I have a new article featured at Christianity Today's Building Church Leaders website that focuses on how a local church should discover their particular calling to its larger community. You can read it below. Be sure to check out the BCL site. It has a lot of helpful resources for pastors and church leaders.

Discerning Your Church's Call to Ministry

How does a church discern its call to ministry--creating ministry space that lines up with its mission and vision? Often believers and churches seem to be waiting for God to strike them with a lightning bolt, to reveal what he wants them to do through some spectacular event. But God isn't a genie who pops out of his bottle if we rub it hard enough. A church that waits passively finds itself beset with ministry paralysis.

Then there are the churches that show a degree of life and energy and have significant percentages of the local body engaged in ministry, yet what they do is routine and ineffective. Call it "ministry calcification." Maybe what they are doing was effective five years ago or even last year, but communities can change rapidly. Many churches are ministering to people who have long ago left the community. The missional church constantly assesses what God is doing in a community and what needs are emerging--and adjusts its ministries accordingly.

Do I believe God reveals himself and gives us direction in life? Yes, absolutely. But I also believe he reveals himself more specifically as we obey the commands he has already given us. In other words, God will show us how he wants our church to minister to the community when we act on the directives he has already given us.

Four of the last things Jesus said to his disciples in his final days on earth are a good place for his followers and his churches to seek direction:

Continue reading Discerning Your Church's Call to Ministry.

I have shared a bit of my journey to healthier living and weight loss here on the blog, so the story of Todd Starnes' transformation and his new book naturally grabs my attention. And I imagine many of my readers would benefit to hear from his as well. Todd Starnes is a best-selling author and network news reporter for Fox News Radio, based in New York City. He is also an evangelical Christian and a member of the Journey Church in Manhattan. Todd is an award-winning journalist, earning one of his profession's highest honors, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Associated Press Mark Twain Award for Storytelling. His work is heard on more than 750 radio stations around the nation. He also hosts a religion podcast called, "FOX on Faith."

[Please see Moving to Health Pt 1 before you read this-- it explains why I am a bad source of advice on weight loss.]

As I mentioned in my last post on the subject, I get a lot of questions about weight loss. Since I speak at conferences, people can often see you once a year and they notice a change. (Here is a pic of me speaking at a conference in North Carolina last year just before I started my plan to get healthy.) And, my last post received elicited many emails, comments, and Facebook messages. So, I am writing a bit more about weight loss. But, let me remind you that I am still moving toward health-- I have not achieved it.

One of the more interesting things about losing weight are the comments you receive. They revolve around several themes that I think might be helpful to consider. And, many of them are myths.

Here are three common comments that I believe are myths:

First, fat people are lazy and slothful. Of course, some fat people are lazy and slothful, but so are some skinny people. But, I was not (and am not) overweight because I was lazy. I don't feel it helpful to layout the "I work hard" evidence, but it is there. I was fat because I worked too much and used food as energy that I lacked because I did not get enough rest. And it's pretty simple. If you consume more calories than your body burns = you gain weight.

Second, overweight people can just stop being overweight. I have tried to lose weight one hundred times. I have started fad diets. They did not work. Most overweight people want to lose weight but find they can't. Part of it is genetic (My mother's side of the family are big people - and I take after them). I do not know a single fat person who is excited about being so.

Third, making comments about someone's weight will motivate people to lose weight. You cannot shame people into change. It does not work.

The most common question I am asked is how I lost the weight. Well, here is my strategy. I have lost 110 thus far and would like to lost about 50 more (though I am just planning to eat healthy until I get to a healthy weight... and then continue to eat healthy).

1) I saw a doctor. Before I did anything else, I saw my doctor, did a bunch of tests, and followed his advice.

2) I stopped dieting. That's right; I am not on a diet. I changed my lifestyle. If I was on a diet, I would go off it one day. Now, I just eat differently.

3) I started exercising. That is probably the most significant change. I exercise 5 days a week for an hour each time. Now, it took me a while to get to that point, but I am in the habit now. I will explain my exercise plan in the next post.

4) I created accountability systems. For me, those were public. I announced it at church (9000 members), on Twitter (about 4000 followers at the time), and on Facebook (about 3000 friends at the time). For me, having thousands cheer you on encouraged me-- and at times, fed my ego as I lost the weight and people noticed. But, I am O.K. with that-- I need the encouragement.

5) We worked as a family. When one person starts eating differently, it can be a real pain. So, we talked about it and all made some changes for the better.

6) We encouraged each other. Far too often, Donna and I were like two drunks-- when one was sober, the other would offer a drink. Instead, we decided to encourage one another. Now, Donna has lost over 70lbs and I have lost over 100, so we exhorting each other to health, rather than pulling one another down.

Now, both of us are not done. We have a ways to go, but we are doing it together.

I will write one more post in the coming days...

Feel free to comment below by sharing your ideas, suggestions, or thoughts... and I promise I won't make this into a fitness blog. ;-)

The most common question I get these days is not about culture, church, or mission. It is actually about weight loss. I am asked several times each week about how I have lost weight. So, while I am not an expert, I have decided to share a bit of the details of my thoughts and experience.

Let me say one thing first: taking weight loss advice from me is like taking parenting advice from Bill Gothard. It can be good, it might be right, but it is also theoretical. It boils down to this related to me-- you should not take advice from a person who has lost a bunch of weight but has not kept if off for any significant length of time. I've lost 110 lbs so far, and still have a way to go -- but, to answer everyone's questions, here is how I got started.

Donna (my beautiful wife) started us off about a year ago. She was continually tired and not feeling well so she decided to try a homeopathic physician. (I affectionately refer to her doctor as the "witch doctor.")

Well, the doctor (who is a believer and attends our church) put her through a bunch of tests and then recommended she avoid all wheat and processed sugar. There was much more to it than that, but she lost over 70lbs. That was inspirational. And inspiration and motivation continued to come.

Motivation came from several sources. First, over dinner with Junior Hill, he told me how he had lost so much weight through a physician-assisted plan. I decided I wanted to try that. In other words, I needed to hook up with a physician. I did that a couple of months later.

My friend Dino Senesi was also an inspiration. He had lost a bunch of weight leading me to say he looked like a crack addict (but only in a good & manly way). He offered to coach me and hold me accountable and explained how that helped him. Although I did not take him up on his offer becuase of my pride, I knew I needed accountability.

Additional motivation came from trouble sleeping. When I went to my doctor, he prescribed a sleep study (which I blogged about here for other reasons). I had sleep apnea and I had to sleep on this horrible device called a C-Pap machine. And, I could not handle some Alien-like face-hugger on me while I tried to sleep. My doctor said that losing weight might be a solution and I knew I needed sleep.

My final inspiration came at an amusement park on a trip with my daughter. We were getting on a ride after waiting in a long line and I could not fit-- the bar would not go down. Now, if you are big, you know that fitting into airline seats, booths at restaurants, and other tight places is a pain. For years, I sat at tables (not booths) and requested seat belt extensions on airplanes. (The world is not designed for big people.) But, it became more important when it involved my family and I know I needed to not limit activities with them.

In the end I knew I needed to lose weight for my own health. But, honestly, that was probably not the most important reason. I actually have consistently good physicals--healthy heart, good cholesterol and blood pressure, etc. But, I know that can't last so I decided to make a change. I knew I could not enter my 40's this overweight.

All of this worked together as motivation. It compelled me to do something. But, most importantly, I knew that God had a better plan for me and my physical health. And, I believed that making a change would be in line with His leadership in my life.

Soon, I will share some myths about fat people and weight loss. Then, I will share some about what I have done thus far. Finally, I will share a bit about future plans. Now, this is not the Richard SImmons blog, so I will only write on this occasionally becuase people ask and I know that many pastors struggle as I did and do.

Some of you may not find this very interesting, but I receive Twitter messages all the time from people thanking me and saying my journey was an encouragement. So, maybe this will help. But, it also is a help for me-- by writing this out, I am creating another venue to hold myself accountable.

More soon...

Back in August, I was invited to record a television program and shoot some video for the Assemblies of God. Both programs were videotaped at the Total Living Network in Aurora, IL.

Larry Griswold and Gary Blanchard from the Illinois District of the Assemblies of God interviewed me for the video. They then took the videos as part of a bigger program and showed it to over a thousand leaders in different meetings throughout the region.

To load them on YouTube, I combined them based on length so each video (after the introductory one) is between 5-10 minutes.

Brad Waggoner is vice president of B&H Publishing Group, and formerly served as dean of the School of Leadership & Church Ministry at Southern Seminary He holds a Master of Arts degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a Master of Religious Education degree and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Brad's book, The Shape of Faith to Come: Spiritual Formation and the Future of Discipleship uncovers the ugly truth that many professing Christians live lives that are not qualitatively different in character and practice than that of nonbelievers. Even as many of our churches are growing in number we need to take time to consider what kind of Christians we are actually producing.

In The Shape of Faith to Come, Brad looks at the beliefs and actions of 2,500 active Protestant churchgoers from across the country against seven key standards of biblical spiritual formation: learning the truth, obeying God and denying self, sharing faith, serving God and others, exercising biblical faith, building solid relationships, and seeking God. The research itself is challenging, and Brad pushes back on the apparent weaknesses in our disciple making processes.

This book is one of our first "LifeWay Research" related book line.

I recently had the chance to talk to Brad about his new book. Below is the interview and Brad will be around all day to answer questions in the comments.

Ed Stetzer: What prompted you to write Shape of Faith to Come? What is the book about?

Brad Waggoner: Having been in the ministry for many years I know how easy it is for churches and church leaders to become distracted from the real task of equipping and forming spiritually mature believers. I also know it is easy to fall prey to using other forms of measurement to determine success.

I wrote The Shape of Faith to Come to draw attention to the current crisis: that many of our churches are not using biblical standards to make God-honoring disciples.

ES: Discuss the research. Who/how many sampled.

BW: To address this crisis, we created a study that surveyed 2,500 Protestant churchgoers, people who said they attended a Protestant church at least once a month. Then a year later, we sampled more than 1,000 of the original group to determine if they had matured in their faith over the course of the year.

ES: What kinds of questions were asked?

BW: The survey was designed to determine the degree to which churchgoers believe, think, perceive and act like a biblical disciple. We asked questions about their beliefs and their perspective on certain points of doctrine. Key categories covered: Learning the Truth, Obeying God & Denying Self, Exercising Faith, Sharing Christ, Seeking God, Serving God & Others, and Building Biblical Relationships. We also ask several questions to determine the nature and frequency of many behaviors.

ES: What was the most surprising to you?

BW: I was most surprised by how compromised the belief systems are for many people who claim to be Christians and who attend church on a regular basis. For example, in our survey only 70 percent agreed strongly in the doctrine of the Trinity and only 72 percent agreed strongly that Jesus died on the cross and was physically resurrected from the dead.

ES: What, in your opinion, is the bad news from the research?

BW: That many self-professed Christians and churchgoers hold to beliefs and perspectives that are clearly unbiblical. And that overall the sample of churchgoers did not grow or mature over the course of a year.

ES: What, then, is the good news?

BW: The good news is that many people are interested in spiritual things. They want to know and love God. This study enables us to affirm what many leaders have known for centuries- it is the Word of God that transforms hearts, minds and character. In our study, the number one predictor of spiritual maturation was the daily discipline of reading the Bible. In other words, the most common trait of those who did grow over the course of a year, were those who had the practice of reading the Bible on a regular basis.

ES: What would you say to the pastor who responds, "not in my house," "this is not what people in my church believe?"

BW: Well, I would ask every leader, "Do you know what your flock actually believes and how they act on a daily basis?" From what we saw in our study, I think most pastors would be surprised to discover what their regular churchgoers believe and how they live. For example, 54 percent of those surveyed do not participate in church outside of worship service, and that during worship service 47 percent admit they are only going through the motions.

ES: What hope can you offer for those pastors who think they are fighting a losing battle?

BW: The good news is that God's Word makes it clear how we are to go about making disciples. We are to model and teach His eternal principles. This isn't easy, nor is it mysterious or overly complicated. No human leader can transform another person. But God, through His Word and through the work of the Holy Spirit, does change hearts, minds and character. I encourage pastors to be faithful to what God says we are to believe and how we are to act.

I always find hope in what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:6, "I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

ES: So how can churches become more effective in making disciples?

BW: One of the things I tried to avoid in the book is a "one size fits all" approach to making disciples. But the book does contain prescriptive content that provides practical steps for spiritual formation and discipleship.

We have also provided access to the Spiritual Formation Inventory, the very same survey we used for the book, for both personal assessment and for use by pastors to assess leadership at www.lifeway.com/sfi. Also, several places within the SFI summary report, you will be directed to the SFR (Spiritual Formation Resources) for additional guidance and resources both for personal spiritual formation and for the discipling of others.

Over the centuries many churches and individuals have been used of by God to equip others in their pursuit of knowing, loving and serving God and others. Every church and properly motivated and equipped leader can be a tool in the hands of God.

Be sure to weigh in below with comments or questions.

As part of a new feature here at the blog, I am planning to interview authors with books helpful for church leaders. B&H is helping me with the interviews (thanks Julie Gwinn), and it will include interviews with authors from many publishers about their books, mission, and focus. More on that later, but be sure to go by their church leadership portal, which is part of www.churchleadershipbooks.com.

There is a widget on the sidebar that will list each of the interviews so you can find them easily as you return to visit the blog.

The dubious honor of going first is to the Rainers, Sam and Thom, who have written a new book called Essential Church.

ES: What prompted you to write Essential Church? From where did the idea come?

Continue reading B&H Church Leadership Book Interviews: Thom & Sam Rainer.

I had an awkward situation yesterday. My doctor prescribed a sleep study (part of some health tests I am doing in preparation for my forthcoming new health regimen).

The tech called me to arrange the details. She did not seem to have many details about the clinic, so I asked some questions. One of which was the setting-- in this case it was an office building with several faux bedrooms where they would wire me up and measure me sleeping.

I asked about the staff, and she was "it."

Then came that awkward moment. I knew she would not understand it, but I expalined, "I can't come if it is just you and me in the building." It was awkward and I am guessing few ever said such a thing. So, I skipped out on my study (and will probably have to pay the no-show charge).

I just talked with Roy Fish. For those of you who don't know Dr. Fish, you can refer back to one of my first blog posts here. On Tuesday he will be in survey for a hip replacement and will be hospitalized for at least five days. Please pray with me for his swift recovery.

From Baptist Press:

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, will require additional surgery after a scheduled colonoscopy Feb. 11 revealed a tumor in his colon. An initial biopsy indicated that the tumor is pre-cancerous and further tests are to be scheduled, along with surgical options...

Mohler, 48, underwent major abdominal surgery in late December 2006, complicated by the development of bilateral blood clots in his lungs. Doctors will take special precautions to prevent a recurrence of the blood clots with this new surgery. Specialists are consulting on the case and a decision on the date and location for the surgery is to be made in the near future. The procedure is likely to require an extensive period for recuperation and recovery.

Details here.