Resolution: Separation of Church and State
Posted July 22, 2008 in 1959, Social Concerns, Resolutions, GARBCnews
1959 Annual Conference resolution, passed by voting messengers.
Resolution: Civil Defense
Posted July 18, 2008 in 1959, Social Concerns, Resolutions, GARBCnews
1959 Annual Conference resolution, passed by voting messengers.
Synergy: July 2008
Posted July 16, 2008 in July 2008, GARBCnews, Synergy
Summer sizzles with Synergy! View the July issue now. This GARBC e-newsletter for pastors and wives and ministry leaders provides great ideas for your ministry. Written by ministry leaders for ministry leaders-the best kind of synergy! Share your ministry ideas.
Enjoy this July 2008 issue:
Dear Friends,
Posted in July 2008, BuildUP Church Ministry Training, Greeting, Synergy
Summer is sometimes associated with “summer reads”- books with lighter, fluffy content. While it is good to take time for rest and relaxation, the summer issue of Synergy comes to you in an opposite vein. We are offering to you thought provokers as your mind gears up for the fall season of church ministry. In this issue you’ll discover great tried and true ministry helps contributed by pastors, ministry leaders, and women’s ministries leaders. While you are enjoying the great outdoors and the sounds of birds chirping, let your mind wander to new ideas for ministry. Together we can grow more!
Serving with you,
John and Daria Greening,
GARBC national rep. and wife
Planning toward Spiritual Growth
Posted in July 2008, Ministry Toolbox, Synergy
In my work as a United Postal Service supervisor, I have seen that company leaders know the business they’re in and that they have measuring tools that indicate whether company actions are leading them on the right path. Usually a company’s most important measuring tool is the financial bottom line—the $ indicator of whether or not they are making a profit.
In contrast to the use of measuring tools in the business world, consider the measuring methods that take place in the local church. As a body of believers we have the greatest mission in the world—to introduce people to Jesus and see Him transform their lives. The spiritual stakes are extraordinarily high. Yet we don’t have a great way to measure life-change.
Measuring spirituality can be tricky. Leaders of two well-known mega-churches once assumed that if they built large buildings and set scores of ministries into motion, these actions would correlate with spiritual growth. However what they discovered is that they had been measuring the wrong things.
Spirituality is an abstract concept, and it looks different in different people. That being said, spiritual development is too important to leave to chance. So what do we do? For starters, we put down on paper what we’re after. There’s something about putting plans on paper that moves them from theory to reality. If we’re serious about life-change, we have to specifically write down our spiritual action plan. The road we’re on determines our destination.
In Scripture God has given us actions that a follower of Christ will take. I’ve applied those actions to identify steps for someone who comes to our church to grow spiritually. As I discuss spiritual growth, it’s important to keep the following thoughts in mind:
First, doing these things will not make you spiritual; however, a spiritual person does these things. None of us ever wants to be accused of being Pharisaical. We don’t want to imply to people in our church that they can check off lists and view their spirituality as somehow arrived. The status of people’s hearts is the important distinction.
Second, identifying the characteristic actions of a follower of Christ helps make growth measurable. This is going to force your church to face reality, which is a good but scary proposition. By identifying these actions, you’ll have an idea of how you’re progressing as a church and where you’ll need to spend your time in helping people grow spiritually.
Next, this is not an exhaustive list. I don’t have the market cornered on following Jesus, nor do I have the discipleship process neatly packaged. But there’s enough in this process to challenge every person in your congregation for a long time.
Last, what I’ve identified is for every Christian. Brand new followers of Christ and long-time Christians will be able to identify exactly what their next steps should be.
So here’s our process. It doesn’t have a lot of flair, but it provides next steps for every individual and it is measurable. The key to these steps is the marrying of a heart attitude with a literal action in a specific place. These steps are intended to be sequential; however, sometimes the order changes.
Action steps that promote spiritual growth
1. Put God at the center of your life: attend Sunday worship consistently.
Usually people’s first step toward God or their first step away from God can be measured in their attendance.
2. Reveal God to others: participate in a community-outreach event.
As soon as person becomes born again, sharing their faith should be a natural part of the growth process. Usually a new believer’s world is made up of unbelievers.
3. Apply God’s principles to your life: attend a small (community) group.
A small (community) group is one of the best places for people to get connected. This is where people do life together at ground zero.
4. Make an impact with your life: serve in a ministry.
This is more than just contributing to the local body of Christ; it is about living with an eternal perspective.
These steps have levels of depth. Consistently attending Sunday worship is a great way to begin the process of putting God at the center of your life, but it isn’t the end-all. Those who are already fulfilling these steps with the right heart will find they can go deeper within each specific step in their own spiritual journey.
If someone is already doing the four steps with the right heart attitude and wants to pursue the next step, other spiritual markers can be determined from Scripture. Potential next steps for the core actions are listed below.
Put God at the center of your life:
Spiritual disciplines
Tithing
Sacrificial giving
Making room for God (time)
Teachable spirit
Desire to please God
Baptism
Membership (commitment to the body)
New-believer discipleship (one-on-one)
Reveal God to others:
Learn to share the gospel
Invite friends to church
Lead an outreach event
Host an outreach event
Host or lead an outreach Bible study
Apply God’s principles to your life:
Make a meal
Visit someone in the hospital
Send a note of encouragement
Care for those in need
Pray for others
Mentor someone
Get training
Strengthen your family relationships
Subdue your physical body (addictions, fitness)
Renounce sin
Attend and be involved in “Body life” stuff (e.g., church Christmas party)
Make an impact with your life:
Develop your spiritual gift
Take a missions trip
Lead a ministry
Host a community group
Lead a community group
Develop ministry personnel
Help the needy
As you form your own strategy for making disciples, here are good questions to keep you on target:
1. What do you want people to become?
2. What do you want people to do?
3. Where do you want people to go
Remember: the road we’re on determines the destination!
Daryl Neipp, Associate Pastor, Program Development
New Community Baptist Church
Avon, Ohio
Women’s Fall Kick-off Banquet
Posted in July 2008, Women's Ministries, Synergy
Our Women’s Missionary Fellowship (WMF) ministry kicks off each September with our All Daughters Banquet. We enjoy a meal and a program in which we introduce our new officers, explain our WMF goals, listen to special music and a speaker, and sometimes watch a skit that reflects the event theme.
Our aim in hosting the event is to evangelize by inviting ladies who do not normally attend our church and to build our own women’s support of our ladies’ ministries. We invite ladies who are new to our church or who have not been involved in the WMF ministry to participate, pray, and make donations. Our goal is to increase attendance at our ladies’ workdays and Bible studies and to prompt women to pray for these ministries. Also we want to plant the seed of salvation in an unbelieving woman, begin a friendship with a newcomer, and encourage ladies who are lonely or weary or who are discouraged in their Christian walk.
Examples of banquet themes we’ve used are as follows:
God’s Flower Garden—On a Saturday afternoon we had a ladies’ tea with china cups and saucers, tea, and scones/muffins. We presented a history of tea and the etiquette for serving and taking tea. The centerpieces for the tables were floral teacups. The speaker spoke on different flowers and related those flowers to the Christian life. The theme verse was the first part of Song of Solomon 2:12.
A Godly Pattern for Women—Tables were decorated with baskets of sewing notions. We hung quilts on the walls that our ladies had brought, and we voted on them in different categories—oldest, prettiest, and so forth. The theme verse was Ephesians 5:16. This banquet was held on a Friday evening.
The response to our annual banquets has been good. Many visitors and our own church ladies attend this event. Ladies are encouraged in their Christian walk. It is certainly worth the effort.
Sheila Stevens, Pastor’s Wife
First Baptist Church
Hibbing, Minnesota
Multi-faceted Women’s Ministries
Posted in July 2008, Women's Ministries, Synergy
In the last three years, our ladies’ ministries have been brought under one umbrella called First Women’s Ministries. We have the following ministries by and to women:
Ladies’ Bible Studies—comprises of two weekly daytime studies and a bimonthly evening study. Our studies begin in the fall, suspend for holiday break, and begin again in late January. We use ladies’ Bible study books and also lessons and study guides prepared by our teachers/leaders.
Women’s Missionary Fellowship—meets monthly, September through May, to inform our ladies about the different missionaries our church has sent or is presently supporting. Also we highlight our own women who are involved in outreach or missionary endeavors. Occasionally we have a workday to do sewing or crafting for our missionaries per their requests. Every new missionary who is commissioned from our church is sent out with a “Quilted in Prayer” quilt as a gift from our ladies. We always have a time of prayer focusing on the needs of our missionaries. Plus we publish a monthly prayer prompter for our church family that gives current and time-sensitive prayer requests for our missionaries.
Women Helping Women Team—encourages our military and college students through an e-mail ministry. Mothers in our church can submit names for our ladies to contact.
Women Serving the Church Team—ministers to our senior saints, members in nursing homes, and our shut-ins. We recruit families and men’s groups to visit members who are in their own homes and could use a helping hand. These requests for help come through the pastoral team or deacon care ministry.
Taste of Grace—provides meals for families who have sickness, for the bereaved (grieving), and for parents after the birth of a baby (rejoicing). We give respite care for a family who has a loved one that has 24/7 needs. Also we provide transportation to appointments for those unable to drive. To serve in this ministry, the women sign-up on a form on which they designate their serving preferences and ladies from the Women Serving the Church Team match caregivers to members. The deacon and pastor are given a “care report” if counseling or follow-up is needed. While providing the intended care, our ladies have had opportunities to administer acts of kindness and to pray with those they are helping.
More than Mommies—ministers to young families in our church, meeting weekly on Wednesday mornings throughout the school year. We have provided activities such as making bread, shopping trips, listening to special speakers, crafting, and cooking a lunch together. This provides a much-needed opportunity for mothers to fellowship with one another. A wonderful plus for mommies is that we provide babysitting! We practice the Titus 2 principle by encouraging young mothers who have many stressors in their lives. We provide lessons on living for husband and family in a way that honors God, and include practical and fun things.
All of the ladies’ ministries come together for a spring luncheon and a fall retreat. In addition, we have a monthly outreach to women from Faith Baptist Community Center in Cleveland. Most of them have been saved and discipled through the efforts of Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries or the ministry of the Wellness and Pregnancy Center there. These women are included as our guests at many of these events.
Barbara Anderson, Women’s Ministries Director
First Baptist Church
Elyria, Ohio
How to Make a Great Church Website
Posted in July 2008, Building Your Ministry, Synergy
In my technology role at the GARBC Resource Center, I oversee 25+ websites. Over the last several years there has been a shift in website presentation and look. The term most often associated with this shift is “Web 2.0,” which conveys the concept of “less is better.” This standard means that you need to think carefully about your church’s website and the content you put on it.
When designing the website, your church’s leadership team should determine what they want the website to communicate. A church’s website is a primary source of contact for potential visitors and an avenue to communicate with existing members. The website needs to become a strategic element of a church’s communication plan.
What is the primary purpose of your church’s website?
Here are a few categories to consider when putting together the website.
Audience. Who is the primary audience for your website? Is your site informational for your congregation, or is it primarily designed for visitors who have questions about your church? Often sites make assumptions related to the level of Christian maturity of those who visit their site. Churches can scare folks away with words that have meaning only to a body of believers. The words “A plan of salvation” may be intended to lead a person to a gospel presentation, but those who need to be saved may be unfamiliar with the term “salvation.” The phrase “doctrines of our church” may be used as a header for the church’s statement of beliefs, but new visitors may not understand the meaning of that header or the complex Biblical terms in the beliefs.
Impression. What type of impression are you attempting to provide? Are you colors bright and cheery? Does your site say “family and activities”? Or does your site say “dark , cloudy, and funeral home”? Without planning and thought, a church’s website can fall into the latter category. How does your website come across? Your site is the first impression to web browsers who are seeking a church or wanting to know more about spiritual life.
Images. What images are on your site? Does your site say “warm and friendly, family-oriented body of believers” or “cold, sterile church building that needs some repair”? Websites may picture the church building with the sign of service times or a logo of a cross and Bible rather than pictures of people or families. Which would you rather see? If your church has a logo or byline, it should be in the header. The content of the page should be stories about your church and the different activities of your church family.
Want to create a positive picture about your church’s credibility? Don’t use an outdated calendar! A website with old information is worse than no website at all. Make sure you have someone dedicated to updating your website. Avoid listing activities that date back several months ago; make sure you have event listings for the current month. Calendar programs are available that will automatically present the current month and prevent older events from displaying.
URL name. The domain name you choose for your church needs to be easy to remember and directly reflect your church’s name. Be consistent in use of initials or complete names. Web addresses such as www.firstbaptistchurch.org are often taken so depending upon your church’s name, you might need to be creative in choosing a domain name. However, a lengthy name such as www.firstbaptistchurchofschaumburgilmeachamrd.org isn’t a good choice either. Newer domain types are available. For example, .info, as in www.fbcs.info might be a good substitute if .org is taken. Another alternative is to use initials for your church’s name and its related city. When choosing a domain name, remember to select a name that is familiar to your members and that gives information on the fly to a potential visitor.
Image size. This consideration is a bit technical in nature but no less important. New website developers might use the wrong size of images. An 8MG-sized image taken with a digital camera gives the user an 8.5×10 image with high resolution, which is great for displaying the photo in a picture frame. However, that size will not work on an Internet site. The entire page should not be much over 50K in size. However, with the majority of Internet users using broadband, the size can increase to 100K. By using a photo conversion program, you can reduce the actual size and dimensions of the photo for web posting. Most web page development applications allow you to drag the corners of the image and reduce it to the size you want. However, this dragging really doesn’t “change” the size of the image; it is still large according to website standards and will cause a delay in loading your home page.
Think carefully about your church’s website. Make sure it is communicating in words and images the message you want to send to your intended audience. Remember to present information in a timely fashion and use an easy-to-remember URL name. By considering the above six factors when designing your church website, you can make a positive web impression with church members and seekers alike.
David Bosket, Director of Technology
GARBC Resource Center
Schaumburg, Illinois
Community Relationship-building Event
Posted in July 2008, Reach Out, Synergy
In my work as a Youth Summit community sponsor I help teens in the local school develop leadership projects that benefit our community. The students had noticed that communication between various leadership groups in our community was not functioning well, resulting in unresolved tension. So we decided to tackle that problem by hosting a Community Leadership Dinner at our church and designing a program that would address issues our community was facing.
Our church hosted the dinner on St. Patrick’s Day. We invited the chapel leader from the Detroit Tigers, Jeff Totem, as our main speaker, and had local talent from the county serve on a panel. About 15 teens and extra folks from our church prepared and served the dinner, the food of which was donated. Jeff shared from his team-building experience with the Tigers and gave his testimony of faith. A group builder, Jon Shoonmaker, led us through a series of activities to help us get to know each other and I emceed the event. Dinner was followed by the panel discussion, and the evening ended with an opportunity to share our own goals.
A good percentage of our community’s residents, sixty out of 750 residents, attended the dinner. They represented the school (teachers, board members, and administration), village council, township planning board, fire department, and public works department, and included local pastors and other influential members of the community. The key to getting people to attend was that the teens themselves made the invitations and called the community leaders. It’s pretty hard to resist kids—especially when they want to make the community better!
Our church received an indirect benefit from hosting the dinner: It helped to establish our church as a spiritual resource to the community. Our church is very involved in the community, including sponsoring a professional counseling center and a care center that offers assistance to those in need. We coordinate these programs with the school and local churches. When people think of our church, they see us as a place that helps. We have tried to cultivate that reputation over the last several years. It is especially important in a small town like ours to have a good name among those who have influence.
The event was well received by the community, and people have asked if we could do this every year! We are planning to have the event again next year so that community leaders can go from troubleshooting (being reactive) to problem-solving (being proactive). It is my hope that the teens, too, can be a part of this—as well as the churches. I think churches have become marginalized to a certain extent, and I hope to change that. As we work together as a community, we can do great things! I love being the church that is spearheading this campaign!
It is great that our church is being seen as an important resource in the community for building relationships and networking. My prayer is that God will continue to use this event to open doors for our ministry in the community.
Bob Wright, Pastor
Britton Bethel Baptist Church
Britton, Michigan
Prayer Boosters
Posted in July 2008, Women's Ministries, Synergy
As sisters in Christ, it’s good to prompt each other to pray. The following suggestions are two simple ideas that can multiply the prayer effort of ladies in your church.
Labels: To encourage prayer for people around the world, ask women to notice as they get dressed where their clothes are from and to use this as a prayer opportunity. In a group, look at the clothing tags of the women who attend your Bible study or missionary group. Pray for all the countries represented by these clothing labels.
Mugs and muffins: Each month, set aside a time to have coffee and a muffin with women who are committed to prayer. It can be after a church service or in the morning on a weekday. Over coffee, pray for the specific ministries you have planned for women that month. Pray by name for the leaders of those ministries, and ask God to use the ministry to further His name in your community. Prayer is necessary and powerful.
Jeannie Vogel, Women’s Ministries Consultant
GARBC Resource Center
Schaumburg, IL