The Prayer and Need for Inclusion for Volunteer's in Church

The Prayer and Need for Inclusion for Volunteer's in Church

What are the volunteers serving in your church thinking? What are their hopes, dreams and needs? During the last 28 years, I have had the privilege of serving on a church staff and two missions as a Pastor and Chaplain, but the vast majority of my time has been as a volunteer.

To assist pastors and church leaders with better connecting with those who have made the strategic choice to leverage their marginal time and talent to serve others, the following are 10 things volunteers wish their pastor knew about them:

1. We desperately want to make a difference with our one and only life. Everyone wants to live a life of significance. Henry David Thoreau — 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.' We have decided the best place to make a difference is our local church and we do not want to go to the grave with the song being unsung.

2. Our time is valuable, so be organized and tell us what to do. We live very busy lives. When we show up to serve, please have us something important for us to do, and be well organized.

3. We want to serve in the context of community. People begin serving at a church for two reasons: first, to do something significant; second, to make friends. Pastors and church leaders need to always build a time of community into every volunteer effort.

4. Our opinion matters. We make important organizational decisions in the marketplace every day of our lives. We build teams and leverage resources. We are also at Ground Zero in regard to what is happening at the church. Smart pastors seek out and value our thoughts and insights. Don’t marginalize us.

5. We want influence, not position. It is a common misconception that if you give someone a title, it will please them. Titles are not bad things, but they fail in comparison to influence. Many leaders in church think that volunteers are after a position and that is quite the contrary. So the church leaders bypass the volunteer and cut off the very people that can greatly help and create exclusion rather than inclusion into the mindset of the volunteer.

6. We want our efforts to be an integral part of making the church’s vision a reality. Volunteers want to know what they are doing makes a difference in the overall scheme of things and is not just a busy task. The difference for one who is paid and one who just volunteers is that the only reason the volunteer has is because they love it, keep that in mind.

7. We want to continue to grow spiritually. The core desire of our hearts is to be connected with the heart of God.

8. All we want is for someone to say, “Thank you. You made a difference today.” Everyone wants to be told they are wanted and to be included. A simple expression of genuine thanks deepens the relationship with the church and inspires our continued efforts.

9. We want you to ask us to serve. The number one reason a person joins a cause or team is because someone asks them. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of qualified volunteers at your church who would love to serve if someone would just ask them.

10. We want the freedom to take a break when we need one. This is critical. There are seasons in your life when you are just tired or have little margin. There must be freedom to take a break for a season. If not, when a volunteer leaves a ministry position, they often leave the church as well because they feel they have no other options.

Pastors and church leaders, I know you appreciate and love your volunteers. We all know you could not get by without them. I trust this post will help you better connect with them and serve them in the way that you wish to.

Backdoor Revival

Do you sense a depression in the body of Christ in America, as if something is badly wrong? We’re losing influence within our culture as the anti-Christian sentiment grows, yet you’d never know it in most churches—the media, lights, music and preaching rolls on as if all is well.

The situation is exacerbated by this simple fact: We don’t have our act together in the body of Christ. Too often people come to the church, are deeply disappointed and as a result are turned off from the gospel. The church promises solutions but only offers lip service. We’ve become excellent at giving people a show on Sunday but lousy at showing them how to actually live. In fact, most church members are as bound up as those in the world—they’re in financial bondage, struggling with addictions and their families are in disarray.

This includes leaders in the church. I believe, as John Maxwell says, that everything rises and falls based on leadership. So allow me to address the leadership situation within the church community.

Churches and ministries typically grow when leaders are passionate and have a vision. It doesn’t matter if they have seminary degrees; if they can preach the gospel and if people gravitate to them, they suddenly have a growing church! Anointing is more important than academics. That’s partly why our churches are growing while other areas of the body aren’t.

But there’s a dark underbelly to church leadership too. Often the leaders are theologically untrained and veer from biblical doctrine. What else can explain the numerous—and usually public—theological gaffes such as Benny Hinn preaching that God is nine gods or Eddie Long being paraded around his church as a crowned king (amid a sex scandal)?

As troubling as sloppy theology is, I’m equally disturbed by leaders’ behind-the-scenes attitudes toward their flocks. The church community obviously isn’t the only one with “my way or the highway” leaders. But I’ve heard far too many pastors joke in private about having a “backdoor revival” before their church could move ahead. Translation: They had to make some people leave. They feel that God is telling them they are not their pastor anymore. Then these same leaders question why so many people have come through their doors and no one is staying. The Holy Spirit is hampered and these leaders have a form of godliness but denying its power.

I recently spoke with four friends about why it’s hard to find a good church. They are successful financially and are passionate believers. On the surface, they’re what every pastor needs. Yet after being active in a local church, they both became disillusioned with what they saw and how they were treated. As they recounted stories of how pastors felt threatened by their powerful personalities and positions, I felt sorry for my friends (for never experiencing the community they sought) and for the insecure leaders they served.

Countless other mature Christians have been so wounded by leadership that they stay home on Sunday and “go to church” by watching Charles Stanley or Jack Hayford. They get a good message, some good music and an opportunity to “tithe” to that ministry. Sometimes this is a transitional period. Too often it’s not.

But this isn’t Christian community. Aren’t we supposed to assemble with other believers? Aren’t we supposed to bring a hymn or a Scripture or a prophetic word when we meet? In larger churches this need is met in small groups or in various ministries of the church. There are many examples of healthy churches where this happens. But too often it isn’t.

So what’s the answer? I believe more church leaders need to be pastored, mentored and discipled themselves. Like the rest of us, they need accountability and true relationship, which produces a spirit of humility and servanthood rather than an “I’m the bishop, serve me” mentality or follow the leader and if you don’t then create ways of alienation for them to leave.

Leaders are held to a higher standard. Paul’s letters are full of specific directives for Christian leaders. Jesus said it’s better for someone to be cast into the sea with a millstone around their neck than to cause one person to stumble (Mark 9:42). It’s time for us to wake up and see what’s happening. There is a lost world to be won. There are “sheep” who need to be nurtured, fed and discipled in the things of God. It’s the only way a believer can survive in this increasingly difficult cultural environment!

Until this happens, people—like my friends—will feel as if they’re drifting. They’ll never really find their place in the body of Christ. And sooner or later, they will “vote with their feet” by going somewhere else—or worse still, nowhere.

Supreme Court and DOMA, an Oxymoron

As you have probably heard that today June 26, 2013 the Supreme Court nudged the nation toward broad recognition of same-sex marriage rulings hailed by advocates as a "joyous occasion".

Voting 5-4 in each of two decisions, justices threw out part of a law that denied hundreds of federal benefits to same-sex couples and cleared the way for gays and lesbians to once again marry in California.

The divided high court also handed a victory to same-sex proponents when it cleared the way for gay and lesbian couples to marry in California, Dismissing an appeal to the state's voter-approved Proposition 8 that banned such marriages. The 5-4 decision avoids, for now, a sweeping conclusion on whether same-sex marriage is a constitutional "equal protection" right that would apply to all states.

Where all this heads is that the High Court is leaving the States to determine same-sex marriages, which is an oxymoron. The State of California already voted against same-sex marriage and the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined that Proposition 8 to be revoked. The U.S. Court in California determined same-sex marriage, not the people of California. The High Court is now bypassing the Constitution by the people, it is not the courts but the people who determine, except in California. One judge determines, and the people have no more say. The Constitution is now buried and trampled on.

Meadowlark Lemon coming to Wells, ME

Super Star Sports Legend

MEADOWLARK LEMON

 Coming to Wells, Maine

Messiah Christian Church

2700 Post Rd

207-985-9287

      Sports Legend
Meadowlark Lemon

                 and

International Evangelist

       Ronnie Raven

                                           

                                           

   Friday, June 21, 2013 7:00p.m.

Come share the glory and experience the excitement

As Meadowlark and Raven minister messages of

Joy and Strength!

   For more information contact 

   Host Pastor Dr. Daniel Moore

    207-467-5937

“The Tradition Continues”

Indifference

Holocaust survivor Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy; it’s indifference. The opposite of life is not death; it’s indifference.”

In Luke 10:25-37 is the wonderful story of the Good Samaritan. It is the story that is being played out time and time again in our society in the last few decades. In this passage Jesus tells a story to a lawyer who was trying to justify his own existence of indifference. This lawyer was trying to look important to those in his sphere of influence by trying to cozy up to the great teacher. He was debating, or better yet discussing his way by showing how good his knowledge of the word of God was. Of course Jesus saw right through it and went right to the heart of the issue of indifference.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?”"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 

Jesus said this man had answered correctly. Indeed, he gave the exact answer that Jesus later gave in response to the same question (Mt 22:36-40). This was very unusual among the Jewish religious leaders and shows that this lawyer had some great truths revealed to him by God. However, Lu 10:29 shows that he did not yield himself to this revelation but sought to justify his own actions before God.

Just as with this lawyer, pride causes many people to resist the truth of justification by faith in the grace of God (Eph 2:8, Lu 10:29). This lawyer loved himself and the public recognition his "holy acts" gave him. He was not willing to love God first and his fellow man ahead of himself. This was not a sincere question on the lawyer's part but rather an evasive question seeking to shun responsibility. This man was seeking to be justified in the sight of God through his actions. 

He knew he had not loved everyone as he loved himself, so he was trying to interpret the scripture (Le 19:18) in a way that would conform to his actions. He wanted to define "neighbor" as just his close friends whom he had treated well. Jesus, through this parable, however, defined a neighbor as any fellow human being that crosses our path and is in need of our assistance. It is always wrong to try to interpret God's Word in a way that will match our experiences. We should instead make our experiences match God's Word.

Jesus taught repentance and faith as the means of justification with God (Mt 4:17 with John 6:28-29, and Luke 18:9-14). This lawyer was seeking to be right with God on the basis of his own actions. Self-justification always produces excuses, while repentance and faith toward God produces obedience.

This question of "Who is my neighbor?" can be used by Satan to deceive us in more than one way. Not only can he deceive us into thinking we have fulfilled the command to "love thy neighbor as thyself" when we haven't, but he will also try to apply this command in a way that condemns those of us who are seeking to fulfill it by making us think we are not doing enough. We cannot meet the needs of every single person in the world. Jesus wasn't teaching that. This wounded man was directly in the path of these three men. The priest and the Levite had to walk around him. The priest and the Levite were indifferent to the needs of someone who they only saw. We see people and their needs all the time, but we see past them and do not really look. We become hard hearted because people don’t fit into the category of how we want to help. So we just pass on by seeing but not really seeing. Our hearts are closed off or just hard. Jesus was simply teaching that we should take advantage of the opportunities we have. The fact that we can't help everyone is no excuse not to help anyone. When we develop the excuse is when we are indifferent.

Indifference is the great sin of our time. In Revelation chapter three John the beloved apostle describes seven churches and the seventh one is the church of Laodicea, neither hot, nor cold, but lukewarm. Lukewarm is indifference. Jesus replies “You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. “

We need to see, indifference has blinded us to the needs of people around us. Indifference is the sign of the Laodicean church, the church of the last days.

The Church's Great Deception

Rev 2:4
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
(NIV)

I Jn 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
(NIV)




The great deception is that there is a sign out in front of the church that say’s “We are a Hospital” where Jesus is calling out "Come to me to all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest",
but inside the doors it changes into “A Courtroom”, where there is division, judgement, condemnation, and there is no rest.

It is not just about the words that we speak, but it is how we speak them and how we demonstrate those words. Talk is cheap, we can say all the words that we want to but if it does not align with our actions (as James 1:22 would put it) then we are just hearers only.

Jesus’ answer to the great commission is that they (the world) would know us by the love that we have for one another (John 13:35). We the church have lost that love because we lost that Christ first loved us. Grace being given to us is the hospital that we have all needed. Instead we have incorporated a courtroom and are to busy judging and pointing fingers.

Another way to say this is like gold being refined. Impure gold is added to a oven that produces 2000 degree temperatures and is melted. What happens is that gold is a very heavy metal and the impurities (dross) rise to the surface and the gold remains beneath. The gold is taken out of the oven and the dross is skimmed off. The gold then is put back into the oven over and over again till the dross is eliminated.

In relationship to the church when an individual is being put through the refining fire and that person comes out with dross on the surface the church is standing all around pointing fingers and judging. But what does not happen is that this same church can’t go deep enough to see the refined gold that lays below the surface to see that God is changing a life His way and time and not the Churches way and time. It is God’s job to refine, He is the husbandman (gardener – oven tender) who prunes, skims off the dross.

John 15:1-2
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
(NIV)

The reason for this is that church has lost its first love, lost that Christ loved them first despite their own sin and frailty. While they were still sinners Christ died for them. We are not commanded by God as a church to judge, we are commanded to love. We lost the ability to love because we lack the foresight on how much Christ loves us. We think that now that we have arrived it is okay to now judge and it’s not.


John 13:34-35
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
(NIV)

We wonder why the world is not interested in Church; it is because we do not love. Loving means laying down our lives for one another. It means looking out for other people’s interest even foregoing our own. The world would bust the Churches door down if they saw the real thing. Were to busy pointing out the dross to notice the hurting individuals that exist across the street, next to our desk, across the hallway, and even sitting in the pew next to us.

This is the great deception, trading a hospital for a courtroom.

Now more than ever our country and the world is desperate for an authentic witness of God's love expressed through Jesus Christ.

Why I'm Ashamed of the American Church

12:00PM EST 1/18/2013 DANITA ESTRELLA

The gospel in my Bible is dramatically different from that preached in many churches.

I spend most of my time on the mission field in Haiti. Yet when I come to the U.S., I am reluctant to go to church. It's embarrassing to admit, but it's true. Often I hesitate to walk through the church doors.

I continually ask myself, Why? I love God with all my heart, I love His people and I love His Word.

So then, what is the problem?

My struggle stems from the fact that the gospel I read in my Bible is dramatically different from the gospel that is preached in many American churches today. Before I explain, let me give you some background.

First, I believe in prosperity. I am a mother to 72 children, and 504 children sit at my lunch table daily.

I moved to Haiti alone in 1999 with a promise from God: "Go, and I will be with you." Though the early years were marked with pain and hardship, in the last eight years, the Lord has blessed me beyond measure.

Second, I believe in healing. I have to! Good medical care is nonexistent where I live in Haiti.

In 2002, my 3-year-old boy, Guy, was dying of AIDS. His face looked skeletal, his eyes had sunken in, and he refused to eat or drink.

It was my faith and prayers of desperation that brought him back to life. Today, he is 8 years old, healthy and beautiful.

Third, I am a woman of faith. In 2001, the property that I had purchased was a cactus field. Today, we have a church, a school and two orphanages.

I do not consider myself to be a "poverty-mentality" missionary. I believe God's people should be blessed.

But when was the last time you heard a teaching on suffering? Why does the church love to teach on Hebrews 11, the chapter of faith, but conveniently stop at verse 34?

Verses 36-39 state of the heroic saints who went before us: "Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them.

"They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised" (NIV).

Why do we not teach new converts Philippians 1:29? "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him."

Not many churches today are raising up a generation of men and women who are prepared to risk it all for the sake of the gospel. Why? Because we have omitted the teaching about suffering saints.

Could this be the reason that the American missionary is becoming a dying breed and most of them who do go, do not return for a second term?

Do I think the church should stop preaching about the blessings of God? No. I believe the church should teach that God is an intimate God. He deals with us as individuals.

He may require something from you that He does not require from others. We are not all chosen to walk the same road.

The apostle Paul was beheaded in prison, but prior to his death he told Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier (see 2 Tim. 2:3). Peter's final words to the church were "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21).

You may never have to give your life for the gospel, but would you be willing? When God hears the cries of His people, He looks for a deliverer. And the deliverer He calls may be you.

The message of the cross can be summed up in two words: "Follow Me." Today, the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro throughout the earth and He is asking: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"

Can you honestly say, "Here I am, Lord, send me"?

Danita Estrella is the founder of Hope for Haiti Children's center, a ministry that provides food, clothing, education, medical care and the teaching of the gospel to impoverished children in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. She has lived in Haiti since 1999. For more information, go to danitaschildren.org.