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Ministry Encouragement Podcast – Episode #22
By: Rev. Jim W. Hollis, Founder and Executive Director of Proactive Ministries
www.proactive-ministries.org Atlanta Offices: (770) 803-9988
Welcome to the twenty-second Episode of the Ministry Encouragement Podcast. It is my prayer that your life will be greatly blessed through this Podcast today. My heart is to see all of us draw closer to Christ, live more like Christ and serve Christ in daily life with joy. There is no adventure like the adventure of ministry.
I’m Rev. Jim W. Hollis, the Executive Director of Proactive Ministries, who is the not-for-profit ministry that sponsors this podcast each week. Proactive Ministries works closely with individual churches and groups of churches across North America. We also work in depth with Pastors, Christian leaders and laity in their local churches. Our ministry also does some Leadership Development work with small businesses, helping their leaders to build greater teams and community.
The two major themes of our trainings are RELATIONSHIPS and Leading With EXCELLENCE. We have been very blessed across the past 19 years to have been in hundreds of congregations all across North America and TO see what really works and what does not, in terms of effective ministry.
I am a bit unusual. I’m a true GA native, born in Atlanta, GA. I grew up in east Georgia, in the county of Morgan, resided in Rutledge, and went to high school in Madison, GA – the town that Sherman refused to burn. Madison is a beautiful place with more antebellum period homes still standing than you can imagine. It was a true, Norman Rockwell kind of town to grow up in. There are thousands of different communities around North America. We all have different experiences and can appreciate the many things we share in common.
Regardless of the community in which we live or the church that we attend, in America there are:
Ten Major Spiritual Truths on Life and Christian Community, that apply to all of us where we live:
1) Our town does not have too many Christian churches for the population in our area. Several churches experiencing decline can ban together for shared training and ministry transformation. Pastors and Leaders can initiate the charge.
- We are not in competition – far too many people
- Churches without “critical mass” truly suffer
- Coming together creates enormous new energy
- Forming a ministry training coalition brings hope
2) God’s eyes are on every person who is not currently in Christian community in this town and commands me to reach out to them relationally. You can choose to learn how to live this out.
- Most Christians are at one extreme of this or the other: way out or all inward.
- God has a true burden and broken heart
- Relational outreach is the absolute BEST
3) We can learn to initiate and grow authentic, caring and Christ centered friendships with others in our town, replacing the cancer of fear & scarcity with the blessing of God’s Joy. You don’t figure it out through books, brainstorming or more studies.
- Initiation is the part that scares us MOST – why?
- Perfect love (define) casts out fear & scarcity
- God’s Joy is contagious and perpetual
4) More often than not, the greatest obstacles to spiritual growth are inside the church rather than outside the walls. Your Leaders can learn how to love them and put a stop to it with grace.
- If you’ve been involved in a church, you know some of their names and many of their relatives
- Which is harder – loving those inside or outside
- Grace, divine love and forgiveness are KEYS
5) Every congregation has an ample supply of inactive members who can be reconnected with relationally through Christ’s love. Stop subscribing to the poor teaching that they are unreachable. Learn how to spiritually gear up and go get them.
- SO much poor, untruthful teaching on this topic
- “There but by the grace of God go I…”
- Most dangerous spiritual position – inactive in a mainline church today
6) Spiritual illnesses produce symptoms of financial problems. Money always follows spiritual growth and excellent ministry. Chase the dollars and lose. Grow the ministries and find healing.
- There are very FEW financial problems – roots are from spiritual illnesses in leadership or ministries
- Money FOLLOWS excellent ministry – not precedes
- The focus is on transformed lives spiritually – hope
7) Doing the same things in the same ways in our church will bring the same results. Wake up! It’s far better to learn how to live than experiencing things worse than dying. Stop suffering. Get help now.
- The greatest Pastors can say, “I don’t know…”
- Strong leaders seek experienced, effective help
- Nearly every church with passion can turn around
8) Serious prayer ministry is the ultimate power source for all effective ministries. Stop settling for the forms of prayer without the power. Leaders can choose to learn how.
- Prayer is often terribly limited and even anemic
- There is more to prayer than INTERCESSION
- Prayer must be comprehensive and deep
9) Transforming Leadership transforms the church. How and why we settle for sorry Leadership in the church. This can change if you have enough desire and disgust.
- Many churches have predictably poor leadership
- We do not INVEST in building leadership
- Leaders that are merely guessing what to do will probably fail
10) Laziness in pastors and church leaders is an infectious sin, which feeds decline. Busyness is not an acceptable substitute for quality ministry. And closely related to these are “hurried-ness” which is simply a powerful tool of the devil.
- Defining SIN: Anything good OR bad which separates us from a wholesome, growing relationship with God
- Busyness is no guarantee of quality & spirituality
- Laziness is perpetuated by lack of spiritual passion
Great news! There is practical, common sense, effective ministry training for all of these truths for you as an individual, a group of you as individual leaders in your church or as a choice of your congregation. The ministry strategies IN the training can be immediately and effectively applied to your life and church.
The cost of receiving this teaching, training and coaching in ministry strategies is far less compared to the agony of apathy and failing to leave a spiritual legacy while you lived your life on this earth from God. Churches that are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot are not only harmful to the witness of the Gospel but should change the sign out front to say something other than “Church.”
Please know that your being part of this Ministry Encouragement Podcast by subscribing and encouraging others around you to do so is one of the GREATEST SOURCES OF ENCOURAGEMENT that you can bring to this mission.
As we keep noticing the growth of this Podcast and continue to receive positive feedback in the form of emails, letters, cards, instant messages, chats on Facebook (our Page there is Proactive Ministries, which you can go to and LIKE), and voicemails on our office phones and our Voicemail TAB on the blog page – wow! Thanks so much for SHARING the affirmation and blessing to continue to pour into this community that God is helping us create TOGETHER!
I would love to talk with you about your faith, your spiritual journey, your questions or how your individual church can grow to the next level right where you are.
I think most of you are aware that our Ministry Staff is willing to give your church a gift – we call it an Envisioning. We will come to your community and your church to spend a day & evening with your Pastor, key leaders and other members of your congregation as a way to get to know and understand your particular setting and current reality.
The only cost for this is TRAVEL EXPENSE, either mileage, rental car or airfare from Atlanta, GA. If staying overnight, we also ask for a host home to stay in. We typically do these during the weekdays as most of our weekends are booked up two years out for Training with churches that are in longer term Ministry Covenants with us.
Take a look at our ministry Web site: www.proactive-ministries.org
Share this Podcast with those you know, just met, or want to bless in a special way. Give the link to it to a Pastor who is discouraged. OR share it with church leaders who feel they have lost hope for their church to grow strong again.
Until our next time together, I want to ask you specifically to be in PRAYER about some of the most exciting news I’ve had in a long time –concerning how God has blessed us and opened a new door of opportunity for us.
WE are NOW offering Ministry Training Webinars on more than twenty areas of ministry in local churches. We are also doing some “Meet Up Fellowship & Sharing Groups” using this same tool. We did one the other day and I called it, “A Spiritual Lift During Your Day.” It was well attended, free and well received. We are using the GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar software and still have much to learn!
IF you would like to know more about this, please email me or call our ministry offices in Atlanta right away!
My email is: jim@ministryencouragementpodcast.com
Our Ministry Offices in GA are: (770) 803-9988
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