Monday Memo

Here are most of the comments and questions from the weekend services Communication Cards:

// Thanks for all the wonderful organization and support for our family going through the dedication service. It was wonderful! [I love the way we are doing our child dedication services, especially the fact that all the parents go through a class led by Susan Somers. Thanks Susan!]

// Thank you for addressing prayer and how we self-censor and pray later, instead of in the moment when the Holy Spirit calls us. Thank you for the challenge to be obedient to Christ in the present moment.

// Amen.

// Nice first and second song – Hallelujah, I Believe… How is this church helping to foster friendships in Christ? Lots of people come into service and then leave and never connect. I think an interest based friendship would be helpful – find groups based on interests and study the word together. Also, plus do extra thing outside in the study. [Anybody that would like to can start an interest-based small group that will also study, pray and serve together. Some churches organize their small groups in this way. Yes, lots of folks come and leave without connecting. That's why we focus three months of the year on getting people to sign up for small groups. Our ratio of people in small groups is among the highest nationally. Many folks not in our small groups are connected elsewhere. And some do not want to connect.....yet! We're always trying. And many connect through service. Tim made a great point about this. Loved his sermon.] 

// The greeting time is horrible and I never ate my Brussel sprouts. [Good analogy! Dan's comments on some people not liking the greeting time solicited this and the next response.]

// In my opinion, people don’t mind greeting each other; it’s the silly questions that we don’t like. How about we just say hello – it doesn’t put us on the spot. [Thank you for the feedback. I know you're not alone feeling that way. Why do we do the silly question anyway? Most importantly, because since doing so it's rare (maybe even non-existent) that someone says our church is cold and no one talked to them. Unfortunately, we got that response much too often before. Greeting someone with a "hello" wasn't cutting it for us. We do give you an option to ignore it, but I get it: once it's out there it kind of takes a life of its own. I also get there will be some who come and never come back precisely because we do that question thing. But I also know there are many who have come back precisely because of the results of doing it. All these kinds of decisions (e.g., do the question thing or not) always come down to choosing who you will attract and who you will turn away, but no decision is neutral. One last thought: we ask for a get a lot of feedback from first-time guests and I don't ever remember anyone mentioning our greeting time one way or another, but lots of folks talk about how welcoming we are. Besides, you have to admit, hearing Tim or Dan's answer to the question is half the fun.]

One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend is here and there are a few things I want to share with you:

The Weekend

Tim is preaching this weekend as we continue our series in Acts. Here's what he says about the sermon

As you read the account of Paul's life in Acts and his letters to churches, you can't miss the incredible warmth and depth of his relationships with other believers. I think we all long for those kinds of friendships. But is that realistic - or even possible - for us today?

As we look at Acts 20-21 this weekend, I hope you'll see that there's nothing quite like the kind of friendships that we can have in Christ, and that the obstacles to getting there aren't as insurmountable as we may think.

FYI

Ruth Moon on "Segregated Surveys: How Politics Keeps Evangelicals White"

You can disbelieve in God, never go to church, and still identify as "evangelical" in most polls. But if you're black and evangelical, you literally don't count.

Susan Wunderink on "A Survey Can Make You Less Moral: What behavioral economics has to do with scary statistics"

Research shows that statistics have a life of their own. They’re not just reports on what is happening; they change what is happening. ...Basically, people tend to move closer to the behavior they perceive as normative, whether it's worse or better than their current behavior. This is called social proof. When people change for the worse, it's called a boomerang effect.

One More Thing

Australian pastor and author Mark Sayers has been known for missional innovation but has this to say (in a recent interview) about the kind of leadership needed in today's culture, a culture which eats away at foundations and leaves individuals without a place to stand:

You need leaders who identify the safe rocks on which to stand—the biblical foundations of wisdom, faith, justice, holiness, family, and communal life. You need leaders who can differentiate between the genuine prophetic biblical voice, which calls culture back to God, and the deconstructive impulse within modernity, which wants to return to the chaotic and primal. In a culture powered by individualism, you need leadership rooted in Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross. And in a time when people either run from power or abuse it, you need the servant leadership modeled by Christ.