Church Leadership

Church Leadership, Group Leadership, Uncategorized

February 16, 2018

The Lord is Close to the Brokenhearted

Psalm 34:18 teaches us that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Scripture also tells us that Jesus has overcome the world.

In light of the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida, group leaders across America now have an opportunity to speak life and the truth of the gospel into members of their group that are hurting and broken or wondering how to feel. Click the links below to download two free Bible studies we hope will be helpful to you as you navigate this time with your groups this week.

God’s Embrace in Our Grief

Suffering Well with Others

Church Leadership

February 12, 2018

The Bible is a Crock-Pot, Not a Microwave

By Michael Kelley

If you’re not a great cook, there are two 20th century inventions that have probably positively impacted your life.

The first is the microwave. In 1945, Percy Spencer was working for a company called Raytheon. He noticed that while he was near a radar set, a candy bar melted in his pocket. The idea occurred to him that microwaves from the radar were responsible for the melted candy bar. To test his theory, he tried to cook popcorn and then eventually exploded an egg. With some modification, Raytheon filed a patent for the cooking process later that year.

The second is the slow cooker. Irving Naxon developed the “Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker” after his Jewish grandmother told him how her mother would cook a stew for several hours in an oven. The invention gained popularity in 1970 when it was reintroduced under the name “Crock-Pot” when, after many women began to work outside the home, it allowed them to start cooking dinner in the morning before they left for work.

It’s easy to cook in both the microwave and the slow cooker. The only difference between the two is time. Well, time and taste.

Because what you’ll find is that you can cook a steak in the microwave, but it won’t taste great. Neither will it be tender. But if you put the same piece of meat in a Crock-Pot, it’s going to come out with a ton of flavor and much easier to chew. Simmering, it seems, changes the composition. It just takes a little longer.

While almost every Christian would acknowledge that reading the Bible is important, most treat the Bible like a microwave. We want an immediate answer to some issue in our life or our world. Or we want to have an immediate boost of good vibes. Or we think that reading the Bible is like a rabbit’s foot—that by looking at a few verses we are motivating God to give us what we want.

We want what we want now. Immediately. Microwaved. But the Bible doesn’t work like that. It’s less like a microwave and more like a Crock-Pot:

How I love your instruction!
It is my meditation all day long (Psalm 119:97).

As Christians, we aren’t meant to only turn to the Bible when we need some kind of quick spiritual fix. Instead, we are meant to simmer in the Word. To have our lives marinated by the truth we find there. To have the composition of our hearts and minds reformed according to the Bible. And that takes time. It’s a slow-cooking process. It’s not just getting in a quick 10 minutes here and there, but instead reading. And reading again. Thinking. Praying. Slowly.

Take your time, Christian. Simmer in God’s Word. Don’t rush through the truth. Memorize it and bring it to mind over and over again. Make sure, as you can, that your heart and soul have time to cook.

For one resource that can help you and your group simmer in God’s Word, check out the Daily Discipleship Guide from Explore the Bible. The Daily Discipleship Guide will allow you and your group to have daily devotions from the same biblical passage you study each week in your group.

Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua (10), Andi (7), and Christian (5). He serves as Director of Groups Ministry for Lifeway Christian Resources. As a communicator, Michael speaks across the country at churches, conferences, and retreats and is the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Find him on Twitter:@_MichaelKelley.

Church Leadership

January 22, 2018

The Global Gospel: The Case for Diversity in Our Churches

By Rob Tims

I had the privilege of visiting one of the churches I work with from time to time. I’m something of a student of church culture, so I always treasure the opportunity visit, talk with leaders and volunteers, and just generally get a feel for what God is doing in and through a local congregation.

This church is in a southeastern state. The city is 65% black, but the suburb the church sits in is 90% white. Interestingly, in visiting every Sunday school class for all age groups, I saw only two African Americans. You can do the math. To accurately represent the demographics of their suburb, I should have seen approximately 90 people of color among the 1,000 people present, and as many as 600 to more accurately reflect the city.

There are lots of reasons why this was the case, but it’s not the purpose of this post to examine all those reasons. We all wish that our churches looked more like heaven, and this church longs for it, too. And that is what I want this post to do for us: long for our churches to look like heaven.

In Genesis 12:2-3 (CSB), God announced the subject of the entire biblical narrative. To Abram the Lord said:

²I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.

This reality is brought to fruition in the Book of Revelation, where we see a picture of God’s people from every tongue, tribe, and nation worshiping before His throne.

⁹After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice:

Salvation belongs to our God,
who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!

¹¹All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying,

Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength
be to our God forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 7:9-12, CSB).

The idea that God’s people are a blend of all peoples is not a secondary or tertiary issue when it comes to the gospel. Rather, diversity is core to the gospel. God invites His people to join in His overarching plan to redeem all people. As a redeemed people, we are included in His work to share the gospel to those who are lost. Jesus urged His followers, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20, CSB).

May we feel the weight of this, and may we make a concerted effort as individuals and as churches to live out the gospel in this way.

Rob Tims has been married to Holly for 17 years. They have four children: Trey, Jonathan, Abby, and Luke. He has served in the local church for 20 years as a children’s pastor, student pastor, and senior pastor. He currently serves on a team at LifeWay Christian Resources that develops customized Bible studies for groups and teaches two classes for Liberty University School of Divinity Online. He is the author of the book Southern Fried Faith: Confusing Christ and Culture in the Bible Belt.

The Lord is Close to the Brokenhearted

The Bible is a Crock-Pot, Not a Microwave

The Global Gospel: The Case for Diversity in Our Churches

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