Korean Folk Village

One of the nice things the Kwanglim Church did for us is take us here to see what life was like in Korea 150 years ago. It is a tourist place to take people to, with shops and shows but it gives us an idea of the conditions of the day. They even paid for a guide (seen below) to give us a tour of the area.



This is the year of the Golden Pig.

These are typical rice fields of Korea. They are still all over the countryside (at least part of what we saw in our travels).

A traditional basket maker.

This is the empeorers palace. It could be the governor, I can't quite remember. Anyway somebody important would have lived here and it was here that official business was done.

This would be the emporer seated here. He would also excute judgment. They would beat people publically for crimes against the community. They also put people in solitary by a head lock.

This would be a traditional home.

These homes were not big as you can see. The toilet below can still be found in many places in the world.

They did have entertainment, a 50 year old tight rope walker. It was amazing he could bend his body that way. The traditional dancing was tremendous as well. Once again, fellow BP will give you a sense of what it was like in the video below. Thanks Aaron for your skills and time!

The Trip To the DMZ

We went to the DMZ one day, the land between the North and the South. It was a rainy cold day, which was appropriate for the setting. There was lots of barbed wire and soliders with guns.

This scultpure expresses the hopes of South Korea, to be reunited with North Korea. If find it amazing that they are interested and seeing reconcilliation with people who wish to hurt them. This is Gordon taking a close look. We watched this crazy video as an introduction. I could not understand it. Take a quick look. It doesn't do justice to how they try to put a postive spin on a terrible situation.

North Korea dug four tunnels under the DMZ to invade South Korea if need be. They were discovered after a N. Korean traitor revealed them. They collapsed three of the tunnels and kept the other intact to show the North Korean intent. Over 30000 troops per hour could be used to invade. They would not allow us to take pictures underneath.

We had our tour guide from the DMZ to show us the tunnel. Here he is with one of the international pastors. We go into a tunnel 300 feet down.

This funny little DMZ soldier character apparently makes the DMZ more family friendly.

I'm officially back! Sites of Korea

Sorry for the delay in posting. Until Two Days ago, I felt like I wasn't yet back on American Time. It was almost two weeks from being in my own bed and it was wearing on me. The past two nights I slept through the night and now I'm feeling more back in the swing of things.

I wanted to post some pictures from Korea and describe some of what I saw. These are some of the sight of Seoul as we drove on the bus. Remember, some of these were created for the Olympic games they had there.

They had Dominoes, Krispy Kreme, KFC, and other american resturants in Korea. They are a very Westernized city.

This is the view from near the retreat center where we stayed at. It was about 1 1/2 hours from the Kwanglim church which hosted us. It reminded me of East Tennessee with the smoky mountains.

This is the retreat center where we stayed. They have groups here regularly for special meetings.

This is where Gordon and I stayed at in the retreat house. It was like a small hotel room. We even had little house shoes. Too bad my feet were too big.

On our first day, we went to Kwanglim church. This is a coffee bar they have. We broke up in groups of three with a associate pastor and a translator to meet in homes with members and participate in cell group meetings. These pastors work hard. They do about 40 home visits a week. These home visits usually involve a sermon, singing songs, collecting a tithe, etc. They work about 12 -14 hours a day and work 6 days a week with only Monday off.

This is Pastor Kim. He is a former Beeson Pastor. His dad led the church to its growth from the 1960's on. He took over as Senior pastor seven years ago. They make all the arrangements for us. Pastor Kim is a strong preacher who seeks to honor his Father, Bishop Kim for all of the growth of the church.

Pastor Kim detailed for us his father's ministry and where the church will be going in the future. Interestingly the church is having trouble reaching young people as they become more Americanized or Westernized.

Pastor Kim paid for our trip to of all places in Korea, Bennigans. Apparently they were concerned that we enjoy American food. Considering we had KFC earlier that day, I was a little disappointed and looking forward to Korean food.

We spent MUCH time on this bus. It is a bus the church owns for various functions. Routinely we were on the bus for 3-4 hours a day, at least. Seoul takes a while to drive places and our lodging was not central to the church.

Brian often was at the back of the bus asking us to bow down to him. By the end of the weekend I hope to upload the majority of my trip. Enjoy for now.

My Prayer Cell Experience

As written about in my last post from Korea, I had asked you to pray for me as I went to prayer mountain. It was a great experience. One of the first things we did was spend about 2 hours walking up the mountain doing the stations of the cross. Different Beeson Pastors including the international leaders lead devotional thought at the different stations. I took pictures of the stations and plan uploading them when I have the capability in a couple days.

I want to tell you about my prayer cell experience. On Monday night, everyone was invited to sign up for a prayer cell for the night. You could stay as short or as long as you like. I must say, this Korea experience was something that attracted me to the Beeson Program years ago. I had heard how formational it was and how so many pastors who go are never the same. This January in Houston, we heard from former Beeson Pastors who had great experiences with God at the prayer mountain. All of this raised my expectations pretty high. Like many, I desire greater experiences with God, deeper experiences. Too much of life seems on the plains and if I'm honest, I want an experience with God more like climbing the mountains than being on the plains. Therefore, I was praying for some profound experience from this night and being on prayer mountain.

I checked into my prayer cell later that night. I took a photo of it and I will upload it later. I must stay that the description of a prayer cell is accurate. They are small and there is not much room. There were about 25 cells to choose from, some were already being used. I chose the biggest one I could find. It had two pillows on the floor. I had brought my blanket from my room because it was cold in there. Nothing like being close to God by sitting on an uncomfortable floor that is cold and feeling like you are in solitary confinement.

I began to pray about all my expectations of the night. Of all that I heard and listed above. After praying through some of those expectations, I felt like God gave me a word for me. It was something like this, "Scott, you don't need to be in a prayer cell in South Korea to have an experience with me. I am all over. Your prayer cell is the entire world. You can go anywhere and be with me and talk with me. Instead of trying to get something out of this experience, just make as much of yourself available to me as you can right now." This was incredibly freeing. It felt good just to be with God without any expectations.

I took my Bible and read through almost all of John. WHen I was in San Jose at the Organic Church Conference, Neil Cole talked about using the seven signs of John as a way to share Christ with people. Most scholars note that John is designed around seven miraculous signs Jesus performs so that people might believe in him (john 20:31). As I read through it as a whole with this lens, it was very clear that Jesus was powerful and performed many miraculous signs yet the people missed them. Even more they asked Jesus to prove himself by performing a sign but missing all that he had already done in their midst. It was so clear that they just didn't get it.

I wonder how many times we just don't get it. We want to see God in a miraculous way yet he shows up in power in so many places we just don't have eyes to see. He does miracles regularly so that we might have faith in him yet we continually ask for more. Help us and me, O God, to see your miraculous signs in our culture, our world, our lives so that we might believe in you and others might have faith in who you are.

I'm Back but Tired

It has been a while since I updated. I have been out of commission since I got back. Long story short - after 30 hours of travel, I ended up in Kingsport Tenn with a change of flight so I could be with the family for Easter. I will update the rest of what happened ASAP. Suffice it to say that I had a great trip, with personal insights from my prayer experience that I will share soon. I will be getting back to KY on Monday night so check back in a couple days.

Believe it or not, it snowed last night (about 1-2 inches). It is very unusual to have that kind of snowfall this time of year. Who would have thought? Have a happy Easter!

Day Four (ish)

I greet you this morning from a fresh night's sleep in Korea. I stayed up later last night which enabled me to sleep for 8 hours uninterrupted. It is going to be a good day. This most likely will be my last entry in my blog till i'm back since we are moving to Prayer Mountain tonight and they do not have internet access.

Yesterday was a great day of worship. We went to Kwang Lim Methodist Church . They have worship services at 7,9,11,2:30 and 5pm. What a day. Imagine preaching four services. That would wear me out. We went to their Sunday school. We were broken up into groups of four to the kids classes. Nolan, Susanna, Gordon, John Stockle (a PHD student) and myself went to the middle school sunday school. It was an experience! They basically have a 1 hour worship service with an hour meeting in small groups. The worship service was attended by about 100 middle schoolers. It was loud. The worship leader liked to scream into the mike. It was something that I will remember for a while (if you catch my drift).

The service reminded me that kids are kids. We sat in the back and saw kids not listening, talking to each other, etc. The adults, like in most american circles, stood on the side of the service and functioned more like crowd control. WHen they broke up into groups, I was surprized to see a pizza delivery man bringing a pizza to one class and a box of Krispe Kremes in another. I guess some things are universal.

The worship service was very formal at Kwang Lim. About 4000 were in the 11am worship service. We wore headphones for the translator. They had 160 in the choir and they were awesome. They had a full orchestra and it was like being at a cultural event. The preaching was good. Rev. Kim was a powerful preacher. While at times I had difficultly understanding, I knew he was preaching his heart out.

They hosted a nice spread for lunch for us. The fruit was great. Pears were unique and out of this world. I am not a big fan of Kimche (Sp.?). I had some two days ago and decided to not venture out again.

We then piled in the van for another worship service. This was at Yoido Full Gospel Church. They are the largest church in the world with 750,000 members and 21 sancutaries. We went to their youth worship service and it was by far the highlight for me of the trip. It had about 10,000 in worship. What impressed me is that they were going for it in worship. The music was fantastic! They used american worship songs and korean. It actually reminded me of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London in terms of their spirit, depth, and energy. They had a dance team dancing to the music all choreographed. I had goosebumps several times.

The preacher for me was hard to follow but I got through it. They closed with communion. It was real wine, a little shock. We closed with worship again. It was a fantastic experience!

When I was in San Jose last week, Neil Cole said that many church planters are told the most important things to have with a church is two things: clean bathrooms and parking spaces. Neither one of those were present at Yoido. In fact the mens bathroom was worse than a subway bathroom. I couldn't breathe. The most important thing is to have Jesus at your church and I know Jesus was a Yoido.

Today we head off for prayer mountain. I will be back on Wednesday at 2:05 pm in Lexington. If I have a chance to email, I will. Please keep me in your prayers.

Can't sleep in Korea

it is 4:16am in Korea, 3:16pm East Coast time. I can't sleep. I am at the hotel computer trying to kill some time so I can go to sleep. I have been doing well with the time change so far. I tend to get groggy around 3pm but keep going. Today it is no luck.

One of the thing that has struck me is the commitment of the pastors here to pray. To be a pastor here you must pray early every day. Many of the associate pastors lead prayer at 5 and 6am. They have two services. The sr. Pastor from Kwang Lim church was leading Friday night prayer from 8pm-12:30am. People wonder why the churches are big here in Korea. One major reason I believe is the commitment to pray.

The pastors here work very hard. The only day off they get is Monday. They average 40 visits per week and call people on Saturdays. I don't know many pastors who do this in America. A home visit is different than that of the states. In the states they tend to be more social visits. In Korea, they visit by praying, reading scripture, often a brief sermon by the pastor, and collecting the offering. I wonder what a typical home visit would look like in America if we adapted some of these principles. Frankly, I felt a little uncomfortable with how they did it and would not be readily transferrable to the states. Yet, How could we make home visits a little more spiritual in nature? I must also say that the size of the church impacts these visits. If you only see your pastor once a year for a visit, it is a bigger deal.

This morning I was praying in my bed. I pray that I come back from this trip not the same as when I came. I have heard of several pastors who have had great experiences with God here. Part of me, if I am honest want a deeper experience with God too. I want to love God and feel his presence with me more than I currently am. I want that day I will always remember. Yet I also know the danger of seeking an experience. God has already revealed himself to me in Jesus Christ and what could be better than that. The theme of the Asbury Lent Devotions this year is to be hidden with Christ in God. That is my prayer.

Day Two (I Think)

So far the experience has been great in Korea. We are adjusting pretty well to the time. THe place where we are staying is a lot like North East Tennessee. There are mountains and it looks a lot like Gatlinburg. It is beautiful.

Yesterday we went to KwangLim Church to visit in homes with the pastors. The church has about 30 pastors and they are broken up into nine districts. Each pastor is in charge of a district and has a staff of folks. THey have about 2500 members in the district we visited, with 700 families, 500 of which are active. There are about 250 cell groups in that district.

We attended a cell meeting of about 5 people in a ladies home. They were very hospitable. We broke up in teams of three. They gave us gifts. We had a brief worship service in a business and met with a member for their annual visit by the pastor. We also went to a Christian girls high school. It was a highlight. We ate KFC there. A little surprizing to eat KFC in Korea. WE at Bennigans at night. Our Hosts wanted us to make sure we were comfortable with the food.

Today we went to the DMZ. We had prayer for the reinufication of North and South Korea. That was one of the highlights for me. Today we also went shopping for gifts for the family and myself. I got a custom made suit.

TOmorrow I am looking forward to worship. We worship at Kwang lim church. It worships about 35,000 weekly plus sunday school. We will do both and then attend the largest church in the world, Yoito full Gospel. Pray that it is a good day.

I think the best is yet to come for me personally. Be sure to check out Aaron's blog. He put a video together on some of yesterdays events.

We are here!

We have arrived in Korea safe and sound. There is an internet connnection here at where we are staying so I hope to update you on what is going on here. It took a total of 26 hours to get here but it wasn't that bad. The flight from Atlanta to Korea was 16 hours. I watched 4 movies on the plane. Brian, a fellow BP, watched six. I slept about 1 hour on the plane and read a book.

When we arrived at the airport we drove about 2 hours to the retreat center. I slept good. We have had fried eggs, bacon, and toast and corn flakes for breakfast. So far no problem with the food. Today we go to a Christian High school, visit with the pastor of Kwang Lim Church, which has about 80,000 members. We also go on visitation with some of their associate pastors to meet with church members at their homes. Tonight I found out we eat at Bennigan's, yes like in the states. We come home around 9. We are 13 hours ahead of the east coast.

I will try to update as much as I can. Be sure to check out Brian Bucher's blog and Aaron Wymer's (see side of my blog) to hear what is going on.

Greenhouse Reflections

The purpose of my trip to San Jose was to learn more for my dissertation by attending an organic church conference led by Church Multiplication Associates. The architect behind it is a man named Neil Cole. I stumbled upon Cole's work when doing research for my dissertation on small discipleship groups. I was literally looking in the section where this material was at and came across his book Cultivating a Life for God. It was a simple method of making disciples of Jesus that combined discipleship and evangelism. It was one of the best things I had seen and was exactly what I was looking for.

Last year he wrote a book called Organic Church. Organic church explains more about the principles of their movement. The basic tenet of the movement is that God intends for the church to spontaneously expand, kind of like a popular video would hit YouTube and would spread throughout the web. The church was born to reproduce and the church should have many daughter churches. He stated that 96% of churches will not give birth to a daughter church. If 96% of women could not have a baby, there would be alarm. But the fact that churches do not reproduce themselves does not even raise an eyebrow for most churches.

The organic church movement values relationships over church services. They feel most churches are more concerned about what happens in one hour then what happens all week. They invest all their resources into Sunday morning but are not producing disciples. Their working definition of church is "The presence of Jesus among his people called out as a spiritual family to pursue his mission on this planet."

According to Cole, the DNA of the church is:
- Divine Truth - meaning the presence of Jesus and the word of God
- Nurturing Relationships - loving others in the body
- Apostolic Mission - Reaching those who don't know Jesus.

The primary learning for me from this weekend is the value of relationships. When I was first involved in the church, it was primarily relationship driven. I had a person who invested in my life and I invested in others' lives. As I have grown in positions of leadership of the church over the years, I realized I have begun to think more programattically instead of relationally. We ministers often spend out time running programs rather than investing in and building people. This weekend reinforced how I need to get back to being more relational as a pastor and the power of listening to people. It is amazing when you are seriously interested in people and listen to their story, you build trust and connect with people on a different level. While there were other insights from the weekend (that I hope to reflect on in the plane flight), this was primary.

Korea, Here we Come!

In seven hours we leave for Korea for one week. I am looking forward to the trip because for many Beeson Pastors, Korea was a formational experience for them spiritually. I hope it is the same for me. We go to the largest Church in the World that has between 800,000 to 1 million members. Our host church is the Kwang Lim Church which has 80,000 members. They have a prayer mountain we will go to for a few days of our experience.

Aaron has done a great job detailing the Korean experience we are about to have so click here to learn more.

I will write when I get back.

San Jose Trip, Faith, and San Francisco

We are back from our great trip to San Jose and San Francisco last weekend. Kate, Pierson, and I went to a conference on the Organic Church. It lasted from Friday to Sunday. I will report more on that later. We left a day early to get to San Jose because we wanted to be fresh for the conference and to spend a day in the city of San Francisco. I always wanted to go and this was my chance. To top it all of, my cousin Faith (seen below) lives in San Jose about 5-10 minutes from where our hotel was. She was kind enough to take off of work and give us a tour of the city.

We went to Sausilto (spelling) for breakfast.
We walked up a hill to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was gorgeous and huge all at the same time. When we walked up, the fog rolled in so we couldn't even see the bridge. After some touring of the area, we went back where we got this shot. Majestic isn't it.
This is looking out to the Pacific Ocean that leads to the Golden Gate.
After Golden Gate, we went into the heart of the city to see what we could see with the time we had. We ate lunch at a fish place on Fisherman's warf. They are known for their bowls of clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. After that we strolled around the shopping areas. This was my personal highlight. In fact this reminded me of any large city like New York which has many places to shop.

Kate posed with Madonna for this shot.

Pierson did well on the trip. Flying over and back he slept most of the way (Thank God). He did have trouble like us adjusting to the time. But overall he was his happy Pierson self. I was struck with how many people talked to us because we were related to him. He is a people magnet.We rode a cable car up through the city. For me this was my true highlight. We went up the hill from the Harbor. It was quite a ride. We overlooked the harbor and Alcatraz. It was like right out of a movie. It was worth every penny.

Faith and I hanging out the cable car.

This is a great picture. We really did have a good time. We were exhausted and still are adjusting to the time change but it was a great trip personally and spiritually.

Dissertation is Close and So is Cali!

Things are going well on the dissertation. It has really progressed and I hope to have the first draft done by the end of the day. Let me rephrase that. I will have the first draft done by the end of the day.

Kate and I leave tomorrow for San Jose California. We are not going to the sweet sixteen but a church conference on the Organic Church. This conference is what they call a greenhouse weekend, a immersion experience of what the house church movement is about. You can find out about this network by clicking here and here.

This movement beleives that too many churches are program driven as opposed to relationship driven. Statistics also indicate the most people who get involved in a church and find Christ are in smaller churches, not bigger churches (Natural Church Development). This flies in the face of the large church or mega church movement. In fact, many of the large churches are finding that people want that small church feel but large church resources so they have intentionally created multiple services of smaller crowds (ie. 200) rather than large stadiums for 2000.

This weekend will give me exposure to this movement that is appealing in many ways and also help me with my dissertation since their smallest group in this movement is a Life Transformation Group or LTG. They are groups of 2-3 people who meet for accountability, scriptural truth and prayer for those who need Jesus. In fact, Frazier Memorial UMC, whom we visited a month ago, is implementing these groups in their church. Read a broad sketch about them by clicking here.

Kate, Pierson and I are going and will get to see my cousin Faith who is recently married. I haven't seen her in a long time. We will be back on Monday. Check out my blog on Tuesday and I will update on the weekend. Until then, may God's richest blessings be upon you this day.

Proud of UT and other things

I was happy to see how the Men's Vols did the the NCAA Tourney. They put up 121 in first game. Most pros don't do that. Then they beat another team they weren't supposed to beat, Virginia. Read more here. Compared to where they were, it is suprising that they are ahead of Kentucky in terms of where the program is now. Ohio State will be a challenge. They are hard to beat. I'm sure I'll hear from fellow BP Bryan about it. He's a big fan of Ohio State. I'm just glad the Vols got this far.

Had a good weekend to Tennessee. Preached a sermon for my ordination requirements. Went well I thought. I guess you have to ask those there to get their scoop. I was reminded by a few circumstances that the best preaching is preaching that is conversational and passionate. I preach for class on Thursday and that is fresh in my mind as I prepare.

I got a call Saturday that one of the sweetest ladies from my old church in Surgoinsville passed away. Belva Pierce. She was a great lady. She had a heart for God and a hand to man. She was always concerned to get people into church. she always went the extra mile by making a phone call, cooking a dish, or giving money. She supported me when I went to India. She loved my kids. We last saw her on Christmas time to say hi. We visited for a while and as we left she gave us a little plant. We have that plant in our kitchen. She touched many lives and will be greatly missed.

Keep us in prayer this week. Need to finish Chapter three of my dissertation and preach in class

I-RACK

Mr. Wymer passed this along to me. It is political and very clever.

Four Sermons

Have you ever heard four sermons in a row? I definately feel like I have been to church today. Our preaching class had four preachers from 8:30-11:30am. I felt whipped and ready to call it a day by 11:30am! On top of that, it is 70-75 and sunny outside. After a little break, some Indian food, I'm feeling better.

The sermons today were good. Alicia preached on making oaths from the Sermon on the Mount. The basic point was every word you say should be like you are under oath. You should live your life as if you are on the witness stand. Can people trust our words? Such a high standard of living.

Bryan preached on turning the other cheek. It was a home run in terms of sermons. He said that life is like a orange extension cord, all tangled up and hard to straighten out. We beleive that we should turn the other cheek in principle but not in real life. He shared a story about being harrassed by a bullly in 1st grade that had me laugh so hard tears came to my eyes. Yet right after that, he set me up for his point. It was like a parable. Sorry, but you had to be there.

Jason preaching on loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. We are to live up to the standard of Christ who modeled this quality by his life and death on the cross. Jason today reminded me of Joel Osteen in terms of his winsome spirit. It makes me believe and want to listen to what he has to say.

Lastly, Scott Wright, a Non-resident Beeson pastor, preached about living your first life now. He referred us to www.secondlife.com. It is a website, digital game where people can life another life over the internet. For a monthly fee, you can buy food, a house, clothes, design who you want to be. There are 4.6 Million residents and 1.4 Million was spent in the last 24 hours! I wonder how many people have time for there second life when I barely have time for my first life!

Tomorrow we finish our dissertation class and must have first draft of ch 1 and 2. I met with my mentor this morning and will in an hour to make adjustments. He said I was in good shape and on the right track. Much work to get to. Will write ASAP.

Korea Orientation

Today we had an orientaiton for South Korea Trip at the end of the month. Randy gave us tips on how not to offend people, what our trip will consist of, and what we will eat.


Two S. Korea students from Asbury gave us some orientation as well as teaching us some basic phrases. We will be leaving in a little more than two weeks and while it sounds exciting, it seems farther away than it is.

I'm Still Alive!

It has been a while since my last post. This month is getting kind of hectic. My next wednesday I need to have ch. 1 and 2 of my dissertation done and completed. I have spent the majority of my time this week trying to get that done. I have completed my first draft (58 pages) yesterday and sent it to my advisors to get their input. I'm sure they will give me areas to fill in, which will be next week.

I got to preach a sermon for preaching class to day. It was called "What we Really Need" from Matthew 5:17-20. It talked about the balence between the law (OT) and grace (NT). Basically I said that God is interested in our behavior but he is more interested in our hearts. He wants us to obey more than the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. It felt good preaching. It has been some time since I have and I am not in a rythum of preaching anymore like I was before I came here. I put more into one sermon that I did before and so the sermon here "Counts" more in terms of effort. The other BP's Nolan and Trav. preached good on murder and lust, fun subjects. We are preaching through the Sermon on the Mount.

Keep Kate and I in your prayers as we seek where God is leading us next.

Dr. Kalas preached a sermon today on praying for the people no one prays about. In that Dr. Kalas style, he made a compelling case to pray not only for the people whose names we know but also the names we don't know. That heart for unloved people is something I want to have more in my life.

On a personal note, Kate's mom and dad are visiting this weekend to see the kids in a program on Saturday. It should be a fun time of visiting.

Montgomery Day Three and Four

Day three of our Frazier trip we heard from Dale Galloway, Steve Seamands, Lloyd Reeb and Bryan Collier. Dale Galloway talked about how to start a lay ministry revolution. Steve Seamands talked to us about empowering the laity for ministry is more about the power of the Holy Spirit and less about technique. Lloyd Reeb talked to us about marketplace ministry. Many high capacity folks in our churches want more than church jobs that are about ushering and daily tasks of the church. They want to make a difference in the world and many have time, resources and skills to make a big difference in the kingdom. They want to give their lives to something. Our job as pastors is to help them find that thing they could give their lives to.

By far the best talk was by Bryan Collier. Bryan is a former Beeson pastor who planted a church in Mississipppi called The Orchard. His passion to reach unchurched people is contagious. He shared his story about how God has started from zero people to 2000 in worship in 7 years. They have developed a reputation in that community that The Orchard is a place where the misfits fit. He said many things but here are a couple.
- The measure our church is 'successful' isn't judged by how many people we do have, but by how many we don't have.
- Spiritual maturity is measured by how the people they do have love the people they don't have.
- don't be a jack of all trades church, do 2-3 things well.
- they have 20,000 unchurched persons in their town. To illustrate this they put a picture for every thousand people in their office walls to remind them who those unchurched people are and their stories. They put a face on a number

Today we go to workshops led by staff of Frazier. I am looking forward to talk to their discipleship guy and learn how they disciple beleivers. We are heading out in the afternoon so we can go home to be with our wives and children. I will report again in a few days.

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.

The Jesus Tomb

Perhaps you have seen some promos on the Today show and Larry King about the Jesus tomb. My Beeson Collegue refered to New Testament Scholar Ben Witherington's blog on his blog. You can read what Ben says by going to this link.