Feel free to forward this to a friend!
September 2009 -- NEW this month!
- Church Growth Factoids: Progress since 1900; the Holy Spirit at work!
- Lots of new Blog Posts:
- Leadership Development
- The Stalled & Dissatisfied
- Pastors & Technology
- Sticky Church & Simple Church
- Coaching:
- “Whack-a-Mole” vs. “Weekly Time Investment”
- Values Assessment Form
- New Ministry Guide
- Sermons:
Three Sermons for Funerals
CHURCH GROWTH FACTOIDS:
Take a look at these two Factoids
Factoid #1: PROGRESS SINCE 1900:
Compared to 1900, today we:
- have nine times more churches;
- distribute almost eleven times more Bibles;
- have five times more vocational Christian workers;
- have nearly seven times more missionaries;
- have one hundred and sixty times more Christian books;
- spend thirty-six times more hours evangelizing;
- have cut the proportion of unevangelized people in the world in half;
- are broadcasting the Great Good News of Jesus Christ via television, radio, and the Internet, and the media to every city, county, country, and continent; and
- are seeing our young people poised to do a dramatically better job in reaching the world than we have done.
(Caldwell, Kirbyjon & Walt Callestad. Entrepreneurial Faith. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2004. pp. 130-131.)
Factoid #2: PROGRESS SINCE 1900 IN KOREA:
“In 1900, Korea had no Protestant church; it was deemed ‘impossible to penetrate.’ Today Korea is 35 percent Christian with seven thousand churches in the city of Seoul alone.”
(Towns, Elmer & Warren Bird. Into the Future. Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 2000, p. 222.)
“In A.D. 100, only one in every 360 people in the world was an active believer. Today one in ten people is an active believer.”
(Towns, Elmer & Warren Bird. Into the Future. Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 2000, p. 222.)
My first reaction when I was reading these stats from Callestad and Caldwell was to think that although we have made great progress, the population has also increased dramatically since 1900. But then I read this line, “have cut the proportion of unevangelized people in the world in half”. That’s good news! We are making progress in the name of Jesus. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, but when you think about the work of organizations like Wycliffe and you realize that they are counting down the number of languages which do no have the Bible in their own language, you realize that progress is being made on several fronts.
The stats by Towns and Bird confirm similar ideas on the progress of the Gospel. God has done in Korea what people once thought impossible. And the the factoid which states that today in in ten people is an active believer, compared to one in 360 in the past, reminds us once again that God the Holy Spirit is on the move.
By the grace of God, the church of Jesus Christ is making some progress and for this we are grateful and praise God. I hope you don’t think it is naive to be optimistic about the progress of the Gospel in this era, but I’ve read the end of the book and God wins!
These and other Factoids can be found at ChurchGrowth Factoids
HighPower Thoughts Blog
(What I'm learning right now in the areas of Ministry Coaching, Simple Church, Church Growth & Church Health.)
Recent Posts:
- “Leadership Development” Series
“A Four Part Process” -- June 29th, 2009
“Part 1: Recruit” -- July 7th, 2009
“Part 2: Train” -- July 13th, 2009
“Part 3: Delegate” -- July 2, 2009
“Part 4: Supervise” -- July 28th, 2009
- “Why I love the Summit” -- August 8th, 2009
- “Handling the Stalled & Dissatisfied in the Church” - August 19th, 2009
- “Pastors & Technology” - August 27th, 2009
- “The New HighPowerResources.com Website” - Sept. 7th, 2009
- “Sticky Church & Simple Church” - Sept. 17th, 2009
Check out the Blog here.
Coaching
NEW Resources:
- This month we have a very fine resource prepared by Bill Price, Executive Pastor of Autumn Ridge Church, in Rochester MN
- #1 -- “Weekly Time Investment Lesson”
It is a lesson which he taught his staff on how to invest their time each week in activities that really matter. The lesson has two parts, the first is entitled “Whack-a-Mole”, and the second part is “How do you invest your time each week?”
- The lesson comes with both student fill-in-the-blank sheets, and teacher sheets with the answers already completed.
- You can find this great resources in the HighPower Coaching section. Download it and use it in your staff meeting this week!
- #2 -- “Values Assessment Questions” exercise -- newly revised.
This simple tool will raise some profound questions in your leadership team. By asking questions about beliefs and convictions at the core of the Great Commission, this form will guide your team into examining how your church is helping to fulfill the command to make disciples. Download this free resource from the HighPower Coaching Resources page.
- #3 - "New Ministry Guide" from Crossroads Church -- newly revised
Other HighPower Coaching Resources can be found here.
Software News
- SermonBase Message Planning Software
We have been working on an update to SermonBase. It won’t be long and we will be releasing version 1.2. Version 1.2 will contain expanded Search and Find capabilities. The Calendar Tab will now display not only Sundays, but any day of the week for which you have a Message created. The Print Matrix has been improved, as well as various other minor bug fixes. Current version 1.1.14v3 is on sale now.
- Shepherd Care Group Software
We are beta-testing this new software which will allow you to track small groups and classes, and all the people that are in your church. We recently added the capacity to let each person be placed into two classes at the same time. Not available for sale yet.
- Family Faces Church Directory Software
We have added a new report, so that the total number of types of church directories available are four: three with photos and one without. Current version 1.4 is on sale now.
- HighPower Library -- Free software for Pastors
The free resource in our collection is being used by pastors and churches all over the world. Every week we get another notice of another pastor somewhere in the world using this helpful little library software. This is free; feel free to download it now, here, and give it to a friend too.
Click on HighPower Software to download your software Demos today.
Seminars
- Coaching for Spiritual Development
Learning how to encourage people to make spiritual progress is an art. This set of 3 mini-seminars will help you become a better disciple maker.
This is a Do-It-Yourself Seminar that you can download and share with your own people.
For a list of both our on-site seminars and our “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) Seminars, click on HighPower Seminars to learn more.
Sermons
Funeral Sermon Set:
Psalm 23; John 11:25-26; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
One fact of life for those of us in ministry is that Funeral Messages are a constant need. Of course, the number that you may need each month will vary. In my first church, (100 years old), I averaged one funeral every month. (I could have used this set then.) Then in my church plant, I averaged, one funeral per year, and some of them didn’t even attend my church.
But in any case, it’s nice to have a set of messages to draw from. If you want to expand your set with these funeral messages, they are available to you for $9. The Psalm 23 message is a full message, while the other two, on John 11 and 2 Thess. 2 are more on the devotional size.
Here is a description of each of these:
Psalm 23: This beautiful Psalm pictures the Lord God as our Shepherd, available to lovingly care for every need we may have, both in life and in death.
John 11:25-26: What do we say in the face of death?
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17: In times of trial in the present, and worry for the future, God wants you to be Encouraged & Strengthened in your faith.
Drama
-- The Book of JOB --
A funny drama by the talented writer, Steven Dexheimer
BOOK REVIEW:
“Primal Leadership” by Daniel Goleman
I just finished this book and there is a lot in here to learn for pastors.
Here’s the description from Amazon, then I’ll share with you my take on it:
Drawing from decades of research within world-class organizations, the authors show that great leaders-whether CEOs or managers, coaches or politicians-excel not just through skill and smarts, but by connecting with others using Emotional Intelligence competencies like empathy and self-awareness. The best leaders, they show, have "resonance"-a powerful ability to drive emotions in a positive direction to get results-and can fluidly interchange among a variety of leadership styles as the situation demands. Groundbreaking and timely, this book reveals the new requirements of successful leadership.
To some pastors, the contents of the book will come naturally; to others it will be an eye-opening revelation of the importance of properly handling the very emotional side of church culture. I think that for pastors and churches, the insights in this book are particularly important because more than anywhere else a church truly is a family of God, and therefore has more emotional dynamics to it than the average workplace.
This book explains the key elements of emotional intelligence, and then shows how they play out in various scenarios of human interaction. All of his examples and stories are from the business-world, but there is much to learn and apply to church life within this book |
