Every one of us has something that we are to do for God. Whether it is utilizing our natural abilities for preaching or some other official ministry of the church or simply our responsibility to preach the Gospel to every person, we are all "called," if you will, to do something for Him. 

But, whenever we are faced with one of these challenges I believe there are a few things that God wants us to do and all of those things can be seen, either in a positive or a negative light, through the account of the 12 Spies.

The story starts out with God telling the people they are to go into the Land of Canaan to assess it and bring back report to Moses. Moses then gives them the parameters of their intelligence operation, telling them he wants them to take account of the cities' strength, the people's military power and even the status of the land's agriculture. 

The spies spend 40 days doing exactly that and then they return with their report. And I must say, I believe they are dead on up until this point! Whenever we are faced with a task that God has given us, we need to truly understand what we are doing so we can go forward in the correct manner! (cf. Luke 9:62, Luke 14:28, Luke 14:31)

However, that seems to be the end of the faithful addressing of the challenge set before them. With the report of the 10 spies, the children of Israel were turned against God and did something contrary to what we ought to do. Namely, they did not decide on faithfulness. 

When faced with a challenge, especially on a congregational level, we as God's people ought to make the decision that no matter how difficult, no matter what we have learned about the size of the undertaking, we are going to stay faithful to God...No...Matter...What!

Fast forward to the end of the incident and the nation of Israel has been given their sentence. They will not be allowed to enter into Canaan with the generation that sent the spies. Thankfully, and in somewhat of a sarcastic manner, God has promised that their children will be able to enter, but the adults will not. And instead of addressing those shortcomings appropriately (namely, learning from their mistakes and applying that knowledge to the future) the Israelites decide that they will NOW try to do something about it. But God has already removed His hand from them and they are turned around and ran away by the very people that God had told them He would give to them. 

Why? Because they did not do their duty when it was the correct time!

Now, what does all of this have to do with us? As I stated before, we are all charged with doing something for Christ and His Kingdom. That may very well be using our natural talents to preach or lead in some official sense but no matter what, we are all charged with spreading the borders of that Kingdom (Mark 16:15-16)! 

Have you looked and counted the costs for that? It will take more effort than many of us realize!

Have you decided to stand up for God and not waver in your faithfulness?

Have you learned from your past mistakes and failures in carrying out that mission so next time you are faced with the ability to teach the Gospel you will be better equipped? 

Remember, if we fail to stand up to the challenges that God gives us, He has every right to disinherit us like He did those Israelites so long ago (Numbers 14:11-12)! 

Whatever you call them (Small Groups, Bible Classes, Midweek Bible Studies, Sunday School, etc.), you probably need to rethink your attendance to them! 

Statistically speaking, only about 60% of those who are reading this that attend worship faithfully actually attend a Small Group of some sort during the week. But I am willing to venture that many of the churches of Christ in our country are seeing more along the lines of 40-50% at best! I can actually remember numerous times in the past where me (the adult class teacher), my wife and our children were the only ones there for a Midweek Bible Study. 

The fact is, our classes outside of worship services are lacking numerically and I believe there are some things we need to realize about these meetings that will encourage us to attend them more frequently and they are...

I hope I don't need to write a dissertation on this topic to get us to realize how important our Bible Study habits really are to our personal faith development. If you were raised in a religious environment, I can almost bet that you have memories of being a young whipper snapper sitting in a Bible class of some sort and that the information you learned there has stuck with you. I can vividly remember sitting as a child in a men's enrichment class at church where I first learned the story of Gideon. 


That being said, there is more to it than memorizing the Apostles' names or the books of the Bible. Your attendance to Bible classes allows you to dive much deeper into God's saving Word (James 1:21) and helps you to have the ability to pass that knowledge on to those who are lost. 

Have you ever wondered why some TV commercials are repeated over and over again ad-nauseum? It is because advertisers understand that you are going to need multiple chances to engrain that phone number or product name before you will actually think about it when you are in need. 

Lifeway Research reported that only 1 out of every 6 self-proclaiming Christians would strongly agree that they actively seek out relationships with new people that they meet at church. The fact is, Small Groups provide the perfect place to see that face again, to hear that name again and start a real relationship with that person. 

If the church is a family (Ephesians 2:19), shouldn't we seek every opportunity to know who our family members are? 

Many preachers try to link their Bible classes, sermons and other forms of teaching together in some way (and if you're a preacher and you're not doing that, you need to rethink that decision). That being the case, Wednesday nights provide a very helpful reminder of what was studied on Sunday and helps you to apply that in a better way for the rest of the week. 

Seven days without true study in God's Word (understanding that many of us aren't getting the personal Bible study that we desperately need to remain pure in this world) opens the door for trials and temptations that are easily averted if we have refreshed ourselves on our mission and had the encouragement that is one of the major prerogatives in the assembly of the church (cf. Hebrews 10:24). 


Whatever your reasons were for missing Midweek Bible Study or sliding in between Sunday School and Worship on Sundays, you need to rethink that decision. If not for the encouragement, family relationships or deeper knowledge of God's Word simply for the fact that willful or even rebellious absence from the assembly of the saints is a very serious point of discussion in God's word (Hebrews 10:25-26)!

As a preacher, I'm always searching for new resources to help me teach people about the saving grace of Jesus Christ and His plan for saving His creation. My library is full of rubber-banded stacks of this Bible study course or that tract. I have even contemplated writing my own from time to time.  The PFP has even released a Keynote Bible Study just for helping people teach others! 

But I think I might have found my new favorite!

Sure, it doesn't stream Bible passages together to teach people the truth, it leaves that up to the person who will follow up with the perspective Christian. But what it does do is strike right to the heart of the person reading it and convict, encourage and instruct them about a very real possibility. 

I'm talking about the new book "I Died Last Night" by John Orr (published by Start2Finish Books). 

One person said, "It scared the Hell out of me, literally!" I completely agree! 

I Died Last Night was amazingly blunt in its delivery of some very scary truths! As the story follows the first few moments of a man's life in torments after passing from this life, you read about his first impressions of the place, his encounters with people from his past life and even those who lived long before him. 

The imagery of demons, pain and memories is so vivid that one person said, "Don't read this book before you go to sleep at night!" - I wish I had read that quote before starting to read it at 10PM one night!

John Orr uses Biblical truths and amazing word pictures to take you down into the depths of hell and make you honestly look at your life.  If you read this book, be warned, because it will hurt your ego and destroy your pride!

I highly recommend every single person reads this book and buys copies (that's right, multiples) to give to every person they know!

As a graphic designer that works in building websites for churches, I am seeing a dramatic increase in the number of churches that are looking to step into the realm of internet evangelism, and I AM SO EXCITED! I mean, it's about time that we start getting the Gospel of Jesus Christ out into the world wide web when the majority of it is inundated with sin and ungodliness. 

That being said, there are some things that we need to keep in mind when we're starting the congregation's website...

There are tons of resources for website hosting and design out there that are absolutely great at what they do but they cost so much that the sticker shock often keeps churches from having the most effective websites. In a knee-jerk reaction, churches see the price of maintaining a professional website through these third parties and instead go to the cheapest, and worst, options out there. You're not saving for your retirement here. Make sure that the host you decide to use is going to be something the church can keep going even if the contribution starts to drop off. 

Here are a couple websites that I recommend for churches to use that are cheap, effective, and user friendly (remember, the person building the church's website may not be around forever so get a host that anyone can pick up quickly and with little down time):

Imagine you are new to your city and looking for a church to visit on Sunday. What do you need to know about the local church of Christ before you walk into the auditorium to begin worship?

In most church buildings, there is an area right when the visitor walks in where he finds tracts, a welcoming face, information about the church and even some insight into the coming worship service (like the bulletin). Your website needs to have the same things!

I can't remember how many people I have talked through over the years that were visiting with us that already knew everything about us before they even stepped foot into the building, and it helped them feel at home. While there's something to say about having evangelistic material on a churches website (I'll write about that later), always remember that when a person gets done viewing your website they need to feel at least like they wouldn't be a fish out of water when they come on Sunday. 

This is the point when I get the strangest looks when sitting down to design a website for churches. It goes something like this...

Me - "Ok, so have you looked around and found some websites that you like that we can take the ideas and run with?"

Church Member - "Well, no... I didn't think about it really." 

Before you EVER sit down to make your church's website, go find at least five other church websites that have things you'd like to have on your site. Each website needs to be specific to your congregation so don't expect to just use the standard template with the standard stuff on it and be done. In this case, stealing is permitted (so long as you aren't stealing copyrighted works of course)!

There you have it. Short and sweet. Hopefully these website tips will help you in your efforts to make the best site for your local church. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or contact us at the PFP.