Are We in Customer Service?

At one point in my ministry, I ate almost every day at McDonalds for lunch. It was close to the office and it was cheap! Because I ate there so often, I knew many of the people who worked there and would often greet them by name. I also knew a lot of the other regular customers, so conversations were easy to start and enjoyable to engage in. Being a naturally friendly person, 

and always on the lookout for opportunities to share my faith, I each day I would speak to many of the people I encounter at McDonalds, both those I knew and those I didn’t.

One day I noticed a new cashier behind the counter. I guessed she was probably just out of high school and honestly, she looked like she needed a friendly face. I greeted her warmly when it was my turn to order. Since she was new, she was struggling to operate the digital register, but I was patient while she got it all sorted out. After taking my order, she asked if I was in “customer service.” I have been asked many things in my life, but until that day, I have never been asked that before. She went on to say that she noticed me greeting people when I came in and that I seemed happy. She assumed that I must be in some line of work related to customer service since I was so friendly. 

I explained to her that I came in nearly every day and knew most everyone there. I also was pleased to inform her that I was a pastor and it was my faith that made me so happy. Though I only got to share with her for a minute about my faith, I hope it was enough to make her think about spiritual matters. Sadly, she did not work there long and once she moved on to another job, I lost touch with her.

But it did occur to me later, that in some ways, pastors, and perhaps all Christians, are indeed in “customer service.” We serve our communities in a variety of ways so that we can introduce people to our Boss, Jesus Christ. As we serve, we make genuine friendships and learn to sincerely care about what is going on in our friends’ lives. We do not have a “product” to sell, just an eternity to give away for free. For Christians, this is one of the most important things we do. I hope that I can be even more successful in my “customer service” efforts in the future! 

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has served in New England since 1993 as a pastor, author, and denominational leader. He currently serves as the Executive Director of both the Baptist Convention of New England and the Baptist Foundation of New England.

Good Deeds or Gospel Deeds

“We serve our community because we love our community,” proclaimed the flyer from the new church in town. And in a matter of months they definitely gained a reputation for serving the community well. They painted a school, collected shoes for the homeless, picked up trash after community events, and cut up trees that blew over in a storm. It was impressive. And three years later, their church disbanded. That was a bit less than impressive.

As the person who recruited the church planter and helped find the initial funding to get the work started, I’ve long pondered how a church that did so many good deeds could fail. There came a moment when I realized that they had never turned their good deeds into gospel deeds. 

What I mean by gospel deeds, is moments when we actually shared the life changing message of Jesus Christ with those we were serving. It retrospect, it becomes obvious that in the situation described above, the core group of the church plant spent so much time doing good deeds, that no one had the time to actually talk to the people they were serving about the Savior who had called them to serve in the first place. It was a colossal miscalculation on why we were doing the good deeds. The good deeds became an end unto themselves. But lots of activity, and being busy, does not automatically equal souls saved or lives changed.

Having been in New England a long time, and taken part in many such good deed efforts myself, I know that it is not always possible to verbally share a gospel presentation in every situation with every person. Sometimes there are rules in place that prevent it. Sometimes the person being served just isn’t interested in talking about spiritual things. Sometimes there are just too many distractions from the event itself that no one could hear or understand even if the gospel were shared. But surely, in three years of good deeds for the community, that church plant could have found a way to engage in some gospel deeds. The Lord surely provided the opportunities, they simply missed them.

I think this happens more than we’d like to admit. Not just in church plants, but in our personal lives as well. I think Christians should do good deeds. But we must always be intentional about finding ways to transform those good deeds into gospel deeds. Though we can say we love others through our actions, if we fail to verbalize the gospel, which can save their soul from hell, have we really loved them? In my opinion, if we fail to turn good deeds into gospel deeds, we cannot say we really loved our neighbor. So let us go forth and do good deeds, but let us also be intentional about turning those good deeds into gospel deeds.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has served in New England since 1993 as a pastor, author, and denominational leader. He currently serves as the Executive Director of both the Baptist Convention of New England and the Baptist Foundation of New England. He lives outside of Boston in Northborough, MA.

Watch Your Words!

Proverbs 18:4 “The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.”

I opened up my Facebook page and cringed. A fellow pastor had posted an inflammatory statement on his Facebook page. I think he thought he could challenge people’s thinking and perhaps change a few of their minds on an important topic. What actually happened was for the next three hours there was one negative post after another as people argued with each other on his thread. Lots of anger was displayed. Very few attitudes that would reflect Christian values were displayed. If his goal was to prove a point, he failed. If his goal was to stir up controversy, he was amazingly successful. If his goal was to speak a word of the Lord and advance the cause of Christ, I would also consider his post a failure.

I think pastors must be particularly vigilant when they use social media. When used correctly, social media can be a powerful tool in advancing the cause of Christ. When used incorrectly, it can set back several month’s worth of ministry in a matter of minutes.

While I do not consider myself to be a social media guru, in my experience I’ve learned that best use for social media includes:

1. encouraging others with positive words and Bible verses
2. staying in contact with others by expressing genuine concern and care
3. promoting worthwhile ministry events
4. sharing humorous moments in my life

I find that most people respond positively to these four things and enjoy interacting with me about them. A long time ago I determined that social media was not the place to discuss controversial issues or to get too preachy to the masses. There are other avenues in which we can discuss controversial issues and push our more preachy ideas. Social media is simply too brief to say all that needs to be said regarding controversial subjects. It misses body language and context, which often is just as important in our communication efforts as the words we use.

While I think this is good advice for everyone using social media, I think this is particularly important for ministers and key lay leaders in the church to understand. Social media can be a great ministry tool, if Christian leaders use it correctly.

Lord, help us use the technology You have enabled us to create for Your glory. Amen.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England. He has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Flannel Graph Memories

Proverbs 9:9 “Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.” (NIV)

When I was 15 years old I became a volunteer for a ministry called Child Evangelism Fellowship. As a volunteer I helped teach a weekly Good News Club. The club met after school and helped children, mostly from non-religious homes, understand the stories of the Bible, and especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Part of my training as a volunteer was learning how to use flannel graph to illustrate the stories. I collected a number of Bible scenes painted on to large pieces of flannel and had file folders full of various biblical characters that I could put on the scenes as a visual to tell the Bible stories. I had not seen flannel graph before and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I used those visual aids over and over again to help children learn biblical truth. Even after I was no longer working with Child Evangelism Fellowship, I kept all the different characters and scenes and used them to teach in a variety of settings, including to teens and adults, for many years. They were very helpful in illustrating the stories I was teaching.

That was 35 years ago. Now, I don’t know anyone who still uses flannel graph. Now we use video, PowerPoint, and interactive games on I-pads and cell phones as visual aids in our teaching. Every couple of years some new technology comes along and changes the way we teach. As a lifelong learner, I try to stay up to date. But sometimes I struggle to figure out how to communicate the message in whatever way is currently fashionable.

To be honest, there are times I miss my old flannel graph scenes and characters. They were easy to use and I was comfortable with them. Many children came to faith in Christ through them and so there was a real emotional and spiritual attachment in my mind to those teaching tools. But there came a day when I realized they were no longer as effective as they once were. Staying up to date with teaching skills is always be a challenge. At times I’m tempted to revert back to those old flannel graph visuals and do things like I did 35 years ago. In many ways it would be easier for me. But I always resist that temptation because I realize it would not actually communicate the message of the Gospel as effectively as I would like it to.

The question I ask myself often is “Do I want things to be easy for me or do I want people to actually understand the message?” If the goal is for me to teach the message of Christ, then I have to constantly upgrade my communication skills and abilities. I have to learn new teaching techniques that actually get the point across. I cannot just rely on my past training or experience. While the past does have value, I cannot live in the past. I must be a lifelong learning in order to continue the calling God put on my life as a 15-year-old to teach others Jesus. 

What about you? Are you a lifelong learner? When was the last time you upgraded your efforts to share the word of God? Ongoing training is essential and the message of the Gospel is worth the time it takes to learn how to share it well.

Lord, help us be lifelong learners so we can be as effective as possible in sharing Your Word with others. Amen.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England. He has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Factual Truth

Proverbs 24:6 …. in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom.

I listened attentively to an acquaintance give a passionate speech on how he viewed a particular issue. While I agreed with his viewpoint, I grimaced as he provided his “proof” that his viewpoint was correct. He quoted several statistics that were very outdated. He gave numerous examples that have been proven by several different well known sources to be false. Though he spoke with great passion and incredible conviction, the factual inaccuracies of his speech took away all of his persuasive power. Finally, someone in the audience (who to the best of my knowledge also agreed with the speaker’s perspective) pointed out that his facts were out of date and that his examples were proven to be false. The audience member suggested the speaker update his presentation and then give it again at a later date. Instead of agreeing to look for new information to bolster his claims, the speaker doubled down on his presentation and said that that’s just the way he viewed the situation and he was sure that was how “everyone else who mattered” viewed it too. I left frustrated with my friend. I felt like he was wasting his passion and energy promoting the right idea in the wrong way. Clearly he would be much more persuasive if he listened to the advice of his audience and updated his facts and used accurate examples. But in his mind, since that was his viewpoint, then he was entitled to it and everyone else should just accept it. I doubt many people in the audience agreed with his conclusion.

Far too many of us are like my friend. We tend to have already decided what we believe before we do the research. We come up with our tweetable one liners and our quippy Facebook statuses and let them fly before we even hear what the facts are on any particular subject. And sometimes we keep using data that we know is outdated or incorrect just because it supports our perspective. This makes no sense to me. If something is the truth, then it will stand the test of facts, figures, illustrations and research. And if something is not true, I don’t want to be promoting it, even if it might bolster my opinion.

When we enter into a discussion with our minds made up before listening to anyone else’s thoughts or ideas, we court disaster. The Bible reminds us that in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom. That does not mean that we need a committee to vote on what is true. But it does mean that we might need other people to help us think through how that truth applies to our lives. No one person understands any single issue completely. We need each other to help us sort out the complex issues we face as a culture. That means we must listen with an open mind. It also means we have to use accurate facts and examples. We can’t make stuff up just to prove our point. We need honest open discussion and the hard work that goes along with that. But when we are willing to engage in that kind of hard work, the Holy Spirit can use our words to persuade many people to the cause of Christ.

Lord, help us to listen before we speak. When we do speak, help us be accurate in what we say, as well as persuasive in how we say it. Amen.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England. He has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY