Toolbox For Faith

A few weeks ago, I came across an excellent resource for Youth Group games on a website called “The Source for Youth Ministry.” I don’t know much about the other resources on the site, but the game section is amazing. The games are categorized and there is even a search feature that allows you to search by number of participants, prep time needed, etc. Here’s the link if you are interested: http://www.thesource4ym.com/games/.

I just finished a wonderful book entitled, “God’s Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World” by Amy G. Oden which focuses on our call to share the good news of God’s love with others and offers practical suggestions for how we can practice that hospitality in our lives and our congregations. Here are a few excerpts from the book to give you an idea of Dr. Oden’s approach.

“Gospel hospitality is God’s welcome, a welcome that is deep and wide. Gospel hospitality is God’s welcome into a new way of seeing and living. Ultimately, gospel hospitality is God’s welcome into abundant life, into God’s own life. . . . Gospel hospitality almost always entails some kind of risk and leaves all parties changed. As we participate in gospel hospitality, God’s welcome becomes a way of life that we share with the world.” (Pg. 11)

“Greeting is only the first step in hospitality. Gospel hospitality calls us to the next step beyond greeting: feeding. . . . As Christian people, we have food to share with a world that is hungry, even famished. Spiritual wanderers - those spiritually starved and denied - show up at our doors, not because they like our buildings or even because they like us, but because they are hungry. Hungry for forgiveness, for rest and peace. Hungry for mercy and grace. Hungry to explore and grow. Hungry for the good news of new life, of abundant life. Hungry for God to do a new thing. Gospel hospitality offers welcome food. . . . Gospel hospitality calls us beyond friendliness to share the solid food that blesses our lives.”(pg. 12)

“The point of gospel hospitality is to invite others to experience the living, welcoming God and to experience the living, welcoming God in others.” (pg. 15)

“How do we live gospel hospitality in real life? Throughout the centuries, Christians have called the intentional and mindful living out our faith ’spirituality’. Spirituality can sound fluffy or insubstantial, but in truth it is made up of concrete, everyday practices that pay attention to God. A spirituality of hospitality is a particular practice of paying attention to God’s welcome in our lives and paying attention to the welcome we extend to others.”(pg. 53)

After explaining her understanding of Gospel Hospitality, Dr. Oden then offers 14 different scenarios to practice Gospel Hospitality which include a Bible passage, a reflection, questions and a suggestion for how practice an element of Gospel Hospitality in daily life.

Some congregations develop mission statements. Some congregations coalesce around the personality of a leader or leaders. In a very interesting post on churchmarketingsucks.com, Brad Abare asks the question, “What’s the essence of your congregation?” It’s a short post, but I think it helpfully invites us to try and discover what the essence is of our ministry.

Comments from Dr. Kennon Callahan about growing happiness through God’s grace. He shared this yesterday at the Seminar for Key Leaders at Callaway Gardens.

Balance breeds balance.
Peace breeds peace.
Excess breeds excess.
Grace breeds grace.

What you do is what you get.

Comments from Dr. Kennon Callahan about growing happiness through God’s grace. He shared this yesterday at the Seminar for Key Leaders at Callaway Gardens.

The structure described in the constitutions of most mainline denominations is designed for middle sized churches. This structure won’t work for small strong churches, large regional churches, or mega churches. Long ago, most denominations pushed all their chips into middle size. Unfortunately, middle sizes churches are going away. They are too big to deliver the intimacy of a small, strong congregation and they are too small to deliver the programs of a large, regional or mega church.

How do you define a middle sized congregation. Middle sized churches are about the context. In Atlanta, 250 in worship makes you a small, strong congregation. If you worship 250 in South Dakota, you are a large regional, perhaps mega church.

Comments from Dr. Kennon Callahan about growing happiness through God’s grace. He shared this yesterday at the Seminar for Key Leaders at Callaway Gardens.

In times of scarcity, focusing on the many works. If you focus on the few, you will do even worse. The resources are among the many, not the few. In a time of scarcity it is important to expand the number of people who are a part of the decision making.

Comments from Dr. Kennon Callahan about growing happiness through God’s grace. He shared this yesterday at the Seminar for Key Leaders at Callaway Gardens.

For by grace you are saved through faith, this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8

We have made salvation too gloomy
- under threat people wither,
- with grace, people grow

The weight of your salvation, your happiness is not on you. Why work to achieve what God has already given.

God grows grace.
We are open.
We receive the grace of God.
The more we are open, the more grace we receive.

As we receive the grace of God, we become
- grace filled persons,
- grace filled families,
– grace filled congregations.

We are a culture focused on manufacturing. We think we need to make the grace of God happen in our lives, but God’s grace has already happened and already been given.

Comments from Dr. Kennon Callahan about growing happiness through God’s grace. He shared this yesterday at the Seminar for Key Leaders at Callaway Gardens.

The Key to happiness is being with the people you love, doing what you love, experiencing the grace of God. - Dr. Kennon Callahan

Often in the church, we are too preoccupied with statistics and decline to be happy.

We have forgotten that grace is happiness. Happiness is grace.
- People yearn for a moment of happiness.
- Happiness is not silliness or superficial. Happiness is deep contentment, satisfaction, joy, excitement, wonder.

The world has caught on to the fact that people yearn for happiness. Buy this car, house, etc and you will be happy.

As a Christian movement, too often we are stuck on the cross and haven’t gotten to the empty tomb and the resurrection.
- The message of Easter is “Christ is Risen!” The resurrection has happened.
- We are the movement of joy and wonder, grace and happiness.

We would do well to reclaim a theology of happiness.