Staying spiritually vibrant from Southeast Christian Church on Vimeo.

What about YOU? What steps would YOU add to this video?
What are some things YOU believe EVERY Christian
Leader should do to stay spiritually strong and effective

In Him,
JMb <><
Bishop James I Feel God Brown
http://ifeelgod.org 

Watch this video on YouTube.

Dr. John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 19 million books.

In this two-minute video, Maxwell encourages church leaders to stop doing things they're not good at and focus on their strengths.

Give this Bad Boy a Thumbs Up if you liked it OR it helped you in any way..

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We continue to miss the mark with young adults and teens in church, and there are a number of reasons why.

Ty, in the article below, clearly articulates why many of the approaches, we think should work, don't work.

I want my grandchildren in the Kingdom period! If I have to change my approach to reach them, so be it. 

I just CANNOT and WILL NOT change the message. That position is non-negotiable and non-adjustable.

How do you feel about what Ty has to say?

Are you offended or motivated? Do you think he is right?

Tell us what you think after your read his plea.

In Him,
JMb <><

A Teenager’s Plea: Don’t Suck

by Ty Buckingham

There are some things that just get to me.

When I leave the Taco Bell drive through knowing, without even looking into the bag, that they have messed up my order.

I certainly don’t like it when I end up shaking hands and it was supposed to be a fist bump. That’s just awkward.

Those are little.

What seriously gets to me is when there is a lack in how the church talks to us. Especially as a teenager in high school, I couldn’t feel more neglected by the church at times.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
CLICK HERE

I would walk into a service, and I would feel like I didn’t belong. The flag people weren’t even the biggest problem, it was the fact that the clip art used for announcement slides, the sermons had no branding, just some nice title like, “Giving the Givers’ Gift” in Arial (Helvetica’s ugly cousin). Really creative. Nothing was talking to me.

We (teens) are a group who want to belong. When we step into a church, the first thing that should happen is feeling targeted and having a genuine experience:

Targeted

It’s one thing to tell us we’re important, it’s another thing to show us. We can tell when you spend two minutes or two hours on an event flyer. Or if the design was by your secretary or by a real communicator/designer.

Side note:

Everything matters: the colors you use, the layers you put on each other, the graphics you use or don’t use, and the way you give it to us. We can quickly tell how much you want us, by how hard you try.

If we don’t feel targeted, you lose us.

Experienced

I want to be able to go into a church and have a serious experience with God. Once you’ve targeted me into coming, I have to experience something in order to both be impacted and to have that compelling reason to return.

Everyone has an experience, it’s the churches’ goal to see that experience is a great one.

There have been some things that work:

When church logos have deeper meaning than just a picture.

The times when churches go all out on events, they hand out illustrations, give you an experience; for example I saw a picture of a youth group that not only did a “Game Day” theme but they put fake turf on the ground put up stage lights. It looked like the real deal.

When I’m not handed a bulletin but an illustration such as a movie ticket, 3D glasses, or anything someone can hold, and hold on to as a remembrance of what happened. I can tell you took it seriously so I take it seriously.

When I walk in church, there’s no seats, and you just worship the whole time.

Straight up, when you do church differently.

Side notes:

Events are good, relationships are better. Anyone can have a concert, a blow up bounce house and free pizza. To be able to within that hour and a half service feel like I made friends, then you’ve got me. I’ve taken the bait.

OK, yes, I am the son of Michael Buckingham of Holy Cow Creative, so sure there are some biases, but you must understand me and my friends constantly got things in the mail that sucked and didn’t do the job well 

(by the way, we don’t read your emails or your postcards—send personal text messages).

So please, on behalf of all teenagers, go get em’.

“Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.” -James 5:20

*****************

Ok, your turn! Tell us what you think after your read his plea?

Thanksgiving Sermon Ideas From Preachit

Scripturally, you will find the ritual of thanksgiving nearly from cover to cover. Individuals offered up sacrifices out of gratitude in the book of Genesis. The Israelites sang a song of thanksgiving as they were delivered from Pharaoh's army after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15). Also Later, the Mosaic Law set aside three separate times each year when the Israelites would gather together. All three of these times Unleavened Bread (also called the Feast of the Passover) (Exodus 12:15-20), Harvest or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-21), and the Feast of Ingathering or Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-36) involved remembering God's provision and grace.

As Christians, we're called to be Thankful.

Did you know?

The Bible regularly mentioned "Thanksgiving" long before in 1863, when during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated.

Psalm 106
Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Philippians 4:6
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Jonah 2:9
But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD."

Colossians 3:15
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Colossians 2:7
Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Psalm 69:30 
I will praise the name of God with song, And shall magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.

Giving Thanks ….

                          …..READ MORE

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Ephesians 5:20
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

1 Thessalonians 5:18
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Thanks To His Name

1 Chronicles 29:13
Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

Hebrews 13:15
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Psalm 100:4
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Ungreatfulness – The Opposite of Thanks

Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Numbers 11
And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

2 Timothy 3:1-2
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

1 Corinthians 10:10
And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

Giving Thanks

Ephesians 5:4
Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

PreachIt's database of over 4,000 sermons has everything you need to build a Thanksgiving message,
even if you have limited time, limited inspiration and limited room for study.

Some of the Thanksgiving messages in the PreachIt Database.

(Links will only work for Members of Preachit.org - You must be logged in.)

• Thanksgiving With The Levites
• Thanksgiving Day
• Giving Thanks Always
• The Power Of Thankfulness
• Thanks Living
• Thanksgiving Day With The Levites
• Are You A Thanks Giver, A Praiser or A Worshiper?
• Uncommon Thanks
• In Everything Give Thanks

“I enjoy just reading the sermon outlines for my own devotions. These sermon outlines and bible studies have moved me to preach with more fire than ever. Plus they have given me more fuel for the fire, with words that expand my ministry.” Pastor Steven J. Dahl The Pentecostal Lighthouse Church Oconto, WI

No, it’s a family-integrated church, whose leaders wanted parents — rather than Sunday school teachers and youth ministers — to spiritually train their children. 

In “Divided,” a controversial video circulating online and a related book called “A Weed in the Church,” the movement’s leaders warn that “unbiblical” age-segregated activities can lead youth away from the church.

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Driven by statistics about youth leaving church after high school, they’ve turned to the Bible as their sole educational text and shunned age-segregated structures.

The Family integrated Churches Movement is part of a broader trend of congregations struggling to respond to statistics that claim a youth attrition rate of 40-88 percent. 

Pastor Scott Brown, director of the North Carolina-based National Center for Family-Integrated Churches and author of the book “A Weed in the Church,”, said “When Jesus gathers people together, he gathers the generations,” 

Brown continued “He doesn’t segregate people by age. He’s famous for saying ‘suffer the little children to come unto me’ because his disciples wanted to banish the children. Jesus wasn’t that way.”

Ok team, what do you think? Are family-integrated churches the solution for keeping youth from leaving church as they grow up?

VISTA, Calif., Sept. 12, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ — Thousands of churches across the country are using social media, electronic invitations and "bounce houses" – and some are even overcoming great loss – as they gear up to draw family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to National Back To Church Sunday on Sept. 18.