Church – Page 52 – Michelle Lesley

Welcome to another “potpourri” edition of The Mailbag, where I give short(er) answers to several questions rather than a long answer to one question. I also like to take the opportunity in these potpourri editions to let new readers know about my comments/e-mail/messages policy. I’m not able to respond individually to most e-mails and messages, so here are some helpful hints for getting your questions answered more quickly. Remember, the search bar can be a helpful tool!

In these potpourri editions of The Mailbag, I’d also like to address the three questions I’m most commonly asked:

“Do you know anything about [Christian pastor/teacher/author] or his/her materials? Is he/she doctrinally sound?”

Try these links:
Popular False Teachers / Recommended Bible Teachers / search bar
Is She a False Teacher? 7 Steps to Figuring It Out on Your Own
(Do keep bringing me names, though. If I get enough questions about a particular teacher, I’ll probably write an article on her.)

“Can you recommend a good women’s Bible study?”

No. Here’s why:
The Mailbag: Can you recommend a good Bible study for women/teens/kids?
The Mailbag: “We need to stop relying on canned studies,” doesn’t mean, “We need to rely on doctrinally sound canned studies.”.

“You shouldn’t be warning against [popular false teacher] for [X,Y,Z] reason!”

Answering the Opposition- Responses to the Most Frequently Raised Discernment Objections

Usually The Mailbag is all about mail I’ve received from readers, but today, I want to start by sending a thank you note to you!

Thank you from the depths of my heart to each and every one of you who donated so graciously and made it possible for me to speak at the Cruciform Conference in Indianapolis this October. I was floored by your generosity and it was a great way to celebrate my birthday. I’m so honored that you would partner with me in ministry to the ladies at the conference. Thank you and God bless you.

(I tried to make sure I sent an individual thank you message/e-mail to each donor, but if you donated anonymously or I somehow missed being notified of your donation, I apologize and hope you’ll accept my thanks here.)

If you’re going to be in the area, come on out to Cruciform. It will be a blessing to you, and I’d love to meet you!

I’m the pianist at my church, and my pastor has asked me to select the hymns for our worship services because it takes a lot off him and helps him out. I select the songs from a certain hymnal and two other doctrinally sound sources. Am I in an unbiblical position of “leading” the worship service when I select these songs?

This is a great question. It’s so encouraging when Christian women want to be godly in every aspect of their ministry at church!

No, that’s not leading, that’s serving your pastor and your church. Basically what you’ve got here is a body of songs your pastor already approves of, and he has asked you to whittle it down to four or five songs each week from this pre-approved “list”.

If you choose a song he doesn’t like for some reason or that doesn’t fit with what he’s preaching that week, he always has the prerogative to say, “This song isn’t a fit this week. Could you please choose a different one?” In essence, you’re presenting him with suggestions and he makes the final decision, so he’s still the one in the position of authority. I used to do the same thing for my husband when he was a minister of music at one of our former churches.

Thank you for serving your pastor and your church!

I loved your article Women’s Events on a Shoestring Budget. The funding tips encouraged me to put on an event for our ladies, but our small church has never done anything like this before. What kind of event should we have and how should we get started?

I was so encouraged to get a couple of questions like this in response to my article. Even at a small church (and sometimes especially at a small church) a women’s event can really help refresh and build up the ladies of your church. It can be a great outreach to the ladies of your community, too.

I would recommend starting small and then growing year by year. For example, if I were in a church with an attendance of 50-150, I would start with an in-house (only ladies from your own church) mini-conference. A Saturday morning simple breakfast (coffee, doughnuts, fruit – food that’s easy to get, serve, and handle), followed by a local speaker (maybe the pastor’s wife at a sister church, or even one of the ladies in your own church) and a couple of songs. You could end there, or possibly have a time of discussion around the tables afterward, or just allow the ladies to hang around and fellowship with each other.

The next year, you could build on that. Maybe the speaker does two sessions with a break between, and you invite/publicize to other local churches. The following year, you could do an overnight retreat or you could expand the conference to an all day thing and have more than one speaker. If you start small and grow your event each year, you’ll learn things you should and shouldn’t do differently along the way, and you won’t be biting off more than you can chew the first time out.

Another thing that might be a good idea is to have a meeting with all of your ladies and ask them what kind of event they’d like. You might be thinking “conference” and they might be thinking “movie night”. It’s good to brainstorm and take the pulse of your ladies on what they’d prefer.

You could also get the men of your church involved in putting together and serving at your conference or event. I spoke at one conference where the men of the church actually put on the conference for their ladies – to honor and thank them. That was one happy bunch of ladies!

Just remember what I said in the article: Don’t try to compete with the expensive glitz, glam, and giveaways of mega-conferences. You do you, your church or host organization…And remember, it’s the caring and hospitality of the hosts that will make the greatest impact on your attendees, not the swanky food, decorations and swag bags.

I wanted to let you know I saw an inappropriate advertisement on your blog.

Thank you so much for letting me know. Rest assured, I don’t choose those ads, nor do I have any control over them. I can’t even see them from my end. I’m in the process of considering some formatting changes to the blog that may (or may not) put an end to the ads.

In the meantime, my article Advertising Redux explains what you can do to avoid those inappropriate and annoying ads on my site and on other sites as well.

I have a friend who was baptized as an infant, but since she was baptized in the name of the Trinity, she feels as though she can not be re-baptized as an adult believer. How would you speak to her?

I’ll bet that’s kind of a challenging road to navigate as her friend, isn’t it? Without a great deal more information I’m hesitant to give a definitive answer, but hopefully I can point both of you in a helpful direction.

I’m assuming if your friend is considering being baptized, she’s either a member of a local church or a candidate for membership at a local church. The first thing I would want to make sure of is that she’s in a doctrinally sound local church, because the second thing I’m going to advise is that she set up an appointment with her pastor to discuss this issue of baptism. (If the church she’s in isn’t doctrinally sound, getting her into one that is is job one, not baptism. Check out the Searching for a new church? tab at the top of this page.)

Different churches and denominations have different understandings of baptism. Her pastor can explain to her how her church views baptism, why it is requiring(?) her to be re-baptized for membership, and how it understands Trinitarian paedo (infant) baptism versus credo (Believer’s) baptism.

Once she has sat down with the pastor and had all of her questions answered, she will need to search the Scriptures, pray for wisdom, and make sure her understanding of baptism lines up with that of the church she’s considering being baptized into. If it does not, she will need to further study the Scriptures to determine whether or not her personal view of baptism is indeed biblical. If it is but does not align with her current church, she will probably need to find a new church whose view on baptism she agrees with.

If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.

Church, Obedience

Neo-Pharisaism

May 3, 2019July 7, 2021 Michelle Lesley

Has anyone ever called you a Pharisee? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been called that name by professing Christians from all walks of life. And let’s not try to sugar coat it, when somebody uses that term, it’s not meant as a compliment. It can be anything from rage-fueled “Christian profanity” to a well-intentioned but biblically misinformed attempt to quash perfectly scriptural words or actions – but it’s a pejorative term, whatever the motive behind this name-calling might be.

The Bible first introduces us to the Pharisees in the gospels, during the ministry of John the Baptist, and right away, it’s clear that anybody who’s truly on God’s side of the aisle is going to have a problem with these dudes. “You brood of vipers!” is the first sentence spoken to or about the Pharisees.

But why? Why was this group of respected Jewish leaders and Bible scholars consistently painted in such a negative light by John, Jesus, and the Apostles?

Because the Pharisees were the false teachers of Jesus’ day. They were teaching the false doctrine of legalism – the idea that Jews could earn right standing with God by obeying His laws. And because they didn’t want to even come close to disobeying God’s law, they came up with their own man-made laws that were way more restrictive than God’s laws. The Pharisees required the people to obey those man-made laws and said people who broke them were sinning.

It was kind of like having a pool in your back yard with a fence around it. The pool was sin. The fence around it was God’s law. The Pharisees came along and put an additional fence around the perimeter of the property, keeping people out of the back yard altogether. Only God didn’t say we couldn’t use and enjoy the yard, He just said, “Stay out of the pool.”¹

And then Jesus arrived on the scene and put His foot down – God’s law reigns supreme, not man’s law. For those who follow God from the heart, His commands are not burdensome, not a yoke of slavery. And by burdening the people with laws God had not commanded, and setting those laws on equal footing with God’s laws, the Pharisees were the ones in sin.

But this just didn’t compute to the prideful, hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisees. They were so set in their ways and ensconced in their power and position that they doubled down on their false doctrine to the point that their self-deception led them to view simply obeying God’s law as written – nothing added, nothing taken away – as sin.

This is why we see the Pharisees losing their cotton-pickin’ minds over Jesus and the disciples plucking and eating (harvesting and threshing to the Pharisees) kernels of grain on the Sabbath, and Jesus healing (“working”) on the Sabbath, both of which – eating and doing acts of charity – were lawful.

The legalist Pharisees saw Jesus and His followers as antinomians – those who were a threat to the people of God by preaching license, disobedience, and “everybody can do what’s right in his own eyes.”

My how the pendulum has swung in the other direction.

Today what we have is antinomians calling some of Jesus’ followers Pharisees because these modern-day antinomians believe that striving to obey God’s Word as written – nothing added, nothing taken away – is legalism.

Is it wrong to label everyone an antinomian who has called a brother or sister in Christ a Pharisee? After all, antinomianism is heresy. It’s a pretty serious charge – not one that should be casually and superficially flung around. Well, so is the charge of legalism, which these folks are leveling every time they call someone a Pharisee. If they’re going to dish out charges of heresy, they ought to be man or woman enough not to cry foul when that same charge is leveled against them.

But the truth is, among average Christians, there are very few actual full-blown legalists or full-blown antinomians. As with nearly every other aspect of Christianity, there’s a spectrum of antinomianism and legalism with heresy on either end, and the majority of Christians falling somewhere in the middle. Most genuinely born again Christians hover somewhere around that sweet spot in the middle that we would call obedience to Scripture, but we all have a general fleshly tendency toward legalism or antinomianism. And furthermore, we can tend toward one or the other in various issues in our lives. There are issues in my life in which I tend toward antinomianism out of fear of man, or because I want to give in to the desires of my flesh. And, there are issues in my life in which I tend toward legalism out of pride or a lack of trust in God. We can all fall into the ditch of antinomianism or legalism depending on the circumstances and our personal weaknesses and sins.

So when I say that Christians today who call their brothers and sisters in Christ Pharisees are antinomians, I don’t mean that the vast majority of them are full-on heretics who think Christians can go out and sin as much as they want and nobody has to obey Scripture. Honestly, I’ve never even met anybody like that. I’m talking about Christians who tend toward antinomianism when it comes to the specific area of ecclesiology. What does that look like in the life of the church? Often, it takes the shape of overlooking sin instead of dealing with it biblically in order not to make waves or hurt someone’s feelings. It can also find itself in those who get on the bandwagon of the latest Christian – or worldly – fad, method, celebrity, or worldview, and chiding those who rightly deem it unbiblical. A few examples I’ve experienced or been told of:

Do you expect Christians to be at church every week unless Providentially hindered? That’s legalism. You’re a Pharisee.

Dare to speak up against false teachers? That’s legalism. You’re a Pharisee.

Think worship should be reverent and orderly rather than evangeltainment hoopla? That’s legalism. You’re a Pharisee.

Do you believe it’s sin when women preach/teach the Scriptures to men or hold unbiblical authority over men in the gathered body of Believers? That’s legalism. You’re a Pharisee.

Have you ever asked why your church doesn’t practice church discipline? That’s legalism. You’re a Pharisee.

Do you warn your friends in apostate churches of the false doctrine they’re being taught? That’s legalism. You’re a Pharisee.

But who’s really the Pharisee today? Well, just like in Jesus’ day, it’s people who might (or might not) know Scripture, but they’re not handling it correctly. Sometimes, it’s well-known Christian leaders protecting their position and power. Sometimes it’s the people in the pew who like the status quo in evangelicalism, their church, or their family just fine, thank you very much, and they don’t want you bringing the Bible in and messing everything up.

Who’s today’s Pharisee? It’s often the person calling other Christians Pharisees.

As you might expect, the legalist Pharisees of Jesus’ day had hundreds of very specific, clearly defined laws you had to obey: You could only walk so many steps on the Sabbath. You had to wash your hands in a certain manner. You probably even had to fold your underwear a specific way.

Our modern-day antinomian-leaning “neo-Pharisees” have just a few nebulous, loosely defined rules of which they, not Scripture, are the final arbiters:

You can’t be unloving.
You can’t hurt people’s feelings.
You can’t rock the boat.
Why can’t we all just get along?

And though it was relatively easy to count the number of steps you took on the Sabbath or make sure your underwear stacked up at a 90° angle so you could stay on the right side of the legalistic Pharisees’ rules and regulations, it’s much harder to tell whether or not you’re obeying the neo-Pharisees’ laws.

Their laws, though few in number, are subjective, broadly interpreted and applied, and constantly changing. Charges of being “unloving,” for example, are not supported by Scripture passages in their proper context clearly defining biblical love, but are based on the personal feelings and opinions of the person leveling the charge. A “peace, love, and harmony” definition of “unity” is frequently prized over fidelity to Scripture. What was right last month could suddenly be wrong next week because it has upset someone.

It’s not easy to hit such a fast-moving target, and practically anything you say or do (even if it’s straight from Scripture) that rubs the neo-Pharisee the wrong way is going to break one of these rules – man-made rules that they insist other Christians keep or those other Christians either aren’t saved or are sinning. So while the quality of their rules is antinomian-ish, the application of their rules is legalistic. This is fleshing itself out in dozens of different ways in evangelicalism.

Case in point: progressive Christians who have taken up the social justice cause, particularly as it relates to race. One recent example – if you don’t see whiteness (whatever that means) as wicked and something you need to renounce, you’re not being loving to people who have darker skin than yours, and you’re hurting their feelings, and you’re refusing to get along with them. So because you’re breaking these laws the neo-Pharisees have made, you’re sinning at best and not saved at worst. But what is whiteness, precisely? How can I tell whether or not I’ve fully renounced it? What if I’ve fully renounced it in the eyes of one person but not another? Who is supposed to pronounce me absolved of this so-called sin? And daring to ask any of these questions or push back against these ideas can earn you the label of Pharisee.

Another example I’m hearing more and more people say they’ve been taken to task about is tone. For some neo-Pharisees, it doesn’t matter how gently, kindly, and patiently you state a difficult biblical truth, if it hurts someone’s feelings or rocks the boat, you’ve been unloving and said it in a harsh tone. And you’ll probably get called a Pharisee.

But who is the judge of my tone or yours? One person’s “harsh tone” is another person’s “matter of fact tone”. One person’s “loving tone” is another person’s “spineless tone”. I once wrote an article about a certain false teacher about which I was told my tone was too harsh by some and too nice by others – about the same article! We all have different personal, subjective opinions about tone. The problem is that the neo-Pharisee is elevating her opinion about what constitutes an acceptable tone to the level of Scripture. Because if you use what she thinks is the wrong tone, you’re sinning.

So what is the solution to this messy morass of legalism, antinomianism, and neo-Pharisaism we suddenly find ourselves in in evangelicalism?

The Bible.

We must become good students of the Bible so we know exactly what it says – and doesn’t say. The Bible doesn’t condemn anyone as wicked based on the shade of her skin. But it does tell me I’m to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. It tells me that God shows no partiality and I shouldn’t either. The Bible doesn’t qualify which tones of voice are harsh and which are acceptable. When it talks about speaking the truth in love, it’s talking about motivation of heart – which only I can know and only God can judge – not tone of voice. Am I motivated by love? Does the Bible say we need to be faithful to the gathering of Believers or not? Does it really say women can’t preach to men or not? Is that person actually a false teacher according to Scripture or not? We need to know Scripture, so we can rightly obey Scripture, so that no one will actually be a Pharisee.

We’ve all got to do our best to present ourselves to God “as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) When I lean too far toward legalism, I need Scripture to pull me back to that sweet spot of simple biblical obedience. When you lean too far toward antinomianism, you need the Bible to bring you back to center on diligent biblical obedience. We need to help each other, iron sharpening iron, not call each other names.

Let’s get rid of Pharisaism once and for all and simply spur one another on toward holiness and obedience to God’s Word.

Additional Resources:

Sacrificing Truth on the Altar of Tone

What Does it Mean to “Play the Pharisee Card”?

Basic Training: Obedience: 8 Ways To Stop Making Excuses and Start Obeying Scripture

¹Pool photo courtesy of Protect-A-Child Pool Fence Company

1&2 Timothy Bible Study

1 & 2 Timothy: Lesson 3

May 1, 2019April 30, 2019 Michelle Lesley

Previous Lessons: 1, 2

Read 1 Timothy 2

Questions to Consider

1. Briefly review the theme or purpose of the book of 1 Timothy from lesson 1 (link above). Who is the ultimate Author of this book? Are the ideas and instructions in this book God’s ideas and instructions, or something Paul came up with on his own? Who was the original audience of this book?

2. You may be familiar with the little hermeneutical rule of thumb, “Whenever you see therefore in a verse, you need to find out what it’s there for.” “First of all, then,…” at the beginning of verse 1 serves the same purpose as “therefore” (in fact, some translations render that phrase as “therefore” instead of “first of all, then”). God, through Paul, is saying, “Because of all that stuff I told you in chapter 1, do what I’m about to tell you to do in chapter 2.” Review 1 Timothy 1 and/or lesson 2 (link above). What are the main issues addressed in chapter 1?

3. Make a “bullet point” list of each instruction given to Timothy and the church in chapter 2. Now make the connection between the two chapters – how can the church’s obedience to the instructions in chapter 2 fix the issues brought out in chapter 1?

4. Which group of verses is the focal point, or main idea, of chapter 2?

1-3
4-7
8-10
11-15

Read each of these groupings of verses and describe how each of them revolves around the idea that God desires to save people (4). Notice how the words, “I desire then” (8) and “likewise also” (9) point back to the focal passage. Why did God put the gospel smack dab in the middle of these instructions about how the congregation is to behave?

5. Why does Paul again cite his qualifications and credentials? (7)

6. Why does God want His church to pray for others, including kings and leaders? (1-2) What is the immediate desired outcome of this kind of prayer? (2) What is the long-term desired outcome of this kind of prayer? (3-4) Think about the political and cultural context surrounding the church at Ephesus. How could the church at Ephesus and the church today leading “a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (2) lead to people getting saved (3-4)?

7. Does verse 8 mean that only men should pray when the church is gathered together? (Use your footnotes)

Questions 8-12 are drawn from lessons 15 and 14 (respectively) of my Imperishable Beauty study of biblical womanhood. If you have completed that study, you may wish to review your notes from those lessons.

8. Examine verses 9-10. Describe how women are not to adorn themselves and how they are to adorn themselves. Are things like braids, jewelry, and clothes intrinsically sinful, or is Paul giving cultural examples to illustrate a theological point he’s making? What is that point? What is it about the bent of women’s hearts that would cause God to give this instruction to women in the context of the home and the church, but not to give this instruction to men at all? How does it benefit the church for us to “wear”, or portray, godliness by adorning ourselves modestly and with good works?

9. Study verses 11-15. What is the first word of verse 11? Think about women’s social status and value in Paul and Timothy’s culture, and in many cultures since that time, even today. Why does the Holy Spirit instruct pastors to “let” women learn? What does this teach us about the responsibility God places on us as women to learn His Word? Would you categorize verse 11 as a “do this” or “don’t do this” verse?

10. Examine verse 12. Is this mainly a “do this” or “don’t do this” verse? What two things does the Holy Spirit say women are not to do in the gathering of the church body? What does He say women are to do? Think about God’s nature and character. Does He ever give instructions arbitrarily or just to spoil our fun? Why does God give us commands and instructions, generally speaking? Are the instructions in verse 12 good for women and for the church?

11. Take a look at 13-14. God kindly gives not one, but two reasons for His instructions in verses 11-12. What are those two reasons? How do they fall in line with God’s design for male headship and leadership across biblical history in the hierarchical structures He has set up?

12. Verse 15 can be a little cryptic to us today because we equate the word “saved” with salvation. Does verse 15 mean that women gain salvation by having children? How do we know it doesn’t? The NASB helpfully, and more accurately, renders this word as “preserved.” We don’t feel it much today, but think about the stigma women (particularly Jewish women) carried at the time this was written simply because they were daughters of Eve. Paradise was lost and the curse of sin entered the world because of a woman, many men thought, and they viewed and treated women accordingly. Yet who was chosen to bring the Messiah into the world? And following in her footsteps, a major way godly women can “save” or “preserve” the reputation, esteem, and value of womankind is to “continue in” what 3 godly character traits? (15) Because if they continue in those three godly character traits, they will be raising up a godly seed to the Lord (even if the children they bear aren’t perfect like Mary’s child was.) :0)

Homework

If you’d like to study more about modesty (9-10), check out these articles:
•Imperishable Beauty: Lesson 15- A Beautiful Portrayal of Biblical Womanhood in the Church
•The Mailbag: Potpourri (Calvinism, Baptism, Modesty…)

If you’d like to study more about the role of women in the church (11-15), check out these articles:
•Imperishable Beauty: Lesson 14- A Beautiful Position in the Church
•Jill in the Pulpit (1 Timothy 2:11-12)
•Order in His Courts: Silencing Women? (1 Corinthians 14:33b-35)

Suggested Memory Verse

Speaking Engagements, Special Events

Women’s Events on a Shoestring Budget and Other Practical Tips

April 30, 2019August 22, 2023 Michelle Lesley

Like listening instead of reading?
Check out How to Host a Women’s Conference at
A Word Fitly Spoken, which was based on this article.

Have you ever wanted to host a women’s conference (or any event, really) at your church, but it just wasn’t in the budget?

My husband and I have served a lot of small churches, so those tight-knit fellowships and their pastors hold a special place in my heart – especially the ones who want to give their ladies a doctrinally sound alternative to those expensive mega-conferences whose doctrine can be questionable at best.

I’ve spoken at some absolutely wonderful conferences hosted by small churches, so I know it can be done with excellence if you’re not afraid to think creatively and work efficiently.

Here are a few suggestions to prayerfully consider if you’re putting together an event on a shoestring budget. And readers, I want to hear from you too – what has your church done to support and finance special events that has worked well? Add your comment in the comments section at the end of the article.

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I’m going to start with a principle that applies to anyone doing professional work for your church, from conference speakers, to the band playing a concert at your youth event, to the plumber fixing the pipes in the bathroom, to the accountant who does your church’s bookkeeping:

You must pay workers, and you must pay them a fair wage or fee in addition to their expenses (travel, lodging, etc.).

I’ve been blessed that every host church I’ve ever spoken at has understood this and has been very generous with me, but I’ve heard that there are Christians out there who expect anyone doing anything for their church to do it for free because it’s “ministry”. Some even begrudge paying their pastor a salary! This is not biblical. In fact, the Bible says just the opposite.

It often takes many hours of hard work to properly prepare for a speaking engagement, concert, etc. (And don’t get me started on how much time pastors put into their jobs compared to the salaries most of them earn.) This pre-event work as well as the event itself may take the worker away from her family or cause her to have to cancel other activities. She may even have to take time off from her regular job to work at your event. What she’s doing for you is work and she deserves to be fairly compensated for it. This is one aspect of your event that you can’t cut corners on.

Sometimes it is hard to know what a fair wage is for the worker you’re hiring. And, indeed, it will vary from worker to worker. Ask her for a number. Figure out whether or not that amount is feasible on your end. Then, be honest with her and let her know whether or not you can guarantee (not try to raise, not “take up a love offering at the conference and hope for the best” – guarantee) that amount. If you can’t, it is then up to her to decide whether or not she can afford to work at your event. Being honest and transparent from the get go helps remove a lot of the awkwardness that comes with talking about money. I know I always appreciate it.

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Now that you know one of the expenses for the event, it will be easier to estimate a budget to cover it and the rest of the expenditures. Sit down with your planning committee and prayerfully discuss the purchases you’ll need to make for food, decorations, and any other materials, and come up with a reasonable budget for your particular venue. Use godly wisdom and exercise good stewardship.

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Don’t try to compete with the expensive glitz, glam, and giveaways of mega-conferences. You do you, your church or host organization. I’ve seen many churches go with a “simple elegance” or “homestyle” or “local charm” level of theme and decor that has turned out perfectly lovely and welcoming (Check out some of the church events I’ve spoken at for some great ideas!). And remember, it’s the caring and hospitality of the hosts that will make the greatest impact on your attendees, not the swanky food, decorations and swag bags.

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Plan your event as far in advance as possible. Not only will this give you plenty of time to raise funds, but some expenses – plane tickets for your speaker, for example – go up as time goes by.

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While some speakers need to stay in a hotel for various reasons, others are perfectly willing to be fed and housed by church members, which can cut your expenses considerably. Ask your speaker which she prefers and be ready to graciously provide either type of accommodation.

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Go local. If you can find an appropriate speaker who lives in or near your town, it will cut down on your travel and accommodation expenses for her.

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Ask your pastor or elders if there is any money set aside in your church’s budget for the women’s ministry or special events. Find out whether or not you can use it and if there are any requirements for how it must or must not be spent.

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Put the word out to your whole church and ask for help. Make a list of the things you’ll need that people can donate or lend: fresh flowers from members’ gardens for centerpieces, table cloths, paper plates, small gift bag items like pens and notepads, snack items, etc.

You could even have some fun with it and throw a women’s conference “shower,” registering for the items you need (even WalMart and other discount stores have registries these days) and inviting the whole congregation to bring their gifts and come fellowship together. And don’t forget the “money tree” (or some other receptacle) for people who would rather give cash or a check.

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Take up a love offering from your congregation for conference expenses. If your conference is far enough ahead in the future, you might be able to take up two or three over time.

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Consider a crowdfunding campaign for event expenses such as Go Fund Me or Kickstarter (there are even Christian crowdfunding sites), or set up a PayPal account specifically for donations for the event. (Some Christians feel it is biblically inappropriate to ask non-Christians to donate to a Christian cause. You will need to find out where your church stands on this issue when deciding who to share the crowdfunding information with.)

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Have a good, old fashioned fundraiser at church, such as a church-wide “garage sale,” bake sale, or car wash.

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Consider partnering with another doctrinally sound local church (or two or three!) to co-host the event and split the expenses. (Check out their doctrine first. You can’t biblically partner with churches that teach false doctrine.)

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To recoup your expenses (don’t depend on these to cover expenses) and maybe set some money aside for your next event, consider selling tickets at a nominal price, suggesting a voluntary donation amount, or “pay what you can,” for tickets, and/or taking up a love offering at the event.

Most attendees could afford, say, a $5 ticket, and if you have 100 attendees, that’s $500 to start off next year’s event budget. You could also offer the option of sponsoring tickets. People who want to support the conference (even men or other church members who won’t be attending) could give enough money to cover a certain number of tickets, which could then be given away to women who would like to attend but can’t afford to.

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It should go without saying, but be sure to get your pastor’s, elders’, or other leadership’s approval every step of the way.

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With plenty of prayer, wisdom, organized planning, and good stewardship, it is possible for small churches to host an awesome event that will glorify God and be a blessing to the women of your church and community.

Here’s a question a few readers asked
in response to the article above.

Random Tips from My Own Event Experiences…

(These are all things my event hosts have done well that I’ve really appreciated. I’ll keep adding to this list as I think of things.)

Event Planning

There’s no need to re-invent the wheel. Check out previous events I’ve spoken at, and gather some great ideas for your own event!

When you plan an event, you need somebody who’s a good detail person to do a final “look-see” before you open the doors. There are a lot of little tiny details to attend to in order to put on a polished event. For example, if attendees need to write their own names on their name tags, you need to provide pens and ample table space for them to do so. If your event program is on a folded piece(s) of paper, it’s sweet that the 4-year-old class wants to help, but folding the programs probably isn’t the best job for them. Four-year-olds don’t tend to fold things very evenly, and they often leave 4-year-old grunge on everything they touch.

Be sure to ask your speaker what she will need while speaking. A microphone is a given, as is some sort of lectern that’s large and sturdy enough to hold her notes (I say “sturdy enough,” because I use my laptop for my speaking notes, and some music stands are notorious for sliding down if anything heavier than a sheet of paper is put on them). I don’t personally use any sort of PowerPoint or slides, but other speakers do, and they’ll need the appropriate tools and connections for that. A bottle of water is always helpful.

A few conferences I’ve spoken at have built into the conference schedule small group discussion time and/or unstructured fellowship time for attendees. It seemed like the ladies really enjoyed these times of interacting with each other.

One conference I spoke at included a craft time for attendees. The planners handled it very well, keeping the craft simple, with the materials pre-cut and laid out at each seat at the table, and allowing ample time to complete the project.

Your attendees may find a book table to be helpful. Make sure the books are doctrinally sound, by doctrinally sound authors (if I’m your speaker, I can provide a few suggestions if needed), and make it clear to attendees as to whether the books are free or for sale. If they’re for sale, clearly label the price of each book, and make sure someone is there to man the table during each break.

Food

If you’re providing lunch or dinner for your conference attendees, I’ve received some good humored input from women around the country about women’s events at their own churches that you might wish to take into consideration:

First, consider these ladies’ lament: “When we have a women’s event, they feed us salads and finger sandwiches, and I always leave hungry. At the men’s events, they get steak! I like steak too!”. Steak may not be the direction you want to go, but just keep in mind that salad isn’t every woman’s cup of tea, and a “light” lunch at an all day event may leave some of your attendees hungry. Soups, tea sandwiches, and salads are a great option, but consider providing something a little more substantial in addition, such as sandwich rolls and lunch meat, a couple of frozen (cooked, of course) lasagnas, pizza, or fried chicken.

Next, consider the type of food you offer. You may personally like beets chiffonade in a caviar reduction, but many women are not fond of fancy froo froo gourmet dishes. Keep it simple and try to offer something most people are used to and generally like (such as the aforementioned lasagnas, et al).

At one conference I spoke at, many of the dishes were labeled “gluten free,” “vegan,” etc. This could be very helpful for women with dietary restrictions.

At a few conferences I’ve spoken at, the event planner has asked me if I had any food allergies. Others (planning to take me out to eat) have asked if there are any cuisines (ex: Indian, Japanese) I don’t like so they can avoid those particular restaurants. As someone who tends to forget about little details like this, I have always found this very considerate. If you’re taking your speaker out to eat and you forget to ask about her preferences, you can always take her to a “general cuisine” type of restaurant (ex: Applebees, Chili’s, etc.) or suggest a few restaurant options for her to choose from.

Speaker Amenities

Try to anticipate any needs your speaker might have. Ask at various points throughout her stay and the event if there’s anything she needs.

If your speaker’s teaching sessions aren’t back to back, try to offer her a quiet room for resting between sessions. Although I love fellowshipping with attendees between sessions, I’ve learned that if I’m teaching multiple sessions per day, I have to be disciplined to rest my voice between sessions, or it will fizzle out toward the end of the day.

If possible, try to let your speaker know the makeup of her audience. For example: “We invited the ladies from the Catholic church down the road,” or “Several unsaved ladies will be attending the event.” I can’t speak for other speakers, but for me, having this information helps me pray better for the attendees, and reminds me to, for example, spend a little longer on my gospel presentation, explain “Christianese” lingo some attendees might not be familiar with, etc.

I don’t know about other speakers – this might be just me – but when I travel, especially to somewhere I’ve never been before, I love to experience as much of the local culture and food as I can within the limited time I’m there. Is there a certain dish that’s iconic to your area? I probably want to try it (check with me first – there are certain foods and textures I just can’t handle). I loved having authentic deep dish pizza in Chicago and clam chowder in Cape Cod. Is there a particular natural wonder or historic site your area is known for? If there’s time, and it isn’t inconvenient, it would be great to at least drive past it so I could take a few pictures. This goes for hostess gifts, too. Not that I need or expect a hostess gift, but if you’re doing one anyway and are stumped for ideas, some of my favorite gifts have been those that remind me of your area – the sunflower dish towels from my Kansas hosts, caramel corn from the boardwalk from my New Jersey hosts, local honey from my Illinois hosts, etc. (Just keep in mind that if your speaker is flying, she may have limited space for packing gifts, and there may be certain items the airline won’t allow on the plane.)

Travel

Airlines now apparently feel it’s appropriate to cancel flights and change the departure/arrival times of flights on a whim. If you’re picking up or dropping off your speaker at the airport, be sure to check the arrival/departure time of her flight periodically to see if it has changed. Because if you have a speaker who’s as lame-brained as I am, she might think the airline informed you of the time change and forget to tell you about it until the day she’s arriving (oops!).

If you’re picking up your speaker from the airport, ask if she’s going to need to eat upon arrival. There’s often no time to eat a meal when changing planes, she may not have been offered a meal on the plane, and some airlines have now even discontinued in flight drinks and snacks.

I am often met at the airport by an event planner I’ve never laid eyes on before. Recently, an event planner met me at the airport wearing her church t-shirt. That was really helpful to me in recognizing her.

If you’re booking your speaker’s flights and she has to change planes at a large airport (ex: DFW, Atlanta, O’Hare), I would suggest a minimum of a one hour (not 45 or 50 minutes- one hour, if humanly possible) layover. In my experience: the first flight is often delayed, cutting down on your speaker’s time to make her connection. She may have been forced to valet check her carry-on suitcase on the first flight, which means that, on arrival, she will have to wait for it to be unloaded – more connection time lost. The gate for her connecting flight will probably be on the other side of the airport, which could take a significant amount of time to walk/shuttle to. She will probably also need time to eat a meal during her layover, which necessitates locating and getting to an appropriate eatery (possibly not very close to her gate), standing in a long line to order, waiting for her food, and eating. And let’s not forget, she also needs time to visit the restroom. My personal preference is a 1 1/2 to 2 hour layover. Other speakers may differ.

Accommodations

Whether your speaker is staying in a hotel or a host home, she will probably need access to Wi-Fi. Be sure to provide her with any password or other info she might need.

If your budget will allow this expense, ask your speaker if she’d like to bring her husband or another companion with her. It’s not a necessity (and I’m not usually able to bring anybody with me anyway) but it’s a very gracious offer.

Promoting Your Event

First make sure you’re advertising well to your own church. Put an announcement in the bulletin every week, put fliers up around the church (inside the stalls in the ladies’ room is always a good place!), announce it in the church newsletter and church-wide email, if your church puts announcements on the screen before the service, put a slide about the event in the rotation, have the pastor announce and promote it during the announcements time of the worship service. Have your adult Sunday School teachers announce it every week. Encourage members to come and to invite friends.

Create a Facebook event on your church’s FB page, share it around a lot, ask your church members to share it around a lot, and tag any nearby churches, pastors, or women’s orgs you think would be appropriate.

Contact any local networks or associations your church is affiliated with (if you’re Southern Baptist, contact your local association) and send them a flier they can email out or put in their newsletter.

Email, mail, or hand deliver fliers / info to all churches that are physically nearby your church. (Do keep in mind that some of those churches probably don’t share your church’s theology, which could cause friction. Ask your pastor for advice.)

If you have a local Christian radio station (even if it’s not particularly doctrinally sound) consider advertising, or see if they have some sort of free “community calendar” type of thing where the DJs announce local events on the air.

Contact any Christian bookstores or Christian-owned businesses you know of and ask them if they would put up a flier.

If your local newspaper has a feature where they announce events at local churches, send in a notice. (Also – again, if you’re Southern Baptist – contact your state SBC newspaper and see what their options are for running some sort of announcement.)

1&2 Timothy Bible Study

1 & 2 Timothy: Lesson 2

April 24, 2019April 24, 2019 Michelle Lesley

Previous Lessons: 1

Read 1 Timothy 1

Questions to Consider

1. Briefly review the housekeeping/helpful hints section and “Introduction to 1 Timothy” section from lesson 1 (link above).

2. Why did the Holy Spirit inspire Paul to list his credentials and explain his relationship to Timothy in verses 1-2? Why would this have been important to Paul and Timothy, to the members of Timothy’s church, to anyone else at that time who happened to read this letter, and to readers of 1 Timothy today? Where was Timothy’s church located? (3)

3. What is the very first issue Paul tackles regarding Timothy’s church? (3-11) What does this tell you about the urgency of this issue then, and now?

Today, with regard to false teachers, Christians will often say things like, “You shouldn’t say anything negative about that person, you should just pray for her,” or “You should just teach the truth of the Bible and people will figure out for themselves who the false teachers are.” Is this what the Holy Spirit, via Paul, instructs Timothy to do? (3-4) How is Timothy instructed to address the false teachers? (3-4) Why is it urgent that Timothy (and pastors today) deal with false doctrine and not allow it in his church? (4b, 7)

What is supposed to be the motive and goal of pastors, teachers, and church members when it comes to living the Christian life and serving the church? (5) When teachers “swerve from these,” what does that swerving lead to? (6-7)

Compare verse 19 to verses 5-6, noting the similarities. Who were Hymenaeus and Alexander? (use your cross references) How does Paul say he handled these false teachers? (20) Why did he do this? (20) Compare Paul’s handling of unrepentant false teachers in the church to Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus’ instruction of how to handle unrepentant sinners in the church (18:17b). Why is it necessary to remove unrepentant sinners and false teachers from the church and to regard them as non-Christians (“hand over to Satan”, “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”)? (20b, 4b) What is the goal of a Christian regarding anyone who is not a Christian? Are these actions toward false teachers in keeping with the motive and aim Paul expressed in verse 5?

4. Examine the words “genealogies” (4), “teachers of the law” (7), and the discussion about the law in verses 8-9. Now, draw from what you may already know about the false teaching of the Judaizers in the early church. What do you think is the general topic the false teaching Paul addresses in chapter 1 has to do with?

5. What does it mean to “use the law lawfully” (8)? (9) Who are the “just”? (9) Who are “the lawless and disobedient…the ungodly and sinners” (9a)? (9b-10) Which is the correct (lawful) group to “lay the law down for” (9a)? (9b-10)

If 8-11 describe the lawful use of the law – who it should be laid down for – what can you conclude about the false teachers’ use of the law? Who were they laying it down for? Why is this false teaching? (10b-11)

6. What is “sound doctrine” (10b)? (11) Why is it important that all pastors and teachers preach and teach sound doctrine?

7. Read 12-17. What are some adjectives you would use to describe Paul’s character and his view of himself? What is Paul’s view of his position in relationship to Christ? How does Paul see what Christ has done in his life as an example for others? (16) Pray through these verses asking God to develop in you the same view of yourself and your position before God that Paul had.

8. We’re going to see the word “charge” several times in 1 & 2 Timothy. How many times does this word appear in chapter 1? What does the word “charge” mean in verse 3? In verses 5 & 18?

Homework

Believe it or not, there are still false teachers out there today teaching that Christians must obey Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws. Do some research on the Hebrew Roots Movement to learn more, and if you come across a good resource about it, please comment below and share.