Jeff and Jonny share a personal message on the very last day of 2014.
They talk about why small church pastors need so much encouragement. The heart of 200churches is to give MINISTRY ENCOURAGEMENT TO PASTORS OF SMALL CHURCHES! Why would they do that? Why would they target small church pastors? In this episode, they explain why. Jeff's son Doug sustained a traumatic brain injury in October and has spent the last ten weeks recovering. Jeff & Jonny's church graciously gave Jeff time off to care for Doug and for his family. Jeff has been very focused on his son's recovery and rehabilitation ever since, but they have kept up the podcast every single week. By the way, Doug is doing great and will return to normal life at college and work in early January, for which they are very thankful to God! Jeff has said that 200churches has continued to be a passion of his and Jonny's even though family and ministry events and surprises continue to come up. They know that all of you go through crises and trials as well, and they have wanted to continue encouraging you as a valuable leader in the Kingdom of God. We at 200churches want to wish all of you a very wonderful and blessed New Year - and we hope that you enjoy and are encouraged by this, Episode 102!
If you are like me and Jonny, you are reluctant to get too ambitious setting goals for 2015 or making audacious New Year's resolutions! Oh yes. Been there before, right? By January 5 you have already given up!
Yeah, let's not do that! Right? Boy do we have the podcast episode for you! We are giving you two simple ministry hacks that will begin to improve your ministry effectiveness almost as soon as you implement them. Of course there is no free lunch, but if you follow our two suggestions, you will definitely experience benefits over the coming year, and your people will be recipients of a more productive, more satisfied pastor. Finally, these hacks are simple, not complex; they are doable, not unrealistic; and they are accomplished not by hyper-commitment, but by incremental change. LINKS We talk about delegation in this episode, and you can read more in this post titled The Importance of Delegation - Don't Be A Hero! We also talk about Dave Jacobs, the Small Church Pastor's Coach! We talk about his book. We talk about Karl Vaters, his book, and his site for small church pastors. Have a very Merry Christmas, and may God bless your new year ahead! 
Jonny and Jeff talk about the struggles and challenges that ministry volunteers deal with, and they draw some information from the following four online articles that deal with managing volunteers in your small church.
They then offer three ways that you could truly value the volunteers in your small church. Paul Kuzma shares some kind words with Jeff and Jonny at the end of the episode. Paul's website is www.pastorforlife.org. We look forward to getting Paul in the podcast to talk about what he is doing in small church ministry and working with small church pastors. The picture above shows a truly creative appreciation card that Jeff received from a family in his church. A little variation on this could give you some great ideas for appreciating volunteers in YOUR small church ministry! Enjoy episode 100! Episode 99 - The Skinny On How Small Church Pastors Should Really Treat Visiting Missionaries12/11/2014
You'll have to listen to the episode to understand the picture below... which is original, untouched, and authentic! :-)
Hello 200churches followers! This is it, the very last episode in our arsenal of recorded episodes. This is Jeff, and this is my last week with my son Doug in Lincoln, NE! This is our fourth of four weeks doing outpatient therapy. Doug's accident was 8 weeks ago, and his recovery has been tremendous.
This is also episode #99 for Jonny and me. We have LOVED producing these episodes for you, with our sole purpose to provide MINISTRY ENCOURAGEMENT TO PASTORS OF SMALL CHURCHES. This episode features a missionary who spoke at our church the week that my son entered the hospital. He came to the hospital with one of my elders to visit me that Saturday morning. I was in shock, but not so much that I could not tell him to "take care of the church for me tomorrow!" And, he did. He and Jonny! I emailed this missionary today (Tuesday morning) and shared with him that we were releasing the second episode, and also about my son Doug's progress. He replied that just this morning, hours before this episode's release, he himself was in the OR for hernia surgery. We're all falling apart! :-) But, you'll really enjoy this episode and hopefully be challenged in some areas relating to how you deal with visiting missionaries. It is said that "what got you here will not be enough to keep you here." Jonny and I believe this is true for us with the 200churches Podcast. So, expect some changes, expect some new things coming from 200churches in 2015. We're excited. I'm excited to get back to the 200churches World Headquarters with Jonny! For now, our can of recorded episodes is now empty! Anything you hear after today will need to be created, as it does not yet exist. That is motivating to me though. We get to continue creating digital ministry encouragement from scratch! And we will. For the first 99 episodes we say thank you to you, our listener, but mostly to Jesus Christ, our Lord, Savior, Brother, Master, and yet still, Friend. Help us Jesus to do this all for you, for your Kingdom, and for the shepherds who serve with you, caring for the sheep. Continue to lead, and love, your people! 
FAILURE is not the end, nor is it final. It is often the gateway to success and achievement.
Jonny and I decided to talk about failure with you this week. We are moving quickly to the end of the calendar year, and our minds move toward things past and opportunities ahead. Sometimes after we have run through a string of tough years, experienced some failure, and gotten discouraged, we decide to play it safe. Sometimes failure has stung us so sharply that we decide to stop trying new things. We draw ourselves in close, hedge our bets, don't take chances, and lay low, doing only what is necessary to survive. (of course I have never done this!) That's when we are at the greatest risk of not living! That is when we should be the most scared! As pastors of smaller churches, 200churches, our leadership is so critical, and if we give up trying, afraid of or jaded by failure, who is going to do it? Really, our churches need our leadership. They need our faith to be strong - in THE ONE who alone can help us. They need our vision to be clear. They need our courage to be inspiring. They need us to believe in them. They need us to take risks. They need our permission, even encouragement - to fail! They need our praise when they fail, for simply trying - having the guts to stick their neck out and do something risky and maybe even scary for the Kingdom of God and for our Savior. Failure is almost never fatal or final, but again, a path to accomplishment. We really want to LIVE. We don't want to just mark time. Have we failed? Absolutely, just like you! But we are going to come out to the batter's box swinging like wild monkeys. You can't give up, stop trying, and pack it in. You, Jonny, and I just might be one or two more failures away from a big ministry breakthrough. For the big accomplishments, sometimes you have to be tough enough to handles some major failures without giving up, packing it in, and walking away. Are you? If you have been playing it safe, laying back, doing just enough to get by - we hope this episode encourages you. We hope it challenges you to move forward, to take a risk, to at least try again - try something new. Go for it Baby - there's a new year coming! And we have fantastic opportunities ahead of us! |
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