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![]() Most churches that claim to follow Christ have plateaued or are currently declining in number. Just 20-25 years ago, only 15 percent were actually growing. Of that 15 percent, only a small number had an anomalous growth of 35 percent or more 1. And those numbers predate the devastating effects of a pandemic and uncertain politics. Undoubtedly, the statistics are much, much worse now. It begs the question: are those in the declining churches moving their memberships to the churches that are growing? More Interesting Statistics from the same period 2:
With some just passing through town or visiting relatives, we will not retain all of the visitors who walk through our doors each week, but imagine that we could retain all the visitors from our area. If we have one new visitor each week of the year, that means we have the chance of leading 52 visitors to the Lord in a single year. If a new family of three visits our services each week, that number translates to 156 people who could be reached, theoretically speaking. Imagine the growth the church could experience when your handshake and genuine interest in a family is offered! And the retention statistics do not change from small to medium to mega-churches. What about inviting someone to visit our services? Consider the following:
If only half of the unchurched that said they might attend if they were invited came, and we invited them, we could see 80 million brought into the church. That’s a huge number to wrap our minds around, but you get the idea. Friends, the fields are indeed ripe for the harvest. Indeed, we have been told by Christ Himself, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37). He also asks, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest” (John 4:35). Obviously, the principle of the talents, described in Matthew 25:14-30, must come into play here – a parable that describes three servants either multiplying or burying their talents. We often consider this on an individual basis, saying such things as, “I’m not good at approaching visitors,” or “I’m not comfortable when talking to strangers.” Some of our brothers and sisters seem to have a natural charisma that makes this easier for them, while the rest of us have to work at it. But consider that, while you are in the building, faced with the opportunity to welcome a visitor, you are not alone. Who’s to say you can’t “team up” with someone else, walk right up to that visitor, and welcome him or her with a Christian greeting? In such a case the talents of the congregation can be multiplied greatly. Statistics show that a visitor’s decision whether or not he or she will return is unconsciously made within seven minutes of pulling into the parking lot. This is before they even hear the sermon! Greeting our visitors before the service is critical in retaining them. Some churches pay between $3,000 and $11,000 to hire outside firms who specialize in visitor retention. These consultants conduct a three-day to a six-month coaching program for the members, training folks to be friendly and role-playing ways to invite people outside the church to attend. Is that necessary? Now that we are conscious of the statistics presented above, are you sufficiently encouraged to reach out a little more to those who visit in our midst? Why not make the deliberate effort to multiply your personal talents in this area in the next month? 1 Suprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them, Thom S. Rainer, 2001.
2 “Welcoming New People and Helping Them Feel They Belong”, The Rainer Report, October 2002. 3 ibid. ![]() In the past couple of years, I've been in the classrooms of student teachers who are experiencing their final semester in college at Pittsburg State University in Southeast Kansas. When I was a teacher in elementary school, I accepted the responsibility to host student teachers in my fourth grade classroom on several occasions, but once I started supervising these students in their professional semester, I started to see things differently. I also started communicating to them differently. There is something to be said about a Sink-or-Swim approach for these young people. They've received four years of college classes, and presumably, some of those classes should have prepared them for being in a classroom as a leader, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Thinking back to my first teaching experiences, I realize how presumptuous it is to believe that they are prepared. I wasn't, and neither are they. I've discovered that, though I give them specific instructions for how to improve, they don't often respond by taking those hints and running with them. And that's where the mentor-teacher comes in. I must have failed when I was in that position, but I see it now: the mentor-teacher - the regular teacher in that classroom, the one giving up authority to allow a college student to take over for an amount of time - that teacher is crucial if the student is ever going to learn and adapt. Before they ever begin to take over that class, the student is supposed to watch and assist. What are they seeing? Are you a mentor who never has adapted and grown yourself? Are you also flailing around, drowning in the waters of classroom management and organization? I've been in some classes to observe student teachers, and I've had to wonder if the regular teacher had any more control or was able to effectively engage the class him/herself. It's pretty obvious actually. My message for the mentor teacher is that this is not a vacation for you. If you're just going to sit back and relax while they take over, you've volunteered for an opportunity that is lost on you. Yes, you could develop lessons, prepare materials, and organize things for your return to the classroom (That's what I did.), but first, you must be a positive example for the college student. How do you do that? For one, you must set some expectations for the student teacher. Let him know explicitly what you expect from him. Hold her accountable for her actions in your classroom. And don't forget that you are there to teach them directly. Being an example is a valuable part of the experience, but you must also teach. How about this? While you are teaching your regular class, if something works, point it out on the spot to the student teacher. Take a moment to ask him why it worked. Mention that it is one of the skills you have developed that causes the class to flow more smoothly and causes students to remain engaged and on task. "If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence,
try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around." (unknown) "It's better to be a little behind than a big behind."
(D. Ed. Hoggatt) Originally posted March 2019 ![]() I recently sat in a professional development meeting - a grade-level meeting. Within the meeting, teachers committed many faux pas: they shared out and they referred to kiddos. They wanted everyone to be on the same page and encouraged each other to stick to the teachers edition. But I soon noticed another issue: many of them also wanted to cover everything before the test. They've figured out which lessons to omit, which lessons to consolidate, which assignments to make, how to present the information to small groups, whole groups, and... Whew! You see, these teachers - as good as their intentions may be - want to get to it all, and in doing so, they skip across the surface of everything. I fear that in skipping along the surface, they fail to swim in the deep waters. They rush to get things done in hopes of adhering to a pacing guide. It is a trap that emerges from committing themselves to a script, failing to keep their classrooms autonomous, and failing to take empowerment by the horns. It is a trap that comes from relying on a text. It is a trap deriving from an inability to create and instill creativity. If you are of this ilk, my suggestion is to get your nose out of the book, curate your own materials, grow your own style, go off script, and take the bull by the horns. Whenever you teach, teach well. Never be satisfied with simply exposing your students to a topic rather than covering it more fully. If it's worth teaching, it's worth making it stick. We're not in the business of handing out samples; we are in the business of serving full meals. OK, I know, there are moments within our school year in which students need to be allowed to belly up to the smorgasbord where they can try new tastes in order to find their niches. Generally speaking, however, it is absolutely important for teachers to swim deeper, climb higher, and add rigor to lessons. Be patient enough to teach well not spread things too thinly. Originally posted March 2019 ![]() I recently sat in on interviews to replace one of our school employees. One of the questions in the interviews involved the concept that we have shared leadership responsibilities at Cecil Floyd. Shared leadership is something we have slowly developed in our elementary school. In means that decisions are not made by one boss or rule maker, but by representatives of the staff. Parents, community members and, of course, students also have input. We work together to learn from our mistakes and find solutions to improve our environment. We heard answers from a handful of candidates. Teachers helping in the interviews were concerned when a candidate was too meek, too withholding, or too talkative. At the end of all of the interviews, the question arose about whether a direct answer was better or worse than a story leading to an answer. This reminded me of an article in Inc. magazine (online), headlined Public Speaking Is no Longer a 'Soft Skill': It's Your Key to Success in Any Field. The so-called soft skill of storytelling is discussed. One entrepreneur was quoted as follows: If an entrepreneur can't tell a convincing story, I'm not investing. You call it soft. I call it fundamental. Warren Buffett agrees: The one easy way to become worth 50 percent more than you are now -- at least -- is to hone your communication skills -- both written and verbal. The magazine article explains this by giving some examples. One such example compares a worker making $80,000 with another worker, with effective communication skills, who can make $120,000. In a world built on ideas, the persuaders -- the ones who can win hearts and change minds -- have a competitive edge. I've never understood the term "soft skills". That term relegates greeting others, getting along, and having the ability to communicate to secondary status, making it less important than other job skills. That said, we must begin to understand that those skills are key to getting the job, keeping the job, working with associates, doing the job well, and advancing. Calling public speaking a "soft skill" diminishes its value in a world that cherishes the hard sciences. Public speaking isn't soft. It's the equivalent of cold, hard cash. While the Inc. article focuses on monetary advantages, the social aspects for the job candidate (or the job holder) are advantageous to all. Impress people by keeping up a conversation, and one can master many situations: friendships, dating, and professional.
"The only one you're competing with is yourself: beat yourself without beating yourself up."
(D. Ed. Hoggatt) Originally posted March 2019
Truthfully, I have spoken to my brother on a couple of occasions about this. He used to be a corrections officer in a women's maximum security prison, and in trading notes about what we did, it sounded like we could have traded jobs and not noticed a difference. That, of course, is preposterous. In a prison, detainees are locked in; at school, weirdos are locked out. In a school, the teacher rewards difficult assignments and records the results. In the prison, inmates may earn rewards or get out early for good behavior. Time out might be similar, KP may be similar, and we need to stop pointing out the similarities and start emphasizing the differences instead.
![]() Have you seen those annoying ads on TV: people hanging out of windows, shouting at the tops of their lungs, “It’s MY money, and I want it NOW!” In this world of four-minute popcorn, fast food at the drive through, high-speed internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and fuel injection, we want things when we want them – immediately, and not a minute later. We stand in the express line, take our cars to express lube, and watch movies-on-demand. Unfortunately, we just don’t think we can’t wait a moment longer for a bit of it. On top of it all, every Sunday driver in the world wants to cut in front of me, every railroad crossing is be blocked just as I approach it, and every light on Main Street turns yellow when it sees me coming! Simply put, we are impatient. Come to think about it, such impatience is a manifestation of our own greed and selfishness. In fact, it puts us at risk of being childish – like the little boy who can’t wait until Christmas morning to tear off a corner of the wrapping paper on the present under the tree, like the little girl who starts planning her Halloween costume in July, and like the couple who gives in to the temptation to “go too far” before getting married. One of the things we can’t control in this world is time. It’s out of our hands, and we can’t stand it. Our brother, Jeff Smith, makes the following statement: “Great art, great food and great redemption all take time to develop and mature and that requires patience. Patience is old-fashioned, though, and we seem to be competing with a world full of aggressiveness and self-service, where tempers boil over like geysers and change is swift and unforgiving. Without patience, though, we will be lost with the world.” Smith writes, “[I]n a time when medicine, booze and divorce all promise instant relief, longsuffering is a noble, but uncommon virtue.” Patience comes to us from the Greek word, makrothumia. It is “endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs*. Listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, patience is a virtue, but a rare one. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them (Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16, NASB). * Thayer and Smith, "The New Testament Greek Lexicon"
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