A New Vision For Churches and Congregations

This article has two styles of Lenten bulletin inserts, one using clipart, one with a modified photo.Each PDF has two images per 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet.  use the back side to include invitations to events, websites or verses for additional study or a place for a prayer list for your people to use for friends to invite to Easter events. You can click each image to download the PDF.

Here’s why you might want to use these with your congregation—

Olympic athletes don’t win a medal without years of discipline and practice. It takes training, practice, sweat, and tears to be worthy of the gold. Military leadership comes from years of progressing through the ranks. Combat experience is an essential requirement for the highest officers. A CEO isn’t selected from the latest hires in a company. Sometimes ugly years of deals and compromise proceed the position of president of a corporation.

We’d judge an athlete, a soldier, or a corporate leader a cheat if that person tried to avoid the essential struggles necessary to reach a position worth of admiration. Struggle before the success is the expected pattern in almost every part of life, almost every part, except for the Christian life. Somehow there is the mistaken notion in some Christian circles that coming to Jesus means an endless supply of ease and freedom from all troubles. To be fair, the eternal destiny of those who trust Jesus as Savior is salvation from judgment and condemnation, and nothing is more freeing than that reality.

Jesus said that in this world we would have troubles. He repeatedly told his followers that the same troubles he experienced—rejection, misunderstanding, ultimately torture and death, were to be expected for his disciples. All the writers of the New Testament were itinerant preachers, who lived poorly, were mistreated, rejected, mocked and most died a martyr’s death.

Resurrection followed three days in the tomb.

Lent reminds us of the essential reality that before we can truly experience joy, we must experience testing and trials. As the Apostle Peter reminds us;

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, . . . . In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:3-7

……

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13

Lent puts helps us to put the Christian life into biblical perspective.

Observing Lent isn’t about a denomination, or whether your church is liturgical or not. It’s a time to practice saying “no” to ourselves in little things so we can say a bigger “yes” to God in the bigger decisions of life.

The PDFs are for any church. You can use them as bulletin inserts with perhaps some addition verses on the back side or invitations or reminders about your Easter schedule.

Remind people to think of others at this time.

Easter is a great time to get people to come to church and to consider issues of life, death, resurrection and to consider Jesus. As your people prepare for Easter through Lent, challenge them to also make it a time to pray for unchurched friends. Encourage them to pray that their friends will be open to an invitation to come to church, to look at a website, to consider the Christian faith.

Easter is coming.

Don’t forget the end of the story. Don’t ever get so engrossed in the reminders of deprivation during Lent that you forget that tears are temporary and the end of the story is joy eternal!

Welcome to A New Vision for Churches and Congregations! This site is dedicated to helping make your churches more visible to your neighborhoods. Keep looking around the site, and you’ll find ideas and tools you can use to help your church go “outside the box” with evangelism, outreach, and missions.

Do you sometimes get frustrated with the fact that your church isn’t growing? Let us help you with inexpensive ideas that will help your members feel more comfortable inviting their friends and neighbors to worship and other activities.

Take your time and look around at our articles and links, and email us at 2010newvision@gmail.com if you have ideas, suggestions, and most importantly, questions. We’re here to help!

Even as some of us deny websites and other social media outlets, and overlook the fact that our congregations are actively engaged on the internet, newspapers are going out of business, civic engagement is at an all-time high online (especially, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “the wealthy and well-educated”), and nearly half of U.S. adults are using a social networking service. As far as the “digital divide” goes, 79 percent of U.S. adults are now Internet users — a 67 percent increase from 2005 — and 59 percent of Americans have accessed the Web from a wireless device. Clearly, we’re past the point of “oh, our folks don’t use the Internet or social networking!”

So, why our reluctance? The answer consists of four parts: 1) a misunderstanding of how to use the medium; 2) difficulty measuring results; 3) ignorance; and 4) the “we’ve always done things this way” inertia effect.

Luckily, conquering these objections isn’t difficult. It just takes education, logical thinking, and flexibility. Here are some tips: Continue Reading »

What a wonderful article – it is an interesting comparison and thought it might be an interesting read….

by Stephen Gray 2/18/2010

On April 15, 1912, the unthinkable happened when White Star Lines unsinkable ship, the Titanic, sank. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Could the Titanic have been saved? Could this disaster have been averted and what lessons can the Church learn? Many mistakes were made by those who were responsible for this voyage, but five problems stick out from which we can learn.

1. Multiple warning signs of impeding disaster were ignored. Captain Smith ignored seven iceberg warnings from his crew and other ships.

2. The Ship builders decided to cut corners. About three million rivets were used to hold the sections of the Titanic together. Some rivets have been recovered from the wreck and analyzed. The findings show that they were made of sub-standard iron.

3.The ship’s speed and course were not allowed to be altered. To meet their schedule, the Titanic could not afford to slow down. The owners had something to prove. Continue Reading »