Mike Harder - Archive

Monday ministry tip: Sermon Writing Tip 1.0

October 27th, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Ministry Tips | Musings - (2 Comments)

As a young communicator I struggled with trying to connect to an audience. I received some great advice from some more experienced friends. One of the obstacles in teaching is being able to connect with everyone in your audience. Most groups have all kinds of age ranges and interests. However there is a way to direct your teaching to meeting people where they are. Adrian Rodgers said something very wise concerning the Bible. He said that it is always relevant because it addresses the human condition. It answers the questions of Sin, Sorrow and Death. Those are issues that connect to all people. The Bible answers the questions that everyone asks, “How do I deal with pain and suffering and why life doesn’t work out?”

The way to present the problem that you are going to solve with your audience is to aim your message at what people deal with emotionally. That way you deal with something that everyone deals with and not just something that is confined to a specific demographic. For example talk about fear of failure, or frustration or loneliness instead of specific frustrations. You can then personalize it after you identify the major emotional issue you are working on to give your audience a platform to personalize it by listing some specific ways your issue presents itself. If for example you are talking about loneliness you can paint the picture of how they may experience it by talking about how when you are young you are lonely for your future mate, when you are middle aged you may feel lonely for your lack of relationship and the comraderie with friends like you had when you were younger, and when you are in the twilight of you life you may feel the pain of moving on with life when your friends have crossed beyond death’s line.

Connecting with an audience is an art, not a science. These are just some ways to make your message ring true with your audience. It takes a lifetime of teaching to become great at connecting with your people. Let me know if you have any other ideas on how to connect when you are speaking.

Monday Ministry Tip 10/13/08

October 13th, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Ministry Tips | Musings - (3 Comments)

Prayer is vital to ministry. I don’t know anyone who disputes that fact. Interacting with God through prayer with the people you are ministering to is an essential goal in ministry. The problem is that even though we know that prayer moves the hand of God and it changes our own perspective we struggle in daily life how to bring prayer out of the philosophical sphere into practical reality. Most of us wish we knew how to pray for more people without coming off as being creepy.

So how can we pray more with our people? I am going to go old school with this Ministry Tip. My dad has been a pastor for the last 38 years and he gave me an easy tool for prayer. Sometimes the most obvious prayer techniques are the best. So here it is: pray personally with as many people as you can. I know that this is an obvious goal but here are 2 ways to actually pull that off. First, When someone tells you something they are struggling with, pray with them right then and there. Just pull them to the side and ask to pray with them. My father actually told me that this is the best way to initiate a spiritual tone in a friendship with people far from God. I have found that this is also the best way to make people feel that God is close even when they are in the midst of pain. Secondly, set prayer reminders on your cell phone or watch to remind you to pray. When the alarm goes off invite whomever is around you to pray with you. I have 2 timers set. One is at 10:02 AM where I pray for the Harvest worldwide and here in Nashville. I choose that time because it reminds me of Mark 10:2b which says to pray for workers of the Harvest. I heard that Neal Cole does this as well. I also have my alarm set for 2:07 PM when I pray for my brother who is struggling in life right now.

These are great ways to pray without ceasing. Let me know if you have other ways that you creatively use to pray in ministry. I am always looking for ways to get better at prayer.

Community Matters

September 23rd, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Community | Musings - (2 Comments)

I had a chance to speak at the Connect Conference in Orlando FL last week. It was a great experience to go and speak to leaders who are working on making a difference in the lives of young adults.

I left the conference with an idea for this blog. I am going to start delivering on Mondays content on ministry best practices. Its going to be called the Monday Ministry Tip.

This week I am going to be talking about Community and Small groups. I believe that small groups are the best way to do Discipleship. Matt 28:19-20 says go into all nations making disciples. That is very daunting if you take it seriously. How can I have a major impact for the kingdom if I am just a normal person? I think the best answer is to be like Jesus who chose 12 men to build into and make a difference through.

I encourage you to create a place (system or a group) that people can find relationships that will enable them to be like Christ. You can do this by simply starting a small group that intentionally walks with people to make them like Christ. The impact is pretty remarkable. If you start with just 10 people and walk with them for a year and a half, then multiplying your group by dividing it and adding new members you will disciple 320 people in 7 years.

Here are some good ideas when you look at small groups.

1. Always have an apprentice.

2. Don’t host your group at your own home. Find someone in the group who will be able to host you. It will give your group buy in and they may someday become an apprentice. This will also keep you from wearing down from both leading the group and cleaning your house before group.

3. Study the Bible. Choose a book study that focuses on the Bible or just go through a book of the Bible together. Threads www.threadsmedia.com has great group studies. Northpoint Church has a great site to check out studies too at www.groupcurriculum.org

4. Provide a place for relationships. People are starving for friendships. My spin class at the YMCA even goes out to dinner together. How odd. Learn to help people become friends by finding commonality for them. Create new shared experiences that will bind them as friends.

Great Book about being a Christian who engages culture

August 5th, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Ministry Tips | Musings - (Comments Off)

Ok so i am reading a very cool book these days. A buddy of mine Jonathan lent it to me. It is called “Too Christian, Too Pagan” by Dick Staub. I have to admit at first i was a little skeptical. I thought ok, another book on living in a post modern world. Big deal. I have read lots of books like that and honestly they were neither motivating or challenging. Just regurgitating old knowledge. But this book is very insightful and practical. You need to get it and read it if only to read the quotes he uses. I think this guy must be a reading maven. He quotes pretty much everyone. One of the things I was challenged today with was this quote from C.K. Chesterton. ”the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and not tried.” Staub continues to say that it is better to aspire to living the gospel and fail, experiencing and giving witness to God’s wonderful grace and forgiveness in the process, than to settle for mediocrity. Check the book out and let me know what you learn and what you think.

Unmet Expectations

July 28th, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Musings - (1 Comments)

I don’t know about you but i hate being held to an impossible standard. It happened pretty early on for me. Actually it was 1st grade. I know elementary school is supposed to be a very happy time but I have hardly any fine motor skills so I really struggled. I couldnt color between the lines, couldn’t cut with my scissors, in fact most of the pictures I had to cut out were left with missing limbs. Pretty sad I know. I was a social animal even then, but the worst thing was penmanship. At the English School in Bogota Colombia where I went, they wanted us to learn to write neatly. They wanted us to put a letter in each square on a graph piece of paper when we practiced our alphabet. Shoot! I cant do that now. What a train wreck! What an impossible standard.

It was even worse at church because since I was the pastor’s kid, I lived in a human fish bowl. I think the term “sinless perfection” was coined with pastors kids in mind. Never mind the fact that we were far from that, the expectation to be flawless children was overwhelming.

You know, lots of us feel the same way about church. We feel that if we come to church all our imperfections are place on display for everyone to see. Its an awful sensation to feel like you are naked in front of strangers. The expectations seem overwhelming. Fair or not, many of us feel that way about church.

I think one of the main reasons we feel this way is because we feel that we have to be perfect to come to God. So many people have made rules the way to find acceptance with God that the church has been transformed from being what should be the most accepting place in the world to one where people feel the most judged. Why is that? I think one of the main reasons is that it is really easy to make secondary things primary. Noted scholar Arthur Barclay says – “The spirit that makes Christianity into something bound by regulations is not yet dead by any means.”As a result know church should be accepting but most of us feel that we have to live a certain way to be a part of the in crowd.

I think is so ironic that this is the very reason that Jesus came. To change that playing field. Jesus said, I have come to give you life!” That is a far cry from the world of rule keeping I feel many of us live in on a daily basis. Make no mistake, I don’t think we need to live lives filled with sin, but we need to live free.

So what does that mean? We must bypass our own fears of unmet expectations and choose to have a living dynamic relationship with Jesus. I think it means that we live in a relationship with God by praying and reading his word daily but don’t let it stay there, we must talk to him throughout the day and engage him in the minute and normal parts of our life. In a world that is seeking to drag us away we must Hold on to Jesus! In him we can find true peace, in him we can find someone who doesn’t hold us to an impossible standard but says come as you are. Come the way you are because I love you. The past is the past, you are accepted here.

Mike as a 1st grader

I love the beach

July 21st, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Life | Musings - (1 Comments)

: Me and my wonderful wife!

I dont know what it is but I love going to the beach. It is just so relaxing and refreshing to sit and read a book all day by the ocean. I try to switch it up from spiritual books to novels. The book I was reading to feed my soul was “No Perfect People Allowed” by John Burke. I think it has some very powerful insights into creating a church that accepts people the way that they are and helps them find Christ as a result of that acceptance. In fact it was one of the books that was catalyst to Brad and I starting Green Hills Church this year. I hope we can be a place that people far from God can come and know him regardless of their past. I really hope our church can be a place that people don’t feel judged but can grow in their walk with Christ.

Back to the beach… Tabitha and I really enjoyed our time in Gulf Shores. If you have never been there it is a must visit. I have never seen beaches as white as they are in Alabama of all places. Trust me I have been around some good beaches in my day and this one is only 7 hours away from Nashville. I am enclosing some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Miracle of the Resurrection

July 15th, 2008 | Posted by mikeharder in Musings - (1 Comments)

Last night I was watching tv while I was in bed. A preacher was on and although I rarely watch televangelists i kept watching. I was really curious because this guy had a full set behind him that was a replica of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. Since I have been there I was really astonished by the detail. Anyway, the guy rambled with some strange and kind of sketchy facts about the garden tomb and I was about to turn it off when he said something pretty profound. He said that it was a providential that Jesus was taken off the cross and put in the tomb. It preserved the body from being thrown on the refuse heap outside of the city and later incinerated. As a result the body of Christ still bore the marks of the crucifixion. Now I know of course, God could have resurrected and incinerated Christ as easily as he resurrected a dead Jesus, but I think how amazing it is that Jesus was resurrected from a sealed tomb. Think about it. There is no way that the swoon theory has merit when he was sealed in that tomb for 2 nights. It isn’t like he woke up on a garbage heap and then showed himself to his disciples, he was locked in a tomb dead, wrapped up, if there was any chance he was still alive he would have bled out or died from exhaustion while inside the tomb. As it is we know exactly where his body was, sealed away, far away from any tampering until his Glorious resurrection. We serve an amazing God who thought about everything. Even providing his son an iron clad story of where he was while he was dead. I am including some pictures of the garden tomb so you can appreciate its beauty.