Author Archive for Jason McNair

Connect Through Service and Stewardship – Part 3

Why do Christians not like to talk about money and stewardship? Are we afraid that lost people will be turned off by Christianity if we discuss the topic of money? Yet, the Bible has hundreds of verses that give sound advice for followers of Jesus to be good stewards of the resources God provides. The Bible isn’t afraid to talk about money, but Christians seem terrified.

A recent non-scientific poll taken by Christianity Today shared that only 1/3 of pastors have a healthy balanced approach to discussing the subject of money from their pulpit.  I think it is time we get comfortable sharing what the Bible says about money to the ones we are trying to reach. In fact, a healthy discussion about money may be the turning point for the one you are trying to reach to know that God cares about the financial health of them and their families.

There are several things that Christians do with their money that doesn’t make any sense to a non-believer.  But they come straight out of scripture. We don’t have time to cover all of them in this blog, so I am going to share a link to a 14 min YouTube video that describes 7 of them at the end of this article.

One of the most odd thing that Christians do with their money is give it away.  The biblical principle is the idea that giving more means having more. You may have heard the phrase, “You can’t out give God”, and that statement is true.  The posture is not “give to get”. God doesn’t honor that attitude. Instead, it is more like Solomon put it in Proverbs 11:24 “There is one who scatters, yet increases all the more”. R.G. LaTourneau in his book Mover of Men and Mountains has a great quote that summarizes this idea in one sentence, “I shovel it out and God shovels it back, but God has a bigger shovel”.

Sound Biblical principles on money and stewardship are more than just good advice. They really work.  The business model of Chick-fil-A is a perfect example. On any given day (except Sunday), a Chick-fil-A restaurant will make a profit margin three times that of McDonalds located in the same city. The company is founded on a Biblical model of financial stewardship and practice.   Does that mean that God likes Chick-fil-A more than McDonalds? No. Rather, it is because the biblical approach to financial stewardship really works.

https://youtu.be/xsLOxxQslFw

Jason McNair has served for more than a decade as Strengthen Churches Missionary for Utah Idaho SBC. He and his wife help lead a Financial Peace University class in his community on Tuesdays.

Connect through Baptism and Membership 3: Membership

By now, if you have followed this series of articles and you are encouraged with tips and ideas to identify, intercede for, invest in, intentionally share the gospel with, and invite the “one” into your ongoing group ministry. The next step was believer’s baptism. Our previous article highlighted the importance of baptism as an expression of obedience to Christ.

Following Baptism, church membership is a vital next step in the spiritual maturity of a new believer. Recently, our church plant went through a discussion about the importance of membership and began accepting members for the first time in its three-year existence. In our discussions during the leadup to our first membership meeting, it was interesting to discover that there are only a few specific verses in the Bible that mention the importance of church membership. In the new testament church, membership is just assumed.

Jesus implied about membership when he talked about “keys to the kingdom” in Matthew 16 and 18. The book of Acts speaks of “the numbers being added daily” in Acts 2, 4, and 5. Paul tackles membership in 1 Corinthians 5, 12 and 2 Corinthians 2. But in all these references (and many more) the leaders of church just assumed that a constituted church would have, as part of its polity, church membership.

Your “one” might be nervous about taking a step into church membership. Consider discussing the topic over a meal and try to answer their questions and concerns about how your church views church membership and the benefits of being united as the body of Christ.

Jason McNair has served for more than a decade as Strengthen Churches Missionary for Utah Idaho SBC and hosts a LifeGroup in his home every other week. He and his family are charter members of LifePoint Church in Farmington, UT

Bonus Post: Baptism Sunday, September 8, 2019

On September 8, 2019, churches across the Southern Baptist Convention will be celebrating “Baptism Sunday” as they #FillTheTank in anticipation of the need for spontaneous baptisms in our churches that day.  Through this special emphasis, there will be preaching on this topic, a call for response to the gospel, and an opportunity to be obedient through baptism immediately following their decision. More information about “Baptism Sunday” can be found below.

J.D. Greear article in Baptist Press promoting Baptism Sunday from 08/12/2019
http://www.bpnews.net/53426/jd-greear-why-baptism-sunday

Baptism Sunday Resources for your church
https://www.namb.net/baptism-sunday-resources/

Beyond Disciple Now: Ongoing Student Disciplemaking

It is inevitable. Pizza gets cold. Popcorn turns stale. Soda gets flat. Even our favorite popular Christian songs of the now will be the songs we skip over on our Spotify playlists tomorrow. Much of the elements we often spend the majority of our time in Student Ministry eventually go the way of cold pizza and flat soda pop. They are temporal in nature and that is not a bad thing. It only becomes a problem if ALL that we do in student ministry is based in the temporal things of ministry. We need to be intentional about investing in things that matter, the eternal things of Student Ministry. One of the most important things we can do for our students is help them make disciples that make disciples.

First, let’s look at what Discipling Students is NOT:

• Discipleship is not an event: We plan amazing weekend discipleship events and gather active students and first time guests together in one place. We set them up in homes with young and motivated student leaders that point them toward life transformation. We call these events Disciple Now Weekends and they are a staple of youth groups across the country. But they are just an entry point to discipleship encounters with students. They can be launching pads for ongoing discipleship journeys, but we fall short if we think that they, alone, will make disciples of our students.

• Discipleship is not a midweek message: We pour hours of preparation into the perfect message, a combination of relatable illustrations, funny stories, video clips and cap it off with sound, verse by verse exposition of scripture that would make any preaching professor proud. While great Bible teaching is certainly needed in our youth groups, that alone will not lead students to ongoing discipleship encounters. As much as we work to put the right words together, it is unlikely that any of the students will remember most of what we share one year from the day you present it.

• Discipleship is not easy: You can’t just add a few hours of time into your schedule to invest in a handful of students and expect to create followers of Christ. Disciple making cannot be compartmentalized like we do with other aspects of our lives. Students are complicated, messy, and a myriad of other adjectives. They are all of these because they are fallen like we are. When we dedicate ourselves to intentional discipleship, we need to be prepared to die to ourselves.
So, if it is NOT all these things, what is Discipleship of Students?

• Discipleship is biblical: We have many passages of scripture that point us to the command to make disciples. Matthew 28:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:2, Romans 10:14-15, and many more. We need to heed the commands in scripture to replicate who we are in Christ with others. Jesus used scripture to teach his followers the ways of his father, God. We need to do likewise.

• Discipleship is relational: It does not call for a program. It calls for a relationship. You must invest in the lives or your students beyond the calendar of activities. Encourage your student leaders to spend time building godly relationships with students in ways that build trust, transparency, and earn the right to speak into the lives of your students.

• Discipleship is who we are, not a part we play: Making disciples is not one of the many tasks that appear on a Student Pastor job description. It becomes part of your DNA. When you are a disciple maker, it becomes part of who you are. Even when you make mistakes, you use those times to mold students into an understanding of God’s grace and how you respond should be a mirror of how Christ would respond in a given situation. Let your life be a reflection of Christ in you.

Jason McNair is State Missionary for Strengthening Churches at Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. He has worked in Student Ministry at churches and ministries in Texas, Utah, Georgia and has served as a national trainer for LifeWay Church Resources in the area of Student Group Ministry.

Leading Group Prayers for the Lost

Our enemy is Satan and lost people are under his control (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Through prayer, we will weaken Satan’s influence on their hearts and open doors for our group members to share the good news (Colossians 4:2-4, 2 Timothy 2:25b-26). Here is a list of ways your group can engage praying for the lost as a group.

Prayer Methods:

  • Assign the role of “Prayer Coordinator” to a group member currently not serving in a leadership role. Provide training, like The Battle Plan for Prayer*.
  • Post the names of lost friends, family, and associates of group members in the room where you meet and refer to this list regularly. Have time within the group gathering to pray over this list.
  • Utilize a closed group on Social Media to encourage group members to share prayer requests and celebrations of group interactions with lost family, friends, and social associates.

Prayer Targets:

  • Pray for your group to be READY and SEEKING opportunities to share (1 Peter 3:15-16)
  • Pray for your group to have BOLDNESS when the opportunity comes (Ephesians 6:19)
  • Pray that the Holy Spirit SOFTENS hearts of the lost and prepare them to hear the truth
  • Pray for opportunities to CELEBRATE spiritual victories through their obedience
  • Pray for lost family, neighbors, and social associates of your group members
  • Pray for unreached people groups, as well as, missionaries serving in lands your group members will likely never visit
  • Pray for government leaders to experience salvation so that they can effectively guide others
  • Pray for those in the spotlight that they may lead the masses by their influence

* The Battle Plan for Prayer by Stephen and Alex Kendrick © 2015, B&H Publishing http://www.lifeway.com/Product/the-battle-plan-for-prayer-p005765904

Jason McNair is the Strengthening Churches Missionary for the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. He also teaches an adult Sunday School group at First Baptist Church in West Valley City. You can reach him @jason_mcnair and at http://fb.com/jason.mcnair 

100 Small Changes Later…

100hashtag At the beginning of this series, David Francis introduced our blog to what would be 100 daily posts that provoke conversations about little things all of us can do to make our groups better.  These were not game changers or radical transformations of teaching methods.  These were small changes that could lead to minor course corrections in the direction of your group.  Most of them were not new ideas but simply reminders of things that need to be done.

We want to reflect back to the first post in this series, David Francis’ introductory article on August 1 of this year.

Sunday School is a system. It’s a bunch of things—big and small—that make a Sunday School excellent instead of mediocre.  Each relates to another and that to another and so on and so on. So what if every little thing you improved resulted in just one more person coming to Sunday School, coming back to Sunday School, enrolling in Sunday School, attending regularly in Sunday School, serving in Sunday School, and inviting another to Sunday School? Each of the 100 ideas you’ll read about in the next several weeks may seem inconsequential taken alone. But put 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 into practice and see what happens!

So, here we are.  100 articles later.  You now have 100 ideas from which you can draw for solutions to little roadblocks you may face while leading your group. Come back to this site often and refer back to these posts when you seeking answers.  We are here for you and will continue to be here with fresh insight and ideas to strengthen your group ministry.

The contributors of this blog will continue to add posts–only not as frequently as every day.  When a good idea comes to mind, we will share it here with you, the leaders of the movement.  Stay connected with us on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you for joining us on this journey of discovery. Keep making #SmallChanges that will grow your groups and help make disciples.