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Jump Start # 2153

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2153

2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.”

These past few Jump Starts have been looking at common complaints that I hear all too often all across the country. First, we addressed, “I don’t like my church.” Then, “I don’t like the singing.” There remains one more, “I don’t like the preaching.” These feelings are often expressed by those who are discouraged. Sometimes no one listens to what they say and often little is done to make things better. But, one must understand, while some are saying “I don’t like my church,” there are others at the same time who are saying, “I love this church.” Some cry, “I don’t like the singing,” and others, “I love the singing.” The same is true about the preaching. Why the opposite feelings? It may have to do with backgrounds, experiences, what one has been through, where one is at the present. This always presents issues for the leadership. There are some who are wanting to change worship, the songs, the number of times worship is offered, and there are some who are very happy to leave things the way they are.

Some live their faith through the church. Outside of worship, they don’t have much on their own. So, if things are going well down at the church house, they are on top of the mountain. But if things seem stale, dull and lifeless, so is their faith. That’s a problem. Our faith must stand independent of what happens down at the church house. I cannot let the actions of others dictate the well-being of my faith. So the singing stinks, sing at home. So I don’t get much out of the Bible classes, do your own study, which you ought to be doing anyway. Do not let the atmosphere of the church worship determine the temperature of your faith.

Having said that, let’s now consider, “I don’t like the preaching.” This is one I’m sensitive to because I preach. Preaching comes in all kinds of styles. Some are loud. Some use a lot of illustrations. Some use humor. Some stick with the text and dive in very deeply. Some are very practical. Some are short. Some are long. Some seem more like an informational lecture. Some make you squirm in your seat. Some are easy to listen to. Some, you have to work at it to stay with him. Some take you on a journey and it takes a while before you figure out what this is all about. Others flow like an outline, point to point, all clear, logical and easy to see. Some use fill-in-the-blank note cards. Others don’t. Some use powerpoint. Others don’t. Now, with all these various ways of preaching, every person has their own definition of a good sermon. Everyone has their own favorite preacher.

When someone says, “I don’t like the preaching,” there may be volumes of reasons. Can I learn from this preacher, even though he may not be my favorite? Is he true to the book? Is he helpful in getting me to see things? Am I growing?

Some preachers are hard to listen to. Some preachers ought to and could lower the nets deeper into knowledge. Some are so generic that they could use a spoonful of practicality once in a while. Some need to be plugged in to get a bit more passionate. But, there are tons of preachers who are doing amazing work. They are pouring long hours and every ounce of their heart and souls into what they are doing. They love you and they want you to know the Lord, to walk closer to Him. Their very lives are given to make the best sermons that they can. They take their work seriously. They don’t turn to short cuts. They write sermons with you in mind. They want you to excel spiritually. So many of these preachers, young and old, could make a lot more money if they were in the secular work place. They are doing what they do because they love the Lord. They work day and night. On vacation, they are thinking of sermons. They are reading constantly. They are taking notes all the time. They are studying with individuals. They are working on classes to teach. You see them on Sunday, with the finished product. They make their work seem so easy. But to follow them throughout the week, to walk in their shoes is amazing. How do they fit all that they do in a day, a week? Where do they get all the ideas that they have? How is it that they can take something so complicated and make it seem so easy to understand? They continue to work on being better at what they do.

There is an old country song that goes, “Mama, don’t let your babies grow to be cowboys.” In college, several of us would change the words of songs to fit preachers. That was one. “Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be preachers,” is how it came out. “Love on the rocks,” became “Church on the rocks.” Preaching isn’t for everyone. Giving a lesson a couple of times a year isn’t the same as preaching. I nailed a couple of boards together recently. Does that make me a carpenter? No.

Now, some of this falls upon the lap of the listener. We must try. Coming to services tired just about guarantees not much is going to stay with a person. Sometimes that happens, especially if you have small children at home. But a lot of this is because we are staying up way too late on Saturday night, giving little thought to being of heart, mind and presence for the Lord the next day. Some are a bit too touchy. The wrong word said, and immediately the sermon is shut down in our minds and we get upset. Most times, the preacher has no clue what you went through this past week. He makes some parting reference to something and you assume that he is talking about you. You get mad. You don’t listen anymore. You miss a lesson that could help you.

Maybe your preacher is hard to listen to. Stay with him. Take notes. Suggest a topic that you’d like to hear a lesson on. Instead of fighting him, work with him. Be careful about making comparisons to other preachers. Also, be careful about making corrections. We often judge the value of a sermon by the performance, rather than the content. A good public speaker does not necessarily make a good preacher. The value of a sermon is in it’s truthfulness, and ability to help us. In our modern techo world, there are zillions of sermons one can listen to on line. Do that. Find you a variety of preachers that you like. Listen. Learn. Grow.

Don’t try to change your preacher into Joel Osteen or Rick Warren. Cotton candy preachers of the religious community are cute, clever and not very accurate with the word of God. They bend the rules, abuse Scripture and are more interested in filling an arena than they are in teaching the word of God. Ours are not like that. They are not cut from the same cloth. Ours are in step with the Master. They model themselves after the preaching of the apostles.

When I was a young puppy preacher, I had a guy criticize me at the door in front of a bunch of people. He loudly said, “You had all week and that’s the best you could do?” I melted. He sure knew where to hit a guy. He wouldn’t stop. Finally, I said, “Tell you what, you take next week’s sermon and I’ll learn from you. But don’t forget, you have to teach the Sunday class, also, you’ll need to preach the PM sermon. Don’t forget you’ll have to write and print the bulletin for next week. And, there’s the Wednesday class that you have to take care of first. Now, there’ll be several phone calls, emails and other things that you need to get to as well.” The man said, “Well, I’ll need more time than a week to do all that.” That’s when I said, “That’s all I have. One week, and it all starts all over again.” He hung his head, apologized and realized that he had spoken like a fool. I was a nervous wreck.

I don’t like the preaching. That’s a concern. Do you like any preaching? Is it that your toes have been stepped on? Could you try harder? Could you look at things through the perspective of your preacher? Is it that he’s teaching doctrine and you are not a fan of doctrine? You need to be if you are going to stand with God. You need preaching. You need to hear the word of God. Get to know your preacher. You’ll find he’s a friend you can count on. Spend some time with your preacher. You’ll see that he takes his work very seriously and he’s always trying to be the best that he can be.

Now, before you ask, I am not going to put this series into a booklet. I can just see it now, send me the “I don’t like Jump Start book.” No, that’s not going to happen. I don’t like my church. I don’t like the singing. I don’t like the preaching. I don’t like, I don’t like, I don’t like. Maybe we ought to start with asking, “What do you like?” Count your blessings. What’s working well with you spiritually? Maybe that can help us just a bit.

God certainly likes preaching. From Moses, through the prophets, apostles, and even Jesus, they were preachers. It was God’s design not to send videos, but the preached word to save a dying world. Keep that in mind before you declare, “I don’t like the preaching.”

Roger

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Jump Start # 2152

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2152

Psalms 59:16 “But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, for You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress.”

 

Singing joyfully in the morning! What a great way to start the day. Singing to the Lord helps remind you of how great and important the Lord is to us. The way this verse is written, sounds personal and private. It is what one does at home.

 

Singing with the congregation, singing in worship, is a sore spot with some. “I don’t like the way we sing,” is something I hear quite a bit. Since we addressed, “I don’t like my church,” yesterday, I thought we would just carry this thought on. I don’t like the way we sing, has many layers to it.

 

First, someone may not like the type of songs that are sung. That can be a constant battle in a congregation. It’s often a generational struggle. One generation rarely likes the other generation’s songs. For my dad, it was big band music of the 1940’s. He was with us on a recent trip. We had on a station that played big band music. He was singing away. After about three songs, they all sounded the same to me. For me, my music of choice is the ‘60s. Beatles, Hollies, Zombies, sprinkled in with a few 70’s like Chicago, Eagles. I can listen to that stuff all day long. My kids like more contemporary songs. I was riding with my youngest the other day. He had a song for me to hear. Never heard of the singer or song. Song wasn’t bad, but it seemed like he was screaming the whole time. My response was, “it’d be a great song if he just sang and not screamed so much.” His response was, “dad, that’s the way it was supposed to be.” Different tastes in music. That spills over into worship. The younger crowd likes the newer version of Amazing Grace. The older crowd likes the original Amazing Grace. The younger crowd likes peppy songs that move. The older crowd likes the slow traditional songs.

 

So, when someone proclaims, “I don’t like the singing,” it may be a matter of taste. If you are in a small congregation and you have only one or two song leaders, you may not get much variety.

 

Second, some song leaders actually lead and others just start the song and the audience leads and the song leader follows the audience. I’ve seen song leaders that really didn’t understand music try to lead. That’s tough. It helps knowing something about the notes, the tempo and what you are doing. Some take every song that they lead and they slow it down, stretching out every expression. I’ve seen a guy lead so slow that one would have thought that he fell asleep between words. Some song leaders haven’t expanded the list of songs that they know. So when they lead, they lead the same songs over and over. This may cause some to declare, “I don’t like our singing.” If you as a song leader do not understand what you are doing, or music, try to improve. Find someone who can help you. Listen to some CD’s of songs. Practice at home and in the car. Strive to improve. Strive to give the Lord your best. If you have a singing service, try some new songs. There are many ways to step up our singing. Have folks over to your home for a singing.

 

Legend has it that the singing was so pitiful in Midway, KY, back in the 1850’s, that a progressive preacher introduced an instrument to help improve things. I expect he was looking for any reason to introduce his progressive ideas. Instead of working on singing better, he sought a different way to deal with the problem.

 

Third, singing is a valuable tool that the whole family can do together. The little one’s learn the books of the Bible and the names of the apostles through songs. VBS songs are designed for the little ones and they can be a fun way to kill time while driving down the road. They teach great principles and it’s an easy transition to the deeper songs that are sung in worship. Singing isn’t filler time. It’s not the two minute warning to gather all the books and put on jackets and get ready to leave. It’s our time to praise God. It’s our time to encourage others. Songs stay with us and they stick in our memory. “Whispering Hope” was sung at my grandfather’s funeral more than 40 years ago. I still remember that. That song takes me back to that day. That’s the power of songs.

 

Fourth, as a congregation, there ought to be a spirit of always giving God our best. We want the preacher to bring his A game. We want the prayers to be thought out. Singing, likewise, needs to be the best that we can do. Song leaders need to pick out their songs before they are walking up to the front of the auditorium to begin leading. There are circumstances in which the one scheduled to lead couldn’t make it, but on most days, it ought to be decided in advance and the song leader needs to be ready before he walks into the church building. Give it some thought. Call the preacher and tie the songs in with the lesson. Don’t just lead songs that you like, but think about where the congregation is and what’s going on and realize you help by leading songs that are fitting and timely. There has been a sudden death and everyone seems to be in a fog about it. Not a good time to sing, “I’m happy today.” The reason is, they are not happy today. Preachers do this all the time. They fit their choice of sermon with what is going on. It’s a connecting thing. We ought to do the same with our singing. The choice of songs can help or it can hurt the spirit of worship. Don’t introduce all new songs on a Sunday morning that no one knows but the song leader. Not the right time for that. Get a few others and learn the songs in private or bring out new songs on a singing service.

 

“Oh, why not tonight,” is a great song to be sung at the end of a sermon, but not in the morning service. That song works at night. I’ve been places and we’ve sung “Oh why not tonight,” at high noon. As we are singing, I’m thinking, Oh why not now. Put some thought into what songs you select and do they fit the need of the hour.

 

Some folks sing too loud from the pew. Some song leaders lead too quietly from the pulpit. Those things can be worked on. They can be improved. Don’t give up. Don’t resign yourself to “I don’t like our singing,” and thereby, you don’t sing, or worse, you become bitter and complain about it all the time.

 

On our recent trip to Italy, we were with our dear friends from our congregation. We visited a very small church building that dated to about the 3rd or 4th century. It was made of stone. It had an arching roof that was made of stone. My friend Bob, who is an amazing musician, started singing, “God is so good.” Soon all of us were singing, even off-key, out-of-tune, Roger, and it just filled that place. It was amazing. We were singing and looking up at the arched stone ceiling, not realizing that we were no longer the only people there. When finished, a few people who had stopped to hear us sing, complimented us. Those early folks knew what they were doing. Our modern construction leans toward beauty and not acoustics. That can be another reason why singing doesn’t sound so good in some places. We left that place wishing we could have a stone room in our church building to sing in.

 

I don’t like our singing. Well, my thought is, what are you going to do about that? Not sing? Quit? Complain and make everyone else miserable? Find ways to improve. Do your best. Encourage others to do their best. This is part of our worship to God. The first fruits. The best of the flock. That was the spirit of the O.T. We need to carry that spirit into our worship. Giving God our best, but doing our best.

 

Learn. Practice. Have patience. Develop. Challenge yourselves. Give God your best. All of those will go a long way into making our worship better.

 

Roger

 

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Jump Start # 2151

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2151

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her”

Someone reached out and said, “I don’t like my church. I know that I am supposed to, but I don’t.” That’s honest. It’s also troubling. Our verse reminds us that Christ loved the church. In Acts we are told that Jesus died for the church. We ought to and we need to love the church.

Let’s peel some layers off.

First, when someone says that they do not like the church, most times they are referring to the congregation that they are a part of. Each congregation has it’s own personality, just like a family. Some seem very tight and strict. Some are very warm and laid back. We can follow the same book, the Bible, but our attitudes, seriousness and the way we get about things can be very different.

We must remember that the church is saved people. It’s not the building. It’s not the programs. It’s the people. Sometimes that gets confused. It’s easy for someone to come back from vacation, and they’ve visited a large congregation that is hitting on all the right keys, the place sparkles, there’s lots of things to take home, lots of monitors with information, it’s an amazing experience. Vacation ends and you return to your home congregation and it doesn’t have all those things. It doesn’t sparkle. There aren’t many different classes offered at the same time. Whatever is being taught in the auditorium, is what you get. Sometimes the kids classes seem like the old one room school house with fifth graders in the same room with high schoolers, simply because there are not enough kids, rooms or teachers. Back home, there isn’t a bulletin and if there was, it’s not in color. There are no monitors on the walls, flashing information. The lighting seems dim. The place seems old. It crosses your mind that Extreme Makeover ought to branch out and start doing church buildings and you’d like to recommend your place to start with.

Understand, all that glitter, shinny, new techo, stuff is not the church. It takes a ton of money and a lot of people to do all of that and few places are in the position to do that. It’s similar to our homes. You can go to a home expo show, or just look at the latest Better Homes and Garden magazine, and come back home depressed because your house isn’t like this. Better Homes and Garden really means, better than what I have. But you can get ideas and you can do what you can. Budgets and finances determine what can be done. But at the end of the day, a house is not a home. A home is the love, warmth and atmosphere that we create. A large house can be cold and empty of that and a small apartment can be everything that a family is supposed to be.

So, when a person says, “I don’t like my church,” don’t confuse the stuff and the building with the church. Now, before we leave this, there is a lot of spring cleaning, sprucing up that can make all the difference in the world. There is no reason to worship in a dump. Fresh paint, clean up the landscape, put in brighter light bulbs, put some elbow grease into the place and you’ll be surprised how nice it can look. Clean up the tract rack. Pitch things that no one reads anymore. Few people are interested in reading a 20 page tract these days. Get some colorful, to-the-point, tri-fold tracts that are practical, interesting and eye catching. Read our Jump Start book on “The Welcoming Church.” It will give you ideas.

Second, the church is saved people. It’s the people that make a congregation. The church is a family. I was with some family yesterday. Saw a cousin that I haven’t seen in years. The church, like our family, isn’t chosen like friends. You don’t get to pick out your parents, brothers or sisters. You don’t get to pick out your spiritual family either. If they are in fellowship with God then they ought to be in fellowship with us.

Now, comes the touchy stuff. When someone says, “I don’t like my church,” they may be referring to the people. I don’t like the people in my church. Now, we are getting somewhere.

Understand, that we are not all the same. I’ve been married for a long time to my wonderful wife. She’s not like me. I wouldn’t have married me. She different. There are things I do that she’d like to change and there are some things that she realizes after all these years, I probably will never change. We are not the same. We have grown to like many of the same things. I go to the symphony on a regular basis now. Would never do that when I was single. Never. Our interests have merged and we find ourselves working like a team on many things. We both have an interest in each other and that has made us like what the other likes. Our food choices remain different. On a recent vacation I ate some octopus. It came with tentacles. It was great. She wouldn’t try a one bite. We are different but we have determined to work together, get to know each other and make the other happy. Is it any different in the church? What bugs us often is that a fellow member isn’t like us. They sing too loud. They talk too softly. They ask too many questions. They dress weird. They interrupt. They do things that we’d never do. I’ve seen folks pick their nose, clip their toe nails and pop their knuckles right during services. Some chew gum so loud that their lips smack. And when they talk, you see the gum in their mouth. We can walk away shaking our heads, thinking, what’s wrong with those nutty people. They are saved by Jesus. A person can be odd as a duck and still go to Heaven. They can clip nails, pop knuckles and talk all the time in a Bible class and go to Heaven. They can do things that we’d never do, and still be accepted and invited by the Lord.

Think about your family. Think about your marriage. We are not the same and there are things that probably drives us nuts, but we love them because they are family. We’ve made that commitment. We need to do that with the church. It will require you working at it, but you can do it. If Jews and Gentiles could worship together, you and I ought to be able to get along with each other.

Remember, we are not all at the same place spiritually. It’s like driving down a high way. There is always someone behind you and someone ahead of you. Some get the Gospel message better than others. We all come to Jesus with sins, a past and lots of baggage. We must work through what we thought was right. We must weed out so many concepts, ideas and false theology that we assumed was correct. Which means, some are better at forgiving than others. Some understand grace more than others. Some are demanding. Some seem harsh. Some seem to think that they are the greatest example next to the Lord. They’re not, but they think they are. This requires a bunch of patience on our part and a whole lot of love. I don’t like my church, may mean that there are those who are not kind, and they should be. There are those who are selfish and they shouldn’t be. But look at those apostles. They followed Jesus for three years and what a mess they were. They argued about greatness. They lacked understanding and faith. They didn’t seem to get it. It took a while. It took a lot of help. So, rather than rolling your eyes at folks, be an example. Help. Show. Teach. Illustrate. You’ll have people over and not only will they never think to invite you to their home, they may never even tell you thank you. Just keep doing it. You’ll take some food to someone who has a need. You may not even get all your dishes back. They may not thank you, and worse, they may say, “we’ve had chicken three times this week.” Just smile. Be kind. And, continue to serve. Don’t give up. Don’t talk about them to others.

Also, remember that you are a work in progress as well. There are things that you do that probably bugs others. You may not recognize it and you may think that you are perfectly normal, but through their eyes it’s not that way. You may seem to be a know-it-all. You may seem to be always in charge. It’s hard to think that others have to have patience and grace with us as well, but they do. Just like home. Just like in a marriage. It’s the same in a congregation.

That’s the solution to “I don’t like my church.” Start liking them. God does. Stop looking for perfection. Work with what you have. If no one is showing hospitality, you be the one. If no goes to the nursing homes, you go. If no one picks up the building after services, you do it. Instead of waiting for others to come around, you do what you can. Some may notice. Many probably will not. Some may accept your invitation to come to your home, many may not. Keep trying. Don’t let the church keep you from Heaven. Don’t let others sour your spirit and ruin your attitude. Pray. Change. Look in the mirror. Then, do what you can.

Jesus loves the church. We need to as well. We need each other.

Roger