Getting READY for the New Year

(Special thanks to Neal Eller of BSCNC for connecting me with Don Whitney's post which is the basis for this post)

As an association we are entering 2011 with a corporate call for fasting and prayer. We are asking our member churches to commit to praying with the TRBA staff over the first 21 days of 2011. If you have questions concerning this and are not getting our regular updates regarding that, contact me at dougald@tarriverbaptist.com and I will try to make sure you get the updates.

On Monday night, January 24th we will have a time of corporate prayer at Rock Spring Baptist Church at 7 PM. This will be the emphasis of quarterly executive board meeting and we have moved to the church to allow for larger numbers to be in attendance. Please get the information out to your church family and encourage all - messengers and general members, to be in attendance.

To prepare for this time of sacrificial prayer, we have been encouraging members to be preparing themselves spiritually to participate in this season of prayer. Neal Eller shared questions from Don Whitney's post that I thought might be of help to us. To that end, I am sharing those questions with readers of this blog to use as we enter into the New Year.

"Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going. The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings. For starters, here are 10 questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God:

1.What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2.What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3.What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4.In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5.What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6.What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7.For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8.What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9.What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10.What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?

In addition to these questions, here are 21 more to help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

11.What's the most important decision you need to make this year?
12.What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?
13.What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?
14.What habit would you most like to establish this year?
15.Who do you most want to encourage this year?
16.What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
17.What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?
18.What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
19.What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
20.What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?
21.What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
22.What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
23.In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
24.What's the most important trip you want to take this year?
25.What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
26.To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
27.What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?
28.What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
29.If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?
30.What's the most important new item you want to buy this year?
31.In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?"

These are great questions to ponder as we begin the New Year - as well as OFTEN throughout the year.

As we begin our season of prayer, perhaps you want to share these questions with the membership of your church family. I plan to share more of these thoughts as we pray together this coming January.

Burden for the church in its mission

I begin this post with no title for the blog. I am burdened for the church as we set out on the years ahead. Increasingly I think of the statement I read several years back - that 65% of the existing churches in North America in 1990 would close their doors by 2035.

First, when I read it that date seemed so far off. Now, it seems to be looming just around the corner. Second, I thought NO WAY! But as the new Wal Mart Commercial says it, "Way."

In 2003, NAMB in its promo materials stated that 48 churches a month in North America were closing their doors. Though we have only seen new and unhealthy church starts close their doors in TRBA, we have decreased over 700 active members since 2000 (the equivalent of 7 churches). In addition, we are certainly not reaching the people that are lost at the rates we should. Therefore, I am burdened about the church and am beginning to realize that IF the churches of today do not change and embrace the task before us, there will indeed be 65% or better of our churches closing their doors.

It appears to me that we are at a crossroad. It further appears to me that it is high time for us to choose which path we will take. The path we are currently on, or the new path that will lead US to be the church God is calling us to be in our communities and around the world. I PRAY it will be the latter.

Why do I say such things:

1. 92% of our churches have plateaued (are declining). We are not reaching the lost nor keeping up with population growth.
2. 95% of Baptists never share their faith.
3. Churches are not discipling our members.
4. Multitudes of churches are losing the 18-22 year-olds that were churched youth because church is not essential/relevant to them.
5. We are preoccuppied with "stuff" and not concentrated on becoming the Great Commandment/Great Commission churches that God has commanded us to become to this generation.

Please begin to pray with me about something we may call THRIVE. An intentional effort as Associational Missionary, Pastors, and church leaders to "revitalize" our churches in the work that God is calling us to be. In the next several weeks, you will be getting additional information from me concerning this. Please read through the materials and pray about you and your church becoming involved with this.

If I can be of help go you, please call on me.