Montgomery Day Two

Today has been an active day for the Beeson Module at Frazier Memorial. We had bad weather during the night and lost power at our hotel. It led to cold showers and oversleeping for some folks. More on that weather later.

We had two presentations this morning by Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, CA. You can find out about his church by clicking here. His first session was on how they help folks at his church find their ministry. By studying John Wesley's method of equipping lay preachers, he found four keys to developing lay ministers: Calling, Gifted, Trained, and Sent. He detailed each of these in his presentation. He shared most churches use the wrong way of judging effectiveness. Many judge it by how many are in attendance. While attendance is important, you can get people to show up but have nothing really happening. Some churches emphasize membership but many members are not mobilized. The most important statistic of any church is how many lay ministers are trained and activated. This is what makes Satan nervous, not the other two.

Another insight from Garlow is how do churches send their laypeople out and validate their ministry in the world. How many churches have sending services and commissing services for teachers and students as they go to school to be in ministry? How many business people have been sent out as missionaries in their workplaces? Not many, I'm afraid. They believe baptism is the commissioning service for layfolks into ministry.

A second session Jim Garlow presented was on ministerial discouragement. It was a powerful talk and God showed up. 66% of ministers think their church is not making a difference. So he shared some insights to encourage ministers. Some of the things he said were:
- Transitions are often painful but all of life is in transition
- Every year 12% of people leave your church so don't take it too personally.
- Some Christians are nomatic and won't stay at your church.
- Firing is an art - one out of 3 hires often don't work out.
- Things will be easier for you as a pastor if you let people see your heart.
- Tell your congregation that you love them.
- Pastor's spouses should tell their spouse that their sermon was great on Sunday. Don't give criticism till Tuesday at least since so much emotion went into it.
- When in doubt, throw a party.
- Jesus can only build the church; you do your part.

We had to go out of the sessions this afternoon because of a Tornado warning. Several tornadoes hit south of montgomery and at least 6 people have been killed. One report says 13. Click here to read more. Please be in prayer for those affected and those storms going on now.