Toward the end of his sermon this Sunday morning, Pastor Mike Miller asked for “those who are going to help me with the rest of this sermon” to come on up. Several singers and musicians stepped forward along with two deacons.

The deacons, Chuck and Jim, are well-known and greatly loved by this congregation. They work for the same investment firm, and from everything I hear, are highly successful at what they do. Chuck has chaired most of the important committees in the church (and a few that weren’t!), including the last pastor search team, and Jim presently chairs the church’s stewardship committee. In the 1990s, when he was younger and his jet black hair long, Jim played “Jesus” for several years running in our Christmas pageants. Chuck is married to Christy, and Jim to Sheila.

Mostly it was Jim’s testimony they were telling. Chuck was there because he had a pivotal role in it: He is the one who witnessed to Jim and brought him to the Lord.

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The pastor or church staff member or the chairman of a committee or a church officer has overstayed his/her welcome.

How to tell.

One church I pastored–FBC of Columbus, Mississippi–had a vivid illustration of what happens when a member holds a position so long they begin to “own” it. Across the street from the synagogue sat the funeral home, owned by one of our deacons. One day this good man told me, “Preacher, we could have bought the land the synagogue is sitting on for a pittance years ago.” (It abutted the back of our sanctuary.)

He said, “When the house that used to sit on that property came up for sale, the people wanted $30,000 for it. I was willing to raise the money and buy it. I felt we’d be needing that property in the future.”

“The trouble was that Mr. McClanahan, the church treasurer who had held that job for decades, vetoed it. He said that was just too much money for that piece of land and we would not pay it.”

“No one, including the preacher, wanted to stand up to McClanahan, so we let it go.”

“And now,” the deacon said, “We can’t touch that piece of ground for a million dollars.”

He was right in that; after all, I’d asked around discreetly and found that out.

One church where I was preaching recently was in the act of trying to dislodge a church secretary who had held that office since Noah was a little boy. Even though she was in her mid-70s and long overdue for retirement, she would not budge. As the unofficial church boss, the woman would not change her way of doing things, would not agree that the pastor had the right to have an administrative helper who would do what he asked, and would not agree to go away quietly. (I have no idea how it turned out. These things rarely go smoothly.)

Sometimes it’s the pastor, sometimes another church worker. How to get rid of them is one subject. But our subject today is:

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Not for the swimsuit issue. It came yesterday. Right now, it’s tied up inside a small grocery bag stuffed down inside the kitchen trash, to be set outside in garbage cans tomorrow morniing. Some images we just do not need in our home, and this is one of them.

I take Sports Illustrated for the same reason I subscribe to The New Yorker and TIME magazines: Once in a while a story, an insight, an incident, is so unforgettable it ends up becoming a part of how I think. And, often, it takes its place as the centerpiece in a sermon.

Case in point.

The February 13, 2012, issue of SI was devoted to the New York Giants’ Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots. Not having a favorite in that contest, I was only mildly interested, but did scan the articles.

In so doing, I found a keeper, a piece on the role debriefing played in changing the Giants from a 7-7 team, which is the very essence of average and was their record two weeks before the end of the season, into world champions.

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Once in a while we stumble onto a principle that really works in our ministries. The fun thing is to go back then and find that not only did the Lord “know” that–smiley face goes here–but He gave us a story illustrating it in Scripture.

Here’s the story.

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury, for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:41-44)

The principle thus illustrated,the one that can transform your leadership in teaching your people to give, is this: The small gift given sacrificially inspires everyone else to give generously.

One would think it would be the other way around, that pointing out how Mr. Deep Pockets contributed a cool million would encourage the rest of us to dig down and come up with our fair share. Now, we do need those great gifts, let’s make that point. But Mr. Pockets’ gift does not inspire many of us to give sacrificially for the simple reason that we figure, “Well, he has lots of money, he OUGHT to be giving a lot.”

But no one thinks that of the child who gives much or the poor widow who gives sacrificially or the common laborer (you’ll pardon the expression) who sets a high standard for generosity.

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A pastor of a small but growing church tossed a question my way.

“My small church is growing, and our people do not want to lose the family spirit of a small church. But how do we maintain that without becoming a clique?”

By clique is meant an enclosed group, a circle of friends that will admit no new members.

We’ve all seen Sunday School classes where the members have been together for years and know everything there is to know about the others, and where the intimacy is deep and lasting. They know birthdays, the names of each one’s grandchildren, and they relate to one another like sisters.

Yes, sisters. It’s almost always a women’s class that does this.

But, women or men, we’re all guilty to some degree.

Let a newcomer show up in our little group of select friends one Sunday, and everything changes: the balance is threatened, conversation freezes, and the fellowship becomes more restrained.

Now, churches are liable to this affliction, too.

So, what do we tell the young pastor of the small-but-growing church? How can he help his people retain that new car smell even after putting a few thousand miles on the vehicle? (Oops. Sorry. The metaphor inserted itself.)

Readers are invited to suggest steps the church can take in the comments section.

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Warren Wiersbe calls the sermon outline the “recipe” for the message. If you have that and nothing more, he says, you do not have a meal for your people; you have a recipe for them. Still lots of work to do before they can be fed.

I like to think of the outline as the skeleton. It will need fleshing out, and then, most importantly of all, it needs the breath of life to be breathed into it. And, let us not make the mistake of thinking the first part–the fleshing out of the message–we can do on our own while the second part–giving it life–is God’s. It’s all about His presence and power and equally about our faithfulness.

An influential pastor, writing in the most recent issue of a popular preaching magazine, shares some great insights regarding the sermon outline which I’d like to pass along and comment on. (Notice that I’m not naming him or the magazine. If you’d like to know, send me a note–joe@joemckeever.com. We should not get hung up on whether we agree or disagree with a pastor on everything in order to learn from him.)

1. The notes your people take in church will be mainly your sermon points.

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Anyone reading this blog even occasionally knows of my love for old books. Recently, while revivaling with Pastor Rob Dowdle in Ocilla, Georgia, I noticed “Memoirs of John R. Sampey” (1947, Broadman) in their church library. And borrowed it. (I promise to return it, Rob!)

Sampey was for over a half-century a professor of Greek and Hebrew at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and for many years, its president. I figured his autobiography would be memorable and it’s proving to be so.

First, a funny story he tells.

At the age of 22, on finishing his basic seminary degree, Sampey turned around and became an instructor and at the same time, pastor of a small country church. He writes:

“Deacon Thomas W. Scott, a graduate of Georgetown College and an old Confederate soldier, handed me a list of seventy-three church members. Opposite fifteen names I found the notation ‘N.C.,’ and I asked its meaning. ‘No ‘count, parson, no ‘count,’ was his reply. Most of them for the work of the church were (indeed) of no account.”

You and I look at that and think, “Hey, that’s 15 out of 73. Pretty good. I’ll take that any day!”

And the other story, the one that prompted this article. About apologizing to your preacher/teacher.

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This is a hodge-podge of things floating around in this preacher’s mind this morning while I get ready (mentally, physically, emotionally) for an hour or two in the dentist’s chair at noon today.

Shall we darken the sanctuary during the sermon?

Yesterday at our church, the lights were bright on the platform but dim on the congregation. Honestly, I will admit to you that I was relieved after the service to find the problem was a malfunction in the lighting. I really had feared that someone–perhaps our pastor or another leader–had decided the lights on the audience should be dimmed, and that bothered me.

The background to this is that recently I was preaching in a church that had intentionally lowered the lighting on the congregation. When I saw early in the service that this was the case, I sought out a layman and asked him to find the tech person and insist that when I get up to preach, the house lights are brought up. He did and they were.

If we are having a concert or performance in this room, turn down the lights. But if this is meant to be interactive–and worship is nothing if not interactive–the congregation must be able to see to read and write.

“I know God has forgiven me, but I can’t forgive myself.”

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I know a preacher who writes small books, which is good, and publishes them himself to give away, which is even better. However, it has occurred to me that all his illustrations are dated. Some stories he tells I used and overused forty years ago. I think I know what happened.

He pulled them out of memory or some old file of clippings in his office. This is the kind of illustration file we preachers of the 1960s used to maintain. (I’m assuming young pastors keep their illustrative treasures in computer files, not those green metal monsters that used to sit in the corners of all our offices.)

There is nothing wrong with an old illustration. For those seeing it for the first time, it’s sparkling new.

What’s wrong with an old illustration is that it bores the writer/speaker. He needs something fresh to spark his creativity, to ignite his imagination, to send him down fresh avenues.

I have the solution. A solution, I might add, which will seem paradoxical.

For fresh illustrations, the kind no one else is using, read an old book.

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You are a minister about to walk into a church situation that’s new to you. Either you have been pastoring a small church and are about to join the staff of a larger church where you will serve under the authority and direction of an accomplished veteran or you are young in ministry and your first assignment is to be a member of a church staff.

And you’re wondering what the pastor will expect from you.

I suggest you ask him.

Take good notes because these will be on the test.

You have requests for him–support, sufficient finances, days off, etc.–but at the moment, your bigger question is What does he want from me?

I don’t know all the answer, but I know much of it.

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