Articles for tag: Michael C. Mack

December 26, 2014

Michael C. Mack

A Greeting Card Ministry with a Potentially Lifesaving Twist

By Michael C. Mack Imagine the feeling of receiving a handwritten envelope and greeting card in the mail for a significant event. Many churches have greeting card ministries that send cards for special occasions as a way of expressing the church”s care for people, acknowledging God”s love for them, and providing an opportunity to plant seeds of truth along with a personal message. Max Hickerson, who retired several years ago after more than 60 years of ministry, has added a simple yet effective ministry especially for church leaders: he sends wedding anniversary cards. “I have done it for many years

December 4, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Christmas Icebreakers for Your Group or Class

By Michael C. Mack 1. Describe a time in your childhood when you were chosen for something (i.e., a team, an award or distinction, or an important task). How did it feel to be chosen? 2. What nativity-set traditions, if any, did your family have? 3. With which character in the Christmas story do you most identify? Why? 4. As a child, what were some of your family”s traditions leading up to Christmas Day? (For examples, an Advent wreath, candles, a calendar.) Do you have any traditions today? 5. As a young child, how did you anticipate the coming of

December 1, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Five Ways for Youth to Serve This Christmas Season

By Michael C. Mack Remind your youth that Jesus came into the world to serve (Mark 10:45). Here are five ideas you can use to serve others together: 1. Give the Gift of Cookies. Youth expert Bill Nance (billnance.org) shares this idea: Set aside three hours one evening. Tell all your teens to bring in some homemade Christmas cookies. Sort them into plastic bags and label each one with something like, “Merry Christmas from the First Christian Church youth!” Divide up a nearby neighborhood (or apartment complex or nursing home, for instance) and have the students go two-by-two to the

December 1, 2014

Christian Standard

6 Things Successful Leaders Do Early in the Morning

By Michael C. Mack Rising early is a common trait among many successful and influential people, says Forbes online (www.forbes.com). The Forbes article mentioned early risers such as Margaret Thatcher, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Robert Iger (CEO of Disney), all of whom were or are out of bed between 4 and 5 a.m. The Forbes writer, however, overlooked another very successful and influential leader who often rose early, Jesus. Here are four items from the Forbes list and two from Jesus about what these successful people focus(ed) on while most are still in bed: 1. Exercise. A prework workout will

November 30, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Seven Things a Facilitator or Teacher Should Never Do

By Michael C. Mack 1. Depend on any resource more than the Bible. 2. Lose sight of your goals. Your main goal is to make mature disciples, not to teach a great lesson. 3. Teach more than you shepherd. Don”t forget that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 4. Try to lead using someone else”s gifts. Be yourself. God gave you specific gifts to use in building up the body of Christ. He gave others their gifts for the same reason. 5. Get into debates about little things. Check out 1 Timothy 6:4 and 2 Timothy 2:14 about this

November 29, 2014

Michael C. Mack

The Five Biggest Obstacles to Making Disciples in Groups and Classes

By Michael C. Mack Discipleship and small group ministers were asked, “What is the biggest obstacle you”d like to figure out how to overcome in your ministry?” Here are the top five responses: 1. “How to teach people to slow down so they have time for relationships“”with God, their family, and one another,” says Jim Egli of Urbana, Illinois. Kim James of Los Altos, California, blames the lack of relationships on “too many activities and offerings at church, which dilutes the importance of small groups as a model for discipleship and relationships. In essence, we are “˜too busy” at church.”

November 28, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Top 10 Things Members of My Group Did While I Was in the Hospital

By Michael C. Mack 10. Went on a camping trip together while I was stuck in the hospital room! 9. Visited me several times but didn”t overstay my need for rest. 8. Brought me tulips. 7. Prayed with me. 6. Prayed for me. 5. Gave me a foot massage in the emergency room. 4. Prayed for other people in the hospital while visiting me. 3. Watched our four kids so my wife could visit me. 2. Fixed and brought meals to the house each day for my wife and kids. 1. Loved and encouraged me. Michael Mack is the author

October 31, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Men”s Ministry: Cultivating an Environment for Relationships and Spiritual Growth

By Michael C. Mack “What is the best form of men”s ministry you”ve seen and why?” asked Steve Hinton, lead minister at Cypress (Texas) Crossings Christian Church. Responses via his Facebook group ranged from getting men involved in serving together, which gives them the opportunity in that environment for fellowship and discipleship, to Texas Hold-em nights. “Success is less about programming and events than it is cultivating an environment for masculine expressions of relationship,” said Tim Ogle, teaching/preaching pastor at Litchfield (Minnesota) Christian Church. “The best men”s ministry,” he said, “is built by and upon men seeing that the relationship

October 26, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Lead Better Bible Studies

By Michael C. Mack The “Preach Better Sermons” online conference webcast in April by Preaching Rocket (the rocketcompany.com), featured some of the best preachers and presenters around and provided great insights into preaching. The wisdom shared can also be applied to facilitating better Bible studies. Here are five practical tips: 1. Create tension. Andy Stanley spoke of how he deliberately creates tension in the beginning of his message to get people to say, “Tell me the answer to that question or problem.” You can do the same as you lead your group. Boil down your main lesson idea into one tension-building

September 19, 2014

Michael C. Mack

The Strategic Ministry of “˜Neighboring”

By Michael C. Mack In 2009, Dave Runyon gathered a group of 20 lead ministers in the Denver area to think, dream, and pray about how their churches might join forces to serve their community. The ministers asked the local mayor a simple question: “How can we as churches best work together to serve our city?” The mayor”s response has inspired passion and a movement. “The majority of issues our community is facing would be eliminated or drastically reduced if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbors,” the mayor said. Runyon and Jay

September 18, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Go Away to Get Inside

By Michael C. Mack One way to know you have an intimate relationship with the Father is when you hear and recognize his voice (John 10:1-5). The only way to do that is to spend time alone with him. But that”s not easy in our fast-paced lives. In ministry we tend to spend a lot of time with other people in community, and that”s good! But as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, solitude and community go hand in hand for spiritually healthy people. Jesus modeled this for us. Luke 5:16 says, “Jesus often withdrew [from crowds of people] to lonely places and

September 11, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Not Your Grandma”s Women”s Ministry

By Michael C. Mack What comes to mind when you think of a typical women”s ministry event? Does it involve lacy tablecloths and flowery centerpieces? A gift exchange in which women pass gifts left or right as someone reads a story? Special music? A funny speaker? Craft tables in the lobby? Author Amy Nappa has some different ideas. Here are a few of the fresh and fun approaches to women”s ministry she suggests in Today”s Christian Woman magazine: Adventure: One women”s group in Minnesota headed out for a four-day dogsledding trip. The woman who planned the trips said, “God works

September 1, 2014

Michael C. Mack

You Might Be a Pastor at a Country Church If . . .

By Mark Wesner “¢ there are more horses than people in your county. “¢ your “auxiliary parking lot” is a cornfield. “¢ the directions to your church building include the words “covered bridge.” “¢ you have a church van . . . that you own. “¢ there”s a hitching post in your parking lot. “¢ you have two friends in the church in whom you can confide as accountability partners, and one of them is a third-grader. “¢ you pray that none of your church members” names shows up in the local newspaper”s weekly “Police Blotter” column. “¢ you pray

September 1, 2014

Christian Standard

The Formula for Busting Ministry Burnout

By Michael C. Mack Leadership Journal asked its readers, “Have you experienced burnout in ministry?” (Winter 2014). While the results show a high degree of leader burnout, the good news is that more than half of the respondents are either enduring the challenges of burnout or have dealt successfully with it. Here is how readers responded: Christian counselor, author, and speaker John Townsend has provided a cure for leadership burnout using the following mathematical structure: In an ideal world, he says, a leader should have resources that equal, or exceed, responsibilities. But a large number of responsibilities with very few

August 30, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Ten Ways to Stifle Discussion in Your Group or Class

By Michael C. Mack 1. Use impressive, big words like regeneration, justification, and eschatology as much as possible. 2. Interject names such as Polycarp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and, yes, Rick Warren and Max Lucado. 3. Be serious all the time. Since you are studying God”s Holy Word, there is no time for fun or frivolity! 4. Don”t allow people to share their feelings. Focus on facts. Feelings have no place in Bible study. 5. Do most of the talking. Study diligently and then share everything you learned about your topic. This is what it means to teach. 6. If no one responds

August 15, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Online Ministry: The New Front Door of the Church?

By Michael C. Mack More and more churches are transitioning to online ministry. The most widely known example may be LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma, which uses the Internet globally, and with impressive results. David Russell, online campus pastor of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama, says the church”s online ministry maintains a local focus. Their goal is eventually to see web-only visitors walking through the doors of their church building, to, as he puts it, “turn virtual connections into face-to-face relationships” (Leadership Journal, Summer 2013). The church provides a live stream of its weekend service as well as interactive elements,

August 14, 2014

Michael C. Mack

The Apostle Paul’s Top 21 Leadership Character Traits

By Michael C. Mack Acts 20 contains 21 character traits of the apostle Paul. Look over this list, and then take time to assess yourself as a leader. Which three to five of these are you doing well? Now, identify three to five traits missing or in short supply with you. Huddle up with a few other leaders and share what you’ve discovered. Paul’s character traits: 1. Humility (v. 19). 2. Possessing a Servant’s heart (v. 19). 3. Integrity. Never hesitated to preach the Word, no matter what the consequences (v. 20). 4. Committed. Devoted to teaching God’s Word regardless

August 7, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Blitz Your Community

By Michael C. Mack In May, Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, canceled weekend church services, opting instead to serve an urban community of the city where the church has a campus. Nearly 2,000 church members rode buses to Clifton, where they were mobilized for more than 4,000 hours of service. How does a church plan a serving event of this scale? Randy Gordon, “Go and Do” minister at Northeast, suggested that church leaders “establish points of contact in the community to identify the legitimate needs.” Northeast staff and volunteers visited schools, businesses, government leaders, community ministries, and a bar owner

August 4, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Interviewing Pete Rose for God”s Sake

By Michael C. Mack In March, Pete Rose, Major League Baseball”s all-time hits leader, returned to the Philadelphia area where, in 1980, he helped lead the Phillies to their first-ever World Series championship. Brian Jones, senior minister with Christ”s Church of the Valley, interviewed Rose during each of the church”s three services as part of its series on “Second Chances.” This year marks the 25th anniversary of Rose”s banishment from the game as a result of allegations that he bet on baseball games, and the 10th anniversary of his admission that he bet on baseball games. Rose is ineligible for

August 1, 2014

Michael C. Mack

The Sunday Night Shift

By Michael C. Mack Sunday night service attendance is plummeting in many churches. One option, of course, is simply to discontinue this longtime tradition. Other churches are finding new ways of using Sunday evenings effectively. Bobby Ross Jr., chief correspondent for The Christian Chronicle, provided five ideas for reforming Sunday nights: 1. Small group meetings. Meet in homes or other locations in smaller groups. Some churches have found that more people are involved in small groups on Sunday nights than previously attended services at the church building. 2. Sunday school on Sunday night. One church found that Sunday evening attendance

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