Gasoline prices are not at all pleasant. It seems like the price of groceries, and many other things have taken a drastic price increase and may go even higher. Many jobs that have been considered very stable are now begining to be very unstable.

These are the kinds of conditions that the devil will take advantage of to stike a cord of fear in your heart. Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear fuels unbelief. Christians are to be faith people, but if they become fearful, they will begin to worry.

Below are seven reasons you should not worry:

1. God said don’t do it, (1Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6) That should be enough, without any other reasons, shouldn’t it? If God said don’t do it, then we don’t have to do it; however, we have to make a decision not to do it, and we have to off-set it with faith in God’s promises.

2. It doesn’t help. Nobody has ever really solved a problem by worrying about it. There really are only two kinds of problems in the world: The kind you can do something about, and the kind you can’t do anything about. If your problem is one that you can do something about, do it and quit worrying about it. If it is the kind you can’t do anything about, worrying is a complete waste of time.

3. It is an enemy to your health. Doctor’s waiting rooms could largely be cleared out, if people would stop worrying. Worry brings on a number of very real health problems, both physical and emotional.

4. God has already made provision for your every need, (2Peter 1:2-3.) You simply need to get in position to receive what He has provided. Nothing ever has, or ever will, happen to you that God doesn’t see. Knowing the truth, and knowing how to apply the truth to your situation will set you free.

5. God’s ways are always better than your ways, so if you could figure out something to do, it wouldn’t be as good as what God will lead you to do, if you will look to Him.

6. Worry is a subtle form of pride, and God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble, (1Peter 5:5.)

7. Most of things you worry about will never happen anyway. It is the devil’s deception.

It is a very good idea for a church to have a statement of purpose. This simply defines the church’s reason for existence in a phrase. Many churches have existed for many years without such a statement, so we couldn’t say it’s essential, but it is helpful.

Upon adopting a statement of purpose, the church can then look at each decision in light of that purpose. They can ask, “Does this help us accomplish our stated purpose?” If not, then it might not be a good idea.

At Trinity, we have a rather broad purpose statement: “To please God.” At first glance, that looks like it needs to be a bit more defined, but upon closer examination, what could be a better purpose? So, we must first ask, “What is it that most pleases God?” The short answer is that God is pleased when Jesus is recognized as Lord.

Next time you give thought to what should, or should not, be done in church, give some thought to the purpose statement. The Lord is quite serious about the carrying out of the Great Commission, right in our own ministry area, and nothing less will really please Him.

There really aren’t many reasons why pastors leave one church and go to another.  The following five reasons are among those most prominent.  They are not listed in any particular order.

1. Forced Termination.  This may be brought on by the pastor’s own doing, or it may be because some folks just decided they no longer liked him.  There are legitimate reasons why forced termination would be necessary, but they are very, very few.  One can observe churches that have forcefully terminated their pastor for reasons other than doctrinal heresy, or some type immoral behavior, and it is easy to see that  the church pays an extremely high price for doing so.  Not only is it devastating to the pastor and his entire family, but it does great harm to the unity of the church.  Forced terminations are very frequent in our day, which may have a great deal to do with the fact that more than 75% of churches are not really growing.

2. Resignation under duress.  This is a double first cousin to forced termination.  It is just a matter of the pastor resigning before being fired.

3. Loss of effectiveness.  It seems that the longer a pastor remains in a church, the greater his effectiveness should become, but there is the possibility of that not being the case.  Effective pastors must maintain a vision and constantly be in the process of developing a plan to bring the vision into reality.  If a pastor ceases to do this, he is on the road to losing his effectiveness, and needs to be looking for a place to start over.  It may be that some pastors who say they’ve been in the ministry for 50 years, have really only been in the minstry for two years 25 times!

4. Opportunity for a larger ministry.  Some people might take a dim view of this and think the pastor an opportunist.  But, when a pastor is faithful in his service, why should the Lord not move him to a level of greater opportunity and responsibility?  No pastor should intentionally use one church as a mere stepping stone to get to another, but as the pastor’s skills develop and his service is proven, there is nothing wrong with moving to a larger ministry.  There are also instances, under this same category, where the pastor’s present place of service has not adequately provided for his needs financially, and he sees the new door of opportunity as an answer to prayer for the meeting of his family’s needs.

5. A sense of God’s leading.  A pastor may be experiencing a great ministry at his place of service and suddenly, the Lord begins to deal with his heart about moving.  He may not know why, or where, but he just knows God is putting it in his heart.  What generally happens in such cases, is the Lord begins to remove the burden from the pastor’s heart for the church he is serving.  He will still love the people, and he will want to see the church prosper, but he will no longer have the burden to be the one to take them where they need to go.

A study of the healthiest, fasting growing churches, will reveal a common thread: they keep their pastors, long-term, and when they leave, it is under good circumstances.

In order for churches to retain their people, it is important that those people discover a ministry within the church.  When people can feel they are part of group, particularly a small group within the church, and when they feel they are providing a needed ministry within the church, they will be far more likely to stay.

Effective, growth-minded churches will always want to be looking for new avenues of ministry, and the ideal situation is to find out what people enjoy doing, what they are gifted to do, and provide an environment for them to minister in that area. Someone might enjoy working with plants and could maintain an area on the church grounds. Someone else may have a good working knowledge of computers and could work in some area of media ministry. Another may enjoy reading and could be of great value ministering through the church library. The possibilities are endless. The ideal situation is not to simply fill a limited list of jobs with some people, but to allow people to minister the gifts that God has given them.

One man loved to restore cars and do things in the area of auto mechanics, so he took the lead in getting a number of other men to have a day, a couple of times of year, when they gave all the senior adults and single moms in the church a complete car check-up.

God blesses those who minister in His name, and ministry is any service performed for God’s glory.

Some preachers say, “I’ve got as many going out the back door, as I do coming in at the front,” meaning that, although new people are coming into the church, they are also experiencing a lot of people leaving the church.

There is a joke about a man who was stranded on a desert island for several years, and when he was finally found, his rescuers noticed there were three huts that the man had built. When they asked about the huts, the man said, “One was my house, and one was my church.” When they asked about the third hut, the rescued man said, “Oh, that’s where I used to go to church!”

There are two reasons for which people would be expected to leave a church: They move away and geography makes it necessary, or they die and no longer need a church. There are a number of other reasons why people do leave a particular church, but churches need to take necessary steps to stop the other reasons from happening.

Retaining people is not that difficult, and there is a very short list of things that will be very helpful in doing so:

1. Make them know that they are a welcomed part of the church family.
2. Immediately get them involved in a small group. Sunday School is ideal.
3. Get them working in some ministry within the church.
4. Maintain an atmosphere of spirituality and unity among the church family.