Today on episode 99, I will share a lesson Pam and I did for the UK, Ireland, Nordic churches.  I will talk about

• How to get fired up in the wake of Covid
• How to get Focused
• How to start moving forward spiritually

I want to invite you the 2021 Small Church Leadership Conference:  The Theme is “Climb”

• When: December 2-5, 2021
• Where: Dallas, Texas
• Hotel Accommodations: Marriot Las Colinas: $109/night
• Address: 223 Las Colinas, Irving, Texas 75039
• *Early Registration: May 15th - June 30th: $125
• *Registration: July 1st - August 31st: $150
• *Late Registration: September 1st - December 2nd: $175

Please register today at RobSkinner.Com and look for the Climb Conference Tab

www.robskinner.com/climb-conference

 

Class #1:  The Harvest is Plentiful, but the Workers are Few

Introduction:

Thanks to Mohan and Helen

How can we get our churches growing in 2021?

Recognize the hit COVID has taken on us:

• We are struggling in our faith
• Struggling with sin
• Limited time
• Working multiple jobs
• Ministry has stopped growing
• We are discouraged
• Pulled so many different ways
• Not easy to evangelize
• Dealing with lock downs and COVID
• Evangelism is different

 

You can grow and you will grow, here’s how:

1. Get Fired Up

Progress in our ministry depends on progress in our thinking about who God is and what he is capable of.

• Example: Martin Luther and the power of hammering home one powerful thought:  “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  Romans 1:17
  • That change in thinking changed Germany, Europe and the world

At a subconscious level, we have thoughts that are holding us back from being the great disciples and leaders God knows we can become.

Here are some areas to examine:

• Does God really love/forgive me?
• I don’t really feel saved so I’m going to earn God’s love by growing his church.
• I should quit
• I’m a fake, an imposter, people can see through me
• I can’t be happy unless the ministry is performing this way
• God can’t/won’t help me with this situation
• I’m less than others
• I’m not respected/appreciated
• I’m not good with technology/computers etc.
• I don’t have time to be with God because of money, my family and the pressure of the church
• We can’t do it with our limited resources, people etc.
• People are just not open here:

 

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  Matthew 9:35-38

If Jesus or Paul were here, they would find a way to find the open people.

1. How would you feel,
2. How would your life change
3. How would your ministry change if:

You replaced those default thoughts with the way Paul thought about God:

• God is for us
• I’m at peace with God
• Nothing can separate me from Jesus’ love for me
• We are more than conquerors
• I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power. Philippians 4:13
  • "There is nothing I cannot master with the help of Christ who gives me strength."

 

How can you get fired up?

1. Take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ

5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  2 Cor 10:3-5

 

The first step is becoming aware of your thinking.

The next step is replacing those thoughts with Godly thoughts.

 

1. Build your Trust in God: 2 Kings 18:5-7

5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.

• Hezekiah had a boatload of troubles, but he met them with trust
• Trust is my personal and church theme for 2021
• We need faith and trust in a time of fear and uncertainty
  • Flagstaff leader

1. Renew your appreciation of God’s Grace: Psalm 51:12

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

• Dig into your “treasure chest”
• Give yourself permission and time to enjoy Christ
• Focus on what you have in Christ already
• Realize, you are already a success because you are a child of God

1. Remember the “Great I Am” is with you: Matthew 28:20
   1. The same Jesus who spoke to Moses from the Bush
   2. Bowles Hall

 

1. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge your weaknesses, be honest and get help
   1. We are jars of clay
2. Learn from others and gain faith from others
   1. Sean Wooten
   2. Podcast
   3. Prayer and Fasting Chain learned from Henry and Arunima Gomes
3. Spend 90% of your time thinking how you can improve your situation
   1. The difference between “facts” and “situations”
      1. You can’t change facts, but you can improve situations
         1. Don’t dwell on troubled situations, concentrate on how you can build a healthier, stronger church
            1. Campus situation
         2. Get your motives right: 1 Peter 5:2

Be shepherds of God’s flock, the believers under your care. Watch over them, though not because you have to. Instead, do it because you want to. That’s what God wants you to do. Don’t do it because you want to get money in dishonest ways. Do it because you really want to serve.

Non-paid or part-time Motivation:  Obligation

Paid Motivation:  Money

• Do things because you want to, not because you have to
• Don’t worry about what “they” think
• I can’t take a break, time off, vacation, rest or relax.
• You can’t solve everyone’s problems, let it go, be happy
• From time to time, think, “What if I got fired?” That would be okay!
  • Share Ashland

 

1. Create a “Miracle Morning”
   1. What works for you, what gets you going?
      1. Coffee
      2. Goals and affirmations

• Walk while listening to the Bible

1. Read a good book
2. Journal
3. Prayer and Meditation

 

1. Get Focused

Priority:  If something is a priority, it is the most important thing you have to do or deal with or must be done or dealt with before everything else you have to do.  Collins Dictionary

Don’t worry about multiple goals.

“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years.

Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow, we would now be able to have multiple “first” things.

–Greg McKeown, Essentialism

Jesus’ priority:

37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”  38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”  Mark 1:37-38

Jesus was crystal clear on his priority:  He had come to preach and seek and save the lost.

Jesus faced life-long resistance to his mission.

His leadership style was non-reactive and self-directed.

He set his agenda. 

He did not allow others to hijack his agenda, time or mission.

We get confused and overwhelmed by the multitude of people and tasks crying out to us.

We lose track of our priority, seeking and saving the lost:

 

Resistance

Why don’t we do these things?  Resistance.

We face resistance from outside and from within ourselves.

You already know what you should be doing but you don’t do it consistently.

You are caught up in the pressure of the moment, the urgency of other’s demands and the internal pressure to avoid what matters the most.

This capacity to overcome external and internal resistance is the single most important lesson for a ministry leader.

You don’t have time for everything, but you do have enough time for the most important things.

When your church is stagnant or stuck, you have one priority:  Grow.

Everything you do must support your priority or it must be abandoned.

Everything else depends on the healthy growth of your church.

Why?  It feels right, it’s encouraging and it offers inspiration to discouraged Christians.

• Reset your Schedule and Follow the 75% rule
  • 75% of your time should be involved in reaching out, studying with the lost or discipling those who have the desire to grow and advance the gospel.
• For part time and self-supporting leaders, look at your mornings, evenings and weekends
  • What is your current Covid Schedule?
  • Do you have time to bear fruit?
• Make a “Stop Doing” list of things that don’t contribute toward your priority.
  • Drinking every day
  • Watching hours of TV daily
  • Sleeping in
  • Browsing
    • Freedom
    • Accountable2U
  • Set up systems and routines that make you feel like a winner
    • Scott Adams
    • Goals versus systems
    • Goal: I want to meet and baptize a person this year
      • System: I’m going to share with one person a day
    • Goal: I want to be enjoy peace of mind and peace with God
      • System: I’m going to dedicate the first hour of waking to reading, prayer and meditation
    • Sytems help you to feel like you are winning daily
  • Target those you want to reach
    • Online professional Bible Discussion: “How to succeed Professionally and Spiritually”
    • Golfing
  • Start an online Bible Talk
    • How to Succeed Professionally and Spiritually
    • Book of Daniel 1-6
    • 30 minutes
    • I’ll send you the PowerPoint
  • Make the mission fun for you
    • Get a group around you that you like
    • Do it with friends
    • We developed our own BT
  • Don’t let those who are fearful or faithless stop you
    • “Noah preached and no one became a Christian”
    • I thought something seemed flawed with that statement.
    • 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38
    • If Jesus or Paul were here, they would find a way to find the open people.
  • Set up a short-term campaign
    • 60 Bible study appointments in 60 days