Tuesday, November 22, 2005
November 2005
Stewardship E-News for November 05
Bob Tallent, RGTallent@Comcast.net
This season of the year gives us many opportunities to encourage good stewardship. Notable among these is the Annual Christmas Offering for World Missions (“The Lottie Moon Offering”). This offering provides about fifty per cent of the budget of the International Mission Board (IMB). Through the International Mission Board, Southern Baptists support 4,946 missionaries in 153 different countries. Your gifts and prayers resulted in 451,000 new believers baptized in 2000 outside of North America. Most churches have received materials promoting this offering. You can find additional information at www.SBC.net or www.IMB.Org.
Promoting the Missions Offerings actually increases the income of your local church. It teaches giving and it helps people get a vision that they are participating in a world-wide enterprise.
Recent surveys show that charity giving is greater in “Bible Belt” areas compared with more secular areas. Overall giving in Mississippi, for example, is much higher than in New Hampshire. There may be many factors influencing this but I can’t help but think that the emphases of churches, including mission offerings teaches giving.
Other opportunities in this season include doing your own offering to help needy church or community members or supporting some local ministry at Christmas time.
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More and more churches are using video clips in their worship services. Here are some resources: http://sermonspice.com/index_lifwy.php, http://www.christiancritic.com and www.damaris.org/cw, http://www.textweek.com/movies/themeindex.htmhttp://www.cmu.ca/library/faithfilm.html, http://www.filmeducation.org/index.htm, http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ and http://www.imdb.com.
Skills for preaching to the unchurched by Rick Warren“Be tactful with those who are not Christians … Talk to them agreeably and with a flavor of wit, and try to fit your answers to the needs of each one.” Col. 4:5-6 (JB)
“When I started Saddleback, I had about 10 years of sermons stockpiled from my previous ministry as an evangelist. I could have coasted the first few years, doing little sermon preparation, by using messages I’d already written. But once I surveyed the unchurched in my community, I quickly dropped that idea. When I discovered that the number one complaint of the unchurched in my area was “boring, irrelevant sermons,” I decided I’d better seriously re-examine my preaching. I reviewed ten years worth of sermons asking one question: Would this message make sense to a totally unchurched person? Starting over from scratch, I had to develop a whole new set of preaching skills: Adapt your style to your audience/ Make the Bible accessible to unbelievers/Plan your titles to appeal to the unchurched/ Preach in series/ Be consistent in your preaching style/ Choose guest speakers carefully/Expect people to respond. [From The Ministry ToolBox, 8-23-05] # # #
Bob Tallent, RGTallent@Comcast.net
This season of the year gives us many opportunities to encourage good stewardship. Notable among these is the Annual Christmas Offering for World Missions (“The Lottie Moon Offering”). This offering provides about fifty per cent of the budget of the International Mission Board (IMB). Through the International Mission Board, Southern Baptists support 4,946 missionaries in 153 different countries. Your gifts and prayers resulted in 451,000 new believers baptized in 2000 outside of North America. Most churches have received materials promoting this offering. You can find additional information at www.SBC.net or www.IMB.Org.
Promoting the Missions Offerings actually increases the income of your local church. It teaches giving and it helps people get a vision that they are participating in a world-wide enterprise.
Recent surveys show that charity giving is greater in “Bible Belt” areas compared with more secular areas. Overall giving in Mississippi, for example, is much higher than in New Hampshire. There may be many factors influencing this but I can’t help but think that the emphases of churches, including mission offerings teaches giving.
Other opportunities in this season include doing your own offering to help needy church or community members or supporting some local ministry at Christmas time.
* * *
More and more churches are using video clips in their worship services. Here are some resources: http://sermonspice.com/index_lifwy.php, http://www.christiancritic.com and www.damaris.org/cw, http://www.textweek.com/movies/themeindex.htmhttp://www.cmu.ca/library/faithfilm.html, http://www.filmeducation.org/index.htm, http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ and http://www.imdb.com.
Skills for preaching to the unchurched by Rick Warren“Be tactful with those who are not Christians … Talk to them agreeably and with a flavor of wit, and try to fit your answers to the needs of each one.” Col. 4:5-6 (JB)
“When I started Saddleback, I had about 10 years of sermons stockpiled from my previous ministry as an evangelist. I could have coasted the first few years, doing little sermon preparation, by using messages I’d already written. But once I surveyed the unchurched in my community, I quickly dropped that idea. When I discovered that the number one complaint of the unchurched in my area was “boring, irrelevant sermons,” I decided I’d better seriously re-examine my preaching. I reviewed ten years worth of sermons asking one question: Would this message make sense to a totally unchurched person? Starting over from scratch, I had to develop a whole new set of preaching skills: Adapt your style to your audience/ Make the Bible accessible to unbelievers/Plan your titles to appeal to the unchurched/ Preach in series/ Be consistent in your preaching style/ Choose guest speakers carefully/Expect people to respond. [From The Ministry ToolBox, 8-23-05] # # #
