Tuesday, November 19, 2013

 

What Pastor Jim Actually Said Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013

In case you were not at Tinney Chapel worship this past Sunday, Nov. 17, and/or have not accessed the video of Pastor Jim Hilton's sermon, the following is a very brief capsule summary of the essence of his 30-minute sermon. You might still want to access the video, but if you just want to know the bare essence, what he said about church growth and, especially, what he did not say, read the short essay below:

 

TINNEY TALK (11-19-13)
Observations by Joe Dan Boyd

‘DATING THE CHURCH,” was the sermon title listed in the church bulletin at Tinney Chapel UMC this past Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013, and the Scriptural basis was listed as Ephesians 2:11-13, 19-22. Despite the printed title, the sermon topic was Church Growth, and during his delivery, our Pastor, Rev. Jim Hilton, said the title of his sermon should have been “Do You Really Want To Grow?”

The Pastor spent some time reviewing lessons that many of us recalled from Tinney Chapel’s landmark Vision & Values Workshop of September 8-10, 2000, conducted by consultants Don F. Renshaw, D. Min. and Richard B. Hearne who later became Lay Leader of the North Texas Conference. Some of you will also recall that this Workshop was in the form of a scholarship (a gift) to Tinney Chapel from the District and Conference because of our church’s potential as then viewed by our District Superintendent and NTC Bishop.

“The service at Tinney Chapel UMC seemed crowded to the Consultants and initially we could not find a place to sit,” was one of the conclusions on page 17 of the Consultants’ printed report on our church, titled Achieving Excellence In Ministry. “The sanctuary will seat approximately 100 persons. Applying the 80% rule, the church will ‘feel’ crowded at approximately 80. It has been the Consultants experience that in rural settings the rule is more like 70%...Therefore...Tinney Chapel is at maximum capacity and the church can expect little growth with the present facilities.” 

This past Sunday, Nov. 17, our current Pastor, Rev. Hilton made the same point and emphasized that Tinney Chapel appears to have three options available. The first two options are available if our church decides it wants to grow: (1) Expand the current sanctuary via a new building program, or (2) Meet for worship in our 8,000-square-foot, fully paid-for Family Life Center. The third option is available if our church is content with its present size and does not decide to grow significantly. (3) Make no changes and continue to worship in our present sanctuary.

Our Pastor made no recommendation to our church on which option to choose. Instead he simply asked us: Do you really want to grow? Are we ready to make that decision?

 




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