"Simple Church" by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger...

"Simple Church" was recommended a few months back and I was told that it was a must read so I went over to the Holy Land of the SBC (Lifeway) and purchased a copy.

I was immediately drawn to the book because it had

the word "simple" in the title. I found out soon enough something that I had known for quit some time now, church has become anything but simple.




The author's begin by comforting me that this isn't another one of those "do it this way and I'll guarantee your church will become the next mega church in America" kind of book. They tell the story of a normal church pastor who truly cares and worries for his flock. The pastor wonders why he spends most of his time in counseling rather then working toward feeding the flock and all the while he wonders if his church is being transformed. I would say that a lot of pastors across this country know exactly how this guy feels. Our example pastor does figure it out though. He asks himself the following; "Is his church making real disciples, the kind of disciples Jesus made? Or is everyone just busy?"




Chapter one wastes no time in bringing forth simple yet mind blowing information. Rainer and Geiger speak of a couple of things that are very popular and very simple. Actually, they reveal that a major reason why these things are so popular is because they are so simple. They call two companies revolutionaries against complexity. The first company is Apple, which has created the greatness of the iphone and ipod. The ipod has one button that does just about everything you need in order to control it. The other being Google, which is one of the fastest growing companies in American history. Take a look at Google's website sometime; there is nothing on it. It's simple.



This book is a basic walk through of two types of churches and how they "do ministry." First Church has many activities and/or programs while Simple Church has very few. First Church has a different mission statement for every activity while Simple Church has every activity revolve around one mission statement. First Church hires staff that are considered the best in their field, while Simple Church hires staff that fits the mold of how they do ministry. The authors point out that while First Church has the most well known staff, they are also in competition with other staff to make their ministry the best in the church. Instead of working as a team to promote the gospel they are over working their people to be apart of as many programs as possible, thus leading them to burnout. One of my favorite points of the book is the comparison of how each church handled new ideas. Both churches had found that they where dealing with marriage issues. First Church decided to set aside an entire weekend for a marriage conference at the church. Simple Church on the other hand decided to implement ways to better its members marriages by putting the material in their Sunday school/small group studies. The reason why I found this so interesting is because First Church, which is already pulling at its members from all different directions decides to expect those members take even more time out of their busy schedule to attend another program. By Simple Church placing the material in their Sunday school/small groups they are accomplishing multiple tasks. Those accomplishments are as follows:

1. 
   
   Couples are being trained weekly.


2. 
   
   Couples become closer as a group because they learn about each other.


3. 
   
   Those that might not want to attend Bible Study just might because of the material.


4. 
   
   By accomplishing the above Simple Church is growing disciples which is their main goal.

Ultimately the book reveals that church leadership must never be afraid to say "no." People may come into your church with well intentions or ideas, but if those ideas don't fit your churches underlining mission then it's not needed. The book does say that it's not easy to become simple, but can actually be very difficult. The leadership must not falter in the goal and direction of the church. Keep sharing the vision of your church with your members even when it seems like people are tired of hearing it.

Rainer & Geiger do a great job with this book and I highly recommend it to anyone in church leadership. Our society has gotten so complex with the rise in technology that it's time to get back to the basics of offering scripture as being sufficient for our church members.

In Christ Alone,

Mr. V.

"Already Gone" by Ken Ham

I just finished reading "Already Gone" by Ken Ham the founder of Answers In Genesis and well known statistician Britt Beemer. The book is an easy read of 166 pages and I thought the stats where laid out very well compared to other books that seem to get confusing and boring by the way they lay out information. "Already Gone" does a very good job of keeping it simple and easy to understand. Actually, I found for the most part that the stats where the best part of the entire book. Ken makes a number of decent observations, but he will probably be quoted more for his bold statements and/or claims then his good points. It almost seems as though the bold statements were more for shock factor then anything else.

The biggest and boldest claim Ken makes is found on page 38 and says, "Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of our children." Wow! Make that claim to most Southern Baptists and see what kind of response you get. I think the statement wouldn't have been so shocking if the authors would of given their findings first and then made their claim. I say that because their findings are very much eye opening.

Their survey was taken of 1,000 20-29 year old adults that had regularly attended church as children and teens. A few of the findings are as follows. 61 percent of those surveyed said "yes" when asked if they had attended Sunday school often during their child and teen years. According to their results, those that attended Sunday school "often" are more likely to not believe that all Bible accounts are true. They are also more likely then the 39 percent of those that said they didn't attend Sunday school to defend abortion and gay marriage. Those that spent their younger days in Sunday school where also more apt to believe in some form of evolution as well as that good people don't have to attend church. The results of this survey are a cause for the church to take a good hard look at what she is doing and why she is doing it, but I believe that Sunday school is just a small part of the overall problem and not the start of it as Ken Ham tends to lead us to believe.

The authors do make a couple of very good points about how we should transform the Sunday school program. The surveys findings show that for the most part our current Sunday school program is nothing more then irrelevant repetition of the same old stories. Mr. Ham says that we need to teach the Bible as actual history and not as stories because the very definition of the word "story" is fairy tale. He says to show the Bible as relevant we need to use real maps and artifacts. Ken goes on to say that our public schools are showing, testing, and teaching our children secular humanism all while the church says, "have faith" or "just trust Jesus" and doesn't or can't answer the hard questions coming from our culture. Ken also goes on to say that the church is starving from a lack of apologetics. I found that I very much agreed with Ken on this particular issue. Our children aren't being taught the proper information for dealing with our culture.

All in all I'm glad I purchased "Already Gone" because it did show me some new things as well as remind me of things I hadn't thought about in a long while. If you're a big fan of Ken Ham and Answers In Genesis then there is no doubt you will enjoy this book. If you aren't a fan of his, but wonder if this would be a decent read then I would suggest it because of the stats given by Mr. Beemer. Ken does gear toward young earth in his questions, but that's to be expected. Oh, and by the way, I agree with Ken on the young earth topic.

Ultimately we must realize that the job of a Sunday school teacher, VBS leader, or Youth Minister is mainly to back up what we as parents should already be teaching our children at home.

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.

Finally...

The only thing I could think of for the title of this post was the word, finally....Finally, after almost a year of meetings, resumes, interviews, guest speakers, (one of which was myself) an interim pastor, a lot of church member questions, and more meetings; we finally have ourselves a new pastor!! Somewhere around the five O'clock hour of Sunday July 19th 2009 we called our newest pastor to FBC. Finally.....

Even though it may seem like I'm making the Pastor Search Team sound like something that would be horribly awful to be apart of, I am very thankful for the God given opportunity to be apart of something that will have an effect on our area for years to come. Holding such a position is very important and should be given to those who are held in the highest esteem and respect, which makes me wonder what people where thinking when they placed me on the team.

With my new experience I've been able to confirm one thing; I can't stand meetings! My temperament or thought train aren't what I would call people friendly. I've had to come to the realization that I don't think the same way as most people that have spent their entire lives in church think. I don't understand how the Bible can openly show an example of how to handle business, yet we do it almost completely opposite. For the life of me I can't figure out how meetings are suppose to be about a certain issue, yet can some how turn into a conversation about how the watching of "R" rated movies may or may not be a sin. Speaking of which, "The Passion" by Mel Gibson is rated-R. Honestly though, people probably think the same about me and that's cool. I say that's cool because that means something I've said or done has left an impression. Now I must make sure that impression was left by doing something from the Word of God and not of the selfish flesh. If the impression is left of the Word then to God be the glory, but if it's from my flesh then woe is me. The following is one of my favorite quotes, "What I'm saying might very well be harsh, but the bigger question you have to ask is whether or not what I'm saying is true." -Paul Washer. That always reminds me to love in giving truth.

So what's next...Well, the Pastor Search and the Constitution Review Teams are behind me. I'm not sure really about what's next within the local church. We do have a new Dude coming aboard in the next couple of weeks so we will see what changes he will bring. I have a year to Chair the Nominating Team, but by the end of August that will be down to a minimum. Me teaching again has come up over the past few months. Not sure on when, where, how, whom, or if I will though. That's okay though because God is in control of it.

It's funny how people will argue the separation of church and state, yet don't realize how much of each is in both....

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.

Church Nursery...

The topic of the nursery has been a hot one as of late in not only our family, but also our church. It has come up in our family discussions because our youngest daughter is now a year old and is starting to get a little fidgety and vocal in the services. It's being talked about in our church because we are currently without a nursery director. While for my family we will stick with the concept of attending church services as that; a family, that's not always the case for everyone in the church. If parents desire to have their children in the nursery then so be it because the issue is an open handed one.

Obviously the next question I get from people on this topic is, "Why won't you put your children in the nursery?" To which I reply, "The Bible says that the parents are to raise their children." Deut. 6 tells parents to diligently teach our children morning and night of the statutes of God. Eph. 6 tells father's to bring their children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Part of that discipline and instruction is teaching our kiddos how to set in church and listen to what is going on. I strongly believe that when 90% of our teens leave the church by the time they are sophomores in college it's partly because they have spent most of their younger years of church going in other areas besides that of the sanctuary. The American church has fallen in love with the idea of our young ones not being in church services. If we teach them as babies that they don't belong in service then why are we surprised when they leave as young adults because they don't feel apart of the service?

Mainly, I don't put my children in the nursery because there is no scriptural basis for it. In scripture we see the exact opposite. Ezra 10:1 says; men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel. Jesus acknowledged the presence of children in chapters 18 and 19 of Matthew.

The biggest argument I've heard for not having children in church services is, "They cause distractions so someone may not hear the gospel." That is a very interesting argument for a couple of reasons. The first one being that, is God not big enough to save someone even though a child is making noise or crying? Secondly, how hard is it to get the attention of your spouse when he or she is watching their favorite television program? Kids can be screaming, phone will be ringing, and someone is at the front door, yet it still doesn't break their attention toward that program. The bottom line is that when we are doing what our heart desires nothing will stop us from completing the task at hand.

The fact is that the nursery as well as other well intended church "programs" are being used for nothing more then a free babysitter. The church has given parents a good excuse for not training their own children and parents are jumping on the bandwagon by the truck load!

With all that said, does it mean that the nursery is wrong? No, it's just not proven in scripture. We must stop doing things just because that's how we've always done it and get back to using the Bible as our instruction manual. And just because we've always done it that way doesn't mean it has always been done that way.......

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.

Correction...

Was informed this morning that I had made an error on the site link to Blue Ridge Bible Church in last nights post. Here is the correct site link www.brbctexas.com. I even checked last night to make sure I knew the web-sites address and still typed it in wrong for the post. Guess that's what happens when you try and blog around mid-night. Also, the Blue Ridge Bible guys are on Twitter, so give them a follow. Pastor Tim Camp is @PTCamp and Kevin Wilson's tag is @Kevinbrbc.

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.

Long Time No Post...

It's just past 11pm and I'm watching the Rangers play the Angels. They are currently winning 8-1 and looking to over take the Angels for first place in their division. Red #3 is not wanting to go to sleep so she is in the middle of our bed kicking, playing, and having a good ole time.

Anyways, part of the reason for not posting in so long is that the last several months have been a crazy and wild time around here. The other part is that I've let Twitter and Facebook take up more of my time. They have proven to be a quicker way of sending and viewing information. Speaking of Twitter, if you're not on or following me then you should be; follow me @NickVineyard.

Reading a new book this week; Simple Church by Thom Rainer. It has even further opened my eyes on how today's church has made things so much more difficult then they need to be. Will write more later on my thoughts about the book. Last week I finally finished up "Vintage Church" by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Driscoll has become one of my favs when it comes to dealing with our culture while not compromising the Word.

The last 8 months of church have taken a large amount of my time as well. I some how found myself on the Pastor Search Team. Then I found my way on the Constitution Review Team, followed by taking over the chair position of our Nominating Team as well as helping keep the church website updated. Our church website is http://www.firstblueridge.org/, but don't look at it for a day or so because I've been slacking on that job. Then finally, getting my first actual opportunity to preach before the church. The preaching was fun, I definitely learned a lot during the two weeks I had to prepare for the service. I appreciate a lot more what the "pros" go through during preparation. Other exciting news on the church front at FBC Blue Ridge is that we will be having a pastor come in view of a call on July 19th. That day will also be the 5th Anniversary for being in the new facilities. Should be an exciting day of fellowship and it will definitely be a busy one.

Speaking of churches, you guys check out Blue Ridge Bible Church, they are doing some good things over there. Kevin Wilson will be teaching on marriage over the next several weeks, should be some good stuff. Their web-site is http://www.brbctexas.com/.

Well, the Rangers game is headed to the ninth and they are still up 8-1. Guess I'll get off of here and watch the final six outs before calling it a night. Hope all is well with everyone and I plan on getting back to posting on a regular basis.

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.