New data on first-time guests

For the past two years, we have been asking our guests to fill out an anonymous feedback card, answering various questions about their experience in visiting First Baptist Church of Rincon.
Here are their answers.

"How did you first hear about our church?"
59% family/friend
30% saw the building/sign
4% newspaper
4% Internet
3% other

Did somebody greet you when you arrived?
96% yes
4% no

Were our people friendly?
89% yes
0% no
11% somewhat friendly

Was the sermon clear and understandable?
98% yes
0% no
2% it was okay

Was the music uplifting and inspiring?
82% yes
4% no
18% it was okay

Did you visit a Sunday School (Bible study) class?
32% yes
68% no

Observations:
It is normal for most visitors to come because of family and friends, but our church has a much higher number of first-time visitors who see the building and sign than most churches (30%). Our location is a wonderful blessing, as we are on the main highway in our county.
It is encouraging that the overwhelming majority of visitors report a pleasant experience when they come, feeling a friendly welcome and an inspiring worship service.
It is noteworthy that two-thirds do NOT attend Sunday School when they first visit. Instead, they check out the worship service, and then they may decide later to visit a class.

Loving Our Neighbor

Heather Brantley and her husband bought an old home in the Sand Hill area of Effingham County a few years ago, hoping to fix it up. But then he came down with cancer and died, leaving Heather a widow with five young sons to raise. Her home church, Olive Branch Baptist, contacted several other churches about the need to repair her home, but it was decided the house was beyond repair. So eight churches banded together, working through Habitat for Humanity, raised the money to purchase a lot, and got over $100,000 worth of materials donated, and is building her a new house! The project, called "Loving Our Neighbor," had only been in construction three weeks when I went there on April 10, to work.
In the pictures, you can see Floyd Zettler, the project manager, carrying some lumber inside the house, and you can see me with Heather and her five sons, who came out to site today.
As you can see from these pictures, we are making major progress. About 20 men and one woman worked on the house today, and several ladies served us lunch. Over 100 people have volunteered their time to help so far. Donations are still needed, since a few of the donated materials could not be used. To help, contact Pam Williams at pwilliams@fbcrincon.com or send your donation to First Baptist Church of Rincon, 201 E. 6th Street, Rincon, GA 31326, and designate it to "Loving Our Neighbor."
If you want to come work on the project, work is going on most weekdays, and every Saturday, beginning at 8:00 a.m. From Rincon, take Blue Jay Road about 11 miles until it ends at Sand Hill Road, turn right and go north one mile on Sand Hill Road, and just after you pass Sand Hill Baptist Church, turn left and you will see the house on the right.

Why men LOVE going to church!

On March 28, 2009, I posted a blog at MyChurch.org about a book I was reading, Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. I never dreamed that the post would generate over 4,300 reads and 177 comments in less than a month. I even got the cartoon you see here, thanks to Steve Waldrip of Horn Lake, Mississippi.

But now it's time to stop asking questions and start giving answers. So this blog is dedicated to Why Men Love Going to Church. Let's share great ways to reach men for Jesus Christ. Some of those ideas were shared on the other blog, and you are welcome to repeat the best of those ideas here.

I will start out by listing ten of the ideas from Murrow's book that caught my imagination.

1. The pastor should focus on being a spiritual father. After all, the apostle Paul said he was a father to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:14-15). Have the pastor mentor 12 men, and teach those men to each mentor 12 others, etc. Women can meet for discipleship groups as well to mentor women on this model.

2. Get groups of men to "partner up" (don't say build relationships) by doing ministry activities together. Perhaps the groups could be called "platoons." Let the activities have a beginning date and a time to finish. Then start more platoon projects to follow those.

3. An idea that might work especially well in a smaller church: at the end of worship. Dismiss all of the women a few minutes early for fellowship, asking the men to remain for a minute, and the pastor can give the men a 5-minute story or object lesson to teach a spiritual truth to his family. Then encourage the men to use it during the week. The women will naturally be curious about what the pastor said, and the men can then tell the story or share the object. This teaches men who to be spiritual leaders.

4. Make sure that your worship service is constantly moving with changing activities, no element lasting too long. Use lots of video and visuals.

5. Expand ministry in areas where men can excel. Why not have a ministry once a month where men work on cars of the poor, the elderly, single moms, etc., offering oil changes and light maintenance.

6. Encourage women whose men (husbands, sons, etc.) are away from the Lord to band together for intentional, focused prayer for the salvation and spiritual growth of the men in their lives

7. Have male-only events on a regular basis (such as Wild Game Banquet, Fishing and Golf Tournament, Auto Repair Class, Christian comedian), where men in the church must bring with them a man who does not go to church.

8. When groups pray, instead of holding hands or a bunch of people laying hands on someone (actions where are uncomfortable to men unless they have been attending church a long time and got used to it), try a more masculine "prayer force" where a group sits in a circle, and as the Spirit leads, people pray one at a time by going to the person and putting a hand on his shoulder and praying.

9. Ask your music minister to take the words to some of the strong, masculine-spirited Reformation hymns, and match the hymn to a popular contemporary tune to sing in worship

10. Set challenging goals in your church, and challenge your people to go after them. Men respond to a challenge, and it's Biblical. After all, Jesus told men to drop everything and follow Him, and they did.

Okay, these ideas are a start. What has worked in your church? What ideas can you share? Remember, we're only looking for positive things that reach men for Christ. This is not the place to complain about the church or anybody else. If you want to do that, go back to the other blog on why men hate going to church and post a comment there.

Why do men hate going to church?

I'm reading Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. Everybody knows that more women go to church than women, but why?

Murrow says that men like challenge and taking risks, but Christians have made church a place of nurturing and building relationships. Interesting. I wonder what others think about this.

What's your observation? Why do fewer men go to church than women?

Murrow says that there are three gender gaps in the church: the gap of presence, the gap of participation, and the gap of personality.

The Gap of Presence: He says that in the USA, 61% of the church attendees are women, but only 39% are men. This trend is also found in other nations around the world. Interestingly, nondenominational churches had the smallest gap, while the biggest gap was found in Episcopal Churches.

The Gap of Participation: He says that women are 57% more likely to participate in Sunday School, and 33% more likely to volunteer for a church than men. Christian book sales are 75% to women, and the Christian radio audience is 63% female.

The Gap of Personality: He says that while 62% of the general population has a passive personality, 85% of Christians have passive personalities. There are greater numbers of artistic and homosexual men in church than the general population, but lower numbers of what he calls "risk takers, fun lovers and dangerous men."

NOTE: I posted this same question on my blog at mychurch.org, and it has received over 2,000 reads and over 100 comments. Check it out and read the discussion. I posted it here.

UPDATE AFTER 100 COMMENTS: Now that this blog has had over 100 comments (on mychurch.org) and nearly 2,000 reads in just over a week, I thought it would be helpful to do an analysis of trends in the comments (below). As I read between the lines of what people are saying, here are the top reasons they are giving for why many men hate going to church:

1) Failure to let men lead. This may be controversial, but it was the most-often mentioned reason below, both from men and women who commented. Many blamed women who would not let men be leaders in church, others, especially men, blamed the men for not taking their leadership role.

2) Overemphasis on relationships. Women are social beings and love relationships; men not so much. It is interesting that this was the most common answer given by women who shared why their husbands did not come, but it was also mentioned by several men. Telling men they need a "personal relationship" with Jesus and "fall in love with Jesus" does not appeal to men.

3) Overemphasis on sensitivity. "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild" and "sharing what's on your heart" makes a man feel like he is stripped of his masculinity.

4) Not enough action. Men want to be active, they don't want to just sit and listen to a long sermon. They want to do things.

5) Men lack spirituality. Several commenters, mostly men, seeme to blame men for lacking spirituality.

6) Need a challenge. This answer came almost exclusively from men. Several men mentioned that men need to be challenged.

7) Music is too feminine. This was another answer given by men themselves. They feel that too many songs are about "loving Jesus" in ways that are very feminine and the lyrics are words men would never say to another man.

So what do you think? You can comment here, on go over to mychurch.org and find the blog and join the conversation over there.

What to do when your cell phone goes off in church

A man told me he was visiting another church, and a cell phone started ringing during the sermon. It rang several times, and finally a person answered the phone and proceeded to carry on a conversation while the pastor was trying to preach!
It reminded me of the time I was attending a Baptist convention, when a cell phone went off during a sermon. A convention-goer answered the phone and headed toward the door to talk outside. As he was exiting, the man behind the pulpit said, "Tell them I'm not through with my sermon!"
Most of us have cell phones, and sometimes we forget to turn them off or put them on vibration. So what do you do when your cell phone starts ringing in church? Here are three bad suggestions:
1. When the cell phone goes off, stare at the person next to you and shake your head in disgust, as if the ring is coming from him or her. After a while your phone will quit ringing, and everybody will think the other person was the guilty culprit.
2. If everybody knows that you are the cell phone's owner, answer it quickly and pretend that it is an emergency. You can say, "Really? Did you call an ambulance?" or "Is she alive?" Then run out of the church, and remove yourself from the embarrassing situation altogether.
3. If none of the above will work, you can stand up and announce, "It's God calling. He says keep up the good work and be faithful." After all, didn't God say in Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to Me and I will answer you..."?
The only problem with all of the suggestions above is that they break the Ninth Commandment (you know, the one about lying). So here's another suggestion: If you're in the choir or somewhere else near the baptistry, toss the phone in the water. Or if you're not near the baptistry, just confess your sin and turn the thing off. Either way, the congregation will appreciate you, your conscience will be clear, and best of all, your phone won't interrupt your worship again during the service.

Words of wisdom from Kenny Grant

What a great revival we had this past week with Rev. Kenny Grant.

As promised, I have collected some of the one-liners that Brother Kenny shared with us this week.

Here are a few quotations:

"I want to be brief tonight, but I probably won't be."

"If you can't say 'Amen,' say 'Oh, me.'"

"We're fooling ourselves if we say we worship God and we live like common yard dogs."

"We make a big deal out of building God a house because we don't want Him in our own house."

Talking about men being under Christ's headship before being head of the home: "You gotta be under what you're supposed to be under before you can be over what you're supposed to be over."

"Missing men produce broken boys."

"A wife's job is to complete her husband, not to finish him off."

"The church is like Noah's ark; there might be a stench on the inside but there's a storm on the outside."

"Sin takes you further than you planned on staying and costs you more than you planned on paying."

Regarding the prodigal son and the elder brother: "The one who started out out, ended up in, and the one who started out in ended up out."

"Love isn't a fall. Love is a climb."

"Love isn't blind. Love just knows how to overlook the junk it can see."

"Safe sex is a myth. You can't do an unsafe thing in a safe way."

"The only safe sex is sacred sex. And the only sacred sex is married sex."

"Girls will play at sex because they really want love, and boys will play at love because they really want sex."

"I know we're not perfect people and this isn't a perfect world, but this Bible is a perfect book and we cannot dumb it down."

"Failure doesn't have to be final."

Posts worth reading around the blogosphere

John Piper, famous author and pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, reflects on the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Joe McKeever in New Orleans tells it like it is to a church leader who wants to get rid of the pastor because the leader has lost control.

World magazine reports and World magazine readers discuss the news that teenagers in the church are more sexually immoral than those outside the church.

Blogger Kevin Bussey, who runs a blog called "Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee," is having a contest kind of like the Regional NCAA Basketball playoffs, only he is having bloggers vote for their favorite Baptist blogger in regions of the country, which he names the "Billy Graham Region," "Paige Patterson Region," "Adrian Rogers Region," and "Lottie Moon Region."

"Get Religion" discusses how the American news media (which doesn't get religion) has failed to report on the story of the Korean Christian missionaries taken captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I think he should have stayed for the sermon

You've heard of dumb criminal stories, but here's one with a strange church twist. Howard Morgan of Savannah visited Asbury United Methodist Church for Easter services yesterday, but instead of staying for the sermon, he stole a member's car keys, left church and drove away in the car, running into five other cards in the parking lot as he left. Police had no problem finding him, since he had filled out visitor information in the church's guest book and had given them his correct name and address. I think he should have stayed for the sermon. He told the police that "the devil made him do it." Read the story from WTOC-TV in Savannah here and the report in the Savannah Morning News here.

Circle of Celebration

On Sunday, April 1, First Baptist Church of Rincon celebrated the final payment on the debt for our new worship center, by going outside, circling the building, joining hands and singing "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow." There were about 1,000 people in the circle.

This picture was taken by Jennifer Spence from a firetruck ladder. Thanks, Jennifer, for "going out on a limb" to record an historical day in the life of our church!

Mother Church of Georgia threatened

Christ Church in Savannah, the "Mother Church of Georgia," was established shortly after the colony of Georgia was founded. One of its early pastors was John Wesley, later the founder of Methodism. But the future of this historic church is in grave danger. Because the conservative congregation has designated its offerings to only be used in the Georgia diocese, the bishop says they have six months to pay to the national denomination or risk losing their property, valued at $3 million.

Christ Church is opposed to the liberalism of the national denomination, especially the ordination of a homosexual bishop.

How sad that the Episcopal Church, which prides itself so much on "tolerance," is so intolerant of dissenting churches like Christ Church.