Search results for: “good news”

  • 5 Simple Ways to be Good News This Week

     

     

     

    Photo by Steve Snodgrass via Flickr (Creative Commons) 

    Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Practically speaking, that means that going to church on Sunday and rocking a Christian bumper sticker isn’t enough.

    Here are 5 simple ways that your actions can be Good News this week:

    1. Personalize your convenience. Ask the store clerk where you go regularly for their name, begin to see them as a person with a story and not an object who collects your money or makes your double shot skim vanilla latte.
    2. Tip well and say thank you. No strings attached, just be a good tipper and look your server in the eye to express gratitude. (Learn more, Christians are Bad Tippers) [Conversely, if you see a Christian leave a tract as a tip, be Good News to servers worldwide and punch them in the face.]
    3. Sweat the small stuff. Did a coworker get a haircut or just come back from vacation? Make a few minutes to compliment them or look at their pictures. Or did your kids school get recognized for an achievement? Send the school’s principal a note expressing your appreciation. Noticing something small is huge.
    4. Mow a solid. Next time you mow your front lawn, go ahead and mow the front lawn you turn your nose up at. You know, the person who hasn’t figured out that Spring has sprung. Maybe, just maybe, that person has a really good reason they haven’t mowed their grass yet. Doing them a solid might open the door to hearing their story.
    5. Bless from excess. Next time you are out to eat and have leftovers, don’t just throw it away. Instead package it up as a meal for a homeless person. Add napkins, a fork, and a bottled water. Not all homeless people are hungry. But some definitely are. You don’t even have to wait until you eat out. Why not make an extra lunch and take it with you… just in case? (Read Under the Overpass for more on this.)

    Being God’s handiwork made new in Christ to do good works doesn’t mean you have to save the world. You don’t have to build a house to do good works. You don’t have to go on a mission trip or teach Sunday school to children.

    Small, simple things do make a big impact.

    Be Good News this week.

  • Being Good News

    Today’s video post is a synopsis of about 10 conversations I’ve had in the last 60 days. All of them get to the question, “Adam, something has changed inside of you. I like it sometimes and I don’t like it sometimes, what is it?”

    One thing I’ve learned to get comfortable with in the last 10 years of ministry is people asking me hard questions, diving into my motivations, and even offering critical responses. I can handle it. I am not intimidated by it. In fact, questions like this actually encourage me.

  • 10 Ways Your Church Can Be Good News to Public Schools

    I have a fervent belief that if we want to reach a post-Christian society, we have to be Good News before someone will listen to Good News.

    I asked some teachers, “How could a local church be Good News to your public school?” Here are 10 of their ideas.

    1. Create a team that participates at every school board meeting. Your presence at meetings, without bringing forward issues, will communicate to the decision makers that your church cares.
    2. Sponsor a community-wide clean-up day during the Fall and Spring semester. If you lead the charge, other churches and community organizations will join forces.
    3. Ask teachers to post individual classroom needs on Donors Choose, and then ask church members to help fund things that will go directly to the classroom.
    4. Set-up a tutoring program that meets in your building after school. (Example) You don’t have to be a certified teacher to help kids with math, science, and reading homework.
    5. Ask your congregation to strategically send their children to public schools. Resist the temptation to home school or send children to a private school. Instead, ask the congregation to invest that time and money into their children’s individual classrooms.
    6. Schools are often lacking volunteers for events. Meet with the principal early in the Fall and find out which events need help.
    7. Have the church cover any expenses for background checks or medical tests related to volunteering in schools. Sometimes the smallest obstacle becomes the biggest excuse!
    8. Once a month, provide treats to the school staff. Every school has a teachers lounge and every employee of the school will appreciate if you provide a bagels or a healthy lunch snack. (Don’t just bless the teachers, bring enough for everyone!) Trust me, this will make even the most hardcore staff smile.
    9. Many districts have cut spending on arts and music. Have your worship leader work with local administrators to set-up workshops, after school, or any opportunity for children to get exposure to art and music.
    10. Find out what projects are important at a school and help provide the supplies. If they have a garden, make sure they have tools. If they are allowing children to paint murals, make sure they have the paint they want.

    Want to get started? Pick one and let me know how it goes!

    These are my ideas. What are yours?

    Many of these ideas came from classroom teachers. Special thanks to Erin, Annie, and Paul for speaking into this post.

  • Good News for High School Students

    I’m always at odds with this reality:

    If Jesus offers good news, what is it about how we do youth ministry that is only attractive to 1% – 2% of the high school students on our campus?

    That always lead same  to a place where I say, “I don’t think we’re doing this right just yet.”

    • Good news spreads like wild fire.
    • Good news is unstoppable.
    • Good news releases energy.
    • Good news releases joy.
    • Good news is contagious.

    In 1994, as a high school senior our basketball won the Indiana state basketball championship. If you’ve seen the movie Hoosiers than you get a glimpse of how important this is to the state of Indiana. It’s a really big deal. Not only do the finals fill the RCA Dome, the same building which hosts the NCAA Final Four, it is a much bigger tournament as every high school in the state got a chance to enter the tournament. So as the final seconds ticked off the clock in overtime and our team was up 93-88… the student body of Clay High School collectively lost it. We poured onto the court. We screamed and danced. And then when we got kicked off of the court we ran around the inside of the stadium screaming, chanting, bouncing, skipping, and dancing! And then we got kicked out of the RCA Dome and we literally just ran through the streets of downtown Indianapolis screaming, chanting, bouncing, skipping, dancing, and stopping traffic to tell them, “We won!”

    That was good news worth celebrating. It unleashed unstoppable joy. It was universal on our campus. It was even universal in our city as everyone felt good about this good news!

    If youth ministry were good news to the high school students on our campus.. you’d see this same unstoppable release of joy. It’d be nearly universal. Even those who didn’t embrace it would be excited it. Good news is worth celebrating, dancing, and running through the streets for.

    I know it. You know it. 1% – 2% of people running through the halls… that’s just creepy!

    The only question is, are we will to think and dream of ways to be good news to our campus so they might desire to hear Good News?

  • 10 Ways Your Church Can Be Good News to the Neighborhood

    I have a fervent belief that if we want to reach a post-Christian society, we have to be Good News before someone will listen to Good News.

    Here are 10 ways you can begin transforming your church into a place where Good News flows from:

    1. If you have a building, offer a public bathroom and shower that’s open to whomever needs it during your office hours.
    2. Ask every attendee to get in the habit of bringing a canned food item (you get the idea) to church every week. Then start a food pantry that’s open a couple days a week for people to drop in.
    3. Buy things for the church from local suppliers. Avoid the big box (probably cheaper) stores for ones that support a local company. Encourage your church attendees to do the same.
    4. Encourage people who go out to lunch after church to be generous with tipping servers and conscious of how long they are staying. You want wait staffs to desire the church crowd, they are avoiding it at all costs now.
    5. Require church staff to live within the area you are trying to reach.
    6. Add a requirement to all board and staff job descriptions that they attend public meetings. (Schools, city planning, city council, county government, etc.)
    7. Ask adults to volunteer at the public schools. (Give staff lots of freedom to volunteer)
    8. Participate in organized community events. Cleaning up, planting flowers, helping with parades, etc.
    9. Make church property open to the public. (Playground equipment, skateboard park, community garden, host local festivals, allow the schools to hold events in the auditorium.) Better yet, turn all of your property into a community center.
    10. Create a culture of saying yes to community involvement instead of no.

    These are my ideas. What are yours?

    How can your church (and the people who go to it) become Good News to your neighborhood?

  • The Good News is You

     

     

     

    Giant slice of lasagna
    Photo by Gone-Walkabout via Flickr (Creative Commons)

     

    Have you ever stopped to think that Good News is brought through you?

    Sometimes I wonder if our ideal theology is a bit larger than the practical theology God is actually calling us to do?

    We think global while God is likely thinking local. We get so lost in the vastness of our calling to change the world that we lose sight of being good news to our block, next door neighbor, or even our house.

    Back when I was a kid sometimes I’d order something at a restaurant that was simply more than I could eat. The waitress would bring this massive plate of lasagna and my eyes would get big. As I readied my fork, mouth watering, anticipating the first bite– reality would set in. My dad would say, “Looks like your eyes are bigger than your stomach.”

    Of course it was true. I had ordered a massive portion and my dad had amused me by letting me get it and thinking I could finish it. But he knew from the get-go that there wasn’t a chance I could polish off such a tall order. I’d try but ultimately there would be more meal than would fit in my stomach. When I had finally given up and pushed the half full plate away in defeat my dad would repeat the same phrase with a smile, “Looks like your eyes were bigger than your stomach.”

    The same is true with our desires to change the world, isn’t it? Sometimes we order such a big portion that we barely make a dent. We push away the plate and give up– and our Heavenly Father knowingly smiles and reminds us that our eyes were bigger than our appetite.

    Perhaps the smarter thing is to order a portion we can tackle?

  • Good news for Romeo

    The mood in town, economically, is horrid. Everyone makes it seem like we are in the great depression or something.

    Here’s a little reminder to the people of Romeo that things are still quite good. The Ford F-150, whose engine is made right here in town, is still the #1 selling vehicle in America.

    Story

    Sure, sales are down. And things may continue to slow down. But we’re still doing pretty good.

  • Fair-ly Good News

    I just talked to Rachel and Katie, who closed out Thursday at the Armada Fair.

    Over all it has been a fantastic 3 days. Results-wise, about 40 kids have committed to coming to the next MainStreet with their parents. (Have you seen the August one? Here’s the video)

    In the past three days I’ve had a lot of amazing conversations and first encounters with non-believers.
    I’ve also had a great time getting to know the other vendors in the Merchants barn. And in the quiet moments of the hecticness I’ve had a chance to reflect on the why we are at the fair in the first place.

    My mind has been captivated by two primary biblical passages. I think they are the only biblical justification I would ever need to defend our actions. Not that we need to, but still:

    1. Acts 17:17… there is something very Pauline about presenting KidsTown in the Merchant barn. I love that our booth is surrounded by normal stuff. It’s how the church should be.
    2. Matthew 11:16-19… Not much to add to that actually.

    Better than just being excited about this event, we have more to come. We’ve got a great plan for the Peach Festival and even something super cool for Halloween.

  • Good News for High School Employees

    MinwageBuried deep in an article on CBS’s economic website, it seems that Congress is trying raise the minimum wage nationwide.

    The bill calls for the minimum wage to rise to $7.25 an hour from $5.15
    an hour, an increase that would be phased in over the next three years.     [Read the rest]

    Obviously, this hasn’t passed through the Senate yet… but raising the wages of our lowest paid employed persons out there is good news. It’s kind of sick to think that someone could work 40 hours per week at Wal*Mart and bring home less than $200 after taxes. This would take that 40 hour take home pay to about $250.

    Postscript: This doesn’t mean our babysitters will be getting a raise. In fact… we didn’t know we could pay so little!

  • Good news at LaShish

    Lashish_1In an ongoing All Blogs go to Heaven story, we went back to LaShish for dinner last night. Dave had never been and we talked it up pretty good.

    Well, the good news. Food is still good. While the place was empty when we first got there it did actually fill in well by the time we left. We still didn’t see the "waiting room only" from a year ago or so… but they are doing pretty well.

    The bad news.     For the first time ever we got bad service. I’d put it at terrible. (Hall Road location) The waiter we had started off well… but as soon as he saw we weren’t going to order any alcohol… he basically ignored us! I could see his waiting on a group of 6 that was boozing it up pretty good… he was all over them. But we never got treated right. Three of our party ordered Sierra Mist and it was bad. So they got a fresh round (a long time later) and that was bad too. I won’t detail everything he could have done better… but for the first time ever I left LaShish dissatisfied with the experience. Too bad.

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