Eric's Blog

Eye Opening Stats

I received the following information in a email this week. Stop and think for a moment about the numbers shared in the first paragraph. It's time for us to "wake up." No one is promised tomorrow.

What in Hell Do You Want?
Consider this: In 2008, 56 million people died and 37 million of them went to Hell!  “How can you say that?” you might ask.  Of the six billion people on earth, those of the Christian faith comprise only 33%. Thus, 66% of the 56 million people who died did not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and therefore Hell is their eternal home.   

A recent Pew report paints a more dire picture:

• Most American Christians believe many religions can lead to eternal life and the majority believe you don’t have to be Christian to go to heaven.
• 65%  of all Christians believe there are multiple paths to eternal life rejecting the exclusivity of Christ’s teaching
• More than half of white mainline Christians and white Catholics say Hinduism can lead to eternal life (33% of white evangelicals and 44% of Black Protestants believe the same)
• 46% of white Christians and white Catholics and 26% of white evangelicals believe that many religions lead to salvation and that even atheism can lead to eternal life.

The Church has a lot to do – and a lot to answer for if so many “Christians” view the path to heaven to be so wide as to include Hinduism and atheism.  The bottom line is that doing things the same way isn’t going to get the job done…
Click Here to Read Full Article

Article

 

Becoming a Contagious Church

This was an assigned book from our coaching network for December. This is a great book to help spark some evangelistic fire in your church. Here are a few of my favorite quotes...

"The righteous will live lives marked by patterns of obedient, God-honoring risk-taking."

"One of the greatest leadership challenges you'll ever face is trying to convince people to follow your example and look beyond their own needs to the "main thing" of valuing and reaching those outside God's family."

"Contagious churches have learned that they must communicate to their culture without compromising with their culture."

"Beneath every evangelistic effort there must be a pure love for Christ and a wholehearted devotion to his gospel, which is "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.""

Becoming a Contagious Church walks you through a 6-Stage process to developing an evangelism strategy in your church. You can pick up a copy here.

The One Minute Manager

Another book I read in December 2008 (for my records). Here are some of my favorite quotes...

"Effective managers manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence."

"Helping people feel good about themselves is a key to getting more done."

"A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening."

"The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people."

"The number one motivator of people is feedback on results."

"Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers, don't let their appearances fool you."

"Goals begin behaviors. Consequences maintain behaviors."

This is a great book about one minute tips on managing people.

The One Minute Manager reveals three fundamental concepts:

• One Minute Goal Setting—Understand the importance of clear goals
• One Minute Praisings—Learn how to help people reach their potential
• One Minute Reprimanding—Learn how to correct poor performance and keep people on track.

Prayers for your pastor and the growth of your church

Here are a few great Scriptures to pray for your pastor and the growth of your church:

 Ephesians 6:19-20
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. NIV

Colossians 4:2-6
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. NIV

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2
 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. NIV

Philemon 6:4-6
4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. NIV

Free Preaching Calendar Resource

If you are a pastor I would like to offer you a free resource I developed to help plan your yearly preaching calendar. If you find it useful please let me know. If you take it and make it better would you send me the file?

Download 2009 Sermon Plan

How to Go to the Next Level

Here is a personal growth and ministry assignment our staff is currently working on. If you will take the time to answer these questions and act on them you and your ministry will grow. First answer the following questions. Keep praying and thinking until you come up with the required amount for your list. The tenth one you list may be the most important!

 

What are the 10 things you need to do personally to go to your next level in 2009?

What are the 5 things you need to do or have happen in your ministry for it to go to the next level?

Now, pray and think. Then number the 10 in order of priority. #1 most important and so on ... Do the same thing with the 5 items on your ministry list. Take your top 3 on your personal list and write down at least one action point. Take the #1 priority on your ministry list and write down at least one action point.

Next, start work immediately on your action points for your personal and ministry list.

When you complete your action points move to the next item on your list.

 

Find someone to do this with you and hold each other accountable. Share your list with each other. It is important that you have an accountability partner to help you follow through on your list.

Be open and honest with yourself and about your ministry. It’s your time to go to the next level. Plan and prepare now for it to happen.

A Simple Sunday Morning Prayer

Acts 16:13-15

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us. NIV

As I was reading this passage last Saturday night the last part of verse 14 really jumped out at me..."The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message". As a pastor this is what I desire for myself and everyone who attends our services. We want God to open the hearts of unbelievers but God has "next steps" for us too and we need to have our hearts open every Sunday so that we will respond to what God speaks to us.

So here is a simply prayer to pray on your way to church, before the service starts, and went the pastor begins the call to respond to the message..."Lord, open hearts to respond to the pastor's message". What would happen if we all sincerely prayed that on Sunday morning. What a difference it would make if all the leaders, members, and attenders prayed, "Lord, open our hearts to respond to your Word today. Open our hearts to respond to the pastor's message".

This prayer speaks of humility, openness, and expectation. Isn't that the way we should approach God's Word? Start praying this prayer today and pray it with fervency on Sunday mornings.

Where are the Pentecostal Leaders???

This is a serious question. I am looking for pentecostal leaders and ministries that provide or have books, blogs, leadership material, sermon resources, or other material available. I wonder...Are we as pentecostal leaders taking advantage of technology?

Nelson Searcy is doing tele-coaching networks, has great resources on church systems, and gives away stuff all the time. Tele-coaching is a great idea for young leaders or small churches that don't have the money to fly their leaders to a coaching network every month.

Craig Groeschel and LifechurchTV offer sermon and media resources for free. I mean top quality stuff!

Perry Noble and Tony Morgan have great blogs.

Northpoint puts on great conferences and Andy Stanley now has a leadership podcast.

But what about our pentecostal leaders?

I know about Mark Batterson. He has a great blog, has written a couple of great books, and provides some sermon resources for free.

What are some of the great pentecostal blogs? Conferences? Resources? Podcast? Who are the pentecostal leaders or ministries that are Kingdom minded and doing things such as free media or sermon content or even tele-coaching? If you have some resources available or know someone who does I would like to know about them. I'm talking about current, relevant resources, podcast, etc. I would love to hear from you.

New Testament Reading Plan

I challenged our staff to go through a New Testament reading plan with me through the rest of the year. I listed the plan in case you want to join us. You can copy and past it and make it 2 columns in a word document and it will all be on one page. It started yesterday so catch up and please let me know if you are going to be reading with us. I am going to be using the Amplified version.

 

_ 10/23/2008 –– Matthew 1 - 5

_ 10/24/2008 –– Matthew 6 - 8

_ 10/25/2008 –– Matthew 9 - 11

_ 10/26/2008 –– Matthew 12 - 13

_ 10/27/2008 –– Matthew 14 - 17

_ 10/28/2008 –– Matthew 18 - 20

_ 10/29/2008 –– Matthew 21 - 23

_ 10/30/2008 –– Matthew 24 - 25

_ 10/31/2008 –– Matthew 26 - 27

_ 11/1/2008 ––– Matthew 28

_ –––––––––––  Mark 1 - 2

_ 11/2/2008 ––– Mark 3 - 5

_ 11/3/2008 ––– Mark 6 - 7

_ 11/4/2008 ––– Mark 8 - 10

_ 11/5/2008 ––– Mark 11 - 13

_ 11/6/2008 ––– Mark 14 - 15

_ 11/7/2008 ––– Mark 16

_ –––––––––––  Luke 1

_ 11/8/2008 ––– Luke 2 - 3

_ 11/9/2008 ––– Luke 4 - 6

_ 11/10/2008 –– Luke 7 - 8

_ 11/11/2008 –– Luke 9 - 10

_ 11/12/2008 –– Luke 11 - 13

_ 11/13/2008 –– Luke 14 - 16

_ 11/14/2008 –– Luke 17 - 19

_ 11/15/2008 –– Luke 20 - 21

_ 11/16/2008 –– Luke 22 - 23

_ 11/17/2008 –– Luke 24

_ –––––––––––  John 1 - 2

_ 11/18/2008 –– John 3 - 4

_ 11/19/2008 –– John 5 - 6

_ 11/20/2008 –– John 7 - 8

_ 11/21/2008 –– John 9 - 11

_ 11/22/2008 –– John 12 - 13

_ 11/23/2008 –– John 14 - 17

_ 11/24/2008 –– John 18 - 20

_ 11/25/2008 –– John 21

_ –––––––––––  Acts 1 - 3

_ 11/26/2008 –– Acts 4 - 6

_ 11/27/2008 –– Acts 7 - 9

_ 11/28/2008 –– Acts 10 - 12

_ 11/29/2008 –– Acts 13 - 15

_ 11/30/2008 –– Acts 16 - 18

_ 12/1/2008 ––– Acts 19 - 21

_ 12/2/2008 ––– Acts 22 - 25

_ 12/3/2008 ––– Acts 26 - 28

_ 12/4/2008 ––– Romans 1 - 4

_ 12/5/2008 ––– Romans 5 - 8

_ 12/6/2008 ––– Romans 9 - 13

_ 12/7/2008 ––– Romans 14 - 16

_ –––––––––––  1 Corinthians 1

_ 12/8/2008 ––– 1 Corinthians 2 - 6

_ 12/9/2008 ––– 1 Corinthians 7 - 10

_ 12/10/2008 –– 1 Corinthians 11 - 14

_ 12/11/2008 –– 1 Corinthians 15 - 16

_ –––––––––––  2 Corinthians 1 - 2

_ 12/12/2008 –– 2 Corinthians 3 - 8

_ 12/13/2008 –– 2 Corinthians 9 - 13

_ 12/14/2008 –– Galatians 1 - 5

_ 12/15/2008 –– Galatians 6

_ –––––––––––  Ephesians 1 - 4

_ 12/16/2008 –– Ephesians 5 - 6

_ –––––––––––  Philippians 1

_ 12/17/2008 –– Philippians 2 - 4

_ –––––––––––  Colossians 1 - 2

_ 12/18/2008 –– Colossians 3 - 4

_ –––––––––––  1 Thessalonians 1 - 4

_ 12/19/2008 –– 1 Thessalonians 5

_ –––––––––––  2 Thessalonians 1 - 3

_ –––––––––––  1 Timothy 1 - 3

_ 12/20/2008 –– 1 Timothy 4 - 6

_ –––––––––––  2 Timothy 1 - 2

_ 12/21/2008 –– 2 Timothy 3 - 4

_ –––––––––––  Titus 1 - 3

_ –––––––––––  Philemon 1

_ –––––––––––  Hebrews 1

_ 12/22/2008 –– Hebrews 2 - 7

_ 12/23/2008 –– Hebrews 8 - 11

_ 12/24/2008 –– Hebrews 12 - 13

_ –––––––––––  James 1 - 2

_ 12/25/2008 –– James 3 - 5

_ –––––––––––  1 Peter 1 - 2

_ 12/26/2008 –– 1 Peter 3 - 5

_ –––––––––––  2 Peter 1 - 3

_ 12/27/2008 –– 1 John 1 - 5

_ 12/28/2008 –– 2 John 1

_ –––––––––––  3 John 1

_ –––––––––––  Jude 1

_ –––––––––––  Revelation 1 - 3

_ 12/29/2008 –– Revelation 4 - 10

_ 12/30/2008 –– Revelation 11 - 17

_ 12/31/2008 –– Revelation 18 - 22

How to Listen to a Sermon

Brian Mavis wrote a great article over at SermonCentral about how to listen to a message to get the most out of it. His four main points are:

1) Listen With All Your HEART

2) Listen With All Your MIND

3) Listen With All Your SOUL

4) Listen With All Your STRENGTH

To better understand each point or to read the whole article go here. You will be better prepared for next Sunday!