1-4, Paul focuses on justification---the gift of right standing with God received by those who trust in Christ for their salvation. This gift unites believers with God and thus with other believers, including Abraham, who Paul identifies in Romans 4 as the "father" of all who have faith in God. Whether Jew or Gentile, these believers are all part of one family. This is Paul’s theme throughout Romans 5 and 6 as he writes to believers in churches in Rome composed of multiple ethnicities.
Paul begins our passage today (Romans 5:1-11) with six... Read the article
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Below are links to inexpensive or free resources that address key aspects of congregational leadership. We don't necessarily endorse the full content of each one, but all of them provide helpful food for thought and discussion.
Discerning God's Will As a Group. This training pack from Building Church Leaders teaches ways for a leadership group to seek together God's will for a congregation or ministry. It costs $14.99.
Decision Making. This training pack provides a helpful method for team-based decision making. It costs $14.99.
Training New Leaders. This training pack gives instruction about recruiting and developing new leaders. It costs $19.99.
Finding and Encouraging Young Leaders. This training pack looks at recruiting... Read the article
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Through the five articles linked below, this month's Equipper addresses leadership development, a vital part of our ongoing journey of renewal.
From Greg: Team-based and pastor-led
Greg Williams explores the model of congregational leadership that GCI advocates and has governance systems in place to facilitate.
[caption id="attachment_3186" align="aligncenter" width="387"] The Exhortation to the Apostles by Tissot (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)[/caption]
On Leadership: Know yourself to lead yourself
Rick Shallenberger notes a key aspect of congregational leadership.
Team-based leadership resources
This article links to helpful resources related to congregational leadership.
RCL sermons: February 12---March 12
Here... Read the article
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[caption id="attachment_340" align="alignright" width="189"] Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their lives. (Proverbs 22:6)[/caption]
God uses churches of all sizes to accomplish his purposes, yet many churches, in multiple denominations (GCI included), are quite small. This small size, no doubt, presents many opportunities, yet it also presents significant challenges---particularly when it comes to discipling children.
How does a small church provide a meaningful children's ministry when only one or two children show up on any given Sunday morning, and the number of adults available to disciple these children is quite limited? According to Greg Baird, in an article at discipleblog.com, instead of... Read the article
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In keeping with our commitment to equip pastors and others for preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), we provide this month five sermons that sync with the RCL Gospel lections for February 12 through March 12, 2017. We welcome your comments, additions and questions (use the "leave a reply" feature below).
Sermon for February 12, 2017
Scripture readings:
Deut. 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Cor. 3:1-9; Matt. 5:21-37
KINGDOM LIVING
(Matthew 5:21-37)
by Ted Johnston
(drawing on John Stott's commentary)
Introduction
We've been looking at the Sermon on the Mount---last week we saw in Matthew 5 how Jesus says he fulfills the Law (the Old Testament). He then shows that, under the new covenant, our lives are not lived under the... Read the article
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This article is from Rick Shallenberger, a GCI-USA regional pastor and a contributing editor and feature writer for Equipper.
This is part 2 of a series on Christian leadership. For other articles in the series, click a number: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Do you know what it's like to be on the other side of you? That question, raised to the GCI-USA regional pastors in a training session with Tom Nebel (a GiANT Worldwide consultant), set me back on my heels. I'd never thought about it before. Tom said it's like "having broccoli in your teeth---everyone knows it's there, but they won’t tell you, so you have no idea."
[caption id="attachment_158" align="aligncenter" width="267"] Rick and Cheryl Shallenberger[/caption]
Tom's point was... Read the article
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Dear fellow pastors and leaders,
Our theme this issue is congregational leadership. Though a large topic, it's vital to our ongoing journey of renewal. The old adage is generally true: "As go the leaders, so goes the church." By definition, leaders are influencers, thus who they are as people and how they exert their influence, have a significant impact on their congregations, for good or for ill. In GCI, we highly value our pastors and other leaders, and this issue is devoted to equipping them for their high calling. In this letter, I focus on a particularly important aspect of congregational leadership, summarized by the phrase team-based and pastor-led.
[caption id="attachment_21" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Greg and Susan... Read the article
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This article is by Rick Shallenberger, who serves as a U.S. regional pastor and a contributing editor for GCI-USA publications.
This is part 1 of a series on Christian leadership. For other articles in the series, click a number: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
[caption id="attachment_158" align="aligncenter" width="233"] Rick and Cheryl Shallenberger[/caption]
In his letter this month, Greg Williams mentions CAD's commitment to prayerfully bring to our pastors and other leaders what we in CAD refer to as high support-high challenge. Perhaps you've heard one of the members of the CAD team (like your regional pastor), in a context of high support, say, “Let me bring a challenge to you.”
This high support-high challenge terminology, which... Read the article
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