Why every church should have a web site
For some people this may be a point of contention. For me it seems like a no-brainer: Every church should have a web site.
Nay-sayers would contest that church web sites do little to reach unchurched individuals or those not following Christ. Those individuals are, after all, not looking for a church; so why would they look for a church’s web site or even care about what’s on it?
Good point.
Except that those individuals are not looking for a church, so why would they care to hear about our faith in person, either? Because it is not a question of people asking, nor is it about forcing the information on people, it’s about making it known.
The key is understanding the time in which we live. Today is a day of information. More and more people are turning to the Internet when they have questions. While I will certainly not disagree in the least that the Internet does little to foster deep relationships, it does have several advantages.
1. Increased communication.
The Internet sacrifices “connectivity” for communication. That may seem like a contradiction since we have to be connected to be online, but I mean it sacrifices the essence of people connecting with one another on a personal level for the sake of improving the ability to relay raw information from one person or source to another.
Businesses nowadays are virtually incapable of functioning or increasing productivity without e-mail or internal web sites. The same is true for people in the church and outside of it. There is a certain disarming quality about the Internet. Because we are less connected we are more apt to receive information and provide it without fear of reprisal.
2. Everything is optional.
Well, almost. Our faith and core doctrines are certainly not open for negotiation, but the advantage here is that people are not being force-fed information they don’t want. There is a saying in Christian circles, “Be a witness for Christ. If necessary use words.” It sounds nice, but in reality, not very Biblical. Christ called us to preach the Gospel as well as live it. There is a balance and believe me, it is a very fine line at times; yet something we must learn to walk.
All of us have probably lost count of how many people have been turned off of God because of over-zealous Christians who cared more about their personal tally of “saved” individuals than they did about changed lives. The Internet makes this balancing act significantly easier because the information is always there on an as-needed basis. A person genuinely seeking to learn more about a relationship with Christ can find a place where he or she can learn in doses that are manageable for him or her personally.
3. It’s practical.
Really. A church web site provides some really simple information that was once only available in the Yellow Pages.
4. A hammer is a hammer.
The Internet is a tool, just like a hammer. It can be used for purposes that benefit the Kingdom of God or for purposes that stand against it. History has shown that God moves in ways that are relevant to both the culture and generation of the day. Today that includes the Internet.
Whether a church decides to update the information on their web site daily or just once in a while, having a presence on the Internet takes advantage of another tool that can help further the plans and purposes of God.
I say this because it is important for church leaders to recognize that being current with the times makes them relevant to the generation of the times, and that is a pivotal first step to actually reaching people’s hearts and drawing them into a relationship with God through Christ.
If a young teenager is struggling he or she is likely to post their struggle on MySpace or Facebook. Because teens embrace increased communication (see Point #1 above) they have a tendency to be more open and forthright on blogs, social network sites and through instant messaging. Believe it or not, this is a very untapped resource for church leaders! In as much as open and forthrightness can be a negative element (teenage rivalry is a good example) it can also be a very positive element: Teens will open up to youth pastors and others who are willing to listen. This is a key point we must never forget. Youth will open up to others who are willing to listen; almost without regard to the listener’s beliefs, or intentions. In other words, if you don’t listen and speak into their lives, someone will–and that could be life-changing.
5. It’s relevant.
Teenagers, 20- and 30-somethings are more likely to rely on the Internet if they ever want to find a church. For that matter, they are more likely to rely on the Internet if they are even remotely curious about God, Jesus or a local church. Therefore, if God is moving in the heart of an individual in your city or community, you owe it to that person to make yourself as available as possible.
The reality is that people will visit your web site before they visit your church.
6. And more…
I could go on but I want to quickly establish a few points from a slightly different perspective. That being, church web sites are beneficial for people in your church. With a web site you can:
- Provide members and visitors a central place for communication.
- Post a calendar of events.
- Save money by e-mailing your church bulletin every week instead of printing it (and who doesn’t want to save money?).
- Have a form for people to submit prayer requests.
- Put your weekly sermons/messages online for people that either missed a service or are curious about your church’s style.
- Share your church’s vision and passion.
- Share your staffs’ functions, interests and hobbies.
The list goes on and my goal is not to be exhaustive but to stir up an interest in the possibilities and value behind having a church web site.
To wrap-up I want to add that it does not have to cost a lot of money nor take a lot of time to have a web site. Post in the comments if you have questions about getting started or want to share your thoughts.
Life-giving
Having just wrapped up a series on fruitfulness, this Sunday I spoke about what it means to be life-giving as a follower of Christ.
My goal was to communicate that being a life-giver doesn’t have to be difficult and I presented some simple points that can help make it a natural and effective part of one’s life.
Click the link below to listen.
Hearing God’s voice, part 7
We have been discussing how to hear God’s voice and in the study we made some key points that can really help us hear God more easily, and know how to react when we’re not sure we are hearing Him at all. To summarize what we’ve discussed so far:
- God’s voice is familiar,
- God’s voice carries authority,
- God wants to talk to us,
- When we seek Him, He directs us even if we don’t hear Him,
- Hearing God is easier when our lifestyle focuses on Him,
- We must compare what we hear to what’s in the Bible,
- We must pray about what we hear.
To wrap up the series on hearing God’s voice, I want to look at one final element which is illustrated in a passage from Proverbs.
6for waging war you need guidance, and for victory many advisers.
–Proverbs 24:6 (NIV)
6Strategic planning is the key to warfare; to win, you need a lot of good counsel.
Proverbs 24:6 (MSG)
6So don’t go to war without wise guidance; victory depends on having many advisers.
–Proverbs 24:6 (NLT)
Sometimes hearing God for various things in our lives is difficult because the Bible doesn’t give a specific direction about everything and our emotions can interfere with our ability to separate God’s voice from our own. Some questions–who to marry? What house to buy? What school to go to?–simply cannot be answered by randomly opening a page in the Bible (for the most part).
The passage in Proverbs 6:24 communicates an interesting message. All three translations say the same thing in their own unique way; that is, we should solicit the advice of other Christians we know and trust when making key choices in our lives.
1Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
–Psalm 1:1a (NIV)
After we’ve sought God, read the Bible and prayed, getting feedback from others can help confirm what we’ve heard or provide us with different perspectives that we had not yet considered.
Hearing God’s voice, part 6
Last time we talked about hearing God’s voice we closed with a passage from the Gospel of John.
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
–John 15:1-8 (NIV)
This passage illustrates that our relationship with Christ must be a lifestyle. In the same way a branch cannot continually remove and re-attach itself to a tree, we cannot include God in our lives one moment; then exclude Him the next. We’ve discussed that one of the key factors in our ability to recognize God’s voice is removing immoral and amoral things from our lifestyle. We cannot live a life that bounces back and forth between morality and immorality–and still expect to recognize God’s voice–any more than a branch could remove and re-attach itself to a tree–and still expect to grow and bear fruit. So how does one know what is immoral and what is amoral? The Bible.
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
–2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
This passage shows us that God’s Word is, first and foremost, inspired by Him. Secondly, it is useful for four things:
- Teaching. The information or learned material.
- Rebuking. Providing evidence that proves a point.
- Correcting. Straightening or making something correct.
- Training in righteousness. Tutoring (which could include disciplinary action to correct).
Hearing God is the first step. Whenever we believe we have heard God’s voice we need to compare what has been spoken to what the Bible tells us. The Bible is the tool that contains the information we need to prove whether what we have heard is indeed God’s voice or not. The Bible is the instrument that determines whether the instruction we have received is correct. When we know God’s heart and His Word, we become equipped to respond when He truly speaks to us (also read John 8:31-32).
The next step is to pray about what you’ve heard. For two reasons: Firstly, to solidify in your heart that you have indeed heard God.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
–James 1:5 (NIV)
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
–Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
Approaching God with an open and honest heart about what we believe we have heard will enable God to speak to us with clarity and His Word reminds us that He has an open-door policy.
Secondly, we need to pray, depending on what has been spoken, to enable God’s Spirit to bring it into fruition.
James 5 talks about Elijah (a prophet in the Old Testament) and God spoke through him that it would not rain for a season and after that season that it would rain. Despite being told by God what would happen Elijah still prayed that God’s Word would come to pass. The principle here is that Elijah was just a person God chose–he was no different than you or I. Elijah recognized that God works through us and the element which empowers that movement is prayer.
It’s important that we understand that while God is all-powerful, He has made a choice to work through people. Our responsibility is to respond, and with that comes work.
Hearing God’s voice, part 5
We’ve been talking about hearing God’s voice and one of the elements we discussed was that God’s voice is a familiar voice. Knowing this certainly makes it easier to recognize when He is speaking to us; however, it also opens the door for potential confusion. It can be difficult to know whether we’re hearing a random thought of our own, or the actual voice of God.
When the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome he addressed a key element that relates to this very issue.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
–Romans 12:2 (NIV)
What Paul is saying is that by changing the way we think, we change the way we act. This one verse carries a lot of meaningful insight into how a believer can and should live his or her life. When we begin to adjust how we think, our actions begin to change and reflect that new way of thinking. The result is that we become able to “test and approve what God’s will is.”
By renewing our mind we position ourselves to better recognize God’s voice from other distractions in life. The old adage “garbage in; garbage out” carries a lot of weight in the light of this scripture. If we continually feed our minds with immoral or amoral things, we hinder our ability to recognize the different between God’s will and our own.
A similar thought is communicated in Hebrews.
11There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. 12You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 13For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 14Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
–Hebrews 5:11-14 (NLT)
This passage expands what Romans 12 tells us. In verse 14 we see that by “training” we develop the skill necessary to recognize the difference between right and wrong. The key here is that recognizing God’s voice from our own is not always going to be instantaneous–although sometimes it will be. For day-to-day life we need to develop the skill to recognize His voice from other stray thoughts. It’s a growth process.
The word translated “training” in Hebrews 5:14 is a Greek word that means exercise. More specifically, it refers to athletes who, in that time period, would run races and compete without any clothing (i.e. naked). They stripped off everything that would hinder their ability to perform at 100%. The Bible is telling us that if we want to recognize right from wrong, God’s will from our own, we need to remove the things that cling to us and hold us back.
Ultimately, hearing God’s voice becomes radically easier when our relationship with Him is a lifestyle–included in every facet of what we do and how we live–and not just another thing included in our already busy schedules.
Church and Apple Stores
There’s an interesting (and short!) post from a blogger on Thoughts.com. In it he explains why churches should be like Apple Stores.
If you’ve never been to an Apple Store, you should visit one. It’s a very unique shopping experience and the author of this blog post creates some really good parallels between one’s experience visiting a store and a church.
Hearing God’s voice, part 4
In our series on Hearing God’s Voice we’ve looked at different elements to help us recognize when God is speaking. This time we’re going to take a slightly different look at the same topic by starting with a passage from 1 Kings; where Solomon is preparing to build the temple.
13King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel–thirty thousand men. 14He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. 15Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, 16as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen. 17At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. 18The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.
–1 Kings 5:13-18 (NIV)
The Hebrew word translated “prepared” in verse 18 of this passage is a word that means, “to be firm, be stable, be established.” It’s a word that can be used communicate “stand up straight,” or “perpendicular to the ground.” Based on the verses we just read, it’s clear that a lot of work went into building the temple. “Preparing” the wood and stone for the temple would have been an arduous task–especially without the use of modern-day machinery! It would have required skilled trades people and a lot of planning.
23If the LORD delights in a man’s way,
he makes his steps firm;24though he stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.–Psalm 37:23-24 (NIV)
23The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD,
And He delights in his way.
24Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the LORD upholds him with His hand.–Psalm 37:23-24 (NKJV)
The NKJV says our steps are “ordered” and the NIV translates them as being made “firm.” The interesting part of this passage from Psalm 37 is that those two translated words are the same Hebrew word we read in 1 Kings 5:18; the word translated “prepared.” What this illustrates is that God is arduous about directing our steps. He works strenuously to shape us so that we stand straight (perpendicular to the ground) as we journey through our lives, to fulfill His plans and purposes.
The key element in all of this is that whether or not in any given moment we recognize the voice of God, God’s Word promises that He is directing and leading us. The only condition to this promise is that we set our hearts to seek Him. As the NIV says, “If the LORD delights in a man’s way,” and the NKJV, “The steps of a good man.”
An excellent example of this in practice is in Acts 16:6-10, where we find the apostle Paul roaming across the countryside to share Christ with people. At nearly each step the Bible says the Spirit of Jesus stopped him. Paul never got stressed out about being told repeatedly that he was going the wrong way. It’s almost humourous that while Paul clearly felt the Spirit’s leading to not go to certain cities, he still couldn’t recognize God’s voice as to where he should be heading. In fact, in this instance the only time God was able to get through to him was while he was sleeping.
Even if we don’t hear from God about what we’re supposed to be doing; if we set our hearts to seek Him, when we’re about to really miss the mark, He’s faithful to let us know. If we don’t hear from him–period–we can trust that our path is directed while we’re pursuing Him.
Fruitfulness Requires Toil
This Sunday I spoke at church. We’ve been talking about fruitfulness: what it means, what God expects, how be to fruitful, etc.
My message is entitled Fruitfulness Requires Toil. It’s a message that delves into what the Bible says about fruitfulness and how it’s applied in our daily lives.
Click the link below to listen.
A great poster possibly made even better
Right outside the nursery at my church there’s this poster of a baby playing in sand with the caption, “One voice can make a song. One life can change the world.” I’ve always liked the expression on the kid’s face.
One day I had an idea: Being a fan of the Apple iPhone I couldn’t help but wonder just how great this poster would be with a little product plug. Bring in Pixelmator and a few minutes with the airbrush tool and now we know.
Click the link for to see the full-size before and after shots.
Hearing God’s voice, part 3
11“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
–Luke 11:11-13 (NIV)
So far we’ve covered two elements of hearing God’s voice:
The above passage, from Luke 11, illustrates another unique element in hearing God’s voice. A normal (read: healthy) parent will always desire to take care of their children. This is expressed in a myriad of ways, but the heart behind it is unconditional love. In Luke 11:11-13 Jesus reminds us of this and goes one step further to let us know that God’s love is greater.
While it may not be immediately obvious, there is an element to hearing God’s voice hidden in this passage: God wants us to hear Him! He wants to give His Spirit.
I shared this example when last speaking at my church as an illustration: When a wife wants a husband to hear her, she makes sure he can hear her. It doesn’t mean he always completely understands what she’s trying to communicate, but when she wants her voice to be heard, she makes sure it is. (And the reverse is very much true, too.) God wants to speak to us. Sometimes the message isn’t completely comprehendable, but He still wants us to hear Him. Much like, from the above example, the husband needs to make a conscience choice to listen, we must make a conscience choice to listen to God’s voice.
It may seem like a contradiction, but developing a habit of regular prayer that includes not saying anything goes a long way to allowing the Holy Spirit to give correction, edification, and direction in our lives. Remember Jesus said in verse 13, “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” The Holy Spirit is our Counselor.
26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
–John 14:26 (NIV)
The original Greek word translated “teach” in John 14:26 means a discourse with others to instruct them. God wants a dialogue with us that leads us to a better understanding of who He is. When we know Him better, we can better model His character and love to others.