Category Archives: General
Opportunity for Pastors and Church leaders
We are hosting a one day event: What We’ve Learned, on Monday, August 5th – 9am-3pm.
This is a great opportunity see our new facility, hear our story, ask questions, hang out with new and old friends. We are offering some topics and want you to pick the ones we cover. (see options below) We will have a lot of fun, and hopefully you will walk away with some new ideas.
This is free and only offered to a limited amount of folks. Please register if you know that you are able to attend and pick 3 of the topics offered. We will present the 3 most voted on topics at this event.
TOPICS
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Beyond the Budget – How, Why, and When we make financial decisions about staff, facilities, outreach, ministries.
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Weekend Worship – Our philosophy and process on designing the weekend worship service on a week by week basis and yearly basis.
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Spirit Led vs Well Planned – Our journey as a “Spirit filled” church with solid goals and thought-out plan. How it has been challenging and how it works.
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Theological Journey – What constitutes a non-negotiable doctrine? Our journey through changes.
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Marketing – Our philosophy and method behind getting our message out those inside and outside of our congregation.
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Small Groups – Our history of Small Groups over the last 10 years. Where we are now and where we want to go.
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Setting Goals and Taking Risks – Our path of challenge, risk, failure and reward. How we make a decision on change. (adding or subtracting: weekend services, facilities, staff, ministries, tech, etc).
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PSM Culture – What makes us unique and how we rest in our differences. (preaching style, music, skin color, attitude, leadership model, etc)
Special Lunch Session Eat a free, delicious lunch with us! Plus, We will be joined by an Israel expert, Munir Sayegh. Munir is a wonderful Christian from Nazareth and can offer up to date information about the Middle East.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Hotels in the area:
Embassy Suites
Hampton Inn
Church Location: 1650 Lime Kiln Road, San Marcos, TX 78666
Church Phone: 512-392-4357
Church Website: http://www.psmchurch.com
Prayer for the Local Church
Today, we give thanks for the local church. Scripture compares the church to a body and tonight is attempt to bring that body together. We strive for unity. Not a bunch of churches getting together, but The Church getting together. Many branches but one tree. Many parts but one purpose. We are thankful to God that he has given us this method of establishing His kingdom here on earth. The local church saves the lost, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the imprisoned, heals the sick, rebukes the devourer. Each November those that are involved in the San Marcos Ministers’ Association gather as sort of a heaven practice. All gathered in one place, at one time, in one mind to worship and give thanks to our creator and Savior.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing this vehicle called the local church. Where strangers become family and broken are mended. Thank you for the spiritual community of San Marcos, TX. Lord, we are grateful that you have placed us in this place at this time for this moment of your kingdom. We pray that we will take the rightful responsibility as your church and not squander our resources and talents, but we will rise to the great calling you have placed on us. To be the Salt of San Marcos. To be the light of the world. A city on a hill that cannot be hidden. May your light permeate from your church to the darkest parts of this community. Endue us with power from your Holy Spirit to build your kingdom, we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen!
9 Questions to Ask When Needing Volunteers
How can we get more volunteers?
- Are our mission and vision clear and compelling? A clear mission and compelling vision will motivate people toward action or help them see how they don’t fit. A lack of clarity breeds confusion, which leads to inactivity.
- Do most people know our strategy? If they don’t know the plan, it’s harder for them to see where they fit in.
- How many volunteers would it take to staff every role on every team and ministry? Do an inventory of the places you have filled and the places your need filled. Do you have job descriptions that are easy to read and that are inspiring?
- Is our leadership made up of doers or leaders? We need to be both, but leaders who lean toward doing everything themselves will be a barrier to volunteering.
- How do we communicate about opportunities to serve? If we don’t share the opportunities, people won’t know to step up. If we talk too much about need, they may run for the hills. It’s also important to remember that the stage is not the only way to communicate; some people need to be asked in person. THE best way to gain volunteers is having volunteers personally recruit someone to ‘work with them’. This has the potential to DOUBLE your ministry immediately.
- Do we really encourage students to serve? Have you thought about talking with Pastor James about activating students in your ministry?
- How do we talk about serving? If we do not talk about serving as a critical part of discipleship, then we are missing out. Sharing stories that celebrate volunteers goes farther than talking about needs.
- What do our environments look like? The reality is that many people will not serve if their first impression of the environment is a bad one. Their mind may already be made up.
- Does serving in your ministry mean that I am stuck for life? Think about setting ‘seasons’ of serving. Ask for a certain amount of commitment that allows volunteers a way to change to other ministries is needed. Also, think about offering ‘time off’ for some volunteers that are near burn-out or struggling with other areas of life. It could make a huge impact if a leader told a volunteer to ‘take off for a couple of weeks or even a month’.
Why Intimacy?
Our Mission Statement as a church is:
To bring people into an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and each other.
The last two Sundays, Harry Fleming has preached on important parts of this statement. Week one was all about ‘bringing people‘ and week 2 was all about the forgiving power of ‘Jesus Christ‘. You can watch those messages here. The sermon series is called, “The Skinny on PromiseLand” and it explores ‘the why’ behind ‘the what’ of everything we do.
This week, I will tackle one word Read the rest of this entry
Nigeria Oct19 part 2
Technically I’m sitting at the airport and we board plane in an hour and half. However, I finally have Internet to post yesterday’s blog. We are in a lounge watching Aljezeera TV and they are showing the actual video of qaddafi’s body. Nasty.
Here is what happened yesterday…
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Robin Steele 