Ministry – Page 9 – John Markum

Book Review: “It”

Posted on August 21, 2012 by johnmarkum

No, not the one by Stephen King! This It is by pastor and church leader, Craig Groeschel about the quality that some churches (and organizations) have that makes them succeed, grow, expand, thrive and have obvious momentum. It’s as if God blesses everything some churches do and they can’t ever mess it up. We don’t know what it is. But we know it when we see it, and we want it too. We also know when we don’t see it. We say things like, “This place just doesn’t have it.”

It’s God’s hand of favor and blessing that, aside from the Holy Spirit, we don’t know how to quantify it. But we want to understand it, because we want it! It talks about “it“, literally. I was most pleased with how much time in the book Groeschel takes to stand upon Biblical principles. He does not take the time to try explaining something that we’re all familiar with, yet cannot articulate. Rather, he talks about where God seems to give it the most, and how we can stand upon solid principle and find ourselves in a position to receive it, use it for the Kingdom, and keep receiving it.

I wanted to pick a favorite page or chapter, but the truth is, this book is full of it! That was a compliment, I swear… Anyone in ministry, or considering going into ministry, should get It, read It, and practice It. I loved It…

Blessings,

John

We’re All About the Numbers

Posted on March 16, 2012 by johnmarkum

If you are a “church” person or church leader, you’ve likely already formed an opinion regarding the title of this post. You may have thought of contemporary “growth strategies” for how to more effectively fill seats on weekend services. Or perhaps you made a judgment that churches who are “all about the numbers” are weak doctrinally, and weaker still in their discipleship, teaching, and preaching. Allow me five minutes to explain why my church is crazy about the numbers.

First of all, you should acknowledge that “big” churches are not intrinsically bad…

Jesus had upwards of 20,000+ people following His ministry at various points.
3,000 came to Christ in one “service” on the day of Pentecost.
5,000+ were in the church of Jerusalem within a few short months.
The church of Ephesus mentioned in Acts 19 likely consisted of several thousand people.

The fact that numbers are used to give us a picture of the metric growth of the church as it spread should be an indication. Now, there is such thing as an inappropriate view of the numbers. True, a church growing in number is not necessarily healthy. But it is also true that a healthy church should grow. Growth is a result of health. Not the other way around.

I’m all about the numbers because each number represents a real person. A life. Someone that Jesus died to save. The numbers of people coming to my church, are real people with real needs, searching for real answers that are available by a real God. The numbers are not simply measurements and benchmarks that we give high-fives over.

The numbers tell stories of people who were far from God that were awakened with life in Christ. They tell of the couple that was on the edge of divorce who found grace, forgiveness, and forbearance through the love of Christ. The numbers tell me about the woman who walked in feeling too broken to come to God but decided to try anyway, and gave her life to Jesus and found freedom and hope. The numbers tell me of a couple about to call it quits after living together for a year, who are now married, happy, healthy, and passionate about the lives being changed at our church and the change that Jesus made in them.

The numbers speak! It’s not just 1, 2, 3, 4… It’s Tyler, Marcus, Randy, Brian, Josie, Tiffany, Karla, Jason, Sarah, Andrew, Todd… It’s not about me, or an ego boost, or a fist-bump after the service. The numbers are an objective non-biased worship to the God who is redeeming people in our community. Someone once made the comment that they don’t count people in the services of their church because “it’s not about the numbers anyway.” They were asked if their church counted the offering, which was an awkward but obvious, “yes.” The other person simply pointed out that you count what matters to you!

We count people, because people count to us. So am I focused on the numbers? You better believe it. We love people. And we love the change that the Gospel brings to their life. We want to see more lives changed by the Gospel. And we’re going to continue to do everything we can to reach them. We’ll stop at nothing because they matter to God and they matter to us… count on it.

Blessings,

John

Un-Series

Posted on February 5, 2012 by johnmarkum

So taking a page from the sitcom, Seinfeld, which began as an idea to start a show about “nothing,” we thought we would do the same with an entire message series at our Saturday night worship service, The Awakening. A sermon series is suppose to be a collection of messages that are connected by a common theme, Scripture, or concept. Much like our Sun Stand Still series that we just finished. But this Un-Series is a collection of messages that have nothing to do with each other… aside from being in the same un-series. It’s like an anti-series. The opposite of a series.

Why are we doing this, you ask? That is a fair question. I find that there is a temptation to focus on what you “should” do next in a series instead of what God is speaking to you. In my personal time in God’s Word, I constantly read over different passages and think to myself, “Wow! That would make a great message.” But I often tuck it away because it doesn’t fit with the current series.

So the Un-Series is an opportunity to let God speak through me to you, unhindered by any other agenda. Don’t mistake what I’m saying, though… God speaks through my planning just as much as He speaks through spontaneity. The series I preach, I preach because I genuinely believe God wants me to cover a subject, idea, or passage of Scripture in the detail of a 3-6 week sermon series. I do not apologize for that. In fact, I have 4 more series planned out after this. And it’s going to be awesome!

I just wanted to simplify the process and show my church that I depend on God’s leading just like they do. We’ve already finished the first night of the un-series, and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to begin.

PS… If you’re a church leader that feels stuck in a creative-thinking slump, let your un-creativity inspire you!

Blessings,

John