PLYMOUTH, MI – Summer is over and it is time to return to the routine, or is it? Would you like to ramp things up at the church? Would you enjoy seeing some positive changes this next season? Generous contributors? More volunteers? Aspirations turned into actions?
Three articles in this issue of the Baptist Beacon may help rev-up the future, and three invitations to which you should respond quickly, may offer some practical solutions. Please, locate the links to September Baptist Beacon articles and register for September’s online meetings if you want to ramp things up at church.
Reading the following three articles will offer a glimpse of September’s online meetings:
Register below for a time slot of these convenient online meetings. The morning and evening meeting are identical, so you need only to register for one time slot for each subject: generosity, volunteer and mission focus. Invite your church leaders to join the meeting too.
Select the time slot that best fits your schedule. During the one-hour, online meeting you will create your customized action steps that will help you collaborate with others in your context.
Generosity
Inspiring generosity increases when people see their personal contributions solve big problems. Helping others see the epic influence of financial contributions through the local church has never been as easy as it is now. Vibrant images and dramatic stories can be shared within the church community from sources around the world. When people see giving at the local church helps others over the globe, generosity increases, locally and globally. People will connect their personal debit cards and checking accounts to the good deeds of God’s Kingdom when they see meaningful causes in real-time that tug at their hearts and minds.
Generosity Zoom Discussion Registration
Wednesday, September 11 – Click to REGISTER for one time slot
Volunteers
Increasing volunteerism is about raising the bar, not lowering it. There are two ways to enlist volunteers. Sadly, too many volunteers are enlisted with the following discouraging words, “Would you fill this spot for us? Anyone can do it. There is little to no preparation. If you don’t do it, we won’t have anyone else to ask. In fact, we just may quit doing it. I need a quick answer. What do you say?” A better invitation to help sounds like this, “I’ve been meeting and praying with others over a role in the church that impacts people’s lives. You came to our minds. I would love to sit down with you at a convenient time for you. I would like to describe the value of this ministry. I want to invite you to dream with us about the possible outcomes. I want you to know why we believe you’re a great fit for the role. I will give you time to reflect and pray over the invitation after our conversation. We will orient and train you for this important ministry if you agree to serve. When may I meet with you?”
Volunteer Zoom Discussion Registration
Wednesday, September 18 – Click to REGISTER for one time slot
Mission Focus
Some churches look like cruise ships with something for everyone: entertainment shows, casinos, 24-hour restaurants, pools, personal-massages, deck-chairs, gyms, shoreline tours, something for everyone and everyone doing their own thing. However, the most effective churches permit activities, spending and people’s time to be invested in the narrow, well-expressed mission focus of the church. Shouldn’t churches be more designed as rescue watercraft that cruise waterways with well-trained crews ready to save lives? Intensifying mission focus is about less not more. I observe the most effective ministries achieving more with less. Less words. Less calendared activities. Less busyness. More intensity. More precision with their resources. More depth achieved by sharpening the tip of the mission focus.
Mission Focus Zoom Discussion Registration
Wednesday, September 25 – Click to REGISTER for one time slot
I look forward to seeing your face and hearing your voice on my laptop during September’s upcoming, online LIVE meetings where we will interact with others from around the region.
If you have questions about the ZOOM.US meeting you may call my ministry assistant, Andrew Parsons, Monday through Thursday during normal business hours at (810) 714-1907 or send Andrew an email at andrew@bscm.org – he is resourceful and helpful.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tony Lynn is the State Director of Missions for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as lead pastor for more than six years at Crosspoint Church in Monroe, Michigan. He and his wife, Jamie, also served with the International Mission Board in Africa and in Europe.