Good Shepherd; Ministry Archives

Good Shepherd; Ministry

Talbot Davis December 14, 2011 at 6:46 am 0

This past Saturday morning, as part of the clean up crew for our Room In The Inn ministry, I met someone who attends the church.

It turns out that I had met him in passing before, but it had not registered.

Anyway, I began a litany of questions for my new friend.

How long have you been coming to the church?

Where do you live?

What kind of work do you do?

Did you have a church background growing up?

He finished by telling me that he would quiz me on Sunday morning to see if I remembered all that I had discovered about him. (I passed, by the way.)

But that's not the best part of the encounter. In the process of my questioning (harassing? peppering?), I found out that my new friend had served our Room In The Inn neighbors on Friday night as well as Saturday morning.

And that he was leaving Room In The Inn to head straight for our Habitat For Humanity Build Da that we hosted in connection with Olympic High School.

Hmmm . . . Friday night at Room In The Inn. Saturday morning at Room In The Inn. Saturday during the day at Habitat For Humanity.

That's someone whose following a higher power.

That's someone who has a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's someone whose name I'm going to remember.

Good Shepherd; Ministry

When You Know You’re Successful

Talbot Davis September 21, 2011 at 6:12 am 0

I'm not exactly happy with the fact that this photo shows Larry Fitzgerald scoring agains the Panthers, but you have to admit that it's a cool shot.

It also demonstrates the fact that football teams know exactly when they are successful: when they cross the goal line. There is no ambiguity there. The goal line is always before them.

In a lot of church life, however, there is a great deal of ambiguity around "success" or "effectiveness." We've had no small amount of that uncertainty at Good Shepherd. How do we know when we are effective?

As part of the launching of the new mission of inviting all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ, we've tried to remove that ambiguity by spelling out what a living relationship with Jesus looks like.

We've identified seven measures in the life of a Christian that indicate a living relationship as opposed to a dead religion:

Saved By Grace.
People in a living relationship with Christ embrace the Gospel truth that they are saved by grace. For some, this will happen in a decisive encounter while for others it will be a gradual realization. For all, it results in gratitude for Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Filled With The Spirit.
And then they will be filled with him again. And again. Through fervent prayer and passionate worship, people encounter the supernatural power of the Spirit who sends them into ministry.

Maturing In Faith.
People with a living relationship with Christ continually mature in their discipleship. For many, but not all, Life Groups will be a primary venue for spiritual maturity.

Serving In Love.
People with a living relationship with Christ develop a servant life-style by joining in Serve Teams which help both church and community.

Consistent In Relationships.
People with a living relationship with Christ live their faith in their homes first of all. The people of Good Shepherd preserve marriages, honor parents, and encourage children.

Generous With Resources.
People with a living relationship with Christ recognize that all they have comes from God and so are glad to give generously to his work.

Sharing The Gospel.
People with a living relationship with Christ acknowledge eternal realities and share the Gospel and its life-giving power with people far from Christ wherever they live. The invited become inviters.

Those measures make up our goal line. I pray we'll have a lot of Larry Fitzgeralds strivintg to cross it.

Good Shepherd; Ministry

Something We Don’t Do Well . . . And Something We Do

Talbot Davis October 29, 2009 at 5:48 am 0

The longer I serve in church leadership, the more I realize that churches need to ask themselves this question: "what do we do well?"

By the same token, they need to ask this one: "what do we not do well?"

It's interesting: in deciding what you do well, you are often making a decision to be "not so good" at some other things.

For example, we're not very good at helping people start new ministries that are borne out of a personal passion and are pefectly God-honoring. A new ministry to write letters of encouragement to elected officials, for example. (No one has approached us with this one, by the way.) It may be a fine idea, one that pleases God and will help people, but we're not so good at getting something like that off the ground.

On the other hand, there is something in a related area that we do well: providing ample space for people to find their niche in ministry.

While we can't always help launch brand new ministry initiatives, we can direct people towards something like First Serve -- our monthly outreach to the greater Charlotte area. On the first Saturday of each month, we have as many as ten different ministry sites at which people can serve. The sites range from the Charlotte Rescue Mission to a local Nursing Home to a middle school gang prevention ministry.

So we are good at moving people to First Serve -- October saw over 300 people participate.

Our hope and prayer is that the ministry opportunities are wide enough on the first Saturday of each month to appeal to a large number of Good Shepherd servants.

It's a decision to focus all of our energy and creativity into something we know we can do and do well.

To sign up for the November First Serve, click here.

Good Shepherd; Ministry

Talbot Davis

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