It’s interesting being here with Wally the weekend he resigned from the church he has seen grow remarkably over the past five years, rather than accept an ultimatum to take it back to the 80’s.

Twenty three years ago I came to a similar place while pastoring in the north east of Scotland. The church was the strongest it had ever been. We put extra seats down the aisles and had to use an overflow room too on Sundays – the place was packed.

But the board didn’t like the way things were being done and after a couple of contentious years, I felt the time had come to pull out.

It was strange how the timing worked out, because the Sunday I announced my resignation we had a scheduled guest preacher with us, all the way from the USA.

His name? Here’s the irony …

Wally Odum!

Twenty three years ago, in April 1984, I made my first ever visit to the United States of America. After a layover in JFK, I took a connecting Piedmont flight (anyone remember Piedmont?) down to Norfolk, VA where I was met off the plane by a man I had never met before, but who would become a dear friend, Wally Odum who was then pastoring the thriving First Assembly of God in Virginia Beach. I was there at his invitation to speak at a pastors’ conference he was hosting.

For the past five years Wally has been pastoring on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, doing an outstanding job there – or maybe I should say here, because that’s where I am right now.

Early this year I contacted Wally to see when he could come up and do some treaching for us at Church At The Movies. We set some tentative dates, but he told me if he was coming up to us, I needed to do some ministry for him too. We settled on the last weekend of April.

Neither of us knew then that the situation here would be radically different by the time I got here. Different because today Wally resigned as pastor of the church he had grown from 30 in attendance to 330 (See my blog for Tuesday of last week). Different because the small group of “elders” had given Wally an ultimatum he could not accept, that they wanted church done the way it used to be thirty years ago or he was done.

So I didn’t preach there today. We didn’t go to the church – we enjoyed a great service with another friend, Rick Lawrenson who pastors the thriving Nags Head Church nearby.

We talked to Wally and Gwen before their final service there today and sat with them for quite a while as soon as it was over. We’ll be spending some time with them again tomorrow.

I guess God knew they’d appreciate having friends around this weekend and I’m proud to be a support to one of the most outstanding pastors I have ever known.

This series is proving to be one of the most significant we have done in a while – which is quite something since Just Walk Across The Room and A.S.Q. were tremendously succesful in the opening months of this year.

I guess people appreciate the fact we’re talking about stuff that is in their face every day, is a part of all our lives and actually is addressed very clearly in the Bible.

When we started to lay out some of our plans for this year way back in January, I had no idea that this series would get the rave reviews it has done. I knew it would probably tick a few folks off – but that’s okay, I’ve never been averse to taking risks. Yet I did not realize how much hope, help and healing would be ministered into the lives of hurting people. I love it!

At the start of the year we mapped out our teaching schedule into late October and there really are some good things ahead. I love the fact that the Holy Spirit can guide you nine months ahead, which is quite different from the way I was taught many years ago – then it was more of a case of praying for divine inspiration late on a Saturday evening. Thankfully those days are gone, so we can put a lot more into planning and preparation so we are as effective as possible.

Sunday is a major part of our Desperate Sex Lives series as we look at the subject of porn. We’ll be taking it a whole lot further than simply stating you shouldn’t look at it, because we figure most people are totally aware of that already and if that was all we had to offer, you may as well stay in bed on Sunday.

But as it is, you’d better not miss where we’re headed with this.

Hope, help and healing – man, that sounds good.

Quite a number of friends of mine are hanging out at the National New Churches Conference in Orlando this week and of course part of me wishes I was there too. It’s always good to spend time with likeminded people, chat about what’s happening, what’s new, what’s working, what’s not, etc.

So I’m attending the conference vicariously by reading several of their blogs and to be honest, it sounds like there’s a substantial degree of repetition with the same speakers saying pretty much the same things that I heard at the Church Planters Conference in GA in February. So from the teaching perspective, maybe there’s not a lot new going on down in the sunshine.

However I did take note of this quote from Wayne Cordeiro from Hawaii -

People will come from miles for fresh bread, but teach them to feed themselves.

There’s one smart cookie. Switching the metaphor from bread to something else, what Wayne is doing is underlining the old saying – Give a man a fish and he eats for a day – teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

Jesus said that those who followed him would learn to fish (become fishers of men is the phrase in the dear old King Jimmy translation). We do people a total disservice when, as pastors, we fail to help them reach their potential. Feeding themselves, fishing to meet their own needs, is the way God intended it to be.

We are not intended to be the guardians of the good stuff, keeping those around us hungry, poor and totally dependant upon us. That’s what the Catholic church did for generations, suggesting that no one but the priest could even read the Bible.

God intends his people to read the Bible, study the Bible, find food for themselves and then go out and feed others.

The feed me mentality is a slave mentality that is directly opposed to the freedom Christ has given us.

Having spun off Easter with considerably increased momentum, I really felt last Sunday was a special day as I mentioned a few posts below this one. But I am the first to acknowledge that all that God is enabling us to achieve is not due to me, it’s because of the amazing team of people who make things happen.

So since we’d had such a great service, I decided to handwrite notes to everyone who leads an area of ministry on a Sunday and let them know I appreciate all they do and am glad they’re part of the team.

So I started writing … and kept on writing … and kept on writing.

In the end I mailed seventeen cards.

I could hardly believe it. These are not all our volunteers, these are the folks who lead volunteer teams – imagine how many individuals they must represent.

How many people does it take to pull off a Sunday? I really don’t know but it must be one heck of a lot, spearheaded by these great ministry leaders.

They’re the secret behind our growing church.

Just got in from a meeting of the Conservative Party Executive – very interesting. Good time.

So I switch on my laptop and check the TV to see who’s getting thrown off American Idol tonight, just in time to hear Annie Lennox murdering Bridge Over Troubled Water.

That is, without exception, my favorite song. I think it’s Simon and Garfunkel’s best work, so it should be preserved like an historic building, or some ancient landmark. It’s one of the wonders of the world and a sad Scottish has-been should never be permitted to slaughter it in public.

That’s sacrilege and FOX should apologize!!!

Warning – rant coming …

Over the past couple of days I have spent some time talking to a pastor who will be resigning from his position very soon now. The “elders’ of the church have made it clear they are not happy with his performance and by mutual consent he will be bowing out and moving on. They are extremely disappointed with the five years of his tenure and hope the congregation can recover.

I can see their point -

+ In those five years the average Sunday attendance has gone from 30 to 330

+ There has been one Sunday in the past two years when no one committed their lives to Christ

+ The church had been doing nothing for missions but is now supporting and sponsoring missions programs in several countries

+ A significant extension has been added to their building to accommodate the crowds

+ The extension was built deb-free

+ There is an impressive balance in the church’s bank account

Let’s face it, the guy has done a crap job!

I’m surprised it took them that long to get rid of him!

This collection of retirees and lay people from all kinds of backgrounds are clearly the people God intends to call the shots. They obviously know all there is to know about growing a church.

This pastor is finally getting what he deserves …

Freedom from this small-minded group of unqualified individuals, full of their own importance and the opportunity to go start a church where the pastors are the elders, which is what the New Testament actually teaches.

Pity a few more people don’t read it!

Leaders must lead.

Until then, may the church in question rest in peace.

It looks like you just can’t win is you’re pastoring a Long Island Church. Last weekend was the best Sunday so far this year – sunshine, 70’s – so people stayed away.

The weekend before was the nor-easter that drowned half of New Jersey and dumped record-breaking amounts of rain in Central park. It was a lot more merciful to the Island for a change, but that didn’t help church attendances – they were way down.

It’s pretty well established that on any given Sunday in North America, you get around two thirds of your members actually in church, but in all honesty, I haven’t worked out yet what’s the best weather to encourage the faithful to be there. I guess it’s somewhere between sunshine and rain – whatever that is.

However …

An interesting phenomenon for us at Church At The Movies this past two weeks has been that the turnout has not really been adversely affected by the climatic extremes we have experienced.

How can I explain that? Well, I’ve come to one simple conclusion, that may be over-simplistic for some – if what’s going on excites people, they’ll be there come hell or highwater.

Getting the subject of sex addressed in church certainly seems to have got folks attention. This morning I learned that there is a group of university students in Taiwan waiting for the messages in this series to be on our website so they can download them.

So maybe it isn’t about weather or any other external factor. Maybe the answer’s to be found within a church’s programming.

At this rate, maybe we should talk about sex all year!
Just kidding!

I noticed soon after we set up home here in 1991 that in some areas, the American culture is one of superlatives – if not of downright exaggeration. Like when the commercial for the DVD of Night In The Museum refers to it as the greatest comedy in history, or when the Superbowl winners are described as the world champions (last time I checked, only U.S. teams were in the competition!).

So, not wanting to fall into that same trap, I am looking back at this morning and nonetheless saying it has been a great day.

There are Sundays, good Sundays and great Sundays – this one has been great.

It would be hard to define what qualified this morning as one of our better services. It wasn’t just that things went so smoothly, every element of the service went well and we had our biggest attendance ever outside of Easter or Christmas.

I guess it all comes down to something I was sensing within while I was teaching. It was a feeling that God was at work in a significant way in a lot of people’s lives. I felt that failure, guilt and condemnation were giving way to forgiveness, faith and hope. I believe that for a number of folks God brought our way today, this was the start of a whole new chapter in their lives.

That’s what made it great!